Division SS? 4 ZO Section .(3"*^ i T LIFE OF JESUS AND HIS APOSTLES REV; W. B. QODBEY, Author of Holiness, or Hell, Jesus is Ooming^ Sancti- fication, Christian Perfection, New Testament Commentaries, Etc. PENTECOSTAL PUB. CO., Louisville, Ky. Copyrighted hjr Pentecostal Publishing Ca 1904 CONTENTS: PAGE. Abbreviations 5 Prologue "^ CHAPTER I. The Pre-Natal Savior 17 CHAPTER 11. The Infant Jesus 21 CHAPTER III. The Man Jesus 35 CHAPTER IV. The Ministry of Jesus 44 CHAPTER Y. Jesus Preaching in Galilee 51 CHAPTER VI. Jesus Preaches Among the Gentiles 1«^7 CHAPTER VII. The Transfiguration , ICiO CHAPTER VIII. Jesus Preaches in Jerusalem . . , 180 CHAPTER IX. Jesus Preaches in Perea 304 3 CHAPTER X. Thrilling Events Facilitating the Finale . . . 242 CHAPTER XL Faeewell to the Temple 264: CHAPTER XII. Judgment Sermon on Mt. Olivet 283 CHAPTER XIII. The Valedictory Sermon and Prayer 307 CHAPTER. XVI. Descension Into Hades 394 CHAPTER XVII. The Resurrection , 402 CHAPTER XVIII. Ascension Into Heaven 425 CHAPTER XIX. The Apostles , 432 ABBREVIATIONS. B. C— Before Christ. A. D.— After Christ. 0. T.— Old Testament. I^. T.— New Testament. ]^^. B.— Take Notice. D. V.— God Willing. E. V. — English Aversion. E. V. — Eevised Yersiono Gr. — Greek, e. g. — For example, i. e. — That is. V. — Verse, ch. — Chapter. PROLOaUE. Eph. 1 and Col. 1, reveal the Second person of the Trinity as the Creator of "all things visible and invisi- ble," while Heb. 1 sets Him forth as the Creator of the ages (E. y., words). Hence we see that the Divinity executes the work of creation in the second person. The above, with many other scriptures, reveals the co- eternity of the Son with the Father. In all our medi- tations and apprehensions of the Divinity we must steer clear of the tritheistic heresy ; i. e., separating too widely between the persons of the God-head, thus digressing into the idea of three Gods instead of one. While the Son, our Savior, has existed from the beginning, having tossed millions of worlds from his creative fingers, mean- while the "morning stars sang together, and sons of God shouted for joy," and the redemption of this fallen world with its inhabitants was a stupendous reality in the divine mind from all eternity, and really efficient from the fall and the days of Abel; deep and unfath- omable reasons for the postponement of the Divine incli- nation, the grand, salient ostensible fact of the redemp- tive scheme supervened through the rolling centuries. A mention of the more prominent will be edifying to the readers. 1. The trend of fallen humanity to go away from God into the labyrinthine entanglements of polytheistic idolatry became prominent from the mournful exodus oat of Eden; the fratricidal came, leading the way into the worship of the sun, which is manifest in the blood- 7 8 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. less offering of fruits and flowers. Baal, the snn-god. thus led the wa}^, being worshiped in Egypt under the name of Osiris, and the moon under the name of Isus; and as Ashtaroth, of Phenecia, also called the queen of Heaven. In the Bible, Baalbec, on the plain of Baca, between the great mountains,Lebanon and Anti-lebanon, has been the wonder of the world in all ages. This day. the oriental traveler halts bewildered and spellbound as he contemplates the mighty works of Baalbec, which beggar and throw into eclipse all the boasted achieve- ments of modern arts and science, there being no me- chanical power on the earth to-day competent to erect the Temples of Sun and Jupiter and the gigantic walls of the citadel protecting them, with their golden images and accumulated treasure, from the continental armies from the east and sea pirates from the west. Tradition corroborates the Bible in the identifica- tion of this stupendous superstructure with the city built by Cain in the Land of N'od, as the antideluvian outliving us ten times, were in all probability ten times our superior in physical strength, al- so utilizing the mastodon, an animal about ten times as large as the elephant, which abounded before the flood, but never lived afterward. The constant trend of Israel to depart from Jehovah, the unseen G-od, and go after the wonderful display of pomp and pagean- try which characterize Baal, is obvious when we remem- ber that Baalbec, the Capital and Metropolis of this, the most popular divinity ever worshiped by the children of men, was right there within the territory given by Jehovah to Israel, but never subdued and occupied. Be- sides, the priests of Baal had the glowing sun with his Prologue. 9 unutterable splendor, beauty and glory, rolling his fiery chariot from Aurora to Hesperus every day, adorning the landscape with fadeless flowers and burdening the field with delicious fruits. ^Yhen we consider the over- whelming predilection of fallen humanity for idolatry,, and how exceedingly difiicult for the great Jehovah to retain even a little handful of people on the earth so true to Him that he could make them the custodians of the heavenly oracles and the progenitors of the world's Savior, we see the pertinency of letting pagan polytheism have the field, do her best and run her race, in the final exhibiting to the world in her deserted temples and smol- dering ruins, her utter incompetency to satisfy the long- ings of her immortal soul or to solve the problem of hu- man origin, character and destiny. All this actually took place. Baal, Ashtaroth, Dagon, Moloch, Jupiter. Apollo, Tenus, Minerva, and many other gods had the world without a rival four thousand years, and signal failure, confusion, and dissatisfaction everywhere pro- claimed their mournful defeat — ^had utter incompetency to elevate the living and comfort the dying. Such was the universal dissatisfaction among all the nations of the earth, that expectation had actually supervened in every nation, a general outlook and anticipation that the Author of the universe would, in mercy, send a De- liverer into the world to reveal his truth and righteous- ness. ^\Tien Israel were all carried into captivity, it seemed that the last hope of truth and redemption had gone down in the gloom of eternal night. But even this apparent calamity wrought such a reaction on Israel as not only to satisfy them, but to even disgust them with polytheistic idolatry, so tihey never again allowed their 10 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. lifelong predilection to run -after it, but remained true to the law and the prophets ever after the return from Babylonian captivity. 2. WTiile human learning is not to be rejected, but universally appreciated when sanctified by the grace of God , yet it is not only useless but injurious and a swift vehicle of damnation without that grace. In every age of the world it has beguiled its votaries with pride, and arrayed them against the Almighty. This day it is God's greatest enemy on the earth, rapidly filling the world with infidelity, sending millions to perdition and expediting the great tribulation. Hence it was really pertinent that human learning should have clean sweep over the world, run its race, reach its culmination and fall into dilapidation before the incarnation of God's Son upon the earth. All this had actually taken place. The Greek phi- losophers had climbed the dizzy^ heights of Parnassus and» drunk to full satiety from the Pyerian fountain. Hon- ored were the educators of all the princes of the earth who resorted to them from every land, to learn wisdom at their feet. ^N'ot only heathen oracles, but the na- tions of the globe awarded to them the undisputed palm of wisdom. Yet, far from satisfying their patrons and pupils, they never could satisfy themselves. Having soared on the eloquence of opinions and reveled in the sublimities of poetry and romance, living in the pro- f oundest depths of philosophy and metaphysics , the sim- ple practical questions ? who am I ? whence came I ? and what is my destiny? beggared all their boasted wisdom and impoverished all their powers of solution. Therefore disgusted with themselves and unsat- Prologue. 11 isfied with their thirty thousand gods, amid their magnificent array of temples and statues, they wore so suspicious that there might be a God somewhere in the universe, with whom they had no acquaintance that they actually erected to him a beau- tiful marble shrine in the metropolis^ on which they superscribed, ^^to the unknown God/' Consequently when Paul met the grave assembly of philosophers on the Areopagus, he opened his sermon by pronouncing them "very religious," (not too superstitious) as, E. V. he reminds them of the temple they had built to the unknown God, assuring them that he is acquainted with Him, and proceeds to tell them about Him. Thus hu- man learning, without a rival in all the world, had gone to the acme, signally failed to solve the grand problem of human immortality, origin and destiny, was actually on the wane, when the glorious solution of all problems burst upon the world. 3. The Language Problem. From the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel, the world had been filled with a countless medley of dialects, shibboleths and idiocisms, so the person passing along the insignificant boundary of his own tribe, found himself at once con- founded with an unknown tongue. This state of things was an impassable barrier to 'the speedy evangelization of the world. It was not only indispensable that the na- tions be reached by a common language,but pre-eminent- ly essential was the writing of the Divine oracles, char- acteristic of the gospel dispensation in the very best pos- sible revelation, at once pre-eminent in brevity, vivacity, flexibility, copiousness, communicativeness and the iron grip of a stubborn and stalwart mechanism, which would 13 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, forever doom all attempts to perversion, and misinter- pretation, this glorious vehicle of gospel wisdom and grace, God in His merciful presence, gave the world in the beautiful, inimitable Greek language. While all na- tions in the absence of the written word were wrapped in darkness and groveling in superstition, we see a paradox in all history, i. e., the Greeks with no better opportunity than the other nations, bid the world adieu and rise to the top of civilization, in poetry, oratory, philosophy and the fine arts, eclipsing all their contemporaries, and sitting down upon thrones of wisdom and culture, pat- ronized by the princes of the earth, seeking erudition, light and knowledge at their feet. The result of their wonderful achievements, in every ramification of human lore, was the manufacture of the finest language that ever rang in mortal ears. We are delighted with our noble English, wdth its one hundred and fifty thousand words ; yet it would have been a great misfortune if the scriptures had been written in our language or any other modern tongue, as they have no mechanical grammar, and are loosely thrown together at the option of the writer. The Greek language is as mechanical as a pipe organ, which will only make music when every piece is in its place. A necessary corollary of this lingual ad- justment of the world to the propagation of the Gospel, was the conquest of all nations by the Greeks, the trans- mission of every government under heaven into their hands and thereby the establishment of their language in every court beneath the skies. But how can this be, when, at that time, Persia ruled all the world, her one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, extending from India to Ethiopia, with a single exception of the Greeks. 'prologue. 13 who, though invaded with an army of two million five hundred thousand, led by Xerxes in person, she had sig- nally failed to conquer? In the solution of this prob- lem, we behold a series of unrecorded miracles. The youthful Alexander of twenty-one years, with an army of thirty-five thousand dares to invade the Persian empire; meets the ro3'=al army on the battlefield Granicus, slays four thousand and loses not a man. Then he meets an innumerable one on the plains of Issus. A terrible battle is fought. One hundred thousand Persian soldiers are left dead on the field; Alexander's loss is the merest trifle. The whole empire is dazed and appalled by Al- exander's victories. Universal preparations were made to exterminate from the empire the haughty Greek. Dari\TS, in person, heads the innumerable host gathered from his one hundred and twenty-seven nations. They overtake and attack the Greeks on the plains of Arbela, The battle lasts a week. Three hundred thousand Per- sian soldiers are left dead on the field. Among them the royalty of every nation have fallen. Darius, the king of the world, seeing the utter ruin of his countless hosts is a'f ugitive for life. Alexander pursues and over- takes him on the banks of the Indian Ocean. He now makes overtures to the triumphant Greek, proposing to divide the world between them and each rule one-half. Alexander points up to the sun in his noon day glory, and says, "Do you see that sun?" Darius responds, "Yes." Do you not know that this world could not have two suns for they would burn it up. Xeither can it have two kings. So he took it all, thus girdling the globe with the great brazen empire of Daniel's prophecy. While the Alexandrian conquest established the Greek in the 14 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. government of every nation under heaven, B. C, three hundred and twenty-five ; in one year this universal em- pire was disturbed by the death of the conqueror, disin- tegrated by his four surviving generals into the king- doms of Greece, Egypt, Syria, and Central Asia, so it ceased to conserve the end of a universal empire which was so absolutely essential to the universal and unob- structed propagation of the Gospel. 4. A Powerful Military Despotism. Such is God's province provided in mighty Rome. The great iron empire of prophecy was the very thing needed to con- solidate the immeasurable nations, tribes and principali- ties into one solid and invincible government, ruling the world with a rod of iron. Without this preparation, uni- versal evangelism would have been utterly impossible as the gospel heralds would have been arrested, killed or imprisoned the moment they crossed the national boundary, thus insuperably disqualified to carry the gos- pel into all nations. B. C, seven hundred and fifty-three, the infants Eomulus and Eemus, by order of the Alban king were exposed on the banks of the Tiber to be de- voured by wild beasts; a wolf finding them, and sup- porting them with her own milk. Both times I was in Rome I saw the historic wolves and the cave in which tradition says the above paradox took place. The separate boys become the nucleus of a band, which soon swells into a tribe and rapidly grows into a nation. Thence the stratagem by which the Sa- bines supplies the bachelor nation with wives. Mars the war God, is their favorite, consequently war is their religion. The Temple Janu, whose open doors were the index of war were never closed but three times in their Prologue. 15 liistory of a thousand years; once during the reign of ^uma Pompilius; again, immediately after the first Punic war and finally during the reign of Augustus Caesar. Meanwhile, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, so that he was truly the herald of "peace on earth and good ■will to men/^ This universal and invincible military despotism rul- ing the whole world with a consolidated government was the very preparation needed to carry the gospel to the end of the earth. IsTot only were these four great prep- arations necessary, but it is a significant fact that in some way the attention of all nations was directed to the outlook for Christ. We see this manifested at Lystra. LIPB OP JESUS AND HIS AFOSTLES. CHAPTER I. THE PRE-NATAL SAVIOR. The redemptive scheme has been a glorious reality from the triune council, in which the Son of God vol- unteered to redeem the race and veritably became the "Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world'' (Rev. 13 :8) . John 1 :9 : "He was the true light, which lighteth every man, coming into the world." This inspired affirmation of John the Baptist in reference to the world's Savior shows conclusively that every human being that has ever existed on the earth from Adam to the present generation, or ever will till the latest pos- terity shall respond to the archangel's trumpet, is the recipient of the true light, which makes the pilgrim's road to glory always bright. Therefore, no human be- ing will be able to say in the Judgment Day, "I am for- ever lost because I did not know the way." This is clear- ly corroborated in 1 John 1 :7 : "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with an- other, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses US from all sin." God only holds us for the light which we have, hence there will be three judgments in the Great Day. (Rom. 11:12-15.) The 0. T. people will be judged by the Old Testament only; the N. T. peo- ple, by the whole Bible ; while the heathen millions who have had no Bible, will only be judged by the light of 17 18 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. nature, their own conscience, and tlie Holy Gkost. The popular idea that the heathen millions are irretrievably and indiscriminately cast into hell is flatly contradictive of the above and many other Scriptures. Titus 11 :11 : "The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared/' This Scripture positively settles the problem and irrefutably authenticates the conclusion that Christ, who is this grace, actually does now, always has, and always will bring salvation to all human beings. Hence, Adam's ruined race is indiscriminately left with the shadow of an apolog}^ for making their bed in hell fire. Doubtless the most horrible woe of the damned, which will fill hell with lugubrious wails and gorgon horror through all eternity will be the inextinguishable memories of golden opportunities contemned, forfeited, and eternally fled. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Christ of the New. John 1 :21-25 ; 1 Cor. 10 :9-10. Here we see that according to John and Paul, the Jeho- vah of Isaiah and Moses is the Christ of the New Testa- ment. The Hebrew word Elohim, means God Almighty, while Jehovah means Christ. It is a significant fact that Christ in the form of man actually visited Abraham in his tent at Mamre, and ate with him 1,898 years before He was born in Bethlehem. During both of my journeys in the Holy Land, I visited that hallowed spot where my ex-camate Lord walked, talked and ate with His friend Abraham. It is an equally significant fact that Nebu- chadnezzar saw Him in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, l\Ieshach and Abednego 603 years before He was born in Bethlehem. Hence we see that the real Christ has been on the earth in all ages, dispensing His redeeming grace to all humble, appreciative hearts. The Pre-Natal Savior. 19 If the heathens can be saved without our ministra- tion of the Word, then why should we carry it to them ? First. Because God has commanded us to preach the gospel to all nations. Therefore, disobedience on our part would seriously jeopardize our own souls. Second. To say the least, our heavenly estate would suffer much depreciation and detriment. Third. While there is a gracious possibility of salvation of all the heathens, with- out us, tlie probability favors the conclusion that infin- itely more would be saved through our instrumentality. Fourth. It is unquestionably God's plan to save them through our instrumentality ; yet he is not dependent on us. Do not understand me to even imply that a soul can be saved without the Gospel. But you must remember that Christ Himself is the Gospel. John 1. You see plain- ly in this chapter a recognition of His presence on the earth from the beginning is a specification of the fact that he became flesh and dwelt among us. He has de- nominated the Word, from the fact that language is- the vehicle of revelation, and He Himself is the greatest revelation ever made to the world. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Acts 5:4-9), and He has always been in the world, "even moving on the face of the waters in creation'' (Gen. 1:2). From the preceding Scriptures we see the indisputable tangibility of the con- clusion that Christ has been in the world from creation's dawn, actually bringing salvation to fallen Adam and Eve, the antediluvian myriads, and the postdiluvian millions, down to the present day. Oh, what a weep- ing and wailing in judgment day because none of the millions doomed and lost can offer a solitary apology for the etemiiy of woe looking them in the face! So 20 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. complete has our wonderful Christ wrought the stupen- dous work of redemption, that every human being, from Cain down to the latest posterity, like the prodigal son and his elder brother, has actually been born in the kingdom of grace, and only gets out by personal trans- gression. We see in the final judgment (Matt. 25:46) countless multitudes standing on the right hand of the Judge receiving the happy salutation of the blessed wel- come into the everlasting "kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world.^' You see by their responses that they had not known Christ personally in their earthly lives; but had manifested His love for their con- temporaries, which is the normal fruit of that saving faith, which, in the dim lights amid ignorance and su- perstition, had groped its way through and touched the spiritual Savior. Meanwhile the . unfortunate millions on the left are only condemned for their failure to ex- hibit the Divine love which is the nature of God (John 1 :4), thus giving confirmatory truth of their fatal re- jection of the faith and obedience inspired by the Holy Ghost. The one class exhibits the fruits of love, and the other those of selfishness. Our wonderful, unsearchable and incomprehensible Christ, as you see from the above Scriptures, has always been in the world, omnipotent to save, and actually saving all who let Him. The untu- tored, in his primeval wilds, sees Grod in the clouds, and hears Him in the winds; Whose soul proud science never taught to stray ; For as the solar walk, — the milky way. CHAPTER II. THE IXEAXT JESUS. The antediluvian dispensation was starlight. The constellations grew brilliant in the patriarchal age. The moon arose with Moses, moving in her queenly beauty and majesty over the starry canopy. Day dawned with John the Baptist, and the sun arose with Shiloh's proph- ec}^, the Christ of God, the Eedeemer of Israel and the Savior of the world, and culminated in his noonday glory, when on Mt. Zion, burst with splendors of t]:e fiery baptisms which Jesus told them He would pour on them from Heaven, gave the impetus which shook Heaven, earth and Hell, and the shaking is still the sensation of the world, the joy cf the angels, and the panic of devils. Four thousand years of preparation have rolled away. Pagan pol3i;h€ism has dominated the world without a rival ; done its best, run its race, and is on a universal decline, a recognized failure by the sages of every land. Human learning has lifted up its haughty head, declared its independence, sought creation around for resources, has actually monopolized the world with its resources, dazzled the gaze of all nations by the splendors of the poetr}^, oratory, philosophy and fine arts traduced by the master spirits of the ages. Amid all these gigantic achievements, the wisest philosophers have become dis- gusted with their signal incompetency to satisfy their current maxim, gnothe seanton, know thyself; thus 21 22 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. finding themselves utterly incompetent to philosophize man and to answer the practical questions. Who am I ? Whence came I ? and What is my destiny ? Meanwhile^ the conquests of Alexander have given th3 world the finest language ever spoken this side of heaven — God's own vehicle, which He used, the Greek philosophers^, poets and orators, a thousand years of solid toil, to fab- ricate, formulate and l)eautify. Already the Eomans have marched their conquering armies to the ends of the earth, and consolidated every nation into one universal military despotism, sweeping away the barriers which for ages divided up the world by race lines, color lines, sect lines, and government lines. Xot only is the world ready for the most important event in her history, but all nations, for reasons wrapped in profound mystery, are really on the lookout for the Lord to appear. 1. The Annunciation. Luke 26:38. I have been in the beautiful Church of the Annunciation, standing on the spot where Mary happened to be when the Arch- angel Gabriel appeared to her announcing the startling tidings of the impending visitation of the Holy Ghost, and the conception of her Lord. That was a greater trial for the virgin than you are likely to think, as in the popular view it would expose her to the darkest scandal and endanger her condemnation to an ignomini- ous death by the law of Moses. God gave her grace to be true through the risky ordeal. A magnificent monu- ment of the archangel and the virgin now stands in this church, which is visited by about thirty thousand Chris- tian pilgrims annually. It is pertinent as we go along to fortify the reader against heresies current among holiness people, and used so adroitly by the adversary The Infant Jesus. 23 for the detriment of God's true people. A dangerous heresy hinges at this point, even daring to charge our Lord with hereditary depravity, alleging that He in- herited it from His mother, who was a fallen being like -the rest of us. To obviate this allegation. Pope Pius IX. proclaimed his favorite dogma of the immaculate con- ception. To apply this to Mary is simply assuming the point in dispute without proving it. There never was but one creation. When God created Adam He created the race; Eve being no exception, she being not a new creation, but a transformation from Adam's rib. So when Adam sinned and fell, the- whole race sinned and fell. Unfallen Adam had no posterity, consequently every human being is fallen and depraved. You must remember that Christ is nowhere called the son of Adam, but always denominated Himself "the Son of Man." In John 7 :44, Jesus, looking the leading church members in the face, said : "Ye are the children of your father, the devil.'' God created man, but the devil created sin, i. e., the carnal; i. e., Adam the First; spiritual life having been lost by the fall and only regained in regen- eration. Therefore Christ is the only unfallen Son of humanity, and our salvation consists in our translation out of Adam the First into Adam the Second. N". B. Jesus had no human father, but was generated by the Holy Ghost; consequently He received no depravity. Eemember, generation is by the male parent, and gesta- tion by the female. The reason why the human race arQ fallen is because they are all generated in Adam, the progenitor of us all, as the oak tree was created and all the balance have developed from it. So this rlepravity problem in its application to our Savior utterly evan- 24 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. esces, being demonstratively untenable, as He had no human father, and generation is by the father only, and gestation by the mother. 2. Birth of Jesus. Though Joseph and Mary be- longed to the royal family of David, they lived at Nazav reth, a hundred and fifty miles down in Galilee. In the providence of God, Augustus Caesar, the Eoman Em- peror, ordered an enrollment of all the people prepara- tory to a general taxation. Consequently, even at that apparently inopportune time, they were compelled to appear at Bethlehem, the birthplace of David, eight miles south of Jerusalem. As they were so very poor, the most comfortable lodging that they could command was a cave used for domestic animals. Meanwhile, the shepherds herding flocks on the plains five to eight miles east of Bethlehem, are surprised by the visit of a lovely angel, sweeping down from heaven, the splendor of his glory pouring a sunburst on their faces; meanwhile a roaring proclamation fills the plain and echoes back from the surrounding mountains: "Fear not, for be- hold I proclaim unto you good news of great joy, which shall be unto all people; because this day a Savior is born unto you, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be the sign to you: you shall find an infant wrapped in swadling clothes lying in a manger" (Luke 11:10-12). That was a designation quite sufficient to guarantee certainty, as they might search the whole world round, and they would not find another case of a young baby lying in a cow manger. They were actually too poor to provide Him any clothes. They simply gathered up some old pieces and wrapped them around Him. The popular date, December 25, is The Infant Jesus. 25 evidently a mistake, as that is mid-winter, when sheep do not graze out, but lie up in the fold during the night and feed during the day. We see here that they were out herded by the shepherds and grazing at night, which corroborates the verdict of the critics, which I believe, locating Christmas April 5. No sooner has the angel aroused them by the splen- dor flashing from his radiant countenance and snow- white habiliments, as well as the stentorian proclama- tion of his trumpet voice, than they hear the melodies of an unnumbered host who swept down from heaven to sing their happ}^ gaudeamus over the manger hallowed to contain the world's Eedeemer. The astounded, thrilled and electrified disciples immediately leave their flocks and walk away with an elastic bound to Bethle- hem, and, pursuant to the direction of the angel, find the infant all right, salute Mary and Joseph, raise an uproarious shout and make the welkin roar as they re- turn to look after their flocks. God has been pleased to inaugurate the different dis- pensations by certain grand and significant demonstra- tions. The Law dispensation of the Father rang out from Mount Sinai, amid wreathing smoke, stentorian thunder, forked lightnings and earthquakes. The Son's dispensation, as we here see, was proclaimed by the mel- odious anthems and loud shouts of the angels, while that of the Holy Ghost was characterized by the roar of the tempest and tongues of fire. N. B. — Beware of the fanatics, who tell you that sanctification is done away with, because we do not hear the roar of the hurricane and see the fiery tongues. As well might they invalidate justification, because the angels have ceased to proclaim 26 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. it with their songs; and also conversion, because Sinai no longer gives us thunder-bolts and earthquakes. These brilliant manifestations only symbolize the mighty works of the Holy Ghost in the heart. 3. Circumcision" of Jesus. Luke 11:21. Pur- suant to the law (Gen. 17:12 and Lev. 12:3), on the eighth day they proceed to circumcise the baby. The Jewish dispensation is symbolic throughout. The phys- ical birth represents regeneration, and circumcision sanctification ; the one ushering into life, and the other removing impurity. The short interval of eight days illustrates the pertinency of seeking sanctification quick- ly after conversion, the case of our Savior decisively cor- roborating the conclusion. They also offered a sacrifice when they took Him into Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, according to the law (Lev. 12:2 and Ex. 13 :2). They generally offered a bullock or a lamb ; but in case the parties were very poor, they were allowed to offer a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons, as in this case, because Joseph and Mary ranked among the poorest people. Meanwhile they are attending to the circumcision and the sacrifice in the temple, the good old Prophet, Simoon, led by the Holy Ghost, having al- ready revealed to him that he should see the Lord's Christ, comes into the temple, takes the infant in his arms, blesses God, utters some thrilling prophecies in reference to the fall of unbelieving Israel, the uplift of the faithful few, and the wonderful revelations of the Holy Ghost following. Thus he bids the world adieu with Jesus in his arms and glory in his soul. At the same time Prophetess Anna, of 84 years, having long preached the living word to the pilgrims, entering the The Infant Jesus. 37 temple, joyfully corroborates the testimony of Simeon in his reference to the Infant Redeemer. 4. Coming of the Magi. Matt. 11 :1-12. These Magi, i. e., magicians (wise men, E. V.) were the teach- ers of religion, astronomy, astrology, science and litera- ture in the succession of the patriarchal dispensation, with which Melchisedek, Jethro and Job were identified in their day; were scattered all over the great East, e. g., Persia, Amedia, Arabia, Messopotamia and other countries. Being astronomers and foretelling future events by the movements of the stars, such was their ac- quaintance with the constellations that they recognized a new star the moment it put in its appearance. At this time, in the providence of God, their attention was arrested by the astronomical phenomenon of a new star, a total stranger in the mighty host of the glittering con- stellations, which they had long contemplated, chasing each other in their nightly peregrinations over the ce- rulean concave. This shrewd and acute diagnosis of these oriental experts not only detects the phenomenon, but soon observes its occidental trend. Guided by di- vine intuition, they immediately set out on an exploring expedition to satisfy their godly anxiety in reference to the star. Day after day, steadfastly beating their march in the wake of the holy star, they ere long crossed the Jordan, the star still trending westward. Now they make a mistake, so incident to all inquirers after truth, i. e., leaving the guiding star, they proceed to the royal palace in Jerusalem, thus side-tracked through the se- ductive temptation to look upon the king as the arbiter of light and knowledge, they get out of 'the way, fall into serious trouble, are forced to skedaddle from the 28 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. country, narrowly escaping with their lives. In King Herod they not only signally failed to receive the de- sired information^ but aroused his suspicion of a royal rival in the person of Christ, and immediately super- induced the murderous resort of the monarch. Learning from the prophecies read in the royal presence by the scribes and chief priests responsive to the inquiry of Herod, the Magi at once set out for Bethlehem. Several times have I seen the Well of the Star, about three miles from Jerusalem on the road to Bethlehem, so-called be- cause at that place the star re-appeared to the wise men, delightfully following which they soon arrived at Beth- lehem, the holy star halting over the manger hallowed to contain the world's Redeemer, and looking down from the bright, oriental skies, still radiant with the splen- dors and resoundant with the songs of the heavenly host. Hark, a glad voice, the lonely desert cheers : Prepare the way, a God, a God appears ! • Now earth receives Him from the bending skies ; Sink down, ye mountains ; ye valleys rise ! With heads declined, ye cedars, homage pay; Be smoothe, ye rocks, y^ rapid floods give way; The Savior comes, by ancient bards foretold ; Hear Him, ye deaf, and all ye blind behold. There is a beautiful symbolism in the coming of the wise men to see Jesus, and their going back another way. Herod symbolizes the devil, who always gets after people, who come to see Jesus. As the wdse men return to their own country another w^ay, so all the people who seek and find Jesus go back to their homes over a route they never traveled before. In their outgoing, they prose- The Infant Jesus. 29 cuted their journey through, the land of sin; but for- tunately they returned through EmanueFs country. 5. The Flight Into Egypt. How true is the maxim, "The Lord will provide !'' It may not be my way, it may not be thy way, and yet in His own way, the Lord will provide. God knew Joseph and Mary were utterly incompetent financially to go that journey of seven hundred miles into Egypt. Yet it was absolutel}' necessary in order to save the life of His Son from the murderous cruelty of the haughty monarch, who stood at the head of the visible church. There He sent the wise men from the distant Orient to bring the money and valuable aromatics salable for more money, to de- fray the expenses of that long journey and pay their board while resident in Egypt. I have been in the iden- tical house, a very venerable stone edifice in Old Giro, where the holy family resided, as history says, a month. It is now a Goptic church, commemorative of the resi- dence of the infant Savior. During both of my tours in Egypt I also visited the holy fig tree, under which tra- dition certifies that the holy family pitched their tents quite awhile. The Egyptian fig tree is very large. I found this one twenty-five feet in circumference at the ground, and all of its trunk and branches literally cov- ered with fruit. 6. Slaughter of the Infants. \\Tien in Bethle- hem I saw these cruel tragedies vividly represented in artistic paintings. When Herod despaired of learning the whereabouts of the infant Ghrist from the ^lagi, who contemmed his orders clandestinely escaping out of his country, he flew into a rage characteristic of his haughty autocracy and sent soldiers with all expedition 30 Life of Jesus and Ills Ajjustles. to murder all the boy babies in that country two years old and younger, feeling sure that he would get the right one. How signally God defeats the devil! During all of these atrocities, Jesus was safe and prosperous in the far-aw^ay land of Egypt. Inspiration describes Eachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are not. Eachel's tomb stands by tlie road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, about two miles from the latter, where she expired during parturition, hence the pertinency of the prophet^s vivid allusion to this mother in Israel sleeping in her tomb in hearing distance of the heart-breaking lamentations of the dying and the be- reaved. We see in this bloody tragedy how history re- peats itself. Many a modern Herod has sought infor- mation w^ith reference to the holiness movement, preten- tiously feigning friendship, while really "seeking the young child to destroy him.^' These Herods abound in popular pulpits and official boards. 7. Departure Out of Egypt. When God spoke to Mary, He sent the Archangel Gabriel to communicate with her face to face. Speaking to Joseph, He reveals His will in dreams ; thus confirming the tenable hypoth- esis of woman's near proximity to the Divinity. He made man out of the dust, and w^oman out of man, the second blessing in creation. She w^as last at the cross, first at the sepulchre, first to meet her risen Lord, re- ceived His full-orbed commission to preach the risen Savior to the disciples and a dying w^orld. Here we see God again speaks to Joseph in a dream, notifying him of Herod's death and ordering his return to Canaan. Eeaching the border and ascertaining the succession of Herod by Archelans, fearing for the safety of the child. The Infant Jesus. 31 he passes through Philistia proceeding northwardly into Galilee, his native land, reaching their home at Xaza- reth, where Jesus was brought up. The child continued to grow and waxed strong in spirit, being filled with wis- dom ; and the grace of God was upon him. Jesus never had any sickness. Such a conclusion would be utterly out of harmony with His human perfection, which pre- cluded all infirmities of every kind. Consequently His growth physical, mental and spiritual was normal and vigorous being entirely unobstructed even by the infirmi- ties which characterize all other human beings even at their best estate. We can actually have no adequate conception of the wonderful rapidity, solidity and brill- iancy, which characterize His progress, specially intellec- ually and spiritually. 7. Jesus In The Temple. After their arrival at Xazareth follows the unwritten biography of Jesus for nearly thirty years, with the isolated excep- tion of His journey to Jerusalem, and attending the Passover at the age of twelve years. Luke 11 :41-52. The Jewish festivals opened and closed on the Sabbath, running through the intervening week, comprising in all eight days. For the sake of company and security, they, traveled in crowds, most of them on foot, some on don- keys and some on camels. When setting out on a jour- ney to or fro they used the morning to get ready and started about noon. Eeturning from the above Pass- over, they traveled about fifteen miles, halting at Beeroth to pitch their tents for the oncoming night, when miss- ing Jesus and failing to find Him among His relatives and acquaintances, they return to Jerusalem and after three days find him in the Temple sitting in the midst 32 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. of the learned teachers and exponents of the Holy Scrip- tures, the attention of all concentrated on Him, mean- while they listened spell-bound, electrified and unut- terably astounded and dumbfounded by His wisdom and paradoxical answers to the questions propounded to Him by these mighty men of erudition and theology. The inspired historians merely state; "he went down with them and came into Nazareth, and was subordinated to them/' When I was in Nazareth I was ineffably edified^ electrified and transported while visiting Joseph's car- penter shop; in which I saw him and Jesus at work, and Mary sitting by, looking on them. The statuary Which exhibits them is the heau ideal of perfection,show- ing them up, real as life. The statue exhibits Him about sixteen years old, the facsimile of innocency, purity and simplicit}^ standing at the work bench, using the saw and the hammer. I have seen worlds of statuary, exe- cuted by the finest sculptors of Egypt, Greece, Rome and all other countries and all bygone ages ; but I never saw the equ^al of the statue, that represents Jesus working in the carpenter shop. There is but one solution, and that is, the Holy Ghost most unquestionably, took the sculptor into His hands when he executed that climac- teric specimen of human art. "And Jesus continued to progress in wisdom, stature and favor with God and men." As this verb is in the imperfect t^nse you see it includes the entire period of our Lord's life down to expiration of His thirtieth year, April 5, A. D., 30. Re- nam has drawn on his imagination in writing out the life of Jesus, during the thirty years of His minority. Of course it is guess work, a novel, and we do not want The Infant Jesus. 33 it. Divine wisdom is manifested in leaving these thirty years unwritten : (1.) Because his Messianic ministry had not yet be- gun, and his biography contained nothing essential to salvation. (2) If it had been written, many people would go into superstition and fanaticism, imputing saving val- idity to it. (3) It would actually have made the New Testa- ment so very large as to be burdensome. (4) The brevity of our Lord's biography is a won- derful help to the diligent student, who is anxious to learn it just as thoroughly as possible. (5) There is a great mercy in the quadruple biog- raphy, as the diversity of style on the part of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John conduces much to augment the light, simplicity and perspicuity which flash over the inspired pages of our Lord's thrilling and charming biography. (6) The summary of the whole matter is that the Holy Ghost has left us without excuse for the shame- ful ignorance that so largely prevails among the nominal disciples of our blessed and wonderful Savior. We here observe in this comprehensive statement winding up the inspired history of Jesus, during His minority ; that He continued to progress in wisdom, stature and favor with God and men, perpetual and steady onward and up- ward trend, physical strength, giving Him that stalwart body, competent to climb the rugged mountains, cross the valleys and perigrinates, preaching and working mir- acles from dawn till dark; and that wonderful vigorous intellect which made truth simple enough for the 34 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. barbarian and idiot, and at the same time dived into the profundities, soared into altitudes, broadened into lati- tudes and swept down into the longitudes of boundless eternity; thus evolving a curriculum which a Pauline mind will never exhaust in time and eternity. Mean- while His unfallen human spirit was expanding, flash- ing and accumulating ever Id creasing splendor, vivacity and power of interpretation, peculiar only to unfallen humanit}'; but constantly flashing out upon the land- scapes of fadeless glory, the bewildering possibilities of all who follow Him in the wonderful regeneration per- fected in the glorious sanctification and culminated in the transfiguration, which will sweep from the field all the debris of the fall and restore it back to the perfec- tion of the Divine image and likeness of which Satan spoliated us ; thus in the successess of our glorious Cap- tain we will triumphantly survive not only the wrecked ruin of the fall, but every conceivable vestige will evanesce, so the gigantic intellect of Gabriel and Michael will never detect a solitary imprint of Satan's cloven foot. It is pertinent here to observe that this is the last mention of Joseph, that noble man of God, so signally honored with the foster fatherhood of the world's Re- deemer. Of course he exchanged labor for rest some- time during the subsequent eighteen years of oui Lord's minoTity. CHAPTER III. THE MAN JESUS. We have already passed through the minority of the Man who always has been and always will be the won- der of the ages, the puzzle of philosophers, the stumb- ling block of Theologian and the ridde of all critics. Pursuant to the law of his dispensation, which put ma- jority at thirty and maturity at fifty, this Paragon Man remained obedient in the home circle till He completed His thirtieth year, April 5. Meanwhile his cousin, John the Baptist, six months His senior, has already been in the exercise of his wonderful ministry these six months from his majority; beginning obscure, poor, illiterate and uninfluential ; his ministry like the snow-ball, on the Alpine summit, starts rolling, accumulating with every bound, till it becomes a mighty avalanche sweeping ev- erv'thing before it. So John the Baptist has become the sensation not only of the nation, but of the world. He has emptied the cities and populated the wilderness with teeming thousands. His stentorian voice daily holds spell-bound an audience of ten to twenty thousand ; not only is all the land of Israel stirred as never before since the days of Moses, but the wild sons of Ishmael and Esau are pouring out daily from the Land of Moab and Idumaea. At this culmination of John's wonderful min- istry Jesus lays down the plane, the saw and the ham- mer, bids adieu to the carpenter shop and goes away, walking a hundred and fifty miles, arriving at the scene 35 36 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. of John's ministry, while the mighty hosts are listening spellbound. Suddenly John turns, points Him out and shouts aloud; "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." The vast multitude thrilled and bewildered with astonishment and enthusiasm, spontaneously give way, opening a temporary aisle through which the stranger walks down, meanwhile John descending from his native stone pulpit advances to meet him; — truly the most wonderful meeting ever witnessed by mortal eyes, that of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Czar of Russia on the river Tilsit not excepted. Jesus demands baptism at the hands of John ; who mod- estly declining confesses his need of the baptism, which none but Jesus can give, i. e,, that of the Holy G-host and fire. John was not begotten by the Holy Ghost, like Jesus. Therefore he inherited depravity from Adam which nothing but the fires of the Holy Ghost can de- stroy. Jesus acquiesces in John's affirmation of his need of His baptism ; but at the same time notifying him that it was incumbent on them, i. e., John and Jesus "to ful- fill all righteousness." That righteousness is found in the Levitical law requiring the high priest to be anointed be- fore he could enter upon the orders of his office. Pursu- ant to this law, Moses poured the Holy oil on the head of Aaron, thus inducting him into his official high priest- hood. Then John proceeds with the baptism of water to consecrate his Lord for his official Messiahship. Luke 3 :21-23. "And it came to pass while all the people were being baptized Jesus also having been baptized and praying, the Heaven was opened, the Holy Spirit with bodily appearance, like a dove, came down on Him and there was a voice from Heaven saying ; "thou art my be- The Man Jesus. 37 loved son, in Thee I am well pleased/' We see here that when Jesu« was baptized He continued praying to the Father to send on Him the Holy Grhost. X. B. — Jesus is perfect Man and perfect God. Do not forget that it was the Man Jesus who suffered and died to redeem this guilty world, as divinity can neither suffer nor die. The Man Jesus did the preach- ing and sealed the truth with the blood of martyrdom. Just as you and I in order to preach the gospel must have the Holy Ghost. The Apostks all preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven. Jesus our great Apostle and High Priest, in His earthly ministry was no exception to Biblical law. He must have the •enduement of the personally indwelling Holy Ghost, to qualify Him for His ministry. John's baptism was his consecration to his Messianic ministry; mean- while he prayed right on till the Holy Ghost descended from Heaven and rested on him, thus filling and empow- ering him for his ministry. WTiile Jesus is the Paragon Man of all the world, you must remember that He nev- er had any sin, actual or original, consequently He never needed the sin side of Christian experience. Therefore He only exhibits the positive side of His birth, illustrating our regeneration and His reception of the Holy Ghost, our sanctification, while the thirty years of his miinority at Xazareth show up in spotless purity and simplicity a paragon justification; we find but a solitary incident in all that period sufficiently im- portant to justify the attention of the inspired historian. Hence \ve legitimately conclude that His life was une- ventful. The same is "^^ue of all His followers during their spiritual minority. "^ preached fifteen years and 38 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. was president of a college, before I got sanctified ; yet my life was without events, not one of the eighteen books which I have subsequently written, had so much as dawned on my anticipation, neither had my subsequent travels been so much as dreamed of. Luke 11 :52 says "Jesus during His minority grew in favor with God and men/^ How vididly does this contrast with His own fre- quent affirmations subsequent to the coming of the Holy Ghost on Him, that "the world hateth/' His re- ception of the Holy Ghost at the Jordan was His sanc- tifieation, qualifying Him at once to enter upon the ministry for which He came into the world. Oh, what a sudden transition from the quietude and toils of the domestic life which had characterized Him during the thirty years of His minority, to the stormy and temp- estuous career upon which he entered. Then the Holy Ghost descended on Him from Heaven. Immediately He was led by the spirit away into the dreary desert to be tempted by the devil. Mark says "The, spirit driveth Him out into the wilderness.