(lass QTSQ 
 
 Book, X? 
 
 Copyrighi N° 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
The Disciple and His Lord : or 
 Twenty-six Days with Jesus 
 
The Disciple and His 
 Lord: or, Twenty-Six 
 Days with Jesus 
 
 By Rev. J. S. KIRTLEY, D. D. 
 
 Author of "The Young Man," etc. 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 American JBaptiet publication Society 
 
 1630 Chestnut Street 
 1906 
 

 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two Conies Received 
 
 JUL 17 »906 
 
 C^oyrtctil Entry 
 ' COPY B. 
 
 Copyright 1906 by the 
 American Baptist Publication Society 
 
 Published July, 1906 
 
 jfrom tbe Society's own iprese 
 
PUBLISHERS' NOTE 
 
 These studies of the life and work of our Lord 
 were first published in "Service," the organ of the 
 Young People's Union, as a part of the sacred lit- 
 erature course for 1 905-1 906. They were at the 
 time found eminently helpful and attracted wide 
 attention. It is hoped that in this more consecutive 
 and permanent form they will win still greater favor 
 and achieve for themselves an even wider field of 
 usefulness. 
 
 July 1, 1906. 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 SOURCES OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS 
 
 There are three such sources and we may state 
 them in the order of their increasing importance, as 
 follows : 
 
 I. Non-Christian Literature. The knowledge 
 gained in this way is purely incidental, is very 
 meager and would, by itself, give us no working 
 conception of either the character or teachings of 
 Jesus. Among Roman writers he receives very 
 little attention, for the obvious reason that they 
 would not know, nor care, what was going on in 
 an obscure province such as Judea, and he did not 
 become known in the world outside during his life- 
 time. It was not till after his ascension that even 
 his native land began to understand his real nature 
 and significance. Had he lived in our times, biog- 
 raphers and self-appointed press agents would have 
 been busy in securing him a world-wide fame. 
 Suetonius in his life of Claudius (Chap XXV.) 
 speaks of the latter's edict expelling the Jews from 
 Rome, and says, " Chrestus being the instigator " of 
 the Jews in their disturbances. Like most of 
 the Romans, he classed Jews and Christians together 
 indiscriminately. Tacitus in his Annals (XV., 44) 
 speaks of Christians as having " derived their name 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 and origin from one Christ, who in the reign of 
 Tiberius had suffered death by the sentence of the 
 procurator, Pontius Pilate." Pliny the younger, 
 refers to the influence of Christ over the Christians 
 of Bithynia in leading them " to bind themselves with 
 an oath not to enter into any wickedness, or com- 
 mit thefts, robberies, or adulteries; or falsify their 
 word, or repudiate trusts committed to them," but 
 he does not show any further knowledge of his 
 history or character. 
 
 Among Jewish writers we find Josephus, who 
 says little about Jesus, though it would seem that he 
 must have known a great deal. In Book XVIII., 
 Chap. III., and section 3, there is an appreciative 
 paragraph about him, but its genuineness has been 
 questioned. In another paragraph he refers indi- 
 rectly to Jesus, in discussing the character and death 
 of John the Baptist (Book XVIII., Chap. V., section 
 2). He says that many people thought the defeat of 
 Herod's army by his father-in-law, Aretas, was a 
 punishment for his treatment of John. In Book XX., 
 Chap. IX. and section 1, he tells how Sebinus, the 
 successor of Festus as procurator of Judea, " as- 
 sembled the Sanhedrin of judges and brought before 
 them the brother of Jesus who was called Christ, 
 whose name was James, and some others," whom he 
 caused to be stoned to death. The reasons for his 
 silence are plain. He could not have said more of 
 Jesus without approving him and that would have 
 offended his fellow- Jews. Born at Jerusalem, a. d. 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 2,7 or 38, he became a rigid Pharisee and afterwards 
 affected Roman habits, as a courtier in Rome. He 
 would also offend his Roman patrons by having 
 much good to say of Christ. 
 
 2. The Acts and Epistles. The Acts being the 
 account of what Jesus continued to do on earth 
 after his departure, we are not surprised to find 
 light thrown back upon his earthly life. The 
 Epistles were written to expound and expand 
 and apply the teachings of Jesus and, of course, 
 would recall his life and character. Some of 
 the other Scriptures were written by authors of 
 the Gospels; some were written before the Gos- 
 pels ; all took for granted the facts and teach- 
 ings subsequently written in the Gospels; all are a 
 commentary on the Christ of the Gospels ; some use 
 material not found in the Gospels. Paul alone tells 
 us that Jesus appeared to James and to the " five 
 hundred brethren at once." He throws special light 
 on Christ's pre-incarnate state in Phil. 2 : 5-1 1. He 
 also quotes him as saying, " It is more blessed to give 
 than to receive." These are merely suggestive quo- 
 tations. The Acts and Epistles are an important 
 source of information about Christ. 
 
 3. The Four Gospels. These we find the ulti- 
 mate sources of our knowledge. Several important 
 facts are to be borne in mind: Jesus never wrote a 
 word about himself or his teaching ; he never hinted, 
 so far as we know, to any one that he wanted any- 
 thing written ; no one undertook the task of writing 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 till many years after his ascension. Before any one 
 of the Gospels was written, most of the Epistles were 
 in use. The knowledge pre-supposed by the 
 Epistles was gotten from eye-witnesses, but when 
 almost all the eye-witnesses had passed away a need 
 arose for the permanent preservation of the data at 
 the basis of the Epistles and of the apostolic preach- 
 ing. They did not feel the need of the Gospels as 
 long as they had the living voice of those who knew 
 the story, both because they preferred the oral form 
 and because they did not care very much for books. 
 Then, perhaps, they wished that some one had been 
 appointed official biographer, to catch the words as 
 they fell from our Lord's lips and write an account 
 of his deeds, as they were enacted. But he had pro- 
 vided a far better way. He had trusted the whole 
 story to men who were accustomed to rely on their 
 memory with perfect confidence. The memory of 
 those who depend on it holds the details as well as 
 the general outlines of events. Impressions are 
 deepened so that recurring events do not obliter- 
 ate them. Those who wrote the Gospels were thus 
 equipped for their tasks. Besides, memory was 
 steadily reinforced by the emotions with which they 
 heard and saw and felt what they afterwards re- 
 ported. Those emotions fixed the teachings and 
 deeds ineffaceably in the memory. The Master was 
 constantly repeating his teachings too, and many 
 truths would assume a crystalline form. As Dawson 
 says, " In the memories of such men, many a phrase 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 used by Jesus was embedded like a diamond in a bed 
 of clay." His teachings and deeds would also be as- 
 sociated with places and persons and events that 
 would give clearness and vitality to the memory of 
 them. 
 
 The Master was giving them time to learn the 
 meaning of it, through study and experience and the 
 practical use of what they knew. He was also 
 training them in the power to express properly, 
 through oral teaching, what he had imparted. He 
 gave them time to develop a clear sense of the needs 
 of men and to be able to select the material suited 
 to those needs. When the emergencies arose, they 
 knew how to meet them. He also fulfilled a promise 
 made before his death that the coming Spirit would 
 quicken memory and lead them on farther into 
 truth. When the time came to commit the story to 
 writing, the very best possible arrangements had 
 been made. Men were equipped with clear mem- 
 ories, deep insight into truth, knowledge of the needs 
 to be met, power to select what would meet the 
 needs, skill in stating it and, best of all, the inspiring, 
 directing presence of " the Spirit of truth." With- 
 out knowing that they were being trained for it, they 
 were ready for their task. Eye-witnesses were 
 dying ; emergencies were developing in the growing 
 community of believers ; the truth could no longer 
 be entrusted to the living voice alone — it must be 
 put into written form. 
 
 And four men wrote the story. One could not 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 do it alone, for Christ is many-sided, and needs more 
 than a single interpreter. Those are the two reasons 
 for several Gospels. Why there are four has not 
 been revealed, and we may not know all the reasons 
 for it. But we are impressed with the sense of com- 
 pleteness and thoroughness with which Jesus has 
 been presented to us, from four points of view, by 
 four types of men, for four general types of readers. 
 One Gospel could never have carried the story 
 everywhere, in that day; one Gospel would be re- 
 jected in our day. Four Gospels were irresistible 
 then; they are now. 
 
 The four men did individual work and never even 
 seem to have been working in collaboration or col- 
 lusion. Each has his own point of view and his 
 own constituency; each has his own personal prin- 
 ciple of selection; each makes his own impression 
 on the reader ; each seems entirely unconcerned as to 
 whether he will agree with the others. Two of them 
 were apostles — John and Matthew. One was a very 
 young and immature disciple when the Master left — 
 Mark. One was a converted Greek who never saw 
 Jesus — Luke. 
 
 The four Gospels were written years after the 
 events, yet have the vividness of eye-witnesses. The 
 first three use very much the same material, yet each 
 one uses only what suits his purpose and he stamps 
 his personality upon it. They drew it from practically 
 the same sources — their personal memories, the com- 
 mon memory, the subject-matter of their preaching 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 and conversation, and, most likely, from some pre- 
 vious writings that sought to preserve the story. 
 There was a common store from which each one 
 drew. They did not aim at writing a complete his- 
 tory, but at preserving those sayings and doings 
 which were essential to the well-equipped disciple. 
 They give a series of pictures and interpretations. 
 The first three are called the Synoptic Gospels, be- 
 cause they give a view of the same things, in the 
 main. John is in a class by himself. All were writ- 
 ten after many changes had taken place in what 
 we might call the Christian world. Christianity had 
 grown extensively over wide areas and widely differ- 
 ing people. It had gathered into its fold a great 
 mass of people — Jews, Greeks, Romans, scattered 
 everywhere, with a great variety of other minor 
 races. It had grown intensively, in well-articulated 
 organizations, or churches, here and there, and sys- 
 tems of benevolence, instruction, and evangelization. 
 The system consisted partly in its lack of system. 
 The Gospels were written with a clear knowledge of 
 Christ, with a fine insight into existent conditions, 
 and with experience that had converted that knowl- 
 edge into life. A brief characterization of each Gos- 
 pel may be added. 
 
 ( i ) Matthew. Matthew gives evidence quite clear 
 that the author was Matthew the publican. The an- 
 cient manuscripts bear his name and the Fathers all 
 credit him with its authorship. He is not only a Jew, 
 but has the Jewish point of view, showing familiarity 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 with Jewish lands, history, and Scriptures. His 
 Jewish point of view and his constant use of the 
 Jewish Scriptures indicate conclusively that he wrote 
 for Jews, or Christians of Jewish birth. In Mat- 
 thew's interpretation Jesus is preeminently the King 
 — King according to the Scriptures; King by lin- 
 eage ; King in character, speech, and deeds. Matthew 
 is argumentative and he uses just so much of the 
 material at his command as supports his argument. 
 To summarize : he tells the Jews that Jesus is their 
 true Messiah, anointed by God to be their King, and 
 he proves it by showing the fulfilment of Scripture 
 in Jesus; that when the nation rejected him, they 
 sinned against the word and providence of God, and 
 the teachings and warnings of their Messiah him- 
 self; that their ancient privileges had been recalled 
 from them and given to the Gentiles ; that his death 
 had been a great " Messianic triumph " ; that he is 
 now King of all men and not of the Jews alone ; that 
 in order to be a true Jew one must follow Judaism 
 to its logical conclusion and become a disciple of 
 Christ. The ancient emblem of this Gospel is a 
 man's head, symbolical of kingship — the Kingly 
 Christ. 
 
 (2) Mark. The consensus of opinion concerning 
 Mark among modern scholars seems to be that Mark 
 is the oldest of the four Gospels. The author was 
 probably the John Mark of Acts. The Fathers so 
 thought ; the ancient manuscripts bear his name ; the 
 literary structure of the book harmonizes well with 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 that view. He shows familiarity with Hebrew life 
 and customs, yet he seldom quotes the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. The latter fact suggests that he wrote 
 for non-Jewish readers. He was not an eye-wit- 
 ness of Jesus' life and ministry, though he writes 
 with the vividness of an eye-witness. That gives 
 credibility to the claim of many of the Fathers that 
 he gained most of his information from Peter. The 
 latter must have had a most vivid and stirring re- 
 membrance of Jesus, and Mark had a fine sympathy 
 that caught his spirit. He probably wrote for 
 Roman readers, and his own ardent, active tempera- 
 ment united with the needs of his readers in leading 
 him to write such a Gospel. Picturesque details and 
 intense energy mark his work. In brief and breath- 
 less narrative he introduces Christ in action, a living, 
 achieving, triumphant Christ, just such a one as 
 would capture the imagination of the active, tri- 
 umphant Roman. He is emotional, like Peter, and 
 gives a series of stirring pictures of Christ. The 
 emblem of Mark's Gospel is the head of the lion — 
 Jesus as a wonder-worker. 
 
 (3) Luke. His writings are in two parts — the 
 Gospel ; the "Acts." The prologues are similar, and 
 disclose something of the purpose and method of the 
 author. That Luke was the real author is the opin- 
 ion of the early writers. The ancient manuscripts all 
 bear his name. All the evidence for his authorship 
 of " Acts " is evidence in this case. He was a Greek. 
 Though familiar with Jewish history and lands and 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 Scriptures, he seems familiar with them chiefly as a 
 student. Being a Gentile, he has a sense of the larger 
 relationship of Jesus. He traces him back, not to 
 his Jewish origin in Abraham, but to his human 
 origin in Adam. He uses no Hebrew words; he 
 chooses forms of speech most suited to Gentiles ; he 
 says very little of the fulfilment of Scripture ; he re- 
 fers often to outside political relationships. He 
 shows Jesus in his largeness, not provincial, but 
 cosmopolitan. He quotes those teachings, especially 
 the parables, in which Jesus sets forth his universal 
 relationship with men, and their wide brotherhood 
 with each other. The ancient symbol of Luke's 
 Gospel was the ox — Jesus as a servant of others. 
 He wrote to a man named Theophilus, who is, 
 without doubt, representative of a class, a Gen- 
 tile class. He says that he had made a care- 
 ful study of Christ's life. The sources of his 
 study must have been the eye-witnesses whom he 
 knew and sought out. He must have visited Mary and 
 learned from her the events of his infancy and youth. 
 He talked with disciples in Judea and Galilee and 
 with those scattered through Gentile territory. He 
 had access to all that had been written down — Mark's 
 Gospel and Matthew's, and perhaps other writings 
 not known to us. Indeed, it is thought that there 
 was an earlier life of Christ preserving many details 
 that are not in either Gospel and from those records 
 all drew. There might have been many fragments of 
 stories. The purpose of Luke was to present an 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 orderly account of Christ as the world's Redeemer. 
 Many had written and he would likewise essay to 
 write of the wondrous life. More in detail and with 
 somewhat broader treatment than the others he ful- 
 filled his task. We cannot fail to see in him a vivid 
 portrayal of the Son of man. 
 
 (4) John. John is in a class by himself. He states 
 his purpose in 20 : 31 — "that ye might believe that 
 Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believ- 
 ing ye may have life in his name." He writes from 
 an exceptional knowledge of the inner nature of 
 Christ. His mystical, poetical nature knew Christ's. 
 His vision swept the eternities. He begins with 
 Christ in his pre-incarnate life as the Revealer of the 
 Father and traces him in his revelations of God in 
 the flesh. Though a Jew, he writes for all. He 
 brings in much that the synoptics omit, as, for in- 
 stance, the early Judean ministry, the discourse on 
 the bread of life, the controversies at Jerusalem at 
 the feasts of Tabernacles and Dedication, before his 
 death, and the raising of Lazarus. All of that would 
 combat the heresies of his day and confirm drooping 
 faith. His Gospel is supplementary to the synoptics. 
 The eagle was the ancient symbol of this Gospel. He 
 is the seer, the interpreter, and he enables the reader 
 to see. 
 
 These four writers unite in telling the most fasci- 
 nating and potent story that mankind has ever 
 heard ; they produce the most remarkable book ever 
 written. The truths they set forth are of daily and 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 eternal importance. The power they exert is the 
 power of God. The character they delineate is that 
 of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace 
 and truth. 
 
PERIOD OF PREPARATION 
 
 From his birth, 5 B. c. to his temptation, January 27 A. D. 
 
 1. Luke's careful investigation. Luke I : 1-4. 
 
 2. The Word become flesh. John I : 1-18. 
 
 3. Two genealogies. Matt. I : 1-17 ; Luke 3 : 23-38. 
 
 4. The birth of John the Baptist foretold. Luke I : 5-25. 
 
 5. The birth of Jesus foretold to Mary. Luke I : 26-38. 
 
 6. The birth of Jesus foretold to Joseph. Matt. I : 18-25. 
 
 7. Mary's visit to Elizabeth. Luke I : 39-56. 
 
 8. The birth and desert life of John. Luke I : 57-80. 
 
 9. The birth of Jesus. Luke 2 : 1-7. 
 
 10. His birth announced to the shepherds. Luke 2 : 8-20. 
 
 11. The circumcision. Luke 2:21. 
 
 12. The presentation in the temple. Luke 2 : 22-39. 
 
 13. Visit of the Eastern wise men. Matt. 2 : 1-12. 
 
 14. The flight into Egypt. Matt. 2 : 13-18. 
 
 15. The return to Nazareth. Matt. 2 : 19-23 ; Luke 2 : 39. 
 
 16. His boyhood and youth. Luke 2 : 40-52. 
 
 17. John's preparatory work. Matt. 3 : 1-12 ; Mark I : 
 
 1-8 ; Luke 3 : 1-18. 
 
 18. The baptism of Jesus. Matt. 3 : 13-15 ; Mark 1:9; 
 
 Luke 3 : 21. 
 
 19. His enduement for his work. Matt. 3 : 16, 17 ; Mark 
 
 I : 10, II ; Luke 3 : 21-23. 
 
 20. His testing in the wilderness. Matt. 4 : I-H; Mark 
 
 I : 12, 13 ; Luke 4 : I-13. 
 
FIRST DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH 
 Matt, i, 2 ; Luke i to 2 : 20 
 
 1. The Time. The monk Dionysius the Little, 
 of Rome, about a. d. 526, introduced the method 
 of reckoning time from "The year of our Lord," but 
 he started with the wrong year. We still use that 
 method, but must assign his birth to as early a date 
 as 4 b. a, for Herod the Great died in April of that 
 year and he was still living when Jesus was born. 
 The Christmas festival was first celebrated in the 
 fourth century, and December 25 was chosen as the 
 day, seemingly because it was coincident with the 
 old pagan festival of the winter solstice. Christ 
 might have been born December 25, the shepherds 
 might have been out at night with their flocks that 
 late in the season, for even in more northern climates 
 it is often balmy, and vegetation remains green as 
 late as that. His birth may be approximately placed 
 in the autumn of 5 b. c, and as we do not positively 
 know the day or the year and likely never shall, we 
 may as well say December 25, b. c. 5. 
 
 2. The Place. It was in Bethlehem, the an- 
 cestral home of the descendants of David. Jesus 
 was born there by the purpose, the promise, and the 
 providence of God. It was God's purpose that 
 
22 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 " Great David's greater son " should be born in 
 David's city, for thus would his claim as David's 
 son be better established and the continuity of his 
 work with that of his great ancestor, who did so 
 much to prepare the nation and the world for his 
 coming, be felt by him and appreciated by others. 
 It was by the promise of God for that very reason, 
 and also because it would make the promise of the 
 Saviour more attractive to the people. Their ex- 
 pectation of a Saviour was all the brighter and more 
 cheerful for being connected with the places and per- 
 sons that aroused happy and inspiring memories. 
 Then too, it would enable them to identify him 
 more promptly and perfectly. Of Bethlehem it was 
 said, " Out of thee shall he come forth unto me that 
 is to be ruler in Israel." 
 
 It was brought about by the providence, or well- 
 laid plan, of God. We may distinguish at least three 
 forces through which God worked out that purpose : 
 the decree of Caesar Augustus that a census be taken 
 for purposes of taxation; the reverent and law- 
 abiding spirit of Joseph and Mary that rendered 
 prompt obedience to that decree ; the Jewish love of 
 ancestral homes that led them to enroll themselves at 
 Bethlehem. Herod may have given the order that 
 the census be taken in that manner, or the Jews 
 themselves may have done it voluntarily. Mary, 
 cherishing the great promise which the angel had 
 made, and prompted by her own natural aspirations, 
 must have wished her son to be born there, rather 
 
FIRST DAY 23 
 
 than up in Nazareth, for she knew that prophecies 
 were to be fulfilled and that he must be recognized 
 as of David's family. 
 
 This census was made, according to Luke (2 : 2), 
 " when Quirinius was governor of Syria." Varus 
 was formally the governor, but Quirinius was in 
 Cilicia, near by, putting down a rebellion about that 
 time, and was no doubt " looked upon as represent- 
 ing for the time the power of the Roman arms," and 
 must have been representative extraordinary of 
 Rome in compelling her subject provinces to take 
 the census. Thus the Roman emperor was uncon- 
 sciously contributing to the fulfilment of God's 
 promises to his people. 
 
 3. The Strategic Moment. That was the best 
 time in all history for his coming. The moment had 
 not arrived before. God was ready to send his Son 
 sooner, but the conditions were not ready for him. 
 The conditions must contribute to two ends — the 
 effectiveness of his work while here, and the procla- 
 mation of the gospel after his departure. An earlier 
 advent would have been premature, for the Jews 
 might have rendered his work less effective, whereas 
 there was such rivalry between the two warring sects 
 that he was fairly safe. Later, the time would have 
 been over-ripe, for he might then have been taken 
 for the founder of a new Jewish sect and his cause 
 have suffered for centuries on account of it. Keep- 
 ing both of these ends in view, we will consider the 
 preparation that had been made for his coming. 
 
24 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 (i) Preparation by Exhaustion. Every means 
 for doing without a Saviour had been tried and no 
 answer to the question, " How can I get rid of my 
 sins ? " had been found. The three typical nations, 
 Greek, Roman, and Hebrew, were suffering from 
 moral exhaustion, and, as Prof. Ramsay of Aber- 
 deen says, " The world was ripe for the perfect idea, 
 and offered then, and only then, the needed period 
 of peace for absorbing the teaching of Christ under 
 the unity of the great empire, when the world lay 
 exhausted after the failure of all other experiments." 
 The Greeks glorified knowledge, wisdom, art, and the 
 culture of these. The intellect unfolded its highest 
 powers first among them. But religion was de- 
 graded as an instrument of art, philosophy, and lust ; 
 the glorification of culture made the people superfi- 
 cial and finally sensual. Law and administration re- 
 ceived highest development among the Romans. But 
 their view of power made the Romans heartless and 
 Nero, their emperor, was at once " a priest, an 
 atheist and a god," as were most of their emperors. 
 Unrest and longing, dissatisfaction with heathen re- 
 ligions and a conviction of their failure were undis- 
 guised. Conscience was more distinctly in com- 
 mand among the Hebrews and a special religious 
 training had been given them. But ceremonial often 
 made them self-righteous and therefore cruel, even 
 though they were taught to have faith in a coming 
 Saviour. 
 
 Among the Jews were Pharisees, which means 
 
FIRST DAY 25 
 
 " Separatists." They had separated themselves 
 from the liberal party under John Hyrcanus a 
 hundred years before Jesus, opposing all foreign al- 
 liances and contending for a strict and literal ob- 
 servance of the law. In situations which the Old 
 Testament law had not dealt with, they had authori- 
 tative interpretations, which were known as " the 
 traditions of the fathers." Beginning with great zeal 
 for the wish of God as expressed in his law, they 
 soon drove out the living, loving God from their 
 hearts and substituted the minute regulations of 
 their former rabbis. The most talented and influ- 
 ential among them became scribes and lawyers — that 
 is, those who made copies of the law and interpreted 
 it. They learned to twist the law to their own ad- 
 vantage, and thus became self-righteous, dishonest, 
 domineering, cruel, vindictive. 
 
 The Sadducees formed the other strong party, who 
 might have taken their name from Zadok, the priest 
 in Solomon's time. They were worldly, wealthy, 
 aristocratic, with very little concern for religion, 
 very few positive, but plenty of negative, views, 
 Jewish agnostics, who denied the existence of angels 
 and the resurrection of the dead. They were out for 
 the spoils of office, and managed to get good ap- 
 pointments from the Roman government, for they 
 kept the office of high priest in their hands most of 
 the time. They scorned the narrow-minded Phari- 
 sees for their bigotry and pretensions. 
 
 Some of the Pharisees carried their ideas of " sep- 
 
26 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 aration " so far as to become a little party by them- 
 selves, called " Essenes," an ascetic, reverent, in- 
 dustrious class, most of whom lived in monasteries 
 near the Dead Sea. 
 
 There was another little secular party, mostly 
 time-servers, who were in favor of the claims of the 
 Herod family, and were therefore called Herodians. 
 
 Among the people, most of whom followed the 
 Pharisees, were a few devout souls who saw the 
 moral decay and were looking for help from on high. 
 Moral exhaustion marked human life, far and near. 
 
 (2) Preparation by Expectation. The Jewish 
 nation expected him. They were called into national 
 existence in order to prepare a place and a people to 
 receive him, and that expectation had been organized 
 into their life, national and individual. To be sure, 
 they had perverse ideas of his character and mission, 
 thinking he was to come only for their sakes, when 
 in truth they were to receive him for all mankind 
 as well as for themselves. Repeated promises by the 
 prophets and repeated disasters through the cen- 
 turies trained that expectation. Within the nation 
 were sensitive and spiritual souls, here and there, 
 whose hearts the finger of God was touching with 
 special longing and confidence. Among them were 
 Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth ; Mary, even before 
 the angel told her of the favor in which heaven held 
 her ; Simeon and Anna, who were prophets ; the 
 fishermen, from whose homes came four of the 
 apostles; others who recognized Jesus as the long- 
 
FIRST DAY 27 
 
 expected Messiah. When the angel announced his 
 near advent to Zacharias and to Elizabeth and to 
 Mary and to Joseph and to the shepherds, they were 
 expecting the Messiah. When Simeon and Anna 
 saw the child in the temple they knew that he was 
 the Lord's Anointed. There was a hush of expect- 
 ancy in reverent souls, spreading from tribe to tribe 
 and from family to family, till every mother thought 
 that perhaps her infant son might prove to be the 
 deliverer, and therefore childlessness was regarded 
 as a calamity. 
 
 In other nations that expectation was cherished. 
 The promise of a Messiah was at first made to all 
 and he was for all the children of Adam. The tradi- 
 tion of his coming was cherished by many Gentiles. 
 Besides, God's Spirit was brooding over the world 
 and touching noble souls to higher hopes. The Jews 
 had told to other nations the story of their hopes, and 
 that stirred similar hopes. Tacitus, Suetonius, and 
 Josephus say that in the lands from which the wise 
 men came to see the infant Jesus there was an ex- 
 pectation of a great king who would arise in Judea 
 to bless the world. Dr. W. J. Dawson says : " The 
 vibration of an immense hope ran through the 
 world; the wind of dawn was already breathing 
 through the darkness." 
 
 (3) Preparation by Arrangement. God had all his 
 plans made for the rapid spread of the good news. 
 
 a. Jews were living all over the world, dispersed 
 through various captivities and migrations. They 
 
28 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 were in an expectant mood; would quickly get the 
 news through attendance at the festivals at Jeru- 
 salem; would be more hospitable to it than if they 
 lived in Judea ; would tell the Gentiles around them ; 
 would co-operate with the missionaries when they 
 came, later on. 
 
 b. There were thousands of proselytes from the 
 Gentiles, who would take one step more and be- 
 come Christians. They were a half-way house in 
 preaching to the Gentiles. They had found in 
 Israel's God a Father, a Saviour and a relief from 
 the awful vices of heathenism. Many people of cul- 
 ture and influence — especially women — had been at- 
 tracted to the Hebrew religion, which was more 
 spiritual and less formal among them than in Jewish 
 territory. 
 
 c. The missionaries would find houses of worship 
 in which to preach — the synagogues of the Jews, 
 where they assembled every Sabbath for worship 
 and study, and would welcome those who had news 
 about the Messiah. 
 
 d. There was also a language in which they could 
 preach anywhere. Three hundred years before, 
 when Alexander overran large parts of Asia and 
 Africa, he left behind him the rarest treasure, the 
 Greek language, and it was spoken everywhere 
 where the missionary went with the gospel. So he 
 need not stop to learn a new language. 
 
 e. It was a time of peace, suitable for the coming 
 of the " Prince of Peace." The temple of Janus at 
 
SECOND DAY 29 
 
 Rome had been shut thirty years; the missionary 
 could travel in safety. As quoted above from Profes- 
 sor Ramsay, the world was in a pacific mood, pre- 
 pared to absorb the teachings of the Peacemaker. 
 
 /. There was a high degree of religious liberty, 
 for Rome patronized all religions and guaranteed 
 all her citizens in their rights. Several times the 
 Apostle Paul successfully appealed to Rome for pro- 
 tection in his rights. 
 
 g. Facilities for travel were furnished in those 
 wonderful Roman roads. God had all things ready. 
 
 4. The Interested Observers. The wise men, 
 representing the world's expectancy and the Spirit's 
 wide kindness; the shepherds, whose simplicity is 
 found to be an opportunity; Simeon and Anna, in 
 whom faith and fidelity have God's rewards ; Herod, 
 who is too brutal to know virtue or allow it. 
 
 Thus the greatest event in the history of the world 
 had taken place. A new force had come among men. 
 
 SECOND DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF HIS FIRST VISIT TO THE TEMPLE 
 Matt. 2 ; Luke 2 : 40-32 
 
 I. The One Glimpse of His Boyhood. Only 
 once between his infancy and his baptism do the 
 Scriptures lift the curtain that conceals his growing 
 life ; only once does his voice break for us the silence 
 of those thirty years. 
 
30 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 It was in one of the chambers in the temple area, 
 where learned rabbis taught their disciples, the 
 teachers themselves seated around and the pupils on 
 lower benches or on the floor, literally " at the feet " 
 of their masters. Enjoying the freedom allowed be- 
 tween masters and pupils, he was startling them with 
 strange, deep questions and with still more mar- 
 velous answers to questions raised for discussion. 
 He was not forward nor self-conscious, provoked no 
 resentment, and yet stirred them to anxious wonder. 
 There his mother found him, after missing him from 
 the company, homeward bound, and returning in 
 anxiety to search for him. To her somewhat heated 
 question why he had treated them so, his calm and 
 kind reply was : " How is it that ye sought me ? 
 Know ye not that I must be in my Father's house ? " 
 
 There are other reports of incidents and words 
 from those silent years, but they are all mere tradi- 
 tions, spurious and slanderous. Curiosity would be 
 wondering and credulity would be ready to believe 
 falsehoods. There were gifted impostors ready to 
 gratify curiosity and play on credulity. Irreverent 
 and blasphemous imagination constructed fables, 
 making his childhood unnatural and even vicious. 
 They represent him as doing all kinds of silly, whim- 
 sical, selfish, and even vindictive things — molding 
 birds out of clay and making them fly; carrying 
 water in his mantle when his pitcher was broken; 
 striking one deaf and another blind, in sheer anger ; 
 changing children into kids, in whimsical pique. 
 
SECOND DAY 3 I 
 
 Such stories are in marked contrast with the discreet 
 and delicate silence of the Scriptures and with his 
 own normal life. We have two statements by Luke: 
 " And the child grew and waxed strong, filled with 
 wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him " 
 (2 : 40) ; " and Jesus advanced in wisdom and stat- 
 ure and in favor with God and men " (2 : 52). His 
 was a normal childhood — the only perfectly normal 
 childhood ever known on earth. 
 
 2. The Meaning of This Visit. At twelve years 
 every Jewish boy became a " son of the law " and as- 
 sumed his full obligation to the law. An Oriental 
 boy is as matured in his thirteenth year as a Western 
 boy in his fifteenth. The father was expected to at- 
 tend at least one of the great festivals at Jerusalem 
 every year — Passover, Pentecost, or Tabernacles — 
 and the son signalized his entrance on the new epoch 
 in his life by attending a festival in his new capacity 
 of " son of the law." Modern psychology teaches 
 us that at that time the social instincts awake and the 
 boy begins to discover his wide relationships and 
 duties. God's arrangements always have profound 
 reasons. 
 
 3. Marvelous Maturity Revealed. It was mar- 
 velous because it was the mark of a normal growth. 
 Growth comes from the action and reaction between 
 one's self and his environment, and in every case de- 
 pends on two things — the elements in the environ- 
 ment adapted to train him, and his use of those ele- 
 ments. If the environment could be perfectly suited 
 
32 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 to that purpose and could be perfectly used, one's 
 growth would be perfect. Such was the case with 
 Jesus as he grew in wisdom and stature. 
 
 ( i ) Note the place where he was reared. God se- 
 lected it above all other places, and by his provi- 
 dence led Joseph and Mary to settle there. They 
 had seemed to be inclined to settle in Bethlehem 
 or somewhere in Judea, for sentimental reasons, 
 but that plan was frustrated. When " wise men " 
 were led by the star from the East to seek the 
 new-born king of the Jews, they naturally came to 
 Herod, the king, for information. Though they 
 knew it not, their inquiry stirred his dark and jealous 
 nature to the depths, and when he instructed them 
 to report to him on finding the child, he really 
 wanted to murder him. He was a brilliant ad- 
 venturer, son of the Idumean Antipater; had been 
 appointed king of Judea by Caesar; had married 
 Mariamne, a Jewess, of the famous Maccabean fam- 
 ily ; had shown great astuteness, especially in spend- 
 ing forty-six years rebuilding the temple ; had grown 
 more and more ambitious, cunning, and cruel; had 
 tried to secure his throne and peace of mind by kill- 
 ing every one who aroused fear or distrust — his wife, 
 her mother and brother, his uncle, three sons, and 
 many others outside his family. He thought this 
 king of the Jews would prove a new rival, and when 
 the wise men foiled his crafty plan to kill the young 
 child, he ordered that all male children in Bethlehem, 
 under two years of age, should be slain. 
 
SECOND DAY 33 
 
 But Joseph and Mary saved the life of Jesus by 
 fleeing to Egypt at a warning from God. On their 
 return, after the death of Herod, they seem to have 
 purposed to settle in Judea, but fearing that Arche- 
 laus might continue his father's policy, they were 
 guided back to Nazareth and there made their 
 home. The place was God's selection in carrying 
 out his wise purpose. No other place on earth was 
 as good a home for the Messiah, not even Jerusalem. 
 There he would find a better contact with nature; 
 with human nature, in its great variety, both Jewish 
 and non- Jewish ; with the learning which he must 
 master; with God, whom he must learn and under- 
 stand as Father. 
 
 (2) Note the persons by whom he zuas trained. 
 All culture of a person is by contact with persons, 
 even that culture which nature and books and works 
 of art give. 
 
 Look at the persons in his home and how they 
 helped to train him. There was first of all, Mary, 
 his mother. As God selected her among all the 
 women then living, she must have been best fitted 
 for the office of mother to the Messiah. She had a 
 great nature, greatly trained — religious, as shown 
 in her reverence for sacred persons, acquiescence in 
 God's will and joy in her painful honors; intel- 
 lectual and refined, even poetical, as seen in her ex- 
 alted song of grateful praise; cultured in Hebrew 
 learning, as her training of Christ shows ; patriotic, 
 for her song as well as her life exhibits it. She was 
 
34 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 not supernatural, but she made him a heavenly home 
 in Nazareth. She taught him the Scriptures and 
 many of the lessons of life. 
 
 Next is Joseph. Four traits of his powerfully told 
 on the marvelous Boy — industry in his calling, for 
 he was a carpenter; justice, that required honor, 
 both in himself and in every other member of his 
 family; tenderness and sympathy that entered into 
 their conditions ; courage, as seen in identifying him- 
 self with Mary and Jesus in the sorrows of the in- 
 carnation, before the face of an evil-thinking and 
 evil-speaking world. He was the best guardian on 
 earth for Jesus. He taught him a trade and other- 
 wise trained him. 
 
 There were brothers and sisters in the home. The 
 brothers were four: Joses, Simon, James, and Jude 
 (Mark 6:3), the last two of whom wrote New 
 Testament epistles. Not till after his resurrection 
 did they believe him to be the Messiah. As Dr. 
 Rhees says, " They did not understand his ways nor 
 appreciate the deepest realities of his life." That 
 would tend to produce irritation and isolation, but 
 it really afforded him a fine training in sympathy, as 
 he sought to get their point of view, and in self- 
 mastery, in the face of their criticism of his ways 
 and habits. 
 
 Thus the home, through its persons, its teachings, 
 its testings, its toils, was training him. 
 
 And outside of the home were teachers. They 
 were in the synagogue, training him as they studied 
 
SECOND DAY 35 
 
 the Scriptures and worshiped together. They were 
 in the school, most likely held in the synagogue, 
 where he probably went from the time he was six 
 till he was twelve years old. There he was taught 
 the Scriptures, with their thrilling history, majestic 
 laws, comforting poetry and inspiring prophecy, and 
 also taught reading and writing. His memory was 
 stored and his powers of mind disciplined. Professor 
 Ramsay says that the Jews were far in advance of 
 the Greeks in national education as well as moral 
 progress. They led the world in a broad, deep, real 
 system of education. He says " the Hebrew nation 
 was at that time the most highly educated people in 
 the world — in the true meaning of the word educa- 
 tion." He found teachers among his neighbors. 
 Through them his social life was unfolded and his 
 power of self-control promoted, for they under- 
 stood him no better than his brothers and sisters did. 
 Strangers from many countries passed through the 
 valley of Esdraelon, near Nazareth, and their lan- 
 guages, costumes, habits, callings, ideas, religions, 
 histories and relationships to the Jews would all give 
 him valuable information and lead him into a sense 
 of his wide relationship to human life as the " Son 
 of Man." 
 
 He felt the influence of the State both on its Jew- 
 ish and Roman sides as through its officials he looked 
 back to the divine ideals of government and saw that 
 all in authority were there as God's representatives, 
 even though they misrepresented him. 
 
36 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 From God he learned, through the Scriptures, 
 through worship in the home and in the synagogue, 
 through secret communion, through the characters 
 of Mary and Joseph and other godly people, and 
 through God's revelation of himself in nature. 
 
 Thus he learned from persons — Mary and Joseph, 
 brothers and sisters, neighbors, strangers, officials, 
 God himself. He learned through institutions — 
 home, synagogue, school, State. He learned by 
 means of Scriptures, conversation, contact with the 
 outside world, nature, toil. 
 
 Nazareth was called by St. Jerome " the flower of 
 Palestine." From the height above the city nature 
 displays the glory of God in the beauty and splendor 
 of mountain and valley, lake and sea. Nature ad- 
 dressed his sense of beauty and his sense of rever- 
 ence. She taught him much of God and mankind. 
 She furnished him pictures that he afterward 
 turned into parables. Nazareth gave him visions of 
 mountains, cities, valleys, and waters, where the 
 history of their mighty past was enshrined. Every 
 scene was alive with the peoples and struggles of 
 the past. He learned Hebrew, the language of the 
 Old Testament ; Aramaic, the speech of the people ; 
 Greek, the language of government and trade. The 
 current and historic ideas of the people became 
 familiar to him and he was able to frame his own 
 thoughts and plans to perfection. 
 
 His use of his environment was perfect. To Mary 
 and Joseph he rendered an ideal obedience that grew 
 
SECOND DAY 37 
 
 out of a real, not an assumed and theatrical, sense 
 of dependence on them. He was a real child. To 
 his brothers and sisters he gave an older brother's 
 unselfish care ; to the neighbors, friendship ; to the 
 officers, submission; to the school, prompt industry; 
 to the house of God, reverence ; to strangers, cour- 
 tesy; to God himself, confiding love; to nature, ad- 
 miring and intelligent thought; to the duties of his 
 home and his trade, a joyous, artistic devotion. 
 
 The result was that in Jerusalem, that day, was a 
 boy of perfect growth up to that point. There was 
 nothing to correct. His body had grown properly 
 and there was nothing to remedy with medicine or 
 surgery, nothing to endure with physical pain. It 
 was a worthy tabernacle for his soul, a fitting in- 
 strument for his career. His mind worked nor- 
 mally. Memory was perfectly retentive because his 
 mind was perfectly attentive to its work. Imagina- 
 tion made right images. Judgment reached right 
 conclusions. Purpose, conscience, heart were al- 
 ways right. All unfolded normally — nothing to 
 unlearn nor undo. He never had to repent. Doctor 
 Rhees says truly he was " the best example the 
 world has ever seen of perfect spiritual health." 
 
 4. His Dominant Taste Disclosed. His fond- 
 ness for reality and for God had been growing per- 
 fectly. Thirst for knowledge, delight in thought and 
 conversation about God, love of God's house, showed 
 in his being at that place, among the teachers, whom 
 he supposed to be learned in the truths he sought. 
 
