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Life of Jesus, the Christ. By Henry Ward
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THE LIFE
OP
JESUS, THE CHRIST.
BY
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
illustrated
"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." — Gal. iv. 4, 5.
NEW YORK:
J B. FORD AND COMPANY.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON: THOMAS NELSON & SONS.
1871.
[All rights reserved.]
■. v l.-ULUVY'
-a
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871,
By J. B. FORD AND COMPANY,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
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PREFACE.
I HAVE undertaken to write a Life of Jesus, the Christ, in
the hope of inspiring a deeper interest in the noble Per-
sonage of whom those matchless histories, the Gospels of Mat-
thew, Mark, Luke, and John are the chief authentic memorials.
I have endeavored to present scenes that occurred two thousand
years ago as they would appear to modern eyes if the events
had taken place in our day.
The Lives of Christ which have appeared of late years have
naturally partaken largely of the dialectic and critical spirit.
They have either attacked or defended. The Gospel, like a
city of four gates, has been taken "and retaken by alternate
parties, or held in part by opposing hosts, while on every side
the marks of siege and defence cover the ground. This may
be unfortunate, but it is necessary. As long as great learning
and acute criticism are brought to assail the text of the Gos-
pels, their historic authenticity, the truth of their contents, and
the ethical nature of their teachings, so long must great learn-
ing and sound philosophy be brought to the defence of those
precious documents.
But such controversial Lives of Christ are not the best for
general reading. "While they may lead scholars from doubt
to certainty, they are likely to lead plain people from certainty
into doubt, and to ieave them there. I have therefore studi-
iv PREFACE.
ously avoided a polemic spirit, seeking to produce conviction
without controversy.
Joubert 1 finely says: "State truths of sentiment, and do not
try to prove them. There is danger in such proofs; for in
arguing it is necessary to treat that which is in question as
something problematic ; now that which we accustom ourselves
to treat as problematic ends by appearing to us as really
doubtful. In things that are visible and palpable, never prove
what is believed already; in things that are certain and mys-
terious, — mysterious by their greatness and by their nature, —
make people believe them, and do not prove them ; in things
that are matters of practice and duty, command, and do not
explain. 'Fear God' has made many men pious; the proofs of
the existence of God have made many men atheists. From
the defiance springs the attack ; the advocate begets in his
hearer a wish to pick holes ; and men are almost always led
on from a desire to contradict the doctor to the desire to
contradict the doctrine. Make Truth lovely, and do not try
to arm her."
The history of the text, the authenticity of the several
narratives, the many philosophical questions that must arise
in such a field, I have not formally discussed; still less have
I paused to dispute and answer the thousands of objections
which swarm around the narrative in the books of the scepti-
cal school of criticism. Such a labor, while very important,
would constitute a work quite distinct from that which I have
proposed, and would infuse into the discussion a controversial
element which I have especially sought to avoid, as inconsistent
with the moral ends which I had in view.
1 As quoted by Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism, p. 234 (London ed.), 1865.
^ a
PREFACE. V
I have however attentively considered whatever has been
said, on every side, in the works of critical objectors, and have
endeavored as far as possible so to state the facts as to take
away the grounds from which the objections were aimed.
Writing in full sympathy with the Gospels as authentic
historical documents, and with the nature and teachings of the
great Personage whom they describe, it is scarcely necessary
to say that I have not attempted to show the world what
Matthew and John ought to have heard and to have seen, but
did not; nor what things they did not see or hear, but in their
simplicity believed that they did. In short, I have not in-
vented a Life of Jesus to suit the critical philosophy of the
nineteenth century.
The Jesus of the four Evangelists for wellnigh two thousand
years has exerted a powerful influence upon the heart, the un-
derstanding, and the imagination of mankind. It is that Jesus,
and not a modern substitute, whom I have sought to depict, in his
life, his social relations, his disposition, his deeds and doctrines.
This work has been delayed far beyond the expectation of
the publishers, without fault of theirs, but simply because, with
the other duties incumbent upon me, I could not make haste
faster than I have. Even after so long a delay the first Part
only is ready to go forth ; and for the second I am obliged to
solicit the patience of my readers. But I aim to complete it
• within the year.
The order of time in the four Evangelists has always been
a perplexity to harmonists, and it seems likely never to be less.
But this is more especially characteristic of details whose value
is little affected by the question of chronological order, than
of the great facts of the life of Jesus.
[ft _£]
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v i PREFACE.
I have followed, though not without variations, the order
given by Ellicott, 1 and especially Andrews. 2 But a recent
" Gospel History Consolidated," published in London by Bag-
ster, 3 so generally accords with these that I have made it the
working basis; and, instead of cumbering the margin with
references to the passages under treatment, have preferred to
reproduce at the end of this volume a corresponding portion
of the text of the " Gospels Consolidated," by a reference to
which, chapter by chapter, those who wish to do so will find
the groundwork on which this Life is founded.
Although the general arrangement of the " Gospels Con-
solidated" has been followed, it -will be seen that I have fre-
quently deviated from it in minor matters. For example,
believing that the reports of the Sermon on the Mount, as
given in Matthew and in Luke, are but two separate accounts
of the one discourse, I have not treated Luke's record as that
of a second delivery of the same matter, as is sometimes done.
The two accounts of the discourse and uproar at Nazareth I
have regarded as referring to but a single transaction, while
the " Gospels Consolidated " treats them as separate events.
But such differences in mere arrangement are inevitable, and
not important. No two harmonists ever did agree in all par-
ticulars, and it is scarcely possible that any two ever will. The
very structure of the Gospels makes it wellnigh impossible.
1 Historical Lectures on the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. C. life are the product of the angel-lore of the Bible.
It is to be noticed that only in Luke is the history of the
angelic annunciation given. It is to Luke also that we are in-
debted for the record of the angels at the tomb on the morn-
ing of the resurrection. Luke has been called the Evangelist
of Greece. He was Paul's companion of travel, and particularly
among the Greek cities of Asia Minor. This suggests the fact
that the angelic ministration commemorated in the New Testa-
ment would greatly facilitate among Greeks the reception of
monotheism. Comforting to us as is the doctrine of angels, it
can hardly be of the same help as it was to a Greek or to a
Roman when he first accepted the Christian faith. The rejec-
tion of so many divinities must have left the fields, the moun-
tains, the cities and temples very bare to all who had been
accustomed to heathen mythology. The ancients seem to have
ft
cp . a
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 33
striven to express universal divine presence by multiplying their
gods. This at least had the effect of giving life to every part
of nature. The imaginative Greek had grown familiar with the
thought of gods innumerable. Every stream, each grove, the
caves, the fields, the clouds, suggested some divine person. It
would be almost impossible to strip such a one of those fertile
suggestions and tie him to the simple doctrine of One God,
without producing a sense of cheerlessness and solitude. Angels
come in to make for him an easy transition from polytheism to
monotheism. The air might still be populous, his imagination
yet be full of teeming suggestions, but no longer with false
gods. Now there was to him but one God, but He was served
by multitudes of blessed spirits, children of light and glory.
Instead of a realm of conflicting divinities there was a house-
hold, the Father looking in benignity upon his radiant family.
Thus, again, to the Greek, as to the Patriarch, angels ascended
and descended the steps that lead from earth to heaven.
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CHAPTER III.
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS.
BEFORE we enter upon the childhood of Jesus, and, with
still more reason, before we enter upon his adult life, it is
necessary to form some idea of his original nature. No one
conversant with the ideas on this point which fill the Christian
world can avoid taking sides with one or another of the philo-
sophical views which have divided the Church. Even mere
readers, who seem to themselves uncommitted to any doctrine
of the nature of Christ, are unconsciously in sympathy with
some theory. But to draw up a history of Christ without some
pilokidea is impossible. Every fact in the narrative will take its
color and form from the philosophy around which it is grouped.
Was Jesus, then, one of those gifted men who have from time
to time arisen in the world, differing from their fellows only in
pre-eminence of earthly power, in a fortunate temperament, and
a happy balance of faculties ? Was he simply and only an
extraordinary Man ? This view was early taken, and as soon
vehemently combated. But it has never ceased to be held. It
reappears in every age. And it has special hold upon thought-
ful minds to-day ; at least, upon such thoughtful minds as are
imbued with the present spirit of material science. The physi-
cal laws of nature, we are told, are invariable and constant, and
all true knowledge is the product of the observation of such
laws. This view will exclude, not only miracles, the divine in-
spiration of holy men of old, and the divinity of Jesus Christ ;
but, if honestly followed to its proper consequences, it will
. destroy the grounds on which stand the belief of the immor-
tality of the soul and of the existence of angels and spirits ;
and, finally and fatally, it will deny the validity of all evidences
of the existence and government of God. And we accordingly
find that, on the European continent and in England, the men
&- ^
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS. 35
of some recent schools of science, without denying the exist-
ence of an intelligent, personal God, deny that there is, or can
be, any human knowledge of the fact. The nature of the human
mind, and the laws under which all knowledge is gained, it is
taught, prevent our knowing with certainty anything beyond
the reach of the senses and of personal consciousness. God is
the Unknown, and the life beyond this the Unknowable. There
are many inclining to this position who would be shocked at the
results to which it logically leads. But it is difficult to see how
one can reject miracles, as philosophically impossible, except
upon grounds of materialistic science which lead irresistibly to
veiled or overt atheism.
The Lives of Christ which have been written from the purely
humanitarian view have not been without their benefits. They
have brought the historical elements of his life into clearer
light, have called back the mind from speculative and imagina-
tive efforts in spiritual directions, and have given to a dim and
distant idea the clearness and reality of a fact. Like some old
picture of the masters, the Gospels, exposed to the dust and
smoke of superstition, to revarnishing glosses and retouching
philosophies, in the sight of many had lost their original bright-
ness and beauty. The rationalistic school has done much to
remove these false surfaces, and to bring back to the eye the
original picture as it was laid upon the canvas.
But, this work ended, every step beyond has been mis-
chievous. The genius of the Gospels has been crucified to a
theory of Christ's humanity. The canons of historical criticism
have been adopted or laid aside as the exigencies of the special
theory required. The most lawless fancy has been called in to
correct the alleged fancifulness of the evangelists. Not only
has the picture been " restored," but the pigments have been
taken off, reground, and laid on again by modern hands. A
new head, a different countenance, appears. They found a God :
they have left a feeble man !
Dissatisfied with the barrenness of this school, which leaves
nothing upon which devotion may fasten, another class of think-
ers have represented Jesus as more than human, but as less
than divine. What that being is to whose kind Jesus belongs,
they cannot tell. Theirs is a theory of compromise. It adopts
I]
36 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
the obscure as a means of hiding definite difficulties. It admits
the grandeur of Christ's nature, and the sublimity of his life
and teachings. It exalts him above angels, but not to the level
of the Throne. It leaves him in that wide and mysterious space
that lies between the finite and the infinite.
The theological difficulties which inhere in such a theory are
many. It may enable reasoners to elude pursuit, but it will not
give them any vantage-ground for a conflict with philosophical
objections. And yet, as the pilotridea of a Life of Christ, it is
far less mischievous than the strictly humanitarian view ; it does
less violence to recorded facts. But it cannot create an ideal
on which the soul may feed. After the last touch is given to
the canvas, we see only a Creature. The soul admires ; but it
must go elsewhere to bestow its utmost love and reverence.
A third view is held, which may be called the doctrine of the
Church, at least since the fourth century. It attributes to Jesus
a double nature, — a human soul and a divine soul in one body.
It is not held that these two souls existed separately and in
juxtaposition, — two separate tenants, as it were, of a common
dwelling. Neither is it taught that either soul absorbed the
other, so that the divine lapsed into the human, or the human
expanded into the divine. But it is held that, by the union
of a human and a divine nature, the one person Jesus Christ
became God-Man ; a being carrying in himself both natures,
inseparably blended, and never again to be dissevered. This
new theanthropic being, of blended divinity and humanity, will
occasion no surprise in those who are familiar with modes of
thought which belonged to the early theologians of the Church.
It is only when, in our day, this doctrine is supposed to be
found in the New Testament, that one is inclined to surprise.
For, as in a hot campaign the nature of the lines of intrench-
ment is determined by the assaults of the enemy, so this doc-
trine took its shape, not from Scripture statements, but from
the exigencies of controversy. It was thrown up to meet the
assaults upon the true divinity of Christ; and, although cum-
brous and involved, it saved Christianity. For, the truth of the
proper divinity of Christ is the marrow of the sacred Scriptures.
It is the only point at which natural and revealed religion can
be reconciled.
ft
-a
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS. 37
But if by another and better statement the divinity of Christ
can be exhibited in equal eminence and with greater simplicity,
and if such exhibition shall be found in more obvious accord
with the language of the New Testament, and with what we
now know of mental philosophy, it will be wise, in construct
ing a life of Christ, to leave the antiquated theory of the me-
diaeval Church, and return to the simple and more philosophical
views of the sacred Scriptures.
We must bear in mind that many questions which have
profoundly excited the curiosity of thinkers, and agitated the
Church, had not even entered into the conceptions of men at
the time when the writings of the New Testament were framed.
They are mediaeval or modern. The Romish doctrine of the
Virgin Mary could hardly have been understood even, by the
apostles. The speculations which have absorbed the thoughts
of men for ages are not only not found in the sacred record,
but would have been incongruous with its whole spirit. The
evangelists never reason upon any question ; they simply state
what they saw or heard. They never deduce inferences and
principles from facts. They frame their narrations without any
apparent consciousness of the philosophical relations of the facts
contained in them to each other or to any system. It is prob-
able that the mystery of the Incarnation never entered their
minds as it exists in ours. It was to them a moral fact, and
not a philosophical problem.
Hmv Jesus was Son of God, and yet Son of Man, is nowhere
spoken of in those simple records. The evangelists and the
apostles content themselves with simply declaring that God
came into the world in the form of a man. " The Word was
God." " And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
This is all the explanation given by the disciple who was most
in sympathy with Jesus. Jesus was God; and he was made
flesh. The simplest rendering of these words would seem to
be, that the Divine Spirit had enveloped himself with the
human body, and in that condition been subject to the indis-
pensable limitations of material laws. Paul's statement is almost
a direct historical narrative of facts. " Let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus : who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God ; but made himself
a-
^ . rii
38 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
teas made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a
man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross." (Phil. ii. 5 - 8.) This is a simple state-
ment that Jesus, a Divine Person, brought his nature into the
human body, and was subject to all its laws and conditions.
No one can extract from this the notion of two intermixed
souls in one nature.
The same form of statement appears in Romans viii. 3 : " For
what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." There is no hint here of
joining a human soul to the divine. In not a single passage
of the New Testament is such an idea even suggested. The
language which is used on this subject is such as could not
have been employed by one who had in his mind the notion of
two souls in coexistence.
As it is unsafe to depart from the obvious teaching of the
sacred Scriptures on a theme so far removed from all human
knowledge, we shall not, in this Life of our Lord, render our-
selves subject to the hopeless confusions of the theories of the
schools, but shall cling to the simple and intelligible representa-
tions of the Word. " Great is the mystery of godliness : God
was manifest in the flesh; justified in the Spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received
up into glory." (1 Tim. hi. 16.)
The Divine Spirit came into the world, in the person of Jesus,
not bearing the attributes of Deity in their full disclosure and
power. He came into the world to subject his spirit to that
whole discipline and experience through which every man must
pass. He veiled his royalty ; he folded back, as it were, within
himself those ineffable powers which belonged to him as a free
spirit in heaven. He went into captivity to himself, wrapping
in weakness and forgetfulness his divine energies, while he was
a babe. " Being found in fashion as a man," he was subject to
that gradual unfolding of his buried powers which belongs to
infancy and childhood. "And the child grew, and waxed strong
in spirit." He was subject to the restrictions which hold and
hinder common men. He was to come back to himself little
fr-
-Rn
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS. 39
by little. Who shall say that God cannot put himself into finite
conditions ? Though as a free spirit God cannot grow, yet as
fettered in the flesh he may. Breaking out at times with
amazing power, in single directions, yet at other times feeling
the ■ mist of humanity resting upon his eyes, he declares, " Of
that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels
which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." This is
just the experience which we should expect in a being whose
problem of life' was, not the disclosure of the full power and
glory of God's natural attributes, but the manifestation of the
love of God, and of the extremities of self-renunciation to which
the Divine heart would submit, in the rearing up from animal-
ism and passion his family of children. The incessant looking
for the signs of divine power and of infinite attributes, in the
earthly life of Jesus, whose mission it was to bring the Divine
Spirit within the conditions of feeble humanity, is as if one
should search a dethroned king, in exile, for his crown and his
sceptre. We are not to look for a glorified, an enthroned
Jesus, but for God manifest in the flesh; and in this view the
very limitations and seeming discrepancies in a Divine life be-
come congruous parts of the whole sublime problem.
We are to remember that, whatever view of the mystery be
taken, there will be difficulties which no ingenuity can solve.
But we are to distinguish between difficulties which are inherent
in the nature of the Infinite, and those which are but the imper-
fections of our own philosophy. In the one case, the perplexity
lies in the weakness of our reason ; in the other, in the weak-
ness of our reasoning. The former will always be burdensome
enough, without adding to it the pressure of that extraordinary
theory of the Incarnation, which, without a single express Scrip-
tural statement in its support, works out a compound divine
nature, without analogue or parallel in human mental philosophy.
Early theologians believed suffering to be inconsistent with
the Divine perfection. Impassivity was essential to true divin-
ity. With such ideas of the Divine nature, how could they
believe that Jesus, a man of suffering, and acquainted with
grief, was divine ? A human soul was therefore conjoined to
the divine, and to that human element were ascribed all the
phenomena of weakness and suffering which they shrank from
40 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
imputing to the Deity. This disordered reverence was corrobo-
rated by imperfect notions of what constitutes a true manhood.
If God became a true man, they argued, he must have had a
human soul. As if the Divine nature clothed in flesh did not
constitute the most absolute manhood, and fill up the whole
ideal !
Man's nature and God's nature do not differ in kind, but in
degree of the same attributes. Love in God is love in man.
Justice, mercy, benevolence, are not different' in nature, but
only in degree of power and excellence. "And God said, Let
us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Gen. i. 26.)
"In him we live, and move, and have our being For-
asmuch then as we are the offspring of God," etc. (Acts xvii.
28, 29.)
This identification of the divine and the human nature was
one of the grand results of the Incarnation. The beauty and
preciousness of Christ's earthly life consist in its being a true
divine life, a presentation to us, in forms that we can compre-
hend, of the very thoughts, feelings, and actions of God when
placed in our condition in this mortal life. To insert two na-
tures is to dissolve the charm.
Christ was very God. Yet, when clothed with a human body,
and made- subject through that body to physical laws, he was
then a man, of the same moral faculties as man, of the same
mental nature, subject to precisely the same trials and tempta-
tions, only without the weakness of sin. A human soul is not
something other and different from the Divine soul. It is as
like it as the son is like his father. God is father, man is son.
As God in our place becomes human, — such being the simi-
larity of the essential natures, — so man in God becomes divine.
Thus we learn not only to what our manhood is coming, but
when the Divine Spirit takes our whole condition upon himself,
we see the thoughts, the feelings, and, if we may so say, the
private and domestic inclinations of God. What he was on
earth, in his sympathies, tastes, friendships, generous familiari-
ties, gentle condescensions, we shall find him to be in heaven,
only in a profusion and amplitude of disclosure far beyond the
earthly hints and glimpses.
The tears of Christ were born of the flesh, but the tender
^ -a
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS. 41
sympathy which showed itself by those precious tokens dwells
unwasted and forever in the nature of God. The gentleness,
the compassion, the patience, the loving habit, the truth and
equity, which were displayed in the daily life of the Saviour,
were not so many experiences of a human soul mated with the
Divine, but were the proper expressions of the very Divine
soul itself, that men might see, in God, a true and perfect
manhood. When Jesus, standing before his disciples as 'a full
man, was asked to reveal God the Father, he answered, "He
' that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Manhood is nearer
to godhood than we have been wont to believe.
pj__ — '. ■ ■ — • '-]
CHAPTER IV.
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH.
THE parents of Jesus returned to Nazareth, and there for
many years they and their child were to dwell.
There was nothing that we know of, to distinguish this child
from any other that ever was born. It passed through the
twilight of infancy as helpless and dependent as all other chil-
dren must ever be. If we had dwelt at Nazareth and daily
seen the child Jesus, we should have seen the cradle-life of
other children. This was no prodigy. He did not speak won-
derful wisdom in his infancy. He slept or waked upon his
mother's bosom, as all children do. He unfolded, first the per-
ceptive reason, afterwards the voluntary powers. He was nour-
ished and he grew under the same laws which govern infant life
now. This then was not a divinity coming through the clouds
into human life, full-orbed, triumphing with the undiminished
strength of a heavenly nature over those conditions which men
must bear. If this was a' divine person, it was a divine child,
and childhood meant latent power, undeveloped faculty, unripe
organs ; a being without habits, without character, without expe-
rience ; a cluster of germs, a branch full of unblossomed buds,
a mere seed of manhood. Except his mother's arms, there was
no circle of light about his head, fondly as artists have loved
to paint it. But for the after-record of Scriptures, we should
have no reason to suppose that this child differed in any respect
from ordinary children. Yet this was the Son of God ! This
was that Word of whom John spake : " In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God ! "
It was natural that Joseph and Mary should desire to settle
in Judaea. Not alone because here was the home of their
father David, but especially because, when once they believed
ft
-a
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 43
their son Jesus destined to fulfil the prophecies concerning the
Messiah, they would wish him to be educated near to Jerusalem.
To them, doubtless, the Temple and its priesthood were yet the
highest exponents of religion.
Divine Providence, however, removed him as far from the
Temple and its influences as possible. Half-heathen Galilee was
better for his youth than Jerusalem. To Nazareth we must
look for his early history. But what can be gleaned there,
when for twelve years of childhood the only syllable of history
uttered is, "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit,
filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him " ?
Not a single fact is recorded of his appearance, his infantine
ways; what his parents thought, what his brothers and sisters
thought of him; the impression made by him upon neighbors;
whether he went to school ; how early, if at all, he put his hand
to work; whether he was lively and gay, or sad and thought-
ful, or both by turns; whether he was meditative and refined,
standing apart from others, or robust, and addicted to sports
among his young associates : no one knows, or can know, what-
ever may be inferred or suspected. He emerges for a moment
into history at twelve years of age, going with his parents to
Jerusalem. That glimpse is the last which is given us for the
next sixteen or eighteen years.
But regarding a life over which men have hung with an
interest so absorbing, it is impossible to restrain the imagina-
tion. There will always be a filling up of the vacant spaces.
If not done by the pen, it will none the less be done in some
more fanciful way by free thoughts, which, incited both by curi-
osity and devotion, will hover over the probabilities when there
is nothing better. Nor need this be mischievous. There are
certain generic experiences which must have befallen Jesus,
because they belong to all human life. He was a child. He
was subject to parental authority. He lived among citizens and
under the laws. He ate, drank, labored, was weary, refreshed
himself by sleep. He mingled among men, transacted affairs
with them, and exchanged daily salutations. He was pleased
or displeased ; he was glad often and often sorrowful. He was
subject to the oscillations of mood which belong to finely organ-
ized persons. There must have been manifestations of filial love
a-
44 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
In looking upon men he was subject to emotions of grief, pity,
and indignation, or of sympathy and approval. He was a child
before he was a man. He had those nameless graces which
belong to all ingenuous boys; and though he must have seemed
precocious, at least to his own household, there is no evidence
that he was thought remarkable by his fellow-citizens. On the
other hand, none were less prepared to see him take a promi-
nent part in public affairs than the very people who had known
him from infancy. "Whence hath this man this wisdom, and
these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not
his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses,
and Simon, and Judas ? and his sisters, are they not all with
us?" — this is not the language of admiring neighbors, who had
thought the boy a prodigy and had always predicted that he
would become remarkable ! This incident throws back a light
upon his childhood. If he went through the ordinary evolutions
of youth it is certain that the universal experiences of that
period must have befallen him. Nothing could be more unnat-
ural than to suppose that he was a child without a childhood, a
full and perfect being cleft from the Almighty, as Minerva was
fabled to have come from the head of Jupiter ; who, though a
Jew, in Nazareth, probably following a carpenter's trade, was
yet but a celestial image, a white and slender figure floating
in a half-spiritual transfiguration through the days of a glorified
childhood. He was "the Son of Man," — a real boy, as after-
wards he was a most manly man. He knew every step of
growth; he underwent the babe's experience of knowing noth-
ing, the child's, of knowing a little, the universal necessity of
development !
But there is a question of education, which has been much
considered. "Was the development of his nature the result of
internal forces ? Or was he, as other men are wont to be, power-
fully affected by external circumstances ? Was his imagination
touched and enriched by the exquisite scenery about him? Did
the historic associations of all this Galilean region around him
develop a temper of patriotism ? Was his moral nature educated
by the repulsion of ignoble men, — by the necessity of toil, —
by the synagogue, — by his mother at home, — and by his hours
of solitary meditation, and of holy communion with God ?
tr
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 45
That Jesus was sensitive to every influence which would shape
an honorable nature, is not to be doubted. But whether there
was more than mere recipiency, may well be questioned. Cir-
cumstances may have been the occasions, but not the causes,
of development to a divine mind, obscured in a human body, and
learning to regain its power and splendor by the steps which in
common men are called growth.
We shall make a brief discussion of the point a means of
setting before the mind the physical features of Galilee, and the
local influences which prevailed there during our Lord's life.
If it was desirable to bring up the child Jesus as far as pos-
sible from the Temple influence, in Palestine and yet not under
excessive Jewish influence, no place could have been chosen
better than Nazareth. It was a small village, obscure, and re-
mote from Jerusalem. Its very name had never occurred in the
Old Testament records. And though, after the fall of Jerusa-
lem, Galilee was made the seat of Jewish schools of religion, —
Sepharis, but a few miles north of Nazareth, being the head-
quarters, — yet, at our Lord's birth, and during his whole life,
this region of Palestine was but little affected by Jerusalem.
The population was a mixed one, made up of many different
nationalities. A debased remnant of the ten tribes, after their
captivity, had wandered back, with Jewish blood and heathen
manners. The Roman armies and Roman rulers had brought
into the province a great many foreigners. A large Gentile
population had divided with native Jews the towns and vil-
lages. Greeks swarmed in the larger commercial towns. Gal-
ilee was, far more than Judaea, cosmopolitan. Commerce and
manufactures had thriven by the side of agriculture. Josephus
says that Galilee had more than two hundred cities: and vil-
. lages, the smallest of which contained not less than fifteen
thousand inhabitants. This seems an extravagant statement,
but it will serve to convey an idea of the great populousness
of the province in which the youth of Jesus was spent and in
which also his public life was chiefly passed. The influences
which had changed the people had provincialized their language.
A Galilean was known by his speech, which seems to have been
regarded as unrefined and vulgar. 1
1 Mark xiv. 70 ; Acts ii. 7.
-£*
46 THE LIFE OF JESUS,' THE CHRIST.
Among such a people was the Lord reared. If, as is prob-
able, he followed his father's business and worked among the
common people, we may perceive that his education, remote
from the Temple, not only saved him from the influence of the
dead and corrupt schools of Jerusalem, but brought him into
sympathetic relations with the most lowly in life. In all his
after ministry, apart from his divine insight, he could of his own
experience understand the feelings, tastes, and needs of his audi-
ences. ' " The common people heard him gladly." He had
sprung from among them. He had been reared in their pur-
suits and habits. For thirty years he was a man among men,
a laboring man among laboring men. It is in this contact with
human life on all its sides, — with the pure Jew, with the
degenerate Jew, with the Greek, the Phoenician, the Roman,
the Syrian, — that we are to look for the most fruitful results
of the Lord's youth and manhood in Nazareth and the sur-
rounding region. In this rich and populous province the civil-
ized world was epitomized. Jesus had never travelled as did
ancient philosophers ; but he had probably come in contact more
largely with various human nature by staying at home, than
they had by going abroad.
The village of Nazareth had a bad reputation. This is shown
in the surprised question of Nathanael, who, being a resident of
Cana, in its immediate neighborhood, undoubtedly reflected the
popular estimate, " Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ? "
This question incidentally shows, also, that our Lord's childhood
had not been one of portents and marvels, and had not ex-
hibited any such singular characteristics as to create in the
region about him such a reputation as easily grows up among
ignorant people around any peculiarity in childhood. Some-
thing of the spirit which had given Nazareth such bad repute
shows itself on the occasion of our Lord's first preaching there,
when, as the application of his discourse was closer than they
liked, the people offered him personal violence, showing them
to be unrestrained, passionate, and bloodthirsty.
The town, or as it then was, the village, of Nazareth was an
exquisite gem in a noble setting. All writers grow enthusiastic
in the description of its beauty, — a beauty which continues to
this day. Stanley, in part quoting Richardson, says : " Fifteen
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CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 47
gently rounded hills seem as if they had met to form an en-
closure for this peaceful basin. They rise round it like the
edge of a shell, to guard it from intrusion. It is a rich and
beautiful field in the midst of these green hills, abounding in gay
flowers, in fig-trees, small gardens, hedges of the prickly pear;
and the dense rice-grass affords an abundant pasture." 1
The town was built not upon the summit, but upon the sides,
of a high hill. The basin runs from northeast to southwest,
and it is from its western slope that the village of Nazareth
looks forth.
It must needs be that, in his boyhood wanderings, Jesus often
ascended to the top of the hill, to look over the wide scene which
opened before the eye. It often happens that the finest pano-
ramas in mountain countries are not those seen from the highest
points. The peculiar conformations of the land frequently give
to comparatively low positions a view both wider and nobler
than is obtained from a fourfold height. The hill of Nazareth
yielded a view not equalled in Palestine, — surpassing that seen
from the top of Tabor. The village itself, built on the side of
one of the hills which form the mile-long basin, was four hun-
dred feet below the summit, and was so much shut in by sur-
rounding heights that it had but little outlook. But from the
hill-top behind the village one looked forth upon almost the
whole of Galilee, — from Lebanon, and from Hermon, always
white with snow, in the far north and northeast, down to the
lake of Gennesareth, with Hattin, Tabor, Little Hermon, Gilboa,
on the east and southeast; the hills of Samaria on the south;
Carmel and the Mediterranean Sea on the southwest and west.
Two miles south of the village of Nazareth stretched clear across
the breadth of Galilee the noblest plain of Palestine, — Esdrae-
lon (which name is but a modification of the old word Jezreel),
a meadow-like plain with an undulating surface, or, as it would
be called in our Western phrase, a rolling prairie, three or four
miles wide at its widest, and about fifteen in length.
These names recall some of the most romantic and critical
events of the old Jewish history. The places were identified
with the patriarchs, the judges, the prophets, and the kings of
Israel. Across the great plain of Jezreel the tide of battle has
1 Sinai and Palestine, p. 357.
fr- -#"
a-
48 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
not ceased to flow, age after age ; the Midianite, the Amalekite,
the Syrian, the Philistine, each in turn rushed through this open
gate among the hills, alternately conquering and conquered.
Its modern history has made good its ancient experience. It
has been the battle-field of ages ; and the threat of war so
continually hangs over it, that, while it is the richest and most
fruitful part of Palestine, there is not to-day an inhabited city
or village in its whole extent.
The beauty of all this region in the spring and early sum-
mer gives rise to endless praise from travellers. It may be
doubted whether this scene does not owe much to local contrast,
and whether, if it were transported to England or to America,
where moisture is perpetual, and a kinder sun stimulates but
seldom scorches, it would maintain its reputation. But in one
respect, probably, it excels all foreign contrasts, and that is, in
the variety, succession, and brilliancy of its flowers. The fields
fairly glow with colors, which change every month, and only
in August disappear from the plain; and even then, retreating
to the cool ravines and edges of the mountains, they bloom on.
The region swarms with singing-birds of every plumage, besides
countless flocks of birds for game. 1
The whole of Galilee is to every modern traveller made pro-
foundly interesting by the life of Christ, which was so largely
spent in it. But no thoughtful mind can help asking, What
did it do to him?
Of this the Gospels are silent. No record is made of his
youthful tastes, or of his manhood pursuits. We are unwilling
to believe that he never ascended the hill to look out over the
noble panorama, and still less are we willing to believe that he
J Professor J. L. Porter, in Kitto's Biblical Encyclopaedia (Art. " Galilee") says : " Lower
Galilee was a land of husbandmen, famed for its corn-fields, as Upper Galilee was for its
olive-groves and Judsea for its vineyards. The rich soil remains, and there are still some
fruitful fields ; but its inhabitants are few in number, and its choicest plains are desolated
by the wild Bedouin. Galilee was and is also remarkable for the variety and beauty of its
wild flowers. In early spring the whole country is spangled with them, and the air is
filled with their odors. Birds, too, are exceedingly numerous. The rocky banks are
all alive with partridges; the meadows swarm with quails and larks; 'the voice of the
turtle ' resounds through every grove ; and pigeons are heard cooing high up in the cliffs
and glen-sides, and are seen in flocks hovering over the corn-fields. The writer has trav-
elled through Galilee at various seasons, and ha,s always been struck with some new
beauty ; the delicate verdure of spring, and its blush of flowers, the mellow tints of autumn,
and the russet hues of the oak-forests in winter, have all their charms."
ft
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 49
beheld all that was there without sensibility, or even with only
an ordinary human sensitiveness to nature. We cannot doubt
that he beheld the scenes with a grander impulse than man ever
knew. He was in his own world. "All things were made by
him ; and without him was not anything made that was made."
But whether this knowledge existed during his childhood, or
whether he came to the full recognition of his prior relations
to the world gradually and only in the later years of his life,
may be surmised, but cannot be known.
It is certain that the general statements which have recently
been made, respecting the influence of Nazareth and its sur-
roundings upon the unfolding of his genius, are without either
positive historic evidence or any internal evidence to be found
in his discourses, conversations, and parables.
The slightest study of our Lord's discourses will show that
he made almost no use of nature, as such, in his thoughts and
teachings. He had in his hands the writings of the old proph-
ets of his nation, and he was familiar with their contents. In
them he beheld all the aspects of nature, whatever was sublime,
and whatever was beautiful, employed to enforce the lessons of
morality with a power and poetic beauty which had then no
parallel, and which have since had no rival. But there would
seem to have been in his own use of language a striking avoid-
ance of the style of the prophets. In the employment of nat-
ural objects, no contrast can be imagined greater than that
between the records of the Evangelists and the pages of Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and the Psalmists. Our Lord never drew
illustrations from original and wild nature, but from nature after
it had felt the hand of man. Human occupations furnish the
staple of his parables and illustrations. It was the city set
upon a hill that our Lord selected, not the high hill itself, or a
mountain; vines and fig-trees, but not the cedars of Lebanon,
nor the oaks. The plough, the yoke, the seed-sowing, the har-
vest-field, flocks of sheep, bargains, coins, magistrates, courts of
justice, domestic scenes, — these are the preferred images in
our Saviour's discourses. And yet he had been brought up in
sight of the Mediterranean Sea ; for thirty years, at a few steps
from his home, he might have looked on Mount Hermon, lifted
up in solitude above the reach of summer; the history of his.
-ff
a- ■ — ^ -
50 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE OHRIST.
people was identified with Tabor, with Mount Gilboa, with Ebal
and Gerizim, — but he made no use of them. The very changes
which war had wrought upon the face of the country, — the
destruction of forests, the drying up of springs of water, the
breaking down of terraces, the waste of soil, and the destruction
of vineyards, — were striking analogies of the effects of the pas-
sions upon human nature. Yet no allusion is made to these
things. There are in the Gospel narratives no waves, clouds,
storms, lions, eagles, mountains, forests, plains. 1
The lilies and the sparrows and the reed shaken by the wind
are the only purely natural objects which he uses. For water
and light (with the one exception of lightning) are employed in
their relations of utility. The illustration of the setting sun
(Matt. xvi. 2) is but the quotation of a common proverb. The
Jordan was the one great historic stream : it is not alluded to.
The cities that were once on the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah,
1 When Moses would show God's tender care of Israel, it was the eagle that repre-
sented God. " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth
abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings ; so the Lord alone did lead
him." (Deut. xxii. 11, 12.)
The profound care of our Lord was represented by him in the figure of a bird, but
taken from husbandry. " How often would I have gathered thy children together, even
as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not ! "
The same contrast exists in the employment of illustrations drawn from the floral king-
dom. Had Kuskin been writing, instead of Solomon, he could not have shown a rarer in-
timacy with flowers than is exhibited in Solomon's Songs. " I am the rose of Sharon,
and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among daughters.
As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." " My
beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For
lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; the flowers appear on the earth ; the time
of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle [dove] is heard in our land.
The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a
goodly smell." In this joyous sympathy with nature, the Song flows on like a brook
fringed with meadow-flowers. " A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse Thy
plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits ; camphire, with spikenard.
Spikenard and saffron ; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense ; myrrh,
and aloes, with all the chief spices : a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and
streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south, blow upon my
garden, that the spices thereof may flow out."
The single instance, in the Gospels, of an allusion to flowers is remarkably enough in
reference to this very Solomon whose words we have just quoted. " Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin ; and yet I say unto you,
that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."
The affluence and splendor of illustrations, in the Old Testament, drawn from the poetic
side of nature, and in contrast with the lower tone and the domesticity of New Testament
figures, will be apparent upon the slightest comparison.
t — -4
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 51
are held up in solemn warning ; but that most impressive moral
symbol, the Dead Sea itself, Christ did not mention. We must
not allow our thoughts to suppose that the Lord's soul did not
see or feel that natural beauty which he had himself created
and which he had through ages reproduced with each year. The
reasons why his teaching should be unadorned and simple are
not hard to find. The literary styles which are most univer-
sally attractive, and which are least subject to the capricious
change of popular taste, are those which are rich in material,
but transparently simple in form. Much as men admire the
grandeur of the prophets, they dwell on the words of Christ
with a more natural companionship and far more enduring sat-
isfaction.
Although it is not expressly said that Christ followed his
father's trade, yet Mark represents the disaffected people of
Nazareth, on the occasion of an unpopular sermon, as saying
of Jesus, "Is not this the carpenter?" (Mark vi. 3.)
We should not give to the term "carpenter" the close tech-
nical meaning which it has in our day. All trades, as society
grows in civilization, become special, each single department
making itself into a trade. Carving, cabinet-making, joinery,
carpentry, wooden-tool making, domestic-ware manufacturing,
tinkering, are each a sub-trade by itself. But in our Lord's
day, as it is yet in Palestine, they were all included in one
business. The carpenter was a universal worker in wood. He
built houses or fences, he made agricultural implements or tools,
such as spades, yokes, ploughs, etc., or houseware, chairs, tables,
tubs, etc. Carving is a favorite part of the wood-worker's busi-
ness in the East to-day, and probably was so in ancient times.
Justin Martyr says that Jesus made yokes and ploughs, and he
spiritualizes them as symbols of obedience and activity. Even
had Christ been brought up to wealth as he was to poverty,
there would be no reason why he should not have learned a
mechanical trade. In this, as in so many other respects, the
Jewish people were in prudence greatly in advance of the then
civilized world. It was not only deemed not disgraceful to learn
some manual trade, but a parent was not thought to have done
well by his child's education who had not taught him how to
earn a living by his hands. But in Joseph's case, little other
52
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
education, it is probable, had he the means of giving his son.
John records the surprise of the scholars of the Temple upon
occasion of one of Christ's discourses : " The Jews marvelled,
saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?"
The term " letters " was used, as it still is, to signify literature,
and in this case religious literature, as the Jews had no other.
There is no evidence in the Lord's discourse that the occupa-
tions of his youth had any special influence upon his thoughts
or imagination. He made no allusion to tools, he drew no illus-
trations from the processes of construction, he said nothing which
would suggest that he had wrought with hammer or saw.
More attractive to the heart are the probable influences of
home. It will always make home more sacred to men, that
the Lord Jesus was reared by a mother, in the ordinary life of
the household. For children, too, there is a Saviour, who was in
all things made like unto them.
Sacred history makes everything of Mary, and nothing of
Joseph. It is taken for granted that it was with his mother
that Jesus held most intimate communion. The adoration of the
Virgin by the Romish Church has doubtless contributed largely
to this belief. There is nothing improbable in it. But it is pure
supposition. There is not a trace of any facts to support it.
Though an ordinary child to others, that Jesus was to his par-
ents a child of wonder can scarcely be doubted. Such mani-
festations of his nature as broke forth at twelve years of age
in the Temple scene must have shown themselves at other times
in various ways at home. Yet so entirely are our minds ab-
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH.
53
sorbed in his later teachings, and so wholly is his life summed
up to us in the three years of his ministry, that we are not
accustomed to recall and fill out his youth as we do his riper
years. Who imagines the boy Jesus going or coming at com-
mand, — leaving home, with his tools, for his daily work, — lift-
ing timber, laying the line, scribing the pattern, fitting and fin-
ishing the job, — bargaining for work, demanding and receiving
his wages, — conversing with fellow-workmen, and mingling in
their innocent amusements ? Yet must not all these things have
been ? "We must carry along with us that interpreting sentence,
which like a refrain should come in with every strain : " In all
things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren."
(Heb. ii. 17.)
In the synagogue and at home he would become familiar with
the Scriptures of the Old Testament. This itself was no insig-
nificant education. The institutes of Moses were rich in politr
ical wisdom. They have not yet expended their force. The
commonwealth established in the Desert has long ceased, but its
seeds have been sown in other continents ; and the spirit of
democracy which to-day is gaining ascendency in every land
has owed more to the Mosaic than to any other political insti-
tution.
The Saviour's discourses show that his mind was peculiarly
adapted to read the Book of Proverbs with keen relish. Under
his- eye the practical wisdom of those curt sentences, the in-
sight into men's motives which they give, those shrewd lessons
of experience, must have had a larger interpretation than they
were wont to receive. If one has observed how the frigid
annals of history, when Shakespeare read them, blossomed out
into wonderful dramas, he can partly imagine what Solomon's
philosophy must have become under the eye of Jesus.
He lived in the very sight of places made memorable by the
deeds of his country's greatest men. If he sat, on still Sabbaths,
upon the hill-top, — childlike, alternately watching and- musing,—
he must at times have seen the shadowy forms and heard the
awful tones of those extraordinary men, the Hebrew prophets.
There was before him Gilboa, on which Samuel's shadow came
to Saul and overthrew him. Across these plains and over these
solitary mountains, Elijah, that grandest and most dramatic of
54 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
the old prophets, had often come, and disappeared as soon,
bearing the Lord's messages, as the summer storm bears the
lightning. He could see the very spots where Elisha, prophet
of the gentle heart, had wrought kind miracles.
The sword of David had flashed over these plains. But it is
David's harp that has conquered the world, and his psalms must
have been the channels through which the soul of Jesus often
found its way back to his Heavenly Father. Not even in his
youth are we to suppose that Jesus received unquestioning the
writings of the holy men of his nation. He had come to inspire
a loftier morality than belonged to the twilight of the past.
How early he came to himself, and felt within him the motions
of his Godhood, none can tell. At twelve he overrode the in-
terpretations of the doctors, and, as one having authority, sat
in judgment upon the imperfect religion of his ancestors. This
first visit to Jerusalem stands up in his childhood as Mount
Tabor rises from the plain, — the one solitary point of definite
record.
At twelve, the Jewish children were reckoned in the congre-
gation and made their appearance at the great annual feasts.
Roads were unknown. Along paths, on foot, — the feeble carried
upon mules, — the people made their way by easy stages toward
the beloved city. At each step new-comers fell into the ever-
swelling stream. Relatives met one another, friends renewed
acquaintance, and strangers soon lost strangeness in hospitable
company. Had it been an Anglo-Saxon pilgrimage, all Palestine
would scarcely have held the baggage-train of a race that, instead
of making a home everywhere, seek everywhere to carry their
home with them. The abstemious habits of the Orientals re-
quired but a slender stock of provisions and no cumbering bag-
gage. They sang their sacred songs at morning and evening,
and on the way. Thus one might hear the last notes of one
chant dying in the valley as the first note of another rose upon
the hill, and song answered to song, and echoed all along the
pleasant way.
We can imagine group after group coming at evening into
the valley of Samaria, — guarded by Gerizim and Ebal, — begin-
ning to feel the presence of those mountain forms which con-
tinue all the way to Jerusalem, and chanting these words : —
-a
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH 55
" I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,
From whence comcth my help.
My help cometh from the Lord,
Which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved :
He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is thy keeper ;
The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil :
He shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out,
And thy coming in,
From this time forth,
And even forevermore."
Refreshed by sleep, breaking up their simple camp, the min-
gled throng at early morning start forth again. A voice is heard
chanting a psalm. It is caught up by others. The whole region
resounds. And these are the words : —
" I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet shall stand
Within thy gates, O Jerusalem !
Jerusalem is builded
As a city that is compact together :
Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord,
Unto the testimony of Israel,
To give thanks unto the name of the Lord.
For there are set thrones of judgment,
The thrones of the house of David.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem :
They shall prosper that love thee.
Peace be within thy walls,
And prosperity within thy palaces.
For my brethren and companions' sakes
I will now say, Peace be within thee,
Because. of the house of the Lord our God
I will seek thy good."
The festival over, the mighty city and all its environs sent
back the worshippers to their homes. It had been a religious
festival, but not the less an unconstrained social picnic. How
freely they mingled with each other, group with group, is shown
in the fact that Joseph and Mary had gone a day's journey on
4
::
56 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
the road home before they missed their child. This could not
have been, were it not customary for the parties often to break
up and mingle in new combinations. " But they, supposing him
to have been in the company, went a day's journey." It is plain,
then, that at twelve years of age Jesus had outgrown the con-
stant watch of his parents' eyes, and had assumed a degree of
manly liberty.
They turned back. It was three days before they found him.
One day was required by the backward journey. Two days they
must have wandered in and about the city, anxiously enough.
In the last place in which they dreamed of looking, they found
him, — " in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both
hearing them, and asking them questions." Christ's questions
were always like spears that pierced the joints of the harness.
It seems that even so early he had begun to wield this weapon.
What part of these three days Jesus had spent at the Temple,
we are not told. But we may be sure that it was a refreshing
time in that dull circle of doctors. ' An ingenuous youth, frank,
and not hackneyed by the conventional ways of the world, with
a living soul and a quick genius, is always a fascinating object,
and perhaps even more to men who have grown stiff in formal
ways than to others. There is something of youthful feeling
and of fatherhood yet left in souls that for fifty years have
discussed the microscopic atoms of an imaginary philosophy.
Besides, where there are five doctors of philosophy there are not
less than five opposing schools, and in this case each learned
man must needs have enjoyed the palpable hits which his com-
panions received from the stripling. The people who stood
about would have a heart for the child : what crowd would
not ? And, if he held his own against the doctors of law, all
the more the wonder grew. It is not necessary to suppose
that a spiritual chord vibrated at his touch in the hearts of all
this circle of experts in Temple dialectics. Yet we would fondly
imagine that one at least there was — some unnamed Nicodemus,
or another Joseph of Arimathea — who felt the fire burn within
him as this child spake. Even in Sahara there are found green
spots, shaded with palms, watered and fruitful. There might
have been sweet-hearted men among the Jewish doctors !
Upon this strange school, in which the pupil was the teacher
a-
■a
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 57
1
iWHii
TEMPLE INTERIOR.
and the teachers were puzzled scholars, came at length, her
serene face now flushed with alarm, the mother of Jesus. She,
all mother, with love's reproach said, " Son, why hast thou thus
dealt with us?" and he, all inspired with fastrcoming thoughts,
answered, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's
business ? "
Not yet! This ministry of youth was not wholesome. Pre-
mature prodigies have never done God's work on earth. It
would have pleased the appetite for wonder, had his childhood
continued to emit such flashes as came forth in the Temple.
But such is not the order of nature, and the Son of God had
consented to be "made under the law.'' It is plain, from his
reply to his mother, that he was conscious of the nature that
was in him, and that strong impulses urged him to disclose his
power. It is therefore very significant, and not the least of the
signs of divinity, that he ruled his spirit, and dwelt at home in
unmurmuring expectation. "He went down with them, and
came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." (Luke ii. 51.)
This might well be said to be to his childhood what the tempta-
4
58 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
tions in the wilderness were to his ministry. The modesty,
the filial piety, the perfectness of self-control, contentment in
mechanical labor, conscious sovereignty undisclosed, a wealth of
nature kept back, — in short, the holding of his whole being in
tranquil silence, waiting for growth to produce his ripe self, and
for God, his Father, to shake out the seed which was to become
the bread of the world, — all this is in itself a wonder of divinity,
if men were only wise enough to marvel. Christ's greatest
miracles were wrought within himself.
In a review of the childhood of Jesus, there are several points
which deserve special attention.
1. While it is true that, by incarnation, the Son of God be-
came subject to all human conditions, and, among them, to the
law of gradual development, by which "he increased in wisdom
and stature," — for "the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit,"
— we must not fall into the error of supposing that Jesus was
moulded by the circumstances in which he was placed. Not his
mother, nor the scenery, nor the national associations, nor the
occupations of his thirty years, fashioned him. Only natures
of a lower kind are shaped by circumstances. Great natures
unfold by the force of that which is within them. When food
nourishes, it receives the power to do so by that which the vital
power of the body gives it. Food does not give life, but by
assimilation receives it. Christ was not the creation of his age.
We may trace occasions and external influences of which he
availed himself, but his original nature contained in its germ
all that he was to be, and needed only a normal unfolding.
The absolute independence from all external formative influ-
ence, and the sovereignty of the essential self, was never so sub-
limely asserted as when Jehovah declared, "I am that I am."
But, without extravagance or immodesty, the mother of Jesus
might have written this divine legend upon his cradle.
2. We have said nothing of the brothers and sisters of our
Lord. They are not only mentioned, but the names of his
brothers are given, and allusions are made to them in several
instances. 1 Yet the matter does not prove upon examination to
be as simple as at first sight it seems.
1 Matt.xii. 46; xiii. 55. Mark iii. 31 ; vi. 3. Lukeviii.19. John ii. 1 2 ; vii. 3. Actsi.14.
W
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 59
Undoubtedly, it suited the peculiar ideas which were early
developed in the Church, to consider Jesus not only the first-
born, but the only, child of Mary. But there are real and in-
trinsic difficulties in the case. The term brethren was often
used in the general sense of relative. To this day authorities
of the highest repute are divided in opinion, and in about
equal proportions on each side. There are several suppositions
concerning these brothers and sisters : They were the children
of Joseph by a former marriage ; or, they were adopted from
a deceased brother's family; or, they were the children of a
sister of the mother of Jesus, and so cousins-german to him ;
or, they were the children of Joseph and Mary, and so the
real brothers of Jesus. "We shall not enter upon the argu-
ment. 1 The chief point of interest is not in doubt: namely,
that our Lord was not brought up alone in a household as an
only child ; that he was a child among children ; that he was
surrounded by those who were to him, either really his own
brothers and sisters, or just the same in sentiment. He had
this ordinary experience of childhood. The unconscious babe in
the cradle has a Saviour who once was as sweetly helpless as
it is. The prattling child is passing along that path over which
the infant footprints of Jesus were marked. The later friend-
ships of brothers and sisters derive a sacred influence from
the love which Jesus bore -to his sisters while growing up with
them. There is thus an example for the household, and a gos-
pel for the nursery, in the life of Jesus, as well as an u ensample "
in his manhood for the riper years of men.
3. While we do not mean to raise and discuss, in this work,
the many difficulties which are peculiar to critics, there is one
connected with this period of our Lord's life which we shall
mention, for the sake of laying down certain principles which
should guide us in reading the Sacred Scriptures.
Matthew declares that " he came and dwelt in a city called
Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene." No such line has
ever been found in the prophets.
Infinite ingenuity of learning has been brought to bear upon
1 Those who desire to investigate the matter may see Andrews's very clear and judicial
estimate of the case (Life of our Lord, p. 104) ; also, Lange, Life of Christ, Vol. I. p. 421.
-S 1
60 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
this difficulty, without in the slightest degree solving it. It is
said that the term "Nazareth" is derived from netzer, a sprout,
as the region around Nazareth is covered with bushes ; and by
coupling this with Isaiah xi. 1, where the Messiah is predicted
under the name of a Branch, the connection is established.
That Matthew, the most literal and unimaginative of all the
Evangelists, should have betaken himself to such a subtle trick
of language, would not surprise us had he lived in England in
Shakespeare's time. But as he wrote to Jews who did not
believe that Christ was the Messiah, we should, by adopting this
play on words, only change the verbal difficulty into a psycho-
logical one still more vexatious.
Others have supposed that Matthew referred to some apoc-
ryphal book, or to some prophecy now lost. This is worse than
ingenious. It is perverse. The Old Testament canon was, and
had long been, complete when Matthew wrote. What evidence
is there that anything had ever been dropped from it, — or
that any apocryphal book had ever existed, containing this sen-
tence ? Is our faith in the inspired record helped or hindered
by the introduction of such groundless fancies ? The difficulty
of the text is not half so dangerous as is such a liberty taken in
explaining it. Others of this ingenious band of scholars derive
the name Nazarene from notser, that which guards. Others
think that it is from netzer, to separate, as if the Messiah were
to be a Nazarcfo, which he was not ; nor was it anywhere in the
Old Testament predicted that he should be. Lange supposes
that, already when Matthew wrote, Nazarene had become a term
of such universal reproach, as to be equivalent to the general
representations of the prophets that the Messiah should be de-
spised and rejected, and that it might even be interchangeable
with them. The whole ground of this explanation is an assump-
tion. That Nazarene was a term of reproach, is very .likely, but
that it had become a generic epithet for humiliation, rejection,
scorn, persecution, and all maltreatment, is nowhere evident,
and not at all probable.
But what would happen if it should be said that Matthew
recorded the current impression of his time in attributing this
declaration to the Old Testament prophets ? Would a mere
error of reference invalidate the trustworthiness of the Evan-
Cfer- ^ ^
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 61
gelist? We lean our whole weight upon men who are fallible.
Must a record be totally infallible before it can be trusted at
all? Navigators trust ship, cargo, and the lives of all on board,
to calculations based on tables of logarithms, knowing that there
was never a set computed, without machinery, that had not
some errors in it. The supposition, that to admit that there are
immaterial and incidental mistakes in the Sacred Writ would
break the confidence of men in it, is contradicted by the uni-
form experience of life, and by the whole procedure of society.
On the contrary, the shifts and ingenuities to which critics are
obliged to resort either blunts the sense of truth, or disgusts
men with the special pleading of critics, and tends powerfully to
general unbelief.
The theory of Inspiration must be founded upon the claims
which the Scriptures themselves make. "All Scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that the man of
God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."
(2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.)
Under this declaration, no more can be claimed for the doc-
trine of Inspiration than that there shall have been such an
influence exerted upon the formation of the record that it shall
be the truth respecting God, and no falsity ; that it shall so ex-
pound the duty of man under God's moral government, as to
secure, in all who will, a true holiness ; that it shall contain no
errors which can affect the essential truths taught, or which shall
cloud the reason or sully the moral sense.
But it is not right or prudent to infer, from the Biblical
statement of inspiration, that it makes provision for the very
words and sentences ; that it shall raise the inspired penmen
above the possibility of literary inaccuracy, or minor and im-
material mistakes. It is enough if the Bible be a sure and suffi-
cient guide to spiritual morality and to rational piety. To erect
for it a claim to absolute literary infallibility, or to infallibility
in things not directly pertaining to faith, is to weaken its real
authority, and to turn it aside from its avowed purpose. The
theory of verbal inspiration brings a strain upon the Word of
God which it cannot bear. If rigorously pressed, it tends power-
fully to bigotry on the one side and to infidelity on the other.
62 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
The inspiration of holy men is to be construed as we do the
doctrine of an overruling and special Providence ; of the divine
supervision and guidance of the Church ; of the faithfulness of
God in answering prayer. The truth of these doctrines is not
inconsistent with the existence of a thousand evils, mischiefs,
and mistakes, and with the occurrence of wanderings long and
almost fatal. Yet, the general supervision of a Divine Provi-
dence is rational. We might expect that there would be an
analogy between God's care and education of the race, and His
care of the Bible in its formation.
Around the central certainty of saving truth are wrapped
the swaddling-clothes of human language. Neither the condition
of the human understanding, nor the nature of human speech,
which is the vehicle of thought, admits of more than a frag-
mentary and partial presentation of truth. " For we know in
part, and we prophesy in part." (1 Cor. xiii. 9.) Still less are
we then to expect that there will be perfection in this vehicle.
And incidental errors, which do not reach the substance of truth
and duty, which touch only contingent and external elements,
are not to be regarded as inconsistent with the fact that the
Scriptures were inspired of God. Nor will our reverence for the
Scriptures be impaired if, in such cases, it be frankly said, Here
is an insoluble difficulty. Such a course is far less dangerous
to the moral sense than that pernicious ingenuity which, assum-
ing that there can be no literal errors in Scripture, resorts to
subtle arts of criticism, improbabilities of statement, and violence
of construction, such as, if made use of in the intercourse of
men in daily life, would break up society and destroy all faith
of man in man.
We dwell at length upon this topic now, that we may not
be obliged to recur to it Avhen, as will be the case, other in-
stances arise in which there is no solution of unimportant, though
real, literary difficulties.
There are a multitude of minute and, on the whole, as respects
the substance of truth, not important questions and topics, which,
like a fastened door, refuse to be opened by any key which learn-
ing has brought to them. It is better to let them stand closed
than, like impatient mastiffs, after long barking in vain, to lie
whining at the door, unable to enter and unwilling to go away.
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118111
CHAPTER V.
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS.
THE long silence is ended. The seclusion is over, with all
its wondrous inward experience, of which no record has
been made, and which must therefore be left to a reverent
imagination. Jesus has now reached the age which custom has
established among his people for the entrance of a priest upon
his public duty.
But, first, another voice is to be heard. Before the ministry
of Love begins, there is to be one more great prophet of the
Law, who, with stern and severe fidelity, shall stir the conscience,
and, as it were, open the furrows in which the seeds of the new
life are to be sown.
Every nation has its men of genius. The direction which
their genius takes will be determined largely by the peculiar
education which arises from the position and history of the na-
tion ; but it will also depend upon the innate tendencies of the
race-stock.
The original tribal organizations of Israel were moulded by
the laws and institutions of Moses into a commonwealth of pe-
culiar characteristics. Each tribe scrupulously preserved its
autonomy, and in its own province had a local independence;
while the whole were grouped and confederated around the
Tabernacle, and afterwards about its outgrowth, the Temple.
On the one side, the nation approximated to a democracy ; on
the other, to a monarchy. But the throne, independent of the
people, was not independent of an aristocracy. The priestly
class combined in itself, as in Egypt, the civil and sacerdotal
functions. The Hebrew government was a theocratic democracy.
A fierce and turbulent people had great power over the govern-
ment. The ruling class was, as in Egypt it had been, the
priestly class. The laws which regulated personal rights, prop-
64 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
erty, industry, marriage, revenue, military affairs, and religious
worship were all ecclesiastical, — were interpreted and adminis-
tered by the hierarchy. The doctrine of a future existence had
no place in the Mosaic economy, either as a dogma or as a moral
influence. The sphere of religion was wholly within the secu-
lar horizon. There was no distinction, as with us, of things civil
and things moral. All moral duties were civil, and all civil
were moral duties. Priest and magistrate were one. Patriotism
and piety were identical. The military organization of the Jews
was Levitical. The priest wore the sword, took part in planning
campaigns, and led the people in battle. 1 The Levitical body was
a kind of national university. Literature, learning, and the fine
arts, in so far as they had existence, were preserved, nourished,
and diffused by the priestly order.
Under such circumstances, genius must needs be religious.
It must develop itself in analogy with the history and institu-
tions of the people. The Hebrew man of genius was the prophet.
The strict priest was narrow and_ barren; the prophet was a
son of liberty, a child of inspiration. All other men touched
the ground. He only had wings ; he was orator, poet, singer,
civilian, statesman. Of no close profession, he performed the
functions of all, as by turns, in the great personal freedom of
his career, he needed their elements.
That temperament which now underlies genius was also the
root of the prophetic nature. In ordinary men, the mind-
system is, organized with only that degree of sensibility which
enables it . to act under the stimulus of external influences.
The ideal perfect man is one who, in addition,, has such fine-
ness and sensibility as to originate conceptions from interior
cerebral stimulus. He acts without waiting for external solici-
tation. The particidar mode of this automatic action varies with
different persons. With all, however, it has this in common,
that the mind does not creep step by step toward knowledge,
gaining it by little and little. It is rather as if knowledge came
upon the soul by a sudden flash ; or as if the mind itself . had
an illuminating power, by which suddenly and instantly it poured
forth light upon external things. This was early called inspira-
1 For some instructive and interesting remarks on this topic, see A. P. Stanley, Jewish
■Church, § 2, p. 448.
ft
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 65
tion, as if the gods had breathed into the soul something of their
omniscience. It is still called inspiration.
If the intellect alone has this power of exaltation and creative-
ness, we shall behold genius in literature or science. But if
there be added an eminent moral sense and comprehensive
moral sentiments, we shall have, in peaceful times, men who
will carry ideas of right, of justice, of mercy, far beyond the
bounds at which they found them, — moral teachers, judges, and
creative moralists ; and in times of storm, reformers and martyrs.
This constitution of genius is not something abnormal. Com-
plete development of all the body and all the mind, with a
susceptibility to automatic activity, is ripe and proper manhood.
To this the whole race is perhaps approximating, and, in the
perfect day, will attain.
But in a race rising slowly out of animal condition, in posses-
sion of unripe faculties, left almost to chance for education,
there sometimes come these higher natures, men of genius, who
are not to be deemed creatures of another nature, lifted above
their fellows for their own advantage and enjoyment. They
are only elder brethren of the race. They are appointed lead-
ers, going before their child-brethren, to inspire them with higher
ideas of life, and to show them the way. By their nature and
position they are forerunners, seers, and foreseers.
Such men, among the old Jews, became prophets. But a
prophet was more than one who foretold events. He forefelt
and foretaught high moral truths. He had escaped the thrall of
passion in which other men lived, and, without help inherited
from old civilizations, by the force of the Divine Spirit acting
upon a nature of genius in moral directions, he went ahead of
his nation and of his age, denouncing evil, revealing justice,
enjoining social purity, and inspiring a noble piety. A prophet
was born to his office. Whoever found in himself the uprising
soul, the sensibility to divine truth, the impulse to proclaim it,
might, if he pleased, be a prophet, in the peculiar sense of
declaring the truth and enforcing moral ideas. The call of God,
in all ages, has come to natures already prepared for the office
to which they were called. Here was a call in birth-structure.
This was well understood by the prophets. Jeremiah explicitly
declares that he was created to the prophetic office : " The word
ft
ID
66 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed, thee in
the belly I knew thee ; and before thou earnest forth out of the
womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto
the nations." (Jer. i. 4, 5.) When God calls men, he calls
thoroughly and begins early.
The prophets, although wielding great influence, seem not
to have been inducted into office by any ecclesiastical authority.
There was no provision, at least in early times, for their con-
tinuance and succession in the community. There was no regu-
lar succession. Occasionally they shot up from the people, by
the impulse of their own natures, divinely moved. They were
confined to no grade or class. They might be priests or com-
moners ; they might come of any tribe. In two instances eminent
prophets were women ; and one of them, Huldah, was of such
repute that to her, though Jeremiah was then alive and in full
authority, King Josiah sent for advice in impending public dan-
ger. (2 Kings xxii. 14 - 20.)
