T^f: 
 
 I 
 
 
FOOTPRINTS OF THE SON OF MAN 
 AS TRACED BY SAINT MARK 
 
FOOTPRINTS OF 
 
 THE SON OF MAN 
 
 AS TRACED BY 
 
 SAINT MARK 
 
 Eighty Portio7is for Private Study, Family Reading, 
 and Instructions in Chinch. 
 
 BY 
 
 HERBERT MORTIMER LUCKOCK, D.D. 
 
 DEAN OF LICHFIELD 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 THE LATE BISHOP OF ELY 
 
 N EW IMPRESSION 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 
 1902 
 
 A II rigJits resen'cd 
 
lOAN STACK 
 

 AD : MAJOREM : DEI : GLORIAM : 
 
 4- -i* ■r' 
 
 OMNIBUS : QUOLIBET : IN : STATU : 
 
 INTRA : DICECESIM : ELIENSEM : 
 
 VESTIGIA : DOMINI : REPETERE : LABORANTIBUS : 
 
 SIVE : DESERVIANT : ALTARI ; SIVE : ADSISTANT : 
 
 QUOD : POTEST : AUXILII : SUPPEDITATURUM : 
 
 OPUSCULUM : DEDICO : 
 
 4- 
 
 V. 126 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2008 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/footprintsofsonoOOIuckrich 
 
PREFACE TO THE NEW AND CHEAPER 
 EDITION 
 
 I HAVE had numerous requests from my brother Clergy and 
 others to make these readings from S. Mark's Gospel more 
 accessible to the general public ; and the Publishers have 
 kindly consented to reprint them in a less expensive form. 
 
 It has been found necessary, from the exigency of the 
 circumstances, to omit all the side -notes ; this is a matter for 
 regret, as they contained many valuable references to authori- 
 ties, especially in the Talmud and Mishnah, where additional 
 information on the subjects treated of may be found ; there 
 was however no alternative, if the size of the book was to be 
 reduced without actually curtailing the portions themselves. 
 
 It is a cause for no little thankfulness on my part that a 
 plan which I was encouraged to carry out under the guidance 
 and auspices of the late Bishop of Ely, has been so favourably 
 received ; and I look forward to being able at no distant time 
 to continue it by the issue of a course upon similar lines on 
 the Acts of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 H. U. L. 
 
 ^. ILufec's! Dap, 18S9. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The following addresses were delivered in substance on 
 Wednesdays and Fridays at the Early Matins in S. Cathe- 
 rine's Chapel within Ely Cathedral. Having myself heard 
 many of them with great interest and profit, I advised their 
 publication, because they seemed likely to be useful in the 
 private study of Holy Scripture, and to be especially fitted for 
 family reading in households consisting of thoughtful and 
 educated persons. 
 
 But I had a further reason for urging the publication of 
 these addresses, in that they appeared to recognise a need 
 which has been long felt, I believe^ by devout members of 
 many congregations — the need of regular instruction in Holy 
 Scripture, — and to supply a good example of the way in which 
 such need might be met by the Parochial Clergy. 
 
 There is probably no Branch of the Catholic Church in 
 which more Sermons are preached than in the Anglican Com- 
 munion ; there is perhaps also no Branch of it in which there 
 is less didactic exposition of the sacred text ; less explanatory 
 teaching as to the Constitution and Ordinances of the Church. 
 The result is that the majority of ordinary Church people, 
 when called upon to defend their own system, know less about 
 it than the members of any other religious body. The sermons 
 preached to our congregations are almost exclusively hortatory. 
 It may be questioned whether the constant listening to ad- 
 dresses whose sole object is to awaken the conscience and 
 move the affections, does not tend in some degree to defeat 
 
Introduction xi 
 
 its own object. At any rate this kind of preaching requires, 
 I am persuaded, to be supplemented by careful and regular 
 expository teaching. Something analogous to this is adopted 
 in the conduct of those Parochial Missions which are becom- 
 ing familiar amongst us. The Mission Sermon is usually 
 followed by the simpler and more direct " Instruction ; " and 
 these Instructions have in many places been that part of the 
 Mission which has left the most abiding results. In a similar 
 way it appears to me that the usual Sunday Sermon requires 
 to be varied by addresses of a less rhetorical and more did- 
 actic character, which may lead to a better understanding of 
 the Bible and the Prayer-Book. 
 
 Where there is a Daily Service it would, I feel assured, be 
 very profitable if upon the Wednesday and Friday the Parish 
 Priest w^ere to read with his people short portions of some 
 book of Holy Scripture with a brief explaiiatory comment. 
 
 When, as is the custom in so many Churches, there is 
 only one Week-day Evening Service, such a systematic reading 
 and exposition of a Gospel would, in my opinion, be more 
 useful to the people, and less burdensome to the Parish Priest, 
 than an additional sermon. In those places where there are 
 no Week-day Services (although I am bound to say that, with 
 the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer daily throughout 
 the Year meeting us on the first page of the Prayer-Book, no 
 Church ought to be shut up from Sunday to Sunday) it might, 
 I think, be desirable to make the Sunday JNIorning Sermon 
 an expository Address or Instruction, reserving the Sermon 
 proper for the afternoon or evening service. 
 
 The addresses now published may, it is hoped, lead to a 
 more general adoption of this practice of Scripture Exposition 
 in Church. 
 
 I heartily commend them to the Clergy of my Diocese for 
 use in their Churches. In some they may be read exactly as 
 they are printed. In others, they may be expanded or modi- 
 fied according to the character of the congregation. 
 
xii hilrodttction 
 
 To the younger Clergy especially they will be suggestive of 
 the way in which other books of the New Testament may be 
 treated, with the same profit to themselves and their people, 
 which has, I believe, attended this attempt to read with an 
 intelligent congregation the Gospel of S. Mark. 
 
 J. R. ELIENS. 
 
 Palace, Ely, 
 an faints' Dap, 18S4. 
 
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 The Bishop of Ely has explained in the Introduction the main 
 object which I have had in view in publishing these volumes 
 on S. Mark's Gospel I have long felt that in an age when 
 purely " subjective " and hortatory preaching has become so 
 popular, there is danger of the Church forgetting that she has 
 an authoritative commission to teach as well as to admonish — 
 not only to point out the way of salvation (though of necessity 
 this must always be her highest duty), but also to make the 
 Sacred History intellectually as well as spiritually edifying. In 
 days when works of secular instruction are made so attractive, 
 it seems most desirable not to lose sight of the fact that the 
 Bible is a storehouse for the literary student, as well as a guide 
 to eternal life. 
 
 Whenever it has been my privilege to give addresses at the 
 early Cathedral Service on week-days, I have endeavoured, 
 according to my ability, to offer to the congregation instruction 
 rather than exhortation ; at the same time I have sought to 
 maintain their religious character by briefly suggesting at the 
 close, in what way the immediate subject may be practically 
 applied, leaving the fuller consideration for subsequent medita- 
 tion in private. 
 
 After systematically going through a portion of S. Mark in 
 this way, the Bishop, who was usually present at these services, 
 desired me to commit the addresses to writing, and prepare 
 them for publication, to further the object which his Introduc- 
 tion shows that he has so closely at heart. I would that the 
 
xiv Preface 
 
 result of my labours were more worthy of his imprimatur^ and 
 better calculated to illustrate the principles which he "seeks to 
 establish. 
 
 For the manifold writings, both ancient and modern, to 
 which I am indebted, I must direct the reader to the marginal 
 references, and the notes which are subjoined to the several 
 "portions." I have, I trust, as a rule acknowledged any 
 obligation that seemed to call for acknowledgment. 
 
 The frequent reference to the Talmud and Mishnah will 
 show that many illustrations have been taken from Hebrew 
 Literature. This happily is becoming an attractive source of 
 information to all students of the Gospel History ; and we 
 would fain believe that the day is for ever closed when "Jews 
 refused to teach those who were not of their faith," and when, 
 almost worse still, too many Churchmen "desired nothing 
 better than the entire suppression of Jewish learning." In 
 this branch of my studies I, in common with many of this 
 generation at Cambridge, owe a large debt of gratitude for the 
 self-denying labours of a Tutor, the Rev. P. H. Mason, who 
 almost single-handed kept alive the study of Hebrew in the 
 University. For special assistance in preparing this book, I 
 offer my sincere thanks to Dr. Schiller-Szinessy, the Reader in 
 Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature at Cambridge. He has 
 been ready at all times to place his copious stores of Jewish 
 knowledge at my service \ I have never applied to him for 
 information without obtaining all that I required. Almost all 
 the passages quoted from Hebrew authorities in the following 
 pages, I have read with him in the originals, and we have verified 
 together every reference. I trust therefore that the Jewish in- 
 formation, as far as it goes, will be accepted with confidence. 
 
 Two friends, the Archdeacon of Sudbury, and one of my 
 brother chaplains, the Rev. H. F. St. John of Dinmore, have 
 also kindly undertaken to revise the proof-sheets, and I am 
 indebted to them for many suggested improvements made in 
 the course of their revision. 
 
Preface xv 
 
 The troublesome and usually uninteresting task of com- 
 piling -an Index has been converted into a labour of love in 
 the hands of my eldest daughter. I believe it will be found 
 very fairly exhaustive, and will largely contribute to the con- 
 venience of the reader. 
 
 No one can realise more strongly than myself how open to 
 criticism these pages are. I have probably aimed at far too 
 much in attempting to adapt them to the threefold purpose 
 stated on the Title-page. I cannot but think that they will be 
 found useful for private study and for family reading ; but I 
 dare not feel confident that they will ansAver the main end for 
 which they have been written, and awaken in the Clergy a 
 desire to cultivate more largely the office of "teaching," which 
 can only be neglected with harm and loss to the Church. If 
 they fail, I shall still be able to look back to many hours of 
 delightful, and, I hope, not unprofitable, study of the Life of 
 Him "in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and 
 knowledge." I pray that they may meet with acceptance only 
 in proportion as they tend to the best interests of the Church, 
 and the greater glory of God. 
 
 H. M. L. 
 
 CoLLEGK, Ely, 
 Ws\t jTcajst of an Saintg, 1S84. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. Characteristics of S, Mark's Gospel 
 II. The Preaching of the Baptist 
 
 III. The Baptism of Jesus 
 
 IV. Our Lord's Temptation . 
 
 V. The Call of the Apostles , 
 VL The Synagogue at Capernaum 
 VII. S. Peter's Wife's Mother 
 VIII. The Leper Cleansed 
 IX. The Paralytic Cured . 
 X. The Call of Levi .... 
 XI. The Principle of Fasting 
 XII. The Disciples in the Corn fields 
 xiii. The Withered Hand 
 XIV. The Ordination of the Twelve . 
 XV. Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost 
 XVI. The Lord's Brethren 
 XVII. The Parable of the Sower . 
 xviii. The Parable of the Sower explained 
 XIX. The Gradual Growih of the Seed 
 XX. The Parable of the Mustard-Seed 
 XXI. The Stilling of the Storm . 
 
 CH 
 
 VER. 
 I 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 i. 
 
 2-6 
 
 6 
 
 i. 
 
 7-II 
 
 II 
 
 i. 
 
 12-13 
 
 15 
 
 i. 
 
 ;4-20 
 
 20 
 
 i. 
 
 21-28 
 
 25 
 
 i. 
 
 29-35 
 
 30 
 
 i. 
 
 36-45 
 
 34 
 
 ii. 
 
 1-12 
 
 38 
 
 ii. 
 
 13-17 
 
 43 
 
 ii. 
 
 iS-22 
 
 47 
 
 ii. 
 
 23-2S 
 
 51 
 
 iii. 
 
 1-6 
 
 55 
 
 iii. 
 
 7-19 
 
 60 
 
 iii. 
 
 20-30 
 
 65 
 
 iii. 
 
 31-35 
 
 70 
 
 iv. 
 
 1-12 
 
 75 
 
 iv. 
 
 13-25 
 
 80 
 
 iv. 
 
 26-29 
 
 84 
 
 iv. 
 
 30-34 
 
 89 
 
 iv. 
 
 35-41 
 
 94 
 
XVlll 
 
 Contents 
 
 XXII. The Demoniacs of Gadara . 
 
 XXIII. The Herd of Swine destroyed 
 
 XXIV. The Raising of Jairus' Daughter v 
 XXV. The Woman with an Issue of Blood 
 
 XXVI. The Carpenter at Nazareth . 
 
 XXVII. The Mission of the Twelve . 
 
 xxviii. Herodias and her Daughter 
 
 XXIX. The Feeding of the Five Thousand 
 
 XXX. Walking upon the Sea . 
 
 XXXI. Tradition of the Elders . vi. 53-56 
 
 xxxii. Further Traditionalism . 
 
 xxxiii. The Syrophenician Woman . 
 
 xxxiv. The Deaf Man with Stammering Tongu 
 
 XXXV. The Feeding of the Four Thousand 
 
 xxxvi. The Demand for a Sign . 
 
 XXXVII. Tlie Blind Man at Bethsaida 
 
 xxxviii. S. Peter's great Confession . 
 
 XXXIX. Bearing the Cross .... 
 
 XL. The Scene of the Transfiguration 
 
 XLi. The Lessons of the Transfiguration 
 
 XLiL The Demoniac Boy .... 
 
 xLiii. The Jealousy of the Apostles 
 
 xLiv. Avoiding Offences .... 
 
 XLV. The Law of Divorce 
 
 XLvi. The Authority for Infant Baptism 
 
 XLVii. The Rich Young Ruler . 
 
 XLViii. The Ambitious Request of SS. Jam] 
 and John 
 
 XLix. Blind Bartim.^us at Jericho . 
 
 L. The Triumphal Entry 
 
 CH. VER. PAGE 
 
 V. i-io 99 
 
 V. 11-20 104 
 
 -24, 35-43 109 
 
 V. 25-34 114 
 
 vi. 1-6 119 
 
 vi. 7-13 124 
 
 vi. 14-29 129 
 
 vi. 30-44 134 
 
 vi. 45-52 140 
 
 vii. 1-8 145 
 
 vii. 9-23 151 
 
 vii. 24-30 156 
 
 vii. 31-37 161 
 
 viii. 1-9 165 
 
 viii. 10-21 170 
 
 viii. 22-26 174 
 
 viii. 27-33 178 
 
 viii. 34-3S 183 
 
 ix. 1-4 187 
 
 ix. 5-13 192 
 
 ix. 14-29 197 
 
 ix. 30-41 202 
 
 ix. 42-50 207 
 
 X. 1-12 211 
 
 X. 13-16 216 
 
 X. 17-31 220 
 
 X. 32-45 225 
 
 X. 46-52 230 
 
 xi. Ill 235 
 
Contents 
 
 . LI. 
 LII. 
 Lill. 
 
 LIV. 
 LV. 
 
 LVI. 
 I VI I. 
 LVIII, 
 
 LIX. 
 
 LX. 
 
 LXI, 
 
 LXII. 
 
 LXIII. 
 
 LXIV. 
 
 LXV. 
 
 LXVI. 
 
 LXVII. 
 
 LXVIIL 
 
 LXIX, 
 
 LXX. 
 
 LXXL 
 
 LXXII. 
 
 The Withered Fig-tree . 
 The Cleansing of the Temple 
 Our Lord's Authority 
 The Parable of the Vineyard 
 The Tribute-Money . 
 Sadducean Difficulties „ 
 The Great Commandment 
 
 CH. 
 
 xi. 12-14, 
 xi. 
 xi. 
 xii. 
 xii. 
 xii. 
 xii. 
 
 David's Son and Lord ; and the Widow' 
 Mite ...... 
 
 The Fall of Jerusalem foretold 
 
 Further Predictions 
 
 The Prediction of the End 
 
 The Gift of Mary of Bethany 
 
 The Last Supper .... 
 
 The Sacrificial Aspect of the Holy 
 Eucharist . . > 
 
 S, Peter warned » . . . 
 
 Gethsemane . . . = . 
 
 The Betrayal and Arrest 
 
 The Examination before Annas [Sup 
 plementary] . . . S. John xviii. 
 
 Before an Informal Court . 
 
 So Peter's Fall 
 
 Before the Sanhedrim 
 
 xu. 
 xiii. 
 xiii. 
 xiii. 
 xiv. 
 xiv. 
 
 xiv. 
 xiv. 
 xiv. 
 xiv. 
 
 xiv. 
 xiv. 
 
 XV. 
 
 VER. 
 20-26 
 
 15-19 
 
 27-33 
 
 I-I2 
 
 13-17 
 
 18-27 
 2S-34 
 
 35-44 
 1-13 
 
 14-23 
 
 24-37 
 i-ii 
 
 12-21 
 
 22-25 
 26-31 
 32-42 
 43-52 
 
 19-24 
 
 53-65 
 66-72 
 
 Before Pilate the first time, and 
 
 [Supplementary] before Herod . , xv. 
 and S. Luke xxiii. 
 
 The Final Trial and the Condemna- 
 tion ....... XV. 
 
 The Mock Investiture, and bearing the 
 
 Cross ,,..... xv. 
 
 2-5 
 S-12 
 
 [6-22 
 
 PAGE 
 240 
 
 244 
 249 
 254 
 259 
 264 
 269 
 
 274 
 279 
 285 
 290 
 295 
 
 306 
 
 313 
 318 
 
 329 
 
 334 
 33S 
 343 
 
 349 
 
 355 
 360 
 
XX 
 
 Contents 
 
 Lxxv. At the Place of Execution . 
 
 Lxxvi. "He gave up the Ghost" 
 
 Lxxvii. Laid in the Grave .... 
 
 Lxxviii. The Devout Women 
 
 Lxxix. Three Appearances on the Day of th 
 Resurrection ... 
 
 Lxxx. The Manifestation in Galilee ; and the 
 
 Ascension , . , , . 
 
 Index „ o = , . . » . ^ 
 
 CH. VER. PAGE 
 
 XV. 23-32 366 
 
 XV. 33-38 371 
 
 XV. 39-47 376 
 
 xvi. 1-8 381 
 
 xvi. 9-14 386 
 
 xvi. 15-20 391 
 
 . 397 
 
C^aractm^ticj^ of ^. ^arfe*0 d^o^pel 
 
 S. Mark i. i 
 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 
 
 The authority upon which the Gospel Histories are based 
 is a subject of special attraction and interest. This is not 
 because it has been assailed by hostile critics, for by far the 
 majority of Christians are ready to accept the united testimony 
 of the early Fathers and Doctors, and the decrees of the 
 Church assembled in Council. But most men feel that, 
 without surrendering in any degree their deference to antiquity, 
 they have a right to work out for themselves the arguments 
 upon which the several Gospels were admitted into the Canon 
 of Scripture. 
 
 Now, touching the veracity of the first and the last, there 
 could never have been any doubt from the moment that their 
 authorship was admitted. S. Matthew and S. John had been 
 eye-witnesses from the beginning to the end, and they were of 
 the number of those to whom a promise was given of super- 
 natural direction and help in recaUing forgotten facts. The 
 other two, though written by men who were neither 
 companions of Jesus nor heirs of the same promise, were 
 indirectly influenced to a large extent by those who were so 
 privileged. 
 
 S. Luke, without claiming to have witnessed our Lord's 
 life, tells us that he had made it a subject of deep research, 
 and followed with careful attention what the Apostles had told 
 him. Furthermore, he was generally believed to have written 
 
 B 
 
2 Characteristics of chap, i 
 
 under the guidance of S. Paul,i who was placed on a level of 
 authority with the Twelve through visions and revelation. 
 
 S. Mark was even more largely influenced, and that, by the 
 very chief of the Apostles. The tie that bound him first to S. 
 Peter was one of spiritual sonship. Converted probably by 
 what he heard in his mother's house from the Apostle's lips, 
 he continued in after times, with certain interruptions of longer 
 or shorter duration, to sit at his feet and receive his teaching 
 upon Sacred History. There is an unbroken testimony from 
 the earliest age to his having filled the office of " interpreter " 
 to S. Peter. The expression, it is true, admits of various 
 shades of meaning, but can hardly imply less than that he was 
 associated with him in literary work, and became the exponent 
 of his mind. This would supply to the Evangelist much that 
 he missed from not being an " eye-witness and minister of the 
 word." This influence may be traced in the following manner. 
 S. Mark himself, except on rare occasions,^ could not have 
 been in our Lord's company, and yet many of the scenes 
 described in his Gospel betray the hand of an eye-witness. It 
 will suffice to notice a few examples. There is first the oft- 
 recurring " immediately," ^ or one of its equivalents, bespeak- 
 ing the presence of the writer. There are unimportant details 
 which would catch at once the eye of a spectator : — The 
 paralytic was " borne by four " men. " They took him even 
 as he was." "He was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep 
 on the pillow." "Neither had they in the ship with them 
 more than one loaf." They " sit down by companies upon the 
 green grass." " They found the colt tied at the door without, 
 at a place where two ways met." " His raiment became 
 shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can 
 
 * Besides direct notices in the Fathers of the connection between them, we 
 would refer to a close afifinity in their conception of the universality of the 
 message of redemption and forgiveness, and to coincidences such as are found 
 in their accounts of the Institution of the Eucharist. 
 
 ^ John Mark was the son of one Mary, who lived at Jerusalem, and may 
 well therefore have seen Jesus from time to time. If, moreover, S. Mark xiv. 
 51, 52 is an account of what happened to himself, then he certainly was an 
 eye-witness of one of the closing scenes. 
 
 ^ cvQvs is translated in the Authorised Version by a variety of English 
 words: "forthwith," "presently," "anon," "straightway," "bye and bye," 
 and "immediately." Something is certainly lost by such capricious 
 renderings. 
 
S. Mark's Gospel 
 
 white them." " He commanded that something should be 
 given her to eat." Added to all these are the numerous 
 references to the expression of our Lord's countenance upon 
 divers occasions. Now it will be observed that some of these 
 details belong to scenes where only the chosen Three were 
 present ; and that of these S. Peter was the source of the 
 information admits of little doubt vrhen other circumstances 
 are considered. Great prominence is given throughout to his 
 faults and faihngs, while much that redounds to his credit is 
 carefully suppressed. For instance, S. Mark records our 
 Lord's severe rebuke, "Get thee behind Me, Satan," but 
 passes over the splendid eulogy that preceded : " Thou art 
 Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church." Again, 
 it is surely not accidental that he mentions in the account of 
 the Apostle's denial the two warnings given by the two cock- 
 cro wings. It was an aggravation of his guilt that he should 
 have fallen in the face of a double hindrance. 
 
 One more testimony to Petrine influence is found in the 
 scene in the courtyard of the High Priest's palace. All the 
 Evangelists speak of S. Peter being with the servants ; S. John 
 adds that he warmed himself; but S. Mark and S. Luke^ 
 preserve a very significant detail, the meaning of which is lost 
 in the English version, " at the fire." It is rather " with his 
 face to the light." The circumstance was well remembered 
 by S. Peter as that which most probably led the bystanders to 
 recognise and detect him. 
 
 All this affords convincing proof of what the Fathers have 
 handed down, and satisfies us as to the source of the 
 Evangelist's authority for what he wrote. 
 
 Now it is worth vrhile to discover the object which the 
 writer kept mainly in view. In the mystic pages of Ezekiel 
 there is a wonderful vision of " four living creatures," — a man, 
 a lion, an ox, and an eagle. They were interpreted in early 
 
 ^ At fii-st sight the fact that this is common to SS. Mark and Luke weakens 
 the argument, but it is worthy of notice that there are incidents peculiar to 
 these two EvangeUsts, which are most easily explained on the supposition that 
 they were the result of their communication with each other when together, as 
 we find they were, from Colossians iv. 10-14, and Philemon 24. Such a 
 detail as the mention of the blaze of the fire leading to S. Peter's detection, if 
 told to S. Luke by S. Mark, would be sure to impress itself on his memory. 
 
4 Characteristics of chap, i 
 
 Christian times as typical of the four Gospels,^ which 
 represent the Humanity, the Royalty, the Priesthood, and the 
 Divinity of Jesus Christ. But there has been considerable 
 diversity in the appropriation of the several emblems — mainly, 
 however, in respect of the first two. S. Augustine had no 
 hesitation in assigning the Lion to S. Matthew and the man 
 to S. Mark ; but S. Jerome with a singular want of discernment 
 adopted the reverse. Then Christian Art came in and 
 indorsed the view of the latter. The building of the great 
 Cathedral in the Piazza at Venice,^ with which S. Mark's 
 name is indissolubly linked, and the adoption of " the Lion of 
 S. Mark " as its crest by the Venetian Senate, stereotyped the 
 mistake for centuries. 
 
 We pass by the manifold marks of Royalty,^ which may be 
 found in the first Gospel, and content ourselves with discover- 
 ing traces of the Humanity in every part of the second. It is 
 true that S. Mark begins with the confession that Jesus was 
 " the son of God," which won for his father in the faith that 
 glorious eulogy,* but it is followed by numberless incidents 
 and expressions which show how he loved to dwell upon the 
 Human and Personal side of His character. He notices 
 again and again the lights and shadows that passed over His 
 Face: — "He looked round about." "He looked round 
 about upon all things." "He looked upon them with anger." 
 "Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him." (There must have 
 been something in His expression which revealed His yearn- 
 ing.) So, too, he records His human feehngs : — " He sighed." 
 " He sighed deeply in His spirit." He was " moved with com- 
 
 ^ They were referred to Other things also, of which there is a full account 
 in Is. Williams on Study of the Gospels, ch. ii. Some Fathers went so far 
 as to regard them as directly prophetical of the Evangelists ; but it is safer to 
 accept them as typical or emblematical. The Lion, as king of beasts, and as 
 belonging to the "royal tribe of Judah " (Rev. v. 5), symbolises Christ's 
 Sovereignty ; the ox, as the sacrificial victim, the Atoning Sacrifice made by 
 the Great High Priest ; the eagle, as flying in the heavens, the Divine Life. 
 