38 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 5. His Unerring Insight Shown. He felt the 
 spiritual significance of everything, and saw the 
 reality under all the striking symbols. He must 
 have gotten a glimpse into that formality, hypocrisy, 
 and self-seeking, with which he afterwards came into 
 desperate conflict. 
 
 6. His Unique Relationship to God Declared. 
 Just when the consciousness of that relationship be- 
 gan, or how complete it was at that moment, 
 no one knows. His question implies that his 
 mother might have told him much about him- 
 self. In his communion with God he would feel what 
 God was to him, and then learn its significance. The 
 Scriptures told him of the Messiah and discovered 
 Jesus to himself. Then came the consciousness of 
 a unique mission. He knew he had some vital con- 
 nection with what he saw in the temple and heard 
 from his teachers. 
 
 He went back to Nazareth with a sense of de- 
 pendence on his parents, yet with a growing sense 
 of wide relationship, to God and man, and of a 
 unique mission in the world. 
 
 THIRD DAY 
 the day of his baptism 
 
 Matt. 3 to 4: 11 ; Mark 1 : 1-12 ; Luke 3 to 4: 13 
 
 The place was the Jordan river; the traditional 
 site, the ford of the Jordan, six miles above its 
 
THIRD DAY 39 
 
 mouth and opposite the ancient city of Jericho. The 
 time was when he was " about thirty years old," 
 which would make it the latter part of 26 or the early 
 part of 2.7 a. d. The traditional date is January 6, 
 a. d. 27, and that is not far wrong. 
 
 1. Preparations Perfected. The popular mind 
 had received the preparation necessary to identify 
 and accept him as the long-expected Messiah. That 
 preparation was wrought through John the Baptist. 
 He was the herald, announcing the coming One ; the 
 forerunner, getting everything ready, as in olden 
 days, when a king made a journey, his forerunners 
 aroused his subjects to expect him, prepare roads 
 for his chariots, and be ready to give him suitable 
 welcome. That was John's one mission in life, and 
 that mission he performed with fidelity and success. 
 
 For that mission he had been foretold and prom- 
 ised and born. For it he had been fitted by tempera- 
 ment, training, and environment in the hill country 
 of Judea. For it he trained himself unconsciously 
 in his choice of an ascetic life in the mountain fast- 
 nesses, down toward the Dead Sea, and in his occu- 
 pation there. Devoted by his parents, Zacharias 
 and Elizabeth, as a Nazarite, to a life of abstinence, 
 he accepted their decision and made it his own. He 
 retired from the world, not in weakness, but in power ; 
 not in cowardice, but to prepare for war ; not for the 
 sake of ease, but for the ultimate good of the nation. 
 His austerity was the expression of his nature. 
 
 In him the spirit of the old prophets was renewed 
 
40 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 and prompted his fierce hatred of the bestial and 
 hypocritical character of the rulers and the people. 
 Reality and righteousness were his outstanding 
 traits, and he saw the pretense and wrong-doing 
 around him with fiery and impetuous indignation. 
 He studied, prayed, and planned, till he knew the na- 
 tion and the times, knew the prophecies of a Messiah, 
 knew the hopes and expectations of the people, knew 
 that he had at last come, and that John himself was 
 to be his forerunner. 
 
 As he studied and prayed, he was taught of God. 
 When he began to preach, he stayed in the wild 
 country and drew the people there — drew them with 
 his startling personality ; with his revelations of their 
 wickedness; with the news of the Messiah, at last 
 come. He drew them through their expectation of 
 Elijah's return, for he much resembled the old 
 prophet in spirit, manner, and method, and they were 
 expecting Elijah to return before the Messiah came; 
 through their expectation of a Messiah; through 
 their conscience, that supported him in his denuncia- 
 tion of their sins ; through their admiration for one 
 who could so deny and control himself, although the 
 Jews were not naturally given to asceticism. 
 
 Three things he preached with overwhelming 
 power — the presence of the King and his kingdom 
 of heaven; repentance, rather than descent from 
 Abraham, as the condition of entrance into the king- 
 dom; proof of repentance to be given in baptism 
 and an amended conduct. Some who asked baptism 
 
THIRD DAY 
 
 he refused, because they had not really repented. 
 The Jewish leaders, finding that they were losing 
 their hold on the people, tried to join, and thereby get 
 control of the movement, but he called them stealthy 
 serpents. To those who inquired how they should 
 act, he gave appropriate advice — to soldiers, publi- 
 cans, and people generally. He was original and au- 
 thoritative, yet when he saw Christ he deferred to 
 him and found his highest joy in diverting the 
 thought of the people from himself to him. He had 
 the expectation of the people aroused and some 
 choice disciples ready for Christ. 
 
 2. Growth Completed. Of him Dr. W. J. Daw- 
 son says : " At the close of these hidden years the 
 Son of Mary, whose birth-story is already half- 
 forgotten, or cherished only as a legend in a few 
 pious hearts, suddenly emerges into fame as the most 
 daring religious thinker of his time. He speaks out 
 of the fulness of a mind profound, original, and de- 
 vout. He commands horizons of thought and as- 
 piration undreamed of by the Jew. The greatest 
 religious thinkers of his day pale their ineffectual 
 fires before his new-risen splendors." 
 
 His whole nature was perfectly developed to ma- 
 turity. He knew man and God and truth and him- 
 self. He knew his plans. He had all his powers in 
 his own possession. He had suffered and had been 
 tested. Stored with truth and trained in silence, his 
 soul had great reserves of power which people al- 
 ways felt. He was able to restrain his desire to get 
 
42 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 out at his work till his hour struck, though the cry- 
 ing needs of mankind were daily heard and the ardor 
 of his heart was daily glowing. 
 
 Now he is ready. The word is given by his Father 
 in heaven — given through his own sense of ma- 
 turity; through the acute form in which he must 
 have felt the world's needs ; through the news he had 
 been getting of John's work down in Judea ; through 
 the Holy Spirit, who was training and prompting 
 him. He felt the call and left home. His mother must 
 have had a day of rare joy, yet in the joy was hidden 
 a heavy pain. In perhaps three days he is at the 
 Jordan, asking to be baptized by John. 
 
 No one knows how Jesus looked, though there 
 are a few who argue that we have an authentic like- 
 ness of him. There is a description, supposed to 
 have been written by Lentulus, a proconsul of 
 Judea, many years after the death of Jesus and 
 usually accounted a forgery. It may be profitable to 
 quote it here : " He is tall of stature and his aspect 
 is sweet and full of power, so that they who look 
 upon him may at once love and fear him. The hair 
 of his head is of the color of wine; as far as the 
 ears it is straight and without glitter ; from the ears 
 to the shoulders it is curled and glossy, and from the 
 shoulders it descends over the back, divided into two 
 parts, after the manner of the Nazarene; his brow 
 is pure and even ; his countenance without a spot, but 
 adorned with gentle glow ; his expression bland and 
 open; his nose and mouth of perfect beauty; his 
 
THIRD DAY 43 
 
 beard is copious, forked and of the color of his hair ; 
 his eyes are blue and very bright. In reproof and 
 threatening he is terrible; in teaching and exhorta- 
 tion he is gentle and loving. The grace and majesty 
 of his appearance are marvelous." 
 
 3. Identification with Mankind Avowed. 
 When he applied to John for baptism the latter saw 
 the look of rapt majesty and unsullied goodness on 
 his face, and knew he had no sins to repent of. 
 Baptism implied repentance, and John felt it would 
 be sacrilege to baptize him. The sight of this trans- 
 parent goodness showed John his own weakness and 
 depressed him. It awakened in his heart a desire, 
 long-cherished, to be himself baptized, and he hoped 
 this stranger would gratify that desire. But Jesus 
 said that the command was a righteous command, 
 and that he and John must obey it, he by being bap- 
 tized, John by baptizing him. He has completely 
 identified himself with man and will discharge every 
 duty of a good man. He has accepted the principle 
 of obedience to God and will act on that principle 
 now. He is one with us, as an obedient man. By 
 this time John must have been well convinced that 
 this was the Christ. 
 
 4. The Office of Messiah Accepted. In a real 
 sense this burial in the river Jordan and resurrec- 
 tion from it might have suggested to him his coming 
 death and resurrection. Baptism was subsequently 
 enjoined on his disciples as such a symbol (Rom. 
 6:3-5). I* must have meant to him also that he 
 
44 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 was entering on the new Messianic life. It was not 
 a consecration to his office, but an acceptance of it. 
 
 5. The Spirit's Full Enduement Received. 
 This enduement was not in baptism, but just after it. 
 His manhood was the product of the Spirit. His 
 work would be in the power of the Spirit. The gift 
 of the Spirit was without measure, because of his 
 complete dependence on the Spirit, the fulness of his 
 capacity, and the character of his work. He could 
 be trusted with limitless power, for his human nature 
 was one with the divine in the Holy Spirit. 
 
 6. Identity Proven to Jopin. Though they were 
 distant cousins, they had never met, and perhaps 
 John had not suspected that the Messiah would prove 
 to be his kinsman. He who called and trained John 
 gave him a sign by which he could certainly identify 
 him. That sign was the Spirit coming upon him in 
 the symbolic form of a dove. As the old prophets 
 were anointed for office, this would be a public 
 anointing of Jesus. The voice that spoke completed 
 the impression on John. From this time he knew 
 that the King had come. 
 
 7. Solitude Sought for Meditation. Finding 
 himself at the consummation of the processes of 
 growth, and suddenly put in possession of the power 
 necessary for carrying out his plans, he would be in 
 a state of exaltation and need a season of privacy 
 for thought and prayer. In his ecstasy, as he 
 thought over his task, the methods of achieving it, 
 and the power with which he had been equipped for 
 
THIRD DAY 45 
 
 it, he was oblivious to the flight of time and the need 
 of food. After the ecstasy had passed and the re- 
 action had come, he was not only hungry, but de- 
 pressed as well. At that moment the tempting, test- 
 ing process began. 
 
 8. Fidelity Tested and Proven. What will he 
 do with this power ? His fidelity must be tested. It 
 is not tested at all till it is tested to the very utmost. 
 The utmost is what Satan can do. The Spirit does 
 not employ satanic agency, but must allow him to 
 meet all satanic ingenuity. The purpose of Jesus 
 is to destroy Satan's work, and the latter is on the 
 watch. He cannot hope that Jesus may be led to do 
 a thing wrong in itself, but may hope to deceive him 
 into doing a right thing in a wrong way. He first 
 seeks to get him to misuse the power with which he 
 was intrusted. It is right to supply bread for his 
 racking hunger, and at the same time win the atten- 
 tion and admiration of the people, who expected 
 their Messiah to do something like that. But Jesus 
 saw instantly that it would be dishonest thus to use 
 power which was given for a higher purpose, for 
 others rather than for himself, and distrust of God, 
 who had promised to take care of him in all emer- 
 gencies. 
 
 Satan next suggests that he seek the admiration 
 of the nation, which he so much craves, by leaping 
 from the temple in their presence. It is right to win 
 them ; they are expecting some such brilliant mira- 
 cle ; his nervous feeling on an eminence would sup- 
 
46 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 port the appeal. This suggests a threefold wrong — 
 putting God to a test he had not authorized ; gratify- 
 ing a vulgar desire of the people without bettering 
 them ; evading the pain and suffering through which 
 he must win and regenerate them. 
 
 Lastly he offers Jesus just what he wants, and at 
 once, the rulership of the world for God. That is the 
 Christ's paramount desire. To get it at once without 
 the cross, and take the nations in bulk rather than as 
 individuals — how desirable ! The wrong would be 
 in doing evil that good might come; trying to save 
 men en masse rather than as individuals, externally 
 rather than internally ; exchanging God's method for 
 man's, the cross for a crown. He came forth puri- 
 fied from the fire. The tempter never ceased to as- 
 sail him, but the initial victory was the assurance 
 of final triumph. 
 
II 
 
 PERIOD OF OBSCURITY 
 
 In Judea, March-December A. D. 27. 
 
 21. John's testimony to Jesus. John I : 19-34. 
 
 22. The first disciples. John I : 35-51. 
 
 23. The first miracle. John 2 : I-II. 
 
 24. Brief stay at Capernaum. John 2 : 12. 
 
 25. His first Passover as Messiah. John 2 : 13. 
 
 26. First cleansing of the temple. John 2 : 14-22. 
 
 27. His talk with Nicodemus. John 3 : 1-21. 
 
 28. Result of his visit. John 2 : 23-25. 
 
 29. Quiet ministry in Judea. John 3 : 22. 
 
 30. John's tribute to Jesus. John 3 : 25-36. 
 
 31. Departure to Galilee. Matt. 4 : 12 ; Mark I : 
 
 Luke 3 : 19, 20 ; 4 : 14 ; John 4 : 1-4. 
 
 32. Saving the woman at the well. John 4 : 4-26. 
 
 33. Preaching at Sychar. John 4 : 27-42. 
 
 34. Arrival in Galilee. Matt. 4 : 17 ; Mark I : 14, 
 
 Luke 4 : 14, 15 ; John 4 : 43-45. 
 
FOURTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF HIS FIRST DISCIPLES 
 
 John i 
 
 I. Foretaste of Power. His personal reign on 
 earth has at last begun. He has five or six personal 
 followers, not counting John. Here is the Mes- 
 sianic kingdom, so long expected, consisting of the 
 King and his subjects. The Jews thought it was to 
 be a splendid political and religious kingdom com- 
 bined; John had a purer and a truer though not a 
 perfect view of its religious and ethical character; 
 Jesus knew perfectly what he meant by it and now 
 here it is — the King and his subjects. The kingdom 
 means the king-dominion, and is found wherever the 
 King has dominion. It is called " kingdom of God " 
 and " kingdom of the heavens," because it comes 
 from God and is perfectly established in the heavens. 
 It is called the Messianic and mediatorial kingdom, 
 because it took a " Messiah," one " anointed," or ap- 
 pointed for that purpose, who becomes a " Medi- 
 ator," or go-between, to get back this runaway 
 world that had thrown off the yoke of its heavenly 
 King. The Mediator is the Lamb of God, who takes 
 away men's sins before he can get them under his 
 sway. Jesus is here recognized as that sacrificial 
 Lamb and is accepted by some as the King foretold. 
 d 49 
 
50 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 They became subjects by yielding to his sway and 
 taking into themselves the principles and ideals em- 
 bodied in him. All the truths and powers of the 
 kingdom are perfectly alive in the King, all of them 
 are germinal in the subjects. At the battle of Wag- 
 ram it was written of Marshal Macdonald, " France 
 stood where Macdonald stood." The kingdom of 
 God was there on the Jordan where Jesus and those 
 few followers were. They were in that kingdom 
 because it was first in them. 
 
 His purpose was to establish his sway over indi- 
 viduals, rather than over the nation as such, and 
 gradually over the world; to do so, in the spirit of 
 personal love, by personal contact, rather than in the 
 spirit of imperialism and by the mere machinery of 
 government; to use the instrument of truth that 
 could make its appeal to judgment and conscience 
 and faith, rather then empty ceremonial and still 
 more empty traditions. Qualitatively and in its 
 roots his kingdom was then complete. Quantita- 
 tively and in its fruits it is not even yet complete. 
 Jesus had that day the joy of his first success, in be- 
 coming the King of men, and a foretaste of his 
 wider successes. 
 
 2. After His Self-Conquest. He had been out 
 in the wilderness winning himself and becoming his 
 own king. He cannot rule others till he can rule 
 himself, and he cannot be freely trusted till he has 
 been fully tested. He had spent thirty years gain- 
 ing knowledge of all kinds, developing his manifold 
 
FOURTH DAY 5 I 
 
 powers in the effort to gain that knowledge and 
 getting possession of himself, with all those powers 
 and that knowledge. In that stage of self-mastery 
 he had come to his baptism. When new endow- 
 ments of power were given by the descending Spirit, 
 he had a new task in self -conquest. To incorporate 
 that power in himself — assimilate it to his very na- 
 ture and employ it perfectly in his plans and pur- 
 poses and actions — can only be done in the heat of 
 intense thought and under the assault of the most 
 artfully conceived and powerfully directed tempta- 
 tion. To misuse this new power is to lose com- 
 mand of himself. When he came out of this experi- 
 ence in the wilderness, he was the man that he was 
 when he was baptized plus the new power, now a 
 vi.al part of himself. " His self-mastery in all cir- 
 cumstances separates Jesus from all ecstatics and 
 fanatics," says Doctor Rhees. Having passed 
 through the severest tests, he has reached " the king- 
 ship of self-control " and is ready to rule men. 
 
 3. After Sacrificial Suffering. John saw it in 
 his face, as he came back from the wilderness, and 
 he got a completer conception of his character and 
 his mission. He had seen the majesty and purity of 
 the Messianic King when he baptized the mar- 
 velous stranger; now he sees in his face the cha- 
 stened and benignant power that suffering imparts, 
 and remembers that the old prophets called him 
 more than Ruler — called him Sufferer; and John 
 might have recalled Isaiah's words : " He was 
 
52 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 brought as a lamb to the slaughter." At any rate, 
 he expressed the larger truth he now saw clearly: 
 " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin 
 of the world." This fuller conception was due to the 
 revelation which the face of Jesus must have made 
 to John's appreciative soul; to John's own studies 
 and meditations during the forty days since the bap- 
 tism ; above all, to the Spirit of God, who was teach- 
 ing him through those studies and through this view 
 of Jesus. 
 
 His is to be a sacrificial life, culminating in the 
 supreme act of his death. By giving himself he has 
 gained himself. To rule their spirits he must remedy 
 their sins. To save them, he must suffer for them. 
 He comes to those men with the kingly quality that 
 suffering gives and is ready to rule them by remedy- 
 ing their lives and making them rulable. 
 
 4. By His Compelling Personality. He at- 
 tracted them to himself by a magnetism that ap- 
 pealed resistlessly to their whole nature. It was not 
 by what he said and did, so much as by what he was, 
 that they were drawn to him. His being shone out 
 through his bearing, his worth through his words, 
 and men yielded to him. He attached them to him- 
 self and thus established his rule over them. That 
 is the way he continues to rule, and the only way. 
 He rules in person and has never transferred his 
 authority to men or institutions or creeds or cere- 
 monials. All the value they may have is what he, in 
 person, gives them. When he stood among the 
 
FOURTH DAY 53 
 
 crowd that day, on his return from the wilderness, 
 his look produced a magical effect, and when two 
 men, Andrew and his companion, timidly accosted 
 him, his words were winged with his own force — 
 that inscrutable something which drew noble souls to 
 him and also drew them away from all that was 
 ignoble in thought and conduct and association. They 
 not only left what was wrong, but put all other 
 worthy things in the place of secondary importance. 
 
 He knew his power and relied on it. That day he 
 wanted disciples, and he knew that when they came 
 within the range of his influence they would sur- 
 render to him. 
 
 5. With His Faultless Skill. In winning them 
 he shows unerring insight and consummate wisdom. 
 We may simply say it was tact — a spiritual sense of 
 touch that discovered the quality, and directed his 
 treatment, of each person. We may note four in- 
 stances : First, his treatment of John. He knew he 
 could not pay a higher tribute, nor give a greater 
 pleasure, to his heroic forerunner, than to take some 
 of his followers, for John had been preparing his 
 choicest for him. It would be an appreciated recog- 
 nition of his prophetic calling and his worthy pre- 
 paratory work. When John said, " Behold the Lamb 
 of God " the second time it was to two of his fol- 
 lowers, and he must have indicated by his accent, or 
 a look, or a nod of the head, that they should follow 
 Jesus. Here is tact in the recognition of worth. 
 
 Next, his treatment of those two. Andrew was 
 
54 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 one, and John, who afterward became an apostle 
 and wrote the account of it, is supposed to have been 
 the other. In their case it is tact in meeting the spirit 
 of anxious inquiry and overcoming unwilling igno- 
 rance. We cannot but admire the way they did. In- 
 tensely aroused and believing him to be what John 
 the Baptist had said he was, they still wanted further 
 information, and wanted it from him. They fol- 
 lowed him, on John's hint, half in fear, and nervously 
 stammered out the easiest question that would lead 
 to a further interview. Graciously he helped them 
 to express their desire, and invited them, with such 
 hospitable and winsome accent, that they went along, 
 feeling fully at home with him. In that long inter- 
 view he patiently answered their questions and told 
 them about himself. It was so precious an experi- 
 ence that one of them remembered the very hour of 
 the day, and, sixty years later, wrote this account of 
 it for us. 
 
 Then we have Peter's case. He was known as 
 Simon at that time, and his brother Andrew had 
 just brought him to Jesus. He was an impetuous, 
 hot-tempered, self-confident, autocratic fellow, but 
 in that nature, now in a state of flux, Jesus saw the 
 material that would harden into rock, for the build- 
 ing of his church, when one more ingredient was 
 added and he was exposed to the atmosphere and 
 discipline of trial and struggle. Jesus saw it all at 
 a glance, and changed his name to Peter, which is 
 the Greek for rock, Cephas being the same name in 
 
FOURTH DAY 55 
 
 Aramaic. Discovering his possibilities, he awakened 
 Simon's ideals and fired his ambition. 
 
 Lastly, in Nathanael's case, he overcame marked 
 prejudice. Had Philip simply told him that they had 
 found the Messiah and invited him to come, without 
 saying he was from Nazareth, the devout, sincere 
 soul would have risen from his devotions under the 
 fig tree and gone with him to accept Jesus on the 
 spot, without a question. After seeing and knowing 
 him he would not have cared where he was reared. 
 But when Philip said the Messiah was from Naza- 
 reth, Nathanael quoted a saying that no good thing 
 could come out of Nazareth. He may have believed 
 this saying in sheer guilelessness, or he might have 
 had a prejudice against the place because he lived 
 in the neighboring, rival town of Cana. Jesus had 
 seen him at prayer; now he sees him down to his 
 very depths, and discovers him to himself in his 
 simple, unsuspecting devoutness. This word of in- 
 sight and approval dissipated prejudice and doubt 
 and attached Nathanael to him forever. 
 
 6. Through the Personal Method. He began 
 with the method he has been employing ever since — 
 personal work with persons, or as it is often ex- 
 pressed, " individual work for individuals." To 
 John he was probably indebted for all six of them, as 
 they seem to have been his disciples and to have 
 been especially instructed and stimulated by him. 
 The first two were deliberately turned over to Jesus 
 by John. 
 
56 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 Then Andrew brought Simon ; no doubt John, the 
 writer, went to get his brother James ; Philip, whom 
 Jesus found, went after his friend Nathanael. Per- 
 sonal conversation brought it all about. After his 
 departure the disciples went everywhere, " talking " 
 the gospel, and that is the way his kingdom is still 
 spreading. He is winning them through his dis- 
 ciples and one at a time. 
 
 7. Followed by Personal Training of the Dis- 
 ciples. He has begun the training of his subjects for 
 the duties of citizenship in three ways — making them 
 useful in winning others ; instructing them about 
 himself as the ladder, the connecting link between 
 heaven and earth, the channel for angelic ministry 
 and the unique Son of Man; allowing them, soon 
 after, to go back home to their employments, for 
 thought and prayer. That day was an epoch in their 
 lives and in his life. An immense movement has 
 been inaugurated. 
 
 FIFTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF HIS FIRST MIRACLE 
 John. 2 : 1-11 
 
 i. Miracles Inevitable. Those superhuman 
 gifts, bestowed by the Spirit, must be used, and they 
 must be used, sooner or later, in ways as far above 
 the ordinary as the gifts themselves were above 
 mere native human endowments. To us such acts 
 
FIFTH DAY $? 
 
 would be supernatural, miraculous, because the 
 powers out of which they came would be so. 
 Whether Jesus used them in working changes 
 within men's souls, or on their bodies, or on the 
 various objects of nature, the result would be super- 
 human in either case, but they would not be so mar- 
 velous as the Person who had the power to do such 
 things. 
 
 Those gifts were bestowed, not that they them- 
 selves might be displayed, but that they might serve 
 his purpose in two ways — by perfecting him in the 
 sources of his life and in his equipment; by mani- 
 festing his inner character and powers, " His glory." 
 Not to be mere power, but to give him power; not 
 to show themselves, but to manifest him — such was 
 the double purpose of those gifts of the Spirit. Not 
 to have so used them, he would have been untrue to 
 his trust and would have failed in his work. He 
 had the impulse for self-expression and found joy 
 in it. Miracles were inevitable. 
 
 The time to begin using that power in the outer 
 sphere of men's bodies or of nature, as he had al- 
 ready begun in the inner sphere of men's souls, had 
 come. As Professor Bowne says, " God is the ever- 
 present agent in the ongoing of the world, and nature 
 is but the form and product of his ceaseless activity." 
 Endowed with God's power, Jesus was present with 
 the forces of nature, controlling them for his own 
 glorious ends. It was " the third day " after Na- 
 thanael joined the ranks of his followers, and it was 
 
58 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 at a wedding up in Cana of Galilee, a little town 
 close to his old home, Nazareth. It was the best 
 time and place and occasion for the first objective 
 miracle, or he would not have chosen it ; besides, we 
 ourselves can see as we go on in our study some 
 reasons why this was the most fitting occasion. 
 Bearing in mind the double purpose of his super- 
 human gifts — to empower him for work and mani- 
 fest him in work — we see how that purpose is being 
 achieved in this miracle. 
 
 2. Unique Self-Control Asserting Itself. 
 That is the first revelation the miracle makes to us. 
 He does not perform it under a mere sentimental or 
 social impulse. He takes his own impulses and 
 transforms them into a clear, well-reasoned motive 
 that keeps in mind the purpose he must accom- 
 plish. It is safe to say that no man ever loved his 
 mother as wholly, tenderly, wisely and unselfishly as 
 Jesus did. Yet he did not do this miracle merely 
 because she wanted him to do it. She knew his 
 kindly disposition and his former resources ; she had 
 welcomed him home after he entered on his career 
 and was confident he could do marvelous things. 
 That would bring gratification to her and glory to 
 him — and she wanted him to work a miracle. 
 
 His assurance to her was conclusive that in using 
 this power in such ways he alone must decide when 
 and how. He was a trustee and must keep in view 
 the purpose for which he was intrusted with it. He 
 and she have had many things in common, but not 
 
FIFTH DAY 59 
 
 this. He once belonged to her alone, as son of 
 Mary; he now belongs to the human race, as Son 
 of Man. He is her son; he is also her Saviour. 
 Though the form in which he said it seems some- 
 what harsh, yet it was entirely respectful and was 
 not an unusual form of address, while his manner and 
 accent won her unquestioning and loving acquies- 
 cence. He was establishing a unique relationship to 
 all, and she was one of many. She felt this no doubt 
 — the sword's point was touching her heart. Only 
 he can decide when to put forth this power, and he 
 has the wisdom and the self-command to decide 
 aright. 
 
 3. Sympathy for Human Life Uttering It- 
 self. He put his soul into this miracle and every 
 moment he kept his supreme purpose in view. It 
 uncovers his heart and discovers his aim to us. 
 
 His central quality is his feeling for human life, 
 which we call sympathy. That was normal to him, 
 for he was the source of life — " in him was life and 
 the life was the light of men," that original life in 
 him having broken into luminosity in all living 
 things; he had come to rectify and perfect life; he 
 was related, as " Son of Man," to human life as 
 such, whatever be the national or social or individ- 
 ual forms that life might take. Of this he was con- 
 scious. Not to any class of people, as the diseased, 
 or defeated, or delinquent, or prosperous, or popular, 
 or ruling class, does he belong, and must he give 
 himself, but to all and to human life as such. In the 
 
60 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 home, and at the wedding, which is the founding of 
 another home, is the one place where he can express 
 his sympathy for life itself — for homes and weddings 
 are for all classes, and there the life of each one 
 centers. This miracle, at the very outset of his 
 career, uncovers the universals for us — his sympathy 
 and purpose for life, as such, and his ministry to its 
 needs. Afterward he did marvelous things for in- 
 dividuals, but this was for the universal human life. 
 He was Son of Man, not a class Man, but man's 
 Man. This miracle could teach its lessons and 
 achieve its work without any political significance, 
 and that was important. 
 
 As his mission is to rectify life at its source and 
 complete it through its unfolding, he begins his 
 miracles in the home, the source of life, and rectifies, 
 completes, and ennobles the wedding occasion. Re- 
 lieving embarrassment caused by error or sin, fur- 
 nishing needed supplies, and completing the wedding 
 joy — that is what he was doing in the beginning; 
 that is what he is still doing for human life. He was 
 not an ascetic, living apart from people, but the per- 
 fect man, living into all life. He saw in the home a 
 type of heaven ; in the marriage relation a symbol of 
 the relation between himself and his people. 
 
 4. Deep Relationships Disclosing Them- 
 selves. In the presence of the powers of nature he is 
 owned as Lord. He had made, through methods of 
 his own, the elements of hydrogen and oxygen into 
 a liquid which we call water, and without violating 
 
FIFTH DAY 6 1 
 
 any of the laws which he had given nature he 
 turned the sparkling water into the blushing wine. 
 We can make use of the forces of nature in mar- 
 velous ways, with wise contrivances, but he had im- 
 mediate command over them. Nature is immedi- 
 ately dependent on God. 
 
 To human life he is source and Saviour, entering 
 into wide and minute relationships with it, either 
 actually or ideally. So that he is capable of experi- 
 encing something of all the manifold joys and sor- 
 rows of men and women, whatever may be their rela- 
 tionships and personal conditions. 
 
 5. Final Assurance Given to All. The mira- 
 cles of Jesus were called by four different words. 
 The people sometimes called them " works," as if 
 only such deeds were worthy to be called works. 
 They called them " wonders " because of the impres- 
 sion made on their minds. They called them 
 " powers " because of the force that must be in them. 
 Jesus and the inspired writers called them " signs." 
 Their significance was their chief interest. John 
 says, " This beginning of signs." 
 
 It was a sign to Jesus himself that the Father had 
 sent him and was with him. Whatever other assur- 
 ances he had, he needed this also. 
 
 It was a sign to the disciples that he whom they 
 had so simply and suddenly taken as Messiah was 
 really he. The old prophets had had some unusual 
 attestation of their prophetic call, and these simple- 
 minded people would think it strange if he had not. 
 
62 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 They had been taught to expect such deeds from 
 their Messiah. To them this was a reassuring sign, 
 and it put the crown of completeness on their faith in 
 him. 
 
 To the public in general, who were soon discuss- 
 ing it for miles around, it signified at least the ap- 
 pearance of a prophet who might prove to be the 
 Messiah they expected. Neither they nor his dis- 
 ciples, in their state of mind and with their training 
 and history, could have recognized his tremendous 
 claims without such reassuring " signs." Not " to 
 create a mere compulsory consent in minds which 
 had no sympathy with him," but to answer reason- 
 able questions and confirm faith, was his purpose. 
 
 This was a sign of what he was and what he could 
 do in the sphere of their inner characters. He can 
 charge the common joys with a new ingredient and 
 make them like rare wine. When he cures blind and 
 deaf and lame and leprous it is a " sign " that he can 
 thus cure blind and deaf and lame and leprous souls. 
 His glory was his character, and this sign 
 manifested his glory as he put himself with 
 limitless and powerful and intelligent and active 
 sympathy into human life, not as a spectator or 
 censor, but as a brother, sanctioning and sanctifying 
 its elemental joys, rectifying its sins, perfecting its 
 experiences. That was his glory then and is to-day. 
 Nature is one form in which the glorious character 
 of God expresses itself; this control of Jesus over 
 nature was a form in which his glory was set forth. 
 
FIFTH DAY 63 
 
 6. A New Career Opened to Him. From this 
 time he is a marked man. He belongs to the public. 
 His course is changed. His character is to be dis- 
 cussed and his claims canvassed by friendly and 
 unfriendly, wise and foolish, tongues. 
 
 He could not fail to know some of the conse- 
 quences, in advance. He must have thought of the 
 relation in which he would stand to his people, as a 
 bridegroom, and of the redemption and perfec- 
 tion of his bride by his blood, to be poured out like 
 wine. Perhaps he thought of the ordinance by which 
 he would fix the tragedy of the shedding of his 
 blood in the memory of his bride forever — the or- 
 dinance of the Holy Supper. He has struck the key- 
 note of his career — ministry to human life as such — 
 and upon that career he has started, to meet its 
 perils, endure its pains, and enjoy its pleasures, with 
 undimmed aim and unflinching purpose. He has 
 given them a sign, and much more of ministry in 
 detail is to follow, but always within the broad lines 
 laid down here. 
 
 7. The Urgent Lessons Left by Him. Because 
 life is sacred in itself and in all its elemental rela- 
 tionships, he desires that we cherish it and be 
 provident and true ; that we rectify it, at its source, 
 and complete it, as it grows, by inviting him into its 
 sacredest and simplest functions. Desiring his pres- 
 ence, doing his will, accepting his help, trusting his 
 guidance, with intellects that have found rational 
 proof, with hearts that have been fed on consummate 
 
64 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 sympathy, with wills that feel the reinforcement of 
 his power of purpose, with consciences that have 
 been trained in his righteousness, we may reproduce 
 his life on earth. 
 
 SIXTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF THE INAUGURAL AT JERUSALEM 
 
 John 2 : 12 to j :j6 
 
 i. The Inaugural Proper. At the Jordan, when 
 he was baptized, Jesus accepted the office of Mes- 
 siah ; there, after his baptism, he received the endow- 
 ment of power for the office ; in the wilderness hard 
 by he was tested as to the use he would make of that 
 power, and, in the fierce caldron of temptation it 
 was assimilated to his life; near there he first ex- 
 erted that power upon the spirits of men and made 
 them personal and permanent followers of his for- 
 ever ; up at Cana he entered into the publicity of his 
 office, by exerting that power on nature, not in man 
 but for man, at the wedding ; now, during the Pass- 
 over, he inaugurates his public work at the nation's 
 capital. 
 
 2. The Occasion. According to our chronology, 
 it was the Passover of April, a. d. 27. Pie and his 
 mother and disciples had gone from Cana over to 
 Capernaum, the commercial capital of Galilee, where 
 they stopped only a little while. He performed some 
 miracles there, but entered upon no distinct teaching. 
 
SIXTH DAY 65 
 
 They must have fallen in with quite a crowd of pil- 
 grims to the sacred festival and we can imagine that 
 they had an exuberant joy in the journey. Some 
 must have thought he would put himself at the head 
 of the nation and become the sort of Messiah they 
 expected. Probably his mother thought so. They 
 were joyous and expectant. 
 
 3. The Place. Why begin at Jerusalem? Be- 
 cause the temple was there and he would start with 
 his Father's message from his Father's house. The 
 life of the nation centered there and he would bring 
 help for the nation to the nation's heart of hearts. 
 Religious and political influences, that controlled the 
 nation, radiated from there, and he would rectify 
 those influences at their source. The men behind 
 those influences lived there and he would offer to 
 them, first of all, the help he brought. There was 
 unspeakable need there and it was his duty to begin 
 at the point of greatest need : from his observations, 
 while attending feasts in years gone by, from his ac- 
 curate knowledge of the times, the people and their 
 rulers, from what John might have told him in per- 
 sonal and intimate conversations, he knew that the 
 rulers were bad, awfully, shockingly bad. He had 
 been promised to the nation as their Messiah, and he 
 must report at the nation's headquarters. He will be 
 their sacrificial, Passover Lamb, who will bear off 
 their sins in reality, and he will present himself to 
 them as they are offering their Passover sacrifice, 
 which only bears off their sins pictorially. That is 
 
66 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 the type, he the antitype. Within him are impulses 
 moving him thither — love of his father's home, love 
 of the nation, love of the place, sense of duty, love of 
 sacrifice touched by the Passover occasion, tender 
 memories of the deliverance commemorated by the 
 Passover, solemn, yet glorious, anticipations of the 
 deliverance which he would bring by the sacrifice of 
 himself. Yes, Jerusalem is the one place, and the 
 Passover is the one occasion, for inaugurating his 
 full work. There are three things that will reveal 
 him to us — the signs, or miracles of mercy, the 
 cleansing of the temple, and the interview with 
 Nicodemus. We will study him in the light of these 
 events. 
 
 4. His Frank Manifestation of Himself 
 Through His " Signs." He found occasion for 
 deeds of mercy. The afflicted were there in large 
 numbers, a few to get the benefit of the Passover, 
 but most of them to take advantage of the spirit of 
 fellowship and good-will that prevailed, and many to 
 beg. Inquirers were there, whose unchosen igno- 
 rance was eagerly seeking enlightenment. He gave 
 out himself, through his kindly deeds, with only the 
 reserve that wisdom commanded. Some looked 
 through the " signs " to that which was signified and 
 partly understood. It is likely that he wrought 
 signs before the cleansing and during his whole visit. 
 
 5. His Hot Indignation at Official Corrup- 
 tion. When he came to the temple area, and into the 
 outer courts, he saw things that threw him into a 
 
SIXTH DAY 67 
 
 state of feeling he had never experienced before. It 
 was a state of anger, intense and thorough. As Dr. 
 Dawson says, " anger was a rare passion with 
 Jesus." " Anger with Christ was always a moral 
 passion. The things that made him angry were 
 irreverence, hypocrisy, cruelty, meanness, and un- 
 kindness." 
 
 He was not angry that animals of all kinds were 
 offered for sale, for all had to buy them; nor that 
 they were brought to a spot convenient for all ; nor 
 that men were ready to exchange the home shekel 
 for foreign money, for Jews from afar must pay 
 their temple tax with home money and not with coins 
 that might have images of foreign rulers stamped on 
 them. 
 
 He was angry that the priests were dishonoring 
 God's house and taking advantage of ignorance and 
 poverty to enrich themselves. They had created a 
 monopoly and were growing rich. They would not 
 let the worshipers buy from anybody else, for the 
 priests themselves had to inspect their offerings and 
 could throw out what was not bought of them, as 
 being unfit. Thus they crowded out other dealers 
 and made the helpless worshiper pay exorbitant 
 prices. These same priests had their employees sit- 
 ting at tables with change to accommodate those who 
 had foreign coin. Charging an exchange of four 
 pence on every foreign shekel, they made many thou- 
 sands of dollars every year. They brought the ani- 
 mals inside the temple area in their sacrilegious 
 
68 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 greed, and held bazaars for the sale of useful articles 
 and souvenirs for their private benefit. Thus they 
 turned the sacred house into an instrument of rob- 
 bery. We would call it a case of " graft," pious 
 graft. They secularized the worship, debased them- 
 selves, defrauded the poor. 
 
 When he saw the animals and heard the unholy 
 noises; saw the excited and troubled worshipers; 
 saw the heartless priests enjoying their spoils; 
 thought of the awful blight on people as well as on 
 priests ; felt the blasphemy offered to God's house 
 and to God himself, his soul boiled in a holy anger. 
 No one ever felt such sympathy for the weak as he, 
 whether it was the weakness of ignorance or inex- 
 perience or poverty ; no one ever felt such indigna- 
 tion at their wrongs. 
 
 6. His Reformatory Work Inaugurated. The 
 greatest possible evil had befallen his nation — the 
 " incurable corruption " of its leaders and the wide- 
 spread loss of confidence in them. His work is to be 
 formative, but it must first be reformative. It is to 
 be constructive, but must begin with being destruc- 
 tive. Here is some desperately destructive work to 
 do. He has real, but no formal, authority, such as 
 the Sanhedrin might give, to stop it. He will act on 
 his real authority whether the people recognize it or 
 not. How to do it is the question, but it is in- 
 stantly settled — not by argument, nor by moral sua- 
 sion; not by peremptory order, unsupported by 
 action. They are not open to reason or the appeal 
 
SIXTH DAY 69 
 
 of right. Drive them out with violence — that is the 
 only way. And he does it. The instrument, some 
 cords which he found and knotted together, was en- 
 tirely inadequate to it. It was the Man who wielded 
 it. It was the first real man they had ever seen. All 
 they had ever seen before were broken fragments of 
 men. He overawed them. He was what a man was 
 originally designed to be — a representative of God, 
 and they saw it. Righteousness was personified in 
 him, raised to its highest power, and they saw the 
 fires of judgment flaming in his face. He repre- 
 sented man as well as God, and all that is majestic in 
 mankind was summed up in him at that moment. 
 He manifested the glory of his character as truly 
 as in turning water into wine, and all felt it. As 
 the tables toppled over and the lash was uplifted 
 over guilty shoulders, his greatness overawed and 
 their known guilt unnerved them, and they rendered 
 terrified or sullen obedience to his demands. His 
 claim, that this was his Father's house and that it 
 was being polluted, passed for the moment unchal- 
 lenged. 
 
 7. His Life-Long Conflict Precipitated. This 
 brought upon him the unrelenting hatred of the 
 priests and ruling classes, that never slumbered till 
 it put him to death at a similar Passover, just three 
 years later. They were enraged at their financial 
 losses; at their defeat in the presence of their 
 victims, and especially by an untrained, unlicensed 
 charlatan, as they had taken him to be ; most of all, 
 
JO THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 at having their reputations assailed and their stand- 
 ing with the people damaged. The people were awed 
 by his act, and most of them approved it. They 
 liked it for his sake, for he was popular. They ap- 
 proved it, for they had suffered from that system of 
 exaction ; had felt the sacrilege of their course ; had 
 lost respect for the officials and were glad to see 
 them humiliated. 
 