It was from the free spirit of the prophet in the old Jewish
nation, and not from the priesthood, that religious ideas grew,
and enlarged interpretations of religion proceeded. The priest
indeed had a very limited sphere. The nature of the Temple
service required him to be but little conversant with the living
souls of men, and as little with ideas. In preparing the sacri-
fices of oxen, of sheep, of birds, the Temple or Tabernacle could
have appeared to the modern eye but little less repulsive than
a huge abattoir. The priests, with axe and knife, slaughtering
herds of animals, needed to be, and certainly in the early days
were, men of nerve and muscle, rather than men of rich emo-
tion or of strong religious feeling. 1 The subordinate priests
had as little occasion for moral feeling, in the performance of
their ordinary duties, as laborers in the shambles. The higher
officers were neither teachers nor preachers. In scarcely a
1 When Solomon brought up the ark and the sacred vessel to the new Temple, it is
said that he sacrificed sheep and oxen " that could not be told nor numbered for multi-
tude," and, at the close of the dedicatory services, " Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace-
offerings, "which he offered unto the Lord, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred
and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the
house of the Lord." (1 Kings viii. 5, 63.) This must have been the climax. Such
gigantic slaughters could not have been common. But the regular sacrifices involved the
necessity of killing vast numbers of animals.
eg-
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 67
single point, from the high-priest downward, do the members
of the Jewish hierarchy resemble the Christian minister. It is
true that the Levites were appointed to instruct the people in
the Law ; but this instruction consisted merely in an occasional
public reading of the Levitical Scriptures. Until after the cap-
tivity, and down to a comparatively late period in Jewish history,
this function was irregularly performed, and with but little
effect. If there had been no other source of moral influence
than the priesthood, the people might almost as well have been
left to themselves.
The prophetic impulse had been felt long before the Levitical
institutes were framed. Now and then, at wide intervals, men
of genius had arisen, who carried forward the moral sentiment
of their age. They enlarged the bounds of truth, and deepened
in the consciences of men moral and religious obligations. It is
only through the imagination that rude natures can be spiritually
influenced. These men were often great moral dramatists. They
kept themselves aloof. Some of them dwelt in solitary places,
and came upon the people at unexpected moments. The proph-
ets were intensely patriotic. They were the defenders of the
common people against oppressive rulers, and they stirred them
up to throw off foreign rule. Wild and weird as they often
were, awful in their severity, carrying justice at times to the
most bloody and terrific sacrifices, they were notwithstanding
essentially humane, sympathetic, and good. The old prophets
were the men in whom, in a desolate age, and in almost savage
conditions of society, the gentler graces of the soul took refuge.
We must not be deceived by their rugged exterior, nor by the
battle which they made for the right. Humanity has its severi-
ties ; and even love, striving for the crown, must fight. Like all
men who reform a corrupt age, the rude violence of the prophets
was exerted against the animal that is in man, for the sake of
his spiritual nature.
Had there been but the influence of the Temple or of the
Tabernacle to repress and limit the outflow of those passions
which make themselves channels in every society of men, they
would have swept like a flood, and destroyed the foundations
of civil life. It was the prophet who kept alive the moral sense
of the people. He taught no subtilties. It was too early, and
68 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
this was not the nation, for such philosophy as sprung up in
Greece. The prophet seized those great moral truths which
inhere in the very soul of man, and which natural and revealed
religion hold i*n common. Their own feelings ,were roused by
mysterious contact with the forces of the invisible world. They
confronted alike the court and the nation with audacious fidelity.
Often themselves of the sacerdotal order, and exercising the
sacrificial functions of the priest (as in the instance of Samuel),
yet when, in later times, true spirituality had been overlaid and
destroyed by ritualism, they turned against the priest, the ritual,
and the Temple. They trod under foot the artificial sanctity
of religious usages, and vindicated the authority of morality,
humanity, and simple personal piety against the superstitions
and the exactions of religious institutions and their officials.
Jeremiah speaks so slightingly of sacrifices as to seem to deny
their divine origin. He represents God as saying : " For I spake
not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that
I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-
offerings or sacrifices. But this thing commanded I them, saying,
Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my
people." (Jer. vii. 22, 23.)
Isaiah is even bolder : " To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me ? . . . . Your new moons and your
appointed feasts my soul hateth Your hands are full of
blood. Wash you, make you clean Seek judgment, re-
lieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow."
(Isa. i. 11 - 17.)
Amos, in impetuous wrath, cries out : " I hate, I despise your
feast-days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
.... Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs. .....
But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as
a mighty stream." (Amos v. 21 - 24.)
Considering the honor in which he was held, and the influence
allowed him, the old prophet was the freest-speaking man on
record. Not the king, nor his counsellors, nor priests, nor the
people, nor prophets themselves, had any terror for him. When
the solemn influence coming from the great invisible world set
in upon his soul, his whole nature moved to it, as the tides
move to celestial power.
lP — ^ — -a
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 69
But the prophet did not live always, nor even often, in these
sublime elevations of feeling. The popular notion that, wrapt
in moods of grandeur, he was always looking into the future,
and drawing forth secrets from its mysterious depths, — a weird
fisher upon the shores of the infinite, — is the very reverse of
truth. Revelatory inspirations were occasional and rare. They
seldom came except in some imminent catastrophe of the na-
tion, or upon some high-handed aggression of idolatry or of
regal immorality. The prophet labored with his hands, or was
a teacher. At certain periods, it would seem as if in his care
were placed the music, the poetry, the oratory, and even the
jurisprudence of the nation. The phrase "to prophesy" at first
signified an uncontrollable utterance under an overruling posses-
sion, or inspiration. It was an irresistible rhapsody, frequently
so like that of the insane, that in early times, and among some
nations even yet, the insane were looked upon with some awe,
as persons overcharged with the prophetic spirit. But in time
the term assumed the meaning of moral discourse, vehement
preaching; and finally it included simple moral teaching. In
the later periods of Jewish history, the term " to prophesy " was
understood in much the same sense as our phrases " to instruct,"
"to indoctrinate." Paul says, "He that prophesieth speaketh
unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort." (1 Cor.
xiv. 3.) The criticisms and commands of the Apostle respecting
prophecy show clearly that in his day it was in the nature of
sudden, impulsive, impassioned discourse, — that it was, in short,
sacred oratory.
The absolute spontaneity of the old prophet, in contrast with
the perfunctory priest, is admirable. Out of a ritual service
rigid as a rock is seen gushing a liberty of utterance that re-
minds one of the rock in the wilderness when smitten with the
prophet's rod. Although the prophets were the religious men, far
more revered for sanctity than the priests, it was not because
they held aloof from secular affairs. They were often men of
rigor, but never ascetics. They never despised common human-
ity, either in its moral or in its secular relations.
The prophet was sometimes the chief justice of the nation, as
Samuel ; or a councillor at court, as Nathan ; or a retired states-
man, consulted by the rulers, as Elisha; or an iron reformer,
70 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
as Elijah ; or the censor and theologian, as Isaiah, who, like Dante,
clothed philosophy with the garb of poetry, that it might have
power to search and to purify society. But whatever else he
was, the prophet was the great exemplar of personal freedom.
He represented absolute personal liberty in religious thought.
He often opposed the government, but in favor of the state ;
he inveighed against the church, but on behalf of religion ; he
denounced the people, but always for their own highest good.
It must be through some such avenue of thought that one
approaches the last great prophet of the Jewish nation. The
morning star of a new era, John is speedily lost in the blaze
of Him who was and is the " Light of the world." His history
seems short, The child of prophecy, — the youth secluded in
the solitudes, — the voice in the wilderness, — the crowds on
the Jordan, — the grasp of persecution, — the death in prison, —
this is the outline of his story. But in the filling up, what
substance of manhood must have been there, what genuine power,
what moral richness in thought and feeling, what chivalric mag-
nanimity, to have drawn from Jesus the eulogy, "Among those
that are born of women there is- not a greater prophet than John
the Baptist " ! But his was one of those lives which are lost to
themselves that they may spring up in others. He came both
in grandeur and in beauty, like a summer storm, which, falling
in rain, is lost in the soil, and reappears neither as vapor nor
cloud, but transfused into flowers and fruits.
One particular prophet was singled out by our Lord as John's
prototype, and that one by far the most dramatic of all the
venerable brotherhood. "If ye will receive it, this is Elias,
which was for to come " (Matt. xi. 14), — Elijah, called in the
Septuagint version Elias. Malachi, whose words close the canon
of the Jewish Scriptures, had declared, "Behold, I will send
you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the Lord." There was, therefore, a universal
expectation among the Jews that the Messiah should be pre-
ceded by Elijah. 1 It was an expectation not confined to the
1 Stanley says of this prophet : — "He stood alone against Jezebel. He stands alone
in many senses among the prophets. Nursed in the bosom of Israel, the prophetical
portion, if one may so say, of the chosen people, vindicating the true religion from the
nearest danger of overthrow, setting at defiance by invisible power the whole forces of
■a
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 71
Jews, but shared by the outlying tribes and nations around
Palestine. There is no real interior resemblance between John
and Elijah. Their times were not alike. There are not else-
where in recorded history such dramatic elements as in the
career of Elijah. Irregular, almost fitful, Elijah the Tishbite
seemed at times clean gone forever, dried up like a summer's
brook. Then suddenly, like that stream after a storm on the
hills, he came down with a flood. His sudden appearances and
as sudden vanishings were perfectly natural to one who had been
reared, as he had been, among a nomadic people, not unlike the
Bedouin Arabs. But to us they s'eem more like the mystery
of spiritual apparitions. When the whole kingdom and the
regions round about were searched for him in vain by the in-
quisitorial Jezebel, then, without warning, he appeared before the
court, overawed its power, and carried away the people by an
irresistible fascination. Almost alone, and mourning over his
solitariness, he buffeted the idolatrous government for long and
weary years of discouragement. His end was as wonderful as
his career. Caught up in a mighty tempest, he disappeared
from the earth, to be seen no more, until, in the exquisite
vision of the Transfiguration, his heavenly spirit blossomed into
light, and hung above the glowing Saviour and the terrified
disciples.
" This is Elias, which was for to come." John from his child-
hood had been reared in the rugged region west of the Dead
Sea, southeast from Jerusalem and Bethlehem. (Luke i. 80.)
the Israelite kingdom, lie reached a height equal to that of Moses and Samuel in the tra-
ditions of his country.
" He was the prophet for whose return in later years his countrymen have looked with
most eager hope. The last prophet of the old dispensation clung to this consolation
in the decline of the state.
" In the gospel history we find this expectation constantly excited in each successive
appearance of a new prophet. It was a fixed belief of the Jews that he had appeared
again and again, as an Arabian merchant, to wise and good rabbis at their prayers or
on their journeys. A seat is still placed for him to superintend the circumcision of the
Jewish children.
" Passover after Passover, the Jews of our own day place the paschal cup on the
table and set the door wide open, believing that this is the moment when Elijah will
reappear.
" When goods are found and no owner comes, when difficulties arise and no solution
appears, the answer is, ' Put them by till Elijah comes.' " — Stanley, History of the Jewish
Church, Part II. p. 290.
72 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE OHRIST.
His raiment was a cloth of camel's hair, probably a long robe
fastened round the waist with a leathern girdle. Whether he
lived more as a hermit or as a shepherd, we cannot tell. It
is probable that he was each by turns. In a manner which is
peculiarly congenial to the Oriental imagination, he fed his
moral nature in solitude, and by meditation gained that educa-
tion which with Western races comes by the activities of a
benevolent life.
He probably surpassed his great prototype in native power
and in the importance of his special mission, but fell below him
in duration of action and dramatic effect. Elijah and John were
alike unconventional, each having a strong, though rude individ-
ualism. Living in the wilderness, fed by the thoughts and imagi-
nations which great natures find in solitude, their characters
had woven into them not one of those soft and silvery threads
which fly back and forth incessantly from the shuttle of civilized
life. They began their ministry without entanglements. They
had no yoke to break, no harness to cast off, no customs to re-
nounce. They came to society, not from it.
Each of them, single-handed, attacked the bad morals of soci-
ety and the selfish conduct of men. Though of a priestly family,
John did not represent the Temple or its schools. He came
in the name of no Jewish sect or party. He was simply "the
voice of One crying in the wilderness."
John was Christ's forerunner, as the ploughman goes before
the sower. Before good work can be expected, there must be
excitement. The turf-bound surface of communities must be
torn up, the compacted soil turned to the air and light. Upon
the rough furrows, and not on the shorn lawn, is there hope for
the seed.
This great work of arousing the nation befitted John. His
spirit was of the Law. He had, doubtless, like his ancient
brethren of the prophet brood, his mysterious struggles with
the infinite and the unknown. He had felt the sovereignty
of conscience. Right and wrong rose before his imagination,
amidst the amenities of an indulgent life, like Ebal and Gerizim
above the vale of Samaria. In his very prime, and full of im-
petuous manhood, he came forth from the wilderness, and began
his career by the most direct and unsparing appeals to the moral
ft
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS.
73
sense of the people. There was no sensuous mysticism, no sub-
tile philosophy, no poetic enchantment, no tide of pleasurable
emotion. He assailed human conduct in downright earnest. He
struck right home at the unsheltered sins of guilty men, as the
axe-man strikes. Indeed, the axe should be the sign and sym-
bol of John. 1 There are moods in men that invite such moral
aggression as his. When a large and magnetic nature appears,
with power to grasp men, the moral feeling becomes electric
and contagious. Whole communities are fired. They rise up
against their sins and self-indulgent habits, they lead them forth
to slaughter, as the minions of Baal were led by Elijah at Mount
Carmel. Not the grandest commotions of nature, not the com-
ingon of spring, nor the sound of summer storms, is more sub-
lime than are these moral whirls, to which, especially in their
grander but less useful forms, rude men, in morally neglected
communities, are powerfully addicted.
w*^ ■--■'
THE GIIOR, — JORDAN VALLEY, NEAR BETHSIIAN.
The wilderness of Judaea, where John began his preaching,
reaches on its northern flank to the river Jordan. From this
point he seems to have made brief circuits in the vicinity of the
1 "And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree
which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." (Matt,
iii. 10.)
74 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
river valley. "He came into all the country about Jordan."
(Luke iii. 3.) But, as his fame spread, he was saved the labor
of travel. " There went out unto him all the land of Judaea"
(Mark i. 5), — city, town, and country. The population of this
region was very dense. It was largely a Jewish population,
and therefore mercurial in feeling, but tenacious of purpose;
easily aroused, but hard to change ; not willing to alter its
course, but glad to be kindled and accelerated in any direction
already begun. An Oriental nation is peculiarly accessible to
excitement, and the Jews above all Orientals were open to its
influence. Fanaticism lay dormant in every heart. Every Jew
was like a grain of powder, harmless and small until touched
by the spark, and then instantly swelling with irresistible and
immeasurable force. Just at this time, too, the very air of
Judsea was full of feverish expectation. Its people were sick of
foreign rule. Their pride was wounded, but not weakened,
or even humbled.
The Jews were the children of the prophets. That one Voice
crying in the wilderness touched the deep religious romance of
every patriotic heart. It was like the olden time. So had the
great prophets done. Even one of less greatness than John
would have had a tumultuous reception. But John was pro-
foundly in earnest. It was his good fortune to have no restraints
or commitments. He had no philosophy to shape or balance,
no sect whose tenets he must respect, no reputation to guard,
and no deluding vanity of an influence to be either won or kept.
He listened to the voice of God in his own soul, and spake
right on. When such a one speaks, the hearts of men are
targets, his words are arrows, and multitudes will fall down
wounded.
And yet no one in the full blessedness of Christian expe-
rience can look upon the preaching of John without sadness. It
was secular, not spiritual. There was no future, no great spirit-
land, no heaven above his world. The Jewish hills were his
horizon. It is true that he saw above these hills a hazy light ;
but what that light would reveal he knew not. How should
he ? To him it seemed that the Messiah would be only another
John, but grander, more thorough, and wholly irresistible. " But
he that cometh after me is mightier than I." What would
rfr
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 75
this mightier than John be ? What would he do ? Only this :
"He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:
whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor,
and will gather the wheat into his garner ; but the chaff he
will burn with fire unquenchable."
All this was true ; but that does not describe the Christ.
John saw him as one sees a tree in winter, — the bare branches,
without leaves, flowers, or fruit. What would he have thought,
if he had heard the first sermon of Jesus at Nazareth, — "He
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance
to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at
liberty them that are bruised " ? No wonder Jesus said of
him that the least in the kingdom of heaven should be greater
than he ! John would have said, Purity and then divine favor ;
Christ, Divine favor that ye may become pure.
This great Soul of the Wilderness was sent to do a prepara-
tory work, and to introduce the true Teacher. Though he
represented the Law, that Law had not in his hands, as it had
in the handling of the priests, lost all compassion. There is a
bold discrimination in the Baptist's conduct toward the igno-
rant common people and the enlightened Pharisee. " What shall
we do?" is the question of a heart sincerely in earnest; and
this question brought John to each man's side like a brother.
Knowing that to repent of particular sins was an education
toward a hatred of the principle of evil, — sins being the drops
which' flow from the fountain of sin, — he obliged the tax-
gatherer to repent of a tax-gatherer's sins, — extortion and
avarice. The soldier must abandon his peculiar sins, — violence,
rapine, greed of booty, revengeful accusations against all who
resisted his predatory habits. Selfish men, living together, prey
on one another by the endless ways of petty selfishness. John
struck at the root of this universal self-indulgence when he
commanded the common people, " He that hath two coats, let
him impart to him that hath none ; and he that hath meat, let
him do likewise." It is probable that he had seen right before
him hungry and shivering men by the side of the over full and
luxuriously clothed.
There were others in the crowd besides publicans and sinners.
There were saints there, — at least the Pharisees thought so.
76 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
They looked upon others with sympathy, and were glad that
the common people repented. Although they themselves needed
no amendment, it yet could do no harm to be baptized, and
their pious example might encourage those who needed it !
This John was doing good. They were disposed to patronize
him !
If this was the spirit which John perceived, no wonder
he flashed out upon them with such lightning strokes. "
generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the
wrath to come ? Bring forth fruits meet for repentance." These
dazzling words did not altogether offend, for the Pharisees were
sure that John did not quite understand that they were the
choicest and most modern instances of what the old saints
had been ! Looking around on the sun-bleached gravel and
mossless stones, John replied to their thoughts : " Think not to
say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for
I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up
children unto Abraham."
The preaching of John is plain. But what was the meaning
of his baptism ? Was it into the Jewish church that he bap-
tized? But the people were already members of that church.
It was a national church, and men were born into it without
any further trouble. Was it an initiation into a new sect ?
John did not organize a sect or a party. He explicitly de-
clared his office to be transitory, his function to prepare men
for the great Coming Man. Was it Christian baptism ? Christ
was not yet declared. The formula was not Christian.
If that inevitable husk, an outward organization, had not
become so fixed in men's minds, John's own explanation would
suffice. It is clear and explicit : " I baptize you with water
unto repentance." It was a symbolic act, signifying that one
had risen to a higher moral condition. It was an act of tran-
sition. It was a moral act, quite important enough to stand
by itself, without serving any secondary purpose of initiation
into any church or sect. Neither John nor afterwards Jesus
gave to the act any ecclesiastical meaning. It had only a
moral significance. It was an act neither of association nor of
initiation. It was purely personal, beginning and ending with
the individual subject of it. It conferred, and professed to con-
-tr
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 77
fer, nothing. It was declaratory of moral transition. Baptism
is that symbolic act by which a man declares, "I forsake my
sins, and rise to a better life."
A study of the fragments of John's discourses enables us to
understand the relation of their subject-matter to the spiritual
truths which Christ unfolded. He dwelt in the truth of the
old dispensation. He saAv the twilight of the coming day, but
did not comprehend it. He called men to repentance, but it
was repentance of sin as measured by the old canons of morality.
He called men to reformation, but not to regeneration. He
summoned men back to the highest conception of rectitude then
known ; but he did not, as Christ did, raise morality into the
realm of spirituality, and hold forth a new ideal of character,
incomparably higher than any before taught. If the very Ee-
former himself, in the estimation of Jesus, was less than the
least in the kingdom of Heaven, how much lower must his rude
disciples have been than the " new man in Christ Jesus " !
Ideals are the true germs of growth. No benefactor is like
him who fills life with new and fruitful ideals. Christ gave to
every duty a new motive. Every virtue had an aspiration for
something yet nobler. He carried forward the bounds of life,
and assured immortality to the world as a new horizon. He
blew away the mists of the schools, and the nature of God
shone out with redoubled radiance. He was the God of the
Jews, because he was the God of the whole earth. He was King,
because he was Father. He was Sovereign, because love reigns
throughout the universe. He suffered, and thenceforth altars
were extinguished. He died, and Sinai became Calvary. Where
he lay, there was a garden ; and flowers and fragrant clusters
were the fit symbols of the new era.
The true place of John's preaching cannot be so well fixed as
by this contrast. But John answered the end for which he came.
He had aroused the attention of the nation. He had stimulated,
even if he had not enlightened, the public conscience; and,
above all, he had excited an eager expectation of some great
national deliverance.
The Jew had deep moral feeling, but little spirituality. His
moral sense was strong, but narrow, national, and selfish. Tena-
cious of purpose, elastic and tough, courageous even to fanaticism,
78 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
heroic in suffering, the one element needed to a grand national
character was love. " Thou shalt love thy friends and hate
thine enemies," gave ample scope to his nature ; for his friends
were few, and his enemies nearly the whole civilized world.
The Hebrews looked for a Messiah, and he was already among
them. Love was his nature, love his mission, and his name
might have been called Love. How should he be known by
a nation who were practised in every inflection of hatred, but
who had never learned the spiritual quality of love ?
Restless as was the nation, and longing for divine interven-
tion, every portent was quickly noticed. Fierce factions, and
from a lower plane the turbulent people, watched his coming.
The wretched multitude, a prey by turns to foreigners and to
their own countrymen, had, with all the rest, a vague and su-
perstitious faith of the coming Messiah. Holy men like Simeon,
and devout priests like Zacharias, there were, amidst this seething
people, who, brooding, longing, waiting, chanted to themselves
day by day the words of the Psalmist, "My soul waiteth for
the Lord more than they that watch for the morning." (Ps.
cxxx. 6.) As lovers that watch for the appointed coming, and
start at the quivering of a leaf, the flight of a bird, or the
humming of a bee, and grow weary of the tense strain, so
did the Jews watch for their Deliverer. It is one of the most
piteous sights of history, especially when we reflect that he
came, — and they knew him not!
This growing excitement in all the region around the Jordan
sent its fiery wave to Jerusalem. The Temple, with its keen
priestly watchers, heard that voice in the wilderness, repeating
day by day, with awful emphasis, " Prepare, prepare ! the Lord
is at hand ! " With all the airs of arrogant authority came
down from the Sanhedrim priestly questioners. It is an early
instance of the examination of a young man for license to
preach.
"Who art thou?"
"I am not the Christ."
"What then, art thou Elias?"
"I am not."
"Art thou that prophet?"
« No."
ft
-a
THE VOI OH IN THE WILDERNESS. 79
•' Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent
us ? What sayest thou of thyself ? "
"I am the Voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make
straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias."
"Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor
Elias, neither that prophet?"
"I baptize with water. But there stanbeth One among
you whom ye know not. He it is, that, coming after me, is
preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to un-
loose."
There can be no doubt of the effect of John's replies upon the
council at Jerusalem. It was simply a denial of their authority.
It was an appeal from Ritual to Conscience. He came home
to men with direct and personal appeal, and refused the old
forms and sacred channels of instruction; and when asked by
the proper authorities for his credentials, he gave his name, A
Voice in the Wilderness, as if he owed no obligation to Jeru-
salem, but only to nature and to God.
Already, then, their Messiah was mingling in the throng.
He was looking upon men, and upon John, but was not recog-
nized. What his thoughts were at the scenes about him, every
one's own imagination must reveal.
On the day following the visit of this committee from Jerusa-
lem, as John was baptizing, there came to him one Jesus from
Nazareth, and asked to be baptized. John had been forewarned
of the significant sign by which he should recognize the Messiah :
"He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me,
Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining
on him, the same is he who baptizeth Avith the Holy Ghost."
Although that signal had not been given, yet he recognized
Jesus. Whether, being cousins, they had ever met, we know
not. It is evident that they were in sympathy, each having
fully heard of the other. Perhaps they had met year by year
in the feasts of Jerusalem, to which we know that Christ went
up, and at which John, as a man of the old dispensation and a
thorough Jew, heart and soul, was even more likely to have
been present.
How fierce had been the reply of the Baptist when the
Pharisees asked to be baptized! How gentle was his bearing
80 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE OHRIST.
to Jesus, and how humble his expostulation, "I have need to
be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?"
His heart recognized the Christ, even before the descent of
the Spirit.
Equally beautiful is the reply of Jesus. He had not yet been
made known by the brooding Spirit. He had neither passed his
probation, nor received that enlarged liberty of soul which was to
be to him the signal for his peculiar ministry. He was simply
a citizen of the commonwealth of Israel, under the Law, and he
was walking in the footsteps of his people, " that in all things
he might be made like unto his brethren " " of the seed of
Abraham."
They went down together, the son of Elizabeth and the son
of Mary, John and Jesus, into the old river Jordan, that
neither hastened nor slackened its current at their coming ; for
the Messianic sign was not to be from the waters beneath, but
from the heavens above.
Hitherto the Jordan had been sacred to the patriotic Jew from
its intimate connection with many of the most remarkable events
in the history of the commonwealth and of the kingdom. An-
other Jesus 1 had once conveyed the people from their wanderings
across this river dry shod. The Jordan had separated David
and his pursuers when the king fled from his usurping son.
Elijah smote it to let him ■ and Elisha go over, and erelong
Elisha returned alone. The Jordan was a long silvery thread,
on which were strung national memories through many hundred
years. But all these histories were outshone by the new occur-
rence. In all Christendom to-day the Jordan means Christ's
baptism. Profoundly significant as was this event, the first
outward step by which Jesus entered upon his ministry, it was
followed by another still more striking and far more important.
Jesus ascended from the Jordan looking up and praying. (Luke
hi. 21.) As he gazed, the sky was cleft open, and a beam of
light flashed forth, and, alighting upon him, seemed in bodily
shape like a dove. Instantly a voice spake from out of heaven,
" This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matt,
iii. IT.)
1 In the Hebrew the name Saviour appears under the different forms Hoshea
(Osliea), Jehoshua (Joshua), later Hebrew Jeshua (Greek Jesus).
-ft
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 81
We know not what opening of soul came from this divine
light. We know not what cords were loosed and what long-
bound attributes unfolded, — as buds held by winter unroll in
the spring. But from this moment Jesus became The Christ !
He relinquished his home and ordinary labors. He assumed
an authority never before manifested, and moved with a dignity
never afterward laid aside. We cannot, by analysis or anal-
ogy, discern and set forth the change wrought within him by
the descent of the Holy Ghost. But those who look with doubt
upon the reality of any great exaltation of soul divinely inspired
may do well to see what often befalls men.
It is a familiar fact, that men, at certain periods of their'
lives, experience changes which are like another birth. The
new life, when the passion, and, still more significantly, when the
sentiment, of love takes full possession of the soul, is familiar.
Great men date their birth from the hour of some great inspi-
ration. Even from human sources, from individual men, and
from society, electric influences dart out upon susceptible natures,
which change their future history. How much more powerful
should this be if there is a Divine Spirit ! If secular influence
has transforming power, how much more divine influence ! The
universal belief of the Church, that men are the subjects of sud-
den and transforming divine influences, is borne out by facts
without number. The most extraordinary and interesting phe-
nomena in mental history are those which appear in religious
conversions. Men are overwhelmed with influences to which
they were before strangers. Without changing the natural con-
stitution of the mind, the balance of power is so shifted that
dominant animal passions go under the yoke, and dormant
moral sentiments spring up with amazing energy. With such
sudden transformations within, there follows a total outward
revolution of manners, morals, actions, and aims. Perhaps the
most dramatic instance is Paul's. But inward changes, without
the external brilliancy, have been made in thousands of men
and of women, full as thorough and transforming as that of
the great Apostle. Indeed, such changes are no longer rare
or remarkable., They are common and familiar. And even
though we should join those who, admitting the change, account
for it upon the lowest theory of natural principles, the main
w
82 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
thing which we have in view would still be gained; namely,
to show that the human soul is so organized that, when brought
under certain influences, it is susceptible of sudden and complete
transformation.
If it is thus impressible at the hands of secular influence, how
much more if there be admitted a divine energy, as it were
an atmosphere of divine will, in which all material worlds float,
and out of which physical laws themselves flow, as rills and
rivers from an inexhaustible reservoir !
But the soul upon which the Spirit descended over the Jordan
was divine. It was a divine nature, around which had been
bound cords of restraint, now greatly loosened, or even snapped,
by the sacred flame ; with attributes repressed, self-infolded, but
which now, at the celestial touch, were roused to something
of their pristine sweep and power.
All before this has been a period of waiting. Upon his ascent
from the Jordan, Jesus the Christ, indued with power by the
Holy Spirit, steps into a new sphere. He is now to appear before
his people as a divine teacher, to authenticate his high claims
by acts so far above human power that they shall evince the
Divine presence ; and, finally, to be offered up, through suffer-
ing unto death, as a sacrifice for sin, — the one victim which
shall forever supersede all other sacrifices. Here, then, upon
the banks of the Jordan, begins the new dispensation.
There is a remarkable symmetry of mystery about John.
He had all his life lived apart from society, unknowing and
unknown. Standing by the side of the Jordan, he made him-
self felt in all Judasa and throughout Galilee. The wise men
of his time sought in vain to take his measure. Like all men
who seek to reduce moral truth to exact forms and propor-
tions, the Pharisees had their gauge and mould, and John would
not fit to any of them. If he was not Messiah, or Elias, or
that prophet, he might as well have been nobody. They could
not understand him ; and when he described himself as a voice
to men's consciences from the wilderness, it must have seemed
to his questioners either insanity or mockery.
We are better informed of his true nature and purposes ; yet
how little of his disposition, of his personal appearance and habits,
the style of his discourse, his struggles with himself, his alter-
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS.
83
nations of hope and fear, do we know ! Looking back for the
man who moved the whole of Palestine, we can say only that
he was the Voice from the wilderness. Though the history
of our Lord will require some further notice of John by and
by, yet we may here appropriately finish what little remains
of his personal history.
He continued to preach and to baptize for some time after
Christ entered upon his mission, ascending the Jordan from
near Jericho, where it is supposed that he began his baptismal
career, to Bethany (not Bethabara), beyond Jordan, and then,
still higher, to iEnon. His whole ministry is computed to have
been something over two years. Herod Antipas had long looked
with a jealous eye upon John's influence. No man who could
call together and sway such multitudes as John did would be
looked upon with favor by an Oriental despot. It only needed
one act of fidelity on the prophet's part to secure his arrest.
John publicly denounced the wickedness of Herod, and particu-
larly his indecent marriage with his brother Philip's wife, Hero-
"&
84 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
dias, who eloped from Philip to marry Herod Antipas. John
was imprisoned in the castle of Machserus, which stood on the
perpendicular cliffs of one of the streams emptying into the
Dead Sea from the east, and not far from its shores. There
John must have remained in captivity for a considerable period
of time. It was not Herod's intention to do him further harm.
But Herodias could not forgive the sting of his public rebuke,
and watched for his destruction. Not long, however, had she
to wait. By her voluptuous dancing upon a state occasion, at
a banquet, the daughter of Herodias won from the king the
boon of choosing her own reward. Instructed by her vindictive
mother, she demanded the head of John. With a passing re-
gret, the promise was kept, — and the feast went on. John's
disciples buried his body. Thus ended the earthly life of this
child of promise, — the solitary hermit, the ardent reformer, the
last prophet of the Old Testament line.
It was upon these mountains of Moab, or in their ravines,
that Moses was buried. Thus the first great prophet of Israel
and the last one were buried near to each other, outside of
the Promised Land, amidst those dark hills beyond Jordan and
the Dead Sea.
There is a striking analogy, also, in another respect. Moses
came only to the border of the Promised Land, the object of his
whole life's labor. He looked to the north, to the west, to the
south, over the whole of it. " I have caused thee to see it
with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither."
John had gone before the promised Messiah, to prepare his
way, and to bring in the new dispensation. But he himself
was not permitted to enter upon it. Out of his prison he
sent to Jesus an anxious inquiry, "Art thou he that should
come, or look we for another ? " The account which his disci-
ples brought back must have assured his lonely heart that the
Messiah had come. His spirit beheld the dawning day of
holiness, and was dismissed.
Until this day no one knows where either Moses or John was
buried. They were alike in the utter hiding of their graves.
We have already spoken of the nature of John's baptism.
The question arises, Why should Jesus be baptized ? His reply
^ ^
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 85
was, " Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" But baptism
was not a part of the Jewish service. Even if proselytes
were baptized into the Jewish church, there is no evidence
that a Jew was required to be baptized at any period of his life.
We are not to confound the washings of the Levitical law with
baptisms, which were totally different. It certainly could not
be a baptism of repentance to Jesus in the same sense that
it is to all others. Very many solutions have been given of
this perplexing question. 1
Every man who has been, like John, successful in arousing
men from evil and leading them toward a higher life, has
noticed that repentance always takes on at first the form of
turning from evil, rather than of taking hold on good. To part
with sweet-hearted sins, to forsake and break up evil habits,
especially habits formed upon the passions and appetites, re-
quires vehement exertion. As this is ordinarily the first ex-
perience in repentance, and usually the most sudden and
painful one, while righteousness is gradual both in fact and
fruition, so it is not surprising that the popular idea of repent-
ance should be the forsaking of evil. To " break off one's sins
by righteousness" is a later knowledge. And yet this is the
very core and marrow of repentance. It is the rising from
grossness into refinement, from selfishness into universal good-
1 Meyer gives a digest of the various opinions which have been held concerning Christ's
baptism : — " Jesus did not come to be baptized from a feeling of personal sinfulness
(Bruno Bauer, comp. Strauss) ; nor because, according to the Levitical law, his personal
connection with an impure people rendered him impure (Lange) ; nor for the purpose of
showing that there was no incompatibility between his show his royalty that Christ
came into the world. He took upon himself the form of a man.
He looked like a man. He lived and acted as a man. The
very miracles which he wrought served to show, by contrast,
the profound agreement of his general life with the great lower
realm of nature into which he had descended.
The attempt to kindle his face to such ethereal glow that
it shall seem lost in light, must carry the artist away from the
distinctive fact of the life of Jesus. He was not a man striv-
ing to rise to the Deity. He was God in the flesh, seeking to
restrain his Divinity within such bounds as should identify him-
with his brethren, and keep him within the range of their per-
sonal sympathy.
No one view of the head of Jesus can satisfy the desires of
a devout spectator. It is impossible for art to combine majesty
and meekness, suffering and joy, indignation and love, sternness
and tenderness, grief and triumph, in the same face at one time.
Yet some special representations may come much nearer to sat-
isfying us than others. The Christ of Michael Angelo, in his
renowned picture of the Last Judgment, is repulsive. The head
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HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 109
and face of Christ by Leonardo da Vinci, in the Last Supper,
even in its present wasted condition, produces an impression
upon a sensitive nature which it will never forget, nor wish
to forget. But few of all the representations of Christ which
have become famous in art are at all helpful, either in bringing
us toward any adequate conception of the facts of history, or
in giving help to our devout feelings by furnishing them an
outward expression. The great crowd of pictorial efforts neither
aid devotion, represent history, nor dignify art. Made without
reverence^ as professional exercises, they lower the tone of our
thoughts and mislead our imagination. Taking all time together,
it may well be doubted whether religion has not lost more
than it has gained by the pictorial representation of Jesus.
The old Hebrew example was far grander. The Hebrew taught
men spirituality, when he forbade art to paint or to carve an
image of the formless Deity ; and although Jesus of Nazareth
was " God manifest in the flesh," and in so far not to be reck-
oned rigidly as within the old Hebrew rule, yet even in this
case art can touch only the humiliation of Divinity, and not its
glory.
We could afford to lose the physical portraiture of Jesus, if in
its stead we could obtain such an idea of his personal bearing
and carriage as should place him before our eyes with that im-
pressive individuality which he must have had in the sight of
his contemporaries. Fortunately there are glimpses of his per-
sonal bearing. As soon as men cease to divide the life of
Christ, and apportion one part to the man and the other to the
God, as soon as they accept his whole life and being in its
unity, — God manifest in the flesh, — events become more sig-
nificant. They are not the actions of a human soul in some
strange connection with a Divine nature ; they are the out-
working of the Divine nature placed in human circumstances.
Their value, as interpreters of the Divine feelings, dispositions,
and will, is thus manifestly augmented.
Every system, whether of philosophy or of religion, that was
ever propounded, before Christianity, might be received without
any knowledge, in the disciple, of the person of its teacher.
The Parsee and the Buddhist believe in a system more than
in a person. What Plato taught is more important than what
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110 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Plato himself was. One may accept all of Socrates's teaching
without caring for Socrates himself. Even Paul's development
of Christian ideas does not require that one should accept Paul.
Not so Christianity. Christianity is faith in Christ. The vital
union of our souls with his was the sum of his teaching, the
means by which our nature was to be carried up to God's ;
and all other doctrines were auxiliary to this union, or a guide
to the life which should spring from it. To live in him, to
have him dwelling in us, to lose our personal identity in his,
and to have it return to us purified and ennobled, — this is the
very marrow of his teaching. " I in them, and thou in me,
that they may be made perfect in one." The Apostle summa-
rized Christianity as " Christ in you, the hope of glory."
The very genius of Christianity, then, requires a distinct con-
ception, not of Christ's person, but of his personality. This may
account for the structure of the Gospels. They are neither
journals nor itineraries; still less are they orderly expositions
of doctrine. The Gospels are the collective reminiscences of
Christ by the most impressible of his disciples. Their memo-
ries would retain the most characteristic transactions which took
place during their intercourse with the Master, while mere inci-
dental things, the prosaic and unpictorial portions of his life,
would fade out. We find, therefore, as might be expected, in
all the Gospels, pictures of Christ which represent the social
and spiritual elements of his life, rather than the corporeal.
If these biographies be compared with the physical portraiture
of heroes and gods which classic literature has furnished, the
contrast will be striking. The Gospels give a portrait, not of
attitudes or of features, but of the disposition and of the soul.
Most men, it may be suspected, think of Jesus as one above
the ordinary level of human existence, looking pitifully down
upon the gay and innocent pursuits of common life, — abstract,
ethereal, wise, and good, but living apart from men, and de-
scending to their level only to give them rebuke or instruction.
But we shall miss the free companionship of Christ, if we thus
put him out of the familiar sympathies of every-day life. He
was not a pulseless being, feeding on meditations, but a man
in every honorable trait of manhood, and participating in the
whole range of industries, trials, joys, sorrows, and temptations
ft
-ft
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. Ill
of human kind. During at least twenty years of his life, if we
subtract his childhood, he was a common laborer. There are
incidental evidences that he did not attract attention to himself
more than any other mechanic. Whatever experience hard-
laboring men pass through, of toil poorly requited, of insignifi-
cance in the sight of the rich and the powerful, of poverty
with its cutting bonds and its hard limitations, Jesus had proved
through many patient years. And when he began his ministry,
he did not stand aloof like an ambassador from a foreign court,
watching the development of citizen manners as a mere spec-
tator. He entered into the society of his times, and was an
integral part of it. He belonged to the nation, was reared under
its laws and customs, partook of its liabilities, had the ardor of
elevated patriotism, and performed all the appropriate duties of
a citizen. John says, "He dwelt among us."
And yet it is difficult to conceive of him as specialized, either
to any nation or to any class or profession. He was univer-
sal. Although he had the sanctity of the priest, he was more
than priest. Though he had a philosopher's wisdom, he had a
royal sympathy with all of human life, quite foreign to the
philosophic temper. He was more than a prophet, more than
a Jew. He touched human life on every side, though chiefly
in its spiritual elements.. He moved alike among men of every
kind, and was at home with each. Among the poor he was
as if poor, among the rich as if bred to wealth. Among chil-
dren he was a familiar companion; among doctors of theology
an unmatched disputant. Sympathy, Versatility, and Univer-
sality are the terms which may with justice be applied to him.
He loved active society, and yet he was fond of solitude ;
he loved assemblies; he loved wayside conversations with all
sorts of men and women. To-day he roamed the highway, liv-
ing upon the alms of loving friends, and sleeping at night where
he chanced to find a bed; to-morrow we shall find him at the
feasts of rich men, both courted and feared. That he did not
sit at the table a mere spectator of social joy is plain from the
fact which he himself mentions, that by his participation in
feasts he brought upon himself the reputation of being a revel-
ler! (Matthew xi. 19.) The "beginning of miracles" at Cana
was one which was designed to prolong the festivities of a mar-
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112 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
riage feast. There is not the record of a single reprehension
of social festivity, not a severe speech, not a disapproving sen-
tence uttered against the pursuits and enjoyments of common
life. He was neither an Ascetic nor a Stoic. The feasts of
which he partook, and which so often form the basis of his
parables, glowed with the warmth and color of innocent enjoy-
ment. It is plain, both that he loved to see men happy, and
that he was himself, in his ordinary moods, both genial and
cheerful, or he could not have glided so harmoniously from
day to day into the domestic and business life of his country-
men. It was only in their public relations, and upon questions
of morality and spirituality, that he ever came into earnest
collision with men.
It should be noticed, also, that there was a peculiar kindness
in his bearing which drew him close to men's persons, — the
natural language of affection and sympathy. He touched the eyes
of the blind ; he put his finger in the ears of the deaf; he laid
his hands upon the sick. The incidental phrases, almost unno-
ticed in the Gospels, show this yearning personal familiarity
with men : a And he could there do no mighty work, save that
he laid his hand upon a few sick folk and healed them." 1 " Now
when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with
divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands
on every one of them, and healed them." 2 " He called her to him,
.... and he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was
made straight." 3
The whole narrative of the blind man given by Mark (viii.
22-25) is full of this tender and nursing personal intercourse:
" And he cometh to Bethsaida ; and they bring a blind man
unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the
blind man by the hand and led him out of the town; and when
he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked
him if he saw aught. And he looked up, and said, I see men
as trees walking. After that, he put his hands again upon his
eyes, and made him look up : and he was restored, and saw
every man clearly." When the leper pleaded that he might
be healed, " Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, .... and
immediately his leprosy was cleansed." (Matthew viii. 3, 4.)
1 Mark vi. 5. a Luke iv. 40. 8 Luke xiii. 12, 13.
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HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 113
When the centurion asked him to heal his servant, expecting
him only to send the word of power to his distant couch, Jesus
replied, "I will come and heal him." Peter's mother-in-law being
sick, "he took her by the hand, and immediately the fever left
her." And so the Gospels are full of phrases that imply a man-
ner of great personal familiarity. "And he came and touched
the bier: and they that bare him stood still." "And he touched
their eyes." "And touched his tongue." "But Jesus took him
by the hand, and lifted him up"
In no other place is his loving and caressing manner more
strikingly set forth than in the account of his reception of little
children. "And he took them up in his arms, put his hands
upon them, and blessed them." These are bosom words, full of
love-pressure. And in another instance, when enforcing the
truth of disinterestedness, it was not enough to illustrate it by
mentioning childhood, but "he took a child, and set him in the
midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said
unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in
my name, receiveth me." (Mark ix. 36, 37.)
Nor should we fail to notice the interview with Mary, after
his resurrection, in the garden. " Touch me not " reveals her
spontaneous impulse, and casts back a light upon that sacred
household life and love which he had prized so much at Bethany.
But we are not to suppose, because Jesus moved among the
common people as a man among men, that he was regarded
by his disciples or by the people as a common man. On the
contrary, there was a mysterious awe, as well as a profound
curiosity, concerning him. He was manifestly superior to all
about him, not in stature nor in conscious authority, but in
those qualities which indicate spiritual power and comprehen-
siveness. His disciples looked upon him both with love and
fear. Familiarity and awe alternated. Sometimes they treated
him as a companion. They expostulated and complained. They
disputed his word and rebuked him. At other times they whis-
pered among themselves, and dared not even ask him questions.
It is plain that Jesus had moods of lofty abstraction. There
were hidden depths. The sublimest exhibition of this took place
at his transfiguration on the mount, but glimpses of the same
experience seem to have flashed forth from time to time. His
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114 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
nature was not unfluctuating. It had periods of overflow and
of subsidence.
But these clouded or outshining hours did not produce fear
so much as veneration. The general effect upon his disciples
of intimacy with him was love. Those who were capable of
understanding him best loved him most. Jesus too was a lover,
not alone in the sense of general benevolence, but in the habit
of concentrated affection for particular persons. "Then Jesus,
beholding him, loved him." " He whom thou lovest is sick."
" Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." " Then
said the Jews, Behold how he loved him." Surely it was not
for the first time at the supper following the washing of the
disciples' feet, that it could be said of John, " He, leaning thus
back on Jesus' breast," — for such is the force of the original,
in the latest corrected text. 1 That must be a loving and de-
monstrative nature with which such familiarity could be even
possible.
Mark, more than any other Evangelist, records the power
which Christ had in his look. His eye at times seemed to
pierce with irresistible power. Only on such a supposition can
we account for the dismay of those sent to arrest him. The
crowd came rushing upon him, led on by Judas. Jesus said,
" Whom seek ye ? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus saith unto them, I am he As soon then as he
had said unto them I am he, they went backward, and fell to
the ground."
When Peter had thrice denied him, "The Lord turned, and
looked upon Peter." "And Peter went out and wept bitterly."
Such cases will serve to explain instances like that of the heal-
ing of the man with a withered hand. And he " looked round
about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of
their hearts." On another occasion he is thus represented :
" Who touched me ? And he looked round about to see her that
1 The " leaning on Jesus' bosom," in the twenty-third verse (John xiii.), simply indi-
cates that John, reclining at table according to the custom prevalent since the captivity,
came next below Jesus, and his head would therefore come near to his Master's breast.
But in the twenty -fifth verse a different action is indicated. The language implies, that,
in asking the question about the betrayal, he leaned back so as to rest his head upon
his Lord's bosom. The reading " leaning back on Jesus' breast," instead of " He then
lying on Jesus' breast," is approved by Tischendorf, Green, Alford, and Tregelles.
■a
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 115
had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
.... came and fell down before him."
It is plain, from a comparison of passages, that his gentle and
attractive manners, which made him accessible to the poor, the
outcast, and the despised, were accompanied by an imperial
manner which none ever presumed upon. Indeed, we have inci-
dental mention of the awe which he inspired, even in those
who had the right to intimate familiarity. "And none of the
disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was
the Lord." All three of the synoptical Gospels mention the
effect produced by his bearing and by his answers to vexatious
questions. "And after that, they durst not ask him any ques-
tion at all."
Mark mentions a very striking incident in a manner so mod-
est that its significance is likely to escape us. "And they were
in the way, going up to Jerusalem ; and Jesus went before
them ; and they were amazed ; and as they followed, they were
afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them
what things should happen unto him." (Mark x. 32.) It seems
that he was so absorbed in the contemplation of those great
events which already overhung him, and toward which he was
quickening his steps, that he got before them and walked alone.
As they looked upon him, a change came over his person.
Once before, on the mountain, some of them had been bewil-
dered by his changed look. Yet it was not now an effulgent
light, but rather sternness and grandeur, as if his soul by antici-
pation was in conflict with the powers of darkness, and his
whole figure lifted up as in the act of " despising the shame " of
the near and ignominious trial.
Our Lord's great power as a speaker depended essentially
upon the profound truths which he uttered, upon the singular
skill with which they were adapted to the peculiar circumstances
which called them forth, and to the faculty which he had of
uttering in simple and vernacular phrase the most abstruse ideas.
But there was besides all this a singular impressiveness of man-
ner which it is probable was never surpassed. His attitude, the
extraordinary influence of his eye, his very silence, were ele-
ments of power of which the Evangelists do not leave us in
doubt.
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116 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
There is in Mark's account (x. 23) a use of words that indi-
cates a peculiar, long, and penetrating action of the eye, — a
lingering deliberation. "And Jesus looked round about, and saith
unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter
into the kingdom of God!" When the disciples, amazed with
the impressiveness of his word and action, asked, "Who, then,
can be saved?" he apparently did not reply instantly, but, with
the same long gaze, his eye spoke in advance of his tongue.
"Jesus, boJcing upon them, saith, With men it is impossible, but
not with God." In the account given by Mark (viii. 33) one
can see how large an element of impressiveness was derived
from Christ's manner and expression, before he spoke a word.
"But when he had turned about, and looked on his disciples,
he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan!"
There were times when Jesus did not employ words at all.
Most impressive effects were derived from his manner alone.
" And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple ; and
when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the
even-tide was come, he went out unto Bethany." This scene
would not have lingered in the mind of the spectators, and
been recorded in the Gospel, if his air and manner had not
been exceedingly striking. It was a picture that could not
fade from the memory of those who had seen it, yet it was a
scene of perfect silence !
There is a poor kind of dignity, that never allows itself to
be excited, that is guarded against all surprises, that restrains
the expression of sudden interest, that holds on its cold and
careful way as if superior to the evanescent moods of common
men. Such was not Christ's dignity. No one seemed more a
man among men in all the inflections of human moods than
did Jesus. With the utmost simplicity he suffered the events
of life to throw their lights and shadows upon his soul. He
was " grieved," he was " angry," he was " surprised," he " mar-
velled." In short, his soul moved through all the moods of
human experience ; and while he rose to sublime communion
with God, he was also a man among men; while he rebuked
self-indulgence and frivolity,. he cheerfully partook of innocent
enjoyments; while he denounced the insincerity or burdensome
teachings of the Pharisees, he did not separate himself from
fr. _
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HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 117
their society or from their social life, but even accepted their
hospitality, and his dinner discourses contain some of his most
pungent teachings.
We have purposely omitted those views of Christ which,
through the unfolding process of his life and teaching, devel-
oped at length, in the Apostles' minds, to the full and clear rev-
elation of Divinity. We have sketched him as he must have
appeared during his ministry, when men were gazing upon him
in wonder, thinking that he was "that prophet," or "Elijah," or
that Messiah "that should come."
We must not, then, take with us, in following out the life
of Jesus, the conception of a formidable being, terrible in holi-
ness. We must clothe him in our imagination with traits that
made little children run to him; that made mothers long to
have him touch their babes ; that won to him the poor and suf-
fering; that made the rich and influential throw wide open the
doors of their houses to him; that brought around him a com-
pany of noble women, who travelled with him, attended to his
wants, and supplied his necessities from their own wealth; that
irresistibly attracted those other women, in whom vice had not
yet destroyed all longing for a better life ; that excited among
the learned a vehement curiosity of disputation, while the unlet-
tered declared that he spake as one having authority. He was
the great Master of nature, observing its laws, laying all his
plans in consonance with the fixed order of things even in his
miracles ; seeming to violate nature, only because he knew that
nature is not only and alone that small circle which touches
and includes physical matter, but a larger province, enclosing
the great spiritual world, including God himself therein.
"tr
tfl- -ft
CHAPTER VIII.
THE OUTLOOK.
" rpHINK not that I am come to destroy the law, or the
JL prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Jesus
would reform the world, not by destroying, but by developing
the germs of truth already existing. He accepted whatever
truth and goodness had ripened through thousands of years.
He would join his own work to that already accomplished,
bringing to view the yet higher truths of the spiritual realm.
But the design of all his teaching, whether of morality or of
spirituality, was to open the human spirit to the direct influ-
ence of the Divine nature. Out of such a union would proceed
by spiritual laws and tendencies all that man needs.
The reconciliation of the human soul with the Divine is also
the harmonization of the two great spheres, the material and
the spiritual. Men will then be no longer under the exclusive
dominion of natural law in the plane of matter. They will
come under the influence of another and a higher form of nat-
ural law, that of the spirit. Nature is not confined to matter.
To us it begins there ; but nature includes the earth and the
heaven, the visible and the invisible, all matter and all spirit.
That portion of natural law which regulates physical things is
nearest to our knowledge, but is not the typical or universal.
As seen from above, doubtless, it is the lowest form of law.
Nature is the universe. Nature as men's physical senses dis-
cern it is poor and meagre compared with its expansion in the
invisible realm where God dwelleth. Natural laws run through
God's dominion in harmonious subordination, those of the spir-
itual world having pre-eminence and control.
We discern in Jesus the demeanor of one who was conscious
of the universe, and who knew that this earthly globe is but
its least part, — normal, indeed, and serviceable, but subject,
ft
CO
THE OUTLOOK. 119
auxiliary, and subordinate to higher elements. He acted as
one who recognized the uses of this life, but who by a heavenly
experience knew its vast relative inferiority. By no word did
Jesus undervalue civil laws, governments, the industries of men,
and their accumulated wealth; yet not a syllable of instruction
did he let fall on these topics, nor did he employ them to any
considerable degree in his ministry. To us, husbandry, naviga-
tion, the perfection of mechanic arts, and the discovery of new
forces or the invention of new combinations, seem of transcen-
dent importance. Men have asked whether he who threw no
light upon physiology, who made known no laws of health and
no antidotes or remedies for wasting sicknesses, who left the
world as poor in economic resources as he found it, could be
Divine. But to one cognizant of the spiritual universe all these
things would seem initial, subordinate, and inferior; while the
truths of the soul and of the spirit, the science of holiness,
would take precedence of all secular wealth and wisdom.
Physical elements might be safely left to unfold through that
natural law of development which is carrying the world steadily
forward; but "the spirit is weak." To bring the soul of man
into the presence of God, to open his heart to the Divine in-
fluence, was a need far greater than that of any sensuous help.
We shall find that Jesus differed from ordinary men, not by
living above natural laws, but by living in a larger sphere of
natural laws. He harmonized in his life the laws of spirit and
of matter. In all that pertained to earthly life, he lived just
as men live. In that which pertained to the spirit, he lived
with the air and manner of one who came from heaven. In
his miracles he but exhibited the supremacy of the higher over
the lower, of the spiritual over the material. A miracle is not
the setting aside of a law of nature, it is but the exhibition of
the supremacy of a higher law of nature in a sphere where
men have been accustomed to see the operation of the lower
natural laws alone. No man is surprised at the obedience of
matter to his own will. Our control of our bodies, and, gen-
erally, of the organized matter of the globe, increases in the
ratio of the growth of our mental strength. Jesus declared that,
if the soul were opened up to the Divine presence, this power
would be greatly augmented ; that man's higher spiritual ele-
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120 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
ments had a natural authority over the physical conditions of
this world ; and that faith, prayer, divine communion, in a fer-
vent state, would enable his followers to perform the miracles
that he himself performed. It was this latent power of man's
spiritual nature that Christ sought to develop. He strove to
lift men one sphere higher, and, without taking them away
from the senses, to break open, as it were, and reveal a realm
where the spirit would dominate matter, as in this world matter
governs the spirit.
It is this supremacy of the spiritual over the physical in the
great order of a universe-nature, rather than of the earth-nature,
that must be borne in mind, both in Christ's own conduct and
in his discourses and his promises to those who truly entered his
kingdom; and that is the rational explanation also of the ex-
traordinary phenomena which accompanied the Apostle's preach-
ing. (1 Cor. xii. 4-30.)
Christ was a Jew, and did not refuse to love his country,
nor was he without enthusiasm for the historic elements wrought
out so nobly by the great men of the Hebrew nation. And
yet no one can fail to perceive that above all these patriotic
enthusiasms, and far beyond them, he bore a nature which allied
him to universal man without regard to race or period, and that
his being reached higher than that of common humanity, and
brooded in the mysterious realms of the spirit land, beyond all
human sight or knowledge.
We may presume, therefore^ that in his ministry there will
be found a close adhesion to nature ; that as the Son of Man
he will follow the methods of ordinary physical nature, while
as the Son of God he will conform to the laws of spiritual
nature. And it may. be presupposed that, to those not in-
structed, one part of such observance of natural law may seem
to conflict with another part, whereas both are alike conform-
able to nature, if by nature is meant God's universe.
When Jesus began his mission in Palestine, it swarmed with
a population so mixed with foreign elements that it might
almost be said to represent every people of the then civilized
world. No great war seemed able to leave Palestine untouched ;
whether it was Egypt, or Assyria, or Greece, or Rome that
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THE OUTLOOK. 121
was at war, Palestine was sure to be swept by the inundation.
Every retiring wave, too, left behind it a sediment. The phys-
ical conformation of the country made the northern part of
Palestine a commercial thoroughfare for Eastern and Western
nations, while Judaea, lying off from the grand routes, and not
favorably situated for commerce, was less traversed by mer-
chants, adventurers, or emigrant hordes. And so it happened
that Galilee and Samaria were largely adulterated, while Judgea
maintained the old Jewish stock with but little foreign mixture.
The Judaean Jews were proud of this superiority. They
looked upon Galilee as half given over to barbarism. It was
styled "Galilee of the Gentiles," since thither had drifted a
mixed population in which almost every nation had some rep-
resentatives. No one would suspect from the dreary and impov-
erished condition of Palestine to-day how populous it was in
the time of Christ. The ruins of villages, towns, and cities,
which abound both on the east and the west of the Jordan,
confirm the explicit testimony of Josephus to the extraordinary
populousness of Palestine during our Lord's life and ministry.
Samaria, the great middle section of Palestine, besides its large
infusion of foreigners, had an adulterated home population. It
was on this account that the puritan Jews of Jerusalem and
Judasa abhorred the Samaritans, and refused to have any deal-
ings with them.
Galilee, the most populous section, 1 was also the most inter-
mixed with pagan elements. The Roman armies, made up
largely of Italian officers, but of soldiers drawn from conquered
Oriental nations, brought to all the large towns, and left in them,
a detritus of the outside world. Already the Greek, a universal
rover, the merchant of that age as the Jew has been the trader
of subsequent ages, was largely spread through the province.
Syria and Phoenicia also contributed of their people. Thus, in
every part of Palestine, north and south, a foreign population
swarmed around the Jewish stock without changing it, and
without being itself much changed.
The inequality of condition which separated the various classes
of Jews was unfavorable to prosperity. While the northern
province was given to commerce, the great plain of Esdraelon
1 The population of Galilee was about three millions.
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122 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
serving as a roadway between the shores of the Mediterranean
and the great Syrian interior and the countries skirting the
Lower Jordan and the Dead Sea, yet the bulk of the popula-
tion depended for a precarious subsistence upon agriculture and
the humbler forms of mechanic art. That affecting petition in
the Lord's Prayer, " Give us this day our daily bread," is an his-
toric disclosure of local want, as well as an element of universal
devotion. It is the prayer prescribed for men to whom it was
said, "Take no [anxious] thought what ye shall eat, what ye
shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed." But com-
merce had made a portion of the people rich. Extortion had
swollen the affluence of others. The greatest injustice prevailed.
Small protection was given to the weak. The Jews were a
subject race, but not subdued. Little able to govern them-
selves, they were still less fitted to be governed by another
nation. Their religious training had built up in them a charac-
ter of great strength. They were proud, fierce, and careless of
life to an extraordinary degree, whether it was their own life or
that of others.
Political subjection was peculiarly irksome, because, as they
interpreted their prophets, the Jews were God's favored people.
They believed that the family of David, now obscure and dis-
honored, was yet to hold the sceptre of universal monarchy.
They had not only a right to be free, but God had specially
promised that they should rule all other nations, if only they
kept his statutes. To keep his commandments was their one
excessive anxiety. They scrutinized every particular, added
duty to duty, multiplied and magnified particulars, lest some-
thing should be omitted. They gloried in the Law, and de-
voted themselves to it night and day with engrossing assiduity.
Where, then, was their reward ? Why was not the Divine prom-
ise kept? Instead of governing others, they were themselves
overwhelmed, subdued, oppressed. Was this the reward for
their unexampled fidelity? The Pharisee had kept his blood
pure from all taint; not a drop of foreign blood polluted the
veins of the Hebrew of the Hebrews. When Hellenism threat-
ened with self-indulgent philosophy to destroy the faith of their
fathers, the Pharisees had resisted, overwhelmed, and driven it
out. Josephus, himself a Pharisee, says of them : " In their own
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THE OUTLOOK. 123
idea they are the flower of the nation and the most accurate
observers of the Law." And yet how had God neglected them !
His conduct was inexplicable and sadly mysterious. It was not
in their power to keep their soil, nor even the holy Temple,
from the hated intrusion of the idolater's foot. Their priesthood
had been converted to the uses of the detestable Romans. The
high-priest, once venerated, had become the creature of Idumsean
Herod. For many hundreds of years before Herod's reign the
Jews had seen but one high-priest deposed. But from the con-
quest of Jerusalem by Herod to its destruction under Titus, a
period of one hundred and eight years, twenty-eight high-priests
had been nominated, making an average term of but four years
to each. Rulers were filled with worldly ambition, and scribes
and priests were continually intriguing and quarrelling amono-
themselves. Only so much of the distinctive Jewish economy
was left free as could be controlled by unscrupulous politicians
for the furtherance of their own selfish ends. Pride and avarice
were genuine ; benevolence and devotion were simulated or
openly disowned.
It will be well to consider with some particularity the three
forms of religious development which existed in the time of our
Lord, — Ritualism, Rationalism, and Asceticism, — as represented
respectively by the Pharisee, the Sadducee, and the Essene ; and
it will be especially necessary to be acquainted with the Phari-
sees, who were our Lord's chief and constant antagonists, whose
habits furnished continual themes for his discourses, and whose
malign activity at length was the chief cause of his death.
In no such sense as that term conveys to us were the Phari-
sees an organized sect. 1 They represented a tendency, and
1 " It is the custom to contrast the Pharisees with the Sadducees, as if they were two
opposite sects existing in the midst of the Jewish nation and separated from the body
of the Jews. But neither the Sadducees nor the Pharisees were sects in the common
acceptation of the word, least of all the latter. Taken at bottom, the nation was for the
most part Pharisaically minded ; in other words, the Pharisees were only the more im-
portant and religiously inclined men of the nation, who gave the most decided expres-
sion to the prevailing belief, and strove to establish and enforce it by a definite system of
teaching and interpretation of the sacred books. All the priests who were not mere
blunt, senseless instruments clung to the Pharisaical belief. All the Sephorim, or Scribes,
were at the same time Pharisees; and where they are spoken of side by side as two
different classes, by the latter (Pharisees) must be understood those who, without belong-
ing by calling or position to the body of the learned, were yet zealous in setting forth its
ifh -0]
124 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
answered nearly to our phrase of "High Church" among the
Episcopalians, by which we do not mean a separate organization
within that sect, but only a mode or direction of thought and
administration.
In their origin and early functions the Pharisees deserved
well of their countrymen, and not so ill of posterity as it has
fared with them. When the Jews were carried to Babylon, so
dependent had they always been upon the Temple and the or-
ganized priesthood, that, in the absence of these, their chief
religious supports fell to the ground. The people, left with-
out teachers, exiled, surrounded by idolatrous practices which
tempted the passions of men with peculiar fascination, were
likely to forget the worship of their fathers, and not only to
lapse into idolatry, but by intermarriages to be absorbed and to
lose their very nationality. It was therefore a generous and
patriotic impulse which inspired many of the more earnestly
religious Jews to separate themselves from all foreign influences,
and to keep alive the Jewish spirit among their poor, oppressed
countrymen. The name Pharisee, in the Hebrew, signifies one
who is separated. When first applied, it meant a Jew who, accord-
ing to the Levitical Law, in captivity kept himself scrupulously
separate from all defilements. Unfortunately, the Pharisee
sought worthy ends by an almost purely external course. In
this respect he is in contrast with the English Puritan of the
sixteenth century. Both of them were intensely patriotic ; both
set themselves vigorously against the seductive refinements and
artful blandishments of their times. The English Puritan, with
a clear perception of moral truth, and with utter faith in the
power of inward and spiritual dispositions, was inclined to sac-
rifice forms, ceremonies, and symbols, as helps liable too easily
to become hindrances, fixing the senses upon an externality, and
leading men away from simple spiritual truth. But the early
Jewish Puritan had nothing to work with except the old Mosaic
Law. He sought to put that between his countrymen and idol-
atry. By inciting them to reverence and to pride in their own
Law he saved them from apostasy, and kept alive in their mem-
principles, teachings, and practices, and surpassed others in the example they gave of
the most exact observance of the law," • — Bollinger's The Gentile and the Jew, (London,
1862,) Vol. II. pp. 304, 305.
t±- .-
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THE OUTLOOK. 125
ories the history of their fathers and the love for their native
land. And so far the labor of the Pharisee deserved praise.