 2 Venetian merchants are said to liave brought S. Mark's relics from 
 Alexandria in 815 A. D. , and his legendary history has been perpetuated in 
 endless pictures, and not infrequently with the emblem of the Lion. 
 
 ^ The " Regal " character of the first Gospel is illustrated especially by the 
 Genealogy through a line of kings, by the numerous parables of the 
 " kingdom," and by an air of authority assumed throughout by our Lord, not 
 to name a variety of details, for which cf. Is. Williams. 
 
 ■* The words are absent from the Sinaitic MS. 
 
S. Mark' s Gospel 
 
 passion." Again, is there no reference to His weariness, in 
 the' observation, "They took Him even as He was in the 
 ship " ? none to His human tenderness, in the picture of His 
 taking the Httle children in His arms ? It has been observed 
 also that "His condescension to human infirmities, His coming 
 down to meet our weakness," is especially marked in two 
 miracles of healing recorded by S. Mark alone. 
 
 While then in S. Matthew we bow the knee with the 
 Eastern kings before Him Who was born " King of the Jews" ; 
 while we read the charter of our salvation in the pages of S. 
 Luke ; while we soar with S. John on his eagle wings into the 
 very highest heaven, and realise the Pre-existence of the Word, 
 it is to S. Mark more especially that we turn for the life of 
 Him Who was "touched with a feeling of our infirmities," 
 Who, as the Perfect Man, has left us an example that we 
 should follow His steps. 
 
II 
 Cte ^reatljing: of tlje Baptist 
 
 S. Mark i. 2-6 
 
 2. As it is written in the prophets, remission of sins. 5. And there 
 
 Behold, I send My messenger before went out unto him all the land of 
 
 Thy face, which shall prepare Thy Judasa, and they of Jerusalem, and 
 
 way before Thee. 3. The voice of were all baptized of him in the river 
 
 one crying in the wilderness, Pre- of Jordan, confessing their sins. 6. 
 
 pare ye the way of the Lord, make And John was clothed with camel's 
 
 His paths straight. 4. John did hair, and with a girdle of a skin 
 
 baptize in the wilderness, and preach about his loins ; and he did eat 
 
 the baptism of repentance for the locusts and wild honey. 
 
 We often speak of a "royal road,", or "king's highway," by 
 which we mean one that has been prepared beforehand, from 
 which all obstacles have been removed, to assure a smooth 
 and easy journey for the king or noble whenever he under- 
 takes it. 
 
 Such a highway Isaiah seven centuries before had predicted 
 should be made for the King of kings : " Every valley shall 
 be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low : 
 and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places 
 plain." Malachi had taken up his parable, and repeated the 
 declaration : " Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall 
 prepare the way before Me," and had closed the scroll of 
 ancient prophecy with the words, " Behold, I will send you 
 Elijah the prophet." ^ 
 
 ^ "The Tishbite" found its way into the LXX. version, and appeared to 
 imply the return of the personal Elijah rather than the advent of one who 
 should come in the likeness of his spirit. For the geography of Thisbe, and 
 the correctness of reading in i Kings xvii. i, cf. Smith's Bib. Diet, in loc. 
 
cH. I. V. 2-6 The Preaching of the Baptist 7 
 
 From that day onward the Jews have hved and still live in 
 expectation of the prophet's return.^ They place a splendid 
 chair for him at the rite of Circumcision, and set the door 
 wide open to welcome him. The noblest cup is filled for 
 him on the first two nights of the Passover. When treasures 
 are found which no one claims, they are put aside, and if pre- 
 plexing difficulties arise, they are left " till Elijah comes," who 
 will restore and settle all things. 
 
 Just when this eager hope had reached its highest pitch, 
 He by Whose Providence everything happens at the right and 
 at no other time, caused His servant, John the Baptist, " to 
 be wonderfully born," and to grow up " in the spirit and power 
 of Elias," as the forerunner of His kingdom. 
 
 The points of resemblance between the two prophets 
 are very striking. All that we are told of Elijah's early 
 years is summed up in the words, " Elijah the Tishbite, of 
 the inhabitants of Gilead : " but brief as they are, they are 
 full of suggestion. Gilead was "a rocky region," a land of 
 forests rather than of cities, isolated from the rest of Pales- 
 tine. It was in such separation and exclusion that he was 
 trained, and taught to stand alone, against the days when 
 he would be called to confront a profligate court, and con- 
 tend single-handed with the four hundred and fifty prophets 
 of Baal. 
 
 So with the Baptist ; all that is recorded of his life during 
 the thirty years' probation for his office is gathered into a 
 single verse : " The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, 
 and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel." 
 And when he came forth to his work he revived at once the 
 recollections of Elijah. 
 
 Like him in his rough exterior — "the long-haired man 
 w4th a leathern girdle" ^ — with the same spareness of diet, the 
 same endurance of hardness and poverty, the same fearless, 
 undaunted courage. And just as the elder prophet had 
 gained his strength in retirement, so John had realised amid 
 the awful stillness of his desert life the greatness and nearness 
 
 ^ Edersheim, vol. ii. App. viii. , has collected a mass of Rabbinic tradition 
 about the prophet. 
 
 - Literally "a lord of hair." In LXX. dvdpojiros Saavs. ''Leathern" is 
 simply " of skin," as always elsewhere. 
 
8 The Preaching of the Baptist chap, i 
 
 of God. Though he knew that he " had no friend but God," 
 the consciousness of His friendship was just that without 
 which he would have been impotent for his work ; and we can 
 well believe that it made itself felt. Like the after-glow of the 
 Divine Presence on the Lawgiver's face, fresh from com- 
 muning in the mount, it inspired the people with awe, and 
 held them spell-bound when he spoke. 
 
 Now, apart from his resemblance to the expected prophet, 
 what was the secret of his influence ? For there is no question 
 that he exercised a marvellous fascination over his country- 
 men. We may sum it up by the word " reality." In an age 
 of hollowness and hypocrisy never equalled before or since, 
 such a characteristic was bound to startle men and arrest 
 their attention. The Baptist, if any one, practised what 
 he preached. His protest against sin was embodied in his 
 example. Take a single illustration from his habit and dress. 
 He came to denounce luxury and soft clothing and sumptuous 
 fare, and he was a living example of the austerity which he 
 called for. And how many preachers have been prompted to 
 imitate him ! SS. Martin and Dominic, and Anselm and 
 Boromeo, and a host of others, have themselves worn the 
 same externals of severity, as the surest way of recommending 
 the self-denial they sought to inculcate. And though such 
 asceticism is deprecated in the nineteenth century, history 
 bears abundant witness to its power in the past. It was from 
 a hard life in the desert that SS. Gregory Nazianzen and Basil 
 came forth to preach with such success ; and Simon Stylites 
 was by no means a solitary instance to show how men of 
 active lives and varied occupations, how even kings, burdened 
 with imperial cares, were eager to seek counsel and direction 
 from a lonely and austere ascetic. 
 
 So when the Baptist came, men were drawn irresistibly 
 to his feet.^ "There went out to him Jerusalem, and all 
 Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan." It was 
 a mixed multitude of almost every class. The other 
 
 ^ " The idea of the wilderness was sacred to the Jews." " From it," say 
 the Rabbis, "came the Law, the Tabernacle, the Sanhedrim, the Priesthood, 
 and the olifice of the Levites. Even the kingship, and indeed every good gift 
 which God granted to Israel, came from the desert." Quoted by Geikie, i. 
 392 ; also by Sepp. ii. 41. 
 
V. 2-6 The Preaching of the Baptist 
 
 Evangelists help us to realise its heterogeneous character. 
 There were Pharisees,^ whose scrupulous routine of external 
 observance had woven around them a web of self-satisfied 
 pride ; and Sadducees, whose reaction from superstition had 
 landed them in a cold and heartless infidelity. Among these 
 there would be followers of Shammai, cleaving to tradition 
 and rigidly orthodox ; sympathisers also with his opponent 
 Hillel, just emerging from that slavery to the letter which had 
 taken the very life out of their religion. ^ There were soldiers, 
 too, who, through the lawless rapacity of their generals, had 
 learned to think only of loot and plunder ; and the hated 
 pubhcans,^ with their overreaching and fraudulent exactions, 
 the byword for all that was lowest and most contemptible — all 
 were there, and for all he had the same message, " Repent." 
 The Rabbis have a wonderful comment on the import of that 
 message. " If," they say, "Israel would repent, they would 
 be redeemed." 
 
 His voice was like an earthquake, " the wrath to come," 
 "the uplifted axe," and it sent a shudder, as well it might, 
 through the whole land. It was the echo of what Daniel had 
 heard : " I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, 
 behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven : 
 he cried aloud, and said thus. Hew down the tree, and cut off 
 his branches." 
 
 God knows whether history is repeating itself, and the 
 national vices of another country are preparing a similar judg- 
 ment to that from which S. John would have saved Jerusalem. 
 There are terrible revelations of a spreading unbelief — active 
 and determined unbelief — and they are such as to make every 
 
 1 S. Luke vii. 30 implies that they did not submit to the Rite of Baptism. 
 
 - The above distinction is not always so marked, and instances are quoted 
 from Edujoth (of the Mishnah) to show that sometimes Hillel w^as more severe 
 than Shammai. They were the last of the five " Couples" who filled up the 
 interval between the death of Simon the Just, the last of the Great Synagogue, 
 and the Advent of our Lord. 
 
 ^ In the Greek the title is T€\(I}vr}s, a contractor for the revenue, a term 
 equally applicable to the equestrian capitalists at Rome, who made the 
 contract in the first instance, as to the native tax-gatherers, to whom they sub- 
 let them. The term " publican " arose from paying the sum in piibliacm, i.e. 
 the Treasury at Rome, which was done by the Roman knights, not by the 
 provincial collectors. The retention of the term, therefore, in the Revised 
 Translation is unfortunate, apart from the modern acceptation of it. 
 
lo The Preaching of the Baptist ch. i. v. 2-6 
 
 thoughtful Englishman fall upon his knees and pray God for 
 a second Baptist to startle us to repentance. 
 
 " Life is real, life is earnest." That was the burden alike 
 of the preacher's precept and example ; and just in proportion 
 as individuals acknowledge the obligation to make it such, 
 will the world be ready to welcome the returning Lord with 
 the cry, " Lo, this is our God ; we have waited for Him, and 
 He will save us : this is the Lord ; we have waited for Him, 
 we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." 
 
Ill 
 %l)t Baptism of iegfu?? 
 
 S. Mark i, 7-1 i 
 
 7. And preached, saying, There eih of Gahlee, and was baptized of 
 
 cometh One mightier than I after me, John in Jordan. 10. And straight- 
 
 the latchet of Whose shoes I am not way coming up out of the water, He 
 
 worthy to stoop down and unloose. saw the heavens opened, and the 
 
 8. I indeed have baptized you with Spirit hke a dove descending upon 
 
 water: but He shall baptize you with Him: 11. and there came a voice 
 
 the Holy Ghost. from heaven, saying. Thou art My 
 
 9. And it came to pass in those beloved Son, in Whom I am well 
 
 days, that Jesus came from Nazar- pleased. 
 
 It was a time of eager expectation, and the news that a 
 prophet had appeared wrought the people's hopes to the 
 highest pitch; and when John stood by the banks of the 
 Jordan, and with a voice of power and persuasion called upon 
 them to wash and be clean, " there went out unto him all the 
 land of Judaea." 
 
 But he would not have his mission misunderstood ; his was 
 only a symbolical ^ washing of water ; it was to be followed, if 
 their repentance were true, by a baptism of fire and the Holy 
 Spirit, which should purge the conscience and make them new 
 creatures. His work was preparatory. Great as he might 
 seem to them, he was as far inferior to his Successor as a 
 slave is below his master ; he was not even fit to carry His 
 shoes or untie their latchet."^ 
 
 1 Just as in the Mosaic Dispensation it was enjoined that no one might 
 appear in the Presence of God till he had washed in the Laver at the door of 
 the Tabernacle, so the open Advent of God among men must be preceded by 
 a mighty cleansing from the defilement of sin. 
 
 ^ It was the part of the slave to attend upon his master at the bath, and to 
 
The Baptism of Jesus 
 
 The words had scarcely passed his hps when the Greater 
 than he appeared ; ay, He was in their midst all the time, and 
 neither he^ nor they knew it. "Then cometh Jesus from 
 Galilee to Jordan to John, to be baptized of him." ^ The 
 Baptist was staggered by the bare thought that He, Whose 
 forerunner he was — for Whom he had just declared his 
 unworthiness to perform the most menial office — should seek 
 at his hands the baptism of repentance — the baptism of 
 sinners. No wonder that "he forbad Him," and exclaimed, 
 "I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou 
 to me ? " 
 
 Now it is not possible for us to understand the whole 
 mystery of this act, but we may reverently consider some of 
 the motives which prompted the amazing condescension. 
 
 First, then, it may have been to consecrate water for the 
 remission of sins. Just as the brooding of the Spirit of God 
 upon the face of the waters at the first creation reduced order 
 out of chaos, and prepared that element for all the purifica- 
 tions of the first Dispensation ; so when the moral re-creation 
 of the world was inaugurated the operation of the same 
 Blessed Agent, descending upon our Lord in the river Jordan, 
 sanctified water to the mystical washing away of sin. 
 
 Again, it may have been that He designed thereby to be 
 made one with His brethren, or to taste for their sakes at the 
 outset of His ministry that curse of sin which he felt in all its 
 intolerable burden at the close, before he cried, " My God, 
 My God, why didst Thou forsake Me ? " 
 
 We know that He had no sins to confess, no stains of a 
 guilty conscience to wash away, for " He was holy, harmless, 
 and undefiled ; '.' but that He might be " touched with a 
 feeling of our infirmities," He mixed with a crowd of sin-laden 
 
 perform these menial duties. The connection is well expressed in the oft- 
 misinterpreted passage, Ps. Ix., ' ' Moab is my wash-pot ; over Edom will I 
 cast out my shoe." Moab and Edom are both to be reduced to a menial 
 condition. He will wash his feet in the one and toss his shoes to the other. 
 
 1 It is a question how far the Baptist knew Jesus personally before the 
 Baptism. The chief texts bearing upon the subject are S. Matt. iii. 14 and 
 S. John i. 31-33. Cf Mill on Pantheistic Principles, ii. 1-5. 
 
 ^ The traditional sites of the Baptism are about two hours' walk from 
 Jericho. The Greek and Latin Churches have fixed upon separate sites, 
 separated from each other two or three miles. Pilgrims flock thither to bathe 
 from all parts. Cf. Thomson, The Land and the Book, 615. 
 
V. 7-II The Baptism of Jesus 13 
 
 souls, and, as though He were Himseh'" a sinner, sought a 
 sinner^'s cleansing in the baptism of repentance. 
 
 Another motive He has expressly revealed. When the 
 Baptist shrank back from an act that at first must have 
 seemed nothing short of a profanation, his hesitation was 
 overcome by the request, " Suffer it to be so now : for thus it 
 becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." 
 
 " I come," He seems to say, " to set an example of perfect 
 obedience, and whatsoever the Father has laid upon Me of 
 duty and requirement that will I do." "Thus it be- 
 cometh us." He does not say, "Thus it is necessary," 
 for that would have implied that He needed cleansing. 
 All that was incumbent upon Him was a perfect acquies- 
 cence in His Father's Will. It is true the Law had pro- 
 vided no Baptism of repentance, but if, as He knew, the 
 Baptism of John was "of heaven," He was as much bound to 
 accept this, as were Moses or Aaron any of those Levitical 
 ordinances which God had expressly enjoined. 
 
 And yet once more, underlying this resolution of obedience 
 was the consciousness of a deep humiliation. His whole life 
 from Bethlehem to Golgotha was one unbroken course of 
 self-abasement; but it reached its lowest depth in His 
 Baptism. To have every word misinterpreted, every act, 
 even of mercy and compassion, misconstrued ; to be accused 
 of working through the very agency which He came to tread 
 under foot, — all this must have been most galling to hear ; 
 but to be told that by His Ow^n confession He was a sinner, 
 one with publicans and harlots, and that by His Own act and 
 deed He admitted His guilt, and sought to have it removed, 
 — such self-abasement is more than man can either measure 
 or conceive. 
 
 And in this consummate act He did indeed "fulfil all 
 righteousness," for humiliation is the very keynote of the 
 religion which He came to enforce and illustrate. 
 
 It w^as the conviction of this that led S. Augustine to 
 appeal so earnestly to his friend to submit to the discipline of 
 Christ and fortify himself by the self-same exercise. " Demos- 
 thenes," he said, " when asked what was the first rule of 
 oratory, replied, ' Pronunciation,' and when asked for the 
 second rule, replied, ' Pronunciation,' and being asked again 
 
14 The Baptism of Jesits ch. i. v. 7-1 i 
 
 for the third, still answered, ' Pronunciation.' So if you 
 should put question after question to ascertain the precepts of 
 Christianity, I should tell you that I cared for nothing but 
 self-abasement, though I might possibly be obliged to mention 
 other things." 
 
 Now, if we need encouragement, we may find it in the fact 
 that the submission of our Lord was immediately followed by 
 a signal manifestation of Divine favour.^ Straightway coming 
 up out of the water, " He saw the Spirit of God descending 
 like a dove, and lighting upon Him : and lo a voice from 
 heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well 
 pleased." 
 
 He saw, and the Baptist saw, but not the bystanders. It 
 was doubtless, as with S. Stephen, who "saw the glory of 
 God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God," while to 
 the unpurged eyes of the wicked persecutors no such vision 
 was vouchsafed, for spiritual things are discerned only by 
 spiritual men. 
 
 Now it will be well for us to remember that our great 
 Example was most highly exalted just when His humiliation 
 was deepest ; that it was when He had made Himself one 
 with the sons of men that He was declared to be the Son — 
 the beloved Son — of God. It is a pledge that the lowly 
 submissive spirit will be greatly sanctified, and that there is no 
 surer way to win the approval of God than by yielding our 
 wills to the authority of those set over us by the Lord, and 
 striving to carry out the rules of the Church in the spirit of 
 Him Who accepted at once what His Father had appointed. 
 " God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." 
 
 ^ There was an old tradition that, in addition to the attesting signs men- 
 tioned in Holy Scripture, "a fire was kindled over Jordan." Cf. Justin 
 Martyr, Dial. c. Tryph. 88 ; Epiphanius, Hosr. xx.x. 13. 
 
IV 
 
 €>iir 1lorti'0 Cemptatlon 
 
 S. Mark i. 12, 13 
 
 12. And immediately the Spirit forty days, tempted of Satan ; and 
 driveth Him into the wilderness. 13. was with the wild beasts; and the 
 And He was there in the wilderness angels ministered unto Him. 
 
 There is a special attraction for us in the story of our Lord's 
 Temptation, and it lies in this : it is the one page which He 
 must have written, as it were, by His Own hand ; a personal 
 revelation of what no human eye but His Own could possibly 
 have witnessed. 
 
 His miracles and sermons had been seen or heard by 
 many, and the memory of them was cherished and handed 
 down from mouth to mouth ; but that strange conflict with 
 the Evil One — that triple wrestling with His ghostly enemy 
 — it was witnessed by no earthly spectator. Alone He had 
 trodden the winepress of temptation ; alone He had vanquished 
 His foe, and He alone could repeat to the Apostle or 
 Evangelist its wonderful history. And we feel quite sure that 
 of all the marvels they were called upon to record, nothing 
 could have filled them with such amazement as this revelation 
 from His Own lips. 
 
 Now it would be no little satisfaction if we could identify 
 the scene, but it is surrounded with uncertainty. It may have 
 been the wilderness of Jericho, the Quarantania of later days, 
 that region of barren limestone rock with its endless fissures 
 and caverns, where hermits have often fled from the world, 
 where year after year pious pilgrims encamped for penance 
 
i6 Our Lord' s Temptation chap, i 
 
 and prayer, because they believed that a vivid realisation of 
 their Saviour's victory would make resistance easier and 
 deliverance more certain.^ Or it may have been that He was 
 carried by the Spirit into the more distant desert of Arabia, 
 to the scene of Elijah's preternatural fast of forty days, where 
 Moses also had tarried in the mount for a like period, and 
 "did neither eat bread nor drink water;" and this would 
 complete the analogy. The Three who appeared on the 
 Mount of Transfiguration had each inaugurated a vast Dis- 
 pensation ; each had been prepared for the work by the same 
 miraculous fast, and in the same silent and secluded spot. 
 
 But wherever the desert lay, what was it that Jesus Christ 
 was subjected to ? S. Mark is very brief in his description, 
 but it is most suggestive. 
 
 " He was with the wild beasts." Is this only one of those 
 graphic touches which this vivid writer so often gives us ? 
 Was it a forcible way of describing a total absence of human 
 sympathy ? No doubt it served this purpose, but this was not 
 all. When we recognise the correspondence between this and 
 Adam's temptation, our thoughts fly at once to Paradise, and 
 we remember that he too was with the wild beasts, and that 
 God had given him dominion over them, and that during the 
 brief duration of his innocence he must have exercised it 
 unfearing and unfeared. And we fancy we can see in this 
 short but pregnant sentence a hint that He Who came to 
 inaugurate an era of restoration, and bring back the times of 
 man's innocence, was not unmindful of the lower creatures 
 and their subjection to vanity. It was a promise of what 
 should one day come to pass v/hen broken harmonies should 
 be restored, and the prediction of Eliphaz receive its fulfil- 
 ment, and man "should be in league with the stones of 
 the field, and the beasts of the field should be at peace with 
 him." 
 
 It matters little that we can point to no evidence of its 
 accomplishment as yet, because with the Lord "a thousand 
 years are but as one day, and one day as a thousand years." 
 There is no question that the hope was created, and that it 
 laid hold upon the mind of the early Christians, in support of 
 
 ^ Thomson testifies that Copts and Abyssinians occasionally visit the place 
 now for the same purpose. 
 
V. 12-13 Our Lord's Temptation 17 
 
 which we have the testimony of the Catacombs, ^ where our 
 Lord is so frequently represented in the character of Orpheus 
 attracting wild animals of divers kinds by the sound of his 
 lyre. The same was perpetuated by later legends, which made 
 the surpassing goodness of S. Francis throw a spell of 
 mysterious influence, not only over his fellow-creatures, but 
 over birds of the air and beasts of the field. 
 
 Of the Temptation itself S. Mark speaks with even more 
 than his usual brevity. We are obliged to look for the details 
 to S. Matthew and S. Luke. From them we find that Jesus 
 was tried at every point. Three forms of temptation only are 
 spoken of, 'but they are intended to embrace all that man is 
 liable to. They Avere the same that were presented to Adam 
 ^" the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of 
 life." 
 
 " Command that these stones be made bread." The 
 appetite craves for food : give rein to the indulgence of your 
 lower nature ; if you cannot satisfy it in one way, have 
 recourse to another ; you may not always be able to choose 
 your mode of subsistence, but you must obtain it somehow. 
 
 " Cast Thyself down " from the pinnacle.^ Make an 
 ostentatious display of your power and win the admiration of 
 men. 
 
 " All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down 
 and worship me." Seek wealth and power ; you know not 
 what influence they will give you in the world ; have no 
 scruples, therefore, about the means — think only of the end. 
 
 Or we may look at them in another light, as persuasive of 
 mistrust, presumption, and avarice. 
 
 Of mistrust : God has forgotten you — take care of yourself, 
 for is not self-preservation a duty incumbent upon every one ? 
 
 Of presumption : If you are a Christian you will be safe, 
 
 ^ Cf. Catacombs of Rome, by the author of The Buried Cities of Campania, 
 145 ; Stanley's Eastern Church, Lect. vi. ; and the Author's observations in 
 After Death, 83, 84. 
 
 - This may have been either on the oToa /SacrtXi/CT/, from whiclt the descent 
 into the valley was most precipitous. It would have been a most appropriate 
 spot if the Temptation was simply to test His supernatural power ; but if it 
 had for its object a public display of it, then it was more probably an apex of 
 the building overlooking one of the Courts of the Israelites, about 200 feet 
 high. 
 
 C 
 
1 8 Our Lord^s Temptation chap, i 
 
 do what you will and go where you may ; ^ it was in view of 
 this that a guardian angel was appointed to keep you from 
 falling. 
 
 Of avarice : If you have set your heart especially upon 
 some one thing, be prepared to make a sacrifice to obtain it; 
 the principle of compensation runs through life. 
 
 Such are the forms under which the Tempter tries the 
 mettle of the Christian character of what sort it is ; and if he 
 be met in the same spirit and with the same weapons as he 
 was in the wilderness, the test will be satisfied. 
 
 S. Mark closes his account with the notice that "angels 
 ministered unto Him." We find elsewhere that their ministra- 
 tion only began when the Tempter left Him. They gave Him 
 no support whilst He was passing through it, as in the Agony, 
 but stood aloof as spectators of the struggle, waiting to see 
 what Humanity was capable of, and only stepped in at the 
 close to honour Him for His victory and enhance His satis- 
 faction. Men share this blessed experience when they feel 
 that inward sense of joy and peace which crowns every success 
 in the conflict of life. 
 
 An objection has been raised that as an example the 
 Temptation of our Lord is a failure ; that it can be no real 
 help to us, because by reason of His sinlessness successful 
 resistance on His part was a foregone conclusion. The whole 
 subject is full of mystery. Holy Scripture teaches, directly - 
 and indirectly,^ that He was incapable of sin, and also that 
 He was tempted. They appear irreconcilable statements, but, 
 like the doctrines of Freewill and Predestination, they will be 
 
 ^ This will recall a familiar story. A Christian woman, trusting to be 
 preserved by her principles, ventured into a place of a questionable character 
 and came back " possessed." When the exorcist asked the evil spirit how he 
 dared to enter into a Christian, his answer was, ' ' Why not, when I found her 
 upon my own ground ? " 
 
 2 Heb. iv. 15. 
 
 2 ist, The union of the Divine and Human involved impeccability, e.g. the 
 Beatific Vision consequent upon such union is inconsistent with a capacity for 
 sin. 2d, The Atonement necessitated the perfection of His Nature. The 
 typical victim was free from all defects, either natural or accidental. The 
 Antitype the same, Heb. vii. 26. Heb. ii. 17 must be read in connection 
 with what follows. " In all things" is modified by the object to be attained, 
 viz. the reconciliation of sinners, which can only be effected by a perfect 
 Being. It seems impossible, therefore, that \.h.e posse vofi pecca?'e can satisfy 
 the requirements of the case, but non posse peccare alone. 
 