 But the officials dared not arrest and punish him, 
 for they knew they would not have popular support 
 and might bring on a popular tumult. But they 
 went stealthily to work to get revenge. From that 
 time on, their spies followed him all over the country 
 and brought back reports to the Sanhedrin. They 
 did assail him, after it was all over, with a question 
 as to his authority. He had taken in the situation 
 and knew that they simply meant to resist him, and 
 he answered in an enigma. He afterward ex- 
 plained that he meant the temple of his body. He 
 knew they were destroying their temple by taking 
 the heart out of its worship, and that he would re- 
 build it by restoring its religious life, through his 
 coming death and resurrection. They laid hold of 
 his statement and kept it in memory, and, three 
 years later, brought against him the charge of 
 blasphemy, for having said he would destroy their 
 temple and rebuild it in three days. 
 
 He knew the conflict was on and employed a re- 
 serve, quite in contrast with the frank and joyous 
 manner of the preceding days. The people were 
 
SIXTH DAY 
 
 more or less intimidated by their leaders, and while 
 they had some faith, it was superficial and uncon- 
 fiding, so that he could not trust them. 
 
 8. His Personal Method of Work Continued. 
 This was another personal interview. It was quite 
 a worthy thing in Nicodemus, the dignified member 
 of the Sanhedrin, to search Jesus out. It was wise in 
 him to come by night and thus prevent impulsive 
 criticism of himself and Jesus. The excitement 
 from the cleansing of the temple, the courtesy ex- 
 tended by a counsellor to this rabbi, young, a Gali- 
 lean, and unlicensed — all might bring discomfort. 
 Besides, he was a calm student and wished a quiet 
 talk. Perhaps he thought he could attach Jesus to 
 the leaders and reconcile them to him again. Jesus 
 trusted him with deep truths — that all must begin 
 life anew by rebirth, who would enter his kingdom, 
 not by descent from Abraham. The stubborn con- 
 ceit that he was in the kingdom led him rather to 
 ridicule the idea. Jesus put him on a level with 
 Gentiles ; told him sacrifice and suffering were neces- 
 sary ; told him that it was through faith in him ; 
 told him that the Messiah was the atoning Son of 
 Man and Son of God. He won Nicodemus and pos- 
 sibly the family at Bethany and Joseph of Arima- 
 thea. But he seems to have concluded that the 
 people were not ready for his Messianic work and 
 needed more preparatory work, for he spent the next 
 few months preaching in Judea, as John had been 
 doing. 
 
72 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 SEVENTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF THE FIRST OPEN AVOWAL 
 
 Matt. 4 : 12 ; Mark 1 : 14 ; John 4 
 
 i. The Avowal Itself. To Nicodemus Jesus 
 had spoken of the Son of Man and the Son of God ; 
 to many others he had used similar terms about the 
 Messiah ; to no one but this woman had he said, " I 
 that speak unto thee am he." The miracles at Jeru- 
 salem, the cleansing of the temple, and the words to 
 Nicodemus would naturally lead to fuller explana- 
 tions about himself ; and we may well believe that he 
 would have openly declared himself in Jerusalem, 
 at the Passover, to be the Messiah, whom he was 
 preaching, had they been ready to receive him. The 
 leaders became openly and permanently hostile, be- 
 cause their pride was wounded, their prejudices of- 
 fended, and their power over the people imperiled 
 by him. Those people who believed on him were 
 superficial believers, from fear of their rulers and 
 from life-long habits of provincial pride and self- 
 righteousness. When it is said that " many believed 
 on his name, beholding his signs which he did," they 
 believed merely because of signs, and not because 
 of what was signified, the character of the Messiah 
 himself. And when it is said that " Jesus did not 
 trust himself unto them," he seems to mean that he 
 would not trust them with the further truths he had 
 to say about himself as Messiah. 
 
SEVENTH DAY 73 
 
 2. The Previous Ministry in Judea. Finding 
 that the times were not ripe for proclaiming himself 
 the Messiah, and that more preparatory work was 
 needed, he had gone out into Judea, after that Pass- 
 over in April, a. d. 27, preaching in co-operation with 
 John. He must have preached in substance what 
 John did — that the Messianic reign was at hand, 
 that repentance for sin and faith in the Messiah, 
 rather than descent from Abraham, was the condi- 
 tion of entrance into his kingdom, and that the re- 
 pentance must prove itself in baptism and an 
 amended life — without saying that he himself was 
 that Messiah. His preaching won success, and many 
 were baptized, not by him in person, but by him 
 through his disciples. The latter part of the third 
 chapter of John's Gospel tells about it. That pre- 
 paratory work went on through the summer, into the 
 autumn, and until this journey through Samaria 
 into Galilee, probably December, a. d. 27. During 
 these months his followers have spent part of their 
 time with him and part at home in their usual 
 callings. 
 
 3. The Judean Period Closed. It is now time to 
 discontinue this kind of work and go on his own 
 distinctive mission. He quits working in Judea for 
 several reasons — the preparatory stage is now past ; 
 his growing popularity and the increasing number 
 of his disciples have made friction between them and 
 John's ; the Jewish authorities are about to precipi- 
 tate a persecution on both him and John, and that 
 
74 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 should be avoided ; about that time, Herod arrested 
 John on the ostensible plea of public safety, and the 
 Pharisees would co-operate with him in arresting 
 Jesus ; he can find a more fruitful field in Galilee — 
 in fact, Judea is almost hopeless. So he leaves 
 Judea, because he will be throwing away time, in- 
 volving his friends in embarrassment and suffering, 
 needlessly inviting persecution and neglecting more 
 promising places, if he remains. John's Gospel alone 
 tells of these first labors, while the other three 
 Gospels tell of the baptism and temptation and then 
 pass on to the Galilean ministry. 
 
 4. The Galilean Ministry Begun. Galilee is a 
 more promising field, for three reasons : Jesus was 
 reared there, and they would have an interest in their 
 countryman, while his personal acquaintance ought 
 to count for something; most of his disciples were 
 from Galilee, and that would help him establish use- 
 ful points of contact with the people ; they were more 
 hospitable to new truth up there than in Judea. 
 There were several reasons for this: they mingled 
 with the outside world and were more social and less 
 prejudiced; they worshiped in synagogues, where 
 there were no ceremonials and the meetings were in- 
 formal ; they were far away from the Jerusalem 
 rabbis and were more practical and less doctrinaire. 
 Jesus is now on his way to Galilee, where he will 
 finally make Capernaum, its commercial capital, the 
 center of his work, and will win a wonderful success 
 for a period of about a year and a half. We may 
 
SEVENTH DAY 75 
 
 count the Galilean period to begin with his departure 
 from Judea, via Samaria. 
 
 5. Compulsion Toward Samaria. He must 
 needs go through Samaria. There was another road 
 to Galilee, and the Judean Jews generally took it, in 
 order to avoid contact with the Samaritans, though 
 it was the longer road. They crossed the Jordan, 
 went up the east side and then recrossed. The Gal- 
 ilean Jews were not so prejudiced, and often went 
 direct to Jerusalem. Jesus was under an inner com- 
 pulsion to go through Samaria, a compulsion arising 
 from judgment and conscience and a longing heart. 
 He would save time by going that way, and to spend 
 time in gratifying prejudice would be sin. He would 
 do good by going that way, while the longer road did 
 not offer such an opportunity for wayside ministries. 
 The good he will do is disclosed by the story of the 
 winning of the Samaritans and the training of the 
 disciples in broad human sympathies. And he will 
 get good. His heart yearns to break down the wall 
 between Jews and Gentiles, to get down under the 
 surface distinctions and " meet man as man." He 
 longs for such an experience. It is an epoch in his 
 life. Samaria needed him; he needed Samaria; so 
 did his disciples. 
 
 The feeling between the Jews and Samaritans was 
 bitter, and it is not surprising. The latter were a 
 mongrel race. When Shalmanesar captured Sama- 
 ria and ended the national existence of the northern 
 kingdom in 722 b. c, he brought back from Baby- 
 
y6 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 Ionia five little nations and planted them among the 
 remnant left in Samaria. They mingled. They then 
 developed a mongrel religion, made up of their 
 heathen religions and the Jewish, which was taught 
 them by a renegade priest from Jerusalem. They 
 wanted to unite with the Jews in rebuilding the tem- 
 ple after the captivity, but were refused, because they 
 were not close enough of kin to be Jews and too 
 close to be liked. The refusal incensed them, and 
 they built a temple of their own on Mount Gerizim, 
 where they expected the Messiah to appear. From 
 that time the two nations hated each other, and a 
 Jewish rabbi said that " he that eats bread with a 
 Samaritan is as he who eats swine's flesh." It was 
 among these people Jesus " must needs go." In three 
 days after leaving the vicinity of Jerusalem, he 
 would be at Jacob's well. A little group of disciples 
 was with him, as they were often with him, for a 
 few days at a time, and then at work for a while at 
 their callings. 
 
 6. Uncovering the Universals. He was the 
 Son of Man, entering into universal relationships 
 and feeling universal sympathies with human beings 
 as such. He saw and felt the essential unity of the 
 race, and, had it been wise, he would have gone to 
 Jews and Gentiles alike at the first. Here he was 
 face to face with one in whose veins flowed Jewish 
 and Gentile blood, and that touched him and perhaps 
 suggested to him the time when he would succeed 
 in breaking down the wall of separation between the 
 
SEVENTH DAY 77 
 
 two, thus making a new type of man. A brotherly 
 man is one of Christ's products. He may be of any 
 color or any one race, but beneath those surface dif- 
 ferences he is a man and a brother of every other 
 man. Such was Jesus himself. He and this woman 
 were one, in common physical wants and spiritual as 
 well. His physical wants she could minister to ; her 
 spiritual wants he longed to supply. Her personal 
 and race misfortunes made him more anxious to help 
 her. He went down beneath the superficial distinc- 
 tions and met her at the point of unity. As a Jew he 
 should scorn a Samaritan, decline to speak to a 
 woman in public, and feel disgraced in speaking at 
 all with an immoral one, as she was ; as a man and 
 Saviour he did all three. Giving and receiving a 
 drink of water makes a covenant of hospitality in the 
 East. His desire to enter into " friendly personal 
 relations with all kinds of people " is here explained. 
 
 He disclosed the other universal, that God is a 
 spirit, not localized, and can be worshiped by the 
 spirit of any man, without ceremonial; that he is 
 Father, and wishes only unpretentious reality in the 
 worship. On no other occasion had Jesus disclosed 
 such truths as he does to-day, in his actions and 
 conversation. 
 
 7. "Jesus and the Individual" Once More. 
 The conversations with Nicodemus and this woman 
 are a revelation of his estimate of the individual. 
 The individual is the unit of society, and to save one 
 is to save a soul from death and set transforming 
 
78 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 social influences to work, however obscure or 
 degraded that one is. Three-fourths of the choicest 
 sayings of Jesus, preserved for us, were spoken to 
 individuals or to very small groups of people. 
 Because of their intrinsic worth and their social 
 value; because they must be saved one at a time; 
 because impressions are more powerful when truth 
 is told to just one, and the sense of responsibility is 
 felt more keenly ; because one can remember it more 
 accurately when receiving truth in this way — for all 
 these reasons Jesus works with individuals and 
 entrusts them with his rarest treasures with 
 ungrudging and unreserved generosity. To Nico- 
 demus he speaks the great truth of rebirth; to this 
 woman the great truths of man's unity and God's 
 spirituality, on which he is founding a new and 
 world-conquering religion. There are nineteen pri- 
 vate interviews mentioned in the Gospels. Jesus dis- 
 covered the individual. 
 
 8. Unerring Pedagogics. His purpose is to save 
 this woman. The difficulties in the way are tremen- 
 dous. His methods of work are unerring, because 
 based upon fundamental conditions. The same meth- 
 ods he will employ here as elsewhere, but in a unique 
 way. Two invariable rules he observes — to begin at 
 her point of view ; to support his work by his own 
 convincing personality. 
 
 Beginning at her point of view, he finds there 
 three things in the way : race prejudice against him 
 as a Jew; ignorance of things beyond her stupid 
 
SEVENTH DAY 79 
 
 world; a sinful life, without shame. The prejudice 
 he broke down by disclosing common wants in ask- 
 ing a drink and thus entering into a pact of tempo- 
 rary hospitality ; by taking a kindly personal interest 
 in her ; by getting her to do something for him. Her 
 ignorance he enlightens by finding her religious ideas 
 and completing them, thus piquing her curiosity and 
 awaking a desire for further knowledge. She had 
 Messianic ideas, and from those he led her to him as 
 Messiah. Her sense of need he arouses by first 
 awakening a sense of sin, telling her kindly of her 
 past and present life. Through all the talk he was 
 bringing his personality to bear on her sodden soul, 
 as he disclosed sympathy, insight, knowledge, and 
 power. He saved her thoroughly. 
 
 9. Fruits. The woman and many Samaritans 
 saved; the disciples trained in knowledge and sym- 
 pathy; a nucleus for future work, when Philip and 
 the apostles shall preach to Samaria ; a new experi- 
 ence for Jesus, who will have such a good opinion of 
 the Samaritans that he will construct a parable of 
 the " Good Samaritan " and be called in derision " a 
 Samaritan " ; some great teachings and a holy exam- 
 ple for us who read it. 
 
Ill 
 
 PERIOD OF POPULARITY 
 
 In Galilee, December A. d. 27 to April A. D. 29. 
 
 35. Heals the nobleman's son. John 4 : 46-54. 
 
 36. Rejected at Nazareth. Luke 4 : 16-30. 
 
 37. Headquarters established at Capernaum. Matt. 4 : 
 
 13-16 ; Luke 4 : 31. 
 
 38. Calls four permanent companions. Matt. 4 : 18-22 ; 
 
 Mark I : 16-20 ; Luke 5 : 1-11. 
 
 39. "A day in Capernaum." Matt. 8 : 14-17 ; Mark I : 
 
 21-34; Luke 4: 31-41. 
 
 40. A tour of teaching and healing. Matt. 4 : 23 ; 8 : 2-4 ; 
 
 Mark 1 : 35-45 ; Luke 4 : 42-44 ; 5 : 12-16. 
 
 41. The paralytic borne by four. Matt. 9 : 2-8 ; Mark 
 
 2 : 1-12 ; Luke 5 : 17-26. 
 
 42. The call of Matthew. Matt. 9 : 9-13 ; Mark 2 : 
 
 13-17; Luke 5 : 27-32. 
 
 43. The question of fasting. Matt. 9 : 14-17 ; Mark 2 : 
 
 18-22 ; Luke 5 : 33-39. 
 
 44. At the pool of Bethesda. John 5. 
 
 45. Plucking and eating grain on the Sabbath. Matt. 12 : 
 
 1-8 ; Mark 2 : 23-28 ; Luke 6 : 1-5. 
 
 46. Man with withered hand. Matt. 12 : 9-14 ; Mark 3 : 
 
 1-6 ; Luke 6:6-11. 
 
 47. The excited multitudes. Matt. 12 : 15-21 ; Mark 3 : 
 
 7-12. 
 
 48. Twelve apostles chosen. Mark 3 : 13-19 ; Luke 6 : 
 
 12-16 ; Matt. 10 : 2-4. 
 
 49. The Sermon on the Mount. Matt. 5-7 ; Luke 6 : 
 
 20-49. 
 
 50. The centurion's servant healed. Matt. 8 : 1, 5-13 ; 
 
 Luke 7 : 1-10. 
 
 51. The widow's son raised from death. Luke 7 : 11-17. 
 
 F 
 
52. A message from John in prison. Matt, n : 2-19; 
 
 Luke 7 : 18-35. 
 
 53. The unbelieving cities denounced. Matt. 11 : 20-24. 
 
 54. Docility and submission commanded. Matt. II : 
 
 25-3°- 
 
 55. The anointing in a Pharisee's house. Luke 7 : 36-50. 
 
 56. Another preaching tour and new companions. Luke 
 
 8 : 1-3. 
 
 57. Warnings to wicked enemies. Matt. 12 : 23-45 ; 
 
 Mark 3 : 19-30. 
 
 58. Christ's spiritual kindred. Matt. 12 : 46-50 ; Mark 
 
 3 : 31-35 ; Luke 8 : 19-21. 
 
 59. The new type of parables. Matt. 13 : I— 53 ; Mark 
 
 4 : I-35 ; Luke 8 :4-i8. 
 
 60. The stilling of the tempest. Matt. 8 : 18, 23-27 ; 
 
 Mark 4 : 35-41 ; Luke 8 : 22-25. 
 
 61. He heals the Gadarenes. Matt. 8 : 28-34 ; Mark 5 : 
 
 I-20 ; Luke 8 : 26-39. 
 
 62. Jairus' daughter and the infirm woman. Matt. 9 : 
 
 18-26 ; Mark 5 : 21-43 ; Luke 8 : 40-56. 
 
 63. Blind and dumb healed. Matt. 9 : 27-34. 
 
 64. Second rejection at Nazareth. Matt. 13 : 54-58 ; 
 
 Mark 6 : 1-6. 
 
 65. Another preaching tour. Matt. 9 : 35 ; Mark 6 : 6. 
 
 66. The Twelve sent forth. Matt. 9 : 36 to 11 : 1 ; Mark 
 
 6 : 7-13 ; Luke 9 : 1-6. 
 
 67. Death of John the Baptist. Matt. 14 : 1-12 ; Mark 
 
 6 : 14-29 ; Luke 9 : 7-9. 
 
 68. The feeding of the five thousand. Matt. 14 : 13-21 
 
 Mark 6 : 30-46 ; Luke 9 : 10-17 ; John 6 : 1-14. 
 
 69. Across the lake to Capernaum. Matt. 14 : 22-36 
 
 Mark 6 : 45-56 ; John 6 : 15-21. 
 
 70. Searching discourse on the Bread of Life. John 6 
 
 22-71. 
 
 71. Attacked for disregarding tradition. Matt. 15 : 1-20 
 
 Mark 7 : 1-23. 
 
EIGHTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF THE FIRST OPEN REPULSE 
 Luke 4 : 16-31 
 
 I. In Galilee. The ministry in Galilee lasted 
 about eighteen months, say from December, a. d. 27, 
 to the Passover, a. d. 29, and is known as the 
 " Period of Popularity," as contrasted with the 
 Judean ministry, known as the " Period of Ob- 
 scurity." For our knowledge of the Judean min- 
 istry we are indebted to John the Evangelist; 
 for our knowledge of the Galilean ministry, 
 to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, for John speaks of 
 only three events of that great period — the second 
 miracle in Cana, a visit to Jerusalem at a festival, 
 and the feeding of the five thousand. The beginning 
 of work in Galilee seemed to most of the disciples to 
 be the real beginning of Jesus' ministry, for it was 
 not till after that time that they were constantly with 
 him, and the sources upon which they drew for in- 
 formation afforded most accurate and vivid knowl- 
 edge of that period. John, however, was the seer, 
 and he was studying Christ himself rather than his 
 work in detail. He began with him in his pre- 
 incarnate state and traced the revelation of himself 
 through his ministry. The synoptics will now be our 
 chief teachers for a while. 
 
 83 
 
84 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 2. A Promising Outlook. As said before, the 
 Jews of Galilee were active and practical and 
 mingled with the outside world. That saved them 
 from petty details of ceremonial and tradition and 
 from much race prejudice and pride. There were 
 many Gentiles living among them, into whose minds 
 Jesus would drop living seeds of truth that would 
 ultimately grow into Christian virtues. The area 
 was small, being sixteen hundred square miles; the 
 population was very dense, there being, at that time, 
 two hundred and four towns and villages, according 
 to Josephus. Jesus could cover the territory more 
 easily; his fame would travel faster still. The soil 
 was very fertile, in valley and seashore ; the fish in- 
 dustry was enormous. This made an active and 
 successful agricultural and commercial people. 
 
 Moreover, it was the highway of the nations, 
 caravans constantly passing between Egypt and Da- 
 mascus, and between Phoenicia and the Euphrates 
 region. He would thus touch the great outside 
 world, which he was carrying in his heart. After 
 passing through Samaria, he did his first deed of the 
 Galilean ministry at Cana, in curing the son of a 
 nobleman at Capernaum, a Gentile. This was an 
 auspicious opening of a new era in his work. 
 
 3. Visiting His Old Home. He would very nat- 
 urally wish to bestow some special benefit on the 
 neighbors and friends of his home town, and es- 
 pecially upon the companions of his boyhood. If 
 he made any distinction between people at all, it 
 
EIGHTH DAY 85 
 
 would be in their favor. He would like a little quiet 
 rest, also, in the home that sheltered his growing 
 life. Here too, he would enjoy making the declara- 
 tion that he wanted to make at Jerusalem and that 
 he had privately made in isolated Samaria, as he 
 came along. To tell his old friends that their 
 dream of a Messiah was at last realized, would give 
 him a kind of pleasure that he could not get by tell- 
 ing it at Jerusalem. 
 
 And he had seemingly prepared them for it. He 
 knew that " no prophet is acceptable in his own 
 country." It was true of him, as of others, that he 
 must first establish his fame somewhere else before 
 the people who have seen him grow up from child- 
 hood will give him due recognition. The Galileans 
 had not seen his greatness during the thirty years 
 that he lived among them, yet now they knew of the 
 first miracle; they had learned, through those who 
 attended the feast at Jerusalem that he had created 
 a sensation at the capital ; they had since heard ru- 
 mors of his wonderful words and works; they 
 might have heard of the cure wrought several days 
 before, at Cana, on the nobleman's son, as Cana was 
 only a few miles away. He had gained the neces- 
 sary honor elsewhere and can now hope to be " ac- 
 ceptable in his own country." 
 
 4. Invited to Speak. It was natural that he 
 should go to church on the Sabbath, for it was a 
 habit of his, a help to him and an opportunity for 
 doing good. He went. It was also natural that he 
 
86 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 should be asked to read the lesson and make the talk, 
 for the meetings were informal and the officers al- 
 ways called on worthy visitors to give a word of in- 
 struction or exhortation; besides they had special 
 reason for wanting to hear from him. They had 
 heard about his preaching and his miracles; they 
 must hear and see for themselves. He had done 
 things for Cana and Jerusalem and Capernaum — 
 will he at last do something for his own people? 
 Curiosity to see him, local pride in their famous 
 townsman, envious demand that he do as much for 
 them as for other towns — these emotions blend and 
 will produce — what? It will depend on whether he 
 gratifies or disappoints them. 
 
 5. Charming His Hearers. During the reading 
 and exposition they sat in a sort of wonder that one 
 of their own boys could speak with such unction 
 and grace. He selected the Scripture with perfect 
 care, the most vivid description of the Messiah's mis- 
 sion in the Old Testament, and one that appealed to 
 all the fondest sentiments of the Jewish heart. In his 
 immediate comments he evidently told them that 
 their Messiah would do all those things for them. 
 It struck the chords of holy memories and inspiring 
 hopes. It brought to mind the deliverance from 
 Babylonian captivity, of which Isaiah had written, 
 and the promise of other deliverance. It reminded 
 them of the old Jubilee year, when lands reverted 
 to their original owners, slaves were manumitted, 
 and liberty was again enjoyed by all. Their Messiah 
 
EIGHTH DAY 87 
 
 would bring those blessings either in literal or spirit- 
 ual form, or both. They probably thought only of 
 the temporal form, while Jesus thought of the spirit- 
 ual, and, to a degree, the temporal also. 
 
 Note the three functions of the Messiah here. 
 He is to be first an evangelist, preaching good tidings 
 to the needy. The literal poor, restored to their 
 lands in the olden time, might stand for any needy, 
 for the good tidings includes many blessings. He is, 
 also, to be a healer. Diseases of the eyes were most 
 common, and are to-day, in Palestine. Long im- 
 prisonment in the dark impaired the eye, and the 
 one who ushers in the Jubilee blessings opens up 
 closed eyes. And he will be emancipator, for broken 
 and bruised captives. Probably, in commenting on 
 it, Jesus went further into the meaning of the Mes- 
 siah's work of preaching, healing, and setting free. 
 We can easily imagine he did. He stood, while read- 
 ing, and sat down to speak, and through it all they 
 were under a spell. But the spell was soon broken. 
 
 6. Enraging His Hearers. Their rage came on 
 in an instant. They were Orientals, and that means 
 they were subject to sudden and violent changes of 
 mood. They had a violent shock, which explains the 
 revulsion of feeling. They felt the spell of his per- 
 sonality and his words, in reading and commenting, 
 but all along they were in a state of feeling that 
 could only be gratified by a miracle. They expected 
 it. Two sentiments required it, envy and jealousy 
 — envy because Cana and Capernaum had been 
 
88 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 favored ; jealousy of one whom they had been in the 
 habit of considering like themselves, which could 
 only be removed by a miracle. That expectation led 
 them to fall under his spell and kept them under it 
 for a while. Suddenly they found out that he would 
 not favor them with the miracle, and it made them 
 all the more furious that they had distinctly re- 
 quested it and had been flatly refused. At the same 
 time he made the stupendous claim that he himself 
 was the Messiah, of whom he had been reading and 
 speaking. That lifted him in his own esteem far 
 above themselves, although they knew he was only 
 Joseph's son, the carpenter. 
 
 Their anger was all the more furious for his 
 calm, undisturbed consciousness of being endowed 
 with the Holy Spirit and of possessing the powers to 
 fulfil his mission to remedy all the world's wretch- 
 edness and sins. Others preached him ; he preached 
 himself. The distressing thing to him was that they 
 cared more for the miracles than for the worker of 
 miracles. The reserved power behind the miracles 
 was unnoticed. His mission was to the spirits of 
 men, and they would not see anything but a mission 
 to their bodies. It pained him that they esteemed 
 his wonders more highly than his words. He knew 
 that as they grew more used to them they would 
 grow indifferent to them, and to him, as well. He 
 did not attach the importance to his miracles that his 
 own disciples did. He even went so far as to say, in 
 the parable of Dives and Lazarus, that they had a 
 
EIGHTH DAY 89 
 
 limited value in leading men to salvation. There 
 was no hope for them unless they saw in the mira- 
 cles a " sign " of something very significant. They 
 did not. Their eyes were blinded by their own 
 prejudices, their own limitations, and it was not so 
 much that they could not as that they would not see. 
 
 Thus it came about that they grew more and 
 more furious. All unholy passions seemed to min- 
 gle and swell in their bosoms into a wild storm, 
 and gathering him up, they hurried him out of 
 the synagogue, to hurl him to his death from the 
 precipice near-by. He raised himself into a majesty 
 that overawed them for the moment, and walked 
 away in dignity from their midst. 
 
 7. Finding His Consolation. It was a painful 
 conviction, now made clear, that he must leave his 
 townsmen unblest, perhaps till after his earthly life 
 was past. But comfort was given to him — by the 
 loving Spirit who was empowering and guiding him ; 
 by the encouraging Scriptures; by the calm inner 
 conviction that his mission must continue ; by the re- 
 membrance of his reception in Samaria, which was 
 a prophecy of success among non-Jewish people ; by 
 his perception of the better impulses in these people 
 at Nazareth, which would, in many cases, bring 
 them to him in days to come. He also knew that 
 there were other people, even in Galilee, who were 
 ready to believe in him as well as in his miracles, 
 and that Capernaum will furnish him a better center 
 for his work. 
 
90 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 NINTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF THE FIRST ORGANIZED OPPOSITION 
 
 Malt. 9 : 2-8 ; Mark 2 : 1-12 ; Luke 5 : 17-26 
 
 i. In Capernaum. There he made his headquar- 
 ters after the brutal rejection at Nazareth. It was 
 the center of Galilean life and activity. There was 
 a dense population in the cities all around it. Fertile 
 lands lay along the sea. Enormous supplies of fish 
 were afforded by the waters. It was on the high- 
 way of the nations, and put Jesus in touch with the 
 outside world. It was a convenient point from which 
 he could make excursions into all the outlying com- 
 munities. His mother and the family lived there, 
 and some of his disciples made it their home, though 
 he seems to have lived mostly with the members of 
 his spiritual family. 
 
 2. His Method of Working. The means by 
 which he worked were speech and miracles, and he 
 could reveal himself perfectly by the two. His 
 speaking was of three kinds. There was first of all 
 teaching, in which he expounded the Scriptures, es- 
 pecially the Scriptures concerning the Messiah and 
 the righteousness he required. And there was 
 preaching, in which he sought to win them to repent- 
 ance and faith, by all the forms of warning and ap- 
 peal that would serve his purpose. And it was such 
 preaching as they had never heard before, and they 
 constantly contrasted it with the preaching of their 
 
NINTH DAY 
 
 religious leaders. Those leaders preached petty 
 rules ; he preached the principles and truths that lie 
 back of the rules. They preached life by means of 
 wearisome labors in keeping laws; he preached life 
 by a vital faith in God that would show itself in 
 labors of love. They preached conformity to the tra- 
 ditions of the rabbis ; he preached confidence in the 
 Father of truth and life. They quoted authorities; 
 he was an authority. They put weights on their 
 disciples; he put wings on them. Being the source 
 and embodiment of the truth he preached, he gave 
 it the peculiar attractive quality of originality, au- 
 thority, and sympathy. He also made use of con- 
 versation, sanctifying the social relationships and 
 opportunities. 
 
 He did not proclaim himself as the Messiah, whose 
 reign he assured them was coming on. To have 
 done so would have excited the impulsive and rough 
 Galileans to revolution against Rome and unfitted 
 them for knowing him as Messiah at all. It would 
 also have brought on him an earlier and more effect- 
 ive persecution from the officials. He avoided both 
 perils as best he could. His plan was to win them to 
 the acceptance of the truths he taught about the 
 Messiah and his reign and the duties of those who 
 would be his subjects; to attach them to himself as 
 the authoritative teacher of these truths ; then to let 
 them see for themselves that he and he alone fulfilled 
 all the conditions and was the Messiah he spoke 
 about. 
 
92 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 The way he spoke had a unique charm. His 
 speech was constant. Whether he was with one or 
 many, he steadily poured forth a stream of golden 
 truth. It was wise. The one truth suited to the oc- 
 casion was always spoken. It was informal. No 
 prepared sermons were delivered, but out of his 
 full resources he could call up just what was needed, 
 and when it came out, it seemed so suited to the per- 
 son, or persons, that it was like a kindly favor. It 
 was pictorial. Animate and inanimate nature fur- 
 nished figures that flashed forth his truth with many- 
 colored beauty. It was concrete and not abstract; 
 specific and not general; personal and not imper- 
 sonal ; living and not dead. His personality gave a 
 charm to it all that no one could explain. 
 
 He employed miracles also, though he knew the 
 way the people abused them, by coming to think 
 more of the unusual than of the common blessings, 
 more of the miracles than of the Man and the truths 
 he taught ; then by becoming indifferent both to the 
 miracles and the Man. Yet he performed them. 
 There was so much sickness and distress to relieve ; 
 such an inability on the part of the people to think 
 of a Messiah who did not work miracles; so many 
 who really would come to discern the Worker in the 
 work ; such a natural ability in him to do supernat- 
 ural things. 
 
 3. His Growing Fame. The teachings, the mira- 
 cles, and the Man behind them all stirred the people 
 to their depths, though he was constantly putting 
 
NINTH DAY 93 
 
 restraints on himself and on their rude, tumultuous 
 enthusiasm. The land was full of rumors of him. 
 Capernaum soon had throngs of visitors inquiring 
 about him. The sick and sorrowing sought him by 
 thousands. They talked of his striking sayings and 
 his wonderful miracles. He soon became the con- 
 spicuous figure in Galilee, and was made all the more 
 conspicuous by the unusual industry he showed, for 
 in the East the strenuous life has always been prac- 
 tically unknown. And his days, and even nights, 
 were full of devitalizing toil. His old enemies, down 
 at Jerusalem, would hear about him and it would be 
 strange if they themselves were not heard from. 
 
 4. Enemies on His Track. This is at Caper- 
 naum, the latter part of March, a. d. 28, and it is the 
 first time we have seen them since he left Judea in 
 December. Jesus met with opposition at Nazareth, 
 but it was personal, fitful, and local, not official or 
 general, though it was well-nigh permanent, for 
 they were ready to reject him the second time. At 
 Jerusalem the opposition was personal, because he 
 had wounded pride, offended prejudices, and inter- 
 fered with unholy, selfish power over victims. But 
 the persons were officials, and they made their op- 
 position an official matter. They probably saw him 
 leave Judea with great pleasure and with the faint 
 hope that they might never hear of him again. But 
 now, in a few weeks, they began to get distressing 
 rumors of what he was saying and doing up in 
 Galilee. 
 
94 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 They felt that he was undermining them, and they 
 really thought the faith of the people was imperiled. 
 All vicious passions united in wearing the garb of 
 piety and demanding his defeat. They saw that the 
 time had come for something more than irregular, 
 personal opposition. They must organize for it and 
 send their shrewdest agents up into Galilee to defeat 
 him. Their purpose was first to silence him, by 
 showing him that he is violating the law and by 
 discrediting him with the people ; if that is not pos- 
 sible, then to bring a charge against him on which 
 their court will silence him; if that will not defeat 
 him, then to kill him, legally or illegally. Such is 
 their purpose, as we learn from the study of the 
 whole history. Their method was to have spies fol- 
 low him, who would work steadily on two lines — to 
 injure his standing and find something in his deeds 
 and utterances upon which they can bring a charge 
 of violating either the Jewish or Roman law. We 
 shall find that they are constantly bringing three 
 charges against him — that he is a bad man, as when 
 they accuse him of being a glutton and drunkard and 
 in league with the prince of the demons; that he 
 violates their ceremonial law as to fastings, purifica- 
 tions and the Sabbath ; that he is guilty of blasphemy 
 in claiming powers which belong only to God, as in 
 proposing to destroy and rebuild the temple in three 
 days, and in forgiving sins, and blasphemy in claim- 
 ing to be equal with God. 
 
 All of this comes out in the subsequent history, but 
 
NINTH DAY 95 
 
 to-day we see them in the house where he heals the 
 paralytic and forgives his sins and they become 
 known to us. 
 
 5. The Occasion. It was a very striking occasion 
 and entirely suitable for their opening attack. It was 
 " one of the days of the Son of Man " whose many 
 deeds can be followed through the single day. 
 Delitzsch has a little book entitled, "A Day in Caper- 
 naum," in which he follows Jesus from the morning 
 to the close of that very day, and draws a vivid pic- 
 ture of this healing of the paralytic. It was a day 
 in which his enemies could see what a tidal wave 
 of popularity was rising around him. It was a 
 typical miracle, just the kind that Jesus loved to 
 work. It was a complete miracle, for the spirit as 
 well as the body of the sick man was in a condition 
 to accept healing. He was able to see in the " sign " 
 that which was signified. Jesus could have the 
 double pleasure and could use the occasion to teach 
 by means of the miracle and show that sin may often 
 account for sickness. Directly or indirectly, much 
 of our sickness can be traced to sin. Oftentimes we 
 are inclined to blame Providence or our conditions 
 when we ourselves are to blame. Had he only 
 cured the man, his enemies could have found no 
 fault, but he pronounced his sins forgiven, the sins 
 that had, no doubt, caused the disease. Then they 
 began to rage within themselves and would soon 
 have gotten to whispering their charge of blasphemy 
 among the people. But Jesus anticipated them. 
 
96 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 6. Their Defeat. He had no sooner pronounced 
 the offensive word than the animus of his enemies 
 disclosed itself. They were boiling with rage and 
 did not need to speak. He knew them when they 
 first came into the dense throng and knew their 
 business. He saw their feelings in their faces, and 
 besides he read into their very souls. He knew the 
 charge they were making against him and would in- 
 dustriously circulate — that, in claiming to forgive 
 sins, he was claiming a prerogative belonging to 
 God alone. They would have been right, if he had 
 been only a man. 
 
 He meets their claim in a perfect way. He reads 
 their thoughts and thus shows that he is something 
 more than a mere man ; he claims to be Son of Man, 
 and that lifts him above their rank, at least in his own 
 estimation. He actually forgave the man's sins, and 
 treated his body as well, as the fellow's happy face 
 showed to the satisfaction of all. If their contention 
 is correct, that only God can forgive sins, then he is 
 God, for he actually does it and the subsequent life of 
 the man must have been incontestable proof to all 
 doubters. 
 
 The defeat of the opposition is complete, yet they 
 are all the more furious for being treated with such 
 destructive irony. Their exposure, however, seems 
 only to themselves, for perhaps no one else in the 
 crowd knows whom he has in mind. They are all 
 the more determined to defeat him, and from this 
 time on they will be just as industrious as he. 
 
TENTH DAY gj 
 
 TENTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF THE FIRST ORGANIZATION 
 Mark j : JJ-ig ; Luke 6 : 12-16 
 
 He is now well into the great period of popularity 
 and, as yet, we hear nothing about organization. 
 But it will come. It is inevitable. 
 
 1. The Necessity. His kingdom consists essen- 
 tially only of the King and his subjects, himself and 
 his disciples. But they are fellow-subjects with each 
 other and must get together, sometime, somehow. 
 " The kingdom of heaven is within " them, but will 
 manifest itself in their outer relations to each other. 
 They have a common life and that will work out 
 for itself an organism, as life must, or perish. To 
 be near to him is to get near each other with many 
 mutual interests that call for understandings and ar- 
 rangements and co-operation. They will be needed 
 by him and he must have methods of using them 
 and training them for the future. The future is in 
 their hands and they must be like an army ready to 
 meet the issues. Yes, some sort of organization will 
 be needed, sooner or later. 
 
 2. The Occasion. It was some weeks after the 
 day of opposition of which we studied, probably mid- 
 summer, a. d. 28. Between that day and this we find 
 such events as the calling of Matthew the publican 
 to be a permanent disciple; the raising of Jairus' 
 daughter and curing of the woman with the issue 
 
98 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 of blood ; healing the deaf and blind demoniac ; most 
 likely the festival at Jerusalem told only by John 
 (chap. 5); the discourse on fasting; the Sabbath 
 controversies in the cases of plucking and eating 
 wheat and healing the man with the withered hand, 
 on the Sabbath Day. The interest was growing 
 more intense, disciples were multiplying, and oppo- 
 sition was becoming more determined, vicious, and 
 skilful. 
 
 At that time, he chose the Twelve. The large 
 number of disciples needed to have more points of 
 contact with him and with each other; the Twelve 
 would give heart to the others and be companions 
 to him when reverses came ; they would help him, as 
 through them he multiplied himself for the urgent 
 and important work to be done in so short a time; 
 they would be ready to take up the work and carry 
 it on, after being trained by him. They would be the 
 embryo church. Great responsibilities will rest on 
 his disciples when he leaves them — preaching the 
 whole truth, training future disciples, putting his 
 teachings into permanent form, in writing. 
 
 Jesus wrote nothing, and seemed indifferent about 
 preserving his sayings. He seemed so, only, for he 
 really adopted the most perfect means of preserving 
 them for the future. He gave them to men who 
 were in the habit of depending on their memories 
 rather than on written memoranda. He gave them, 
 when the emotional condition of the apostles was 
 such as to fix those sayings clearly and surely in 
 
TENTH DAY 99 
 
 their memories. He spoke to them in the privacy 
 of personal interviews and they would remember it 
 all far better than if they heard in an audience. He 
 always spoke with such confidence in them that they 
 felt an added desire to give a right account of him. 
 But we must not forget the promise made, later on, 
 that the Spirit who had guided and aided him would 
 bring all things to their remembrance. He will train 
 them by imparting truth, giving them work to do 
 and, best of all, by imparting himself to them — his 
 purpose, his faith, his love of God and of humanity. 
 
 To quote from Dr. John A. Broadus : " Through- 
 out this great ministry in Galilee, and the periods 
 that will follow after, the reader ought to trace care- 
 fully the progress of the history along several lines : 
 (i) The Saviour's progressive self-manifestation; 
 (2) the gradual training of the Twelve, who are to 
 carry on his teaching and work after his death; (3) 
 the deepening and spreading hostility of the Jewish 
 influential class and official rulers. By constantly 
 observing those parallel lines, it will be seen that the 
 history and teaching of our Lord exhibit a vital 
 growth moving on to an end by him foreseen (Luke 
 12 : 50), when the hostility of the rulers will culmi- 
 nate, as he before the Sanhedrin avows himself to 
 be the Messiah, and the Twelve will be almost pre- 
 pared to succeed him." 
 
 3. Preparation for It. He had been deliberately 
 preparing for it. As soon as he settled in Caper- 
 naum he went along by the lake, one morning, and 
 
IOO THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 called two pairs of brothers, Peter and Andrew, 
 James and John, to be with him constantly. They 
 had been with him a great deal, but had been at lib- 
 erty to return to home and employments at their own 
 pleasure. Now he wants them with him constantly. 
 That day of opposition he had called a man who was 
 sitting at the place where they collected taxes on in- 
 going and outgoing goods, and Matthew went with 
 him. Other disciples might have been asked, at dif- 
 ferent times, to follow him constantly. But certain 
 it is that, when the right moment came, he had a 
 group of men around him suited to his purpose, 
 whom he called the apostles — the Twelve Apostles. 
 They went through three stages — discipleship, con- 
 stant attendance on him for a while, permanent 
 attendance as apostles. 
 