But the Levitical Law required, in the great change of circum-
stances induced by the Captivity, a re-adaptation, and, as new
exigencies arose, new interpretations. Gradually the Pharisees
became expounders of the Law. They grew minute, technical,
literal. They sought for religion neither in the immediate inspi-
ration of God nor in nature, but in the books of Moses and of
the Prophets. They were zealous for tradition and ceremony.
The old landmarks were sacred to them. Yet they overlaid the
simplicity of the ancient Hebrew faith with an enormous mass
of pedantic, pragmatical details, that smothered the heart and
tormented the conscience of the devotee. Their moral sense
was drilled upon mere conventional qualities. It had no intui-
tion and no liberty. It became the slave of the senses.
Little by little the work grew upon their hands. Cases
multiplied. Nice distinctions, exceptions, divisions, and subdi-
visions increased with an enormous fecundity. The commentary
smothered the text. The interpreters were in thorough earnest ;
but their ' conscience ran to leaf and not to fruit. That befell
the Pharisees which sooner or later befalls all ritualists, — they
fell into the idolatry of symbolism. The symbol erelong ab-
sorbs into itself the idea which it was sent to convey. The
artificial sign grows fairer to the senses than is the truth to
the soul. Like manna, symbols must be gathered fresh every
day. The Pharisee could not resist the inevitable tendency.
He heaped upon life such a mass of Jielps and guides, such an
endless profusion of minute duties, that no sensitive conscience
could endure the thrall. One class of minds went into torment
and bondage, of which Paul gives an inimitable picture in the
seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Another class,
harder and more self-confident, conceived themselves obedient to
the whole round of duty, and became conceited and vainglorious.
The Pharisees were sincere, but sincere in a way that must
destroy tenderness, devoutness, and benevolence, and that must
minister to conceit, hardness of heart, and intolerant arrogance.
No religion can be true, and no worship can be useful, that does
not educate the understanding, kindle the aspirations, give to
the spiritual part a mastery over the senses, and make man
126 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
stronger, nobler, freer, and purer than it found him. Religion
proves its divinity by augmenting the power and contents of
manhood. If it destroys strength under the pretence of regu-
lation, it becomes a superstition and a tyranny.
The Pharisees had not escaped the influence of the prevalent
philosophies. Although they were working away from the Hel-
lenistic influence, they were indirectly moulded by it. It was
essentially in the refining spirit of Greek philosophy that they
interpreted the old Hebrew statutes. Not that they desired
them to be less Jewish. They sought to make them more in-
tensely national. The Greek spirit wrought in the Jew to make
him more intensely Jewish.
But Grecian influence had raised up another school, that of
the Sadducees. They were the Epicureans of Judaea. It is
probable that, unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees recognized
the Grecian philosophy, and applied it to the interpretation of
the Mosaic statutes. They accepted the chief doctrine of the
Epicurean philosophy. They admitted the agency of God in
creation. They taught that things had a nature of their own,
and that, after being once created and set going, they had need
of no Divine interference in the way of providential govern-
ment. Every man had his fate in his own hands. Having or-
ganized the system of nature, God withdrew himself, leaving
men to their own absolute freedom. Man was his own master.
He was the author of his own good and of his own evil, and
both the good and the evil they believed to be confined to
this life. Death ended the history. There was to be no new
life, no resurrection.
We are not to suppose that the Sadducees abandoned the
Jewish Scriptures for any form of Grecian philosophy. They
rejected all the modern interpretations and additions of the old
Hebrew institutes. They professed to hold to the literal con-
struction and interpretation of the sacred Scriptures. They re-
jected all tenets that were not found in Moses and the prophets.
This principle forced them to assume a negative philosophy.
They stuck to the letter of the Law, that they might shake
off the vast accumulations which it had received at the hands
of the Pharisees. But in doing this they rendered themselves
infidel to the deepest moral convictions of their age. The spirit
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THE OUTLOOK. 127
of denial is essentially infidel. Belief is indispensable to moral
health, even if the tenets believed be artificial. There is no
reason to think that the Sadducees had a deep religious life, or
any positive convictions which redeemed them from the danger at-
tending a system of negation. They were a priestly class, scep-
tical of the truths which the best men of their age cherished.
Thus, while they were strict in their construction of the text,
they were liberal in doctrine. It was through literalism that
they sought liberalism. If their refusal of the Pharisaic tradi-
tions and glosses had been for the sake of introducing a larger
spiritual element, they would have deserved better of their coun-
trymen. As it was, they were not popular. They were not
the leaders of the masses, nor the representatives of the popu-
lar belief, nor in sympathy with the common people. We can
hardly regard them in any other light than that of self-indul-
gent and ambitious men, using the national religion rather as a
defence against the charge of want of patriotism than from any
moral convictions. In short, they were thoroughly worldly,
selfish, and unlovely.
Although the name " Essene " does not occur in the New Tes-
tament, yet the sect existed in the time of Christ, and probably
exercised a considerable influence upon the thought of many
devout Jews. The Essenes observed the law of Moses with a
rigor surpassing that of any of their countrymen. They, how-
ever, rejected animal sacrifices. There seems to have been
among them an element of worship derived from the Persians.
They addressed petitions each morning to the sun. They felt
bound to refrain in word or act from anything which could
profane that luminary. They kept the Sabbath even more
rigorously than the Pharisees. They prepared all their food
the day before. Not only would they kindle no fires on the
Sabbath, but they would suffer no vessel to be moved from its
place, nor would they satisfy on that day any of their natural
and necessary desires. They lived in communities, very much
apart from general society ; but this does not seem to have
arisen so much from an ascetic spirit as from the excessively
restrictive notions which they cherished on the matter of legal
purity. To the contaminations established by the Mosaic code,
and all the additional ceremonial impurities which the ritual
128 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
zeal of the Pharisee rendered imminent, they added others even
more severe. To touch any one not of his own order defiled an
Essene. Even an Essene, if of a lower grade, could not be
touched without defilement. Such particularity could scarcely
fail to work social seclusion. Their meals were strictly sacrifi-
cial, and looked upon as religious actions. Every one washed
his whole body before eating, and put on a clean linen gar-
ment, which was laid aside at the end of the meal. The baker
and the cook placed before each his mess, and the priest then
blessed the food, before which none dared to taste a morsel.
They held their property in common; so that the temporary
community of goods by the Christians, after the Pentecostal day,
was not a new or uncommon act among the Jews. Marriage
was forbidden. No buying or selling was permitted among
themselves. They disallowed both slavery and war, neither
would they suffer any of their sect to forge warlike arms for
others. They were under the strictest subordination to their
own superiors, and implicit obedience was a prime virtue. They
maintained perfect silence in their assemblies and during their
repasts. Only adults were taken into the brotherhood, and these
were required to undergo a probation of a year, and they then
entered but the lowest grade. Two years more were required
for full membership. The Essenes abhorred pleasure. They
were temperate in all things, — in food, in the indulgence of
their passions, and in enjoyments of every kind. In many
respects they seem to have resembled the modern Shakers.
The Sadducees, being a priestly and aristocratic class, were not
disposed to take any office which would impose trouble or care,
and looked with indifference or contempt upon the greater part
of that which passed for religion among the people. The Essenes
were small in numbers, their habits of life were secluded, and
they do not seem to have made any effort at influencing the
mind of the people at large. Only the Pharisees took pains to
instruct the people. And we shall not understand the atmos-
phere which surrounded our Lord, if we do not take into consid-
eration the kind of teaching given by them, and the national
feeling which it had produced.
We are not to undervalue the real excellence of the Mosaic
institutes on account of the burdensome and frivolous additions
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THE OUTLOOK. 129
made to them during a long series of interpretations and com-
mentaries. The institutes of Moses inculcated a sound morality,
a kind and benevolent spirit, obedience to God, and reverence
for divine things. But as it was interpreted by the Pharisees it
disproportionately directed the attention to external acts. The
state of the heart was not wholly neglected. Many excellent
distinctions were drawn, and wise maxims were given respecting
purity of thought and rectitude of motive. But the influence
of a system depends, not upon few or many truths scattered
up and down in it, but upon the accent and emphasis which
is given to its different parts. Paul bears witness that his
countrymen had a "zeal of God, but not according to knowl-
edge." Like men in a wrong road, the longer they toiled the
farther they were from the end sought. Yet they did not
regard themselves as in the wrong. God had given them the
Law. The most' signal promises followed obedience to that Law.
They should overcome all their enemies. They should become
the governors of those who now oppressed them. Therefore to
that obedience they addressed themselves with all their zeal and
conscience. Lest they should fail unwittingly, it was a maxim
with them that they should do even more than the Law required.
And such was the scrupulosity of the Pharisee, that he came to
feel that he did perfectly keep the Law, and therefore waited im-
patiently for the fulfilment of the Divine promises. It was a
distinct bargain. They were all looking and waiting for the Mes-
siah. When he should come, he would give to the nation the
long-needed leader. All- would unite in him. He would march
at the head of the whole population to expel the Bomans, to
redeem Jerusalem, to purify the Temple, to extend the sway of
the Jewish religion. They brooded over these joyful prospects.
Thus, they had their tests of Messiahship. He must hate idol-
aters. He must have the gift of leadership. He must repre-
sent the intensest spirit of Jewish patriotism. He must aim to
make Israel the head and benefactor of all the nations on earth.
It is plain that Jesus could not meet such expectations. He
must have known from the beginning what reception his coun-
trymen would give him, should he at once announce himself as
the Messiah ; and this will explain his silence, or the guarded
private utterance, in the beginning, as to his nature and claims.
ft
130
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Unfavorable as was the religious aspect, the political condition
of Palestine was even worse. The nation was in the stage pre-
ceding dissolution, — subdued by the Komans, farmed out to
court favorites, governed by them with remorseless cruelty and
avarice. The fiery and fanatical patriotism of the Jew was con-
tinually bursting out into bloody insurrection. Without great
leaders, without any consistent and wise plan of operations, these
frequent and convulsive spasms of misery were instantly re-
pressed by the Eomans with incredible slaughter.
Even if it had been a part of the design of Jesus to rescue
the Jewish nation and perpetuate it, he came too late. These
frequent convulsions were the expiring struggles of a doomed
people. Already the prophecies hung low over the city. Death
was in the very air. The remnant of the people was to be
scattered up and down in the earth, as the wind chases autumnal
leaves. Jesus stood alone. He was apparently but a peasant
mechanic. That which was dearest to his heart men cared noth-
ing for ; that which all men were eagerly pursuing was nothing
to him. He had no party, he could conciliate no interest. The
serpent of hatred was coiled and waiting ; and, though it delayed
to strike, the fang was there, ready and venomous, as soon as
his foot should tread upon it. The rich were luxurious and self-
indulgent. The learned were not wise ; they were vain of an
immense acquisition of infinitesimal fribbles. The ignorant peo-
ple were besotted, the educated class was corrupt, the govern-
ment was foreign, the Temple was in the hands of factious
priests playing a game of worldly ambition. Who was on his
side ? At what point should he begin his mission, and how ?
Should he stand in Jerusalem and preach ? Should he enter
the Temple, and announce to the grand council his true char-
acter ?
It was not the purpose of Jesus to present himself to the
nation with sudden or dramatic outburst. There was to be a
gradual unfolding of his claims, of the truth, and of his whole
nature. In this respect he conformed to the law of that world
in which he was infixed, and of that race with whose nature
and condition he had identified himself. We shall find him, in
the beginning, joining his ministry on to that of John : we shall
ft
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THE OUTLOOK. 131
next see him taking up the religious truths of the Old Testa-
ment which were common to him and to the people, but cleansing
them of their grosser interpretations, and giving to them a
spiritual meaning not before suspected : then we shall find a
silent change of manner, the language and the bearing of one
who knows himself to be Divine : and finally, toward the close
of his work, we shall see the full disclosure of the truth, his
equality Avith the Father, his sacrificial relations to the Jews and
to all the world; and in connection with this last fact we shall
hear the annunciation of that truth most repugnant to a Jew, a
suffering Messiah.
Not only shall we find this law of progressive development
exemplified in a general way, but we shall see it in each minor
element. His own nature and claims, implied rather than as-
serted at first, he taught with an increasing emphasis and fulness
of disclosure to the end of his ministry. His doctrine of spir-
itual life, as unfolded in the private discourses with his disciples
just before his Passion, and recorded in the five chapters begin-
ning with the twelfth of. John's Gospel, are remarkable, not
alone for their spiritual depth and fervor, but as showing how
far his teachings had by that time gone beyond the Sermon on
the Mount. The earlier and later teachings are in contrast, not
in respect to relative perfection, but in the order of develop-
ment. Both are perfect, but one as a germ and the other as
its blossom. Jesus observed in all his ministry that law of
growth which he affirmed in respect to the kingdom of Heaven.
It is a seed, said he, the smallest of all seeds when sown, but
when it is grown it is a tree. At another time he distinguished
the very stages of growth : " First the blade, then the ear,
after that the full corn in the ear." (Mark iv. 28.)
We are then to look for this unfolding process in the teach-
ings of Jesus. We shall find him gathering up the threads of
morality, already partly woven into the moral consciousness of
his time ; we shall see how in his hands morality assumed a
higher type, and was made to spring from nobler motives. Then
we shall find the intimations of an interior and spiritual life
expanding and filling a larger sphere of thought, until in the
full radiance of his later teachings it dazzles the eyes of his
disciples and transcends their spiritual capacity.
<&
a-
132 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
In like manner the divinity of Christ's own nature and office
was not made prominent at first; but gradually it grew into
notice, until during the last half-year it assumed the air of sov-
ereignty. In nothing is this so strikingly shown as in the
teaching of his own personal relations to all true spiritual life
in every individual. It is sublime when God declares himself
to be the fountain of life. It would be insufferable arrogance
in a mere man. But by every form of assertion, with incessant
repetition, Jesus taught with growing intensity as his death
drew near, that in him, and only in him, were the sources of
spiritual life. "Come unto me," "Learn of me," "Abide in
me," " Without me ye can do nothing." And yet, in the midst
of such incessant assertions of himself, he declared, and all the
world has conceded it, " I am meek and lowly in heart."
There was a corresponding development in his criticism of
the prevailing religious life, and in the attacks which he made
upon the ruling classes. His miracles, too, assumed a higher
type from period to period; and, although we cannot draw a
line at the precise periods of transition, yet no one can fail to
mark how much deeper was the moral significance of the mira-
cles wrought in the last few months of his life, than that of
those in the opening of his career. "We are not to look, then,
for a ministry blazing forth at the beginning in its full efful-
gence. We are to see Jesus, without signals or ostentation,
taking up John's teaching, and beginning to preach, " Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand " ; we are to wait for fur-
ther disclosures issuing naturally and gradually, in an ascending
series. The whole life of Jesus was a true and normal growth.
His ministry did not come like an orb, round and shining, per-
fect and full, at the first : it was a regular and symmetrical
development.
True, it differed from all other and ordinary human growths,
in that no part of his teaching was false or crude. It was
partial, but never erroneous. The first enunciations were as
absolutely true as the last ; but he unfolded rudimentary truths
in an order and in forms suitable for their propagation upon
the human understanding. • . "
It is in these views that we shall find a solution of the seem-
ing want of plan in the life of Jesus. There is no element in
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THE OUTLOOK. 133
it which answers to our ordinary idea of a prearranged cam-
paign. He knew that he was a sower of seed, and not the
reaper. It was of more importance that he should produce a
powerful spiritual impression, than that he should give an or-
ganized form to his followers. It was better that he should
develop the germs of a Divine spiritual life, than that he should
work any immediate change in the forms of society.
The Mosaic institutes had aimed at a spiritual life in man
by building up around him restraining influences, acting thus
upon the soul from the outside. Jesus transferred the seat of
action to the soul itself, and rendered it capable of self-control.
Others had sought to overcome and put down the appetites and
passions ; Jesus, by developing new forces in the soul and giving
Divine excitement to the spiritual nature, regulated the passions
and harmonized them with the moral ends of life. When once
the soul derived its highest stimulus from God, it might safely
be trusted to develop all its lower forces, which, by subordina-
tion, became auxiliary. Jesus sought to develop a whole and
perfect manhood, nothing lost, nothing in excess. He neither
repelled nor undervalued secular thrift, social morality, civil
order, nor the fruits of an intellectual and aesthetic culture ; he
did not labor directly for these, but struck farther back at a
potential but as yet undisclosed nature in man, which if aroused
and brought into a normal and vital relation with the Divine soul
would give to all the earlier developed and lower elements of
man's nature a more complete control than had ever before
been found, and would so fertilize and fructify the whole nature
that the outward life would have no need of special patterns.
Children act from rules. Men act from principles. A time will
come when they will act from intuitions, and right and wrong
in the familiar matters of life- will be determined by the agree-
ment or disagreement of things with the moral sensibility, as
music and beauty in art already are first felt, and afterwards
reasoned upon and analyzed.
If this be a true rendering of Christ's method, it will be
apparent that all theories which imply that any outward forms
of society, or special elements of art and industry, or the organ-
ization of a church, or the purification of the household, or any
other special and determinate external act or order of events
134
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
or institutions, were parts of his plan, will fail in appreciating
the one grand distinctive fact, namely, that it was a psycho-
logical kingdom that he came to found. He aimed not to
construct a new system of morals or of philosophy, but a new
soul, with new capabilities, under new spiritual influences. Of
course an outward life and form would be developed from this
inspiration. Men would still need governments, institutions,
customs. But with a regulated and reinforced nature they
could be safely left to evolve these from their own reason
and experience. As much as ever, there would be need of
states, churches, schools. But for none of these need any pat-
tern be given. They were left to be developed freely, as
experience should dictate. Government is inevitable. It is a
universal constitutional necessity in man. There was no more
need of providing for that, than of providing for sleep or for
breathing. Life, if fully developed and left free to choose, will
find its way to all necessary outward forms, in government, in
society, and in industry.
Therefore they utterly misconceive the genius of Christ's work
who suppose that he aimed at the establishment of an organized
church. Beyond the incidental commands to his disciples to
draw together and maintain intimate social life, there is no
special or distinctive provision for church organization. That
was left to itself. As after events have shown, the tendency to
organize was already too strong. Religion has been imprisoned
in its own institutions. Perhaps the most extraordinary contrast
ever known to history is that which exists between the genius
of the Gospels and the pompous claims of church hierarchies.
Christians made haste to repeat the mistakes of the Hebrews.
Religion ran rank to outwardness. The fruit, hidden by the
enormous growth of leaves, could not ripen. Spirituality died
of ecclesiasticism. If the Church has been the nurse, it has
also been often the destroyer of religion.
If Jesus came to found a church, never were actions so at
variance with purposes. There are no recorded instructions to
this end. He remained in the full communion of the Jewish
Church to the last. Nor did his disciples or apostles dream of
leaving the church of their fathers. They went up with their
countrymen, at the great festivals, to Jerusalem. They resorted
ft
THE OUTLOOK. 135
to the Temple for worship. They attempted to develop their
new life within the old forms. Little by little, and slowly, they
learned by experience that new wine could not be kept in old
bottles. The new life required and found better conditions, a
freer conscience, fewer rules, more liberty. For a short period
the enfranchised soul, in its new promised land, shone forth with
great glory ; but then, like the fathers of old, believers fell
back from liberty to superstition, and for a thousand years have
been in captivity to spiritual Babylon.
The captivity is drawing to a close. The Jerusalem of the
Spirit is descending, adorned as a bride for the bridegroom.
The new life in God is gathering disciples. They are finding
each other. Not disdaining outward helps, they are learning
that the Spirit alone is essential. All creeds, churches, institu-
tions, customs, ordinances, are but steps upon which the Chris-
tian plants his foot, that they may help him to ascend to the
perfect liberty in Christ Jesus.
CHAPTEE IX.
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE.
IF one considers that, after his experience in the wilderness,
Jesus seems for a period of some months to have returned to
private life, — that he neither went to the Temple in Jerusalem,
nor appeared before the religious teachers of his people, nor even
apparently entered the Holy City, but abruptly departed to Gali-
lee, — it may seem as if he had no plan of procedure, but
waited imtil events should open the way into his ministry. .
But what if it was his purpose to refuse all public life in our
sense of that term ? What if he meant to remain a private citi-
zen, working as one friend would with another, eschewing the
roads of influence already laid out, and going back to that simple
personal power which one heart has upon another in genial and
friendly contact ?
His power was to be, not with whole communities, but with
the individual, — from man to man ; and it was to spring, not
from any machinery of institution wielded by man, nor from
official position, but from his own personal nature, and from
the intrinsic force of truth to be uttered, At the very begin-
ning, and through his whole career, we shall find Jesus clinging
to private life, or to public life only in its transient and spon-
taneous developments out of private life. He taught from house
to house. He never went among crowds. They gathered about
him, and dissolved again after he had passed on. The public
roadside, the synagogues, the princely mansion, the Temple, the
#
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THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 137
boat by the sea-shore, the poor man's cottage, were all alike mere
incidents, the accidents of time and place, and not in any man-
ner things to be depended upon for influence. He was not an
elder or a ruler in the synagogue, nor a scribe or a priest, but
strictly a private citizen. He was in his own simple self the
whole power.
The first step of Jesus in his ministry is a return home to his
mother. This is not to be looked at merely as a matter of senti-
ment ; it is characteristic of the new dispensation which he came
to inaugurate.
In the spiritual order that was now to be introduced there
were to be no ranks and classes, no public and official life as
distinguished from private and personal. The Church was to
be a household; men were to be brethren, "members one of
another." God was made known as the Father, magisterial
in love.
Had Jesus separated himself from the common life, even by
assuming the garb and place of an authorized teacher, had he
affiliated with the Temple officers, had he been in any way con-
nected with a hierarchy, his course would have been at variance
with one aim of his mission. It was the private life of the world
to which he came. His own personal life, his home life, his famil-
iar association with men, his social intercourse, formed his true
public career. He was not to break in upon the world with the
boisterous energy of warriors, — "He shall not strive nor cry";
nor was he to seek, after the manner of ambitious orators, to
dazzle the people, — " His voice shall not be heard in the streets."
Without pressing unduly this prophecy of the Messiah, it may be
said that it discriminates between an ambitious and noisy career,
and a ministry that was to move among men with gentleness,
affability, sympathy, and loving humility.
We shall lose an essential characteristic of both his disposition
and his dispensation, if we accustom ourselves to think of Jesus
as a public man, in our sense of official eminence. We are to
look for him among the common scenes of daily life, not dis-
tinguished in any way from the people about him, except in
superior wisdom and goodness. It is true that he often stood
in public places, but only as any other Jew might have done.
ft
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138
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
He was never set apart in any manner after the usages of the
priesthood. He came back from artificial arrangements to nature.
There is great significance in the title by which he almost invari-
ably spoke of himself, — "the Son of Man." By this title he
emphasized his mission. He had descended from God. He
was born of woman, had joined himself to the human family,
and meant to cleave fast to his kindred. To one conscious of
his own Divinity, the title "Son of Man" becomes very signifi-
cant of the value which he placed upon his union with man-
kind. His personal and intimate connection with the great
body of the people, beginning with his early years, was con-
tinued to the end.
It is not strange, then, that Jesus began his active ministry
with a return from the scene of his temptation to his former
home. He did not pause at Nazareth, but either went with his
mother or followed her to Cana, where a wedding was to take
place. There were two Canas, — one now called Kefr Kenna,
a small village about four miles and a half northeast of Nazareth,
and Kana-el-Jelil, about nine miles north of Nazareth ; and the
best authorities leave it still uncertain in which the first miracle
of our Lord was performed. It may be interesting, but it is not
important, to determine the question.
The appearance of Jesus at the wedding, and his active par-
ticipation in the festivities, are full of meaning. It is highly im-
probable that John the Baptist could have been persuaded to
appear at such a service. For he lived apart from the scenes
of common life, was solitary, and even severe. His followers
would have been strongly inclined to fall in with the philoso-
phy and practices of the Essenes. If so, the simple pleasures
and the ordinary occupations of common life would be regarded
as inconsistent with religion. Jesus had just returned from
John's presence. He had passed through the ordeal of solitude
and the temptation of the wilderness. He had gathered three
or four disciples, and was taking the first steps in his early
career. That the very first act should be an attendance, with
his disciples, by invitation, at a Jewish wedding, which was sel-
dom less than three and usually of seven days' duration, and
was conducted with most joyful festivities, cannot but be re-
garded as a significant testimony.
ifl- ; -a
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 139
The Hebrews were led by their religious institutions to the cul-
tivation of social and joyous habits. Their great religious feasts
were celebrated with some days of solemnity, but with more of
festivity such as would seem to our colder manners almost like
dissipation. In all nations the wedding of young people calls
forth sympathy. Among the Hebrews, from the earliest times,
nuptial occasions were celebrated with rejoicings, in which the
whole community took some part.
The scene comes before us clearly. The bridegroom's house,
or his father's, is the centre of festivity. The bride and groom
spend the day separately in seclusion, in confession of sin and
rites of purgation. As evening draws near, the friends and rel-
atives of the bride bring her forth from her parents' house in
full bridal apparel, with myrtle vines and garlands of flowers about
her head. Torches precede the company ; music breaks out on
every side. Besides the instruments provided for the processions,
songs greet them along the way; for the street is lined with
virgins, who yield to the fair candidate that honor which they
hope in time for themselves. They cast flowers before her,
and little cakes and roasted ears of wheat. The street resounds
with gayety; and as the band draws near the appointed dwell-
ing, the bridegroom and his friends come forth to meet the
bride and to conduct her into the house. After some legal
settlements have been perfected, and the marriage service has
been performed, a sumptuous feast is provided, and the utmost
joy and merriment reign. Nor do the festivities terminate with
the immediate feast. A whole week is devoted to rejoicing
and gayety.
It must not be imagined, however, that such prolonged social
enjoyment degenerated into dissipation. In luxurious cities,
and especially after commerce and wealth had brought in for-
eign manners, the grossest excesses came to prevail at great
feasts ; but the common people among the old Hebrews were,
in the main, temperate and abstinent. That almost epidemic
drunkenness which in modern times has prevailed among
Teutonic races, in cold climates, was unknown to the great body
of the Hebrew nation.
The sobriety and vigorous industry of the society in which
we have been educated indisposes us to sympathize with such
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140 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
expenditure of time for social purposes as was common among
the Hebrews. We spare a single day at long intervals, and
then hasten back to our tasks as if escaping from an evil.
Weddings among the poorest Jews, as we have said, seldom ab-
sorbed less than three days. The ordinary term of conviviality
was seven days. Among men of wealth or eminent station, the
genial service not unfrequently extended to fourteen days.
During this time, neighbors came and went. Those from a
distance tarried both day and night. The time was filled up
with entertainments suitable to the condition of the various
classes. The young employed the cool hours with dances.
The aged quietly looked on, or held tranquil converse apart from
the crowd. Nor was intellectual provision wanting. Headings
and addresses were then unknown. In a land where philosophy
was as yet only a collection of striking proverbs or ingenious
enigmas, it was deemed an intellectual exercise to propound
riddles and "dark sayings," and to call forth the exercise of
the imagination in giving solutions. These occasions were not
devoted, then, to a mere riot of merry-making. They were
the meetings of long-dispersed friends, the gathering-points of
connected families ; in the absence of facilities for frequent
intercourse, the seven days of a wedding feast would serve as a
means of intercommunion and the renewal of friendships ; and
it was peculiarly after the genius of the Hebrew people that both
religion and social intercourse should take place with the accom-
paniments of abundant eating and drinking. The table was
loaded with provisions, the best that the means of the parties
could supply; nor was it unusual for the guests also to con-
tribute to the common stock.
There is no reason to presume that the wedding at Cana was
of less duration than the common period of seven days ; and it
may be assumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary,
that Jesus remained to the end. It has been surmised that it
was a near connection of his mother who was the host upon this
occasion. However that may be, she was actively engaged in
the management of the feast, kept herself informed of the state
of the provisions, sought to replenish them when they were
expended, and assumed familiar authority over the servants,
who appear to have obeyed her implicitly.
fr
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THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 141
Nothing could well be a greater violation of the spirit of
his people, and less worthy of him, than the supposition that
Jesus walked among the joyous guests with a cold or disap-
proving eye, or that he held himself aloof and was wrapped
in his own meditations. His whole life shows that his soul
went out in sympathy with the human life around him. His
manners were so agreeable and attractive that all classes of
men instinctively drew near to him. It needs not that we
imagine him breaking forth into effulgent gayety; but that he
looked upon the happiness around him with smiles it would be
wrong to doubt. There are some whose very smile carries
benediction, and whose eye sheds perpetual happiness.
But Jesus was not simply a genial guest.- He had chosen
the occasion for the display of his first miracle. It would seem
that more guests had come to the wedding than had been
provided for, drawn, perhaps, from day to day, in increasing
numbers, by the presence of Jesus. The wine gave out. The
scene as recorded by John is not without its remarkable fea-
tures. The air of Mary in applying to her son seems to point
either to some previous conversation, or to the knowledge on
her part that he possessed extraordinary powers, and that he
might be expected to exercise them.
" They have no [more] wine."
Jesus said unto her, " Woman, what have I to do with
thee ? mine hour is not yet come."
Interpreted according to the impression which such language
would make were it employed thus abruptly in our day,
this reply must be admitted to be not only a refusal of his
mother's request, but a rebuke as well, and in language hardly
less than harsh. But interpreted through the impression which
it produced upon his mother, it was neither a refusal nor a
rebuke ; for she acted as one who had asked and obtained a
favor. She turned at once to the servants, with the command,
"Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." This is not the lan-
guage of one who felt rebuked, but of one whose request
had been granted.
In houses of any pretension it was customary to make pro-
vision for the numerous washings, both of the person and of
vessels, which the Pharisaic usages required. (Mark vii. 4.)
"tr
rfl-i ■ : ■
142 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
In this instance there were six large water-vessels, holding two
or three firkins apiece. The six " water-pots of stone," there-
fore, had a capacity of about one hundred and twenty-six gal-
lons. 1
These vessels were filled with water, and at the will of the
Lord the water became wine. When the master of the feast
tasted it, it proved so much superior to the former supply as to
call forth his commendation. The quantity of wine has excited
some criticism ; but it should be borne in mind that in Palestine,
where light wines were so generally a part of the common
drink, four barrels of wine would not seem a supply so extraor-
dinary as it does to people in non-wine -growing countries, who
have been accustomed to see fiery wines, in small quantities and
at high prices. It must also be remembered that the company
was large, or else the provision would not have given out, and
that it was without doubt to be yet larger from day to day, the
miracle itself tending to bring together all the neighborhood.
It is to be considered also that wine, unlike bread, is not perish-
able, but grows better with age ; so that, had the quantity been
far greater than their present need, it would not be wasted. On
the other hand, there were reasons why the supply should be
generous. The wine had once given out. The strange supply
said to every one, There can be no second failure. Abundance
goes with power wherever the Divine hand works.
That the wine created by our Lord answered to the fermented
wine of the country would never have been doubted, if the exi-
gencies of a modern and most beneficent reformation had not
created a strong but unwise disposition to do away with the
1 The terra " firkin," in our English version, is the Greek metretes, corresponding,
according to Josephus, to the Hebrew bath. The Attic metretes held 8 gallons and 7.4
pints. The water-vessels are said in the Gospel to have held between two and three
firkin», or metretes. apiece, which would be somewhere between 1 7 and 25 gallons. Call-
ing it 21 gallons, six of them would be 126 gallons. The writer in Smith's Bible Dic-
tionary places the quantity at 110 gallons; but Wordsworth gives 136. The lowest
estimate which we have seen puts it at 60 gallons, but the weight of authority places it as
in the text.
It has been remarked, that the fact that these vessels were exclusively appropriated
to water, and never used for holding wine, will prevent the slipping over this miracle
by saying that wine was already in the vessels, and that water was only added to it.
The quantity, too, made it impossible that it should have been wrought in an under-
handed and collusive manner. It is the very first of a long series of miracles, and one of
the most indisputable.
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THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 143
undoubted example of our Lord. But though the motive was
good, and the effort most ingeniously and plausibly carried out,
the result has failed to satisfy the best scholars; and it is the
almost universal conviction of those competent to form a judg-
ment, that our Lord did both make and use wines which an-
swer to the fermented wines of the present day in Palestine. 1
Drunkenness has prevailed in all ages and in all countries,
but it has been the vice of particular races far more than of
others. In the earlier periods of the world, all moral remedial
influences were relatively weak. With the progressive devel-
opment of man we have learned to throw off evils by ways
which were scarcely practicable in early days. So it has been
with the sin of drunkenness. Christian men proposed, some half
a century ago, voluntarily to abstain from the use, as a diet
or as a luxury, of all that can intoxicate. A revolution of pub-
lic sentiment gradually followed in respect to the drinking usages
of society. This abstinence has been urged upon various
grounds. Upon the intrinsic nature of all alcoholic stimulants
temperance men have been divided in opinion, some taking the
extreme ground that alcohol is a poison, no less when devel-
oped by fermentation and remaining in chemical combination
than when by distillation it exists in separation and concentra-
1 The editors of the Congregational Review, No. 54, pp. 398, 399, in a review of Com-
munion Wine and Bible Temperance, by Rev. William M. Thayer, published by the
National Temperance Society, 1869, use the following language : —
" We respect the zeal of Mr. Thayer, and do not question his sincerity. But we have
gone over the arguments he has reproduced ; we have considered his so-called evidence,
which has so often done duty in its narrow range ; we have pondered the discussions of
Lees, Nott, Ritchie, and Duffield, before him ; what is more, we have gone over the Greek
and Hebrew Scriptures carefully for ourselves ; have sifted the testimony of travellers
who knew, and those who did not know ; have corresponded with missionaries and con-
ferred with Jewish Rabbis on this subject; and if there is anything in Biblical literature
on which we can speak confidently, we have no doubt that Dr. Laurie is right and that
Rev. Mr. Thayer is wrong." (Mr, Thayer's book is an attempt to show that there are
two kinds of wine spoken of in the Bible, one of which is intoxicating and the other not.)
" In these views we are thoroughly supported. If we mistake not, the Biblical schol-
arship of Andover, Princeton, Newton, Chicago, and New Haven, as well as Smith's
Bible Dictionary and Kitto's Biblical Cyclopaedia, is with us. One of the most learned
and devout scholars of the country recently said to us : ' None but a third-rate scholar
adopts the view that the Bible describes two kinds of wine.' The National Temper-
ance Society has done its best to create a different popular belief, if not to cast odium
on those who do not accept its error. We regret it, for the temperance cause can be
carried on by sound arguments and fair means, and all false methods must recoil at
last."
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144 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE GHRIST.
tion, — a statement in which some physiologists of note have
concurred. But these views have never won favor with the great
body of physiologists, and the more recent investigators are far-
ther from admitting them than their predecessors. Yet it is cer-
tain that the discussions and investigations have destroyed, it
may be hoped forever, the extravagant notions which have pre-
vailed in all countries as to the benefits of wine and strong
drinks. It is admitted that they are always injurious to many
constitutions, that they are medically useful in far less degrees
and in fewer instances than hitherto has been supposed, and that
to ordinary persons in good health they are not needful, adding
neither any strength nor any vitality which could not be jar
better attained by wholesome food and suitable rest.
A certain advantage would be gained in the advocacy of total
abstinence if it could be shown that any use of wine is a sin
against one's own nature. But the moral power of example is
immeasurably greater if those who hold that wine and its col-
leagues are not unwholesome when used sparingly shall yet, as a
free-will offering to the weak, cheerfully refrain from their use.
To relinquish a wrong is praiseworthy ; but to yield up a per-
sonal right for benevolent purposes is far more admirable.
There have not been many spectacles of equal moral impres-
siveness, since the coming of Christ, than the example of mil-
lions of Christian men, in both hemispheres, cheerfully and
enthusiastically giving up the use of intoxicating drink, that by
their example they might restrain or win those who were in
danger of ruinous temptation. If in any age or nation the evil
of intemperance is not general nor urgent, the entire abstinence
from wine may be wise for peculiar individuals, but it can have
no general moral influence, since the conditions would be want-
ing which called for self-sacrifice.
Had Jesus, living in our time, beheld the wide waste and
wretchedness arising from inordinate appetites, can any one
doubt on which side he would be found ? Was not his whole
life a superlative giving up of his own rights for the benefit of
the fallen ? Did he not teach that customs, institutions, and laws
must yield to the inherent sacredness of man ? In his own age
he ate and drank as his countrymen did, judging it to be safe
to do so. But this is not a condemnation of the course of those
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 145
who, in other lands and under different circumstances, wholly
abstain from wine and strong drink, for their own good and for
the good of others. The same action has a different moral
significance in different periods and circumstances. Jesus fol-
lowed the harmless custom of his country; when, in another
age and country, the same custom had become mischievous,
would he have allowed it ? " All things are lawful unto me,
but all things are not expedient." (1 Cor. vi. 12.) "It is good
neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby
thy brother .... is made weak." (Rom. xiv. 21.)
The example of Christ beyond all question settles the doctrine,
that, if abstinence from wine is practised, it must be a voluntary
act, a cheerful surrender of a thing not necessarily in itself
harmful, for the sake of a true benevolence to others. But if it
be an extreme to wrest the example of Christ in favor of the
total-abstinence theories of modern society, it is a yet more dan-
gerous one to employ his example as a shield and justification
of the drinking usages which have proved the greatest curse
ever known to man. Nor can we doubt that a voluntary absti-
nence from all that intoxicates, as a diet or a luxury, by all
persons in health, for moral reasons, is in accordance with the
very spirit of the gospel. The extraordinary benefits which have
accompanied and followed the temperance reformation mark it as
one of the great victories of Christianity.
The scenes at Cana are especially grateful to us as disclosing
the inward feeling of Jesus respecting social life, as well as the
peculiar genius of Christianity. He began his mission to others
by going home to his mother. The household was his first
temple : the opening of a wedded life engaged his first sympa-
thy, and the promotion of social and domestic happiness was
the inspiration of his first miracle. We are especially struck
with his direct production of enjoyment. In marked contrast
with the spirit of many of the reigning moral philosophers, who
despised pleasure, Christ sought it as a thing essentially good.
Recognizing the truth that goodness and virtue are the sources
of continuous happiness, Jesus taiight that gladness is one of
the faGtors of virtue, and none the less so because sorrow is
another, each of them playing around the forms and events of
c:
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146 ' THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
practical life as do light and shadow in a picture. Far more
important than we are apt to consider among the secondary
influences which have maintained Christianity itself in this
world, in spite of the corruption of its doctrines and the horri-
ble cruelty of its advocates, has been its subtile and indestructi-
ble sympathy both with suffering and with joy. It sounds the
depths of the one, and rises to the height of the other. Its power
has never lain in its intellectual elements, but in its command of
tbat nature which lies back of all philosophy or voluntary activ-
ity. It breathes the breath of the Almighty upon the elements of
the soul, and again order and life spring from darkness and chaos.
Through the household, as through a gate, Jesus entered upon
his ministry of love. Ever since, the Christian home has been
the refuge of true religion. Here it has had its purest altars,
its best teachers, and a life of self-denying love in all gladness,
which is constituted a perpetual memorial of the nourishing love
of God, and a symbol of the great mystery of sacrifice by which
love perpetually lays down its life for others. The religion of
the Synagogue, of the Temple, and of the Church would have
perished long ago but for the ministry of the household. It
was fit that a ministry of love should begin at home. It was
fit, too, that love should develop joy. Joyful love inspires
self-denial, and keeps sorrow wholesome. Love civilizes con-
science, refines the passions, and restrains them. The bright
and joyful opening of Christ's ministry has been generally lost
sight of. The darkness of the last great tragedy has thrown
back its shadow upon the morning hour of his life. His course
was rounded out, like a perfect day. It began with the calm-
ness and dewiness of a morning, it came to its noon with
fervor and labor, it ended in twilight and darkness, but rose
again without cloud, unsetting and immortal.
For two years Jesus pursued his ministry in his own Galilee,
among scenes familiar to his childhood, everywhere performing
the most joyful work which is possible to this world, — that
of bringing men out of trouble, of inspiring hunger for truth
and righteousness, of cheering the hopeless and desponding,
besides works of mercy, almost without number, directed to
the relief of the physical condition of the poor and neglected.
The few disciples who had accompanied Jesus, and were with
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 147
him at the marriage, were drawn to him by that miracle with
renewed admiration. The bands that at first held them to
their Master must have been slight. Being rude, unlettered
men, accustomed to live by their senses only, they were not
yet qitalified to go without important external adjuvants. As
there was no organization, no school or party, no separate relig-
ious forms, but only this one peasant prophet, lately a mechanic,
whose words and bearing had greatly fascinated them^ it was to
be expected that they would soon despond and doubt if some-
thing tangible were not given them; and this miracle answered
their need. The effect produced on their minds was thought
worthy of record: "And his disciples believed on him." Of all
the remaining crowd of guests, of the host and his household, of
the bridal pair and their gay companions, nothing is said. Prob-
ably the miracle was the wonder of the hour, and then passed
with the compliments and congratulations of the occasion into
the happy haze of memory, in which particulars are lost, and
only a pleasing mist overhangs the too soon receding past.
But it seems certain that all of the immediate household
of Jesus were brought for a time under his influence. For
when, soon after these events, he went down to Capernaum,
upon the northwestern coast of the Sea of Galilee, all went
with him, — "he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his
disciples." (John ii. 12.) Nothing is disclosed of the object
of this visit, or of his occupation while there. It is not im-
probable, though it is but a supposition, that he had formerly
plied his trade in Capernaum, while he was yet living by
manual labor. After he was rejected and treated with brutal
ignominy by his own townsmen of Nazareth, he made Caper-
naum his home. It is probable that his mother, sister, and
brethren removed thither, and had there a house to which
Jesus resorted as to a home when he was in Capernaum. 1 It
is believed that it was a city of considerable population and
importance. It was always called a "city," had its synagogue,
in which Jesus often taught, was a Roman garrison town and
a customs station. It is probable that it was on the lake shore,
1 Grove says, in Smith's Bible Dictionary, that the phrase in Mark ii. 1, " in the
house," has in the Greek the force of " at home." So, in modern languages, the French
a la maison, the German zu Hause, the Italian alia casa, etc.
148 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
near the city, that Jesus saw and called Simon Peter and his
brother Andrew, while they were " mending their nets." Mat-
thew — who resided there, was a publican, and was summoned
by the Lord from this odious occupation to discipleship — says,
with perhaps a little pride, speaking of Capernaum : " And he
entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city?
Here too he healed the demoniac (Mark i. 21-28), cured the
centurion's servant (Luke vii. 1), the paralytic (Mark ii. 3), and
the man with an unclean devil (Mark i. 23, Luke iv. 33), and
raised Jairus's daughter (Mark v. 22). It was here that the
nobleman's son lay when in Cana the healing word went forth
which restored him. It was at Capernaum that, when tribute
was demanded of him, he sent Peter to find in a fish's mouth the
piece of money required (Matt. xvii. 24). Here he healed
Peter's wife's mother, who "lay sick of a fever"; and Tristram,
in arguing for the site of Capernaum at the " Round Fountain,"
remarks that fevers are prevalent there to this day. It was in
or near this city that many of our Lord's most striking para-
bles were uttered, — "the sower," "the tares," "the goodly
pearls," "the net cast into the sea," and, notably, "the Sermon
on the Mount." It was in Capernaum that he discoursed on
fasting (Matt. ix. 10), and exposed the frivolous customs and
vain traditions of the Pharisees (Matt. xv. 1, etc.). Here also
occurred the remarkable discussion recorded by John only (John
vi. 22-71), and the discourse upon humility, with a "little
child" for the text (Mark ix. 33-50).
Jerusalem is more intimately associated with the solemn close
of Christ's life, but no place seems to have had so much of his
time, discourse, and miracles as Capernaum. And yet nowhere
was he less successful in winning the people to a spiritual life,
or even to any considerable attention, save the transient enthu-
siasm excited by a miracle. The intense cry of sorrow uttered
by Jesus over Jerusalem has its counterpart in his righteous
indignation over the city by the sea : " And thou, Capernaum,
which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell ;
for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day
It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day
of judgment, than for thee." (Matt. xi. 23, 24.) Even if Jesus
rfr
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE.
149
■a
wrought miracles at this first visit to Capernaum, immediately
after the wedding scene at Cana, no record or notice of them
appears in the narrative, except that, afterward, when he was in
Nazareth, he heard, doubtless, the whisperings and taunts of his
impudent townsmen, and replied : " Ye will surely say unto me
this proverb, Physician, heal thyself : whatsoever we have heard
done in Capernaum do also here in thy country." We may infer,
then, that the whole country was full of the rumor of his miracles
during his brief stay on this his earliest visit to Capernaum.
Although the woes denounced against "his own city" were
designed to reach its citizens rather than the streets and dwell-
ings of the city itself, yet they seem to have overflowed and
fallen with crushing weight upon the very stones of the town.
The plain of Genesareth and the Sea of Galilee are still there,
as when Christ made them familiar by his daily footsteps along
their border. But the cities, — they are utterly perished !
Among several heaps of shapeless stones upon the northeast
coast of the Sea of Galilee, for hundreds of years, geographers
and antiquaries have groped and dug in vain. Which was
Bethesda, which Chorazin or Capernaum, no one can tell to this
day. Not Sodom, under the waters of the Dead Sea, is more
lost to sight than the guilty cities of that other plain, Genesareth.
VIEW ON THE LAKE OF GALILEE, FKOM THE SOUTH.
"And they continued there not many days." The Passover
being at hand, Jesus went to Jerusalem, and there next we must
see him and hear his voice.
CHAPTER X.
THE FIRST JUD^EAN MINISTRY.
TWELVE tribes settled Palestine and a narrow strip of terri-
tory east of the river Jordan. The tribal spirit was -strong.
Had there been no provision for keeping up a common national
life, the Israelites would have been liable to all the evils of
a narrow and obstinate provincial spirit. There were neither
schools to promote intelligence nor books to feed it. Modern
nations, through the newspapers and swift tracts, keep their
people conversant with the same ideas at the same time. Every
week sees the millions of this continent thinking and talking
of the same events, and discussing the same policies or interests.
But no such provision for a common popular education was
possible in Palestine.
The same result, however, was sought by the great Lawgiver
of the Desert by means of a circulation of the people them-
selves. Three times in each year every male inhabitant of the
land who was not legally impure, or hindered by infirmity or
sickness, was commanded to appear in Jerusalem, and for a
week to engage in the solemn or joyful services of the Temple.
The great occasions were the Passover, the Pentecost, and the
Feast of Tabernacles. It is probable that the first and last of
these were borrowed from celebrations already existing among
other nations of antiquity, and primarily had reference to the
course of nature. The seasons of seed-sowing and harvesting
would naturally furnish points for religious and social festivals.
We still retain a vestige of these festivals in the melancholy
Fast-day of New England and in the Thanksgiving-day of the
nation ; so that these simple primitive observances of the vernal
and autumnal positions of the sun seem likely to outlive all
more elaborate institutions. But if Moses borrowed festivals
already in vogue, it is certain that he gave new associations to
THE FIRST JUD^EAN MINISTRY. 151
them by making them commemorate certain great events in
the history of the Israelites.
The feast of the Passover was kept in remembrance of the
safety of the Jews on that awful night when Jehovah smote
the first-born of every family in Egypt, but passed over the
dwellings of his own people, and forbade the angel of death
to strike any of their households. The event itself marked an
epoch in Jewish history. The secondary benefits of its celebra-
tion, however, were primary in moral importance. To be taken
away from home and sordid cares ; to be thrown into a mighty
stream of pilgrims that moved on from every quarter to Jerusa-
lem; to see one's own countrymen from every part of Palestine,
and with them to offer the same sacrifices, in the same place,
by a common ministration ; to utter the same psalms, and mingle
in the same festivities, — could not but produce a civilizing
influence far stronger than would result from such a course in
modern times, when society has so much better means of edu-
cating its people.
It was not far from the time of the Passover that Jesus went
to Capernaum, and his stay there was apparently shortened by
his desire to be in Jerusalem at this solemn festival. Already
he beheld among his countrymen preparations for the journey.
Pilgrims were passing through Capernaum. The great road
along the western shore of the Lake of Genesareth was filled
with groups of men going toward Jerusalem. Probably Jesus
joined himself to the company; nor can any one who has no-
ticed his cheerful and affectionate disposition doubt that he
exerted upon his chance companions that winning influence
which so generally brought men about him in admiring famili-
arity.
If he pursued the route east of the Jordan, crossing again near
the scene of his baptism, and ascending by the way of Jericho
and Bethany, he approached Jerusalem from the east. From
this quarter Jerusalem breaks upon the eye with a beauty which
it has not when seen from any other direction. At this time,
too, he would behold swarming with people, not the city only,
but all its neighborhood. Although it was the custom of all pious
Jews to entertain their countrymen at the great feasts, yet no
city could hold the numbers. The fields were white with tents.
152 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
The hills round about were covered as with an encamped army.
Josephus says that at the Passover A. D. 65, there were three
million Jews in attendance, and that in the reign of Nero there
were on one occasion two million seven hundred thousand ; and
even greater numbers have been recorded. But if the half of
these were present, it is plain that the whole region around
Jerusalem, together with near villages, must have been over
full.
Right before him, as he came over the Mount of Olives, shone
forth the Temple, whose foundations rose sheer from the pre-
cipitous rocks on the eastern side of Jerusalem, and whose white
marble summits glittered in the sun higher than the highest
objects in the city itself.
We should dismiss from our minds all preconceptions of the
appearance of the renowned Temple, whether based upon classic
temples or upon modern cathedrals or churches. It resembled
none of them, but stood by itself, without parallel or likeness
either in structure or method, as it certainly stood alone among
all temples in its wonderful uses. It was not so much a building
as a system of structures; one quadrangle within another, the
second standing upon higher ground than the outermost, and
the Temple proper upon a position highest of all, and forming
the architectural climax of beauty, as it certainly stood highest
in moral sacredness. The Temple of Solomon was originally
built upon the rocky heights on the east side of Jerusalem, and
was separated from the city by a deep ravine. The heights not
affording sufficient room for all the outbuildings, the royal archi-
tect built up a wall from the valley below and filled in the
enclosed space with earth. Other additions continued to be
made, until, when Herod had finished the last Temple, — that
one which shone out upon Jesus and the pilgrims coming over
the Mount of Olives, — the whole space, including the tower of
Antonia, occupied about nineteen acres. The Temple, then, was
not a single building, like the Grecian temples or like modern
cathedrals, but a system of concentric enclosures or courts, —
a kind of sacerdotal citadel, of which the Temple proper, though
the most splendid part of it, and lifted high above all the rest,
was in space and bulk but a small part. In approaching the
sacred mount, the Jew first entered the outer court, called the
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THE FIRST JUDJEAN MINISTRY. 153
Court of the Gentiles, not because it was set apart for them, but
because Gentiles, rigorously excluded from every other portion
of the Temple enclosures, were permitted, with all others, to
enter there. This outer quadrangle, taken separately from the
residue of the Temple system, was remarkable for its magnitude,
its magnificence, and the variety of its uses. Although its walls
were elevated, yet, standing upon a lower level, they did not
hide the interior courts, with their walls, gates, and adornments.
On the inner side of the walls of this outer court extended
porticos or cloisters with double rows of white marble Corinthian
columns. The ceiling was flat, finished with cedar, and nearly
forty feet in height above the floor. But these cloisters were
quite eclipsed by the magnificence of the Stoa Basilica, or Royal
Porch, on the south side. It consisted of a nave and two aisles,
six hundred feet in length, formed by four rows of white marble
columns, forty columns in each row. The breadth of the central
space was forty-five feet, and its height one hundred. The side
spaces were thirty feet wide and fifty in height. This impressive
building was unlike any other, in that it was wholly open on
the side toward the Temple ; it was connected with the city and
the king's palace by a bridge thrown across the ravine. This
vast arcade was a grand resort for all persons of leisure who
repaired to the Temple, a kind of ecclesiastical Exchange, some-
what analogous to the Grecian Agora or the Roman Forum;
a place of general resort for public, literary, or professional
business. Some parts of it were appropriated to synagogical
purposes. It was here that Jesus was accustomed to teach the
people and to hold discourse with the Scribes and Pharisees ;
and here, too, the early Christians, who did not consider them-
selves as broken off from the Jewish Church or debarred from
the rights and privileges of the Temple, used to assemble . for
conversation and worship.
Although the cathedral-like aisles of Herod's Stoa Basilica, on
the south side, were the most magnificent part of the Court of
the Gentiles, yet on all its sides stood spacious colonnades or
cloisters, and next within was an open court paved with stones
of various colors. Still farther inside of this open court one
came to a low marble partition, beautifully carved, and bearing
the warning, in several languages, that it was death for any
-a
154 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Gentile to pass beyond it. Paul was accused of having taken
Greeks beyond it (Acts xxi. 28). By bearing in mind this
screen, we shall understand the force and beauty of Paul's argu-
ment that Christ had " broken down the middle wall of partition
between us." 1
A few yards beyond this screen of exclusion, one ascended
by a series of steps to the next enclosure or quadrangle, which
was twenty-two feet above the level of the Court of the Gentiles.
This court was again subdivided into the Court of the Israelites
and the Court of the Women. The Temple stood in still another
and a higher portion of this court, and was approached through
a gate upon which had been lavished every element of archi-
tectural beauty ; and it was this gate, probably, which was called
Beautiful (Acts iii. 2). The walls and the gateways were so built
as to furnish numerous apartments for the officers of the Temple,
for the priests and their retinue. In the Court of the Israelites
and the Court of the Women were the various tables and utensils
in use for sacrificial purposes. Within the Gate Beautiful stood
the altar, and beyond that the Temple proper, in the form of an
inverted T (J.), comprising a portico, the sanctuary, and the
Holy of Holies. The main portions of the Temple, it is believed,
were of the same dimensions and upon the very foundations
of Solomon's Temple. But it is supposed that, while the internal
space remained the same, the external proportions were much
increased, and that the wings of the facade were extended, so
that the length of the Temple and the width of its front or facade
were each one hundred feet.
A general knowledge of the structure of the Temple is indis-
pensable to those who would study either the history of Jesus
1 " But now, in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood
of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the
middle wall of partition between us ; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the
law of commandments contained in ordinances : for to make in himself of twain one new
man, so making peace ; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the
cross, having slain the enmity thereby : and came and preached peace to you which were
afar off and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit
unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-
citizens with the saints, and of the household of God ; and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone ; in whom
all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord : in
whom ye also are builded together, for an habitation of God through the Spirit." (Eph.
ii. 13-22.)
-a
THE FIRST JUDMAN MINISTRY. 155
or that of his countrymen. One may know far more of Athens,
her Acropolis left out, of Rome without its Forum or Capitol,
than of Jerusalem without its Temple. Without that the city
would have hardly any significance left. The Temple was at
once the brain and the heart of the nation. It was the university
and chief house of the learned men and priests, and gave to
Palestine a centre of orthodoxy. Through the Temple circulated
the whole people in its great annual visitations, and then, like
blood that has been aerated, it carried back new life to every
extremity of the land.
With what feelings Jesus looked upon the Temple as he drew
near to Jerusalem can only be surmised. It might seem as
though his Divine soul would perceive little of use in the cum-
brous ritual which he had come to abrogate. As he looked
over from the Mount of Olives upon the encircling walls and
battlements, the ascending rows of towers, arches, and gateways,
and the pure white Temple glittering high in the air above all,
could he fail to contrast the outward beauty with the interior
desecration ? But it does not follow on that account that he felt
little interest. On another occasion, when he looked from the
same place over upon the whole city of Jerusalem, whose long
and wearisome criminal history rose before his mind, he did not
any the less experience a profound affection for the city, even
while pronouncing its doom. In like manner he might have
looked upon the Temple, and, though conscious of its gross un-
spirituality, he might have yet experienced a profound sympathy
for it, considered in its whole past history, in its intent, and as
the focus to which so many noble hearts had through ages con-
verged. At any rate, he is soon found within it, and his first
recorded act of authority took place in the Temple.
It seems to us very strange that money-brokers, cattle, sheep,
and doves should be found in the Temple, and that trafficking
should go on in that sacred place, if by this term we bring before
our minds the true and innermost Temple. But these trans-
actions took place in the lower and outer court, and probably
at the western portion of the Court of the Gentiles.
Thousands of Jews must have come every year to Jerusalem
without being in circumstances to bring with them the appropri-
ate offerings. For their convenience, doves, sheep, and oxen
r4=^
ID
156
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
were provided and held for sale, at first, probably, in the vicinity
of the Temple enclosure. Little by little they intruded upon the
space within, until they made it their head-quarters without
rebuke.
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This custom was less repulsive, probably, to the Jews than it
would be to us, because the whole Temple was used in a manner
that would utterly shock the sensibility of men educated in
Christian churches. Thousands and hundreds of thousands of
sheep, every Passover, as well 'as at every Pentecost and every
Feast of Tabernacles, were borne into the Temple and carried
or driven into the Court of the Priests, and there slain, the blood
being caught by the priests in bowls and dashed upon the altar.
Hour after hour, the whole day long, the spectacle continued.
The secret channels down through the rocks, toward the king's
garden, gurgled with blood. It was blood, blood, blood ; nor can
a modern man imagine how it could be other than intolerably
shocking. We cannot conceive how even familiarity would abate
the repulsiveness of an altar incessantly flowing with blood, and
of pavements and walls dripping with the same.
-a
THE FIRST JUDJ3AN MINISTRY. 157
But the tolerant custom of herding cattle and sheep in the
outer court of the Temple, the place where the people gathered
and talked, where discussions and discourses went on, had doubt-
less become so much abused that portions of the court had be-
come almost a corral, or cattle-yard.
In this court, too, brokers had congregated to exchange foreign
coin for the shekel of the sanctuary, in which only could the Jew
pay the Temple tax. The images on imperial coins savored of
idolatry. The devout Jew, drawing near to the Temple, filled
with pious associations, would find his meditations rudely broken
in upon by lowing herds and bleating flocks, by the haggling of
money-changers and the chink of their coin. If, as is suspected,
the traffic was winked at by the Temple familiars because they
were participants of the profits, it was all the more improper.
Many decorous Jews would be scandalized at the growing evil,
but what could they do ?
On the first day of the Passover, or perhaps on the day before,
when the herds of cattle were likely to be most in the way, the
nuisance was suddenly abated. Without parley or leave asked,
Jesus drove out the motley herd. It must have been one of
those supreme moments, which came so often to him afterwards,
when no one could stand before his gaze. Go hence ! and with
a whip of small cords he drove out the lowing and bleating
creatures, and their owners hastened after them ; no one seemed
to resist him. "He overthrew the money-changers' tables, and
sent the coin ringing over the marble pavements. "Take these
things hence ! Make not my Father's house an house of mer-
chandise ! "
The only comment made by the Evangelist John is in these
words : " And his disciples remembered that it was written, The
zeal of thy house hath eaten me up." But why should this
passage have occurred to them, unless his manner had been full
of energy, and his voice so terrible that the avaricious hucksters,
though assailed in privileges permitted by the Temple officers,
dared not resist ? The fact itself, and the commentary which the
Evangelist adds, make it plain that there was in the countenance
of Jesus, and in his manner, that which men did not choose to
confront.
Nothing can better show how superior Christ was to the nar-
-a
158 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
row prejudices of the Jews against all foreign people. A heathen
was an abomination. The only part of the Temple to which
the Gentile could approach was this court. Jews did not care
that cattle and money-brokers turned the court into a vast and
noisy bazaar or market ; they could pass on, and in the higher
interior courts be free from all molestation. It was only the
Gentile that suffered from this perversion of the great outer
court of the Temple. The cleansing of this place was not only
an act of humanity to the Gentiles, but may be regarded as the
sign and precursor of the mercy of Christ to the whole world,
Jew or Gentile.
Even if the rulers of the Temple were not spectators of this
scene, the story must have soon come to their ears. There seems
to have been no anger excited. Among the Jews there was
singular toleration for any one upon whom came " the Spirit
of the Lord." Besides, deeper than every other feeling, stronger
even than avarice, ambition, and pride, or perhaps as the fullest
expression of them all, was the longing for that Messiah who
was to end their national degradation, exalt them to supremacy,
and avenge upon the heathen double for all their sufferings. In
spite of all their worldliness, or rather a remarkable feature of it,
was this undying watchfulness for the Divine interposition in
their behalf. And when any person of remarkable gifts ap-
peared, as in the case of John the Baptist, and in the earlier
periods of Jesus's ministry, all eyes were turned upon him, and
in anxious suspense they waited for evidence that he was the
promised Deliverer. There is something inexpressibly sad in
the sight of a proud nation resenting an oppression which it could
not resist, and carrying an unextinguished longing, night and
day, for a promised champion, who was, in the sense expected,
never to come.
It was not in displeasure, but rather in eager expectancy,
that the officers put the question, "What sign showest thou
unto us, seeing thou doest such things ? " It was only another
form of saying, as they did afterwards, " If thou be the Christ,
tell us plainly." Jesus had taken things into his own hands,
had revoked the permission which they had given to the traffick-
ers, and for the moment he was the one person in supreme au-
thority there. That he was not seized, ejected from the Temple,
■a
THE FIRST JUDuEAN MINISTRY. 159
or even slain, shows that the rulers hoped something from this
new-comer who possessed such power of command.
Jesus replied, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will
raise it up." The Jews, taking his answer literally, were stum-
bled at the boast implied. " Forty and six years was this Temple
in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days ? " The Evan-
gelist John adds, " But he spake of the temple of his body."
It is not strange that he should identify himself with the Tem-
ple, for Jesus bore the same relation to the new dispensation
which the Temple did to the old. What the visible altar and
sanctuary were to ritual worship, that his heart was to spiritual
worship. It is not the only instance in which Christ suggests
a comparison between himself and the Temple. When defending
himself against the charge of Sabbath-breaking, he refers to
the blamelessness of the priests, though working on the Sabbath
in the Temple. " But I say unto you, that in this place is one
greater than the Temple." (Matt. xii. 6.)
There has been much perplexity among commentators at this
reply, which on its face meant one thing, and really meant
another. But Jesus did not intend to have them penetrate the
hidden meaning. Then why answer at all ? The mood in which
the officers evidently were would not brook a defiant silence.
The Jews were fanatically inflammable in all. matters relating to
the Temple. Without prudence or calculation of the result, they
would throw themselves headlong upon Roman soldiers, or upon
any others, who seemed to put contempt upon the holy place ;
they were like hornets, who, when their nest is touched, dash
with fiery courage upon the intruder, and that without regard
to the certainty of their own destruction. The answer of Jesus,
while it could not have seemed disrespectful, must have left
them in suspense as to whether he was boasting, or whether
he was claiming Divine power. It had the effect designed, at
any rate. The great liberty which Jesus had taken was allowed
to pass without rebuke or violence, and he had avoided a public
declaration of his Messiahship, which at that period would have
been imprudent, whether the riders accepted or rejected him.
His time had not yet come.