V. 12-13 ^^^^ Lord' s Te^nptation 19 
 
 fully harmonised when we see no longer "through a glass 
 darkly." We can, however, obtain a glimpse at the reality of 
 the Temptation. For instance, He was hungry ; ^ He had a 
 human desire and craving for food, which nature prompted 
 Him to gratify. Now it would have been easy for Him to 
 turn the stones into bread to satisfy His hunger, as He 
 satisfied the famished crowds in the wilderness ; but to do 
 that under the circumstances at the bidding of the Tempter 
 would be to act against the Will of God, which was the law of 
 His life. 
 
 Thus on one side there was a strong desire, albeit in no 
 way a sinful one ; on the other there were facilities for its 
 gratification. It was a real temptation, and His victory lay in 
 making the lower will bend to the higher. Possibly His 
 example would have been more forcible and helpful, had He 
 been capable of sin and triumphed over the tendency, but 
 such a nature would have impaired the efficacy of the Atone- 
 ment. The lesser would have been gained, the greater lost. 
 
 ^ I owe this pertinent illustration to that very thoughtful and helpful book, 
 Hutchings' The Mystery of the Temptation. 
 
m)t Call of tlje ^po0tle0 
 
 S. Mark i. 14-20 
 
 14. Now after that John was put and I will make you to become fishers 
 
 in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, of men. 18. And straightway they 
 
 preaching the gospel of the kingdom forsook their nets, and followed Him. 
 
 of God, 15. and saying, The time is 19. And when He had gone a httle 
 
 fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at farther thence, He saw James the so?2 
 
 hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. of Zebedee, and John his brother, 
 
 16. Now as He walked by the sea who also we)'e in the ship mending 
 
 of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew ^/leir nets. 20. And straightway He 
 
 his brother casting a net into the sea : called them : and they left their 
 
 for they were fishers. 17. And Jesus father Zebedee in the ship with the 
 
 said unto them, Come ye after Me, hired servants, and went after Him. 
 
 Though it is manifest that the individual character of the 
 EvangeUst impressed itself upon all that he wrote, it is no less 
 certain that he was supernaturally influenced to write what 
 was best fitted to complete the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Now it was foretold in the Old Testament that " the Com- 
 ing One " would in His Own person represent the threefold 
 office of prophet, priest, and king, and thereby, as gathering 
 into one all who were consecrated by the anointing oil, prove 
 an indefeasible right to the title of the Messiah, or Anointed. 
 It could hardly then have been undesigned that while S. Mat- 
 thew has kept mainly in view the Regal, and S. Luke the 
 Priestly side of our Lord's character,^ S. Mark should have 
 opened the account of His ministry as a Preacher, which then 
 at least was another name for Prophet. 
 
 " After that John was put in prison, Jesus came into 
 
 1 Cf. p. 4. 
 
CH. I. V. 14-20 The Call of the Apostles 21 
 
 Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God." He 
 had begun His mission in Judaea ; but we can easily under- 
 stand that He would be anxious to remove to another scene. 
 First, in all probability, He would be influenced by prudential 
 reasons. Jerusalem was steeped in bigotry ; the priests and 
 rulers must have been roused against Him, and were waiting 
 an opportunity to compass His overthrow, as they did that of 
 His forerunner ; for the cleansing of the Temple ^ showed 
 them what they had to fear if He were suffered to proceed 
 unchecked. 
 
 Again, to have made Samaria the scene of His ministry, 
 except so far as the exigences of travel should take Him there, 
 was to alienate His countrymen. 
 
 Peraea also was out of the question. It was not only too 
 secluded and thinly-peopled, but Herod Antipas was living at 
 Machserus^ at the time. Had Jesus set foot in the neigh- 
 bourhood, and lifted up His voice, it could only have been to 
 brand him in the eyes of his subjects as an adulterer and a 
 murderer, and the consequences would have been fatal. 
 
 It was of vital importance that any serious check to His 
 enterprise at the outset should be avoided. We may see 
 traces of the same circumspect prudence in the fact that He 
 seems never to have ventured to enter Tiberias,^ where also 
 Herod resided, and that He evaded him so successfully, that, 
 notwithstanding the Tefrarch's great desire to see Him, they 
 met for the first time only at the close. 
 
 Excluded thus from Judaea, Samaria, and Penxa, He natu- 
 rally found Himself in Galilee. No preacher or reformer 
 could have washed for a better opening. " It was to Roman 
 Palestine what the manufacturing districts are to England." 
 It was the focus of the energy and industry of the whole 
 country. Its lake, which was the centre of the northern trade 
 and fisheries, from its contrast to the deserted shores of the 
 Dead Sea, has been aptly called "the Sea of Life." 
 
 1 This cleansing had taken place at the opening of His ministr}-. For the 
 distinctions between it and the last, cf. infra, chap. lii. 
 
 2 Machosms was an almost impregnable fortress built on the south-eastern 
 frontier of Percea by Alexander Jannasus, and strengthened by Herod the Great 
 to overawe the Arab tribes. It was the favourite residence of Antipas. 
 
 3 Tiberias was built by Antipas, and made the capital of Galilee instead of 
 Sepphoris. Agrippa H. changed back again to the old town. 
 
22 The Call of the Apostles chap, i 
 
 So it was that He came and preached to the eager, excitable 
 Galileans, and the burden of His message was "the gospel of 
 the kingdom of God." A kingdom impHed not only a king, 
 but subordinate officers, and He proceeded at once to the 
 selection. 
 
 Now the apparent abruptness of the Call of the Apostles 
 has led to misconceptions of what really took place. They 
 arise chiefly from the difficulty in discovering the true historic 
 sequence of the earlier events. How many persons think that 
 our Lord, as He passed by, seeing one here and another there, 
 one in his boat, another at his custom-office, spake the words, 
 " Follow Me," and it was done : without delay and without 
 reserve they gave themselves up from that moment body and 
 soul to His service. He might, of course, have fascinated 
 them by such a sudden spell had He chosen, but it was not in 
 accord with His usual mode of dealing with men ; and a little 
 attentive study will show that some at least reached the Apostle- 
 ship only by degrees and preparatory stages of careful training. 
 
 There was first the admission to His personal acquaintance 
 and friendship ; then followed the abandonment of their 
 secular occupation for closer attendance upon His ministry \ 
 and lastly the solemn ordination of those whom He finally 
 selected, and their investiture with supernatural powers. 
 
 S. Mark passes over in silence the first stage ; indeed none 
 but S. John, who was one of the first to be attracted to our 
 Lord, notice it ; and it is no matter of surprise that it should 
 have been so. Knowing, as we do, how sacred first meetings 
 come to be considered, when followed by momentous histories, 
 we can easily understand how he should have cherished, even 
 to old age, the recollection of what seemed to others an unim- 
 portant event, because it had coloured his whole life. 
 
 The first invitation to follow Him was only to occasional 
 companionship, but He began at once to train them for some- 
 thing more ; they witnessed the miracle at Cana of Galilee ; 
 they were with Him at the first Passover, and they saw the 
 marvellous exhibition of His power in the cleansing of the 
 Temple. 
 
 Then take the second stage, which S. Mark brings before 
 us in this passage. They had returned to their occupation : 
 " As Lie walked by the sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and 
 
V. I4-20 The Call of the Apostles 23 
 
 Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea, for they were 
 fishers ; " but what they had witnessed had sunk down into 
 their hearts. No doubt they often talked of it as they tossed 
 upon the waves, and had fully prepared themselves for a 
 further surrender, and so when He said, " Come ye after Me, 
 and I will make you to become fishers of men," " straightway 
 they forsook their nets, and followed Him ; " and we read no 
 more of their fishing,^ at least till after His death, when, think- 
 ing their discipleship was over, they went back to their old 
 calling. 
 
 The second summons, then, led to an unbroken attendance 
 upon our Lord, but time must yet elapse before their Ordination. 
 They must hear in secret what they had to preach openly ; He 
 must whisper in their ears the truths which they should pro- 
 claim upon the housetops. 
 
 And they had much to unlearn as well. They had a catholic 
 message to deliver, and all narrow-minded Jewisli ideas must 
 be eradicated, and their hearts enlarged by the witness of a 
 sympathy wide as the world itself. 
 
 And they must see as well as hear — see the perfect life, 
 that for which God had become Incarnate ; they must study 
 every feature and lineament before they could be able to pro- 
 claim Jesus, and be His witnesses to an unbelieving world. 
 
 Into all this they were more or less initiated during this 
 second stage. The company of followers and disciples grew 
 considerably, and the final selection was made, as we shall find 
 in the third chapter, from a wider circle. 
 
 Now the Call of the Apostles suggests two considerations 
 which have an important bearing upon our estimate of the 
 Christian Ministry. 
 
 The first is, that God should have condescended to 
 associate with Himself human agents in carrying on a Divine 
 work. 
 
 The second, that He should have deliberately selected for 
 the purpose such feeble helpers as ignorant peasants and poor 
 fishermen. 
 
 He has manifestly by the counsel of His Will determined 
 that a duly called and ordained Ministry should be an essen- 
 
 ^ The case mentioned in S. Matt. xvii. 27, where S. Peter was sent to fish 
 with a view to finding a coin, was clearly exceptional. 
 
24 The Call of the Apostles ch. i. v. 14-20 
 
 tial part of His Church on earth. If ever there was a time 
 when we might have expected Him to dispense with human 
 agency, it was surely when He was Himself present among 
 men in visible form ; but out of an amazing loving-kindness 
 He preferred to give to men the honour and delight of being 
 helpers with Him in the dispensation of grace ; and of all 
 that have since lived and believed He still says, " I drew them 
 with cords of a man, and with bands of love." 
 
 Yet further, it is no less a law of His kingdom that He 
 should work the grandest results by the simplest means ; and 
 so He chooses " the foolish things of the world to confound 
 the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the 
 things which are mighty," and He gives us the treasure of 
 His grace and Sacraments "in earthen vessels, that the excel- 
 lency of the power may be of God, and not of us." 
 
VI 
 
 Clje »)^napn;ue at Capernaum 
 
 S. Mark i. 21-28 
 
 21. And they went into Capernaum; 
 and straightway on the sabbath day 
 He entered into the synagogue, and 
 taught. 22. And they were astonished 
 at His doctrine : for He taught them 
 as One that had authority, and not as 
 the scribes. 23. And there was in 
 their synagogue a man with an un- 
 clean spirit ; and he cried out, 24. 
 saying. Let tis alone ; what have we 
 to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of 
 Nazareth ? art Thou come to destroy 
 us? I know Thee Who Thou art, 
 the Holy One of God, 25. And 
 
 Jesus rebuked him, saying. Hold 
 thy peace, and come out of him. 
 26. And when the unclean spirit had 
 torn him, and cried with a loud 
 voice he came out of him. 27. And 
 they were all amazed, insomuch that 
 they questioned among themselves, 
 saying. What thing is this? what 
 new doctrine is this? for with authority 
 commandeth He even the unclean 
 spirits, and they do obey Him. 28. 
 And immediately His fame spread 
 abroad throughout all the region 
 round about Galilee. 
 
 The synagogue carries us back for its origin to the land of the 
 Exile. Cut off from the sacrificial worship of the Temple, 
 devout Jews gathered together for prayer and hearing of the 
 Law, and "little sanctuaries" were built for their meetings; 
 and after the Return from Captivity, though the statelier ritual 
 of the Temple was restored, synagogues in towns and villages 
 became an integral part of the ecclesiastical system. They 
 claim our interest, not only from their association with our 
 Lord's preaching and miracles, but as well from the fact that it 
 was from "the eighteen prayers"^ which were read therein 
 
 ^ Wetstein on S. Alatt. vi. refers the contents of the Lord's Prayer 
 to private prayers used by the Jews ; but this is an opinion peculiar to 
 himself. All the petitions have been identified by Freeman in spirit, 
 if not in words, with some in the Shemoneh Esrch, except ' ' as we 
 forgive them," etc., which, he says, being strictly Christian, has no parallel. 
 For this reason Jesus commented upon this, "For if ye forgive not," 
 
26 The Synagogue at Capernaum chap, i 
 
 daily except on the Sabbath, that Jesus drew the chief 
 materials for that which the Christian Church has consecrated 
 for daily use as " the Lord's Prayer." 
 
 Now, of all the synagogues in Palestine, perhaps that at 
 Capernaum is fullest of historic reference. Its erection at the 
 sole expense of a large-hearted Roman soldier had earned for 
 him the affection of the inhabitants, for when his servant was 
 sick, they pleaded with Jesus on the ground that the peti- 
 tioner was worthy of special consideration, because " he loved 
 the people and built us the synagogue." ^ The discovery and 
 identification of its ruins in later years have awakened no little 
 attention, and have set at rest a long-standing dispute as to the 
 site of Capernaum.2 At Tell Hum, on the Lake, remains of 
 a synagogue of unusual size and beauty have been excavated, 
 the style of which belongs to the Herodian period of archi- 
 tecture. It appears to have been a common custom to carve 
 over the entrance of these buildings an emblem, which, as far 
 as we know, with a single exception, was " the seven-branched 
 candlestick," indicating that they were designed mainly for 
 illumination or teaching. The exceptional instance is at Tell 
 Hum. The lintel of the chief doorway has a carving in the 
 centre, of " the pot of manna," ^ which is encircled with the 
 
 etc. It was a new feature. This view, however, has been combated in 
 the Journal of Philology, in an article by Dr. Schiller-Szinessy, on ' ' The 
 Sources of Christian Prayers." The words "as we forgive them" are 
 practically found in the Talmud. "To whom does God forgive iniquity? 
 To him who overlooks a trespass" — i.e. If you forgive a little sin against 
 yourself God will forgive you a great one. — Talm. Bab. Rosh Hasshanah 
 17 a. 
 
 ^ In Greek the article is expressed. 
 
 ^ The two sites about which the dispute has been are Khan Minyeh and 
 Tell Hum, distant from each other about three miles. Accounts of the reasons 
 for choosing one or the other are to be found in Ritter, ii. 273-278. In 
 addition to the argument drawn from the coincidence given above, Tell H(im, 
 "High hill," explains "Thou Capernaum, which art exalted," etc. It must 
 surely have had a physical elevation to have suggested such a mode of 
 describing its moral advantages. 
 
 2 This has been photographed in a series issued by the Society for the 
 Exploration of Palestine. Such an uncommon emblem would attract our 
 Lord's attention, and lead to the spiritual application of the manna, when the 
 subject was broached. Much of His teaching was based upon objects 
 immediately present. On this supposition a reason is found for His speaking 
 by anticipation of the Holy Eucharist, which was not instituted till a year 
 after ; the combination of the Vine and the Manna, so suggestive to Him Who 
 knew the end from the beginning, led Him to dwell upon that which they fore- 
 
V. 21-28 The Synagogue at Capernaum 27 
 
 vine and clusters of grapes. And it is this which enables us to 
 identify " His Own city," as well as the building where He 
 delivered one of His most important discourses. At the same 
 time it helps to establish the catholic interpretation of His 
 teaching on the occasion as anticipatory of the Holy Eucharist. 
 "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead." 
 " I am the Living Bread Which came down from heaven : if 
 any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever : and the 
 bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life 
 of the world." " These things said He in the synagogue, as 
 He taught in Capernaum." 
 
 It was in this building that our Lord spent the morning of 
 His first Sabbath-day in Galilee, and He taught with such 
 novel power that the people were filled with amazement. They 
 had been used to the teaching of the Scribes, with their inter- 
 minable details and puerilities, and their slavery to traditional 
 interpretation. There was no freedom of thought or speech, 
 no departure even by a hair's-breadth from the decisions of the 
 doctors — nothing but the diy bones of Rabbinical exposition, 
 and we are not surprised that when Christ came and spoke 
 with "thoughts that breathed and words that burned," and 
 drew His illustrations from the sights and sounds in which they 
 lived and moved, the very freshness delighted them, and they 
 exclaimed at the novelty and independence of His teaching. 
 
 While Jesus was speaking, there was one in the con- 
 gregation — a man of an unclean spirit — who was stirred 
 beyond the rest by the things that he heard, and he filled the 
 air with his wild cries and raving. It is the first mentioned of 
 .the many cases of "demoniacal possession" which fill the 
 pages of the Gospels, but find scarcely a place in later histories.^ 
 
 Attempts have been made to explain away such a strange 
 phenomenon. It has been supposed that our Lord spoke only 
 in accommodation to a general but mistaken belief of the 
 times, when He attributed some of the worst diseases to a 
 
 shadowed, though circumstances forbade His giving the full explanation. This 
 would be clear only when the Feast was ins"tituted, and the thoughts of the 
 disciples would revert to what He had said in the synagogue. 
 
 1 It is mentioned in Just. Mart. , Dial. c. Tryph. and Tertullian's Apolog>', 
 and notices of exorcism are not infrequent ; but the evil is less and less 
 noticed, and dies out altogether at an early period. For a full discussion, cf. 
 Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology, 358-360, Eng. Tr. For further information on 
 Demoniacal Possession, cf. infra, chap. xxii. 
 
28 The Synagogue at Capernau^n chap, i 
 
 direct occupation of the bodies of the afflicted by evil spirits. 
 It is quite true that " possession " and physical infirmities were 
 often found in the same person, and naturally so, if we accept 
 that teaching of Scripture which makes Satan the author of 
 bodily as well as spiritual evil, of which we have illustrations 
 in Job's blains and boils, or S. Paul's thorn in the flesh,^ or the 
 poor woman with the spirit of infirmity ; but no disease by 
 itself, either of body or mind, however aggravated its form, 
 can possibly satisfy the language of Scripture, and explain the 
 double personality which is so patent in almost every recorded 
 case. Look at the present instance. See how at one time the 
 man, at another the evil spirit, rules his actions. He is 
 described as " unclean ; " like the rest he had found his 
 dwelling in the tombs ; an overpowering influence had driven 
 him away from the haunts of men, but now he comes back, 
 struggling to assert the authority which he had lost, and in 
 one of his better moments he had crept into the synagogue, 
 hoping to find some peace and deliverance from his persecutor 
 in the house of God. Had the evil power within him been 
 undivided, it was the last place to which he would have 
 suffered him to resort. How many have testified to the 
 relief they have found in the services of the Church, and there 
 alone, from temptations of the Evil One ! If it was under 
 such an impulse as this that the demoniac entered the 
 synagogue at Capernaum, he found even more than he hoped 
 for — no mere temporary reprieve, but permanent security from 
 the power of his tormentor. 
 
 The foul spirit recognised the Presence of Him Who had 
 come for the express purpose of treading Satan under His feet, 
 and reasserting his overmastering influence upon the will of 
 the possessed, he made him the mouthpiece of his terrible 
 forebodings, " Ah ! ^ art Thou come to destroy us ? " but in the 
 midst of his fear, albeit with an expression of contempt, " Thou 
 Jesus the Nazarene," he pays Plim the homage which the Jew 
 by himself would have refused, " I know Thee Who Thou art, 
 the Holy One of God." 
 
 ^ For a full discussion, cf. Lightfoot, Galatians, pp. 169-175, in which he 
 clearly establishes the belief that it was a bodily not spiritual infirmity. 
 
 2 'ia is probably an interjection. It is omitted altogether in the majority of 
 MSS. 
 
V. 21-28 The Synagogue at Capernatmi 29 
 
 That our Lord at once delivered the poor man from this 
 terrible possession was a natural consequence of the inter- 
 ruption. It was the suffering with which He felt the keenest 
 sympathy, and for which He brought the quickest relief 
 
 S. Mark alone of the Evangelists has preserved the rebuke, 
 "Hold thy peace." It is full of stern severity, as well for the 
 pretended homage, as for the accompanying contempt. From 
 such a quarter He will brook neither the one nor the other. 
 Had it been some poor sinful man, who in his ignorance had 
 heaped reproachful titles on His head. He would have met 
 them with the gentlest remonstrance ; or if such an one had 
 recognised His Divine mission in the midst of prevailing 
 unbelief. He would have hailed the confession with gladness ; 
 but from the evil spirits, with all their determined antagonism 
 and malignity. He would receive nothing. 
 
 And herein what a contrast there is between His conduct 
 and ours ! When we have an object in view, and it is a 
 matter of importance, there is often far too little scruple about 
 the means of attaining it. Any assistance is enlisted, perhaps 
 cordially welcomed. If a Christian is enforcing the beauty of 
 our Lord's life, he may press into his service the confession of 
 one hostile to the Faith. It may be that he is able to quote 
 from it some favourable testimony, and he seems to experience 
 satisfaction at receiving it from such an unexpected quarter. 
 But the principle is condemned by our Lord's rebuke in the 
 synagogue at Capernaum, "Hold thy peace." Better to trust 
 to its own inherent goodness than be impatient to support a 
 righteous cause by questionable means. " The weapons of our 
 warfare are not carnal," and if only they are kept free from 
 worldliness, they will be powerful to the pulling down of all 
 strongholds of the enemy, and for the defence and security of 
 right and justice. 
 
VII 
 
 fe, ^zm'0 miU'^ ^n\)tv 
 
 S. Mark i. 29-35 
 
 29. And forthwith, when they were diseased, and them that were possessed 
 
 come out of the synagogue, they with devils. 33. And all the city 
 
 entered into the house of Simon and was gathered together at the door. 
 
 Andrew, with James and John. 30. 34. And He healed many t/iaf were 
 
 But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of sick of divers diseases, and cast out 
 
 a fever, and anon they tell Him of many devils ; and suffered not the 
 
 her. 31. And He came and took devils to speak, because they knew 
 
 her by the hand, and lifted her up ; Him. 
 
 and immediately the fever left her, 35. And in the morning, rising up 
 
 and she ministered unto them. 32. a great while before day. He went 
 
 And at even, when the sun did set, out, and departed into a sohtary place, 
 
 they brought unto Him all that were and there prayed. 
 
 Very little has been preserved to us touching the home-life of 
 the Apostles. A tradition in the Armenian Church speaks of 
 all being married except S. Thomas and the two sons of 
 Zebedee ; but whether true or not, it is unsupported by any 
 general evidence. 
 
 In this uncertainty, such a passage as that before us at 
 once excites our interest. At all events, the chief of the 
 Twelve was a married man. The name of his wife has come 
 down to us as Concordia and Perpetua ; and a very touching 
 incident in connection with her martyrdom has been narrated 
 by two early writers of considerable importance. It is said 
 that the Apostle, on seeing her led out to execution, rejoiced 
 in the mighty privilege of which she was deemed worthy, and 
 cheered her by words of endearment and consolation to meet 
 her death with unfaltering courage. 
 
 It was the mother of this holy woman who had fallen sick 
 
CH. I. V. 29-35 '5'. Petei'' s Wifes Mother 31 
 
 of a fever,^ which S. Luke, with his accurate knowledge of 
 disease, characterised as of no ordinary type of severity. Her 
 friends and relations waylaid our Lord as He was leaving the 
 synagogue service on the Sabbath morning, and summoned 
 Him to her bedside. 
 
 His very first act marked the tenderness of His nature. 
 We know well what courage it seems to give us in our 
 weakness to feel the touch of a strong hand ; it was doubtless 
 for this purpose that He did not speak merely, but Himself 
 lifted her up in the bed — "and immediately the fever left 
 her." But though this may have been His first object, it 
 could hardly have been the only one. He Who has taught 
 us by deeds as well as words — from Whose mode ^ of working 
 miracles we can learn almost as much as from what fell from 
 His lips — He touched her, as He touched the leper and the 
 daughter of Jairus, and a host of others who came to Him, in 
 anticipation of the sacramental ordinances He had always in 
 view. It was a way of showing the life-giving virtue which 
 comes from contact with the Body of the Incarnate God, an 
 anticipation of His promise, " Whoso eateth My flesh and 
 drinketh My blood hath eternal life." 
 
 "The fever left her, and she ministered unto them." It 
 marks the completeness of the cure ; there was none of that 
 weakness which is usually so trying when the fever subsides ; 
 there was no period of convalescence for the gradual recovery 
 of strength, but she felt herself at once in perfect health. 
 
 Now it was quite natural that the fame of two such miracles 
 as this and the cure of the demoniac should spread rapidly. 
 The congregation when they broke up would carry far and 
 wide the news of what they had seen in the synagogue ; and 
 now the friends, whose anxiety for the fever-stricken patient 
 had been so great, could ill conceal the joyful intelligence of 
 the second restoration. 
 
 ^ S. Luke calls it a "great " fever. This is supposed, from the use of the 
 term in contemporary writers, to indicate a recognised type of fever, such as 
 scarlet or typhus with us. We learn from travellers that a very malignant form 
 of the disease is still prevalent in the marshy plains near Capernaum. Cf. 
 Tristram, Land of Israel, 448 ; Thomson, The Land and the Book, 356. 
 
 ^ S. Augustine has expressed this very beautifully in Tract xxiv. on S. 
 John : " Interrogemus ipsa miracula, quid nobis loquantur de Christo ; habent 
 enim, si intelligantur, linguam suam. Nam quia ipse Christus Verbum est, 
 etiam factum Verbi verbum nobis est." 
 