-'^ Sanctification means war, conflict, blood and death; i. e., that you at once move forward, take your stand on the first line in the front of the battle, load to the muzzle and always shoot to kill. You go for conquest and scalps, you fight not for g}'m- nastic exercise, but for victory all the time. The Holy Ghost is honored by every battle you fight, because He alwa}^ gives you victor}^ Moses, the mediator of the Sinaic eovenant,and Elijah, the greatest of the prophets, both fasted forty days (of course being divinely sus- tained in their spiritual rapture, otherw'ise they would have starved to death.) Inspiration certifies that the an- gels ministered to Jesus during the forty days, making The Man Jesus, 39 the scene really heavenly, so that He was sustained in a preternatural rhapsody, of fortifying against hunger, till after the lapse of the forty days, when the angelic myriads were withdrawn, leaving Him alone amid the hleak wilds of the burning waste, when hunger incon- ceivably intensified by reason of the forty days' fast lit down on Him with the gnawing voracity of a thousand harpies. Xow amid the gloomy solitude of the howling wdlderness Satan makes his first assault on His physical manhood by tempting Him to use His miraculous power in transforming a stone lying at his feet, into a loaf of bread to satisfy his craving appetite. Jesus was in perfect health, and His hunger, sharpened by forty days' fast, is absolutely inconceivable by any who should ever read these pages. The Wilderness of Judea in which this temptation took place, (and through which I have trav- eled four times), reaches within fifteen miles of Jerusa- lem. Xow Satan leads Jesus to the temple and has Him climb the loftiest pinnacle, from which he tempts Him to leap ; this assault the adversary made on His human spirit, turning his hellish artiller}^ against His faith, which is the basis of all spirituality. Finally he leads him to the summit of the highest mountain (I trow it was Olivet which is the highest in South Canaan, and only separated from Jerusalem by the valley Jehosa- phat) and ex^hibits before him a gorgeous panorama of all the time honored empires beneath the skies, offering him what he alleged as a most reasonable compromise of all their controversities, i. e., that he would actually enthrone him monarch of all this world, turning it over to him unreservably and for ever contenting himself to reign in hell only, pn the isolated condition, that he 40 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. should become iiis ally and extend to him the adoration due an oriental monarch. This assault was directed against the gigantic^ unfallen intellect of Jesus. Al- ready had Sesostris, i. e.^ Eameses II, the Pharaoh of Moses' time, Nebuchadezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, and Caesar conquered the world. Satan, whose mind is utterly dark on spiritual things, at once leaped to the conclusion that Jesus was an aspirant to temporal power. When Satan had ex- hausted all his resources he retreated ^way; the angels coming at once were delighted to extend Him every con- ceivable blessing within the sphere of their heavenly ministrations. You see that a solitary stroke with the sword of the spirit signally defeated Satan and achieved a complete victory over each of the three decisive as- saults, which he made on the humanity of our Lord, i. e., his body, spirit and intellect. This fact is inval- uable to us, illustrating the infinite value of God's word and flooding us with the realization of the paramount importance of having it in our memories and meditating on it like the blessed man (Psa. 1,) night and day; thus having it superabounding in the heart, ready to leap from the tongue-tip every moment we are all living in the enemies' country, (2 Cor. 4 :4), and liable to assault, battle and death incessantly. What a decisively contrast between Satan's wars on Adam the First and Adam the Second! In the former, victory complete came on the first round; Satan actually economizing two-thirds of his ammunition. In the latter he used all of his ammu- nition and fortunately for us lost it all. The secret of this glorious victory was the occupation of the Man Jesus by the Holy Ghost ; who not only led him into the The Man Jesus. 11 battle, but in every case, achieved complete and over- whelming victory, thus imparting accumulated strength and courage. No wonder Jesus forbade His own Apos- tles to embark on the conquest of the world, till the}' received the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. He well knew their utter inadequacy to the emergency. The nor- mal attitude of the gospel dispensation, is that of spirit- ual manhood, in contradistinction to the infancy of the former dispensation. Gal. 4:1-7. Church- joining is a misnomer. We are not joined into the church of God. but bom into it; regeneration making you an infant member, where you remain in a state of spiritual minori- ty till you receive the personal Holy Ghost in real and complete sanctification ; thus conferring on you spir- itual majority, preparing you for every conflict with the world, the flesh and the devil and insuring you certain and glorious victory. In this there is absolutely no de- falcation. So long as you enjoy the indwelling Holy Spirit, he fights your battles and gives you victory. Defeat only comes after you have grieved away the glorious Paraclete. No wonder the people of Nazareth so awfully fell out with Jesus when He preached His first sermon to them after He had received the Holy Ghost at the Jordan. When only twelve years old, He was an able and edifying teacher of the word; but we hear nothing about His raising awful rousements with the Devil. So it is now, we may teach in the Sunday- schools, preach in the churches and do a lot of good, be- fore we get sanctified ; we are not likely to stir the devil much. I was in that old synagogue in Nazareth (a venerable, massive stone building) , where Jesus wor- shiped thirty years, living the life of irreproachable jus- 42 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. tification, doing His whole duty and glorifying His Father, by teaching the word of the Lord. After He en- tered His spiritual majority, being filled with the Holy Ghost, from that m-oment it descended on Him in the form of a dove, He always preached the gospel "with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven." Thus filled and flooded with the spirit, having returned to his na- tive Nazareth; He proceeds to preach his glorious gos- pel. See what a phenomenon! The people who have knowTL him from the cradle can scarcely believe their own e3^es and ears! His words are lightning's shafts, and his sentences thunderbolts ! They tear out the mud ©ills of the old carnal edifices, which they had thought competent to stand the storms of eternity. They raise a row, lay violent hands on Him, determined to kill Him, forcing him to resort to his divinity to prolong his life till he could preach his gospel, call out his church and organize his ministr}\ Similar phenomena have always characterized preaching the gospel in the power of the indwelling Holy Ghost. When the Lord sanctified me thirty-three years ago, He made me a cyclone or fire moving over the earth. Everywhere I preached the Holy Ghost fell on the people and they got convicted, con- verted and sanctified. I could have a revi\al anywhere. I preached from the Atlantic Ocean to Mexico and through the great interior, 500 to 900 sermons a A^ar, till I wore out my voice and my nerves, when God in His mercy put His hand on me excusing me from the thun- der, tempest, lightning, and earthquake of the dear old battle field with which I was so delighted, and made me a teacher in the school of Christ, giving me many books to write, thus preaching by pen as well as speech. Oh The Man Jesus. ' 43 His uilutterable goodness! Who can tell? Reader ] hope you are a disciple of Jesus. He lived and died un*- der the law dispensation, which made thirty years the period of minority. This he observed before He entered upon His Messianic ministry. We live under the dis- pensation of a full and glorious liberty, so beautifully emblematized by the impressive and instructive sym- bolism of the typical ages in the wonderful liberty of this Holy Ghost dispensation, we do not have to wait thirty years nor even thirty days for spiritual majority, i. e., m'anhood in Christ ; but amid the splendors of gos- pel opportunities, full salvation proculminates ringing round the world, we may all make the consecration which Jesus did in the baptism of John and pray on as he did, till the Holy Ghost descendis on us from Heaven ; thus sanctifying us wholly and taking up his abode in our hearts, investing us with 'a whole canopy and mak- ing us more than a match for the world, the flesh and the devil. Oh, the unutterable glories of a spirit-filled disciple in the track of Jesus ! CHAPTER IX. THE MINISTRY OF JESUS. The induement of the Holy Gliost really launched Him into the ministryfor which He came into the world. His beautiful miracle in Canaan of Galilee, turning the water into A\ine was prolific, his real beginning tak- ing place speedily afterward at Jerusalem, cleansing the temple pursuant to the prophes}', Ps. IxixilO, specify- ing that the Messiah appearing would come suddenly to the Temple and purify it. It is pertinent here that we give you an explanation about the Temple which I never knew till I visited the Holy Land. I always thought those sacrificial animals which Jesus drove out were ac- tually in the Temple Building. This is a great mistake. The word Temple appearing so frequently in the Bible included thirty-five acres of beautiful table land on the summit of Mount Moriah ; containing Solomon's temple and many other magnificent buildings; but by far the greater portion of the area is entirely unoccupied by any superstructure. On these holy grounds the mjTiads of Israel pitched their tents during their great festivals, i. €., their camp-meetings; The Passover in April, Pente- cost in June and the Feast of Tabernacles in Septem- ber, each have a grand symbolic significance; the Pass- over symbolizing regeneration ; Pentecost, sanctification, and Tabernacles, glorification. The reason why we can see all of these things now at Jerusalem, is because the Mohammedans who have possessed and ruled that coun- 44 The Ministry of Jesus. 45 try (with the little interruption of the crusaders, 88 years) are the descendents through Ishmael and Esau, the eldest son and grandson of Abraham, who not only have in their Koran all the prominent facts of the Old Testament, but they claim tlie right to that country through the covenant which God made with Abraham, to give it to him and his seed forever; alleging the pre- eminence of their claim over that of tlie Jews, pursuant to the well knowTi Patriarchal Law which gave the eldest son the birthright, i. e., a double portion of the father's estate. These people conquered and took possession of that country, A. D., 637. They hold the Temple ground, i. e., those thirty-five acres, as the holiest place this side of Heaven, really regarding it just about as Holy as Heaven. As the Jews are their uncompromising rivals, they originally prohibited them from entering the holy ground on penalty of death. A Gentile can go into it under the greatest restrictions, guarded by Turkish soldiers, also paying money for the privilege. When David numbered Israel, God was much grieved (evi- dently because He knew that many of them were not true Israelites) ; He at once entered into terrible judg- ment with him ; giving him his choice between three aw- ful punishments, (1) a seven years' famine, (2) three months' retreat before his enemies, and (3) a wasting and blighting pestilence of three days. So David was in an awful dilemma ; a seven years' famine would per- haps depopulate his country, whitening the land with bones. Defeat by his enemies three months was utterly intolerable by a brave man like David, who knew well that all the great nations whom he had conquered would not only revolt but turn on him for vengeance. There- 46 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, fore he chose the latter, saying "Let me fall into the hands of God"! He knew that God was merciful and would rather risk him than men. So the pestilence seta in and the people are dying in piles on all sides. Ere long the eyes of David are opened and he looks from his residence in the City of David on Mt. Zion over the intervening valley to Mt. Moriah and sees the destroy- ing angel with uplifted sword, falls down before God and cries aloud, "Oh, Lord spare these sheep and let me die." God heard his cry and called away the destroying angel and arrested the pestilence. David ran to the sum- mit of Moriah where he saw the angel. It was then occupied by Arannah's threshing-floor. David besought him to sell it to him that he might erect an altar and ojffer sacrifices to God, whose mercy had saved the people from death. Arannah refused to sell it, but said he would give it to him and the oxen for sacrifices and the implements for fuel. Then David refused to receive it as a gift, affirming his utter unwillingness to offer God a sacrifice that cost him nothing. Consequently Arannah sold it to him. On that very spot in the long ago, Abra^ ham had offered up his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. On this identical spot, David aimed to build a temple, but God kept him in other work, conferring that blessing on Solomon, who in his day immortalized his name by building the Temple there on the summit of Moriah. Pursuant to the prediction of Jesus that Temple was destroyed by the Roman armies, A. D. 73; the land being desolated and depopulated during the exterminat- ing wars, i. e., the Jewish Tribulations, a million of peo- ple perishing by the sword, pestilence and famine; a million more sold into slavery to other nations, and the The Ministry of Jesus. 47 remnant led captives to Rome to become imperial slaves. Jerusalem lay desolate fifty years, without an inhabitant, when the Emperor Adrian went thither, found a Roman colony which he named Elia Capitolina, and built a heathen temple on the site of Solomon's Temple. So idols were worshiped on that holy spot, till the conver- sion of the Emperor Constantine, A. D. 321; who at once came to Jerusalem, restoring that sacred name, tak- ing down the Temple of Jupiter and erecting on the spot a Christian one which stood till the conquest of the country by the Mohammedans, A. D. 637; when Caliph Omar, their commander-in-chief, took down the Chris- tian church and erected a Mohammedan Mosque on the spot which stood till the Christian crusaders con- quered the country and captured Jerusalem under the leadership of pious Godfrey, A. D. 1099. The Crusad- ers took down the Mosque and erected a Christian church on that hallowed spot, w'hich stood 88 years till the Mohammedans under the leadership of Salidan sig- nally defeated the crusaders in the great battle fought on Mount Hattan on the west bank of the Galilean Sea, thus driving the Christians utterly out of the Holy Land. Then they took down the Christian Church and restored the Mohammedan Mosque on that historic site where Abraham offered Isaac, David saw the angel and Solomon built the Temple. I have traveled through these holy grounds during both of my visits to Jerusalem. The Mohammedan Mosque now standing there is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. This spot is the most celebrated in Bible history of all the world, this oc- cupies all of Moriah and overlooks the Holy Campus ly- ing out towards sunrise, containing thirty-five acres 48 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. where the Moslem millions now assemble in their great religious communications and where the Jews fifteen hundred years,poured in from the ends of the earth their teaming myraids to enjoy their holy festivals. The crit- ics all deny that Jesus was ever in the Temple proper, as all of this ground, thirty-five acres, was included in the comprehensive word, Temple, used in the Bible. As the Temple building was in the hands of the high priest, who rejected Jesus from the beginning, it is affirmed that they never let Him enter Solomon's Tem- ple. I used to think that Solomon's Porch in which he was once mentioned as walking, was a projeetion from the Temple. This is a mistake. It was separate, off near the Beautiful Gate which enters the ground horn the East and is four or five hundred yards from Solo- mon's Temple. Our Savior was an indefatigable open- air preacher. He availed Himself of tlie great festivals to which the multitudes gatliered from the ends of the earth, to preach his glorious heavenly truth, that they might catch it and carry it with them in all their vast dispersions; for you must remember as the Jews have always been the most enterprising people in the world, they had gone into ever}^ nation, colonized every city, growing rich by their merchandise and other industries. Among all their festivals, the Passover was the most prominent, being epochal in the history of their nation- al birth, as slaves have no nationality, and the Passovet was executed to commemorate their emancipation from Egyptian bondage. On that memorable night when the destroying angel winged its flight throughout all the land and slew the first born in every Egyptian home, seeing the slain lamb on the door-posts, he passed over The Ministry of Jesus. 49 the houses of Israel. This institution was repeated an- nually on the fourteenth of April through the 1491 years which elapsed till the Lamb of God was slain on Calvary. Among the millions of birds and beasts which bled on Jehovah's altars four thousand years; the Pass- over Lamb was the most conspicuous symbol of the great Antitype destined in the fulness of time to bleed and die for a guilty world. Josephus says two hundred and fifty thousands were slain at a single Passover. What rivers of blood did fi'ow during typical dispensations, teaching by their vast, oft repeated and indelible black- board exercises the greatest and most important fact ever revealed to the human race, that God Himself was com- ing down to bleed and die for earth's guilty millions ! In the study of our Savior's biography, you should never lose sight of Passovers. They serve the traveler as val- uable guideboards. During his ministry of three 3'ears we have four Passovers. One marks the beginning when he purified the Temple by driving out the buyers and sellers, who had their herds and flocks on the holy ground, to sell to the people who wanted to offer sacri- fices, while the exchangers received the Greek and Ro- man money which they gathered from the Gentiles, but was not received in the temple treasury. Therefore they must exchange it for Jewish money before they could make their offering to the Lord. The reason why Jesus charged them with making the House of God a den of thieves was because they cheated the people in selling the animals and birds, and exchanging the money. Cheat- ing is stealing. If you overcharge, you are a thief. The two cleansings of the Temple s}Tnbolize the two works of Grace, regeneration and sanctification. When 50 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. the Lord comes again he will give a final cleansing, symbolizing our glorification, which we receive when we die, unless we have the fortune to survive till He comes in the rapture and takes up His saints, then all the liv- ing will be instantaneously, soul and body, transfigured and translated. Our Lord thus began His ministry at the Passover, returned to Jerusalem and attended the second; but did not come to the third as those multi- tudes whom He miraculously fed with the loaves and fishes on the mountain Bethsaida off the West coast of the Galilean Sea, were excited by the miracle, and were about to crown Him king, in which case the Eomans would have killed Him, consequently He declined to attend the third Passover, sending away the multitudes, who were then assembled to go up to Jerusalem, he re- mained in Galilee. The fourth Passover He attended and became the identical Paschal Lamb symbolized by that great institution the passed 1491 years. CHAPTER V. JESUS PREACHING IN GALILEE. It is a significant fact that our Lord spent two and one-half years out of the tliree of liis earthly ministry in the comparatively thinly populated and obscure regions of Galilee. It is affirmed by critics that He never spent a night in Jerusalem. When the Devil gets hold of the church it always becomes God^'s greatest enemy. We see this illustrated in the history of Jesus. King Herod at the head of the church deluged Bethlehem and the surrounding country in blood in order to kill Him. The high priests and ruling elders hounded His track all his life thirsting for his blood. Therefore He dare not spend a night in Jerusalem^ their headquarters, or they certainly would have attacked Him. The presumption is when Xicodemus sought that nightly interview witfh Him, he was either in Bethany or some of the villages of Mt. Olivet. As it was absolutely necessar}^ that he should have time to teach his disciples the great truths indispensable to the salvation of the world, he needed three full years to prosecute that work, establish the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth and prepare His peo- ple to propagate it to the ends of the globe. Oh, how I did enjoy my travels in Galilee ! Especially tlie Sea of Galilee on whose bank stood the City of Capernaum, where Jesus made his head-quarters, as is believed, lodg- ing ini the house of Peter, who was living there when the Master called him to the Apostlesihip. The charm I 51 52 Life of Jesus arid His Apostles. felt while sailing over this beautiful sea over whidi Je- sus sailed so much, and on whose shore He preached to the spell-bound multitudes, beggars all language to de- scribe. I sailed all round hither and thither on the track of my Lord, with my harmonical Greek Testament open before my eyes, and the quadruple histories of Mat- thew, Mark, Luke and John, edifying and thrilling me as we sailed from shore to shore, over those beautiful cerulean waters, limpid, fresh and abounding in fish, as in the days of yore, and Jesus and His apostles glided over them, sometimes calm as a summer day, but ever ■and anon tossed by the tempest, and plowed by the cy- clone. This beautiful sea is 16 1-2 miles long, 8 miles wide and 150 feet deep, interpenetrated by the river Jordan, entering from the North, flowing through it the long way -and of course, lost in it and flowing out to- wards the South, pursuing its undeviating way till lost in the Dead Sea, which lies between great Mt. Pisgah on the East and the Wilderness of Judea on the West. The Sea of Galilee is 100 feet below the Mediterranean, i. e., the level of the watery world. Consequently the great West winds frequently dip so low when passing over it and impinged against the Eastern highlands with so great impetuosity as to whirl round against the shore in- stead of rising the mountains, the effect is to produce a cyclone, seriously perilous to navigators. Consequently we frequently read in the New Testament striking allu- sions to these storms. While traveling on the land we are frequently warned by guides and guide-books to look out for storms on the Sea of Galilee. My last tour was in 1899 ; the Emperor of Germany having preceded me the preceding year. I everywhere saw his foot prints. Jesus Fi'eachiny in Galilee. 53 Having learned that an excellent boat had been built in Beyrout, Syria, and transported thither for his special accommodation; we called for it on arrival, and secur- ing the use of it, embarked and sailed all around the sea, 75 miles encompassed, feeling secure from the storms, as we realize the presence of Him who com- manded the winds and the waves, "and there was a great calm." In the days of Jesus that sea was literally environed with cities crowding the shore on all sides. During the ages of desolation they all perished. Among the inspir- ing omens of the Millennial dawn and our Lord^s speedy return, is the revival of these cities forever im- mortal in the inspired history of the Incarnate God, "and Jesus returned in the dynamite of the Spirit into Galilee," Luke 4:14. "And when the Lord knew that the Pharisees heard, that Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John, (indeed Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but his disciples) He left Judea and went back again into Galilee." Jno. 4 :l-3. The Greek positive- ly reveals that Jesus never did baptize any person with water, but his disciples did it on a grand scale ; it being the province of Jesus only to baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. John the Baptist, the greatest of the Prophets, had shaken Israel from center to circumfer- ence, besides sending an electric shock through the Gen- tile world. When he baptized Jesus, thus publicly in- augurating Him into His official Messiahship, when pursuant to His consecration and prayer the Holy Ghost descended on Him from Heaven, filling and dynamiting Him for His Messianic Ministry, such was the power and magnetism attending his preaching that multiplied 5-i Life of Jesus and His Apostles. thousands gathered about Him, hanging spell-bound day after day, charmed and electrified by such preaching as mortal ears had never heard. When John the Bap- tist pointed Him out and shouted aloud, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of tiie world," there was a general rally of his disciples on the track of Jesus. In Judeaism water baptism always played a much more conspicuous part than the people in our day appre- hend. AMien Moses sprinlvled all the people at the Tab- ernacle door upon the ratification of the Sinaic cove- nant, Heb. 9:19; 5 :10, "which stood only in meats and drink and diverse baptism," says he baptized them. Israel at that time numbered three millions. Hence Moses was a great baptizer. AYhenever a Jew had con- tracted ceremonial defilement (by contact with unclean animals, dead bodies, lepers, et cetera) he was prohibited from the tabernacle service till some ceremonially clean person could sprinkle on him the water of separation, thus purifying him. This law of purification specified that the blood of a spotless and blemishless red heifer (which symbolizes the atonement) should be dropped into water, thus constituting it a purifying element. As it would be expensive to slaughter the red heifer when- ever they needed the purifying element, the law provided that the animal should utterly be consumed and the ash- es used as a substitute for the blood. Thus you see a Jew might be baptized a thousand times in his life or even more if he had contracted ceremonial defilement so frequently. Hence the repentance of John the Baptist signified a new departure in the divine life, and was per- tinently confirmed by baptism. While John's ministry belonged to the old dispensation , as he was the greatest Jesus FrcachiiKj in Galilee. 55 and the last of the prophets and even more, being the precursor and introducer of the Savior, he baptized all who professed repentance under his ministry and faith in Him who was to come. Yet the ministry of Jesus being a decisive onward movement from John required John's converts and all others to confess their faith in Him by water baptism, which was administered by his disciples. The mighty swell of popular enthusiasm be- ing turned from John to Jesus, constrained Him to leave Judea and return to Galilee. "After two days He went from thence and departed into Galilee," for Jesus Him- self witnessed that a prophet has no honor in his own country. Galilee was His own country. You see He went off thither to avoid the swelling tide of popular enthusiasm attending His ministry in Judea ; evidently mvch augmented by the happy introduction which John had given Him, as well as the tremendous boon of dis- ciples which John turned after him, w*hen he abnegated the Messiahship for himself and boldly certified that Jesus was truly the Shiloh of prophecy. For the above considerations Jesus left Judea very early in His minis- try, and went back to his native Galilee, where he had heen brought up, and they would not raise so great ex- citement over Him and He might enjoy comparative quietude in which to prosecute His work. If he had re- mained in Judea, the constant trend of the enthusiastic multitudes was to crown Him King of the Jews, as al- ready they had endured the galling yoke of Eoman des- potism thirty years. At Jerusalem He was in constant perturbation between two fires. His friends on tiptoe to crown Him King, and the High Priests looking upon Him with the jealousy and fear of an official rival, plot- 56 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, ting to kill Him. He had made them awfully mad by the autocracy He exercised in cleansing the Temple. Had it not been for the restraint of an Unseen Power, they would have killed Him at the time He actually ex- ercised the prerogative of supreme potentate. It was not only necessary that He should have time and opportunity to preach His gospel and corroborate His Messiahship by miracles; but it was absolutely necessary for Him to have time so thoroughly to teach His apostles the great truths of His Kingdom that they might thoroughly re- ceive and 'appropriate them, preparatory for the great work of the world's evangelization, thus establishing the Gospel Church in all the earth. In view of these stu- pendous realities, he bade adieu to Jerusalem, the resort of the multitudes and head-quarters of the hierarchy, and went away into Galilee where His own countrymen would not make so much ado over Him, and the High Priests would rest in the quietude of their palaces in Jerusalem. N. B. In the utter absence of all mail facili- ties, news travels slowly. On arrival in Cana of Gali- lee a certain royalist from Capernaum, forty miles dis- tant, importunes Him to come and heal his son. Jesus said to him, "Go, thy son liveth." In his anxiety he de- parts without delay, traveling on foot, or perhaps riding a donkey all night. The servants meet him on arrival in the early morning, cheering him on the good news of his son^s convalescence. Upon inquiry they certify, "at 1 p. m. yesterday the fever left him.'^ Then he responds, "Why, that is the very time Jesfus said. Go, thy son liv- eth." The effect of this miracle was to give a grand boon to his own faith which had hitherto been some- what weak, and convert his whole family, John 4 :46-54. Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 57 He now goes from Cana to Nazareth, His native city, only five miles West. As already specified, He came in the dynamite of the Holy Ghost. (Power which is the only definition of gospel in the Bible, is dynamite in the original. ) Under His first sermon in that old synagogue where He had worshiped thirty years, there is such an awful explosion that they break up in a row, the mob superseding the religious meeting, determined to kill Him, and would have murdered Him at that early day had not the Divinity came to the relief of the humanity, in order to prolong its life till He could establish His kingdom on the earth. Such is the normal effect of "preaching with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heav- en." The churches are now crying peace ! We have no objection to holiness, but only the manner in which it is preached by the evangelists? Beware! When the dead church has no objection to holiness, rest assured it has lost its dynamite, and consequently no longer blows up dead formality, hollow hyprocrisy and worldly compromise. They demand of us to preach in such a way that it will not shake the devil and the world out of the church. On this line Jesus signally failed ; they not only raised a hubbub and turned Him out of the church, but did their best to kill Him. If you do not preach in the fulness of the Spirit, you are neither in gospel order, nor in the succession of Jesus. If you are filled with the Holy Ghost, you fear neither man nor devils, and wonderful things will happen where you go. Do not be surprised if you provoke stones, dirt, eggs and mobs. God help us all to be true and preach like Jesus, in the dynamite of the Holy Ghost, looking out for explosions and be prepared for the consequences. When they ran 58 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, Him aAvay from :N"azareth, His native city, He weni: to Capernaum on the Northern bank of the Galilean Sea, and made that the center of all His ministerial peregri- nations. James, John, Peter, Andrew, Philip, Matthew and perhaps others lived there, a distance of about 45 miles. Luke 4:16-31. He now begins His ministerial work in his new field, peregrinating along the Northern shore of the sea he recognizes Peter and his brother Andrew, in a ship prosecuting their daily livelihood by fishing. Having preached a sermon from Peter's ship to the multitude standing on the shore, winding up, said, "shove out into the deep and spread your nets for a draught.'' Peter responds stating that they had toiled all night and caught nothing, and there were certainly no fish about there as the night is a better time to catch them than the day; but through courtesy to Him they spread the net and caught a vast school of fishes, so that the net began to break. Then he and Andrew, his brother, beckoned to John and James, their partners in the business, to come to their relief. The result was they immediately gathered so vast quantities of fishes that both the ships began to sink under the intolerable weight. Then Peter, characteristic of quick preception and sprightly intuition,overwhelmed with the realiz-ation that he was in the presence of a superhuman being, con- victed, appalled and panic stricken, beseeches Him to de- part from him, confessing his sinfulness. Peter had met Jesus at John's baptism and became his follower,but was not yet sanctified. Hence the presence of Jesus flashed through him the light of the Supernatural and the revelation of his inbred sin. We ought to be so like Jesus and so filled with the Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 59 Spirit that all sin, actual and original, will be revealed and rebuked by our mere presence. The saddest phe- nomenon of the fallen churches and backslidden clergy of the present day, is their congeniality and conprater- nity with a wicked world, mournfully illustrating the ancient proverb, "similibus similes congreganter, birds of a feather flock together/' Tobacco using, frolicking, theatre-going, lodge-attending professors,convict nobody. They are down on a level with the world, whose votaries find congeniality with them, Luke 11 :1-11. Now Jesus meets a man in the synagogue in Capernaum possessed by an unclean spirit, i. e., a devil of impurity, which is so common at the present day. The demon recognizes Jesus; as you know they are fallen angels, and had known Him' in Heaven, for He cast them out when they sinned. God never created the devil, a sinner or a ser- pent. He created angels; some of them fell and became devils. He created man; he fell and became sinner. He created the Nah'ash, the most intelligent of all animals ; he became instrumental in the abduction and ruin of humanity, and was transformed into the snake by di- vine retribution. This is the first of the many denomi- acal ejectments in the ministry of Jesus, and with all other similar cases vividly illustrates his power over all devils, to cast them out. We have no evidence that he ever cast out a demon before the Holy Ghost came on him and filled Him at the Jordan. This is the great test of your spiritual majority, i. e., entire sanctification, confirmed by the reception and indwelling Holy Spirit. He has power over all evil spirits, and is ready to use you to cast them out. This is really your climacteric con- firmation that you enjoy the experience of full salva- 60 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, tion, i. e., that you have power to cast out demons, and are consequently efficient as a soul saver. It is in vain to claim the experience of entire sanc- tification in the absence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, who will always reveal His presence by casting out de- mons, as the people are free, the demons will never be cast out till conviction has so done its work, that the demonized really desire and seek this great deliverance. In this case the demons convulsed and lacerated, caus- ing great excitement among the people. I am just now out of eleven camp-meetings the present year, (1901), in whicli I almost constantly wit- nessed the work of demoniacalment; and in many in- stances quite similar to the case here described. Mark 1 :21-28. Now we have a notable miracle of healing Peter^s mother-in-law, who was afflicted with a great fever. The healing was quick and complete, so that she arose at once and proceeded with her domestic work, ministering to the comfort of her guests, the house being the honored abode of Jesus through the kind hospitality of the inmates. Hence we see the ministry of our Lord conspicuously characterized by his benefactions in be- half of the soul, casting out the filthy, degrading and tormenting demons, and in the interim, healing all dis- eased. He positively commissioned His disciples to go and do this work, i e., cast out demons and heal the sick. All demons are not cast out, not because the Holy Ghost is not present, able and willing to do it, but because submission and faith on the part of the subject are de- fective. For a similar reason diseases are not always healed. The word of Jesus in reference to the body is just as explicit as appertaining to the soul. "Himself Jesus Preaching in Galilee, 61 took our diseases and carried our sicknesses/' Matt. 7 : 17 ; Is.liii :4. Our Lord's word, "as your faith is so be it unto you" is perfectly reliable whether appertaining to soul or body. In all of my travels I see diseases de- part from the sick, while we pray for them and anoint them in the name of the Lord, Jas. 5 :14. We must re- member that the healings we receive in this life are in the interest of the final and perfect healing which will take mortality out of this body, when it will rise in the transfiguration glory. It is certainly our privilege to be healed till we finish our work on the earth and the Lord gets ready to take us to heaven. When that time ar- rives, we will have no faith to be healed, then the Lord will give us heaven which is infinitively better than health. Rom. 7 :11. "If the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you. He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit dwelling in you." This beautiful and wonderful scripture is really the key to divine healing. As the soul is infinitely more than the body, the blessing of healing, normally belongs to the sanctified; however it is not confined to them. If God did not heal the wicked, they would soon all be dead. When we are sanctified wholly, then the Holy Spirit dwells in this body, using it as his house, my soul being unutterably blessed with His heavenly companionship. Therefore, responsive to my faith, He will keep this house in repair so long as He wants me to live in it. If a breach appears in the wall, the roof, the floor, or any other part of your house, you proceed at once to repair it. But the time will come when you quit repairing your house ; then all your neighbors know that you are 62 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, going to move out of it into a new one. I am now sixty- eight years old. Since the Lord sanctified me thirty- three years ago I have committed to Him my body for keeping and healing. He has healed it repeatedly, re- sponsive to my faith. But if He tarrieth and does not send an angel for me, the time is very near when I will have no body to be healed, because it will be worn out and no longer worth healing. When my faith for the healing of my body shall fail I expect my faith for an upward flight to receive new impetus, responsive to which I will joyfully move out of this old, dilapidated house into the building of G-od, not made with hands, eternaland in the heavens. Jesus neither cast demons out of the soul, nor diseases out of the body till He passed out of childhood into manhood, i. e., reached His ma- jority and received the Holy Ghost, by whose power (Gr., dynamite) He cast out the demons, healed the sick, cleansed the lepers and raised the dead. You see the super-eminent importance that we should be filled with the Holy Ghost, not only for our own immortal in- terest, but that we may prove His humble instruments in the salvation of the demonized and the healing of the sick. Infants are incompetent to perform these mighty works, fraught with interest incalculaljle, to a suifering, wicked world. We are all in spiritual infancy till we re- ceive the Holy Ghost, who dwells in none but the wholly sanctified. He abides with the regenerated, but does not dwell in them (John 1-i :17). Now, the inspired historians inform us that "Jesus went round through all Galilee teaching in the syna- gogue, and healing all diseases and every malady among the people. His fame went throughout all Syria (a Jesus Preaching in Galilei. 63 great country on the border of G-alilee) ; and they brought to Him all the sick, possessed with various diseases and torments, the demonized, the lunatics and the paralytics, and many mul- titudes followed Him from Galilee, from Decapolis, from Jerusalem, from Judea, and from beyond Jordan" (Matt. 4:23-25). The notable cases of healing the no- bleman's son and Peter's mother-in-law, and casting out the demon in the synagogue at Capernaum, and doubt- less other parallel cases not mentioned, swept the whole country-, and even heathen Syria, with enthusiasm utter- ly illimitable. The whole country arose on tip-toe, bringing the poor sufferers from all points of the com- pass and laying them down at His feet. Xow a man, as Luke says, ^^full of leprosy comes to Him entreating Him and worshiping, kneeling down before him, saying to Him, If you may will it, you are al^le to cleanse me. Jesus being moved with compassion, reached out His hand to him and says to him, I will it : be thou com- pletely cleansed this moment.'' The aorist tense, im- perative mood and passive voice all abundantly justify this strong translation. The inspired narrative says that the leprosy then and there departed from him. Hence, pursuant to the Levitical Law, Jesus sent him to the priest, whose office it was to diagnose the leper^adjudicate his clean9ing,offeT a sacrifice and become a witness to the people on His behalf, permitting him to come into the sanctuary of the Lord. The ejectment of demons is the conversion of sinners, each being possessed of one or more. The healing of diseases is the blessing for the body. We never hear a mention made of healing a leper, but always his cleansing. Because leprosy, while it is 64 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. really the most loathsome, terrible and incurable disease, it is a great and conspicuous symbol of inbred sin, the great and awful disease of the soul, which is so infinitely more important than the body that the latter is some- what thrown into eclipse in the inspired exegesis. It is a significant fact that everything mentioned in the Bible is still prevalent in the Holy Land, thus wonderfully corroborating revealed truth. The reason why leprosy is utterly incurable is because it is a blood trouble, every corpuscle being affected by it. Heal it in one place, and it breaks out in another. Tliis man had it all over him. and was consequently a loathsome, living death. The reason why the lepers are all delegated to their own mis- erable quarters and prohibited from society is because of the awful, horrific, stenchy loathsomeness of the dis- ease. Since leprosy is a blood trouble, nothing but a blood remedy can possibly reach it. Therefore the blood of Jesus is the only elixir that can possibly expurgate the leprosy of inbred sin out of the human soul, which is the indispensable antecedent to the incoming Holy Ghost. Hence the cleansing of the leper constantly means the great negative work of entire sanctification^ which must precede the glorious positive experience, i. e., the repletion of the Holy Spirit ; therefore, our spir- itual majority which we enjoy in the real experience in the full salvation, both negative and positive, prepares us for the ejectment of the demons out of the sinner, the expurgation of the leprosy of inbred sin out of the unsanctified, infilling with the Holy Ghost and the heal- ing of all bodily ailments. Oh, what a wonderful field of usefulness for the truly sanctified in this poor world of sin and suffering ! Oh, the infinite value of Spirit- Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 65 filled people, going about doing good! Eeader, my prayer to God is, that you may accept the situation and prove a blessing to thousands, converting sinners, sanc- tifying believers, and healing the sick. Inspiration at this point notifies us that Jesus charg- ed the leper not to tell it ; but the news was too good for him to keep. He, with many others, spread it abroad wheresoever they went, until Jesus had to quit the cities and go into the desert, whither many also flocked to Him. \Yhj was this ? Because the normal trend of this great popular excitement was to enthuse the people till they would have rallied and crowned Him king of the Jews, in which case the Romans would have killed Him, as they finally did, crucifying Him under this very alle- gation— "This is the king of the Jews.'' ' ]^ow at Capernaum, where He abode in the house of Peter, a paralytic is carried to Him by four friends, each one at the corner of the bed. The immense crowds filled the house and the yard, where Jesus is perform- ing His mighty works; therefore the men ascend the house, open a window in the flat roof and let down the bed containing the paralytic till it descends into His very presence. Now Jesus instantaneously heals the poor victim responsive to the faith of the 'four friends who carry him, at the same time granting him free abso- lution from all his sins. This notable case of bodily healing and salvation filled the multitude with enthusi- asm (Mark 2:3-12). The first year of our Lord's ministry has passed away and the second Pasover has arrived, the multiplied myriads of Abraham's children are again gathering into the Holy Campus at Jerusalem. Meanwhile He visited 66 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. the Pool of Betliesda, which, is near tlie north gate of the Temple and the east gate of the city, at that time called the Sheep Gate, because it was a great sheep mar- ket ; but now called St. Stephen's Gate, because it is said that the mob dragged him out through it and stoned him to death in front of it. This pool was a noted sani- tarium at that time, and quite a resort for invalids, among whom was a man notorious for his long waiting, thirty-eight years alread}' having rolled away since there he lay awaiting the sanitary effects of the waters, as the people believed made efficacious by the visit of an angel ever and anon. When Jesus bade him, "Take up thy bed and walk,'' instantaneously and miraculously healed, he not only carried his bed, but leaped and skipped with juvenile elasticit};, exciting the venom of the clergy into a rage because Jesus healed him on the Sabbath. When the church grieves away the Holy Spirit and retro- gresses into dead formality, she always gets very particu- lar and even tyrannical on nonessentials. That explains the existence of six thousand religious denominations, this day claiming to be true followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. All these provisions are on matters which never were essential to salvation, i. e., holy days, water baptism, and a diversity of creedistic dogmata, which never did have anything to do with the salvation of the soul. God requires you yourself to be holy. When you are holy, you will have seven holy days every w^eek. There is but one baptism known in the plan of salva- tion (Eph. 4:5), that is the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, which Jesus gives (Matt. 3:11). The true unity of Christians is in the personal and experimental salvation which Jesus gives, and Jesus responded to Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 6^ them, ^^Even now my Father worketh and I work*' ( Jno. 5:17). If God did not work on Sunday, the sun would cease to shine, the rivers to flow, the crops to grow, the blood to circulate, and the heart to beat. Just as God carries on His work all the Sabbath day, so His people are to labor indefatigably to save souls, heal the sick. edify the saints and build up the kingdom of heaven. "Truly, truly, I say unto you, that the one hearing my word and believing on Him that sent me hath eternal life, and doth not come into judgment but hath passed out of death into life" (v. 24). The saints have their judgment in this life, and will go up with the Lord in the rapture and be associated with Him in the final judgment (1 Cor. 6:2). He here makes a beautiful al- lusion to the testimony which John the Baptist had nobly given, comfirmatory of His Messiahship, at the same time reminding them of the evanescence which characterized that bright and shining light. Having attended the Passover, the greatest of all the symbolic institutions of the Old Testament, He speedily returns with His disciples to Galilee. On their journey. w^hile walking through a field of ripe barley (as this was about the firsit of ^lay, it is ioo early for the wheat), the disciples being hungry, proceed to shell out some of the beautiful ripe heads in their hand's and eat them while prosecuting their journey. Again the pharisees attack them for desecrating the Sabbath (not for eating the barley, which the law of Moses allowed them to do) (Deut 23:25); to whom Jesus responded, "But I say unto you that there is one here greater than the Tem- ple," having already referred to the case of David on his flight from Saul, entering the Temple at Nob, the old 68 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. home of Melchizedek, and eating the shew-bread, which was lawful for none but the priests to eat. "If you had known what tliis is, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent." Mercy is the normal fruit of love, hence we see that 'Our Lord's re- ligion is all love> exhibiting the two hemispheres ; piety, which is love to God, and philanthropy, which is love to .nan. False religions are selfish, carnal, worldly, exclu- sive and condemnatory of all who do not chance to pro- nounce their shibboleth for "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath" (Matt. 12:1-8). This climaxes all quib- bles and controversies on the Sabbath. If you are truly corporative with Christ in the salvation with a lost world, Sunday will be your busiest day. The Lord has again arrived in Galilee, having en- tered upon the second year of His ministry at the Pass- over. You see how the high priest and pharisees hound- ed Him all the time. He was in Jerusalem. As they are scattered throughout Galilee and all the Hebrew world, of course they continue to lie in wait and perse- cute Him in Galilee, as well as in Judea ; yet there was a great difference in their popular influence and their fa- cilities of manipulating the rabble, as Jerusalem was their headquarters and the center of their power and in- fluence, both ecclesiastical and secular; especially in view of the fact that the place was thronged with multi- tudes attending the great festivals — Passover April 14, Pentecost June 5, Tabernacles September and Dedica- tion in December — evidently from these considerations, as our Lord said (John 4:44), He sought the more quiet and thinly populated regions of Galilee as the field of His wonderful ministry and the area in which He Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 69 might teach His disciples, organize His ministry, and set up the Kingdom of Gospel Grace. On His arrival in Galilee He is again attacked by the scribes and pharisees for healing the man with a with- ered hand on the Sabbath. "Looking around upon them with anger, being grieved over the hardness of heart, he says to the man, Eeach forth thy hand. He reached out, and his hand was restored like the other" (MaiA 3 :5). Here we see the solution of Eph. 5 :2^, be angry and sin not. The passages are parallel, the same word for anger occurring in both. In the former we see it simply means holy grief; the more holy you are, the more you are grieved over all sin. John Wesley says, "The world fails to discriminate between holy grief and carnal anger." Hence a true consecration resigns us to all sorts of misunderstandings and misjudgments by the world for Christ's sake. "And immediately the Pharisees, having gone out with the Herodians, took counsel against Him, that they would kill Him." Here we see illustrated the unity of Satan's kingdom against God; though involved in infinite turmoil and conflict among themselves. The Pharisees were the radical wing of the loyal Jewish party, most inveterately opposed to Eoman rule, while the Herodians were a political party, headed by officers under the Eoman government; hence these two parties were irreconcilably hostile, either to the other ; yet you see them here unite in their counsel to kill Jesus. Signally does history repeat itself. What is more common at the present day, than to see warring sects all lay down their cudgels and unite against the holiness movement? "Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, 70 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. in whom my soul deliglitelli ; I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall claim judgment to the Gentiles. He will not strive nor scream, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets ; the bruised reed will he not break and the smoking wick he will not extinguish, until he may send forth judgment into victory. In his name will the Gen- tiles hope." Matt. 12 :18-21. Here is a beautiful allu- sion by the Prophet Isaiah to the Savior in His two ad- vents contra stively, in the first, meek and lowly, unos- tentatious, going about doing good, not breaking the bruised reed, i. e., not crushing the broken-hearted pen- itent, but smiling on him land giving him glorious vic- tory; nor extinguishing the flickering lamp-wick, but pouring in the oil and trimming it until it burns up in a triumphant flame. Thus he is the condescending Moli- fier of all sorrows and Alleviator of all woes, while in His second and glorious coming. He will ride trium- phantly over all His foes and girdle the world with the glory of His victory. We now reach the memorable epoch in our Lord-'s ministry when, on the Mt. of Beatitudes, Avhich over- hangs the city of Capernaum, He selects the twelve apos- tles, whom He honors above all the people in the v/hole world with His own constant companionship and the custodianship of the divine oracles and vehicles through which He transmits the glorious plan of salvation to all coming generations. We have their catalogue in Matt. 10 :2-4, Mark 3 :13-19 and Luke 6 :12-19. Mark 14 says, "He ordained tw^elve, that they may be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal diseases, and to cast out demons." We see here the prominent phases of the Lord's ministry Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 71 provide for the body by healing diseases, and for tiie coal by casting out the demons. !So we see the interests oi the soul and body go hand in hand. The word ordained here is not to be taken in the acceptation given to it at the present day by the ecclesiastical organizations which have appropriated it, so as virtually to take the Lord's ministry out of His hands. The word here trans- lated ordained has no such a meaning as modern eccle- siasticisms attach to it, the original being epoieese doo- deka — He made twelve. The word ordained was used by King James' translators to sustain the institutions of the Episcopal Church, of which they were members. The E. Y. gives just one more passage parallel with the above — John 15 :16 — "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,and ordained you that you may go forth and bear fruit, and your fruit may remain : in order that whatsoever you may ask the Father in my name, He may give it unto you.