But was this baffling reply such a one as we should expect
from a sincere and frank nature ? The answer to this question
a— — — ■
160 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST
will require us to consider for a moment the method of discourse
which Christ adopted. No one ever taught with more trans-
parent simplicity and directness. Much of his teaching reads
like the Book of Proverbs, of which the Sermon on the Mount, as
given by Matthew, is a good instance. At times he employed
an argumentative or logical style, as in the discussions with the
Jews recorded by John. He likewise taught by pictures; for
such are his exquisite little fables, as the Greeks would have
called them, and which we style parables. But Jesus explicitly
declared to his disciples, that, for wise purposes, he often em-
ployed an outward form to hide within it a meaning which they
were not yet prepared to accept. The outward form, therefore,
acted the part of the lobes of a seed. They first preserve the
germ till planting time, and then supply its food until it has
roots of its own. We hear Jesus explicitly saying (Matt. xiii.
10-16) that he taught in unintelligible forms.
But we are to consider that among the Orientals, and especially
among the Jews, this was considered as the highest form of
instruction. It was the delight of philosophy to express itself in
enigmas, paradoxes, parables, and even in riddles. Friendly
arguments were not so much an array of facts and reasonings,
as the proposing and the interpreting of dark sayings. In
Proverbs the philosopher is thus described : " A wise man will
hear, and will increase learning ; and a man of understanding
shall attain unto wise counsels : to understand a proverb, and
the interpretation ; the words of the wise, and their dark say-
ings." (Prov. i. 5, 6.) A "dark saying" was simply a truth
locked up in a figure, hidden within a parable, in such a way
as to stir the imagination and provoke the reason to search it
out. The real design was not to conceal the truth, but, by
exciting curiosity, to put men upon the search for it. (Ps. xlix.
4 ; Dan. viii. 23.) Such a method of instruction easily degener-
ated into a mere contest of puzzles and riddles. But we see
it in its noblest form in the teaching of Jesus, where, though
often used with wonderful skill to foil the craft and malice of his
antagonists, it never failed to carry within it some profound
moral truth.
The crucifixion of Christ was to be the first step in the de-
struction of the Temple. The blow aimed at Christ would shatter
THE FIRST JUDMAN MINISTRY. 161
the altar. All this lay before the mind of Jesus. His reply was
a rebound of thought from the physical and the present to the
invisible and spiritual. It was meant neither as an explanation
nor as a prophecy ; it was rather a soliloquy : " Destroy this
Temple, and in three days I will raise it again." Enigmatical
to them and puzzling to commentators ever since, it would
seem quite natural to one who looked at the spiritual as well as
the temporal relations of all events and physical facts. He did
not mean to speak definitely, either of his own death or of the
end of the Levitical system.
This answer conforms to Christ's habit of speaking, not to the
thing suggesting, but to the ulterior truths suggested. A note
being sounded, he took its octave. Witness the scene (John xii.
20-26) where his disciples tell him that certain Greeks desire
to see him. He replies : " The hour is come that the Son of Man
should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone;
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." There never was a
greater enthusiasm for him among the whole community than at
that moment. Even foreigners were infected. When told of this,
he answers not to the outside fact, but to the inward vision.
In this light, his reply to the rulers in the Temple, if obscure
to them, conforms to his habits of thought and speech. As they
understood his reply, it must have seemed extravagant. No
wonder they said, " Forty and six years was this Temple in build-
ing, and wilt thou rear it up in three days ? " The Temple prop-
er had been completed in a year and a half after it was begun.
But portions of the courts and various adjuncts had been forty-
six years in hand, and, indeed, the work was still going on.
During this Passover, Jesus became the centre of attraction.
He both wrought miracles and taught, and no inconsiderable
number were disposed to join him. But he saw that it was only
an outward excitement, and had no root in moral conviction.
He would not, therefore, draw them out, nor put himself at
their head. There is evidence that his ministry produced an
effect among the most thoughtful of the Pharisees. It was
doubtless a matter of conference in the Sanhedrim and of con-
versation among such Jews as had deep spiritual longings. In-
deed, as soon as the night extricated Jesus from the crowd, and
-fcr
rF^
162 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
gave him leisure for extended conversation, one of the noblest
among the Pharisees, a ruler too, came to him.
That one luckless phrase, "by night," has sent down to us
the name of an honest and courageous Jew as one too timid
to come openly, and who therefore sought to steal an inter-
view under the cover of darkness, so as to avoid responsibility.
There is not in the history of Nicodemus a single fact to justify
such an imputation on his moral courage, except the single phrase
that he came "by night." He appears but three times in the
history, and every one of these occasions shows a calm, earnest,
thoughtful man, undemonstrative, but firm and courageous.
Is it the part of timidity that he, — though an eminent man,
a member of the Sanhedrim, a Pharisee, with a reputation to
sustain, — '■ after witnessing Christ's works and listening to his
teaching, came before all others the first to seek instruction?
The night was chosen simply because then Jesus was no longer
amid an excited multitude. The crowd was gone. He was free
for protracted conference. When would a distressed soul, in
our day, seek advice, — when the preacher was speaking in the
full congregation, or afterward, when he could be found at home,
and at leisure to consider a single case? Nicodemus came in
the true hour for converse. He came by night; but he was
the only one of all his fellows that came at all.
The next scene in which Nicodemus appears is near the close
of Christ's ministry. The rulers had become desperate. His
death was resolved upon. It was now only a matter of hesita-
tion how to compass it. In full council the Sanhedrim sat,
waiting for Jesus to be arrested and brought before them. The
officers brought word that they were overawed by his bearing
and his teaching. The Pharisees were enraged. They inquired
whether any of their own party were going over to him. They
cursed the common people as stupid and ignorant, and they
reviled the delinquent officers. Was this the place and time
in which a timid man would confront the whole official power
of his people ? And yet one man in that council bravely spoke
out, — " Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and
know what he doeth ? " That man was Nicodemus.
He appears yet once more. It was after the crucifixion. All
hope was over. The disciples were overawed, confounded, and
ft]
THE FIRST JUDJEAN MINISTRY. 163
scattered. There was not a man left in Jerusalem who would
now think it prudent to identify himself with a lost cause ; it
could help nothing and would compromise the actor. Joseph
of Arimathea begged of Pilate the body of Jesus for honorable
burial. " And there came also Nicodemus (which at the first
came to Jesus by night), and brought a mixture of myrrh and
aloes, about an hundred pound weight." Of Joseph, the Evan-
gelist John says expressly that he was "a disciple of Jesus,
but secretly, for fear of the Jews." (John xix. 38, 39.) But
not an intimation of this kind is made against Nicodemus. The
phrase is only, " he that came to Jesus by night " ; and again,
" which at the first came to Jesus by night."
Just such men as Peter and Nicodemus we have around us
now. The one was eager and overflowing, the other calm and
undemonstrative. In Peter, impulse was strongest; in Nicode-
mus, reflection. Peter, rash and headstrong, was confused by
real peril; Nicodemus, cautious at the beginning, grew firmer
and bolder as difficulties developed danger.
This interview between Jesus and Nicodemus is profoundly
interesting from the revelation which it gives of the character
of the better men among the Pharisees, and also of the spiritual
condition of the sincere and devout Jews. It is besides re-
markable for the first disclosure made of the distinctive doc-
trines of the new life then about to dawn. Nicodemus saluted
Christ as if he were a Jewish rabbi, and confessed the effect
wrought upon his mind by the sight of his miracles, but asked
no questions. Jesus, striking at once to the heart of the matter,
answered not his words nor even his thoughts, but his uncon-
scious spiritual needs : " Except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God." That such a man as Nicodemus
should take this as a literal physical re-birth gives surprising
evidence of the externality of his religious knowledge. He
had not the faintest sense of the difference between external
righteousness and internal holiness. He did not even under-
stand enough of spirituality to accept the figure employed by
Christ ; and he needed, like a child, to have it explained that
not a physical, but a moral, re-birth was meant.
" That which is born of the flesh is flesh ;
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit "
eg-
164 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
This is the root. In these words Jesus gave the fundamental
philosophy of religion. Man is born into the material world
with all those powers which are required for his physical and
social well-being, but within him lie dormant the germs of a
Divine nature. These can be developed only by the Spirit of
God ; but when evolved they change the whole nature, give to
man a new horizon, new force, scope, and vision. He will live
thenceforth by a different class of faculties. Before, he lived
by the forces which nature developed through the senses. He
was mainly a physical being. Afterwards, he will live through
the forces developed by the Spirit of God, — forces whose ru-
diments existed -before, but whose growth and full power de-
mand the energy and fire of the Divine soul. Like an exotic
plant in a temperate zone, the soul without God bears only
leaves. For blossoms and fruit there must be tropical heat and
light, that we may " bring forth fruit unto God."
Thus, in his very first recorded conversation, as clearly as
at the end of his ministry, Jesus set forth the new era to which
the soul of man was approaching. The conversation as record-
ed has an unconscious dramatic element. An eminent Phari-
see, whose life has been spent in attaining perfection, and
who, in his own opinion, has almost reached it, but has not
found satisfaction of his heart-hunger, is told that his whole
life-work has been in a wrong direction, — he must begin anew.
Like one who has gone upon a wrong road, he has been car-
ried by every step away from his goal. He has sought moral
perfectness by rigorous discipline in external things. 1 He must
reverse the process, and reinforce the soul.
In the order of time, man develops from the sensuous to-
wards the spiritual. But in the order of power and of self-
government, that which is last must become first. • The spirit
must be formed and filled by the Divine soul. It is then in-
spired. A new force is developed. A conflict ensues.. The
spirit striveth against the flesh, and the flesh lusteth against
the spirit. But the whole moral nature is reinvigorated. It
has become open and sensitive to truths and influences which
before it did not perceive nor feel.
Of course the whole conversation of the two is not recorded.
Hours would not suffice, when once the soul had found its
■a
THE FIRST JUD^AN MINISTRY. 165
Master, to bring him into all the dark and troubled places
within, where there had been sorrow and trouble of soul. The
stars still rose and set; but Nicodemus had found his new
heaven and the guiding star of his future life. He marvelled.
Nor did his wonder cease as his Master, step by step, unfolded
the new life and the supremacy of the spiritual over the carnal.
As Jesus with indistinct lines sketched his own history, his
death, the life-giving power of faith in him, it may be sup-
posed that his listener heard only, but did not understand.
"We are concerned with this earliest discourse of Jesus, be-
cause its philosophy underlies the whole question of religion.
It has two astonishing originalities. Men may stop suddenly
in a career of evil, and be born again. The Ethiopian may
change his skin, and the leopard his spots ! There is a power
before which even habit cannot stand. It also reveals that a
whole new development of spiritual life is possible to every
one. Those inspirations which before have glanced upon a few,
which have been the privilege of genius, are now to become a
free gift to all. The Holy Ghost is to carry a flood of light
and energy to every soul that is willing.
A crisis had come in the world's psychology. Eeason was to
receive a higher development, adding to the senses the power
of faith. Faith, which is reason inspired to intuitions of su-
persensuous truth, (not a blind credulity, but a new light, a
higher reason, acting in a sphere above matter,) was thereafter
to become developed into a stature and power of which the
past had given but hints and glimpses.
Jesus remained in Judaea from April to December, or, as some
think, till January. Nothing can more forcibly show how far
the Gospels are from a close biography than the fact that this
period, at the very opening of his public ministry, is not men-
tioned by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, who do not even give an
account of this visit to Jerusalem ; while John, from whom we
derive all our knowledge of this visit, leaves the next four
months, though the first months of the Saviour's public min-
istry, witho.ut a record. "After these things came Jesus and
his disciples into the land of Judaea." But they were already
in Jerusalem : it is therefore evident that they went out of
the city into the adjacent parts, probably into the northeast of
166 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Judaea. But even of that we are uncertain. u And there he
tarried with them, and baptized." It is not said where he bap-
tized. It is added that John " was baptizing in vEnon, because
there was much water there." But where iEnon was hardly
any two investigators agree, — whether it was on the Jordan,
or at certain copious springs, the source of a stream on its
western side. It is not said that Jesus was near John. All
is left to conjecture. It is quite certain that a period of from
four to six months elapsed between his leaving Capernaum for
the Passover at Jerusalem and his return to Galilee. Even
of his doings there is no hint, except only of his baptizing;
and this was not performed by himself, but by the hands of
his disciples. During these four or five months occurred the
other annual feasts of the Jewish year, — the Pentecost and
the Feast of Tabernacles. It is scarcely possible but that Je-
sus, being near to Jerusalem, and habitually observant of the
national customs, was present on these occasions in Jerusalem.
Yet no mention is made of it. Nor is it said that he preached
at all, or taught, or wrought a single miracle ; and yet it is
scarcely supposable that, after having entered on his ministry,
he should leave so many months utterly blank. It has been
suggested by Andrews that during this period may have begun
his acquaintance with the family of Lazarus, which afterward
constituted so remarkable a feature of his history, and was the
occasion of a miracle which gave the last impulse to the zeal
of his opponents, leading to his arrest and death.
If this reticence of the Evangelists arises from their pecu-
liarly un-literary and non-historic genius, it is not unbecoming
to the nature of Jesus. There was never so impersonal a per-
son as he. Although to an extraordinary degree full of outward
life and action, yet there was something in the elevation of
his nature which abstracts our thoughts from the outward form
of his life. As in the presence of a great picture we forget
the canvas, the paint, and the brush, and think only of the
events and objects themselves ; so Jesus leaves upon our minds
the impression not of the journeys, the acts, the words even,
but of the temper, the nobility of soul, the universal truths of
his life and teachings. He detaches himself from the world in
which he lived and through which he acted, as the perfume
tfh Hi
yiffi jraB/gr jubman ministry. 167
of fragrant vines abandons the flowers in which it was distilled
and fills the air.
Jesus was full of a generous enthusiasm for his own coun-
try and people. He was occupied until within two or three
years of his death in mechanical labors peculiar to his place
and time. He so shaped his teachings as to include in them
all the truths then unfolded among his countrymen, and he
identified himself with the common people in the use of their
customs, pursuits, domestic habits, and language ; so that he
was of all men a typical Jew, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. And
yet his life, written by four Evangelists, themselves Hebrews,
produces the effect, not of nationality, but of universality.
We do not think of him as a Jew, but as a man ; and each
race appropriates him, as if he interpreted their truest and
deepest conception of manhood. That which was peculiar to
his age and country seems to have withered and dropped away,
as leaves do when they have nourished the cluster, which could
not have ripened without them, but which, being grown, is un-
like them in form, in color, and in flavor.
The only incident mentioned by the Evangelists in connec-
tion with Christ's stay in Judaea is that he baptized there. Yet
it is expressly said, " Jesus himself baptized not, but his dis-
ciples." The use of water as a sign of ceremonial cleanness is
as old as the institutes of Moses, and probably was borrowed
from Egyptian customs. It may be said to be a custom almost
universal among Oriental nations. It was natural that water
should become in like manner a symbol and declaration of
moral purity. In this important element, the baptism of John,
the baptism of Jesus, and the baptism of the Apostles in the
early Church are substantially one. There was, undoubtedly,
a variation of formula. Paul says that John baptized a baptism
of repentance, and made his converts promise obedience to the
Saviour that was to come. No such formula could have been
used in the presence of the Saviour himself. Nor can we sup-
pose that the apostolic formula, by which candidates were bap-
tized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
could have been unfolded at this early period. But whatever
the formula, and whatever the specific variations, all these
forms of baptism were essentially one, and were but a token
ifi- ^ — -^
168 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
and announcement of moral changes begun or promised. It
was of powerful influence in giving decision and definiteness
to moral reformation. Good resolutions without action soon
melt away. Mere purposes of a better life change easily to
dreams and reveries. But men who have openly declared
their withdrawal from evil, and their adhesion to virtue and
piety, are committed before their fellows. After an open es-
pousal of religion, that pride and vanity which before resisted,
now fortify men's zeal.
It is, however, remarkable, that only in these early and
obscure periods of his ministry, and while he was in John's
neighborhood and surrounded by a community that had been
aroused by that bold and stern reformer, did Christ continue
in the use of baptism. There seems to have been a special
reason why he should drop it. A dispute arose between John's
disciples and those of Jesus " about purifying." What it was,
is not said. It is supposed to relate to some form of bap-
tizing. Where men had been trained in the school of the
Pharisee, it would not be hard to find occasion of difference.
The moral duty of accuracy in outward forms was the pecidiar
spirit of Pharisaism. Indifference to all religious forms, if only
the interior reality be present, was the spirit of Christ. To
him baptism was a secondary matter, incidental and declara-
tory. It was not an initiation, but the sign of one. It con-
veyed no moral change, but it was the profession of one. It
was an act which required a disclosure of feeling, the manifes-
tation of a purpose, commitment to a vital decision ; and so far
as by this outward action men could be aided in the struggles
of a new life, it was useful, — so far and no farther. Already
Jesus had expounded to Nicodemus the inoperative nature of
baptism as a mere sign of reformation : " Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God"; which is saying, in effect, Do not rest in the mere fact
that you have been baptized. John, indeed, baptized to repen-
tance and reformation. That is but the lowest step ; it is a
mere shadow and symbol. Hast thou been baptized ? That
is not enough. Except a man be born of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
But this long dispute that had begun between the disciples
-a
THE FIRST JUDJEAN MINISTRY. 169
of Jesus and of John is not ended yet. Which of two bap-
tisms is best, — either of which is good enough as a symbol,
and neither of which is good for anything else, — still engages
good men in conscientious and useless controversy. The Jews
who had been baptized by John thought, doubtless, that they
had been better baptized than those other Jews. who had been
baptized by the disciples of Jesus. It is very likely that there
was some slight difference in the way of handling the candi-
dates. Doubtless the words spoken over them in the formula
of baptism were a little different. But the Jews had been
reared to a ceremonial worship, and had become very rigorous
in the observance of each slightest particular of an external
service, lest the absence of any single particle would leave a
leak through which all the virtue would run out. Ceremonial-
ism tends to scrupulosity, and scrupulosity to superstition, and
superstition is idolatry. To this day men are yet camped down
beside the Jordan, disputing about baptism ; and now, as then,
in the full blaze of a system whose whole force is spiritual,
disciples are divided, not even on an ordinance, but on the
external method of its administration. Good men have in-
trenched their consciences behind an externality of an exter-
nality. Nor is the whole common spiritual wealth of Christian-
ity able to unite men who have quarrelled over the husk and
rind of a symbolical ordinance.
There came near being two sects. It needed only that the
leaders on this question of baptism should take sides with their
disciples effectually to split their common movement into two
warring halves. Jesus, seeing the danger, not only left the
neighborhood, but ceased baptizing. There is no record or hint
from this day that any of his disciples, or even that his own
Apostles, were baptized.
It is never easy for a master to see his authority waning and
another taking his place. Therefore when on this occasion
John's disciples resorted to him, saying, " He that was with
thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the
same baptizeth, and all men come to him," we see in his answer
a disposition worthy of the forerunner of Christ. Only the no-
blest natures so rejoice in the whole work of God on earth
that they are willing to "spend and be spent" for the sake
170 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
of the common good. John's camel's hair and food of the
wilderness were well enough ; his stern morality and burning
zeal in reforming his people were commendable ; but not all
of them revealed his true nobility as did the reply of this un-
sectarian leader to his sectarian disciples : "I am not the Christ.
I am sent before him. He must increase, I must decrease."
Thus John yielded up his place, even as a flower falls and dies
that it may give place to the fruit that swells beneath it. Nor
ought we to lose the beauty of that figure which John em-
ployed : " The friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and
heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's
voice : this my joy therefore is fulfilled." Jesus is the true
bridegroom, I am only his groomsman ; but I make his hap-
piness my own !
The time had come for Jesus to leave Judsea. Warned by
these disputes of the danger of a useless controversy, and per-
ceiving as well that his opportunity was not yet ripe, he pre-
pared to go home to Galilee. He felt the access of a larger
power. He had thus far pursued his work in a tentative way,
and without displaying those wonderful influences which so
often afterward swept everything before him. But as when he
came up from the Jordan the Spirit of God descended upon
him ; so a second time, now on the eve of his great missionary
circuit, his soul was wonderfully replenished and exalted. He
rose to a higher sphere. He took one more step back toward
his full original self. A portion of that might and majesty
which had been restrained by his mortal flesh was unfolding,
and he was to work with a higher power and upon a higher
plane than before.
By weaving together from the four Evangelists the account
of his departure, we shall get a clear view of the grounds on
which the above remarks are founded.
" Now after that John was put in prison, and Jesus had heard
that he was cast into prison, and when the Lord knew how the
Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more dis-
ciples than John (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his
disciples), he left Judasa, and departed again, and returned in the
power of the Spirit into Galilee."
CHAPTER XI.
THE LESSON AT JACOB'S "WELL.
FROM Jerusalem to Galilee the shortest and in many respects
the most interesting road ran directly north, along the high-
est ridge of the Judasan hills. This table-land was comparatively
narrow. On the east, its flank was cut by deep ravines running
down to the Jordan. On the west, another system of ravines
ran down to the great maritime plain. Along the upper line
between these gorges and valleys, the table-land was of variable
breadth, and in the time of our Lord was clothed with trees
and vines to an extent that can hardly be imagined by one
who views it in its present barren and desolate state.
This region, including the ravines and valleys shooting down
on either hand from the ridge, may be called the military
ground of Palestine. At almost every step one might here re-
call some famous conflict. It was along this plateau that Joshua
fought his chief battles. Here Saul triumphed, and here he was
finally overthrown and slain. Over this ground the ark went in
captivity to Philistia. David fought over every inch of this
territory, hid in its caves, wandered in its wilderness, and at
length secured peace from his enemies through their final over-
throw and subjugation. In his day Jerusalem, wholly wrested
from the Jebusites, became, the capital of the nation, which
reached the summit of its prosperity under the brilliant but
delusive reign of Solomon. The glory of that reign was autum-
nal, and presaged decay.
The very names of towns and cities on either side of this great
road are histories. Ai, — the first city conquered by Joshua, —
Gibeah, Mizpeh, Michmash,. Gibeon, Beth-horon, Bethel, Gilgal,
Shiloh, Shechem, and many others, could hardly fail to call up
to any intelligent Jew a host of historic remembrances. At
172 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Bethel (Luz) Abraham pitched his tent, finding then, as is still
found, excellent pasturage ; and here he and Lot separated.
This place was the annual resort of Samuel to judge Israel.
Here Jeroboam set up the golden calf, when he designed to
draw away the ten tribes from the worship of Jehovah. It was
a place of eminent sacredness in Jewish history, and the prophet
Amos (v. 5) sadly and solemnly predicts its ruin.
Under the palm-trees between Rama and Bethel, on the
mount of Ephraim, the prophetess Deborah sat and judged Is-
rael (Judges iv. 4, -v. 12). It was hard by Bethel, but east-
ward, that our Saviour, near the close of his life, took refuge
in the city of Ephraim — Ephron and Ophrah of the Old Tes-
tament — from the malice of his enemies in Jerusalem, and
thence crossed over Jordan to Peraea. The names of Abraham,
of Isaac, of Jacob, and of Joseph, — whose grave is near to
Shechem, — are associated with every step of the way. The
lapse of time has obliterated for us a thousand monuments and
landmarks which must have been fresh and vital in the day
when our Lord passed by them. Each bald rock had its tale,
every ravine its legend, every mountain peak its history. The
very trees, gnarled and lifted high on some signal hill, brought
to mind many a stirring incident. This was the road over
which Jesus himself had gone in his childhood with Mary and
with Joseph.
All modern travellers are enraptured with the beauty of the
vale in which Shechem stands. Coming down from the Judaean
hills, from among rocky passes and stinted arboreous vegetation,
the contrast at once presented of luxuriant fields of wheat and
barley, the silvery green of olive-trees, the fig, the oak, together
with the company of singing birds, would fill the sensitive mind
with delight. Van de Velde presents a striking picture, not
only of the beauty of the vale of Shechem, but of the atmos-
pheric appearance of Palestine in general, which is worthy of
preservation.
" The awful gorge of the Leontes is grand and bold beyond
description ; the hills of Lebanon, over against Sidon, are mag-
nificent and sublime ; the valley of the hill of Naphtali is rich
in wild oak forest and brush-wood ; those of Asher and Wady
Kara, for example, present a beautiful combination of wood and
THE LESSON AT JACOB'S WELL. 173
mountain stream in all the magnificence of undisturbed origi-
nality. Carmel, with its wilderness of timber trees and shrubs,
of plants and bushes, still answers to its ancient reputation for
magnificence.
" But the vale of Shechem differs from them all. Here there
is no wilderness, here there are no wild thickets, yet there is
always verdure, — always shade, not of the oak, the terebinth,
and the caroub-tree, but of the olive-grove, so soft in color, so
picturesque in form, that for its sake we can willingly dispense
with all other wood.
" Here there are no impetuous mountain torrents, yet there
is water, — water, too, in more copious supplies than anywhere
else in the land ; and it is just to its many fountains, rills, and
water-courses that the valley owes its exquisite beauty.
a There is a singularity about the vale of Shechem, and that
is the peculiar coloring which objects assume in it. You know
that wherever there is water the air becomes charged with wat-
ery particles, and that distant objects, beheld through that me-
dium, seem to be enveloped in a. pale blue or gray mist, such
as contributes not a little to give a charm to the landscape.
But it is precisely these atmospheric tints that we miss so much
in Palestine. Fiery tints are to be seen both in the morning
and the evening, and glittering violet or purple-colored hues
where the light falls next to the long, deep shadows ; but there
is an absence of coloring, and of that charming dusky haze in
which objects assume such softly blended forms, and in which
also the transition in color from the foreground to the farthest
distance loses the hardness of outline peculiar to the perfect
transparency of an Eastern sky.
"It is otherwise in the vale of Shechem, at least in the
morning and the evening. Here the exhalations remain hov-
ering among the branches and leaves of the olive-trees, and
hence that lovely bluish haze.
"The valley is far from broad, not exceeding in some places
a few hundred feet. This you find generally enclosed on all
sides: there likewise the vapors are condensed. And so you
advance under the shade of the foliage along the living waters,
and charmed by the melody of a host of singing birds, — for
they, too, know where to find their best quarters, — while the
174 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
perspective fades away, and is lost in the damp, vapory atmos-
phere." 1
At no other spot in Palestine, probably, could Jesus have more
fitly uttered his remarkable doctrine of the absolute liberty of
conscience from all thrall of place or tradition than here in She-
chem, where the whole Jewish nation, in a peculiar sense, had
its beginning. It was here that the great patriarch, Abraham,
made his first halt in Canaan, coming down from Damascus and
from Ur of the Chaldees, before any regular village existed
except the huddled tents of Bedouins. Here he built an altar
and worshipped. That faint smoke which lay in the air but
for a moment against the background of Gerizim or Ebal was
the prophecy of myriads of sacrificial fires in after ages, kindled
in this land by his posterity, to that God who was then for the
first time worshipped in Palestine. From Abraham to Christ
had been a long and weary way; but now the Messiah was
come, the last sacrifice. Thenceforth neither in this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem should men worship God, but under
every sky, in every spot where a true heart yearned or suf-
fered.
It was here that Jacob first pitched his tent, having parted
from Esau in safety, and come down to the Jordan through the
valley cleft by the river Jabbok. " And he bought a parcel
of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the
children of Hamor, Shechem-s father, for an hundred pieces of
money. And he erected there an altar, and called it El-Elohe-
Israel." "When the Israelites returned from Egypt and crossed
the Jordan, they lay for a time in the valley, thrusting out an
arm, as it were, to destroy the chief cities on the hills be-
tween what is now Jerusalem and Shechem. But the first per-
manent removal of the whole camp into the interior brought
them to this vale, and here they discharged their sacred trust,
and buried the bones of Joseph near the foot of the mountain.
It is one of the few burial-places of the earlier heroes of the
Hebrews which may be regarded as having been accurately pre-
served by tradition.
It was in this vale, and in the presence of these mountains,
Gerizim on the south and Ebal on the north, that the most
1 Van de Velde, I. 386, as quoted by Stanley.
-ft
THE LESSON AT JACOBS WELL. 175
august assembly which history has ever recorded was gathered
together. Before the tribes were separated and sent to their
respective allotments of territory, while yet the people were
living a camp life, — a vast camp of three million souls, — a
movable city, a wandering state, a nomadic commonwealth, —
it seemed desirable to produce upon their memory and their im-
agination a solemn impression, that should not wear out for gen-
erations, of their especial calling, of their eminent moral duties
as a peculiar nation, the people of Jehovah.
Into the narrow plain of Shechem came the whole nation. On
the north stood precipitous Ebal, over against it on the south
was Gerizim. The tribes were divided. Six tribes drew around
the base and lined the sides of the one mountain, and six
swarmed up, a million and a half of men, women, and children,
upon the other ; the ark, the priests and Levites, standing mid-
way between the two great mountains. Then the nation, with
a dramatic solemnity unparalleled, entered into a covenant with
God. All other historic assemblages sink into insignificance com-
pared with this. For grandeur it can be equalled only in the
representation of the great final Judgment day and the gor-
geous Apocalyptic visions. The whole Law was read by the
Levites, to its last words. Nor, from the accounts of travellers,
can there be a doubt that in the clear air of Palestine the
human voice could make itself distinctly audible through all
the vale and the mountain galleries, crowded with three million
people. The most striking, as doubtless it was the most thrilling,
part of the service followed the reading of the Law. Moses
had drawn up an inventory of blessings which should come up-
on the people if they kept the law ; and twice as many curses,
of extraordinary variety and bitterness, if they were unfaithful
to the Law. As each blessing was promised, all the people on
Gerizim shouted a cheerful Amen ! To the curses, a sullen Amen !
was echoed back from Ebal. Thus the mountains cried one to
the other, like the sound of many waters, in thunders of curses
and of blessings.
For a long time Shechem served as a kind of capital ; and
even after Jerusalem had become the chief and royal city, coro-
nations took place at Shechem, as if it had a relation to the
nation's history which gave it peculiar sanctity.
176 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Samaria was inhabited in the time of Christ by the descen-
dants of heathen nations, sent thither by the king of Babylon
to replace the Jews, of whom the land had been stripped bare
by Shalmaneser, B. C. 721. They had, however, endeavored to
adopt the Jewish worship without entirely relinquishing idola-
try. Being repelled by the Jews from all participation in the
building of the Temple at Jerusalem, they had built a temple
of their own upon Mount Gerizim, and claimed for it a sanctity
even greater than that of Jerusalem. The enmity between the
Jew and the Samaritan rose to such a pitch that they refused
all intercourse with each other. The education of the Jew made
him a very determined hater, and every patriotic impulse and
the whole fervor of his religious feeling quickened and intensi-
fied the hatred and contempt with which he looked upon a
mongrel race who practised idolatry, the greatest crime known
to the Jew, under the pretence of a rival worship of Jehovah.
There is no passion so strong in human nature as an educated
religious hatred. It was this national abhorrence that gave such
audacity to the parable of the Good Samaritan, uttered by our
Lord, and that marks the interview at Jacob's well.
There is no means of determining with exactness at what
time of the year Christ passed through Samaria, and conse-
quently scholars fix the time all along from November to March.
We incline to the opinion that it was not far from December.
With his few disciples, Jesus came from the mountain of Ephraim
into the plain of Shechem, and of course approached the passage
between Gerizim and Ebal at its eastern end. Robinson says
that Jacob's well is " on the end of a low spur or swell running
out from the northeastern base of Gerizim, and is still fifteen
or twenty feet above the level of the plain below." The whole
region around is alive with natural springs. Seventy distinct
fountains have been counted, some of them gushing with such
force and abundance, that, after supplying many houses and
gardens, the waste water is still sufficient to turn small mills.
This very abundance of springs has given rise to the doubt-
ing question, Why should Jacob dig a well ten feet in diameter,
to the depth of eighty-five feet, through solid rock, for the sake
of obtaining water, when already water bubbled up in extraor-
dinary abundance on every side ? The reason doubtless was,
ft
THE LESSON AT JACOB'S WELL. 177
that these natural fountains were already in possession of the
native population, who would be jealous of a foreigner whose
vast herds and flocks, and whose household servants and trained
bands, indicated a power and prosperity which they did not
altogether enjoy. In that land a well-spring was a valuable
private property, held by families and tribes very much as coal
and iron mines and water-powers are, in our day, owned by
companies. Besides, in the watering of Jacob's great flocks there
would be peculiar danger of quarrels and conflicts with native
herdsmen. It was like Jacob — a pacific and sagacious manager,
better fitted for keeping out of danger than for the display of
courage and the love of fighting — to provide a well of his own,
and thus to secure at the same time peace with his neighbors
and personal independence. This well is among the few me-
morials of the patriarchal period about which tradition is hardly
suspected of lying. It is safe to accept it as a gift to posterity
from the very hands of the most politic and worldly-wise of all
the Jewish patriarchs. Around it his own flocks have flourished.
He has himself stood at evening to see the eager herds rushing
to the stone troughs to slake their thirst. In that burning land
thirst was a torment, and its relief a great luxury. Indeed,
there are few of the lower sensations of enjoyment known to
man that equal the cup of cold water in the hour of thirst.
And he is not fit for pastoral life who does not take pleasure
in watching animals drink. We may be sure that Jacob often
stood by the watering-troughs to direct the orderly administra-
tion of things, and to watch the scene with quiet satisfaction.
Eagerly the cattle plunge their muzzles deep in the water.
They lift their heads for breath, the drops falling back to the
trough, flashing in the evening light like opals. They drink
again. They toss the water now with their lips in play. They
draw large draughts and stand long without swallowing, as if
to cool their throats, and slowly turn away, now full satisfied,
to couch down, with long-drawn breath, and rest for the night.
It were well for us if these simple rural tastes could supplant
the feverish pleasures of untimely hours in crowded towns,
where less of nature and more of man work corruption of
taste and of morals.
We love to think of this old well and its long work of mercy.
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178 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Through hundreds and through thousands of years at its brink
have stood old men, little children, weary pilgrims, fair maidens,
grim warriors, stately sheiks, dusty travellers, — all sorts and
conditions of the East and of the West. It gave forth its water
to the good and bad alike. It not improbably crowned its be-
neficence by furnishing to the prophet the suggestion of " wells
of salvation," which in time were transferred to the ideal city,
the great overhanging Home of mankind; and the message of
God in the Revelation closes with the voice of one crying to
the whole earth, for all time, " And the Spirit and the bride
say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him
that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the
water of life freely."
On the route which Jesus had chosen from Judsea to Galilee
" he must needs pass through Samaria." It was the shortest
and easiest road. Yet such was the animosity of Jews towards
Samaritans that for the most part the Jews preferred the cir-
cuitous road through Persea, east of the Jordan. The Decem-
ber sun was not so fervid as to forbid travelling through the
whole day. It was about noon when Jesus came to Jacob's
well. There was a stone platform about it, and doubtless other
provision was made for the comfort of travellers. Here Jesus
rested while his disciples went on to Sychar to buy food. The
town of Shechem, like its modern successor Nablous, was two
miles from the well, and Sychar was probably the name for a
neighborhood attached to Shechem, but much nearer to the well.
Every considerable place will be found to have nicknames for
such outlying settlements, and Sychar was probably such a one.
Jesus had not been long there before a Samaritan woman ap-
proached to draw water, and was surprised that a stranger, and
he a Jew, should say to her, " Give me to drink." Although
an easy, good-natured creature, and too fond of society, no one
should say that she had not shown a proper spirit in standing
up for the right of all Samaritans to hate Jews ! " How is it
that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, who am a woman
of Samaria? "
Christ was conscious of the contrast in himself between ap-
pearance and reality. He felt the Divine nature within, yet to
the eye there was no divinity. The woman's reply touched that
THE LESSON AT JACOB'S WELL. 179
consciousness of his real superior existence. "If thou knewest
the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to
drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have
given thee living water."
We see in this conversation again the very same subtile play
of thought between the material and its spiritual counterpart
which was shown in the conversations with Nicodemus and with
the questioners in the Temple. Jesus seems like one who
thought on two different planes. He recognized the qualities
and the substance of this world as they appeared to his follow-
ers, while their outcome and value and meaning in the spirit-
ual life was his real and inner interpretation of them. This
doubleness we often see in parents, or in benevolent teachers of
children, who go along with the child's understanding, and yet
perceive that things are not as the child thinks them to be, and
their consciousness plays back and forth between the child's
imperfect sense of truth and their own truer judgment of reality.
Jesus seemed to the woman to be talking about real water.
The term "living water" has not necessarily a spiritual signifi-
cance. Living water was perhaps to her ears spring-water, for
nothing seems more alive than running water; and her mind
was divided between respect and curiosity. At any rate, she
now bethinks herself of his title, and calls him Master, or, as in
the English version, Sir. " Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with,
and the well is deep : from whence then hast thou that living
water ? " And then looking upon the traveller, and in her mind
contrasting his helpless appearance with the grand ideas enter-
tained by her people of the old patriarch Jacob, she adds,. with
a spice of humor, "Art thou greater than our father Jacob,
which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his
children, and his cattle ? " Without doubt, she regarded this
answer as peculiarly effective from a Samaritan to a Jew, inas-
much as she had given him to understand, Jew as he was, that
Jacob was also the Samaritan's father, and that the detested
Samaritan owned the patriarch's very well, so that thirsty Jews
were obliged to come begging a drink of the very people whom
they despised as outcasts from Israel and^ out of covenant with
God. If such was her feeling, the reply of Jesus put it all away,
and brought her to a different mind. Without noticing her im-
180 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
plied taunts, and now beginning to let her see that- he was not
talking of the water in Jacob's well, but of some other, — what
other she could not imagine, — he said: "Whosoever drinketh
of this water shall , thirst again : but whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst ; but the water that
I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting life."
As the body thirsts, and is contented with water, so there is
for unanswered yearning, for unsatisfied desires, for all that
restlessness and craving of feeling, for the thirst of the soul, a liv-
ing water which shall quiet them ; not as water quiets the body,
.that thirsts again in an hour, but with an abiding and eternal
satisfaction. This is indeed that "gift of God" which, had she
known, would have made her suppliant to him. Even yet how
few know it ! How few among Christian believers have entered
into that rest of soul, that trust and love, which come from the
Divine Spirit, and which, when once the Holy Spirit has fully
shined and brought summer to the soul, will never depart from
it, but will be an eternal joy !
None of all this, however, did she understand. Perhaps, while
Christ was speaking, she revolved in her mind the convenience
of the new sort of water which this man spoke of, and what
a treasure it would be if, when the summer came on, she need
not trudge wearily to this well. At any rate, she seems to have
replied in a business-like spirit: "Sir, give me this water, that
I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." There are many like
her, who would be glad of such a Divine gift of religion as
should take away all labor and trouble of Christian life. " That
I come not hither to draw " is the desire of thousands who want
the results of right living without the trouble of living aright.
But it was time to bring home the truth to her conscience,
instead of discussing themes which this poor pleasure-loving
creature could understand even less than Nicodemus. As if he
were about to comply with her request for this gift of living
water, (by which very likely she understood that he would dis-
cover to her a new and near spring, bubbling up close at hand
near her dwelling,) he says to her pointedly, " Go, call thy hus-
band." There must have been in the tone and manner some-
thing which startled her ; for evidently this adroit woman was,
THE LESSON AT JACOB'S WELL. . 181
for the moment, thrown off her guard. Instead of waiving the
demand, or seeming to evade it, she with some sense of shame
hastily replied, " I have no husband." Like an arrow well aimed
from a strong bow the words of Jesus struck home to her con-
science. " Thou hast well said, I have no husband : for thou hast
had five husbands ; and he whom thou now hast is not thy hus-
band : in that saidst thou truly."
It was but a second of confusion. The woman was of nimble
thought, and had been practised in quick ways. There is great
diplomacy in her recognizing the truth of the allegation in a
way of compliment to this stranger, rather than of shame to
herself : K Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." And then,
with fluent dexterity, she eludes the personal topic and glides
into the stock argument between the Jew and the Samaritan.
Nor can we help noticing the consummate tact with which she
managed her case. " Our fathers worshipped in this mountain."
And there, right before them, rose Mount Gerizim, its temple
blazing in the midday sun, and beginning already to cast its
shadows somewhat toward the east. The argument, too, of " our
fathers" has always proved strong. Opinions, like electricity, are
supposed to descend more safely along an unbroken chain. That
which "our fathers" or our ancestors believed is apt to seem
necessarily true ; and the longer the roots of any belief, the more
flourishing, it is supposed, will be its top. " Our fathers wor-
shipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the
place where men ought to worship." This was the bone of con-
tention. "Worship had ceased to be the offering of the heart,
and had become a superstition of places and external methods.
The reply of Jesus is striking in its appeal to her fqr cre-
dence : " Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall
neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the
Father." This answer was not in the spirit of the Greek phi-
losophy, which was the parent of scepticism ; nor in the Orien-
tal spirit, which was full of superstition ; nor in the Eoman spirit,
which was essentially worldly and unreligious ; and far less did
it breathe the contemporary Jewish spirit, whether of Pharisee
or of Sadducee. It expresses the renunciation of the senses in
worship. It throws back upon the heart and soul of every one,
whoever he may be, wherever he may be, the whole office of
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182 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE OHBIST.
worship. It is the first gleam of the new morning. No longer
in this nest alone, or in that, shall religion be looked for, but,
escaping from its shell, heard in all the earth, in notes the
same in every language, flying unrestrained and free, the whole
heavens shall be its sphere and the whole earth its home.
But, for a moment restraining these imperial views, Jesus de-
clares that in so far as the truth taught at Mount Zion is to
be compared with that at Gerizim, Jerusalem is nearer the truth
of God than Shechem. "Ye worship ye know not what: we
know what we worship ; for salvation is of the Jews." He thus
authenticates the religion of the old dispensation, identifies him-
self with the Jews as distinguished from the Samaritans, and
witnesses to the essential truth of their views of God and of
Divine government. Resuming again the theme of religion set
free from all external constraints and all superstitions of place
and method, he adds : " But the hour cometh, and now is,
when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth : for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God
is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth." Henceforth religion shall be personal, not official.
Sobered by the impressive manner of Jesus, and having an
indistinct feeling of a great truth in his teaching, the woman
waives the dispute, and, catching at his repeated allusion to
the new coming future, safely closes her part in saying, " I
know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ : when he is
come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee am he." But just then came the disciples, and
we. have never ceased to wish that they had stayed away a little
longer, for the conversation had reached a point at which one is
breathless for the next sentence. The disciples were curious
and surprised to find their Master thus engaged, and would
have asked inquisitively what he was talking about ; but there
was something in his manner which checked familiarity. "No
man said, Why talkest thou with her ? "
"Whether Jesus received at the hands of the woman the cov-
eted draught of water, we know not. Carried away by the
thoughts of the new heaven and the new earth, in the glo-
rious efflux of the spirit of life and liberty he may have for-
gotten his bodily thirst.
ft
-a
THE LESSON AT JACOB'S WELL. 183
It is certain that the excitement of his soul so wrought upon
his body as to take away his desire for food, for, when his dis-
ciples urged him to eat, his enigmatical reply was, " I have
meat to eat that ye know not of." And they, in their sim-
plicity, asked whether any one had brought food to him. Then
he declared that not bread, but work, was his food. He felt the
power of the Spirit. His own spirit was kindled, and streamed
forth toward the field of labor, which was ripe and waiting for
the sickle of the truth. The vale of Shechem was famous for
its grain-fields. They stretched out before his eye in the ten-
der green of their first sprouting. Seizing the scene before
him, as he was wont to do for figure, parable, or theme, he
said, K Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh
harvest ? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes and look on
the fields ; for they are white already to harvest."
Thus, while his words seemed to hold on to the visible field
of young grain, his meaning had really glanced off to the tran-
scendent field of moral life. We saw the same method in his
reply to the scribes in the Temple, and we shall find it a pe-
culiarity of his genius, which appears in all the Gospels, but
which John alone seems to have reproduced fully.
The woman was profoundly affected by the surprising inter-
view. She hastened back to her friends, not to boast a tri-
umph, but to call them out to see a man " that told me all
things that ever I did." There are certain experiences which
stand for the whole of one's life. It may be a great love, or
a great defeat and mortification, or a great crime, or a meas-
ureless sorrow, or a joy lost irrecoverably ; whatever it may
be, there are experiences which epitomize our whole life, and
represent to our memory the very substance of life, every-
thing besides being incidental and accessory. And he that
touches that hidden life seems to have revealed everything.
This woman's domestic career had been such as to show the
channel in which her nature ran. A single sentence told her
that the stranger knew her spirit and disposition. It was not
his words alone, but with them there was a judicial solemnity,
a piercing eye that seemed to her to search her very soul, a
manner which showed that he sorrowed for her, while he was
exposing her career. And yet she had lived unabashed and
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184 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
content with herself. The whole narrative shows a woman not
utterly sunk in evil, careful yet of appearances, — a woman
quick of thought, fertile in expedient, and possessed of much
natural force, — just such a one as might have had five hus-
bands. Love had not taught her delicacy or purity. One does
not think pleasantly of five successive marriages, and is not sur-
prised that her last choice had not even the pretence of mar-
riage. Yet this shrewd but pleasure-loving woman could not
refrain among her townspeople from crying out, " Is not this
the Christ ? " Thereupon the citizens rushed out " and came
unto him"; they surrounded him with entreaties — he too a
Jew, and they Samaritans ! — that he would come home with
them and tarry. For two days he stayed with them. His
works and his discourses are not recorded. The effects of them,
however, are : many believed ; many whose curiosity had been
excited by the enthusiasm of the woman exchanged curiosity
for a moral conviction that this was indeed the Christ, the
Saviour of the world.
We thus behold Jesus at the beginning of his more open min-
istry setting himself against the secularization of the Temple
and the superficial morality of the Pharisee, turning his back
upon Jerusalem, and with it upon the strongest national pas-
sion, namely, the sense of superlative Jewish excellence, and
the bitter hatred of Gentiles, and, above all other Gentiles, of
the Samaritans. Patriotism among the Jews had lost all kindli-
ness, and was made up of intense conceit and hatred. To resist
this spirit, according to all worldly calculations, was to subject
himself and his cause, in the very beginning, to overwhelming
obloquy. Of this Jesus could not have been ignorant. He
needed no experience to teach him that his countrymen, by a
vicious interpretation of their Scriptures, and by their peculiar
sufferings in captivity and under the yoke at home, had come
to regard a malign and bitter hatred of all Gentiles not only
as compatible with religion, but as the critical exercise of it,
as the fulfilment of its innermost spirit. " Thou shalt love thy
neighbor, arid hate thine enemy."
Even common prudence, the simple instinct of safety, would
have inclined a mere man to avoid offending, at any rate on
the threshold, the strongest impulses of the most religious por-
ft
THE LESSON AT JACOB'S WELL. 185
tion of his people, especially when it needed only that he
should take the right-hand road and go by the valley of the
Jordan, or through Pertea to Galilee, instead of going through
Samaria. But he chose to go through Samaria. When a wo-
man doubly abhorrent to the precisionists — both as a Samari-
tan and as one of loose morals — drew near him, he asked the
boon of water, and thus gave her leave to enter into conver-
sation with him, and treated her, not as a sinner, but as a
human being, all the more needy because she was culpable ;
he sent his disciples to buy food at a Samaritan town, though
"the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans"; and finally,
though right from Jerusalem and from the Temple, to the hor-
ror of every right-minded Pharisee he accepted the hospitality
of the Samaritans, slept under their roofs, ate at their tables,
taught in their streets, and altogether treated them as if they
were as good as Jews !
Here, then, " the middle wall of partition " began to be
broken down. In the Temple, between the Court of the Gen-
tiles and the next inner court described in our last chapter,
was a marble screen or curiously carved fence, some two feet
high, beyond which no Gentile could venture. Had a Samari-
tan put his foot inside of that " wall of partition " he would
have been whirled away in a fury of rage, and stoned to death
in the twinkling of an eye. But Jesus was treading down
that partition wall. He that was himself the spiritual coun-
terpart of the Temple was admitting Samaritans within the
pale of Divine sympathy and love.
This visit in Samaria is of singular importance, at the open-
ing of Christ's ministry, in two respects : first, as a deliberate re-
pudiation and rebuke of the exclusiveness of the Jewish Church ;
and secondly, and even more significantly, as to the humane
manner of his treatment of a sinning woman. He knew her
tainted life. He knew that the whole world smiles upon the
act of degrading a woman, and that the whole world puts the
double sin upon her alone, hardly esteeming her paramour guilty
at all, but counting her sin utterly unforgivable. He who after-
wards said, "The publicans and harlots shall go into the king-
dom of God before you," here made it manifest that sin does
not remove the sinner from Divine sj^mpathy and love. Christ
186 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
treated not this careless, shrewd, dexterous woman of the world
with scorn or bitter rebuke. He made himself her companion.
That which was Divine in him had fellowship with that which
was human in her. His soul went out to her, not as a fire to
consume, but as a purifying flame. This experience was a fit
prelude to his now opening public life. It was the text from
which flowed two distinguishing elements of his ministry, —
sympathy for mankind, and the tenderest compassion for those
who have sinned and stumbled. It revealed God's heart, sent
the prophetic beam of reconciliation to each soul, and was the
promise of that one family in Christ Jesus that was to comprise
every nation and people on the globe.
It has been objected to this narrative, that it is not probable
that Jesus would have gone into such profound discourse with a
woman, a stranger, not capable of understanding his meaning,
and wholly unworthy, in any point of view, of receiving such
attention. It certainly is not probable, if we reason according
to the common tendencies of human nature. Men reserve their
fine speeches for fine men, and their philosophy for philosophers.
Had the mission of Christ followed human notions, it would have
differed in every particular from its real history. But certainly
this elevated doctrine delivered to the light-living woman of
Samaria is in strict analogy with the other acts of Jesus. Mod-
ern critics are not the first to make such objections to his career.
His contemporaries reproached him for this very thing, namely,
consorting with publicans and sinners, and he made the noble
reply, " I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repen-
tance." If to any this familiarity seems discordant and repul-
sive, they have occasion to look well to their own hearts. Such
a course would be apt to offend pride and spiritual conceit; it
could not but harmonize with a spirit of pure benevolence.
It is interesting to contrast these two conversations of Jesus,
that with Nicodemus and that with the nameless woman of Sa-
maria. Nicodemus was a man of rank and consideration; the
woman was of the lower order of an outcast people. He was
cultivated, reflective, and eminently moral ; she was ignorant,
unspiritual, and unvirtuous. Far apart as they were in all ex-
ternal proprieties, both of them had been caught in the snare of
selfishness. He had biult up a life for himself, and she for her-
THE LESSON AT JACOB'S WELL. 187
self. He was selfish through his intellectual and moral nature,
and she through her senses and passions. Outwardly they were
far apart; as a member of society she fell sadly below him ; but
in the sight of God both were alike sinful. It was not needful
to argue this with her ; conscience already condemned her. But
to Nicodemus it was necessary to say, " Ye must be born again."
He was probably more surprised at the truth when he under-
stood its spiritual meaning than when he stumbled at it as a
physiological proposition. There is but one message to the high
and to the low. All are crude, undeveloped, sinful. Only by
the Spirit of God can any one rise to that true life, whose fruit
is truth and purity, joy and peace.
We are not to claim originality for the truths disclosed in
the discourse at the well. The spirituality of God, the fact that
religion is an affection of the soul, and not a routine of action, —
that God is a universal God, the same everywhere, accessible to
all of every nation without other labor than that of lifting up
pure thoughts to him, and that he dwells in heaven yet is pres-
ent everywhere, so that no one need seek him on the high
mountain, nor in any special temple, but may find him near,
in their very hearts, — this was taught by all the prophets, —
by Samuel as really as by Isaiah, by Moses as clearly as by his
successors.
But the knowledge was practically lost. If the clearer minds
of a few discerned it, yet it was to the many indistinct, being
veiled, and even buried, by the ritual, the priestly offices, and
the superstitious sanctity given to temples and altars. Men felt
that in some mysterious way they derived a fitness to approach
God by what the altar, the priest, or the influences of the sacred
place did for them. That a holy God demanded purity in those
who approached him, they knew ; but they did not realize that
he himself purified by his very presence those who came to him.
The filial relationship of every human heart to God did not
enter the moral consciousness of men until they learned it in
Jesus Christ. In him every man became a priest, his heart an
altar, and his love and obedience the only offerings required.
Men were loosed from the ministration of ordinances, of rituals,
of days, moons, and the whole paraphernalia of a gorgeous and
laborious external system, and henceforth the poor, the untaught,
188
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE GHEIST.
the sinful, had a God near at hand and easy of access. He was
no longer to be regarded as a monarch, but as a Father. No
longer was it to be taught that he reigned to levy exactions,
but to pour boundless treasure out of his own heart upon the
needy. God sought those who before sought him. The priest
stood no nearer to God than the humblest peasant. God was as
near to the Magdalen as to- the Virgin Mary. He was pre-
sented to the heart and imagination as the great Helper.
The qualification for approach to him was simply need. They
stood nearest to Divine mercy that needed most.
W
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CHAPTER XII.
EARLY LABOES IN GALILEE.
BAD as the Samaritans were esteemed to be by the Jews,
they excelled the people of Jerusalem both in cordial re-
ception of the truth and in hospitality. There is no narrative
of Christ's words or actions during the two days which he was
persuaded to tarry in Samaria, but some idea may be formed of
his teachings from the conversations held with Nicodemus and
with the Woman at the Well. The lost discourses of Jesus were
far more numerous than those which have been preserved, and
one cannot refrain from regret that so much inimitable teach-
ing served but the purpose of the hour, and passed out of mind
without an authentic memorial.
Leaving Samaria, he bent his steps toward Galilee as toward
a shelter. Although it was like drawing near to his home, yet
his original home, Nazareth, seems never to have had attrac-
tions for him, or to have deserved his regard. He gave as a
reason for not returning there, that a "prophet hath no honor
in his own country." But he was cordially received in other
parts of Galilee. The echo of his doings in Jerusalem had come
down to the provinces. Many Jews from this region had been
at Jerusalem, and had both heard him and seen his works.
What was probably more to the purpose, they had heard the
opinions of the chief men of the Temple, who, though in watch-
ful suspense, were hoping that he might prove to be the longed
^
190 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
for Leader and Deliverer. The tacit approval of the Scribes
and Pharisees of Jerusalem would go far with the devout pro-
vincial Jews.
Probably attracted by the cordiality of friends in Cana, where
he had wrought his first miracle, Jesus repaired thither. But
he had now become a celebrity. It was known in all the region
that he had returned from Jerusalem. And here we come upon
one of those striking scenes of which we shall see so many
during his career, — pictures they seem, rather than histories.
Out of the nameless crowd some striking figure emerges, — a
ruler, a centurion, a maniac, a foreign woman. Under the eye
of Christ these personages glow for a moment with intense in-
dividuality, and then sink back into obscurity. No history
precedes them; no after account of them is given. Like the
pictures which the magic lantern throws upon the screen, they
seem to come from the air and to melt again into nothing ;
and yet, while they remain, every line is distinct and every
color intense.
Such a picture is that afforded by the courtier of Capernaum.
A " nobleman " he is miscalled in the English version ; prob-
ably he was only a house-officer under Herod Antipas, but with
some pretensions to influence. In common with others, he had
heard of Jesus ; and, as rumor always exaggerates, he doubtless
supposed that the new prophet had performed more cures than
at that time he had done. This officer, who Avould at other times
have listened to Jesus only as a fashionable man would listen
to a wandering magician, for the diversion of a spare moment,
had a son lying at the point of death with a fever, — that
plague of Capernaum. Sorrow makes men sincere, and anguish
makes them earnest. The courtier sought out this Jesus; and
as in critical danger the proudest men are suppliant to the
physician, so he " besought him that he would come down and
heal his son." To heal that boy was easy ; yet, as if the boon
were far too small for the generosity of his heart, Jesus pur-
posed not only to restore the child to his parent, but to send
back a more excellent father to the child. And so, that he
might awaken his better nature and prepare him to receive the
bounty, not as a matter of course but as a gift of God, he
dealt with his petitioner as fond parents do with their children,
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EARLY LABORS IN GALILEE. 191
when they excite their eagerness and their pleasure by holding
the coveted gift above their reach, and cause them to vibrate
between desire and doubt. "Except ye see signs and wonders,
ye will not believe."
The mere thought of losing his boy through an unbeliev-
ing spirit seemed to touch the father's very heart, and with-
out protestations he showed his faith by bursting out into an
agony of imperious persuasion : " Sir, come down ere my child
die ! "
It was enough. The fountain was stirred. Jesus did better
than he was asked. Instead of going to Capernaum, twenty-
five miles distant, his spirit darted healing power, and he dis-
missed the believing parent: "Go thy way; thy son liveth."
That the father believed truly is plain in that he accepted
the word without a doubt, and turned homeward with all haste,
as one who fears no evil. It was about one o'clock when the
conference -with Christ took place ; and the next day in the
afternoon, as he was on the road, his servants met him with
"Thy son liveth," and upon inquiry they informed him that
"yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." This is
the more remarkable, because it departed in the very heat and
glow of the day, as well as at the very hour when Jesus said,
"Thy son liveth." From that moment the courtier became a
believing disciple, and with him his whole household. Thus
the passing sickness of one is blessed to the spiritual restora-
tion of a whole family. Sorrows are often precursors of mercy.
Those are blessed troubles which bring Christ to us. But for
that boy's deathly sickness, the father might have missed his
own immortality. By it he saved his own soul and the souls
of his household, and not only recovered his son, but dwells
with him eternally. For " himself believed, and his whole
house." 1
1 Many commentators have supposed that this incident is the same as that recorded
by Matthew and Luke. (Matt. viii. 5-13; Luke vii. 1-10.) But the differences are
utterly irreconcilable. In one case it was a Roman centurion, in the other an officer of
Herod's household, that solicited Christ's interference. The courtier's son was sick ; the
centurion's servant. The centurion sent the elders of the Jews to Jesus ; the courtier
came himself. The courtier besought Christ to come to his house, but his child was
healed from a distance ; Jesus offered to go to the centurion's house, but, with extreme
humility, that officer declared himself unworthy of such a guest, and besought him, with
a striking military figure, to heal his servant by a word. The points of resemblance are
192 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
But the time must come when Jesus should preach in the
town where his childhood and much of his early manhood were
spent. Not long after this act of mercy to the servant of Herod,
Jesus came to Nazareth. On the Sabbath he entered the syna-
gogue familiar to him from his youth. The scene which took
place is one of the most remarkable in this period of his his-
tory. His life was imperilled in an unlooked for uproar which
broke out in the synagogue when he was conducting the service.
For the Jewish synagogue had no ordained and regular minis-
ter ; the ruler, and in his absence the elders, twelve of whom
sat upon the platform where the reading-desk was placed, called
from the congregation any person of suitable age and character
who could read fluently and expound with propriety the lessons
of the Law and the Prophets. 1
few, and such as might easily occur where so many miracles were wrought. The diver-
gences are so marked that to make the cases one and the same would introduce difficulties
where none really exist, except in the imagination of commentators.
1 We quote a brief extract from Kitto's Biblical Cyclopaedia (Art. " Synagogue," by
Christian D. Ginsburg), to illustrate the reading of the Scriptures by Christ : —
" To give unity and harmony to the worship, as well as to enable the congregation to
take part in the responses, it was absolutely necessary to have one who should lead the
worship. Hence, as soon as the legal number required for public worship had assembled,
the ruler of the synagogue, or in his absence the elders, delegated one of the congregation
to go up before the ark to conduct divine service.
" The function of the apostle of the ecclesia was not permanently vested in any single
individual ordained for this purpose, but was alternately conferred upon any lay member
who was supposed to possess the qualifications necessary for offering up prayer in the
name of the congregation. This is evident from the reiterated declarations both in the
Mishna and the Talmud.
" Thus we are told that any one who is not under thirteen years of age, and whose
garments are not in rags, may officiate before the ark ; that ' if one is before the ark
(ministers for the congregation), and makes a mistake (in the prayer), another one is to
minister in his stead, and he is not to decline it on such an occasion.' ' The sages have
transmitted that he who is asked to conduct public worship is to delay a little at first,
saying that he is unworthy of it ; and if he does not delay he is like unto a dish wherein
is no salt, and if he delays more than is necessary he is like unto a dish which the salt
hath spoiled.'
" How is he to do it ? The first time he is asked, he is to decline ; the second time,
he is to stir ; and the third time, he is to move his legs and ascend before the ark. Even
on the most solemn occasions when the whole congregation fasted and assembled with the
president and vice-president of the Sanhedrim for national humiliation and prayer, no
stated minister is spoken of; but it is said that one of the aged men present is to de-
liver a penitential address, and another is to offer up the solemn prayers.
" It was afterwards ordatned that, ' even if an elder or sage is present in the congre-
gation, he is not to be asked to officiate before the ark, but that man is to be delegated
who is apt to officiate, who has children, whose family are free from vice, who has a
proper beard, whose garments are decent, who is acceptable to the people, who has a
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EARLY LABORS IN GALILEE. 193
On the morning of the Sabbath referred to, Jesus was called
to conduct the service. After the liturgical services were fin-
ished, which consisted of Psalms and prayers, said and chanted
responsively by the reader and the congregation, he proceed-
ed to read the lesson for the day from the Prophets. It so
happened that Isaiah was read, and the portion for the day
contained these remarkable words, mainly as rendered in the
Septuagint : —
" The spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;
He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted,
To preach deliverance to the captives,
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
To understand the force of these words, one must read the
context in the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah, and consider that it
is the culmination of all the glowing promises of this great
prophet respecting the Messiah. When Jesus had finished read-
ing and had shut the book, there seems to have come over him
a change such as his countenance often assumed. Before he
uttered a word further, such was his appearance that "the eyes
of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him."
Nor was the wonder decreased when he broke silence, saying,
"This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." There must
have been not only great majesty in his manner, but also great
sweetness, for a thrill went through the audience, and they all
"bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which
proceeded out of his mouth " : nothing could so touch the Jew-
ish heart as an intimation that the Messiah was near or was
come.
It was but a transient feeling, more a testimony to the power
of him who was teaching than to their own docility ; for in a
moment more it came over the congregation, that, after all, this
was but their old townsman. Their vanity was wounded, and
the more vulgar among them began to whisper, "Is not this
Joseph's son ? " " Is not this the carpenter's son ? " Others con-
good and amiable voice, who understands how to read the Law, the Prophets, and the
Hagiographa, who is versed in the homiletic, legal, and traditional exegesis, and who
knows all the benedictions of the service.' "
tfl-
194
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
firmed it, for " Is not his mother called Mary ? " Everybody
knew him and his family, and the poor way in which they
had always lived. They knew " his brethren, James and Joses
and Simon and Judas, and his sisters." Out of such a common
set it was not likely that a prophet would arise, particularly
when it was known how little education Jesus had received.
Where did he get his learning ? How should our plain towns-
man be able to do the mighty works that we have heard of his
performing ? " Whence hath this man this wisdom ? "
Jesus did not resent their unfavorable speeches concerning his
mother and her family. Had he chosen, he could have made
his townsmen enthusiastic in his behalf, by doing some "mighty
work" which, making Nazareth famous, would give every one
of his old neighbors some participation in its glory. But already
pride and vanity were their bane. It was better that they
should be mortified, and not inflated still more. Jesus perceived
their spirit, and revealed it in his reply : " Ye will surely say
unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we
have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country."
That is, You do not care for me, or for the truth ; but you are
jealous of a neighboring town, and angry because I do not make
as much of Nazareth as of Capernaum. You think that I am
not a Divine teacher because I pass by my own town. But
thus God often administers. He passed by the whole Jewish
nation, when, during the great famine, by his prophet Elijah he
held communion with a Phoenician widow, though there was
many a Hebrew widow in the land. Also he passed by the
thousands of lepers in that region, and healed a Syrian, Naaman,
who was at that very time chief officer to a heathen king holding
Israel in subjugation.