32 S. Pete7^'s Wife's Af other chap, i 
 
 But it was the Sabbath-day, and by the interpretation of 
 the Law which the Scribes had taught, it was forbidden to 
 attend to any but acute diseases ; chronic cases could wait ; 
 and so we read that it was not till sunset, when, according to 
 Jewish reckoning, the day ended, that the people generally 
 availed themselves of His power to heal. " At even, when 
 the sun did set, they brought unto Him all that were diseased, 
 and them that were possessed with devils." 
 
 It is far more likely that this, and not any desire to avoid 
 the heat of the day, was the cause of the delay. Had they 
 really believed what they had heard, they would never have 
 stayed from fear of temporary inconvenience or a possible 
 aggravation of disease. They would have felt that it was far 
 better to insure the recovery, though it might be preceded by 
 a brief increase of pain, than to risk His departure. But the 
 fear of breaking the Sabbath had a very strong hold upon 
 them, and so they let the weary hours pass before they turned 
 into the streets and made their way to the house w^here He 
 was staying. We can hardly imagine the crowd: "all the 
 city was gathered together at the door." The whole suffering 
 population, halt, lame, and blind, the sick and sore with every 
 kind of infirmity, the bereft of reason and the possessed of 
 demons, all were there, and for all there was the same gracious 
 and ready help : "Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." Here, 
 as in the synagogue, the evil spirits were foremost to recognise 
 Him, but He rebuked their utterance and suffered them not 
 to speak. It was not by the witness of enemies, not by the 
 confession of those who cried out in fear and anger, that He 
 was " the Holy One of God," that He would win His way in 
 the world, but by the willing testimony of men who were 
 convinced by what they saw, and cried out of the depths of 
 their conviction, "Truly this was the Son of God. It was 
 thus that His kingdom should be established in the hearts of 
 men. 
 
 Now it had been foretold ages and ages before, that the 
 Messiah should bear our griefs and carry our sorrows, that He 
 should be sent " to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliver- 
 ance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to 
 set at liberty them that are bruised." And this day they must 
 have felt that this scripture was fulfilled in their ears. If their 
 
V. 29-35 •5'. Peter s Wifes Mother 33 
 
 thoughts went to Nazareth and the carpenter's shop, and the 
 doubts and misgivings which so often rose up for men's 
 bewilderment had had any place in the minds of those who 
 saw what was done in Capernaum, they must have completely 
 vanished, and this question must have put every other aside, 
 " When Christ cometh, can He do greater miracles than this 
 Man doeth ? " 
 
 There are many passages in our Lord's life which we 
 should wish to paint if we could give anything like an adequate 
 representation of the scene ; but perhaps there is none which 
 would be more likely to win acceptance, or which would give 
 a truer idea of His real character than this. 
 
 In the streets of Capernaum and before Simon's door there 
 is gathered all the sorrow, the suffering, the misery of the 
 world ; and in the midst of it moves One in form like them- 
 selves — "the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" — 
 and yet as He passes by " virtue goes out of Him and heals 
 them all." Never was He more truly "the Christ" than He 
 must have seemed then. But the work of healing was over, 
 and the night closed in. The day had been one that must 
 have tried our Lord's human strength to its furthest limits ; 
 but we are amazed to read that the hours of well-earned sleep 
 were curtailed, and that He rose "a great while before day," 
 and went into a solitary place to pray. Temptations awaited 
 Him on the morrow : there would be crosses and disappoint- 
 ments, failures and provocations, and they must be prepared 
 for. Perhaps in nothing have we more need to follow His 
 example than in this. 
 
 What a rebuke it is to the worldly maxim, " A busy life is 
 hardly compatible with a life of devotion " ! We cannot tell 
 what may befall us any single day we live ; but all experience 
 teaches that a life alike of business and enjoyment must bring 
 entanglements and dangers : in the one of overreaching our 
 neighbours, in the other of forgetting God. No man can 
 presume to say that he can meet them in confidence and 
 safety whose spirit is not. fortified by prayer and communion 
 with God. 
 
 " Of mine own self I can do nothing, but I can do all 
 things through Christ Which strengtheneth me." 
 
VIII 
 
 ^Ije Heper Clean^eti 
 
 S. Mark i. 36-45 
 
 36. And Simon and they that were 
 with Hira followed after Him. 37, 
 And when they had found Him, they 
 said unto Him, All men seek for 
 Thee. 38. And He said unto them. 
 Let us go into the next towns, that I 
 may preach there also : for therefore 
 came L forth. 39. And He preached 
 in their synagogues throughout all 
 Galilee, and cast out devils. 
 
 40. And there came a leper to 
 Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling 
 down to Him, and saying unto Him, 
 If Thou wilt. Thou canst make me 
 clean, 41. And Jesus, moved with 
 compassion, put forth His hand, and 
 touched him, and saith unto him, I 
 
 will ; be thou clean. 42. And as 
 soon as He had spoken, immediately 
 the leprosy departed from him, and 
 he was cleansed. 43. And He straitly 
 charged him, and forthwith sent him 
 away ; 44. and saith unto him, See 
 thou say nothing to any tnan : but go 
 thy way, shew thyself to the priest, 
 and offer for thy cleansing those things 
 which Moses commanded, for a 
 testimony unto them. 45. But He 
 went out, and began to publish it 
 much, and to blaze abroad the 
 matter, insomuch that Jesus could no 
 more openly enter into the city, but 
 was without in desert places : and 
 they came to Him from every quarter. 
 
 There were pains and penalties attaching to the leper such as 
 were unknown in the case of other sufferers. Leprosy, for 
 instance, entailed separation from society. " He shall dwell 
 alone ; without the camp shall his habitation be." " He shall 
 cry. Unclean, unclean," to warn the passer-by of his approach. 
 By a merciful concession he was allowed to enter a synagogue, 
 but a vacant space was drawn around him, and it was enjoined 
 that he should be the first to enter and the last to leave. 
 
 The same primal law of isolation seems to have been 
 enforced in spirit wherever the disease has been perpetuated. 
 In the East the Lepers' Quarters revive the memory of the 
 Mosaic restrictions, and they are found not only in Jerusalem, 
 
CH. I. V. 36-45 The Leper Cleansed 35 
 
 where we are so familiar with them, but in many of the smaller 
 towns. ^ And when during the Crusades the disease was 
 imported into this country, lazar-houses ^ were built away from 
 the frequented districts, and the inmates were only suffered to 
 go abroad at certain seasons, and conditionally upon their 
 giving timely notice of their presence. 
 
 Yet further, the Jewish leper was regarded as a living 
 emblem of death. He has been called " a walking sepulchre." 
 He was commanded " to bare his head," and " to cover his lip," 
 just as one did who had come into contact with a corpse. The 
 special rites for his purification w^ere precisely identical with those 
 appointed for such as had been defiled by the touch of death. 
 
 And as in the previous case, England here also accepted, 
 in spirit at least, the legislation of the Jews. During the 
 Middle Ages any one who suffered from this plague was treated 
 as civilly dead ; his marriage tie was dissolved ; he was clothed 
 in a shroud, his funeral obsequies were performed, and even 
 Masses were said for the repose of his soul. 
 
 Now there was one feature in which leprosy had no 
 parallel : no medicine could arrest or even mitigate the 
 disease. It was regarded as a direct punishment inflicted by 
 God, and, as such, incurable, save through the intervention of 
 Him Who had sent it. This conception of it was inherent in 
 the Jewish mind. It explains the question of the king of 
 Israel, when he exclaimed on the receipt of the letter asking 
 him to cure Naaman of this disease, "Am I God, to kill and 
 to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a 
 man of his leprosy ? " It was the same conviction, too, that 
 drew forth Naaman's confession, when he realised his cure, 
 " Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in 
 Israel." It is worthy of notice, for it lends a deep significance 
 both to the action and the words of the leper who came to 
 our Lord, kneeling down to Him, and saying, " If thou wilt, 
 Thou canst make me clean." We can hardly suppose that a 
 full knowledge of the Godhead of Jesus was vouchsafed to that 
 poor outcast ; but that sign of homage, and such a confession 
 
 ^ e.g. Damascus, Nablus, Ramleh. 
 
 2 The largest of these is said to have been at Burton- Lazars, near Melton- 
 Mowbray. It is supposed that there were about a hundred in England. The 
 disease seems to have died out in the country during the sixteenth century. 
 There is an interesting treatise on Leprosy in the Speaker's Comm. on Lev. xiii. 
 
36 The Leper Cleansed chap, i 
 
 of belief in His power to heal, evidence the presence of a faith 
 far beyond that of his fellows, and it received a reward in an 
 instantaneous response. 
 
 Now the method of healing adopted by our Lord is full of 
 instruction. S. Mark says that He "was moved with com- 
 passion." It is unnoticed elsewhere, but it fitly finds a place 
 in the records of one who loves to notice every trait of the 
 Humanity of the Saviour. ^ 
 
 Then we read, He "put forth His hand, and touched him." 
 Save for the priests alone, to touch the unclean was to become 
 a partaker of his uncleanness. Jesus therefore by this act 
 claimed the prerogative of the priesthood at the same time 
 that He foreshadowed the Redemption in which He " Himself 
 took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." 
 
 The touch was followed by His word. " It is a sign of 
 your faith," He seems to say, " that you use the expression * If 
 Thou wilt,' not ' If Thou canst;' I do will; and My hand is 
 ever obedient to My will ; be thou cleansed therefore by this 
 touch." He spake, and it was done: for " immediately the 
 leprosy departed from him." 
 
 Two directions followed the cure, one of expediency, the 
 other of obligation ; and they were given with a sternness that 
 marked their importance and the peril of neglecting them. 
 Our translation fails ^ to express by "He straitly charged him" 
 the force of the original ; but one of the old versions rendered 
 it more aptly, " He threatened him." In the first instance he 
 was to say nothing about this cure to any one. Jesus often 
 gave similar injunctions to those whom He had healed, in 
 order to avoid publicity; but, when considered in its immediate 
 connection with the command to go and show himself to the 
 priests, its explanation here is probably to be found in a tender 
 regard for the man rather than in any thought of Himself. 
 The priests were very jealous of their office, and any the 
 least invasion of it would be resented. If any information of 
 the cure should reach their ears before they had pronounced 
 upon his cleanness, nothing was more likely than that they 
 would refuse altogether to grant him the certificate of absolu- 
 
 1 Cf. pp. 4. 5- 
 
 ^ e/x^pL/j.a<x6aL implies a muttering, an emotion accompanied by noise. 
 hat /re?no. It is hardly translatable. Perhaps " sternly charged" is best. 
 
V. 36-45 The Leper Cleansed 37 
 
 tion. It was another proof of our Lord's loving-kindness and 
 consideration, thus to provide that he should enjoy with all 
 possible speed the privileges of restoration. 
 
 And what was the object of the second command, "Go 
 thy way, shew thyself to the priest " ? 
 
 Leprosy, it must be remembered, inasmuch as it was the 
 direst physical disease, and the culmination of misery, has 
 always been regarded as a fitting type of sin. And it may 
 have been that He Who " came not to destroy, but to fulfil," 
 looked on to the Ordinance of the Christian Priesthood, in 
 which there would be by His appointment functions similar in 
 kind, only higher in degree. Just as the leper was bidden to 
 go again and again to the Jewish priest before he received his 
 discharge, so in like manner it is provided that the sinner 
 under the New Dispensation may seek the help and guidance 
 of the Ministry of Christ's Church in ridding himself of the 
 leprosy of sin. 
 
 And it is to be carefully noted how scrupulously the Church 
 has preserved the analogy between the parts of God and the 
 priest in the Mosaic Order with that of Christ and the Christian 
 Priesthood in the present. 
 
 God, and God alone, was the source of the leper's cure. 
 He, and none but He, could take away the disease, but, in 
 accordance with His ordaining, human agents were employed 
 to seal the restoration. Even so in the cleansing from the 
 defilement of sin, it is Christ's appointment that the message 
 of forgiveness should be conveyed to the penitent by human 
 lips. And if men are qualified to receive it. He in Whose 
 Name and by Whose authority the words are pronounced will 
 ratify and seal the pardon, according to that commission which 
 He gave to His first Ministry, under circumstances of unparal- 
 leled solemnity, when He breathed upon them to symbolise 
 the delegation of His Own inherent power, and said, "Whose 
 soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them : and whose 
 soever sins ye retain, they are retained." ^ 
 
 ^ It is often said that the power given to the Apostles was nnereh" to preach, 
 which would result in forgiveness or hardening : but that power had been 
 intrusted to them before. This was probably even more than the ' ' power of 
 the keys," or " the binding and loosing," and for this reason was accompanied 
 by the deeply significant act of breathing upon them. Absolution underlay 
 the two former, but this was an authority for its direct exercise in and by itself. 
 The three commissions imply teaching, legislating, and absolving. 
 
IX 
 
 %\\z ^Baral^tic CureD 
 
 S. Mark ii. 1-12 
 
 I. And again He entered into 
 Capernaum after some days ; and it 
 was noised that He was in the house. 
 2. And straightway many were 
 gathered together, insomuch that 
 there was no room to receive f/iem, 
 no, not so much as about the door : 
 and He preached the word unto 
 them. 3. And they come unto Him, 
 bringing one sick of the palsy, wkick 
 was borne of four. 4. And when 
 they could not come nigh unto Him 
 for the press, they uncovered the roof 
 where He was : and when they had 
 broken zV up, they let down the bed 
 wherein the sick of the palsy lay. 
 5. When Jesus saw their faith. He 
 said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, 
 thy sins be forgiven thee. 6. But 
 there were certain of the scribes 
 sitting there, and reasoning in their 
 
 hearts, 7. Why doth this Man thus 
 speak blasphemies? who can forgive 
 sins but God only? 8. And immedi- 
 ately, when Jesus perceived in His 
 spirit that they so reasoned within 
 themselves. He said unto them, Why 
 reason ye these things in your hearts ? 
 9. Whether is it easier to say to the 
 sick of the palsy, T/iy sins be forgiven 
 thee ; or to say. Arise, and take up 
 thy bed, and walk? 10. But that ye 
 may know that the Son of Man hath 
 power on earth to forgive sins, (He 
 saith to the sick of the palsy,) 11. I 
 say unto thee. Arise, and take up 
 thy bed, and go thy way into thine 
 house. 12. And immediately he 
 arose, took up the bed, and went forth 
 before ^/lem all ; insomuch that they 
 were all amazed, and glorified God, 
 saying. We never saw zV on this fashion. 
 
 A DIFFICULTY will be removed if we realise the construction 
 on which the more substantial houses in an Eastern town are 
 not infrequently built. The ground-plan is that of a quad- 
 rangle. We enter at a door or gateway in the centre, and 
 pass into a court which is open to the sky. Usually there is 
 a verandah or colonnade on one or more sides of it : some- 
 times of one story only, more frequently of two. When the 
 latter is the case, its covering rises almost as high as the 
 housetop itself This is generally flat, and is used as a 
 
CH. II. V. I-I2 The Paralytic Ctired 39 
 
 common place of resort ; in some streets there is a continued 
 thoroughfare by it from end to end, with flights of steps at 
 convenient places for public use. 
 
 On this occasion a group of persons — S. Mark, with his 
 love of picturesque detail, gives the number as four — hearing 
 that Jesus was speaking to the people in Simon's house, 
 attempted to bring to Him a poor sufferer who had been 
 struck with paralysis. But when they came near, they saw to 
 their disappointment that the courtyard was thronged, and the 
 very doorway choked with an eager crowd. They were not, 
 however, easily baffled. They noticed the upturned faces of 
 the multitude, and seeing the direction in which they were 
 all looking, they gathered that Jesus was in the upper story 
 of the verandah speaking to the people from the vantage- 
 ground it gave Him. They made their way at once to the 
 housetop by one of the public staircases, and soon found 
 themselves only a few feet above the spot where Jesus was 
 standing. The roof of the verandah ^ was torn open, and the 
 litter^ on which their helpless patient lay was lowered through 
 the opening and placed at His feet. And their end was 
 gained. Nothing ever attracted the compassionate Saviour 
 so surely as the sight of suffering. No matter what He 
 was doing, that had the first claim on His attention. Again 
 and again He allowed Himself to be interrupted, and broke 
 off His speaking, without a sign of impatience, to heal the 
 sick. 
 
 But there is something which strikes us with surprise in 
 the words that He spoke — so unlike His usual utterances on 
 similar occasions. " Thy sins be forgiven thee." It reminds 
 us of the inseparable connection between sin and suffering : 
 "by sin came death," and with death all its evil forerunners of 
 pain and sorrow, sickness and disease. It would seem that 
 the man was conscience-stricken. We are not told it in so 
 
 ^ Ther3 are fewer difficulties presented by this interpretation than by the 
 others ; but Trench, Miracles, 199, adopts the common theory. Thomson, 
 The Land and the Book, 359, supposes that the roof was that over the lewaJi, 
 composed of a layer of stiff mortar or clay upon some thickly-matted thorns. 
 He imagines the house to have been only of one story. Edersheim, i. 502, 
 confirms the writer in the view maintained above, 
 
 2 The word is originally Latin, grabatuin. S. Mark, writing primarily for 
 Roman readers, uses many Latin words — e.g. (nreKOvXarup. ^ecTTov, Kevrvpliov, 
 
 KTJVffOS, K.T.X. 
 
40 The Paralytic Cured chap, n 
 
 many words, but what if that stroke of paralysis was the result 
 of past excesses? What if the loss of vital energy in his 
 limbs had been produced by a course of enfeebling in- 
 dulgence? We can see his terror in the presence of the 
 Great Searcher of men's hearts, dreading disclosure, and yet 
 longing to be healed. It is thus that in fear and trembling 
 he may have poured out his soul in confession of his guilt. 
 S. Matthew hints at least at something of the kind, for he 
 puts into our Lord's mouth such words of fatherly love and 
 encouragement as a confession of this kind would naturally 
 evoke, "Son, be of good cheer," ^ and then, "Thy sins be 
 forgiven thee." 
 
 And what followed ? At once all the animosities of the 
 Scribes and Pharisees were aroused. " Was not the forgiveness 
 of sins one of the inalienable prerogatives of the Godhead? 
 It is nothing less than blasphemy in Him to claim it." Such 
 were their unspoken thoughts ; but He Whose Divine claims 
 they denied, established them in the very midst of their denial. 
 For did He not read the secrets of their heart, and hear their 
 unuttered murmurings, which none but God could do ? 
 
 "I know your thoughts," He seems to say; "you accuse 
 Me of pretending to extraordinary powers without any evidence 
 that My claims are well founded. The veriest impostor, you 
 say, may do that. No man has any right to speak so, unless he 
 is prepared to verify his words by signs following. Who can 
 possibly say whether the absolution you pronounce is ratified 
 in heaven or not?" 
 
 And out of condescension to their secret murmurings Jesus 
 attests His powers. He works a miracle which the eyes of all 
 can see, in proof that He possesses that which they denied to 
 Him, because it carried with it no evident confirmation. 
 "That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on 
 earth to forgive sins, (He saith to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, 
 and take up thy bed." 
 
 He spake, and at once the man arose in presence of them 
 all, and that " which before had been the sign of his sickness, 
 became now the sign of his cure." 
 
 Now what may we learn from the different characters of 
 
 ^ "Child, take courage," is a more literal rendering, and expresses more 
 than the Authorised Version the above idea. 
 
I 
 
 V. I-I2 The Paralytic Cured 41 
 
 those with whom this miracle brings us into contact — the 
 Jewish rulers and the sick man's friends ? 
 
 The Scribes could hardly as yet have witnessed much of 
 Christ's wonder-working, for they came chiefly from Jerusalem, ^ 
 and that was not the scene of many miracles.- The fame of 
 His doings had doubtless reached them ; otherwise they 
 would not have travelled so far as Capernaum to see and hear 
 what He did, but it was not for such as they to be convinced 
 by mere hearsay. Were they not the recognised guardians of 
 the religion of the nation, the teachers who sat in Moses' 
 seat? They were in duty bound, then, to be jealous of all 
 rival claims, and not to suffer their office to be invaded by 
 unauthorised intruders. Any assumption of supernatural 
 power, with no visible proof that the claimant possessed it, 
 was sure to provoke disparaging sneers, and they did hardly 
 more than what wc should probably have done under similar 
 circumstances. But this only applies to their conduct in the 
 beginning. When once He had furnished them with the 
 credentials of His mission, with the incontestable signs which 
 they demanded, there was no longer any excuse for their 
 incredulity. 
 
 But turning from the Scribes to the poor man's friends, we 
 read that " when Jesus saw their faith. He said to the sick of 
 the palsy. Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." 
 
 We have already hinted at the probable confession of the 
 sick man himself, and though this would have been sufficient 
 to excite the compassion of Jesus, we have no right to ignore 
 what the Holy Spirit has recorded, viz., that it was the sight 
 of their ^ faith which drew from His lips the words of for- 
 giveness. It is a fact full of mystery, but full also of con- 
 solation, that not a few of the gifts of healing and restoration 
 — on the centurion's servant — on Jairus' child — on the blind 
 man at Bethsaida — on the Syro-Phoenician's daughter — were 
 obtained through the faith and prayers, not so much of the 
 sick and afflicted themselves, as of their relations and friends. 
 Surely this dependence of man upon his fellow-creatures was 
 
 1 We learn from S. Luke v. 17 that some were present also from Galilee. 
 
 2 The only recorded miracles in Jerusalem before this are the Cleansing of 
 the Temple (if it may be called a miracle), and that at the Pool of Bethesda. 
 
 ^ Though the narrative speaks of "their" faith only, the perfect con- 
 currence of the paralytic cannot be doubted. 
 
42 The Paralytic Cured ch. n. v. 1-12 
 
 intended to foreshadow the great mystery of Redemption 
 through Another's Blood. It may well have been placed on 
 record by the Holy Spirit to teach us that whenever we try to 
 bring others to the feet of Jesus to be healed of their soul's 
 sickness — be they friends or enemies — whenever we offer up 
 " the prayer of faith," which we are assured " shall save the 
 sick," we are associating ourselves in deeds of mercy and acts 
 of intercession with the Great High Priest of the world — the 
 One Mediator between God and man — the Man Christ Jesus, 
 our Lord. 
 
X 
 
 %\it Call of %m 
 
 S. Mark ii. 13-17 
 
 13. And He went forth again by were many, and they followed Him. 
 
 the sea side ; and all the multitude 16. And when the scribes and 
 
 resorted unto Him, and He taught Pharisees saw Him eat with publicans 
 
 them. 14. And as He passed by, and sinners, they said unto His 
 
 He saw Levi the son of Alphasus disciples. How is it that He eateth 
 
 sitting at the receipt of custom, and and drinketh with publicans and 
 
 said unto him, Follow Me. And he sinners ? 17. When Jesus heard it, 
 
 arose and followed Him. 15. And He saith unto them. They that are 
 
 it came to pass, that as Jesus sat at whole have no need of the physician, 
 
 meat in his house, many pubhcans but they that are sick : I came not 
 
 and sinners sat also together with to call tlie righteous, but sinners to 
 
 Jesus and His disciples : for there repentance. 
 
 It was not an uncommon thing to assume a new name upon 
 adopting a fresh caUing. Simon was named Peter, Saul be- 
 came Paul. In like manner, Levi, rejoicing in the change 
 from a life of shame to one of glory and honour, signahsed 
 the step and the power by which it had been brought about, 
 by calling himself Matthew, " the gift of God." ^ Comparing 
 together the Synoptist Evangelists, we find that the first 
 describes the call of Matthew, the second and third of Levi, 
 under precisely similar circumstances, and there can scarcely 
 be a question of their identity. S. Chrysostom^ so little 
 doubted it that he used the variety of designation to illustrate 
 
 1 The full name is Mattathias ; Theodore, Doritheus, Theodotus, Adeo- 
 datus, and Nathanael, are all equivalents in different languages. A few of the 
 Fathers refused to identify Levi and Matthew, but it is impossible to believe 
 that two publicans could have been called at the same time and place, and 
 that one should have become so famous and the other be no more heard of. 
 
 2 This illustration is taken from Abraham's Festival Lectures, No. xx.xv. 
 
44 The Call of Levi chap, it 
 
 an important principle, viz., that men should be as severe as 
 they hke towards themselves, but should draw a veil over the 
 shame of others, and conceal their offences if followed by re- 
 pentance. S. Mark and S. Luke, not wishing to blazon 
 abroad the fact that the Apostle and Evangelist had belonged 
 to the hated class of publicans, give him his old name, by 
 which he had ceased to be known at the time when they 
 wrote ; but S. Matthew, thinking only of the goodness of God, 
 and regarding himself as "a miracle of mercy," is careful to 
 recall the fact, that he who is now the honoured Apostle was 
 once the despised tax-gatherer. 
 
 In all the Roman Provinces, no doubt, it was considered a 
 hardship to be compelled to pay taxes to the Imperial Treas- 
 ury ; but to the Jews it was inconceivably galling, because it 
 entailed a surrender of their most cherished prerogative. To 
 be called upon, again, to acknowledge their alien subjection at 
 the bidding of their own countrymen,^ was to make the cup of 
 bitterness a thousandfold more bitter. As God's chosen 
 people they refused at heart to admit anything but a Theo- 
 cracy. The arm of Rome was too strong to be resisted by 
 open rebellion, but they made no pretence of disguising their 
 hatred of her authority. Her official publican was " the 
 Pariah of Palestine." Nothing was too bad for him. He 
 was an outcast from society ; his offering was regarded as 
 defiled and excluded from the Korban ; - his evidence was 
 inadmissible in a court of justice \ and contracts entered into 
 with him were not binding on the conscience. " Let him be 
 unto thee as a heathen man and a publican " gathered up in a 
 recognised proverb the idea that all communication with such 
 an one must cease. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, Christ chose a publican to be 
 an Apostle and to wait on His Ministry. He found him at 
 Capernaum, in his toll-booth on the shore of the lake, where it 
 was his duty to take toU for the fisheries, and assess the value 
 
 ^ It was obviously advantageous generally to employ natives of the pro- 
 vince, as better acquainted with the people and their occupations. We may 
 witness a faint image of the relationship of a Jew to the publican in that of 
 an Irish tenant to an Irish agent employed by an English landlord to evict 
 him. 
 