^' In this Scripture the word "ordained" translated is etheeha, and simply means "I have put you in your place," not giving the vaguest information of an}i:hing like modern ecclesiastical organization. Acts 14:23: "Ordaining unto the elders in every church, praying with fastings commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed." Here "ordained" occurs again in the E. Y., these three passages being all that can be construed to authenticate ecclesiastical organiza- tion. This, like the other two, signally fails to give any support to the claims and usages of which so much is made in modern church authority, the word being cheiro- tonusantes, from cheir, the hand, and tofieo, to reach up. setting forth the simple fact that the elders were elected by reaching up the hand. We really have no case in the 72 Life of Jesus and His Apostles New Testament that looks like ministry of organization, except Acts 13 :3 — "Then, fasting and praying and lay- ing hands on them, they sent them away/' This is spok- en of Barnabas and Paul when the Holy Ghost moved the church at Antioch to send them away on the hrst missionary tour of the Apostolic Church. While this service is very appropriate in case of that time in every age, it is a significant fact that there was nothing in it after the order of the organization practiced by the churches at the present day. Both of these men had been preaching in the gospel church about ten yearSj being both apostles extraordinary. Hence we find in the New Testament nothing corresponding with the modern ecclesiastical organization, which becomes a source of discouragement among a truly called and sent preacher of the Gospel. The Man Jesus was the head of His own Church during His earthly life. He predicted that the people of this wicked world, and especially the fallen church, would not let Him live in it, but would conspire against Him and take His life. In His boundless and unut- terable love, to keep the devil from thus defeating the plan of salvation. He told them He would go away when they murdered His body, and send the Holy Ghost, who has no human body, and consequently cannot be killed. He positively certifies (John 16) that the Holy Ghost is His successor on the earth, to carry on His w^ork till He returns in His glory. Hence practically the Holy Ghost is the head of the church, making some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers unto the perfection of the saints in the work of the ministry, into the edification of the body of Christ until Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 73 we may all arrive into the unity of faith and of the per- fect knowledge of the Son of God^ into a perfect man, into the measure of a st>ature of the fulness of Christ in order that we may no longer be infants, tossed about and carried away by every wind of teaching at the caprice of men in their craftiness unto the method of delusion, but' speaking the truth in love we may grow up in Him in all things, who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body assimilated and knitted together from every joint of the supply according to the working of the measure of every part, maketh the increase of the body unto the edification of itself in divine love (Eph. 4:11-16. Thus we see that Christ never d'Cdicated His church to any human succession. The apostle is the pioneer, the prophet has the enduement of the Spirit to witness for Jesus (Rev. 19:10). The evangelist is the fire-baptized preacher, hewing his way through the phalanx of Satan ; the teacher is the faithful instructor of the Lord's disciples in His precious Word, while the pastor is the diligent leader and keeper of the flock. We have no authority outside of God's Word. It not only covers all the ground, but pronounces withering anathemas on all who have the audacity to add to or take from (Rev. 22:18, 19.) The great trouble with the churchisms of the day is their apparently incorrigible propensity to usurp and grieve away the Holy Ghost, who is the only head of the true gospel church. He calls and sends whom H^ will. If you want a New Tes- tament ordination, you have nothing to do but have the «aints gather about you, mid fasting and prayer, lay hands on you, thus invoking the Holy Ghost to descend on you, fill you completely, possess you, and empower 74 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. jou for the work He has called you to do. John Wesley realized much difficulty, as his preachers were not or- dained, neither could he prevail on the church to ordain them, consequently he consecrated Dr. Coke to the supei- intendency of the American work. He came over and consecrated Asbury^ who ordained four thousand Meth- odist preachers in his long and useful life. In this way the Methodist church was originally launched in Amer- ica. Hence ycu see the holiness people have as much •ght to ordination as the Methodists or any other de- nomination. God still lives, rules His church, and will not relegate His authority to another. He wants all the help He can get to save a sinking world. "Who will then consecrate himself to the Lord?'" Jesus, with the twelve whom He had called, having spent a night at prayer on the Mount of Beatitudes, sends them forth, Simon Peter, James the son of Zebe- dee, John the brother of James; and He conferred on them the name, Boanerges, which is Sons of Thunder; Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew, Thom- as, James the son of Alpheus, and Thaddeus and Simon the Zelot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. After a night of prayer and the selection of the twelve in the early morning, having descended from the summit, down to the broad table-land on the slope. He observes a mighty host, not only from all parts of Judea and Gali- lee, but from Tyre and Sidon — large Gentile cities on the Mediterranean coast — as usual He indulges in works of mercy, casting out the demons and healing the sick; so there was a tremendous pressure all rushing that they might touch Him, because the power continued to go out from Him and heal all who came in contact Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 75 with Him. He has now reached a most important cr'tig in His work. Having called and commissioned the twelve, it .is transcendently pertinent that they were in- structed in the great fundamentals of His kingdom, which they are to preach to all the world when He shall have gone back to heaven. Consequently, leaving the multitudes, He went back to the mountain summit, ac-- companied by His disciples, as the occasion is for theii' especial benefit. The multitude, however, have already become so interested that they follow on, determined to hear more of that truth, scintillations of Avhich have already thrilled them with enthusiasm. Xow He deliv- ers that celebrated Sermon on the Mount, so deep, high and broad as to comprehend the whole plan of salvation, doctrine, experimental and practical. It is really a fo^ calizaition of all truth,meeting every emergency and solv- ing every problem for time and eternity. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heav- ens.'' The sinner is not only poor, but in absolute spir- itual desolation, so poor that pauperism does not com- prehend the appalling wretchedness and misery of his spiritual condition. Yet Satan and his myrmidons have him so blinded that he thinks he is rich and dreams he is a millionaire. The first blessing in the redemptive scheme is the conviction, which reveals to the sinner his poverty; a blessing sure enough, because the kingdom of the heav- ens is his, if he will only receive it. "Blessed are they that mourn, because they shall be comforted." How pertinent does this blessing come to the convicted sinner mourning for salvation; and the illuminated Christian mourning for a clean heart ! "Blessed are the meek, for 76 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. they shall inherit the earth/' Meekness is that beautiful grace of perfect humility, which sinks us deep down into the will of God, so that losing sight of all the world, we desire nothing but God. Satan has the world (3 Cor. 4 :4) and rules it with a rod of iron ; consequently God's meek and lowly pilgrims of sorrow and suffering have a hard time. But our Lord is coming again on the raiib" bow of triumph, to dethrone Satan, take him and all his myrmidons out of the world, and give the whole earth to His saints, while His glory will envelop the globe as the waters cover the sea. "Blessed are they that hun- ger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." The King of Glory has come down, redeemed earth's lost millions with his blood, conquered all our enemies, swept away our poverty, and girdled the world with his table, groaning beneath the luxuries and delica- cies of his kingdom. We have nothing to do but come to the table and help ourselves. The angels are hovering around, swift to wait on us with the ambrosia of heaven, the fatted calf, the manna in the golden pot, and all the fruits of Canaan. Why will you not all eat to glutten- ous and drink to drunkenness, and revel in all the luxu- ries of this wonderful and wonderful full Salvation? "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." When you reach this blessing your cloven hoofs and horns all drop off, and you sink away into love for every body and every thing that has feeling. Your cow, horse, dog, chickens and your neighbors will soon find it out. These blessings are beautifully accumulative, exhibiting a golden concatenation mounting up like an Egyptian pyramid, till heaven looms in view, and the angels edify you with their melodious anthemf and golden harps ; so JestLS Preaching in Galilee. ^i^ the blessing of mercy is the antje-chamber to that of a clean heart. "Blessed are the pure in heart, because they shall see God/'' Your heart is your spiritual being, your immortal self, liable any moment to evacuate this body and stand in the presence of the Almighty, who hath decreed, "Without holiness no one shall see the Lord." A pure heart has no sin in any form nor phase; no pride, vanity, anger, wrath, malice, envy, jealousy, re- venge, bigotry, prejudice, lust, covetousness, ambition, or love of the world. All these are members of the old man (Col. 3), who must be crucified or utterly destroyed (Rom. 6). Sin's annihilation is utterly washed away by the cleansing blood, consumed by the fires of the Holy Ghost, thus superinducing an uttermost salvation and bringing in the wonderful experience of a clean heart. Good Lord, help us all to get it and abide in the experience till translated from earth to heaven ! "Bles- sed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the sons of God." You see the beautiful logic of the Holy Ghost, which directly succeeds tlie blessing of a clean heart with that of a peace-maker. Every sinner in the world is in- volved with an awful war with God Almighty destined through 'an awful defeat to an eternity of woe. ^^Tien j-ou get a clean heart, then you are ready to labor as a peace-maker, indefatigable and always bidding for a job on that line; not only making peace with God in behalf of condemned aliens, but you become the herald of "peace on earth, and good will to man," everywhere dispensing the sunshine of reconciliation, love, friend- ship and philanthropy with m^an and man. "Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Luke 6 :22) . "Blessed 'J'S Life of Jesus and His Apostles. are ye when the people may hate you, and when they may turn you out of the church, may despise and cast out your name as evil. Eejoice in that day and leap for joy; for behold your reward is great in heaven; for according to these things that their fathers did unto the prophets * * * woe unto you when all tlie people speak well of you; for according to these things their fathers were accustomed to do unto the false prophets." How beautifully and significantly do these things tower before us! Here we have the grand culmination of a clean heart, followed by the blessing of soul-saving, showing that you must have a clean heart if you would be an efficient soul saver. Last of all, the pinnacle of the salvation pyramid is the blessing of persecution. The logic here is grand and beautiful. If you have not a clean heart and diligently working as a soul saver, perse- cution will not be a blessing to you. What a glorious deliverance from all the troubles of life, the dread of death, hell and eternity, are these blessings! Here we are actually commanded to leap for joy. The normal effect of this wonderful salvation is to kill out the man of sin, thus making us So dead that no desire shall rise To pass for good or greater wise In any but my Savior's eyes. How blessed to be utterly dead to what people may say about you, or think of you! The false prophets in the olden time aspired to popularity, sacrificing duty to the praise of men. Matt. v. 13 : "Ye are the salt of the earth,'^ but if the salt shall lose savor, with what shall it be salted ? It is good for nothing but to be cast out Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 79 and trodden under foot by the people. Eeligion is God's salt to save the world. When it loses the Holy Ghost, it no longer has any saving power. Savorless salt is the most worthless tiling in the world. Throw it on the land and it alkilies the ground and ruins it ; it is really fit for nothing but to make w^alks. How strikingly significant these words of Jesus! When religion has lost the Holy Ghost, then Satan uses it to make walks over which the people travel down to hell ! "Ye are the light of the world. * * * Let your light so shine before the people that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in the heavens.^' If the salt were all out of the ocean, its waters would stagnate, generate malaria and depopulate the world, destroying not only all the people, but every air-breathing animal. Take all the Christians out of the world, and not a solitary ray of spiritual light is left ! We could see nothing on the earth, if it did not reflect solar light in some way. The great Son of Eighteousness has gone up to heaven, but He has left His disciples to reflect His light upon the guilty millions of lost immortals on all sides walking in Satan's midnight down to endless ruin. "Think not that I came to destroy the law of the prophets : I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. * * * For I say unto you that unless your righteousness abound more than the scribes and Pharisees you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." The ceremonial law of bloody sacrifices was all fulfilled when He bled and died on the cross. All the blood and water catechisms are fulfilled in the dis- pensation of the Holy Ghost. "Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 13 :10). We must appropriate these posi- tive and definite declarations of the Savior. He died 80 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. under the law to atone for our sins, because the law could not be broken with impunity, the flippancy of which this day characterizes tlie popular pulpit, wink- ing at sin and its consequences, compromising with the world, the flesh and the devil; "crying peace, peace, when there is no peace." It is at once disgusting and appalling, telling sinners that they are "not under the law, but under grace," which is not true. Tlie law says, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Every soul is amen- able to the law till the man of sin dies ('Rom. Qi-.Q^). The man of grace is not under the law. Perfect love fulfills the law. The scribes were the popular preachers, and the Pharisees were the leading church members in our Sa- vior's time. But they were dead and formal, like so many of their successors nowadays ; hence we see that if we do not get something better than the popular religion, even as represented by the pastors and ruling elders, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 5 :21-26 gives a paragraph involving sundry responsibilities amenable to Jewish criminal adjudication and symboliz- ing infinitely greater condemnation before the tribunal of heavenly jurisprudence (v. 22). "But I say unto you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to the judgment." E. V. erroneously inserted the clause, "Without a cause," which does not appear in the original. Every human being is your brother. An- ger is the spirit of murder, hence if you would be guilt- less before the law of Grod, you must get rid of all anger, in the glorious experience of entire sanctification. We here see that the gate of mercy is forever closed against the person who has aught against any human being. This unforgiving spirit fills the church with backsliders, Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 81 makes the home a pandemonium and the world a hell. Verse 25. In this verse the Mediatorial Christ is the adversar}% doing his utmost to arrest every hellward- bound soul in his mad rush to destruction. The Judge is the Judicial Christ, at whose tribunal every soul who rejects His mediatorial mercy must soon give an awful account of a wdcked life. The officer is none other than Satan, the king of hell, to whom the interceding Savior delivers all unsavable souls, while the prison here mentioned is the awful black abyss of a bottomless hell. The paragraph (vs. 27-30) describes the dark iniquity of the heart, adultery, at the same time exhorting every human being to stand aloof from it, even at the cost of the right e3^e and the right hand, the alternative be- ing the ejectment of the soul and body into hell. Verse 32, condemning the man who marries the divorced wo- man is an erroneous translation, as apolelumeneen does not mean a divorced woman, but simply ^Tiaving been cast off," e. g., whom the angry, oppressive husband drives away from home. There is no information in the case that she has a right to a divorcement; but while that is an open question, it is certain she has not re- ceived it. Therefore she is still the wife of her tyranni- cal husband, who mal-treated and drove her away ; con- sequently the man marrying her is criminal of adultery, because she is another man's wife. Since the force of a Scriptural divorce is the nullification of the matrimonial covenant, and the restoration of the parties to celibacy, when it is realh^ Scriptural and legal, the normal sig- nification is to render the party marriageable again. Verses 33-37. Our Lord condemns all profanity, and even all superfluent words and phrases, as coming from 82 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. the evil one, i. e., the devil. Verses 38-42. He forever sweeps away the lex talionis, i. e., the law of retaliation in all its forms and phases, explicitly exhorting all of His disciples to love their enemies, lend to the poor without any probability of reciprocation, in order that we may be the children of our Heavenly Father, who sends down rain and sunshine on the wicked as well as the good, closing up the loving exhortation by that thril- ling commandment, "Therefore ye shall be perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.^^ Luke paral- els it, "Be merciful as your Father which is merciful." As mercy is the normal fruit of love in all ages and na- tions, the meaning of this strong and beautiful com- mandment is identical with the grand leader of the dec- alogue^ enjoining perfect love to God and man. It is impossible to love the Lord with all the heart when any part of the spiritual being is occupied by an alien. Hence entire sanctification is the negative, and perfect love the positive hemisphere of full salvation. The Greek "perfect'^ is teleive, from telos, the end; therefore it means a finished salvation. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). All sin is the work of the devil. Wlien Jesus completes His work. He ut- terly exterminates it out of our spiritual organism (Matt. 6:1-7). Our Lord warns us against all ostenta- tious display and vain glory, affirming that the hypo- crites who hold up before the world a gaudy, showy re- ligion exhaust their reward, i. e., get it all here, the praise of the people, and have none left for eternity. He also warns us against vain repetitions in our prayers and speeches reminding us that the lightning and not the thunder does all the execution. In connection with this Jesus Preacliing in Galilee. 83 warning against empty repeftitions, He even favors us with the form of the prayer we are to use till He comes in His glory. The great salient facts prominent in that prayer is our constant petition of the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Spirit to give us grace to do His will on earth, as the angels and redeemed saints do it in heaven, which simply means to grant unto us the perpetual experience of entire sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3). "This is His will, your sanctification." The concomitant petition with the above, is "thy kingdom come." This prayer is not given to sinners, but to our Savior's disciples; all of whom are citizens of the king- dom of grace, having it already established in their hearts and verified in their lives. Hence the kingdom for which we are to pray night and day is none other than the glorious millennial theocracy, which the Lord will bring with Him when He comes in the splendor of His matchless glory. Another climacteric idiom of this universal prayer is, "Deliver us from the evil one," i. e., from the devil. The E. V. here is too weak, giving the abstract, when the Greek has the concrete, setting forth the transcendent reality that it is the glorious privilege of every disciple to get rid of the devil altogether, so he will never again be permitted to come in shooting distance. To be sure he will shoot at you, but will waste all of his ammunition. Verses 16-18.- Our Lord here again warns us against a religion consisting of external show, pomp and pageantry; but destitute of the spirit- ual reality. Verses 19-23. Importunate warnings against lapng up treasures on earth where moth and rust and thieves will get them. But He pours His burn- ing emphasis in solemn warnings to all of His disciples 84 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. to lay up their treasures in heaven, where they will nev- er perish, but accumulate new beauty and value, which will never end till eternity sweeps along. The meaning of this grand admonition is that the spiritual shall for- ever predominate over the material. We can take none of the latter with us when we go, hence we can lay up nothing in heaven but immortal souls; therefore, in these alone should we make our investment. Verses 24-34 is a burning appeal following the preceding para- graph as a legitimate corrollary, reminding us of the impossibility to serve two masters, i. e., God and man. The mission of Jesus on earth was only to do His Fath- er's will. It is equally true of all His disciples. We have nothing to do in this earthly life, but glorify God by helping Jesus to save the sinking millions of a dying world. He challenges us to look at the fowls of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; also to gaze upon the beautiful lilies of the field, so nice and white as to remind us of earthly purity and glory, at the same time assuring us that God will feed us like the birds and clothe us like the lilies. Of all the kings who ever lived, Solomon was the most glorious, yet our Lord certifies that even Solomon in all his glory, fell behind the lilies, in the splendor and beauty of his re- galia. He condemns all solicitude about transitory things. He vrants us to be free as the birds, simple and beautiful as the lilies, utterly unencumbered with transi- tory things, so we can at all times be at our best for God, souls and heaven, exhorting us to seek the kingdom of God first, assuring us that all of these other things, i. e.. temporal contingencies, shall be added unto us. Luke 6 :37-42. He admonishes us against a critical Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 85 disposition, condemnatory in our attitude towards oth- ers, as Paul said, "Who art thou that judgeth another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or fall- eth." He exhorts to us liberality in measuring and weighing, assuring us that the same will be weighed and measured back to us. He gives us solemn warnings against blind guides, assuring us thiait the guide and his followers will fall into the ditch (i. e., hell) together. "The disciple is not above his teacher ; but everyone who has been made perfect shall be like his teacher." His omnipotent grace amply provides for the protection o:? all His disciples. "W^y are we, then, like Him ? Be- ciause He has no sin. When He makes us perfect, He takes it all out of us, so that we become the participants of His own purity. Here again He warns us against the hypocrite, who will see the mote in the eye of the Lord's perfect disciple, while he has a beam in his own eye. The mote here means the infirmity which inheres in tht sanctified till this mortal puts on immortality. Glori- fication wrought by the Holy Ghost is the only deliver- ance from all infirmities. Sanctification takes away nothing but sin, leaving the infirmities for the final con- servation work of the glorification. You see here thai the critic, who is none other than an anti-holiness pro- fessor, denominated a hypocrite by the Savior, has a beam in his own eye. That beam is inbred sin, which will drag him into hell if he does not get rid of it; while the mote does not hurt the eye, neither does it keep any- body out of heaven. Matt. 7 :6. ^^Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine; lest they may trample them under feet, turning may tear you into 86 Life of Jesus and Ills Apostles. pieces/' Dogs and horses are unclean animals, here sig- nifying carnal people. This warning should constantly be heeded, lest we forfeit our opportunities of doing good by falling into these fatal mistakes. Hence you see we should not cast the pearls of holiness before dead professors and wicked worldlings, as in that case we would do them no good and only cause them to commiit sin by rejecting the truth. Much valuable ammunition is thus wasted on dead game. Sanctification is only for the citizens of the kingdom, repentance being the gospel for aliens. "We now have n series of exceedingly precious prom- ises, i. e., "Ask, and it shall be given unto you ; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. * * * if then you being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does your Father who is in heaven know how to give good things to them that ask Him ?" Lord, inspire the omnipotent faith of ev- eryone who reads these promises to receive and appropri- ate them in spite of sin, doubt and the devil ! Verse 12. "Therefore all things whatsoever you may wish that the people do unto you, do you also unto them : for this is the law and the prophets.^^ The Old Testament revealed in beautiful symbolism, everything revealed in fact in the New Testament, hence you see how the great law of reciprocity really solves the entire problem of human life, duty and responsibility. Yerses 13, 14. "Broad is the road that leads to death, And thousands walk together there ; While wisdom shows a narrow path, "With here and there a traveler." This is the King's highway of holiness (Isa. Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 87 35). It is so narrow that there is only room for a human soul, unencumbered by sin and the world, to travel over it. Our Lord follows this stupen- dous affirmation by six verses, all devoted to solemn warnings to "beware of false prophets.'' Who are these false prophets? The connection shows clearly that they are counterfeit preachers, who broaden the way, thus deceiving heaven-bound pilgrims and dragging thorn into hell. When, in the light of God's Word and Spirit, we look around and see fallen churches and false proph- ets on all sides, as Jesus says, "Only one here and there traveling the narrow way." The Protestant churches are fast becoming a wreck in the track of Romanism, 60 corrupt as to alarmingly verify the prophesy of the Holy Ghost through Paul (1 Tim. 4:1)— "The Spirit positively says that some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and the teaching of de- mons." 2 Tim. 3 :1. "Know this, that in the last days perilous times shall come * * * having a form of god- liness and denying the power of the same; from these turn away." Chapter 4 :3. "For the time will eome when they will not endure sound doctrine, but; according to their own lust will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and will turn their hearing from the truth and be turned into fables." We are now living among, the sad fulfillment of the awful prophesies uttered by Jesus and Paul. In countless instances at the present day, the churches take the bit in their teeth and dictate to the preacher. If he does not prophecy "smooth things," they will withhold their support and send him away. Oh, how few preachers are now actually walk- ing in the narrow way, saying to their members, "Fol- 88 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. low me as I follow the Lord!" The people turn with disgust from the narrow way, demand of their preachers carnal freedom. The pastor who will let his members slip through his fingers into hell with least friction, is most popular. Verses 21-23. Our Lord gives us a vivid judgment scene, portraying these false prophets, i. e., counterfeit preachers, whose name is legion, coming up and standing before the great white throne, presenting their commendatory claims for acquittal, reward and heavenly promotion; "Lord, Lord, have we not prophe- sied in thy name, and in thy name cast out demons, and in thy name done many mighty works? Then will I testify unto them, I have never known ye; depart from me, ye who* work Iniquity." These preachers have occu- pied prominent positions in the churches, been loved and appreciated by their people, made many converts, built fine churches, represented their people in the great and honorable councils. They live and die feeling sure that they are right; they come up to judgment in the con- fiding egotism in which they have lived, there to find out the appalling secret that Satan, arrayed as an angel of light, had called them to the ministry. They have preached his gospel, pleased, deceived and damned mul- titudes who followed them and applauded their able anti-holiness sermons. Now, when it is eternally too late, they find out the awful and fatal mistake. Reader, I am not dra^dng on my imagination. The connection shows that these are the false prophets who preach a broad way to heaven. They are all around us. We live in an age of fallen ehurches and false prophets. Verses 24-29. Now Jesus winds up this wonderful Se>rmon on the Mount of Beatitudes, vividly contrasting the mar Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 89 who hears His word and does it, with the man who hears and does not; the former builds his house upon the rock, the winds howl, tempests roar, hurricanes sweep, floods come down, cyclones desolate, yet tlie super- structure stands impregnable, because it is built on the eternal foundation of the earth. The word translated "rock" (E. V.) is petra, which really means the vast unbroken foundation of the earth, holding up all the mountains, seas and oceans, and (Matt. 16:18) appliei to Christ Himself. The metaphor applied in this coun- try might be criticised, as we can build no house which would absolutely be proof against perpetual storms and floods. This is not so in the Holy Land, where the houses are solid stone from foundation to the flat stone roof, and all consolidated by calcareous and bituminous ce- ment, so that the house is like a native lime-stone rock as old as creation. On the contrary the man who hears the words of Jesus and does them not, builds his house upon the sand ; the floods undermind it and the storms capsize it, and the ruin is irretrievable. Verse 28. It came to pass when Jesus finished these speeches, the multituds were astonished by His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. You see what a decisive contrast between Him and the scribes, who were the popular preachers, and ig- norant of the Holy Ghost, whom Jesus receired when John baptized Him. So it is the person nowadays who has n-ot received the Holy Ghost as an indwelling Sanctifier and Comforter, preaches after the forceless style of the scribes and other unsanctified people. Here we see the reason why Jesus forbade His own apostles to go out under the commission until they received the 90 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. Holy Ghost. Oh, what a mistake is made by not tarry- ing at Jerusalem till Jesus baptizes with the Holy Ghost and fire. Without thiS;, there will be little or no force in the preaching. The Mount of Beatitudes hangs over Capernaum from her north. Then the Lord descends into the city, the elders importune Him, in behalf of the centurion, who had built them a synagogue that He should go at once and heal his servant, as he esteemed him very highly, and he was about to die. While Jesus is going with the elders to the centurion's house, he sent a mes- senger to Him to stop Him, entreating Him to forbear making the trip to his house, but only to speak a word and it will be done accordingl}^, ipse dixit; observing I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me ; I say to this one, "go, and he goeth ; to that one, come, and he cometh; and to another, do this, and he doeth it.'' Tlie faith of this heathen man astonished Jesus, who, turning to the multitude following, said, "I have not found so great faith in Israel." The centurion was then on duty as an officer in the Eoman army, and doubtless had often heard Jesus preach on the street, as He had already preached a whole year in Galilee, making His headquarters in that city. Now let us see the real at- titude of the centurion's faith, which our Lord so highly commends. His faith arose in him like a giant and said. "Precisely as I command soldiers and the stem Eoman law forces them to obey me promptly, or lose their heads, so you command diseases to get out of the body and de- mons to evacuate the soul and they are forced by the laws of heaven to obey you. Consequently he looked upon the visit of Jesus to his house as a superfluity. Though the Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 91 Lord halted and went on other errands of mercy, those who had carried the centnrion^s message to Him return- ed to his house and found his servant well. Lord help us to have faith in thee like this heathen soldier ! Luke 7 :1-10 ; Matt. 8 :11, "And I say unto you many will come from the East and from the West, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven, but the sons of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnash- ing of teeth." This was true in case of Cornelius with multitudes of Gentiles, destined soon to follow him into the Kingdom ; w^hile the Jews, with all their light and opportunities, led astray by the corrupt clevgy, were? ruined for time and eternity. This same prophecy of my Lord is this day receiving an awful fulfillment, as we see multiplied thousands of the children of all the churches, going aw^ay into sin, worldliness and infideli- ty, and hell, while the heathens are coming to the light, responding to the call of gospel grace and getting saved by thousands, v. 13. Jesus said to the centurion, "Go, and as thou believe be it done unto thee." Here you see omnipotence of faith, both for soul and body. The bank of faith cannot be broken. Your faith is absolutely the m-easuring line of your salvation. Jesus now leaves Capernaum, accompanied by the newly installed Twelve, and a vast multitude. In the city ^ain on the North- ern slopes of Mt. Eamouth-gilead, a poor widow with broken heart is following her only son to the tomb. Her piteous wails have reverberated through the air for- ty miles to Capernaum. The tender heart of Jesus reciprocates with loving sympathy. Already the pro- cession following the bier is passed beyond the wall, 92 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. crossed the stone bridge, over a ravine and are slowly marching away to the sepulchre in the mountain's crag ; when Jesus, accompanied by His disciples, comes up, falls in front of the bier, motions to the pall-bearers to sit it down. He now lifts the pall from the face of the dead, takes the corpse by the hand, and speaks with a voice that makes the mountain tremble, "Young man, I say unto thee, arise." Lifting him up, he opens his eyes, sees his mo'ther and falls into her embrace. Mean- while the whole multitude is wonderfully excited, rush forward, climb surrounding heights, to see what is the matter. So fast as they find out what has been done, they all throw their mouths wide open, and shout uproariously, "Glory to God in the highest, who has sent a prophet into Israel, who has power to speak the dead to life again!" Now the whole city is aroused by the roaring shout, dumbfounded and perplexed to explain the phenomenon, they soliloquized, "What can it be? Whoever heard a great shout at a funeral? Why, that is the place of weeping." Now they mount the flat roofs of the houses and stretch their eyes to see what is the matter. By this time the whole procession in wild, irreg- ular, roaring confusion, is moving back to the city. Soon they recognize the young man and his mother heading the procession, and all the balance following with tre- mendous shouts. How wonderful was the loving pity of my Lord, to walk forty miles to Nain and then forty back to Capernaum, all to gladden the broken heart of that widowed mother, as well as to reveal His stupend- ous mercy to the world, Luke 7 : 11-1 7. We now see Je- sus accosted by two of the disciples of John the Baptist, whom he had sent all the way from his prison in Macher- Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 93 us on the Dead Sea under the shadow of Mt. Pisgah, in the Land of Moah, about two hundred miles to inquire of Jesus, "Art thou He who is coming, or must we look for another ?" Jesus simply responds to them, "Go tell John the things which you have seen and heard ; the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached unto .them; and blessed is he, whosoever may not be offended in me/' The reader intuitively propounds the questions, "Why did John send those disciples ? Had he who had intro- duced Jesus to the world as the Christ fallen into doubt ? Or was it to satisfy His doubting disciples?" It was neither of these. I have no idea that either John or his disciples entertained doubts about the Christhood of Jesus. Then, why did he send them? I trow it was to evoke from Him a public announcement of his Christ- hood. John had already spent about fourteen months in that loathsome prison. He felt anxious for Jesus to bring his enterprise to a crisis. While He was dazzling the eye of the world with the wisdom of His preaching and the majesty of His miracles, He had not yet openly declared His Christhood among the Jews. (1) If He had, they would have crowned Him King, and the Ro- mans would have killed Him. (2) Doubtless in His infallible wisdom, He preferred to let His mighty works convince them of His divinity, in the absence of open avowal on His part. The arrival of John's messengers, incidently brought up the subject of John's ministry, which the multitudes then hanging spell-bound on His lips could never forget. Here He certifies to them the pre-eminence of John the Baptist above all the prophets 94 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. who had preceded Him, but puzzles them and many in our day hy certifying, ^'that the least in the King- dom of Heaven, is greater than he,^^ i. e., dispensation — by greater, as John lived and died in the daj's of the law and the prophets, on the normal plain of justifica- tion; though he and other patriarchs and prophets en- joyed proliptical sanctification ; whereas the Pentecost of dispensation is entirely on the normal plain of sanc- tification. He also reminds them that John was tli3 last prophet of the old dispensation, succeeded by the Kingdom of God, i. e., the gospel dispensation. He ako reminds them how all the people and even the publicans justified God, being baptized by John ; but the Pharisees and Theologians rejected the counsel of God against them, not being baptized by him. The truth of it is, John publicly insulted them, calling them a ^'generation of vipers," at the same time positively refusing to bap- tize them unless they showed up satisfactory symptoms of repentance, which they failed to do, consequently for- feiting the blessing of His baptism. Xow Jesus likens the present to little children, sitting in the forum calling to one another, and saying, "We have piped unto yon and you have not danced; we have mourned unto you and you have not w^ept." For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say he hath a demon. The son of man eating and drinking, and you say: "Behold a man gluttenous and drinking wine a friend of publicans and sinners." But wisdom is justified o^ her children, Luke 7 :18-35. While Jesus was begotten by the Holy Ghost, John was born of sup- erannuated parents who were re-invigorated by the di- rect intervention of the Holy Spirit. Hence they were Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 95 both truly the children of the Holy Ghost here personi. fled by wisdom, one of his attributes. While it is tru€ in a concrete sense, that Jesus and John were the chil- dren of the Holy Ghost, it is equally true in an ahstraci sense, as John represents the old dispensation and being the last of the prophets, typifies the death of that dis- pensation, while Jesus really and practically inaugur- ated the new, currently designated the Kingdom ol God, in contradistinction to the theocracy under the law and prophets. There is in this symbolism, presented bji our Lord, a most vivid exemplification of Christian ex- perience. We must all have our funeral and our wed- ding, if we would enjoy a place in the bridehood oi Christ. Our old husband, Adam the First, must die and be buried, before we can get married to our new Lover, Adam the Second ; the crucifixion of the old man being the negative side of sanctification and our marriage to Christ the positive. It is a notable fact here, that these children were only playing funeral and wedding; as there was nothing of the kind on hand. This fact re- mands us of the shoddy professions, so prevalent in every age; people on all sides professing to be dead to sin, when really they are not dead, and sin funeral with them is only a sham ; while it is equally true that they pro- fess to be married to Christ, ^dien their lives sadly show that they still have worldly lovers, but it is not true of married people. How sad to see so much sham profes- sion, claiming to being dead to sin when they are not; and married to Christ, which their lives show to be a sad mistake. Jesus is now in Capernaum, the central city of all His Galilean evangelistic peregrinations ; in full view of 96 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. Chorazin, Bethsaida, Tyberius and many other cities dotting the coast of that memorable sea, which wit- nessed most of His mighty works, Matt. 11 :20-24:. Now he breaks out into most awful anathemas and wither- ing woes against those cities, because they did not re- pent under His preaching. "Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! Wo€ unto thee, Bethsaida ! because if the mighty works which have been performed in you, had been in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented long ago in sack-cloth and ashes. Moreover, I say unto you, it will be more tolerant for Tyre and Sidon on the day of Judg- ment than for you.'^ Chorazin was a flourishing city twenty miles away on the slopes of Mt. Anti-Lebanon, in full view and very conspicuous from the Sea of Galilee. Bethsaida stood on the north-east coast of the sea, about eight miles from Capernaum. Pursuant to these blighting woes, both of these cities went into utter deso- lation, and so remained through the ages. Bethsaida is still desolate without an inhabitant. It was the hon- ored birthplace of Peter, Andrew and Philip. A few years ago a Jewish colony dropped down on the site of Old Chorazin, and, like all other places whither they emigrate, made it boom. WHien I saw it in 1899, it was very prosperous, containine: twentv-four thousand inhabitants. The reason why the doom of these Jew- ish cities, in the Judgment day, will be infinitely more awful than that of Tyre and Sidon, is because they are Gentile cities, and never heard the gospel. Though they were awfully wicked and terribly anathematized by the old prophets, yet they never had the light of re- vealed truth. From this you see there will be a diversity of judgments in the great day ; those who have rejected Jesus Preacliing in Galilee. 97 most light, receiving the most terrible retributions. "And thou, Capernaum, who art exalted up to Heaven, shall be cast down to hell ; because if the mighty works which were wrought in thee had been among the Sodom- ites they would have remained to this day. Moreover, I say unto you it will bemore tolerable for the land of the Sodomites than for thee." The reason why Capernaum is said to have been exalted up to heaven, was because the Lord of heaven lived there. Consequently the peo- ple walking in the brightest light and rejecting it, sink into the darkest hell. Sodom and Gomorrah, like Tjrre and Sidon, were heathen cities, among the first founded after the flood ; the former in the beautiful rich Vale of Siddim, lying between the great mountains of Moab on the east and Canaan on the west, and bordering on the Salt Sea. Four times have I passed through that country. It is now a desert waste, the effect of the awful woe which God sent upon them in the days of Abraham. Here Jesus rejoices that the deep things of God are hidden from the worldly wise and the prudent, and revealed unto the simple-hearted, humble, meek and lowly babes in Christ. Matt. 11:28. "€ome unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This is the rest of pardon, free for all broken-hearted penitents who are laboring to save their own souls, which is an utter impossibility; and yet the normal effect of a true conviction, "take my yoke upon you and learn of me, because I am meek, lowly in heart ; and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." This is the second rest, vividly and clearly contrasted with the first, which is rest from 98 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. sin, and the second is the repose of the soul, resting sweetly, when all its enemies have been turned out. The old Methodists all made an irrefragible argument for the two works of grace from this scripture. Luke 7" :36-50. While Jesus responds to the kind invitation of a kind Pharisee to dine with him, a poor prostitute, who had been converted under his preaching on the street, manages to slip in with the crowd, unobserved, as the Pharisee would certainly have prohibited her from en- tering his house if he had known it. While eating with his left side to the table and his feet accessible from without, he recognizes the presence of the woman, bath- ing his feet with her tears, wiping them with the hairs of her head and anointing them with myrrh. The solu- tion is the simple fact that her heart was so flooded with loving gratitude that when she stooped down to anoint his feet, her grateful tears spontaneously poured forth, copiously irrigating them. Then, feeling that she had somewhat polluted them, she seeks to purify them by wiping away the tears with her flowing hair. Now Jeeus interviews his landlord in reference to the two debtors, the one owing him five hundred denaria, (i. e.. seventy-five dollars) ; and the other fifty, (i. e., $7.50). When the creditor freely forgave them both he proceeded to interrogate him ; which one will love him most ? The landlord responds, "The one to whom he forgave most." Then Jesus makes the application to this poor, fallen wo- man, finally affirming that her sins are forgiven and saying to her, "Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace.'