These words were like flame upon stubble. The love of
country among the Jews was a fanaticism. It carried with it
a burning hatred of foreigners, as heathen, which no prudence
could restrain. Every year this ferocious spirit broke out, and
was put down by the slaughter of hundreds and thousands of
Jews. It made no difference. Like the internal fires of the
globe, it burned on, even when no eruption made it manifest.
The historical facts alleged could not be gainsaid ; but the use
of them to show that God cared for other nations, even at the
k
Vicinity oliK^^ABETH_%C 4g§ SBHAIJM ^GAMPSE
Canstrxtripd. hyAJLIUavi
EXPRESSLY FOR H.W.BEECHERS "LIFE OFJESUS.THE CHRIST
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EARLY LABORS IN GALILEE.
195
expense of the Jews, produced a burst of uncontrollable fury.
The meeting broke up in a fierce tumult. Jesus was seized by
the enraged crowd that went shouting through the street, and
hurried toward one of the many precipitous ledges of the moun-
tainous hill on whose sides Nazareth was built, that they might
cast him down headlong. They were dragging him hastily on-
ward, when, behold, the men let go their hold, and no one dared
to brave his eye. "Passing through the midst of them, he went
his way." 1
It may seem to be not in accordance with the manifest pru-
dence of Jesus to bring on an attack by such pungent discourse
in his own town, when he had just left Judaea on account of
the danger of collision with the leading men, and had taken
refuge in Galilee as being safer, and as affording him oppor-
tunity to unfold the great spiritual truths which carried the
world's life in them. Where and when he should preach were
certainly matters of discretion ; but what he should preach could
not be left to expediency. That his truth would be disagree-
able to his hearers, and provoke opposition, never deterred him
from pungent personal discourse. If the resistance was such as
to be likely to bring his ministry prematurely to an end, he
removed to some other place, but did not change the search-
ing character of his teaching. The outburst of wounded vanity
and of fanatical religious zeal among his ignorant and turbulent
fellow-townsmen would have little effect outside of Nazareth.
Such an uproar in Jerusalem might have driven him from Ju-
daea, and even from Palestine. Nazareth was not Jerusalem.
Much question has arisen respecting the position of the de-
clivity toward which the enraged Jews were bearing Jesus.
From the modern village, it is two miles to the precipice which
overhangs the valley of Esdraelon. Thomson says that near to
this precipice his guide pointed out the ruins of the ancient
1 This scene is given by Luke (iv. 16-30) and by Matthew (xiii. 53-58). Many com-
mentators regard these as separate occasions, placing the scene as given by Matthew
much later in the history. It seems scarcely possible that two visits should have been
made to Nazareth, not only with the same general results, but with questions and answers
almost identical ; especially that the proverb used by Jesus in, reply to his envious towns-
men should serve both occasions. There are no difficulties which compel the harmonist
to make two separate scenes of this kind, and every probability requires them to be the
same ; though, in narration, each Evangelist, as would be natural, gives some particulars
omitted by the other.
196
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
village of Nazareth, which in that case was much farther south
than the present site. But the point is not essential. Naza-
reth is built upon the side of a mountainous ridge/ which,
wherever the ancient village was placed, — for it was but a
hamlet, — furnishes enough places for the purpose intended by
the Nazarenes. It was not for landscape effect, but for an. ex-
ecution, that the crowd were looking for a ledge, and twenty
feet was as good for such a purpose as fifty; especially if the
plunge were followed by stones, — a method of terminating a
discussion with which the Jews were quite familiar. 1
1 W. H. Dixon, mThe Holy Land, gives a striking view of Nazareth: —
" Four miles south of the strong Greek city of Saphoris, hidden away among gentle
hills, then covered from the base to the crown with vineyards and fig-trees, lay a natural
nest, or basin, of rich red and white earth, star-like in shape, about a mile in width, and
wondrously fertile. Along the scarred and chalky slope of the highest of these hills spread
a small and lovely village, which, in a land where every -stone seemed to have a story, is
remarkable as having had no public history and no distinguishable native name. No great
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EARLY LABORS IN GALILEE. 197
If we regard the three accounts of the transaction at Nazareth
as referring to the same visit, it is plain that Jesus did not leave
the village immediately. We are not obliged to suppose that
he escaped from the murderous hands of his townsmen by a
miracle. Some have believed that he became invisible ; or that
he changed his appearance, so that the people did not recog-
nize him ; or that he melted like a cloud out of their hands.
The language of Luke is, " But he, passing through the midst
of them, went his way." That Jesus at times assumed an air of
such grandeur that men were awe-struck, and could not bear
either his eye or his voice, we know. The hardened soldiers
that went to Gethsemane to arrest him fell to the ground when
he confronted them. There are many instances of this power
of his person to make men quail. (See Chapter VII.) We are
inclined to the supposition, that Jesus assumed a manner of
such authority that even the riotous crowd let fall their hands,
and that he walked quietly away from out of their midst.
This unhappy visit to Nazareth was the last. He could not
there bestow the mercies which doubtless he would have con-
ferred upon a spot that must have been endeared to him by
a thousand associations and experiences of youth, and where,
according to Mark, his sisters yet dwelt. " And are not his sis-
ters here with us?" (Mark vi. 3.) The temper of this people
repelled his gracious offers of kindness. It is true that " he laid
his hand upon a few sick folk, and healed them." But we
road led up to this sunny nook. No traffic came into it. Trade, war, adventure, pleasure,
pomp, passed by it, flowing from west to east, from east to west, along the Roman road.
But the meadows were aglow with wheat and barley. Near the low ground ran a belt
of gardens fenced with loose stones, in which myriads of green figs, red pomegranates, and
golden citrons ripened in the summer sun. High up the slopes, which were lined and
planted like the Rhine at Bingen, hung vintages of purple grapes. In the plain among
the corn, and beneath the mulberry-trees and figs, shone daisies, poppies, tulips, lilies,
anemones, endless in their profusion, brilliant in their dyes. Low down on the hillside
sprang a well of water, bubbling, plentiful, and sweet ; and above this fountain of life, in a
long street straggling from the fountain to the synagogue, rose the homesteads of many
shepherds, craftsmen, and vine-dressers. It was a lovely and humble place, of which
no poet, no ruler, no historian of Israel bad ever taken note."
It need scarcely be said, that, except the hills and terraces and the fountain, there
is nothing now in or about Nazareth that could have been there in Christ's youth. The
legends that abound respecting his infancy and youth are unworthy of a moment's con-
sideration. Over the youth of Christ, in Nazareth, there rests a silence far more impres-
sive than anything which the imagination can frame, and on which the puerile legends
break with impertinent intrusion.
: : ji
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198
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
may easily believe that he would have been glad to make
Nazareth a monument of benefactions. A year had passed since
his baptism by John. Already he had experience of the un-
believing temper of his age and countrymen ; but there was
something in the fierceness and repulsive manners of his fel-
low-townsmen that surpassed all ordinary experience, "and he
marvelled because of their unbelief."
Capernaum henceforth became his home, in so far as he can
be said to have had a home at all during the year now before
him, and which was the great period of his activity. For the
ministry of Christ covered but a little more than two years, and
his chief labor was compressed into a single one. 1
From this time Jesus seems either to have lived in retire-
ment for about two months, or, if he carried forward his work
of teaching, no allusion is made to it by any of the Evangelist^.
But in March of this year he goes again to Jerusalem, probably
to the Feast of Purim, — a feast instituted to keep in remem-
brance the great deliverance which the Jews in captivity re-
ceived at the hands of Esther. 2
This visit of Jesus to Jerusalem was memorable, not only for
the beneficent miracles of mercy wrought by him there, but for
the decided alienation of the Pharisees, and the beginning on
their part of that deadly hatred which little more than a year
afterwards accomplished his crucifixion.
Jesus was not, like the Rabbis, accustomed to hold himself
apart from the common people, and to show himself only to
1 " The ministry of our Lord would seem to have lasted about two years and three
months, i. e. from his baptism, at the close of 27 A. D. (780 A. U. C.) or beginning of
28 A. D. to the last Passover in 30 A. D. The opinions on this subject have been ap-
parently as much divided in ancient as in modern times The general feeling of
antiquity was, that our Lord's entire ministry lasted for a period, speaking roughly, of
about three years, but that the more active part .... lasted one." — Ellicott's Lectures
on the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ, (Boston, 1862,) p. 145, note.
2 John simply says that it was a " feast of the Jews." It might be, therefore, the Dedi-
cation, the Feast of Purim, the Passover, the Pentecost, or the Feast of Tabernacles,
which fell, respectively, in the months of December, March, April, May, and September.
The best authorities are irreconcilably at variance as to which " feast " is meant ; which-
ever view one takes, it will be only conjecture, rather than probability. Certainty there
is none. The value of the truths of the gospel is not affected by the utter confusion of
chronologists. The consecutive order of many of the events in Christ's life cannot be
precisely determined ; but this does not change their moral worth, nor cast any suspicion
upon their authenticity.
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EARLY LABORS IN GALILEE.
199
admiring disciples. There are many indications that he moved
about inquiringly among the poor, and made himself familiar
with their necessities. He shortened the distance between him-
self and the plain common people as much as possible. It was
in one of these walks of mercy that he came one Sabbath day to
the pool of Bethesda, which was without the walls of Jerusa-
lem and near to the Sheep Gate ; but the spot is not now
known. That which has for ages been pointed out as the site
of Bethesda — a dry reservoir on the north of the Temple wall
— is now given up. This " pool " was an intermitting fountain,
whose waters were supposed to be healing, if used at the time
of their regurgitation. Around it, for the convenience of the
sick, had been built a colonnade, or porch, and there the dis-
eased and the crippled awaited their chance to descend.
It was to just such places that Jesus was likely to come ; and
on this Sabbath day he beheld a sufferer unable to help him-
self and without friends to assist him. None are more apt to
t
200 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
be selfish than the sick. Each one seeks his own cure, and is
indifferent to the sufferings of others. This man had brought
upon himself, by some course of dissipation, the evils which
afflicted him (John v. 14) ; but it was enough that he suffered.
Jesus saluted him with the question, " Wilt thou be made
whole ? " and the man, not knowing the stranger, and natu-
rally supposing that he was asking only the reason of his de-
lay in entering the pool, excused himself by pleading his inability
to contend with the scrambling crowd that plunged into the
waters at the favored moment. As yet Jesus was but little
known. He had neither preached in Jerusalem, nor wrought
miracles in any such public way as to bring his Divine power
clearly before men. He did not, therefore, require the exer-
cise of faith in this cripple as a condition of mercy. He sur-
prised him with the peremptory command, " Rise ! Take xip
thy bed, and Walk ! " Then came the sudden thrill of health !
The cripple had been bathed in no fountain stirred by an angel.
From the Fountain of life had fallen on him the healing influ-
ence. His amazement of joy must be imagined.
Behold him now with nimble step ascending to the city ! He
is stopped. What is it ? Why, he is carrying with him his bed !
He has forgotten that it is the Sabbath. "It is not lawful for
thee to carry thy bed." Was an Oriental bed, then, so large
as to make an uncomely appearance upon the man's shoulder ?
No, it was but a pallet, to be spread, like a blanket, on the
ground. Rolled up, it was a bundle less than a soldier's over-
coat, and could be carried under the arm without inconvenience.
But it was the Sabbath day. A Jew might play on the Sab-
bath, join in social festivity, grow hilarious, but he must not
work !
There is no evidence that Jesus did not keep the. Sabbath
day as it was enjoined in the Law of Moses. He certainly did
not trample it under foot, nor in any way undervalue it. It
was against the glosses of the Pharisees that, he strove. They
had added to the Law innumerable explanations which were
deemed as binding as the original. The Sabbath day had be-
come a snare. By ingenious constructions and by stretch of
words the Jews had turned it into a day of bondage, and made
it a monument of superstitions. No Jew must kindle a fire on
nEh ^~Eb
EAELT LABORS IN GALILEE. 201
that day, nor even light a candle. A conscientious Jew would
not snuff his candle nor put fuel upon the fire on the Sabbath.
There were thirty-nine principal occupations which, with all that
were analogous to them, were forbidden. " If a Jew go forth
on the Friday, and on the night falls short of home more than
is lawful to be travelled on the Sabbath day (i. e. two thousand
yards), there must he set him down, and there keep his Sab-
bath, though in a wood, or in a field, or on the highway-side,
without all fear of wind and weather, of thieves and robbers, all
care of meat or drink." " The lame may use a staff, but the
blind may not." Not being indispensable, for a blind man to
carry a staff would come under the head of carrying burdens
on the Sabbath. " Men must not fling more corn to their poul-
try than will serve that day, lest it may grow by lying still,
and they be said to sow their corn upon the Sabbath." "They
may not carry a flap or fan to drive away the flies." That
would be a species of labor.
It was not enough that every device was seized to prevent
formal or honest labor, but there was joined to this rigor an
ingenious dishonesty. " To carry anything from one house to
another is unlawful ; but if the householders in a court should
join in some article of food and deposit it in a certain place,
the whole court -becomes virtually one dwelling, and the inmates
are entitled to carry from house to house whatever they please."
" It is unlawful to carry a handkerchief loose in the pocket ; but
if they pin it to the pocket, or tie it round the waist as a
girdle, they may carry it anywhere." Many of the things which
a Jew would by no means suffer himself to do on the Sabbath,
such, as putting fuel on the fire, or performing tasks of cook-
ing, he would permit a Gentile servant to do for him, if he
were rich enough to employ one, inasmuch as the Gentiles were
not under the Law ! At the very time that the Rabbis were
devising restrictions on the one side, they were shrewdly out-
witting the Law by cunning devices on the other. " A Sab-
bath-day's journey " was two thousand paces, measured from
one's domicile. But by depositing food at the end of the first
two thousand paces on a previous day, and calling that place a
domicile, they were suffered to go forward another Sabbath-day's
journey. Thus superstitious rigor led to evasions and hypocrisy.
202 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
But this strictness was not exercised for the sake of keeping
the Sabbath as a day of moral instruction and of devotion. For,
though the Temple service was more full on that day than on
ordinary days, and there were religious services in the syna-
gogues, yet the Sabbath was observed on the whole, as a day
of recreation and social enjoyment. Feasts were given, and a
large hospitality was exercised. The Jewish Sabbath, from the
days of Moses, and in its original intent and spirit, was as much
a day of social pleasure as of religious observance. Boisterous
hilarity was disallowed, and all secular work, that is, toil for
profit of every kind, was a capital offence. It was upon this
clause that the Pharisaic ingenuity had run into fantastic ex-
travagances, and a day originally appointed for reasons of mercy
had become a burden and an oppression.
The fortunate man who had been healed did not, when ques-
tioned, even know to whom he was indebted. "It is the Sab-
bath day," said the pious townsmen; "it is not lawful for thee
to carry thy bed." But his better nature told him that one
who could perform such a miracle upon him stood nearer to
God, and was more fit to be obeyed, than the men of the Tem-
ple. Bravely he replied, " He that made me whole, the same
said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk." But afterward, hav-
ing met Jesus in the Temple, he let it be known who it was
that had healed him. The excitement ran high. So enraged
were the Jews, that they did "persecute Jesus, and sought to
slay him." "Without doubt, the excitement and uproar took place
in the Temple court.
It has been thought, and with reason, that Jesus was arraigned
before the Sanhedrim, if not formally, yet in a hastily convoked
meeting. The discourse recorded by John (v. 17 - 47) could
scarcely be the flow of an uninterrupted speech. It bears all
the marks of a controversy. It is broken up into disconnected
topics, as if between them there had been arguments and an-
swers, or some taunting retorts, although the Evangelist has not
presented any part of the disputation, except the points of the
Lord's replies. To the charge of breaking the Sabbath by work-
ing a miracle, Jesus answers with an allusion to God's ceaseless
activity on all days alike ; which, even were it not the highest
truth, would be the noblest poetry, and not the less emphatic
■a
EARLY, LABORS IN GALILEE. 203
because so condensed, — " My Father worketh hitherto, and I
work."
Why should I forbear on the Sabbath to do good ? Does the
sun cease shining ? Do rivers stand still ? Do the grasses not
grow, and fruits ripen, and birds sing ? Does Nature keep Sab-
bath ? Is not God forever going on in ceaseless benefaction,
without variableness or shadow of turning ? Is it not lawful
for children to be born on the Sabbath ? for medicine to carry
forward the cure ? for the weak to grow strong ? Through all
God's realm the Sabbath is a day of active mercy, and why
should I refuse a work of benevolence ?
The reply was unanswerable. It was a sublime appeal from
the rescripts and traditions of man to the authority of God.
Jesus appealed from custom to nature. Evading this reply, they
seized upon the fact that he had called God his Father, thus,
as they said, "making himself equal with God." They broke
out upon him with truculent fury, and sought to tear him in
pieces. Yet by some means the storm was quieted. The dis-
course is remarkable in every respect, but in nothing more than
the direct assumption of Divine authority. He rises above all
conventional grounds and above all human sanctions. He de-
clares that he acts with the direct authority of God. " The Son
can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do."
Instead of explanation and apology to his accusers, Jesus boldly
claims their submission to his authority ! " The Father judgeth
no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son : that all
men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father."
He now drops the title Son of Man, which he had always used
among the common people, because it drew him so near to them
and made them and him of one kin, and for the first time calls
himself the Son of God. " The hour is coming, and now is,
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God." As
it was a question of authority before the Sanhedrim, he places
himself on grounds above all reach of competition or of compar-
ison. He not only does not acknowledge their right to control
his conscience, but he declares that he will hold them and all
mankind responsible to himself. " The hour is coming, in the
which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall
come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection
204
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
t
of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
damnation."
The members of the court must have looked upon him with
wonder as well as with rage. He disowned the whole value of
that system of authority on which their pride, their power, and
their ambition were built. He refused to stand before them as
a culprit, or to be catechised as a scholar. He soared to the
highest heaven. He placed himself beside God. He clothed
himself with Divine authority. He judged his judges, and con-
demned the highest tribunal of his people. Instead of apolo-
gizing for his deeds, or even explaining, he arraigned the San-
hedrim. He reminded them that for a time they had been
disposed to accept John as a prophet : " Ye were willing for a
season to rejoice in his light." John also was now a witness
for Jesus. But no man could be an adequate witness of his
nature and authority. Only God could authenticate these. By
his miracles he showed that God had borne witness to him. He
rebuked them for gross ignorance of those Scriptures in which
it was their pride and boast that they were profoundly versed.
He brings home to them their worldliness, their mutual flat-
teries, their ambitions, their poverty of love, their wealth of
selfishness.
Overawed, their tumultuous anger died, and Jesus went forth
from this first encounter with the rulers of his people safe for
the present, but a marked man, to be watched, followed, en-
trapped, and, when the favorable moment should come, to be
slain.
We must not suppose that the Pharisees were moved to this
controversy with Jesus from any moral regard for the Sabbath.
It was simply a question of power. To attack what may be
called their theology of the Sabbath was to attack the most
salient point of their religious authority. If they might be
safely defied before the people on this ground, there was no
use in trying to maintain their authority as leaders on any
other. They could not allow themselves to look upon Christ's
merciful deed in the light of humanity. It was to them a
political act, and in its tendency a subversion of their teach-
ing, of their influence, and of their supreme authority.
No party will yield up its power willingly ; and a religious
EARLY LABORS IN GALILEE.
205
party less willingly than any other, because it believes itself to
represent the Divine will, and construes all attack upon itself
as resistance to Divine authority. Its moral sense is offended,
as well as its avarice and ambition. There is no bitterness so
intense as that which comes when the moral feelings are cor-
rupted into alliance with men's passions. That is fanaticism.
Although there is something admirable in this scene, — a sin-
gle man confronting the false spirit of the age, the customs of
his countrymen, and the active power of their government,
— yet it has its sadness as well. Here began the death of
Jesus. From this hour the cross threw its shadow upon his
path.
There were two other conflicts on this very question which
occurred about this time ; and though there is nothing by which
we may fix the place where they occurred, some placing it near
Jerusalem, and some, with more probability, in Galilee, they
may be fitly grouped and considered together, for they all be-
long to aboiit the same period of Christ's
ministry, and they are, interiorly, parts
of the same conflict.
This first collision settled the policy
of the Temple party. Word went out
over all the land to their active par-
tisans that Jesus was to be watched.
Wherever he went from this time, his
steps were dogged by spies ; skulking
emissaries listened for some indictable
speech ; and everywhere he found the
Pharisees in a ferment of malice.
In one of his circuits, whether in Ju-
dsea or in Galilee is not stated, he was
on a Sabbath day passing through the
fields. The barley harvest was near at
hand. The grain was turning ripe. His
disciples, being hungry, began to rub
out the ripe kernels from the barley-
heads and to eat them. According to
the refinements of the Pharisees, this was equivalent to harvest-
ing. Jesus was permitting his disciples to reap grain-fields on
SYRIAN AND EGYPTIAN
WHEAT-EAES.
206 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
the Sabbath ! To be sure, it was but a few heads that were
plucked, but harvesting did not depend on much or little. One
grain gathered on the Sabbath had the moral character of har-
vest labor !
Does this seem impertinent and impossible ? Not if one con-
siders that the Pharisee forbade men to walk on the grass on
the Sabbath, because in so doing some seeds might be crushed
out under their feet, and that would be threshing ! No man
must catch a flea on the Sabbath, for that would be hunting !
No man on the Sabbath must wear nailed shoes, for that would
be bearing burdens !
To make the criminality of Jesus sure, it was necessary to call
attention to the conduct of his disciples, and secure his ap-
proval of it. Taking food that did not belong to them was not
an offence imder the laws of Moses, if it was done to satisfy
hunger. 1 The allegation was, therefore, " Thy disciples do that
which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day." He first shapes
a reply that a Pharisee would feel, and then he places the Sab-
bath on the broadest ground of humanity.
King David, the pride and glory of the Jews, was never con-
demned for breaking a law which was regarded with extraor-
dinary sacredness. Driven by excess of hunger, when fleeing
from Saul, he entered the house of God, 2 deceived the high-
priest, seized and ate the consecrated bread, taking it, as it
were, from before the very face of God. To save his life he
committed an act of sacrilege, and yet was never deemed guilty
of the sin of sacrilege. But it was not necessary to refer to
history. Right before their eyes, in their own day, was the law
of the Sabbath broken, and that too by their holiest men. Did
not the priests work every Sabbath in the Temple, slaying sheep
and oxen, drawing water, cleaving wood and carrying it to the
altar, kindling fires, and all this, not in rare emergencies, but
habitually ? If the Pharisaic rule of the Sabbath were bind-
ing, what should be said of men who every week chose the
holiest place, in the most public manner, to violate the Sab-
1 "When thou comest into thy neighbor's vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes thy
fill, at thine own pleasure ; but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel. When thou comest
into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand ;
but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbor's standing corn." — Deut. xxiii. 24, 25.
2 1 Sam. xxi. 1-6.
tQ-
-a
EARLY LABORS IN GALILEE. 207
bath by hard work ? No reply was made to these words, for
the best of reasons.
They could not deny that the rulers of the Temple had
authority to permit the priests to work on the Sabbath. But
Jesus claimed that he was himself superior in authority to the
Temple. " In this place is one greater than the Temple." To
the Jews that Temple was the symbol of their history, their
religion, and their civil law. It was the nation's heart. When
Jesus declared himself to be superior to the Temple itself, it
could be understood as nothing less than grasping at sover-
eignty ; and as it was an affirmation in justification of an as-
sault upon the most sensitive part of their authority, it could
be understood as nothing less than treading under foot the San-
hedrim. Was it, then, one of those moments in which his heav-
enly nature illumined his person, and filled all that looked on
with admiration and amazement ? If not, how can we account
for it that there was no protest, no outburst of wrath ?
This imperial mood was significant, too, because it disclosed
itself in the beginning of his conflict with the Temple party, in
the very calmness and morning of his more open ministry. The
same sovereignty of spirit was more and more apparent to the
end. Its assumption was not, as Renan imagines, the final effect
of continuous conflicts with the Jews : it belonged to Jesus from
the beginning. His life answered to either title, Son of Man,
or Son of God. In the spirit of sovereignty he claimed au-
thority to repeal the legislation of the Pharisees respecting the
Sabbath, to restore the Law to its original simplicity, and to
leave to the intelligent moral sense of men what things were
merciful and necessary on the Sabbath.
It is remarkable that there should be a third conflict of the
same kind at about the same time. It shows that the Pharisees
had accepted the challenge, and were determined to make an
open issue with Jesus on the subject of Sabbath-keeping. On
a Sabbath not long after the scene just now narrated, the people
were gathered in a synagogue, — where and in what one is not
mentioned. Christ was teaching the people. There was among
them a man whose right arm was paralyzed. The Pharisees
were there watching. They knew that Jesus would be tempted
by his humanity to break the Pharisaic Sabbath by healing him.
208 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
They hinted at the man's presence by asking Jesus, " Is it law-
ful to heal on the Sabbath day?" Before answering them, Jesus
called to the paralytic, " Rise up, and stand forth in the midst."
Then, turning to his malicious questioners, he put back to them
their own question, lifted out of its technical form, and placed
upon moral grounds : " Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do
good, or to do evil ? to save life, or to destroy it ? " They did
not dare to answer when the case was thus brought home to
every man's common sense. But Jesus was willing to meet the
question both on technical and on moral grounds. The Phari-
sees permitted a shepherd to extricate from peril one of his
sheep on the Sabbath day. Seizing that permission to property
interests, Jesus contrasted with it their shameless indifference
to humanity. " How much then is a man better than a sheep ?
Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days."
This scene, slight as it seems in the rehearsal, went to the
very heart of Jesus. To him nothing seemed so repulsive as the
soul of an intelligent man coiled up in its selfishness and strik-
ing at the poor and weak. Sins of excess, unbridled passions,
vices and crimes, he rebuked with much of pity as well as of
sternness ; but intelligent inhumanity roused his utmost indigna-
tion. This particular case was pectdiarly offensive. He turned
upon his questioners an eye that none could bear. Calm it was,
but it burned like a flame. There is no expression so unen-
durable as that of incensed love. It is plain that he searched
their countenances one by one, and brought home to them a
sense of their meanness. "And when he had looked round
about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of
their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand."
It was healed.
Now came the rage of his baffled enemies. They " were filled
with madness." They drew together in counsel ; they began to
call in as auxiliaries the venal scoundrels that hung about
Herod's court, seeking " how they might destroy him," combining
political jealousy with ecclesiastical bitterness. As yet, their
malice was powerless. His hour had not come.
We have here, in a more developed form than had thus far
appeared in the life of Jesus, the aggressiveness of love. He
~%
EARLY LABORS IN GALILEE. 209
had shown himself to be personally full of sympathy and kind-
ness ; but now he makes benevolence the criterion of justice
and the test of religion. He begins to bring the institutions,
the customs, and the maxims of his countrymen to the criti-
cism of the law of kindness. It is the first scene in which we
behold love equipped for conflict.
Whatever importance attached to the day in their contro-
versy, the Sabbath was a secondary matter. It was not a ques-
tion whether it was divine, nor whether it should be abrogated,
nor even how it should be kept; it was the spirit of inhumanity,
the hard-heartedness of the religious chiefs, the unsympathetic
and teasing spirit with which they administered religious affairs
that was to be judged. It was more than a dispute about an
ordinance ; it was a conflict between kindness and unmerciful-
ness, between fraternal sympathies and official authority, be-
tween mercy and relentless superstition.
When we hear Jesus saying, "I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice," and know that those words were applied to the ad-
ministration of law, we feel that a new interpretation of justice
has come. The Divine administration of all laws is toward
mercy. Henceforth humanity judges them, and gives them per-
mission to be. Pain and penalty are not abolished, but they are
no longer vindictive ; they are for restraint, correction, and pre-
vention. Justice is love purging things from evil and making
them lovely.
The protests of Jesus against the Pharisaic observance of the
Sabbath must not be regarded as discountenancing the day it-
self as a Divine ordinance, nor even as criticising the original
methods of its observance enjoined by Moses. He set his face
against the unfeeling use which the Pharisees of his time made
of it. It was the perversion of a day of mercy that he resisted.
In reasoning the case, Jesus laid down a principle which affects
all human institutions of every kind : " The Sabbath was made for
man, and not man for the Sabbath."
Institutions and laws have no sacredness in themselves. They
have no rights as against the real welfare of men. Laws are
servants, not masters. No law must rule unless it will serve.
But one thing on earth is intrinsically sacred, and that is man,
and he because he is God's son and the heir of immortality.
210 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
His nature is sacred. Amidst all his sins, crimes, and corrup-
tions, there is still within him the soul that came of God, for
whose sake the whole round of nature is ordained ; — and how
much more civil laws and ecclesiastical ordinances ! The state
was made for man, not man for the state.
The welfare of the state depends upon the sacredness of the
individual citizen. The tendency has been to build up the state
at all hazard, — to sacrifice the citizen to public good, as if the
good of the whole demanded the sacrifice of its units. Men
may offer themselves up in great emergencies, revolutions, wars,
etc., but in the ordinary flow of life the strength and happiness
of the unit will determine the prosperity and power of the ag-
gregate.
-ft
CHAPTER XIII.
A TIME OF JOY.
THUS far we have seen only the preparatory steps of Christ's
ministry. A year and a half had passed since his baptism,
of which period but an imperfect record exists. The time was
now come for the full disclosure of his energy. He began to
feel in greater measure the impulse of the Divine nature. He
had learned, in this last visit to Jerusalem, of John's arrest
and imprisonment. The field was open. He left the scowling
brotherhood of Judaean Pharisees, who no longer disguised their
deadly intentions, and repaired to Galilee, making Capernaum
his head-quarters. We must soon follow him in the repeated
circuits which he made from there, and note the details of his
ministry.
It was the most joyful period of his life. It was a full year
of beneficence unobstructed. It is true that he was jealously
watched, but he was not forcibly resisted. He was maliciously
defamed by the emissaries of the Temple, but he irresistibly
charmed the hearts of the common people. Can we doubt that
his life was full of exquisite enjoyment ? He had not within
himself those conflicts which common men have. There was
entire harmony of faculties within, and a perfect agreement be-
tween his inward and his external life. He bore others' bur-
dens, but had none of his own. His body was in full health ;
his soul was clear and tranquil ; his heart overflowed with an
212 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
unending sympathy. He was pursuing the loftiest errand which
benevolence can contemplate. No joy known to the human
soul compares with that of successful beneficent labor. We can-
not doubt that the earlier portions of this year, though full of
intense excitement, were also full of deep happiness to him.
Wherever he came, he carried men's hearts with him. What-
ever town he left, there had been hundreds of hearts in it
made happy by his cleansing touch. At times the excitement
seemed likely to whirl him away. He was obliged to repress it,
to forsake the crowds and hide himself for a while, — to with-
hold his miracles, lest the overflowing enthusiasm should be
mistaken by a jealous government for political insurrection, and
a cruel end be put to the work of beneficence.
We love to linger in these thoughts. We are glad that Jesus
tasted joy as well as sorrow, — that there were months of won-
derful gladness. At times the cloud of coming suffering may
have cast its shadow upon his path; but his daily work was
full of light. Could he behold the gladness of household after
household and be himself unmoved ? Could he heal the sick
through wide regions, see the maimed and crippled restored to
activity, and not participate in the joy which broke out on every
hand? Could he console the sorrowing, instruct the ignorant,
recall the wandering, confirm the wavering, and not find his
heart full of joyfulness ? Besides the wonder and admiration
which he excited on every hand, he received from not a few
the most cordial affection, and returned a richer love.
It is impossible not to see from the simple language of the
Evangelists, that his first circuits in Galilee were triumphal pro-
cessions. The sentences which generalize the history are few,
but they are such as could have sprung only out of joyous
memories, and indicate a new and great development of power
on his side, and an ebullition of joyful excitement through the
whole community. " And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit
into Galilee : and there went out a fame of him through all the
region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being
glorified of. all!' (Luke iv. 14, 15.)
To suppose that Jesus had no gladness in the work which
diffused so much happiness, that he could see the tides of ex-
citement flowing on every side without sympathy, that he could
r0 : "~Eb
A TIME OF JOT. 213
touch responsively every tender affection in the human soul and
not have a vibration of its joy in himself, is to suppose him less
than human. Any worthy conception of a Divine nature must
make it far richer in affection and sympathy than men can be.
Whatever rejoicing attended his career' through Galilee, we may
be sure that no one was more happy than he.
On the Sabbath he seems always to have resorted to the syn-
agogue, as did every devout Jew, just as Christians now betake
themselves to churches. His fame would not permit him to be
only a listener. He was called by the rulers of the synagogue
to the place of teacher, and from Sabbath to Sabbath he unfold-
ed to his countrymen the deep spiritual meanings hidden in their
Scriptures which had been buried under the Pharisaic traditions.
But he did not confine himself to a Scriptural and expository
method of instruction. On the Sabbath, and during the week-
days, when fit occasion offered, he seized the events which were
taking place before their eyes, and, applying to them the criti-
cism of the highest morality, he made them the texts from which
to develop a spiritual faith. More of these discourses founded
upon passing events are recorded than of Scriptural expositions.
Indeed, while we have many allusions to Scripture, we have no
single discourse of Jesus which may be strictly called an ex-
pository one. The freshness of this method of teaching, the
abandonment of all mere refinements and frivolous niceties, the
application of humane good sense and of rational justice to every-
day interests, gave to his teaching a power which never accom-
panied the tedious dialectics of the Jewish doctors. "And they
were astonished at his doctrine : for he taught them as one that
had authority, and not as the scribes. . . . For his word was with
power." (Mark i. 22 ; Luke iv. 32.)
An occurrence on one of the earliest, if not the very first of
the Sabbaths spent in Capernaum, will furnish a good example
of the scenes of this great year of his ministry.
While Jesus was speaking in the synagogue, amidst the pro-
found stillness the people were startled by a wild outcry. A
poor wretch was there who " had the spirit of an unclean devil."
With the pathos of intense fear he cried out, "Let us alone;
what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth ? " All
this might have resulted from the pungent nature of the teach-
214 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
ing, but not the cry, " I know thee who thou art, the Holy One
of God," — this was something more than a random speech. "We
may imagine the shock which such a scene would produce in the
midst of a sermon in one of our churches. Jesus, undisturbed
and calm, enjoined silence, and with a word of command drove
out the evil spirit. Then came the reaction ; all men were filled
with admiration and spread the news abroad. But Jesus, with-
drawing from the tumult, secluded himself during the heat of
the day in Peter's house. There he found Peter's mother-in-law
prostrated with a fever. At a touch of his hand she was healed,
and resumed her household duties before them all, as if she had
not been sick. The whole city was alive with excitement.
During the fiery noons of Oriental cities men shut themselves
up in their houses ; but at evening they pour forth, and the gate
of the city is the grand resort. Thither too, upon this same day,
repaired Jesus, who was always drawn toward the multitudes.
He was evidently expected and eagerly awaited. And now ap-
peared a scene which only the imagination can depict. All the
diseases which the violent heats in that climate breed upon the
uncleanly habits and the squalid poverty of the masses were
represented at the gate by appropriate subjects. Fevers, drop-
sies, paralyses, were there. The blind, the deaf, and — hovering
on the edge afar off — the lepers implored help. The lame came
limping, and those too sick to help themselves were borne thither
by their friends, until the ample space was like a camp hospital.
Jesus commenced among them his merciful work. It was a sol-
emn and joyful scene. Human misery was exhibited here in
many forms ; but as, one by one, the touch or word of the Mas-
ter healed it, came the rebound of exultation. Those who were
coming, bearing the sick on couches, met returning happy groups
of those who had been healed. Many tears of rejoicing fell, as
children were given back to despairing mothers. Strange calm-
ness in some natures, and wild exhilaration in others, attested
the rapture of deliverance from loathsome disease. Never, in
all their memories) had there been such an evening twilight of
a Sabbath day. But of all who went home that night in ecstasy
of gladness, there was not one whose nature enabled him to feel
the deep joy of Him who said, "It is more blessed to give than
to receive."
ft
[£- -a
^ 27afS OF JOY. 215
We always long to look into the souls of great men at critical
periods, to see how success or defeat affects them. This had
been a triumphal Sabbath to Jesus. No opposition seems to have
arisen from any quarter. His instructions had been received
without cavil, and had awakened an almost idolatrous enthusiasm.
His name was on every lip ; his praise resounded through the
whole neighborhood, and the day had closed by such a luminous
display of merciful benefactions as left all his former deeds in
the shade. The effect of such success upon his own soul is
dimly shown in the record by the intimations of a probably
sleepless night, and his going forth long before daylight into a
quiet place for prayer. The excitement of beneficence lifted
him toward the Divine Spirit. If success had in any wise tempt-
ed him to vanity, he found a refuge in communion with God.
"And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he
went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed."
(Mark i. 35.)
But the tumult of excitement in the city could not easily sub-
side. Early the people began to throng Peter's house to find
him again. Peter and his brothers went forth to search for
the wanderer. We can without violence imagine that he had
selected one of the near slopes of the hills which hedge in the
Sea of Galilee on its western limit. There lay the tranquil waters.
The last mists were dissolving from its face as the footsteps of
the throng drew near. Simon salutes him, saying, " All men
seek for thee " ; and the people with him press around Jesus
with affectionate violence, as if they would carry him back to
the city in their arms. They " came unto him, and stayed him,
that he should not depart from them." The desire was natural;
but he had a mission of which they knew not. It was not for
him to settle in Capernaum, nor suffer them to appropriate to
themselves all his mercies. He replied to their importunity, " I
must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also."
It is not to be supposed that the Pharisees joined in this gen-
eral applause. While there were just men among them, the
great body were either secretly or openly inimical to Jesus.
But they were politic ; they did not choose to array themselves
against the people in the hour of their enthusiasm. If at first
they hesitated, hoping that this man of singular influence might
^ = _
216 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
be used in the interest of their party, they had now given up
all such expectations, and their enmity grew with his popularity.
Thus at this time they seem to have neither applauded nor op-
posed him.
Jesus journeyed, after the manner of the country, on foot. So
thickly were the towns planted in populous Galilee that he need-
ed to make but a short march from one to another. It was the
hospitable custom of the time, when Jewish Rabbis went from
place to place, to provide for all their wants. Thus Jesus was
supported by the kindness of the people wherever he labored.
Can it be doubted that, among so many who received at his
hands priceless gifts of healing or consolation, there were found
numbers of all classes who contested for the privilege of enter-
taining him ? And yet there is reason to believe that he allied
himself very closely with the poor and laboring class. It is cer-
tain that in his passage through Galilee, at a later day than that
of which we are speaking, he was dependent upon the contri-
butions of grateful women whom he had healed or blessed by his
teaching, and who accompanied his disciples. (Luke viii. 1 - 3.)
We also know that the company of disciples was organized into
a family, had a common treasury, and received into it the gifts
of benevolence for their joint support. Jesus never scrupled to
accept the hospitality of the rich, for they too were men ; yet he
seems to have been at no time long separated from the poor and
wretched of his people. Had he dwelt among the rich and gone
down to the poor, he could never have come so near to their
hearts as when he ate their bread, slept under their humble
roofs, and sympathized with their tasks and labors, as his own
early life peculiarly fitted him to do. Many a wanderer would
come to him as he sat among the lowly, who would not have
dared to enter the mansions of the rich. Yet one will in vain
look for a syllable in all his teachings that would favor the preju-
dices which one class usually entertains against another. He
was faithful to all in rebuking their evil. But his spirit tended
to draw men together, and to unite the widely separated classes
of society in the sympathy of a common brotherhood.
Immediately following the Sabbath whose history we have
given above, Jesus made the first of the series of circuits Avhich
marked this period of his life, and by which he compassed the
A TIME OF JOY.
217
■a
whole of Galilee several times during this year. So vague are
the chronological hints in the Evangelists, that we cannot note
with precision either the several routes or the exact periods at
which the several journeys were made, nor ascertain to which
of the circuits belong certain descriptions of the effects produced.
It is probable that every appearance of Jesus was the signal for
great excitement, that the course of ordinary affairs was inter-
rupted, and that the whole population in some instances were
turned out of the usual channels of life. Not only did the peo-
ple of each town throng his steps, but there came from abroad,
from widely different directions, great multitudes, who crowded
the roads, choked up the villages, and went with him from place
to place. Matthew says that " great multitudes " of people " fol-
lowed " him from Galilee, from Decapolis (the name of a region
on the northeast of Palestine, comprising ten cities), from Je-
rusalem, from Judaea generally, and from beyond Jordan, and
that his fame was spread "throughout all Syria." Every day
added to the excitement. It threatened to become revolution-
ary. Every eminent miracle shot forth a new ardor. Caper-
naum, on one occasion, was fairly besieged, so that, as Mark
says, he " could no more openly enter into the city." How
large these croAvds actually were, we have some means of judg-
ing by the numbers mentioned in the subsequent history of the
feeding of the multitudes ; in one case four thousand, and in
another case five thousand, were supplied with food. It was
certainly to be desired that the preaching of Jesus should arouse
the whole community ; but an excessive and ungovernable ex-
citement was unfavorable to the reception of the truth, and
subjected the people to bloody dangers by arousing the sus-
picions of a vigilant and cruel government. Herod would be
likely to imagine that under all these pretences of religion lurked
some political scheme. The Pharisees, as we know, had made
league with the Herodians against Jesus, and were fomenting
malignant jealousies. For these reasons it is not strange that
Jesus sought to allay enthusiasm, rather than to inflame curiosity.
But it was impossible ; his words had no more effect than dew
upon a burning prairie.
Is this surprising? What if in one of our villages such a
scene as the healing of the leper, or the curing of the paralytic,
a-
218 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
should take place ? For about this time it was that in a " cer-
tain city " — what city we know not — Jesus saw one approach-
ing him whose dress marked him as a leper. By law the leper
had no right to come near to any one. He was bound, if any
one approached him unawares, to lift up a wail of warning : " Un-
clean ! unclean ! " Such, however, was the repute of Jesus for
divine sympathy, that even lepers long used to unkindness and
neglect forgot their habits of seclusion and avoidance. Right
before the feet of the Master fell a leper upon his face, and with
intense supplication "besought" him : "Lord, if thou wilt, thou
canst make me clean."
It was not needful to touch this loathsome creature. A word
would, heal him. But a word would not express the tenderness
and yearning sympathy of the Saviour's heart. "And Jesus,
moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and
saith unto him, " I will ; be thou clean."
That Jesus commanded him to go and exhibit himself, with
appropriate offerings, to the Jewish priests, may seem strange,
when we consider how free Jesus himself was from the conven-
tionalism of his age. There does not seem to be an instance
in which he ever set aside an original Mosaic rite or institute.
It was the additions made by the Pharisees that he pushed
away without reverence, and even with repugnance. No other
Jew was more observant of the original religious institutes of
Moses than he who came to "fulfil the law." He went behind
the tradition of the elders to the Law itself: nay, he accepted
the commands of Moses because they coincided with the Divine
will. " Ye have made the commandment of God of none effect by
your tradition."
In no way was the leper capable of expressing his gratitude
religiously other than by the customs of his own people. He
had not learned the higher forms of spiritual life. He must
speak his thanks to God in the language which he had learned,
even if some other were a better language. All the expedients
of external worship in this world are but crutches to weak souls.
The true worship is in spirit. It requires neither altar, nor priest,
nor uttered prayer, but only the grateful heart, open before Him
who knows better than any one can tell Him all that men would
say.
-a
J TIME OF JOT. 219
The healed leper, however, did not obey the injunction. Car-
ried away with overpowering joy, he went blazing abroad the
deed of mercy. Can we wonder ? Leprosy was a living death.
The worst form of the disease, as it is seen in Palestine to-day,
is described by Thomson in these words : "The hair falls off
from the head and eyebrows ; the nails loosen, decay, and drop
off; joint after joint of the fingers and toes shrinks up and slowly
falls away. The gums are absorbed and the teeth disappear.
The nose, the eyes, the tongue, and the palate are slowly con-
sumed ; and finally the wretched victim sinks into the earth and
disappears, while medicine has no power to stay the ravages of
this fell disease, or even to mitigate sensibly its tortures." x
With what sensations must health be received back by this
exile from society, seeing life afar off, but not participating in
its joys ! In one instant his skin was sweet and smooth, his face
comely, his breath wholesome. He might again clasp his mother
in his arms ! He might take little children upon his knee ! The
lips of love would not now shrink from the kiss which so long
lay withered upon his lips ! What marvel if his joy rang through
the region round about, and roused up other suffering wretches,
who went thronging toward the city, hopeful of a like cure ?
Nor were they disappointed. The narratives of the Evangelists
clearly imply that whole neighborhoods turned out with their
sick, and returned with every invalid healed. As a frost kills
malaria, or a wind sweeps impurity from the sultry air, so the
words of Jesus seemed to purify the fountains of health in whole
districts. None of all that came were refused. It is in vain to
explain away the miraculous element in the few cases which
are given in detail, unless some natural solution «an be found
for the healing of hundreds and thousands, repeatedly effected
at different times and in different neighborhoods.
At length, when the beneficence of healing had completed its
work, Jesus retreated from the excitement, from the curiosity,
the admiration, the criticism, the importunity of enthusiasm and
affection, and hid himself in the near solitudes. The love of
solitude is strikingly shown in Jesus. Nothing exhausts one so
soon as sympathy with the active sorrows of men. Drawn out
on every side by men's needs, he regained his equilibrium in the
1 The Land and the Book, (American edition,) Vol. II. p. 519.
220 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
" wilderness." It was there too that his thoughts rose into com-
munion with his Father. What reminiscences of heaven had he ?
What dim memories of his former life and joy came to him?
Was not the silence of solitude full of whispers from the spirit
land? No one can tell. There are many who can testify that
to them the solitudes that lie near to every side of life have
been as the dawn of the morning after a troubled night, as a
cool shadow in the hot noon, — a fountain in a great and weary
desert.
That Jesus did not confine his religious instructions to Sab-
bath days, and that he occupied other places than the syna-
gogues, is plain from the accounts of his sermons from boats to
the people assembled on the shore, and of his discoursing on
the mountain-side, and is seen in an occurrence which took place
soon after his return to Capernaum from his first circuit. He
was sitting in a private dwelling. It was soon noised abroad
in the city. Out rushed hundreds to find him. The court of
the house was choked with the crowd ; the streets were thronged.
There was " no room to receive them, no, not so much as about
the door : and he preached the word unto them." While he was
thus engaged, four men were seen bearing upon a litter between
them a poor paralytic, and seeking to penetrate the crowd. Im-
possible ! An eager throng, made up of persons each seeking
some advantage for himself, and moved by no common impulse
but that of selfishness, is harder to be penetrated than stone
walls and wooden structures. All at once, as Jesus was teach-
ing, without doubt in such a one-story house as is still to be seen
in that same neighborhood, the roof above his head was parted,
— as from its construction could easily be done, and as was fre-
quently done for various purposes, — and through the opening
was let clown before him the unhappy patient ! Struck with
their confident faith, Jesus, interrupted in his discourse, natu-
rally conferred that favor which to him was unspeakably greater
than any other : " Son, be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven
thee ! "
Instantly a hum of voices was heard. Confusion arose ; for
he was preaching, not to unlettered citizens alone, but to an un-
usual number of the dignitaries of the synagogue and Temple.
" There were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which
a-
A TIME OF JOT. 221
were come out of every town of Galilee and Judaea and Jeru-
salem." The bare enunciation of the forgiveness of sins could
hardly have disturbed these worthies. It must be that Jesus
uttered the words with the air of sovereignty. It was one of
those moments in which his Divine nature shone out with radi-
ance. The Pharisees plainly regarded him as acting in his own
right, and assuming authority to forgive sins, which was a Divine
prerogative. They cried out, "Blasphemy! blasphemy!" They
challenged him on the spot: "Who can forgive sins, but God
alone ? " Jesus accepted their construction, and after some words
of reasoning replied, " That ye may know that the Son of Man
hath power on earth to forgive sins," — turning to the sick man,
— "Arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way unto thine house."
To the doctors there could be but one interpretation of this re-
sponse. It was an unequivocal claim of Divinity.
Men suffering from hallucinations have claimed for themselves
dignities and titles transcendently above their merit. One must
be himself suffering from an hallucination who can imagine
Jesus at this period of his development to be over-heated in
brain, or fanatical. His wonderful discourse, which drew and
fascinated alike the rudest and the most learned, his calmness,
his self-forgetfulness, and his tender sympathy for others, are
inconsistent with any supposition of a tainted reason, and still
less with an over-swollen pride and self-conceit. And yet, when
his attention was called to the fact that forgiveness of sin was a
Divine prerogative, he did not explain that it was a delegated
authority, but reaffirmed his right to forgive of his own proper
self, and wrought a miracle in attestation of that right.
That his whole bearing was unusually impressive is plain from
the effect produced upon the common people in the crowd.
They had seen repeated instances of healing and of other works
of mercy. But there was in this case something more than is
set forth in the narrative, and which must have been effected
by the majesty of his person and the greatness of his spirit ;
for as they dispersed they went softly and awe-stricken, saying
one to another, "We have seen strange things to-day," — "We
never saw it on this fashion." Luke says, "They marvelled, and
were filled with fear." Matthew says they " glorified God, which
had given such power unto men." What the Pharisees and the
222 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
doctors said we do not know. That some of them may have
been inwardly convinced that this was the Messiah, is quite prob-
able ; but that the most of them Avere only the more enraged
and set against Jesus, is more than probable.
It will be recollected that, soon after his baptism, Jesus gath-
ered a few disciples from among those who companied with John.
Although they were found and called in Judaea, yet they all
lived in Galilee, went back with him on his return thither, and
are mentioned as guests with him at the marriage in Cana.
During the long intervals of quiet and seclusion which Jesus
seems to have had during the first year after his baptism, they
seem to have gone back to their occupations, and awaited, doubt-
less, the signal which should recall them to him. Jesus was, in
the eyes of his people, a Rabbi, or learned teacher, although
probably he was deemed irregular, and was out of favor with the
heads of schools. He followed all the customs of his people when
they were innocent ; and in his teaching career he undoubtedly
pursued the course which was common among Rabbis, of gath-
ering classes of pupils, and living with them, and even upon
their contributions. The pupils were expected, under due reg-
ulation, to diffuse among others the knowledge which they re-
ceived from their Rabbi. They sometimes expounded to the
people under the eye of their teacher ; and as they advanced in
capacity, they were sent out upon circuits of their own. Great
pains was taken among the Jews to promote education. Large
schools existed in Palestine, and in other lands whither the Jews
had migrated. In these schools was taught the whole round
of knowledge then existing ; — theology, philosophy, jurispru-
dence, astronomy, astrology, medicine, botany, geography, arith-
metic, architecture, social duties, etiquette, and even trades, were
taught. Indeed, it was the boast of eminent Rabbis that they
had learned a trade, and could, if need be, support themselves
by their own hands, without depending upon fees for tuition ;
and they prided themselves upon titles derived from trades ; —
as, Rabbi Simon, the iveaver ; Rabbi Ismael, the needle-maker ;
Rabbi Jochanan, the shoemaker. This will suggest Paul's occupa-
tion, that of a tent-maker.
Besides the teaching of these high schools or colleges, instruc-
A TIME OF JOT.
223
tion was provided for children, and throughout Palestine there
prevailed no inconsiderable zeal in the cause of popular edu-
cation. Through the more elementary schools it is almost
certain that Jesus and his disciples had passed, and equally
sure that they had not studied in the higher seminaries or col-
leges.
The method of instruction pursued in Jewish schools throws
light upon the course pursued by our Lord. The mode of im-
parting knowledge was chiefly catechetical. After the master
had lectured, the pupils asked questions. To stir up their pupils
if they grew dull, allegories, riddles, and stories were intro-
duced. The parable was a favorite device with the Jewish
teacher. He often propounded questions, and, if his pupils could
not answer, solved them himself. Christ's method then was that
of his age and countrymen, with only such differences as might
arise from different personality. Instruction from village to vil-
lage ; a company of pupils going with him, both as learners and
assistants ; the familiar and colloquial style of discourse ; the use
of parables and of enigmatical sentences ; — these were all fa-
miliar to his times. It was in matter, and not in manner, that
he differed from ordinary teachers.
SYRIAN FISHERMEN, MENDING NETS.
ft
The time had now come for the permanent formation of his
disciple-family, and it took place at or near Capernaum. We are
a-
224 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
charmed with the picture which is given of the morning scene
on the shores of Genesareth. It breathes the very air of reality,
and its simplicity gives a clear picture of our Lord's manner. It
was early dawn, and those whose avocations called them to the
busy shore were making the most of the cool hours. Jesus came
quietly to the water's edge, and stood watching certain fisher-
men who had hauled their nets upon the beach and were wash-
ing and putting them in order. He was not left to himself ; for
the people, as soon as they knew him, began to press around
him with questions and solicitations. As they began to close in,
he stepped upon one of the fishing-boats, and, pushing out a
little, turned to the rude but eager crowd and delivered a dis-
course to them. His theme was doubtless taken from something
which lay before him. That was his custom. Both text and
sermon have perished with the people to whom they were
spoken. As soon as he had finished, he commanded Simon to
push out into deep water and let down his net. Simon, prompt
to speak and over-confident, first excused himself on the ground
that they had been trying all night and that there was no use in
trying again ; and then, having eased his wilfulness, he complied
with the request. No sooner was this done than such a mul-
titude of fish was secured as they had never seen at any time
before. Indeed, Simon saw in it a Divine power. His boldness
and familiarity forsook him. He stood before a superior being,
and his own unworthiness was the first impression which seized
him. " He fell down at Jesus's knees, saying, Depart from me ;
for I am a sinful man, Lord." Not far away were the broth-
ers, James and John, who had a partnership with Simon. Them
also Jesus called. Without ado, and unhesitatingly, they for-
sook their property and their occupation, and from this time did
not leave him. They could not mistake the import of his call :
" Follow me. I will from henceforth make you to become fishers
of men." The whole scene is natural and harmonious. There
was no striking assumption of authority. Fishermen were ap-
proached through their own business, by methods which were
adapted to their habits and ideas.
The call of Levi, better known by the name of Matthew, is
recorded more briefly. He was a tax-gatherer under the Koman
government. It was an ungracious office. It was the last po-
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A TIME OF JOT 225
sition in which to look for an apostle. Collecting customs-dues
of his own people to feed the court of Herod and to uphold
the Roman usurpation, with profit to himself, was not likely to
endear him to his countrymen, nor to prepare his own heart for
the unremunerative and wandering life of self-denial to which
he was called. Yet there was in the few simple words of Je-
sus a charm that wrought instantly. "Follow me." "And he
arose," ("left all," says Luke,) "and followed him."
It is not unlikely that Matthew, like Simon, John, James, and
Philip, had already been a disciple of Christ, and like them had
never separated himself from his regular business ; so that the
call, which seems to us so sudden, was far less peremptory and
unexpected to him than it seems in the narrative.
We are not to confound the outside disciples of Christ with the
inner circle, — the family of his Apostles, — who were called
" that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth
to preach." His Apostles were disciples, but all his disciples
were not Apostles.
There was collected in every circuit a large disciple band with-
out organization, attached to his ministrations, rather than to his
person. Of the company of twelve disciples there were three
pairs of brothers. All of them were Galileans. All were from
the humbler walks of life, though in several instances they were
not poor. Levi had a house of his own, and could give to his
Master a " great feast." James and John, sons of Zebedee, con-
ducted a business which enabled them to employ under-servants ;
and their mother, Salome, " ministered of her substance " to the
Master's support. It is impossible, from the materials .at our
command, to ascertain upon what principle of selection the dis-
ciples were gathered. But few of them asserted any such
individuality as to bring their names into view during the min-
istry of Jesus.
The evil record of Judas will keep his name in memory,
Peter was conspicuous through the whole career. John was
specially associated with the Master. With Peter and John was
associated James, though little except his name appears in the
Gospel narratives. They were all selected from the common
walks of life. None of them give evidence of peculiar depth of
religious feeling. None except John ever exhibited any traits of
-ft
226 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
genius. That they were subject to the common faults of hu-
manity abundantly appears in their disputes among themselves,
in their worldly ambitions, in the plotting to supersede each
other, in their rash and revengeful imprecations of judgments
upon the villagers who had treated Jesus with disrespect, and in
their utter lack of courage when the final catastrophe was ap-
proaching. They partook of all the errors of their age. They
were as little competent to understand the spiritual teachings
of their Master as were the average of their countrymen. They
believed in an earthly kingdom for the Messiah, and, with the
rest of their people, anticipated a carnal triumph of the Jews
over all their enemies. They could not be made to understand
that their Master was to be put to death; and when he was
arrested, they " all forsook him and fled." They hovered in be-
wilderment around the solemn tragedy; but only one of them,
John, had the courage to be present and near at the crucifix-
ion of their Teacher. Looking externally upon these men, con-
trasting them with such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea,
the question arises whether among all the more highly cultivated
Jews, among the Pharisees and doctors, there might not have
been found sincere men, of deeply religious natures, of educated
intelligence, who, under the same amount of personal instruction,
would have been far more capable of carrying forward the work
of the new kingdom. All that can be known is, that Jesus
chose his disciples, not from Judaea, but from Galilee, far away
from the Temple influence and in a province much affected by
the foreign spirit ; that he selected them, not from the specifi-
cally religious class, but from the working people. None are
mentioned as taken from agricultural pursuits, and all whose
occupations are mentioned were more or less concerned with
commerce. That there were reasons in his own mind for the
selection none can doubt, and none can ever know what the rea-
sons were. That he felt for his immediate followers a strong
affection is plain, and that his regard was strengthened to the
end of his life can be doubted by none who read those incom-
parable discourses of love which immediately preceded his arrest,
and which John alone records, — John, the most impassioned,
the most susceptible, and at length the most perfect representa-
tive of his Master's spirit.
A TIME OF JOY. 227
It will be well to look back, before considering that remark-
able discourse of Christ's, familiarly called the "Sermon on the
Mount," and to consider the character of his teaching in this the
first period of his ministry. We shall be struck with three
things : the stimulating character indicated, the remarkable part-
nership of word and deed, and the absence of any public claim
to the Messiahship. This latter fact is the more remarkable,
since, in his conversation with the woman of Samaria, he dis-
tinctly avows himself to be the Messiah. Nowhere is there evi-
dence that he proclaimed this truth in his public discourses, and
in the abstracts and fragments which were preserved there is
nothing of the kind. Neither does there seem to have been that
presentation of himself as the source of spiritual life that is so
wonderful at a later stage of his teaching. He apparently aimed
first at the work of arousing the moral sense of the people. His
characteristic theme at first was, " Repent ! The kingdom of
heaven is at hand ! " It is not to be supposed that he went
from place to place uttering these words as a text or formula.
They rather describe the genius of his preaching. It aroused in
men an ideal and expectation of a nobler life than they and
their fellows were living ; and stimulated a wholesome moral dis-
content. Men's hearts were laid open. Not only their sins, but
the sources and motives of their evil deeds, were made bare.
Then his audiences began to hear a vivid exposition of life. Un-
like the Rabbis, he did not spend his time in mincing texts with
barren ingenuity. Men heard their actions called in question.
They heard their pride, their selfishness, their avarice, their lusts,
so exposed that self-condemnation was everywhere mingled with
wonder and admiration.
The effects of his teaching were heightened by the humanity
of his miracles, and the tender sympathy which he manifested
for the temporal comfort of men, as well as for their spiritual
well-being. Miracles were not mere explosions of power, de-
signed to excite transient wonder. They were instruments of
kindness ; they unsealed fountains of joy long closed ; they
tended to rectify the disorders which afflicted thousands of un-
happy and neglected wretches; they gave emphasis to instruc-
tion ; they ratified his exhortations ; they gave solemnity to
his simple methods. The miracles of Christ cannot be taken out
-a
228 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
of their life-connections and analyzed by themselves. They
were to his teaching what gestures are to an orator, that go
with his thoughts, and taken alone are of no value. They
were the glowing expressions of sympathy. As in the moods
of love, the eye, the lip, the face, have expressions that can-
not be separated from the emotions which produce them, so
was it with Christ's works of mercy. They were not philosophi-
cal experiments upon nature, nor premeditated evidences of
power. They were the inspirations of a tender sympathy with
human suffering, the flashes of the light of love, the arms of
God stretched forth for the rescue or consolation of the poor
and needy.
While the early preaching of Jesus seems to have been of the
most arousing character, we are not to suppose that instructive-
ness was sacrificed, nor that the next period, beginning with the
"Sermon on the Mount," was devoid of pungency because the
instructive elements predominated. Only to arouse men, and to
leave them no solid substance of thought, is to kindle a fire of
shavings that but flames up and dies in ashes.
The words of Christ, primarily addressed to the people of his
own age and country, carried in them truths so deep and uni-
versal, that, like an inexhaustible soil, they have fed the roots
of religious life for the world ever since, and have had a stronger
hold upon the intellect and the fancy than- that Grecian litera-
ture which for philosophical acuteness, for grace, and for quali-
ties of the imagination would seem far more likely to control
the world of thought than the homely domestic aphorisms and
parables of the Saviour. In every element of external excellence
the Greek surpassed the Hebrew. But the Hebrew carried in
his soul two worlds, the Greek only one. The Greek was busy
with the world he lived in ; the Hebrew concerned himself with
the folks that lived in the world. More than this, it was the
inspiration of the life to come that gave such enduring force
to the teaching of Jesus. His sympathy with both sides of hu-
man experience, its joy and its sorrow, its genial domestic tran-
quillity and its outreach and enterprise, its sweet contentment
and its passionate aspiration, gave to his teachings a quality not
to be found in any school but his. And, above all other things,
his teachings had himself for a background. He was the per-
ft
-ft
A TIME OF JOT. 229
petual illustration of his own words, the interpretation of the
deeper spiritual enigmas.
And yet there is an important sense in which the preaching
of Jesus was strangely unworldly. It was not such discourse as
in Greece made orators famous. So devoid was it of secular
elements, that one would not know from it that Palestine was
overrun with foreigners, — that the iron hand and iron heel of
Rome wellnigh pressed the life out of the nation, — that the
provinces were glowing with luxuries, cities everywhere spring-
ing up, while the people, ground down by extortion, were be-
coming wretched and desperate. Jesus was a Jew, susceptible
and sympathetic to a-remarkable degree. There was never such
a field for patriotic oratory. But amid insurrections cruelly
quelled, amid the anguish of his people, he let fall no single
word of secular eloquence. Amidst the tumults of war and the
prodigalities of foreign luxury and wasteful dissipation was heard
the calm discourse of heavenly themes. It was of the soul, of
that new and possible soul, that he spake, — and so spake that
all the nation took heed, and the sordid common people, rushing
after him for bread, paused, listened, and, wondering, declared
"he speaks with authority." Something more critical of his
method of discourse we shall submit by and by. Here we only
point out the eminent unworldliness of it, and the introduction
of a searching personal element unknown before, but now so
much a part of Christianity that we fail to appreciate its origi-
nality in Christ. We mean the individualizing of discourse to
each heart, so that every man felt that it was addressed to him,
concerning himself, — his spiritual self.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. — THE BEATITUDES.
THE customs of his country would naturally lead Jesus to
be much abroad, and he seems to have had a peculiar love
for the open fields. His journeys, his habits of teaching by the
way, his frequent resorting to the sea-side and to the solitude
of the hills, impress one with the belief that he loved the open
air far more than the house or the street. It is certain that while
at Capernaum he had sought out places of seclusion, and had
his own familiar haunts. These were not simply for rest to the
body, but also for meditation and for communion with his
Father. Wherever he went, Jesus found out these natural
sanctuaries ; while for the benefit of others he often taught in
synagogues and in the Temple, for his own refreshment he loved
better the wilderness, the lake-shore, the hill-top, the shaded
ravine, or the twilight of the olive-groves.