 ^ This term was used of the offering, S. Mark vii. ii, and of the place 
 where it was received, S. Matt, xxvii. 6. 
 
V. 13-17 The Call of Levi 45 
 
 of merchandise passing through the port. Thus he belonged 
 to a class of publicans especially hated/ because extortion was 
 more easily practised in custom-house dues than in the poll-tax, 
 which was fixed. It finds expression in the Talmudic saying, 
 "Woe to the ship which sails without having paid its dues." 
 
 Now it is quite possible that the real turning-point in Levi's 
 career was the cure of the paralytic. If he had witnessed 
 that, his heart would be touched by the great stress laid upon 
 the forgiveness of his sins. It would awaken him to a realisa- 
 tion of that, which the common belief, that repentance was 
 impossible to men of his calling, had made him forget ; and 
 he may then and there have resolved to break with the past 
 on the first opportunity. The EvangeHsts, at any rate, have 
 linked the two events most closely together, and followed up 
 our Lord's public declaration of forgiveness with an even more 
 forcible illustration, in His choice of " a publican and sinner " 
 to be numbered with His disciples. " As He passed by. He 
 saw Levi the son of Alphasus sitting at the receipt of custom, 
 and said unto him. Follow Me. And he arose and followed 
 Him." Porphyry and Julian assailed the truth of the narrative, 
 on the ground that it was irrational to suppose that a man 
 would quit a lucrative calling so suddenly at the bidding of a 
 passer-by. But they made no allowance for the fame of Jesus, 
 none for the magnetic influence of Him " Who spake as never 
 man spake." It is very probable, too, that the lake-side had 
 been the scene of His teaching often before,- and that Levi's 
 attention had been aroused by His burning words, as well as 
 by the miracle which exhibited His pardoning mercy. And so 
 the instant the right hand was held out, he eagerly grasped it, 
 and left all behind. 
 
 His first act was a manifestation of gratitude. His brother 
 Evangelists record, what with singular modesty he veiled in his 
 own account, that the "great feast" that followed was given by 
 him. It marks the depth of his sincerity, that he lost no time in 
 making an effort for the deliverance of his fellow-sinners. He 
 
 ^ Edersheim, i. 515-518, gives many particulars of the office, and says that 
 Levi must have belonged to the Moches or douanier class, whose office was 
 connected entirely with rates on merchandise. The ordinary publican was 
 called Gabbai. 
 
 - The original of verse 13 expresses this by the imperfect tense, fjpx^TO, 
 used to go, and ididaaKev, was wont to teach. 
 
46 The Call of Levi ch. h. v. 13-17 
 
 invited as guests those who^had shared his shame, in the hope 
 that they might become partakers of his joy. It was doubtless 
 a rude shock to Pharisaic prejudice that Jesus should accept 
 the discipleship of a publican ; but it must have raised a storm 
 of reproach and anger that He should sit down to meat with a 
 whole company of them, and that, too, on one of the fast-days 
 of the week.^ It gave rise at once to a twofold question, the 
 first touching the principle of associating with sinners, the 
 second on the propriety of observing the fasts. The former 
 alone belongs to this portion of the narrative. " How is it 
 that He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners ? " 
 
 Our Lord was ready with an answer. It was a recognised 
 maxim in their oral law, and it had its echo in heathen^ writers 
 in abundance, " The physician's sphere of work lies among the 
 sick." Translated into the spiritual life, it says that the mis- 
 sion of the Redeemer is not to the righteous, but to sinners — 
 ay, to the very publicans from whom they had turned away. 
 There is surely a severe rebuke to His gainsayers underlying 
 the words. "You," He seems to say, "are the recognised 
 guardians of the people, but *the diseased have ye not 
 strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, 
 neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have 
 ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye 
 sought that which was lost.' I on the contrary, ' am the Good 
 Shepherd,' and care for My sheep. I have come to seek and 
 to save that which was lost, and I rejoice more over this poor 
 publican who confesses his sins, than over the ninety and nine 
 who think themselves safe within the fold. ' I came not to 
 call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' " ^ 
 
 1 Cf. p. 48. 
 
 2 Stier mentions Antisthenes, Diogenes, Pausanias, and Ovid, 
 
 ^ "To repentance " is absent from the best MSS. 
 
XI 
 
 ^!)e principle of jfagftms: 
 
 S. Mark ii. 18-22 
 
 18. And the disciples of John and from them, and then shall they fast 
 
 of the Pharisees used to fast : and in those days. 21. No man also 
 
 they come and say unto Him, Why seweth a piece of new cloth on an old 
 
 do the disciples of John and of the garment : else the new piece that 
 
 Pharisees fast, but Thy disciples fast filled it up taketh away/ro;« the old, 
 
 not? 19. And Jesus said unto them, and the rent is made worse. 22. 
 
 Can the children of the bridechamber And no man putteth new wine into 
 
 fast, while the Bridegroom is with old bottles : else the new wine doth 
 
 them ? as long as they have the Bride- burst the bottles, and the wine is 
 
 groom with them, they cannot fast. spilled, and the bottles will be marred : 
 
 20. But the days will come, when but new wine must be put into new 
 
 the Bridegroom shall be taken away bottles. 
 
 It is almost certain that the feast given by Levi and attended 
 by our Lord was on one of the two weekly fast-days. The 
 word used by S. Mark implies not so much that the Pharisees 
 " used to fast," as that they " were fasting " at the time ; and 
 it was the disregard of the observance which prompted the 
 question why the disciples of Jesus acted differently from 
 others in this respect. Now there can be no doubt that He 
 would not have made light of any ordinance of legal obligation. 
 Fasting was almost unnoticed in the Law. On one day, and 
 one only, were the people directed " to afflict the soul." That 
 was the " Day of Atonement." It was a national Fast, binding 
 upon all who had reached the age of thirteen ; and no Jew 
 who was contented to follow the Mosaic Code need trouble him- 
 self with any other. During the Captivity, how^ever, four more 
 Annual Fasts were added to commemorate national disasters, 1 
 ^ In the fourth month, both for the breaking of the Two Tables of Moses, 
 
48 The Principle of Fasting chap, h 
 
 especially connected with the destructions of Jerusalem and 
 the Temple. From time to time also public humiliations and 
 private fasts were observed amidst dearth and famine, and in 
 preparation for important works. 
 
 In the New Testament we learn from the Pharisee's 
 confession that the Jews " more righteous than the rest " kept 
 two days in the week as fasts ; they were the second and fifth, 
 in remembrance of the ascent of Moses into the Mount to 
 receive the Two Tables of Stone, and his descent, after the 
 anger of the Lord had been appeased. 
 
 But when we read in S. Matthew's Gospel of frequent 
 fastings — " the Pharisees fast oft " — it is probable that it was 
 something more even than these ; and later Jewish writings 
 testify to repetition on the most trivial pretexts, such as for a 
 good omen, for a dream, for the interpretation of a dream ; 
 and this gave birth to the proverb, " A fast is as fit for a dream 
 as fire is for tow." They record also many cases of Rabbis 
 who obtained a reputation by the number of their self-imposed 
 fasts. 
 
 When the Baptist came, he felt that it was a time to make 
 ready a people by strict discipline and self-denial, not as a 
 meritorious act or matter of boasting, such as the Pharisees 
 taught, but as a fitting preparation for the Advent of the 
 Messiah. 
 
 " There is a time to every purpose under heaven : a time 
 to weep, and a time to laugh ; a time to mourn, and a time 
 to dance." The former was the season in which the Baptist's 
 lot had been cast; the latter, that which Christ came to 
 inaugurate. Such was the broad distinction which our Lord 
 drew when appealed to for a vindication of His conduct. He 
 illustrated the principle by the use of a figure that was 
 singularly appropriate to His hearers. They had heard their 
 own master say that " the friend of the Bridegroom, which 
 standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the 
 Bridegroom's voice." 
 
 The friends of the bridegroom, or "the children of the 
 bridechamber," as they are elsewhere called, were especially 
 
 and also for the capture of Jerusalem in Zedekiah's reign. In the fifth, for the 
 burning of the Temple of Nebuchadnezzar. In the seventh, for the death of 
 Gedaliah. In the tenth, for the commencement of the blockade. 
 
V. 18-22 The Principle of Fasting 49 
 
 appointed to make preparation for the advent of the bride, to 
 bear the bridal -canopy for her reception, and to arrange 
 generally for the wedding-feast. All their thoughts were of 
 joy and happiness. For seVen days there were prolonged 
 festivities ; fatlings were killed, costly dresses were worn, 
 torchlight processions were held, and there was every possible 
 demonstration of gladness; indeed, such was the festive 
 character of the marriage-week, that exemption was granted to 
 the bride even from certain obligations of the great Fast of 
 " the Day of Atonement," if it fell within that period.^ 
 
 " The present," our Lord seems to say to those who 
 questioned Him, "is such a time as that. What more 
 incongruous than for My friends to seek to mar their enjoy- 
 ment by introducing an air of sadness into such a scene ? 
 The time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken 
 away ; - but do not anticipate the separation ; it will be here 
 all too soon. The darkness of Calvary will spread a gloom 
 over the disciples' hearts : then there will be an end to 
 rejoicing: 'then shall they fast in those days.'" 
 
 Two more illustrations followed : one touching the outward 
 conduct, the other the inner spirit ; and both were suggested 
 by the Wedding Feast. "No man seweth a piece of new 
 cloth on an old garment." Christianity is too strong and 
 vigorous for an outworn system. Attempt to piece it on the 
 old, and its very weight and strength will tear still more the 
 failing threads, and "a worse rent will be made." 
 
 Again, " no man putteth new wine into old bottles." The 
 New Religion is too free, too elastic, too expansive, to be 
 infused into the old forms and modes of life. It will be hke 
 the fermenting must, which cracks and bursts the withered 
 wine-skins, so that both are ruined. 
 
 We must not however conclude from this, that Christ 
 forbade, or even discouraged, the principle of fasting. It was 
 the Jewish surroundings which He condemned Rabbinic 
 Pharisaism had wholly misconceived its true object; it had 
 taught men to believe that such mortification was a means of 
 
 1 She shared with a king the privilege of washing the face at such a time ; 
 the idea being that before all things she must be pleasing to her husband. 
 After they had been married some time he would know that she was not 
 unclean, but at first she must run no risk of such a thing being supposed. 
 
 - This is the first intimation of His approaching death. 
 
 E 
 
50 The Prmciple of Fasting ch. n. v. 18-22 
 
 averting God's anger, and of atoning for "sins. To the Pharisees 
 it was no instrument for the subjection of the lower to the 
 higher nature, no ingredient in the cup of penitence, no sign 
 of deep humiUation for offence ^fgainst God, but a meritorious 
 act, entitling him who practised it to Divine acceptance. As 
 such it gained no encouragement, no recognition, in the 
 teaching of our Blessed Lord. 
 
 Neither did He approve their mode of fasting. The spirit 
 of the Gospel is not the spirit of the Law. The one, is love, 
 the other is fear. The Jew sat in sackcloth and ashes ; the 
 Christian anoints his head and washes his face. 
 
 We have only to turn to the Sermon on the Mount to 
 understand the real position of fasting. Its true value was 
 fully recognised when our Lord united it in a threefold cord 
 with the Christian graces of prayer and almsgiving, and 
 pointed thereby to man's triple duty to God, his neighbour, 
 and himself In enjoining the obligation of fasting, He knew 
 that if it be true that no one can enjoy liberty till he has 
 learned self-restraint, it is absolutely necessary for the full 
 realisation of Christian freedom that a man should be able to 
 hold his lower appetites in complete subjection. 
 
 But fasting in its highest sense reaches far beyond the 
 abstinence from bodily food ; the rule is absolute, " If any 
 man will be My disciple, let him deny himself." S. Bernard 
 shows well what it is which makes the Christian " ascetic." 
 " If," he says, " the appetite alone have sinned, let that alone 
 fast ; but if other members, let them also fast. The eye from 
 . . . looking with pleasure at any glass which reflects self; 
 the ear from praise .of self, from slanders, gossip, controversy ; 
 the tongue from detraction, murmuring, and fault-finding ; the 
 hand from needless work, which hinders prayer; but more 
 than all, the soul from vice and self-will. Thus only shall we 
 avoid provoking God to reject our offerings ; thus only realise 
 what is promised ; ' Behold, in the day of your fast ye find 
 pleasure. ' " 
 
XII 
 
 %\)t 2Di0ciplc0 in tlje Com=fielD0 
 
 S. Mark ii. 23-28 
 
 23. And it came to pass, that He were with him ? 26. How he went 
 went through the corn fields on the into the house of God in the days of 
 sabbath day ; and His disciples began, Abiathar the high priest, and did 
 as they went, to pluck the ears of cat the shewbread, which is not 
 corn. 24. And the Pharisees said lawful to eat but for the priests, and 
 unto Him, Behold, why do they on gave also to them which were with 
 the sabbath day that which is not him ? 27. And He said unto them, 
 lawful? 25. And He said unto The sabbath was made for man, d;«d? 
 them. Have ye never read what not man for the sabbath : 28. there- 
 David did, when he had need, and fore the Son of Man is Lord also of 
 was an hungred, he, and they that the sabbath. 
 
 There are reasons for supposing that it was after the syna- 
 gogue service on the first Sabbath in the month of May that 
 our Lord went out to walk in the fields, where the harvest 
 was ripening in the Plain of Gennesareth.^ Perhaps He 
 wished for quiet ; but the Pharisees, whose hostility He had 
 aroused, watched which way He went, and followed behind, 
 determined to lose no opportunity of fastening upon Him a 
 charge, to lay before the Sanhedrim. It is not unlikely that 
 their hope on this occasion was, that He might be tempted to 
 exceed the legitimate two thousand cubits, in disregard of the 
 restriction for a Sabbath-day's journey. 
 
 ^ The synagogue service was held at nine o'clock. The Pharisees would 
 hardly have gone out after Him into the fields before that hour, but nothing 
 is more natural than that they should have followed Him when the congregation 
 separated. The Authorised Version renders it "the second Sabbath after the first," 
 which is meaningless. A variety of explanations have been offered, viz., that 
 given above (W'etstein) ; the first Sabbath after the second Paschal Day (Eder- 
 sheim) appears most probable. It was certainly between Passover and Pentecost. 
 Barley harvest was in the latter half of April, wheat in the first half of iMay. 
 
52 The Disciples in the Coim- fields chap, n 
 
 Disappointed, however, in not finding anything against the 
 Master, they attacked His disciples. They were hungry, and 
 plucked some ears of corn by the wayside, and ate them. 
 There was no offence in that : it was no act of theft on their 
 part, for the Law made allowances for such a case : " When 
 thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbour, then 
 thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand." 
 
 But though it was no infraction of the Written Law, there 
 was " the hedge " of the Law, the fence which the Rabbis had 
 built up to guard its minutest observance. This they could 
 turn and twist at their will ; and they had no difficulty in 
 bringing the disciples' conduct into court for a breach of it. 
 To pluck the ears of corn was equivalent to reaping ; to rub 
 them in their hands was the same as threshing ; and to reap 
 and thresh was to engage in prohibited labour on the Sabbath. 
 If then they could make good the charge, and enforce the 
 extreme penalty, like the man who gathered sticks on that 
 holy day, the transgressors might be stoned for the breach. 
 It shows the eagerness with which they were watched, that 
 the instant they began to do it the Pharisees broke in with 
 their remonstrances : " Behold ! why do they on the Sabbatlv 
 day that which is not lawful?" 
 
 It was the boast of the stricter Jews that they would endure 
 any privation rather than violate that holy day. More than 
 one great defeat and massacre in Jewish history ^ might have 
 been averted if they had not refused on these grounds to draw 
 the sword in defence of their lives. 
 
 Jesus at once threw the shield of His protection over His 
 followers. Scorning the petty quibbles with which He was so 
 familiar. He declined to argue as to what constituted labour, 
 and plunged into the general question of Sabbath observance, 
 laying down the principle that no ceremonial ordinance may 
 override man's good. 
 
 With one of those master-strokes which He so often made, 
 He recalled to their minds an illustration from the history of 
 their greatest hero. It is quite possible that it was suggested 
 
 ^ Josephus, Antiq. xiv. 4. 2, 3, describes how the Romans under Pompey 
 mercifully respected the Jewish law, and refused to attack till the following 
 day. — Milman, Hist. ii. 2. The Jews however did not always observe the 
 rule. — Wars, ii. 19. 2. 
 
V. 23-28 The Disciples in the Corn-fields 53 
 
 by the Lesson which they had just heard in the synagogue ; if 
 so, we can imagine with what force it must have struck them. 
 
 David, in his flight from Saul's court, halted at the priestly 
 station of Nob on the sides of Mount Olivet. It was the spot 
 where the Tabernacle had found a temporary home during the 
 period of its wanderings before it rested on Mount Zion. 
 Ahimelech or Abiathar (the two names are commonly supposed 
 to represent father and son, but it is possible that they were 
 both borne by one and the same person ^) gave him some of 
 the loaves from the Golden Table to satisfy his hunger. It 
 was the most sacred of all food : for w^hile that which was 
 offered in sacrifice might be sold in the shambles, the mystic 
 "Bread of the Face"^ was eaten by the priests alone, and 
 within the Holy Place. And yet they, the guardians of every 
 religious observance, had not hesitated to divert its use in the 
 exigency of circumstances, and David, the great national saint, 
 had made no scruple of accepting it. 
 
 Were the Pharisees prepared to accuse him of sacrilege for 
 so doing ? If they were, our Lord might have retorted that 
 they were at issue with the teaching of the old masters of 
 Israel. Had not they said, " It was lawful even to eat that 
 which was sanctified, when another loaf was not within reach, 
 and one was bitten with hunger ;" and again, " There is 
 nothing which may hinder taking care of life but idolatry, 
 adultery, and murder " ? 
 
 But we find from S. Matthew, that He drew a second 
 argument from the Temple ordinances. " What," He seems 
 to say, "were the multiplied sacrifices, and incense-burnings, 
 and washings, but so many breaches of the letter of the Law ? 
 Had they not given birth to the proverb, 'There is no 
 Sabbatical rest observed in the sanctuary ' ? and yet no one 
 ever thought of blaming the priests." 
 
 1 Surely, as there is nothing impossible in the supposition, it is better to 
 accept it than accuse the authors of Chronicles and Samuel of mistake. The 
 absence of the definite article from the best MSS. forbids the translation " in 
 the time of Abiathar (afterwai-ds familiarly known as) the high priest," as, e.g. 
 " in the house of Simon the leper" — not a leper at the time. Grammatically, 
 as it stands, it can only be "when Abiathar was high priest." 
 
 2 t'.e. Bread laid out in the Presence of God. Our Shewbread is taken 
 from Luther's translation " Schaubrod," The table of pure gold is depicted 
 on the .Arch of Titus. The Bread was only eaten by those priests who were 
 ceremonially clean. 
 
54 The Disciples in the Corn-fields ch. h. v. 23-28 
 
 And just as under the first illustration there lay the thought 
 that He was David's Son, and that what was lawful for the 
 father, could not be unlawful for the Son, so by the assertion 
 that there was in that place " One greater than the Temple," 
 He reminded them ''that the Body of the Son of Man was 
 the truest temple of God, and the disciples who ministered to 
 Him were entitled to at least the same privilege as the priests 
 in the Temple at Jerusalem." 
 
 But the real solution of the question lay in the declaration 
 that the day was instituted for the happiness and wellbeing of 
 man, and consequently He in Whom humanity was personified, 
 held control over its observance ; " the Sabbath was made 
 for man, and not man for the Sabbath : therefore the Son of 
 Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." 
 
 The question has been revived in our own generation : 
 " In what spirit is that day which has superseded the Sabbath 
 to be kept, especially by the working classes ? " This no less 
 than the other "was made for man." Now man, it must be 
 remembered, is a complex creature. He has a tripartite 
 nature, consisting of body, soul, and spirit ; and it is necessary 
 to provide for him as such, not ignoring either his physical or 
 his social or his religious needs. All must be kept in view. 
 It is a manifest duty to furnish the masses with the means of 
 bodily recreation, and to draw them from their squaUd homes 
 into the pure air which will invigorate the frame. 
 
 It is no less a duty to elevate their tastes, to offer them, 
 as far as possible, variety of scene, and that relief from the 
 monotony of labour which the rich man finds in his club or 
 library ; but all must be subordinated to the paramount duty 
 of worship. That is due from every creature to the Great 
 Creator. It is that moreover in which he may find his 
 highest enjoyment. No scheme, therefore, which ignores 
 this claim, can possibly carry out the principle laid down by 
 our Lord when He said, "The Sabbath was made for man." 
 
XIII 
 
 S. Mark hi. i-6 
 
 I. And He entered again into the kill? But they held their peace, 5. 
 
 synagogue ; and there was a man And when He had looked round 
 
 there which had a withered hand. about on them with anger, being 
 
 2. And they watched Him, whether grieved for the hardness of their 
 He would heal him on the sabbath hearts. He saith unto the man, 
 day ; that they might accuse Him, Stretch forth thine hand. And he 
 
 3. And He saith unto the man which stretched // out : and his hand was re- 
 had the withered hand, Stand forth. stored whole as the other. 6. And the 
 
 4. And He saith unto them, Is it Pharisees went forth, and straightway 
 lawful to do good on the sabbath took counsel with the Herodians against 
 days, or to do evil? to save hfe, or to Him, how they might destroy Him, 
 
 For the third time our Lord is confronted by the Pharisees on 
 the question of Sabbath observance. A week has elapsed 
 since He defended the action of His disciples from their 
 objections to plucking the ears of corn ; and now they are 
 waiting for an opportunity to renew the charge of breaking the 
 Law. It was either in the synagogue at Capernaum, from 
 which they had followed Him the previous Sabbath, or possibly 
 it may have been in the neighbouring Sepphoris,^ which Herod 
 had lately made his capital, and where one of the five Sanhe- 
 drims held its sittings, that He saw a man whose hand had 
 been withered, and had lost its power. It is interesting to 
 find from S. Jerome, who quotes from some apocryphal 
 additions to S. Matthew's Gospel, that he was by trade " a 
 stone-mason, who had depended for his livelihood on manual 
 
 1 If here, the meeting of Pharisees and Herodians would be more easily 
 accounted for. 
 
56 The Withered Hand chap, m 
 
 labour, and that he pleaded for the cure to avoid the disgrace 
 of begging his bread." 
 
 If this tradition be a true one (and there is no reason to 
 doubt it), then we can understand that the circumstance of his 
 poverty would tend to aggravate the bitterness of the Pharisees. 
 They could not bear that Jesus should bestow favour upon the 
 labouring class, because they held the poor in the lowest 
 contempt, and regarded ignorance as an unpardonable offence. 
 "The rabble, that know not the law, are accursed." His 
 partiality to them was consequently a great blow to Pharisaic 
 pride ; and we are not surprised that the common people 
 rejoiced in the change of treatment that they received, and 
 flocked to His feet, and " heard Him gladly." 
 
 Now, no sooner did the Pharisees become aware of the 
 poor man's presence in the synagogue, than they were filled 
 with satisfaction. They felt sure from what had taken place 
 before, that Jesus would be prompted to heal him, and would 
 break the Sabbath in doing so. They determined, therefore, 
 simply to bide their time, and, like beasts of prey, to pounce 
 upon Him directly He should fall into their toils. They had 
 attacked the man who had carried his bed, then the disciples 
 in the field, but now they have Christ Himself almost within 
 their grasp. 
 
 They had heard wonderful things of Him, but they little 
 knew that He could read their thoughts, that their inmost 
 heart was laid bare and open before His all-searching eye, and 
 their excitement must have become intense when He uttered 
 the command, "Stand forth." It was a compassionate effort 
 on His part to change their hearts by the sight of the man's 
 helpless infirmity, and to prick their callous consciences. But 
 there was no sign of relenting, no turn in the current of their 
 malignant intentions, and so the question was directly put, " Is 
 it lawful to do good on the Sabbath-days, or to do evil ? to 
 save life, or to kill ? " The man was not in danger of his life, 
 and he would have survived undoubtedly had no cure been 
 wrought. But that question implied, that not to give health 
 and strength, not to restore the vital power when the restora- 
 tion lies within your reach, is equivalent to taking it away. To 
 leave a good deed undone is hardly less sinful than doing a 
 bad one. Such was no doubt the direct force of the question 
 
V. 1-6 The Withered Hand 57 
 
 which our Lord put ; but it is extremely probable that beneath 
 the broad principle thus laid down He covered an allusion to 
 the designs of the Pharisees upon His Own life. And if their 
 hearts had not been hardened against every influence, those 
 words would have carried to their conscience such an alter- 
 native as this: "Which, think you, is in reality the better 
 thing, — to restore life and energy to this withered limb, or to 
 destroy Me, as I know full well you are so eager to do ? " But 
 He received no answer. The sight of the poor maimed cripple 
 imploring mercy, and the Saviour's question, to which there 
 was but one reply, both alike failed to make any impression. 
 "They held their peace." Then He "looked round with 
 anger and grief." The notice of this incident is due to S. 
 Mark alone, who is always so careful to make mention of " the 
 passing Hghts and shadows which swept over the countenance 
 of the Lord."^ In the original language it is something more 
 than grief; it is the grief of sympathy; and it creates a 
 difficulty at first sight — there seems something so contradictory 
 in the combination of anger and sorrow and sympathy. But 
 it is only in sinful fallen man that they appear incompatible. 
 There was no malice in the anger of Christ. He was angry 
 with the sin, but grieved for the sinner. His indignation was 
 roused, not by any offence that had been given to Himself, 
 or by any personal injury ; and His sympathy was exhibited by 
 an act of kindness naturally calculated to win them to repent- 
 ance. With a look, then, of sorrowful, sympathetic anger. He 
 bade the helpless cripple stretch forth his hand, and at once 
 the heart sent its streams of blood into every vein and artery 
 of the palsied Hmb. " It was restored whole as the other." 
 