 4. Its Embryo Character. It was the nucleus of 
 the church, though as yet there were no women in it, 
 and the men were being trained for office and were 
 more like children than grown-up people. As far as 
 it goes, it is suited to the life each one has and to the 
 vital relations they sustain to Christ and each other. 
 By and by, under the Spirit's direction, the organism 
 will grow more complex, with its composite mem- 
 bership and its several offices, and become the New 
 Testament church. Even then, organism will be 
 adapted to the life it expresses, and the simplicity 
 of the church will show forth the wisdom of its 
 Founder. They had a treasurer and must have had 
 other divisions of duties. Serving and preparing 
 
TENTH DAY 
 
 for future service — that is what the Twelve are 
 doing from this time on. 
 
 5. The New Bond. The tie that bound them was 
 not the organization ; rather, the tie was what made 
 the organization possible. The common human life 
 is the bond of natural human brotherhood ; the new 
 life in Christ is the bond of the higher brotherhood 
 in him. The disciples had that life by virtue of being 
 disciples ; they entered into the new society by virtue 
 of having that life. In him they formed a new 
 brotherhood, with common life, hopes, purposes, 
 destiny. The ligament of life is the bond of this 
 brotherhood. The church is to be composed of those 
 who are born again and are alive with the life of the 
 kingdom ; the church is the instrument employed by 
 the King to bring men into the kingdom. 
 
 6. The New Law. He stated the law that is to be 
 regnant, both in the wider kingdom and in the nar- 
 rower organization within the kingdom, when he 
 said " Follow me." That law is loyalty to the King, 
 involving both obedience to him and imitation of 
 him. Not loyalty to truth by itself, nor to humanity, 
 with whom we are bound in the bonds of the natural 
 life, but to him, the person, first, and, in consequence 
 of it and in his power, then to truth and humanity 
 too. The apostles recognized the demand as just 
 and kind ; so do we. Being trie source of truth, he 
 is able to give us the only devotion to truth that will 
 survive the daily struggle; being Son of Man and 
 center of humanity, " He established within the life 
 
102 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 of the world his own, as a new center of gravity and 
 cohesion and he thus made personal loyalty to him- 
 self the vital force which was to transform the 
 whole organism of society." 
 
 No other teacher can demand this of his followers 
 and keep the respect of mankind. Less than this 
 Jesus cannot demand. A permanent devotion to 
 truth and an abiding enthusiasm for humanity mark 
 his disciples, cultured and ignorant, impulsive and 
 phlegmatic, old and young. 
 
 7. The New Motive. The only motive that can 
 make the principle of loyalty steadily operative is the 
 motive of love — love for him and for his. When he 
 called them they at once responded. There was no 
 need to stop and ask themselves whether they should 
 do as he demanded. There was something in them 
 that impelled them to do so and they found in his 
 call just what they most deeply desired. Love had 
 first been kindled by him. The root of it was 
 faith — confidence in him. They saw his goodness 
 and something of his greatness. It laid hold of them 
 and won their faith in him. The root of faith bore 
 the fruit of love. His loveliness and lovingness 
 made them similar. That love was the consummate 
 flower of their hearts. It was a new form of love 
 brought to the world, though it is now the common- 
 place of the Christian life. Their motive was so 
 strong that, though they knew it would cost them 
 more than they could tell, they followed him. 
 
 8. The New Vocation. It is service. That is the 
 
TENTH DAY 103 
 
 vocation he came here to fulfil and to that he calls 
 them. He calls himself " minister " and " servant." 
 He calls them " apostles." " Sent," for they shall 
 be sent to serve. Paul (Phil. 2 : 5-11) tells us that 
 Christ had exchanged his place of equality with 
 God for one of service and had been sent to serve 
 God in the field of human life, where we now find 
 him. The apostles are to be sent into the same field 
 of service. While he is training them for it, he will 
 be sending them out on trial trips, now and then. 
 " Man shall have charge of man," as Matheson 
 says, and "man's education is to be the healer of 
 humanity." And so to enter at all upon this vocation 
 is to be animated by this spirit. To be great in it is 
 to be most abundant in its ministry. There is no 
 other way than this. 
 
 9. Its Stability. It is a society that will last 
 through all disciplines and warfares and enter- 
 prises. It will last because of Him with whom they 
 are vitally connected. Its stability is due to its 
 Founder; his character gave him unwavering con- 
 fidence; he never felt the sense of weakness; he 
 never saw disparity between his ideals and his con- 
 duct ; he never made a mistake, never had to repent 
 — his church will last. His choice was wise, for he 
 chose from all social grades and all callings and tal- 
 ents. He gave himself to them, endowing them with 
 his own ideals and purposes, till they believed in him 
 absolutely and unwaveringly and in themselves on 
 his account. 
 
104 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 ELEVENTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF PREACHING FIRST PRINCIPLES : THE SER- 
 MON ON THE MOUNT 
 Matt. J to 7 ; Luke 6 : 17-26 
 
 I. The Urgent Need of Such Instruction. 
 (1) For the New Apostles. It was to be expected 
 that he would talk much with the Twelve whom he 
 had chosen for the honors and responsibilities of 
 leadership in his kingdom, that he would do so, soon 
 after choosing them, and set them right on all the 
 questions of current discussion and misunderstand- 
 ing. The office of apostle was so important that he 
 had planned for it from the beginning, had taken 
 time to study each man's fitness for it, and had spent 
 a whole night in prayer before making his choices 
 final. If care must be taken in filling the office, care 
 must be taken in fitting men into the office. Their 
 growth in fitness would depend on their growth in 
 knowledge of the truths, ideals, responsibilities, and 
 duties of those who constitute Christ's kingdom. 
 But at present those men have the false notions of 
 their time, and they must be taught aright. False 
 views prevailed about the Messiah himself and his 
 kingdom, about the law of Moses, which had been 
 supplanted by the traditions of the rabbis, and about 
 personal morality. All the disciples were saturated 
 with those false views. Morality was external 
 rather than internal, inhering in ceremonials rather 
 
ELEVENTH DAY 105 
 
 than in character. Jesus was constantly training 
 them, and probably went over many of these teach- 
 ings several times, emphasizing what was needed at 
 a particular moment. 
 
 (2) For the Multitudes. The multitudes went 
 with him everywhere, scarcely giving him time to 
 sleep. They shared the common misconception, and 
 were not only ignorant, but excited. They supposed 
 that if he were the Messiah at all, he would be the 
 kind of one they had been taught to expect. They 
 were under the domination of the ideas taught by the 
 rabbis, even if now they were under the spell of his 
 personality. To uncoil the bonds of tradition and 
 wrap them around with the robe of truth, to sober 
 their wild imaginations — that was his duty. If 
 Luke's report (6 : 17-26) is an abridged account of 
 the sermon, then Jesus was followed by a great pro- 
 miscuous crowd, who first went up to the height 
 and followed him down to the level place, between 
 the " Horns of Hattin," where he spoke to them. 
 Matthew only tells of going to that level place. 
 
 We notice that in all of the sermon Christ has in 
 view the current errors and evils from which he was 
 trying to win the people, and that each virtue he en- 
 joins is the opposite of some vice, and each truth the 
 opposite of some error then prevalent. We are 
 indebted to these errors and evils, for they called 
 forth from him a most wonderful statement of the 
 principles that are fundamental and vital for all time. 
 
 (3) For the Officials. Some of them were there 
 
106 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 and they had spies working through the crowd. As 
 the Master sat and talked, with the Twelve sitting 
 right at his feet and the excited multitudes ranged 
 all around him, as far as they could hear his voice, 
 he saw the hostile committeemen from Jerusalem, 
 here and there, scowling, whispering, and seeking to 
 destroy the effect of his words. We can easily find 
 in his words a recognition of the influence of those 
 men on the superficial multitude, and we seem to see 
 in him an honest effort to enlighten the officials 
 themselves, or at least to protect his hearers from 
 their baneful influence. 
 
 2. What He Said. All he talks about in the ser- 
 mon is the kingdom of God and its subjects, as that 
 is all they have been thinking about for months. 
 But almost all they had thought about it was wrong, 
 and now he will try to set them right. 
 
 We can scarcely help seeing two vivid contrasts. 
 One is between Jesus and Moses : the latter went up 
 into the cloud-capped mountain to receive the stern 
 law, amid the thunder and lightnings ; Jesus sat on 
 the sunny slope and poured into listening ears the 
 glorious truths that were to complete the laws of 
 Moses. The other contrast is with the officials, who 
 were always consulting what some old rabbi said, 
 while Jesus spoke out of the original sources and 
 was his own authority, vitalizing what he said with 
 his own perfect life and endowing it with conquering 
 power. Now we will hear what he says. 
 
 (i) That the Kingdom Is a Question of Charac- 
 
ELEVENTH DAY 107 
 
 ter (5 : 3 -12 )- The Jews thought they were in the 
 kingdom because they were children of Abraham, 
 but Jesus said it would be because they felt their 
 poverty of soul and took a lowly place before God. 
 Here are eight virtues mentioned, and the first is 
 lowliness. The kingdom belongs to the lowly who 
 receive it as God's mercy, not to the lofty, who 
 claim it as their due. The next is the virtue of the 
 mourner, to whom his own and others' needs are a 
 sorrow, and whose happiness consists in the unique 
 experience of having God's comfort, personally be- 
 stowed. To be self-satisfied and indifferent is not 
 blessed. The virtue of the meek is that he claims 
 nothing, but gets all — the kingdom of God, the 
 necessary temporal blessings, and the higher values 
 that are in temporal things. The fourth virtue is 
 a quenchless desire for righteousness. The King is 
 righteous ; the kingdom is one of righteousness ; the 
 subject must have a supreme desire for righteous- 
 ness, rather than rulership. The people were already 
 scheming for places of power in the splendid tem- 
 poral kingdom they thought Jesus was about to es- 
 tablish. They will lose, whereas a hunger and thirst 
 for righteousness would put them in harmony with 
 the righteous King, for they will be filled. The 
 merciless are not in the kingdom, but the merciful 
 are. They are like the King; they remember that 
 they have received mercy ; they know that a merciful 
 spirit is the occasion for the display of God's mercy ; 
 they have a disposition that can be happy. Purity of 
 
108 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 heart is another virtue. The Pharisee sought the 
 outward purification of the body, but the heart is of 
 first importance. Impurity of heart is a wide human 
 infirmity. When the heart is pure, there is no film 
 over the spiritual vision and no double vision, but 
 God in Christ is known and made known. 
 
 Then there is the virtue of the peacemaker. The 
 peacemaker is at peace and he actively promotes 
 peace. He will be recognized as a child of God, be- 
 cause he is doing what Jesus, " the Prince of Peace," 
 the eternal Son of God, does, and that will bring 
 happiness. Those who are patient and brave in per- 
 secution are fortunate if the opposition is from 
 wickedness and is for Christ's sake and not for their 
 badness' sake. They get a firmer grip on their in- 
 alienable possession, the kingdom of God ; win spe- 
 cial rewards, and have noble fellowship with the 
 worthies who have suffered likewise. 
 
 Thus the kingdom of God is located within rather 
 than without; is a matter of character rather than 
 circumstances ; is the occasion of great happiness ; 
 is a harmony with God and men, and a victory over 
 evil. The Pharisees taught differently, and Jesus 
 would rescue the people from their evil teachings. 
 
 (2) That the Subjects Have a Mission to the 
 Outside World (5 : 13-16). The two figures that 
 describe their mission are that of " light " and that 
 of " salt." As light's mission is to reveal objects, 
 inspire to activity, and heal maladies, the disciples' 
 mission is to reveal men's sins to them, reveal their 
 
ELEVENTH DAY 109 
 
 King to them, guide them in the path to him, and 
 enspirit them in taking that path. As salt has the 
 double function of an antiseptic, arresting and pre- 
 venting putrefaction, and a seasoning, fitting food 
 to the taste, so the disciples, in the world, are to 
 check its growing sins and season the world with the 
 grace of righteousness. Had it not been for them, 
 the world would have dropped to pieces in moral dis- 
 integration, long ago. 
 
 (3) That They Embody and Complete the Law 
 of Moses (5 : 17-48). The Pharisees said that 
 Christ destroyed the law. They confused the teach- 
 ing of their rabbis with Moses. In fact, those teach- 
 ings had supplanted Moses, and Christ utterly dis- 
 regarded them, though he never violated the law of 
 Moses. He completed that law, fulfilled it, filled it 
 full. He did it by meeting all its requirements, by 
 taking them, past its regulations, back to the prin- 
 ciple from which it came, by taking them past the 
 overt act of disobedience to the wrong thought out 
 of which the act came. He completed Moses. 
 Moses could only say, " Thou shalt not kill, steal, 
 commit adultery," but Jesus says, " Thou shalt not 
 cherish the thought of doing so." The principle of 
 love is underneath the law, and Christ embodies that. 
 The Jews took various oaths by sacred objects, but 
 Jesus says you must make your mere word the 
 trustworthy thing. Moses forbade personal revenge, 
 and Jesus goes farther, and says that no one is to 
 " resist an enemy in the spirit of revenge " nor " re- 
 
110 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 fuse to give to a beggar from a selfish motive." The 
 scribes, though not Moses, did not discourage the 
 hatred of one's enemies, but Jesus says they must 
 act toward enemies as the heavenly Father does, and 
 thus be perfect, as he is. The citizen of Christ's 
 kingdom completes the law of Moses by having 
 right thoughts and acting on the principle of love. 
 
 (4) That Their Righteousness Is Real Rather 
 than Dramatic (6 : 1-18). Three things were re- 
 garded by the Pharisees as preeminently righteous 
 deeds — almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. And they 
 were doing them with as much publicity and repeti- 
 tion as possible, merely to win the reward of pop- 
 ular admiration. And they had their reward. But 
 Jesus says these acts should be done solely for the 
 reward of the Father's approval and blessings. 
 
 (5) That They Put Primary Things First and 
 Secondary Things Second (6 : 19-34). The treas- 
 ures of earth are not to be surrendered, but subor- 
 dinated. We find spiritual values on earth and in 
 heaven, and our interest centers on them. Having 
 the spiritual good and the Father's care, we must 
 dismiss unbelieving anxiety, though we must put 
 forth wise energy, even as birds gather food and 
 flowers grow, without worry. To have the kingdom 
 of God and his righteousness is to possess the pri- 
 mary and permanent and to be assured of all second- 
 ary and temporal blessings. This is substantially 
 " the Simple Life." 
 
 (6) That They are Brotherly (7 : 1-6). Remem- 
 
ELEVENTH DAY III 
 
 bering their own weaknesses and prompted by the 
 vital principle of brotherhood, they must refrain 
 from censorious condemnation of the faults of 
 others. Summing up all the teachings of the Old 
 Testament in one grand, sweeping principle, they 
 must not only refrain from doing to another what 
 they would not have that other do to them, but ag- 
 gressively do the good they would like him to do to 
 them. 
 
 (7) That They Have God's Help Always (7 : 
 7-23). The help needed to perform all these duties 
 will come from God, because he is their Father. 
 But it will come on two conditions — that they per- 
 fectly seek it, for " ask," " seek," " knock " are 
 three words to describe complete effort; that they 
 use the help thus gained from their Father in treat- 
 ing their brothers in the right way, as taught in the 
 " Golden Rule." 
 
 Two warnings are given. He knows the ideal life 
 is to be a struggle, and they must strive, even ago- 
 nize, in entering and continuing it, but God's help 
 is promised. The other warning is that all kinds of 
 false teachers shall seek to turn them away from 
 their course, but they are to be on their guard, apply 
 some simple tests to them, discerning them by their 
 fruits, and be assured that those teachers will receive 
 adequate punishment from God. 
 
 (8) They Are to Be Severely Tested (7 : 24-29). 
 They will endure the test, not because of any claim, 
 but because they do his will ; not because they hear 
 
THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 and appreciate, but because they do what he says. 
 Then they will endure the severest tests. 
 
 3. What He Omitted. He told them the kind of 
 people who would be in the kingdom, but did not tell 
 them how to enter. He taught that elsewhere, as to 
 Nicodemus — " except a man be born again he can- 
 not see the kingdom of God." Those who were in 
 the kingdom had already been born again, and those 
 who sought to practise its duties would at once find 
 that they sorely needed to be born again. He did not 
 say he was the King, but his very speech and bearing 
 proclaimed him King. He said nothing of the atone- 
 ment, yet he abundantly taught it elsewhere and it is 
 the understood basis of his kingdom. 
 
 He spoke in such contrast with the teachers of the 
 day that the people were awed and subdued by him. 
 The Pharisees made morality consist in keeping 
 mere rules, while he made it the embodiment of prin- 
 ciples : the people saw the difference. 
 
 TWELFTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF THE BEGINNING OF PARABLES 
 Matt. 13; Mark 4; Luke 8 
 
 i. A New Method of Teaching. Here we find 
 Jesus changing his method of teaching. Joseph 
 Parker says that in Matthew 13 we enter "the pic- 
 ture gallery of the church." It is probably in the au- 
 tumn of a. d. 28, about the middle of the great 
 
TWELFTH DAY 113 
 
 " Period of Popularity," and the conditions about 
 him are becoming actually critical. He makes two 
 changes — uses a peculiar kind of parable rather than 
 illustrations of all kinds, in general ; uses it alto- 
 gether, rather than occasionally. Those he now 
 uses veil, rather than reveal, his thought, except to 
 those who have been initiated into the secrets or 
 " mysteries " of his truth, or those whose reverent 
 curiosity prompts them to further inquiry. To all 
 others they are confusing and puzzling. 
 
 2. The Old Method. He always used parables, 
 in the general meaning of the term, as all Oriental 
 teachers have always done. A parable is a com- 
 parison, and, in using it, the teacher compares what 
 he wants to teach with what the pupil already knows, 
 and thus the formerly unknown becomes well-known. 
 That is the true pedagogy. The word " parable " 
 comes from two Greek words, " ballo " to cast, and 
 " para " along by the side of. It is something cast 
 along by the side of the truth in order to teach it ; 
 in other words, a comparison. It may be an object 
 of nature or a story. It is the pictorial method, the 
 artistic rather than the argumentative. It is logical, 
 but concretely and not abstractly logical. Jesus al- 
 ways used that method. His truths clothed them- 
 selves in some object of nature or story of life. In 
 his talks, lilies bloomed, birds sang, shepherds moved 
 among confiding flocks, while all the forms of na- 
 ture and the habits and activities of men were molds 
 into which his teachings ran. The rabbis used par- 
 
H4 The disciple and his lord 
 
 ables, but none so simple, so exquisite, so vivid, hav- 
 ing such profound meanings, as those he used. It is 
 claimed that at least one-third of all his sayings take 
 the pictorial form — are, in fact, parables, in the gen- 
 eral sense. But there came a time when he spoke in 
 parables altogether, and in parables of a peculiar 
 kind. 
 
 3. Why He Changed. The change was required 
 by his circumstances. He was constantly talking to 
 three classes of people — the real disciples ; the inquir- 
 ing, though superficial and untrustworthy, multi- 
 tudes ; the watchful, resourceful, vindictive, purpose- 
 ful officials and their representatives. The number 
 of the disciples was increasing ; the multitudes were 
 very large and very excited ; his enemies were more 
 numerous and bold, every day, and were beginning 
 to have some success in poisoning the minds of the 
 multitude against him. 
 
 Notice some of the events since the choosing of 
 the Twelve and the Sermon on the Mount — healing 
 the centurion's servant at Capernaum; raising the 
 widow's son at Nain; the message of inquiry from 
 John the Baptist, now in Herod's dungeon, over at 
 the castle of Machaerus ; the anointing of his feet by 
 the woman who was a sinner; the blasphemous 
 charge of being in league with Beelzebub ; the report 
 that he was insane, and the effort of his mother and 
 brothers to get him away from his work. 
 
 This constant preaching and healing and combat- 
 ing was telling on him and on his work. His enemies 
 
TWELFTH DAY I I 5 
 
 were listening to every word with the hope of hear- 
 ing something treasonable or blasphemous. This 
 demanded the change of method. The disciples, es- 
 pecially the Twelve, must be further taught; the 
 inquiries of the multitudes must be met: it must 
 all be said in the presence of his enemies. If he 
 continued to speak truths, in plainness, it would 
 bring the opposition to a too early culmination or 
 lead the masses to a revolution against Rome, with 
 the hope that he would support and head them. As 
 Orientals go to sleep early and awake early, his work 
 always began with the sunrise. That very day, 
 on which he began his parables, illustrates the situa- 
 tion. That was the day on which they brought 
 against him the blasphemous charge of being in 
 league with the prince of the demons ; the day when 
 the Pharisees demanded a sign and were treated with 
 stinging, yet truthful, satire; the day when his 
 mother and brothers sought to get him away from 
 his work, because his enemies had actively spread 
 the report that he was insane — all that and then these 
 eight wonderful parables of the kingdom in one day. 
 The pulse of Galilee was feverish and he himself 
 must have been at a high nervous tension. 
 
 He now began to speak in parables altogether, 
 and such parables as would puzzle those who sought 
 to do evil, rouse the curiosity of those who would 
 want to inquire into their meaning, and enlighten 
 those who were well enough instructed to see be- 
 neath the veil or had opportunity to get his private 
 
Il6 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 explanations afterward. Thus the parables were 
 prudent, retributive, enlightening. He referred to 
 what was beneath the parables as " mysteries of the 
 kingdom," not something that could not be under- 
 stood, but only understood by the initiated. And 
 he told the apostles that they should understand 
 them because they had been initiated. What he 
 taught about his own Messiahship and his very teach- 
 ings themselves were mysteries to outsiders, but not 
 to the disciples. As Doctor Rhees says, "Jesus meant 
 to teach the teachable as well as to perplex the criti- 
 cal by these illustrations." 
 
 4. What He Taught in the Parables of the 
 Kingdom. There are thirty of his parables preserved 
 to us, spoken in groups at three different periods, 
 between this time and his death, a year and a half 
 later. There is, first, this group, about the kingdom 
 as a whole, and preserved mostly in Matthew 13. 
 Then there is the great group of " the Perean Par- 
 ables," spoken about a year later, over in Perea, and 
 recorded by Luke, in chap. 10 to 17. Lastly, there 
 are the final parables of Judgment, spoken during 
 his last days. We are interested in the group he 
 spoke that first day, because they are a revelation 
 of this current mood and of the current situation, 
 as well as a transcript of his abiding thought. 
 Matthew gives seven and Mark one. There is his- 
 tory in these parables, and biography too. As to 
 his kingdom, he says — 
 
 (1) That It Will Meet with Different Kinds of 
 
TWELFTH DAY I 1 7 
 
 Reception. " The Sower " (13 : 1-8, 18-23). To the 
 inquiring disciples he explained it, while his enemies 
 went away, puzzling their brains over it. Four kinds 
 of hearers, like four kinds of soil, receive its seeds 
 of truth. Dr. Bruce's happy characterization of 
 these classes will be quoted : a. " The spiritually 
 dull." Like the beaten-down path through the 
 field, he is not in contact with the seed, imparts no 
 stimulus to it, does not hold to it when the enemy 
 snatches it away. b. " The inconsiderately impul- 
 sive." As the thin layer of soil on a rock is quickly 
 warmed and soon starts the seed growing, so some 
 will appropriate the promise, without sense of sin or 
 desire for pardon or room for the root of conviction. 
 When the superficial joy fades, a flinty heart re- 
 mains, c. " The preoccupied hearer." Thorns of 
 the soul held previous possession — not the world, 
 but " the cares of this world " ; not riches, but " the 
 deceitfulness of riches " ; not other things, but " the 
 lust of other things," whether he be poor or rich. 
 d. The undivided hearer — not hardened, not super- 
 ficial, not divided. The fruit will vary with capacity 
 and culture and care. 
 
 (2) That It Will Find Evil Growing Within Its 
 Borders, Side by Side With the Good. " The Wheat 
 and Tares " (13 : 24-30, 36-43). As an enemy some- 
 times sows tares in a field, already sown with wheat, 
 that grow up and look like the wheat, so evil has been 
 sown in the world, where Christ's kingdom is strug- 
 gling and Christ is longing for mastery. He does 
 
Il8 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 not, by force, destroy evil men and enterprises at 
 once, because the good are interrelated with them; 
 distinctions are not easily made ; the good will be all 
 the nobler for the struggle with evil. If the evil can- 
 not at once be killed, the good can be steadily culti- 
 vated. 
 
 (3) That It Itself Will Grow. " Parable of the 
 Seed " (Mark 4 : 26-29). Two facts stand out about 
 its growing. First, its growth is spontaneous, be- 
 cause from sources of life within, even as seed, when 
 once planted, will grow of itself, and the farmer 
 can go on sleeping and rising, without further 
 thought about it. Next, it is by stages, even as 
 wheat grows through its periods. It is gradual, yet 
 there are epochs in its history. Its power is not all 
 to be unfolded at once, but that power grows greater 
 with time. 
 
 (4) That It Will Grow Extensively. " The Mus- 
 tard Seed" (13 131, 32). Its beginnings are small, 
 but it is a seed and therefore has life. Its growth 
 will be beyond comparison. It has the attractive 
 power of life itself, as it draws men to its shelter 
 and its activities. That is the way it started in 
 Palestine, in Europe, in America, in China, in 
 Burma and everywhere else. That is the way it still 
 grows. 
 
 ( 5 ) That It Will Grow Intensively. " The Leaven " 
 ( x 3 : 33)- As the leaven, or yeast, permeates the 
 large mass of meal, so shall the truths of the king- 
 dom permeate this world, great in its extent and 
 
TWELFTH DAY I 1 9 
 
 needs. They must be applied to, must penetrate, 
 master and communicate their own quality to the 
 world, thereby transforming it, as the leaven trans- 
 forms the meal. The kingdom must not fear, nor 
 conform to, the world, but must make the world fear 
 and conform to it. 
 
 (6) That to be in the Kingdom of Heaven is the 
 Greatest Earthly Blessing. The " Hidden Treasure " 
 (13 144) and the "Precious Pearl" (13 145, 46) 
 teach that. They had no vaults in those days, and 
 men often hid their treasure in the ground. " The 
 point of the parable is that the kingdom of heaven 
 outweighs in value all else, and that the man who 
 understands this will with pleasure part with all." 
 The pearl merchant was seeking the best, and, find- 
 ing it, was willing to give up all that was necessary to 
 secure it. Seeking the best things in life, we find 
 them when we find the kingdom of heaven, and must 
 subordinate all things to it. 
 
 (7) That It Will Attract Bad Men, Hypocrites 
 and Impostors, who will find it desirable to take ad- 
 vantage of it, for selfish or vicious purposes, as a 
 drag-net catches all kinds of fish, bad as well as 
 good (13 : 47-50). The better it is, the more it will 
 attract hypocrites. But the kingdom will triumph 
 and in the end the bad will suffer, as spiritual 
 miseries are inflicted on them. 
 
 It was natural that, at the end of the parables and 
 their explanation, he should ask if they understood 
 what he had taught, and that he should imply that, 
 
120 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 if they, untrained as they were, understood it, the 
 trained scribes ought to understand it a great deal 
 better. But they did not. A new era in his work 
 will soon begin. 
 
 THIRTEENTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF THE FIRST POPULAR DEFECTION 
 Matt. 14; Mark 6; Luke o : 10-17 ; John 6 
 
 I. The Time and Place. The Scriptures, above 
 referred to, tell of the feeding of the five thousand 
 at the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee, and in 
 the vicinity of the little town of Bethsaida, not the 
 Bethsaida of Andrew and Peter, for that was on the 
 opposite side of the sea. It was on that occasion that 
 the period of popularity reached its crisis and the de- 
 fection began, which was finished the next day over 
 in Capernaum. From that day, his activities were de- 
 voted to the training of the Twelve and preparing 
 them for the greatest crisis of all, only one year in 
 the future. 
 
 It seems clear that it was about the time of the 
 Passover of April, a. d. 29, and perhaps six months 
 after the events of our last lesson. Assuming that 
 the beginning of his exclusively parabolic teaching 
 was in the autumn of a. d. 28, we find such inter- 
 vening events as stilling the tempest on the lake; 
 healing the two Gadarene demoniacs ; journeys over 
 the various parts of Galilee, with teachings and 
 
THIRTEENTH DAY 
 
 healings ; sending out the Twelve, by twos, to assist 
 him in his urgent work and to receive training for 
 their future mission; the death of John the Baptist 
 and the consequent discussion of him and Christ 
 everywhere. Excitement is widespread and intense. 
 The air is electric. A storm is coming. That storm 
 we are now observing and studying. 
 
 2. The Causes, (i) The Opposition of the 
 Rulers is Becoming More Effective. It is a per- 
 sonal war; it is a religious war, waged, as they 
 believe, for themselves, the people, and their God. 
 That is the way they have felt from the beginning 
 and they have never had a moment's thought of re- 
 laxing their efforts till they win a victory. 
 
 As a personal war, they declared it, in their 
 hearts and among themselves, that day he cleansed 
 the temple at Jerusalem. He wounded their pride, 
 offended their prejudices, and weakened their power, 
 by interfering with their income, damaging their 
 standing with the people and revealing their annoy- 
 ing impotence to themselves. It was a fight for life 
 and they were in it for life. 
 
 As a religious war they declared it that same day, 
 as they saw his unauthorized and aggravating 
 course, in violation of the great " system " of cus- 
 toms and traditions which they regarded as divine. 
 They thought they were doing God's service in sup- 
 pressing this pretender. They could not see how he 
 could be the Messiah, or even a forerunner, as so 
 many seemed to take him to be. As they saw it, 
 
122 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 his humble origin ; the place where he was reared ; 
 the kind of company he kept, for they complained 
 that he associated with " publicans and sinners " ; 
 the kind of men he chose for his intimate associates, 
 men without culture, and some of them men of bad 
 repute, as Matthew the publican and Simon the 
 Zealot; his disregard of the traditions of their rab- 
 bis ; his strange, ridiculous ideas about the kingdom, 
 so different from theirs ; his mysterious allusions to 
 himself, implying a conceit which ranked him above 
 Moses and all the other national worthies — all these 
 things were fatally against him, stamping him an 
 enemy to God and man. 
 
 Moreover, he attacked them and he aggravated 
 and incensed them by speaking his puzzling parables 
 on their account, by sending out his illiterate and 
 unlicensed followers to preach and work miracles, 
 by vehemently denouncing them in terrible terms, 
 even more fiercely than John did. They hated him 
 religiously. 
 
 All the leaders of all the sects united in this one 
 thing — Pharisees, whose hypocrisy he exposed; 
 Sadducees, whose aristocratic and conceited luxury 
 was enraged at him for introducing disturbing ideas 
 and taking the part of the unfortunate ; Herodians, 
 who were merely politicians and resented any popu- 
 lar excitement; scribes and lawyers, professional 
 teachers, who hated such plebeian rivals and viewed 
 with wrath the lessening of their authority and privi- 
 leges. They worked together and finally got the tide 
 
THIRTEENTH DAY 123 
 
 of popular feeling turned. After John's death, just 
 before the day we are studying, they grew bolder and 
 more hopeful. They probably expected to enlist 
 Herod's help in destroying John's great friend. 
 John was a popular idol, and when Herod killed him 
 without raising a popular outcry, the leaders must 
 have felt new confidence in being able to treat Jesus 
 in the same way. They had feared the enthusiastic 
 multitudes, but now they took up more hopefully the 
 task of cooling their fever. Their work was having 
 a cumulative power. 
 
 (2) The Mood of the Multitudes Becoming Dan- 
 gerous. It is a mingled mood — continued admira- 
 tion for him, because of his remarkable works; ad- 
 ditional excitement, due to the preaching of the 
 Twelve; the fear and the wonder aroused by the 
 death of John; disappointment with Jesus because 
 he did not preach and lead a victorious kingdom and 
 because they could not use him ; fear of their rulers, 
 whose insidious poison was maddening all their emo- 
 tions. That poison is putting fever into their blood. 
 Their mood will reach a climax soon. 
 
 3. The Events of the Day. (i) His Privacy In- 
 terrupted. He sought privacy with his disciples, over 
 on the northeast coast of the sea, in the quiet moun- 
 tain region. They needed it. They had just come 
 back from their first preaching tour, flushed with 
 victory, and they needed sobering instruction and re- 
 action from their nervous strain. He needed it, for he 
 was wearied from constant giving out and mind and 
 
124 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 body demanded rest. He was pained at the superficial 
 excitement of the people, and would leave them to 
 themselves for a while. He knew what was coming 
 and would spend awhile in communion with his 
 Father and in fellowship with those who loved him 
 best, before starting on the new stage of his career. 
 He had heard of the death of John and his sad 
 thoughts needed privacy. He knew that Herod was 
 inquiring about him and might seek to treat him as 
 he did John, and retirement was prudent. He knew 
 that the Pharisees would take new hope from John's 
 death and renew their efforts, and he would foil 
 them for a short season. So they have quietly gone 
 around the lake to the retired spot selected. 
 
 But some one had seen them going, and the mul- 
 titudes were soon seeking him. The throngs that 
 were spending their time following him were aug- 
 mented by the thousands of pilgrims on their way 
 to the Passover, at Jerusalem, who were full of a 
 palpitating curiosity to see Jesus, hear his words 
 and, most of all, witness his miracles. Most of them 
 were simply excited by the " signs which he did," 
 as John says, and hoped he would at last make 
 himself the national Deliverer they had dreamed of. 
 So eager were they, that when he looked out from 
 the slope of the hill he saw them coming in boats 
 from as far as Tiberias, and many walking around 
 the upper end of the sea — " five thousand men, be- 
 sides women and children." His privacy was at an 
 end. 
 
THIRTEENTH DAY 125 
 
 (2) His Kindness Called Forth. When he saw 
 them he " had compassion on them," which means 
 that he felt all they felt. He saw they were as 
 sheep not having a shepherd, the prey of designing 
 leaders, of their own false notions about the Mes- 
 siah, of their own superficial emotions. Then he en- 
 tered into their state, felt their lostness, woes, way- 
 wardness, weakness. His desire to rest was not so 
 strong as his desire to help, and he came forth from 
 his retreat. His compassion was sensitive, taking in 
 their whole condition in detail ; it was sensible, min- 
 istering to them in wise ways. He did three things : 
 There were many sick people — he healed them ; they 
 were a shepherdless flock — he taught them; they 
 grew hungry — he fed them. 
 
 (3) His Wisdom Revealed. It was wise to heal 
 and teach and feed them. It was consummately 
 wise, the way he did it. In feeding them he discloses 
 to us five great laws of work in the kingdom, (a) 
 He uses the disciples in discovering the supplies they 
 had on hand, organizing the crowds into companies, 
 and then serving them — the law of co-operation. 
 (b~) He began with what they had — the law of con- 
 tinuity, as Phillips Brooks has so happily phrased it. 
 (c) He did it in systematic fashion — the law of or- 
 der, (d) He gave thanks — the law of thanksgiving 
 — in recognizing the source of all supplies, (e) He 
 allowed nothing to be wasted — the law of parsimony, 
 as the scientists would say. 
 
126 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 (4) Their Temper Tested. He saw that their mo- 
 tives and hopes were purely temporal, fixed on 
 things that are external, as ministry to the body or 
 to the desire for power. Jesus not only designed to 
 feed them, but to test them and distinguish the selfish 
 and worldly from the genuine — those who would 
 argue that, because he could give bread to the hun- 
 gry, he could give liberty and power to the nation, 
 from those who could see that, because he could feed 
 hungry mouths, he could satisfy hungry hearts. 
 Jesus had come to the time when he owed it to them 
 to dash their hopes or confirm them. The occasion 
 and the miracle were suited to the purpose. The test 
 succeeded. They at once said : " This man can lead 
 us in a revolution against Rome and restore our na- 
 tion to its supremacy. He who can draw such 
 throngs after him can command the loyalty of the 
 people ; he who can feed us thus can keep the com- 
 missary supplied. Hurrah for the king, the long- 
 promised Son of David!" They had argued the 
 wrong way and they tried to compel him to accept 
 the office. 
 
 (5) Their Purpose Rebuked. It was a distinct 
 rebuff when he quickly sent his disciples away in a 
 boat to Capernaum, " constraining," even compelling 
 them to get away from the evil contagion, and he 
 himself slipped out of the crowd and went up into 
 the mountain alone. They probably felt it, but did 
 not entirely turn against him till the next day, over 
 in Capernaum. 
 
THIRTEENTH DAY 127 
 
 (6) Their Motives Uncovered. It was the next 
 day. He saw that he could lead them no farther in 
 the truth ; that they saw in the bread a " sign " only 
 of " more bread " and temporal power, instead of the 
 sign of bread for the soul and spiritual power ; that 
 they were hopelessly carnal as yet. He owed it to 
 himself, to his true disciples and to the false, to put 
 an end to the farce. And he did it. He did it by 
 telling them that they needed bread for the soul, 
 that he brought that bread down to them from 
 heaven, that, in fact, he was that bread. 
 
 (7) Their Discipleship Ended. They suddenly saw 
 that he was not the Messiah they wanted, and turned 
 against him completely, some of them joining his 
 enemies in opposing him, some sinking back into the 
 stolid life of the past, some to brood over it all, and 
 finally believe on him. The Twelve clung to him 
 with added attachment, especially when they felt the 
 pathos of his disappointment with the multitudes. 
 The parable of the Sower had been illustrated. The 
 multitudes were the stony-ground hearers. 
 
IV 
 
 PERIOD OF DECLINING 
 POPULARITY 
 
 A. In the North. B. In the South. C. The last week. 
 
 In the North. April A. D. 29 to October A. D. 29. 
 
 72. "Withdrawal into the North. Matt. 15 : 21 ; Mark 7 : 
 
 24; John 7 : I. 
 
 73. Heals Syro-Phoenician's daughter. Matt. 15 : 22-28 ; 
 
 Mark 7 : 25-30. 
 
 74. Returns through Decapolis. Matt. 15 : 29-31 ; Mark 
 
 7 s 3!-37- 
 
 75. Feeds four thousand. Matt. 15 : 32-39 ; Mark 8 : 1-9. 
 
 76. Trouble with his enemies about a sign. Matt. 16 : 
 
 1-12 ; Mark 8 : 10-21. 
 
 77. Heals a blind man. Mark 8 : 22-26. 
 
 78. Another journey North. Matt. 16 : 13 ; Mark 8 : 27. 
 
 79. Peter's great confession. Matt. 16 : 13-20; Mark 8 : 
 
 27-30; Luke 9 : 18-21. 
 
 80. He foretells his death and resurrection. Matt. 16 : 
 
 21-28 ; Mark 8 : 31 to 9 : I ; Luke 9 : 22-27. 
 
 81. The Transfiguration. Matt. 17 : 1-13 ; Mark 9 : 2-13 ; 
 
 Luke 9 : 28-36. 
 
 82. The demoniac boy. Matt. 1 7 : 14-20 ; Mark 9 : 14-29 ; 
 
 Luke 9 : 37-43. 
 
 83. Private return to Galilee. Mark 9 : 30. 
 
 84. He again foretells death and resurrection. Matt. 17 : 
 
 22, 23 ; Mark 9 : 30-32 ; Luke 9 : 43-45. 
 
 85. Pays temple tax at Capernaum. Matt. 17 : 24-27. 
 
 86. Enjoins humility and forgiveness. Matt. 18 ; Mark 
 
 9 : 33-50 ; Luke 9 : 46-50. 
 
 87. Requires supreme submission to him. Matt. 8 : 19-22 ; 
 
 Luke 9 : 57-62. 
 
 88. Chided by his brothers. John 7 : 2-9. 
 
 89. Goes privately to the feast. John 7 : 10 ; Luke 9 : 
 
 Si-56. 
 
FOURTEENTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF FLIGHT INTO GENTILE TERRITORY 
 Matt, ij : 1-28 ; Mark 7 : 1-30 
 
 1, Lost Popularity. The bubble of popular en- 
 thusiasm had burst. To Jesus it must have been 
 both a relief and a sorrow — relief, that the people 
 were disillusioned, that the apostles had borne the 
 strain so well, and that he could now devote himself 
 to more substantial work; sorrow, that evil seemed 
 on the increase and souls were being led astray. He 
 must have felt lonely. Even before this, as Mathe- 
 son says, " He felt alone amid the crowd, because 
 the ideal of the crowd was miles distant from his 
 ideal. There is no loneliness like the separation in 
 sympathy — the solitude of the soul." He had been 
 feeling this, and now it is like starting life anew. 
 