Such a resort he found on the summit of Mount Hattin, a
hill rising from the plain about seven miles southwesterly from
Capernaum. It was more an upland than a mountain. The
two horns, or summits, rise only sixty feet above the table-lands
which constitute the base, and the whole elevation is but about
a thousand feet above the level of the sea. From the summit
toward the east one may look over the Sea of Galilee, and north-
ward, along the broken ranges, to the snow-clad peaks of Leb-
anon. 1
1 " This mountain, or hill, — for it only rises sixty feet above the plain, — is that known
to pilgrims as the Mount of the Beatitudes, the supposed scene of the Sermon on the
Mount. The tradition cannot lay claim to any early date ; it was in all probability
suggested first to the Crusaders by its remarkable situation. But that situation so strik-
ingly coincides with the intimations of the Gospel narrative as almost to force the infer-
ence that in this instance the eyes of those who selected the spot were for once rightly
directed. It is the only height seen in this direction from the shores of the Lake of Gen-
^ ^
THE SEEMON ON THE MOUNT. 231
Returning from a preaching tour, Jesus, and with him the
immense and motley throng that now everywhere pressed upon
him, reached this neighborhood at evening. Not waiting for
his voluntary blessings, the multitudes sought to touch his very
garments, that they might receive benefit from that virtue
which seemed to emanate from his person. Gliding from among
them as the shadows fell, he hid himself from their importu-
nity in some part of the mountain. Here he spent the night in
prayer.
There is no part of the history of Jesus that stirs the im-
agination more profoundly than these solitary nights, in lonely
places, spent in prayer. It surely was not a service of mere
recitation, nor such implorations as the soul, wounded by sin,
full of fear and remorse, pours out before God. We must con-
ceive of it as a holy conference with God. He who came down
from heaven again returns to its communion. Weighed down
and impaired by evil, the soul of man sometimes rises above
the consciousness of its bodily condition, and rejoices in an
almost accomplished liberty. Much more may we suppose that
in these hours of retirement the sinless soul of the Saviour,
loosed from all consciousness of physical fatigue, hunger, or
slumberous languor, rejoined its noble companions, tasted again
its former liberty, and walked with God. But we can hardly
suppose that in these exalted hours he forgot those who all day
long tasked his sympathy. Did not he who on the cross prayed .
for his enemies, on the mountain pray for his friends ? Did not
he who now " ever liveth to make intercession " for his follow-
esareth. The plain on which it stands is easily accessible from the lake, and from that
plain to the summit is but a few minutes' walk. The platform at the top is evidently
suitable for the collection of a multitude, and corresponds precisely to the ' level place '
(Luke vi. 17, mistranslated 'plain') to which he would 'come down' as from one of
its higher horns to address the people. Its situation is central both to the peasants
of the Galilean hills and the fishermen of the Galilean lake, between which it stands,
and would therefore be a natural resort both to Jesus and his disciples (Matthew iv.
25 — v. 1) when they retired for solitude from the shores of the sea, and also to the
crowds who assembled ' from Galilee, from Decapolis, from Jerusalem, from Judaea, and
from beyond Jordan.' None of the other mountains in the neighborhood could answer
equally well to this description, inasmuch as they are merged into the uniform barrier of
hills round the lake, whereas this stands separate, — ' the mountain,' — which alone could
lay claim to a distinct name, with the exception of the one height of Tabor, which is
too distant to answer the requirements." — Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, pp. 360,
361 (2d ed. 368, 369).
232 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
ers intercede often, when he was with them, for the throng of
ignorant, impoverished, bewildered people that swarmed about
his footsteps ?
Neither Mark nor John mentions the Sermon on the Mount,
which was delivered on the morning following this retirement.
Luke gives a condensed report of it, adding, however, the woes
which correspond to the Beatitudes. Matthew gives by far the
fullest recital of it. Luke says that he stood upon the plain
(or, a level place), but Matthew, that he went up out of the
plain to the mountain, and there delivered the discourse.
When, after a night of prayer, Jesus came down to the lower
parts of the hill, he found there the great crowds which the day
before had attended him. Nor is it unlikely that he addressed
to them words of instruction. Then, withdrawing higher lip
the hill, accompanied by the Apostles and by numbers of his
general disciples, he sat down, as was the manner of Jewish
instructors, and delivered the discourse recorded by Matthew.
Luke, not having been a witness of the scene, and manifestly
giving but a partial and general account of it, naturally speaks
of the sermon as delivered on the plain, because the multitude
was there, and because Jesus came down and began his in-
structions there. Matthew, Avho was present as one of the
recently selected Apostles, gives the main discourse' of the
day, and states also, that, on account of the multitude, Jesus
retired farther up the mountain before delivering it. But
though addressed to his more immediate disciples, it is not
to be supposed that they alone heard the discourse. It was
natural that many of the throng should follow them. This
would be especially the case with those in whose hearts the
word had begun to excite a spiritual hunger, and who, though
not ready to call themselves disciples, lost no opportunity of
increasing their knowledge.
The opinion that Matthew collected from his Master's various
teachings at different times the elements of the Sermon on
the Mount, and arranged them into one discourse, although
formerly held by many, and by one of no less repute than
Calvin, has lost ground, and is now taught by only a few. The
fact that portions of the matter of this sermon appear in the
other Gospels as spoken under different circumstances may
ft
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 233
make it probable that Jesus repeated important truths or strik-
ing illustrations to different audiences. 1 It is not, therefore,
unlikely that portions of the Sermon on the Mount were thus
delivered elsewhere and under other circumstances.
That contrast between the Sermon on the Mount and the
giving of the law on Sinai, which from an early day it has
been the delight of commentators to suggest, has in fact more
reason than one is likely at first to suppose. No contrast could
be greater than the gaunt and barren wilderness of Sinai and
the luxuriant fields of Galilee about the Sea of Genesareth ; nor
could the blighted peaks of Sinai well have a more absolute
contrast than in the fruitful slopes of Hattin, which in suc-
cessive ledges declined toward the lake, at every step beautiful
with diversified vegetation and redolent with the odors of fruits
and blossoms. If the more ancient assembly were taking the
first steps from a servile existence to a national life of inde-
pendence, so the multitudes that thronged to hear the Sermon
on the Mount were about to be inducted into a new spiritual life.
The law given from Sinai was a law of morality, and chiefly con-
cerned the outward conduct. The Sermon on the Mount is like-
wise a discourse of morality, but transcendently higher than
that which was written upon the tables of stone. The root of
morality is always the same, but at different stages of its growth
it puts forth different developments. In the early and rude
state of nations it concerns itself with outward affairs, rigorously
guards the laws by which alone society can exist, and preserves
the life, the person, and the property of the citizen. As civiliza-
tion refines men's nature, and brings into power more of reason
and of moral sentiment, morality, still guarding external things,
adds to its charge the interior qualities of the disposition, and
holds men responsible, not only for actions, but for the motives
of action. It extends its sway over the realm of thought,
emotion, and the will. Thus it adds province to province, until
the boundary between morality and the purest spiritual religion
is indistinguishable ; and men at length see that morality, in
the ordinary sense of the term, is religion applied to human
1 Compare Matthew t. 18, and Luke xii. 58; Matthew vi. 19-21, and Luke xii. 33;
Matthew vi. 24, and Luke xvi. 13 ; Matthew vii. 13, and Luke xiii. 24 ; Matthew vii. 22,
and Luke xiii. 25-27.
30
a-
234 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
conduct, while religion is but morality acting in the sphere
of the spiritual sentiments.
Jesus came to bring a new growth to the old roots, to bring
into bloom that which had only shown leaves, and into fruit that
which had hitherto only blossomed. All the superstitions and
burdensome ceremonials which overlaid the simplicity of the
original statutes of Moses were to be rescinded, and the ma-
chinery of the Mosaic Law itself, not the moral element of it, was
to be abrogated. But that great law of universal love which
was to bind men to each other, and all of them to God, Jesus
declared to be at the foundation of the Jewish religion. The
whole civil and ceremonial system of the Hebrews aimed at
the production of universal love.
One would scarcely know from the Sermon on the Mount
whether the Jews had altar or temple, priests or ritual. The
pure wheat is here garnered; the straw and chaff, so needful
for its growth, but now in its ripeness so useless, and even per-
nicious, were cleared away. It is a discourse of the past for the
sake of the future.
To interpret the Sermon on the Mount as the charter of
Christianity, is to misconceive not only this discourse, but the
very nature of Christianity itself, which is not a system of new
truths, but a higher development of existing forces.
The fulness of time had come. Man was to be lifted to a
higher plane, and made accessible to more powerful influences
than could be exerted through the old dispensation. Out of
that grand renewal of human nature there would spring up
truths innumerable, the products of Christianity. But Chris-
tianity itself was not a system of truths, nor the result of a
system of truths, but a name for living forces. It was a new
dispensation of power, an efflux of the Divine Spirit, developing
the latent spiritual forces in man. It was the kingdom of God
among men. It was like the diffusion of a new and more fer-
vid climate over a whole continent.. A development and per-
fection would follow, never before known, and impossible to a
lower temperature. The one silver thread which runs through
the Gospels and the Epistles, and binds them into unity, is the
indwelling of the Divine Spirit in the human soul, and the
enlarged scope and power of human life by reason of it.
ty-
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 235
John saw the radiant kingdom descending when he cried,
"There cometh one mightier than I after me, .... he shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost." And when Jesus came,
the same truth was thrown forward in advance of all others :
" The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Cast out all evil ! Lay
open your souls to the Divine coming ! " Repentance and for-
giveness were not the gospel. The kingdom of God among
men, an exaltation of the race by the Divine union with it,
the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation, —
this was the good news.
But the Sermon on the Mount is deficient in precisely these
elements. It has in it no annunciation of a new dispensation.
That flame of fire, the Spirit of God, is not mentioned. Jesus
does not there claim for himself any vital relation to the human
soul ; that faith which so largely filled his subsequent teachings
is not alluded to. He does not even claim the Messiahship.
There is no word of his sufferings and death, nor of his future
mediation, nor of the doctrine of repentance and the new birth.
Can that be an epitome of Christianity which leaves out the
great themes which filled the later teaching of Jesus ?
The Sermon on the Mount gathers up the sum of all that had
been gained under the Jewish dispensation, — distinguishes be-
tween the original and genuine elements of truth in the Jewish
belief, and the modern and perverse inculcations of the Rabbis,
— and, above all, gives to familiar things a new spiritual force
and authority.
At the threshold of the new life it was wise to ascertain what
was real and what fictitious in the belief of the people. A
repudiation of the Law and the prophets would have bewildered
their moral sense ; but the truth of their fathers, cleansed from
glosses, pure and simple, would become the instrument for work-
ing that very repentance which would prepare them for the
new life of God in the soul.
Men are fond of speaking of the originality of the Sermon
on the Mount ; but originality would have defeated its very
aim. All growth must sprout from roots pre-existing in the
soul. There can be no new, except by the help of some old.
To have spread out a novel field of unfamiliar truth before the
people might have led them to speculation, but could not have
236 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
aroused their conscience, nor rebuked the degradation of their
natures and the sordidness of their lives. It was the very aim
of the Sermon on the Mount to place before the Jews, in the
clearest light, the great truths out of which sprung their Law
and their prophets, as a preparation for the new and higher
developments that would come afterwards. In so doing Jesus
put himself into the confidence of his own people. To the
sober-minded among his countrymen he never seemed a sub-
verter of Hebrew customs, or an innovator upon the national
religion. He was recognized everywhere by the common peo-
ple, and by all earnest natures not wrought into the Pharisaic
party, as a genuine Hebrew prophet, standing on the very
ground of the fathers, and enunciating old and familiar truths,
but giving to them a scope and a spiritual elevation which,
though new, was neither strange nor unnatural.
The Sermon on the Mount, then, being in the nature of an
historical review, could not be original. It was a criticism of
the received doctrine. Every part of it brings down to us the
odor and flavor of the best days and the ripest things of the
Old Testament dispensation. It was the mount from which
men looked over into the promised land of the spirit. Even
the Beatitudes, an exquisite prelude, which seems like a solemn
hymn sung before a service, are but a collection and better
ordering of maxims or aphorisms which existed in the Old Tes-
tament.
Already Isaiah had heard God saying, " I dwell in the high
and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble
spirit." And the Psalmist had said, "A broken and a contrite
heart, God, thou wilt not despise." Already the prophet had
promised "Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and
the* garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness " ; and the
wise man had said, " Sorrow is better than laughter." From
the Psalmist were taken almost the words of benediction to
the meek : " The meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight
themselves in the abundance of peace." Where is there a
hunger and thirst of the soul, if it be not recorded in the
forty-second Psalm? This Psalm is broken into two, the forty-
second and forty-third, and three times the refrain comes in,
"I shall yet praise him who is the help of my countenance."
s£r ^ -ft
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 237
There are abundant blessings pronounced upon the merciful,
upon the pure in heart, upon the persecuted for righteousness'
sake ; and even in the old warlike age peace was not uncele-
brated. If there be no distinct blessing for peacemakers, there
are numberless woes denounced against those who stir up strife
and cruel war.
The Beatitudes, then, were not new principles ; the truth in
them had been recognized before. They were truths hidden in
the very nature of the soul, and, in the best sense, natural.
But formerly they lay scattered as pearls not detached from
the parent shell, or as rough diamonds unground. Here they
first appear in brilliant setting. They are no longer happy
sayings, but sovereign principles. They always spoke with
instructiveness, but now with authority, as if they wore crowns
xipon their heads.
There was a noble strangeness in them. The whole world was
acting in a spirit contrary to them. They conflicted with every
sentiment and maxim of common life. On a lonely hill-top sat
one known to have been reared as a mechanic, pronouncing to a
group of peasants, fishermen, mechanics, and foreigners the sub-
lime truths of the higher and interior life of the soul, which
have since by universal consent been deemed the noblest utter-
ances of earth. The traveller may to-day stand in Antwerp,
near the old cathedral, hearing all the clatter of business, a
thousand feet tramping close up to the walls and buttresses
against which lean the booths, a thousand tongues rattling the
language of traffic, when, as the hour strikes from above, a
shower of notes seems to descend from the spire, — bell notes,
fine, sweet, small as a bird's warble, the whole air full of crisp
tinklings, underlaid by the deeper and sonorous tones of large
bells, but all of them in fit sequences pouring forth a melody
that seems unearthly, and the more because in such contrast
with the scenes of vulgar life beneath. In some such way must
these words have fallen upon the multitude.
Whether the audience felt the sweetness and exquisite beauty
of Christ's opening sentences we cannot know. They are the
choicest truths of the old dispensation set to the spirit of the
new. But not until, like bells, they were thus set in chimes
and rung in the spirit and melody of the spiritual age, could
rfl—-
238 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
one have dreamed how noble they were. And what blessings !
When before did such a company of ills and misfortunes find
themselves mustered and renamed ? No word of commenda-
tion for wealth, or favor, or high estate, or power, or pleasure.
For all that the world was striving after with incessant industry
there was no benediction. Congratulations were reserved for
the evils which all men dreaded, — poverty, sorrow, persecu-
tion, and the hatred of men, — or for qualities which men
thought to be the signs of weakness. Could his disciples
understand such paradoxes? We know that they did not until
after the descent upon them of the Holy Spirit, at a later day.
Still less would the rude multitude comprehend such mysterious
sayings, so profoundly true, but true in relation to conditions
of soul of which they had no conception. The real man was
invisible to their eyes. Only the outward life was known to
them, the life of the body, and of the mind only as the ready
minister to bodily enjoyments !
"Blessed are the poor isr spirit."
Not poverty of thought, nor of courage, nor of emotion,- —
not empty-mindedness, nor any idea implying a real lack of
strength, variety, and richness of nature, — was here intended.
It was to be a consciousness of moral incompleteness. As
the sense of poverty in this world's goods inspires men to en-
terprise, so the consciousness of a poverty of manliness might
be expected to lead to earnest endeavors for moral growth.
This first sentence was aimed full at that supreme self-com-
placency which so generally resulted from the school of the
Pharisee. Paul's interpretation of his own experience illus-
trates the predominant spirit. He once had no higher idea of
character than that inculcated in the Law of Moses, and he
wrote of his attainments : " Touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless." (Phil. iii. 6.) "He was a perfect
man!
The land was full of " perfect men." Groups of them were
to be found in every synagogue. To be sure they were
worldly, selfish, ambitious, vindictive, but without the con-
sciousness of being the worse for all that. Rigorous exactitude
in a visible routine gave them the right to thank God that
ft
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THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 239
they were not as other men were. For such men, in such
moods, there could be no spiritual kingdom. They could
never sympathize with that new life which was coming upon
the world, in which the treasures were "love, joy, peace, long-
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."
(Gal. v. 22, 23.) But those who painfully felt the poverty of
their inward nature in all these excellences might rise to the
blessings of the new kingdom, "in which dwelleth righteous-
ness."
In a world so full of trouble a thousand modes of consolation
have been sought, a thousand ways of joy. But Jesus, still
looking upon the invisible manhood, next points out the Divine
road to happiness.
"Blessed are they that mourn."
For perfect beings sorrow is not needed ; but to creatures
like men, seeking to escape the thrall and burden of animal
life, sorrow is helpful. As frosts unlock the hard shells of seeds
and help the germ to get. free, so trouble develops in men
the germs of force, patience, and ingenuity, and in noble na-
tures "works the peaceable fruits of righteousness." A gen-
tle schoolmaster it is to those who are " exercised thereby."
Tears, like raindrops, have a thousand times fallen to the
ground and come lip in flowers. All the good in this world
which has risen above the line of material comfort has been
born from some one's sorrow. We all march under a Cap-
tain " who was made perfect through sufferings " ; and we
are to find peace only as we learn of him in the school of
patience.
Not less astonishing than the value put upon poverty of
spirit and mourning must have seemed the next promise and
prediction : —
" Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
Each part of a man's mind has its peculiar and distinctive
excitement. The passions and appetites give forth a turbulent
and exhausting experience. The full activity of the domestic
and social emotions produces excitement less harsh and violent,
but yet tumultuous. The highest conditions of the soul's ac-
240 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
tivity are serene and tranquil. It is to this superior calm of
a soul that is living in the continuous activity of its highest
spiritual sentiments that the term meekness should be applied.
It designates the whole temper of the soul in the range of its
moral and spiritual faculties. The appetites and passions pro-
duce a boisterous agitation too coarse and rude for real pleasure.
The affections develop pleasure, but with too near an alliance
to our lower nature for tranquillity. The spiritual portion of
the soul is at once luminous and peaceful. The strength of
man lies in those faculties which are farthest removed from his
animal conditions. It is in the spiritual nature that manhood
resides. The action of these higher sentiments is so different
in result from the violent agitations of the appetites and pas-
sions, that man may well speak of himself as a duality, a union
of two distinct persons, not only of different, but of opposite
and contradictory experiences. At the bottom of man's nature
lie rude strength, coarse excitements, violent fluctuations, ex-
hausting impulses. At the top of man's nature the soul puts
forth continuous life almost without fatigue, is tranquil under
intense activities, and is full of the light of moral intuitions.
Meekness is generally thought to be a sweet benignity under
provocation. But provocation only discloses, and does not cre-
ate it. It exists as a generic mood or condition of soul, inde-
pendent of those causes which may bring it to light. In this
state, power and peace are harmonized, — activity and tranquil-
lity, joy and calmness, all-seeingness without violence of desire.
From these nobler fountains chiefly are to flow those influences
which shall control the world.
Man the animal has hitherto possessed the globe. Man the
divine is yet to take it. The struggle is going on. But in
every cycle more and more does the world feel the superior
authority of truth, purity, justice, kindness, love, and faith.
They shall yet possess the earth. In these three opening sen-
tences how deep are the insights given ! The soul beholds
its meagreness and poverty, it longs with unutterable desire to
be enriched, it beholds the ideal state luminous with peace and
full of power.
But now the discourse rises from these interior states to
more active elements. Amidst the conflicting elements of life
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 241
no man can gain any important moral victories by mere long-
ing, or by rare impulses, or by feeble purposes. If one would
reach the true manhood, the spiritual life, of the new kingdom,
it must be by continuous energy during his entire career. In
the whole routine of daily life, in the treatment of all cares,
temptations, strifes, and experiences of every kind, the one pre-
dominant purpose must be the perfection of manhood in our-
selves.
"Blessed are they who do hunger aot thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled."
The life of the body, its strength and skill, are every day
built up by the food which hunger craves. And as hunger is
not a rational faculty, and does not depend upon any of the
rational faculties for its action, but follows the internal condition
of the body, and is an automatic sign and signal of the waste
or repair going on within ; so the longing for uprightness and
goodness must be a deep-seated and incessant importunity of
the soul's very substance, as it were, acting, not upon sugges-
tion or special excitement, but self-aroused and continuous.
To such a desire the whole world becomes a ministering ser-
vant. All this is strangely in contrast with the life of man.
The fierce conflict, the exacting enterprise, are felt, but they
expend themselves upon externals. They seek to build up the
estate, to augment the power, to multiply physical pleasures.
In the new life the strife and enterprise are to be none the
less, but will be directed toward inward qualities.
These four Beatitudes not only revealed the Divine concep-
tion of the new spiritual life, but they stood in striking contrast
with the ideas held by the leaders of the Jews. The Pharisees
were also expecting a kingdom, and great advantage and de-
light. They had no idea of the joy there is in spiritual sor-
row. They knew nothing of the sweet tranquillity of meek-
ness, and to them nothing seemed so little likely to inherit the
earth. Energetic power, invincible zeal, and a courage that
did not fear disaster or death,- — these would win, if anything
could. The Beatitudes, thus far, must have been profoundly
unintelligible to Christ's hearers. What wonder? They are
even yet unintelligible to mankind.
&
:n
242 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE OHRIST.
" Blessed aee the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
To an undeveloped race, struggling ignorantly forward rather
than upward, jostling, contending, quarrelling, — each man self-
ish, but demanding that others should be kind, — each one
unjust, but clamoring against others for their injustice, — each
one exacting, severe, or cruel, but requiring that others should
be lenient, — comes the word, Blessed are the merciful. No one
thins: does human life more need than a kind consideration of
men's faults. Every one sins. Every one needs forbearance.
Their own imperfections should teach men to be merciful. God
is merciful because he is perfect. Mercy is an attribute of high
moral character. As men grow toward the Divine, they be-
come gentle, forgiving, compassionate. The absence of a mer-
ciful spirit is evidence of the want of true holiness. A soul
that has really entered into the life of Christ carries in itself a
store of nourishment and a cordial for helpless souls around
it. Whoever makes his own rigorous life, or his formal pro-
priety, or his exacting conscience, an argument for a condem-
natory spirit toward others, is not of the household of faith.
Merciless observers of men's faults, who delight in finding out
the evil that is in their neighbors, who rejoice in exposing the
sins of evil-doers, or who find a pleasure in commenting upon,
or ridiculing the mistakes of others, show themselves to be
ignorant of the first element of the Christian religion.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
Precisely what is meant by " purity " has called forth much
speculation. But it should be remembered that the whole dis-
course contains either a latent or an avowed criticism upon
the prevailing notions of the Jews as to true religion. On no
point were the Pharisees more scrupulous than that of Leviti-
cal purity. This had no direct relation in their minds to the
inward dispositions and purposes. Impurity was contracted by
some bodily act, and was removed by some corresponding ex-
ternal ceremony. There- were some seventy specific cases of
uncleanness described by Jewish writers, and others were pos-
sible. A conscientious man found his action limited on every
hand by fear of impurity, or by the rites of purification which
ft
■tr
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 243
were required in case of defilement. A ceremony designed
to inspire a moral idea by a physical act suffered the almost
inevitable fate of symbols, and ended by withdrawing the mind
from moral states and fixing it superstitiously upon external
deeds. The benediction of Jesus was upon purity of heart, as
distinguished from legal and ceremonial purity. A state of
heart in which all its parts and faculties should be morally as
free from the contamination of passion, selfishness, injustice, and
insincerity as the body and its members might be from Levit-
ical defilement, was, without doubt, the state upon which the
blessing was meant to rest. But the promise here given, " they
shall see God," assumes a wider view and a more profound
philosophy. There can be no knowledge of God in any degree
moral and, spiritual, which does not come to man through some
form of moral intuition. To understand justice, one must have
some experience of justice. There could arise no idea of love
in a soul that had never loved, or of pity in one who had
never experienced compassion. Our knowledge of the moral
attributes of God must take its rise in some likeness, or germ
of resemblance, in us to that which we conceive is the Divine
nature. In proportion as we become like him, the elements
of understanding increase. The soul becomes an interpreter
through its own experiences. They only can understand God
who have in themselves some moral resemblance to him; and
they will enter most largely into knowledge who are most in
sympathy with the Divine life.
" Blessed aee the peacemakers, for they shall be called
the children of god."
Peace is not a negative state, a mere interval between two
excitements. In its highest meaning it is that serenity which
joy assumes, not only when single faculties are excited, but
when the whole soul is in harmony with itself and full of
wholesome activity. An original disposition which dwells in
peace by the fulness and the inspiration of all its parts is a
rare gift. One whose nature unconsciously diffuses peace is very
near to God. Jesus himself never seemed so divine as when,
on the eve of his arrest, with the cloud already casting its
shadow upon him, and every hour bringing him consciously
244 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
nearer to the great agony, he said to his humble followers :
" Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you." There
is no other sign of Divinity more eminent than that of a na-
ture which can breathe upon men an atmosphere of peace.
They who can do this, even imperfectly, have the lineaments
of their Parent upon them. They are the children of God.
Far out from the centre of creative power, among the ele-
ments of nature, there is wild turbulence, and immense ener-
gies grapple in conflict. As the universe rises, circle above
circle, each successive sphere loses something of strife and de-
velops some tendency to harmony. All perfection tends toward
peace. In that innermost circle, where the God dwells in very
person, peace eternally reigns. The energy which creates, the
universal will which governs, and the inconceivable intellect
that watches and thinks of all the realm, have their highest
expression in a perfect peace. Thus, though the lower stages
of being are full of agitations, the higher stages are tranquil.
The universe grows sweet as it grows ripe. "The God of
peace" is the highest expression of perfect being. Whatever
disturbance is raging in his remote creation, He dwells in eter-
nal peace, waiting for the consummation of all things. There
is, then, evident reason why peacemakers " shall be called the
children of God."
In a lower way, but yet in close sympathy with this supreme
disposition of a soul in harmony with. God, are to be included
all voluntary efforts for the suppression of riotous mischief and
for the promotion of kindness, agreement, concord, and peace
among men and between nations. While malign dispositions
stir up strife, a benevolent nature seeks to allay irritation, to
quiet the fierceness of temper, and to subdue all harsh and
cruel souls to the law of kindness. A pacificator will make
himself the benefactor of any neighborhood.
It is true that peace is sometimes so hindered by means of
corrupt passions or selfish interests that there must be a strug-
gle before peace can exist. " I came not to send peace, but a
sword," was our Lord's annunciation of this fact. A conflict
between the spirit and the flesh takes place in every individual
and in every community that is growing better. It is, how-
ever, but transient and auxiliary. Out of it comes a higher
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 245
life. With that come harmony and peace. One may sacrifice
peace by neglecting to struggle, and one may seek peace by
instituting conflicts. Love must overcome selfishness, even if
the demon in departing casts clown its victim upon the ground
and leaves him as one dead.
" Blessed are they which are ' persecuted for righteous-
ness' SAKE, FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN."
All the elements of human society were originally organized
by the force of reason acting in its lowest plane, — selfishly.
Little by little the animal gave way to the social, the material
to the spiritual, and room began to be found in the secular for
the eternal. It has been a long conflict. It is a conflict still,
and will continue to be for ages. A just man at every step
finds some one whose interests turn upon injustice. One can-
not make the truth clear and stimulating without disturbing
some drowsy error, which flies out of its cave and would extin-
guish the light. Not only have pride and vanity their unlaw-
ful sway, but every passion has in human life some vested
interest which truth and love will either altogether destroy,
or greatly restrain and regulate.
Now, although the truth when presented in its own symme-
try is beautiful, and although men, unless greatly perverted,
recognize the beauty of righteousness, yet their selfish interests
in the processes of life, the profit or pleasure which they de-
rive from unrighteousness, sweep away their feeble admiration,
and in its place ' come . anger and opposition. All potential
goodness is a disturbing force. Benevolent men are the friends
of even the selfish, but selfish men feel that benevolence is
the enemy of selfishness. The silent example of a good man
judges and condemns the conduct of bad men. Even passive
goodness stands in the way of active selfishness. But when, as
was to be the case in the new spiritual kingdom heralded by
Christ, good men acting in sympathy should seek to spread
the sway of moral principles, the time would speedily arrive
when their spirit would come in conflict with the whole king-
dom of darkness. Then would arise the bitterest opposition.
Since the world began, it has not been permitted to any one to
rise within himself from a lower to a higher moral state, with-
rfl—-
246 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
out an angry conflict on the part of his inferior faculties. No
part of human society has been allowed to develop into a higher
form without bitter persecutions. If this had been so up to
that era, when the stages were tentative and preparatory, how
much more was it to be so now, when the fulness of time had
come, and the followers of Christ were to found a kingdom in
which the moral and spiritual elements were to predominate
over every other !
But persecution which is caused by true goodness drives men
more entirely from the resources of the animal, and secular
life, and develops in them to greater strength and intensity
their truly spiritual or divine part ; and in that state their joys
increase in elevation, in conscious purity, in peacefulness. They
live in another realm. They are not dependent for their en-
joyment upon outward circumstances, nor upon -the remuner-
ations of social life. They are lifted into the very vicinage of
heaven. They hold communion with God. A new realm, in-
visible but potential, springs up around them. Dispossessed of
common pleasures, they find themselves filled with other joys,
unspeakable and full of glory. " Theirs is the kingdom of
heaven."
Here the Beatitudes end. They raise in the mind an exalted
conception of the spiritual manhood. In the new kingdom
manhood was to be clothed with new power. It had broken
up through to the realm above, and was clothed with Divine
elements. In this state, the grand instrument of success in the
subjugation of the world was to be the simple force of this
new human nature, acting directly upon living men. Until that
time religion had, in the weakness of the race, needed to em-
ploy rules, laws, and institutions, and to maintain its authority
by force borrowed from the physical nature of man. But the
new kingdom was to rely sovereignly upon a new force, — the
living soul acting upon living souls. Therefore Jesus, having
revealed by these few profound elements what was the true
spiritual strength of man, declares to his disciples their mission.
They were to be the preservative element of life. They were
to become sons of God, not alone for their own sake, but as
spiritual forces in subduing the world to goodness. While
Pharisees were intensely concerned to maintain their own sup-
4=^ : ,
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 247
posed blameless state, and Essenes were withdrawing from hu-
man life more and more, and various religionists were playing
hermit, shunning a world which they could not resist or over-
come, the disciples of the new kingdom of the spirit, inspired
by a Divine influence, and living in an atmosphere uncontam-
inated by the lower passions, were to go boldly forth into life,
taking hold of human affairs, seeking to purify the household,
to reclaim the selfishness and the sordidness of material life,
to infuse a spirit of justice and of goodness into laws and
magistrates, and to make the power of their new life felt in
every fibre of human society. " Ye are the salt of the earth ! "
" Ye are the light of the world ! "
The opening portion of the Sermon on the Mount must not
have the canons of modern philosophy applied to it. Its or-
ganic relations with the rest of the discourse must not be
pressed too far. It depicts the moral qualities which are to
give character to the new life, but does not include all the
elements of it, nor even the most important ones. Hope, faith,
. and love are not mentioned. It is plain, therefore, that the
principle of selection was largely an external one. Jesus was
about to criticise the national religion. He fixed his eye upon
the living officers and exemplars of that religion, and empha-
sized with his benediction those qualities which most needed
to be made prominent, and which were signally lacking in the
spirit of the Pharisee.
Just as little should we attempt to exhibit in the Beati-
tudes a natural progression, or philosophic order of qualities.
There is no reason why the second Beatitude should not stand
first, nor why the fifth, sixth, and seventh might not be inter-
changed. The fourth might without impropriety have begun
the series. The order in which they stand does not repre-
sent the order of the actual evolution of moral qualities. On
the contrary, we perceive that the spirit of God develops the
new life in the human soul in no fixed order. Men who have
gone far in overt wickedness may find their first moral im-
pulse to spring from a condemning conscience ; but others are
more affected by the sweetness and beauty of moral qualities
as seen in some goodly life. Sometimes hope, sometimes sym-
248 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
pathy, sometimes fear, and sometimes even the imitativeness
that becomes contagious in social life, is the initiatory motive.
For the human soul is like a city of many gates ; and a con-
queror does not always enter by the same gate, but by that
one which chances to lie open. It is true that a general sense
of sinfulness precedes all effort after a higher life. But a clear
discrimination of evil, and an exquisite sensibility to it, such
as are implied in the first two Beatitudes, do not belong to an
untrained conscience first aroused to duty, but are the fruits of
later stages of Christian experience.
The Beatitudes constitute a beautiful sketch of the ideal
state, when the glowing passions, which in the day of Christ
controlled even the religious leaders, and still so largely rule
the world, shall be supplanted by the highest moral sentiments.
The ostentatious wealth and arrogant pride of this sensuous
life shall be replaced in the new life by a profound humility.
The conceit and base content of a sordid prosperity shall give
way to ingenuous spiritual aspiration. Men shall long for
goodness more than the hungry do for food. They shall no
longer live by the force of their animal life, but by the se-
rene sweetness of the moral sentiments. Meekness shall be
stronger than force. The spirit of peacemaking shall take the
place of irritation and quarrelsomeness. But as we can come
to the mildness and serenity of spring only through the blus-
tering winds and boisterous days of March, so this new king-
dom must enter through a period of resistance and of perse-
cution ; and all who, taking part in its early establishment,
have to accept persecution, must learn to find joy in it as the
witness that they are exalted to a superior realm of experi-
ence, to the companionship of the noblest heroes of the pro-
phetic age, and to fellowship with God.
CHAPTER XV.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. — (Continued.)
AFTER pronouncing the Beatitudes, and before entering up-
on his criticism of the current religious ideas, Jesus put his
disciples on their guard lest they should suppose that he meant
to overturn the religion of their fathers. Think not that I am
come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. If men's moral beliefs
were the result of a purely logical process, their religious faith
might be changed upon mere argument, and with as little det-
riment to their moral constitution as an astronomer experiences
when, upon the recalculation of a problem, he corrects an error.
But men's moral convictions spring largely from their feelings.
The intellect but gives expression to the heart. The creed
and worship, however they may begin in philosophy, are soon
covered all over with the associations of the household; they
are perfumed with domestic love ; they convey with them the
hopes and the fears of life, the childhood fancies, and the im-
aginations of manhood. To change a man's religious system is
to reconstruct the whole man himself. Such change is full of
peril. Only the strongest moral natures can survive the shock
of doubt which dispossesses them of all that they have trusted
from childhood. There are few strong moral natures. The
mass of men are creatures of dependent habits and of unreason-
ing faith. Once cut loose from what they have always deemed
sacred, they find it impossible to renew their reverence for
-R-,
250 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
new things, and sink either into moral indifference or into care-
less scepticism. Men must, if possible, see in the new a pres-
ervation of all that was valuable in the old, made still more
fruitful and beautiful. It is the old in the new that preserves
it from doing harm to untaught natures.
The recognition of this truth is nowhere more remarkable
than in the progress of Christianity under the ministration of
Jesus and of his Apostles. Although surrounded by a people .
whose hatred of foreign religions was inordinate and fanatical,
the Jews did not hear from the lips of Jesus even an allusion
to heathenism. If the narratives of the Gospel are fair speci-
mens of his manner, there was not a word that fell from him
which could have wounded an honest heathen ; 1 and, after-
wards, his Apostles sought to find some ground of common
moral consciousness from which to reason with the idolatrous
people among whom they came. We are not to suppose that
Jesus made an abrupt transition from the religious institutions
of Moses to his own spiritual system. He said no word to
unsettle the minds of his countrymen in the faith of their
fathers. He was careful of the religious prejudices of his times.
The very blows directed against the glosses and perversions of
the Pharisees derived their force from the love which Jesus
showed for the Law and the Prophets. He pierced through the
outward forms to the central principle of Mosaism, and made
his new dispensation to be an evolution of the old.
Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets :
I am not come to destroy, hit to fulfil.
Here is the law of development announced by an inspired
Hebrew to a peasant and mechanic crowd in obscure Galilee,
ages before the philosophy of evolution was suspected or the
laws of progress were found out. Jesus did not come to destroy
old faiths, but to carry them forward by growth to the higher
forms and the better fruit that were contained within them.
This tenderness for all the good that there was in the past
of the Jewish nation is in striking contrast with the bitter
spirit of hatred against the Jews which afterwards grew up in
the Christian Cburch. No man can be in sympathy with Jesus
1 The word " heathen," Matt. vi. 7, and xviii. 1 7, is used rather as a designation
than as a criticism.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 251
who has no affection for the Jew and no reverence for the
oracles of the old Hebrew dispensation.
It was peculiarly appropriate, at the beginning of a discourse
designed to search the received interpretations of the Law with
the most severe criticism, that Jesus should caution his disciple^
against a tendency, often developed in times of transition, to
give up and abandon all the convictions and traditions of the
past. Jesus therefore amplified the thought. The central truths
of Hebraism were fundamental and organic. The ceremonies
and institutions which surrounded them might change, but the
enshrined principles were permanent. Heaven and earth should
pass away before one jot or tittle of them should perish. No
man must seek notoriety by a crusade against his father's re-
ligion. He who should break one of the least commandments,
or should inspire others to do so, should be least in the king-
dom of heaven. The temper of the new life was not to be
destructive, but constructive. Even that part of the old re-
ligion which was to pass away must not be destroyed by attack,
but be left to dry up and fall by the natural development of
the higher elements of spiritual life contained within it. And
that should not be till the old was " fulfilled " in the new : the
blossom should be displaced only by the fruit.
Jesus was now prepared to pass under review the ethical
mistakes which his countrymen had made in interpreting the
Law of Moses. He began by declaring that the reigning relig-
ious spirit was totally insufficient. No one under its inspiration
could rise into that higher life which was opening upon the
world.
Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
This may be called the theme of the whole sermon following.
From this text Jesus now developed his view of the ethics of
the new life. He furnished the ideals towards which men must
strive, setting forth the morality of the teleologic state of
mankind. For this purpose he selected a series of cases in
which the great laws of purity and of love were the most vio-
lated in the practical life of his times, and applied to them
the ethics of the final and perfect state of manhood. This
he did, not as a legislator, nor as a priest. He was not attempt-
-a
252 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
ing to regulate civil society, nor the church, by minute regu-
lations, but by inspiring the soul with those nobler emotions
from which just rules spring, and which themselves need no
laws. He spoke from conscious divinity in himself to the moral
consciousness in man. He was not framing principles into hu-
man laws or institutions. He held up ideals of disposition for
the attainment of which all men were to strive. They are not
the less true because men in the lower stages of development
are unable to attain to their level. They are the true basis of
all social and civil procedure, even though nations are not yet
civilized enough to practise them.
There are nine topics successively treated, all of them re-
lating to the state of man's heart, namely : 1. Murder ; 2. Adul-
tery ; 3. Divorce; 4. Oaths; 5. Ketaliation; 6. Disinterested
Benevolence; 7. Almsgiving; 8. Prayer; 9. Pasting. Follow-
ing the enunciation of principles in regard to these topics are a
series of cases relating to the outward life, or economico-ethical
instructions. The spiritual ethics which Jesus laid down with
the quiet authority of conscious divinity not only antagonized
with the private passions of men and the customs of society,
but directly contested the popular interpretation of the Law of
Moses.
1. Murder. — Christ teaches that the true life is that of the
thoughts and emotions ; that the highest authority and gov-
ernment is that which is within the soul, and not alone that
which breaks out into active civil law and takes cognizance
of acts. Spiritual law takes hold of the sources of all acts.
Now the Pharisee sought to restrain evil by a microscopic con-
sideration of externals. Jesus went back to the fountain, and,
would purify all the issues by cleansing it.
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shatt not
kill ; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment : but
I sag unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a
cause shall be in danger of the judgment : and whosoever shall say to
his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall
say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
What is murder? The law of the land answered in its way.
Jesus replied, The voluntary indulgence of any feeling that
would naturally lead to the act, — that is murder. The crime
c:
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 253
is first committed in the shadowy realm of thought and feeling.
Many a murder is unperformed outwardly, while all that con-
stitutes its guilt is enacted in the heart. A legalist would
regard himself as innocent if only he did not act as he felt.
But in the kingdom of the Spirit feelings are acts. A mur-
derous temper is murder. John says, "Whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer."
This does not forbid all anger. There may be a just indig-
nation which carries in it no malice, which springs from af-
fronted benevolence. This is implied in the phrase, " Whoso is
angry with his brother without a cause" i. e. a just cause, a cause
springing from high moral considerations, as where indigna-
tion is aroused at the sight of one who is committing a great
cruelty.
Not alone anger which leads to violence, but even that de-
gree of anger which leads one to abuse another by the use of
opprobrious epithets, is forbidden. Yet more severely con-
demned is such a transport of anger as leads one, under the
influence of merciless passions, as it were, to tread out all sense
of another's manhood and to annihilate him.
Not only are we to carry kind thoughts ourselves, but we
are bound, by every means within our power, to prevent un-
kind thoughts in others. If we know that another " hath
aught against us," the removal of that unkind feeling is more
important before God than any act of worship. Leave the
altar, remove the unkindness, then return to thy prayers. First
humanity, then devotion.
2. Adultery. — The same general principle is applied to the
passion of lust.
But I say unto you, That ivhosoever looketh on a woman to lust after
her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Not only is he guilty who suffers desire to run its full length
and consummate itself in action, but he also who nourishes the
desire which he cannot or dare not consummate. And though
the temptation require the uttermost strength of resistance, it
must be vanquished. As a soldier fights though wounded, and
is triumphantly received though his victory has lost him an arm
or an eye, so at every sacrifice and with all perseverance must
the true man maintain chastity in his feelings, in his thoughts,
c&
. —O-,
254 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
and in his imagination. If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out.
If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off.
3. Divorce. — In the kingdom of the Spirit the new man shall
no longer be suffered to consult his own mere pleasure in the
disposal of his wife. In the Orient and among the Jews polyg-
amy was permitted; the husband might take as many wives
as he could support, and he was at liberty to dismiss any one
of them upon the most trivial cause. "Woman was helpless, a
slave of man's convenience, without redress when wronged. She
could demand a legal document of her husband if he put her
away, and that probably was equivalent to a general certificate
of respectable character, such as employers give to servants
when for any reason they wish no longer to retain them. .
Under Oriental laws, to this day, women are little better than
slaves. The husband has despotic power over them. Among
the Hebrews, the condition of woman was far better, and her
privileges were greater, than in other Eastern nations ; yet the
husband could dispossess her of her marriage rights almost at
his own will. He had uncontrolled jurisdiction. There was
no necessity for obtaining permission from a civil or religious
tribunal to put away his wife. It was a household affair, with
which the public had nothing to do. Her stay in the house
was purely a matter of her lord's will. He could send her
forth for the most trivial fault, or from the merest caprice.
The doctrine of Jesus sheared off at one stroke all these un-
natural privileges from the husband, and made the wife's position
firm and permanent, unless she forfeited it by crime. By lim-
iting the grounds of separation to the single crime of adultery,
Jesus revolutionized the Oriental household, and lifted woman
far up on the scale of natural rights. Considered in its histor-
ical relations, this action of our Lord was primarily a restriction
upon- the stronger and directly in the interest of the weaker
party.
This theme and our Lord's teaching upon it will be resumed
where we come to treat of a later period in his ministry, when
he more fully disclosed his doctrine upon the subject. But it
is clear that our Lord belonged to neither of the two schools
which existed among the Jews, — the lax school of Hillel, or
the rigid school of Shammai. He rose higher than either. He
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 255
made the outward relation permanent, on account of the true
spiritual nature of marriage, it being the fusion or real unity
of two hearts. Having once been outwardly united, they must
abide together, and even when they found themselves in con-
flict must learn to be one in spirit by the discipline of living
together. If they enter the wedded state unprepared, the
household is the school in which they are to learn the neglected
lesson.
4. Oaths. — If men loved the truth always, there would be
no need of an oath ; but so prone are they to deceit, that
in cases of public interest they must be incited to speak truly
by a lively fear acting upon an aroused conscience. By an oath
men swear to God, and not to man, of the truth of facts. A
day shall come when men will speak the truth in the love of
truth. Then all judicial oaths will be needless. The perfect
state will have no need of them, and they will be done away.
The casuists among the Jews had corrupted the oath. Men
were not bound by it, unless it was an oath directly to God.
They might win confidence by giving to their solemn affirma-
tions the appearance of an oath. They might swear by heaven,
by the earth, by Jerusalem, by one's head ; but it was held that
from these oaths they might draw back without dishonor. Jesus
exposed the deception and impiety of such oaths. He laid
down for all time the canon, that the true man shall declare
facts with the utmost simplicity. It must be yea, yea, or nay,
nay ; nothing more. This certainly forbids the use of all trivial
oaths, and reduces judicial oaths to the position of expedients,
tolerated only on account of the weakness of men, and to be
abolished in the era of true manhood. Oaths will be dispensed
with just as soon as men can be believed without an oath.
5. Retaliation. — Jesus passed next to a consideration of the
law of retaliation. The lower down upon the moral scale men
live, the more nearly must they be governed wholly by fear
and force. Under the laws of nature, disobedience brings pain.
Men learn the same government, and inflict pain upon those
who offend. Civil government methodizes this economy of pain.
It is, however, the method peculiar to undeveloped manhood.
Force is the lowest, pain is the next, and fear the next; but
all of them are methods of dealing with creatures not yet
256 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
brought up to their true selves. They are therefore expedients
of education, and, like all instruments of training, they cease
as soon as they have carried their subjects to a higher plane. In
the coming kingdom of love, the full man in Christ Jesus will
no longer repay evil with evil, pain with pain. Evil-doing will
be corrected by the spirit of goodness, and love will take the*
place of force and pain and fear.
Even if it be yet impossible to develop among men this
future and ideal government, it can be held up as the aim
toward which progress should be directed. This Jesus did. /
say unto you, That ye resist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee on
thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Nay, more ; he who
acts in the full spirit of love, so far from revenging an injustice,
will yield more than is demanded. It was a time of injustice
and of tyrannical exactions ; but the command of Jesus was, If
the law, wickedly administered, should take your property,
rather than quarrel give more than is asked; if impressed in
your property and person into the public service, exceed the
task laid upon you; if solicited, lend and give freely. As so-
ciety is constituted, and in the low and animal condition of
mankind, it may be that these commands could not be fulfilled
literally ; but they furnish an ideal toward which every one
must strive.
6. Disinterested Benevolence. — Having developed the genius of
the new kingdom of love negatively, it was natural that Jesus
should next disclose the positive forms of love and its duties.
He laid down the fundamental principle that love must spring
forth, not from the admirableness of any object of regard, but
from the richness of one's own nature in true benevolence. Like
the sun, love sends forth from itself that color which makes
beautiful whatever it shines upon ; therefore love your enemies,
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and
pray for them that despitefully use you. The new men of
the future must not derive their notions of perfection from be-
neath them, — in that direction lies the animal, — but from
above. Seek for that kind of perfection which God desires, —
the perfection of a disinterested love. The sun and the sea-
sons interpret that. They pour life and bounty over the whole
race, whether deserving or not. In spite of the pains and
r H .
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.
257
penalties of which nature is full, over all the earth are the
symbols that God's greater government is one of goodness.
He must be a bad man who does not love that which is lovely.
Even selfishness can honor and serve that which will redound
to its benefit. The worst men in society will please those
who will return like service.
This, too, like the teaching upon the other topics, is to be
accepted as the ideal of the new kingdom. It can be but im-
perfectly carried out as yet. But it is that spirit which every
man is to recognize as the standard, and to carry out " as
much as in him lies."
7. Almsgiving. — Jesus now cautions his disciples against do-
ing right things from wrong motives. They must give alms,
not for the sake of reputation, not for their own interests, but
out of a simple benevolence. The love of praise may go with
benevolence, but must not take the place of it. It is hypocrisy
to act from selfish motives, while obtaining credit for disinter-
ested ones. This passing off of our baser feelings for our
noblest is a species of moral counterfeiting as prevalent now
as in the times of our Lord.
8. Prayer. — Men should pray from a sincere feeling of devo-
tion, and not from vanity or mere custom. And, as both Jewish
and heathen prayers had become filled with' superstitious and
cumbersome repetitions, Jesus enjoins simplicity and privacy,
rather as the cure of ostentation than as absolute excellences.
God does not need instruction in our wants. He knows better
than we what we need. Neither does he need persuasion. He
is more ready to give good gifts than parents are to bestow
good things on their children.
It is probable that the sermon of Christ on the Mount was
delivered in the most familiar and interlocutory manner. It
seems to have been reported in outline, rather than in full, and
between one portion and another there would doubtless be
questions asked and answered. In this way we can interpret
the succession of topics which have no internal relation to each
other, but which might be drawn out of the speaker by some
interposed question or explanation. Luke gives us a clew to
one such scene.
"And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain
258 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord,
teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." (xi. 1.)
Many of John's disciples, after the imprisonment of their mas-
ter, attached themselves to Jesus. The transition was natural
and easy. Jesus must have seemed to them like a second John,
greater in miracles, but far less in sanctity. John was wholly
a reformer. He did not take upon him the duties and burdens
of common citizenship, but stood apart as a judge and censor,
of morals. He had that severe mood of sanctity which always
impresses the imagination of the ignorant and the superstitious.
Jesus was a citizen. He knew the fatigues of labor, the trials
which beset poverty, the temptations arising from the practi-
cal conduct of business. He lived among men in all the inno-
cent experiences of society life, a cheerful, companionable, and
most winning nature. There was no gayety in his demeanor,
but much cheerfulness. He did not assume the professional
sanctity that Avas much in esteem. He was familiar, natural,
unpretentious, loving that which was homely and natural in
men, rather than that which was artificial and pretentious.
But John's disciples must have felt the difference in the
teaching of the two masters. Especially must they have ob-
served the devotional spirit of Jesus. And on the occasion
mentioned, when he had spent in prayer the night preceding
the Sermon on the Mount, some of them asked Jesus to teach
them how to pray, " as John also taught his disciples."
Prayer was no new thing to the Jews. Synagogues abounded,
and their liturgical service was rich in prayers, which in gen-
eral were scriptural and eminently devotional. But their very
number was burdensome, and their repetition confusing. Litur-
gies furnish prayers for men in groups and societies. This meets
but one side of human want. Man needs to draw himself out
from among his fellows, and to pray alone and individually.
New wine disdains old bottles. Intense feeling will not accept
old formulas, but bursts out into prayer of its own shaping.
Yet it was hardly this last want that led the disciples to ask
Jesus to teach them how to pray. It was more probably a
request that he would, out of the multitude of prayers already
prepared, either select for them or frame some prayer that
should be in sympathy with the spiritual instruction which he
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 259
was giving them. Now, in the Sermon on the Mount, as given
by Matthew, Jesus had just been reprehending the practice of
repetition in prayer, so striking in the devotions of the heathen,
who frequently for a half-hour together vociferate a single sen-
tence, or word even. The disciples of John very naturally
asked him to give them such a prayer as he would approve.
Jesus gave them what has become known as " the Lord's
Prayer." It may be used liturgically, or it may serve as a
model for private prayer, as shall seem most profitable.
One knows not which most to admire in this form, — its lofti-
ness of spirit, its comprehensiveness, its brevity, its simplicity,
or its union of human and divine elements. Our admiration of
it is not disturbed by that criticism which questions its origi-
nality and finds it to be made up, in part, of prayers already
existing. Is the diamond less princely among stones because its
constituent elements can be shown in other combinations ? The
brilliant contrast between the inorganic elements and their crys-
talline form is a sufficient answer. All prayer may be said to
have crystallized in this prayer. The Church has worn it for
hundreds of years upon her bosom, as the brightest gem of
devotion.
The opening phrase, Our Father, is the key to Christianity.
God is father; government Is personal. All the tenderness
which now is stored up in the word " mother " was of old
included in the name "father." The household was governed
by law, and yet it was small enough to enable the father to
make himself the exponent of love and law.
In the household, strength and weakness are bound together
by the mysterious tie of love. The superior serves the infe-
rior, and yet subordination is not lost. Children learn obedi-
ence through their affections, and fear supplements higher
motives. In this the family differs from all civil institutions.
The father is in contact with his children, and governs them by
personal influence. The magistrate cannot know or be known
to the bulk of his subjects. Love in the household is a living
influence, in the state it is an abstraction. In a family where
love and law are commensurate, the father's will is the most
perfect government.
Civil government is an extension of the family only in name.
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260 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Kings are not fathers, and national governments cannot be
paternal because they cannot be personal. It is a question of
the utmost importance, then, whether we shall form our idea
of the Divine moral government from the family or from the
state ; whether we shall conceive of God as Father or as King,
and his government as one of abstract laws or of personal influ-
ences. " Our Father " is itself a whole theology. We are
prone to transfer to the moral administration of God those
peculiarities of civil government which really spring from men's
limitation and weakness, and are therefore the worst possible
analogies or symbols of Divine things. The impersonality of
magistrates and the abstractions of law are necessary in human
government, because men are too weak to reach a higher model.
The Divine government, administered by means of universal
laws, still leaves the Supreme Father free to exercise his per-
sonal feelings. If God be only a magistrate, the charm is gone.
He governs no longer by the influence of his heart, but by a
law, which, as projected from himself, is conceived of by men
as a thing separate from Divine will, though at first springing
from it. At once justice becomes something inflexible, severe,
relentless. A king is weak in moral power in proportion as
he relies upon the law of force. His hand for matter, his heart
for men.
A father on earth, though dear and venerated, is yet human
and imperfect; but a "Father in heaven" exalts the imagina-
tion. The Celestial Father discharges all those duties and offices
of love and authority which the earthly parent but hints at
and imperfectly fulfils. It is the ideal of perfection in father-
hood. It enhances our conception of the ideal home, in " the
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." As chil-
dren in an earthly family come to a parent, so with all the
privileges of children our spirits ascend to the spiritual Father
in heaven.
With a child's love and admiration mingles not only a sense
of the superiority of its parent, but an affectionate desire for his
honor and dignity. Hallowed be thy name is the expression of the
desire that God may be held in universal reverence. Experi-
encing the blessedness of veneration, the soul would clothe the
object of its adoration with the love and admiration which it
fe
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 261
deserves. It is not a supplication for one's self, but an affec-
tionate and holy desire for the welfare of another. There is
in it no servile adulation, no abject awe. It springs from the
highest spiritual affection, and is rational and ennobling.
In the next petition the soul yearns for that perfect state
toward which men have always been looking forward. How-
ever imperfect the conceptions may be, men have always con-
ceived of the present as a single step in one long advance
toward an ideally perfect state. Somewhere in the future the
spirit of man is to be elevated, purified, perfected. The dis-
cords and misrule and wretchedness of the present are not to
continue. From afar off, advancing surely though slowly through
the ages, comes that kingdom "in which dwelleth righteous-
ness." Every good man longs for it, and his thoughts fre-
quently take shelter in it. Thy kingdom come is the petition
of every one who loves God and his fellow-man.
The next is like unto it: Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
All natural laws are the emanations of the Divine will. Those
fundamental principles of right, upon which all human laws are
founded, are derived from the Divine will. That will represents
order, progress, and government. God's will is universal har-
mony. On earth, men are largely ignorant of this regulative
will, and are irregular in their obedience to that which is
known, or are wholly disobedient and rebellious. But in heav-
en perfect obedience follows knowledge. The will of God is
unobstructed. Men are here in the uproar of an untuned or-
chestra, each instrument at discord with its fellows ; but in
heaven the chorus will flow forever in harmonious sweetness.
In desiring our own spiritual good, we must come into sym-
pathy with the work of God in the whole race, and seek ar-
dently the consummation of the Divine will in all the earth
and through all time.
Thus far, in the Lord's Prayer, men are taught to express
love, reverence, and the aspiration of earnest benevolence.
They are to put forth their first desires, and their strongest,
in behalf of the Divine glory and of the welfare of the whole
kingdom. Then, as single individuals in that kingdom, they
may make supplication for their own personal wants. Give us
this day our daily bread.
262 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Bread may be regarded as the symbol of all that support
which the body needs. To pray for daily bread is to pray
for all necessary support. It is to invoke the protection of
Divine Providence, and in its spirit it includes whatever is
needed for the comfort of our physical life. Thus, however
favored of wealth and its fruits, all men have conscious needs
which are touched by the spirit of this cry for bread. But
they to whom it was first spoken knew the pangs of hunger.
Their daily bread was by no means sure. It was the one
want that never left them. Nor is it to be forgotten that the
great mass of men on the globe to-day are living in such abject
condition as to make the question of food a matter of anxiety
for every single day. The prayer for bread unites more voices
on earth than any other.
The next petition is for the forgiveness of sins; and it is
coupled with a reminder of man's duty of forgiveness toward
his fellow-men. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
No other offence seems to have been regarded as so fatal to
true manhood as a cruel and harm-bearing disposition. Even
indifference to another's welfare aroused the Master's rebuke ;
but a wilful animosity, or an infliction of unnecessary pain, was
regarded with the severest condemnation. 1 No other sin is
more common or more culpable. The only comment of our
Lord upon this prayer touches this malign trait in a manner
of peculiar solemnity. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your
Heavenly Father will also forgive you : but if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
The next petition, Lead us not into temptation, is not incon-
sistent with the expression of joy when men fall into divers
temptations. 2 Men often rejoice in a conflict, after it is past,
which they dreaded in anticipation. Looking forth into the
future, a soul conscious of its weakness dreads being put under
severe temptation. Those who have seen the most of active
life will most deeply feel the need of this petition. No one
can tell beforehand how he will be affected by persistent, in-
sidious, and vehement temptations. If it is a duty to avoid
evil, it is surely permissible to solicit Divine help thereto.
1 See Matt. vi. 14, 15 ; Luke vi. 37 ; Matt, xviii. 35.
2 James i. 2.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 263
But when under Divine Providence it is necessary that men
should pass through a conflict with evil, that very conscious-
ness of their own weakness which led them to pray that they
might not be tempted now causes them to turn to God for
strength to resist and overcome the evil. In like manner the
Saviour prayed in Gethsemane that the cup might pass ; but
then, since that might not be, he conformed himself to the
will of God. All deep feelings grow into paradoxes. Fear
and courage may coexist. One may dread to be tempted, and
yet rejoice in being tried. 1
9. Fasting. — We have seen that Jesus was in the midst of
a criticism upon pretentious almsgiving and ostentatious prayer,
when asked to give an example of prayer. Having complied,
he now resumes the interrupted theme, and warns them against
fasting in a spirit of vanity. Religious fasting had long pre-
vailed among the devout Jews. It had been perverted by
ascetics on the one hand, and by the Pharisees on the other.
Jesus certainly uttered no word which tended to increase the
respect of men for this practice. His example was regarded
as lowering the value of fasting, and he was on one occasion
expostulated with, and John's example contrasted with his more
cheerful conduct. But he did not come to found a religion of
the cave or the cloister, but a religion which should develop
every side of manhood, and which, while deep and earnest,
should yet be sweet and cheerful. In such a religion nothing
1 The doxology, "For thine is the kingdom," etc., is admirably accordant with the spirit
of the Lord's Prayer, but not with its object. It was not included in ihe prayer as origi-
nally recorded by Matthew, and in Luke it does not appear even now. In the Jewish
religious synagogical services, to which the early Christians had been trained, the dox-
olngy was of frequent occurrence, and in using the Lord's Prayer it was natural that it
should be appended to this as to all other prayers. It is not strange that at length it
should creep into the text of early ver.-ions, without the design of improper interpolation,
simply because in oral use it had so long been associated with the prayer itself. The most
ancient and authoritative manuscripts are unanimous in omitting it.
Called forth by the request of a disciple, the prayer was given, as we see by Matthew's
Gospel, as a model of brevity, in contrast with the senseless repetitions of the heathen
prayers. It is an extraordinary fact, that the Lord's Prayer has been made the agent
of that very repetition which it was meant to correct. Tholuck says : " That prayer
which He gave as an antidote to those repetitions is the very one which has been most
abused by vain repetitions. According to the rosary, the Paler Noster (Patriloquia,
as it is called) is [in certain of the church services] prayed fifteen times (or seven or
five times), and the Ave Maria one hundred and fifty times (or fifty or sixty-three
times)."
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264 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
could be more offensive than insincere devotion, pretentious
humility, and hypocritical self-denial.
Thus far the discourse had borne upon the popular notions
of religious worship. Jesus now subjects to the spiritual stand-
ard of the new life those economic opinions which then ruled
the world, as they still do. Next after the glory of military
power, the imagination of the world has always been infatu-
ated with riches. They command so many sources of enjoy-
ment, and redeem men from so many of the humiliations which
poverty inflicts, that the Jew, to whose fathers wealth was
promised as a reward of obedience, a token of Divine favor,
would naturally put a very high estimate upon it. In fact, the
pursuit of wealth was one of the master passions of that age.
Everything else was made subordinate to it. It usurped the
place of religion itself, and drew men after it with a kind of
fanaticism. Against this over-valuation and inordinate pursuit
of wealth our Lord protested. Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth, .... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Here
moral excellence is put in contrast with physical treasure.
Men are to seek nobility of character, riches of feeling, strength
of manhood, and not perishable wealth. Nor can they divide
their hearts between virtue and riches when these stand in
opposition. The soul's estate must be the supreme ambition.
Unity and simplicity of moral purpose is indispensable to good-
ness and happiness. The reconciliation of avarice with devo-
tion, of self-indulgence in luxury with supreme love to God,
is utterly impossible. One may serve two masters, if the two
are of one mind ; one may serve two alternately, even if they
differ. But where two masters represent opposite qualities and
wills, and each demands the whole service, it is impossible to
serve both. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. The absolute
supremacy of man's moral nature over every part of secular
life is nowhere taught with such emphasis and solemnity as in
Christ's treatment of riches. The ardor and force of his dec-
larations might almost lead one to suppose that he forbade
his followers all participation in riches, as will more plainly
appear when we shall give a summary view of all his utter-
ances on that topic.
Not only did Jesus reprobate the spirit of avarice, but the
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.
265
vulgar form of it which exists among the poor came under
his criticism. All grinding anxiety for the common necessaries
of life he declared to be
both unwise and impious:
unwise, because it did no
good ; impious, because it
reflected upon God's kind
providence. He referred to
that economy in nature by
which everything is pro-
vided for in the simple ex-
ercise of its common organs
or faculties ; the grass, the
lily, the sparrow, had but to
put forth their respective
powers, and nature yielded
all their needs. Let man, a
higher being, put forth his
nobler faculties, — reason and
the moral sentiments, — and
a life guided by these would
be sure to draw in its train,
not only virtue and happiness, but whatever of temporal good
is necessary.
There is no worldly wisdom like that which springs from the
moral sentiments. On the great scale, Piety and Plenty go
hand in hand. He that secures God secures his favoring
providence. Man is governed by laws which reward morality.
Piety itself is the highest morality. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto
you. The sordid anxieties of the poor and the avarice of the
rich spring from the same source, and are alike culpable. Faith
in Divine Providence should Torestall and prevent fretting cares
and depressing fears.
This matchless discourse closes with a series of moral truths
that are clustered together more like a chapter from the Book
of Proverbs than like the flowing sentences of an ordinary dis-
course. Censorious judgments of our fellow-men are forbidden.