 It can hardly have been by accident that our Lord should 
 have healed him without any actual work, any visible effort on 
 His part. We know with what infinite variety He effected 
 His purposes. At one time He made clay and anointed the 
 eyes of the blind, or touched with His hands the tongue of the 
 dumb or the ears of the deaf; at another He merely spake 
 and it was done. It was surely of set purpose that He 
 adopted the latter course in the case before us. It threw an 
 additional obstacle in the way of the Pharisees. It was not 
 words, but deeds that were forbidden in the Law on the 
 ^ Cf. Characteristics of S. Mark, pp. 4, 5. 
 
58 The Withered Hand chap, m 
 
 Sabbath-day ; and when He said, " Stretch forth thy hand," 
 the strictest Sabbatarian could lay no hold upon Him. There 
 was no actionable breach, no violation even of the letter of 
 the Law. What, then, were the baffled Pharisees to do? 
 Exposure of sin is usually followed by one of two alternatives, 
 — repentance, or more determined perseverance in the evil 
 way. It creates no surprise to find that the Pharisees accepted 
 the latter of the two. S. Luke expresses the bitterness of 
 their disappointment when he says that they were filled with 
 madness, and S. Mark leaves no doubt of the aggravation of 
 their malicious designing in the record that " they went forth 
 and straightway took counsel with the Herodians^ against 
 Him, how they might destroy Him." The coalition is so 
 remarkable that it calls for consideration. No two classes 
 could be found more widely separated either in political or in 
 religious views. 
 
 In politics the Pharisees resolutely denied the right of any 
 foreign power to exercise dominion over the heritage of God. 
 Nothing but a Theocracy could be tolerated by a Jew. 
 Prudence restrained them from revolution, but they lost no 
 opportunity of protesting vigorously against the payment of 
 taxes to the Imperial Treasury. 
 
 The Herodians were of Idumaean descent, but from long 
 connection with Rome had become Roman in feeling and 
 political sentiment, and exercising their authority only as 
 vassals, they were careful to uphold the claims of the Sovereign. 
 
 In religion again there was an equally marked antagonism 
 between the two parties. 
 
 The Separatists were the unflinching champions of the 
 national faith, as they received it, and they upheld the Ritual 
 
 ^ The Herodians are referred to only in S. Matt. xxii. i6, S. Mark iii. 6, 
 xii. 13, and S. Luke xx. 20, and it is very difficult to describe their exact 
 position. Dr. Westcott, in Smith's Bibl. Diet., suggests that they were 
 brought into union with the Pharisees as supporters of a dynasty which saved 
 the Jews from direct heathen rule ; and with the Sadducees, as holding a faith 
 which was as it were a compromise between the belief of God's chosen people 
 and that of heathen civilisation. I have looked for the motives of coalition 
 simply in the desire to obtain one's end even through the assistance of one's 
 natural enemies. It is very difficult to think the Pharisees could have felt any 
 sympathy with the Herodians, when the Hcrods persistently appointed non- 
 Palestinians to the High Priesthood. Some of tlie Herodians, moreover, held 
 that the Messianic predictions were fulfilled in the Herodian dynasty, which 
 was a view wholly antagonistic to Pharisaic belief. 
 
V. 1-6 The Withered Hand 
 
 59 
 
 and Ceremonial Law with the most rigid formahsm. The 
 Herodians, on the other hand, as far as they professed any 
 rehgion at all, were Sadducees, altogether sceptical of a future 
 life, and caring for little beyond a rationaUstic morality. 
 
 The proud Jewish patriot and the half-heathen Herodian 
 courtier — the scrupulous Religionist and the indifferent 
 Secularist — such were the widely-conflicting spirits that were 
 made friends together in this unrighteous cause. 
 
 It proves almost more conclusively than any other tes- 
 timony the low estate into which all parties in Jewish society 
 had sunk, that the principles which Christ preached found no 
 response in the tenets of any of them ; for sooner or later, 
 here or elsewhere, all alike took counsel together and became 
 confederate against Him. 
 
XIV 
 
 ^'i\t €)rtimation of t^e %\xitVot 
 
 S. Mark hi. 7-19 
 
 7. But Jesus withdrew Himself with 
 His disciples to the sea : and a great 
 multitude from Galilee followed Him, 
 and from Judaea, 8. and from Jeru- 
 salem, and from Idumeea, and from 
 beyond Jordan ; and they about 
 Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, 
 when they had heard what great 
 things He did, came unto Him. 9. 
 And He spake to His disciples, that 
 a small ship should wait on Him 
 because of the multitude, lest they 
 should throng Him, 10. For He 
 had healed many ; insomuch that 
 they pressed upon Him for to touch 
 Him, as many as had plagues. 11. 
 And unclean spirits, when they saw 
 Him, fell down before Him, and 
 cried, saying, Thou art the Son of 
 God. 12. And He straitly charged 
 them that they should not make 
 
 Him known. 13. And He goeth up 
 into a mountain, and calleth unto 
 Him whom He would : and they 
 came unto Him. 14. And He or- 
 dained twelve, that they should be 
 with Him, and that He might send 
 them forth to preach, 15. and to 
 have power to heal sicknesses, and to 
 cast out devils : 16. and Simon He 
 surnamed Peter ; 17. and James the 
 son of Zebedee, and John the brother 
 of James ; and He surnamed them 
 Boanerges, which is. The sons of 
 thunder : 18. and Andrew, and 
 Philip, and Bartholomew, and Mat- 
 thew, and Thomas, and James the 
 sou of Alphasus, and Thaddaeus, 
 and Simon the Canaanite, 19. and 
 Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed 
 Him. 
 
 And they went into an house. 
 
 This is the third stage in the preparation of the disciples for 
 the Apostolate. A certain number had been admitted at the 
 beginning to terms of intimacy and friendship with Jesus. 
 Then they had left their secular calling for a time to attend 
 upon Him ; now the final step must be taken, and a selection 
 made of such as would give themselves wholly to the work, 
 and go no more back to the world. 
 
 It was a crisis in His ministry ; and, as the pattern 
 Man, He prepared Himself for it by prayer. S. Mark 
 
CII. III. V 
 
 7-19 The Ordination of tJie Tzuelve 61 
 
 only tells us of His ascent into the mountain — the Kurun 
 Hattin/ from which He preached His first sermon — but S. 
 Luke, who is careful to note the marks of His Priestly work, 
 adds that it was to spend the night in intercession and 
 communing with the Father. 
 
 It is in imitation of her Lord that the Church, from the 
 ordination of S. Matthias to the present time, has proceeded 
 to " the laying on of hands " only after prayer and fasting and 
 the invocation of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The twelve Apostles are divided by the Evangelists into 
 three groups. In the first are SS. Peter and James and John 
 and Andrew. They formed two pairs of brothers, sons of 
 Jonah and Zabdai ; and not only were their homes in the same 
 town, but the families were united by partnership in trade. 
 
 Three of the four are linked together by a golden chain as 
 the favoured company, " the chosen out of the chosen," to 
 whom was granted the companionship of their Master in the 
 most solemn events of His life — on the Mount of Transfigura- 
 tion and in the Garden of Gethsemane. Andrew had been 
 the first to follow Christ, the first to believe the Baptist's cry, 
 " Behold the Lamb of God ; " and he was so loyal to the 
 Master, that almost all that we read of him in his individual 
 actions, is concerned with bringing others to His feet ; and 
 yet, notwithstanding all this, there was something — we know 
 not what — that excluded him from the inner circle. 
 
 The second group is composed of SS. Philip and Bartholo- 
 mew, Matthew and Thomas. Of the first but little is recorded. 
 " He was a sincere but timid seeker after truth," and as such 
 our Lord appealed to him when He spoke of " anything hard 
 to be done or believed," hoping thereby to inspire him with 
 strength and confidence. Bartholomew, whose full title was, 
 in all probability, Nathanael ^ Bar Tolmai, stands out as a 
 
 ^ The Latin Church has adopted the tradition that it was on a plateau of 
 the "Horns of Hattin," not far from the Khan Minyeh, on the western shore 
 of the lake. 
 
 - The grounds upon which the identification of Nathanael with Bartholo- 
 mew rest are these : S. John places Nathanael in the earliest group of Jesus' 
 followers, and names him with certain Apostles after the Resurrection, but 
 he makes no mention of Bartholomew. The Synoptists, on the other hand, 
 place Bartholomew in the List of Apostles, but take no note of Nathanael. 
 Again, S. John states that Nathanael was brought to Jesus by Philip, and 
 in the Synoptists Philip and Bartholomew are always associated together. It 
 
62 The Ordination of the Twelve chap, m 
 
 marked man in that early history ; in an age of duphcity rarely 
 equalled, he maintained, even before the shadow of Christ 
 fell upon him, a character of such childlike simplicity that 
 he was hailed by One Who can read the hearts of men, as 
 "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." S. Matthew, the 
 Levi^ of the first Gospel, was the lowest in the social scale, 
 in a company where probably none were men of birth or 
 position. 
 
 S. Thomas, also called Didymus, the Twin, was the most 
 despondent, the slowest to believe, the last of the Twelve to 
 be convinced, but true and honest to the core. When once 
 his doubts was cleared away, and the pathway of duty was 
 open, nothing could exceed the intensity of his devotion. 
 
 The third group contains the rest. 
 
 S. James, by a mistaken interpretation dating even from 
 S. Jerome, has been generally known as "the Less;"^ but in 
 reality he was designated by the Evangelists, " the little," and 
 that, not from any inferiority of position or ability, but simply 
 because, like Zacchseus, he was small of stature. 
 
 Next to him in the usual order is the Apostle "of the 
 triple name."^ He was called by his parents Judas, but 
 probably after that had become a name of evil omen, he 
 received other distinguishing titles, and is described in the 
 narrative as the brother of James, or as Lebbaeus, the warm- 
 hearted and lion-like man, or by S. Mark as Thaddaeus, from 
 a certain feminine tenderness, which controlled and tempered 
 the force and strength of his natural character. 
 
 The third was S. Simon, the Kananite ; not of the land of 
 Canaan, but, as the Syriac word implies, "the Zealot." It 
 marks his connection with a band of Galileans, who held their 
 lives in their hand for the defence of the Mosaic Ritual and 
 
 is hard to believe that the follower most highly spoken of at the beginning by- 
 Jesus ' should have been excluded from the Apostleship. S. Augustine, 
 however, disputed the identity, and conjectured a reason for the rejection of 
 Nathanael. 
 
 ^ S. Matthew gives an account of the call of a " man named Matthew ; " 
 SS. Mark and Luke of Levi, under precisely similar circumstances, Matthew, 
 like Theodore, Adeodatus, Dorotheus, implying "the gift of God," probably 
 was the name he assumed after his call. 
 
 - Cf, the discussion on ' ' the Brethren " in xvi. , pp. 70 ff. 
 
 2 Lebbosus, from the Hebrew leb, the heart ; according to others, from 
 labi, a lion. Thaddaeus, from thad. the female breast. 
 
V. 7-19 The Oi'dination of the Twelve 63 
 
 "the Covenant of their fathers." In the last days of Jerusalem 
 they degenerated into a desperate faction, and wrought endless 
 mischief, rapine, and bloodshed, during the final struggle with 
 the Roman army. In the zeal and enthusiasm which led 
 Simon to cast in his lot with such a cause, our Lord discerned 
 a qualification which, if once diverted into a proper channel, 
 would prove of the greatest value in the spread of Christianity. 
 
 The list closes with one of the tribe of Judah — strange to 
 say, the only member of it in the number of the Twelve. He 
 was born at the little village of Kerioth, and called by a fearful 
 paradox, Judah, " the praise of the Lord." He bears on his 
 forehead the ineffaceable brand, and is the only one of whom 
 it has ever been said, " Good were it for that man if he had 
 never been born." 
 
 Such, briefly told, were the men who were associated with 
 the Founder of the Faith for the regeneration of the world. 
 The first general thought suggested by this consideration is 
 of the manifold variety, both of character and of calling, 
 represented in the Twelve, Where in the whole world could 
 we find dispositions more diverse than in S. Peter and S. 
 John, — the one ardent and impulsive, the very embodiment 
 of energy and vehemence ; the other quiet and contemplative, 
 fitted for nothing so well as the life of a recluse ? 
 
 What callings again could be more incongruous than those 
 which S. Simon and S. Matthew had respectively chosen? 
 The fiery patriot could brook no allegiance to an earthly ruler, 
 but would do and dare anything to resist the Roman claim to 
 impose taxation upon the people of God. But his fellow- 
 Apostle had degraded himself, of his o-wn free will, to exact 
 from his own flesh and blood the obnoxious tribute. And 
 yet such was the comprehensive work which lay before the 
 Ministry of the Church, that a sphere was found in it for the 
 " tax-gatherer," no less than the " tax-hater," — for the Jew who 
 had sold his birthright, as well as for the irreconcilable 
 nationalist. Jew and Greek, bond and free, rich and poor, 
 men of every type and people, w^ere destined to be embraced 
 in the Cathohc Church ; and Jesus Christ foreshadowed the 
 future w^hen He welded together the most discordant elements 
 in that first society of the Twelve Apostles. 
 
 Another thought of scarcely less importance arises out of 
 
64 The Ordination of the Twelve ch. m. v. 7-19 
 
 the social position from which He made His choice. The 
 Jewish Rabbis estimated the weight of their influence by the 
 rank or wealth or learning of the pupils who sat at their feet. 
 The first Teacher of Christianity aimed, on the contrary, at 
 attracting the poorest of men. It may be urged that He had 
 no alternative ; that men in the position of Joseph and 
 Nicodemus were so reluctant to accept the call, that had He 
 waited for their adherence, the Apostolic Roll would never 
 have been filled up in His lifetime. But His choice of the 
 poor and despised, the ignorant and unlearned, was based 
 upon a principle which governed the whole of His life on 
 earth ; which selected for His birthplace the manger of a way- 
 side khan, for His home a humble cottage, and for His early 
 occupation the trade of an artisan, among a people intellect- 
 ually of the lowest type in Palestine. It was in perfect 
 consistency with all that had gone before, that He should 
 associate with Himself for the work of the Ministry men of the 
 humblest rank, who probably knew little more than their 
 letters, and, judged by a human standard, were worthless for 
 that unto which they were called. 
 
 And it was the same throughout, till at His departure out 
 of the world He made the Sacraments, by which His Presence^ 
 was to be continued, the exact counterparts of the simplicity 
 and plainness of His life in the flesh. One period of history 
 will suffice to demonstrate the wisdom of His choice. For 
 the first three centuries the progress of Christianity was a 
 gradual triumph of the lowly over the great, till, by the 
 irresistible might of its weakness, it shook the world and 
 compelled " the master of legions " to cast his crown at the 
 foot of the Cross. 
 
 And so the Apostle's boast was reaUsed : " God hath 
 chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; 
 and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to con- 
 found the things which are mighty ; and base things of the 
 world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, 
 and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are : 
 that no flesh should glory in His Presence." 
 
 ^ This expression may be justified in regard to Baptism, by the belief that 
 in both Sacraments wp have " an extension of the Incarnation." 
 
XV 
 
 Bla^p^em^ against tlje ^ol^ (I5|)Oj3t 
 
 S. Mark hi. 20-30 
 
 20. And the multitude cometh to- house cannot stand. 26. And if 
 gather again, so that they could not Satan rise up against himself, and 
 so much as eat bread. 21. And be divided, he cannot stand, but hath 
 when His friends heard of it, they an end. 27. No man can enter into 
 went out to lay hold on Him : for a strong mans house, and spoil his 
 they said. He is beside Himself. 22. goods, except he will first bind the 
 And the scribes which came down strong man ; and then he will spoil 
 from Jerusalem said. He hath Beelze- his house. 28. Verily I say unto 
 bub, and by the prince of the devils you, All sins shall be forgiven unto 
 casteth He out devils. 23. And He the sons of men, and blasphemies 
 called them unto Him, and said unto wherewith soever they shall blas- 
 them in parables, How can Satan pheme : 29. but he that shall bias- 
 cast out Satan ? 24. And if a king- pheme against the Holy Ghost hath 
 dom be divided against itself, that never forgiveness, but is in danger of 
 kingdom cannot stand. 25. And if eternal damnation. 30. Because they 
 a house be divided against itself, that said. He hath an unclean spirit. 
 
 The popularity of our Blessed Lord was rapidly on the increase. 
 The crowds were becoming so eager to see and hear, so desirous 
 for the relief of their wants and infirmities, that they left Him 
 no time to Himself, not even "so much as to eat bread." 
 
 Hitherto His progress had been impeded only by enemies, 
 but now a new element of opposition springs up. " His 
 friends," including no doubt His kinsfolk and " brethren," who 
 had as yet the most inadequate conception of His Mission, 
 tried to interpose. They looked upon His indifference to 
 bodily necessities as a mark of fanaticism, and feared that if it 
 were left unchecked the consequences might be fatal. It is 
 evident, however, from what follows later that their interference 
 was wholly disregarded. But before their objections had been 
 
66 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost chap, m 
 
 silenced, He was confronted by a deputation of ecclesiastics 
 from the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem. They had no doubt been 
 carefully prepared with the arguments they were to use, and the 
 line of action to pursue. It would be quite useless to deny His 
 power over evil spirits, because hardly a day passed without 
 some exhibition of it being witnessed. His influence with the 
 people must be secretly undermined, and so they adopted the 
 course of going about amongst them, and by covert insinuation 
 or open assertion leading them to believe that He was in league 
 with Beelzebub. 
 
 Who this exactly was is wrapped in some obscurity. Origin- 
 ally perhaps a Phoenician god, he has been variously regarded 
 as the lord of flies, the lord of the dwelling, or the prince of 
 idolatry, as some hold in accordance with Talmudic interpreta- 
 tion.i But, whatever may have been the real significance of 
 the appellation, its usage in Holy Scripture is associated 
 exclusively with demoniacal possession. It is quite possible 
 that it is due to this circumstance, that, when that strange 
 phenomenon passed away the use of the title was wholly dis- 
 continued. 
 
 It does not appear that the Scribes accused our Lord to His 
 face of employing such agency, but He read their thoughts, 
 perhaps heard their whispered innuendos, and, calling them up 
 before Him, began at once to rebut the charge. We cannot 
 fail to be struck by the total absence of personal anger, or pride, 
 or indignation, such as one would naturally expect under such 
 gross misrepresentation. The strength of His position inspired 
 Him with the utmost calm and confidence ; and He told them 
 that their suggestion was refuted by the commonest observation. 
 No kingdom, no society, no house nor family, could possibly hold 
 together if its members were disunited. " That goes almost 
 without saying." If then they carried their thoughts on for a 
 moment from the earthly to the spiritual, from the kingdom of 
 men to the dominion of the Evil Spirit, they would see the in- 
 consistency of their allegation. That kingdom, like every 
 
 1 Beelzebub. The LXX. and Josephus both connect him with flies, BdaX 
 liM'iav \ perhaps from the Hebrew zebel, dung, the dung-fly ; otliers from zebul, 
 a habitation, make him oiKodecnroT-qs, S. Matt. x. 25. Others again, from a 
 secondary Hebrew sense of zebel, an idol, interpret the name as the " prince 
 of false gods or idols," from which the transition to dpxoiv tQv datfj-opiuiv, 
 " the chief of the devils," is very natural. S. Luke xi. 15. 
 
V. 20-30 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost 67 
 
 other, was governed by a prince ; he had subordinate officers 
 under him to carry out his orders, and see that his rule was 
 obeyed. It was quite inconceivable that he could be found 
 co-operating with any other power for their overthrow. Such 
 an element of disunion must end in dissolution, for a more self- 
 destructive process could not be conceived, than that a man 
 should take up arms and turn them against himself "If 
 Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, 
 but hath an end." 
 
 He then proceeds to show that their admission that the 
 devils had been cast out by Him was proof positive that He 
 had bound their prince ; for unless the strong man had been 
 restrained, he would never have suffered himself to have his 
 goods and spoils taken away from him. 
 
 But, although Jesus was able to reason with His opponents 
 in this calm unimpassioned argument. He did not let them go 
 till He had pierced them through with a terrible denunciation 
 and warning against the inevitable consequence of persistence 
 in their present course. 
 
 Men rebuked Him again and again for His birth and 
 parentage, "Is not this the carpenter, the Son of Mary?" and 
 there was something to be urged in excuse for their ignorant 
 wonder ; but to charge Him with casting out devils by Satanic 
 agency, with doing by the power of evil what He had wrought 
 by the Spirit of God, admitted of no palliation. It was a 
 crime of such gravity, betraying a condition of mind so per- 
 sistently, so hopelessly wicked, that the man who committed it 
 stood guilty of an eternal sin.^ The door of mercy was closed 
 against him, and neither on this side of the grave, nor in the 
 unclothed state, was it possible that he should ever hear the 
 words of pardon and peace. Three thoughts, all calculated to 
 insi)ire us with comfort, arise out of a careful consideration of 
 this tremendous utterance. 
 
 Firstly, if our Lord chose to magnify the heinousness of this 
 part/icular sin by designating it "eternal," or as we find in the 
 parallel passage from S. Matthew's Gospel, by assuring His 
 hearers that it should "not be forgiven, neither in this world, 
 neither in the world to come," it follows of necessity that there 
 
 ^ It can hardly be doubted that the reading /cpiVews was substituted for the 
 more difficult afj.apT7]/.LaTo^ of the best MSS. 
 
68 Blasphe7ny against the Holy Ghost chap, m 
 
 is at least the possibility of forgiveness for Borne sins after death. 
 It is difficult to believe that He would have run the risk of 
 using an expression so likely to mislead, and so certain to be 
 laid hold of by those who held erroneous doctrine on the sub- 
 ject, and to be employed in a manner destructive of the truth. 
 It would seem, however, from a consideration of primitive 
 testimony, that it was held to apply only to the pardon of sins 
 of infirmity, and the effacement of sinful stains.^ 
 
 Secondly, He did not directly say that the people whom 
 He was addressing had committed the unpardonable sin. 
 They were doubtless on the edge of that awful condition, and 
 if they suffered the malignity of their heart to lead them to a 
 persistent repetition of the charge, after its folly had been 
 exposed, nothing might save them from the abyss of destruction. 
 If His words implied what has been too hastily assumed, it 
 detracts from that readiness to forgive, that free and open offer 
 of pardon for every returning sinner, which we love to associ- 
 ate with the Saviour's mission. 
 
 And, thirdly, we realise the necessity of carefully avoiding 
 any confusion between sin and blasphemy. Men have fallen 
 into a thoughtless way of characterising that which Jesus de- 
 nounced in such terrible terms as " sin " against the Holy 
 Ghost. All blasphemy is sin, but all sin is not blasphemy ; 
 and it is quite clear that He intended to draw the distinction 
 in this passage. "All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of 
 men, and blasphemies wherewith they shall blaspheme : but he 
 that shall blaspheme " (not he that shall sin) " against the 
 Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal 
 sin" (R.V.). 
 
 The importance of the distinction lies in this : Our bodies 
 are by Baptism made "temples of the Holy Ghost," and every 
 sin against the body, every act of impurity, and every unhal- 
 lowed thought, is an offence against Him that dwelleth therein. 
 
 Again, the works of the Spirit are " love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance ; " 
 and by every act of consent to those qualities which are 
 antagonistic to these we do despite to Him Who worketh in us. 
 
 It has been through confounding such like transgressions 
 with that blasphemy against which the Pharisees were warned, 
 
 ' Cf. the Author's After Death, 71-73 and 117-126. 
 
Blasphemy against tJie Holy Ghost 69 
 
 that men have yielded to despair, and made shipwreck of their 
 safety. But we nowhere find that any one of these is regarded 
 as such a deadly sin that it should close every avenue of the 
 offender's soul against the return of grace. 
 
 Indeed, it may be doubted whether there is now any such 
 absolutely unpardonable offence possible.^ It is only too 
 obvious that there is an obstinate persistence in sinful living, 
 which practically deprives a man of power to repent ; but this 
 is a very different thing from saying that there is a definite 
 transgression, such as our Lord was speaking of, which at once 
 and for ever excludes the transgressor from the possibiUty of 
 pardon. Experience shows that we may fall so low by wilfully 
 resisting grace and despising the offer of forgiveness, that there 
 is nothing left but "a fearful looking for of judgment." We 
 may reach a condition in which, as S. John implies, it will be 
 useless to pray for us. But since an all-sufficient Atonement 
 has been made, we would fain believe that whosoever will, 
 whatever the nature of his sin, may find " a place of repent- 
 ance," if he seek it "carefully with tears." 
 
 ^ Cf. S. Aug. Serm. Ixxi. ; Waterland, Serm. xxviii. ; Pusey, Serm. Sin 
 against the Holy Ghost, for the opposite view. 
 
XVI 
 
 CJe iLorti*0 Btctljreii 
 
 S. Mark hi. 31-35 
 
 31. There came then His breth- Who is My mother, or My brethren ? 
 
 ran and His mother, and, standing 34. And He looked round about 
 
 without, sent unto Him, calling on them which sat about Him, 
 
 Him. 32. And the multitude sat and said. Behold My mother and 
 
 about Him, and they said unto My brethren. 35. For whosoever 
 
 Him, Behold, Thy mother and Thy shall do the will of God, the same 
 
 brethren without seek for Thee. 33. is My brother, and My sister, and 
 
 And He answered them, saying, mother. 
 
 It has been much debated what the exact relationship of the 
 so-called " brethren " of our Lord really was. Their names 
 have beerf preserved as James and Joses, Judah and Simon. 
 Mainly in consequence of the identity of three of them with 
 those of three Apostles, the idea sprang up (though not till the 
 fourth century), and obtained wide currency in the West, that 
 certain of them were of the number of " the Twelve," and that 
 all were sons of Mary the wife of Alphasus, not brethren at all, 
 but cousins of our Lord. 
 