^ We must not conclude from this act in our Lord's mmistry, that he sets a premium on sin; far from it. There is no doubt but when great sinners are saved, they Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 99 have a more superabounding love, in the sense of grat- itude, than persons born in the kingdom and abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. Yet the latter possesses grander resources of intellect and spirit than the prodigal who has wasted his energies and dissipated his resources in debauchery, Lul^e 8 :l-3. We here see Jesus peregrinating all Galilee, accompanied by his twelve Apostles and the elect sisters who so nobly rep- resented the feminine wing of the gospel church; i. e., Mary Magdalene, so named from her native city, which still stands on the northwest coast of the Galilean Sea, Joanna the wife of Chuza^ the steward of Herod, Su- sanna and many others, who continued to minister unto him from those things which belonged to them. These godly women not only assisted him in his great work in the interest of the souls and bodies of the multitudes who constantly thronged his ministry, but also sup- plied him with food and clothing, and the temporalities of life. As you see Joanna, whose home was at Herod's palace, was prominent among the disciples of Jesus. Of course she kept the royal court well posted in the stirring events in the life of Jesus, at that time electrify- ing the world.' THE SIN- AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST. Matt. 12 :22-37. Our Lord's Galilean ministry has been in progress about fifteen months. In the absence of all modern mail facilities, we can hardly now con- ceive with what tardiness and difficulty the news made its way over the earth. Yet the events in reference to Jesus were so thrilling, paradoxical and miraculous, that 100 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. they leaped from lip to lip, like lightning from the skirts of the clonds, till not only the entire Hebrew pop- ulation, but the Gentile world, was interpenetrated, thrilled, astounded, raised on tip-toe, and magnetized; wondering in their unutterable bewilderment, what shall be the issue of these things. The Hierarchy at Jerusalem are puzzled and driven to their wit's end to explain away his miracles, which they are bound to do, in order to break the force of his mighty works, which were now the riddle of theologians and the perplexity of philosophers. Finally, after assiduous toil, laying all their wits under contribution, the Hierarchy succeeds in devising an exegesis, which, in their estimation, actu- ally solves this vexed question. They all concur in the exegesis and send their delegates down into Galilee to solve the mystery, satisfy the people and confound Je- sus. The solution is the simple hypothesis that Jesus has secured the services of Beelzebub, the commander- in-chief, having authority over the demons in that country, so that he had it in his power at will to cast them out. Jesus meets the solution on its merits in the light of reason, fact and common sense; certifying the instability of a government divided against itself. Though the kingdom of Satan in earth and hell, has all sorts of antagonisms, contrarieties and conflicts, yet on the line of evil and opposition to God, it is a unit. If this were not so it could not stand. Now you have the simple solution of the sin against the Holy Ghost which is impardonable. It is nothing more nor less than the imputation of His mighty works to the devil. All the saving power in religion Is super- natural, and imputable only to the Holy Ghost. When Jesus Preaching in Galilee, 101 you reject the supernatural from religion, you take God out of it and leave nothing but poor, silly, fallible hu- manism. The popular religion of all ages has ever been characterized by eliminating the supernatural. The antediluvians rejected God the Father, and were de- stroyed by the flood; the Jews rejected God the Son, and were destroyed by the Roman armies. In a similar manner the Gentile world is even now fast rejecting the Holy Ghost, and hastening into swift destruction. This is the sin against the Holy Ghost, which Is never for- given, in this age; i. e., the Gentile times, nor the age to come, i. e., the Millennium. The commission of this sin is denominated "crossing the dead line." Much of it is going on at the present day; and with a downward trend of the whole world, pursuant to its normal gravi- tation, incessantly to a low plain; the prevalence of this fatal and alarming, unpardonable sin, is a matter sufficiently momentous, to engross the attention of heaven, earth and hell. Oh, how alarmingly prevalent is this blasphemy; i. e., contempt against the Holy Ghost! Romanism, enmasse^ has so crossed the dead line that she has no use for the Holy Ghost. Tlie Pro- tectant churches have very little use for Him, and are fast moving in the dark downward tread of their papal predecessor. The so-called holiness people are all in the world to-day, who really extend to the Holy Ghost a cor- dial welcome. The people, who do not enthrone the Holy Ghost within and without are in constant liabili- ty of committing this sin, which begins in depreciation, progresses in His elimination, and culminates in His repudiation and rejection. Thus the religious world is committing the sin against the Holy Ghost, with appall- 103 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. ing rapidity ; meanwhile the irreligious world is moving with alarming impetuosity in the direction of infidelity. Thus these two opposites of hell's battery are magnetiz- ing and shaking the whole world this day; infidelity rejecting all religion, and anti-holiness Cliistianity, eliminating the Holy Ghost out of all religion, thus making a lifeless corpse, which they hug with the su- perstitious adoration of oriental paganism, Luke 11 :21- 23. "^\hen a strong man armed may keep his palace, his goods are in peace, but when the man stronger than he having come, conquers, he taketh away his panoply, in >\-hich he trusted and spoiled his goods.'' The palace; the strong man is the devil. Tlie stronger man is Jesus. In conversion Jesus conquers the devil and casts him out of the heart. In sanctification he takes away the carnal mind, which is Satan's panoply, and destroys all of Satan's works. 1 John 3 :8. THE APOSTATE. Matt. 12 :38-45. Though He wrought so many mira- cles, a^l giving uncontrovertible evidence of His Clirist- hood, yet the scribes and Pharisees hang on him night and da}^ persistently and incessantly clamoring for a sign. They wanted something like the manna coming down from Heaven to which they always look back, regard- ing it the climax of all miracles and the glory of Moses, whose disciples they claim to be. ^^When the un- clean spirit may go out from a man, he walketh througli dry places, seeking rest and finding none, then he says, I will return into my own house, whence I came out. And having come he finds it empty having been swept and Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 1C3 ornamented. Then lie goes and tal^es with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and having come in he dwells there; and the last state is worse than the first. So it shall be to the end of this wicked generation." This parable is terse, strong, clear and un- mistakably presenting a case of conversion followed by apostrophe, because the man did not get sanctified. Every unconverted soul ii occupied by one or more evil spirits, who are cast out in conversion. There it says that the spirit was unclean, doubtless the demon of lust, so common and fatal with fallen humanity. Doubtless the man is looked upon as a high-toned gentleman, in- dulging his diabolical propensity, under the shadow of night, and irreproachable on other lines of popular sin. He gets converted, the unclean spirit being cast out. Now the sane unclean spirit, like all other demons, wants some human soul for his dwelling place. Mov- ing around for a time, he finds no open door; but every- thing dry and uninteresting, people rejecting him on all sides. Then he resolves to return and seek admission into the soul out of whom he has been cast. He finds it empty, i. e., no spirit occupying it. He also finds that all the pollutions wrought in it by a former wicked life, had been experegrinated away, and it is adorned with the blooming flowers of a new creation, which the Holy Ghost always brings in regeneration. He attempts an entrance, but signally fails, rejected and repudiated with contempt. He now brings with him seven other spir- its, more wicked than himself. They effect an en- trance, take possession of that soul, and as he now has seven distinct lines of wickedness instead of one, the last state is worse than the first. The one, on returning, 104 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, found his old house thoroughly cleaned up, renovated and beautified ; yet it was without an inhabitant. Whea the penitent 'sinner cries to God out of a broken heart, He sends the Holy Ghost, to cast out the demons, and renew his heart in the likeness of God. Yet before the Holy Ghost will make him the habitant of his royal per- sonality, he must receive a vastly deeper purgation, ex- terminating the very virus of sin, taking Satan's last nest egg out of the heart, then he moves in to stay. If he had been living in the heart above mentioned, he would have proved more than a match for the seven devils, utterly discounterfeited and flooded the soul with victory. CONSANGUINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. While Jesus is preaching to vast multitudes, labor- 'ing incessantly, healing the sick and casting out the de- mons, some one elbows his way through the crowd and notifies him that his mother and brothers are standing off on the outskirts of the eager, gazing, listening throng, and anxious to speak to him. They doubtless thought he was killing himself at work, and depriving them of his presence in the home. Consequently they wanted to see him, prevail on him to desist, go home with them and rest. Eeaching out toward his disci- ples he certifies that they are his loving kindred, and so are all who do the will of his Father, the conclu- sion from this is plain and simple. The consanguinity of the Holy Ghost is stronger than that of nature. In early life we stick to our home folks with ardent per- tinacity, believing them to be the best people in the world. As we learn more of God and sink deeper into Jesus Preaching in Galilee, 105 the mysteries of His divinty and become more flooded with His love; His people become nearer and dearer to us; our native consanguinity passing farther from the range of our spiritual vision ; really, like Ruth, God's people become our people with whom we resolve to live and to die. Matt. 12 :46-50. BAPTISM^ A PURIFICATION. Luke 12 :37-41. On this occasion Jesus having ac- cepted the invitation of a Pharisee to dine with him, coming in sat down at the table without washing His hands. The Pharisees were very particular about hand washing every time before eating, lest some ceremonial defilement might have been contracted. Therefore he was astonished when Jesus proceeded to eat without wash- ing His hands. The Greek for wash in this passage is. ehaptisWiee, was baptized. As this is the word con- stantly used in the New Testament for the ordinance of baptism, here you get a clear definition of a problem which has been much controverted. Y. 39 gives kathari- zete, which simply means purify, as the inspired defini- tion of baptize. Hence water baptism is nothing but a ceremonial purification^ performed by the affusion or im- mersion of the whole or a part of the body, as we see in this case, the washing was the baptism of the man. WOES AGAINST THE THEOLOGIANS. 45-54. Here our Lord pronounces terrible, scathing and withering woes against the lawyers (E. V., the Theologians, as they meant the exponents of the Scrip- 106 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. tures, and not civil law}^ers), accusing them of laying heavy burdens on the people which they themselves dis- dained to bear. We now live in an age of ecclesiastical oppression in the interest of the secular clergy, that they may live in pomp and splendor, while Jesus whose ministers they claim to be had not a place to lay his head; he accuses them of corroborating the murder of the prophets by their fathers, because they built their sepulchres. "Therefore then indeed the wisdom said, I will send unto them prophets and apostles, some of them they will slay and. persecute, in order that the blood of all the prophets, which has been shed from the founda- tions of the world, may be required from this genera- tion, from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zechariah, who was slain between the altar and the house. Yea, I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation.^' You have the history of this bloody tragedy in 2 Chron. 24:20. Waen Ahaziah, king of the Jews, was slain by Jehn at Jezreel in Samaria, his mother Atha- liah usurped the throne, killed all of his children ex- cept the baby Joash whom the nurse hid, and reigned over the Jews in idolatry and Tvdckedness seven years. Then Jehoiad'a, the priest, a godly man, who had taken care of the infant king Joash, brought him to the tem- ple at the age of seven and crowned him King. Then the people slew the wicked grandmother who had usurp- ed the throne. Joash reigned all right during the life of Jehoiada, who favored him with his prayers and his counsel. Wlien the old priest passed away ,the young King yielded to the flattery of the elders who led him into idolatn^ Then G-od put the spirit of prophecy on Zechariah, the son of the priest, who lifted up his voice Je^us. Preaching in, Galilee. 107 md cried against the wicked reign of Joash. Then the king ordered them to stone him. So he died between the brazen altar and the temple. Thus the wicked king slew the son of the godly priest, who had saved his life and given him the kingdom. V. 62. "Woe unto you, theologians, because you have taken away the key of knowledge ; you did not en- ter in and 3'ou prevented those who are coming in.^' If the leading clergy had received Jesus unto the preaching of John the Baptist the rank and file of the priesthood would have followed their example; while the member- ship, by millions, would have rushed into the gospel kingdom, in the track of their leaders, hailing Jesus by Shiloh of prophesy, the Christ of God, the Eedeemer of Israel and the Savior of the world; thus His coming proving a sunburst on the nation and honoring them with a commission to preach His gospel to the whole Gentile world. This would have expedited his glorious re- turn on the throne of his Millennial theocracy, putting the devil out of the world, filling the whole earth with the splendor of his glory, and crowning the saints with the dominion of the nations. How history anon turns back on its own track ! If the leading clergy of all de- nominations had received the holiness movement with joyous welcome, the preachers by myriads would have sought and found sanctification. Oh, how the members of the different churches, from ocean to ocean, would ac- tually stampede out of the howling wilderness into the land of corn and wine! As in the days of Christ the leading preachers and ruling elders are standing in the way of the moving host. 108 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. ANTI-LODGERY. Luke 12 :l-5. Nothing is hidden, which should not be revealed, and concealed which shall not be known. Therefore so many things as you speak in the darkness shall be heard in the light, and whatsoever you have spoken in the ear in secret chambers, shall be pro- claimed on the house tops. Entire sanctification saves us from all secrecy, except the "secret of the Lord, which is with them that fear him." When the Lord sanctified me thirty-three years ago, I was a Free Mason, and an Odd Fellow both. The fires of the Holy Ghost burnt out secrecy and lodgery; so they evanesced away like Nebuchadnezzar's dream, never to return. When we get full of Jesus we have no room for anything else. "I say unto you, my friends ; be not afraid of those who kill the body and after these things, are not able to do any- thing more. But I will show you whom you should fear; fear him who after he is killed has power to cast into hell; truly I say unto you fear you him." Satan is the king of hell. He is the author of sin and death. He really kills the body and casts the soul into hell. So long as you are in sin, you are in his kingdom. His plan is to keep you there till you die and then cast you into hell. Your only security is to leave him at once and make your escape from his dominion with all possible expedition. THE RICH FOOL. Luke 12:16-21. "And he spoke a parable; I will take down my barns and build greater., and will srather Jesus Preachina in Galilee. 109 there all my i'ruits and goods, and will say to my soul : soul, thou hast many goods laid up for many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry. And God said to him : thou fool, this night they demand thy soul from thee: and to whom shall those things belong which thou hast prepared? So is every one who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich for God/' Oh, how comprehensive the simple and w^onderf ul teaching of Jesus ! I fear this little parable actually includes the majority of the people in this wicked, God-forgetting world. On all sides we see them doing precisely like this rich fool. Death always comes suddienly to the unprepared. Sa- tan spreads before them the phantasmagoria of vain hope, till the last moment takes its flight and demons drag the soul into hell instead of "thy soul s>hall be re- quired of thee." E. Y. The true reading is "They re- quire thy soul from thee; the nominative to require, being the evil spirits who have held him in custody all his life and now, actually demand his soul for hell." The raven of the Bible, is identical with the crow of this country. Doubtless at that time many ravens were fly- ing in full view. Therefore Jesus beautifully alludes to them, so happy, cheerful and free from care. So he re- minds them that God feeds all the ravens, and we are much more important than the birds which fly in the air. He reminds his audience how God feeds us like the f^rds and clothes us like the lilies than even Solomon in all his glory. TRUE NEW TESTAMENT ATTITUDE OF THE SAINTS. 32-45. "Fear not, little flock, because your father i& 110 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. delighted to give unto you the kingdom/' Jesus came the first time to establish on the earth the kingdom of ^race, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Rom. 14:17. None but citizens of this kingdom are identified with "the little flock/' of His true and loving disciples. Therefore the kingdom which the Father is going to give "the little flock" is the glorious Millennial, which Jesus will bring when "He comes again." "Let your loins stand girded about, and your lamps burning ; and be you like unto men waiting for their Lord, when He shall rise up from the wedding, in order that com- ing 'and knocking they shall immediately open to Him. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord having come will find watching; truly I say unto you that He will gird himself and have them down, and having come will serve them. And if He may come the second watch and at the third as you may so find, happier those servants. Know this that if the landlord knew at what hour the thief Cometh; he had watched and not suffered his house to be broken into. Be therefore ready because you think not the hour the Son of man cometh." Lan- guage can not possibly portray a more forcible exhorta- tion to us all to be constantly on the outlook for the Lord to appear. You see here the true attitude of all saints is that of constant expectancy, indicated by the standing posture, ready to move without taking time to get up; the girded loins ready for an oriental journey, as they all wear loose apparel. And he specifies that we are to be on the outlook for His appearing, as He is liable at any moment to get up "from the wedding" ; i. e., heaven is described as a constant and everlasting wedding festival. He is here described as meeting his Jesus Preaching in Galilee. Ill bride, coming like a thief in the night. To the bride he is like a thief because he comes to steal her away, thougli s'he is wide-awake and looking for him. To the wicked world he comes like a thief because they are all fast asleep and not looking for him, which is the condition of people when their property gets stolen. He not onl}' exhorts us to be ready and watching, but he pronounces a glorious benediction on those servants whom He shall find watching. Henoe the grandest conceivable induce- ment is offered by the Savior to prevail on all of His dis- ciples to be incessantly on the outlook. On the contrary He pronounces terrible woes and calamities on all ol those who are not watching for His appearing. He pro- nounces the unwatchful preacher a wicked servant who will be cut off and receive his portion, when the Lord comes, with hypocrites and unbelievers. I do not see how any person reading the plain and unmistakable words of Jesus, can possibly be a post-millennialist. Be- cause, if he is expecting the millennium to come and last a thousand years, before Jesus returns to the earth, he cannot possibly be looking for Him. Good Lord, help us all to receive and believe thy plain and unmistakable words, govern ourselves accordingly, and live night and day in constant readiness and outlook for thy appear- ing. THE FIRE OF THE HOLT GHOST. 50-53. "I have come to send fire on the earth, and what do I wish indeed if it is already kindled.'^ The grand culmination of the Savior^s ministry, was the de- scension of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, for whose dis- 112 L^f^ ^f fesus and His Avostles. pensation, He gloriously and triumphantly prepared the way by satisfying the violated law with His own vicari- ous death, and sweeping every difficulty from the field by his substitutionary atonement. "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened until it may be perfected/^ Baptism means purification. Jesus took on Himself the sins of the whole world and expiated them by His death. 2 Cor. 5 :21. Hence His expiatory sufferings on the cross was the greatest baptism the world has ever known; for in them He really expia^ted every sin that ever blackened humanity and darkened hell in all the ages, the work being so complete as forev- er to preclude all legal necessity for the damnation of a solitary souL THE SALVATION OF THE LORD PRODUCES DIVISION. "Do you think I have come to send peace on the earth? No, I say unto you, but division. For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother, and the mother-in-law against the daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.'^ The real salvation of Christ has al- ways divided up families, communities and churches, and always will, till Satan is taken out of the world, and the Millennium comes. While the devil reigns the sal- vation of whole families and churches is hardly to be ex- pected, as his grip is so tight, he will hold some, if not all. Dead, formal religion gives no trouble by dividing Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 113 families and churches; from the simple fact that when the devil has aU, he raises no fuss. SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 54-59. Here Jesus scathingly denounces the clergy and elders as hypocrites, because, while they are shrewd detectives of all meteorological phenomina; they are so blind spiritually, that they cannot discern the signs in the prophetical and spiritual. Already the sceptre has departed from Judah, Gen. 49:10, and the seventy weeks of Daniel have just about expired ; John the Bap- tist, the greatest prophet, has come and not only preach- es Jesus the Messiah, but actually pointed Him out to the people. Yet the hierarchy and eldership were so blind that they could not see Him. This day we have a repetition of the same sad phenomenon. While all na- tions in grand panorama are wonderfully fulfilling the latter day prophesies, flooding the world with auspicious omens of the Lord's near coming; yet the churches are filled with the cultured clergy and eldership, shrewd in the diagnosis of temporal things, but blind to the signs of the times. THE IMPENITENTS ARE CERTAIN" TO PERISH. Luke 13 :l-5. Here Jesus enforces this inflexible reality by an allusion to the dismal doom of certain Galileans, whom Pilate slew on the Temple Campus, while oifering up their sacrifices, so their blood mingled with that of their sacrifices. Also another case when fighting in a siege at Jerusalem, the tower Siloam fell 114 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. on eighteen and crushed them. He uses these alarm- ing illustrations of bloody massacre to illustrate the fact that this similar irretrievable destruction assuredly awaits all finally impenitent sinners. THE FIG TREE IN THE VINEYARD. 6-9. The land of Canaan^ the garden spot of the world, doubtless as local tradition affirms, the identical Eden, is the Lord's vineyard, in this parable, while the Jewish people are represented by the fig-tree growing and flourishing in the vineyard. The three years, dur- ing which the vine dre&ser sought the fruit, are the three years of the Lord's ministry, during which the tree was cultivated, fertilized and irrigated by His won- derful preaching and mighty miracles. Finally the tsse having utterly failed to bear fruit was cut down when the Roman armies, in a seven years' war, A. D. 56-73, desolated the land and exterminated the nation. PARABLE OF THE SOWER. Matt. 13 :l-23. This beautiful, lucid and ample exe- gesis of the gospel kingdom is recorded in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8. While the Lord gives an ex- position of the kingdom under the similitude of these seven parables, that of the sower is generic, comprehend- ing the entire problem of human redemption, while the other six are specific,exhibitory of so many distinct phas- es of the gospel kingdom. This notable sermon on the kingdom opens with four distinct sowings: the first on the hard, dry ground, along the public road, which is Jesus Preaching m Galilee. 115 speedily picked up and devoured by the ravens ; the sec- ond falls on stony ground, germinates quickly, grows rapidly, bids fair to produce an abundant crop, but un- der the burning summer sun, when the vernal showers cease to fall, is speedily blighted, utterly dried up, and proves a total failure. The third sowing falls into rich soil, but preemptorially productive of thorns, so the crop springs up, flourishes quite a while and bids fair to prove a grand success, but finally the thorns crowd, spindle and dwarf it, till the fruit ultimately proves a failure. The fourth sowing is in good ground and does amazingly well, producing, some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundred fold. Hence you see that out of the four sow- ings, only one proved a final success. The ground is the heart. The good ground is the sanctified heart; hence the only hope of an availability in all of our gospel en- terprises is to get the people sanctified, without which all our labor is destined to be a final and eternal failure. Is there no hope for the wayside sowing ? This takes in the helter-skelter rabble, who go to church for fun and pastime, the gospel rings into one ear and out at the other, and they getting nothing. Now let us fence up this hard, barren wayside land with prayer-meetings, Sunday-schools, family altars, personal appeals and holi- ness literature, keeping stock off, till the irrigating rains and winter freezes soften, loosen and pulverize the earth, till the seed finds lodgment, germinates and does well. So we save the wayside sowing. What about the stony ground ? Go into it with the crow-bars, sledge-hammers, gun powder and d}mamite of entire sanctification ; blow up, take out all of the rocks, use them to erect your buildings, fence your lands, make pikes and pavements. 116 Life of Jesus and Ills Apostles. Burn the fragments into lime to enrich your soil so you turn it into good ground^, and it comes out all right. What about the thorny ground ? While the stony ground here is quickly converted and falls speedily, the thorny ground shows up a better case, remains in the church, is regarded as a good member, but eventuall}' drifts away into worldliness, captured by the cares of the world and its deceitfulness, till he sinks down into dead formality, and degenerates into hollow hypocrisy. Now use dili- gently the grubbing-hoe, mattock, spade and the flying Dutchman plow, and you will get rid of all the thorn roots and thoroughly purify your soil, transforming it into good ground. You see here the wonderful growth in grace; one reaches the end of life with thirty times as much religion as when he began; the other, sixty times as much as w^hen converted, and still another winds up with a hundred times as much grace as when he rejoiced in the raptures of a new-born soul. PARABLE OF TARES. 13-53. This parable has the solitary signification of revealing clearly and explicitly the counterfeit pro- fessor. The tare in the Old World corresponds with the chaff of this country. V. 2G. "And when the stalk grew up and produced fruit, then the tares truly ap- peared.^' We see from this statement a confirmation of the fact, which we have all frequently observed; i. e., that the tares look like wheat till the heads develop, il- lustrating the fact that this counterfeit professor is not an immoral, outbreaking sinner, but a nice, clever gen- tleman, living in harmony with the moral law and con- Jesus Freaching in Galilee. 117 forming to the rules and regulations of the visible church. Kom. 6:22. "Therefore being made free from sin, we have our fruit unto sanctification, and in the end eternal life." So the tare looks precisely like wheat till the formation of the fruit. Then we see that it is not wheat at all, but chaff. The application of this parable to the ungodly, impenitent, frolicking church members is utterly untrue. They are not tares, but cockleburs. Our Lord says the field is the world, and the Son of man sows the good seed ; i. e., the children of the king- dom, while the devil sows the tares. At the end of the age; i. e., the gospel age, which will continue to the Millennium, the tares will be gathered and burned. This is the tribulation. As you see (v. 42, 43) after this will follow the glorious millennial harvest, Satan having been taken out of the world, will sow no more tares, while the whole earth will be turned into a glorious wheatfield. N. B. — This parable simply sets forth Satan's counter- feit phase of the kingdom. THE CORNSTALK. Mark 4:26-29. Corn in the Bible always means wheat, barley and other cereal grains, being generic and comprehending all the species. This parable simply re- veals the epochal phase of the kingdom. Germination of the grain is regeneration, followed by the normal growth in grace. The formation of the head: i. e., the development of the fruit, is sanctification (Eom. 6 : 22), while the ripening of the grain into thorough solid- ification, so it will keep in any climate, is glorification. 118 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. These are all distinct works wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost, and beautifully revealed in their distinct epoch by this parable. THE GROWTH PHASE OF THE KINGDOM. Matt. 13 :31, 32. The mustard tree is one of the largest in Palestine. If you ever visit that country, you will find a number of them growing at the Fountain Engedi (Ezek. 47 :12), on the southern coast of the Dead Sea. While it is a noted fact that the seed is very small and fuzzy, like that of our sycamore, here He alludes to the rendezvous of beasts iii the shadow and the birds of the air in the branches of this majestic tree. So in re- generation, the Holy Spirit imparts a scintilla of divine life to the dead soul. That life develops on, not only through probation, but all eternity. The gathering of the beasts and birds to enjoy the shade of this tree and find a cooling refuge from the burning heat of a semi- tropical climate, beautifully illustrates the benignity of a paragon saint in a community, dispensing blessings in- definable to all who Cometh within his influence, even though they do not enjoy the close walk with God, which makes him the double blessing of sunshine and showers to the poor victims of sin and sorrow, who were so un- fortunate as to participate in the benediction of his phil- anthropy. THE AGGEESSIVE PHASE OF THE KINGDOM. 33. "He spake another parable to them : the king- dom of heaven is liken unto leaven which a woman, hav- Jesus Preaching in Galil&e, 119 ing received, hid in three measures of meal until all were leavened."' This parable has frequently been misinter- preted, construing the leaven homogenious with the kingdom, which is not correct. He does not say that it is the kingdom, but the kingdom is like unto leaven. That old unjust judge who neither fears God nor re- gards man (Luke 18) symbolizes our blessed Heavenly Father; but, only in the attitude of absolute sovereign independency. Leaven means nothing in the Bible but corruption ; i. e., inbred sin. Hence the Jews had to be very careful at the Passover to see that there was no leaven in their bread, which really, like the lamb, em- blematized Christ. 1 Cor. 5 :6. "Cleanse out the old leaven in order that you may be a new lump, as you are free from leaven; for Christ has become our Passover.^' Here the old leav- en is the old man (i. e., inbred sin), which is cleansed out of us in sanctification, so that we become free from the leaven of inbred sin, like Christ, who is our example. It is a significant fact that leaven — i. e., corruption : i. e., decomposition; i. e., disintegration — is the most ag- gressive thing in the world. A solitary fly-blow will taint a ham. One rotten apple, or potato, will ruin a w^hole barrel. So inbred sin never ceases to work night nor day. It steadily moves on to the ruin of the soul. the family and the world. In point of aggression, holi- ness is like sin, moving steadfastly onward to the con- quest of the world, destined to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea ; nothing being competent to antag- onize it but the human will. Mother Eve is the fallen woman who received this leaven from the devil and transmitted it to all her posterity; Shem, Ham and 120 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. Japheth^ the three measures of antediluvian meal, who survived the flood and transmitted this leaven to the postdiluvian world, Shem receiving Asia; Ham, Africa, and Japheth, Europe, to whic'h America was added ; and eo this leaven has reached the Mongolian millions, the sable myriads, and the Caucasian multitudes. THE KEGENERATION PHASE OF THE KINGDOM. 44. "Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure which has been hidden in the field, which a man having found concealed, and from his joy goes and sells all things which he has and purchases that field.'^ The field is the church, which the man of the world has been accustomed to see all his life, apprehending noth- ing of very especial interest. Eventually light breaks in on his mind, conviction sweeping like a cyclone through his soul, waking him up to the rousing recognition of something in the church of infinite value, which in some mysterious way had all his life evaded his discovery, con- sequently with enthusiasm he sells out all his possessions — i. e., turns them to the devil and the world, whither they belong — goes with joyful anticipation and pur- chases that field ; i. e., he takes the salvation of the Lord for his portion, and is perfectly delighted with the church. THE SANCTIFICATION PHASE OF THE KINGDOM. 45, 46. "Again the kingdom of the heaven is like unto a mercantile man seeking goodly pearls, who, hav- ing found one pearl of great price, having sold alJ Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 121 things so many as he had, and purchased it/' Here we see this good, regenerated church member, eventually run on a holiness book or paper, or meet a red-hot holi- ness evangelist, or happen in his travels to sp^nd an hour in a flaming holiness revival. The result is that he catches a glimpse of a grand bonanza, which will make him a millionaire if he can only get it. There- fore, he proceeds at once to pay the price, sells out his own soul, mind and body, wife, children, relatives and friends, pastor, presiding elder, bishops, church, and everything he posseses, or ever shall possess in time and eternity; i. e., puts them all on the altar for this world and all other worlds. Then faith begins to appropriate ; wonderful things happen; Jesus baptizes him with the Holy Ghost and fire ; he receives the blessing, finding it better than he ever dreamed, so that, like the Queen of Sheba at the court of King Solomon, he frankly admits that he finds everything true he had ever heard about the wonderful experience, "and the half had not been told.'^ THE EVANGELISTIC PHASE OF THE KINGDOM. 47-50. "Again the kingdom of the heaven is like unto a net which has been cast into the sea and gather- ing of every kind, which, when it may be filled, drawing it up to the shore,they gathered the good into baskets and threw the bad away. So it will be in the end of the age. the angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous, and cast them into the lake of fire, and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'' This parable sets forth in vivid realization the literal occurrences in the normal evangelistic fields in all ages and nations. 122 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. We preach tlie living Word and cast the gospel net with every conceivable diversity of results. Sometimes we catch a good lot of fish; at other times mostly frogs, toads, lizards, turtles, snakes, and vast quantities of tad- poles, wdth a fish here and there, floundering amid the heterogeneous mass. We never do catch many fish, with- out finding a large per cent, of filthy reptiles and worth- less, doleful creatures. Then what sihall we do? Quit fishing? God forbid. Let us push on, ever indefatiga- ble, though you drag out the same old green-eyed toad a dozen times. ^'He said unto them, therefore every scribe having been discipled is like unto a man who is a land- lord, who taketh out from this treasure things old and new." Instructed "into the kingdom" (E. V.) is incor- rect and misleading, as if a person could enter the king- dom by instruction, which is impossible. There is but one way to enter the kingdom, and that is by becoming a disciple, which is impossible save by the intervention of the Holy Ghost in His regenerating power. When the scribe; i. e., the preacher, or any other person, is thus discipled into the kingdom, he is always bringing out of his treasure things both new and old. His treas- ure consists in his experience and the precious Word of God, which fills his heart. The former is always new. fresh and bright, though you have told it a thousand times. The latter is always old. Solomon says, "There is nothing new under the snn." It is all old as the Bible; i. e., old as God. Therefore, everything new in religion is false. When the Lord winds up this wonderful sermon on the kingdom, He proceeds to cross the sea, sailing from the west coast to the east. While traveling with His Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 123 disciples down to the ship a man certifies to Him his determination to follow Him wheresoever He goes, to whom Jesus responds, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." As Capernaum was the cen- ter of His evangelistic peregrinations, it is believed that He made the house of Peter His home when there. The fact is clear that He often slept on the ground beneath the twinkling stars. During the same walk, He said to another man, who asked His permission to go and bury his father, "Let the dead bury their dead, and thou hav- ing come away, preaeh the kingdom of God"; i. e,, let the spiritually dead neighbors, who are not competent to preach the gospel, bury your father, but you, having left them all behind, preach the kingdom of God. Mean- while, to another, who asked permission to go and bid farewell to his homef oiks. He forbade, saying : "No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is worthy unto the kingdom of God." In that country the plow has but one hand. It is a significant fact that you can not plow with it unless you keep your eye on it, illus- trating the fact that if you do not keep your eye on Jesus, you camaot be His follower. Luke 9 : 5 7-62. JESUS STILLS THE TEMPEST. Mark 4:36-39. Having embarked upon the sea, very soon a mighty tempest sweeps down from the moun- tain, rolls up the billows, dashes them in wild commo- tion hither and thither, lolling the waves into the ship till it is already sinking. Matthew says that the ship was covered by the waves ; i. e., submerged. Luke saya 124 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, they were being filled up and in danger. They all say that it was a great storm. Meanwhile the sky is black with the roaring thunder-clouds, mountain waves rolling over the ship, till it seems they must surely go down to the bottom of the sea. Lo, Jesus is enjoying a refresh- ing nap in the stern of the ship. They awaken Him and say to Him, "Teacher, is there not a care to Thee be- cause we are perishing ?" Arising, He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Be quiet, be calm. The wind ceased and there was a great calm, and He said to them, "Why are you so cowardly? How have you not faith? And they feared with great fear and continued to say to one another, Who is He, because both the wind and the sea obey Him?'' N. B. — He had not yet declared His Christhood. If He had, they would have crowned Him King of the Jews and the Eomans would have killed Him. Thus far they were in unutterable bewilderment as to who He was. Elijah and Elisha had wrought many miracles on the very ground over which they were walking ; the city of Nain, where He raised the widow's son from the dead, stands on the north-west slope of Mt. Eamothgilead, and Schunem, on the south-east slope of the same mountain, where Elijah raised the son of the Schunemitish woman from the dead. I visited both cities the same day. Now their faith is awfully put to the test, whether to simply relegate Him among the prophets, or to conclude that He is really the Christ. The fact of the indissoluble identity of the Christhood with the King of the Jews was constantly in their way. as they, like so many nowadays, fail to "rightly divide the word of truth," mixing up the prophecies relative to file second and glorious coming to be crowned King of Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 125 Israel, sit down upon the throne of David and reign for- ever; thus confusing them with those appertaining to His first advent. This miracle, however, makes a deep and profound impression on them, when with their mortal eyes and ears they see and hear Him command the raging storm and the roaring sea to be calm, and they immediately obey His mandate, leaving not so much as a zephyr to fan their brows. HE HEALS THE BLOODY HEMORRHAGE. Mark 5 :22-34. While on His way to the house of Jairus in Capernaum, responsive to his call to heal his daughter from the dead, amid the enthusiastic throng. who are crowding each other out of all room, actually treading on Him, a certain woman, having suffered twelve years from a bloody hemorrhage and wasted her entire earthly fortune on physicians in the vain hope of recovery, receiving no benefit, but growing worse, man- ages to press through tne crowd and touch the rear of His garment. That very moment the blood ceased to issue from her body, and she received the happy con- sciousness of her healing. Jesus making inquiry who touched Him, His disciples were disposed to explain it as incidental to the pressure of the multitude, some one inadvertently touched Him. Eef using to accept the solu- tion when certifying that power went out of Him, the embarrassed woman came trembling and fell before Him confessing the miraculous healing of which she had be- come the happy recipient, to whom Jesus affirmed, "Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath sai-cd 126 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. thee/^ This miracle and affirmation of our Lord is infin- itely consolitory to suffering humanity, assuring us all that our wonderful Savior really heals the body accord- ing to our faith; i. e., when you have faith in Jesus to heal you. He actually does, the true attitude, as Wesley says, having submitted the case to Him, to believe that He doeth it. While you are thus believing He honors your faith and does heal you. HESURRECTION OF JAIRUS' DAUGHTER. Mark 5:38-43. Amid the joyous rapture over the healing of the woman, a messenger arrives from Jairus, saying to Him, Trouble not the Teacher, because my daughter is dead. Jesus hearing, responded to him, Baying, "Fear not; only believe and she shall be saved." Oh, what floods of consolation have been rolling over this world in all ages from these wonderful words! N-ow He comes to the house of the chief ruler of the synagogue, suffering none but Peter, James and John, who seem to have enjoyed deeper insight into spiritual things, to enter with Him, along with the father and mother of the daughter. The Jews were very demonstra/- tive in their mourning for the dead, perpetuating it seven days. As this was the daughter of the leader of the synagogue, they were disposed to honor the family with a great mourning, having already entered upon their weeping and wailing with their musical instru- ments co-operating with solemn lays. Jesus entering, says to them, "Why do you weep and mourn, the child is not dead, but sleeping." They hooted at Him, and putting them all out, He takes the father and mother Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 127 aad comes in where she is lying. Taking the hand of the little child, He says, Talitha cumi, which is, inter- preted, Damsel, I say unto thee arise. Luke says her spirit returned and she arose immediately, illustrating the fact that she was really dead and her spirit had gone away from her body, refuting the modern heresy of the eoul sleeping with the body till the resurrection. Jesus said, "She is not dead, but sleepeth." That is in har- mony with tlie uniform teaching of the iSTew Testament, which recognizes the immortality of the body, as well as the soul. Therefore, the death of the body is only sleep awaiting ithe resurrection trumpet. Here in Capernaum, w^hile the Lord is passing along, he sees Matthew sitting in his money office, for he was a collector of the Eoman revenue. He bids him "leave all and follow Me.'^ He responds promptly, but makes a great feast for his unsaved companions, invit- ing Jesus and His disciples to attend, in order to bring his guests under the influence of his great Teacher. During the festival, Jesus preaches a beautiful and pow- erful sermon, in which He elucidates the kingdom of God under the imagery of the old garment and the new cloth, and the old bottle and the new wine, thus beau- tifully elucidating the transcendent importance that we all go out of the patching business, east away the old, ragged, soiled garments of dead formality, and put on the brand-new, snowy w^hite robe of Christ's righteous- ness, destined to brighten forever the admiration of an- gels and archangels. Also to quit fooling with the old bottles and fermented wine, but to gt a new bottle ; i. e., a new heart and get it filled up with the Holy Ghost, who is the new wine of the kingdom. We receive the 128 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. ri£w bottle in regeneration^ and the mew wine is sancti- fication. The reason why th«e dead churches are so much opposed to sanotification, is because they are afraid it will tear up their thread'-bare garments of self -righteous- ness, and the new wine will burst up the old bottles and ruin their religion, which they have had so long, actually idolize it. Luke 5 :36-39. "No one drinking the old wine im- mediately wishes the new, for he says the old is better." This verse is signally verified in universal evangeliza- tion ; e. g., this is dJie great difficulty among the heath- ens ; while we see and commend the virtues of Christian- ity, they still say that their old religion suits them bet- ter. The same is true of Romanism, Mohammedanism, and the dead Protestant churches. Despite all the beau- ties and graces tliey see in holiness, yet they say the re- ligion of thir fathers "is better." xsT. B. — It is not Je- sus who says the old is better; but that dead professor, who has to get light and conviction of the Holy Ghost before he mil 'desire holiness ^and seek after it. "Here at Capernaum two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, Have mercy on us, thou Son of David, to whom He responds. Do you believe that I am able to do this? They say to Him, Yea, Lord. Then He touched their eyes, saying, Be it done unto you ac- cording to your faith. And their eyes were opened. And Jesus charged them, saying, See that no one know it. But having gone out tliey publish Him in all that country." Jesus wrought this great miracle in the house ( Peter's) , charging them not to tell it, because the peo- ple were ready at any moment to rise up and crowui Him King, in which case the Romans would have killed Him Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 129 for high treason against Caesar. They now bring Him a demonized dummy, the demon having so wrought on him as to take away his power of speech. When the eject- ment of the demon was clearly demonstrated by the ready utterances of the man, the Pharisees standing around resumed their old hobby, certifying that He cast out demons throug'h the prince of the demons. As we have clearly elucidated in Matt. 12, this is the sin against the Holy Ghost, which shall never be forgiven; i. e., imputing the miracles which Jesus wrought through Him, to the devil. That sin ruined the Jewish priest- hood, by leading them into devil-worship. We live amid the sad re-perpetration of the same awful unpardonable sin, committed now^, as then, by imputing the works of the Holy Ghost to the devil. N". B. — This sin of devil- worship is in its very nature unpardonable, because the Holy Ghost is the executor of the Trinity. By Him the Father illuminates and convicts. Through Him the Son regenerates, sanctifies, heals and glorifies. Matt. 9: 27-34. Jesus again rejected at Nazareth. Mark 6 :l-6. Therefore you see that when we are driven out of the church for preaching holiness, we ought to give them time to reflect, and then go back, as Jesus did, after an absence of nearly two years; as we know not but they may have received light and repented. So give them another chance. Again, they simply refer to His na- tivity among them, and mention His mother, His broth- ers, James, Joses, Judas and Simon, and His sisters liv- ing in their midst, all evidently the younger children that Mary had, and proceeded to reject Him as for- merly, thus evoking His repetition of the proverb, "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country 130 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. among his relatives and in his own house." This should be an admonition to all His followers who would be effi- cient in the great work of saving souls, to bid adieu to home and relatives, cast your lot among strangers, and there preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. THE TWELVE COMMISSIONED AND SENT OUT. Matt. 9:35; 10:1-42. We should not forget to constantly emulate the example of Jesus, in His untiring industry, toiling night and day to save a lost world. The three years of His ministry were so exceedingly crowded with labor, teaching His disciples, and especially the twelve on whom devolved the arduous responsibilities of es- tablishing the gospel church and promulgating it throughout the whole world after His departure; be- sides His personal presence and ministry in all the im- portant towns and cities throughout the land of thei He- brews; that He commissioned the twelve to leave Him in the cities encircling the Sea of Galilee, and go away two by two, thus constituting six evangelistic bands; enter every town within the coasts of Israel, preach the gospel and prepare the people for His coming. Verse 36 gives the reason why He sent out the apostles. "And seeing the multitudes. He was moved with compassion in their behalf, because they were faint and deserted as sheep having no shepher'd." N. B. — These people all had their regular synagogue wx>rship, conducted by their own pastors. Why are they described as feeble, sickly and at the point of death, like sheep oif in the desert waste, surrounded by the burning sands, bewildered and Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 131 lo&t, without food and water, abandoned by their shep- herds and ready to die? So our Savior simply meant that the people had no efficient spiritual guides. V. 37. "Then He says to His disciples, the harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth laborers into His harvest." Oh, how vehement is the cry for la- borers this day! Millions on all sides, at home and abroad, are going into hell at race-horse speed. As in the days of Christ, the Jews were a mighty people, ex- ceedingly prosperous in every prospect, their religion flourishing at the very acme," a synagogue in every vil- lage, and Jerusalem 450, all other cities being well sup- plied; the effect of their Babylonial captivity to com- pletely cure their fatal old propensity for the heathen re- ligions, so they no more went off into idolatry. Yet be- cause their religion had degenerated into dead- formali- ty and hollow hypocrisy, it was, if possible, more abom- inable in the sight of God than open idolatry. Hence the Savior pronounces those people, who are all mem- bers of the Jewish church and well supplied with learned pastors, "sheep without a shepherd'" ; not only shepherd- less, but "faint and deserted." We are living in an age in which this sad history is vividly and alarmingly re- peated, a country abounding in churches, an ample sup- ply of learned preachers, and yet the people perishing by millions for the bread of life ; not a tithe of the pop- ular churches saved. 