266
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Men who believe themselves to hold the whole truth, and pride
themselves on knowledge and purity, are very apt to look
with suspicion and contempt on all that are not orthodox ac-
cording to their standard. Harsh judgments in religious matters
seem inseparable from a state in which conscience is stronger
than love. Leniency and forgiveness are commanded ; blindness
to our own faults and sensitiveness to the failings of others are
pointed out. Caution is enjoined in speaking of eminent truths
in the hearing of the base. The fatherhood of God, far nobler
and kinder than any earthly fatherhood, is made the ground
of confident supplication. The Golden Rule is set forth. Re-
ligion is declared not to be an indolent luxury, but a vehe-
ment strife, taxing men's resources
to the uttermost. His disciples are
cautioned against false teachers,
against specious morality, against
a boastful familiarity with Divine
things while the life is carnal and
secular ; and, finally, his hearers
are urged to a practical use of the
whole discourse by a striking pic-
ture of houses built upon the sand
or upon the rock, and their respec-
tive powers of endurance.
1. In this sermon of Jesus there
is a full and continual disclosure
of a Divine consciousness which did
not leave him to the end of his
career. His method was that of
simple declaration, and not of reasoning or of proof. The
simple sentences of the Sermon fell from him as ripe fruit
from the bough in a still day. Although they reached out
far beyond the attainments of his* age, and developed an ideal
style of character and a sphere of morality which addressed
itself to the heroic elements in man, his teachings were not
labored nor elaborate, but had the completeness and brevity
of thoughts most familiar to him. He unfolded the old na-
tional faith to its innermost nature. In his hands it glowed
as if it were descended from heaven ; and yet he spoke of the
fe
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THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 267
religion of the Jews with the authority of a god, and not with
the submissiveness of a man. He stood in the road along
which travelled a thousand traditions and evil glosses, and
turned them aside by his simple, imperial, " I say unto you " !
There was no inequality or unharmony in the whole dis-
course. The pitch at the beginning was taken far above the
line of any doctrine then in practice, and to the end the ele-
vation was sustained. It was the teaching of one who saw
men as men had never yet been. The possible manhood,
never yet developed, was familiar to Jesus, and upon that
ideal he fashioned every precept. Not a note fell from the
pitch. Every single thought was brought up to a manhood far
transcending that of his own age. It is this that gives to the
Sermon on the Mount an air of impossibility. Men look upon
its requisitions as exceeding the power of man. But none
of them were lowered in accommodation to the moral tone of
his times, every one of them chording with the key-note, —
Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
2. In its spirit and secret tendency the Sermon on the Mount
may be regarded as a charter of personal liberty. It does
not formally proclaim man's freedom, but no one can follow it
without that result. It places moral life upon grounds which
imply and promote moral sovereignty in the individual. This
it does by removing the emphasis of authority derived from all
external rules, and placing it in man's own moral consciousness.
It is an appeal from rides to principles. Rules are mere methods
by which principles are specifically applied. Feeble and unde-
veloped natures need at each step a formula of action. They
are not wise enough to apply a principle to the changing cir-
cumstances of experience. But rules that help the weak to
follow principle should tend to educate them to follow prin-
ciple without such help. Instead of that, rulers, teachers, and
hierarchs, finding them convenient instruments of authority,
multiply them, clothe them with the sanctity of principles,
and hold men in a bondage of superstition to customs, rites,
and arbitrary regulations.
The appeal in the Sermon on the Mount is always to the
natural grounds of right, and never to the traditional, the his-
c:
268 THE LIFE OF JESUS', THE CHRIST.
torical, and the artificial. In no single case did Jesus institute
a method, or external law. Every existing custom or practice
which he touched he resolved back to some natural faculty or
principle. By shifting the legislative power from the external
to the internal, from rules to principles, from synagogues and
Sanhedrim to the living moral consciousness of men, the way
was prepared for great expansion of reason and freedom of
conscience. The most striking example of philosophic gener-
alization in history is that by which Jesus reduced the whole
Mosaic system and the whole substance of Jewish literature
into the simple principle of love. " Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself. On
these tivo commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
This discourse recognizes the soul as the man. The body is
only a passive instrument. Action is but the evidence of what
is going on within ; it has no moral character, good or bad,
except that which is impressed upon it by the faculties which
inspire it. A man's thoughts and cherished feelings determine
his character. He may be a murderer, who never slays his
enemy ; an adulterer, who never fulfils the wishes of illicit love ;
an irreligious man, who spends his life in offices of devotion ; a
selfish creature, whose vanity inspires charitable gifts. It is the
soul that determines manhood. Only God and man's self can
control these. Man is the love-servant of God, and sovereign
of himself. The highest personal liberty consists in the ability
and willingness of man to do right from inward choice, and not
from external influences.
3. In this inward and spiritual element we have the solution
of difficulties which to many have beset what may be called
the political and economic themes of this discourse. Jesus dis-
closed to his disciples a kingdom in which no man should em-
ploy physical force in self-defence ; and yet this would seem
to give unobstructed dominion to selfish strength. No man may
resist the unlawful demands of government, — let him rather
do cheerfully far more than is wrongfully required, — and to
every aspect of physical force he would have his disciples op-
pose only the calmness and kindness of benevolence; yet this
would seem to make wicked governments secure. The history
of civilization certainly shows that society can redeem itself
^P
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 269
from barbarism only by enterprise, by painstaking industry, by
sagacious foresight and reasonable care ; but Jesus refers his
disciples to the flowers and birds as exemplars of freedom from
care ; forbids men to lay up treasure on earth, or to live in
regard to earthly things more than by the single day, and de-
clares that they must implicitly trust the paternal care of God
for all their wants. Nay, if they are possessed of some wealth,
they are not to husband it, but give to him that asketh thee, and
. from him that ivould borrow of thee turn not thou away.
It is certain that a literal interpretation of these precepts
respecting giving, lending, resistance of evil, forethought, acqui-
sition of property and its tenure in common, would bring Chris-
tianity into conflict with every approved doctrine of political
economy, and-would seem to compel man to spend his earthly
life in little more than meditation, — a conception which might
suit the natural ease, not to say indolence, of an Oriental life
in a genial tropical climate, but which would seem utterly ruin-
ous to the prosperity of a vigorous and enterprising race in
the cold zones and upon a penurious soil. To insist upon a
literal fulfilment of any economic precepts would violate the
spirit of the discourse, whose very genius it is to release men
from bondage to the letter and bring them into the liberty of
the spirit.
It is very certain that an earnest attempt to make the spirit
of these precepts the rule of life will bring out in men a moral
force of transcendent value, and that among primitive Chris-
tians, and in modern clays in the small company of Friends, a
remarkable degree of prosperity even in worldly things has
followed a more rigorous interpretation of these commands
than is generally practised. On the other hand, the attempt
to make property the common and equal possession of all has
led to some of the worst social evils. The partial success which
has attended the experiment, in small bodies, has been at the
expense of a general development of the individuals. But
whether an immediate and literal obedience to Christ's teach-
ings upon the subject of property and industry would be bene-
ficial, or would be possible in nations not placed as the Jews
were, — whether the weight of society and all the accumula-
tions of that very civilization which Christianity has produced
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270 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
could be sustained upon such foundations, — hardly admits of
debate. If his precepts were meant ever to be taken literally,
it must have been in a condition of society in the future, of
which there was yet no pattern among men.
It is certain that every step which human life has ever
taken toward a full realization of the general morality of the
Sermon on the Mount has developed an unsuspected, and won-
derful prosperity, moral and social.
"We must believe, then, that Jesus gave this grand picture of
the new life for immediate and practical use, but that it was
to be interpreted, not by the narrowness of the letter, but by
the largeness of the spirit. He seemed to foresee what has so
often appeared, the barren admiration of men who praise this
discourse as a power, as a merely ideal justice, as a beautiful
but impracticable scheme of ethics ; for he turns upon such,
at the close, with a striking parable designed to enforce the
immediate application of his teachings. And why call ye me
Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ? Therefore
whosoever cometh to me, and heareth these sayings of mine,
and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like : he is
like a wise man which built his house and digged deep, and
laid the foundation on a rock ; and when the rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and the storm beat
violently upon that house and could not shake it, it fell not,
for it was founded on a rock. But every one that heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, is like a foolish
man, which built his house without a foundation upon the
sand ; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew, and the storm did beat vehemently upon that
house, and immediately it fell, and great was the fall of it.
4. The hold which the Sermon on the Mount has had, and
continues to have, upon men of diverse temperaments and be-
liefs, is not to be accounted for by an inventory of its ethical
points. It reached to the very centre of rectitude, and gave to
human conduct inspirations that will never diminish. All this
might have been done in unsympathetic severity, leaving the
Sermon like a mountain barrier between right and wrong, so
rugged, barren, and solitary that men would not love to as-
cend or frequent it. But Jesus breathed over the whole an air
:n
rfl—
:d
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.
271
of genial tranquillity that wins men to it as to a garden. The
precepts grow like flowers, and are fragrant. The cautions and
condemnations lie like sunny i
hedges 01 walls covered with
moss or vines. In no part can
it be called dreamy, yet it is
pervaded by an element of
sweetness and peace, which
charms us none the less be-
cause it eludes analysis. Like
a mild day in early June, the
sky, the earth, the air, the birds
and herbage, things near and
things far off, seem under some |
heavenly influence. The heav-
ens unfold, and in place of dread-
ful deities we behold " Our
Father." His personal care is
over all the affairs of life. The I
trials of this mortal sphere go
on for a purpose of good, and
our fears, our burdens, and our |
sufferings are neither accidents i
nor vengeful punishments, but
a discipline of education. The I
end of life is a glorified manhood,
the nobler motives of the human soul. There is nothing of the
repulsiveness of morbid anatomy. Where the knife cut to the
very nerve, it was a clean and wholesome blade, that carried
no poison. The whole discourse lifts one out of the lower life,
and sets in motion those higher impulses from which the soul
derives its strength and happiness. While it has neither the
rhythm nor the form of poetry, yet an ideal element in it
produces all the charms of poetry. Portions of the Sermon
-might be chanted in low tones, as one sings cheering songs in
his solitude. It is full of light, full of cheer, full of faith in
Divine love and of the certainty of possible goodness in man.
The immeasurable distance between the flesh and the spirit,
between the animal and man, is nowhere more clearly revealed
At every step Jesus invokes
■ff
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272 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
than in this beautiful discourse. Thus the Son of God stood
among men, talking with them face to face as a brother, and
giving to them, in his own spirit, glimpses of that heavenly
rest for which all the world, at times, doth sigh.
The Sermon on the Mount drew a line which left the great
body of the influential men of his country on one side, and
Jesus and his few disciples on the other. If it were to be
merely a discourse, and nothing else, it might be tolerated.
But if it was a policy, to be followed up by active measures,
it was scarcely less than an open declaration of war. The
Pharisees were held up by name to the severest criticism.
Their philosophy and their most sacred religious customs were
mercilessly denounced, and men were warned against their ten-
dencies. The influence of the criticisms upon fasting, prayer,
and almsgiving was not limited to these special topics, but
must have been regarded as an attack upon the whole method
of worship by means of cumbersome rituals. Ritualism was
not expressly forbidden; but if the invisible was to be so
highly esteemed, if simplicity, heart purity, spirituality, and
absolute privacy of spiritual life, were to be accepted as the
governing ideals of worship, all authoritative and obligatory
ritualism would wither and drop away from the ripened grain
as so much chaff, — without prejudice, however, to the spon-
taneous use of such material forms in worship as may be found
by any one to be specially helpful to him. Neither in this
sermon nor in any after discourse did Jesus encourage the use
of symbols, if we except Baptism and the- Lord's Supper. He
never rebuked men for neglect of forms, nor put one new
interpretation to them, nor added a line of attractive color.
The whole land was full of ritual customs. The days were all
marked. The very hours were numbered. Every emotion had
its channel and course pointed out. Men were drilled to re-
ligious methods, until all spontaneity and personal liberty had
wellnigh become extinct. In the midst of such artificial ways,
Christ stands up as an emancipator. He appeals directly to
the reason and to the conscience of men. He founds nothing
upon the old authority. He even confronts the " common law "
of his nation with his own personal authority, as if his words
4
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THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 273
would touch a responsive feeling in every heart. "Ye have
heard that it was said by them of old time," — But I say unto
you. This was an appeal from all the past to the living con-
sciousness of the present. It was so understood. There was
an unmistakable and imperial force in that phrase, "I say unto
you"; and when the last sentence had been heard, there was
a stir, and the universal feeling broke out in the expression,
" He teaches as one having authority, and not as the Scribes."
Whatever may have kept the Pharisees silent, there can be
no doubt that this discourse was regarded by them as an end
of peace. Henceforth their only thought was how to compass
the downfall of a dangeroiis man, who threatened to alienate
the people from their religious control. Every day Jesus
would now be more closely watched. His enemies were all
the while in secret counsel. Step by step they followed him,
from the slopes of Mount Hattin to the summit of Calvary !
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" ■' '^^&^^^^^^^^^^ ( '"
VILLAGE OF HAIN, AND LITTLE HEKMON.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BEGINNING OE CONFLICT.
THE crowd did not disperse or open to let Jesus pass through,
but closed about him and thronged his steps, as he returned
home to Capernaum. His discourses seem to have fascinated
the people almost as much as his wonderful deeds astonished
them. We do not imagine that the walk was a silent one.
There must have been much conversation by the way, much
discussion, and doubtless many replies of wisdom and benefi-
cence from Jesus not less striking than the sentences of the
sermon. From this time forth the life of Jesus is crowded with
dramatic incidents. Nowhere else do we find so many events
of great moral significance painted with unconscious skill by so
few strokes. Their number perplexes our attention. Like stars
in a rich cluster in the heavens, they run together into a haze
of brightness, to be resolved into their separate elements only
by the strongest glass. Each incident, if drawn apart and
studied separately, affords food for both the imagination and
the heart.
By one occurrence a striking insight is given into the rela-
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 275
tions which sometimes subsisted between the Jews and their
conquerors. Not a few Romans, it may be believed, were won
to the Jewish religion. The centurion of Capernaum, without
doubt, was a convert. We cannot conceive otherwise that he
should have built the Jews a synagogue, and that he should be
on such intimate terms with the rulers of it as to make them
his messengers to Jesus. This Roman, like so many other sub-
jects of the Gospel record, has come down to us without a
name, and, except a single scene, without a history.
Soon after the return of Jesus to Capernaum, he was met
(where, it is not said) by the rulers of the synagogue, bearing
an earnest request from the centurion that he would heal a
favorite slave, who lay sick and at the point of death. The
honorable men who bore the message must have been well
known to Jesus, and their importunity revealed their own in-
terest in their errand. " They besought him instantly, saying
that he was worthy for whom he should do this." Nor should
we fail to notice this appeal made to the patriotism of Jesus,
which, coming from men who were familiar with his life and
teachings, indicates a marked quality of his disposition. "He
loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue." That
the heart of Jesus was touched is shown in that he required
no tests of faith, but with prompt sympathy said, " I will come
and heal him." And, suiting the action to the word, he went
with them at once to the centurion's house.
Learning that Jesus was drawing near, the centurion sent
another deputation, whose message, both for courtesy and for hu-
mility, in one born to command, was striking, — " Lord, trouble
not thyself ; for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter
under my roof: wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to
come unto thee ; but speak the word only, and my servant shall
be healed." Then, alluding to his own command over his fol-
lowers, he implies that Jesus has but to make known his will,
and all diseases, and life, and death itself, would obey as
promptly as soldiers the word of command. The whole scene
filled Jesus with pleasurable astonishment. He loved the sight
of a noble nature. And yet the contrast between the hardness
of his unbelieving countrymen and the artless dignity of faith
manifested by this heathen foreigner brought grief to his heart.
276 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
It suggested the rejection of Israel and the ingathering of the
Gentiles. Many shall come from the east and west, and shall
sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom
of heaven ; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out
into outer darkness. .Then turning to the messenger he said,
"Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto
thee." The servant was instantly healed.
The severity of tone with which Jesus spoke of the unbelief
of the leaders of his people, and of his rejection by them, is
only one among many indications of the rising intensity of his
feelings at this period. Every day seemed to develop in him
a higher energy. His calmness did not forsake him, but the
sovereignty of his nature was every hour more apparent. He
was now more than ever to grapple with demonic influences,
and to overcome them. He was about to make his power felt
in the realms of death, and bring back to life those who had
passed from it. The conduct of his family and the criticisms of
the jealous Pharisees, as we shall soon see, plainly enough in-
dicate that this elevation of spirit manifested itself in his whole
carriage, and many even believed that he was insane, or else
under infernal influences.
On the day following the healing of the centurion's servant,
Jesus, on one of the short excursions which he was wont to
make from Capernaum, came to the village of Nain, on the
slope of Little Hermon and nearly south of Nazareth, on the
edge of the great plain of Esdraelon. In the rocky sides of
the hill near by were hewn the burial-chambers of the village,
and toward them, as Jesus drew near, was slowly proceeding a
funeral train. It was a widowed mother bearing her only son
to the sepulchre. She was well known, and the circumstances
of her great loss had touched the sympathies of her townsfolk,
" and much people of the city was with her." His first word
was one of courage to the disconsolate mourner, — " Weep not ! "
He then laid his hand upon the bier. Such was his countenance
and commanding attitude that the procession halted. There was
to be no deluding ceremony, no necromancy. " Young man,
I say unto thee, Arise ! " The blood again beat from his heart,
the light dawned upon his eyes, and his breathing lips spake !
There is no grief like a mother's grief. No one who has the
#
fr ^ = -a'
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 277
heart of a son can see a great nature given up to inconsolable
sorrow without sympathy. It was not the mission of Jesus to
stay the hand of death, nor did he often choose to bring back
the spirit that had once fled ; but there seem to have been
two motives here for his interposition. The overwhelming grief
of the widowed mother wrought strongly upon his sympathy,
and there were special reasons why he should just now make
a supreme manifestation of his Divine power. Every day the
leaven of opposition to him was working. Openly or insidi-
ously, he was resisted and vilified. His own spirit evidently
Was roused to intensity, and began to develop an elevation and
force which far surpassed any hitherto put forth. At such a
time, the restoration to life of a dead man, in the presence of
so vast a throng, could not but produce a deep impression. It
was an act of sovereignty which would render powerless the
efforts of the emissaries from Jerusalem to wean the common
people from his influence. This end seems to have been gained.
The people were electrified, and cried out, "A great prophet is
risen up among us ! " others said, " God hath visited his people."
The tidings of this act ran through the nation; not only in
"the region round about," but "the rumor of him went forth
throughout all Judaea."
The battle now begins. Everywhere he carried with him the
enthusiastic multitude. Everywhere the Temple party, lurking
about his steps, grew more determined to resist the reforma-
tion and to destroy the reformer. We are not to suppose that
the presence and the miracles of Jesus produced the same effect
upon the multitudes present with him that they do upon de-
vout and believing souls now. Our whole life has been educated
by the discourses of this Divine Man. We do violence to our
nature, to all our associations and sympathies, if we do not
believe. But in the crowds which surrounded Jesus in his
lifetime there was every conceivable diversity of disposition;
and though curiosity and wonder and a general social exhila-
ration were common to all, these were not valuable in the eyes
of Jesus. The insatiable hunger of Orientals for signs and won-
ders was even a hindrance to his designs of instruction. In
every way he repressed this vague and fruitless excitement. The
deeper moral emotions which he most esteemed were produced
fr-
i=r
a *
278 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
in very imperfect forms and in but comparatively few persons.
Cautious men held their convictions in suspense. Many favored
him and followed him without really committing themselves to
his cause.
There will always be men who will show favor to the hero
of the hour. Such a one was Simon the Pharisee, who prob-
ably dwelt in Nain or in its neighborhood, for at that time this
whole region was populous and prosperous. It had not then
been given over to the incursions of the Bedouins, who for cen-
turies have by continual ravages kept this beautiful territory
in almost complete desolation.
Invited to the house of Simon to dine, Jesus repaired thither
with his disciples. There went with him, also, unbidden guests.
Not the widowed mother alone had felt the sympathy of his
nature. While he was bringing back to life her son, there was
in the crowd one who felt the need of a resurrection from the
dead even more than if her body, rather than her honor, had
died. In the presence of Jesus the sense of her degradation
became unendurable. In him she beheld a benefactor who
might rescue her. All men despised her. Her reputation, like
a brazen wall, stood between her and reformation. For her
there were no helpers. Bad men were friendly only for evil.
Moral men shut up their sympathies from one who was an out-
cast. The gratitude of the mother for her child restorer 1 must
have been like incense to the sensitive soul of Jesus. But it
is doubtful whether he did not more profoundly rejoice in the
remorse, the absorbing grief, the hope struggling against de-
spair, that filled the bosom of this unknown Magdalen.
As Jesus reclined at dinner, according to the Oriental- custom,
this penitent woman, coming behind, without word or permission,
wept at the feet of Jesus unrebuked. So copiously flowed her
tears that his feet were wet, and with her dishevelled locks she
sought to remove the sacred tears of penitence. The very per-
fumes which had been provided for her own person she lavished
upon this stranger's feet. That she was not spurned was to her
trembling heart a sign of grace and favor. When the Pharisee
beheld, without sympathy, the forbearance of Jesus, it stirred up
his heart against his guest. Like many others he had been in
suspense as to the true character of the man. Now the decis-
fr. : _
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 279
ion was unfavorable. It was clear that he was not a prophet
of God. " This man, if he were a prophet," he said within him-
self, " would have known who and what manner of woman this
is that toucheth him : for she is a sinner." He could not con-
ceive of a divinity of compassion. God, to his imagination, was
only an enlarged Pharisee, careful of his own safety, and care-
less of those made wretched by their own sins. These thoughts
were interpreted upon his countenance by a look of displeasure
and contempt. He did not expect to be humbled in the sight
of all his guests by an exposition of his own inhospitality ; for
it seems that while he had invited Jesus to dine, it was more
from curiosity than respect, and he seems to have considered
that the favor which he thus conferred released him from those
rites which belong to Oriental hospitality. In a parable, Jesus
propounded to him a question. If a creditor generously forgives
two debtors, one of fifty pence and the other of five hundred,
which will experience the most gratitude ? The answer was
obvious, " I suppose that he to whom he forgave most." " Thou
hast rightly judged." Then, in simple phrase, but with terrible
emphasis, he contrasted the conduct of this fallen woman with
the insincere hospitality of the host. " Seest thou this woman ?
I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my
feet : but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them
with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss : but this
woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my
feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint : but this woman
hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto
thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved
much : but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."
With ineffable grace, Jesus turns from the Pharisee, silent under
this rebuke, to the woman : " Thy sins are forgiven." The effect
produced upon the company shows that these words were no
mere pious phrases, but were uttered with an authority which
a mere man had no right to assume. " Who is this that for-
giveth sins also ? " Truly, who can forgive sins but God only ?
Jesus did not deign an explanation. In the same lofty mood
of sovereignty he dismissed the ransomed soul : " Thy faith
hath saved thee ; go in peace." But such a gracious sen-
tence was the strongest possible confirmation of their judgment
a-
— « — i — i
280
77ZS ZJZS OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
that he had assumed to perform the functions of a Divine
Being.
We shall hereafter find many a brief controversy in which a
parable, or a simple question touching the marrow of things,
puts his adversaries to silence, convicting' them even when they
would not be convinced. Upon this day there had been two
deaths, and the living death the most piteous and least pitied
among men: two resurrections, and the less marvellous of the
two was the more wondered at : two proofs of Divinity, — one
to the senses, and impressive to the lowest and highest alike ;
the other transcendently brighter, but perceived only by those
whose moral sensibilities gave them spiritual eyesight. The fur-
ther history of the widow's son is not recorded. For a moment
he stands forth with singular distinctness, and then sinks back
into forgetfulness, without name or memorial.
At about this time the figure of John comes for a moment
to the light. He had probably lain for six months in his prison
at Machaerus. Although in his youth he had been trained in
solitude, it was the solitude of freedom and of the wilderness.
There is evidence that his long confinement in prison began
to wear , upon his spirits. It is true that he was not wholly
cut off from the companionship of men. As John's offence was
political only in pretence, Herod did not guard his prisoner so
but that his disciples had access to him. Can we doubt what
was the one theme of the Baptist's inquiry ? The work which
he had begun, which Jesus was to take up, — how fared it ?
Why was there no overwhelming disclosure of the new king-
dom ? Of what use were discourses and wonderful works so long
as the nation stood unmoved? A long time had elapsed since
Christ's baptism. He had not openly proclaimed even his Mes-
siahship. He had not gathered his followers either into a church
or an army. He gave no signs of lifting that banner which was
to lead Israel to universal supremacy. He was spending his
days in Galilee, far from Jerusalem, the proper capital of the
new kingdom as of the old, and among a largely foreign popu-
lation. Nor was he denouncing the wickedness of his times as
John did, nor keeping the reserve of a lofty sanctity, but was
teaching in villages like a prophet-schoolmaster, receiving the
frequent hospitality of the rich, and even partaking of social fes-
tfr-
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 281
tivities and public banquets. Many of John's disciples, as we
know, were with Jesus during several of his journeys, attentive
listeners and observers. Many openly adhered to the new
leader, and all seemed friendly. But it is natural that a few
should be jealous for their old master, and that they should
prefer the downright impetuosity of John to the calmer and
gentler method of Jesus. They would naturally carry back to
the solitary man in prison accounts colored by their feelings.
To all this should be added that depression of spirits which
settles upon an energetic nature when no longer connected with
actual affairs. Much of hope and courage springs from sympa-
thy and contact with society. "We grow uncertain of things
which we can no longer see.
Whatever may have been John's mood and its causes, it is
certain that the message which he now sent to Jesus implied
distressing doubts, which were reprehended by the closing sen-
tence of Jesus's reply, Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended
in me. John was in danger of losing faith in' Jesus, and there
is an almost piteous tone of entreaty in the inquiry which he
sent his disciples to make : " Art thou he that should come ?
or look we for another ? " Of what use would be an assev-
eration in words, or an apologetic explanation ? There was
a more cogent reply. It would seem that Jesus delayed his
answer, and went on with his teaching and miracles in the pres-
ence of -John's waiting disciples. " In that same hour he cured
many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits ; and
unto many that were blind he gave sight." It is possible that
these messengers had been with Jesus at Nain and beheld the
raising of the widow's son, since he mentions the raising of the
dead as one of the acts of power which they had witnessed,
and the widow's son was the first instance recorded. During
his ministry only three cases of this kind are mentioned, namely,
the young man at Nain, the daughter of Jairus, and Lazarus, the
brother of Mary and Martha. Yet it by no means follows that
these were the only instances.
These wonderful deeds, enacted before their eyes, were the
answer which they were to carry back. It implies the essential
nobility of John's nature, as if he only needed to be brought
into sympathy with such living work to recognize the Divine
fl-
282
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
power. " Go, .... tell John these things which ye have seen
and heard : how that the blind receive their sight, and the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are
raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them."
It was not the rumor of wonderful works that John's messen-
gers were to carry back, but the testimony of what they them-
selves had "seen and heard." No rumor could surpass the
reality ; none of all the special deeds performed would be likely
to satisfy the mind of John so much as the greatest marvel of
all, — that one had appeared to whom the poor were an object
of solicitude ! Not the healing of the sick, nor even the raising
of the dead, was so surprising as that a person clothed with
Divine power, able to draw to him the homage of the rich and
of the influential, should address himself specially to the poor.
Wonders and miracles might be counterfeited; but a sympathy
with suffering and helplessness so tender, so laborious, and so
long continued, was not likely to be simulated. Such humanity
was unworldly and divine.
Ample provision was made among the Jews for the instruction
of all the families of the nation, but the great disasters which
had befallen that people had interrupted the action of this be-
nevolent polity. Sifted in among the native Jews, especially in
Galilee, were thousands of foreigners, many of them extremely
ignorant, debased, and poor, who were objects of religious preju-
dice and aversion. The Mosaic institutes breathed a spirit of
singular humanity toward the poor. No nation of antiquity can
show such benevolent enactments ; nor can Christian nations
boast of any advance in the temper or polity by which the
evils of poverty are alleviated and the weak preserved from the
oppression of the strong. It was promised to the ancient Jew,
at least by implication, that, if he maintained the Divine econo-
my established by Moses, " there shall be no poor among you "
(Deut. xv. 4, 5). In the palmy days of Israel there were no
beggars ; and there is no Hebrew word for begging. 1 But in
1 Professor T. J. Conant, of Brooklyn, for many years engaged in the translation and
revision of the Scriptures for the American Bible Union, a friend to whom I am in-
debted for many valuable suggestions in matters of scholarly research, writes me, in
reference to this, as follows : —
" There is no word in Hebrew that specifically means to beg. Three verbs, hiWJ
in Kal to ask, Piel to ask importunately, K/j33 to seek, and tsm to search for, to seek, are
toil. The
crowd dispersed. The world received its own again. With
■a
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE.
325
the darkness came forgetfulness, leaving but a faint memory
of the Voice or of its teachings, as of a wind whispering
among the fickle reeds. The enthusiasm of the throng, like
the last rays of the sun, died out; and their hearts, like the
sea, again sent incessant desires murmuring and complaining
to the shore.
SITJi OF CAPJiKNAUM.
-ft
APPENDIX.
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
INTKODUOTION.
Luke i. 1-4. TpOEASMUCH as many have taken in hand to set forth in
-L order a declaration of those things which are most surely
believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which
from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the
word ; it seemed good to me also, having had perfect under-
standing of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in
order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the
certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed. 3
<&-
-a
PEEFAOE.
rTIHE object of this compilation has been to consolidate the matter of the
-*- four Gospels so as to form it into one continuous narrative, and at the
same time to enable the reader to ascertain with facility the source from
which each part has been derived.
In the construction of this narrative, every word of each Gospel has been
incorporated, except where the same words are found concurrently in more
than one Gospel, or where the forms of concurrent expressions are such as
not to admit of their coalescing : -in the latter case the words not incor-
porated in the text are noted in the margin. In this way every word
of all the four Gospels will be found either in the text or in the margin.
It has been necessary to add certain words, and been thought advisable
to substitute others, in order to preserve the sense, or the grammatical con-
struction : the words added and substituted are, however, carefully noted,
and distinguished from those taken from the Gospels.
The nature of the compilation has made crudeness and tautology, in many
places, unavoidable ; but these defects of style have been thought of less
moment than that loss of authenticity which would necessarily have
resulted from an extensive modification of the text.
The verbal accuracy of the authorized version of the Gospels is assumed,
and no criticism or comment is attempted.
The main endeavor has been, by placing the Gospel narrative before the
reader in the form in which other narratives are now usually written, to
enable him, unconsciously as it were, to receive all the information fur-
nished by the four Gospels combined, without the labor and distraction of
consulting the several Gospels; and, at the same time, to facilitate refer-
ence to the Gospels themselves for verification of the text.
The arbitrary division of the Scriptures into chapters and verses makes
a greater demand upon the attention of the reader than does a narrative
330 PREFACE.
in the usual form ; and the comparison of different parallel accounts, even
with the assistance of a Harmony, involves such additional concentrated
attention as can be looked for only in the earnest biblical student. This
compilation, it is hoped, will enable even a casual reader to follow out the
thread of the Gospel history, without effort or distraction.
An explanation of the system of arrangement adopted is subjoined, and
a reference table is added, by which it can be ascertained in what part
of the work the chapters and verses of the different Gospels are incor-
porated.
A full Index to the Gospel history is also appended.*
F. T. H.
South Hampstead, 1869.
* It has been thought best to quote the compiler's prefatory explanation entire, but
the Eeference Table and Index mentioned are not included in the present Appendix to
" The Life of Jesus, the Christ."
-a
EXPLANATION.
THE figure (") in the text indicates that the portion preceding it has been taken from
St. Matthew's Gospel. In like manner the figures (*), ( 8 ), and( 4 ) indicate the Gos-
pel from which the portions preceding them are taken, (*) indicating St. Mark's,
C) St. Luke's, and (') St. John's Gospel.
The figures (*), 0, (*), and ( 4 ) after the words in the margin indicate in like manner the
Gospels in which such words are found, in lieu of the words to which the notes of
reference are appended.
The figure ( 6 ) indicates that the words preceding it are not found in any of the four Gos-
pels, but have been either introduced or substituted.
The chapters and verses quoted in the margin show what portions of each Gospel are
incorporated in each particular page.
EXAMPLE.
CHAPTER XXII.
-10.
10.
Parables — the Sower — the Tares and the Wheat — the Growing Seed Markh^i-
— tlie Grain of Mustard Seed — the Leaven — the Hid Treasure Luke™. 4 -9.
— the Pearl of Great Price — the Net and Fishes.
THE same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea- «■ And when. >
side, 1 and he began again to teach. 2 And" great multitudes great multitude. 2
were h gathered together unto him, 1 and were come to him out of ™££ i v ' x ' vle
every city, 8 so that he went c into a ship, and sat 2 in the sea ; 2 and = ™^ d * he m
the whole multitude stood on the shore. d And he spake many on the land. 2
things unto them, 1 and 6 taught them 2 in parables," saying 1 / unto * by a^rabie^
them in his doctrine, 2 ™ ™'
The figure Q in the second line indicates that all that precedes is taken from St. Mat-
thew.
The figure (*) in the same line indicates that the words " and he began again to teach "
are taken from St. Mark.
The figure f) in the third line indicates that the words "And great multitudes were
gathered together unto him " are taken from St. Matthew.
The figure (*) in the fourth line indicates that the words " and were come to him out of
every city " are taken from St. Luke.
44-
332 EXPLANATION.
In the same way it will be understood that the words,
" so that he went into a ship, and sat " are from St. Matthew.
"in the sea"; " St. Mark.
" and the whole multitude stood on \
the shore. And he spake many I " St. Matthew-
things unto them " )
" taught them " " St. Mark.
" in parables, saying " "St. Matthew.
"unto them in his doctrine," " St. Mark.
The figure ( 6 ) in the sixth line indicates that the word "and" is not to be found in
either Gospel, but has been introduced.
'Matt. xm. 1-10. ^ j n( jj cate t k at t h ese portions of those particular Gospels are incorpo-
Mark iy. 1-10. > . , . ., ,
I rated in that page.
Lukeviii. 4-9.") ^ 5
Note a, indicates that in St. Luke the words " And when " occur instead of the word
"And."
" 6, that in St. Mark the words " there was a great multitude," and that in St. Luke
the words "much people were," occur instead of the words " great multitudes
were."
" c, that in St. Mark the word " entered " occurs instead of the word " went."
" d, that in St. Mark the words " was by the sea on the land " occur instead of the
words "stood on the shore."
" e, that in St. Mark the words " by parables," and in St. Luke the words " by a
parable," occur instead of the words " in parables."
" /, that in St. Mark the words " and said " occur instead of the word "saying."
&
~&
-O rn
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Chapter
T Page
I. The Divinity of Jesus Christ 335
II. The Birth of John the Baptist and the Birth of Jesus foretold, and the
Meeting of Mary and Elisabeth 335
III. Birth and Circumcision of John the Baptist 338
IV. Birth and Circumcision of Jesus Christ . 339
V. The Genealogies of Jesus Christ 341
VI. The Infancy of Jesus Christ 344
VII. The Preaching of John the Baptist 346
VIII. The Baptism of Jesus Christ, and his Temptation 348
IX. The Testimony of John the Baptist to Jesus, and the Calling of the first Dis-
ciples 349
X. The Marriage at Cana. — Journey to Jerusalem. — The Casting out of the
Traders from the Temple 351
XL Jesus and Nicodemus. — Further Testimony of the Baptist . . . 352
XII. Imprisonment of John the Baptist. — Return of Jesus to Galilee. — Inter-
view with the Woman of Samaria i 354
XIII. The Preaching of Jesus in Galilee. — Several Miracles. — Calling of several
Disciples 357
XIV. Healing of a Leper, and of a Paralytic 360
XV. Healing of a Man on the Sabbath, and consequent Discussion . . . 362
XVI. Christ's Teaching as to the Sabbath. — The Ordination of the Twelve
Apostles 364
XVII. The Sermon on the Mount 367
334 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
XVIII. The Healing of the Centurion's Servant, and the Eaising of the Widow's
Son at Nain 372
XIX. Jesus and the Disciples of John Baptist. — Jesus' Testimony of John Bap-
tist, — his Condemnation of the unbelieving Cities. — Jesus anointed by
a Woman at a Pharisee's House ........ 374
XX. Another Circuit through Galilee. — Denunciation of the Scribes and
Pharisees on the Occasion of a Devil being cast out, and of a Dinner
at a Pharisee's House 376
-a
THE
GOSPEL HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
The Divinity of Jesus Christ.
THE beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 *rki. l. ^ -^
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 14 > 16-13-
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him ; and without him was not anything
made that was made. In him was life ; and the life was the light
of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness
comprehended it not. 4
He 5 " was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh aT^at.«
into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made
by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and
his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that be-
lieve on his name : which were born, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word
was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and
truth. 4 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. 4
CHAPTEE II.
The Birth of John the Baptist and the Birth of Jesus foretold, and
the Meeting of Mary and Elisabeth.
THERE was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The John ! _^ 8 -
same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all
men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was 4
336 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Lukoi.5-a4. gen t t bear witness of that Light. 4 John bare witness of him,
John 1. o, 16. °
— and cried, saying, " This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh
after me is preferred before me: for he was before me." 4
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain
priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia : and his wife was of
the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. And they
were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child,
because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well
stricken in years.
And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office
before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the
priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the
temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were
praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto
him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar
of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear
fell upon him.
But the angel said unto him,
" Fear not, Zacharias : for thy prayer is heard ; and thy wife
Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name ' John.'
And thou shalt have joy and gladness ; and many shall rejoice at
his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and
shall drink neither wine nor strong drink ; and he shall be filled
with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many
of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And
oEiias.s he shall go before him in the spirit and power of 8 Elijah, 6 " to turn
the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to
the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the
Lord."
And Zacharias said unto the angel,
"Whereby shall I know this 1 } for I am an old man, and my wife
well stricken in years."
And the angel answering said unto him,
" I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God ; and am sent
to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. And,
behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day
that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not
my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season."
And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tar-
ried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not
speak unto them : and they perceived that he had seen a vision in
the temple : for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.
And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministra-
tion were accomplished, he departed to his own house.
And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid her-
self five months, saying, 8
, a
MART. — ELISABETH. 337
" Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked Lnke l -J^_ i&
on me, to take away my reproach among men."
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto
a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose
name was Joseph, of the house of David ; and the virgin's name was
Mary.
And the angel came in unto her, and said,
" Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee : blessed
art thou among women."
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast
in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
And the angel said unto her,
" Fear not, Mary : for thou hast found favor with God. And, be-
hold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and
shalt call his name 'Jesus.' He shall be great, and shall be called
the Son of the Highest : and the Lord God shall give unto him the
throne of his father David : and he shall reign over the house of
Jacob forever ; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
Then said Mary unto the angel,
" How shall this be, seeing I know not a man 1 "
And the angel answered and said unto her,
" The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also that holy thing which
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold,
thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age :
and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For
with God nothing shall be impossible."
And Mary said,
" Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me according to
thy word."
And the angel departed from her.
And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with
haste, into a city of 3 Judah ; 6 ° and entered into the house of Zach- ajuda.a
arias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass, that, when Elisa-
beth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb ;
and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost : and she spake out
with a loud voice, and said,
" Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me ? for, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation
sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And
blessed is she that believed : for there shall be a performance of
those things which were told her from the Lord."
And Mary said,
"My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced
in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his
handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call 8
338 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Luke i. 48-56. me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;
and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that -fear him
from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his
arm ; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their
hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted
them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things ;
and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath holpen his ser-
vant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; as he spake to our fathers,
to Abraham, and to his seed for ever."
And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to
her own house. 8
CHAPTEE III.
Birth and Circumcision of John the Baptist.
Luke i. 57-73. "~VT"OW Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered ;
-LV and she brought forth a son. And her neighbors and her
cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her ; and
they rejoiced with her.
And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circum-
cise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of
his father.
And his mother answered and said,
" Not so ; but he shall be called ' John.' "
And they said unto her,
" There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name."
And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.
And he asked for a writing-table, and wrote, saying,
" His name is John."
And they marvelled all. And his mouth was opened immediately,
and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. And fear
came on all that dwelt round about them : and all these sayings were
noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judtea. And all
they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying,
"What manner of child shall this be ! "
And the hand of the Lord was with him.
And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and
prophesied, saying,
" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ; for he hath visited and re-
oan.s deemed his people, and hath raised up 8 a 6a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David ; as he spake by the mouth of his
holy prophets, which have been since the world began : that we
should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that
hate us ; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to re-
member his holy covenant ; the oath which he sware to our father 8
p- — ^ ^a
BIRTH OF CHRIST. 339
Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out Lutoi - 73-80.
of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness
and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
" And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest : for
thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways ; to
give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their
sins, through the tender mercy of our God j whereby the dayspring
from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in dark-
ness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of
peace."
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the
deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel. 8
CHAPTER IV.
Birth and Circumcision of Jesus Christ.
^TOW the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise : "ate. i. 18-25.
-L i When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before —
they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make
her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But
while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord
appeared unto him in a dream, saying,
"Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
wife : for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And
she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name ' Jesus,'
for he shall save his people from their sins."
Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
" Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son,
And they shall call his name Emmanuel," (which being interpreted is "God aisaiahvii. 14.
with us.")
Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of- the Lord
had bidden him, and took unto him his wife : and knew her not till
she had brought forth her first-born son. 1
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree
from Csesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And
this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph
also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judsea,
unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem ; (because he was
of the house and lineage of David : ) to be taxed with Mary his
espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accom- 8
-ff
340 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Lnkeii. 6-29. plished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her
. first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him
in a manger ; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the
field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of
the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round
about them : and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto
them,
" Fear not : for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the
city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall
be a sign unto you ; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes, lying in a manger."
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heav-
enly host praising God, and saying,
" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will to-
ward men."
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them
into heaven, the shepherds said one to another,
" Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which
is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us."
And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the
babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made
known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told
them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pon-
dered them in her heart.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all
the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of
" h< 5 /-J"?**) the child, his name was called ° " Jesus," which was so named of
called his ' '
name.i fag an g e j before he was conceived in the womb. And when the
days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accom-
plished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord ;
(as it is written in the law of the Lord, " Every male that openeth
the womb shall be called holy to the Lord " ; ) and to offer a sacri-
fice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, " A pair
of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."
And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was
Simeon ; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the
consolation of Israel : and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it
was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see
death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the
Spirit into the temple : and when the parents brought in the child
Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him
up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according 8
^
::
SIMEON. — ANNA. — GENEALOGIES. 341
to thy word : for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast Lukeii - 29 ~ 39 -
prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles,
and the glory of thy people Israel."
And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were
spoken of him.
And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother,
" Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in
Israel ; and for a sign which shall be spoken against ; (yea, a sword
shall pierce through thy own soul also), that the thoughts of many
hearts may be revealed."
And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel,
of the tribe of 8 Asher:" 6 she was of a great age, and had lived aAser.s
with 8 a ° husband seven years from her virginity ; and she was a 6 an. a
widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from
the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord,
and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Je-
rusalem.
And 8 they 80 performed all things according to the law of the c Ana ^ hen they
Lord. 8
CHAPTER V.
The Genealogies of Jesus Christ.
T
IHE book of the generation of Jesus Christ. 4 Matt, i.i-8.
The son of David.
The son of Abraham.
Abraham begat Isaac ; and
Isaac begat Jacob ; and
Jacob begat 1 Judah ' d and his brethren ; and l d judas. i
Judah 6 d begat * Pharez 6 ' and 1 Zarah 5 / of x Tamar ; 6 & and x « Phares. i
Phares 6 " begat 1 Hezron ; 6 * and * g Thamar. i
Hezron 6 h begat 1 Ram ; 6 { and 1 h Esrom - a
Ram 6 < begat * Amminadab ; « * and 1 l^Tnlb. i
Amminadab 6 * begat 1 Nahshon ; 6 ' and l i Naasson. i
Nahshon 5 ' begat Salmon ; and
Salmon begat * Boaz 6 m of Rahab ; 6 • and 1 " *£» ,
Boaz 6 m begat Obed of Ruth ; and
Obed begat Jesse ; and
Jesse begat David the king ; and
David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife
of 1 Uriah; 60 and oUrias.i
Solomon begat 1 Rehoboam ; 6 r and 1 » R^"™- 1
Rehoboam 6 « begat x Abij ah ; 6 r and r Abia . ,
Abijah 6 r begat Asa ; and
a-
342
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. i. 8-17.
Mark i. 1.
Luke ili. 23-26
a Josaphat. 1
6 Joram. 1
c Ozias. l
d Joatham. l
e Achaz. *
/Ezekias.i
Manasses. 1
h Josias.i
' Jechonias. l
* Zorobabel. i
Asa begat 1 Jehoshaphat ; 5 " and *
Jehoshaphat 6 " begat J Jehoram ; 6 h and x
Jehoram 6 b begat * Uzziah ; 6 ° and x
Uzziali 6 " begat * Jotham ; 6 d and x
Jotham 6 d begat * Abaz ; 6 e and 1
Ahaz 6 " begat 1 Hezekiah ; 6 f and 1
Hezekiah 6 ^" begat * Manasseh ; 6 ? and 1
Manasseb 6 ? begat Amon ; and
Amon begat 1 Josiah ; 6 * and 1
Josiah 6 h begat x Jeconiab 6 * and his brethren,
About the time they were carried away to Babylon :
And after they were brought to Babylon, *
Jeeoniah 6i . begat Salathiel; and
Salathiel begat x Zerubbabel ; 6 k and 1
Zerubbabel 6 * begat Abiud ; and
Abiud begat Eliakini ; and
Eliakim begat Azor ; and
Azor begat Sadoc ; and
Sadoc begat Aehim ; and
Achim begat Eliud; and
Eliud begat Eleazar ; and
Eleazar begat Matthan ; and
Matthan begat Jacob ; and
Jacob begat
Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born
Jesus who is called Christ.
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen gen-
erations ; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are
fourteen generations ; and from the carrying away into Babylon
unto Christ are fourteen generations. 1
Jesus Christ the Son of GOD. 2
Jesus 5 being (as was supposed) the son of
Joseph, which was the son of
Heli, which was the son of
Matthat, which was the son of
Levi, which was the son of
Melchi, which was the son of
Janna, which was the son of
Joseph, which was the son of
Mattathias, which was the son of
Amos, which was the son of
Naum, which was the son of
Esli, which was the son of
Nagge, which was the son of
Maath, which was the son of
Mattathias, which was the son of
Semei, which was the son of 8
ft
cEh ; H=b
GENEALOGIES. 343
Joseph, which was the son of Lake m. 26-86.
Juda, which was the son of
Joanna, which was the son of
Rhesa, which was the son of 8
Zerubbabel, 6 " which was the son of <■ Zorobabei. a
Salathiel, which was the son of
Neri, which was the son of
Melchi, which was the son of
Addi, which was the son of
Cosam, which was the son of
Elmodam, which was the son of
Er, which was the son of
Jose, which was the son of
Eliezer, which was the son of
Jorim, which was the son of
Matthat, which was the son of
Levi, which was the son of
Simeon, which was the son of
Juda, which was the son of
Joseph, which was the son of
Jonan, which was the son of
Eliakim, which was the son of
Melea, which was the son of
Menan, which was the son of
Mattatha, which was the son of
Nathan, which was the son of
David, which was the son of
Jesse, which was the son of
Obed, which was the son of 8
Boaz, 6 h which was the son of i> Bora. »
Salmon, which was the son of 8
Nahshon, 8c which was the son of 3 osamaon.'
Amminadab, 8 d which was the son of 3 a Aminadab. *
Ram, 6 * which was the son of 8 e Aram, a
Hezron, 6 / which was the son of 8 /Esrom.a
Pharez, 8 ^ which was the son of 8 aPhares.a
Judah, 8 h which was the son of /.juda.n
Jacob, which was the son of
Isaac, which was the son of
Abraham, which was the son of 8
Terah, 6 * which was the son of 8 • Thara. 3
Nahor, 8 k which was the son of 8 k Nachor - '
Serag, 6 ' which was the son of 8 ' Saruch - 3
Reu, 8 « which was the son of 8 "' B «^ , -|
Peleg, 8 " which was the son of 8
Eber, 8 ° which was the son of 8 ° Heber - 8
Shelah, 8 ^ which was the son of 8 " Sala " 3
CtU -.
344
Luko Hi 86-88
aSem. a
!>Noe.s
'■ M:ithils:il:i. : '
a Maided. *
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Cainan, which was the son of
Arphaxad, which was the son of
Shem, 6 " which was the son of 8
Noah, 6 b which was tho son of
Lameoh, which was the son of 8
Methuselah, ' which was the son of
Enoch, which was the son of
Jared, which was the son of 8
Mahalaleel, 6 d which was the son of
Cainan, which was the son of
Enos, which was the son of
Seth, which was the son of
Adam, which was the son of
GOD. 8
Matt. II. 1-11.
c Juda. *
/Mlcnhv.2.
CHAPTER VI.
The Infancy of Jesus Christ.
"VTOW Then Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judrea in the days
-L ^ of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east
to Jerusalem, saying,
" Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? for we have seen
his star in the east, and are come to worship him."
When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the
chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of
them where Christ should be born.
And they said unto him,
" In Bethlehem of Judtea : for thus it is written by the prophet,
"'And thou Bethluhem, in tho land of 1 Judah/«
Art not the least among the princes of 1 Judoh : ' °
For out of thee shall come a Governor,
That shall rule my people Israel.' "/
Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired
of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them
to Bethlehem, and said,
" Go and search diligently for the young child ; and when ye have
found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him
also."
When they had heard the king, they departed ; and, lo, the star,
which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood
over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they re-
joiced with exceeding great joy.
And when they were come into tho house, they saw the young J
^
THE INFANCY OF JESUS CHRIST. 345
child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him : and JJ^'h'sI) 1 "*?'
when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; —
gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned of God in a
dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into
their own country another way.
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord ap-
peareth to Joseph in a dream, saying,
"Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into
Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word : for Herod will
seek the young child to destroy him."
When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night,
and departed into Egypt : and was there until the death of Herod :
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the
prophet, saying,
"Out of Egypt have I called my son." a <■ Hoaea A. 1.
Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men,
was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that
were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old
and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired
of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by 1
Jeremiah 55 the prophet, saying, & Jeremy, i
" In Rama was there a voice heard,
Lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning,
Bachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted,
Because they are not." c c Jer. xrai. 15.
But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth
in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,
" Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the
land of Israel : for they are dead which sought the young child's
life."
And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came
into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign
in Judtea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go
thither : notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, 1 they 8d
d he.l
turned aside, 1 and 6 returned s into the parts of Galilee : and x they 6 d
came and dwelt in 1 e their own city/ Nazareth : s that it might be et ° 3
ii j /a city called. 1
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, " He shall be called a
Nazarene. " 1 £ a is. mi 2.
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wis-
dom : and the grace of God was upon him.
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the
passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jeru-
salem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled
the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusa-
lem ; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, suppos-
ing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and 3
a-
346
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Luke ii, 44-62. fa e y SO ught him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when
they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking
him.
And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the
temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and
asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished
at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they
were amazed : and his mother said unto him,
" Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us ? behold, thy father and I
have sought thee sorrowing."
And he said unto them,
" How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about
my Father's business 1 "
And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.
And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was
subject unto them : but his mother kept all these sayings in her
heart.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God
and man. 8
CHAPTER VII.
The Preaching of John the Baptist.
Matt. iii. 1-3. "~VTOW in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,"
Lukeiii. i-6. _LN Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaia, and Herod being
aiathosedaya.i tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and
of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,
Annas arid Caiaphas being the high-priests, the word of God came
unto John 8 the Baptist, 1 the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.
And he came into all the country about Jordan, 8 and 6 did baptize 2
& preaching.* a j n ^q wilderness of Judsea, 1 and preach 26 the baptism of repentance
c and saying, i f or the remission of sins, 8 saying,
" Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 1
As it is written in the prophets,
" Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
d Malachi iii. 1. Which shall prepare thy way before thee " : 2 d
e Esaias. » and 6 in the book of the words of 8 Isaiah 6 ' the prophet, saying,
" The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
Make his paths straight.
Every valley shall he filled,
And every mountain and hill shall he brought low ;
And the crooked shall be made straight,
And the rough ways shall be made smooth ;
And all flesh shall see the salvation of God." s /
/Isaiah xl. 3-5.
-/ Esaias. '
For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet * Isaiah. 6 ?
13
-fi-
THE PREACHING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. 347
And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leath- Matt. m. 4-12.
.... ' Marki. 5-8.
em girdle about his loins; and his meat was c locusts and wild Lukcffi. 7-18
honey. 1 a was clothed
Then ld there went out unto' him all the land of Judaea, and they » with a girdle of
of Jerusalem, 2 and all the region round about Jordan, and were 1 all chYdidelt.s
baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. 2 <* And.»
Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of
him, 8 when/ he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to /but when. 1
his baptism, S he said unto
it rv • e them. 1
U generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the
wrath to come 1 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of* repentance, ''meet for. 1
and begin* not to say within yourselves, 'We have Abraham to our • think. 1
father ' : for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to
raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid
unto the root of the trees : every tree therefore which bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."
And the people asked him, sayiDg,
" What shall we do then 1 "
He answereth and saith unto them,
" He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none ;
and he that hath meat, let him do likewise."
Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him,
" Master, what shall we do 1 "
And he said unto them,
" Exact no more than that which is appointed you."
And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying,
" And what shall we do 1 "
And he said unto them,
" Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely ; and be con-
tent with your wages."
And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in
their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not ; John an-
swered, 1 Saying Unto them all, * and preached. 2
" I indeed baptize' you with water 8 unto repentance : but 1 there 'have baptized. 2
cometh one"' mightier than I after me, 2 the latchet of whose shoes I »> hethatcometh
... is.i
am not worthy to stoop down and unloose : 2n he shall baptize you nbear.i
with the Holy Ghost and with fire : whose fan is in his hand, and he
will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the" wheat into his ohis.i
garner ; but the chaff he will burn s up 1 with fire unquenchable." 8
And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the
people. 8
cg^ EP
a-
348
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
CHAPTEE VIII.
Matt. iii. 13-17.
— iT. 1-8.
Mark i. 9-13.
Luke iii. 21, 22.
— iv. 1,12.
a And. 2
6 then. 1
C , uli let 1 1. '
d also being, a
c coming up. 2
/ he saw the heav-
ens. 2
the heaven was. 8
him. J
h descended. s
there came a
voice. 2
fc saying. 1 2
1 thou art. 2 3
m thee. 8
n then. 1
o by. s
V the Spirit driv-
eth him. 2
<7 being. 3
<• the devil. s
a when they were
ended. 3
' an. 1
« afterward hun-
gred. 3
•
u> this stone that
it. 3
x And. »
» he. i
and.
z and said. 1
n Deut. viii. 3.
b And he. 3
c set. s
d said. 3
e over. 3
/Ps. xci.11,12.
o said. 3
* Deut. vi. 16.
i And. »
A taking. 3
57te Baptism of Jesus Christ, and his Temptation.
~VFOW 8 " it came to pass in those days, 2 h when all the people
-L- ^ were baptized, 8 that Jesus came ° from Nazareth of Galilee 2
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him.
But John forbad him, saying,
" I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ? "
And Jesus answering said unto him,
" Suffer it to be so now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil all right-
eousness."
Then he suffered him, 1 and was baptized of John in Jordan. 2
And Jesus, 1 praying, 8 when he was d baptized, went up ' straight-
way out of the water : and, lo, the heavens were/ opened unto x
John, 6 * and he saw the Spirit of God, 1 the Holy Ghost, 8 descend-
ing 1 * in a bodily shape, 8 like a dove, and lighting upon him : and lo
a voice 1 came 8 ' from heaven, 1 which said, 8 *
" This is' my beloved Son, in whom™ I am well pleased." 1
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan,
and n was 8 immediately 2 led up of the Spirit^ into the wilderness to
be tempted of the devil. 1
And he was* there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Sa-
tan ; r and was with the wild beasts ; 2 and in those days he did eat
nothing. 8
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights/ he was after-
ward x a 6 ' hungred."
And when the tempter, 1 the devil, 8 came to him, he said 1 unto
him, 8
" If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones™ be made
bread."
But 1 x Jesus y answered him, saying, 2
" It is written, ' That man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word 8 that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' " 2 °
Then the devil * b brought him to Jerusalem, 8 and 5 taketh him up
into the holy city, and setteth ° him on a pinnacle of the temple, and
saith d unto him,
" If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down J from hence ; 8
for it is written, ' He shall give his angels charge concerning e thee, 1
to keep thee : and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at
any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.' "/
And Jesus, answering, said unto him, 8
" It is written again, * ' Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God.' " *
Again,* the devil taketh * him up into an exceeding high mountain, 1
^
-*~tr
i£h ^Eb
TESTIMONY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. 349
and sheweth ° him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory Mark^il" 11 '
of them, 1 in a moment of time; 8 and 1 the devil 8 saith h unto Luke in. S3.
' ' — iv. 13.
him, , — — . „
' a Rhewea unto. a
" All these things 1 and the glory of them, 8 and 6 all this power * said, s
will I give thee, 8 (for that is delivered unto me ; and to whomsoever
I will I give it,) 8 if thou wilt fall down and worship me." c if thou there-
, . &re wilt wor-
Then x d Jesus answered and said ' unto him, ship me, ail
shall be thine. 3
" Get thee hence/ Satan : for it is written, ' Thou shalt worship a And. 3
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.' " 1 & /behind me 3
And when the devil had ended all the temptation, 4 he departed oDent. vi. 13.
, h then. 1
from 1 him for a season. 8 And, behold, angels* came and ministered neaveth. 1
unto him. 1 * the angels. 2
And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age. 3
CHAPTER IX.
The Testimony of John the Baptist to Jesus, and the Calling of the
first Disciples.
AND this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests John i. 19-27.
and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him,
" Who art thou ? "
And he confessed, and denied not ; but confessed,
" I am not the Christ."
And they asked him,
"What then? Art thou 4 Elijah V 6 ' iMas - 4
And he saith,
" I am not."
"Art thou that prophet 1 "
And he answered,
" No."
Then said they unto him,
" Who art thou 1 that we may give an answer to them that sent
us. What sayest thou of thyself? "
He said,
" I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ' Make straight
the way of the Lord, m as said the prophet 4 Isaiah." 5 " ™ eLLu*'
And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they
asked him, and said unto him,
"Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor 4
Elijah, 6 " neither that prophet?" oElia8 - 4
John answered them, saying,
" I baptize with water : but there standeth one among you, whom
ye know not ; he it is, who coming after me is preferred before me,
whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose." 4
ta-
350 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
John i. 28-46. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John
was baptizing.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith,
"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said, ' After me corneth a man which is pre-
ferred before me ' : for he was before me. And I knew him not :
but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come
baptizing with water."
And John bare record, saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon him. And I knew him not : but he that sent me to baptize
with water, the same said unto me, ' Upon whom thou shalt see the
Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which bap-
tizeth with the Holy Ghost.' And I saw, and bare record that this
is the Son of God."
Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples ; and
looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith,
" Behold the Lamb of God ! "
And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them,
" What seek ye 1 "
They said unto him,
" Babbi," (which is to say, being interpreted, " Master,") " where
dwellest thou?"
He saith unto them,
" Come and see."
They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that
day : for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard
John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him,
"We have found the Messias," (which is, being interpreted, "the
Christ,")
And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he
said,
"Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called 'Cephas,'"
(which is by interpretation, " A stone.")
The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth
Philip, and saith unto him,
" Follow me."
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him,
"We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets,
did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
And Nathanael said unto him,
" Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? "
Philip saith unto him,
" Come and see." 4
MARRIAGE AT CAN A.
351
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him,
" Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile ! "
Nathanael saith unto him,
" Whence knowest thou me 1"
Jesus answered and saith unto him,
" Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree,
I saw thee."
Nathanael answered and saith unto him,
" Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; thou art the King of Israel."
Jesus answered and said unto him,
" Because I said unto thee ' I saw thee under the fig-tree,' believest
thou ? thou shalt see greater things than these."
And he saith unto him,
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven
open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son
of man." 4
John i 47-51.
CHAPTER X.
The Marriage at Cana. — Journey to Jerusalem. — The casting out of
the Traders from the Temple.
AND the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; John a. l - 10.
and the mother of Jesus was there : and both Jesus was called,
and his disciples, to the marriage.
And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him,
" They have no wine."
Jesus saith unto her,
" Woman, what have I to do with thee t mine hour is not yet
come."
His mother saith unto the servants,
" Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it."
And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the man-
ner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins
apiece.
Jesus saith unto them,
" Fill the waterpots with water."
And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith unto them,
" Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast."
And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the
water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was : (but the
servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast
called the bridegroom, and saith unto him,
"Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when
men have well drunk, then that which is worse : but thou hast kept
the good wine until now." 4
352 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
johniLii-22. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and mani-
fested forth his glory ; and his disciples believed on him.
After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and
his brethren, and his disciples : and they continued there not many
days.
And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jeru-
salem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and
doves, and the changers of money sitting : and when he had made
a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and
the sheep, and the oxen ; and poured out the changers' money, and
overthrew the tables ; and said unto them that sold doves,
.mi "Take these things hence; make not my Father's house 4 a 5 "
house of merchandise."
And his disciples remembered that it was written,
s Psalm bdx. 9. " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." h
Then answered the Jews and said unto him,
" What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these
things 1 "
Jesus answered and said unto them,
" Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it. up."
Then said the Jews,
" Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou
rear it up in three days 1 "
But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was
risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this
unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which
Jesus had said. 4
CHAPTER XI.
Jesus and Nicodemus. — Further Testimony of ike Baptist.
John H. 23-26. "~YTOW when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast
— -UN day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles
which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, be-
cause he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of
man : for he knew what was in man.
There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of
the Jews : the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him,
" Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God : for
no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with
him."
Jesus answered and said unto him,
" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God."
Nicodemus saith unto him.
NIGODEMUS. 353
" How can a man be born when he is old 1 can he enter the second John *"■ i ~ g
time into his mother's womb, and be born *! "
Jesus answered,
" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That
which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ' Ye must be born
again.' The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it
goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit."
Nicodemus answered and said unto him
" How can these things be 1 "
Jesus answered and said unto him,
" Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things ?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and
testify that we have seen ; and ye receive not our witness. If I
have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye be-
lieve, if I tell you of heavenly things t And no man hath ascended
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son
of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up ; that who-
soever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
" For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn
the world ; but that the world through him might be saved. He
that believeth on him is not condemned : but he that believeth not
is condemned already, because he' hath not believed in the name of
the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that
light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than
light, because their deeds were evil. For 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."
After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of
Judaea ; and there he tarried with them, and baptized. And John
also was baptizing in ^Enon near to Salim, because there was much
water there : and they came, and were baptized. For John was not
yet cast into prison.
Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and
the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John, and said unto
him,
"Eabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou
barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to
him."
John answered and said,
" A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. 4
fi-
::
354 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Job.nmffl-36. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ,'
but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bride-
groom : but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth
him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice : this my joy
therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He
that cometh from above is above all : he that is of the earth is
earthly, and speaketh of the earth : he that cometh from heaven is
above all. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth ;
and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his
testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God
hath sent speaketh the words of God : for God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him."
The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his
hand. He that belioveth on the Son hath everlasting life : and he
that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God
abideth on him. 4
CHAPTER XII:
Matt. iv. 12.
— xiv. 3-6.
Mark i. 14.
— vi. 17-20.
Luke iii. 19, 20.
— iv. 14.
John iv. 1-6.
a But. 3 for. 1 2
6 had Pent. 2
c had laid. 1
d on.i
c Herod. s
/him.l
g her. 1
ft and. *
i he feared. 1
k as. 1
(an. 2
m when. 1
n John.l
o when there-
fore. *
p came. 2 Jesus
returned. 3
Imprisonment of John the Baptist. — Return of Jesus to Galilee. —
Interview with the Woman of Samaria.