 Two objections may be raised to such a theory. Even if 
 Alphoeus and Cleophas were one and the same,^ it is far from 
 certain that Mary his wife was sister to Mary the Blessed 
 Virgin. We lay no stress upon the difficulty suggested by two 
 daughters bearing the same name ; for though the Church has 
 commemorated the Mother of Jesus as Mary, the real name 
 which she received from her parents was Mariam, the Hebrew 
 
 ^ It is very difficult to realise that the two names are but different forms of 
 one and the same. 
 
cH. III. V. 31-35 The Lord' s Brethren 71 
 
 Miriam. The Greek of the Evangehsts uniformly recognises 
 the distinction, and separates the spelling of her name from 
 that of all the " Maries." 
 
 We maintain, however, that the doubtful interpretation of a 
 single verse is too slender a thread to support a theory in- 
 volving so much. S. John, in his description of the Crucifixion, 
 says, " Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and 
 His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary 
 Magdalene." It has been commonly assumed that he speaks 
 here only of three persons ; and Christian Art has stereotyped 
 this interpretation by the familiar representation of "the three 
 Maries," with none other near save the beloved disciple. We 
 think it far more probable that the Evangelist had before his 
 eyes four women — viz., the Blessed Virgin, her sister, who is 
 unnamed, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. 
 
 If we accept another tradition, which makes the Virgin's 
 sister Salome S. John's mother, we can easily understand that 
 a natural reserve on his part would account for the suppression 
 of her name. 
 
 Two things contribute to the conclusion that four persons 
 are designated in the text. Firstly, the common practice of 
 the Evangelists of arranging people in pairs. Secondly, and 
 far more definitely, some direct testimony from the Syriac and 
 other 1 Versions of the Gospels. In this the conjunction 
 "and" is inserted between the Virgin's sister and Mary the 
 wife of Cleophas, manifestly separating them as distinct persons. 
 The fact that one of these translations was made as early 
 as the second century ^ adds no little weight to its authority 
 upon disputed points. In the fight of this interpretation, and 
 in the absence of any other testimony, the relationship of the 
 wife of Alphasus to the mother of our Lord falls to the ground. 
 
 Again, to make our Lord's brethren members of the Apos- 
 tolic company, is to put them in a position from which the 
 plain teaching of Scripture history seems to exclude them. 
 
 In the case before us they are found protesting against the 
 course which He thought it right to take. S. John expressly 
 
 ^ Viz. , the Persian and /Ethiopic. 
 
 2 This is according to the Peshito. The Jerusalem Syriac, though not in- 
 terpolating " and," places a full stop after His mother's sister, "suggesting by 
 punctuation the same interpretation." 
 
72 The Lord's Brethren chap, in 
 
 states that they did not believe in Him, and S. Luke treated 
 them as a body of men separate from the Apostles when he 
 wrote, " These all," meaning the Eleven after the Ascension, 
 " continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with 
 the women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His 
 brethren." 
 
 The declaration of S. John was made during the last year 
 of our Lord's ministry, which increases the great improbability 
 of such a state of feeling having been held compatible with the 
 Apostolic office. Their unbelief, it is true, passed away, but 
 not till after the Resurrection, and was perhaps mainly due to 
 a direct manifestation of Himself to S. James, the chief of their 
 number. 
 
 The whole theory therefore completely breaks down when 
 subjected to a careful examination, and we must look else- 
 where for the true relationship. 
 
 Two explanations, both of which preserve the natural 
 meaning of the expression "brethren," remain for consideration. 
 The one, which however runs counter to the unbroken 
 tradition of the perpetual virginity ^ of the Mother of Jesus, 
 holds them to have been uterine brethren borne to Joseph after 
 our Blessed Lord. 
 
 The title of " first-born son " given to Jesus seems at first 
 sight to suggest the idea of others born subsequently j but it 
 would convey no such suggestion to the Jewish mind. It was 
 the recognised designation of the first child, whether others 
 followed or not ; it was a title of honour bespeaking special 
 prerogatives and consecration to God. 
 
 It would have been surely a most unnatural thing for our 
 Lord on the cross to commit His Mother to the care and pro- 
 
 ^ S. Matthew, by the expression ' ' knew her not till she brought forth a 
 son," seems to contradict this ; but, as Bishop Lightfoot has pointed out, all 
 that the Evangelist intended was ' ' to show that Jesus was not begotten in the 
 course of nature ; and thus, while it denies any previous intercourse with her 
 husband, it neither asserts nor implies any subsequent intercourse. " — App. ii. 
 to Galat. p. 257. Epiphanius writes : "As the lioness is said to exhaust her 
 fertility in the production of a single offspring (Herodot. iii. 108), so she who 
 bore the Lion of Judah could not in the nature of things become a mother a 
 second time." — Qu. by Lightfoot, p. 270. Archdeacon Farrar is almost alone 
 among modern scholars in upholding the Helvidian view, i.e. that they were 
 the Virgin's children ; but the exhaustive treatise of Bishop Lightfoot has de- 
 cided the case in favour of the Epiphanian view, i.e. that they were sons of 
 S. Joseph by a former wife. 
 
V. 31-35 ^"/'^<^' Lord' s Brethren 73 
 
 tection of S. John, if she had had sons and daughters of her 
 own at the time. It would have been next to impossible to 
 have ignored the closest of family ties. It is no sufficient 
 answer to say that He was justified in doing so, from the 
 knowledge that His brethren did not beUeve in Him. He 
 Who saw the end from the beginning knew well what a change 
 the Resurrection would bring about, and that in a very short 
 time one at least of the four would be foremost in every 
 Christian work.^ It is far more likely, therefore, that they were 
 what we should call " half-brethren," children of S. Joseph by 
 a former wife. This is in accord with the traditional belief- 
 that he was much older than the Blessed Virgin^ and accounts 
 also for the air of seniority wliich they assume over Jesus, 
 endeavouring to restrain Him in the circumstances we are 
 now considering, and giving Him their counsel somew^hat 
 dictatorially on another occasion. 
 
 Furthermore, the theory has all the prestige which attaches 
 to the earliest belief, and it Avas unquestionably most prevalent 
 in Palestine,^ the land where the truth concerning His kinship 
 w\is presumably most likely to be preserved. 
 
 Now the question with which Jesus met the information of 
 the multitude, "Who is My mother or My brethren?" suggests 
 a disregard for natural ties of human relationship. But this 
 is fully contradicted by other passages in His life. AVe have 
 only to recall the scene at the grave of Lazarus, where He 
 exhibited such marks of affection that the bystanders exclaimed, 
 "Behold how He loved him!" or still more strikingly that 
 upon the cross, where, amidst all the agony that He was en- 
 during, His w^hole soul went out in love for her who had borne 
 Him. He would not leave her widowed and childless to the 
 cold world, but committed her in all the tender solicitude of a 
 most loving heart to one whom He Himself had trained, dur- 
 ing three years of unchecked affection, in all the mysteries of 
 
 ^ S. James, the Lord's brother, became Bishop of Jerusalem. 
 
 - Christian Art has perpetuated the belief by always representing S. Joseph 
 as an old man. Epiphanius says that he was eighty years old when he 
 espoused the Blessed Virgin. 
 
 2 Epiphanius, the great supporter of this view in the controversy with S. 
 Jerome and Helvidius, was a native of Palestine. It is said that S. Jerome 
 abandoned the theory of cousinhood, and adopted this after his residence at 
 Bethlehem, where he would hear the true tradition. 
 
74 The Lord' s Brethren ch. m. v. 31-35 
 
 the fullest human love, to fill His vacant place and be to His 
 Mother a second son. 
 
 All this is amply sufficient to prove that His human heart was 
 not indifferent to family ties or the claims of friendship. 
 
 But there is another side to the picture, which represents 
 in equally vivid colours the principle that the calls of natural 
 affections, strong though they be, are not the strongest, and 
 that they are necessarily postponed when brought into conflict 
 with the higher duties of the spiritual life. 
 
 It appears first in His answer to the sorrowful reproach 
 of His Mother, " Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us ? " 
 There is no regretful apology, nothing but the question of 
 surprise, "How is it that ye sought Me? wist ye not that I 
 must be about My Father's business ? " 
 
 It reappears in His remonstrance at the marriage feast, 
 when she seemed to forget His mission, and almost com- 
 manded Him what to do : "Woman, what have I to do with 
 thee ? " 
 
 Again, what could be seemingly harsher than His reply to 
 the Scribe who asked permission to show the last token of 
 respect to his father : " Let the dead bury their dead " ? But 
 Jesus recognised the critical position, and the peril of the least 
 hesitancy for a half-hearted follower, and, even at the risk of 
 appearing unnatural, ignored the claims of filial affection. 
 
 And we hear another echo in the narrative now before us. 
 His brethren, who ill understood His work, having persuaded 
 His Mother, perhaps against her will, to join in their action, 
 attempted to divert Him from His purpose. But no human 
 tie could hinder Him here. There is, nevertheless, a touch of 
 tenderness in the way in which He meets them, showing how 
 the higher claim for obedience to God must override the lower, 
 and trying to make them one with Himself, members of the 
 family and household of God : " For whosoever shall do the 
 will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and 
 mother." 
 
XVII 
 
 %^t parable of tlje ^otjcr 
 
 S. Mark iv. 1-12 
 
 I. And He began again to teach by 
 the sea side : and there was gathered 
 unto Him a great multitude, so that 
 He entered into a ship, and sat in 
 the sea ; and the whole multitude was 
 by the sea on the land. 2. And He 
 taught them many things by par- 
 ables, and said unto them in His 
 doctrine, 3. Hearken ; Behold, there 
 went out a sower to sow : 4. and it 
 came to pass, as he sowed, some fell 
 by the way side, and the fowls of the 
 air came and devoured it up. 5. 
 And some fell on stony ground, 
 where it had not much earth ; and 
 immediately it sprang up, because it 
 had no depth of earth : 6. but when 
 the sun was up, it was scorched ; and 
 because it had no root, it withered 
 away, 7. And some fell among 
 thorns, and the thorns grew up, and 
 
 choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 
 8. And other fell on good ground, 
 and did yield fruit that sprang up and 
 increased ; and brought forth, some 
 thirty, and some sixty, and some an 
 hundred. 9. And He said unto 
 them. He that hath ears to hear, let 
 him hear. 
 
 10, And when He was alone, they 
 that were about Him with the twelve 
 asked of Him the parable. 11. And 
 He said unto them. Unto you it is 
 given to know the mystery of the 
 kingdom of God : but unto them that 
 are without, all ^/lese things are done 
 in parables : 12. that seeing they 
 may see, and not perceive ; and hear- 
 ing they may hear, and not under- 
 stand ; lest at any time they should 
 be converted, and //ieir sins should 
 be forgiven them. 
 
 There are two circumstances which lend a peculiar interest to 
 this parable. It was the first spoken by our Lord, and the 
 scene may be identified almost beyond a question. 
 
 There is always some special charm and attraction in the 
 earliest productions of great and distinguished people. The 
 first sermon of a preacher like S. Chrysostom, or the first 
 drawing of an artist like Raphael, would be eagerly examined, 
 if they could anywhere be found. They would exhibit, no 
 doubt, some sign and earnest of coming greatness; but in 
 
76 The Parable of the Sower chap, iv 
 
 power and skill they would fall immeasurably below the 
 standard of excellence reached in later years. How different 
 in this respect is the first parable of Him "Who spake as 
 never man spake " ! It bears no trace of inferiority, but 
 comes forth perfect as the latest that fell from His lips. 
 
 Again, it affords us no little pleasure to be able to deter- 
 mine the exact locality where it was delivered. He was 
 teaching on the shores of the lake, not far from Capernaum, 
 and the crowd gathered so thickly about Him that, in order to 
 obtain a position of advantage for preaching, He entered a boat, 
 rowed out a few strokes from the land, and then turned round 
 to address them. Now, travellers in Palestine have often 
 found the imagery of the Parables repeated in what they have 
 themselves seen passing before their eyes. The vineyard with 
 its fence and wine-press and tower — the shepherd with the sheep 
 following, not going before — the man who fell among thieves, 
 — all are illustrated almost to the letter in the present day. 
 
 But when the parable of the Sower was spoken, our Lord 
 was by the sea-side, and there we should have expected that 
 His similes would have been drawn from storms and ships 
 and nets, hardly from fiields and agriculture. We know what 
 life and freshness He was wont to impart to His teaching by 
 basing it upon the sights and objects immediately present. 
 It is exemplified here, where it was least expected, in a very 
 striking manner. A well-known Eastern traveller has de- 
 scribed his feelings on visiting the neighbourhood. As he 
 was wondering what there could possibly be to suggest such 
 imagery, his attention was arrested by a slight recess in the 
 hillside, which disclosed at once "every feature of the great 
 parable. There was the undulating corn-field descending to 
 the water's edge. There w^as the trodden pathway running 
 through the midst of it, with no fence or hedge to prevent the 
 seed from falling here and there on either side of it or upon 
 it : itself hard with the constant tramp of horse and mule and 
 human feet. There was the 'good' rich soil, which dis- 
 tinguishes the whole of that neighbourhood from the bare hills 
 elsewhere, descending towards the lake, and which, where 
 there is no interruption, produces one vast mass of corn. 
 There was the rocky ground of the hillside protruding here 
 and there through the corn-fields, as elsewhere through the 
 
V. 1-12 
 
 TJie Pa7'able of the Sower 77 
 
 grassy slopes. There were the large bushes of thorn — the 
 ' Nebk,' that kind of which tradition says the Crown of Thorns ^ 
 was woven, — springing up in the very midst of the waving wheat." 
 It is indeed a strange coincidence that in a land where such 
 vast changes have taken place during eighteen centuries — more 
 perhaps than in any other country in the world — the scene of 
 our Lord's first parable, from the reproduction of the exact 
 features, should be capable of almost certain identification. 
 
 Two expressions arrest our notice at once, as they were 
 manifestly designed to arrest that of the assembled multitude : 
 " Hearken ; Behold !" The parable begins with " Hearken ;" 
 it closes with "Take heed what ye hear." He was about to 
 adopt a mode of teaching unfamiliar to their ears : it needed 
 an undivided attention, "Behold!" Did He actually point 
 to a husbandman, as he came forth at the moment from his 
 homestead on the hillside and began to sow ? If we could be 
 sure that the sequence of events has brought us to the 
 autumnal seed-time, we could hardly doubt it, but the 
 chronological order here is most difficult to determine. 
 
 And then as they listened with a newly-awakened interest, 
 He clothed the sad experience of the farmer in a parabolic 
 form, and told them how much of the seed that was sown 
 brought no return — three parts lost, one only saved. We can 
 scarcely conceive how its moral could have escaped even the 
 meanest understanding; but the disciples were astonished 
 that He should speak to the crowds in any but the transparent 
 language to which they were used. They were not even sure 
 that they rightly understood Him themselves. " "Why speakest 
 Thou unto them in parables?" they asked. The method of 
 teaching was common among the Jews. Parables abound in 
 the Talmud. Hillel and Shammai and Rabbi Meir^ have 
 left many examples ; but as the Rabbis held the poor and 
 ignorant in contempt, and cared only to find the rich and 
 
 •^ In all probability the name of "Spina Christi " was given to this from 
 the idea that, having ver>' sharp points, it was most likely to have been chosen 
 for the crown. The object, however, of crowning Him appears to have been 
 mockery rather than cruelty, so that they would choose one with leaves more 
 nearly resembling those of the imperial WTeaths, and a stem more pliable than 
 that of the Nebk. 
 
 2 Ilillel and Shammai were the chief teachers before our Lord, R. Meir 
 immediately after. It was said of the last that a third of his teaching was by 
 parables. 
 
78 The Parable of the Sower chap, iv 
 
 intelligent ^ classes sitting at their feet, it is probable that the 
 surprise of the disciples was occasioned by His adopting, 
 v/ith the multitude at large, a style hitherto appropriated to 
 narrower circles. There is an illustration of this distinction in 
 one of the Apocryphal Books, where, in contrasting the 
 learned with artisans and labourers, the writer says of the 
 latter, " they shall not be found where parables are spoken." ^ 
 
 Our Lord gave a reason to His disciples when they were 
 alone. Because their minds were receptive of truth, and, as 
 compared with that of the general public, capable of appreci- 
 ating the deep mysteries of the Gospel,^ He sets them aside. 
 But He had now been teaching for a considerable time, and 
 with such plainness of speech that there was no excuse if men 
 in general could not understand the nature of His message. 
 It was, so to speak, a crisis in their lives ; He had reached a 
 point where He must test results. He could not always go 
 on casting pearls before swine, so henceforward a new line 
 must be adopted. It was of the nature of a parable both to 
 conceal and to unveil. To men whose minds were en- 
 lightened it was a revelation of spiritual truths, but hearts that 
 were waxed gross, and ears dull of hearing, it only hardened 
 into greater insensibility. Thinking only of the latter, He 
 takes up the language of Isaiah, who had been sent to the 
 Jews with a penal message from the Almighty, when the 
 decree had gone forth that their sin must work out its pun- 
 ishment, because the day of grace was past. But that He 
 adopted the interpretation of the Septuagint* version in pre- 
 
 1 Cf. p. 56. 
 
 - I am indebted for this reference to a note in Professor Plumptre's Com- 
 mentary on S. Matthew. 
 
 3 Only by comparison. They had much to learn as yet ; and the gradual 
 and patient guidance of them into the truths of revelation is a subject well 
 worthy of notice. 
 
 "* In the Hebrew it is in the imperative mood — a command to the prophet, 
 ' ' Make the heart of this people fat, ' " etc. In the LXX. the people are sup- 
 posed to do it themselves. Sadler in his notes on the passage in S. Matthew 
 has shown how a full consideration of the passage in Isaiah mitigates the 
 apparent harshness of God's command. The whole note is worthy of con- 
 sideration. The LXX. has lost the significance of a common and very forcible 
 Hebrew idiom in the rendering, " that seeing tliey may see and not perceive." 
 It is rather, " that they may fully see," see without anything to hide, but not 
 perceive what it meant — that the sense of sight may be quickened but the 
 understanding made dull. 
 
V. I-I2 The Parable of the Sower 79 
 
 ference to the harsher form assumed in the Hebrew — " Make 
 the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and 
 shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with 
 their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and 
 be healed," — is the most convincing proof that He did not 
 intend, what the words taken by themselves would appear to 
 convey, and that His purpose was only penal and retributive. 
 
 He had learned by experience the hopelessness of His 
 task, and foreseeing the faihire of this fresh attempt, " half in 
 sadness, half in irony" perhaps. He spoke as though He 
 aimed ^ at producing the expected result. It was too true 
 that those who saw His miracles without perceiving their 
 symbolism, and heard His words only to miss their spiritual 
 import, were by those very sights and sounds left in a worse 
 condition than before ; but the fact that His whole mission 
 was a prolonged appeal to men to receive His words that they 
 might have life, is the clearest evidence that He could never 
 at any time have designed that His preaching should aggravate 
 their impenitence and hardness of heart. 
 
 1 The 'Lva of S. Mark should be read in connection with the on of S. Matthew, 
 and in the Hght of our Lord's acceptance of the more merciful rendering of 
 the LXX. 
 
XVIII 
 
 %\)t paralilc of tlje »)o\xier e;cplaineti 
 
 S. Mark iv. 13-25 
 
 13. And He said unto them, Know 
 ye not this parable? and how then 
 will ye know all parables? 14. The 
 sower soweth the word. 15. And 
 these are they by the way side, where 
 the word is sown ; but when they 
 have heard, Satan cometh inniiedi- 
 ately, and taketh away the word that 
 was sown in their hearts. 16. And 
 these are they likewise which are 
 sown on stony ground ; who, when 
 they have heard the word, immediately 
 receive it with gladness ; 17. and 
 have no root in themselves, and so 
 endure but for a time ; afterward, 
 when affliction or persecution ariseth 
 for the word's sake, immediately they 
 are offended. 18. And these are they 
 which are sown among thorns ; such 
 as hear the word, 19. and the cares 
 of this world, and the deceitfulness of 
 riches, and the lusts of other things 
 entering in, choke the word, and it 
 
 becometh unfruitful. 20. And these 
 are they which are sown on good 
 ground ; such as hear the word, and 
 receive zV, and bring forth fruit, some 
 thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an 
 hundred. 
 
 21. And He said unto them. Is a 
 candle brought to be put under a 
 bushel, or under a bed ? and not to 
 be set on a candlestick? 22. For 
 there is nothing hid, which shall not 
 be manifested ; neither was any thing 
 kept secret, but that it should come 
 abroad. 23. If any ma/i have ears 
 to hear, let him hear. 24. And He 
 said unto them. Take heed what ye 
 hear : with what measure ye mete, it 
 shall be measured to you : and unto 
 you that hear shall more be given. 
 25. For he that hath, to him shall 
 be given : and he that hath not, from 
 him shall be taken even //laJ which he 
 hath. 
 
 The disciples must have grasped, at least in part, the hidden 
 meaning of the parable. Otherwise our Lord could hardly 
 have spoken of them, as knowing the mysteries of the kingdom ; 
 for no spiritual teaching could be made simpler than that. They 
 needed however to have their hazy and fragmentary ideas cleared 
 of all doubtfulness and expressed with coherence ; and this He 
 did for them, filling up what was lacking, correcting mistaken 
 conceptions, and leaving a model of exposition for all time. 
 
C. IV. V. 
 
 3-25 The Parable of the Sower explained 81 
 
 Now when He framed the parable, He classified the hearers 
 of the Word according to His Own experience as a Preacher ; 
 basing His classification not so much upon generalities as 
 upon well-remembered illustrations. It would not be difficult 
 to exemplify this by specimens ^ drawn from the records of 
 His dealings with men ; but it will suffice now to give point 
 to His descriptions, by recalling the divers effects produced by 
 His claims to the Messiahship. 
 
 There were men hardened by Jewish prejudice, and seared 
 with worldliness, who looked only for material advancement 
 by the establishment of a new kingdom, and yet flocked to 
 hear His words, meek and lowly as He was. They might 
 possibly have been impressed, had not the Pharisaic enemies 
 of the Cross, the emissaries of Satan, stepped in with their 
 specious arguments, and caught away the seed before ever it 
 found any lodgment in their hearts. 
 
 Then there were others of an emotional temperament,- who 
 were carried away in the excitement aroused by His sudden 
 popularity, who, when they witnessed the wonderful works 
 that He did, would have taken Him by force, and made Him 
 a king, and yet, staggered by the first check their enthusiasm 
 received, within twenty-four hours " went away backward, and 
 walked no more with Him," 
 
 Again, there was a third class, more limited, no doubt, who 
 saw in Him the Beauty they desired, and recognised His 
 " goodness," — men too whom He loved in return for all that 
 was best in their lives, but who failed at last because their 
 heart was not whole. Underneath all this there was "a root 
 of bitterness," — love of riches, or pleasure, or even distracting 
 cares of home, — and though for a time they showed no vitality, 
 not springing up simultaneously with the crop of new desires, 
 yet by the rapidity and rankness of their growth, they just 
 spoiled the life when it was on the eve of bearing fruit. ^ 
 
 ^ Bruce, in his Parabolic Teaching of Christ, adopting a different mode of 
 illustration, has found examples of each kind of hearer in S. I.uke xii. ii, 13, 
 ix. 57, and 61, 62, and in the case of Barnabas. 
 
 ^ The comparison is only rightly appreciated by noticing that it is not 
 " stony ground," so much as rocks covered with a thin layer of soil. The 
 heat of the sun acting upon the rock excites hasty growth, and is followed by 
 premature withering. 
 
 ^ The meaning is better expressed in S. Luke, ov T€\ea(popovcn.v , "they 
 bring no fruit to perfection." 
 
 G 
 
82 The Parable of the Sower explained chap, iv 
 
 The last class was composed of those whose hearts the 
 Baptist had prepared, and the Lord had opened, who were 
 " waiting for the consolation of Israel," — men like SS. Andrew 
 and John and Nathanael, or women like the devout band who 
 "ministered to Him of their substance," and in varying 
 degrees of productiveness bore fruit in their lives. 
 
 This is but a single application of the parable, adapted to 
 a special time, but the language is so pregnant and compre- 
 hensive that those who have rejected or received His Word 
 from whatever motive, throughout all history can see their 
 image reflected in some portion of its fourfold division. 
 
 The exposition was followed up by three proverbial ^ say- 
 ings, suggested no doubt by its teaching, and all calculated to 
 enforce the importance of communicating to others what we 
 have received ourselves. 
 
 The object of material light is that it may be diffused. 
 Conceal it by a covering, and the very object of its existence 
 is frustrated. Even so the spiritual illumination enjoyed by 
 the disciples would fail in its purpose, if it were either extin- 
 guished or concealed. 
 
 It can hardly be illustrated better than by the familiar 
 story of the Calais lighthouse-keeper, who, when boasting of 
 the brilliancy of his lamp, was asked what would happen if it 
 were suffered to go out, or if the reflectors became dim. 
 " Impossible," he answered, " for yonder, where nothing can 
 be seen by us, there are ships sailing to every harbour of the 
 sea \ if to-night I failed in my duty some one might be ship- 
 wrecked. No ! I like to think that the eyes of the whole 
 world are fixed upon my light." This man understood well 
 what our Lord had taught the disciples when He said that 
 they were to be like Safed,^ the city set upon an hill which 
 could not be hid, and to remember that, inasmuch as they were 
 the light of the world, they must shine before men. 
 
 After this He justifies the parabolic form of teaching, which 
 often served to veil the trutli, on the ground that immediate 
 
 ^ The principle involved was of such vital importance that the proverbial 
 sayings were repeated on more than one occasion, cf. S. Matt. v. 14, 15, 16, 
 X. 26 ; S. Luke xii. 2. 
 