 2. The New Inventory. Of the thousands who 
 followed him many miles and proclaimed their devo- 
 tion every day, twelve are all he can now call his 
 own. That is what eighteen months of the most 
 promising work yield him. And even one of the 
 Twelve is a traitor already, and Jesus knew it; 
 he had frankly told them, without identifying the 
 man, that one of them had a devil's spirit in him. 
 This he did, in order to stimulate each one to whole- 
 some self-examination and self-distrust and in order 
 
 131 
 
132 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 to awaken the guilty one to repentance. The strange 
 character and career of Judas will come up for study 
 in a later lesson, and we can only stop now to note 
 that Jesus knew him, but treated him as a true 
 disciple. 
 
 These Twelve do not quite complete the inventory, 
 for in many homes in Judea and Galilee his name 
 was a household word and he was cherished as a 
 benefactor whom no tongue of malice could dis- 
 credit, and among those thoughtless thousands who 
 turned away from him at Capernaum were many 
 who would, in days to come, remember him and find 
 him their Lord and Saviour. He knew that, and his 
 hope fed on the prospect. But now there are only 
 the Twelve with him as he starts on another stage 
 of work. 
 
 3. The New Task. We have taken notice of the 
 three processes, going on steadily through all the 
 Galilean ministry — his increasing revelation of him- 
 self, the increasing opposition of his enemies, and the 
 completer training of the apostles. From this time 
 on his most important and profitable work will lie 
 in training the Twelve. He will devote his time 
 chiefly to that, and only incidentally to the old work 
 of teaching, preaching, and working miracles. He 
 must train them as fast as possible. 
 
 They need his special, undivided care just now. 
 The world is in confusion, their brains are in a whirl, 
 and he alone seems entirely trustworthy to them. 
 Their views about his kingdom and the Jewish nation 
 
FOURTEENTH DAY 133 
 
 are scarcely less crude, or more spiritual, than those 
 of the multitude, yet they trust him as those do not. 
 The break between Jesus and the multitude dis- 
 tressed and disappointed them, but still they knew he 
 could be trusted. The death of John the Baptist 
 must have tested them severely. They knew Jesus 
 loved and respected John and felt indebted to the 
 eagle-spirited forerunner, and they could not well 
 understand how he could neglect him and leave him 
 in prison to suffer a brutal martyrdom because he did 
 his duty bravely. Still they knew that there were 
 some deep reasons for his conduct and that he could 
 be implicitly trusted. They were simple-hearted and 
 single-hearted ; they had no other one to go to ; they 
 knew that he had power to bestow life on them. 
 Their confession of their faith in him — " to whom 
 else shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal 
 life " — must have cheered him greatly. They had 
 been faithful in severe tests that left them with noth- 
 ing but their confidence in him, and they needed 
 the strength that would come from his undivided 
 attention to them. They clung to his matchless per- 
 sonality and now must be brought further under its 
 spell. They are ignorant and need teaching. They 
 must get more knowledge of him, his kingdom, his 
 plans, his Father. He holds them and must meet 
 their growing demands. His personal teaching, his 
 further works of power, his incomparable skill in 
 exposing error and malice, will all bind them closer 
 to him. 
 
134 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 4. The New Territory. From this time he 
 avoids familiar scenes and goes as much as possible 
 into strange places, usually among the Gentiles. We 
 perceive three reasons for that. The opposition of 
 the rulers is growing more bold and confident, since 
 they succeeded in turning away the masses from 
 him. Herod seems to have designs against him, and 
 prudence requires withdrawal into territory that 
 will at least be neutral. The disciples need a care 
 which he cannot give them, amid such distractions 
 and dangers as he would now find anywhere in 
 Galilee. He withdraws into Gentile territory, and 
 for the next few months will be moving about, occa- 
 sionally touching Jewish lands, but only quickly, and 
 usually to be received with coldness and hostility. 
 
 5. The New Attack. It appears to have been 
 after the time of the collapse of the popular enthu- 
 siasm and before his withdrawal from Galilee. It 
 was made by emissaries from Jerusalem, who took 
 advantage of the situation to drive their old charge 
 home with new force and fury — the same old charge 
 that had been made again and again, that he despised 
 the traditions of the rabbis. Only one specification 
 was given, eating without washing the hands. It 
 was not a question of cleanliness that was raised, 
 but of ceremonial. His reply was that their tradi- 
 tions led them to violate the law of God, had made 
 them hypocritical and formal rather than real and 
 hearty, had led them to violate law by mere trick of 
 words. Then he uttered the principle that the state 
 
FOURTEENTH DAY 135 
 
 of the heart is the all-important matter. They had 
 often brought two other specific charges, about fast- 
 ing and the Sabbath. He taught that there was no 
 good in fasting except as it enabled one to fix his 
 thoughts in self-abasement on God, rather than upon 
 his fellow-men, whose admiration he might win by 
 his seeming goodness. He did works of mercy on 
 the Sabbath, and when they complained he taught 
 that he was not violating the law of Moses, though 
 he might be violating their petty regulations; that 
 even if he were, he was Lord of the Sabbath Day 
 and could use it in the interest of man, in any way 
 he saw fit. That enraged them more. To this new 
 attack he replies, making the heart the seat of the 
 motives, and thus he sets free all who are bound 
 by senseless ceremony. It is indeed proclaiming 
 liberty to the captive. 
 
 6. The New Touch with Humanity. It is up 
 in the Gentile lands of Tyre and Sidon, along the 
 prosperous seashore. It was the first time he was 
 ever outside of the general Jewish territory, so far 
 as we know. It has been conjectured that he had 
 gone into the distant East, in his growing youth, to 
 study their system of faith and philosophy, but it is 
 only a conjecture, with very little in its favor. He 
 had seen foreigners passing through Palestine, but 
 now he is among foreign people and institutions and 
 customs, though they spoke a language similar to his 
 own, and, along the borders, must have spoken in 
 his own tongue. 
 
I36 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 They had different ideals, mostly those of pleasure 
 and self-gratification, yet they showed a quick appre- 
 ciation of his worth, untrammeled by cruel forms. 
 It gave him pleasure and it gave him hope for the 
 salvation of mankind. The Gentiles offered a far 
 more encouraging field for the gospel than the Jews, 
 and the question arises, Why did he not devote him- 
 self to them entirely from this time? His gospel 
 was for them, but his personal mission was to the 
 Jews, and the gospel must reach them through the 
 Jews. Loyalty to his Father's will keeps him with 
 the latter. Besides, to change now would be inter- 
 preted to mean resentment against his own people. 
 As Dawson says, " The more bitterly the Pharisees 
 were opposed to him, the more necessary did it seem 
 to affirm his claims in Jerusalem, which was the 
 very citadel of Pharisaism." It was a valuable ex- 
 perience to him, and he seemed after that to find 
 special pleasure in thinking of the Gentiles. 
 
 7. The New Recruit. It was a woman, and she 
 was a Syro-Phoenician, a mixture of Syrian, Phoeni- 
 cian, and Canaanite bloods. She evidently became a 
 personal follower, because she had the faith of the 
 faithful when she asked him to cure her daughter, 
 possessed of a devil. Jesus was not up there to work, 
 only to rest and teach his disciples. His personal 
 mission was not to the Gentiles, but to the Jews. To 
 change his mission would be disloyalty to his Father 
 and his plan. Miracles were an inseparable part of 
 his mission. To work a miracle up among the Gen- 
 
FOURTEENTH DAY 137 
 
 tiles is to open his mission among them, and that he 
 cannot do. He cannot do it, unless she shows a 
 faith like that which Abraham had, which would 
 constitute her a Jew in the real, though not in the 
 outward, sense. He is so anxious to bless her, that 
 he seeks, by a very severe, and seemingly unkind, 
 method, to develop her faith so as to be able to clas- 
 sify her as a spiritual Jew. He succeeds. Her faith 
 rises to the sublime. It is a lowly faith, as she is 
 willing to be called a dog as compared with the 
 Jews. It is intelligent, for it constructs a resistless 
 argument, thus : " If I am a little house-dog, then 
 you must give me a blessing, for two reasons : those 
 little dogs are always fed with crumbs from the 
 table ; the master owns them and therefore ought to 
 take care of them." It is mighty and prevails. It 
 wins his praise. Here is a new recruit, who will 
 never forget him, a type of many more yet to be 
 won. 
 
 8. The New Teaching. The effect of his experi- 
 ences in Gentile territory will be seen in his bearing 
 and his teaching. Here we get glimpses of the truth, 
 afterward expanded by Paul, that he is not the true 
 Jew who is simply one in blood and ceremonial, but 
 in his spirit, whether he has Jewish blood in his veins 
 or not. He brings away a fine appreciation of the 
 Gentile spirit. He will often have them in mind, and 
 will say, " If the mighty works that have been done 
 in Capernaum had been done in Tyre and Sidon, 
 they would have repented long ago." In some of his 
 
I38 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 parables of judgment upon the Jews, he will allude 
 hopefully to the Gentiles. He thinks of their ca- 
 pacity for salvation, and in his preaching he will set 
 forth the large love of God for mankind, as such. 
 The journey has benefited both him and the dis- 
 ciples. 
 
 FIFTEENTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF THE FORETASTE OF GLORY 
 Matt. 16 : 13 to 17 : 20 ; Mark 8 : 10 to 9 : 2g ; Luke g : 18-43 
 
 i. The Time and Place. It was probably in the 
 early autumn of a. d. 29, not long before the feast 
 of Tabernacles, which occurred that year October 
 11, as nearly as we can estimate it. This was his 
 second and last journey to the north of Jewish ter- 
 ritory. He went away, not to work miracles nor to 
 teach the people, but to have a quiet time, instructing 
 his disciples and enjoying their grateful company. 
 
 Twenty-five miles north of the Sea of Galilee he 
 led them, till they were under the shadow of Mt. 
 Hermon, the only snow-clad summit near Palestine. 
 There they entered a new civilization, Roman in- 
 stead of Hebrew. The city of Caesarea Philippi, re- 
 built by Philip the tetrarch, and named for himself 
 and Caesar Augustus, lay at the foot of the mountain, 
 reaching, by splendid villas, far up the terraced side 
 and crowned by a splendid castle on the heights. 
 Nature worship was provided for, in a famous 
 
FIFTEENTH DAY 1 39 
 
 grotto, dedicated to the god Pan, and in a white 
 marble temple erected in honor of Augustus Caesar. 
 Picturesque beauty, kindly quiet, and encouraging 
 safety awaited them in that region. 
 
 There, on the summit of the mountain, a most 
 marvelous experience was given to him and three 
 of his apostles, an experience whose full meaning 
 could be understood only by them. And yet it has 
 been written down for our instruction. It was vitally 
 related to the experiences through which he and they 
 had been passing for months, and especially since 
 they started on this northward journey. In fact, in 
 the words of another, it was " the final sequence in 
 a chain of causes." 
 
 2. The Nature of His Experience. The glory 
 of Jesus was his character, which had been growing, 
 without blemish, into its perfections. That glory 
 was partially visible to all who had eyes to see. As 
 John said, " And we beheld his glory, glory as of the 
 only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." 
 Men who heard or saw him felt that there was a 
 beauty and a splendor in him entirely unusual, and 
 they paid him the tribute of ardent admiration or 
 extreme dislike. But that glory of his inner char- 
 acter could not have the satisfaction of a perfect ex- 
 pression of itself, owing to two obscuring limitations 
 — that of the body and that of the environment. 
 Had he possessed a body capable of raying forth all 
 the splendors within him, and had he lived in an 
 environment with glories corresponding to his own, 
 
140 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 then such experiences would have been normal and 
 common. 
 
 On Mt. Hermon, God made it possible for the 
 glory, pent up within him, to stream forth, in its 
 appropriate purity and beauty. He did it by remov- 
 ing those two limitations, by giving the inner spirit 
 power to shine through the body and by constructing 
 for Jesus a temporary environment of glory that 
 would meet and match the glory shining out from 
 his person. It was moral light from within, break- 
 ing into physical manifestation on his body, as the 
 invisible electricity breaks into view on the carbon 
 point. God let down a bit of heaven, as an en- 
 vironment for Jesus : the light itself, the heavenly 
 visitors, God himself, whose presence was indicated 
 in the symbolic cloud and in the reassuring voice. It 
 was done when this bit of heaven could be substi- 
 tuted for the earthly environment most completely — 
 at night, when earthly objects are shut from the 
 gaze ; on the mountain, where all sounds are silenced 
 and the rare and lofty air brings elation to the spirit ; 
 in the presence of the few who would be most nearly 
 in sympathy with the scene. This was the experi- 
 ence he was allowed to have, at the moment when he 
 needed it, and the disciples needed to witness it. 
 
 3. The Need of It. ( 1 ) He Needed It. He had 
 been having depressing experiences, till two heavy 
 thoughts filled his mind, one about himself, one 
 about his disciples. His treatment by the people was 
 severe, for they had been adding insult to injury. 
 
FIFTEENTH DAY I4I 
 
 After the journey into the regions of Tyre and 
 Sidon, he swung back and touched Galilee again, 
 only to find coldness and to hasten away on this 
 trip. That wounded him. On his way, while still 
 in Jewish territory, and, prompted by sympathy, he 
 healed a blind man, and that brought on a fierce as- 
 sault from the Pharisees, who demanded that he 
 show his credentials and give some " sign " that 
 he was authorized to do such things. They were 
 unusually bold and, in their confidence, he saw that 
 they had popular reenforcement. It wounded him 
 to see that and to have to rebuke them in such a stern 
 way as he did. He learned also that the people who 
 once thought of him as a Messiah and king were 
 now thinking of him only as a prophet, some one of 
 the old prophets come to life. That also wounded 
 him. He had depressing memories. 
 
 Such depressing anticipations too! He has been 
 rejected in Galilee; he will be rejected in Jerusalem, 
 at the next Passover. He has been cast out ; he 
 will be killed. He could not think of the past 
 or the present, of himself, of the disciples or of the 
 people, without thinking of the tragedy com- 
 ing on. He has known it, but now it is so near, 
 so awful, he cannot help thinking of it every mo- 
 ment. The very idea is crushing, that the people, 
 whom God organized into a nation, taught, trained, 
 and protected, for the one purpose of welcoming 
 him, had not only rejected him, through their offi- 
 cers and religious leaders, but had deliberately de- 
 
142 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 cided, and planned, to kill him ! He is truly becom- 
 ing the " man of sorrows." His face takes on the 
 lines of his care and the disciples themselves must 
 have felt the gloom of his spirit, even before he told 
 them he was to die. 
 
 The other depressing thought was about his dis- 
 ciples. They had been growing as they saw his 
 works, yielded to the influence of his personal char- 
 acter, and received his constant and gracious instruc- 
 tions. But their very growth brought him new 
 anxiety, for it meant that he must now tell them the 
 secret he had been anxious to share with them for a 
 long time, but had only now found them ready to 
 receive. Their very confidence in him gave him 
 deep concern, for it was the only bond that bound 
 them to him — their notions being almost as crude 
 and wrong as the notions of the populace. Only one 
 thing was clear to them — that he was to be trusted. 
 He tries to enlighten them, but after they have made 
 the wonderful confession they are still shockingly 
 ignorant. Because they have made some growth 
 and because he is endeavoring to get them ready for 
 the trying future, they are now to have a new ex- 
 perience, and enter on a new stage in their growth. 
 That adds to his anxiety. 
 
 The new work he is doing for them is depressing. 
 It is breaking sad news to them about his death; 
 imposing on them the new law of self-sacrifice and 
 cross-bearing; charging them with the new mission 
 of making known the conditions of salvation to men. 
 
FIFTEENTH DAY 1 43 
 
 The great confession that Peter made for them all, 
 just six days before the Transfiguration, was grate- 
 ful to him, but it was the signal that he must tell 
 them all these sad, disappointing things. 
 
 Those six days were probably spent in talking 
 with them about the necessary connection between 
 his death and his work as Messiah. They cannot 
 understand it and that adds to his gloom. He saw 
 great possibilities, but also great weaknesses and 
 inconsistencies, in them. Though Peter was rock, 
 he was like sand; though the Father in heaven was 
 speaking in his confession, Satan's voice was in his 
 rebuke of his Master. And all were weak. Though 
 they confessed him as the Messiah, he knew they 
 saw in him a wrong sort of Messiah and forbade 
 their speaking of him, till they could speak more 
 accurately. Yes, Jesus needed that experience. 
 
 (2) They Needed to Witness the Transfiguration. 
 They were at a crisis and were in peril. There was 
 the crisis that comes from new insight and knowl- 
 edge. Jesus asked them what the people in general 
 and what they themselves, thought of him, partly be- 
 cause he wanted their sympathy, but chiefly because 
 he wanted them to crystallize their own convictions 
 by expressing them. Their reply brought him three 
 items of information — that the people were not now 
 considering him a king, but an old prophet risen 
 from the dead; that his many-sidedness was re- 
 flected in the popular estimates of him, for his re- 
 bukes reminded them of Elijah and John, his tender- 
 
144 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 ness suggested Jeremiah, while his pictorial method 
 reminded them of Daniel and Ezekiel, thus showing 
 that he comprehended them all in his person; that 
 the apostles had risen to a new conception of him, 
 though not the highest. They said he was not only 
 a prophet but the Christ, God's son. But still they 
 had never imagined that he must be rejected. What 
 Peter said was substantially what Philip said to 
 Nathanael, and what Peter had confessed, when the 
 multitudes left Jesus at Capernaum, but there was a 
 fuller and a truer content in the statement now. 
 
 The crisis that came from new honors. He lov- 
 ingly told them their convictions came from God 
 and that, because he embodied such faith and con- 
 fidence, Peter, whose character was crystallizing 
 into rock, should be the first stone to be laid in the 
 spiritual structure which he now for the first time 
 mentions, his church. Peter afterwards speaks of 
 the temple made of living stones, into which we are 
 all built, but he was the first stone. Christ builds 
 with persons and he put the right persons into the 
 foundation. 
 
 The crisis of new responsibilities. Their rabbis 
 held the keys, the power to prohibit and permit. The 
 apostles, through Peter, were given the power to 
 make known the conditions of entrance into the 
 kingdom, with the assurance that the faithful dis- 
 charge of that duty would receive heaven's ap- 
 proval. 
 
 The crisis that comes from shocking truths. By 
 
FIFTEENTH DAY I45 
 
 his acts, he had contradicted all their ideas, and yet 
 they clung to him. When he tells them that suffer- 
 ing, persecution, and death are not only inevitable, 
 but necessary to his success, it almost kills them. 
 Two things saved them — their devotion to him and 
 his assurance that it would not be all — that some- 
 thing else will follow. He had not dared say this 
 sooner. He dreads to say it now. But he must. 
 Peter's rebuke was impudent. It was the echo of 
 the voice of the tempter, in the wilderness, who 
 sought to ruin him by offering him the allegiance 
 of the world, without winning it by sacrifice and the 
 cross. 
 
 The crisis from new hardships. He not only dis- 
 closed the cross awaiting him, but a cross for them 
 as well. They had thought he would give his fol- 
 lowers ease and luxury, but he says they must deny 
 themselves what is wrong, give themselves to what 
 is right, at any cost, even to the point of self-sacrifice 
 and courageously follow him everywhere and al- 
 ways. It is not only to give up sin for Christ, but 
 give up self to Christ. 
 
 4. The Significance of the Transfiguration. 
 ( 1 ) To Him. The presence of Moses and Elijah as- 
 sured him that, though the rulers rejected him, he 
 was carrying out the ideals and finishing the work 
 of the men who most truly built the nation, the law- 
 giver and the prophet ; that he was thus received by 
 the true Israel, though rejected by the false ; that his 
 death was approved by the law and the prophets as 
 
I46 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 the means of reigning over them ; that heaven, from 
 which they came, understood, and sympathized with, 
 the mystery of his sufferings. This cheered him. 
 
 The presence of his Father, as shown by the cloud 
 and the voice, expressed God's love and approval, 
 as on two other critical occasions God spoke in an 
 audible voice. The voice gave him authority and 
 expressed Fatherly love. This composed his troubled 
 soul. 
 
 The glory itself meant to Jesus that whatever 
 might happen to him, truth and righteousness and 
 love were embodied within him, and that that of 
 which this was only a foretaste belonged to him. 
 He had known that glory in the past ; he is to know 
 it again. 
 
 (2) To the Disciples. They saw that his char- 
 acter, and not his circumstances, constituted his true 
 majesty ; that his authority was supreme, since it was 
 affirmed by the voice of God ; that there was a pur- 
 pose in his death, and it was an achievement rather 
 than a fatality, since that was the sole theme of the 
 conversation between him and the heavenly visitors ; 
 that all such joyous experiences equip them to min- 
 ister to others, for there were troubled people at the 
 foot of the mountain, awaiting their sympathetic and 
 heavenly help. 
 
IV 
 
 PERIOD OF DECLINING 
 POPULARITY 
 
 Continued 
 B. In the South. October A. D. 29 to March 31, A. D. 30. 
 
 90. At the feast of Tabernacles. John 7 : 11-52. 
 
 91. Claims to be the Light of the world. John 8 : 12-20. 
 
 92. His relation to God. John 8 : 21-30. 
 
 93. Teachings on true freedom. John 8 : 31-59. 
 
 94. The blind man healed. John 9 : I— 41. 
 
 95. Discourse about the Good Shepherd. John 10 : 1-2 1. 
 
 96. The Seventy sent forth. Luke 10 : 1-24. 
 
 97. The Good Samaritan. Luke 10 : 25-37. 
 
 98. In the home of Mary and Martha. Luke 10 : 38-42. 
 
 99. Teachings about prayer. Luke II : 1-13. 
 
 100. The blasphemous accusation. Luke 11 : 14-36. 
 
 101. At breakfast with a Pharisee. Luke II : 37-54. 
 
 102. Warnings and instructions. Luke 12. 
 
 103. The necessity of repentance. Luke 13 : 1-9. 
 
 104. The woman healed on the Sabbath. Luke 13 : IO-2I. 
 
 105. Asked whether few are saved. Luke 13 : 22-30. 
 
 106. Warned against Herod. Luke 13 : 31-34. 
 
 107. At the feast of Dedication. John 10 : 22-42. 
 
 108. At a chief Pharisee's table. Luke 14 : 1-24. 
 
 109. Discourse on Counting the Cost. Luke 14 : 25-35. 
 no. Three parables about lost things. Luke 15. 
 
 111. Two parables about wealth. Luke 16. 
 
 112. Forgiveness and faith. Luke 17 : I-IO. 
 
 1 13. The raising of Lazarus. John 1 1 : 1-46. 
 
 114. The Sanhedrin plot his death. John II : 47-53. 
 
 115. He withdraws to Ephraim. John II : 54. 
 
 116. He heals ten lepers. Luke 17 : n-19. 
 
 117. The coming Messianic reign. Luke 17 : 20-37. 
 
1 1 8. The importunate widow. Luke 18 : 1-8. 
 
 119. The Pharisee and Publican. Luke 18 : 9-14. 
 
 120. Teaching concerning divorce. Matt. 19 : 1-12 ; Mark 
 
 10 : I-I2. 
 
 121. Blessing little children. Matt. 19 : 13— 15 ; Mark 10 : 
 
 13-16; Luke 18 : 15-17. 
 
 122. Rich young ruler and riches. Matt. 19 : 16 to 20 : 
 
 16 ; Mark 10 : 17-3 1 ; Luke 18 : 18-30. 
 
 123. He foretells his crucifixion. Matt. 20 : 17-19 ; Mark 
 
 10:32-34; Luke 18: 31-34. 
 
 124. Ambition of James and John. Matt. 20 : 20-28; 
 
 Mark 10 : 35-45. 
 
 125. Two blind men near Jericho. Matt. 20 : 29-34; 
 
 Mark 10 : 46-52 ; Luke 18 : 35-43. 
 
 126. He visits Zaccheus. Luke 19 : 1-10. 
 
 127. Parable of the Pounds. Luke 19 : 11-27. 
 
 128. He reaches Jerusalem, Friday, March 3 1, A. D. 30. 
 
 Luke 19 : 28 ; John II : 55 to 12 : I. 
 
SIXTEENTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF THE FIRST OFFICIAL ATTEMPT ON HIS 
 
 LIFE 
 
 Luke 9 : 51-36; John 7 : 10-36 
 
 It was in Jerusalem, at the feast of Tabernacles, 
 October, a. d. 29. That was the annual thanksgiving 
 festival, when the people lived in tabernacles or tents 
 for seven days, in memory of the hardships of their 
 tent life in the wilderness and in grateful recogni- 
 tion of the completion of their harvest. It was not 
 long after the Transfiguration, and we must glance 
 backward to see the meaning of the intermediate 
 events as they are reflected in him. The Transfig- 
 uration may be taken as " the sublime preface to the 
 closing scenes," the preparation for six months more 
 of varied and costly work. 
 
 1. His New Crisis. After returning from Cses- 
 area Philippi, he was to find no place ready to re- 
 ceive him; in fact, there was no place that would 
 not be apt to reject him. Jerusalem led in rejecting 
 him the first year of his ministry and was ready to 
 repeat the rejection; Nazareth followed, in brutal 
 fashion ; then in a district on the seashore, the whole 
 population besought him to leave; now all Galilee 
 was indifferent or scornful toward him, especially 
 Capernaum and Bethsaida; even Samaria had been 
 
 149 
 
150 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 infected with the virus of hostility. At first, the 
 officials alone opposed him ; now the populace, whom 
 he used to fall back on, are no more with him; 
 Herod too, after his success in suppressing John, 
 plans to make way with John's friend. His very own 
 disciples have, as yet, failed to enter into his inner 
 fellowship. 
 
 The mood of the people was not neutral, as a 
 rule. The Pharisees had been industrious in sowing 
 the seeds of hate during his absence. In the esti- 
 mation of the people he had failed as a leader, and 
 their disappointment was severe. Whether from 
 lack of decision or judgment, or of unscrupulous 
 daring, he had failed, as they saw it. Reversed love 
 is the fiercest hatred, and a disappointed friend often 
 becomes a cruel enemy. Into such an environment 
 Jesus came when he turned southward from 
 Caesarea Philippi. He has had the thought of a 
 violent death with him constantly, but now he has 
 the acute and painful experience of being in a deadly 
 environment wherever he goes. The waters are 
 mined with deadly explosives not only about Jeru- 
 salem, but everywhere; his words and actions are 
 watched and reported to the officials. Death lurks 
 in every path. How will he bear himself ? For this 
 is the severest test he can endure. 
 
 2. His New Exaltation. He entered that en- 
 vironment with a new exaltation. That is the way 
 he met his crisis and triumphed. His purpose to 
 make his death " an achievement," rather than a 
 
SIXTEENTH DAY 151 
 
 submission to fate, became more clear, unwavering, 
 and commanding, if possible. His confidence in 
 himself and his purpose was unshakable. Never 
 once did he waver. No hatred, save for the wrong 
 they did themselves, ever showed in his words or 
 action or looks. The joy of self-sacrifice came to his 
 aid. That joy arose from the very act of self-giving 
 to a stainless cause, and was all the higher for the 
 sufferings involved; it came also from the sense of 
 success he felt in advance, for by his death he will 
 win thousands of these very people who are opposing 
 him, and will purify their hearts of the very sins they 
 are now manifesting. He is absolutely protected 
 from fear. 
 
 After the Transfiguration he is not as he was. 
 He never lost the glow of that experience. He 
 seemed often to speak as from the higher world of 
 which he tasted, that night. The glory lingered on 
 his face and form, so that the disciples were some- 
 times amazed, and as they followed him they were 
 " afraid." That exalted mood was his strength and 
 protection, for it was victory in defeat and triumph 
 in death. 
 
 3. His New Preaching. The two things — his 
 exalted state of mind and the changed attitude of the 
 people — necessarily affected all his utterances. What 
 he said took on the majestic quality of his mood, 
 and it dealt with the sins that were exhibited. He 
 was sterner, more minute in denouncing sin, yet he 
 was tenderness itself in dealing with earnest and 
 
152 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 honest people. At the foot of the mountain he 
 healed the demoniac boy with the gentleness of a 
 mother, yet rebuked his disciples with unusual 
 severity as a " faithless and perverse generation." 
 
 His work seems now to consist of denouncing sin 
 and telling the disciples of his death. When a con- 
 tention arose as to who should be greatest, he used 
 a child as an object-lesson of dependence on its 
 parents and docility and faith, and told them they 
 could only enter his kingdom by corresponding feel- 
 ings toward him, by a single-hearted devotion to his 
 Father in heaven, by having a loving, forgiving 
 spirit toward each other and by leaving all to follow 
 him. Thus, also, his demands upon his followers 
 became more rigid, his teachings even more volu- 
 minous than in former periods. More than one-half 
 of the Gospels is occupied with the last six months of 
 his ministry, which begins with this feast of Taber- 
 nacles, and all of it is stamped with the Transfigura- 
 tion quality. 
 
 4. His New Sorrow. It was an old sorrow, 
 grown more acute. His own brothers have never 
 accepted him as the Messiah, and now they break in 
 with advice that wounds him. They had a tender 
 interest in him, and in the days of his popularity, 
 almost believed, we fancy. But when the crowds 
 began to carp, they relapsed into a critical mood. 
 They probably were in the habit of nagging him, so 
 it seems to me. They were irritated that he had not 
 properly avowed his Messiahship at Jerusalem. 
 
SIXTEENTH DAY I 53 
 
 Their privileged relationship gave them opportunity 
 to be disagreeable and irreverent. Perhaps they 
 tried to taunt him into abandonment of his claims 
 altogether. 
 
 This must have given him exquisite pain. Their 
 mistake he kindly points out, by assuring them that 
 he had a personal plan to carry out and a task to 
 perform; that it will mature at the right time; that 
 they themselves are not so committed to any 
 specific plan in life and can therefore go to the 
 feast any time; that he has the problem of the 
 world's sin to solve. His brothers remained unbe- 
 lievers till after his resurrection. One of them be- 
 came the great leader James, another was Jude, 
 writer of an Epistle, and Christ's sorrow was at last 
 turned into joy. 
 
 5. His New Effort for Jerusalem. The sacred 
 city has a resistless fascination for him. He will 
 make several visits there during the next six months, 
 and will labor in its vicinity as much as safety will 
 permit. There the heart of the nation is beating 
 and there his heart turns with longing love. In these 
 last efforts to win his people he will need to display 
 the qualities of wisdom, frankness, and courage in a 
 high degree. 
 
 He goes up privately, because his presence among 
 the many pilgrims will excite them and produce an 
 uproar when they reach the city. He goes later than 
 these pilgrims, arriving about the middle of the 
 feast, because by that time the officials will conclude 
 
154 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 he is not coming and will be taken off their guard. 
 He is the talk of the nation. All are wondering if 
 he will come to the feast, and the rulers are almost 
 hysterical about it, through sleepless, jealous hatred 
 and secret plotting to get rid of him. By the middle 
 of the feast, they have given him up. Then he sud- 
 denly appears in the temple enclosure. He at once 
 gains the ear of the people and has an opportunity to 
 make his own impression on them, partially free 
 from the insidious spies and disturbers. 
 
 6. His New Disclosures of Himself. Since his 
 former visit to Jerusalem he has gotten to speaking 
 of his Messiahship, and now he comes out with 
 claims for himself which, if true, would without 
 doubt constitute him the Messiah. It has been, per- 
 haps, a year and a half since he was in Jerusalem, 
 and even then he spoke with unusual frankness about 
 himself, perhaps because he was driven to it by the 
 fierce opposition. Now he claims much. 
 
 (i) As to His Teachings (7 : 11-24). He gets 
 his teachings from God, and they can prove it by 
 doing the will of God, for that is a means of know- 
 ing the truth. They have not done God's will, for 
 when he was there once before they tried to kill him 
 for healing a man (chap. 5) on the Sabbath Day. 
 That healing was not more of a violation of God's 
 law than circumcising a child on the Sabbath Day — 
 not so much. They thought he sinned in healing 
 the man ; they now think he is crazy, possessed of a 
 demon, for saying they sought to kill him. 
 
SIXTEENTH DAY I 55 
 
 (2) As to His Origin (25-30). They quoted an 
 old saying that the Christ should come suddenly and 
 from an unknown source. He taught them that they 
 knew enough to know more. They knew him, and 
 their godlessness alone blinded their eyes to his 
 heavenly origin. Blind and wilful ignorance was 
 charged on them, till, in rage, they wanted to arrest 
 him, but could not. The unseen hand of God held 
 them back till his time had come. The overpower- 
 ing effect of his personality disarmed them. 
 
 (3) As to His Destiny (31-36). His destiny is to 
 return to Him who sent him. It will be a voluntary 
 return, not compulsory ; it will be an untraceable re- 
 turn, for they are morally disqualified from finding 
 God's home. Their anger was none the less for sup- 
 posing he spoke of seeking other fields of labor, and 
 it was all the greater because many believed on him. 
 They sent the temple police to arrest him. That was 
 the first actual official attempt to put him out of the 
 way, though they had been planning it a long time. 
 
 (4) As to His Necessity — Water (37-52). It was 
 now the last day of the feast. He had probably 
 spent the intervening days with his friends in 
 Bethany. This morning, as the priest brought the 
 golden vessel full of water from the fountain of 
 Siloam, followed by a joyous procession, and poured 
 it on the altar as a libation, amid the shouts of the 
 people, the music of instruments, and the songs of the 
 priests, intoning the psalms, the voice of Jesus fol- 
 lowed the pause, announcing that he was the source 
 
I $6 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 of supplies for thirsty souls, accessible and hospi- 
 table, permanent, satisfying and overflowing to 
 others. The officers sent to arrest him were so im- 
 pressed by what he said and the way he said it that 
 they could not lift their hands against him. 
 
 (5) As to His Necessity — Light (8 : 12-59). I* 
 was in the presence of the golden candelabra he 
 said, " I am the light of the world." In the con- 
 troversy that followed he told them they would know 
 him as God's Son when they had lifted him up ; that 
 they must obey him in order to be his disciples ; that 
 they sought to do him violence because they had not 
 the truth in them and were of their father, the devil ; 
 that he could confer deathless life on them ; that he 
 had an existence before his earthly existence. He 
 was light to the blind man, whom the officials ex- 
 communicated for acknowledging Jesus. 
 
 (6) As to His Relationship to His People — Shep- 
 herd (10 :i-4). He contrasts himself with their 
 shepherds, the officials. He was real; they, pre- 
 tended. He fed them; they fleeced them. He pro- 
 tected them; they distracted them. He gave them 
 liberty; they enslaved them. He gave them com- 
 panions ; they bereaved them. He laid down his life 
 for them ; they gave them over to the wolf. He was 
 the owner; they, only hirelings. He loved them; 
 they loved what they brought. He lived for them ; 
 they lived on them. 
 
 The effect of his preaching is varied. He soon 
 leaves the city for short trips into outlying districts. 
 
SEVENTEENTH DAY I 57 
 
 SEVENTEENTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF MISSIONARY INITIATIVE 
 
 Matt, g : 35 to u : 30 ; 28 : 16-20 ; Mark 6 : 7-13 ; 
 16 : 15-18 ; Luke g : 1-6; 10 : 1-24 
 
 At that feast of Tabernacles he gave out new 
 truths, won new admiration and awakened new 
 opposition. With consummate wisdom, courage, 
 and frankness, he taught, and retired unscathed to 
 make a brief journey into Galilee and then find the 
 most promising territory for the remaining few 
 months of his life. He has now left Galilee en- 
 tirely. 
 
 1. He Finds Untilled Fields. The strip of 
 territory along the east side of the Jordan, called 
 Perea, " the beyond," was populous with Jews, and 
 he had done very little work there. For that reason 
 and because contact with foreigners had made 
 them broader-minded, Jesus will give much of his 
 time to them. Most of Judea had been left un- 
 touched by him since he went north to enter on his 
 Galilean ministry, nearly two years ago, and some 
 work may be done there, now. So, as we shall find, 
 his time will be spent in little journeys through 
 these places, with an occasional visit to Jerusalem 
 and Bethany, teaching, preaching, working mira- 
 cles of mercy, and, above all, training his disciples. 
 The popularity of the old " Galilean period " seems 
 to return, for crowds follow him and work accumu- 
 
I58 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 lates on his hands. His former labors have not 
 been wholly fruitless, for we find seventy disciples 
 devoting their time to following him about, no 
 doubt the most valuable of the " hundred and 
 twenty " who gathered together after his ascension 
 and of the "above five hundred" whom he saw at one 
 time in Galilee after his resurrection, when he gave 
 them the great missionary Commission. The new 
 success and the enlarging prospects are gratifying. 
 
 2. He Finds New Helpers. He had used the 
 Twelve this way some months before, sending them 
 out, two by two, as we learn in Matthew 10, and 
 had probably done it since. Now it is best for him 
 and them that they keep close together, and for the 
 first time he uses what we may call the laymen, 
 selecting from all his followers the seventy most 
 suited for that mission. Their duties were much 
 like the duties of the Twelve on their mission; the 
 conditions similar ; the instructions about the same ; 
 the results, very much the same ; the design, identi- 
 cal — to multiply himself for the growing work and 
 prepare skilled men to evangelize the world after he 
 leaves them. 
 
 3. He Discloses His Dearest Thought. They 
 did not catch that thought, but we do. It was his 
 passion, not for Jewish humanity alone, but for 
 humanity as such, in whatever race or condition. 
 We have seen that feeling manifesting itself of late. 
 His life was a mission to humanity and the Jewish 
 nation was the prepared starting-point. It was the 
 
SEVENTEENTH DAY 159 
 
 strategic base of operations. He cannot yet open 
 his mission to the Gentiles, though his desire to do 
 so shows in his instructions — in the spirit of it all 
 and in his several references to Tyre and Sidon. 
 The next time he instructs them in the " Great Com- 
 mission," just before his departure, he will express 
 his passion and his purpose perfectly. 
 
 Compare the three commissions — to the Twelve, 
 to the seventy, to all — and note the progress in the 
 expression of his feeling. The first missionaries 
 were only twelve; were officials — apostles; were 
 limited in territory and auditors — Jewish. They 
 were too Jewish in their prejudices and in their 
 conceptions of Christ to preach to Gentiles, and, 
 besides, preaching to Gentiles just then would im- 
 peril all future work for Jews. The second group 
 was seventy; they were laymen; were allowed a 
 larger audience, for they might incidentally, it is 
 supposed, preach to any Gentile along the way. This 
 was an advance. The third group comprised all — 
 " above five hundred brethren," disciples as such — 
 apostles and laymen ; they were to go into " all the 
 world " to " every creature." In sending out the 
 seventy he is expanding the method adopted with the 
 Twelve, and is anticipating the plans of the future. 
 In the final commission there are five " alls " — " all " 
 the disciples to go ; go into " all " the world ; preach 
 the gospel to " all " people ; have the " all power " to 
 support them ; enjoy his presence " all the days." 
 Christianity is missionary or it is nothing. When it 
 
l60 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 ceases to do aggressive evangelism, it ceases to live. 
 When the disciple of Christ loses the ardor of con- 
 quest for Christ, the passion for souls, he is a 
 travesty on discipleship. The disciple gives proof 
 of his value by the trophies he wins. 
 
 4. He Hints at the Source of His Devotion. 
 It originates in his relation to the Father. As the 
 Son and the Word, Representative and Revealer, 
 he loves man as such. All things were made by 
 him ; as John tells us, he has the desire of the Creator 
 to care for the creature. Because his ownership has 
 never been relinquished, he is anxious to protect his 
 property. Because he has become man, what is in 
 man appeals to him. Because he is Son of Man, a 
 perfect man, he is in sympathy with all men. Be- 
 cause he is Saviour he has the chastened love of 
 the universal and vicarious Sufferer. Because, 
 though advanced in degeneration, men are capable 
 of regeneration, his hope for them is cheered. 
 
 5. He Instructs Them in the Fundamental 
 Principles of Mission Work. Though their 
 work was local and temporary, they were being 
 fitted for permanent service, in the sublime task of 
 the conquest of the world, and the deep principles 
 on which they were working were to be operative for 
 all time. Note them. 
 
 (1) All the Disciples are Charged with the Duty 
 of Getting the Gospel to the Needy, Laymen as well 
 as Officials. The Twelve were chosen with refer- 
 ence to the twelve tribes of Israel, and possibly the 
 
SEVENTEENTH DAY l6l 
 
 seventy were suggested by the seventy composing 
 the national council, the Sanhedrin. This might im- 
 ply that his " Sanhedrin of the Kingdom " was more 
 than a match for the council that should condemn 
 him, yet they were unofficial workers, and repre- 
 sented all laymen. That principle stands yet. 
 
 (2) They were to " Go " Rather than Write or 
 Send a Message. Truth is mighty, but not until it 
 is made living and active in some person. It is the 
 message brought by the messenger that arrests the 
 attention and wins the life. The person is the instru- 
 ment Jesus delights in. The energy of the enthu- 
 siastic disciple is the agency of power with the lost. 
 