"VTOW 1 " Herod the tetrarch 3 himself 2 sent* forth and laid
-L- ^ hold upon d John, and 2 bound him, and put him in prison
for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife ; 1 Herod 8 being re-
proved by him for Herodias, 3 (for he had married her, 2 ) and for all
the evils which 8 he 6 e had done, and 8 he 6 added yet this above
all, that he shut up John in prison. 8
For John had said unto Herod,/
" It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife." s
Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have
killed him ; but she could not : for Herod, 2 * when he would have
put him to death, feared * the multitude, because they counted him
for * a prophet : and Herod also 6 feared John, knowing that he was
a just man and 2 a 6 ' holy, and observed him ; and when he heard
him, he did many things and heard him gladly. 2
Now after that John was put in prison, 2 and m Jesus had heard
that 1 he 6 n was cast into prison, 1 and 6 when" the Lord knew how
the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more dis-
ciples than John, (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his dis-
ciples,) he left Judaea, and departed again 4 and 8 returned ^ in the
power of the Spirit into Galilee. 3
And he must needs go through Samaria.
Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar,
near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with 4
m-
— • — . J
THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 355
his journey, sat thus on the well : and it was about the sixth John iT - 6 - 2i -
hour.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water : Jesus saith
unto her,
"Give me to drink."
(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him,
" How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which
am a woman of Samaria 1 ! for the Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans."
Jesus answered and said unto her,
" If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to
thee, ' Give me to drink ' ; thou wouldest have asked of him, and
he would have given thee living water."
The woman saith unto him,
" Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep :
from whence then hast thou that living water ? Art thou greater
than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof
himself, and his children, and his cattle 1 "
Jesus answered and said unto her,
" Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again : but who-
soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst ;
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life."
The woman saith unto him,
" Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to
draw."
Jesus saith unto her,
" Go, call thy husband, and come hither."
The woman answered and said,
" I have no husband."
Jesus said unto her,
" Thou hast well said, 'I have no husband' : for thou hast had five
husbands ; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband : in that
saidst thou truly."
The woman saith unto him,
" Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped
in this mountain ; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship."
Jesus saith unto her,
" Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in
this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye wor-
•ship ye know not what : we know what we worship : for salvation is
of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : for the
Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit : and they
that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." 4
Zl
356 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Jobniyjo-45. The woman saith unto him,
" I know that Messias comoth, which is called Christ : when he is
come, he will toll us all things."
Jesus saith unto her,
" I that speak unto thee am he."
And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked
with the woman : yet no man said, "What seekest thouf" or, " Why
talkost thou with her ] " The woman then left her waterpot, and
went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
" Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did : is .
not this the Christ ? "
Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying,
" Master, eat."
But he said unto them,
" I have meat to eat that yo know not of."
Therefore said the disciples one to another,
" Hath any man brought him ought to eat 1 "
Jesus saith unto them,
" My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, aud to finish his
work. Say not ye, ' There are yet four mouths, and then comet h
harvest V behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the
fields ; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth
receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal : that both he
that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein
is that saying true, ' One soweth and another reapeth.' I seut you
to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor : other men labored, and
ye are entered into their labors."
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the
saying of the woman, which testified, " He told me all that ever I
did." So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought
him that he would tarry with them : and he abode there two days.
Aud many more believed because of his own word ; aud said unto
the woman,
" Now we believe, not because of thy saying : for we have hoard
him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour
of the world."
Now after two days ho departed thence, aud went into Galilee.
For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honor in his own
country. Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galileans re-
ceived him, having seen all the things that ho did at Jerusalem at
the feast : for they also went unto the feast. 4
fe
c:
THE PEE ACHING OF JESUS IN GALILEE. 357
CHAPTER XIII.
The Preaching of Jesus in Galilee. — Several Miracles. — Calling of
several Disciples.
FROM that time Jesus began to preach l " the gospel of the king- JJjJJJj- "i "15
dom of God, 2 and to say, 1 » ™£ £[ «l£
" The time is fulfilled, and ° the kingdom of God d is at hand : a VTe!L ~^ g 2
repent ye, and believe the gospel." 2 & saying. 2
And there went out a fame of him through all the region round dheayen.i
about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. 8
So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the
water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick
at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea
into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would
come down, and heal his son : for he was at the point of death.
Then said Jesus unto him,
" Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe."
The nobleman saith unto him,
"Sir, come down ere my child die."
Jesus saith unto him,
" Go thy way ; thy son liveth."
And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him,
and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants
met him, and told him, saying,
" Thy son liveth."
Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend.
And they said unto him,
" Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."
So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which
Jesus said unto him, " Thy son liveth " : and himself believed, and
his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did,
when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee. 4
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up : and,
as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day,
and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the
book of the prophet 3 Isaiah. 6 e And when he had opened the book, e Esaias. »
he found the place where it was written,
" The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he hath anointed me to" preach the gospel to the poor ;
He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted,
To preach deliverance to the captives,
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." *f /Isaiah lxi. 1,2.
a-
358
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED
Matt. iv. 13-16,
18.
Mark i. 16.
Luke iv. 20-31.
— v. 1-4.
fc Sarepta. 3
c Sidon. 3
d EUseus. 3
e Zabulon. 1
/Nephthalim. 1
g Esaias. '
h Isaiah is. 1, 2.
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister,
and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the syna-
gogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them,
" This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words
which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said,
" Is not this Joseph's son 1 "
And he said unto them,
" Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, ' Physician, heal thy
self : 'Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here
in thy country.' "
And he said,
" Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days
of 8 Elijah, 6 " when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout all the land ; but unto
none of them was 8 Elijah 6 " sent, save unto 8 Zarephath 6 h a city
of 8 Zidon, 6 c unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers
were in Israel in the time of 8 Elisha 6d the prophet; and none of
them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian."
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were
filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and
led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that
they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the
midst of them went his way, and 8 leaving Nazareth, he 1 came down
to 8 and dwelt in Capernaum, 1 a city of Galilee, 8 which is upon the
sea-coast, in the borders of 1 Zebulun 6 e and ' Naphtali : 6 / that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken by 1 Isaiah 6 *' the prophet,
saying,
"The land of 1 Zebulun 6 e
And the land of 1 Naphtali s/
By the way of the sea, beyond Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles ;
The people which sat in darkness saw great light ;
And to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung
up." *
And Jesus, walking* by the sea of Galilee,* saw' two brethren,
i now as he
walked. 2
* lake of Genne- Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the
saret.3 ' *
i he saw. 2 sea : for they were fishers. 1 And 8 when 6 they 6m were gone out
m the fishermen. 3
i them. 3
o the ships. 3
of 8 their ships, 6 " and were washing their nets, 8 it came to pass
that 8 the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God. 8 And 8
as 8 he stood by the lake,* and saw 8 the 6 two ships standing by the
lake, 8 he entered into one of 8 them, 6 " which was Simon's, and prayed
him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat
down and taught the people out of the ship.
Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, 8
ft
DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 359
" Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." *Jatt. j lv j- 8 gf 2 '
And Simon answering said unto him, Luke i». 31-37.
" Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing : —
nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net."
And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude
of fishes : and their net brake, And they beckoned unto their part-
ners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help
them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began
to sink.
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying,
" Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, Lord."
For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught
of the fishes which they had taken : and so was also James, and
John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said " unto 8 them, 1 ' b s ^ m0 ^ i
"Fear not; 8 come ye after me, and I will 2 from hencefortn 8 c follow, i
i.i r. , p * M i ,; thou shalt
make you to become fishers oi " men. ■* catch. a
And when they had brought their ships to land, they 8 straight-
way * forsook' all/ and followed him. 8 /their nets «
And when he had gone a little further «" thence, 2 he saw the 6 g going on from.i
other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his broth-
er, 1 who also were in the 2 other 6 * ship with Zebedee their father, 'i that. 3
o insomuch that.
And. 3
v were all
amazed 2 3
q Jesus. 1
r forth from
thence. 1
■ man. '
t Matthew. 1
« saith. 1
tt> rose up. 3
" This man blasphemeth." *
" Who is this which speaketh blasphemies t " 8
" Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies 1 "
" Who can forgive sins, but God alone 1 " 8 "
And immediately* when Jesus 2 (knowing their thoughts) 1 per-
ceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he,
answering, 8 said unto them, 2
"Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts t 1 And 6 why d reason
ye these things in your hearts 1 2 For, 1 whether is it easier to say
to the sick of the palsy, ' Thy sins be forgiven thee ' ; or to say,
' Arise/ and take up thy bed, and walk ' 1 But that ye may know
that the Son of man hath power on/ earth to forgive sins/' 2
Then saith ^ he to ' the sick of the palsy, 1
" I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, 1 ' and go thy way
into k thine house."
And immediately he arose/ took m up the bed 2 " whereon he lay, 8
and went forth before them all, 2 and departed to his own house,
glorifying God. 8 But ° when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, 1 '
and were filled with fear, 3 and glorified God, which had given such
power unto men, 1 saying,
" We never saw it on this fashion." 2
" We have seen strange things to-day." 8
And after these things, 8 he went forth again by the seaside ; and
all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them. And
as he i passed by/ he saw 2 a publican* named 8 Levi' the son of
Alpheus sitting at the receipt of custom, and 2 he 8 said u unto him,
"Follow me."
And he arose, 2 *° left all, 8 and followed him. 2
John T. l - 6.
CHAPTER XV.
Healing of a Man on the Sabbath, and consequent Discussion.
AFTER this there was a feast of the Jews ; and Jesus went up
to Jerusalem.
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is
called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In
these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, with-
ered, waiting for the moving of the water. (For an angel went
down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water :
whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was
made whole of whatsoever disease he had.) And a certain man was
there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus
saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that
case, he saith unto him, 4
THE SABBATH.— THE IMPOTENT MAN. 363
" Wilt thou be made whole 1 " Joh * T j_£_-24-
The impotent man answered him,
" Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into
the pool : but while I am coming, another steppeth down before
me."
Jesus saith unto him,
" Eise, take up thy bed, and walk."
And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed,
and walked : and on the same day was the sabbath.
The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured,
" It is the sabbath day : it is not lawful for thee to carry thy
bed."
He answered them,
" He that made me whole, the same said unto me, ' Take up thy
bed, and walk.' "
Then asked they him,
" What man is that which said unto thee, ' Take up thy bed, and
walk'?"
And he that was healed wist not who it was : for Jesus had con-
veyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.
Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him,
" Behold, thou art made whole : sin no more, lest a worse thing
come unto thee."
The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which
had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus,
and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the
sabbath day.
But Jesus answered them,
" My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not
only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his
Father, making himself equal with God.
Then answered Jesus and said unto them,
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of him-
self, but what he seeth the Father do : for what things soever he
doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth
the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth : and he
will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For
as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them ; even so
the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son : that all men
should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that
honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent
him.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation ; but is passed from death unto life. 4
ZJ
364
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Johnv^25-47. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is,
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of .God : and they
that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so
hath he given to the Son to have life in himself ; and hath given
him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of
man. Marvel not at this : for the hour is coming, in the which all
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ;
they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they
that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
" I can of mine own self do nothing : as I hear, I judge : and my
judgment is just ; because I seek not mine own will, but the will
of the Father which hath sent me.
" If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There
is another that beareth witness of me ; and I know that the wit-
ness which he witnesseth of me is true. Ye sent unto John, and
he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from
man : but these things I say, that ye might be saved. He was a
burning and a shining light : and ye were willing for a season to
rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John :
for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same
works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness
of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his
shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you : for whom he
hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures ; for in them
ye think ye have eternal life : and they are they which testify of
me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. I re-
ceive not honor from men. But I know you, that ye have not the
love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye
receive me not : if another shall come in his own name, him ye
will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honor one of
another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only 1 Do
not think that I will accuse you to the Father : there is one that
accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed
Moses, ye would have believed me : for he wrote of me. But if ye
believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words 1 " 4
Matt. xii. 1.
Mark ii. 23.
Luke vi. 1.
CHAPTER XVI.
Christ's Teaching as to the Sabbath. — The Ordination of the Twelve
Apostles.
AND it came to pass 2 at that time, 1 being 6 " the second sabbath b
after the first, that s Jesus c went 1 through the corn ' fields ; 2
« on. 3
l> on the sabbath
day. 1 2
c he. 2 3
rfan.i and his disciples were 1 a 6d hungred, and began, 1 as they went, 2 to 1
-a
THE SABBATH. 365
pluck ° the ears of corn, and to h eat, 1 rubbing them in their hands. 8 JJatt. xii l -13.
1 ° Mark n . 23-28.
But when x " certain of 8 the Pharisees saw it they said unto him, d — ">■ 1-6-
J ' Luke vi. 1-10.
" Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon e —
the sabbath day. 1 / Why do they 2 e do so 1" 6 & did. »
But x * Jesus,' answering, 8 said unto them, d th D em 3
"Have ye not* read 1 so much as this. 8 what David did, when e °n- 23
/days, s
he J l and they which m were with him 8 were a 6 n hungred, 1 and 6 g ye. 3
had need 1 ! 2 how he entered" into the house of God, 1 in the days of * h °i', 8
Abiathar the high-priest, 2 and did take and eat the shewbread, and * never. 2
. . , . o , . 1 t l himself. 8
gave also to them that were with him ; " which it was ? not lawful m that. 1 2
for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only* ™ was an. 123
' 'Jo went, 2 3
for the priests 1 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the pis. 23
sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are
blameless ? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater
than the temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth,
9 alone. 3
" ' I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,'
ye would not have condemned the guiltless." 1
And he said unto them,
" The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath :
therefore r the Son of man is Lord als*o« of the sabbath 2 day." 1 rForl , That - 3
* b even, i
And it came to pass also on another sabbath, 8 when he was de-
parted thence, 1 that he entered 8 again 2 into the' synagogue and 'went into their. 1
taught: and, 8 behold, there was a man 1 there 2 whose right hand
was withered. 8 " And they asked him, saying, "SSUSLSj
" Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days 1 " x ^rXid.«
And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would
heal 8 him 2 on the sabbath day ; that they might find an accu-
sation against w him. w accuse. 1 2
But he knew their thoughts, and said to * the man which had the * * n n d to he 2 saith
withered hand,
" Kise up, and stand forth in the midst."
And he arose and stood forth.
Then said Jesus unto * them,
" I will ask you one thing ; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to
do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? " s n »rai.2
But they held their peace. And he said unto them,
" What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep,
and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on
it, and lift it out ? How much then is a man better than a sheep 1
Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. 1 "
And when he had looked 1 round about on" them 2 all 8 with « them looking."
a upon. "
anger, 2 being grieved for the hardness of their hearts he saith * unto ° s said. 3
the man,
" Stretch forth thine * hand." ,*«*£, fQvthl
And he stretched it out:" and his hand/ was restored whole /it.i
like 1 as the other. 2
■a
366
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt, x 2-4.
— xii.14-21.
Mark iii. 6-19.
Luke vi. 11-17.
a And they. »
6 forth. 2
c held a council
against him.
d a great multi-
tude 2
/Isaiah xlii.l-
g goeth up.
h calleth. 2
t and. 2
* surnamed. 2
ihis.i
m which. 2
" was the traitor.-'
Then the Pharisees ! " were filled with madness ; 8 and 2 went out x 6
and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus, 30
and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how
they might destroy him. 2
But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself, 1 with his disciples, 2
from thence, 1 to the sea ; 2 and great multitudes J d from Galilee
followed him, and from Judaea, and from Jerusalem, and from
Idumea, and from beyond Jordan ; and they about Tyre and Sidon,
a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did,
came unto him, 2 and he healed them all. 1
And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on
him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him. For
he had healed many ; insomuch that they pressed upon him for
to touch him, as many as had plagues. And unclean spirits, when
they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying,
" Thou art the Son of God ! "
And he straitly charged them that they should not make him
known : 2 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by - 1 Isaiah 6 *
the prophet, saying,
"Behold my servant, whorn I have chosen ;
My beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased :
I will put my spirit upon him,
And he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not strive, nor cry ;
Neither shall any man hear his voice in the. streets.
A bruised reed shall he not break,
And smoking flax shall he not quench,
Till he send forth judgment unto victory.
And in his name shall the Gentiles trust. " l
And it came to pass in those, days, that he went out £ into a
mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And
when it was day, he called * unto him 8 whom he would 2 of 6 his
disciples ; s and they came unto him : 2 and of them he chose 8 and 6
ordained 2 twelve, whom also he named apostles ; s that they should
be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to
have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils. 2
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these ; the first, 1 *
Simon, whom he also named, 3 k and 6 who is called Peter, and An-
drew his brother ; and James the son of Zebedee, and John the '
brother of James ; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is " The
sons of thunder"; 2 and Philip and Bartholomew; and Matthew 2
the publican ; 1 and Thomas, and James the son of Alpheus, and
Judas 8 or 6 Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus, 1 the brother
of James ; 8 and Simon the Canaanite, 2 called Zelotes, 8 and Judas
Iscariot, 2 who m also betrayed him. 1 "
And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the
company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all
Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 3
a-
SERMON ON THE MOUNT.
— -a
367
which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; and Lukovi. 17-10.
they that were vexed with unclean spirits : and they were healed.
And the whole multitude sought to touch him : for there went
virtue out of him, and healed them all. 8
CHAPTER XVII.
The Sermon on the Mount.
AND seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain • and Matt. t. 1-15.
vi ,.,.., Luke vi. 20 - 26.
when he was set, his disciples came unto him. 1 And he — -
lifted up his eyes on his disciples, 8 and 1 opened his mouth, and
taught them, saying, « asaiis
" Blessed are the b poor in spirit : for theirs c is the kino-dom b bc J" e - 3
of heaven. ' ^
"Blessed are they* that mourn 1 / now : 3 for they e shall be com- eye3
... •> /ireep. s
forted.^ g laugh, s
" Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit the earth.
" Blessed are they h which * do hunger and thirst after righteous- *^[*4
ness : now : 8 for they * shall be filled.
" Blessed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God.
" Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall be called the chil-
dren of God.
" Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake :
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
" Blessed are ye, when men shall x hate, 8 revile, 1 and persecute
you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and
shall reproach you, and 3 say all manner of evil against you* falsely, '^"^i
for my' sake. Bejoice 1 ye in that day, and leap for joy, 8 and be 'the son of
exceeding glad : for l behold, 8 great is your reward in heaven : for l
in like m manner did their fathers unto n the prophets 8 which "' the like - 3
, P , -i n so persecuted
were before you ! ' they i
" But woe unto you that are rich ! for ye have received your
consolation.
" Woe unto you that are full ! for ye shall hunger.
" Woe unto you that laugh now ! for ye shall mourn and weep.
" Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you ! for so
did their fathers to the false prophets. 8
" Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt have lost his savor,
wherewith shall it be salted 1 it is thenceforth good for nothing, but
to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on 1 a 6 " hill oan.i
cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under
a bushel, but on a candlestick ; and it giveth light unto all that 1
ft
368 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. ^15-35. are i n the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in
heaven.
" Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets :
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto
you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no
wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore
shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men
so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven : but who-
soever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in
the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Phari-
sees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
" Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, ' Thou
shalt not kill ; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the
judgment ' : but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his
brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment : and
whosoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca,' shall be in danger of
the council : but whosoever shall say, ' Thou fool,' shall be in dan-
ger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and
there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee ; leave
there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first be reconciled to
thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine
adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him ; lest at any
time the adversary deliver, thee to the judge, and the judge deliver
thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto
thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid
the uttermost farthing.
" Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, ' Thou
shalt not commit adultery ' : but I say unto you, That whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with
her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck
it out, and cast it from thee : for it is profitable for thee that one
of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should
be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off,
and cast it from thee : for it is profitable for thee that one of thy
members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be
cast into hell.
" It hath been said, ' Whc3oever shall put away his wife, let him
give her a writing of divorcement' : but I say unto you, That
whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of forni-
cation, causeth her to commit adultery : and whosoever shall marry
her that is divorced committeth adultery.
" Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time,
' Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord
thine oaths ' : but I say unto you, Swear not at all ; neither by
heaven ; for it is God's throne : nor by the earth ; for it is his 1
Zl
-ft
SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 369
footstool : neither by Jerusalem ; for it is the city of the great King. u *^- ^j^"g 8 -
juke vi. !
82-36.
Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make Lukc '•' '•■
one hair white or black. But let your communication be ' Yea,'
' yea ' ; ' Nay,' ' nay ' ; for whatsoever is more than these cometh
of evil.
" Ye have heard that it hath been said, ' An eye for an eye, and
a tooth for a tooth ' : but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil :
but whosoever shall smite" thee on thy right 6 cheek, turn to him c ° "° ^ e 'Ji™3 that
the other also. And if any man d will sue thee at the law, and b the one. 3
c offer. 3
take' away thy coat,/ let him have? thy cloke h also. And whoso- dhim. s
ever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to l^J^^''
him * that asketh J of s thee, and from him that would borrow of » forbid not to
take. 3
thee turn not thou away. 1 And of him that taketh away thy goods a coat, a
ask them not again. 8 ' eTery man '
" Ye have heard that it hath been said, ' Thou shalt love thy
neighbor, and hate thine enemy.' But I say unto you ' which
hear, Love your enemies, 8 bless them that curse you, do good to
them that* hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, k which. a
and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For
if ye love them which love you, what reward' have ye 1 ! 1 for sinners ; thank, s
also love those that love them. 8 Do not even the publicans the
same 1 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than
others? Do not even the publicans so 1 ! 1 And if ye do good to
them which do good to you, what thank have ye 1 For sinners also
do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to
receive, what thank have ye 1 For sinners also lend to sinners, to
receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good,
and lend, hoping for nothing again ; and your reward shall be great,
and ye shall be the children of the Highest : for he is kind unto
the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your
Father also is merciful. 8 And 6 be ye 1 perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect.
" Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of
them : otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in
heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a
trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in
the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto
you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not
thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth : that thine alms
may be in secret : and thy Father which seeth in secret himself
shall reward thee openly.
" And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are :
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the cor-
ners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say
unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, 1
Cfr
13
370 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. vUi-30. en t er into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to
thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repe-
titions, as the heathen do : for they think that they shall be heard
for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them : for
your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask
him. After this manner therefore pray ye : —
"Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed he thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil :
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
" For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father
will also forgive you : but if ye forgive not men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
" Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad coun-
tenance : for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto
men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face ;
that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which
is in secret : and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly.
" Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal : but
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor
steal : for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The
light of the body is the eye : if therefore thine eye be single, thy
whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy
whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that
is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness ! No man can
serve two masters : for either he will hate the one, and love the
other ; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take
no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more
than meat, and the body than raiment 1 Behold the fowls of the
air ; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ;
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better
than they ] Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit
unto his stature 1 And why take ye thought for raiment 1 Con-
sider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do
they spin : and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so 1
-a
SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 371
clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast Matt. T i. 30-34.
J ' — vn. 1-16.
into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, ye of little Lukovi. 31,37-
faith 1 Therefore take no thought, saying ' What shall we eat 1 ' or, —
'What shall we drink 1 !' or, 'Wherewithal shall we be clothed 1 !'
(for after all these things do the Gentiles seek :) for your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek
ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all these
things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for
the morrow : for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
"Judge not, and ye shall not be " judged. 8 For with what judg- a that ye be not.i
ment ye judge, ye shall be judged : * condemn not, and ye shall not
be condemned : forgive, and ye shall be forgiven : give, and it shall
be given unto you ; good measure, pressed down, and shaken to-
gether, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For 6 6 And 1
with the same c measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured « what. 1
to you again."
And he spake a parable unto them,
" Can the blind lead the blind 1 Shall they not both fall into
the ditch ] The disciple is not above his master : but every one
that is perfect shall be as his master. And why beholdest thou the
mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest 1 * not the beam ^°™idereBt. 1
that is in thine own eye*! Either" how canst/ thou say to thy /wiit.i
brother, 'Brother, let me pull out the mote that is inff thine eye,' a out of.'
when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that* is in thine own " a b n e ^ b, i hold ' a
eye 1 Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye,
and then shalt thou see clearly to pull ' out the mote that is in * » cast. 1
thy brother's eye. 8
" Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your
pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and
turn again and rend you.
" Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock,
and it shall be opened unto you : for every one that asketh receiv-
eth ; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread,
will he give him a stone 1 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a
serpent 1 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto
your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven
give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things
whatsoever * ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to * And as. 3
them : ' for this is the law and the prophets. l a ^ e ^ e 3 m
" Enter ye in at the strait gate : for wide is the gate, and broad is
the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go
in thereat : because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false
prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they
are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. 1 For 8
-e 3
a-
372
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. -rii. 16-29.
Luke vi. 43-49.
o For of thorns
men do not
gather figs. 3
b nor of a bram-
ble bush gather
they grapes. 3
f bringeth not. 3
.. '
a: God.
-ft
JOHN BAPTIST.— UNBELIEVING CITIES. 375
And if ye will receive it, this is 1 Elijah, 6 " which was for to come. Matt.xi. 14-30.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 1 And all the people that „,. —
heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with
the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the
counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him."
And the Lord said,
"Whereunto then* shall I liken the men of this generation'! h Bnt wherrant0
° c this, i
and to what are they like? They are" like unto children sitting rfitis.i
in the market-place,' and calling one to another/ and saying, ' We /"^their fei-
have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned 8 lows - 1
unto * f you and ye have not wept.' A For John the Baptist came h lamented, i
neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye 1 ' say, 'He hath a »they.i
devil.' The Son of man is come fc eating and drinking; and ye 1 ' *came.i
say, ' Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publi-
cans and sinners !' But wisdom is justified of all her children." 3
Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty
works were done, because they repented not :
" Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for if
the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre
and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which
art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell : for if
the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done
in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto
you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the
day of judgment, than for thee."
At that time Jesus answered and said,
" I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father : for so it seemed
good in thy sight.
" All things are delivered unto me of my Father : and no man
khoweth the Son, but the Father ; neither knoweth any man the
Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
him.
" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me,
for' I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto
your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." l
And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him.
And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat. And,
behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew
that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster
box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and be-
gan to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of
her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. 3
^
376 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Luke vii. 39-50. jsj" ow -when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake
within himself, saying,
" This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and
what manner of woman this is that toucheth him : for she is a
sinner."
And Jesus answering said unto him,
" Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee."
And he saith,
" Master, say on."
" There was a certain creditor which had two debtors : the one
owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had
nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore,
which of them will love him most 1 "
Simon answered and said,
" I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most."
And he said unto him,
" Thou hast rightly judged."
And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon,
"Seest thou this woman 1 ? I entered into "thine house, thou
gavest me no water for my feet : but she hath washed my feet with
tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest
me no kiss : but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased
to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint : but this
woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say
unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven ; for she loved
much : but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."
And he said unto her,
" Thy sins are forgiven."
And they that sat at meat with him began to say within them-
selves,
" Who is this that forgiveth sins also ? "
And he said to the woman,
" Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace." 3
CHAPTER XX.
Another Circuit through Galilee. — Denunciation of the Scribes and
Pharisees on the Occasion of a Devil being cast out, and of a Dinner
at a Pharisee's House.
Luke Tiii. 1-3. A ND it came to pass afterward, that 8 Jesus 6 " went throughout
a he. 3 XA_ every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings
of the kingdom of God : and the twelve were with him, and certain
women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary
called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the a
ft
p
ANOTHER CIRCUIT THROUGH GALILEE. 377
wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others. Matt. X n. 22-33.
u- u ■ • j. j i i ■ „ , . . „ J Murk iii. 19-30.
which ministered unto him of their substance. 8 Lukovm. 8.
And they went into 2 a 6 " house. And the multitude cometh It -23. "' 15,
together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And "an- 2
when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him :
for they said,
" He is beside himself." 2
Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, 1 and it
was 3 blind and dumb: and he healed him, 6 insomuch that 1 " it 'S?' 1 '
came to pass, when the devil was gone out, 8 that 6 the blind and can4 ' 3
dumb both spake and saw. And all the people * wondered, 8 and 6
were amazed, and said,
" Is not this the Son of David 1 "
But when the Pharisees, 1 and the scribes which came down from
Jerusalem 2 heard it, 1 some of them d said, dthey.i
"This fellow 15 hath Beelzebub, and 2 doth not cast out devils, «He.»
but by Beelzebub, the prince/ of the devils, 1 through 8 whom 6 he /chief. 3
casteth 3 them 5 out." 8 «" a he out devils. 2
But 3 * Jesus, 1 ' knowing' their thoughts, 3 called them unto him, f^et'V
and said unto them in parables,
"How can Satan cast out Satan? 2 Every kingdom* divided 'J"* 8 '
against itself is brought to desolation : x that kingdom cannot stand. ' a ° d & a h0UBe
And 2 every city or house l m divided against itself : m cannot 2 n »> a house. »
stand 1 but 6 falleth. 3 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided " that'house' can-
against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand 1 x If he rise up not ' 2
against himself, and be 2 also 3 divided he cannot stand, but hath
an end. 2 Because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelze-
bub. 3 And if I* by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your
children ° cast them out ? therefore they shall be your judges. But son s. s
if I cast out devils by the Spirit? of God, then, 1 no doubt, 3 the p with the finger.'
kingdom of God is come unto* you. 1 g upon. 3
" When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are
in peace, 3 no man can r enter into his* house, and spoil 2 them, 6 >oreisenowcan.i
except he ' first bind the strong man : 2 but when a stronger than a man°'s B i 2
he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him ' hem11 - 2
all his armor wherein he trusted ; 3 and then he will spoil his house, 1
and 3 divide 6 M his spoils. 3 « divideth. 3
" He that is not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth
not with me scattereth abroad. Wherefore x verily 3 I say unto you,
All manner of sin J *° shall be forgiven unto men } x and blasphemies v w sins - 2
' r x the sons of
wherewith soever they shall blaspheme : but he that shall bias- men. 2
pheme* against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness," but is in z the biasphemy.i
danger of eternal damnation. 2 And whosoever speaketh a word " fo"g iT en unto
against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him : but whosoever mea - 1
speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him,
neither in this world, neither in the world to come." a (Because they
said, "He hath an unclean spirit." 2 ) " Either make the tree good, 1
378
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt, xii. 33-45.
Luke xi. 16, 24-
27,29-36.
a then, l
& and others. 8
c sought of him
a sign. s
d began to say. 3
e seeketh. i
/Jonas. 1 8
g Nineve. 3
A because. 1
lit. 1
A utmost. 3
Zfincleth. 1
m into. •
n is come. !
o to him. 3
and his fruit good ; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit
corrupt : for the tree is known by his fruit. generation of vipers,
how can ye, being evil, speak good things 1 for out of the abun-
dance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the
good treasure of the heart . bringeth forth good things : and au
evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I
say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they
shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy
words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be
condemned." *
And when the people were gathered thick together, 3 " certain of
the scribes and of the Pharisees, 16 tempting him, 3 answered, say-
ing,"
" Master, we would see 1 from thee J a sign from heaven." s
But he answered and said a unto them, 1
" This is an evil 3 and adulterous generation : x they seek 3 ' after
a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the
prophet 1 Jonah. 6 / For as 3 Jonah 6 / was a sign unto the Ninevites,
so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. 3 For as J Jo-
nah 6 / was three days and three nights in the whale's belly : so
shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth. The men of Nineveh 1 e shall rise up in the judgment
with this generation and shall condemn it : for h they repented at
the preaching of 1 Jonah; 6 / and, behold, a greater than 1 Jonah 6 /
is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment
with the men of this generation, and condemn them : * for she came
from the uttermost * parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solo-
mon ; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. 1
" No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret
place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which
come in may see the light. The light of the body is the eye :
therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of
light ; but when thine ' eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.
Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not dark-
ness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part
dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of
a candle doth give thee light. 3
"When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh
through dry places, seeking rest ; and finding ' none, 8 then 1 he saith,
' I will return uuto m my house 3 from x whence I came out.' And
when he cometh," he findeth it 3 empty, 1 swept and garnished. Then
goeth he, 3 and taketh with himself ° seven other spirits more wicked
than himself, and they enter in and dwell there : and the last state
of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto
this wicked generation." 1
And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a. certain woman
of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, 3
-ft
HYPOCRISY. 3V9
" Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou ]*£*• ™. « - w.
hast sucked ! " L - e xi ii '2r'~i'
But he said, sr-ls/'
" Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and
keep it." 3
While he yet talked to the people, 1 ° and the multitude sat about « then. 2 3
him, 2 behold, there came 2 to him his mother and his brethren, and
could not come at him for the press, 3 and standing h without, 2 de- & stood. 1
siring to speak with him, 1 sent unto him, calling him. 2
Then one c said unto him, c and they. >
7 and it was told
" Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, 1 and 6 seek Jj™ hy certain
for thee, 2 desiring to 1 see 3 and 6 to speak with thee."
But d he answered and said unto him e that told him, 1 saying, 2 d And. 2 3
e them. 2 3
" Who is my mother 1 and who are/ my brethren 1 / r.s
And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and 2
stretched * forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, a he stretched, i
" Behold my mother and my brethren ! 1 They 6 are these which
hear the word of God, and do it. 3 For whosoever shall do the will
of 1 God 2 my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother,
and 1 my 2 sister, and mother." x
And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with
him : and he went in, and sat down to meat. And when the
Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before
dinner.
And the Lord said unto him,
" Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and
the platter ; but your inward part is full of ravening and wicked-
ness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make
that which is within also 1 ! But rather give alms of such things
as ye have ; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.
" But woe unto you, Pharisees ! for ye tithe mint and rue and all
manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God : these
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
" Woe unto you, Pharisees ! for ye love the uppermost seats in
the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.
" Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are
as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are
not aware of them."
Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him,
" Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also."
And he said,
" Woe unto you also, ye lawyers ! for ye lade men with burdens
grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with
one of your fingers.
" Woe unto you ! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets,
and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow
the deeds of your fathers : for they indeed killed them, and ye build s
380 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Luke xi. 48-54. their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, 'I will
send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay
and persecute ' : that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed
from the foundation of the world, may be required of this genera-
a zacharias. s tion ; from the blood of Abel unto the son of 3 Zachariah, 6 " which
perished between the altar and the temple : verily I say unto you,
It shall be required of this generation.
" Woe unto you, lawyers ! for ye have taken away the key of
knowledge : ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were enter-
ing in ye hindered."
And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Phari-
sees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak
of many things : laying wait for him, and seeking to catch some-
thing out of his mouth that they might accuse him. 3
tg g\
a-
-a
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
Adultery, the Sermon on the Mount, 253.
Almsgiving, the Serimn on the Mount, 257.
Angelic Ministrations, the faith of a devout Jew,
14; a striking feature of the period, 30; faith
of the church and people, 30 ; relation to
monotheism among the Greeks, 32.
Anna, the prophetess, 26.
Annunciation, the, 8.
Apostles, the, as distinguished from disciples,
225.
Archelaus, the successor of Herod, 30.
Baptism, John's formula, and the meaning of
the act, 76 ; Christ's baptism, and the Jewish
law, 85 ; learned writers on the subject, 85 ;
Christ's own interpretation of the rite, 86 ;
its symbolic meaning and formula, 167 ; the
disciples' dispute about purifying, 168; the
dispute not yet ended, 169.
Beatitudes. See Sermon on the Mount.
Beatitudes, the Mount of the, 230.
Beelzebub, critical examination of the name,
291.
"Beg," the strained use of the word, 282.
Benevolence, the Sermon on the Mount, 256.
Bethesda, the Pool of, 199.
Bethlehem, to-day, and in the time of Christ, 23.
Bethsaida, the judgment of Christ upon, 285.
"Born again," physical and moral re-birth, 163.
Cana. See Wedding.
Capernaum, 147 ; the last traces of, 149 ; a year
of beneficence in, 212 ; the judgment upon,
by Jesus, 285 ; its scenery, 313.
Carpenter, the trade of, now and in Christ's time
in Palestine, 51.
Caves in Palestine and their use, 22.
Centurion of Capernaum, the, 275. i
Character of Jesus, 1 10 ; tenderness in per-
sonal intercourse, 112 ; not regarded as a com- '
mon man, 113 ; power of his look, 114 ; power
as a speaker, 115; impressive manner, 116;
popular conceptions, 117; assumptions of sov-
ereign authority, 207.
Childhood of Jesus, points for special atten-
tion, 58; brothers and sisters, 58; Matthew
declares he would be called a Nazarene, 59.
Chorazin, the judgment of Christ upon, 285.
Christian An, deification of the Virgin, 12 ; trib-
utes to Mary as the type of motherhood, 25.
Christian Church, its gradual unfolding and in-
terpretation of spiritual Gospel truths, 5.
Church Organization was not the aim of Christ,
133.
Chusa, the wife of Herod's steward, 288, 302.
" Come unto me, all ye that labor," 286.
Conant, Professor T. J., on the word " beg,"
282; on the name Beelzebub, 291.
Covetousness, a warning, 305.
Critics of the Gospels, 6.
David, King, the consecrated bread, 206.
Design of Christ's teaching, the direct influence
of the Divine nature upon the human heart,
118.
Disciples, the permanent formation of the disciple
family, 223; Simon, James, and John, 224;
Matthew, otherwise Levi, 224 ; occupations
and social position, 225 ; character and per-
sonal relations with Jesus, 225 ; errors and
failings, 225 ; as distinguished from apostles,
225 ; why chosen, 226.
Discourses of Jesus, illustrations from nature,
49; reasons for simplicity, 51 ; influence of the
Book of Proverbs, 53 ; to Nicodemus, 1 63 ; to
the woman of Samaria, 178; before the San-
hedrim, 203.
Divine Influences upon mental transformations,
'81.
Divinity, the claims of Jesus to, 221 .
Divorce, the Sermon on the Mount, 254.
Dixon, W. H., view of Nazareth, 169.
Doctors, the, in the Temple, 56.
Dollinger, Dr., on the Pharisees, 123.
Education of Jesus, 223.
Education among the Jews, 222 ; courses of study,
222 ; teaching of trades at schools, 222 ; the
rabbis, even, were taught such, 222 ; why the
disciples were named after trades taught at
school, 222.
Elias the prophet, 70; dramatic incidents of
his career, 71.
Elizabeth. See Zacharias.
4^
-ft
382
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
Ellicott's "Lectures," on the duration of
Christ's ministry, 198.
Essenes, organization, observances, and faith of,
127.
Fasting, the Sermon on the Mount, 263.
Feasts, the three annual at Jerusalem, 150; the
Passover, 151; of Purim, 198. See also Je-
rusalem.
Forgiveness of Sin, the repentant Magdalene,
279; Christ's enunciation of power to for-
give sin, 220
Future Life, Christ's familiarity with, 308 ; its
influence upon his teachings, 308.
Galilee, local influences upon Christ's life, 45 ;
scenery, 46, 312 : historical associations, 47 ;
animal and vegetable life, 48 ; admixture of
pagan population, 121 ; the centre of Christ's
public life, 313 ; Macgregor's description, 314.
Galileans, reply of Jesus on news of their slaugh-
ter, 310.
Gates of Oriental citie3 the evening resort, 214.
Genesareth, the plain of, 313 ; Christ's solitary
walks, 314, propagation of sound in that re-
gion, 315; its desolation in later times, 316.
Gospels, the four, the only material for a life
of Christ, 1 ; their value as testimony, 2 ;
authority and motives for writing them, 2;
what they are, their moral rather than chro-
nological similarity, 3 ; compared to Xeno-
phon's Memorabilia of Socrates, 4 ; their ref-
erence to the mental altitude and customs of
their time, 4 ; Jews their authors, 4 , necessity
readapting with, 5 ; the life of Christ should
be rewritten for every age, 5 ; their deeper j
meaning to us than to the primitive disciple,
6 ; the two classes of Gospel critics, 6 ; to
■ which class the present writer belongs, 7 ;
providential design of the Gospels, 8 ; their
structure, 110 ; are collective reminiscences
of Christ, 110; the myhical theory in regard
to them, 320.
Government a constitutional necessity in man,
134; physical and moral, considered, 308.
Grain-fields of Galilee, 317.
Greek and Hebrew minds contrasted, 228.
Haltin, the scene of the Sermon on the Mount,
230.
Heathen, the word as a designation, 250.
Hebrews, original tribal organization, 63 ; the
priests the ruling class, 63 ; the prophetic
nature, 64.
Hebrew Women, education and associations, 13 ;
participation in public affairs, 26.
Hebrew and Greek minds contrasted, 228.
Herod, his alarm on hearing of Jesus, 27 ; con-
sults the Magi and sends them to seek Jesus,
27 ; they see Jesus and depart to their homes,
28 ; Herod's greater alarm, — the massacre of
children ordered, 29 ; the historical truth of
the statement, 29 ; the death of Herod, 29 ;
succeeded by Archelaus, 30; his suspicious
and cruel character, 302 ; Jesus had friends
among his household, 302 ; the wife of Her-
od's steward, 288, 302.
Holy Ghost, the descent of, upon Jesus, 80.
Humanitarianism. See Nature of Jesus.
Immortality always assumed in Christ's teach-
ings, 308.
Incarnation. See Nature of Jesus.
Inspiration of the Scriptures, its theory, 61 ; how
the claim should be understood, 62
Israel. See Hebrews.
Jacob's Well, the discourse of Jesus to the wo-
man of Samaria, — locality of the well, 176;
its authenticity, 177 ; he asks for water, 178;
the woman's implied taunts, 179; the " liv-
ing water," 179; the return of the disciples
interrupts the conversation, 182 ; its effect up-
on the woman's mind, 183; she informs her
towns-people, 184; he remains with them
two days, 1 84 ; Jesus thus set himself against
the exclusiveness of the Jewish Church, 184;
his treatment of a sinning woman, 185; the
incident a fit prelude to his opening public
life, 186; objections to the narrative, 186;
his reply to the disciples who reproached him,
186.
Jerusalem, love of the Jews for it, 9 ; the an-
nual festival, 54 ; the roads, 54 ; sacred songs
of the travellers, 55 ; the unconstrained char-
acter of the festival, 55 ; the approach to the
city, 151 ; Jerusalem to Galilee, 171.
Jesus, the Christ, birth of Jesus, 22 ; laid in
a manger, 22; opinions and customs assign
various dates to the nativity, 23 ; the voice
from the heavens and the coming of the shep-
herds, 24; circumcision, and presentation in
the Temple, 25 ; Simeon and Anna, 26 , the
excitement at Jerusalem, 26 ; Herod consults
the Magi, 27 ; the guiding star, 27 ; their wor-
ship and gifts, 28 ; the flight into Egypt and
return to Nazareth, 29 ; the nature of Jesus
(see Nature of Jesus) ; childhood and resi-
dence at Nazareth, 42 ; his visit to Jerusalem
at twelve years of age, the last glimpse of him
for sixteen or eighteen years, 43 ; his probable
youthful experiences and character, 43 ; his
brothers and sisters, 58 ; the local influences
of Galilee, — the bad reputation of Nazareth,
its beautiful scenery, 46 ; historical associa-
tions of Galilee, 47 ; influence of the region
upon his genius considered, 48-51 ; his edu-
cation was little beyond his father's trade of
carpenter, 51 ; what the term included, 51 ;
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
383
his knowledge of the Old Testament gained
in the synagogue, 53; tho influence of that
knowledge upon his mind, 53 ; his first visit
to Jerusalem, 54 ; the festival over, his par-
ents return, 55 ; he is missed after a day's jour-
ney, 56 ; they find him after three days among
the doctors in the Temple, 56 ; John, the fore-
runner of Jesus (see John); is baptized by
John, 79 ; the sign of the dove descending,
— a voice from heaven, 80; Jesus from that
moment became the Christ, 81 ; he begins
tho new dispensation, 81 ; the temptation in
the wilderness (see Temptation) ; the personal
appearance of Jesus (see Personal Appear-
ance) ; the design of his teaching, 118; social
and religious condiiion of Palestine, 121 (see
also Jews, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, &c. ) ;
the expectations of a Messiah, and his real de-
sign, 129; its progressive development, 131;
he did not aim to organize a church, 133;
retained full communion with the Jewish
Church, 134 ; his return home after the temp-
tation, 136 ; he clung to the common life of
the people, 136 ; he was the " Son of Man,"
138; he went to Cana, 138; the wedding
feast (see Wedding ) ; his life for the next two
years, 146; visit to Capernaum and subse-
quent home there, 147 ; his miracles and life
at Capernaum, 148; his failure to win the
people to a spiritual life, 148; Jesus went to
Jerusalem, 149; the first Judsean ministry,
— the approach to Jerusalem, 151 ; the Tem-
ple, 152; the traffic therein, 155; Jesus drove
out the cattle and overthrew the tables, 157 ;
is questioned by the officers of the Temple,
1 58 ; the meaning of his reply, 1 60 ; the com-
ing of Nicodemus by night, 162; importance
of the conversation, 165 ; omission in John's
Gospel record of this period, 165 ; conjectures
upon the subject, 166 ; only mention is that
Christ baptized in Judsea, 167 ; he early
ceased to perform it, 168; the dispute among
the disciples "about purifying," 168; the
danger of division between Christ's and John's
disciples, 169; Christ's return to Galilee, 170;
Samaria, 176; Jesus at Jacob's well (see
Jacob's Well); went into Galilee, 189; heals
the nobleman's son at Capernaum, 190 . Jesus
came to Nazareth, 192 ; invited to read in
the synagogue, — announces the fulfilment of
the Scriptures, 193-194; rage of the congre-
gation, 194; who take him out to kill him, —
Ms escape, 195 ; probable scene of the attempt,
195; Capernaum thenceforth the home of
Jesus, 198; he again visits Jerusalem, 198;
healing the man at the pool of Bethesda, 200 ;
the sick man unlawfully carries his bed upon
the Sabbath, 200; anger of Ihe Jews thereat,
200; Jesus is summoned before the Sanhe-
drim, 202; his discourse in reply to accusa-
tions, 203; he claims Divine authority, 203;
now first calls himself the Son of God, 203 ;
wonder and rage of the court at his defiance
of their authority, 204 ; it was his first collis-
ion with the Temple party, 205 ; the policy
of the Temple thenceforth hostile 4 205 ; Jesus
was watched by spies, 205 ; the plucking of
grain by the disciples a new accusation, 205 ;
his replies, 206 ; his sovereign ty of spirit
in these contests, 207 ; heals the paralytic man
in the synagogue, 207 ; again accused, — his
replies, 208 ; the conflict of his love with in-
humanity, 208; he went to Capernaum, 211 ;
an unobstructed year of beneficence, 211 ; the
popular wonder and admiration, 212; his
preaching in the synagogues, 213; heals a
man with an unclean devil, 213; withdraws
to Peter's house, 214 ; heals the mother-in-law
of Peter, 214 ; healing at the city gates, 214 ;
the Pharisees silent for a time, 215 ; Jesus
now made his first circuit through Galilee,
216; suggestions of routes taken, 217; the
excitement everywhere caused, 217; Herod's
probable impressions, 217; the healing of a
leper, 218; respect of Jesus for original Mo-
saic rites, 218 ; the paralytic man lowered
through a house roof, 220 ; Jesus forgives his
sins, — the excitement of Pharisees present,
220; he declares his power to forgive, 221 ; it
was a claim of divinity, 221 ; his use of para-
bles, 223 ; the permanent formation of his
disciple family near Capernaum, 223 ; the
miraculous draught of fishes, 224; calls Si-
mon, James, and John to follow him, 224 ;
the call of Matthew, otherwise Levi, 224 (see
Disciples) ; character of Jesus's teaching at this
period, 227 ; the Sermon on the Mount (see
Sermon) ; his return to Capernaum, 274 ;
healing of the centurion's servant, 275 ; the
widow's son restored to life, 276; the effect
of this miracle, 277 ; at the house of Simon
the Pharisee, 278; the repentant Magdalene,
278 ; the message of John in prison, 281 ;
his warnings to Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Ca-
pernaum, 285 ; absence of sympathy from his
family connections, 287; his companions at
this time, 287 ; charges of the Scribes and
Pharisees, 288 ; his replies, 289 ; he charges
them with blasphemy, 290 ; they said he was
aided by Beelzebub, 291 ; efforts of the Tem-
ple party to embroil him with his country-
men, 292 ; his attitude in face of this danger,
293 ; the cry, " Is not this the son of David T "
first heard, 293 ; the parable of the unclean
-4
cfr
£84
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
spirit, 294 ; blessing of his mother by a wo-
man listener, 295 ; his mother and brethren
desire to speak with him, 296 ; declares who
are his mother and brethren, 296 ; invited to
dine by a Pharisee, 297 ; is questioned about
the washing of hands, 298 ; the Scribes and
Pharisees urge him to speak of many things
to accuse him, 298 ; he rebukes their inward
hypocrisy, 298 ; around the Sea of Galilee,
300; eight parables, 301 ; efforts to embroil
him with the people, 303 ; they were uncon-
sciously his body-guard, 303 ; the Pharisees
watched for heresy, 303 ; the prudence of his
course, 304 ; his discourse to his disciples he-
fore a multitude, as recorded by Luke, 304 ;
a young man appeals against his brother, — is
warned against covetousness, 305 ; parables,
306 ; is told of the slaughter of the Galileans,
310 ; the labor of days and weeks epitomized
in the record of this time, 312 ; statement by
John of its extent, 312 ; manner of his life at
this time, 312 ; his solitary walks about Ge-
nesareth, 314; his sermon from a boat, 316 ;
his method of teaching and the theory of
myths, 320 ; some parables considered, 322 ;
the voice ceased, and the enthusiasm of the
crowd had gone out like the last rays of the
setting sun, 324.
Jems, their moral nature, 77 ; inequality of con-
dition and precarious existence, 121 ; political
subjection, 122; their glory in the law as
God's chosen people, 122; priesthood domi-
nated by the Romans, 123; forms of religious
development, — the Pharisee, the Sadducee,
and the Essene, 1 23 ; their social habits and
observances, 139.
Jewish Church, its expected deliverance, 1.
Jewish Nation, tenderness of Jesus toward the
good of its past, 250.
John, the forerunner of Jesus, Zacharias and
Elizabeth, 8 - 20 ; his character in childhood,
20 ; the prototype of Elias (Elijah) the prophet,
70 ; in what the similarity consisted, 71; his
brief history, 70 ; his mission as the forerun-
ner of Jesus, 72 ; his downright earnestness,
73 ; his preaching was secular, not spiritual,
74 ; his meaning of baptism, 76 ; his formula
and meaning of baptism, 76; the relation of
his discourses to the spiritual truths which
Christ unfolded, 77 ; John conceived no new
ideal of morality, 77 ; the effects of his
preaching, 77 ; excitement in Jerusalem, 78 ;
is questioned by messengers from the San-
hedrim, 78; he declares to them the com-
ing of Jesus, 79 ; Jesus comes to him for
baptism, 79 ; the sign from heaven, 80 ; the
mystery surrounding John, 82 ; his ministry
after Christ's baptism, — disputes about " pu-
rifying," 168 ; John's noble character exempli-
fied, 170; jealousy of Herod Ant ipas, — John
denounces his wickedness and is imprisoned,
83 ; the demand for his head by the daughter of
Herodias, — his death, and burial by his disci-
ples, 84 ; his burial-place, like that of Moses,
unknown, 84 ; analogies in the history of
Moses and John, 84; his long imprisonment
at Macha;rus, 280; his doubting message to
Jesus, and the reply, 281 ; conduct of the peo-
ple toward him and Jesus, 283 ; the most per-
fect representation of his Master's spirit, 226.
Jordan, the, historical associations, outshone by
the baptism of Christ, 80.
Joseph, the carpenter, the Virgin Mary's es-
pousal to him, 12; he was of the house of
David, 15 ; his occupation, 21 ; few remaining
details of his history, 21 ; his death probably
before the public ministry of Christ, 21 ; how
he is represented on pictures of the Holy
Family, 21 ; sacred history relates nothing of
him, 52.
Judcea maintained the old Jewish stock, dislike
of the Samaritans, 121.
■Judozan Hills, the road aloDg the, — scenery and
memories, 171.
Kingdom of Christ, the, not of this world, 302.
Kitto's Biblical Cyclopaedia on Christ in the
synagogue, 192.
Lange, on the word " Nazarene," 60.
Law and the Prophets, Jesus came not to destroy,
249 ; Christ's spiritual ethics contested their
popular interpretation, 252.
Laws, their true relation of servants, not mas-
ters, 209.
Lentulus, fictitious letter on appearance of
Christ, 106.
Leprosy, a description of, 219.
Levites, the, 64, 67.
Lives of Christ and Harmonies, 4 ; necessity for
new adaptations for every age, 5.
Lord's Prayer, the, 257.
Luke, his motive for writing his Gospel, 3 ;
why called the evangelist of Greece, 32.
Macoregor, on the Sea of Galilee, 314, 315.
Magdalene, Mary, one of Christ's attendants,
288.
Magi, the, mission to find Jesus, 27 ; the guiding
star in the east, 27 ; they worshipped him and
presented gifts, 28 ; return to their homes, 28.
Manger, what it probably was, 22.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, the little known of
her, — the light of imagination thrown around
her name, 11 ; the reason why she is rev-
erenced and worshipped, 1 1 ; a mother's love
and forbearance the nearest image of Divine
43-
—4=3
ft
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
385
tenderness which the soul can form, 11 ; the
deification of the Virgin by art, 12 ; the resi-
dence, lineage, and espousal of Mary, 12; the
habits and associations of her life, 13 ; her
familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures, — *■ she
was imbued with their spirit^ 13 ; reality to
her of the angelic manifestation, 14; her ideas
of the promised deliverance of Israel, 15 ; she
went into the city of Juda, to the house of
Zacharias, 16 ; her revelations to Elizabeth,
17 ; the exalted expectations of both women,
17 ; the song of Mary, 17 ; its similarity with
the song of Hannah, 18 ; Mary's return to
Nazareth, 19 ; the journey to Bethlehem, 22 ;
the birth of Jesus, 22 ; a cottage probably the
place, 22 ; the manger was in a cave exca-
vated from the cottage, 22 ; the coming of the
shepherds, 24 ; purification and thank-offering,
25 ; the prophecy of Simeon and of Anna,
26 ; the visit of the Magi, 27 ; flight into
Egypt, and return to Nazareth, 29 ; the most
intimate communion of Jesus was with his
mother, 52 ; other children of Joseph and
Mary, 59 ; blessed by a woman among
Christ's listeners, 295 ; Mary's anxiety for her
son, 295 ; she with his brethren desire to speak
with him, 296 ; " Who is my mother'! " 296;
it was a rebuke to them, 296.
Massacre of the Innocents, 29.
Materials for a Life of Jesus, the Gospels only, — >
he wrote nothing, 1 .
Matthew, his mental character, 60 ; the term
" Nazarene," 60.
Messiah, the, promises and expectations of, 10 ;
the popular expectations, — the real design of
Jesus, 129 ; the annunciation of a suffering
Messiah, 131 ; the kingdom of, when at hand,
311.
Miracles, their rejection leads to Pantheism, 6 ;
their character and credibility, 14 ; angelic
manifestations and the Hebrews, 14 ; relation
to a higher law of nature, 119; deeper moral
significance toward the close of Christ's life,
132 ; the wedding at Cana, 141 ; at Caper-
naum, 148 ; healing the nobleman's son, 190;
the impotent man, 200 ; the paralytic man,
207 ; the man with an unclean devil, 213 ;
healing of Peter's mother-in-law, 214 ; healing
at the city gate, 214 ; healing the leper, 218 ;
the paralytic man, 220 ; miraculous draught
of fishes, 224 ; the humanity of Christ's mir-
acles, 228 ; the centurion's servant, 275 ; res-
urrection of the widow's son, 276 ; unfriendly
popular criticism, 285.
Moral Beliefs and Convictions, the source of, 249.
Moral Teaching, its nature, 318.
Mosaic Institutes, 128 ; their interpretation, 129 ;
Christ's relations toward them, 133 ; he never
disregarded them, 218; their humanity to-
ward the poor, 282.
Mother and Brethren, his disciples are such to him,
296.
Murder, the Sermon on the Mount, 252.
Myths, the theory of, refuted, 320
Nativity, differences as to its date, 23.
Natuke of Jesus, philosophical views of the
Church, 34; humanitarian and rationalistic
school and its tendency, 34 ; compromise views
are unsatisfactory, 35 ; church doctrine of a
double nature, 36 ; its services to Christianity,
36 ; more philosophical and simpler views, 37 ;
theological discussions are mediaeval or mod-
ern, 37 ; instances of this, 37 ; ground tak-
en by the author, 38 ; the grand results of the
incarnation, 40.
Nazareth, its bad reputation, 46 ; scenery, 46 ;
scene of attempt to kill Jesus, 195; W. H.
Dixon's view of Nazareth, 1 96 ; fierceness
and unbelief of the townsmen, 197.
Nazarene, a term of reproach, — Matthew's
statement of its reference to Jesus, 60.
New Life, the Sermon on the Mount, Christ's
view of its ethics, 251.
Nicodemds, came to Jesus "by night," 162;
mistaken view of his courage, 162 ; how
proved later, 163; spiritual re-birth explained
to him, 163.
Oaths, the Sermon on the Mount, 255.
Oriental Instruction and its character, 160.
Overture of Angels, the, 8.
Palestine, populations and influence of wars
therein, 120; political condition, 130.
Pantheism is atheism, — the miracles, 6.
Parables, a favorite device with Jewish teachers,
223 ; their use by Jesus, 223 ; the two debtors,
279 ; the unclean spirit, 293 ; the eight spoken
in succession, 301 ; their character and pur-
pose, 301 ; the advantage and use of parables,
301 ; the parable of the sower, 303, 316; the
. parable of the rich man, 306 ; the servants
found waiting for their lord, 306; Peter's
questions as to whom the parables referred,
307 ; parable of the unfaithful servant, 307 ;
the rigorous creditor, 309 ; parable of the fig-
tree, 309 ; parables as used by Jesus, 320 ; the
grain of mustard-seed, 322 ; the kingdom of
heaven like unto leaven, 322 ; unto a net, 323 ;
the good seed and the tares, 323 ; the treasure
hid in a field, 324 ; the pearl of great price,
324.
Passover. See Feasts.
Paul, why called a tent-maker, 222.
Peace on earth only reached by conflict, 311.
Pentecost. See Feasts.
386
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
Personal Appearance op Jesus, the diffi-
culty of approaching the Jewish life in the
time of Christ, 1 02 ; the exalted idea of Jesus
and his Divinity give an ideal color to his
person and appearance, 102 ; the impressions
which he made upon his disciples and country-
men, 103 ; to them he was simply a citizen,
and so to his disciples until after the resur-
rection, 103; a conversation combined from
the Gospels on this point, 104; there is noth-
ing to determine the personal appearance of Je-
sus, 104 ; the great men of Greece and Rome
were commemorated in art, 104 ; the disciples
were neither literary nor artistic men, 104;
the Jew was forbidden to make any image
or likeness of Divinity, 105 ; the early Fathers
differed as to his comeliness, — they appealed
to the prophecies concerning the Messiah,
105; the typical head of Christ, 107; the
fictitious letter of Publius Lentulus, 106; por-
traits began to appear in the fourth century,
106; they were by Greek artists, 107; their
ideal characteristics, 107 ; the Roman type, 1 08 ;
the Italian masters, 108; the Christ of Mi-
chael Angelo, 108, and of Leonardo da Vinci,
109 ; the effect of pictures of Jesus upon re-
ligion, 109; the grander Hebrew example,
109 ; there are giimpses of Jesus's personal
bearing, 109; every system of philosophy or
religion except Christianity can be received
without knowledge of its founder's person,
109; the genius of Christianity requires a
distinct conception of Christ's personality,
110.
Pharisees, their history and religious tendencies,
123 ; extract from Dollinger on the Phari-
sees, 123; arraignment of Jesus for Sabbath-
breaking, and the motive, 202 ; their accusa-
tions of Jesus, 288 ; he charges them with
blasphemy, 290; rebuked by Jesus at the
Pharisee's house, 298 ; their method of seeking
to destroy him, 301 ; their popularity, 303 ;
their spiritual blindness, 309. See also
Temple.
Pilate, slaughter of the Galileans, 310.
Political Tests of Jesus by the Scribes, 302.
Poor, humanity of the Mosaic institutes toward,
282.
Prayer, the Lord's, 257.
Priests, limited sphere and influence of, 66.
Prophets, the prophetic nature, 64 ; prophets
among the Jews, 65 ; independence of cere-
monial usages, 68 ; examples of particular
prophets, 69 ; highest moods of inspiration,
92 ; symbolization employed by the prophetic
state, 93 ; attempted interpretation to mod-
ern equivalents, 94.
Proverbs, the Booh of, influence upon Christ's
discourses, 53.
Raising of the Dead, the three instances, 281.
Rationalism. See Nature of Jesus.
Ren an, M., on the character of Christ, 7; on
his sovereignty of spirit, 207.
Repentance, its true meaning and spirit, 85.
Retaliation, — Revenge, the Sermon on the
Mount, 255.
Kochette, Raoul, lectures on ancient art,
95.
Romans, Christian converts among the, 375.
Sabbath, Jewish laws and observances, 200 ; the
conflict with the Sanhedrim, 202 ; the pluck-
ing of ears of grain, 205 ; healing the para-
lytic, 207 ; real significance of the contro-
versy, 209 ; the Sabbath made for man, 209.
Sacrifices, 68.
Sadducees, their doctrines and relations toward
the people, 126.
St. Augustine on the four Evangelists, 3.
Samaria, its population, 121 ; history and inhab-
itants, 176; enmity with the Jews, 176 ; cor-
dial reception of truth and hospitality, 1 89.
Sanhedrim, questions John, the forerunner of
Jesus, 78. See also Sabbath.
Satan, mediaeval art representations of evil
spirits, 95 ; they have corrupted the popular
ideas to this day, 96 ; the Devil pictured by
the monks is degrading to the narrative, 96 ;
a true conception of the Evil One, 96.
Saviour, Hebrew forms of the name, 80.
Scribes and Pharisees. See Pharisees.
Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, Mount
Hattin the scene of the Sermon on the Mount,
230; extract from Stanley's Sinai, 230; the
various accounts of the sermon, 232 ; contrast
between the sermon and the giving of the law
from Sinai, 233 ; character and purpose of
the sermon, 233; "Blessed are the poor in
spirit," 238 ; " Blessed are they that mourn,"
239 ; " Blessed are the meek," 239 ; " Blessed
are they who hunger and thirst after right-
eousness," 241 ; " Blessed are the merciful,"
242 ; " Blessed are the pure in heart," 242 ;
" Blessed are the peacemakers," 243 ; "Blessed
are they who are persecuted for righteousness'
sake," 245 ; the sermon Jesus's view of the
spiritual ethics of the new life, 251 ; where it
contested the popular, interpretation of the
law, 252; murder, 252; adultery, 253; di-
vorce, 254 ; oaths, 255 ; retaliation, 255 ; dis-
interested benevolence, 256 ; almsgiving, 257 ;
prayer, — the Lord's Prayer, 257 ; fasting,
263 ; the pursuit of wealth, 264 ; general con-
siderations upon the sermon, 265.
Shechem, the vale of, and its beauties, 172; con-
ft
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
387
nection with great events of Jewish history,
174.
Simeon, the prophetic rapture of, 26.
Son of David, is not this the, 293.
Son of Man, significance of the name, 138 ; by
it Christ emphasized his mission, 138.
Son of God, Jesus assumes the title, 203.
Song, the, of Mary, 17; of Hannah, 18; ofZach-
arias, 20 ; of the pilgrims to Jerusalem, 55.
Stanley, on the Mount of the Beatitudes, 230.
Star