7. "Going forth, preach, saying that the kingdom of the heavens has come nigh unto you." That king- dom consists of righteousness, peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost. Eom. 14:16. Righteousness here is used in its 132 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. broad sense, including holiness. "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons ; freely you received, freely give/' You see in the catalogue of the preacher's work, healing the sick stands at the front. Therefore when you arrive, first inquire about the sick and give them immediate attention, as in their case you have a double opportunity of doing good, both to the soul and body. You see we are also commanded to "raisa the dead," which of course has a spiritual signification; yet it is not to be restricted to it. Let us stick to the word. I was on the spot where Elisha raised the young man at Schunem, and several times at Joppa, where Peter raised Dorcas. I saw her tomb. I was near the place where Elijah raised the widow's son, and passed by Troas, where Paul raised Eutychus. Mary Etta Da- vis, of Elmira, New York, revived after an absence of nine days from her body, enjoying a visit to heaven, as she testified and wrote in a book after her return. An English nobleman, well knowni as the author of a book entitled "Letters from Hell," revived after he was dead several days, having visited the regions of woe. (Par- don here a momentary allusion to myself.) I was as- phyxiated with gas in Fresno, Cal., while sleeping in my room the night of January 13, the present year (1901), and found dead, all breathing having ceased. Fortunately I was enjoying the hospitality of Dr. Meux. an eminent Christian physician, who, in the providence of God, resorting to artificial methods, restored respira- tion, my consciousness returning in about twenty hours. There is no doubt but life is actually restored after at least suspended animation, not very infrequently, even in our day. Let us not be incredulous to the Word of Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 133 the Lord. In the Old World lepers abound to this day. especially in the Bible lands of Asia and Africa. Jesus cleansed them, and commissioned His apostles to do the same. We are their successors in labor. "Cast out de- mons.'^ This is the constant and normal work of saving sinners and saving souls; all the citizens of Satan^s kingdom being more or less demonized. Hence our nor- mal evangelistic work in saving sinners is the ejectment of saving sinners, whereas our normal mission in the sanctification of believers is comprehended in the cleans- ing of the lepers, leprosy being everywhere the symbol of inbred sin, which is not revolved by pardon, but cleans- ing. "Take neither gold nor silver nor copper in your gir- dles nor valise, nor two coats nor sandals nor staff.^' You see here the I^ord leaves us without excuse. We are not to wait to get money to defray expenses, nor a change of raiment, nor sandals, but go at once, barefoot, without a second suit, without any money, trusting the Lord to feed us like the birds, and clothe us like the lilies; like Paul feeling free to take a job of tent-mak- ing to defray current expenses if the Lord so leads. We certainly have all excuses laid in the shade by our infal- lible Preceptor. The gospel is a practical truth in per- fect harmony with good common sense, providing both for our going and leaving, in case that we are not re- ceived and appreciated, knocking off the dust from our feet for a testimony against them, the Lord assuring us that it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gromorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city. He com- mands us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves'. The word translated harmless is alceroirei, from alcera' 134 Life of Jesaa and ills Apostles. numi, which is the strongest compound Greek word for unmixed, forcefully setting forth tlie purity of the heart and life, which should always characterize the Lord's embassadors. He assures us tlie effect of tlie gospel will be to array earth and hell against us, produce all sorts of division, provoke antagonism and conflict, thus ar- raying the world, the flesh and the devil against us. At this point in our Savior's ministry our attenton is called to the court of King Herod, who about that time had a grand convocation of the mighty men assembled from all parts of his kingdom on either side of the Jor- dan to celebrate his birthday. Amid the festivities and rejoicings of that grand ovation, Salome, the daugh- ter of Herodias, so entertained and delighted with the pantomimic dance, that the king, in his hilarious en- thusiasm, said to the damsel, "Ask what you will of me. and I will give it unto thee, even the half of my king- dom." The girl retreated away, consulted her mother, asked her what request she would make of the king. Herodias hated John with rattle-snake venom, because he had exposed her unlawful marriage with Herod. Al- ready has John been shut up in prison twenty months, to keep her from killing him, as the king was powerfully wrought upon by the lightning truth dispensed by the fearless Baptist, so that as a loyal member of the Jew- ish church, Mark says he was accustomed to do many things; i. e., many good things which John command- ed ; and he continued to hear him gladly. Millions of church members this day love to hear the truth boldly and f( rcibly preached, even though it tears them all to pieces. Meanwhile, they make much reformation, straighten up, and do better, resolving, at a convenient Jesus Preaching in GaliU'e. 135 season, to meet the full demands of the divine law, make all wrongs right, go to the bottom and settle matters for eternity. But in an unguarded hour, Satan makes a run on them which ruins them for time aiid eternity. This was the case with Herod Antipas. Being moved powerfully by John's preaching, making much reforma- tion, resolving to get all right with God ; even keeping the preacher safe within the prison wall to keep the en- raged queen from slaying him by a hired assassin. Even- tually, amid his hilarity, he is caught in the trap of Sa- tan. When the hoiden damsel returns and demands the head of John the Baptist in a charger, to the king it is like a clap of thunder from a cloudless sky. His royal pride and the time^honored customs of Oriental despots would not admit of a refusal at that stage of the transaction. He would have lost the favor of all his magnates, and doubtless provoked a revolt on the spot, which would have cost him his head. Therefore, in unutterable grief, he acquiesces in the bloody tragedy which ruined him for time and eternity. Soon after- ward he was signally defeated in battle by Aretas, his father-in-law, the King of Arabia, who fought against him for the mal-treatment of his daughter, in discard- ing her from the queenship in order to get married to Herodias. This was but the l:»eginning of his trouble, which resulted in exile and a miserable death. Mark 6 :14-29. FEEDIXG THE MULTITUDES. The movements of the six apostolic evangelistic bands through the entire country were exceedingly expe- 136 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. ditious, occnpying, I trow, not more than a month, till they return to the Lord, still preaching on the Sea of Galilee, and report all things which they did and taught. Terse 31. ''Then He said to them. Come ye hither unto a desert place and rest a little while." For many were coming and going, and they had not leisure to eat. Two y-ears of the Lord's ministry have already passed away. His fame has moved with the tread of a giant throughout all Judea, Galilee, Perea, S}Tia, Phoe- nicia and the Great East, arousing the old, the young, the rich, the poor, princes and people, till it is impossi- ble for Him to hide, unless He draws on His divinity. Luke says the place to which they went wa« a desert of the city called Bethsaida ; i. e., an uninhabited region within the territory identified with that cit}'. Bethsiaida stood on the north-east coast of the sea, where a great spring flows out from the base of the Mount of Beati- tudes, on which theLord'delivered that celebrated sermon. On our arrival we first dismounted and lunched at that spring. Though the plan was to take a rest after their hard toil, running all over the country and preaching in every city and important town, thus preparing them for the coming of Jesus. In this they were utterly disap- pointed, because the eyes of all were on them, observing the steerage of the ship, and whither she was bound. The Sea of Galilee had sevent\'-five miles of coast, every- where crowded with cities. A ship on this sea is visible from the entire coast, and far up into the interior, be- cause, being seven hundred feet l^elow the Mediterra- nean, it is surrounded by highlands. Therefore they come in teeming thousands in all directions, trending away in the track of Jesus, till the desert (which simply JeBus Preaching in Galilee. 137 tbere means an uninhaljited region of country) was thronged with at least ten thousand people, as Matthew says there were five thousand besides women and chil- dren. John 6 :5. *Then Jesus lifting up His eyes and see- ing that a great multitude is coming to Him, says to Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat ? He spoke this testing him, for He knew what He was about to do. Philip responded to Him, Two hundred de- naria are not sufficient for them (the denarion was fif- teen cents, 200 equaling $30, which was perhaps about all the money they had on hand) in order that each may receive some small quantity. One of His disciples, An- drew, the brother of Simon Peter, says. There is one lad here ^^o bas five barley loaves and two fishes; but what are these among so many? And Jesus said. Make the people sit down ; for there was much grass in the place (this was April, when the grass is green and flourishing in that ecause they were as eager to cro-mi Him King as any of the multitude. As this was right on the eve of the Passover at Jerusalem, and those people were going directly away to it. their plan was to take possession of Him and carr}' Him with them to Jerusalem, and there crowTi Him King. When the multitudes saw His disciples depart and embark on their ship and start away to the other side of the sea. whence they came, this bewildered their plan, as the disciples were in the lead of it. Already Jesus has ren- dered Himself invisible and has gone away alone into the Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 139 mountain, the Adiole multitude being utterly bewildered, as the\' searched diligentty and cannot find Him among His disciples, and are thoroughly convinced that He does not embark with them on the ship and sail away ; there- fore, they have lost Him, and just have no idea where he is JESUS MEETS THEM IN THE STORM. Xow, while Jesus is alone in the mountain, the day is fled and gone, and the ship is gliding over the sea, but the winds are contrary, blowing from the north-east in a terrible sweeping gale, so they ^w^ar themselves out plying the oars, and progress but slowly. The night is gliding away; it is already three o^clock in the morning. Behold, they see something moving amid the stormy billows, which dash with terrible violence on all sides. In their dismal affright, they think it is a spectre from the eternal world, come to haunt them and thus augment their troubles, already more than they can bear. There- fore, in their affright, they cry out by reason of fear. A familiar voice is heard distinctly amid the raging storm, "Be of good cheer, I am He ; fear not.'' Peter's adventure. Matt. 14 :28. And Peter, responding, said : "Lord, if thou art He, command me to come to Thee on the waters ; He said, Come. And Peter, having come down from the ship, walked about over the waters and came to Jesus. Seeing the wind stirred, he was afraid, an(5 beginning to sink, cried out, saying, Liord, save me. And 140 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. Jesus immediately reaching out His hand received him and says to him, Oh, ye of little faith, why did you doubt? And they coming into the ship, the wind ceased." Peter was always the most prominent of the twelve, not only because of his seniority, but because of his extraordinary sprightliness and vivacity of tempera- ment, which made him always the first to speak and act; his comrades recognizing the fact and spontane- ously acquiescing in his recognized prominence, and waiting on him. When Jesus enters the ship, the winds are at once lulled, and by vigorous rowing, soon makes the landing on the coast of Gennesaret, the country sur- rounding the City of Capernaum. Xot only are the sailors on the ship thrilled with conviction, but they actually fell down and worshipped Him, saying, "Truly, Thou art the Son of God.'' Allien they land, the glad tidings fly on the wing of the wind throughout the entire country. Therefore the people pour in from all directions, bringing their sick on beds, placing them in rows throughout the streets, so that they may only touch the hem of His garment, and all who touched Him were healed. The City of Tiberius stands on the western coast of the sea. It is one of the many ancient cities recently revived by the returning Jews, who are rapidly building it up. We lodged there at a Jewish hotel during my last tour in that land. As the place where the multi- tudes were fed is not far from that city, many people came into it and sought conveyance across to Caper- naum, whither His disciples had gone. Therefore they filled all the ships they could command at Tiberius and came at once to Capernaum, hunting Hinu Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 141 SERMON IN THE SYNAGOGUE AT CAPERNAUM. John r> :30-71. On arrival at Capernaum, they were astonished to find Him there preaching in the synagogue. Their be\\'ilderment resulted from the fact that they knew that only the one ship had sailed with His disci- ples, and He was not in it. And as He had not been at Tiberius, they were utterly dumbfounded to find Him on the other side of the sea, with no possible conveyance, as they did not know that He had walked off on the waters and gotten aboard with His disciples. This ser- mon really produces a notable epoch in His biography. During the two years of His ministry, besides the twelve apostles, hosts of people have followed Him in the at- titude of disciples. The time has arrived when, in His infallible wisdom, He recognizes the importance of de- veloping proof, going down into profounder depths of spirituality than ever before. During His discourse, radi- ating out from the exegesis of the manna by which they were miraculously fed forty years in the wilderness. He proceeds to evolve the great problem of soul pabulum. 53. "Then Jesus said unto them. Truly, truly I say unto you unless you may eat of the flesh, of the Son of man and drink of His blood, you have no life in you. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise hipi up in the last day. For my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in me and me in him. The living Father sent me, and I live through the Father, Indeed he that eateth me shall also live through me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not 142 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. as your fathers ate manna and are dead ; he that eateth this bread shall live forever/' After this many of His disciples went back and no longer continued to walk with Him. Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Whither do you also wish to go back?" Then Simon Peter responded to Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have known that thou art the Christ the Son of the living God/' The grand truths of entire sanctification and glorification are involved in tliis discourse. The drinking of the blood covers the ground of complete spiritual purgation, and the eating of the flesh, glorifieation. The malady of sin is a blood trouble, every corpuscle being tainted by it. Therefore a blood remedy is absolutely necessary. This we have in the blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin. In the spiritual realm, faith is the organ of masti- cation and deglutition ; 1. e., we drink the blood by faith, when we thus receive it to cleanse us from all sin. Be- lieving is receiving. The Bible clearly reveals not only the entire sanctification of the soul by the cleansing blood, but the glorious transfiguration of the body, elim- inating mortality out of us, and investing us with the similitude of His glorious body, so that we can walk away on the clouds as He did when He ascended. We should not only have perpetual faith in Christ for a free justification and entire sanctification, but as Enoch was translated by faith (Heb. 11), so we should live in the constant exercise of translation faith, ready every mo- ment, watching and waiting for our Lord to appear, ex- pecting "to be caught up to meet Him in the air." We read here that the people said, "This is a hard sermon, Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 1''' who is able to receive it?" A similar state of things doth this day environ us, many people staggering over the deep truths of sanctification and glorification. Here we are informed by the infallible words, that many of His disciples turn back and walk no more with Him. Yea, the turning back was so great that it looked like they would all go. Finally He appeals to the twelve and asks them if they will go, too. Peter promptly serves tliem as speaker, responding, "Lord, to whom shall we go? For thou hast the words of eternal life." Peter was characteristic of good, solid sense. He knew there was no other alternative but hell and the devil. Oh, that the multitudes in the churches throughout Christendom to-day would only heed and exemplify the solid sense of Peter ! We would not have wholesale stumbling over the deep things of God. The truth of the matter is, we dare not dictate to God ; we must' take His terms, or abide our destiny in hell with the devil. A modern critic in case of this kind would say that the preacher made great mistake in giving too strong meat. I trow no one will dare to say that Jesus made a mistake in this ser- mon, which staggered and turned back the big end of His membership in the gospel church. Good Lord, help us all to be true, preach, like Thyself, and abide the con- sequences, if all the people go back on us. The Lord has now completed the second year of His ministry, and the third Passover is come and gone, which you see, in the perusal of His biography, that He did not attend, obviously from the fact that the multitudes whom He miraculously fed, just at the time when they had assembled to go up to Jerusalem and attend the Passover, were so enthused over the stupendous miracle. 144 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. that they were in the very act of taking possession of His person in view of carrying Him with them to Jeru- salem, that they might crown Him king during the fes- tival, consequently rendering Himself invisible, passing alone into the mountain, spending the night in prayer and coming to His disciples, tossed by vehement contrary minds, embarking at 3 o'clock a. m., after His peregrina- tion on the stormy billows; thus having evaded tlie eager throng and left them to go away to the Passover without Him, He spent the time in Galilee, thus evading His own royal coronation land prolonging His life another year, thus taking time and opportunity to finish the work, which he came on the earth to perform, not only laying down His life a vicarious sacrifice for a guilty world (which required but little time), but preaching to the multitudes and calling out the twelve apostles, to whom He transmitted the great work of universal evan- gelization, devoting three whole years to their instruc- tion in the elements of divinity, requisite to the estab- lishment of God's kingdom on the earth, which then and there superseded the dispensation of the law and the prophets. At this crisis; i. e., the third Passover, the conviction of His Christhood was too strong to admit of His' presence at the festival without incurring serious liability on the part of the multitudes already even inv petuous to seize and crown Him king; thus putting an end to His ministry, as the Eomans would certainly in that case execute Him under the charge of high treason. BAPTISM SIMPLY A WASHING. Mark 7 :1-17. In the allusion here to the customs of Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 145 the Phari&ees always to was/h their handa when they came from the market, the Greek haptizoo; also the washing of cups, pots, brazen vessels, and couches, the Greek haptismos, the connection sho^sing clearly that it is simply a ceremonial purification, which the Jews were accustomed to perform by sprinkling the water of puri- fication on the subject of ceremronial defilement, doom of ever^'thing which is not Divine (Matt. 15:12-14). His disciples, having come to Him, said. Do you know that the Pharisees, hearing the Word, were offended ? He re- sponding, said. Every plant which my Heavenly Father did not plant shall be rooted up. Let them alone ; th^ blind are leaders of the blind; if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch.'' This withering and blighting condemnation is applied directly to the scribes and Pharisees who were at that time the pastors and leading officers of the Jewish church. God had estab- lished that church, hence it is not pertinent to apply to it these awful woes. The solution of the matter was, they had built up a carnal, human ecclesiasticism in the name of the church. This was destroyed by the Roman armies, but the true church survived in the one hundred and twenty who followed Jesus in all His vicissitudes and persecution; and finally receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire on the day of Pentecost, went forth to evangelize the whole world and introduce the kingdom of heaven in the succession of the law and the prophets. In a similar manner the gospel dhurch is this day almost lost sight of in the endless multiplication of human institutions, with a diversity with denomina- tional shibboleths, all destined to go down in the Gentile tribulation, as the comipt ecclesiasticism which the Sa- 146 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. Tior is here denouncing, was swept away in the destruc- tion of Jerusalem. INBRED SIN. Mark 7 :21-23. For within out of the hearts of men proceed evil reasonings, adulteries, fornications, mur- ders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceitfulness, im- purity and evil eye, blasphemy, pride and folly — all these evils proceed from within and corrupt the man. In this sermon which He preached at Capernaum, the central theme is inbred sin, revealing its location deep down in the profound interior of the human spirit, there abiding in its serpentine coil and ready to strike, upon the slight- est provocation. Meanwhile He most lucidly and radi- cally exposes the superficiality of the popular religion, which was almost confined to the outward life, leaving the motly group of original depravity and the subtle chicanery of the carnal mind comparatively undisturbed. A similar phenomenon, peculiar to the fallen ecclesiasti- cisms of the present age, is an unanswerable confirma- tion of the apostasy, which seems only discemable to the holiness people. Ephphatha. This Greek word is in the imperative mood, passive voice and aorist tense. Therefore it means, "Be thou instantaneously opened this moment.'' Our Savior spoke it to a dumb man in Decapolis. Instantane- ously and simultaneously with the utterance his ears were opened and tbe bridle of his tongue was opened so that he spake distinctly. While in a Free Methodist camp- meeting at Emporia, Kan., sister Jones, the wife of a local preacher, with others, came to the altar, seeking the Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 147 healing of her dumbness, as she had not articulated her voice in thirty months; meanwhile all medical treatment having proved ineffectual. We prayed for them to trusi Jesus for healing. The sister apparently in silent agony, had fallen oni the floor, her face turned heavenward, her lips moving evidently in silent prayer; when suddenly she sprang to her feet, shouted aloud, ran up and down the aisles, leaping, praising God, and testifying to His miraculous healing of her dumbness. The matter re- ceived great notoriety, her friends who had known hei in her dumbness two and a half years, coming to the meetings to see and hear for their own satisfaction. Her presiding elder being an eye witness told me he had not heard her voice in the two and a half years. Her pastor being an eye witness to her healing, testified to the audi- ence that he knew it to be a miracle; as he and many other physicians had exhausted all their medical skill in her treatment. The Lord and His salvation for soul and body, is as real and merciful to-d'ay, as when He walked in Galilee. The moment He speaks the divine ephphatha, eyes, ears, voice and all the vital organs, re- spond to His bidding. While preaching in the land of Decapolis, so named because of its ten principal cities, Jesus again miraclously feeds the multitudes, some eight or ten thousand, as Matthew says, there were four thous- and men besides the women and children. THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES CLAMOR FOR A SIGN. He is now in the land of Dalmanutha on the North- west coast of the sea, having sailed over from Decopolis on the South-east coast after feeding the multitudes. 148 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. I trow Mary Magdalene, so named from tliis city Magdala, was converted by His preaching at this time. I was in that city during my last tour. Her conversion was marvelous, because she had seven demons till Jesus cast them out; after which she became an eminent disci- ple, even standing at the head of the feminine wing of our S'avior^s discipleship ; faithfully following Him in all of His G-alilean ministry and finally with a few other elect sisters accompanying Him to Jerusalem, standing by Him in all His troubles, last at the cross, first at the sepulchre, and first to receive the full-OTbed com- mission, go and preach the risen Savior. During His ministry at Magdala and Dalmanutha, the Pharisees and Sadducees, old enemies either to other, now unite in their opposition to Him, demanding a sign from heaven confirmatory of his ministry. To whom he responds, rec- ognizing their shrewdness in the solution of meteorologi- cal phenomena ; but severally castigating their blindness and stupidity to the signs of the times, which were so obvious to every person enjoying the illumination of the Holy Ghost on the jDrophesies ; e. g. The sceptre had already departed from Judea, Gen. 49:10; the seventy weeks of Daiiel had just about run out and the power- ful ministry of John the Baptist, who stirred the nation from cenier to circumference; was avowedly fulfilled in his introduction of Jesus. Here he responds, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.'" All deflection from Christ is spiritual adultery. Entire sanctification is the only possible remedy for this spirit- ual adultery, which blinded the eyes of the clerg}' and eldership in the days of Christ; so that amid over- whelming prophetic signs of his Christhood, they blindly Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 149 rejected all and rushed headlong to destruction. Though the world to-day is flooded with the signs of His near coming both the clergy and ruling officers of the church are astoundingly blind^ to prophetical fulfill, ments everywhere assuring us that the Lord is nigh. THE LEAVEN OF DEAD RELIGLON AND POLITICS. The Pharisees were the orthodox denomination of the Jewish church, the Sadducees the heterodox and As- senos the holiness people ; while the Herodians were the most influential politicians. Here we see them all united in a combination against Jesus ; ^leaven' having its usTial Bible meaning and here applied to the corrupt intrigue of these parties, two of them ecclesiastical and the other political; and all radically contrary to their principles, united and working together ; as both the Pharisees and Sadducees were violently opposed, not only to each other but especially to the Eoman government, which was represented by the Herodians. The Pharisees were or- thodox, like the leading Protestant denomination of to- day; but spiritually dead. The Sadducees were hetero- doxical in doctrine, and of course spiritually dead; v/hile the Herodians were corrupt politicians, making no claim to religion. Hence our Savior's warning covers all the ground; i. e., dead religion, whether Ortliodox or Heretical, and politics which are always full of Satan's leaven. THE TWO WORKS OF GRACE. Mark 7 :22-26. Here we have a clear and unanswera- 150 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. Lie illufetration of the two works of grace in the plan of salvation. Our Lord comes into Bethsaida (Julias, so designated to contradistinguish it from Bethsaida), the nativity of Peter, Andrew and Philip, and standing on the Xorth-west coast; this town Bethsaida Julias which is on the left bank of the Jordan, about a mile from its influx into the sea. Jesus taking him by the hand, led him out of the village; "He spitting in his eyes, putting His hands on him asks him if he sees anything; looking up he continued to say: I am seeing men walking about like trees. Then again He put His hands on his eyes and made him look up; and he was restored and saw all the people distinctly.^^ Here we see the first touch was a great blessing, giving him light instead of the pro- found darkness in which he went groping about. While this first work is invaluable to the poor blind man ; yet we see the second was also inestimable. While vision in any degree is a wonderful relief from profound dark- ness; yet distinct vision is a transcendent blessing. Every sinner walks in rayless midnight. In conversion the light gloriously breaks in. His joy is ineffable. Yet He seee the people like trees walking about. I have seen trees on the Pacific coast fifty feet in diameter, which had to be dug up by the roots, in order to cultivate the land. Unsanctified Christians are al- ways uneasy, because they overestimate others, looking upon them as great trees, instead of seeing them in their normal weakness and insignificance. Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 151 JESUS MONEYLESS. Matt. 17 :24-27. "And they having come into Cap- ernaum those receiving the half shekle came to Jesus and said; does your teacher pay the half -shekle? He says ; Yes. And when he came into the house Jesus an- ticipated him saying, What seems to you, Simon ? From whom do the kings of the earth receive toll or tribute ? From their own sons, or from aliens? Peter says to him ; from aliens. Jesus said to him ; then the sons are free. But in order that we may not offend them, going to the sea cast in hook, and catch the fish first coming up ; and opening its mouth you will find a statera ; hav- ing taken it give it to them for me and you." The half-shekle was the regular contribution to the Temple. It was voluntary. You see the force of the il- lustration in reference to kings, collecting from their subjects who are not members of the royal families; the latter being free from taxation, to support the gov- ernment which they, themselves administer. As Jesns and Peter belonged to God's family, they were free from assessment. Yet for the sake of harmony, Jesus told him to go down to the sea, cast in his hook, catch the first fish that bites and take out of its mouth a statera, the equivalent of two didrachma, sufficient to pay the usual annual contribution to the support of the Temple, i. e., seventeen per capita. You see from this transac- tion tV.nt Jesus, on this occasion, was actually money- less. As this is the only test of which we read in His life; we legitimately infer that he went through this world entirely destitute of money, certainly involving the conclusion that this is the normal static of his fol- 152 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. lowers. The original economy illustrated in the Pente- costal revival was to give all, to support the widows, or- phans and the Lord's laborers; henceforth laboring in God's husbandry, depending on Him to verify His beau- tiful promise to feed us like birds and clothe us like the lilies. We should certainly profit by the moneyless example of our Lord, at the same time utilizing the no- ble example of the Apostle Paul, who frequently supple- mented his support by manual labor. INFANCY IN THE KINGDOM. Matt. 18:2-5. Human generation is in Adam the First and regeneration in Adam the Second. What we lose in the former, we regain in the latter. When God created Adam, he created the whole human race; Eve being no exception, but a transformation from Adam's rib. "\\nien Adam fell, the race fell, not personally but seniinally. When an infant is born, it is not a new crea- tion, but an evolution from Adam, inheriting the carnal mind, which is spiritual death. Rom. 7:6. Christ, by the grace of God, tastes of death for everyone. Heb. 11 :9. Therefore so soon as soul and body united constitute per- sonality, the grace of Christ imparts spiritual life so that we are all born in the kingdom as illustrated by the prodigal son and his elder brother ; and we only get out by actual transgression. So our infants are not sinners, but Christians, needing sanctification to remove the car- nal mind, with which they are born. Ps. 51 :5. "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." The depravity with which we are born, and for whieh we are not condemned, because we never com- Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 153 mitted it, but received it by heredity; turns our faces away from God, so if left to ourselves, we will spontan- eously start off in actual transgression, forfeit our jus- tification, fall under condemnation and be forever lost. Hence the great importance of taking the child before it has gotten out of the kingdom by actual transgression, turning it round (which is the literal meaning of con- version), introducing it to the Savior, till the light of his countenance falls on it, gladdens its heart, gives it a new spirit; so that instead of starting tow^ards hell, it sets out for heaven, without delay, and gladly travels the King's highway. Thus conversion should take place before the infantile justification is forfeited by transgres- sion. Then the child should be led on into sanctifica- tion, before it has time to backslide, and thus secure the perfect and eternal triumph over sin and the devil. The dogma is held by some that the entire sanctifica- tion of parents would superinduce the birth of their offspring, free from depravity. This is a mistake, as in- fants born are not a denovo creation, but as the Method- ist Discipline says, a traduction from Adam, involved in the sin of the fall. REGENERATION DOES NOT REMOVE INBRED SIN. Mark 9 :38-39. "And John responded to him say- ing; Teacher, we saw a certain one casting out demons in thy name, wl^o does not follow along with us. And Jesus said; forbid him not. For there is no one who shall do a miracle in my name and be able quickly to speak evil of me. For w^hosoever is not against us, is on pur side." Iso one doubts the conversion of loving John. 154 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. Jesus bad already told him and his apostolical comrades, that their names were written in heaven. Yet you see I' ii he was not free from the spirit of bigotry and jealousy, which lies down at the bottom of sectarian pre- judice; and must have the second work of entire sanc- tification to eradicate them. ENDLESS PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. Mark 9 :43-49. "If thy hand may offend thee cut it off; it is good for thee to enter into life maimed rather than having two hands to depart into hell, into the fire which is unquenchable, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Jesus thought this alarming truth so exceedingly important that he repeats it three times ; specifying the hand, the foot and the eye, actu- ally trebbling the force of this awful affirmation. In addition to this tripple declamation, the words here se- lected by the Savior are stronger than the casual reader will ever apprehend, unless he should have access to the Greek, e. g., "into hell, into the fire which is unquench- able." From this you see the lying nonsense of tak- ing the fire out of hell, which frequently, now-a-days, disgraces the pulpit. Jesus positively reveals that it is a hell of fire, which cannot be quenched. "Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." 'Worm^ here symbolizes the living creature, i. e., the immortal soul which can never die. !N"o Hellites abound in Europe and America, and are rapidly increasing. I do not mean infidels and non-professors, but people in pulpit and pew, who profess to be the disciples of Jesus. They will have terrible trouble in the judgment day, for hushing Jesus Preaching in Galilee. 155 the alarm bells, which Jesus gave his people to ring to warn the wicked of their awful danger; and defacing the guide-boards which he puts up in this world to escort the travelers along the narrow way, and keep the real hell scare on them, lest they go to sleep in the enemies' land and the robbers overtake them. The people that take a burning hell with its fires eternally unquenchable out of the Bible, occupy an appalling attitude, as, that of flat and une- quivocal contradiction of the Savior. CHURCH DISCIPLINE. Matt. 18 :15-22. We see here the law of our Lord in reference to an offending brother. Go with prayer and love in your heart, and, by tlie grace of God, seek his reclamation. If you fail, then take with you one or two others and plead with him in the name of the Lord. If you all fail bring him before the church. If he re- ject all, let him be a member no longer. You are to be full of a forgiving spirit, ready in case of repentance to forgive seventy times seven offenses; i. e., indefinitely. Our Lord confirms this problem by the case of a man who owed myriads of talents. A myriad is ten thous- and. Here it is in the plural number. Talents was a princely sum of money, its value depending on the cur- rency, whether gold or silver. As tliey are both here in the plnral number, the phrase Gets forth a princely sum, actually indefinite and innumerable. ^Mien this m?.n indeed in contrition, plead the mercy of his Lord, moved with compassion he freely donated him the whole debt. Then going out and finding a man who 156 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. owed him a imndred demaria; i. e., fifteen dol- lars, taking him by the throat he cast him into prison. The fellow servants all grieved over the outrage, told the Lord about it; who, being angry, delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that he was owing him. This is a clear illustration setting forth the relation of every human being to the Lord. We are in debt to him, an absolutely incalculable sum, which we never can pay in all the flight of eternal ages. Conse- quently the least thing we can do is freely and fully to forgive everybody who owes us anything. We can never go up and live in heaven unless we are full of love and mercy like the Savior. This superabounding love, mercy and gratitude, we must be always ready to manifest freely, gladly and fully, forgiving everyone who has ever in the smallest man- ner offended us. CHAPTER VI. JESUS PREACHES AMONG THE GENTILES. I. TO THE SAMARITANS. John 4. Jesus having begun His ministry with the first Passover at Jerusalem, in the purification of the Temple; preached but a short time in and about the city, till He left for the north, giving as a reason "that a prophet is wtthout honor in his own country" ; Galilee being his native land, would not be so excited by his ministry as Judea. The normal effect of all this extra- ordinary sensation, being the arousement of the multi- tude to arise and crown Him king, thus provoking the Roman government to put Him to death under charge of high treason against Caesar. As Samaria reaches all the way across the main land of Palestine, from the Jor- dan on the east to the Mediterranean on the west ; it is necessary to either cross the Jordan twice and travel through Perea, quite a circuitous route, or go directly through Samaria. Jesus chose the latter, being led by the Holy Ghost who knew he had so convicted a poor fallen woman in that- country, that she was ready to meet Jesus and get saved. Samaria was a country of the ten tribes who follow Jeroboam in the revolt from Reho- boam. This proving a departure from the religion of David and the prophets superinduced a downward trend in the direction of the Baalistic idolatry, so prevalent in Palestine and Syria, their neighbors; especially during 157 158 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. the administrations of Ahab and Jezebel, the daughter of of the King of Sidon; ultimating in their transpor cation into Babylonial captivity by Shalmanezer, B. C. 721. As the years roll on and the few poor people left by the Babylonial monarch to take care of the land, proved incompetent to keep down the will beasts, the lions mul- tiplying so rapidly as to threaten the very existence of the few inhabitants. Consequently King Esarhaddon sent quite a population, gathered up from different heathen nations, to colonize the country. They had their heathen religions, which they mixed up with the cor- rupt Judeaism they found among the few surviving na- tives. When under the administration of Cyrus the Great the Jews were restored to their native land, B. C. 490, and proceeded to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple; Sanballot, the governor of Samaria, was anxious in corporation with his people, to join Nehe- miah and the Jews in the enterprise. When rejected by Nehemiah and the elders of Israel, becoming very hostile, he hindered the work in every possible, way, so that Nehemith ordered the men of Israel to go ahead building the walls, with the sword in one hand and the trowel in the other. When Sanballot and the Samari- tans found themselves utterly rejected from an interest in Solomon's temple; they proceeded to build a rival temple on Mt. Gerizim. They erected a very magnificent temple on the summit of that great mountain. It is still a wonder to the traveller, though somewhat in ruin by the many desolating wars which has swept over the land. When Jacob was traveling with his vast herds and flocks from Mesopotamia to the homestead at Beersheba Jesus Preaching Among the Gentiles. 159 in South Canaan, he pitched his tent and dw^elt in the valley of Succoth between Mt. Gerizim on the south, and Ebal on the north. Though the land is well watered, so many animals would be likely to suffer in case of an ex- cessive summer drouth, which is rather peculiar to that country. As a fortification against the liability of losing his stock during a water famine, Jacob dug this well ninety feet deep, finding never failing water. Jesus, when weary of His long walk, sat on the well, and so did I, thrilled with the thought that I am really in His track. The woman, very far from God, comes for water, is accosted by a stranger, wliose Jewish identity she recognizes from his costume and physique, asking her for a drink of water. With no inclination to refuse the small favor, she tantalizes him a moment, referring to the implacable hostility betw^een the two nations. He now proceeds to speak to her about the living water which he gives; eventually correcting her misapprehen- sion that his speaking of the water in the well. Having aroused her interest in the salvation he has already sym- bolically illustrated by the water ; he shoots a flaming ar- row directly into her heart, by telling her all about her bad life in a w^ord, thus pungently convicting her of sin and inspiring her recognition that he is a prophet, and at the same time arousing her suspicion, that he is really the Christ, for whom not only all Israel, but the entire heathen world were looking. Here you observe that He declares his Christhood to this woman unhesitatingly. Vs. 25-26. "The woman says to him ; I know that the Messiah cometh, who is called Christ; when he may come, he will proclaim to us all things." Jesus says to her, "I who speak to thee am He." 160 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. So you s»e that He does not hesitate to declare his Christhood among those heathen Samaritans. The rea- son of this is obvious. He knew that the Samaritans did not want a Jew for their king. You see as you read on in the chapter, that this woman not only got converted, but ran away and stirred the whole city by her thrilling testimony. Jesus remained two days preaching to them, receiving quite a number of converts. N". B. You rec- ognize the decisive contrast between the preaching of Jesus among the Jews and the Gentiles. With the latter he always declared his Christhood; with the former, never. II. TO THE PHOENICIANS. Mark 7:24-30. On this occasion Jesus and his dis- ciples had gone away from the land of Israel to take a rest among the Gentiles in the region of Tyre and Sidon. Meanwhile a Syrophoenican woman; i. e., a mixed blood of Syria and Phoenecia., denominated a Greek; because the Alexanderians h-ad so scattered the Greeks throughout the whole world, establishing them in all the governments, and putting them, in tilie leadership of all nations, giving them su-ch a -degree of world-wide notor- iety and prominence, m-aking their language the learned vocabulary of the eduaational circles in every nation, so that Greek becaime 'Sfjanphonious with Gentile, designat- ing the whole world, except the Jews. When Jesus cast the demon out of this woman's daughter he did not en- join secrecy as so frequently among the Jews. He knew the Phoenicians did not want a Jew for their king. These visits of Jesus, and His- ministry among the Gen- Jesus Preaching Among the Gentiles. 161 tiles are brilliant scintillations of the oncoming call and evangelization of the whole Gentile world. III. TO THE GADARENES. When JesTis returned home to Nazareth after receiv- ing the Holy Ghost under the ministry of John at the Jordan, and preached his first sermon in the synagogue where he had worshiped thirty years; stirring, arousing and burning them (as the Holy Ghost preaching always does), till they rise in a mob, determined to kill him; but the divinity coming to the rescue of the humanity, he fled away to Capernaum, making it his home during the two and a half years of his ministry in Galilee; it is said, Matt. 4 :14, "That the word of Esaias may be ful- filled ; thou land of Zebulon and land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles ; the people sitting in darkness saw great light ; and those sitting in the valley and shadow of death light sprang up.^' That country was Gadara on the North- east coast of the Galilean sea ; Gergesa near the sea being the capital, a magnificent walled city. Consequently, Matt. 8:28, says that he went into the country of the Gergesenes, while Mark 5:1-21 and Luke 8:26-40 say that he and his disciples came into the country of the Gadarenes. His ministry there was quite brief, being arrested suddenly and abruptly by the popular protes- tation against the wholesale destruction of the swine, which had resulted from their possession of the legion of demons. I am not surprised that the occupancy of the two thousand hogs by the ten thousand, demons (i. 162 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. e., five per capita), di-dt result in their violent insanity and suicide. Five devils in one hog are certainly enough to run him crazy and cause him to kill himself. We have here a withering rebuke on the people, demoniacally possessed on all sides and apparently satisfied in their awful condition, resigned to be the habitation of devils. We see the hogs, utterly unwilling to acquiesce in such a fate, but actually re- sorting to suicide, rather than to let devils live in them. Here we see that when the legionary was so wonderfully delivered from the demons, he wanted to go away with Jesus; but he sent him to his own people to preach to them the wonderful salvation which he had received at the hands of Jesus. That country is also called De- capolis, which means ten cities, from deca, ten, and jwlis^ city. It is said that Pella, the city to which the Chris- tians fled from the destruction of Jerusalem, is also in that country; and that the reason why they met a kind reception and found a safe retreat from the awful doom of their nation, who were all either killed, sold into slavery, or led captive to Rome, except these fugitive dis- ciples of our Lord; w^as because this legionare in his evangelistic peregrination, had gone thither, preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ. You see how differ- ently Jesus treated this great and stupendous miracle from his uniform proceedure among the Jews; i. e., charging them not to tell his mighty works. The rea- son is obvious : the publicity of his miracles among the Jews, constantly conduced to foment the popular ex- citement in reference to his Messiahship ever}^heTe pre- valent and excite the people to rise up in a mob too strong for the Roman police, and crown him King of Jesus Preaching Among the QenUles. 