 (3) There Must be Convictions Within the Dis- 
 ciple Answering the Command of the Master. He 
 aroused their sympathy for the needy, who were 
 like a great harvest field, yellow for the sickle,, but 
 with not enough laborers to gather it and keep it 
 from wasting. Their noble, yet undisciplined, im- 
 pulses would respond to all the suffering. Next 
 he stirred them with the sense of the small force 
 of workers, and that would make them more urg- 
 ent in their interest. Then he set them praying for 
 more laborers, and that further inflamed their zeal. 
 Missionary conviction, then zeal, then effort — that 
 is the order, even to-day. 
 
 (4) Comradeship is Needed. The many workers 
 are not needed alone by the lost and sinning, but 
 they need each other. They went by twos then, for 
 it was always wisest. Afterwards they sometimes 
 
1 62 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 went by threes — Peter, James, and John ; Paul, Bar- 
 nabas, and Mark; Paul, Silas, and Timothy. They 
 can prompt and hearten each other. It is seldom 
 right for one to go absolutely alone into hostile or 
 inhospitable mission fields. When it is required, 
 then comradeship must be sought with those at 
 home by every available means of communication. 
 
 (5) Necessaries Are to be Provided. The neces- 
 saries were arranged for in this case ; anything more 
 was forbidden. Because they were to be away from 
 him only a short time, they were to carry nothing 
 that was not strictly necessary — no purse for money, 
 for they had no money and no need of it, because 
 the laws of hospitality provided for their entertain- 
 ment and the great service they were rendering the 
 people entitled them to that much ; no scrip or travel- 
 ing bag, for they did not need to take extra cloth- 
 ing; no shoes, for shoes were an indoor luxury, and 
 sandals were for traveling. Before he forbade ex- 
 tras, he was careful to know that all necessaries 
 could be depended on. Had they been going far- 
 ther, to stay for a longer time, they would have 
 required more. Our missionaries do now. 
 
 (6) No Time is to be Wasted. The long greet- 
 ings of Eastern people who met on the road were 
 very tedious and very insincere. Courtesy is one 
 thing, but a long and strictly formal exchange of all 
 sorts of inquiries and wishes and news and gossip is 
 quite another matter. To salute one meant to go 
 through all of that, and lose valuable time. 
 
SEVENTEENTH DAY 1 63 
 
 (7) Gracious Courtesy is of Vital Importance. 
 They must not omit such conventionalities as em- 
 body a courteous spirit — like pronouncing the for- 
 mal greeting to the house and its occupants, " Sha- 
 lom," " Peace be with you " ; eating the food 
 given them, without asking for something better; 
 remaining at one house during the whole stay in 
 a village. Asking for better food would make them 
 appear finical and self-important; seeking another 
 home, notional and fond of being entertained. The 
 ardent evangelist must always hold himself ame- 
 nable to the laws of courtesy. Even if bestowed on a 
 churl, courtesy returns with reflex power upon him 
 who employs it. 
 
 (8) Manliness Must Mark the Christian Mis- 
 sionary. He will make himself at home at the hum- 
 blest table and sympathize with the neediest, yet, if 
 need be, he will utter God's denunciation of sin, 
 without a tremor of fear, and turn from them in 
 holy indignation. He must be courageous, but 
 wisely so, discriminating with clearness between 
 homes and peoples and actions. Not on the streets 
 or in the market-place, but in the homes, will his 
 personality give out its charm and work its power 
 while he delivers his message from Jesus. 
 
 (9) Benevolent Work Must Go Along with the 
 Preaching of the Gospel. He empowered them to 
 do miraculous deeds. If he does not so empower 
 us, he at least gives us the principle of ministry to 
 the needy, within the limitations he places on us. 
 
164 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 Hospitals and orphanages and schools follow the 
 missionary everywhere. 
 
 (10) The Presence of Jesus is Required. He 
 was coming on, right after them, to correct their 
 errors and complete their instruction. In the last 
 Commission he said, " I am with you alway." He 
 is with us, in the Holy Spirit, and we go to the 
 needy along with him. 
 
 (11) It Will Yield a Joy All its Own. Jesus said 
 it was not so much the joy that comes from doing 
 marvelous things as from having their names in the 
 book of life, sustaining such a relation to God as 
 that he can entrust them with work to do and with 
 power to do the work. That makes the joy of 
 achievement permanent. 
 
 Jesus was putting permanent principles into per- 
 sonal regulations; he is speaking to us to-day. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF THE PEREAN PARABLES 
 Luke 13 to 17 
 
 i. The Perean Period. From the feast of 
 Tabernacles in October, a. d. 29, till the Passover, 
 the next April, Jesus spent much time in Perea, 
 though he returned into Judea occasionally, and at 
 least once came into Jerusalem — at the feast of 
 Dedication, in December. (John 10 : 22-42.) We 
 may properly call the time from the mission of 
 
EIGHTEENTH DAY 1 65 
 
 the seventy the " Perean Period," and we are in- 
 debted to Luke for the preservation of some of its 
 events — only a few, however, for most of his words 
 and deeds were left unrecorded. Those that are 
 preserved are representative. The most interesting 
 memorabilia of those several months are his para- 
 bles. They have burst out again in clusters like 
 spring flowers, as they did some months before. 
 The three we especially study to-day are the very 
 crown of his parabolic creation, the last one being 
 called " the Pearl of the parables." It was probably 
 in January, a. d. 30. Parables preceded and parables 
 followed these three. As we look at the conditions 
 in which he was speaking we see some important 
 things. 
 
 2. A New Popularity. It was popularity with the 
 unfortunates. In general there were two classes, 
 called " Publicans " and " Sinners." The former were 
 taxgatherers, who were hated for four reasons : they 
 collected taxes, and were disliked on general princi- 
 ples ; they represented the despised Roman govern- 
 ment; they had the privilege of getting all they 
 could, unjustly, and were hated for belonging to 
 such a class; they usually made good their reputa- 
 tion. When a Jew became a collector he was re- 
 garded as a renegade and was hated more than if 
 he were a Gentile. Those called " sinners," in gen- 
 eral, were the sediment and scum of society, pre- 
 cipitated to the bottom by the weight of their im- 
 morality, or clinging to the top by some evil power 
 
1 66 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 or cunning. Publicans had a bad reputation because 
 of their calling ; sinners, because of their characters. 
 
 He always did attract those two classes, be- 
 cause of his interest in human beings as such, 
 without regard to surface distinctions, and because 
 he was unjustly hated by those who looked down 
 on the unfortunates. The outcasts respected him 
 for the enemies he made and for the trueness of his 
 own character. Over in Perea, his revived popu- 
 larity was largely with them, though the " respecta- 
 ble classes " gave him considerable attention. He 
 took an interest in them because they were human ; 
 because they were often as much sinned against as 
 sinning, their vices the echoes of the vices of those 
 who called themselves virtuous; because they were 
 redeemable when love and patience undertook the 
 task. He took an interest in them that amounted to 
 suffering for them, for he entered into their lostness 
 with them. They flocked around him, for he did 
 not repel them and it took them only a short while 
 to see that he felt a pain on their behalf which 
 longed to bless them. He treated them as if they 
 were human beings, and he did it in a genuine, man- 
 ly, unostentatious way. They saw that he was a 
 man's man, and not a party's man, nor man's puppet. 
 He demanded no little of them, but they felt all that 
 he required was right, in individual purity and social 
 service. These people were numerous and fur- 
 nished an important element in his new popularity. 
 
 3. A New Unpopularity. The reactionaries 
 
EIGHTEENTH DAY 1 67 
 
 now had a new grievance added to all the old griev- 
 ances. More than a year before, when the new con- 
 vert, Matthew, who had been a publican, gave him 
 a feast, it was attended by the unfortunates, of 
 whom the Pharisees said, in scorn, to his disciples, 
 " He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sin- 
 ners." They kept complaining of it, and now, when 
 Jesus has more hope of saving these unfortunates 
 than of saving the Pharisees themselves, they made 
 louder and angrier complaints than ever. They 
 thought it showed bad taste in him and insulting 
 disregard of their righteous claim on the homage 
 and companionship of Israel's prophets. They lost 
 no time in letting him know and no opportunity of 
 reminding him afresh of it. Their old grievances 
 still held — his disregard of traditions about wash- 
 ings and fastings and the Sabbath ; their old efforts 
 at entrapping him were renewed with even more 
 ignoble cunning. 
 
 4. A New Kind of Parable. We notice that 
 parables are numerous now. He has a story to meet 
 every emergency of controversy or instruction, and 
 it is always exactly adapted to his purpose. We also 
 notice that his parables are easily understood by all, 
 instead of concealing his thought from some and re- 
 vealing it to others, as the first great group did. We 
 notice too, that they are the instrument of an ag- 
 gressive attack on his opposers. They are effective 
 too, in silencing and often humiliating them. With 
 his parables, he exposes individual wickedness, de- 
 
1 68 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 nounces national sins, and reveals his own Messianic 
 purposes. A glance at the events following the 
 mission of the seventy will find him pursuing this 
 method. To the lawyer who asked him what was 
 the greatest law and who was his neighbor, Jesus 
 told of the "Good Samaritan," and he cut the ground 
 of Jewish conceit from under him. 
 
 The " Friend at Midnight " teaches importunate 
 prayer. " The Cleansed House " answers the charge 
 of being in league with Beelzebub. His denuncia- 
 tion of the Pharisees for external, without internal, 
 cleanliness is terrific. Read the parables of " The 
 Rich Fool," " The Master Coming Unexpectedly," 
 "The Barren Fig Tree," "Mustard Seed," "Leaven." 
 His message to Herod is unflinchingly fearless. 
 " The Ox in the Pit," the " Great Supper," " Count- 
 ing the Cost," the " Lost Things," "Dives and Laza- 
 rus," the " Shrewd Steward " — these parables show 
 his mood and method. 
 
 5. His New Argument. It was what Dr. Mun- 
 ger calls " the argument from experience and the 
 appeal to life " itself. Judging by the pains he took 
 to answer them with these three gracious parables, 
 we infer that of all the complaints they made against 
 him they put most vehemence and venom into the 
 charge that he was degrading himself and in- 
 sulting them by his kindly interest in the vile 
 " publicans and sinners." That disclosed their 
 deadliest sin, the sin of being inhuman. They 
 dehumanized men and women with flesh and 
 
EIGHTEENTH DAY 1 69 
 
 blood and hearts, and did it because they were 
 wicked or weak. To hate one, not for any personal 
 injury received from him, but for his misfor- 
 tunes or sins or social status, is inhuman, yes, devil- 
 ish. They have reached the limit. It was in vain 
 to quote the law of Moses: they had long ago 
 supplanted Moses with rabbinical interpretations of 
 him. It was in vain to speak with that authority 
 of his own which was so patent and majestic: they 
 had no eyes to see it and had already been asking 
 him to produce his credentials that gave him author- 
 ity to teach and work miracles. But he knows they 
 have had some experience in life that will give over- 
 whelming confirmation to what he says. That is 
 an argument hitherto unused. 
 
 They claimed that they were good people who 
 had never strayed from right paths, and they de- 
 spised and abandoned the poor wretches who had 
 done so. Jesus tells them that, granting they 
 themselves were good people who needed not to 
 repent, and that the publicans and sinners were as 
 bad as possible, that would be all the greater reason 
 for seeking to save them, and, in not doing so, they 
 were reversing their own principles of conduct. If 
 a man loses one sheep, although it is only one out 
 of a hundred, he will use every effort in recovering 
 it,, out of all proportion to its intrinsic worth. He 
 will really neglect the ninety and nine and go to 
 all kinds of trouble and pains till he has it safe in 
 the fold. He will have all the greater joy because 
 
1^0 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 it was his own sheep and had no right to be lost. 
 When a woman loses a coin, she will light up the 
 little windowless, dirt-floor room and sweep and 
 search till she find it. She might think of its in- 
 trinsic worth; she might esteem it as a keepsake, 
 but it is hers and she would rather have it back 
 than another just like it. When a wayward boy 
 leaves home and degrades himself in vice, it is in 
 the nature of fatherhood to want him back, seek 
 his return in every effective way, welcome him when 
 want and heart sickness drive him home, and re- 
 store him to his place as a son. The penitent boy 
 might think he was fortunate in getting even a 
 servant's place in his father's house, but to see him 
 in that place would never satisfy a father's heart, 
 would always wound a father's love. The elder 
 brother may never have gone astray as the younger 
 did, but he has lost something — a brother's heart. 
 It is of the nature of brotherhood that it welcomes 
 the penitent home. When it does not do so, it is un- 
 natural, inhuman. The Pharisees are taken at their 
 own appraisement, in order to show their dark sin 
 of unnaturalness. 
 
 Jesus is here not only routing an enemy, but re- 
 vealing himself. We note three things — his sense 
 of man's lostness ; his indomitable search for the 
 lost; his joy in recovering the lost. Valuable prop- 
 erty has slipped from his grasp, not by rolling away, 
 as the coin did ; not from stupidity, as with the 
 sheep, but by deliberate and brutal waywardness, as 
 
EIGHTEENTH DAY I/I 
 
 in the case of the boy. He has lost not only a pos- 
 session, but his very heart. The father suffered 
 with that wild boy. Jesus felt the lostness of sin- 
 ners. His heart was pained by their sins and 
 pinched by their sorrows. He felt as if he were 
 lost with them. His search — it was hunting for 
 lost property, lost sons, lost brothers. He cannot 
 stop till he find them. And the joy — it is unspeak- 
 able, and all the family of God and the angels, the 
 family servants, join in, till heaven is ringing with 
 gladness over lost people found. The unbrotherly 
 Pharisees have called forth a most wonderful rev- 
 elation of the Saviour's goodness and greatness. 
 
 6. The New Mission of Wealth. He pro- 
 pounds these principles in two more of those " Pe- 
 rean Parables " — brotherhood, service, stewardship. 
 Brotherhood leads to service; service uses all the 
 powers in one's possession: therefore all power is a 
 trust. Wealth is one form of power to be used in 
 service. In two parables Jesus sets this forth. In 
 " Dives and Lazarus " he shows that the man who 
 had this power, and an easy opportunity to use it, 
 shut himself off from mercy by ignoring his respon- 
 sibility to a fellow-being who was in want. In the 
 " Shrewd Steward " one debtor cheats his employer 
 and helps his fellow-debtors to do the same, so that 
 they would feel under obligation to him, for saving 
 money for them, and he would have control over 
 them because they were his partners in wickedness. 
 If a bad man does so, a good man may so use his 
 
172 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 money, in serving his fellows, that those who go on 
 before will be ready to welcome him with grateful 
 joy into the " eternal habitations." 
 
 These parables might be called the sociological 
 parables. 
 
 NINETEENTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 
 John 11 : 1-J4 
 
 i. Told by John Alone. That the most extraor- 
 dinary miracle Christ ever performed should be 
 told by only one evangelist is indeed a matter of sur- 
 prise. Nor is it surprising that critics have been led 
 by that fact into a most rigid inquiry into the genu- 
 ineness and trustworthiness of the story. Beyschlag 
 has shown however that the silence of the three on 
 this miracle is not more inexplainable than the si- 
 lence of all four evangelists concerning the appear- 
 ance of the risen Christ to James and " above five 
 hundred brethren " in Galilee — appearances re- 
 corded by Paul alone. The selection of incidents by 
 the four writers is often governed by principles that 
 we cannot fully understand. It may be said, in a 
 general way, that " the evangelists did not obey the 
 ordinary canons of biography " ; that " John is es- 
 pecially the historian of the Judean ministry and 
 of the Passion." To quote Doctor Dawson : " Three- 
 fourths of his entire Gospel, as we have seen, is de- 
 
NINETEENTH DAY 173 
 
 voted to the last six months of the life of Jesus. He 
 is, therefore, the natural historian of Lazarus, and 
 it is possible that he shared the friendship of the 
 house at Bethany in a degree not known to Matthew 
 or Peter." This resurrection of Lazarus accounts, 
 in large degree, for the revived enthusiasm among 
 the people, which manifested itself at the time of the 
 Passover in April. The accounts of his closing days 
 say nothing of it, because the charge on which they 
 tried him was political. The officials acknowledged 
 that he worked miracles, but they did not regard 
 them as evidence of his Messiahship — they were 
 stirred only by the effect of his miracles on the 
 people. 
 
 2. The Time. It must now be about January or 
 February, a. d. 30, just at the most stirring moment 
 of Christ's work over in Perea. We can easily 
 imagine that it was as he finished speaking those 
 matchless parables, the swift messenger from his 
 friends in Bethany bore him the pathetic informa- 
 tion from the two sisters : " Lord, behold, he whom 
 thou lovest is sick." The Passover that year was 
 April 6, and as this miracle gave a powerful im- 
 petus to the purpose of the leaders to kill him, it 
 was not very long before his death, perhaps we 
 might say late in January. 
 
 3. Christ's Special Friendships. He had spe- 
 cial friends, and Lazarus was one of them, as the 
 words of the sisters claim — " he whom thou lovest 
 is sick." We know that John the apostle was an 
 
174 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 intimate friend, as he always spoke of himself as 
 " the disciple whom Jesus loved," and all the others 
 seemed to concede to him that honor. These two 
 sisters were intimate friends. On one former occa- 
 sion he was in their home and gently chided Mar- 
 tha, not for ministering to him and his disciples, but 
 for thinking of that alone, while he approved of 
 Mary for knowing her opportunity to learn of him. 
 
 Jesus had something in him that made him friends, 
 in addition to the ministry of healing and teaching 
 that he rendered. He had the instincts and talents 
 for friendship. He knew people, enjoyed them, and 
 in proportion to their ability to utilize his personal 
 friendship he bestowed it upon them. There was 
 reserve in him, but he knew how to give freedom 
 and allow privileges. Twelve were close friends ; 
 three of them closer friends ; one of them closest of 
 all — John. Among the other disciples, rare spirits 
 came close to him, men and women. Among women 
 were Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward; 
 Mary Magdalene, who has been unjustly treated by 
 tradition ; Salome, mother of James and John ; these 
 two sisters at Bethany. Women gave him " that 
 peculiar sympathy and highly idealized affection " 
 which he could perfectly receive and appreciate. 
 
 For the home in Bethany Jesus had a peculiar 
 love. They probably became disciples at the time of 
 his inaugural at Jerusalem and their home was his 
 home whenever he came thereabouts. A little while 
 before, he had been their guest (Luke 10) ; at the 
 
NINETEENTH DAY 175 
 
 final Passover they will show him special kindness: 
 Mary will anoint his feet and their home will be 
 a sympathetic stopping-place. 
 
 Some qualities in this family shine out and ex- 
 plain the friendship. They were good people, af- 
 fectionate and unselfish among themselves. All the 
 home instincts were native to Jesus and were nur- 
 tured in him, and, when he saw a good home, he en- 
 joyed it. He knew its deep meaning and felt its 
 highest ideals. When he saw others who were 
 somewhat like-minded it drew him to them. When 
 brothers and sisters understood and cherished each 
 other, it gave him all the greater pleasure for the 
 privation he had suffered from the beginning. His 
 own brothers had never appreciated him. The 
 homeless life he was compelled to live intensified 
 these feelings and led him to enjoy all the more 
 acutely the loving hospitality offered by his friends. 
 Wherever he stopped he became "master of the 
 house," and they always felt that he brought more to 
 them than they bestowed on him. He had found 
 fine aptitudes in that home in Bethany, but had im- 
 measurably refined and enlarged and ennobled its 
 life. 
 
 They had shown those personal qualities to which 
 he always opened the door of special intimacy— ap- 
 preciation of him and of the blessings he brought; 
 insight into his spirit and purpose; the sentiments 
 of service, ministry, which were the exclusive and 
 controlling sentiments of his own life. Lazarus 
 
I76 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 seems a quiet, sober, gentle, confiding man. Martha 
 is sturdy, matter-of-fact, faithful to duty at any cost, 
 absolutely to be relied on, never defeated. Mary is 
 intellectual, artistic, spiritual, and that pleases him. 
 She had the insight of the poet and the rapture of 
 the mystic. Into her heart he could pour his rarest 
 truths and know that she could use them and, in a 
 high degree, understand them. These friends seem 
 to have been in his confidence and to have known his 
 movements, for they had no difficulty in directing 
 the messenger to him. He must have had some 
 thought of them when at last he led his disciples 
 out " as far as Bethany " and was taken up from 
 their gaze into the sky. 
 
 4. The Expectation of the Sisters. They evi- 
 dently expected him to prevent the death of Lazarus, 
 either by coming or by curing him without coming. 
 They knew his love for Lazarus, his love of doing 
 good, and his power to cure at a distance. They 
 counted on his friendship, for Martha reproachfully 
 says, " If thou hadst been here, my brother had not 
 died," and hints what she wishes, " even now I know 
 that whatsoever thou shalt ask of God, God will 
 give it thee." They knew he would return at his 
 peril, but expected him to do it or cure him at a 
 distance. His failure to come or send them a word 
 of sympathy, or encouragement, perplexed and dis- 
 appointed them. They could not explain it, yet 
 never lost confidence in him. 
 
 5. His Decision. It seems to have been made in- 
 
NINETEENTH DAY 177 
 
 stantly — to let Lazarus die and then restore him. 
 His statement to the disciples, his delay and his sub- 
 sequent statement that Lazarus was sleeping, sup- 
 port that interpretation. His decision to restore him 
 from sickness or death is a single purpose to glorify 
 his Father by showing forth his own glorious char- 
 acter. His motive is a composite one — sympathy 
 with the sisters, with his disciples and with the 
 needy people. To the sisters he will restore a be- 
 loved brother ; to the disciples he will give a needed 
 help for their faith ; to the people he will make a 
 final appeal. This is his deliberate plan, adopted 
 in the face of marked difficulties, such as these: 
 the peril to which he will subject himself in going 
 into the very camp of his enemies; the added pain 
 his delay will give the sisters ; the confusion it will 
 cost the disciples and the strain upon their courage. 
 But the final joy of the sisters will be all the 
 greater for the delay, and they will learn one new 
 truth — that Jesus cannot only accomplish the resur- 
 rection, but that he is the resurrection. The dis- 
 ciples will learn some important truths — that he 
 is safe till his work is done and so are they; that 
 he has all the power they ever dreamed he had, not- 
 withstanding the insinuations they have heard 
 against him ; that what they call death is really 
 sleep. The people will have final proof of his power 
 over the dead, and many will believe on him. 
 
 6. Sleep and Death. What they called death he 
 called sleep. He reserved the term death for a 
 
I78 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 more awful thing. Death is separation from the 
 source of life. The soul keeps the body alive, and 
 when the two are separated we say the person is 
 dead. It is a mistake. The body is dead, but the 
 soul lives on. If that same soul is separated from 
 God, the source of its true life, then it is dead in- 
 deed. He sought to get the disciples to say " sleep," 
 but when Thomas refused to see it so, he said in 
 effect, " very well, then ; we will say ' death.' " 
 Thomas was a real hero, in being willing to return 
 to the scene of danger and die with Lazarus. 
 
 7. His Emotions at the Grave. They were com- 
 plex — sympathy for the sorrowing, anxiety for their 
 training, indignation at the insincerity of the pro- 
 fessional mourners, and at the viciousness that 
 would seek to make this miracle the ground for 
 trying to kill both him and Lazarus. His spirit 
 boiled in a paroxysm of mingled emotions. It came 
 out in his tears and groans and the shudder that 
 passed over his body. 
 
 Perfect faith in his Father and a consuming love 
 for men held his emotions in balance. 
 
 8. Reinvigoration of Faith. He restored to the 
 sisters all they had lost, and more: he gave them a 
 new sense of his relation to life itself, as its orig- 
 inating and sustaining source. This was the great 
 miracle of friendship. 
 
 He gave needed confirmation to the faith of his 
 disciples. His enemies had been questioning the 
 reality of resurrection in the cases of Jairus' daugh- 
 
NINETEENTH DAY 179 
 
 ter and the widow's son, on the ground that the al- 
 leged resurrections were so soon after death, and 
 imposture was easy. If the disciples were at all 
 affected by such talk, they saw in this instance 
 something that no one could doubt. Lazarus had 
 been dead four days; decomposition had begun; 
 enemies were standing about and witnessed it. 
 
 Many others who had been holding his claims 
 in abeyance were at last convinced that he was the 
 Christ, and a wave of enthusiasm spread out 
 through Bethany and Jerusalem. He had prayed 
 for permission to raise Lazarus before coming, and 
 now, as he publicly renders thanks to his Father 
 for hearing him, he wins many of them to faith. 
 
 9. The Final Plot Against Him. His enemies 
 recognized the miracle, never denied it, but were 
 all the more determined to kill him. They could not 
 put him to death on a religious charge, and they 
 framed one that would make him obnoxious to the 
 Roman government. Their former determination 
 was fixed, as they saw his dangerous influence with 
 the people growing. No time was to be lost. 
 
 10. The Testimony of Caiaphas. He was the 
 Sadducean high priest, and justified taking the life 
 of Jesus on the ground that the peace of the nation 
 with Rome could only be kept by putting him out 
 of the way, and that it was right to sacrifice one for 
 all. A significance was in his words that he was 
 not aware of, for he spoke officially, and, as many 
 another had done, he uttered a truth of deepest mo- 
 
180 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 ment, when he said that one should die for the 
 many. That is what Jesus really did. 
 
 ii. The World's Resurrection. That deed is 
 the proclamation to a small circle that Jesus, as 
 Lord of life, will restore each body to its spirit, and 
 that resurrection is the sequence of death; another 
 incomparable deed will complete the proclamation 
 to all the world — when he himself shall arise out of 
 his rock-hewn sepulchre and walk forth in the 
 power of an endless life. 
 
IV 
 
 PERIOD OF DECLINING 
 POPULARITY 
 
 Continued 
 
 C. The last week. In Bethany and Jerusalem. 
 
 Saturday evening, April I, A. D. 30. 
 
 129. Jesus anointed by Mary in Bethany. John 12 : 1-IIj 
 
 Matt. 26 : 6-13 ; Mark 14 : 3-9. 
 Sunday, April 2. 
 
 130. The triumphal entry. Matt. 21 : I-II ; Mark II : 
 
 I-ll ; Luke 19 : 29-44; J onn I2 : 12-19. 
 Monday, April 3. 
 
 131. The fig tree cursed. Matt. 21 : 18, 19; Mark 11 : 
 
 12-14. 
 
 132. Second cleansing of the temple. Matt. 21 : 12-17 ; 
 
 Mark II : 15-19; Luke 19 : 45-48. 
 
 Tuesday, April 4. 
 
 133. The fig tree withered. Mark 11 : 20-25. 
 
 134. His authority challenged. Matt. 21 : 23-27 ; Mark 
 
 II : 27-33 > Luke 20 : 1-8. 
 
 135. Three parables of judgment. Matt. 21 : 28 to 22 : 14 ; 
 
 Mark 12 : 1-12 ; Luke 20 : 9-19. 
 
 136. Effort to entrap him with questions. Matt. 22 : 15- 
 
 40 ; Mark 12 : 13-34 ; Luke 20 : 20-40. 
 
 137. He silences them with a question. Matt. 22 : 41-46 ; 
 
 Mark 12 : 35-37 ; Luke 20 : 41-44. 
 
 138. His denunciation of scribes and Pharisees. Matt. 
 
 23 ; Mark 12 : 38-40 ; Luke 20 : 45-47. 
 
 139. The widow's mite. Mark 12 : 41-44 ; Luke 21 : 1-4. 
 
 140. Greeks seek Jesus. John 12 : 20-36. 
 
 141. The Jews reject him. John 12 : 20-50. 
 
 142. Discourses concerning the future. Matt. 24, 25 ; 
 
 Mark 13 ; Luke 21 : 5-38. 
 
143- Judas bargains to betray him. Matt. 26 : 1-5, 14-16 ; 
 Mark 14 : I, 2, 10, 11 ; Luke 22 : 1-6 . 
 
 Thursday, April 6. 
 
 144. The last Passover supper. Matt. 26 : 17-25 ; Mark 
 
 14 : 12-31 ; Luke 22 : 7-16, 21-38 ; John 13. 
 
 145. The first Lord's Supper. Matt. 26 : 26-29 J Mark 
 
 14 : 22-25 5 Luke 22 : 17-20 ; I Cor. II : 23-26. 
 
 146. The farewell talk to the disciples. John 14-16. 
 
 147. The closing prayer. John 17. 
 
 Friday, April 7. 
 
 148. Private prayer, in Gethsemane, for the ordeal. Matt. 
 
 26 : 30-36 ; Mark 14 : 26, 32 ; Luke 22 : 39, 40 ; 
 John 18 : I. 
 
 149. The awful agony. Matt. 26 : 37-46 ; Mark 14 : 33-42 ; 
 
 Luke 22 : 41-46. 
 
 150. The betrayal and arrest. Matt. 26 : 47-56 ; Mark 
 
 14 : 43-52 ; Luke 22 : 47-53 ; John 18 : 2-1 1. 
 
 151. Informal trial before Annas. John 18 : 12-14, I 9 -2 3- 
 
 152. Informal trial before Caiaphas, before dawn. Matt. 
 
 2 6 : 57, 59-75 ; Mark 14 : 53, 59-72 ; Luke 22 : 
 54, 63-65 ; John 18 : 24, 15-18, 25-27. 
 
 153. Formal trial by Sanhedrin, after dawn. Matt. 27 : I, 
 
 2 ; Mark 15 : I ; Luke 22 : 66 to 23 : I ; John 
 18 : 28. 
 
 154. Jesus before Pilate. Matt. 27 : n-14; Mark 15 : 
 
 2-5 ; Luke 23 : 2-5 ; John 18 : 28-38. 
 
 155. Jesus before Herod the tetrarch of Galilee. Luke 
 
 23 : 6-12. 
 
 156. Before Pilate again and condemned to death. Matt. 
 
 27 : 15-30 ; Mark 15 : 6-19 ; Luke 23 : 13-25 ; 
 John 18 : 39 to 19 : 16. 
 
 157. Suicide of Judas. Matt. 27 : 3-10 ; Acts I : 18, 19. 
 
 158. Jesus crucified and buried. Matt. 27 : 31-66; Mark 
 
 15 : 20-47; Luke 23 : 26-56; John 19 : 16, 17, 
 31-42. 
 
 Saturday, April 8. 
 
 159. The watch at the sepulchre. Matt. 27 : 62-66. 
 
TWENTIETH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF HIS FESTAL ENTERTAINMENT 
 Matt. 26 : 6-16 ; Mark 14 : 3-1 1 ; John is : i-g 
 
 I. Seeking the Mountain Solitudes. He knew 
 that the raising of Lazarus would stir the people 
 to an unwholesome excitement and would arouse 
 the officials to a new attempt upon his life. The 
 people would be ready to follow him, except as they 
 were restrained by fear of their leaders. He knew 
 the fears and the plans of his enemies. They feared 
 a popular Messianic movement that Rome would 
 regard as treason and would punish by taking away 
 what liberties they had. This, in addition to the loss 
 of personal prestige with the people, aroused viru- 
 lent resentment against Jesus. They were ready to 
 do him violence at once, but Jesus knows that he 
 is to be the sacrificial lamb and can only be offered 
 at the Passover. He knows the officials have many 
 difficulties in the way of carrying out their plans, 
 such as the popular regard for him and the neces- 
 sity for securing the approval of Rome: He was 
 able to delay their action ; " the initiative of events 
 is with him." 
 
 There is no place more suitable for him now than 
 the mountains of Ephraim. There he would find 
 quiet, even solitude. He could commune with his 
 
 183 
 
1 84 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 Father and with himself, uninterrupted by the voices 
 of men. There his spirit would be reinforced by 
 the memory of his victory over temptations in that 
 same region, three years before, and by the thought 
 of his brave yet gentle forerunner, John. Perhaps, 
 he dismissed his followers, for a few days, and went 
 alone, or took only John, the apostle, with him. 
 
 2. Rendering Wayside Ministries. How long 
 he spent in solitude no one knows. We soon find him 
 on his way to Jerusalem and, despite the shadow 
 falling on him from the cross, he is dispensing 
 blessings as he goes. He might have spent a short 
 while moving from place to place, working as he 
 went. Among the events of that period, while he 
 was going about or journeying onward to Jeru- 
 salem, were the healing of the ten lepers ; speaking 
 the parable of the Pharisee and Publican; the dis- 
 cussion on divorce ; blessing the little children ; test- 
 ing the rich young ruler; receiving the ambitious 
 request of Salome, in behalf of her sons, James and 
 John; curing the blind men at Jericho; the inter- 
 view with Zaccheus; speaking the parable of the 
 Talents. Every step led to an opportunity; every 
 opportunity was seen by him ; every opportunity was 
 seized by him. 
 
 3. Journeying to the Cross. No march of mili- 
 tant hosts to the field of battle was ever so sublime 
 as this journey to Jerusalem. He knew that death 
 was awaiting him, and death brought about by be- 
 trayal, falsehood, and the perversion of justice. Yet 
 
TWENTIETH DAY 1 85 
 
 he moved steadily onward. The glad festal throngs, 
 going up to Jerusalem, were wondering what he 
 would do, and were enjoying his company, his 
 teachings and his deeds of mercy, but he kept his 
 own counsel. He knew that the discussion which 
 arose, after the raising of Lazarus, had not sub- 
 sided, and that he was the topic of excited conver- 
 sation in the city, the pilgrims from Europe and 
 Africa and the distant East inquiring about him; 
 the sympathetic home people fearing for him, know- 
 ing the spirit of their leaders; the non-committal 
 Judeans waiting in uncertainty ; the " chief priests 
 and Pharisees " watching to arrest him. He knew 
 all that, and he marched on into the district of 
 danger, the calmest one of all. 
 
 4. Among Friends Again, in Bethany. Climb- 
 ing the hills from Jericho, where he cured the blind 
 men, met Zaccheus and spoke the parables of the 
 Talents, the pilgrims reached Bethany " six days 
 before the Passover," which would be Friday, 
 March 31, a. d. 30. The throngs swept on, that they 
 might spend the Sabbath in the sacred city, for the 
 Sabbath began at sundown that very evening, while 
 Jesus and the Twelve stopped with their friends in 
 Bethany. In that seclusion he will be safer ; in that 
 sympathetic atmosphere, more comfortable; in that 
 environment and on that day he will find something 
 to do in training the faith of the faithful and pre- 
 paring them for the trial awaiting them; on that 
 Sabbath, he will enjoy rest and worship with those 
 
1 86 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 who have learned to love him for his worth and owe 
 him deathless gratitude for the restoration of 
 Lazarus to life. 
 
 5. Honored by the Villagers. The feast seems 
 to have been given by the villagers generally, who 
 felt that he had been their friend, both in raising 
 Lazarus from the dead and in making Bethany his 
 usual stopping-place. It was given at the house of 
 a man who was still called " Simon the leper," 
 though Jesus had probably cured him long before, 
 and perhaps his house was chosen, because it was 
 the most convenient and commodious for such a 
 gathering. The exact day of the feast is not given. 
 John writes as if it was soon after his arrival at 
 Bethany. That would make it Saturday after sun- 
 set, when the Sabbath was past. Matthew and Mark 
 tell of it after their accounts of his conflicts with the 
 officials on Tuesday. That would make it fall on 
 Tuesday or Wednesday evening, more likely the 
 latter. Whether the supper was Saturday or Wed- 
 nesday evening no one knows. Without going fur- 
 ther into the discussion, let us assume that it was 
 Saturday. We know that not one of the writers is 
 strictly chronological. 
 
 At this feast we can imagine many friends gath- 
 ered. We know three of them and they were all 
 there in character — Lazarus, sitting quiet and rever- 
 ent ; Martha, waiting on the table, of course ; Mary, 
 penetrating into the deeper meaning of his mission 
 and showing it in her own unique way. 
 
TWENTIETH DAY 1 87 
 
 6. A New Encouragement. It came through the 
 anointing, but from Mary. It was not the anointing 
 itself, but the insight that preceded and the love that 
 prompted it. It was a custom among Orientals to 
 anoint the head of guests at feasts and she had 
 been assigned to that service or had requested the 
 honor or had come in after the formal and regular 
 anointing, by some one else. She had an insight 
 into the meaning of Christ's life that no one else had 
 ever shown. She knew the plots against him and 
 she knew that he was to achieve something. It was 
 dim and uncertain to her, but she knew more than 
 any one else. She felt more than she knew and she 
 knew more than she could express. She could not 
 do enough for him, even in using this precious 
 cruse of ointment, which she had possibly bought 
 for embalming the body of Lazarus. The deed had 
 a significance to Jesus which it did not have even 
 to her, and yet she felt, in her very soul, that he had 
 some strange, tragical need of just such ministry as 
 she was rendering. 
 
 She showed her complete, unselfish love and her 
 unerring insight, in what she did — in the costliness 
 of the perfume ; in anointing his feet as well as his 
 head ; in wiping his feet with her hair, for it was in 
 violation of custom to loosen the fillets and appear 
 with disheveled hair; in the wonderful revelations 
 which her countenance must have made. Jesus saw 
 that she had an insight into his character and mis- 
 sion that no one else had ever shown, and he felt 
 
THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 a thrill of hope which heartened him for his tragic 
 task. He had the joy of being, in some degree, 
 understood. 
 
 How she came to know as much as she did is not 
 hard to see. She was a woman and had a refined 
 woman's intuition; she was a poet and had the 
 mystic's imagination and feeling ; she had long been 
 a student at his feet and had strained the eye of an 
 acute intellect and a pure heart to see into the 
 depths of his teaching; she had felt her limitation 
 and God had spoken direct to her trusting soul. 
 
 7. His Approval of Mere Sentiment. His words 
 of approval are called forth by the brutal growl of 
 Judas, who kept it up till the rest thoughtlessly 
 joined in. Judas said that three hundred pence — a 
 whole year's wages of a laboring man, with pur- 
 chasing power equal to three hundred dollars in our 
 money — spent that way was a waste and should 
 have been spent on the poor. Granting that he 
 really wanted the poor to have it, we can see the 
 fallacy in his reasoning. She had done a useful 
 thing in expressing such sentiments, for if they 
 are not expressed, in some way, they are repressed; 
 when they are repressed, the poor will be forgotten. 
 " Love thrives upon its own redeeming irrationali- 
 ties. It is divinely wasteful; it is abandonment or 
 nothing." The money spent in expressing and in- 
 creasing love passes on into all the higher values. 
 He gives Mary an immortality of fame and influ- 
 ence, assuring her that her fine deed will stimulate 
 
TWENTIETH DAY 
 
 the imagination and ideals and affections and ef- 
 forts of people as the story is told from generation 
 to generation. Those three hundred pence have 
 stimulated more gifts to the poor than any same 
 amount ever invested. 
 
 8. His Vindication of the Poor. We are com- 
 ing to see, more and more, as he saw clearly, that 
 the poor have hearts and brains, as well as stomachs 
 and backs, and need something besides food and 
 clothes. They need love and truth and friendship 
 and culture; they can enjoy the noble spectacle of 
 an extravagant and uncalculating love, giving its 
 rarest treasures to Him who is highest and best, and 
 growing greater thereby. 
 
 9. His Loss of a Wasted Man. Judas must not 
 escape our attention, though we shall give a little 
 more thought to him in a later lesson. Jesus called 
 him " the son of perdition," which means " the son 
 of waste." He complained of wasting money, but 
 had wasted a man, a promising man, himself. Time 
 was, when he had some generous and promising 
 sentiments, and he had the best of opportunities. 
 But the vicious sentiments had become dominant 
 and the man had grown less and less, till now he 
 was gone, wasted, diabolized. He had turned against 
 Jesus, and John described either his hidden dis- 
 position or his definite actions in calling him a thief. 
 He was a liar, as well. The blood too was frozen 
 in his avaricious veins, and if the money had been 
 voted to the poor and had passed through his hands, 
 
190 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 as treasurer, they would never have seen it. He, 
 now, has a diabolical vindictiveness toward Christ, 
 and though the precious ointment was already used, 
 when he made the complaint, and it would really 
 have been too late to sell it, he sought to excite as 
 much dislike for Jesus as possible. He has aban- 
 doned his Master at heart and cannot restrain his 
 hatred. He will be seeking to turn his hatred to 
 profit. 
 
 TWENTY-FIRST DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF HIS TRIUMPHAL ENTRY 
 
 Matt. 21 : 1-17 ; Mark 11 : 1-11 ; Luke 19 : 29-46; 
 
 John 12 : 12— 1 g 
 
 It was Sunday, April 2, a. d. 30, one week before 
 his resurrection day, and it seems to have been in 
 the afternoon, as we learn that the evening came on, 
 just at the close of the march to the temple, and he 
 then returned to Bethany for the night. 
 
 1. The Crowds that Attended Him. They 
 were mostly visitors and were from everywhere, 
 quite a little company from Bethany and from out 
 in Judea, who had seen him raise Lazarus from the 
 dead; throngs from a distance, some of whom had 
 traveled in the same caravan with him ; others from 
 distant lands which his fame had reached. Some 
 were camped in the outskirts ; some were just com- 
 ing up in caravans; some were lingering around, 
 
TWENTY-FIRST DAY I9I 
 
 waiting for him to move; some were already in the 
 city: all were excited. Those in the city came out 
 to meet him, when they heard that he was coming, 
 and then they turned about and led the procession 
 back, one section of the procession following, the 
 other preceding him. 
 