163 the Jews, which would surely bring a Roman army with all possible expedition, inundate the country with a cruel, bloody war, bound to end in his crucifixion, as it did one year hence. But you see that instead of charg- ing the Gadarene not to tell it, he ordered him to go and proclaim everything throughout the whole country; from the obvious reason that the Gadarenes did not want a Jew to be their king. We see here a mournful episode admonishing all peo- ple to beware how they treat Jesus. You see here when they unanimously asked him to leave their country, he went away and never returned. I was so profoundly im- pressed with this fatal transaction, when I visited that land, and saw its utter desolation, without an inhabitant except the wandering Bedouins, who use it as a graz- ing ground, pitching their tents here and there, and roaming hither and thither with their innumerable camels, donkeys, sheep, goats and cattle. Methinks I see Jesus and His apostles sadly acquiescent in the request of all the Gadarenes to leave their country. They embark in their ship and sail away, the hulk appearing smaller and smaller as it glides off, till eclipsed in ether blue and lost sight of in the dashing spray ; thus forever sealing the death l^nell of those people. What has been the re- sult ? They have utterly perished from the face of the earth. There is not a Gadarene beneath the skies. Such will be the doom of all people who request Jesus to leave them. He will go and never return. He is not going to stay where he is not wanted. How my heart did soliloquise as T walked around on the ruined walls of Gergesa, their capital ! Beware how you treat Jesus ! He is certain to visit you. But equally certain to leave 164 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. you if you ask Him to go away and let you alone ; and equally certain never to come back. IV. TO THE SYRIANS. When Jesus had preached about twenty-seven months in Galilee, resisting all the efforts of the Jews, to ob- tain from Him a public declamation of his Christhood; even John the Baptist, having done his utmost to evoke such a proclamation; we see him the finale, bid adieu to the land of Israel and proceed up the Jordan valley to its source, where a beautiful limpid river it gushes from the base of great Mt. Herman, hard by the city of Cesar- ea Philippi, just over the northern border of Galilee and in Syria. We see very obviously that the end for which he has come thither, is to publicly proclaim his Christhood. These Syrians, like the Samaritans, Phoenicians and Gadarenes, did not want a Jew for their king. Such a thing would have been high treason against Benhadad, the king of Syria, whose loyal sub- jects they were. On the summit of one of the Herman mountains, great and mejestic, I saw the ruins of a pow- erful citadel, celebrated as a stronghold during the mid- dle ages; also the ruins of a magnificent temj)le, said to have been built by Herod the Great. This is certified to have been the place where Jesus publicly proclaimed his Messiahship. Matt. 16 :13-20. "Jesus having come into the parts of Cesarea Philippi asked his disciples, saying, Wliom do the people say that I, the Son of Man. am? They said. Some say John the Baptist; others Elijah ; and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He says to them, but whom do you say that I am? Simon The Transfiguration, ' 165 Peter, responding said; thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus responding, said to him, Blessed art thou Simon, the son of Jonah; because flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who art in the heavens. And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of the Heavens; and whatsoever thou mayest bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then He charged His disciple that they should tell no one that he himself is the Christ. This is tlie first time he has publicly declared his Christhood to his apostles. Suppose he had done this among the Jews, as you well know his track was thronged by myriads; they would certainly have revolted against the Romans, and proceeded at once to crown Him King of the Jews in the succession of his Father David, thus precipitating the whole nation into a stormy revolution, boiuid to ul- timate in His death; as the vast Roman world was against them. Peter, the eldest of the apostles, simply here acts in the capacity of their representative speaker. During both of my visits to Rome, I saw super- scribed in letters nine feet long in the Latin language, about three hundred feet high on the interior of the vast edifice 835 feet long, 330 feet wide and 448 feet high, all solid marble, built at the cost of two hundred mill- ions of dollars, occupying two hundred years in the exe- cution of the work, the greatest monument of idolatry on the earth, the expenditure sufficient to put the Bible in every home beneath the skies. The papistical con- 166 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. struct! on of our Savior's words to Peter (v. 18) is, that the church was built Ijy him, whom they claim to have been the first Pope^ corroborating the hypothesis, that the Pope is really the pillar of the church, the vicar of Christ and the vicegerent on the earth. This is all ut- terly untrue, as there never was a Pope till A. D. 606, when Procas, the King of Italy, crowned Boniface III Bishop of Rome, supreme pontificate of all the churches. Besides their construction of the words of our Savior at this point is untenable. Peter is a Greek word which means rock, not the great unbroken stratum, but a frag- ment of stone, wdiich has been taken out of the quarry, and such as you see in buildings. In this passage we have petros, which applies to Peter, and petra, whic> does not mean a piece of stone like petros. but the vasi unbroken stratum, which underlies the continents and oceans, constituting the solid crust of the earth. This word applies to Christ himself. Matt. 6:24, and else- where in both Testaments ; setting forth the fact that the Christhood of Jesus becomes from that moment the great and eternal truth on which the whole church is to be built up in all nations and ages, till su|3erceded by the glorious ^lillennial theocracy when the Lord re- turns to conquer and reign forever. The key power here is the word of the Lord, which he gave to Peter as the representative of the twelve, and is transmitted to their successors; i. e., the ministry whom God calls and em- powers, to preach the everlasting gospel to all nations, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. V. 21. "From that time Jesus began to show to his disciples, that it behoove him to go away to Jerusalem and to suffer many things by the elders, chief priests and The Transfiguration. 167 scribes and to be put to death and to rise the third day. And Peter drawing Him to him began to rebuke him saying, be it far from thee, this shall not be unto thee, and turning he said to Peter, Get behind me, adversary; thou art my stumbling block, because thou art not think- ing about the things of God, but the things of men. This revelation broke in upon them like a thunder clap from a cloudless sky. Elated with the confession of his Christhood, and settled as all the Jews were in their con- victions, that Christ is to be their king, encumbered the throne of David, beard the Roman yoke, established the kingdom of Israel, predominant over all their enemies, to eclipse the glory of David and Solomon, conquer the world and stand forever. Which is true of His second and glorious coming, which eclipsed and supplanted from their minds, the distinct apprehension of his first advent into the world to suffer and die, and thus redeem Adamic race from death and hell. Before the apostles received the sanctifying fires of Pentecost, they were like all other Christians, carnal and worldly and without the perfect inward light of the Holy Ghost, which is indis- pensable to the apprehension of spiritual things. 'Sa- tan (v. 23, E. V.) is too strong, as the Greek is not cap- italized, showing that the word is simply used in its lit- eral sense with its lexical meaning adversary. The Sa- vior did not call him the devil, as you conclude from the E. v., but simply an opposer to the deep things of God involved in the vicarious atonement, which Jesus came to make; and Peter had his mind on the brilliant career of the Christhood, which will be verified in his second coming. Here we have our Lord's first revelation of his own awful sufferings, tragical death, and triumphant 168 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, resurrection. Peter was a very sanguine, quick, spright- ly, impulsive man. The idea he got was, that His ene- mies would get the advantage of him and kill him. Peter instantly grabs the arm, draws Him to him, sim- ultaneously and impulsively assuring Him : "Rest easy about that. Lord, for they can't do it. We will all light and die in our tracks for you." Though the Lord twice after this made the same revelation to the apostles ; it was so hidden from them by tlie Holy Ghost, that they never did apprehend and realize the force of it. This was providentiaL If they had understood it they would have stirred up a great civil war, in which the friends of Jesus would have fought, bled and died for Him. Peter, like Napoleon Bonaparte, would have mounted his war-horse and led the embattled host. CHAPTER VII. THE TRANSFIGURATION. Matt. 42 :1-13 ; Mark 9 :2-13 and Luke 9 :28-36. All nistorians are bewildered with reference to the identity of this mountain. They have generally given their vote in favor of Tabor. Origin, the greatest writer of his day, who lived in the third century, says it was Tabor. The Christians actually built the three Taber- nacles (v. 4 — one to Jesus, one to Moses, and one to Elias) on that mountain. I have been in them all. The Monks who keep the convent, argue the claims of that mountain very stoutly. Others believe it was the Mount of Beatitudes north of Capernaum. Others again claim that it was Carmel; while still others believe it was one of the mountains of Herman, which gather about Cesarea Philippi. The impossibility of an accurate dis- crimination in the case, arises from the fact that the scene took place six days subsequent to the preceding discourse, in which he declared his Christhood to his apostles. As we have no record during those six days, we do not know whether the traveled or not. There is at least a probability that they might have traveled from Csesarea Philippi during those days; and it is only about sixty miles down he Jordan Valley to Capernaum, where we find the next record of their whereabouts. It might have been the Mount of Beatitudes, which hangs over Capernaum, or Mt. Hattan, which hangs over Tiberius on the west coast.- Besides, it is only about forty miles 169 170 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. from Capernaum to Mt. Tabor, which has the precedence of all others in point of histor}^ The scene is so won- derful, absorbing, thrilling and impressive, that the mountain, if definitely known, would be the center of boundless superstitions, leading to idolatry. I trow this is the reason the Lord did not give its name. "Truly I say unto you, there are some of those standing here who may taste not of death, until they may see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom" (Matt. 9 :28). "For who- soever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful world, truly the Son -of man shall be ashamed of him when He shall come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. And He said to them, Truly I say unto you, that there are certain ones of those standing here who may not taste death, until they may see the kingdom of God having come in power." Mark 7 :38 ; 9 :1. "For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, the Son of man shall be ashamed of him when He may come in His glory and that of the Father and the holy angels. But I say unto you, truly there are some of those standing here, who may not taste of death until they may see the kingdom of God." Luke 9 :26, 27. •'For not followng cunningly devised fable&,have we made known unto you the power and cunning of our Lord Je- sus Christ, but being eye-witnesses of His majesty. For receiving from God the Father, the honor and glory of such a voice having been borne to him by the excellent glory; this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And we heard this voice being borne down from Heaven, being alone with Him in the holy mount." 2 Peter 1 :16-18. Here we see that Peter affirms that they did witness The Transfiguration. 171 his coming, power and glory when they were with them on the holy mount, as Jesus had told them that they should not taste of death until they should see the king- dom of God come with power and glory. It is a signifi- cant fact that tills prophecy actually received a grand adumbratory fulfillment on the Mount of Transfigura- tion. The also six days here in which we have no record of anything taking place evidently have a symbolic sig- nification. In this very Scripture above quoted (ch. 3-8) we have the statement "that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day." God created the world in six days, I trow six tliousand years, as geology abundantly evinces, and you see the Bible thousand-year-day corroborates. Then the Eden Sabbath, another thousand years, follows, terminating in the sad eclipse of the fall, turning the world over to. Sa- tan (2 Cor. 4:4), the week of hard toil, suffering, sor- row, bloodshed and death supervenes, with his heavy tread of six thousand years, whose black darkness is des- tined to recede before the Sun of Righteousness, rising with the healing of His wings and ushering in the glori- ous Millennial Sabbath, destined to accumulate new brightness through the triumphant roll of another thou- sand years. The testimony of Peter here beautifully corroborates the prediction of Jesus that some of them would be eyewitnesses of His coming, power and glory, before they should ever taste of death. How significant- ly it was verified in case of Peter, James and John, wh« actually beheld His glory while with Him on the holy mount. Matthew, ;Mark and Luke all testify that the glory of Jesus. Moses and Elijah was such that no tonsne could describe the splendor and grandeur. The 172 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. solution of the matter, the harmonization of Peter's tes- timony, that of the three G-ospel writers, and the proph- esy of Jesus, clearly involves the conclusion that this transfiguration scene was really a prelude adumbrating the Lord's second coming, after the similitude of His glorious coming to Paul on Damascus road ; unlike His proleptical appearing to Abraham at Mamre, and Nebu- chadnezzar at Babylon, anticipatory of His inclination and first advent. In the transfiguration we have the whole human race represented by Moses and Elijah, Je- sus himself being the infallible Paragon. (N. B. — The scene took place in the night, occupying all of it.) Mean- while Moses and Elijah were seen to depart, and Jesus remained, signifying their resignation of their delegated and expiring power. Moses represented all who will en- ter the transfiguration glory tlirough the resurrection, as the record says that he died and God buried him. Jude 9 gives us an epitomized history of a terrible con- flict between the archangel Michael and the Devil over the body of Moses, which certainly involves the conclu- sion of his resurrection, as the Devil never fights over the dead, but the living. If he had never conquered the human bod}', it would never die, so long as your soul is dead, the devil is satisfied with you, and will waste no ammunition on you. The same is true in reference to the body. Hence the devil's fight with the archangel over the body of Moses simply involves the conclusion that Michael, responsive to the divine mandate, had come down to raise Moses from the dead. This is cor- roborated by Daniel (ch. 12), where you see the Arch- angel Michael is coming down (doubtless in command of the resurrection angels), when the bride of Christ The Transfiguration, ^73 will be raised, and thus delivered from the great tribula- tion. Hence you see the presence of Moses in the trans- figuration glory is the confirmation that the buried saints will all be glorified through the resurrection. Meanwhile the presence of Elijah, the greatest of the prophets, is the confirmation that all the saints^ who shall be living on the earth when the Lord comes in Hia transfiguration glory, will also be transfigured. The scene of the transfiguration should ever move in a ce- lestial panorama before the contemplative eyes of every soul aspiring to that transcendent glory. As it will take place when the Lord returns to the earth, for which we should be in constant outlook, and we know not the mo- ment of His appearing, therefore our true attitude is that of constant readiness and expectation of the trans- figuration. When Jesus and the three apostles came down from the mountain, they found a great multitude assembled and all excited over a notable case of de- moniacal ejectment — a poor little boy so possessed with an awful demon which has rendered him both dumb and deaf, at the same time afflicting him witli an awful epi- lepsy; so that the paroxysm coming on him he often falls into the water. The father testifies that he has been thus afflicted from his childhood. Doubtless much of the epilepsy now prevalent and filling our asylums with sufferers, is caused by a similar demoniacal posses- sion. When the crowd sees Jesus, they begin to run to Him from all directions, eager to see what He will do. Jesus sees they are going to throng Him, so He expe- dites the work while He has room, commanding the deaf and dumb spirit to come out of him and come no more into him. That very moment the evil spirit seizing, 1Y4 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. convulsed him much and came out, leaving the boy looking like a corpse, bloodless, lifeless, cold, ashy and ghastly, so that many contended he was dead. Jesus, taking him by the hand, lifted him up, and he was all right. The utterance of our Lord (v. 23) is xery in- spiring; responsive to the father, he said, ''If you are able to believe, all things are possible to him that be- lieveth." I am well acquainted with Eev. E. J. Terrell, of the Kentucky Conference, and Eev. Bud Robinson, of Greenville, Texas, who were hopeless epileptics and miraculously healed like this young man. We should all constantly remember the omnipotence of faith as here affirmed by our wonderful Savior. Mark 9 : 14-2 9. We here have a most vivid and im- pressive contrast between the unearthly transfiguration glory on the mountain summit and the diabolical rage of hell manifested in this awfully stubborn devil down in the valley, illustrating the mixed character of this world — a prelibation both of heaven and hell, tlie former real- ized in a life of spiritual elevation, dwelling on the ]\Iount of God, where the light of the supernatural glory shines night and day ; and the other in the low, foggy, miasmatic regions of the earth, where poisonous reptiles, croaking frogs and doleful creatures abound, and the inhabitants are contaminated with the breath of hell and possessed by demons. We see here that Jesus repri- manded the nine apostles for the weakness of their faith and their consequent failure to eject the demon, remind- ing them that if they had faith as a grain of mustard seed they would actually be competent to remove moun- tains of difficulty confronting them in the spiritual world. The Transfiguration, 175 JESUS CALLS AND SENDS THE SEVENTY. Luke 10 :1-1G. Almost two and a half years have al- ready flowTi, leaving but six months in which to finish His work. He assumed to go to Jerusalem, where He must beard the lion in his den. What a paradox ! Je- rusalem, the City of God, and headquarters of the church, has actually become the stronghold of hell on the earth, where Jesus well knows it will cost Him His life to preach the truth. Why was this? Simply be- cause Satan had succeeded in capturing the leading clergy and the ruling eldership of the church. Shall we never learn wisdom ? Know ye not that the same history is this day repeating itself from Dan to Beersheba ? In view of the significant fact that He has now but six months in which to finish the work for which He left Heaven and came to this land of sin and sorrow ; in or- der to expedite the work, He calls out seventy others, making thirty-five evangelistic bands, each led by a God- ordained and heaven-sent duet, exhorting them to go with all possible expedition from city to city, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, reminding them to open wide the door of gospel grace to all who will enter, and to those who reject them with contempt, to knock off the dust from their feet, assuring them at the same time that it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for the Jewish cities which reject gospel light ;whereas Sodom and Gomorrah, and Tyre and Sidon were heathen cities which never did hear the ci\^l notes of gospel grace, set- ting forth the fact that the most awful doom awaiting the wicked in the judgment day is destined to overtake 176 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. those who have rejected the brightest noonday gospel light and opportunity. The commission of the seventy, in addition to the twelve, exceedingly augmented their already tremendous responsibilities of the Jewish church and nation. - FESTIVAL OF TABERNACLES. Whereas the Passover symbolizes regeneration, mark- ing the epoch of IsraeFs national birth, and Pentecost, sanctification, the feasts of Tabernacles, which came off about the last of September and first of October, typified glorification. Eighteen months have rolled away since Jesus was in Jerusalem, or even Judea, or elsewhere in South Canaan. Meanwhile the hierarchy have been making their boasts that they have completely scared Him away, and His face will be seen no more in that country, at the same time adding their threats to kill Him should He ever come back, feeling His absence from the third Passover ominous of His utter abandonment of Jerusalem and the South. And the feast of the Jews, and that of Tab- ernacles was nigh. "Then His brothers said unto Him, 'Depart thence and go into Judea in order that Thy dis- ciples may see Thy work which Thou art doing. For no one does anything in secret and himself seeks to be pub- lic. If you do these things, manifest yourself to the world. For His brothers were not believing on Him' " (John 7:2-5). He had four brothers and some sisters, evidently all younger than Himself. The names of the former were James, Judas, Simon and Joses. We natur- allv wonder that His own brothers did not believe on Him. There is no doubt that they did believe He was a The Transfiguration. Vt*\ prophet, but found it exceedingly difficult to accept the paradoxical idea that He was the Christ. This origi- nated from the fact that they were reared together in the same family. They all frankly admitted that He was wonderfully good all His life, while the idea that their own brother Jesus was the Shiloh of prophecy, the Christ of God, the Redeemer of Israel, and the Savior of the world, was too much for them to take in. Thus they stood in the attitude of hesitating incredulity till they crucified Him. Then they said, "Our precious Brother was surely a mighty prophet of the Lord, hav- ing great power, and, like Elijah and Elisha, perform- ing wondrous miracles; yet He ventured too far, let His enemies get the advantage of Him; consequently He has sadly fallen victim to their cruelty." But a few hours of weeping roll away, and their brother Jesus rises, walks out of the sepulchre, and they again see Him alive. All their doubts now evanesce. They leap into the air with tremendous shouts_, roll on the earth with rhapsody unutterable, and shout aloud to everybody, "Be it known to all the world, that after all, our Brother Jesus is none other than the world^s Messiah, the Christ of God and the Eedeemer of Israel." Not only do the four become enthusiastic disciples, but James and Judas are actually honored with a place in the apostleship, the former being installed pastor in Jerusalem. Though He declined the solicitation of His brothers to go to the feast, sending them on with the gathering multitudes. He goes up in a few days, arriving midway in the festival ; i. e., Wednesday, as it opened and closed on the Sabbath, occupying eight days. Doubtless His re- fusal to go with the crowd at the beginning was to avoid jij^g Life of Jesus and His Apostles. it, which would arise, pending His anticipated corona- tion. THE FINAL DEPARTURE OF JESUS FROM GALILEE. Having devoted five-sixths of His ministry to Galilee, He now takes His final adieu of the land where He spent the thirty years of His minority, and two and a half years of His Messianic ministry. So now He departs for Jerusalem, to return thither no more till after He shall have passed through the dark valley of death and moved on into the life of glory and immortality Then He contemplates meeting a previous appointment with His disciples on some unmentioned Galilean moun- tain, I trow that of Beatitudes. During His peregrina- tion up to Jerusalem "He sent messengers before His face; having gone forth, they entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for Him. And they did not receive Him because His face was going to Je- rusalem. His disciples, James and John, seeing, said, Lord, do you wish that we would demand fire to come down from Heaven and destroy them as Elijah did? And turning, He rebuked them and said, Do you know of what spirit you are, for the Son of Man came not to destroy the souls of men, but to save them. And they journeyed into another village.^' I traveled along that same route, the old Caravan road, used in the days of Abraham and the transportation of commerce from Da- mascus to Jerusalem, and all the way from Mesopotamia to Egypt. It was then carried on the camel's back, and so it is now. I met many long trains of those great ani- mals loaded with merchandise, when I traveled that route. From the Sea of Galilee, through Samaria to Jerusalem, you pass by the old City of Samaria, near The Transfiguration. x^^ «rhich Elijah actually called the fire down from Heaven to consume Ahab's soldiers, sent to arrest him. I trow the village that rejected Christ stood on the same spot Here we see He reprimands James and John for their retaliatory spirit, which might comport with right- eous retribution under the law, but was utterly incom- patible with the benignant love and mercy character- istic of the gospel. Luke 9 :ol-56. THE TEN LEPERS. Luke 17:11-19. On this same journey of our Lord from Galilee to Jerusalem ten lepers met Him, standi ing afar off, lifting up their voices and pleading for mercy. With characteristic benignity and mercy. He heals them all, sending them away to the priest, to re- ceive his diagnosis and certificate, ensuring them ad- mission to the synagogue worehip. While the ten are all healed, only one turns back, shouts jubilantly and testi- fies to the mighty work. "And He said to him; having ari^n, go; thy faith hath saved thee." Here you see a confirmation of the fact that the Lord heals sinners as well as saints. This is confirmed by the fact that the ten were all healed, whereas only one got saved. How- ever, we must recognize the fact that the sanctified spir- it IS the normal attitude of bodily healing CHAPTER VIII. JESUS PREACHES IN JERUSALEM. The Feast of Tabernacles is midway when Jesus ar- rives on Wednesday to the unutterable astonishment of all, as He had declined the appeals of all in Galilee, even of His brothers. The word "Temple," occurring so fre- quently in the New Testament, not only included the magnificent edifice built by King Solomon, but many other buildings, great and costly, besides the en- tire holy Campus lying in front of the Tem- ple, and stretching out to the east, north and south, and including thirty-five acres of beautiful table land on the summit of Mt. Moriah. In this hallowed area, the Jews pitched their tents in w^hich they dwelt dur- ing the eight days occupied by the holy convocation. On this holy Campus in the open air, Jesus preached his glorious gospel to the spellbound multitudes. VOLITION IS THE CONDITION OF SPIRITUAL ILLUMI- NATION. John 6:15-17. "Then Jesus responded to them and said. My teaching is not mine, but of Him that sent me; if anyone may will to do His will, he shall know concerning the teaching whether it is of God or I speak for myself." The E. V. in this strong and im- portant passage is quite inadequate, making theli, may will, an auxiliary to the verb translated do; whereas, it 180 Jesus Preaches in Jerusalem. loX is the independent leading verb in the sentence; set- ting forth the declaration of our Lord;, that when you actually put forth volition to do the will of Grod, He will reveal to you the truth. The great reason why so few people actually know the truth of God, is because they are not fully committed to it. In that case the Holy Spirit is grieved with the proud and stubborn heart, and will not reveal the truth, because He knows it would be contemned. This explains the great secret of sanctifica- tion; so many saying they cannot understand it. The real difficulty is not with the intellect, but with the heart. When they fully, unreservedly and eternally consecrate themselves to the Lord, settling the matter, that they will do His will if right hands, feet, and eyes all come off, and they lose their heads; then there will be no trouble about understanding it. The whole matter will be elucidated by the Holy Ghost to the utmost sim- plicity. Did not Moses give you the law? And no one of you doeth the law. Why do you seek to kill me? The multitude responded, Thou hast a demon who seeks to kill thee? The person thus responding from the mul- titude did not know that they were actually plotting to kill Him, but He knew it. They were charging Him ve- hemently because he healed people on the Sabbath day. alleging that this was a violation. As the law of Moses specified that Sabbath breakers should be stoned, they were doing their utmost to implicate Him in the penal- ty of the law that they might put him to death. "And many of the multitude believed on Him, and continued to say, When Christ may come will He do more miracles than those which this one does? The Pharisees heard j|^g2 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. the multitude S23eaking these things concerning Him, in an undei^tone^ and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers that they should arrest Him. Vs. 31-32. . . , 45-52 When the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees they said to them, Wherefore did not you lead him along? The officers responded, Never did a mun speak as this man is speaking. The Pharisees respond- ed to them. Whether are you also deceived, whether has either one of the rulers or Pharisees believed on Him ? But this multitude not knowing the law are accused. Nicodemus says to them, being one of them, Whether does the law condemn a man unless it may first hear concerning him and know what he doeth? They re- sponded and said to him. Whether art thou also from Galilee? Search and see tliat no prophet rises from Galilee." A prominent attitude of fallen ecclesiasticism. has always been to magnify personality, which is flatly contradictory of the Scriptures, which assure us, that there is no respecter of persons. Nicodemus had never forgotten his nocturnal in- terview with Jesus two and a half years ago. Though an able doctor of divinity and a member of the Sanhe- drim, he ventures to vindicate Jesus in the midst of the tall theologians thirsting for His blood; recognizing this affirmation of Jewish criminal law, by Nicodemus; you readily observe that Jesus was really mobbed, be- ing deprived of a legal trial. Festus, the Roman gov- ernor in the prosecution of Paul, makes the same affirmation in reference to Roman law. Therefore, you see that Jesus was murdered defiantly of both Jewish and Roman law. Here you see that the Sanhedrim, whose hall is on Mt. Zio?i in the west end of the city, Jesus Preaches in Jerusacetu. 183 sent their official cohort to the Temple Campus, which is in the east end, with orders to arrest Him and bring Him before them for trial. After much delay the guards returned without Him, having made a signal failure. As He had six months of His ministry not yet fulfilled, it was impossible for all the powers of earth and hell to take Him prisoner. The moment they at- tempted to lay hands on Him, an indefinable paralysis utterly disqualified them to touch Him. HOLY RIVERS OP LIVING WATERS FLQWINQ OUT OP THE HEART. 37-44 "And in the last great day of the feast Jesus etood and continued to cry out, saying. If any one thirst, let him come and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture said, rivers of living waters shall flow out of his heart.'' He spoke this concerning the Spirit, whom those believing on Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified; therefore, those from the multitude hearing those words continued to say, ^This one is truly the prophet." Others said, "He is the Christ" ; others said, "For whether does Christ come out of Galilee ?" Did not the Scrptures say that Christ cometh from the seed of David and from the village of Bethlehem, where David was? Then there was a division in the multitude on account of him ; and eertan ones there wished to arrest Him, but no one laid hands on Him. Bethlehem is only eight miles from Je- rusalem. Hence the ignorance of the people was re- markable, not knowing that Jesus was really born there according to the Scriptures they quoted. The mind in- 184 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. tuitively wonders why Jesus did not correct this mis- take on the part of His account. Oh^Chow easily at this point could He have vindicated Himself! But it is pertinent to remember that He was not here for self- vindication, hut to preach the truth and atone for a lost world. The Scripture referred to in V. 38, is Ez. 47 :1- 12, where the prophet describes the holy waters, flowing out from the Temple; first ankle deep, illustrating your walk with God, going only where He goes. Then he finds them knee deep, setting forth prayer without ceas- ing, as the knee is the worshipping joint. Afterward, he finds them loin deep, exhibitory of service with all the power of body, soul, spirit and life. Finally, they are a swelling river, impassable, broadening and deepening into a sea without bank or bottom, thus vividly elucidat- ing that final sinking into God, oblivious to all transi- tory things, which is the normal result of the glorious experience of entire sanctification, involving sin's extir- pation by the cleansing blood, as this river heads at the south end of the altar where all the blood of the sacri- fice was poured, thus manifesting the grand negative experience through the cleansing blood ; while the flow- ing waters swelling into grander magnitudes, rising into loftier heights, reaching down into unfathomable depths, and broadening into swelling seas, pertinently s3Tnbolize the glorious positive side of the sanctified side of experience; which unlike the negative, definite and complete under the cleansing blood, is inimitably pro- gressive not only through this life, but on through tne flight of eternal ages. While the Holy Ghost has been in the world from the beginning, Gen. 1, Jesus here al- ludes to His personal coming on the Day of Pentecost Jesus Preaches in Jerusalem. 185 as His personal successor, the Executive of the Trinity, through the dispensation. Jesus gave the reason why His coming in the capacity of Comforter was postponed till after the crucifixion, when He was glorified. The Holy Ghost comforts us through the medium of our im- mortal intellects. The patriarchs, prophets and Old Testament saints were saved by faith in the prophetic Christ, looking through the myriads of bleeding birds and beasts on Jewish altars slain, down through the rolling ages, till the illuminated eye rested on the Great Antit^^e bleeding and dying on the cross of Calvary; thus making a complete atonement for all their sins. Oh, how infinitely easier for us to look back through the centuries of indubitable history and see, by faith, the "Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.''' Jesus three times over, especially and distinctly pre- dicted His own tragical and vicarious dfeath, repeatedly telling the people that He would return, in the person of the Holy Ghost, whom they could not kill, because He had no mortal body. The perfect and eternal expia- tion wrought on Calvary, swept every obstruction out of the way of these holy waters, coming in a mighty swelling river, broadening into a sea and inundating the world. It is pertinent here to state that John 8 :1-11, giving the history of the adulterous woman in E.V., does not appear in the original. Hence it is an interpola- tion, doubtless brought in by a corrupt clergy in the post-apostolic ages as an apology for sin. THE GLORIOUS LIBERTY. John 8 :30-36. "He, speaking these things, many be- 186 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. lieved on Him. Then Jesus said to the Jews having be- lieved on Him, If you may abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. They responded to Him. We are the seed of Abraham, we have never been in bond- age to anyone; how do you say that you shall be free? Jesus responded to them. Truly, truly, I say unto you, that every one committing sin, is the slave of sin. The slave does not abide in the house forever ; the Son abidi eth forever; therefore, if the Son may make you free, you shall indeed be free." In this discourse He address- es the people who believed on Him intellectually, but not spiritually. I trow even their intellectual faith ter- minated with the apprehension that He was a prophet; perhaps a few in His audience rising to the higher con- ception of his Christhood. You have in their testimony a vivid illustration of that spiritual blindness, which so frequently characterizes preachers and people occupy- ing prominent positions in the visible church. Here they certify, we have never been in bondage to anyone, when they were two hundred years in bondage to the Egyptians, and even at that time actually in bondage to the Eomans, their government gone and ruled over by a cruel despotism. In conversion you are made free in a general sense, i. e., free from the condemnation of the violated law, and the service of the devil ; but not free from the carnal mind, which wages an exterminat- ing war against you, but striving constantly to bring you into bondage. Sanctification is the glorious work which makes you "free indeed." Jesvs Preaches in Jerusalem. 187 THE WICKED, THE CHILDREN OF SATAN. 37-59. "I know that you are the seed of Abraham; but you seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you. I speak those things which I have seen with the Father; moreover, indeed you are doing those things which you heard of your father. They responded and said to him : Abraham is our father. Jesus says to them, if you are the children of Abraham you would, do the works of Abraham ; but now you seek to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth, which I heard with God ; Abraham did not this. You are doing the works of your father. They said to him. We have not been born of fornication, we have one Father, God. And Jesus said to them, If -God were your Father you would love me ; for I came out from God and I go ; for I have not come for myself, but He sent me. Wherefore do you not know my speech? Because you were not able to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and you wish to do the lust of your father. He was a mur- derer in the beginning, and stood not in the truth, be- cause there is no truth in him." Divine image and spiritual life were lost in the fall, and regained only in regeneration and made perfect in sanctification. While the image and likeness of God were spoliated away by the devel, he imparted his own corrupt and filthy image in their stead, superseding the mind of God with which w^e were created, by the carnal mind which is enmity toward God, for it is not sub- ject to the law of God ; for it can not be, Rom. 8 :7. Je- sus looks them in the face and tells them they do not know His speech because they are not able to hear His I88 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. word, while His words were that moment ringing in their ears. The solution is plain; while they heard with true mortal ears, their spiritual ears were closed and deaf, so they could not hear the words of life. A dead man has ears but does not hear anything. Our Savior's audi- ence were all members of the Jewish church, as the Gen- tile was prohibited from entering the Temple on pain of death. The priests, Pharisees and Sadducees were listening to His words; yet He certifies that they could not hear them. This illustrates the absolute necessity of divine in- tervention. The Holy Ghost must come and open tha ears of the human spirit, before they can ever hear and understand spiritual things. What a wholesale delusion and bewilderment pervades the church and the world this day on the subject of the divine paternity. Mul- titudes of preachers have so drifted away into the heresies of Universalism, that they are preaching the di- vine paternity of the wicked, which you see flatly con- tradicts Jesus. His audience was not uncircumcised heathens, but all church members; yet He pronounces them the children of their father, the devil. Preachers habitually stand in the pulpit and address their audi- tors, as the children of God; thus helping Satan to de- ceive them. Oh, how important it is to preach the truth and show up the diabolical paternity in case of all the unregenerate ! The supernatural intervention of the Holy Ghost and His omnipotent work of regeneration and sanctification, should flame in heavenly cyclonea from every pulpit. The Lord continued this sermon till He told them He had seen Abraham, (which was true not only of His divinity, but also of His humanity^ Jesus Preaches in Jerusalem. 189 which had visited Abraham at Mamre, 1900 years before He was born in Behlehem) ; also certifying His existence before Abraham was born. This brought up a crisis, so they took up stones to smite Him. As He yet had six months of His ministry to the wicked world and fallen churches, the divinity relieved the humanity by render- ing Him invisible, so He passed out of the Temple with impunity. Lord, help us to preach the truth so faith- fully, that we shall stir unconverted church members as Thou didst! THE MAN BORN BLIND. John 9. Jesus passing along sees a man blind from his birth; anoints his eyes with spittle and clay, and sends him away to the Pool of Siloam to wash. He re- turns floodled) with joy over his newly found eyesight, perfectly enraptured with the gorgeous light of day. which had never before shown down upon his sightless eyes. Unutterably glorious is the transition out of life- long midnight into the sunburst of Palestinian day. When his friends interview him in reference to the won- derful miracle of which he is the happy recipient, and inquire as to the authorship, he says, "I know not." Then they lead him to the Pharisees who are incredulous with reference to his identity, and the report that he was born blind. When they find his par- ents and they testify to his identity and blindness from his birth, they ask them who performed the mira- cle, and they answer, "We know that he was our son and he was born blind, but how he now sees we know not. Ask him, he is of age," i. e., 30 years old. All the de- vices of the Pharisees signally fail to prevail on this 190 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. man to indorse their condemnation of Jesus; the only allegation which they were able to bring against Him was that of violatingthe Sabbath. The reason why nearly every miracle here put to record was on the Sabbath, was not because He did not perform them ever and anon on other da3'S, but because the enraged clergy had put their heads together to get up a case of condemnation under the law, the penalty for Sabbath-breaking being that of death by stoning. As they had no show on the line of any other charges, theyi made Sabbath-breaking and blasphemy their especial rallying point. This maa proved inflexible amid all their caprices and devices to run him into entanglements and contradictions and to secure his acquiescence and endorsement of the charges against Jesus, alleging that He was a sinner be- cause He did not keep the Sabbath. So they finally cast him out, i. e., excommunicate him, turn him out of the church. Jesus meets him again, tells him that he is the Son of Man, i. e., the Christ, and proceeds to say v. 39, "Unto the judgment have I come into this world, in or- der that those not seeing may see, and those seeing may be made blind. Those of the Pharisees being with him said to him. Whether are we blind? Jesus said to them If you were blind you would not have sin; but now you say that we see; your sin abideth.^' So upon the inter- vention of Christ the physically blind received their sight and the spiritually blind also receive the light of heavenly day ; while those seeing are made blind. Before Jesus came, many among the Jews were walk ing in the light of justification; but when they closed their eye to the brighter light which Jesus brought into the world, the light they had enjoyed under the law and Jesus Preaches in Jerusalem. \^-^ the prophets evanesced away. We are now living in an age of judgment; multiplied thousands enjoying justi- fication lose it and go into darkness because they re- ject the brighter and more glorious light of sanctifica- tion. Jesus is everywhere in the present holiness move- ment bringing in the bright and beautiful light of holi- ness of the Lord. Thousands walking in darkness re- ceive the light and rejoice in it; while many who have the light of a lower dispensation, like the Jews, are go- ing into spiritual darkness, resting in dead formality, because they reject the bright and glorious light of en- tire sanctification. THE SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP. John 10. "Truly, truly, I say unto you, he that Cometh not in at the door of the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber; he that cometh in through the door is the shep- herd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth and he calls his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. When he may take out all his own, he goeth before them, the sheep follow him because they know his voice ; they will not follow a stranger, but they will fly from him, because they know not the voice of the strangers. Jesus spoke this parable unto them; and they did not know what were those things He was speaking to them. Then Je- sus said "Truly, truly, I say unto yon I am the door of the sheep. All, so many as come, are thieves and rob- bers, but the sheep do not hear them. I am the door; if anyone may come in through me he will be saved, he will come in and go out and find pasture/' 192 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, I used to hear the false theology, prominently preached from the pulpit, setting forth immersion in water, as the door into the Kingdom. You see here that Jesus Himself is the door, and the Holy Ghost is the porter, i. e., the door keeper. Hence, if you ever get in- to the Savior's fold, you must say "Yes" to the Holy Ghost, follow his leadership. He will lead you to the Good Shepherd, who is the door into the heavenly kingdom, where pardon, peace and holiness await you. You see here that all who are not led by the Holy Ghost to Christ, and through Him pass into the fold, are thieves and robbers. Jesus is the only way, and the Holy Ghost is His only revelation. You observe here that the Good Shepherd does not drive His sheep, but He leads them. Of this I was constantly reminded, while traveling in the Holy Land. I saw the shepherds everywhere leadr ing their flocks, and the sheep following them like dogs. It is wonderful how the customs, habits and events of that country corroborate the word of the Lord. As they have no fences, all stock are herded, the shepherd remaining with them day and night ; e. g., if a man has lost some of his flock and goes to his neighbor hunting them the latter speaks to his flock. All his sheep hear his voice, hold up their heads and listen to what he says ; meanwhile if the strays are in the flock, they graze on, giving no attention. Then the other shepherd speaks to them, and if those that did not hear the owner of the flock, lift up their heads and give attention to him, the former turns them over to the latter and he takes them away, rejoicing because he has found his strays. If the Lord is our Shepherd, and we His sheep. He has a right Jesus Preaches in Jerusalem. 193 to shear us, when he will and use the fleece for His own benefit He also has a right to make mutton of His own sheep at His discretion. Header, it means much to be the Lord's sheep, ready at all times for the shears or the sacrifice, to spend and be spent for the Good Shepherd at His omniscient and infallible discretion. V. 10. "The thief cometh that he may steal, may kill and destroy; I come that ye may have life and may have it more abundantly .'' We receive life in regeneration •and the more abundant life in sanctification. V. 11. "I am the good Shepherd.'" 'The good shepherd lays down his soul for the sheep." The human soul of Christ made the sacrifice for a lost and ruined world, offering up his body, the bleeding Lamb of Calvary, on the al- tar of the divinity.' V. 12. "The hireling indeed not being the shepherd who owns the sheep, seeth the wolf coming, leaveth the sheep and fleeth, and the wolf seizeth them and scattereth them ; because he is an hire- ling and there is no care to him for the sheep." While these deliverances of our Savior clearly sweep ■^rom the field all unsaved carnal preachers, who prosecute their ministry actuated by selfish motives, as they would any other secular pursuit, involving them in the charge of theft, murder and destruction, which is to be understood in a spiritual sense; e. g., such preachers steal away all the heavenly hopes of their auditors, at the same time murdering them soul and body, and de- stroying them world without end. There is also a still deeper signification of these terrible denunciations of the hireling shepherd; i. e., they certainly disqualify all true preachers of the gospel to encourage, or even recog- -^ize a salary for their labors. The true preacher like 194 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. Paul, says, "I want not yours, but you/' He willingly and gladly, like his great Antitype, wears out his life and lays it down for the sheep. V. 14. "I am the Grood Shepherd. I know mine and mine know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my soul for the sheep.'' We live in the midst of universal commotion. The holiness movement is girdling the globe and everywhere throwing the ecclesi- astical elements into wild commotion, exposing and revealing the counterfeit shepherds, producing a clamor- oas bleating among the sheep, no longer content with the counterfeit hireling shepherds. Oh, what a univer- sal stir and excitement among the Lord's sheep, as the voice of the true shepherd reverberates from every siky bringing cavil and confusion into the ranks of the world- ly ecclesiasticisms ; as the Lord's true sheep are every- where receiving light and diagnosing the counterfeit shepherds who have deluded them, permitting the wolf to invade and play sad havoc. John tells us here that this sermon of our Lord produced a great excitement, resulting in a division among the Jews; many of them certifying, ^'He hath a demon and is gone mad !" w'hile others respond, '^These are not the wx>rds of a demonized man; whether is a demon able to open the eyes of the blind?" The regular allegations m^ade against Jesus, were ''He hath a demon. He is beside himself. He is gone mad." If you would be His follower, look out for the cognomens, which they applied to Him. The world has not changed; neither is it more tolerant of purity and holiness now than in the days of Christ. When the gospel ceases to arouse the animosity of hypocrites and carn'al professors, the dyniamite has all evanesced: life Jesus Preaches in Jerusalem, 195 is gone and it is a loathsome corpse. Vs. 20-22. "It was the feast of dedication in Jerusalem, it was winter ; and Jesus was walking in the Temple, in the porch of Solomon." I used to think Solomon's porch was a pro- jection from the Temple edifice. This is a mistake. It was a separate building,about six hundred yards from the Temple, near the beautiful gate which enters through the east wall of the city and the campus. It is there today, though somewhat in ruin. This feast of the dedication is said to have been about Dec. 25, commem- orative of the dedication of the Temple,after the Syrians under Antiochus had occupied it three years and polluted it -with the worship of idols; the Jews, after long and bloody wars, gallantly led by the heroic Maccabees, hav- ing signally triumphed over them and regained their in- d-ependence. V. 26. "But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, and no one shall pluck them out of my hand. The Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of my hand." The preaching of our Savior, in this memorable sermon on the shepherd and sheep, is miuch appreciated by Christians adhering to the Calvan- istic theology. While it would seem to a superficial reader to establish indubitably the final perseverance of the saints yet there is not in it so much as an insinu- ation against the absolute and untrammeled free agency of all men. The vast audience listening to Jesus were all church members, 3'et he affirms ^they are not of his sheep,' involving, at least, an awful suspicion that we live amid the repetition of similar events and environments deter- 196 Life of Jesus and His Apostles minative of human destiny. Neither the preachers nor tiie people hearing the Savior at that time were His sheep. They were counterfeits and reprobates, hastening to an awful doom in the destruction of Jerusalem, which was but a prelude of eternal retribution. When Jesus, looking them in the face, delivered these awful truths, which excluded them from the kingdom of grace and glory, they became so enraged that they again pro- ceeded to stone Him, having tlie double charge of Sab- bath breaking and blasphemy arrayed against Him, whose punishment in the law of Moses, was death by stoning. They decided that His claim to be the Son of God was blasphemy; while His innumerable works of mercy on the Sabbath involved Him in the crime of its desecration. Feeling amply sustained by the law in the infliction of capital punishment; they were determined to make short work of the trouble, which had been an eating cancer on tlie 'body ecclesiastic, more than two and a half years. As His time to preach the gospel and corroborate it by His miracles had not yet expired. He departed out of Jerusalem, traveling away to the north- east, crossing the Jordan and stopping in Bethany Per- ea, where John had spent some time preaching and baptizing. Thither the people rallied to Him, many be- lieving on Him. The moment we follow Him out of Jerusalem, we see a great difference in the appreciation of the peoj)le, arising, obviously, from the awful, sinister influence of the higher clergy, in Jerusalem, who had crystalized against Him, settling down in a unanimous determination to kill Him. Jesus Preaches in Jerusalem. 197 THE RESURRECTI02T OF LAZARUS. Jo'lm, 11. In an 'bumble cottage at Bethany, a lovely suburban village on the south-east slopes of Mt. Olivet, fifteen furlongs from Jerusalem, there lived an amiable family of humble, godly people. Contemporary history certifies that they were related to Jesus by the ties of consanguinity. Certain it is that they were mutually de- lighted with His frequent visits. The orphan children, Mary, Martha and Lazarus, constituted the family, sup- ported by the latter,in the laborious work of transcribing the Old Testament scriptures; as that was the only way the Word of the Lord, at that time, could be multiplied. A short time after the departure of Jesus, Lazarus was taken sick, as history says, of fever, such as they call typhoid in this countr)^,but in that, well known this day, as the Syrian fever. As he grew worse and worse, the dis- ease defying all remedies and challenging the skill of the physicians, till he burned as in a furnace, the loving sis- ters, terribly alarmed, eventually concluded there was no hope but to bring Jesus thither that He might heal him. This they much regretted to do, as they knew, to their sorrow, that the people instigated by the priests, were in the act of stoning Him, a few days previously. Eut ren- dering Himself invisible,passing out of their hands. He had left the city and gone far away to Bethany Perea, to save His life from the infuriated mob. Therefore, they hesitated still, hoping to see a change for the better. " In this they were disappointed, the change by night and day being only for the worse; till, in utter desperation 198 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. of -all medical aid,they called a messenger and dispatched bim with all possible expedition to call Jesus; saying to Him "Behold, he whom thon lovest, is sick/^ V. 4. Je- sus^hearing, said , this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God> that the Son of God may be glorified through it/' Meanwhile, the fever is so awfully malig- nant that Lazarus actually dies some time before the messenger reaches Jesus. After receiving the news of his sickness, Jesus remains two days, when he announces to His disciples, V. 11, ^'Our friend, Lazarus^ has gone to sleep; but I go that I m'ay awaken him/' The disci- ples thinking that He means physical sleep, receive it as encouraging news, 'ominous of his convalescence; when Jesus corrects their mistake, notifying them positively that he is dead, and expressing His determination to go to him, when the disciples remind Him of the danger from which He had so recently fled; and, Y. 16; Thomas said to his comrades,"Let us go,that we may also die with Him;" inferential of the fact that they were about to kill Him a few days ago when He was there, and if He went back, they would certainly stone Him to death. Thomas was the doubter till the fires of Pentecost burnt his doubts up. Consequently he always took the blue side of everything, antithetical to Peter, who always took the bright side. Consequently Thomas says, "Let us go along and dies with Him"; i. e., they will kill Jesus and us too. if we go; but let us go, be true to Him, and die with Him. By the time they arrive at Bethany, Lazarus has been dead four days. (I entered his tomb during both my tours in that country). Of course putrefaction in that hot climate progresses very rapidly. Meanwhile the Jewish mourners, pursuant to their custom to Jesus Preaches in Jerusalem. 199 mourn for the dead seven days, are surprised to find the sisters and especially Mary, looking for Jesus, and even enthused with the hope that He will raise their brother from the dead. As the sun peers above Mt. Pisgah and wraps great Mt Olivet in the splendor of his oriental beauty suddenly a man comes running to the house of mourning, notifying them that Jesus has arrived and is now with His disciples, halting a moment at Jeremiah's fountain in the suburbs and drinking some water and washing the sands from their feet Martha instan- taneously met Him, falling at His feet saying: *'If thou 'hadst 'been here my brother had not died and I know that whatsoever you ask God, God will give to you/' Jesus says to her; ^^Thy brother shall rise again." Martha says to Him; "I know he shall rise again in the resurrection in the last day. For Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life; and he that be- lieveth on me though he may die,shall live ; and everyone living and believing on me can never die,'' V. 20-26. Now when Jesus astounds Martha with these wonderful declarations and sends her to call her sister, who through courtesy to the mourners, had remained in the house, instantaneously she leaps; meets Jesus still lingering on the spot where Mari;ha met Him, and falling at His feet, ejaculating, "Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died." The words Jesus had spoken to Martha had already thrilled the heart of Mary with burning enthusiasm, till standing upright before Him she pulled Him by the sleeve of his robe in the direction of the sepulchre. Since the arrival of Jesus in one short hour, the news 200 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. had flown/ on the wings of the wind^ till all Bethany was astir and the people trooping down the slopes of Mt. Olivet and up from the ravines and valleys and pouring in from the hills, till a swelling multitude who had run themselves out of breath, once more gazed upon the face of the wonderful Galilean Prophet, who raised the wid- ow's son at Nain, and spoke the daughter of Jairus into life, wondering and conjecturing what was going to hap- pen. Even a caravan on its way from Idumea to Egypt was 'arrested by the commotion and halted to see the end. V. 34. He groaned in spirit and troubled himself and said, "Where have you placed him?'' They say to him^ "Lord,come and see." Jesus wept. Here we see a most vidid contrast between the humanity and the divinity, the former with heart-broken tenderness, giving way to gushing tears; while the latter rising in the majesty of omnipotence, proceeds to raise him from the dead. While they are journeying 1^ the tomb, which is a cav- ernous ex?cavatiion: in the base of Mt. Olivet, Martha observes, "Lord, already he smelleth." Having advanced within a few paces, Jesus halted the procession and gave praise to His father for the omnipotent intervention ; al- leging as a reason, 'in order that the people may believe that thou hast sent me.^ N"ow Heordersthe strong men to take away the stone from the door of the sepulchre. No sooner is it moved than an awful gust of putre- scent odor pours out, so impregnating the air as to cause the multitude to retreat a number of paces; mean- while the daylight superseding the darkness in the sep- ulchre reveals the body, lying on the stone slab, the grave clothes darkened by the putrefaction, V. 43. Now Jesus speaks with a voice that shakes great Mt. Olivet, Jesus Preaches in Jerusalem. 201 "Lazarus, come forth V The dead man came out bound as to his feet and) his hands, with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped about with a napkin, Jesus says to them; "Loose him' and let him go V Responsive to the stentorian call of Jesus,the soul of Lararus, leaving his happy retreat in Abraham's bosom, comes back, re-en- ters his body and animates it once more. Meanwhile the people see the corpse rise, and walk out of the tomb, causing a great panic and unutterable affright. Then Jesus says,"Loo6e him and lethim go V speaking to those strong men, who had rolled away the stone. But what can they do, panic stricken and prostrate on the ground with dismay affright ? History says Mary was the first one to proceed to un-pin and remove the napkin from his face, Martha falling in and helping her. Now when the multitude saw that he was actually alive and no mis- take about it, recovering from their panic, they raised a tremendous shout which was heard in Jerusalem, fifteen furlongs distant: "Glory to the God of Israel, who has raised up a prophet in our midst, who has power to speak the dead ino life again !" Meanwhile -so many believed Him and fell on the ground in adoring worship on all sides that the way was actually blockaded. The effect of this miracle was over- whelming and tremendous. Elijah and Elisha had raised the dead; but never had a case been known in which the person had been dead so long as Lararus was. While hosts believed on Jesus under the influence of this stupendous miracle, others went away and told the Pharisees. We have in this mighty work of Jesus, a vivid, lucid and powerful symbolism of the redemptive scheme; the 202 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. resurrection of the -diead Lazarus t}^ifying regeneration, which is the resurrection of a human spirit from the dead ; while the removal of the grave clothes, beautifully and forcibly emblemizes sanctification, which is the inher- ent principle of full spiritual libert}^, free from all the fetters, chains andi bandiages, bound on the soul by in- bred sin. Such was the result of the terrible commotion among the high priests and Pharisees, that they at once conven- ed the Sanhedrim and there delivered flaming speeches. V. 47. "What shall we do because this man is doing many miracles? If we thus let him alone all will be- lieve on him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and nation.^^ This actually did transpire. The Romans did come and destroyed their city and na- tion. Amid the excited speeches in the Sanhedrim, the spirit of prophecy came on Caia'phas, Hhe high priest, so that he boldly predicted ; Y. 49, 'You know not anything, neither do you consider that it behooves you that one man may die for the people and not that the whole na- tion shall perish.^' That was a true prophecy, literally fulfilled in the expiatory death of Jesus, an illustrative case of the significant fact that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are not confined to the sanctified, nor even to the regenerated. The case is very clear that Caiaphas, the chief priest, was actually demoniacally possessed, led by the devil and doing his work. Yet we see that God put His hand on him and used him to utter a true prophecy. The final verrfiict of the Sanhedrim on this occasion was that they would kill Jesus as quickly as possible. Therefore, Jesus again left the country, ac- companied by His disciples, of whom Lazarus was one; Jesus Preaches in Jerusalem. 203 going out north into the city Ephraim, where He spent a short time with His disciples; then journeying on north-east, crossing over Jordan into Berea, the country originally given to the two and one-half tribes, Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, -where He sojourned a dozen days, preaching the gospel of the kingdom to the vast multi- tudes who crowded en His track, hanging spellbound on His eloquent lips, thrilled and elated not only by His wonderful preaching, but His stupendous miracles. CHAPTEE IX. JESUS PREACHES IN PEREA. Luke 13 :10-21. "Jesus was preaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. Behold a woman having a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, who w"as bent over and was not able entirely to straighten up. Jesus see- ing her called to her and said, "Woman,thou art released, from thy infirmity;'' andi He put His hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and continued to glo- rify God. But the chief ruler of the synagogue, being grieved because Jesus healed on the Sabbath, said to the multitude, "There are six, days in which it behooveth us to work ; therefore coming in these, 1)6 healed, but not on the Sabbath day. But the Lord responded to him and said ; "Ye hypocrites,doth not one of you loose your ox or donkey from the stall, and leading him away give him water on the Sabbath? But this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound, lo, these eigh- teen years, did it not behoove that she should be loosed from this bondage on the Sabbath day?" He speaking these things, all those opposing Him were overwhelmed with shame, and the whole multitude continued to re- joice over all the glorious things which were done by him. The prominent characteristic of dead religions in all ages has been to get exceedingly particular, and even tyrannical, proscriptive and condemnatory about non- essentials. Hence, you see they hounded Jesus night 204 Jesus Preaches in Perea. 205 and day with the charge of Sabbath breaking because He performed his miracles on that day as well as oth- ers. We live in an age of compromise. Jesus did not make any. By so doing He might have saved His life. He stuck to truth and duty, refusing to flicker an iota. The result was He lost His life. So if we are true, in- flexible, and make no compromise, we are bound to lose our carnal lives; whereas, deflexion from the straight line of truth and duty would certainly forfeit spiritual life. THE NARROW WAY. ■ V. 23. "And one said to Him,Lord,are the saved few? And He said to them, "Strive to enter in through the narrow gate, because many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and will not be able.^' Here we see the reason why so few people are saved. It is not because they do not desire salvation and even seek after it. The desire to be saved and some sort of an effort in that direction are peculiar to immortal intelligences in every age and nation. Here the Savior tells the secret why the saved are few ; it is because the way is so narrow and the peo- ple do not agonize to enter the way and walk in it. Agonize is really a Greek word agoonizesthe, slightly anglicized and adopted into the English language. It is a very strong word : agona, the arena in the (Coliseum in Rome where the gladiators fought for life, the con- flict always ending in the death of one or both of the com- batants. You know the gladiator fought with all the conceivable power of body, mind and spirit. The reason why so few are saved is not that grace is not free for all, and God is willing and anxious to save all, but so 206 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. few seek with all the heart. ''In the day in which thou seekest me in thy whole heart, I will he found of thee/' The heart is your immortal self, which occupies the whole body. V. 28. "And there shall be weeping and gnasihing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God and ye are cast out. "They shall come from the east, the west, the north and the south, 'and shall eit down in the Kingdom of God. Behold the last shall be first, and the first shall be last." This mournful affirmation of Jesus not only applied to the Jews, who rejected Him and were cast out, while millions of Gentiles came from the end© of the earth, and took their places in the kingdom along with Abra- ham, Isaac and Jacob; but also equally and pertinently does it apply to the unspiritual worldly churches of the present day, whose children are rushing by millions through the devil's frolics down to hell. Likewise many in heathen lands responsive to the trumpet calls of the missionary, are pouring into the kingdom of God and taking their places with the patriarchs and prophets. The Jews, who were first to receive the kingdom, but cast out for rejecting it, will be the last harvest gathered by the gospel reapers. The universal stir among the chil- dren of Abraham at this day, and their rapid gathering into the holy land are thrillingly ominous of the Lord's near approach. AN ATTEMPT TO SCARE JESUS OUT OF PEREA. V : 31-34. The Pharisees now come to Him and tell Him that Herod is going to kill Him. To an ordinary ■Jesus Preaches in Perea. ^07 man this would have been very alarming, especially as Herod had so recently killed John the Baptist. The case is very clear that it was a stratagem on the part of the Pharisees to get rid of Him. When He was on trial in Jerusalem, only a few days after this, Herod had a chance to kill Him, if he had been so disposed. H« was exceedingly unwilling to kill John the Baptist, but felt constrained by state policy, to do so, in order that he might sustain his honor among his magnates. The fo« is notorious for cunning, dishonesty and theft. Hence, the pertinency on the part of Jesus in calling Herod a fox, V. 32. This threat brings to His mind the awful tragedy, rascality, blood and death, destined so soon to take place at Jerusalem. Hence His mournful wail, V. 35, "Behold your house is left unto you desolate." This prophecy is signally verified in the awful Jewish trib- ulations, A. D. 66-73 ; seven awful years of desolation, blood, death and captivity, winding up not only witb the devastation of the land, but the annihilation of the Jew- ish polity. Jesus now accepts an invitation to dine with one of the rulers of the Pharisees on the Sabbath. A poor victim of dropsy is present. Critical eyes are turned on Him to see whether He will heal him on the Sabbath. True to the work of love, for which He came into the world. He takes the poor sufferer and heals him, despite the clamor of His critics, responding. Which one of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit and will not immediately lift him out on the Sabbath day?" HE CONDEMNS AMBITION. Ch. 14, V. 17. Warning them against th-e temptation 208 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. to take the most prominent seat, when invited to a fes- tival ; assuring them "that every one that exalteth him- self shall be abased and every one that hiimbleth himself shall be exalted/' How this deliverance of the Infallible should stand as a break-water against ministerial ambition, so obvi- ously destructive of usefulness and grievous to the Holy Spirit at the present day ! many a preacher maneuvering to secure the most prominent place. Here He warns the man who invited Him, saying, V. 12, When thou makest a dinner or supper, do not call your rich friends, brotliers, relatives or neighbors, lest they may invite thee in turn, and there may be a recompense to thee. But when thou makest a feast, invite the poor, maimed, halt, blind and thou shalt be happy because they have nothing to give thee in turn; and it shall be recom- pensed to thee in the resurrection of the just/' Oh, how few obey this commandment of the Savior ! On the con- trary, perhaps ninety-nine hundredths who claim to be His followers, openly antagonize this commandment, by inviting the rich and neglecting the poor; thus secur- ing their reward in this world, i. e., a reciprocation of the invitation; and forfeiting the great, everlasting re- ward: i. e., the Lord's recompense in the resurrection of the just. THE MARRIAGE SUPPER. 15-24. ^'Andi a certaiu man made a great supper, and invited many: and ©ent his ser- vant at the hour of supper to say to those who had been invited, ^Come, because all things are now ready, Jesus Preaches in Perea, 209 and they all began of one accord to make excuse. The first said to Mm, I have bought a field, and I must needs go out to see it; I entreat thee have me excused. Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to prove them ; I entreat thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife and on this account I am not able to come. And the -servant coming to his lord announced these things. Then the landlord being angry.said to his servant, ^Go out quickly into the sitreets and lanes of the city, and lead hither the poor, the maimed, the blind and the halt. And the servant said i Lord,it is done as you commanded and yet there is room.' And the lord said to the servant, ^Oo out into the high- ways and the hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you that none of those men who have been invited shall taste of my sup- per.^ '' Heaven is described as a place of perpetual festivity and felicity ; i. e., ever and anon through the Bible, un- der the similitude of a sumptuous wedding festival, filled and thrilled with mingled joy and ineffable bliss. Every participant of redeeming grace from Abel down, has received! a prelibation of this heavenly festival in his heart. Wlien Jesus came on the earth the first time. He brought with Him the kingdom of grace ; i. e., righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. 14:7.) When He comes the second time. He will take up His saints to the glorious wedding feast in Heaven, where the final solemnization of the glorious nuptials of the triumphant Christ and His transfigured bride will climax the redemptive scheme with glory and honor, eliciting the admiration of angels and archangels, filling 210 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. heaven and the universe with their congratulatory an- thems and the enrapturing melodies of their golden harps. Thus the two advents of Christ into the world constitute the grand, salient culminations of the glorious wedlock, identifying the redeemed eternally with the Lord. The old prophets rang out this glorious invita- tion from the day of Abel and Enoch, down to the com- ing of John the Baptist, who was the servant the Lord sent to notify the invited ones that all things were ready, and exhort them to come to the feast without delay. These three excuses sound to us silly and- foolish in the extreme, yet they are as good as any sinners on the globe today can present, though they lay all their wits under contribution to get them up. When all the prominent classes had refused, then the messenger was sent into the streets and lanes; L e., to the poor people of Jerusalem, and throughout all Israel, inviting them to come without delay. Finally the report was brought back. "Plenty of room at the table yet unoccupied.'^ Then the messen- gers are sent to the highways and hedges, i. e., into the whole Gentile world, with orders to compel them to come in; i. e., do everything in your power to get people saved. They are dying on all sides, and sinking into hell by millions. Hence it is a time of crying emergency, appalling necessity, a crucial ordeal for dear life — any- thing in the world to arrest the awful tide of damnation and keep people out of hell, is lawful, right and Scrip- tural. Those poor Jews who rejected Christ were doom- ed, and perished in the destruction of Jerusalem, despite all their wealth, pride, pomp, pageantry and learning. Those very high priests and Pharisees perished miserably and sank into perdition. Jesus Preaches in Perea, 211 TERMS OF DISCIPLESHIP. V. 25. Many multitudes were going along with Him, and turning, He said to them, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and yet even his own soul, he is not able to be my disciple." Hate here means love in a subordi- nate degree. Love andhate are antithetical. Yet love may be so great that, when contrasted with love on an infinite- ly lower plane, the latter actually becomes antithetical to the former, receiving the contrastive signification of hatred ; e. g., gold might become so plentiful that silver would forfeit its value. Our love for Christ is to be su- preme in the superlative degree, throwing into eclipse all other loves, so they lose their significance and contrast- edly with our love for Him, actually become hatred. It is a Hebrew expression, better understood in the strong language of the Orientals than in the comparative- ly weak phraseology of the Occidentals. V. 28. "For, which one of you, wishing to build, does not first sit down, and count the cost, whether he has sufficient to complete it, lest he, laying the foundation and being unable, all seeing, may mock him, saying, "This man began to 'buiidj and was unable to complete it.' " The word translated "complete" here is the strong- est in the vocabulary and currently used in the Scripture for Christian perfection. The foundation is laid in regeneration (1 Cor. 3:10), and the superstructure of holiness is built in sanctification ; hence these plain words of the Savior enforce the conclusion that it col- lapses and proves a failure, if we do not go on and receive the experience of perfection. This parable corroborates 212 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. the preceding one, exhibiting perfect love, and this one a finished Christian character. "What king going to en- ter into war with another king will not first, sitting down, counsel if he is able, with ten thousand coming against him, to meet twenty thousand ; or if not, he being yet a great way off, sending an embassy, he seeks for those things appertaining to peace." This parable beau- tifully emblematizes the sinner (and we are all sinners ; converted people are pardoned sinners; sanctified people are purified sinners; through all eternity we will never be anything but sinners saved by grace, not angels, who never needed salvation) ; who is far from God, yet des- tined to m>eet himi very soon. So in the contrast, God is the adversary marching to meet him with twenty thousand soldiers, hence the highest behest of wisdom cries out, m-ake h^as'te, send a pacific embassador to the outraged King with all possible expedition, to negotiate for peace and speed a reconciliation. V. 33. "Tiius, therefore, no one of you who does not consecrate all his possessions, is able to be my disci- ple." This presentation of the kingdom in three dis- tinct and forcible paxableg sihows most oonclusdvely the absolute necessity of entire consecration and complete S'an'ctification in every case. He winds it up by an allu- sion to the savorless salt which, is fit for nothing but to make walks. When religion 'has lost the Holy Ghost, it is utterly savorless ; i. e., incompetent to save a soul, and utilized only by the devil, who much appreciates it as material to make walks for the convenience of the poor, deluded, counterfeit professors, who so highly prize an easy and comfortable walk down to hell. Jesus is preaching day after day to the vast multitudes who ac- Jesus Preaches in Perea, 213 companied Him in His peregrinations, walking along, prosecuting His memorable walk through Perea with His face towards Jerusalem, ever and anon halting and preaching to the spell-bound myriads. THE LOST SHEEP. Ch. 15 :4-7. "Whatman of yo-u hayinga hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he may find it? And having found it, he puts it on his shoulder rejoicing, and having come to the house calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Ee- joice with me, because I (have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto' you that in a similar manner there will be more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, rather than ninety and nine just people who need no repentance.'^ This parabolic gem applies to every sinner on the globe, who, by the wonderful grace of Christ, was born into the kingdom, and got out only when he sinned out. Every sheep was born in the fold and strayed away in some inopportune hour after weaning. Oh, what an inspiration our Lord here gives to all His people, to stir them up, to do their utmost to rescue sinners stray- ing away from Grod and perishing eternally on all sides. This parable, however, has a signification deep, broad, grand and sweeping, eclipsing the loftiest heights of erudition, winged with the pinions of imagination. As a rule, the oriental shepherd is in charge of one hun- dred sheep. One hundred is not to be regarded as defi- nite, but simply a representative round number, beauti- fully eihibitory of the magnificent retinue of worlds, 214 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. which, dropped from the lingers of the Almighty on creation's morn and took their respective places in the vast ethereal plain of the celestial elliptic. Satan, six thousand years ago, maneuvered to side-track this world and run it away off into the obs'cure darkness, in view of adding it to hell in order to enlarge the regions of the damned. Meanwhile the Son of God looked from the celestial pinnacles, saw our irretrievable woe, laid aside the diadem of His triune glory^ and came to our relief; nobly espousing the lost cause, thus undertaking to re- cover this world from the calamities of the Fall, restore it to its place in the plain of the elliptic, there with its unfallen comrades, to wheel around the cycles of celestial splendor and glory, ever accumulating new beauty and splendor, while the centuries of eternity move on. Thus the Prince of Glory has been working on the noble enterprise of recovering this lost sheep. Six thousand years have rolled away. Grand proficiency has been made, victories brightening with the tread of centuries, till the culmination of Calvary thrilled heav- en with triumph and appalled hell with groans. Em- manueFs armies are marching. Victories are brighten^ ing beneath every sky. The Lord is coming back in His glory to dJethrone Satan and take him out of the world, girdle the globe with salvation and holiness to the Lord, bringing on a heavenly harvest of a thousand years, fol- lowed by the sanctification of the earth with celestial fire, its final renovation, its investiture with heavenly similitude and restoration to its pristine orbit in the ce- lestial elliptic, with the stentorian shouts ringing from the lips of the God-Man, "Eejoice with me, for I have Jesus Preaches in Perea. 215 found my sheep which was lost !" Oh, what a shout will then roar out from the other ninety and nine worlds that went not astray ! THE LOST MONEY. V :8, 10. "Or what woman having ten drachmas, if she should lose one drachma, does she not light a candle and sweep the house and search diligently till she may find it ? Having found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying "Eejoice with me, because I found the drachma which I lost. Thus I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sin- ner that repents." The drachma was an attic coin worth about nine and a half cents. Ten si, a number prominent in the Bible representing perfection. This drachma really emblematizes the human soul, while the woman is the church and the broom the Word of Ood. The lost money had not at all depreciated) in value, yet in its condition it was utterly worthless. Thus the soul of the sinner is of infinite value, having cost the life of Jesus; yet, in sin, it has no possible availability, and would better never have existed. WHiile the woman here, is the church,you know a dead woman never sweeps her house. If she is full of life, intelligence and activity, she will ransack and clean out every old closet, and never desist till she finds the lost money. Hence you see that a church without the Holy Ghost will never hunt up the lost souls. She has neither the light, skill, activity, nor the enterprise requisite in the emergency. 216 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, THE PRODIGAL SON. V: 11-32. This has been, by theologians, denominated the pearl of parables. The father emblematizes the Al- mighty, while the two sons represent the whole human race, born in the Father^s house; i. e., the Kingdom of Grace, illustrating the consolatory fact, that the wonder- ful grace of Christ lias so prevailed and defeated the powers of darkness, that every human being is born in the Kingdom, enjoying infantile justification, till the birth-right is forfeited by personal transgression. In this case the elder brother, who, under patriarchal law, was entitled to a double portion of the father's estate, for- tunately for himself, stayed at home, labored dili- gently, augmenting his patrimony and comforting the hearts of father and mother (the church), confirmatory of the gracious possibility on the part of every son and daughter of Adam's ruined race, to abide in their infan- tile justification, brightened by an early conversion and established by a timely sanctifioation, ^the mighty break- waters wiidch redeeming grace builds up to fortify the sons and daughters of men against all the bulwarks of Satan and the miasmatic pestilences of hell.' Unfor- tunately the younger brother strayed away, wandered in the enemy's land till he spent all ; i. e., utterly backslid from his infantile justification, the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil coming in like a flood, till gaunt famine stalks abroad and looks him in the face; i. e., Satan throws his lasso around his neck and is fast dragging him into hell. Meanwhile, the remembrance of a godly home clings to him night and day, refusing to let up ; i. e., his convictions will not down. Therefore, Jesus Preaches in Perea. 217 he goes and identifies himself with a swine-feeder (i. e.. joins a carnal, anti^holiness church, which were very prevalent in that country). In order to compliment him, they elect him deacon and honor him with the dis- pensation of the Templets support. Consequently it is his prerogative to feed the swine, thus operating in the ca- pacity of the leading financial officer. 16. "And he wished to fill his stomach from the pods which the swine were eating, and no one gave unto him." The E. V. is very erratic in this passage, as hogg will not eat shucks, and if they did, they would starve to death. The Greek kesativom, which means the pods produced by the carob tree, which grows in the Holy Land, (I remember a number of those trees on Mt. Oli- vet, along the road from Jerusalem to Bethany), in Sy- ria, Italy and the Argentine Republic of South America. The pods are about ten inches long, containing a sweet pulp, with a number of kernels scattered along through them. They are used to fatten swine, which eat them with great avidity and do well. Camels, also, and cattle eat them. The prodigal son subsisted on the same food which he gave the hogs, because, as it says, "No one gave unto him" ; i. e., no one gave him anything else to eat. This sad history is now repeated in millions of cases, w'here children brought up in a godly home float away, fall under the influence of carnal people, join their church, content themselves to live on hog feed: (i. e., carnal preaching. ) and enjoy honors, holding offices, com- plimented to rule the church ; so live and die, and, like Dives, wake up in hell. Fortunately, this young man did not succeed in com- pletely drowning his convictions; therefore, under the 218 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. frequent visitation of the Holy Spirit, one day at the hog-pen, he receives another stroke from Mt. Sinai's battering-ram which literally knocks him up. 17. "And having come to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father abound in bread; and here I perish with hunger." The trouble with the mil- lions now in hell is, that they come to themselves too late; the angel of repentance long rejected, having re- treated to return no more. The hired servants here are not Satan's people, but Christians in a justified state, needing sanctification to give them the spirit of adoption into son?hip. Gal. 4:1-7. Xow grace prevails, heroic resolution follows, the false consolations of a carnal church, official emoluments all thrown to the winds, he moves off speedily to his father's house. The father sees him a long way off (i. e., as far as he has ever wandered and sinned), comes to meet him, kisses him copiously (i. e., justifies him freely), while his bitter anguish, like an artesian well, from a broken heart, confesses all his sins. Forthwith the father orders his investiture with the best robe (i. e., the blood-washed rdbe of holiness), puts the marriage ring on his hand and shoes on his feet; (i. e., sanctifies him wholly, and sends him out to preach.) This is a case where the two works of grace came in quick succession, converted when the father em- braced him, conferring the kiss of peace, and sanctified on the reception of the robe and the ring and invested with the gospel shoes, confirmatory of his call to preach the everlasting gospel. Now a brief episode follows relative to the elder son. Jesus Preaches in Perea, 219 whose envy and jealousy are aroused when he hears the extravagant rejoicing over the return of his prodigal brother. He thought they ought to shout over him, who had been so good to stay at home and work, obedient to his father and mother, and conservative of all the home interests. There is no intimation that he had lost his infantile justification, but the contrary is really affirmed. V : 29. "And responding, he said to the father. Behold, so many years I serve thee, and never did I transgress thy eomm'andment, and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might rejoice along with my friends." This confirms the conclusion that he had not lost his infantile justification; however, it is obvious that he much needed sanctification to take all the fret and worry out of him, and qualify him to join the saints and angels in their rejoicing over his returned brother. The hypothesis that the Bible anywhere, either directly or indirectly, sets a premium on sin, is untenable. While in this case the younger brother had outstripped the elder on the grace line, having not only received restoration from his awful backsliding, but sanctification, yet we must recognize the fact that the elder brother at the beginning, received a double portion of the estate, which he has doubtless, by his industry and temperance, decidedly augmented, vAAIq his younger brother wasted his in dissipation. 28. "But he was angry and was not willing to come in, and his father, having come out, continued to entreat him.'' Here the history -stops, leaving at least, a pre- sumption, and, I trow, a strong probability, that he yielded to the protracted exhortation of his father, came in, got sanctified, and joined his brother in the rejoic- ing's of the jubilant saints and ecstatic angels. 220 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, THE STEWARD AND HIS LORD. Ch. 16 :1-13. This man is generally denominated the unjust steward. The world, however, says that he was slandered to his lord as having wasted his goods; conse- quently his lord calls him to account and takes his stew- ardship from him ; throwing him out on his own resourc- es. In his perplexity (verse 3), the steward said witihia himself, "Wihat shall I d)o, because my lord taketh my stewardship from me? I am unable to dig, I am ashamed to beg.'' The facts thus far corroborate the conclusion that he had dealt honestly with his lord, accumulated by his office, simply defraying current expenses. He had lost both the habit and the a!bility to perform manual labor, by the long absence from the hardships of rough and assiduous toil. So he is driven to his wit's endis, finally falling on a stratagem. 4. "I am resolved what to do in order that when I am put out of my stewardship they shall receive me into their homes." Calling each one of the debtors of his lord, he said to the first. How much do you owe my lord? And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, Take out thy accounts and sitting down write fifty. Then he said to another, How much do you owe ? And he said, A hundred measures of w'heat. And he said to him. Take thy accounts and write eighty. And the lord praised the steward of unrighteousness because he did wisely: because the children of this age are wiser in their generation than the children of light. "And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mam- mon of unrighteousness in order that when it may fail you, they may receive you into eternal habitations." Jesus Preaches in Perea, 221 "Lord'' in this parable, does not mean God, but the land- lord in whose service this steward had long been em- ployed. The salient point in the parable is the wisdom which the Holy Grhost inspires, and will make us wise unto saWation. It is here illustrated by the temporal shrewdness of this steward. He made these condone- ments before he gave up the books and really went out of office, doubtless transacting the business privately with each debtor,and by thus doing him a favor, bringing him under obligations to him and preparing the way for the help he would need in the emergencies coming on him: illustrating the transcendent importance on the part of every probationer, to provide for the emergency speedily, when we must give an account of our steward- ship. There is no insinuation of apology for fraudu- lent desaling, in order to provide for temporal emergen- cies. As a rule, a parable has only about one great sali- ent truth elucidiated and enforced. In this that tran- scendent truth is the wisdom which makes us sacrifice and forfeit ever}'thing in order to secure the favor of Grod ?.nd a home in Heaven. It is a universal, patent fact, corroborated by constant observation, that a greater degree of wisdom is manifested in providing for the emergencies of this life than for that which is to come. The climax of this parable is the commandment (verse 9), "Make to yourselves friends of tiie mammon of unrighteousness, in order that when it may fail you^ they may receive you into eternal habitations." Money is the mammon of unrighteousness, here contrasted with the grace of God, which we ought to seek with more avidity than worldly people seek after gold. While "the love of money is the root of all evils," actually putting a 222 Life of Jesus and His Apostles, scepter in the hands of the mone3^-god, by which he rules his millions, sinking them into perdition, yet we- mu^t admit that money is the greatest power on the earth; e. g., the British Empire this day rules the world by her m'on€y power, because she has been piling up gold in the Bank of England the last thousand years. There is only -one possible expedient by which you can make money your friend, and that is the real experience of entire sanctification. Get sanctified w^holly, and you are more than a match for money. You command it, and it goes to the end of the earth to save souls. Sister Ferguson, of Los Angeles, Cal., has a hundred missionaries in the field. Doubtless many of their converts will get to Heav- en before she 'does, and will be ready, through the notifi- cation of the guardian aiigel,when her frail body fails on earth, to meet her at the pearly gate with a long, loud welcome home. Pursuant to this warning of our Savior, we should all be so sanctified that we shall have complete con- trol over money and all the things of this world, condu- cive to the happy welcome into glory, which we all so much desire. Therefore we should not only send our money to the heathen beyond the seas, like the ravens feeding Elijah, to bear the bread of life to famishing millions, but we should utilize the wisdom which the Holy Ghost freely gives, in helping the widows, the or- phans, the poor, and doing our utmost to send the light of truth and righteousness into every home far and near, thus bringing all the people we can help under obliga- tions to us, as we are quickly going to deliver up our stewardship and stand before God. Jesus Preaches in Perea. 223 THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS, V: 19-31. Here vre have the abbreviated biography of two representative men, standing at the antipodes of the world; the one at the top, and the other at the bottom. The Tyrians and Sidonians became immensely rich early in the post-diluvian world,because they managed to get a ^eorner^ on the manufacture of the beautiful, costly, scar- let robes, bought for immense money, and worn by all the kings of the -earth. Meanwhile, the Egyptians reached a similar celebrity for making the fine linen used by the kings for underwear. Here we see a man so rich that he is a king at his own expense, like many money autoerats at the present day. He was a member of the Jewish council; of course, standing at the head of it. He is known throughout the land, honored for his wealth, wis- dom, enterprise and philanthropy. We certainly have no reason to believe that Lazarus was the only heggar who participated in his benefactions and enjoyed the compan- ionship of the dogs. In process of time the beggar dies, and is carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom; i. e., the intermediate paradise, whither all the 0. T. saints went and rested in unmingled joy till Christ led the way into heaven after His resurrection, having abolished that intermediate paradise during His visit thither while His body lay in the sepulchre (Eph. 4:8-10), and leading them all with Him into Heaven. ^leanwhile the rich man dies, honored with a magnificent funeral, as the Greek implies, and to his unutterable surprise, finds him.self in hell instead of heaven. The Greek reveals that both Dives and Lazarus went to Hades, the latter into Abraham's bosom (i. e., the 0. T. paradise), and 224 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. the former into the burning tartarus, these two places being separated by a chasm (verse 26) impas&able to all finite beings. Every human being living on the earth is this day in the accession of the one or the other ; these prominent, contrastive and diametrically opposite char- acters representing every vicissitude and diversity of life and character in all ages and nations. The fact that Dives was a prominent church member, honorable, influ- ential and pompously funeralized himself, and the mag- nates of the church believing that the angels took him to heaven, while really the devils dragged him into hell, ought to alarm all his successors to look out and be sure that they are always ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them. Many preach 'brotherly love' as a passport to heaven. This man had it, even after he landed in hell, loving his five brothers so that he wanted to send them a missionary to warn them and keep them out of tliat awful abyss of devouring flame. He selected Lazarus, the hottest holiness crank he had ever known, being unwilling to leave them in the hands of the un- solicitous pastors, who had let; the devil get him. In this notable parable we have three silent points; i .e., life, death, and the state beyond. If we are going to live with Lazarus in heaven, we must walk in his track and die as he died encircled by ministering angels. The great trouble is, the people all want to live like Dives. In that case, they will die like him and wake up in hell. He lived for this world and lost his soul. Lazarus lived for heaven and found the angels ready and waiting, when he evacuated that suffering body, to en- circle him in their pinions of light and bear him to Abraham's bosom. Jesus Preaches in Perea. 225 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE. 17:20. "Being interrogated by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God cometh, He responded and said, The kingdom of God cometh not by observation, neither will they say, Lo ! here or there, for behold the kingdiom of God is among you." The E. V. is not tenable, "within you" being out of harmony with the fact that He is speaking to those Pharisees, whom He pronounces hypo- crites. The better meaning of entos is ^among,^ which is perfectly consistent and true, because He and His disci- ples represented the kingdom in the capacity of King and subjects. The popular idea is very erroneous, be- cause of the prominence given to observable phenomena ; e. g., outward signs and manifestations diversified in their character. We should ever profit by His affirma- tion that the kingdom comes, not by observation; i. e., not by anything we can see or hear, but by the silent lightning of the Holy Ghost. X. B. — The thunder never kills anything ; the lightning does all the execution, and makes no noise. In His first advent, our Savior brought with Him the kingdom of grace (Pom. 14:17) ; when He comes again, He will bring the kingdom of glory. The popular mind in His day was much confused by mixing up the prophecies appertaining to the two ad- vents. We wonder over this confusion, and think they ought to have understood the propOiecies more thor- oughly, whereas, we are this day confronted by the same coniusion and even worse, the most vigorous efforts be- ing made by the preachers of the orthodox churches tc actually do away with the kingdom of glory on the earth Dy twisting even the utterances of Jesus, so direct and 226 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. •iinmistakable, into synon3Tiiy with His utterances reia^ tive to the kingdom of grace. THE KINGDOM OF GLORY. V. 17-22; 18-8. Our Lord now proceeds to differenti- ate the kingdom of glory, which cometh by the greatest observation, from the kingdom of grace, which is wrought silently by the Holy Ghost in the heart, and without observation. 