 He is the center of interest during that whole 
 Passover period and entirely eclipses all the other 
 attractions. Long before the festival came on, all 
 were discussing him. All of them had come up, 
 with the old deathless hope that some deliverance 
 might at last come to the nation, and were discussing 
 the marvelous doings of this Galilean prophet, es- 
 pecially the raising of Lazarus. They were wonder- 
 ing if he would not at last make a bold and con- 
 vincing claim to Messiahship. The opposition of 
 the rulers, known everywhere, stirred the people to 
 a still wilder excitement. 
 
 2. His Deliberate Plan for a Royal Demon- 
 stration. It was something he never would have 
 allowed before. Now it is his own idea and he 
 takes the initiative in carrying it out. He has rea- 
 sons for it. It is not that he has, at last, yielded 
 to the clamor of the people for a demonstration. He 
 was not in the habit of so doing, and there is no sign 
 of that in this instance. He has not surrendered his 
 power of unerring self-direction. It is not that he 
 is seized with a sudden mad passion for notoriety, 
 for he will riot reach the eastern gate of the city be- 
 fore he will sink into comparative insignificance, in 
 
192 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 the sudden revulsion of popular feeling. He was 
 too strong to be swayed by the impulsive wishes of 
 fickle admirers and too genuine to seek an ignoble 
 or grotesque or picturesque fame. He plans it out, 
 under a decision, deliberately formed; he waits till 
 the very right moment has arrived; he carries out 
 his plan, in all its necessary details — as in sending 
 two disciples for a suitable steed. 
 
 3. The Reason For It. As he had always de- 
 clined to claim his kingship in any public way, as 
 he knew the inflammable and superficial enthusiasm 
 of the people was not to be trusted, as he knew the 
 leaders would be further enraged and would be con- 
 firmed in their purpose to kill him, why should he 
 doit? 
 
 It was, first of all, God's will as he had given ex- 
 pression to it in prophecy (Isaiah 62 : 11 and Zech. 
 9:9), "tell ye the daughter of Zion, behold thy 
 King cometh unto thee." It was also his duty to 
 the people to declare himself in some way and have 
 them face their king and their opportunity. Further, 
 he would so fire the imagination of the people that 
 their convictions would reassert themselves after his 
 resurrection. He would test the nation's claim that 
 they want a Messiah, reveal them to themselves, 
 and possibly lead them to repentance. And he will 
 tighten his grasp upon his own, by what they see 
 and what they say. Is it not also possible that he 
 was making one final appeal to the people, as such, 
 rather than to their officials? 
 
TWENTY-FIRST DAY 1 93 
 
 This was the time to do it. The prophetic word 
 suits the occasion. His life is almost done, and 
 whatever happens, no evil, greater than what he 
 knows is coming, can befall him or his disciples. 
 Less harm and more good will be done by a demon- 
 stration now. 
 
 4. The Revived Hope of the People. The air 
 was athrill that morning. The surging up of the 
 old hope of a deliverer; the increasing enthusiasm 
 stirred by the fast-flying news that something was 
 to happen; the uplifting look on his face, as they 
 met him here and there — all of it meant expecta- 
 tion. The people thought he would at last solve 
 their problems and settle their doubts. 
 
 The disciples felt it. They knew his power to 
 work wonders, knew that, by asserting that power, 
 he could terrorize the rulers and send a thrill of fear 
 to the very heart of Rome itself. They knew it, as 
 we also know it, but they did not know that his was 
 the power to suffer and serve and redeem. They 
 now think that he is at last to do what they had all 
 along thought he ought to do. When they heard 
 the talk that morning and saw his looks, their hopes 
 grew up. When they were sent for the steed, they 
 must have had difficulty in containing themselves, 
 for the ass, as well as the horse, was a steed for 
 kings. He wore no royal robes, but they knew he 
 had a royal soul, a kingly character. 
 
 We can feel the joy of that day. The people 
 thought they at last had their Messiah and that their 
 
194 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 long privation was at an end ; they thought they had 
 their promised king and that slavery to Rome was to 
 cease. As a result, their enthusiasm knew no limit. 
 It showed itself in making a saddle for the steed 
 out of their own clothes; in strewing the path not 
 with fading flowers, but with palm branches, sym- 
 bols of victory, and with their own garments, sym- 
 bol of the consecrated lives which those garments 
 protect and adorn; in the glad songs they sing to 
 him, as the son of David, come to restore the 
 nation to its freedom and its fame. 
 
 All fear was gone. They called him " king," not 
 caring whether it would be thought treason against 
 Rome, for they knew that one, who had such power 
 over disease, and death, and devils, and nature, and 
 man, as he had, had nothing to fear from Jerusalem 
 or Rome. 
 
 5. His Acute Sadness. He could never before 
 have had greater distress than at that moment, 
 when the procession swept around the south- 
 ern end of the Mount of Olives and came 
 suddenly in sight of the splendid city. He knew 
 the people well. There had always been an an- 
 tagonism between their Messianic ideas and his 
 own and that was just as marked to-day as ever. 
 It had shown in his refusal to make a demon- 
 stration when they wanted one and now in his 
 giving them the kind they will soon grow weary of. 
 Under the manipulation of skilful leaders, some of 
 those people who are crying " Hosanna " to-day will 
 
TWENTY-FIRST DAY 1 95 
 
 say " Crucify him " next Friday. Before they reach 
 the temple enclosure most of them will lose a large 
 part of their ardor. This demonstration is pro- 
 vincial, and comes partly from provincial pride, 
 while the nation's heart, there in Jerusalem, is re- 
 jecting him with blind rage. The beauty of the sur- 
 rounding landscape, the heroic history lying back of 
 its present life, the indescribable splendor of the city 
 itself, make her sin all the deadlier and her doom 
 all the darker. As he thought of this, his sadness 
 showed in his looks, his tears, and his pitying, re- 
 proachful words. The last word is not more than 
 spoken, when a change comes over the crowd. 
 
 6. The Sudden Disappointment of the People. 
 He had, all along, seen the antagonism between their 
 Messianic ideals and his own: now they see and 
 feel it, as they never had before. It comes on them 
 with a shocking suddenness. Instead of seeing him 
 lift his face with the look of a Conqueror about to 
 ascend his throne, they see him drop his face in 
 shame and weep in seeming weakness ; instead of 
 quickening his pace, they see him halt in hesitancy ; 
 instead of proclaiming the deliverance of the sacred 
 city from the tyranny of her foes, he foretells her 
 destruction by those same enemies, who will be- 
 siege her and finish her doom. This is strange talk, 
 and they cannot understand him. They are con- 
 vinced that he is weak or insane, and yet his ma- 
 jestic personality has still a fascination for them. 
 Evidently, he is not the Messiah and they have 
 
I96 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 been befooled. People never forgive a hesitating or 
 a disappointing leader. In this case they felt so sure 
 they were to be led to liberty and a new national im- 
 portance, they had not hesitated to say a really treas- 
 onable word. They said what is about equivalent to 
 " Long live the king," and they meant him, not 
 Csesar. Now he has not justified their revolutionary 
 boldness, and they begin to think of the conse- 
 quences. The Jewish officials are to be feared; the 
 Roman officers will hear of it ; Jesus himself has no 
 protection to offer them. The reaction from their 
 enthusiasm has come, but they follow him on into 
 the city, for most of the crowd were too far from 
 him to have seen it all. 
 
 With disappointment there naturally comes re- 
 sentment, but prudence prevents a sudden desertion. 
 Some of them will probably join the Jerusalemite 
 Jews in calling for his crucifixion the next Friday. 
 Many retain their enthusiasm to the close of the day, 
 but the crowd, as a whole, is of a soberer temper 
 when they enter the city. These Galileans change 
 their tone, and when the people in the houses ask, 
 as the procession moves along, who he is, they no 
 longer say he is the king who has at last come, but 
 they simply give the name he is usually called by — 
 " the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee." 
 They melt away and leave the few who are not so 
 much disappointed. From that time he is only a 
 prophet to them, of what rank they are uncertain. 
 
 7. His Enemies Encouraged. When they first 
 
TWENTY-SECOND DAY 1 97 
 
 saw the shouting crowds they lost hope and said, 
 " All the world has gone after him." But when 
 they saw the disappointment of many and knew 
 they could now bring the charge of treason against 
 him, for setting himself up as a rival of Caesar's and 
 receiving kingly homage, they grew bold and in- 
 solent. They even told him that the shouts of some 
 boys about the temple should be stopped as treason- 
 able. His majesty still intimidated them, however, 
 as he stood in the temple enclosure and showed his 
 masterful spirit. 
 
 8. A Pleasing Memory. The crowds stopped at 
 the temple enclosure, but the children followed him 
 in ; their shouts died down outside, but the shouting 
 children took up a response within. The rulers bade 
 him quiet them, but he quoted a familiar proverb to 
 show that such enthusiasm was not to be checked at 
 all. The voices of the crowd died away, but the 
 shouts of the children still echoed in his heart, as they 
 assured him plainly that the unspoiled generation 
 coming on would know him as Saviour and King. 
 
 TWENTY-SECOND DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF FINAL CONFLICT WITH HIS ENEMIES 
 
 Matt. 21 : 23 to 26 : 6 ; Mark 11 : 19 to 14 : 11 ; 
 
 Luke 20 : ig to 21 : 36 
 
 It was Tuesday, April 4,. one of the busiest days 
 of his busy life, in fact, the very busiest, if we may 
 
I98 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 judge by what is written of it. No complete record 
 has ever been made of any day's work, yet we must 
 regard this as pretty fully reported. We find more 
 than conflict — we find the incident of the widow's 
 mite, the long talk with the disciples as they sat on 
 the Mount of Olives, and the black treachery of 
 Judas when the night came on. Perhaps the visit 
 of the inquiring Greeks was made that day. Since 
 the triumphal entry on Sunday, the events are about 
 as follows: Sunday night in Bethany; the fig tree 
 blighted, Monday, as they went into the city; an 
 uneventful day in the city, teaching, unless the visit 
 of the Greeks was that day, though we shall regard 
 it as having been on Tuesday; retirement to Beth- 
 any, Monday night; return to the city, Tuesday 
 morning, the disciples noticing, with surprise, that 
 the fig tree had withered to its roots, and receiving 
 in reply, some striking instructions from Jesus 
 about faith and prayer and forgiveness. Following 
 him through the day, we see him in five different re- 
 lationships, to his enemies, to the poor widow, to 
 the Greeks, to the disciples, to Judas. 
 
 I. His Enemies. 
 
 1. The Irrepressible Conflict. Conflict with 
 them was inevitable. They were in a pitiable plight 
 and had to do something desperate. They had 
 plotted and made threats : now they must make good. 
 Despite the change of feeling at the triumphal en- 
 try, he was still something of a popular idol, over- 
 shadowing them: they must get him out of their 
 
TWENTY-SECOND DAY 1 99 
 
 way. The mind of the masses was ready for a revo- 
 lutionary reaction against Rome, and, from his 
 boldness in defying his own nation's officials, he 
 was capable of working up a fanatical movement of 
 tremendous power, which would break the nation's 
 peace and the Pharisees' influence: they must get 
 him out of the way. These three considerations 
 bring them out in an attack on him. To be sure, he 
 had refused on Sunday to accept that office of lead- 
 ership, and had given the people an irritating dis- 
 appointment, yet his continued deeds of power, as in 
 blighting the fig tree, healing people in the temple 
 and cleansing the temple, the second time, of its 
 avaricious and sacrilegious traders, was indication 
 of a purpose that might be dangerous. 
 
 2. Their Definite Aim. Their ultimate single 
 purpose was to get him put to death. In order to do 
 that their immediate double purpose was to get him 
 to say something on which their own Sanhedrin or 
 council could sentence him and get the approval of 
 the Roman governor, and to discredit him with the 
 people, so that they would not offer violent resist- 
 ance. Rome allowed her provinces local self-gov- 
 ernment, to the extent of inflicting severe penalties, 
 but not the death penalty. The officials must have 
 the sanction of Rome and must not arouse a popular 
 opposition in putting him to death. To-day they 
 have resolved to show him up and bring the scorn 
 of the people on him, while they entrap him into 
 some criminal utterance. It must be done at once. 
 
200 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 3. Their Plan of Attack. They are united — all 
 the warring factions of the Jews — Pharisees, with 
 their various representatives, scribes, lawyers, and 
 priests ; Sadducees, with their priests and their 
 scornful leaders; Herodians, the disputatious time- 
 servers who were always supporting the reigning 
 power. They were united for once. They work 
 out a programme and appoint their most skilful dis- 
 putants to lead the attack. They have decided on 
 the questions on which they will impale him. Those 
 questions will take advantage of his simplicity and 
 make him appear ridiculous to his former admirers, 
 and, if possible, make them think he had betrayed 
 them. Now for the attack. 
 
 (1) A General Challenge of His Authority as a 
 Rabbi and a Worker of Miracles. The chief priests, 
 scribes, and elders asked this question. It implied 
 that he must have authority from the council, and 
 they hoped he would speak so irreverently about that 
 revered body as to horrify the people and be open 
 to the charge of blasphemy. He does not " de- 
 scend to the battle-ground on which they wish to 
 engage him," but puts them on the defensive with 
 a question about John's ministry, as symbolized by 
 his baptism. Their dilemma was that if they said it 
 was from heaven they would indorse Jesus, whom 
 John preached, and confess that they did wrong 
 in not receiving John and Jesus too ; if they said 
 it was not from heaven, they would be at once con- 
 demned by the people, for the populace admired 
 
TWENTY-SECOND DAY 
 
 John. They not only were confused : they lied. And 
 the people saw both the confusion and the lie. So 
 far the whip was in his hand. They answered their 
 own question and were forced to confess indirectly 
 that Jesus had his authority from heaven. 
 
 That is not enough. They need severe treatment, 
 and he gives it to them in three parables. In the 
 parable of the Two Sons he teaches them that they 
 were worse than the publican and harlots, for they 
 had claimed to do God's will but had never done so, 
 while the unfortunates had always refused to do his 
 will, but were now pressing into the kingdom. 
 Theirs was the sin of insincerity. The parable of 
 the Householder and his Husbandmen discloses their 
 brutal unfaithfulness to " covenanted duty " in the 
 interests God had committed to their hands. For 
 they had refused to yield him fruits of righteousness, 
 had rejected and slain his prophets, and now were 
 trying to kill the well-beloved Son. The third was 
 the parable of the Marriage Feast, and it shows their 
 " contempt for God's grace." They were like the 
 people in the parable invited to a wedding-feast. 
 There was first an invitation, which was accepted, 
 then a notification that all was ready, which was 
 neglected, then another invitation through other 
 servants, who commended the feast by telling them of 
 the menu. In the several invitations we find benevo- 
 lence, forethought, authority, patience. In the re- 
 fusal, we find lying, rebellion, indifference. They 
 would justly suffer loss and punishment. Some car- 
 
202 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 ried their insolence so far as to insult the occasion by 
 appearing without a suitable garment. 
 
 He drew the picture of those Pharisees to the life, 
 and they were themselves discredited with the peo- 
 ple. Long before he was through they saw his pur- 
 pose, and in their impotent rage would have taken 
 him by violence, but were afraid the multitude might 
 mob them. 
 
 (2) Then, Strangely Enough, the Herodians 
 Join the Pharisees in an Attempt to Catch Him with 
 a Question About Paying Tribute to Caesar. To all, 
 their taxation was a burden. Nothing could dis- 
 credit him so much with the people as a word ap- 
 proving the Roman taxes : nothing will sound so 
 treasonable to Rome as a word against taxes. He 
 is in a dilemma. Yet his reply is so adroit as to be 
 simplicity itself. It sounds the deepest notes of 
 duty to the State and to God. And yet it has taken 
 men a long time to discover its profound meanings. 
 Many of them must have thought he had evaded an 
 issue; some called him cowardly and unpatriotic, 
 and were ready to crucify him a few days later. 
 But he silenced the debate. 
 
 (3) The Sadducees, Who Made Claims of Su- 
 perior Culture and Refinement, Now Take Their 
 Turn. Their purpose is to discredit a doctrine dear 
 to Pharisees, and yet they are supported in the 
 question by the Pharisees — the doctrine of the resur- 
 rection. Their question was about the woman who 
 married seven brothers in succession. His reply 
 
TWENTY-SECOND DAY 203 
 
 showed their insincerity, since they did not believe 
 in the resurrection at all ; it showed their ignorance, 
 for the Scriptures taught continued existence; it 
 showed their lack of refined imagination, since any 
 one should know that relations based on physical 
 organization pass away with the life of the flesh. 
 
 (4) Now Comes an Attack from a Lawyer, who 
 is, of course, a Pharisee, but is a professional ex- 
 pounder of the Mosaic and rabbinical laws. 
 
 He and all the Jews had the laws classified, some 
 great and some small. It was both an academic 
 and an ethical question, which was the greatest 
 commandment. After saying that all the laws are 
 summed up in the two — to love God supremely and 
 love men as one's self — he turns the attack on them, 
 and delivers a philippic against them that almost 
 drives them insane. He first showed their ignorance 
 of the Messiah, their presumption and disobedience 
 to God's law, overbearing cruelty to their poor 
 dupes, and pretense to piety and authority. The 
 woes pronounced on them in Matthew 23 almost 
 make us shudder. Yet he closes with a loving and 
 heart-broken lament over cruel and heedless and 
 doomed Jerusalem. They, and not Jesus, had been 
 humiliated before the people. 
 
 II. The Poor Widow. 
 
 He turned down one of the colonnades into the 
 court of the women, and saw this widow putting 
 her all into the stationary collection box. He saw 
 the motive and the sacrifice involved, and appraised 
 
204 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 the gift more highly than the larger offerings of the 
 rich. She kept all the law in keeping the two com- 
 mandments to love God supremely and men as one's 
 self. This was like a refreshing breeze to the 
 suffocating heart of Jesus. 
 
 III. The Inquiry of the Greeks. 
 
 They were proselytes to the Jewish faith and 
 wanted to learn from Jesus in person if he were the 
 Jews' Messiah. It was a comfort to him to know 
 that not all were like these officials, that the Gentiles 
 would some day embrace him as Saviour and that he 
 would reign over them. This is the beginning of 
 that glorification which he will have when the na- 
 tions shall call him Master. But his joy is tempered 
 by the thought that he must die in order to win 
 them, and that they must die to the world in order 
 to be his living, loving disciples. He must be true 
 to them and tell them so. 
 
 IV. The Disciples. 
 
 He has a long, impressive talk with them as they 
 sit on the Mount of Olives, on their way over to 
 Bethany that evening. They spoke of the beautiful 
 masonry of the temple as they left the city, but he 
 told them it would be thrown down. They asked 
 him when and he told them, not when it should be, 
 but how to be ready for it, in a parable about ten 
 young women invited to a wedding-feast, of whom 
 five took precautions to be ready for any emer- 
 gency, while five failed to do so and failed to enjoy 
 the occasion. They are ready for anything only by 
 
TWENTY-THIRD DAY 205 
 
 being ready for everything; they are ready at one 
 time only by being ready all the time. Then he 
 taught them fidelity to opportunity by the parable of 
 men who had money to take care of. Each had just 
 what he could use : the faithful were rewarded, the 
 faithless were punished. By a picture he discloses 
 the judgment scene, and warns them that the de- 
 cisions there will depend on their attitude toward 
 him here, as that attitude is shown in their treatment 
 of his people here. 
 
 V. Judas' Plot. 
 
 The leaders called a meeting of the council that 
 night, and resolved that it would be necessary to 
 wait till the pilgrims left the city before they could 
 safely arrest Jesus. But that very night, or not 
 many hours thereafter, Judas came with a proposi- 
 tion to deliver him into their hands. It was good 
 news to them. The bargain was made. Judas was 
 going to get all he could out of the wreck — thirty 
 pieces of silver. 
 
 What a day was that Tuesday! 
 
 TWENTY-THIRD DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF HIS FORETASTE OF DEATH 
 
 Matt. 26 : 17-46; Luke 22 : 7-46; Mark 14 : 12-42; 
 
 John 13 : 1 to 18 : 1 
 
 It was Thursday, and it was a day of farewell to 
 friends and foretaste of death. We think of what 
 
206 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 took place in Bethany, in the upper room, and in 
 Gethsemane that day. 
 
 1. In Bethany. Thither he had gone Tuesday 
 night, after the exciting controversies in the temple 
 and the long talk with the disciples on Mt. Olivet 
 about the solemn, tragical future. There, with his 
 dear friends, he stayed through Wednesday and 
 until Thursday afternoon, when he came into the 
 city to celebrate the Passover with his disciples and 
 to meet his death. How he spent that quiet day we 
 know not, but we do know he enjoyed the sym- 
 pathetic atmosphere of that lovely home, and we 
 can well believe that Mary, at least, was constantly 
 thinking of the coming tragedy, with confused, 
 anxious mind, yet with a loyal, trusting heart. He 
 must have talked much with them and imparted to 
 all some truths that would come to their aid in the 
 bewildering sorrow that was soon to fall on them. 
 In his farewells at Bethany there was a tense feeling, 
 but no formal leave-taking, we can easily think. 
 Quietly and informally he bade them adieu to go 
 into Jerusalem for the Passover supper. All felt 
 it. It was part of the agony of his foretaste of 
 deatH. 
 
 2. In the Upper Chamber, (i) Preparations 
 for the Passover. As a loyal Jew he would observe 
 this Passover. As the head of a company he would 
 be responsible for it, even as a father for his family. 
 This is the nucleus of a new spiritual family and he 
 is its head. 
 
TWENTY-THIRD DAY 207 
 
 He has shown his usual forethought in arranging 
 for it in advance, and arranging so discreetly as not 
 to attract the attention of the public or expose him- 
 self to Judas' nervous haste to deliver him up. He 
 knows the situation perfectly and acts wisely. Jeru- 
 salemites knew that their visiting brethren must have 
 room in which they could gather as families or 
 groups, and were ready to accommodate them with 
 generous hospitality. Jesus wisely arranged with a 
 friend beforehand for a room and, just as wisely, 
 kept it to himself. The friend is thought by many 
 to have been the father of Mark, because, after the 
 resurrection, the disciples continued to meet in an 
 upper room, presumably this one, and Mary, Mark's 
 mother, made her home a Christian headquarters. 
 Then when the time came to arrange for the 
 supper, he still observed secrecy by sending only 
 two, Peter and John, and not even telling them 
 where to go, but giving them a clue which they could 
 follow. He and his friend had agreed on that 
 method of doing it, or he knew what the friend 
 would be doing. Women usually carried the water, 
 and a man doing so would be a strange-enough 
 sight to attract their attention. The two found the 
 place, secured the lamb, and had it passed on and 
 slain by the priests, secured the bread, wine, and bit- 
 ter herbs, arranged the table and had everything 
 ready for the supper, which was eaten between 
 three and six. Thus his secrecy prevented popular 
 excitement — for they were watching for him; se- 
 
208 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 cured perfect arrangements, for Peter and John had 
 nothing to make them nervous while preparing; 
 kept Judas from precipitating the crisis, for having 
 already arranged to deliver him up, he might, 
 through dread of delay or eagerness for his pay, 
 bring the officers upon Jesus too soon ; had quietude 
 for his own paschal thought, for he knew that he was 
 the real Passover lamb, of which the one they would 
 eat was but a type. He and the ten arrived and 
 found all things ready in the large upper room, 
 reached by outside steps and wholly free from 
 interruption. 
 
 (2) The Lesson in Humility. The disciples came 
 there in an ugly mood and had to be taught. One 
 thought was in their mind — his splendid kingdom; 
 one ambition mastered them — to have conspicuous 
 places in that kingdom. Some days before, the 
 mother of James and John had stirred them all up by 
 asking the two highest places for her sons. That 
 passion for preeminence is again aroused at sight 
 of the table. In the scramble for the best places at 
 the horseshoe table, around which they reclined on 
 their left arms with feet stretched out from the cen- 
 ter, John was in front of Jesus, reclining on his 
 bosom, we might say, and Judas just behind him, 
 while Peter was across on the opposite side. 
 
 Their love of preeminence was also shown in an 
 unwillingness to wash each other's feet. Wearing 
 only sandals, the dusty feet needed bathing and hosts 
 always provided a basin of water and towel. Peter 
 
TWENTY-THIRD DAY 209 
 
 and John provided them, but no one wanted to 
 render the service, though they were probably in the 
 habit of washing each other's feet. They were in a 
 bad mood and must be taught better. Jesus does it 
 by instruction and example, and he does it because 
 of his intense, unfailing love for his own and their 
 great need. His instruction was that the law of life 
 is service; his example illustrated that law, for he 
 himself washed their feet, much to their shame. But 
 they learned the lesson of lowly service in his name. 
 
 (3) The Last Passover Supper. It was the ten- 
 derest, most pathetic Passover he had ever attended. 
 He had a vivid sense of its historic significance, of 
 its relation to himself and of the fellowship which it 
 afforded with his spiritual family. 
 
 (4) The Traitor Identified. It may be assumed 
 that Judas thought Jesus ignorant of his plot, and 
 Jesus thought it best to inform him that he knew. 
 He wants only the faithful with him for the new 
 supper he was to originate, for the confidential talk 
 and the loving prayer to follow. He wants an un- 
 broken fellowship for a while. He begins by stating 
 that one of them should betray him: that would 
 lead to wholesome self-examination. Then each 
 asks the question, "Is it I?" and Judas asks it to 
 throw off suspicion. That enables Jesus to whisper 
 to him the truth, as he had confessed it to John, just 
 in front of him. When Judas left, Jesus said a word 
 to him that must have stung, though the disciples 
 did not understand it. He felt happy relief, 
 
 o 
 
2IO THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 and from that time he and they had an exalted 
 experience. 
 
 (5) The First Lord's Supper. With the wine, and 
 the bread a new ordinance is instituted. By it they 
 are to remember their deliverance, not from Egypt, 
 but from their sins; not by means of the paschal 
 lamb, but of " the Lamb of God," even himself ; 
 not to remember each other, but him ; to show forth, 
 not so much his life as his death. The broken body 
 and shed blood symbolize his power to purify and 
 invigorate. The Supper has no magical power, but 
 it has power to set forth truth, exalt the memory 
 and stir the aspirations. A new epoch is coming 
 and he gives them a token of a new covenant of 
 grace with them. 
 
 (6) The Comforting Talk. In that talk he seeks 
 to prepare them for their trial by disclosing the ties 
 that bound them to him and to each other — vital 
 ties, that nothing could dissolve. He assured them 
 that their separation would be short, that they 
 could ask his Father for what they should need, just 
 as they were in the habit of asking him; that the 
 Spirit would abide with them, to teach, protect, 
 comfort; that they would have joy in him and be 
 very useful to the Father. 
 
 (7) The Uplifting Prayer. He prayed tenderly 
 that they might have life, protection from evil, suc- 
 cess in their warfare ; that they might be kept by his 
 word, be unified, lead the world to believe on him at 
 last, be with him, to behold and enjoy his glory. 
 
TWENTY-THIRD DAY 
 
 The prayer was a protecting shield thrown over 
 them. It was an exalted occasion. But before the 
 end he had to tell Peter of his coming denial. 
 
 3. In Gethsemane. ( 1 ) Seeking a Place for Pri- 
 vate Prayer. From that upper room he went out of 
 the city, through St. Stephen's gate, into an olive 
 garden, across the brook Kedron. It was called 
 Gethsemane, which meant olive presses, because olive 
 presses were there. He had often sat and talked 
 with friends under those trees in true Oriental 
 fashion, and now he comes there for private prayer, 
 as he feels the terrible agony coming on, and also to 
 meet his fate, for he knew Judas would expect to 
 find him there. 
 
 (2) The Azvful Agony. It was all the more in- 
 tense for the joy he had felt in the upper room with 
 the disciples. As long as he could be preparing and 
 protecting them his mind was partly kept away from 
 himself, but now he has nothing to do except to 
 wait for the betrayal and arrest. The agony that 
 swept over him was greater than any he had ever 
 felt before. It was an anticipation of what he was 
 to suffer on the cross the next day, plus one other 
 element, the element of a furious and awful tempta- 
 tion to avoid the cross. At the beginning of his 
 ministry the devil sought to induce him to accom- 
 plish his purpose in the world by avoiding the cross ; 
 now that temptation comes back, at the moment 
 when he can do no more and only waits, facing the 
 cross. Matthew says he was " sorrowful and sore 
 
THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 troubled," and Jesus himself says " my soul is ex- 
 ceeding sorrowful, even unto death." 
 
 It was not the mere physical suffering that he was 
 dreading: sensitive saints have welcomed horrible 
 death with untroubled joy. Nor was it the prospect 
 of the degrading death of the cross : Romans cruci- 
 fied only slaves and criminals. Jewish law pro- 
 nounced a curse on him who hung on a tree. What 
 he dreaded was not the physical death. He had been 
 calling that " sleep," and had sought to have his dis- 
 ciples call it the same, and he reserved the word 
 " death " for something that the soul experiences 
 when it is separated from God, the source of its life. 
 He does not call his coming experience " sleep," 
 but that awful thing " death." Nothing more ter- 
 rible is possible or conceivable. To-morrow his 
 body will fall asleep on the cross, and that he dreads 
 not ; to-morrow his soul will taste of death, and that 
 almost kills him as he now has a foretaste of it. 
 
 An absolutely sinless soul is to suffer for sin, and 
 he is to be regarded as sin itself. He suffers for 
 humanity, for he was so connected with them as to 
 take their woes and wickedness on himself. Now, 
 as he enters that garden, he gets a taste of the com- 
 ing death, and meets the fiercest temptation that has 
 ever yet assailed him. 
 
 (3) The Victory. He sought some relief in the 
 sympathy of his disciples, but they went to sleep. 
 There was one passion in his soul stronger than 
 dread of that death, the passion for doing his 
 
TWENTY-FOURTH DAY 213 
 
 Father's will. That came to his aid and he recovered 
 command of himself. He accepted his Father's ar- 
 rangement and looked death squarely in the face. 
 Then he grew calm. He had won the victory. From 
 this time he is free from the temptation to evade 
 death and can devote his soul to the struggle with 
 death itself. 
 
 In this new self-command his majesty shines out 
 as it never did before. His rapt and heavenly look 
 awed his enemies when they came to arrest him. 
 Now he is ready. He calmly wakes the sleeping dis- 
 ciples, comes forward to meet his captors and pre- 
 serves his self-possession to the end. 
 
 TWENTY-FOURTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF HIS DEATH 
 
 Matt. 26 : 47 to 27 : 66 ; Mark 14 : 43 to ij : 47 ; 
 Luke 22 : 47 to 23 : 56 ; John 18 : 2 to 19 : 42 
 
 I. The Betrayal. The betrayal took place sev- 
 eral days before, but was consummated a little after 
 midnight, in the early hours of Friday, April 7, 
 a. d. 30, according to our method of reckoning. In 
 that act, Judas consummated the villainy of the ages, 
 and is therefore credited by mankind with the basest 
 nature known among men. He did not simply 
 desert a cause that he could not appreciate, but he 
 secured the death of its leader for a money consid- 
 eration. He did that, after being honored with a 
 
214 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 place in Christ's inner circle, and with the intimate 
 and confidential friendship of Christ; after being 
 taught the sublimest truths and ideals that ever were 
 uttered by human lips, and given the most beautiful 
 and fascinating example of goodness the world has 
 ever seen. He took advantage of unselfish goodness 
 to betray him. 
 
 His motive was complex. It was chiefly avarice, 
 for he was by nature a lover of money and had 
 been feeding that love of money by handling the 
 common funds and stealing from the bag. There 
 were minor motives, reinforcing his master pas- 
 sion — ambition for power, which had been dis- 
 appointed, but might now find gratification, as he 
 associated himself with the nation's leaders in 
 their policy of getting rid of this dangerous 
 enthusiast; revenge for the disappointment and 
 humiliation Jesus had given him. He had at 
 first become a disciple with some fairly good 
 sentiments and with great ability. In fact, his Mes- 
 sianic ideals were about the same as those of the 
 others, to begin with. But as the others grew to- 
 ward Jesus, he grew away from him; they grew 
 better, he worse. If he had been " born again," as 
 he was at one time capable of, he would have been 
 very useful, with his abilities, for he would have 
 had another passion strong enough to keep love 
 of money and ambition for power in a subordinate 
 place, and there would have been no revenge to 
 gratify. 
 
TWENTY-FOURTH DAY 215 
 
 He steadily grew in evil. He was disappointed in 
 the character and mission of Jesus, while the others 
 were disappointed in his mission, though not in his 
 character. The death of John the Baptist chilled 
 his hopes; the refusal of Jesus to accept temporal 
 power irritated him; the enmity of the Jewish 
 leaders made him wince; the disclosure of the com- 
 ing cross and shame maddened him with what he 
 thought its fanatical self-immolation; the knowl- 
 edge that Christ was aware of his treacherous na- 
 ture made him vindictive. His moral alienation 
 from Jesus was complete and he was Satan's tool. 
 He is no longer Dr. Jekyll, with the possibilities of 
 a Mr. Hyde ; he is Mr. Hyde himself forevermore. 
 
 The method by which Judas accomplished his 
 perfidy was diabolical beyond description. Stalker 
 points out that he profaned the Passover, invaded 
 the sanctuary of his Master's devotions, and de- 
 based the sign of affection and discipleship in identi- 
 fying his Master, for he kissed Jesus frequently 
 and fervently, as if in affection, and was called 
 " friend " by Jesus while doing so. 
 
 2. The Arrest. It was made late at night, with 
 the hope that they might find Jesus asleep, and 
 through fear of arousing popular opposition if they 
 attempted it in the daylight. They also hoped to 
 have him arrested, condemned, and ready for punish- 
 ment at once, and thereby throw his friends into a 
 panic before they had time to think. 
 
 The arrest was made by a band of Roman sol- 
 
2l6 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 diers, the temple police, and some high officials, all 
 led by Judas. They were surprised that he came 
 forward and gave himself up, for they had lanterns 
 and weapons, to secure him if he sought to escape. 
 They were more surprised at his calm bearing, were 
 overawed by his majesty, and the soldiers fell to the 
 ground in fright and confusion. They had never 
 seen a real, complete man before. The rapture of 
 his victory in the garden was in his face. He al- 
 most arrested himself. He seemed to aim, just then, 
 at two things — to protect his disciples and to im- 
 press his enemies, so that they could be saved from 
 sin some day. He complained that they did not ar- 
 rest him openly; he restored the ear of the high 
 priest's servant, which Peter had cut off in foolishly 
 trying to defend Jesus! He diverted the attention 
 of his captors from his panic-stricken flock and saw 
 them all flee in terror and yet in safety. 
 
 3. The Jewish Trial. There were two trials — 
 by the Jewish governing body and by the Roman 
 governor. The former would have been sufficient 
 if they had not demanded the death penalty. Rome 
 allowed her provinces to enforce their own laws in 
 most cases, save in inflicting the death penalty. 
 
 There were three stages of the Jewish trial. 
 
 (1) Before Annas. He was the ex-high priest, but 
 was the head of the Sadducean sect and of the reign- 
 ing dynasty of high priests, we might say, and would 
 be called a " boss " to-day. He had held the office 
 and had five sons and now his son-in-law in that 
 
TWENTY-FOURTH DAY 21 J 
 
 exalted position. Though seventy years old, he was 
 astute and autocratic. He kept awake that night 
 to conduct the first informal examination of Jesus. 
 He and Caiaphas had rooms in the high-priestly 
 palace, a house built out flush with the street and 
 opening on an inner court, entered through an arch, 
 with a large gate and a smaller wicket gate. In 
 the court the soldiers made a fire while the trial 
 went on. 
 
 (2) Before Caiaphas. Annas could not formulate 
 a charge, though they insulted Jesus and then took 
 him to the room of Caiaphas in the same building, 
 and some of the council informally assembled. They 
 quoted what he said about destroying the temple 
 and tried to prove blasphemy, but broke down. Then 
 Caiaphas put him on oath, and he confessed that he 
 was Son of God. That enabled them at last to 
 charge him with blasphemy. Then followed a scene 
 that was a disgrace to human nature. They spent 
 the time till daylight insulting him by spitting 
 on him, striking him, blindfolding him and mak- 
 ing sport of his prophetic claims by asking who 
 struck him. 
 
 (3) Before Caiaphas and the Regular Council. 
 The council could not take legal action till after 
 daylight, and their former trials were to prepare a 
 decision that could be hastily affirmed by the council 
 in regular session. At a legal hour he was again 
 asked if he were the Son of God, and then formal 
 sentence of death was passed. Though the council 
 
2l8 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 was legally assembled, its findings were illegal. They 
 did not seek the truth — they sought a pretext for 
 condemning him. 
 
 4. The Roman Trial. This also had three stages, 
 as we shall see — before Pilate, before Herod, and be- 
 fore Pilate again. 
 
 (1) Before Pilate. Pilate was a typical Roman 
 official, selfish, with a high regard for " the sys- 
 tem " on which he was dependent, though with some 
 rudimentary sense of justice. The deepest passion 
 of his nature was the passion for place, and subor- 
 dinate to that were all his other, more or less good, 
 qualities. 
 
 When they called on him that morning he was in 
 a bad humor. It made him mad to be called so 
 early ; to be compelled to come out to them, instead 
 of receiving them in his court, for they refused to 
 come in to him on the ground that they would be 
 defiled by going into a Gentile's house on the feast 
 day; to be ordered to confirm their death sentence 
 without examination of it, and even without being 
 told the charge on which they had done it. He 
 hated them and they hated him. He knew that 
 Jesus was innocent and that they were actuated by 
 utter viciousness. When they said they had charge 
 enough, he told them to go on then and inflict the 
 punishment their law allowed. Then they made a 
 threefold charge — that he perverted the nation, for- 
 bade paying taxes, and set himself up as a king. 
 Pilate was compelled to notice it, and after a private 
 
TWENTY-FOURTH DAY 2IO, 
 
 examination of Jesus, saw he was not guilty. But 
 when he sought to release him he was met with an 
 outcry that this man was stirring up people all over 
 Judea and Galilee. The word " Galilee " suggested 
 a way out of Pilate's dilemma. Herod was ruler 
 of Galilee and happened to be in the city that very 
 day. Pilate will get Herod to pass on the case. 
 
 (2) Before Herod. Herod was glad at last to 
 meet him, and hoped to see him perform some 
 miracle. He had gone the whole round of wicked- 
 ness and now wanted a fresh sensation. But Jesus 
 would not gratify a vicious taste nor say a word to 
 the unrepentant murderer of his friend, John. 
 Jesus' silence enraged him, and he allowed his sol- 
 diers to insult him with mockery and by putting on 
 him an old cast-off gorgeous robe and leading him 
 back to Pilate, in that garb. 
 
 (3) Before Pilate Again. The issue was now 
 joined. Pilate should have then released him, and 
 he really determined to do so, at any cost, save one, 
 peril to his office. They can charge him at Rome 
 with harboring a rival to Caesar and can get him 
 dismissed. Pilate cannot risk such a calamity. He 
 made several attempts to release Jesus. First, he 
 offered to make him the criminal to be released at 
 the annual feast, thus stamping him as a criminal, 
 which he had no right to do. But they strangely de- 
 manded the release of Barabbas, a man who had 
 really led an insurrection against Rome, the very 
 thing they wanted Pilate to condemn Jesus for. 
 
THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 Next he appealed to their sympathy, by having him 
 scourged, which was a horrible outrage on justice, 
 and thinking his pitiful appearance would satisfy 
 their thirst for blood ; but it only excited a bloodier 
 thirst, as Jesus stood bleeding, clad in mock purple, 
 carrying a reed and wearing the crown of thorns, 
 which the soldiers had made from a bush growing 
 in the court and twisted into a sort of crown. This 
 was the horse-play of the soldiers, with a would-be 
 king. It was a diversion for their amusement of 
 which they little recked the hidden meaning. When 
 they grew fiercer still, Pilate had another private in- 
 terview with him, and when threatened by the mob 
 he consented to his death, dramatically washing his 
 hands of the whole matter, as if he could make a 
 decision and escape the consequences of it. 
 
 5. " Via Doloroso." The wild procession moved 
 out the Damascus gate at the northwest corner of 
 the city — priests and leaders, soldiers, the doomed 
 men, the mob, and a few mourners. Two incidents 
 are preserved — Simon of Cyrene compelled to take 
 the heavy cross from the fainting Christ and thus 
 relieve him for more suffering; the mourning 
 daughters of Jerusalem, to whom he spoke solemn 
 warning. 
 