24. *Tor as the lightning flashing out of the one part which is under the heaven shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall be the Son of Man in His diay." Here you see the most decisive and unmistakable con- trast between the kingdom of grace, which comes not by observation, but by the silent w^ork of the Spirit in the heart, with the kingdom of glor}% which is demonstrated in the superlative degree, attracting observation like the lightning, which is the most observable thing in the world. "But in the first place it behooveth Him to suffer many things, and to be condemned by this generation. Whereas, they were 'all looking for the kingdom of glory then to appear.in the coronation of Jesus at the Passover, He notifies them that it is not coming at that time, and that He is- going to die instead of receiving the kingdom of Israel. Then He proceeds to tell them that the com- ing of the Son of man and the ushering in of His king- dom, will be like it was in the days of Noah, when he and his family went up in the ark ; sym'bolizing the cloud in which the saints will be caught up to meet the Lord: and Lot and his daughters rescued from Sodom ; where- by the awful doom of the wicked antediluvians, caught Jesus Preaches in Perea. 227 by the flood, and the Sodomites, consumed by the fire, forcibly symbolize the doom of this wicked world, over- taken in the great tribulation when the Lord comes and takes up His bride. Just as the antediluvians and Sod- omites were pressing along, building, buying, selling, and marrying till the awful destruction came, so it will be with this unbelieving generation. 33. '^Whosoever may seek to save his soul shall lose it, and if anyone shall lose it, he shall find it." We all come into the world with a bad soul (Adam the First- the carnal mind), which shall die, if we would live for- ever in heaven. Therefore, if we hold on to this fallen soul, we shall lose our immortal spiritual life. But if "we submit to the crucifixion of the carnal mind by the Holy Ghost, we will live forever. Zoogonessei means the parturition of animals, giving birth to their youngs the animal of course having a real existence in its com- plete organism before it comes into the aerial world. The word vividly and forcibly describes the transfigura- tion of the saints, w^hen we will suddenly come out of mortality, retaining our literal personal identity, but passing into a state hitherto never known nor experi- enced. 34. "I say unto you, on that night, two men shall be sleeping on one bed, the one will be taken and the other be left ; two women shall be grinding at the same mill, the one shall be taken and the other left." These utterances set forth a clear and unmistakable presenti- ment of the rapture in which the saints will be taken up from all parts of the world in their various employments and attitudes. "Responding, they say to Him, where, Lord? He 228 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. said to them, Wherever the carcass is, there also the eagles will be gathered." The buzzard is the eagle species and noted as the scavenger bird, devouring dead bodies. This prophecy was verified clearly and unmis- takably in the destruction of Jerusalem : even the Roman battle-flags having the eagle pictured on them, which was the symbol of their nationality. 18 :1. ''And He spake a parable to them that they should always pray and not faint." The meaning of this is that His people should pray constantly that He should return in His glory to take them up. "Saying, there was a certain judge in a certain city, neither fearing God nor regardiing man. And there was a widow in that city, and she continued to come to him, saying. Avenge me of mine adversary; and he would not for a time; but after these tilings, he said to himself. Though I fear not God nor regard man ; because- this widow giveth unto me trouble, I will avenge her, lest coming on forever, she may smite me in the face. And the Lord said. Hear what the unjust judge sayeth. Must not God make ven- geance in behalf of His own elect ,crying day and night, even though He suffer long toward them? I say unto you that He will execute vengeance in their behalf speed- ily. Moreover, the Son of man having come, will he then find faith on the earth?" The unjust judge here sym- bolizes God in the isolated phase of His absolute inde- pendent sovereignty, while the adversary is the devil, and the woman is the bride of Christ, mourning in her wid- owhood ever since her divine spouse flew up from Mt. Olivet, walking away on the white clouds into bright glory. During all these dark centuries of Satan's reign, he Jesus Preaches in Perea. 229 lias been constantly i^ersecuted, while the popular church in her fallen state has long ago given up her ascended Lord and oeasod to look for Him, having entered into adulterous alliances with w^orldly lovers. The true, loyal bride of Christ, in her bereavement and widow- hood, has continued through the centuries, to cry to God to send back her glorified husband -from heaven, that He may put the devil out of the world and give her the victory. You see here the implication is, when the Lord comes, very few people on the earth will have faith for His coming. Hence, the inquir}-, ^'Will He find faith on the earth?" really has a negative answer, not because there will be none looking for Him, but because there will be so few. N. B. — All this is harmonious with the fact recognized throughout the parable, that the true church, the loyal bride of Christ, will be on the con- stant outlook, watching, waiting, incessantly praying ld! we have forsaken all things and followed thee; what then shall be unto us? And Jesus ^said to them; 236 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. Truly, I say unto you that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man may sit upon the Throne of Glory, you also, may sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." The utterances of our Savior at this point, are clear and unmistakable and susceptible of only the one easy solution ; i. e., that during the fulfillment of the prophe- cy, Eev. 20,it is affirmed that Ihe transfigured saints will rule the world as the subordinates of Christ, during the millennium :meanwhile,the Apostles will be the first rul ers of the nation, this being, even now, forcibly corrobor- ated by the fact that there are just about twelve great national and governmental divisions on the earth to-day. THE ELEVENTH HOUR MOVEMENT. Matt. 20. In this parable the word translated penny in E. V. is denanon, and does not mean the pen- ny, but ten pennies. The oriental penny contains a 1 1-2 cts. of our mone}^ Therefore this denarion, which each one of the laborers received a day, was worth 15 ctis. Money was not so abundant then as now, and hence the more valuable. This denarion was the regular wages of the Eoman soldier. You observe here that they rode out at six o'clock in the morning and hired some; then more at nine. Still others at noon, and at 3. p.m., fin- ally going out at five p.m., they found still others stand- ing idle, who, upon the interrogation, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" responded, "Because no one has hired us." Then He said to them. Go ye also, into the vineyard and whatsoever is right I will pay you." There is a striking fact in the case of the eleventii hour labor- Jesus Preaclies in Perea. 237 ers, for it is said that no one had hired them ; involving, at least, a strong suspicion that there was some defi- ciency ahout them, in view of which, they were not hired at an earlier hour. The ages have been swiftly rolling away. Six thousand years are almost numheredl with the cycles of eternity. Grod 'has* been calling the world, especi- ally manifesting Himself at the different epochs in by- gone ages. All the chronologies corroborate theconclusion that we are living in the end of the Gentile dispensa- tion, amid the da\\'n of the millennium. W%en Jesus bade His church adieu, for His return to Glory, He com- missioned it to preach the gospel to every nation, assur- ing it that He would return on the throne of His glory, as soon as the work was completed. Xever before, in the history of the world, was the church so stirred up on missionary enterprise as now. The holiness movement is girdling the globe with heavenly fire and shaking the nations with the gigantic tread of her embattled host, marching on to victory. Wonderful reasons in former ages,unapparent,are now m'anife8t,for demanding a more vigorous prosecution of the war against sin and Satan than ever before. Consequently this eleventh hour move- ment is simply hiring all the hitherto unused mater- ial that she can get her hands on. See what an exceed- ingly prominent part the women are taking in the pres- ent m'Ovement ! EVen the saloons and darkest hell-dens are turning out their blood-washed and fire-baptized wit- nesses to this wonderful salvation, and sending them to the ends of the earth, to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. I do believe we are now living in the midst of the eleventh hour movement, permitted to hear the last eall and see the people on all sides, falling in line 238 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. and marching away to the battlefields. The unity of remuneration, consists in the fact that God Himself is our everlasting reward and our portion, through all eternity. This unity of recompense is not out of har- mony with the diversity of remuneration which we frequently find mentioned; because while God is a unit, yet there is an endless diversity in the receptivity of different persons; some appropriating vastly more of God^s inexhaustible divinity and infinite grace than others. You find some of these persons murmur against the landlord who hired them. Of course they were counterfeits, as there are no murmurers in heaven. This conclusion is perfectly compatible with the concluding statement; ''Many are called, but few elected." These murmurers heard the call but were not elected, and so proved a failure. We observe that all sorts of apparent irregularities are peculiar to this eleventh hour move- ment, arising from the fact that it is a case of emer- gency ; laying all possible resources and expediencies un- der contribution to e\^ngelize the whole earth and get ready for the coming of the Lord. Oh, how wonder- fully this Eleventh hour' movement is using the diver- sities of material which have been rejected by all the churches, and how signally is God putting His seal on. to harmonize the most impracticable and inefficient in- struments. He is truly raising up from the slums and the jungles, a panoplied army, marching forth under the blood-stained banner of King Jesus, to the conquest of the world, and fast throwing, into eclipse the cultured clergy. Jesus Preaches in Perea. 239 UNREVEALED PROPHECY OF JESUS. Luke, 18 :32-34. "For He will be delivered to the Gentiles, will be mocked, insulted and spat upon, and they, scourging Him,will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise. And they understood none of these things and the word was hidden from them, and they did not Know those things which were spoken." This is the third prediction of His awful fate and tragical martyrdom awaiting Him in Jerusalem, and you see the clear affirmation, that it was ^hidden from them so they un- derstood none of those things. Why was this? Be- cause the prediction was necessary to the completion of the prophetical -curriculum which is the basis of Chris- tian faith in all ages. The concealment was nec- essary to hold the elements in check, till Jesus could actually complete the atonement and lay down His life and redeem a lost world. If His friends had under- stood that prophecy, they would have raised an awful commotion, revolutionized the counitry, fought, bled, and died in His defense. Jesus was the incarnation of mer- cy : while He proceeded to die for the. world, He wanted no blood to flow but His own. AMBITION OF JAMES AND JOHN. Mark 10 :35-45. Jesus has spent about a week trav- eling and preaching in Perea, the country of the two and one half tribes east of the Jordan. His face is to- wards Jerusalem. Vast multitudes hang with breathless eilence on His honeyed lips, day by day ; thrilled, electri- fied and bewildered w^ith His wonderful preaching; all 240 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. deeply and strangely impressed, that something tre- mendous is pending. As they know that the Passover is to open in Jerusalem in a few days and see that He is going to it, having omitted that festival a year ago, spending the time in Galilee; because He knew they would crown Him King and the Romans would kill Him if He went. Therefore the general anticipation and a deep conviction is settling C.own on the people. He will be crowned King of the Jews during 'the Passover, in Jerusalem. Apprehending this great and notable event and the radical, ecclesiastical revolution destined to follow, James and John, along with Peter, the most prominent apostles, coignomened by the Lord, ^sons of thunder ;' ventured to ask Him for the first places iu His Kingdom, which they believed would be set up in a few days. Matthew says, Salome, their mother, made the request. I trow it was mutual. Our Lord here re- sponds, "Are you able to drink the cup which I drink and be baptized with the baptism with which I am bap- tized?" They responded in the affirmative. Jesus here alludes to the* bloody mart}Tdom which awaited Him. They did not understand Him, but they received i(t. James, first of all, was beheaded by King Herod, John, miraculously saved from the caldron of boiling oil in Rome, A. D. 95, lived on six years and is believed to have been translated to Heaven alive. Here the Lord notifies His disciples that His kingdom, unlike all others, promotes by humil- iation, so that the first in power and influence are really the servants of all. V. 45. "For the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His soul a ransom for many." So in His Kingdom Jesus Preaclies in Perea. S41 there is nothing placed before anyone, but service and martyrdom, whereas, it is positively said thait He died for all. The many here mentioned, has a subjective sig- nification, meaning only those who in the mercy and providence of Grod, in all ages and nations, make tihdr way throug'h ; finally, landing in Heavea, CHAPTER X. THRILLING EVENTS FACILITATING THE FINAIiB. Jesus and the multitudes have cTOssedi out of Peiea into Judea, at the ford where Israel crossed, under Josh- ua;, opposite Jericho, which is in full view for a dozen miles toward the west, where the Jerusalem road reaches the plain of the Jordan. We have two Jeriohosi promi- nent in the Bible and another standing at the present day. These three JerichoQ represent a right angled triangle; the old Jericho of Josihua at the north angle, the new Jericho, here mentioned', as standing in the days of Christ, three miles south, and the Jericho now stand- ing; having been built by the Crusaders in the Twelfth Century. The old Jericho of Joshua's time was de- stroyed, when Israel shouted the walls down ; and pur- suant to divine prdiibition, never was rebuilt. The Jeri- cho of our Savior's time was destroyed by the Romans, in the desolation of the land, A. D. 66-73. The Jericho of the Crusaders is still standing. I lodged in it during both of my tours. It is now the Jewish Sabbath , our Saturday. Jesus corns to Jericho, accompanied by the mighty host. BLIND BARTIMEUS. Mark 10:46-52. Mark gives the account of blind Bartimeus, sitting by the wayside,begging. His attention being arrested by the tread of the mighty host, upon in- Thrilling Events Facilitating the Finale. 243 quiry learming that it is Jesus the Xazarene pa&sing by, importunately exclaims, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me." Many rebuked him, ordering him to dicsist from his uproarious clamior. But all in vain, as he only exclaimed the more vociferously and persistently. Jesus stops in the road and tells them to call him. Those near by speak to Mm- saying, Be of good cheer ;He calleth thee. And laying his cloak down, rising up, he comes to Jesus, (V. 51.) Jesus responding, says to him, "Wliat do you wish that I should do to you V The blind man said to Hdm,"Master,that I m'ay receive my sight." Jesus said to him, "Go,thy faith hath saved thee ! And immediately he looked up, and followed Jesus in tlie way." Doubtless Bartimeus went on with Him to Jerusalem, and wit- nessed His tragic death. In this translation, you see, clearly and unmistakably, that our faith is the measur- ing line of what we receive from God. Hence the con- stant pertinency of the prayer, "Lord, increase our faith." Luke corroborates Mark here, in his testimony that the miracle of this blind man took place as they were coming into Jericho; while Matthew certifies that two blind men were restored, while He was going out from the city. Doubtless they are all correct, Mark and Luke giving the case of Bartimeus, and Matthew, that of two others. CONVERSION OF ZACCHAEUS. Luke 19 :2-10. "Behold a man by name called Zac- ehseus, and"he was chief of the publicans and he was rich and was seeking to see Jesus and learn who he was, and was not able for the crowd, because lie was -small in stat- ure. And having run before -them, he went up in1x> a 244 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. sycamore tree, in order that he might see Him, because He was about to pass tihat "way. And when he came to the place Jesus, looking up, saw him and said to him; Zacchaeus, hasten to come do^v^l, for it behooveth me to •abide in thy liouse to-day." And hastening he came doiwn and received him joyfully. And when they saw it they all murmuredjSaying ; "He has gone to abide with a man wlio is a sinner. And Zacchaeus standing, said to the Lord; "Behold, Lord, I give the half of my goods to the poor, and if I have defrauded anything from -any one, I restore four- fold." And Jesus said to him ; "this day salvation has come to this house, as he indeed was the son of Abraham ; for the Son of man oame to seek and to 'Save -the lost." This notable conversion took place on Saturday after- noon; i. e., the Sabbath. Zacchaeus, though a Jew, had accepted the revenue office from the Roman govern- ment, which rendered him exceedingly unpopular among the Jews,consequently,stignamatizedliim as a 'sinner,^the Greek armartolos, being a very strong word applied to the vilest reprobates, both male and female. As he was chief of the publicans, standing at the head of the reve- nue office in that city, the presumption is that he had never left his business long enough to go away and see Jesus. The Greek ezeeter in the imperfect tense, implies continuation. Doubtless he had heard so much about Jesus, that he was already deeply impressed; not only anxious, but determined to see Him. This is illustrated by his climbing the tree, which would be considered very undignified; especially with a gentleman of rank and wealth, enjoying a position at the head of the reve- nue department. We see how unhesitatingly he sacri- Thrilling Events Facilitating the Finale. 245 fioed d'igni'ty and popukrity tbat he mig-lit see Jesus. The sycamore is the Eg}*ptian fig tree, much larger than the Palestinian. When Jesus sees him He calls him down, at the same time notifying him that He is going •to lodge with him, whi^h is very important, because they must quickly enter the wilderness of Judea and pass through it on their way to Jerusalem. The very fact 'that he came down 'chairoon/ rejoicing,involves the con- clusion that he was actually converted up in that tree. As blind Bartimeus was his fellow citizen, into whose hat he has dropped many a contribution, I trow he came skipping and shouting, his flashing eyeballs radiating the indubitable testimony to the mighty work of which he was the happy recipient. His conversion is al- so most abundantly and dem'onstratively enforced by his testimony, "The half of my goods I give to the poor.'' That was a wonderful jump for a rich-strung Jew, and certainly a sun-burst, gladdening the hearts of the poor. "If I have defrauded any one out of anything I will re- store four-fold." The Greek shows that he was actually guilty of fraudulent dealing. He was a loyal son of Abraham, and now that he is converted to God, he is determined to make all wrongs right. The penalty for theft under the law of Moses, was simple restitution; in case of a sheep or a goat, two-fold; in case of an ox, three-fold; in case of a horse or a camel, four-fold. So Zacchaeus is not willing to take any risk in the matter, He has set out for salvation and he is going to have it at any cosit. Con'sequently, he covers the law at a single hound, lighting on quadruple restitution: the hig'hest de- mand of the violated law. By the time he has thus given the half to the poor and restored all his ill- 246 Life of Jesus and Ilis Apostles. gotten gains four-fold,he is unincumbered with the things of this world and ready to fall in with his neighbor Bar- timeus and others, and swell the happy throng already crowding in the track of Jesus; who is still going over the earth^seeking to save all who are lost, like Zacchaeus. Oh, how quickly did salvation come when Zacchaeus got to seeking Jesus, who had been seeking him all his life. So when the seeking is mutual, salvation comes quick- ly in every case. DEPARTURE OF JESUS AND HIS TRIUMPHANT RETURN. 11-27. Jesus having already notified Zacchaeus that He will abide over night in his house, which is near by, having gone home with him, halts in front of his dcK)r and delivers this beautiful and wonderful parable to the listening multitude, halted and held spell-bound as usual, by His thrilling utterances, on the kingdom, which He illustrates by the parable of a nobleman go- ing to a far-off country to receive a kingdom and return- ing. Jesus is the nobleman; Heaven is the far country, and the Millennial Theocracy, the kingdom. Previous to His departure the Lord called His own servants; i. e., the Chris)tian? ^'>j'd delivers to eadh one of them a pound; (Greek mina I7V2 cts.) ; and commands them to trade, invest the money and make it as productive as possible till He comes. When He goes away His citizens; (i. a, the people of this wicked world), hasten and send an embassy after Him, notifying Him that they do not want Him to reign over them. In due time the nobleman re- turns, calls up all his servants, to whom he had delivered the money, and has an investigation to «oe what each Thrilling Events Facilitating the Finale. 247 one has made by investment and traffic. He finds one of them has actually gained ten pounds; he blesses him, bids him hearty welcome to a place in the kingdom which He has brought with him, and invests him with the dominion of ten cities. Another comes and notifies Him that his pound has gained five pounds. He blesses him precisely as the ten-pounder and gives him domin- ion over five cities in the kingdom which He has brought with Him from the country far away. And a third man comes and says to Him ; "Lord, bdiold thy pound w^hich I have kept laid up in a napkin. Fot I feared thee because thou art an austere man; thou takest up that wM'chthou has not laid down,and thou reapest that which thou hast not so\\ti." And He says to him; "Out of thine own mouth I oondlemn thee, thou wicked servant ; thou knewest that I am an austere man, taking up that which I have not laid down and reaping that which I have not sovna. ; wherefore didst thou not give my money to the bank, and having come, I would have received the same with the product ?'' And He said to those standing by, "take the pound from him and give it to the one hav- ing ten pounds." And they said to Him ; "Lord, he has ten pounds." For I say unto you that to everyone hav- ing, it shall be givenyand from him not having, even that which he hath shall be taken away from him. Moreover, hrdng hither these my enemies, who did not wish me to reign over them 'and slay them in my presence." The enemies here mentioned are the unsavable millions, this day so rapidly crossing the dead line, by committing the unpardonable sin ; i. e., imputing the works of the Holy Ghost to the devil, which is the fatal sin of the anti- holiness people, who pronounce all true, vital. Holy 248 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. Ghost religion, famatiedsm ; i. e., impuited to the devil. One o-f the sure evidences of the Lord's near approach is the phenomenal manner in which the nominal church is rejecting the Holy Ghost by their opposition to His work, especially manifested in the holiness movement, and thus fast reaching an unsavable attitude, by com- mitting the unpardonable sin, which is the blasphemy; i. e., contempt of the Holy Ghost. Matt. 12 :31-32. This is the religious hemisphere of Satan's kingdom, which is so fast ripening for destruction. The same was verified in Judaism, when the leading clergy, ruling elders, and (through their influence), the rank and file of their membership, actually so grieved away the Holy Spirit, that they could not be saved. Therefore an awful de- struction swept them away, during the Jewish tribula- tion, A. D. 66-7. ^lean while, the secular hemdsphere of Satan's kingdom is crossing the dead line in the direc- tion of infidelity, with fearful rapidity. These are "His citizeTLS ;" i.e., the people of this world, who are 'unwill- ing to have Him rule over 'them.' They will perish in the great Gentile tribulation, destined soon, to fill the world with anarchy, ( of which we have a prelude in the murder of our President;) deluge it with blood and whiten it with bones. Dan. 7 :9-14 and Rev. ch. 16 and ch. 19. The man who laid away his pound in a napkin and kept it, is the anti-holiness professor, who rejects the second work of grace, says, "conversion is enough, I will hold it fast till the Lord comes f stupidly oblivious of the fact that every Chrisitdan is like a bicycle ; which either moves for- ward or drops down. So you see this man turns out to be a hopeless backslider and loses his soul. The pound is taken from him and given to the ten-pounder. Why not Thrilling Events Facilitating the Finale. 249 to the five-pounder ? Because the ten-pounder will make much more out of it for his Lord than the five-pounder. You see here forcibly stated, the great law of spiritual thrift, illustrated by the financial realm, in which the man who has the most money, can make money fastest. Even so in the spiritual kingdom; the person who has most will accumulate more rapidly than all others. This parable is so clear, perspicuous and forcible, that all whose spiritual optics have been quickened by the Holy Ghost, will see it to their profitable edification ; in- dubitaibly and irrefutably setting forth the return of Je- sus, on the throne of His Millennial Glory, when He will meet the saints, transfigure them, resurrecting the dead and translating the lining: thus admitting them into His glorious kingdom, and administering to them re- wards and emoluments, according to the efficiency with which each one has utilized the grace given and magni- fied the redeeming mercy of his Lord. JESUS ARRIVES AT BETHANY. John 11 :55-57 ; 12 :9.11. He spends the night with' Zacchaeus at Jericho. The next day, our Sunday, He walks from Jericho to Bethany, about thirty miles, up the great mountain of Judah and Benjamin, most of the way through the wilderness of Judea, arriving at His delightful retreat, the home of Mary, Martha and Lazar- us, in Bethany, at nightfall. "And the Passover of the Jews was nigh, and many went up to Jerusalem from the country, that tfhey might purify themiselves. They sought therefore, for Jesus, saying to one another stand- ing in the Temple ; what think ye ? That He moy not 250 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. come to ihe feast ? Tlbe chief priesits and Pharisees had given comimandment, that if anyone knew where He was, he shouhl divulge it, in order that they might arrest Him. Then Jesus came into Bethany six days before the Passover, where Lazarus was, wihom He raised from^ the dead. When a great mul- titude of the Jews knew that He was there, they also came; not only on account of Jesus, but that they mig'ht see Lazarus whom He raised from the dead. But the chief priests counselled' that they would kill Lazarus be- cause many of the Jews, on account of him, came and were believing on Jesus. The reader makes inquirv in his own mind, why the multitude waited till Jesus re- turned before they came to see Lazarus. This is ex- plained in the fact that Lazarus, when Jesus raised him from the dead, went away with Him, and accompanied Him in His evangelistic tour through Perea. The resur- rection of Lazarus, afiter he had been dead four days and putrefaction and decomposition had made great head- way is concedjed the greatest miracle upon record. This so exasperated the high priests and Pharisees that they determined to bring their troubles to a speedy issue by killing Him. TRIUMPHAL ENTRY. Having spent Sunday night in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany, He sets out for Jerusa- lem Monday morniing, along the old Caravan Road, used from the days of Abraham, directly over Mt. Olivet ; the nice, macadamized road now in use for carriages, run- ning around it. Bethphage stands on the mountain at Thrilling Events Facilitating the Finale. 251 the entrance of the plain, having ascended the eastern slope. From this village Jesus sends out disciples with orders to bring Him a young donke}-, unbroken, follow- ing its mother, wthich they are directed to find at the cross road. They also bring the mother by way of conven- ience in managing the colt. The symbolism would not permit our Lord to ride the horse, w^hioh is the symbol of war w;hereas, the donkey, emmently useful in time of peace and too slow for war, symbolizes the pacific missdon on which the Prince of Peace came into the world. When they arrive with the donkeys, they put their garments on the colt and mount Jesus on him, John 12 :14. "And Jesus having found a young donkey sat upon him, as has been written; "fear not, daughter of Zion; behold thy King Cometh sitting upon the colt of a donkey." As hu- man hands pollute, it was pertinent that the animal which Jesus rode should be unbroken. Now all of the evangelists certify how the multitudes cut down the branches of the trees and strewed the way with palm leaves and blooming flowers, which then abounded (April 10), and threw down their garments in the road for Jesus to ride over them, thus symbolizing their loy- alty, for they believed that He would be crowned King of the Jews in Jerusalem, even before the opening of the Passover festival, the following Saturday. V. 13. They took the branches of the palm trees and came out to meet Him and) continued to exclaim ; "Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord;,the King of Israel !'' This triumphant entry was a brilliant scintillation of our Lord's second coming, when He will ride into Jerusalem, 252 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. not cm the donkey, but on the 'cloud. When He passed over the tableland on the summit of Olivet and reached the western slope, descending into the valley of Jehosha- phat, the whole multitude broke out into uproarious shouts, saluting Him as the Son and successor of King David; waving the palms in the air, which were recog- nized as oriental symbols of royalty. Luke 19 :39. "And certain ones from the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, re- buke thy disciples." And He, responding, said to them ; "I say unito you, that if these may keep silent the rocks wil'l cry out." Here we see that our Lord receives and appreciates the worship of praise. Shouting is all right, and accep- table worship; thus endea\'oring by exclamations and ejaculations, with adorinig wonder, to proclai*m and in- stall the majesty of our King. "And when He drew near. He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If thou hadst indeed known, even in this thy day, the thing ap- pertaining to thy peace ! but now they are hidden from thine eyes. Because the day shall come upon thee and thine enemies will throw a bulwark and will close in around thee and press on thee from all sides, and they will slay thee and thy children* with thee and will leave net stone upon stone in thee, because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation." At the spot along this road where Jesus wept over the city, we have a most conspic- uous view of all Jerusalem. The Greek Christians have erected a beautiful, snow^-white, memorial church, called *The Church of Jesus' Weeping,' which is an impressive souvenir of this thrilling event in our Savior's biography. He saw in vivid panorama the appalling horrors which Thrilling Events Facilitating the Finale. 25-5 w^ere coming on the city within one-tfhird of a century, when the Roman armies actually besieged, w^aged a sev- en years' war, desolated it, selling into slavery and lead- ing into captivity, all who survived the sword, pestilence and famine; leaving the most beautiful and strongly fortified city in the world, without an inhabitant. Matt 21 :10-17. Here we learn that the triumphal procession moved on down Mt. 01ivet,cros'sed the vallc}^ of Jehosha- phat, over the great Causeway, ascended Mt. Moriah and entered the Holy Campus, comprising thirty-five acres of land, containing Solomon's Temple and other magnifi- cent buildings, dedicated to Jehovah; but the greater portion of the area, entirely unincumbered with buildings, constituting the Holy Campus, on which the Israelites pitched their tents, during their great national festivals ;and all this is included in the word "Temple," as it occurs in the N"ew Testament. Three thousand years have rolled away since John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the people and by his baptism inaugurated Him into His official Messiahship. During all these years the whole country has been agitated, with reference to this Paradoxical Man, really the wonder and the enigma •of all students. Unfortunately, the leading clergy, soon turned againet him, rejecting Him with contempt; fos- tering bitter animosities and nourishing against Him "ttie most virulent hatred, gangrene jealousy, and dia- bolical prejudice and- eny\', hell could possibly manu- facture. Meanm^hile His friends have been constantly multiplying in all the land, becoming bolder, stronger and more convinced that He is veritably the Christ. Already multitudes have been pouring into Jerusa- 254 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. lem from all pointa of the compass, to attend the Passover, wondering in their minds whether Jesus would be there. Then the triumphal proces- sion entered the city and' the Temple, amid shouts- going up like the roar of the mighty ocean. All classes were clamorous with acckmations of praise to their KJing. They regarded the do^nke^^-ride as an acceptance of the situation, on His part,as David and Solomon rode on moiles when they were crowned. Thousands gazed on the scene with electrified enthusiasm, expecting every moment to see Him crowned King of Israel. Mark 11 :11. "And Jesus came into Jerusalem and into the Temple; and looking around upon all things, the hour being already evening, went out into Bethany with the Twelve. You will find no record of His ever having lodged a niglit in Jerusalem. On this. His last visit. He lod'ges in Bethany Sunday night and Monday night and Wednesday night ;spending Tuesday night in some of the villages of Mt. Olivet ; Thursday night in Gethsemane and Jerusalem, in the hands of His enemies; Friday night and Saturday night in Joseph's new tomb. * THE FIG TREE. Mark 11 :12-19. On the following day, having come out from Bethany,He was hungr}-. Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves He came, if haply He should find any- thing thereon., and having come to it he found nothing but leaves for it was not the time of figs. Jesus respond- ing said to it; "Let no one ever eat fruit from thee," and His disciples heard Him. This incident simply ap- pertains to the humanity of our Lord, in which He was Thrilling Events Facilitating the Finale. 1555 like other people, sin excepted. The beautiful foliage of the tree indicated a high state of vitality and argued in favor of fruit bearing. It was too early in the year (April 11)^ for the fiof harvest. However there is a species of fig tree in that country which retains the fruit all winter and ripens in the spring. So this was pre- sumed to be a winter fig tree. We have already seen in other scriptures that the fig tree emh-lematizes the Jew- ish people, who al that time were in a high state of pros- perity,both nationally and ecclesiastically ; as symbolized by the copious foliage of this tree, while really they were spiritually dfead and destitute of the fruit of holiness. (Romans 6 :22) The 'Sudden and' h'opeless withering of •the tree, which speedily followed the anathemia pro- nounced by our Lord, vividly symbolizing the awful castigatory judgments, coming speedily on the Jewish people, during the invasions of the Roman armies. CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE. Mark 11:15-18. "And they came into Jerusalem', and Jesus, having come into the Temple, began to cast out the buyers and the sellers and He overturned the tahles of the mioney-ehangers 'and the seats of those sell- ing doves; and He did not permit that anyone should earry his vessel through the Temple. And' He was teach- ing, saying to them; Is it not wTitten, My house shall be called the house of prayer to all nations ? but you have made it a den of thieves.'' And the scribes and chief priests heard and they were seeking how they should kill Him ; for they feared Him because the whole multitude were delightd with His teaehing. Luke 21:37. And 266 Life of Jesus and Bis Apostles. during the 'day He was teacliiiig' in the Tfemple, GYeiy night he wen't out and lodged in the Mount which is called that of Olives. And all the people were assembling unto Him in the Temple to hear Him. You remember He cleansed the Temple while attending the first Passover, entering upon His Messianic office, by that significant act, which was the peculiar prerogative of the high priest alone. There was a great traffic in sacrificial animals, which Jews, coming from the ends of the earth, would purchase, in order to offer their sacrifices. The money exchange was also an important business, as none but Jewish coins were received in the Temple treasury; and the Jews from the ends of the earth attended these festivals, having Greek and Eoman money, which must be exchanged for the Hebrew coins. The reason why these dealers of the sacrificial animals and money exchange are called thieves, is because Jesus knew that they cheated the people. If you cheat a man out of a dollar, you are a condemned thief at the bar- of God. These two cleansings of the Temple clearly prove the necessity of both regeneration and sanctification, so to cleanse the heart, which is symbolized by the Temple, that God will dwell in it forever. Our Lord is also go- ing to cleanse the Temple again when He comes in His glory ,thus illustrating the third work of the Holy Ghost in the heart ; i. e., glorification. The first work removes all condemnation; the second takes away depravity, while the third and last, which you receive in death, sweeps away all infirmity: investing you with angelic perfection ; Christian perfection having been received in sanctification. Thnlling Events Facilitating the Finale, 25?. THE POWER OF FAITH. Mai-k 11 :20-26. "In the momimg, going along, they saw 'the fiig tree had' been withered up from its roots. Pe- ter, remembering, says to Him, Rabbi, behold the fig tree which you execrated is withered away. Jesus answering, says to them. Have the faith of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosioever may say to this m'ountadn, Be thou plucked usp and east into the sea, and m^ay not doubt in his heart, but belieye that those things which he says do take place, it shall be so unto him. Whatsoever ye ask, praying, believe that you just now received them, and ye sihall h.ave them." This deliverance of our Lord on the snib- jeot of prayer is a stunner to the weak faith of the church. It is so positive and clear that all efforts to explain it away have proved abortive in all ages. The plucking up of the tree and casting it into the sea, is a physical miracle, illustrative of the paradoxical achieve- ments here imputed to omnipotent faith. The great sa- lient and culminating affirmation in verse 24, — "All things whatsoever you ask, praying, believe that you just now received them, and they shall be unto you." The R. V. says "have received them," which is rather too strong, involving the liability to let go your grip and rest in the hypothesis that you already have the blessing you ask, and consequently desist from seeking, which might even- tuate in utter and final defeat. The E. V. "believe that you do receive them" involves the liability of keeping you florever in the present tense, and never reaching the fin- ished expterien'ce. 'The passage is really difficult to trans- late, the true Greek being elahete, in the second a^rist 258 Life of Jesus and His Apostles. tensse; not an adequate of the aorist tens^^, whidh is performed ; hence I translated it "believe that you just now received." The E. V. "have received" is our perfett tense, which is not an adequate of the aorist, which is not in the English language. The fact is, we are to be- lieve that the answer comes contemporaneously with the petition. Therefore, when we truly ask in faith, while we are asking, the Lord actually does it instantaneously and completely. HIS AUTHORITY QUESTIOXED. T. 27 :33. Jesus gave himself tremendmis notoriety by driving out all those buyers and sellers and money changers, who were not in the Temple building, but on the Holy Campus, all of which, including thirty-five acres, was denominated "the Temple." In the ejectment of these people with their sacrificial animals and foreign money. He exercised the prerogative peculiar to the high priest only. Xow you observe that He simply refers them to the baptism of John for His authority, illus- trating clearly that He received His priestly authority by tlie baptism of John. You see He here catches them in a dilemma from which they could not and did not extricate themselves. If they decided that John's bap- tism was not from God, they feared an uproar, as John was so very popular and looked upon by all the people as a prophet senit. from God; consequently they were afraid that the multitude would stone them. If they said it was from God, they knew He would respond, 'Then why did you not believe on Him" ; consequently the}' simply answered;, "We know not" Thrilling Events Facilitating the Finale. 259 THE TWO SONS. Matt. 21:28. "But what think ye? A man had two sons; comfing to the first he said, Sion, go to-d'ay, work in the vineyard. And he responding said, I am not willing, and afterward: repenting., he departed. And hav- ing come to the second he said likewise. He, responding said, aye. Lord; and he went not. Which one of the two did the will of the father? They say to him. The first. Jesus said to them. Truly I say unto you, that the Pub- licans and Harlots go before you into the kiDgdom of God. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you believed him not; but the Publicans and Har- lots believed him, but you seeing, repented not afterward, in order to belie\^e him.' In this parable the Gentiles are the first to sin, as God called them' two thousand years be- fore He called the Jews. They refused from the start, proving delinquent. When He called the Jews they said, "All-rightywe go, but afterward proved' unfaithful ; while the Gentiles received the gospel, and after a refusal of four thousand years, went and did nobly. Here we see, while looking these leading preachers and church officials in the face.He says the Publicans and Harlots go into the kingdom of God before you; i. e., they are more easily saved than you are. This is everywhere illustrated this day in our evangelistic work. Sliimites are more easily reached than the proud formalists occupying the prom- inent places in the church. THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. Matt. V. 33-41. The vineyard'here is the diureh,and' the 260 Life of Jesus and His Apostles Jews, to whom God committed it, the hu&bandmen. They stoned the prophets, cut off the head of John the Bap- tist, and crucified God^s own Son. The result was, God vindicated His church, His prophets, and His Son by. sending on them the awful retribution of the Roman armies, who desolated their land and destroyed their city, slew their people and sold them into slaver}^, actually an- nihilating the Jewish policy forever. 43. "Therefore, I say unto you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation,bring- ing forth the fruts of the same." This is a demomstrative truth of the identity of God's church in all dispensations, as "kingdom" here can mean nothing but the church, which was taken from the Jews and given to the Gentiles. The vineyard was not destroyed, but the wicked husband- men were slain, in divine retribution, under the perfect administration of God, for the awful crime of killing His servants and son. 42. "Jesus says to them, Have you never i«ead in the Scriptures, The stone w*hich the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the comer? And the one falling on this stone shall be dashed to pieces; and on whomsoever it may fall it will grind him to powder." The great oriental stone buildings are sup- ported by towers, which hold the^m steadfast amid all perturbation. The chief corner-stone (i. e., the head of the corner) supports this tower. Here He affirms that every one falling on this tower shall be dashed to pieces ; i. e., every sinner in the agony of conviction, f all_ ing on Jesus, will be broken all to pieces and reconstruct- ed into a new creature; thus gloriously saved. While every one on whom this tower may fall, it will grind him Thrilling Events Facilitating the Finale. 261 to powder : i. e., the sinner who will not have His mercy is compelled to receive His justice, the horrific retribu- tion of eternal destruction. MARRIAGE OF THE KING's SON. Matt. 22 :l-l-i. Heaven is described in the Bible as a wedding festival in perfect bliss and ineffable glory. moving on forever. Hence this wedding festival began with Abel and will sweep on till the latest posterity of Adam's race shall have a chance to respond to the invita- tion and sit down with the royal guests. "He sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the wed- ding, and they were not willing to come.'' The old prophets had been inviting them in all ages. Eventually the grand culmination supervenes and He sends His Son into the world to enter into wedlock with His blood- washed bride. Again he sent other servants, saying, "Tell those who have been called^BeholdJ have prepared my dinner ; my oxen and my f atlings have been skugh- tered, all things 'are ready; come ye to the wedding." Xow He sent John the Baptist and the apostles to ex- tend them an especial invitation. "And they, being care- less, went away; one to his farm, and one to his mer- chandise. The rest taking his servants, insulted and slew them." They slew John the Baptist but a sihort time before this utterance ; Jesus Himself, only two days af- terward, and Stephen and many others at a very early date. "The king, hearing, was angry, and sending his armies, slew thofe murderers and burned up their city.'* This awful prediction was utterly fulfilled in the terrible retributions inflicted on those very people and their city 262 Life of Jesus and His Avostles. by the Roman armies within the lifetime of that genera- tion. ''Then he says to his servants, Indeed the wedding is ready, but those having been invited were not worthy. Go, therefore, into the crossings of the highways, and so many as you may find, call to the wedding. And those servants having gone out into the ways, continued to lead in so many as they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was filled wdth guests.^' This is the call to the G-entiles, verifying the great commission to preach the gospel to every nation, giving all a chance. We see here there is no difference between the bad and the good ; i. e., the immoral and wicked, reprobate and debauched, and also, the morally good having evoi an irreproachable (Character in the estimation of the world. All are sinners b}' nature and forever lost, unless they fly to Jesus and lay hold on the infallible atonement, which is made for the sins of the whole world. He goes on, observing that the king comes in to look upon his guests, and finding one without the wedding garment, he at once accosts him, asking him,. Friend, why comest thou in hither without the wedding garment ? Finding him doumb founded and utterly unable to give a reason for this, he ordered his ser- vant to bind him hand and foot and cast him out into out- er darkness, w^here there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The wedding garment which seems so indispensable, an actual sine qua non to a place in heav- en, is none other than the blood-washed robe, which Jesus alone can give. You see this man, dumib witlh- out it, is forcibly illustrated in the noisy clamor of sancti- fied people, and the observable dumbness of the unsanc- tified, the former always glad of a chance to tell of the Thrilling Events Facilitating the Finale. 263 wonders of the cleansing blood and exhibit the spotlees snow-white robes which they wear, while the latter re- mained: comparatively reticent in our testimony meet- ings. CHAPTER XI. FAREWELL TO THE TEMPLE. The Holy Campus, including thirty-five acres of land containing the Temple of King Solomon and many other miagndficent buildings and a camping ground' for the myr- iads of Israel, during thoLr great national festivals, was sacred to the people of Israel; all Gentiles rigidly pro- Ihihited therefrom, entering it on penalty of dfeath, was, through all ages, to the children of Abraham, an earthly paradise, the symbol of Heaven. Here Jesus began His ministry by cleansing the Temple, and now finishes it by a second cleansing, confirmed by His strong and con- tinuous preaching those three days, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. TRIBUTE TO CAESAR. Now the Pharisees and Herodians suspend their no- torious and irreconcilable antagonism, the former, being the most loyal and zealous supporters of the Mosaic in- stitutions, and the most rigid devotees of the Theocracy, and the rankest enemies to the Roman government ; and the latter, the Roman political party, not only support- ing, but administering the Roman government. Like the warring sects now-a-days,dropping their controversies to unite all their forces against the holiness movement, so the Pharisees and Herodians (i. e., dead religion and politics) unite against Jesus. They lay all their wits 264 Farewell to the Temple. 265 under contribution and concoct a scheme with the two horns of a dilemma, feeling sure they will gore Him with one or the other. They proceed to interview Him in ref- erence to paying tribute to Csesar. If He answers in the affirmative, the Pharisees are ready to arrest and bring Him before the Sanhedrim for disloyalty to the theocracy. If He answers in the negative, the Herodians are ready to arrest and arraign Him before Pilate, un- der charge of disloyalty to the Roman government. They feel perfectly sanguine of success, apprehending no pos- sible escape from the entanglement into which they are driving Him. How they are dumbfounded when He simply responds, "Render unto Csesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's." Mark 12 :13-17. THE RESURRECTION. Matt. V. 18-27. Now that He has so signally dumb- founded the leading orthoidox denomination and the most influential political party, .the Saddoicees, notorious for their heterodoxical views of spirituality 'and the resurrec- tion, proceed to attack Him. with «a puzzle which they have