 6. Pilate's Tardy Revenge. He poured vitriol 
 on the Jews by inscribing on Christ's cross " The 
 King of the Jews," implying that the whole nation 
 was dishonored in the dishonorable death of their 
 king and by his crucifixion with robbers. They 
 
TWENTY-FOURTH DAY 221 
 
 felt the insult. They had their way about the mur- 
 der; he had his, about these petty insults. 
 
 7. Witnesses. Doctor Stalker divides them into 
 three groups, which he characterizes by three words 
 — apathy, the stupid insensibility of the soldiers; 
 antipathy, the hatred of the officials and of the rob- 
 ber at his side, who had descended to brutal abuse 
 of the meek sufferer; sympathy, which describes 
 John, the women, and a few whose hearts were 
 touched. Where were the disciples? Only John 
 was with him. Judas had killed himself in remorse. 
 Peter had watched the trial from the court of the 
 priests' palace with breaking heart, and was now 
 alone somewhere. The others — scattered. 
 
 8. Seven Sayings on the Cross. They show self- 
 command, unselfishness, desire to save others, sense 
 of suffering. Those sayings came probably in this 
 order : " Father, forgive them " ; " behold thy son " 
 and " behold thy mother " ; " to-day thou shalt be 
 with me in paradise " ; "I thirst " ; " My God, my 
 God, why hast thou forsaken me ! " " it is finished " ; 
 " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." 
 
 In his bearing on the cross he stood out in sub- 
 lime contrast with his enemies. That was victory. 
 
 9. The End. It was the same day, an unheard-of 
 thing, for the crucified usually lived several days. It 
 was therefore voluntary — he laid down his life. It 
 was the falling asleep of his body after a taste of 
 death for every man — that death of which he had 
 had a foretaste in Gethsemane. A hush came over 
 
222 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 the people and many thought a great crime had been 
 committed. The tragedy of all time had been 
 enacted. 
 
 10. His Burial. He was buried by two secret dis- 
 ciples, Joseph and Nicodemus, in a new tomb be- 
 longing to one of them. Only the faithful women — 
 none of the apostles save possibly John — saw where 
 he was laid. They thought they had lost him, but 
 they still loved and trusted him. They were dazed 
 and could not explain the mystery of it. It is mid- 
 night in their souls, but the day will dawn again. 
 
V 
 RESURRECTION PERIOD 
 
 Sunday, April 9 to May 19. 
 
 160. Resurrection and manifestations. Matt. 28 : 1-20 
 
 Mark 16 : I-18 ; Luke 24 : 1-49 ; John 20, 21 : 
 Acts 1:3-8; 1 Cor. 15 : 5-8. 
 
 161. His ascension. Mark 16 : 19, 20; Luke 24 : 50-53; 
 
 Acts I : 9-12. 
 
TWENTY-FIFTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF HIS RESURRECTION 
 
 Matt. 28 : 1-20 ; Mark 16 : 1-18 ; Luke 24 : 1-49; 
 
 John 20, 21 ; Acts 1 : I-J ; 1 Cor. 15 : 1-8 
 
 It was Sunday morning, April 9, a. d. 30. Not a 
 soul on earth was expecting his resurrection. He 
 had said he would rise again, but the disciples to 
 whom he said it never dreamed that he meant ex- 
 actly what he said. They had their own method 
 of explaining his strange words. His enemies, 
 whose ears the words had reached, did not imagine 
 that such a thing was possible, but their acute and 
 nervous suspicions prompted the fear that his dis- 
 ciples would steal his body away and claim that he 
 had risen. They little knew the hopelessness of that 
 stricken group. That we may understand the mean- 
 ing and reality of his resurrection we will take a 
 backward glance — at his death and burial. 
 
 I. The Reality of His Death. 
 
 There was not a man or woman who knew of the 
 crucifixion, but believed him to be dead. Joseph 
 and Nicodemus could never have anointed his body, 
 bound it in linen cloth, put it in the tomb and closed 
 the door with a huge stone, if they had not thought 
 him dead, for they were careful, judicial men in 
 reaching an opinion, and they then cherished a 
 p 225 
 
226 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 deathless devotion to him. The priests were per- 
 fectly satisfied that he had died, but were afraid 
 his disciples would attempt to recover the body and 
 claim that he had risen. Pilate had no doubt of his 
 death, for he knew of the rigors that swept over him 
 and the thrust of the spear into his side. He could 
 not have encouraged a mock burial. The soldiers 
 saw the body grow rigid in death and they knew 
 what it meant, but to make assurance doubly sure, 
 they gave him a deadly thrust, to the very heart. 
 The disciples not only knew he was dead, but, after 
 his resurrection, required the most complete proof 
 that he was alive again. In no word or tone did any 
 of the disciples afterward ever teach or hint that his 
 life on earth after his crucifixion was anything less 
 than a life from the dead. If he had not died, he 
 could not have made such prophecies concerning 
 his death, the accounts we have of his life could not 
 have been written, the present structure of the Scrip- 
 tures would have been impossible, the Jewish ritual- 
 istic worship could never have been devised, the or- 
 dinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper would 
 be a grotesque farce, and men would never have had 
 those Christian experiences which have given an ele- 
 ment of the divine to human life. If we know any- 
 thing, we know that Jesus died. 
 
 II. The Security of His Interment. 
 
 Friends and enemies were interested in making 
 his burial secure — his friends, fearing that those who 
 had wreaked on him such vindictive violence in his 
 
TWENTY-FIFTH DAY 227 
 
 life, might pursue his body into the grave; his ene- 
 mies, suspecting that his disciples wanted to steal 
 his body and claim that he had risen. If a grave 
 could ever be made secure, that grave was, with 
 the stone, too heavy for one man to roll away from 
 the opening in the side of the cliff; with the legal 
 seal, a cord stretched across the stone and the ends 
 sealed to the walls, which one could break only at 
 the peril of his life ; with the Roman guard who well 
 understood that their own lives would be the forfeit 
 for his escape. We know his interment was secure. 
 The eclipse seemed total and abiding. 
 
 III. The Reality of His Resurrection. 
 
 It is established by such a variety of proof that 
 Keim says " the resurrection of Jesus must be taken 
 as an historical fact," and Westcott writes, " Taking 
 all the evidence together, it is not too much to say 
 that there is no single historic incident better or 
 more variously supported than the resurrection of 
 Christ." 
 
 And yet, in every age, the fact has been disputed. 
 The attempts to disprove it, however, have always 
 brought out a worthy defense that has confirmed the 
 followers of Christ in their convictions. We are not 
 surprised that judicial minds have found delight in 
 weighing the evidence and that some of our im- 
 portant treatises on the subject have come from 
 lawyers, as the works of Greenleaf and Morrison, for 
 example. The doctrine has been attacked with three 
 different arguments, and we may well take a glance 
 
228 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 at those arguments, to note their animus and their 
 fallacy. 
 
 i. The Charge of Imposture. That charge was 
 first made by his enemies, although they knew that 
 the disciples had not stolen away his body and could 
 not have done it. It came out of the same hatred 
 that put him to death and was invented in order to 
 keep the people from believing in him. It was in- 
 vented by desperate men who heard he had risen. 
 In modern times the argument has been repeated, in 
 the face of an added difficulty, namely, the marvel- 
 ous results of the resurrection, results which could 
 not have come from an imposture. The transforma- 
 tions wrought within forty days are conclusive proof 
 that the resurrection was a fact. In forty days after 
 that Sunday morning, April 9, every disciple was 
 telling it abroad that Jesus of Nazareth, who was 
 known to have been put to death, had risen. They 
 were telling it fearlessly, joyously, lovingly, in a 
 way that would have been impossible to mere 
 impostors. 
 
 The invention of such a story by them was a 
 psychological impossibility. Had they been able to 
 remove the body, while sealed and guarded, which 
 they could never have done, they might have in- 
 vented the story that it had been carried to heaven, 
 but could not have invented the resurrection story. 
 The idea of his resurrection never entered their 
 minds till after the event itself, and even then not 
 till it was forced upon them by the open grave, the 
 
TWENTY-FIFTH DAY 229 
 
 words of the angels, and the actual sight of the risen 
 Lord. Their hopelessness was so complete and 
 crushing that they could never have imagined such 
 a thing, much less have hypnotized themselves into 
 the most radiant and contagious joy known to mor- 
 tals. Only the resurrection itself was able to pro- 
 duce such a transformation in them. 
 
 There could have been no adequate motive for 
 such an imposture. They made that fact the very 
 heart of their message to mankind and thereby sub- 
 jected themselves to scorn, ridicule, hatred, perse- 
 cution, imprisonment, torture and, in many cases, 
 death itself. In preaching that doctrine they lived 
 their lives on the lofty resurrection level, and that 
 would have been impossible had the basis of those 
 lives been a lie and a sham. They exhibited the 
 rarest and tenderest altruism that had ever been 
 known among men, save in the one instance of 
 Jesus himself, yet the theory of imposture credits 
 them with leading their followers into unspeakable 
 sufferings, just to propagate a lie. The most mar- 
 velous ethical movement in history could not have 
 came from an imposture. That one fact of the 
 resurrection revived their faith, organized their sys- 
 tem of truth, inspired their hopes and energies, gave 
 a new name and date to the Sabbath Day, raised 
 Christianity from its temporary death and started it 
 on its career of the conquest of the world with the 
 weapons of truth, righteousness, love and self- 
 sacrifice. 
 
23O THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 To summarize: It was physically impossible for 
 the apostles to steal the body of Jesus. And even 
 if they had done so it would have been psychologi- 
 cally impossible for them to invent the resurrection 
 theory; to revive and increase their old joys and 
 hopes, to live such noble lives as that doctrine in- 
 spired, to endure the fiery trials that awaited them, 
 to subject their dearest friends to similar experi- 
 ences, to be led by that doctrine to preach truths that 
 hopelessly condemned them for starting such a doc- 
 trine. It was dynamically impossible to build the 
 great Christian religion on such a fraud. 
 
 2. The Swoon Theory. It is claimed that Jesus 
 swooned on the cross, but afterward revived and 
 appeared to the disciples. This theory is disproved 
 by the reality of his death, and yet several other facts 
 may be cited. Had he only swooned the thrust of the 
 spear would have killed him. Then too, his disciples 
 would have let out the secret, for they would have 
 known the truth in the case. Their writings show 
 an unsuspecting belief in his death. Most of all, he 
 and his disciples would have been in collusion to 
 teach a huge lie, invented by him, for the salvation 
 and perfection of men. 
 
 3. The Vision Theory. This claims that Mary 
 Magdalene's mind was so filled with him that she 
 thought she saw him and told others about it, till 
 they thought they saw him also. Then they ex- 
 plained it as a resurrection. The disproof of this 
 is very easy. First, it is inconceivable that a 
 
TWENTY-FIFTH DAY 23 I 
 
 movement so colossal, so sane, so clear, so noble, so 
 infectious, so elevating, should have arisen by acci- 
 dent out of the haunting vision of a half-crazed 
 woman, and that all human history should be 
 changed by a hallucination. 
 
 In the next place, any one could have disproved 
 the claim by showing the body of Jesus. Again, the 
 time within which the faith and hope of the disciples 
 revived was too short, if they were revived by a 
 vision. Lastly, it may be said that visions always 
 increase in frequency, but in that case, after more 
 than five hundred had seen him, the vision ceased 
 abruptly and entirely. A modification of this theory 
 has been proposed, granting that the disciples did 
 actually see Jesus, not with the eye of sense, how- 
 ever, but with the eye of the spirit. They felt his 
 spiritual presence. In that case there would have 
 been no empty tomb, there could have been no con- 
 ception of a resurrection, and the Scriptures, as we 
 have them, could not have been written. 
 
 4. The Meaning of His Resurrection. Though 
 his spirit enjoyed conscious existence during the 
 hours of its separation from his body, yet it was 
 necessary that that spirit should gather his body 
 out of the grave again and enter on the resurrection 
 life. 
 
 (1) As the Son of Man and representative of hu- 
 manity, he was the first one to realize man's latent 
 possibility for continued existence, in his complete 
 form, as body and spirit. In the soul of man, guesses 
 
232 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 and vague yearnings were indicative of such pos- 
 sibility, while the rising of the spring-time life out of 
 winter's death and the change of chrysalis into the 
 higher physical form of the butterfly, are some of 
 the hints from nature that our " vile bodies " are 
 capable of advance into spiritual and " glorified 
 bodies." If that possibility was ever to be realized, 
 Christ was to do it. And he did. In doing so, his 
 resurrection is the earnest of humanity's " the first 
 fruits of them that sleep," so that we now know that, 
 if our spirits are like his, our bodies shall be fash- 
 ioned in the likeness of " his glorified body." 
 
 (2) As " the Captain of our salvation," he could 
 not be a trustworthy leader, till he had won a victory 
 in every contest and with the very last enemy. Is 
 he able to give up his life and then return to his 
 sleeping body, reanimate it, and adapt it to the home 
 whence he came, and to which he will take his 
 people? Unless he can, he cannot assure their 
 resurrection. 
 
 (3) As he had become perfect by a perfect 
 growth, in adverse conditions, he cannot complete 
 his own life without rising again. The marvels at- 
 tending his birth and death required the marvels of 
 the resurrection. His character was the marvelous 
 thing and displayed itself finally in his resurrection. 
 The principle which he brought from the skies, of 
 dying in order to live, was perfectly embodied in 
 him. The crucifixion found its complement in his 
 resurrection. 
 
TWENTY-FIFTH DAY 233 
 
 (4) He completed his earthly task and carried hu- 
 man nature back to heaven with him, in his glorified 
 risen body. 
 
 5. The Order of His Appearances. It is diffi- 
 cult to arrange the order so as to be sure it is cor- 
 rect. Putting the four accounts together and bring- 
 ing in Paul's statements in I Cor. 15, we have reason 
 to believe that he appeared in the following order: 
 (1) To Mary Magdalene. She had come to the 
 sepulchre with the other women before it was light, 
 and reaching there first and seeing it empty had re- 
 turned to tell Peter and John that his body had been 
 taken away. The two men then sought the sepulchre 
 hurriedly and learned from the angels that he had 
 risen. As they left, Mary came up, and after looking 
 into the empty sepulchre, turned to leave, when she 
 met Jesus (John 20 :ii-i8). (2) To the other 
 women, who seemed to have remained all this time 
 in the vicinity of the tomb. (3) To Peter alone, 
 probably that morning (Luke 24 134, and 1 Cor. 
 J 5 : 5)- (4) To the two disciples on the way to 
 Emmaus that first day, Cleopas and his companion 
 (Luke 24 : 13-35). (5) To the apostles in the ab- 
 sence of Thomas, that same Sunday evening. (6) 
 To the same disciples, in the same place, the next 
 Lord's Day, Thomas present. (7) To seven dis- 
 ciples beside the Sea of Galilee. (8) To above five 
 hundred at once. (9) To James (1 Cor. 15 17). 
 ( 10) To all of the apostles. (11) To Saul of Tarsus 
 some years later, for it was a real appearance. 
 
234 TR E DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 6. His Stay on Earth for Forty Days After 
 His Resurrection. First, he stayed on earth after 
 his resurrection long enough to establish his identity 
 completely. It required time and patient effort. In 
 restoring himself to them he began where the agony 
 was acutest, the watchfulness sharpest, and the 
 means for spreading the news swiftest — with Mary 
 Magdalene first; with the women second; with 
 Peter, heartbroken man, third. He said and did 
 things in each case just to convince and confirm 
 their faith. He called Mary's name with the old 
 tones of voice, and made her a messenger to bear the 
 news to the others. He bade the women go and re- 
 mind his brethren of his appointment to meet them 
 in Galilee. He broke bread with the two at the end 
 of their sad return to Emmaus. He showed his 
 hands and feet to the Eleven to allay their terror, and 
 ate with them as of old. He had a private talk with 
 Peter some time that day. He had doubting Thomas 
 put his fingers in the wounds, so as to convince him 
 that he was not a mere spirit. He ate with a few 
 disciples on the shore of Galilee one morning. He 
 met over five hundred at once and because some of 
 them still doubted he gave to them further proofs of 
 his identity. In these interviews he called their 
 memories, their old devotion, and their holiest pur- 
 poses into renewed activity. He did not leave the 
 earth till every one was completely and permanently 
 convinced. 
 
 He stayed on earth long enough to establish spir- 
 
TWENTY-FIFTH DAY 235 
 
 itual relations with them, that would more than take 
 the place of the old physical relations. He did that 
 by showing that nothing could destroy him or his 
 love for them ; by calling them to realize anew that 
 they were his " brethren," brothers of his soul ; by 
 showing that some of his physical limitations were 
 removed and that his very body was becoming 
 spiritualized. 
 
 He showed a new reserve. He was with them 
 only now and then. He came and went mysteriously, 
 often through closed doors. He imparted to them 
 the Holy Spirit in a larger measure than they had 
 ever had before, as he breathed on them and said 
 " receive ye the Holy Spirit." They had received 
 the Spirit for living; they received him now for 
 hoping; at Pentecost they will receive him for 
 working. 
 
 He stayed on earth long enough to assign them 
 their future work and prepare them for it, by 
 promising the final endowment of power by the Holy 
 Spirit. He was assigning their tasks as he commis- 
 sioned Mary to tell his brethren of his resurrection ; 
 as he bade Peter feed his sheep and his lambs ; as he 
 gave to the apostles authority to declare the con- 
 dition of entrance into his kingdom; as he gave to 
 all the commission to go into all the world with the 
 story of his death and resurrection. It took forty 
 days to prove his resurrection, establish spiritual re- 
 lationships with the disciples, and get them ready 
 for his departure. But in forty days he was ready. 
 
236 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 TWENTY-SIXTH DAY 
 
 THE DAY OF HIS DEPARTURE FROM EARTH 
 Luke 24 : jo-jj ; John 20 : 17, 18 ; Acts 1 : 1-12 
 
 I. When He Left. Chronologically his ascen- 
 sion was forty days after his resurrection, and that 
 would make it May 19, a. d. 30, according to our 
 working chronology. Only one of the Gospel writers 
 gives any account of the event itself — Luke. In his 
 Gospel he describes it briefly — "and he led them 
 out until they were over against Bethany and he 
 lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came 
 to pass, while he blessed them, he parted from them 
 and was carried up into heaven. And they wor- 
 shipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great 
 joy." In his later work of " Acts " carrying the his- 
 tory thirty years further, he reports parts of the 
 conversation between Christ and the disciples, im- 
 mediately preceding the event, and the greeting of 
 the angels just afterward. John preserves for us 
 the words of the risen Jesus to Mary, bidding her 
 tell the disciples (20:17) " I ascend unto my Father 
 and your Father, and my God and your God." Other 
 New Testament writers allude to his departure, and 
 some of them give us vivid views of his present 
 activities in the skies. 
 
 Logically, it was at the moment when he had the 
 minds of the leading disciples prepared for his de- 
 parture. That involved at least four phases of 
 
TWENTY-SIXTH DAY 237 
 
 preparation. First, his complete identification to 
 them, as the one who was dead and was now alive 
 again, was necessary. As no one was expecting 
 him to rise again, they all had to be separately con- 
 vinced and he took all the time and employed all the 
 methods necessary to completely do it. He ap- 
 peared to them by ones, twos, tens, and hundreds 
 and entered into their lives and experiences until 
 they all knew it was the same Jesus who was 
 crucified. 
 
 Next, he takes the time and employs the means 
 necessary to exalt his spiritual, rather than his phys- 
 ical, relations to them. He does this by showing 
 that his body is now spiritual and by intimating his 
 coming departure. 
 
 He also must chasten their Messianic hopes. They 
 awoke out of their gloom to the old dreams of 
 power, which they continued to cherish till he left 
 them, but they, were now anchored to him rather 
 than to those hopes. 
 
 He has prepared them by giving them a new task, 
 in evangelizing the world, and exciting their ex- 
 pectation of a new power with which they would 
 soon be endowed for that task. This fourfold prep- 
 aration of the disciples was now complete, as far as 
 it could be, till after his departure. 
 
 There are two views of his ascension that may 
 be noticed — one, that he dwelt exclusively on earth 
 during those forty days and made a literal exit ; the 
 other, that he ascended to heaven at once when he 
 
238 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 rose from the grave, but manifested himself on 
 earth, at times, and, finally, at the close of one such 
 manifestation, ceased to do so, except in the case of 
 Saul of Tarsus, several years later. Whatever be 
 the theory held, the fact remains that there came 
 a moment when he ceased either to reside, or mani- 
 fest himself, on earth, in the old form, and then 
 entered on another phase of his work. 
 
 2. Why He Left. (1) He belonged to heaven 
 now. It had always been true of him, as President 
 Rhees says, " In his moments of greatest serious- 
 ness and most manifest communion with heaven he 
 looked to God as his nearest of kin and felt himself 
 a stranger in the world, fulfilling his Father's will. 
 He felt heaven to be his home, not simply by God's 
 gracious promise, but by the right of previous pos- 
 session. His kinship with men was a condescension ; 
 his natural fellowship was with God." Before his 
 resurrection he had borne the image of the earthly ; 
 now he bears the image of the heavenly. The body 
 was already spiritualized, ready to be glorified, and 
 heaven, not earth, was his natural habitat. 
 
 (2) He completes himself in returning to the place 
 whence he started. He is the complete God-man 
 only when he lifts himself as man to the throne of 
 God. In the field of human life the God-man has 
 filled human nature; in the home of God he must 
 find the place of supremacy for his human nature. 
 He perfected that nature and met all demands on 
 him in all human relationship; he must now exalt 
 
TWENTY-SIXTH DAY 239 
 
 that nature and meet all demands upon it in his di- 
 vine relationships, or he has not completed himself 
 as the God-man. Can he take humanity, in his own 
 person, to the skies and not be compelled to take a 
 place subordinate to that of the heavenly hosts ? 
 That is the question, and that question is settled 
 when he accomplishes the task upon which he started 
 and reaches, not heaven alone, but heaven's throne, 
 with the nature that he gathered up into himself, 
 while on earth. The incarnation is successful, as a 
 permanent factor in God's providential care of the 
 world, and in his rulership through the ages. He 
 can now in his human nature be reinvested with the 
 glory of which he had been divested, when he under- 
 took the great task. 
 
 (3) He completes the Father's joy, in his return 
 to him. That the heart of God had been pierced with 
 pain beyond the power of the human mind to 
 imagine must be clear to all who read the parable 
 of the Prodigal Son, which might well be called, as 
 some one has suggested, the parable of The Be- 
 reaved Father. That his heart was comforted with 
 a great joy on Christ's return we must conclude. He 
 could now say to the angels, " That is what I was 
 aiming at when I made man and said let us make 
 man in our own image." It was the joy of seeing 
 human nature at last what he originated it for, and 
 of welcoming it to a place by his side. 
 
 (4) His ascension was required, in order to com- 
 plete his redemptive work for man. By taking the 
 
24O THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 nature that had fallen, the nature he had purified 
 and perfected in himself, the nature he had promised 
 to escort into the mansions he would prepare for it, 
 he has given final assurance to others possessing that 
 nature, that there is a place for it there, when they 
 are made heavenly by him. Having prepared them 
 for the place, he will prepare the place for them and, 
 by dwelling there himself, will give them proof that 
 they too, possessing the same nature, may find hos- 
 pitality and home awaiting them. As he repre- 
 sented God to them, he will represent them to God. 
 As he was God's man, he is now man's God. As he 
 was the first-born from the dead, the rest of us can 
 sleep in hope. He was the first of the kind to enter 
 heaven and the wonder and something of the hom- 
 age given him awaits us. Our interests demanded 
 his return thither. He is our God. He is our Am- 
 bassador. He is our Brother. 
 
 (5) He must ascend to heaven to receive his re- 
 wards. For the work done, there is the reward of 
 recognition and the reward of the place of admin- 
 istration, in which he will take into his hands the 
 rulership of the world. His achievement, during the 
 thirty years of his absence, was such as to excite the 
 wonder and adoration of all the heavenly intelli- 
 gences. One promise had been made and he is now 
 rewarded with the Holy Spirit to take up the work 
 on earth. 
 
 (6) The nature of the next stage of his work here 
 below, is such as to require him to carry it on from 
 
TWENTY-SIXTH DAY 24 1 
 
 heaven, for the reasons brought to view in the fore- 
 going discussion and for still other reasons. He had 
 laid the foundation for a sweeping, radical, world- 
 wide work, but had only laid the foundation. It had 
 been projected and must now be prosecuted. He is 
 still the mighty worker, and is just beginning his 
 mission. Luke writes a history of the first thirty 
 years following the ascension and he begins it by 
 saying that his former treatise on the earthly life 
 of Jesus was simply an account of what he " began 
 to do," implying that in the story of the " Acts " or 
 achievements of the apostles he was about to tell 
 what Jesus continued to do. This continued work is 
 what requires him to occupy the strategic position, 
 as he employs agencies suited to his purpose. That 
 strategic position is at headquarters yonder, where 
 plans are made, orders are given and power is 
 provided. 
 
 The localization of his human nature requires him 
 to employ agencies to prosecute his work. The 
 agencies he employs must, because of their very 
 natures, be the divine Spirit and the human disciple. 
 Had he stayed he would have been limited by locality 
 and therefore most of the disciples would have been 
 ever tantalized with his unenjoyed presence among 
 them. Had he stayed, he would have found it diffi- 
 cult to establish spiritual, rather than physical, rela- 
 tions with them. Had he tried to direct his work 
 in his bodily presence on earth, he never could have 
 fixed responsibility on them for that work. 
 Q 
 
242 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 It was profoundly true, as he said, " It is ex- 
 pedient for you that I go away ; for if I go not away 
 the Comforter will not come." From his position in 
 the heavens he sustains equal, though personal, rela- 
 tions with all. He sends his successor, the Holy 
 Spirit, to all. The Spirit makes Christ real to them, 
 is not localized nor visualized, and therefore he can 
 deal exclusively with their spirits. By completing 
 his redemptive work, he furnishes a perfect basis for 
 the work of the Spirit in the world and while the 
 Spirit is doing more here than Jesus could do, the 
 latter is continuing his work there. 
 
 In heaven and from heaven, he is still working, on 
 the three lines he was following here. He is still 
 prophet, or teacher, whether through the truths 
 he spoke in the days of his flesh, or through the 
 truths given later. He had said, " I have many 
 things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now : 
 nevertheless, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, 
 he will guide you into all truth." He is still priest, 
 to intercede, and. the writer of the book of Hebrews, 
 contrasting him with Jewish priests, says that he 
 made the eternal sacrifice of himself, once for all, and 
 that, as the Jewish high priest went into the holy 
 of holies once every year to intercede, Jesus ever 
 lives to make intercession for us. He is still king, 
 for he is ruling the earth's destinies from the skies. 
 Paul says that he shall reign till he has put all ene- 
 mies under his feet and that every knee shall yet bow 
 to him and every tongue confess him Lord; while 
 
TWENTY-SIXTH DAY 243 
 
 John, in Revelation, tells us that the kingdoms of the 
 world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of 
 his Christ, who shall be King of kings and Lord of 
 lords. What he was doing here, he is now doing 
 there, from a different center and with different 
 agencies — teaching, saving, ruling. 
 
 It is expedient for us that he be there, for now 
 we have two Comforters or Advocates, instead of 
 one, one here and one there. The Greek word is para- 
 klete, one called to the side of another to take charge 
 of his interests, as a lawyer. Jesus was first para- 
 kleted, or called, to our side by our unconscious 
 needs. Now he has gone to the throne to look after 
 our interests, while " another " has been parakleted 
 to our sides, and, once here, he takes up his residence 
 within and reproduces Christ within us the hope of 
 glory. " Advocate " is a better translation than 
 " Comforter," and we have two of them : one here, 
 one there. Yes, it was expedient for us that he go 
 away. 
 
 When the Spirit had wrought a perfect work in 
 producing the earthly Christ and that perfection had 
 been displayed in heaven, the Spirit is bestowed on 
 him and is sent by him and the Father to carry on 
 the work on earth. He is ever the great transformer. 
 He had been the divine transforming power in cre- 
 ating the worlds, creating the earthly Christ, saving 
 and comforting the disciples. Before Jesus left, it 
 was the Spirit who gave them life, the Spirit who 
 comforted them when they were stricken, and now 
 
244 THE DISCIPLE AND HIS LORD 
 
 it is the Spirit who will endow them with power for 
 the new part they are to take in Christ's programme. 
 In the work he had enabled Christ to do, the Spirit 
 finds the basis for his further work. His mission on 
 earth is, in general, to take Christ's place, to be 
 Christ to the disciples, and to continue his three- 
 fold work. He makes good Christ's parting promise, 
 " lo, I am with you, all the days," for he is the 
 other Advocate, Christ's successor. He was, and is, 
 Teacher, and the disciples spake and wrote, " as the 
 Spirit gave them utterance." He was, and is, In- 
 tercessor, for we know not what we should pray 
 for, as we ought, " And the Spirit himself maketh 
 intercession for us." He was, and is, Ruler, for the 
 Spirit not only said to the church at Antioch, " Sep- 
 arate me Saul and Barnabas," but has been speaking 
 and directing in all the holy enterprises since. He 
 has been making good Christ's presence and power 
 on earth. 
 
 According to the promise of Christ, the Holy 
 Spirit has been doing these specific works in apply- 
 ing the completed work of Christ to human life. He 
 has been awakening in men the sense of their need 
 of Christ — convicting them of sin and righteousness 
 and judgment to come. He has been imparting to 
 men the nature of Christ, his one nature, human 
 and divine — quickening those who were " dead in 
 trespasses and in sins." He has been to them the 
 consciousness of that new life in Christ — for he 
 " beareth witness with our spirits that we are the 
 
TWENTY-SIXTH DAY 245 
 
 children of God." He has been empowering and 
 guiding Christ's people in propagating the gospel 
 and saving men — " ye shall receive power after that 
 the Holy Spirit has come upon you and ye shall be 
 witnesses." In employing the agency of the Holy 
 Spirit and the holy disciple, Christ must work from 
 up there. The Spirit has become Christ to the dis- 
 ciple; the disciple has become Christ to the world. 
 
 We are not surprised that, when his earthly work 
 was finished and he was about to mount to the skies, 
 his parting speech employed such large terms. He 
 let them know that " all " power was in his hands ; 
 that they must take his gospel to " all " people ; that 
 " all " of them must do it ; that he would be with 
 them " all " the days ; that they must teach the con- 
 verts to observe " all " the things he commanded. 
 Nor are we surprised that heaven was represented at 
 that moment by special messengers, with a message 
 of cheer and hope, nor are we surprised that the dis- 
 ciples caught the meaning of it enough to return 
 to the city and await the enduement of power, with 
 a joy they had never known before. 
 
 The line of battle was drawn ; the age-long war- 
 fare for the salvation of men from sin had begun. 
 The fight is on to-day. Every intellectual, ethical, 
 social, domestic, esthetic, benevolent, religious ad- 
 vance is his victory. By and by, according to his 
 promise, he will return, as he went, in the clouds and 
 with his angels, to complete and crown all his glori- 
 ous achievements. 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 HISTORICAL FULFILMENT OF THE PARTING PROMISE. 
 
 His last word was that he would be with his 
 people all the days. Has that promise been fulfilled ? 
 If so, we should be able to trace his presence in the 
 history of his people from that day to this. Even 
 so, we can, and the task is both easy and fasci- 
 nating. Volumes have been written on that subject 
 and the reader is advised to pursue it more exten- 
 sively than is possible in this brief chapter. It is 
 worth while to read Loring Brace's " Gesta 
 Christi " ; Young's " The Christ of History " ; 
 Storrs' " The Divine Origin of Christianity " ; N. 
 D. Hillis' " Influence of Christ on Modern Life " ; 
 Phillips Brooks' " Influence of Jesus." This chapter 
 aims to be suggestive only. 
 
 He was able to make good that promise in three 
 ways. The Holy Spirit was the " other Comforter," 
 the second Christ in whom Christ continued his 
 presence. The two facts of vital importance, about 
 the Spirit, are that, when he was parakleted, or 
 called, to the side of the disciple to take Christ's 
 place, he took up his position within the disciple and 
 not without ; and he is not localized as was Christ, 
 so that he is with every disciple equally. In another 
 way Christ is present : the Christ-life is implanted in 
 
 247 
 
248 EPILOGUE 
 
 the disciple by the Holy Spirit. Thus is Christ born 
 within him the hope of glory and every Christian 
 says with Paul, " I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth 
 in me." In another way, still : he is the head of the 
 body of believers, so that where two or three are 
 gathered together he is in the midst of them. 
 
 He is with them in his essential office of prophet, 
 priest, and king ; he is continuing his threefold work 
 — saving, instructing, and ruling. By those signs 
 we discover his presence and the degree and results 
 of it. We shall look for those signs in the personal 
 character of his disciples ; in their Christly relation- 
 ships with each other and with all men; in the 
 Christly quality and quantity of their achievements ; 
 in the institutions that arise in the field of their ac- 
 tivities. We find them growing more clear through 
 the centuries, till now he is the unmistakable source 
 of all that mankind holds dear. The Christian char- 
 acter was a new product in the world, a phenomenon 
 commented on by heathen writers and admired by 
 all. Purity, righteousness, and altruism were its 
 features. Plato had said that three things were 
 necessary to masculine purity — love of a divine per- 
 son ; desire for the respect of the good ; love of moral 
 beauty. What Plato despaired of, Christ made pos- 
 sible. Some of the vices then practised openly and 
 with approval are now unknown, save in excep- 
 tional instances that create abhorrence; those that 
 are still practised expose their victims to general 
 contempt. The purity of men and women to-day in 
 
EPILOGUE 249 
 
 contrast with the men and women of the Roman 
 world shows that Christ is with us. Virtues have 
 been implanted and are now practised that were un- 
 known then; some unrecognized virtues have been 
 indorsed, rectified, and put in the list of conquerors, 
 such as humility and meekness and patience. The 
 passion for purity, righteousness, and self-sacrifice 
 has been imparted and developed by Christ. 
 
 In the relationships which his disciples establish 
 we find Christ himself. In our homes the most strik- 
 ing thing is the purity of woman and the rever- 
 ence with which she is regarded by man. In Greece 
 and Rome woman was a slave, and the most noble- 
 born were often the most shameless in their vices. 
 The old Roman code made man a despot. The 
 Justinian code gives some protection to the wife. 
 Little by little she has been put in the place she now 
 occupies, because Christ is the Lord of her lord. 
 
 In our homes, the tender treatment of children is 
 Christ's achievement ! Rome gave the father power 
 of life and death ; Christ gives the father a sense of 
 his double relationship to his child : he represents 
 God and he is the child's brother. 
 
 In Christ's day mankind as such commanded no 
 reverence and the sentiment of brotherhood was felt 
 only between persons of the same race or class. 
 The term humanity did not indicate a wide kinship, 
 while now all the world is talking about the brother- 
 hood of man. One of the characters in a play by 
 Terence said, " I am a man and nothing that per- 
 
2 50 EPILOGUE 
 
 tains to man is foreign to me," and the audience ap- 
 plauded. But both Terence and the listeners meant 
 by the term man only the Roman citizen and not 
 the ignoble slave. The Emperor Trajan had twenty 
 thousand slaves to fight at one time in the theater for 
 the amusement of the Roman people, while to-day, 
 with a pure love of humanity Christian nations are 
 willing to pour out their best blood to liberate slaves, 
 even though belonging to foreign and inferior races. 
 The first enactment in the interest of slaves was by 
 Constantine, servant of Christ, next by Justinian, 
 and the final enactment will be freedom in every 
 land. Justice in human relationships is an achieve- 
 ment of Christ, as he is the new life within men, the 
 new bond in their new brotherhood, and the new 
 motive in a perpetual altruistic activity. 
 
 We find Christ in what we usually call the secular 
 results of human activity. Art has been the unfold- 
 ing of his thought in the realm of beauty. In at least 
 three ways is he in modern art: he has furnished 
 subject-matter, enlarged and ennobled ideals, and 
 supplied the mightiest motives. It is historically 
 true that the entire art of modern music is the out- 
 growth of the experiences of Christian men. It is 
 Christ who has spoken to, and through, the great 
 souls of the true masters. His influence over the 
 sense of beauty and the creative imagination is the 
 most marked fact in the history of art. The epitaph 
 on Fra Angelico's tomb, written by himself, is true, 
 in a degree, of all the great creative artists : " To me 
 
EPILOGUE 251 
 
 be it no glory that I was as a second Apelles ; but that 
 all my gains I laid at thy feet, O Jesu." Gothic 
 architecture was a product of the distinctly Christian 
 energy. The art of poetry has been born anew since 
 Jesus came to earth. True, there was Homer speak- 
 ing in lofty strains in praise of human love and 
 cruelty ; there was Virgil speaking of " Pious 
 iEneas." But we are indebted to Jesus for Job, 
 which, according to Tennyson, is the sublimest poem 
 ever written in any language at any time; for 
 the poems of Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, 
 Tennyson, Longfellow, Browning, Lowell, Lanier, 
 Kipling, and the great songsters and teachers. 
 
 And in the institutions which embody or secure 
 the results of Christly activity, we find him. We 
 must speak of the church first of all. Sometimes hu- 
 man frailties and even vices have been organized into 
 Christianity, but in all ages there have been men and 
 women banded together, under the rule of Christ, 
 who have radiated in their corporate and individual 
 life the glories of their invisible Head. 
 
 We must also speak of all our benevolent institu- 
 tions. The earliest arrangements for the humane 
 care of the dependent, defective, and delinquent 
 classes were made by those who were mastered by 
 Christ. Homes for orphans, widows, paupers and 
 aged, asylums for the insane, schools for the feeble- 
 minded, all have grown from the heart of Christ as 
 it has throbbed and ached and struggled and re- 
 joiced in the heart of humanity. And educational 
 
252 EPILOGUE 
 
 institutions owe their life to him, as well as the rhe- 
 torical, scientific, philosophical, and artistic learn- 
 ing they conserve and disseminate. To find our- 
 selves brought into terms of love and fellowship with 
 Him who is truth itself is to be inspired with a 
 quenchless thirst for knowledge. The disciple, thus 
 given a new outlook upon Christ's works in nature 
 and upon mankind and God, becomes a learner and 
 a teacher. Moses was the first man in the history of 
 mankind to start anything like a public-school sys- 
 tem, and it was nearly a thousand years before 
 Pericles and the classic period of Greek literature. 
 Professor Ramsay, of Aberdeen, claims that " if the 
 Jews were far behind the Greeks in some of the 
 paths of intellectual and artistic attainment, they 
 were far beyond them in the even more important 
 paths of moral progress and of national education." 
 He says truly that " the Jew stood both morally and 
 intellectually on a far higher level than the Gentile." 
 With the narrow, shallow, lifeless education which 
 Greece furnished her citizens and with the method 
 by which Rome sought to reduce the masses of her 
 people to stupidity, does the Hebrew method com- 
 pare, as the only " real, salutary, invigorating sys- 
 tem of national education." Professor Ramsay, in 
 speaking of the educational advantages of Jesus, 
 says that " the Hebrew nation was, at that time, the 
 most highly educated people in the world — in the 
 true meaning of the word education." 
 
 A proverb said " a town in which there is no 
 
EPILOGUE 253 
 
 school must perish." And Christ was Moses' master 
 and the very heart of the nation's life, the source 
 of its history and its development, even before the 
 days of his incarnation. The highest intellectual 
 life to-day is found in those in whom he most com- 
 pletely manifests himself. There is not a school in 
 our lands to-day but owes its origin to Christ, and 
 even Girard College is not an exception, for the very 
 sentiment that led to the founding of that school was 
 the result of the unconscious absorption of Chris- 
 tian principles. It is not an accident that when one 
 becomes acquainted with the Author of all truth he 
 wants to know all truth and communicate all he 
 learns. 
 
 Take away all that marks the presence of Christ 
 with humanity to-day and we give up manly purity 
 and womanly modesty, regard for manhood and 
 reverence for womanhood, we reduce marital and 
 paternal relationship to unrestrained despotism, and 
 exchange human brotherhood for race and class 
 hatred. Take away what is due to the presence of 
 Christ among us and we tear down our churches, 
 our institutions of benevolence, and our schools of 
 learning, from the small academy to the great uni- 
 versity into which Christly benevolence has poured 
 its millions ; we hush the holy strains of music, dis- 
 mantle the walls of their masterpieces, and take all 
 our treasures of literature from table and shelf. 
 
 It is possible to know much concerning Christ and 
 not know him at all ; to enjoy many of the fruits of 
 
254 EPILOGUE 
 
 his life in the world without having the roots of his 
 life in our souls ; to possess many of the blessings 
 which he brings without possessing him who brings 
 them; to be a consumer of good but not a pro- 
 ducer; to be a receiver of heaven's gifts but not a 
 distributor. It is the hope of the writer that, as the 
 story of Christ's life on earth grows more familiar 
 and the evidences of his continued presence more 
 clear, we may find it increasingly easy and happy to 
 live the Christian life and distribute its blessings 
 far and wide. 
 
JUL 
 
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