 " Maundrell, Jowett, and others have so identified Safed. It rises to the 
 height of nearly 3000 feet, and would certainly be conspicuous from Kurun 
 Hattin, the traditional scene of the Sermon on the Mount. 
 
V. 13-25 The Parable of the Sower explained 83 
 
 revelation is not always desirable. Many things are concealed, 
 both in nature and by art, though the concealment is by 
 no means designed to be permanent. What striking illustra- 
 tions of the principle are furnished in Geology ! Look at the 
 almost measureless beds of coal, hidden for ages in the 
 bowels of the earth, but designed by Providence to be revealed 
 when necessity should arise. The precise time for the unveil- 
 ing it is not always easy to decide, because man's knowledge is 
 finite, but we rest assured that it will coincide with the need 
 for its use. It is a principle worth bearing in mind when 
 human efforts fail ; for it is encouraging to know that such a 
 result may be due simply to the fact that we have tried uncon- 
 sciously to anticipate the fore-appointed time. 
 
 He reverts, in conclusion, to the principle of the first 
 proverb, by quoting another of an analogous kind. Man 
 learns by teaching, and the more use he makes of what he 
 acquires, the more he will be enriched. But let him refuse to 
 acknowledge the obligation to measure out what he has himself 
 received — to trade, that is, with the Talents or Pounds intrusted 
 to him for profit, — and they will be taken from him and given 
 to others. All history, whether of individuals or communities, 
 is an unbroken witness to the fact, that no good gift, either 
 of wealth, or influence, or spiritual wisdom, is bestowed for the 
 sole use of the immediate recipient. 
 
 "We lose what on ourselves we spend, 
 We have as treasure without end 
 Whatever, Lord, to Thee we lend :" 
 
 and we lend to God what we give to our fellow-creatures. 
 
XIX 
 
 '^rije (Bratiual (Brot^tlj of tlje ^tzh 
 
 S. Mark iv. 26-29 
 
 26. And He said, So is the kingdom bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the 
 
 of God, as if a man should cast seed blade, then the ear, after that the full 
 
 into the ground, 27. and should sleep corn in the ear. 29. But when the 
 
 and rise, night and day, and the seed fruit is brought forth, immediately he 
 
 should spring and grow up, he know- putteth in the sickle, because the 
 
 eth not how. 28. For the earth harvest is come. 
 
 In this parable, of almost unique beauty, which S. Mark alone 
 has recorded, our Lord teaches that there is an analogy to be 
 drawn between the operations of Nature and Grace. He 
 speaks of the latter under the figure of a kingdom. Now 
 " the kingdom of God " is an expression used in Holy Scrip- 
 ture in a threefold sense. 
 
 It is that empire which shall be established at the end of 
 the world, when " all things shall be subdued unto Him, . . . 
 that God may be all in all." 
 
 Again, it is the Divinely-constituted society of the Church, 
 in which His sovereign powers of admission and exclusion, of 
 government and guidance, were delegated to a human Ministry, 
 when its Founder said, "All power is given unto Me in heaven 
 and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations ; " and 
 again, " As My Father hath sent Me, so send I you : . . . 
 whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and 
 whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." 
 
 Yet once more, it is the reign of grace in the individual 
 heart, whose presence is so productive of good, that, like the 
 "treasure hid in the field," or the "one pearl of great i3rice," 
 no sacrifice can be too much to pay for its acquisition. 
 
CH. IV. V. 26-29 The Growth of the Seed 85 
 
 Our Lord makes no reference here to the first of the above 
 meanings, but in regard to the other two, shows how the 
 spiritual and natural kingdoms are governed and controlled by 
 similar laws. 
 
 Now, in every comparison of the higher with the lower — 
 the heavenly and spiritual with the earthly and natural — while 
 there are many points of close similitude, there will of 
 necessity be some also of manifest divergence. The present 
 parable furnishes an apt illustration when it says that the sower 
 of the seed knows nothing of the mysterious laws of growth 
 and development, and implies that the farmer, having sown 
 his barley or wheat, goes about his ordinary avocations with 
 little thought of that, over which he knows that he has no 
 control. But of Him Who plants the seed of Divine grace in 
 the individual heart, or forms the embryo of what is destined 
 to become a visible body of Christians, none can say that He 
 is careless of its condition or is bafiled in understanding the 
 progressive stages of its formation. 
 
 Upon the main point, however, which the parable was 
 intended to enforce, there is an exact parallel. The normal 
 growth is not fitful or capricious, but in accordance with well- 
 ordered laws of slow and gradual progression. 
 
 Now look at the kingdom of God in its twofold aspect in 
 the light of this statement. Take first the history of the 
 Church in its collective community. The world was prepared 
 for it by the Incarnation and Redemption. When Christ gave 
 His life for mankind, and broke down the middle wall of 
 partition which sin had built up between man and God, 
 humanly speaking, there would be a rapid diffusion of spiritual 
 knowledge, and no appreciable interval " between the two 
 events of Christ's dying for the world and the world falling 
 prostrate " at His feet. But He taught men by this parable 
 not to cherish any such expectation ; the seed must first lie 
 dormant for a time, then the springing blade would follow in 
 the uprising of small communities struggling through the soil 
 of oppression and persecution ; then, when the Empire should 
 be converted, the blade would sprout into the ear, and the 
 Churches grow and Sees be multiplied ; and now we still wait, 
 after eighteen centuries of alternation of hope and despair, of 
 success and adversity, of the waxing and waning of missionary 
 
S6 The Gradual Growth chap, iv 
 
 enterprise, — we still wait for the full corn and the time of 
 harvest, when "the valleys shall stand so thick with corn that 
 they shall laugh and sing;" and when "the earth shall be full 
 of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." 
 
 Look again at individual souls. The seed of the spiritual 
 life is sown in Holy Baptism, when " by the washing of 
 water and renewing of the Holy Ghost " the baptized person 
 is translated from the kingdom of wrath into the kingdom of 
 grace, and receives from God the requisite powers for continu- 
 ance therein. The effects of the gift, however, may be 
 invisible for a time, necessarily so if the rite has been 
 received in an unconscious state ; it may lie dormant for 
 years, but if the influences are favourable, if the education is 
 carefully tended, if childhood and youth are duly sheltered 
 from the blighting winds of early temptations, and the chilling 
 frosts of unbelief, then it may be expected to grow up from 
 one stage of holiness to another. It may not be always (as 
 neither is it in the field of nature) with uniform progress, but 
 on the whole it develops by the selfsame laws of growth which 
 normally govern the growing corn, from the first burst of 
 germinating life to the ripened grain of full sanctification. 
 
 The language of the parable, where it speaks of the spon- 
 taneous growth of the corn in the soil, needs careful interpreta- 
 tion in its relation to the Divine life. It is true that it is the 
 Spirit of God Which is the great vivifying Agent in the soul of 
 man, just as in nature, it is from its disposition in the earth 
 that germination is produced ; but it is not meant that nothing 
 can hinder or foster the growth. In both cases the soil may 
 be prepared, the weeds and noxious herbs uprooted, the sun- 
 light more freely admitted by the removal of overshadowing 
 trees, and the field may be fenced round for protection from 
 the incursion of destructive influences ; but the farmer and 
 the preacher must unite in the confession that when they have 
 done all, in their respective spheres, that lies within their 
 reach, when Paul has planted, and Apollos watered, it is none 
 but God Who can give the increase. 
 
 Now the general teaching of the parable ^ suggests a con- 
 
 ^ In this very pregnant parable we have been obliged to pass over much 
 that is well worthy of consideration. The reader may consult with advantage 
 Bruce, Parabolic Teaching, ch. v. 
 
V. 26-29 of the Seed 87 
 
 sideration of two important doctrinal questions, viz. the 
 relationship of Sanctification ^ to Conversion, and the mode of 
 reconcihng the absence of any sign of spiritual life, with the 
 truth of Regeneration. 
 
 Jacob may have been changed in a single night ; he may 
 have realised, under the influence of one preternatural vision, 
 such an overpowering sense of God's Providence that the 
 current of his life was immediately turned. Or again, in a 
 somewhat similar manner, .Saul the persecutor experienced " a 
 wonderful conversion " through that sudden arrest on the road 
 to Damascus ; and other saints, in all ages of Christian history 
 — here one and there another — have shared the same experi- 
 ence, differing only in the degree of its force and influence. 
 How then is the doctrine of Christ's language here affected by 
 such cases ? There is no rule without its exceptions. These 
 sudden conversions are as it were miracles of mercy. They 
 resemble the instantaneous multiplication of the loaves in the 
 desert : they are as when the divers stages of production are 
 concentrated by Divine interposition into a single act, for a 
 special object or a rare emergency. But to hint even, that the 
 heart of man must be thus changed, and that the "where" 
 and the " when " of the change should be definable and 
 certain, is a direct contradiction to the analogy which Christ 
 drew. It is God's law — albeit a law admitting of infinite 
 variation at the hands of Him Who made it — that the soul of 
 man should be sanctified ordinarily, not by sudden crises or 
 abnormal seasons, but by such a slow and gradual development 
 as is witnessed every day in the fields around us. 
 
 Again, if no sign of the Holy Spirit's influence manifests 
 
 ^ It is very necessary to distinguish carefully theological terms. Regenera- 
 tion, TToKiyyeveaia (Tit. iii. 5), is an initial act, in which we are "begotten 
 again," dvay€yevvr];.iepoL (i S. Pet. i. 3), a new relationship of spiritual 
 Paternity being established between us and God. It is a completed act. We 
 can never be ' ' regenerated " again. Holy Scripture never calls upon those 
 who have fallen away from Baptismal g^ace to "be born again." 
 
 Sanctification, d7ta(rfi6s, is a progressive work by which fallen man is made 
 " meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." It begins coincidently with 
 Regeneration. The distinction is well marked in the Collect for Christmas 
 Day, ' ' Grant that we being regenerate . . . may daily be renewed by Thy 
 Holy Spirit." 
 
 Conversion, iinffTpocpr], is a change from a false religion to the true, or a 
 return, after falling away from grace given, on the part of a convinced 
 penitent. This may therefore take place before or after Baptism. 
 
88 The Growth of the Seed ch. iv. v. 26-29 
 
 itself during the lapse of years in the life of the baptized, what 
 conclusion must be drawn ? Dare any one assert that the 
 gift of Regeneration was either not imparted in Holy Baptism, 
 or has since been taken away ? Is it not truer that it is only 
 dormant, not quenched or crushed, but waiting to be 
 quickened in God's good time, just as we read of grains of 
 wheat laid up with mummies, which, after ages of unproductive 
 existence, have actually germinated and grown to maturity 
 when the circumstances of the situation changed ? 
 
 What God requires is the patience of the farmer, who 
 " sleeps, and rises night and day " in the full assurance that 
 "though it tarry it will surely come." If ever then we are 
 discouraged by any apparent failure, either in our own heart 
 or in the hearts of others, let us take courage from what we 
 may see for ourselves in the analogies of Nature, always 
 remembering what closer observation teaches, that " the higher 
 the thing which grows in the scale of being, the slower its 
 growth." 
 
XX 
 
 C6e laaratile of tljc 95u«5tarti=»)cctj 
 
 S. Mark iv. 30-34 
 
 30. And He said, Whcreunto shall branches ; so that the fowls of the air 
 
 we liken the kingdom of God ? or with may lodge under the shadow of it. 
 
 what comparison shall we compare it ? 33. And with many such parables 
 
 31, // zj like a grain of mustard seed, spake He the word unto them, as 
 
 which, when it is sown in the eai'th, they were able to hear it. 34. But 
 
 is less than all the seeds that be in the without a parable spake He not 
 
 earth : 32. but when it is sown, it unto them : and when they were 
 
 groweth up, and becometh greater alone. He expounded all things to 
 
 than all herbs, and shooteth out great His disciples. 
 
 The interpretation of Holy Scripture has often suffered from 
 an undue anxiety to press details, especially in connection 
 with its parabolic teaching. Difficulties of this kind have 
 been created by certain circumstances of the parable before 
 us. The mustard plant, it is urged, does not fully meet the re- 
 quirements of the language. There are other seeds that are 
 smaller : it does not shoot out large branches, nor become 
 " a great tree : " at best it is little more than a garden shrub. 
 
 The difficulties were thought to have been solved when a 
 learned botanist^ discovered a tree in Palestine which, in 
 everything but name, seemed to fulfil the demands of the 
 parable. Its name is Salvadora Persica ; it grows to a 
 considerable height, puts forth leafy branches, and possesses 
 many properties of the mustard plant. 
 
 1 Dr. Royle adopted a suggestion previously made by two travellers, Irby 
 and Mangles (Travels in Egypt, ch, vii. ) It is called in Arabic khardal, 
 which is the common name for mustard. Dr. R, made a mistake in assuming 
 that it grew by the Sea of Gahlee. Cf. Bible Educator, i. 119 ; Smith's Diet. 
 ii. 446 ; Tristram, Nat. Hist, of the Bible, 472. 
 
90 The Parable of the Mtistard-Seed 
 
 Now, while we hail with satisfaction any scientific discovery 
 for the elucidation of obscure jjassages of the Bible, care must 
 be taken not to depart from the plain teaching because a novel 
 interpretation pleases the fancy, and to see that in clearing 
 away existing obstacles, new ones are not created. 
 
 For instance, the Salvadora has since been found to grow 
 only in southern climes, abounding in Abyssinia, the desert of 
 Sinai, and other hot regions ; and it is a great question 
 whether it could have grown in Palestine, anywhere else than 
 on the almost tropical shores of the Dead Sea. Whereas it is 
 obvious that the force of the similitude would have been lost 
 upon our Lord's hearers, unless He had spoken of something 
 that was familiar to them. 
 
 Now, though it may be perfectly true that mustard as a 
 wild plant attains no greater magnitude than a common shrub, 
 yet when sown in "a garden," and properly cultivated, it 
 becomes considerably larger. One of the old Rabbis narrates 
 how he was wont to climb into a mustard-tree in his field as 
 men climb into a fig-tree ; and a trustworthy traveller of this 
 generation testifies that in the rich plain of Akkar he had seen 
 it "as tall as the horse and his rider." This is sufficient to 
 show that, at all events, the mustard plant develops, till there 
 is the utmost disproportion between the bulk to which it 
 attains and the germ from which it sprung. 
 
 No doubt other figures might have been chosen in abund- 
 ance more suggestive of the great after-development of the 
 kingdom of Christ — such forest-trees, for instance, as the oak 
 of Bashan or cedar of Lebanon, but the acorn and cone were 
 both far less adapted to represent the littleness of its initial 
 state. The mustard was probably the smallest seed from 
 which so large a shrub or tree was known to grow. If, then, 
 such Oriental colouring is allowed for, as is reasonably admitted 
 in other parts of Holy Scripture, no occasion remains for 
 departing from the ordinary interpretation. 
 
 Now it is clear that our Lord had no doubt that His 
 comparison would be understood. " As small as a grain of 
 mustard-seed " was a recognised proverb ^ for " the superla- 
 
 ^ Archbishop Trench quotes a passage from the Qur'an (Sur. 31) :— " Oh 
 my son, verily every matter, whether bad or good, though it be of the weight 
 of a grain of mustard-seed, and be hidden in a rock, or in the heavens, or in 
 the earth, God will bring the same to light." 
 
V. 30-34 The Parable of the Mustard-Seed 91 
 
 tively little ; " and as such it is used by Him on two other 
 occasions for the encouragement of the Apostles. If they had 
 " faith as a grain of mustard-seed " He promised them that 
 they should remove mountains, or bid the sycamore-tree be 
 uprooted and planted in the sea, and they should be instantly 
 obeyed. 
 
 It is not without a purpose that the contrast between the 
 first beginning of His kingdom and its expected future should 
 have been put before the Apostles in such a striking form. 
 The parables which had preceded it must have had a most 
 depressing effect upon their minds. They showed that of the 
 seed sown in the hearts of men, three parts would be lost to 
 one saved ; and that the field carefully planted with the best 
 of seeds too often mocked all the husbandman's hopes of a 
 goodly crop by a simultaneous growth of noxious weeds. 
 Well then might the parable of the mustard-seed be spoken to 
 encourage them in their despondency ! 
 
 Its fulfilment is so patent that it requires but the briefest 
 notice. It may be well, however, to draw an illustration from 
 a single stage in its development. Contrast the condition of 
 the Church on what is called her birthday, with the same after 
 the first three centuries of her existence. Place yourself in 
 imagination in the Upper Chamber at Jerusalem before the 
 Apostles entered upon their labours. There are but eleven — 
 men of the humblest rank of life, with few of the qualifications 
 which the judgment of the world requires for such an enter- 
 prise. Then overleap the centuries of chequered history that 
 followed, and take your place in the Council Chamber at 
 Nicaea.^ It is but a portion of the family by which the whole 
 earth was overspread, but it presents a marvellous contrast to 
 its first gathering. The eleven have grown into upw^ards of 
 three hundred ; '^ and the miserable handful of followers upon 
 whom the Apostles could count at the first, has increased till 
 
 1 Perhaps the contrast would have seemed greater if we had selected the 
 Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. , the greatest both in numbers and dignity, 
 when 636 Bishops were present instead of 318 ; but we selected the earlier as 
 the first great historical event of universal interest, marking the first important 
 epoch. 
 
 - The numbers have been variously stated — by Eusebius as 250, by Atha- 
 nasius 300, by Socrates, Sozomen, and others, 318. The last is far most 
 probable, especially owing to the mystical meanings that were attached to it 
 in early times. 
 
92 The Parable of the Mustard-Seed chap, iv 
 
 the fruit thereof "shakes hke Libanus," and is "green in the 
 city hke grass upon the earth." 
 
 It will suffice for the contrast, but it must not be forgotten 
 that although representatives were present from almost every 
 part of the Eastern Empire, there were but few^ from the 
 Western, owing mainly perhaps to the exigencies of travel. 
 There were Bishops^ from the great centres of population, as 
 Alexandria, or Carthage, or Jerusalem ; Bishops, too, from the 
 remote deserts far up the Nile, as the Coptic hermits ; delegates 
 from the Churches of the extreme North and the farthest 
 East, and from the isles of the sea. It fills one with amaze- 
 ment to find every country almost of the East, familiar and 
 unfamiliar, represented in the Assembly. The growth of the 
 Apostolic Church has indeed, despite all the opposition that 
 the world could array against her, fulfilled to the very letter 
 the conditions of the comparison, " The httle one has become 
 a thousand," — the smallest of seeds has developed into a 
 goodly tree. 
 
 Now, though it is quite true that the object of the parable 
 was simply to predict the future increase of the Kingdom, 
 other analogies, to be found by further comparison, however 
 foreign to the main purpose, are not to be ignored. There is 
 surely a side-lesson to be learned from the natural properties 
 of the mustard-seed, from its internal heat and pungency, and 
 from "the fact that it must be bruised ere it yield its best 
 virtues." Its inherent stimulating force finds its parallel in 
 the quickening vitality and vigour that comes from the 
 indwelling of the lifegiving power of the Holy Spirit ; and the 
 necessity of crushing it, is no inapt figure of the principle 
 which has been embodied in the familiar proverb, "The blood 
 of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." 
 
 Yet once more, if in addition to its strength and its powers 
 
 ^ The Western Bishops numbered barely ten. Their Sees were, besides 
 those mentioned below, French, Spanish, Sicilian, Calabrian, Milanese, and 
 Pannonian. 
 
 2 The Bishop of Alexandria was then styled "the Pope." This was 
 Alexander, but his See was better represented by his deacon, Athanasius. 
 From the Coptic Church there were Potammon of Heracleopolis and Paphnutius 
 of the Upper Thebaid. From the Nortli, Theophilus the Goth ; from the far 
 East, John the Persian ; from the islands, Spiridion of Cyprus. Cf. Stanley's 
 Eastern Church, Lecture iii. 
 
V. 30-34 The Parable of the Mustard-Seed 93 
 
 of expansion, it was possessed, as is believed, also of medicinal 
 properties, it is impossible to ignore its resemblance to the 
 tree of life in the heavenly city — so true an emblem of the 
 Church, — " which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yields her 
 fruit every month," and whose " leaves were for the healing of 
 the nations." 
 
 I 
 
XXI 
 
 ^^e Stilling: of tlje fe)torm 
 
 S. Mark iv. 35-41 
 
 35. And the same day, when the Him, and say unto Him, Master, 
 
 even was come, He saith unto them, carest Thou not that we perish? 39. 
 
 Let us pass over unto the other side. And He arose, and rebuked the wind, 
 
 36. And when they had sent away and said unto the sea. Peace, be still, 
 
 the multitude, they took Him even as And the wind ceased, and there was 
 
 He was in the ship. And there were a great calm. 40. And He said unto 
 
 also with Him other little ships. 37. them. Why are ye so fearful? how is 
 
 And there arose a great storm of wind, it that ye have no faith ? 41. And 
 
 and the waves beat into the ship, so they feared exceedingly, and said one 
 
 that it was now full. 38. And He to another. What manner of man is 
 
 was in the hinder part of the ship, this, that even the wind and the sea 
 
 asleep on a pillow ; and they awake obey Him ? 
 
 The eastern side of the Sea of Galilee has been characterised 
 as a "natural refuge from the active life of the western shores." 
 It was for this reason that our Lord so often retired there for 
 rest, and to commune with His Father in the solitude of the 
 mountain range by which it is bounded. If the sequence of 
 events be taken according to this Gospel, it was after a day 
 spent in teaching the people through a succession of parables, 
 that at eventide Jesus expressed to the disciples His desire to 
 pass over to the other side. His wish was law, and it would 
 seem there were special reasons on this occasion for avoiding 
 the least delay. The boat, which was always drawn up on the 
 shore where He was, was immediately launched, and, without 
 any preparation, they embarked. It almost indicates that He 
 was physically exhausted^ with His day's work, and they 
 
 ^ There is evidence of this in the fact that He fell asleep in the boat. The 
 expression "just as He was" is akin to that in S. John iv. 6, "sat thus on 
 
CH. IV. V. 35-41 The Stilling of the Storm 95 
 
 wished without loss of time to get on to the lake, that He 
 might be refreshed by its breezes. At all events, " they took 
 Him even as He was in the ship." 
 
 " And there arose a great storm of wind." Travellers say 
 that the Sea of Galilee is peculiarly liable to sudden squalls 
 caused by the physical features of the district. It is not 
 unlike some of the lakes of Switzerland, on which sailing is 
 admittedly dangerous from a more or less similar cause. The 
 sea lies in a deep depression, as much as 600 feet or more, 
 below the level of the surrounding country. It is girt in 
 almost entirely by a range of hills, rising in places to a 
 considerable height, and crowned by vast plateaus of table- 
 land. The hillsides are worn by watercourses into deep 
 gorges, which act like funnels, through which the wind pours 
 down from the higher latitudes on to the surface of the lake. 
 The temperature on the edge of the water is almost tropical, 
 while that above is many degrees lower, and this variation 
 aggravates not a little the violence of the storms. 
 
 The disciples on this occasion were overtaken by one of 
 these, and in imminent danger of being wrecked. It was 
 a storm of more than ordinary seventy, for the disciples, 
 who were fishermen, and had had their home on those very 
 waters, and must have been often exposed to tempestuous 
 weather, were in real fear. The waves were fast filling the 
 boat, and it would certainly sink if matters did not immediately 
 mend. 
 
 Their oniy hope lay in the miraculous intervention of their 
 Lord, Who, with His head upon the boatswain's cushion, was 
 sleeping, wholly undisturbed by the tumult around. They 
 had as yet seen but one instance in which He had exercised 
 His power over the material elements ; but the miracle at 
 ('ana of Galilee had shown that even the waters were obedient 
 unto His word, and though, as was probable, only a few^ of 
 the disciples had witnessed it, the fact must have become 
 known to all ; and if they thought of it at the time, despair 
 would be relieved by hope, when they awoke Him to a sense 
 
 the well," ovTw%, " as He was," apparently expressed by the preceding words, 
 " being wearied with His journey." 
 
 ^ This took place most probably before any of the disciples had been 
 formally called to the Apostleship. The five who were mentioned in the first 
 chapter of S. John would naturally be with them. 
 
g6 The Stilling of the Stor^ii chap, iv 
 
 of their danger. "Master, carest Thou not that we perish?" 
 It is ahiiost certain that they were the words of S. Peter. The 
 rest may have joined, but they are in such exact accord with 
 that impatient and impulsive spirit, which so often betrayed 
 him into unbefitting words and acts, that we can have Httle 
 doubt that tlie remonstrance was his in the first instance. 
 
 The recollection of that hasty speech clung to him in after 
 years ; and while the other Evangelists only record an ex- 
 pression of earnest entreaty, " Lord, save us ; we perish," or 
 " Master, Master, we perish," S. Peter was careful to make 
 known to S. Mark one which he felt reflected discredit upon 
 himself. 
 
 But though there is in their cry an evidence of imperfect 
 confidence, and even of hasty impatience, knowing how little 
 way He had been able to advance them as yet in their 
 spiritual training, Jesus showed nothing but tenderness towards 
 them. " He rebuked the wind." Seeing the wild fury with 
 which it was lashing the waves into commotion, as though it 
 were some monster whose roar must be silenced. He cries to 
 it to " be silent and be gagged," for such in the original is the 
 force of the expression, " Peace, be still." ^ 
 
 Nature in her wildest uproar recognised the voice of Him 
 Who was her rightful Lord, and obeyed His command. 
 " And there was a great calm." It was no ordinary 
 abatement, for commonly, when the wind ceases, and for long 
 after, there is a great swell upon the waves : when they are 
 no more agitated by external force, they require time to 
 recover their ordinary condition ; but here they were them- 
 selves at rest as though nothing had disturbed them. It puts 
 out of question all possibility of explaining the miracle by 
 natural causes. 
 
 Then,- having relieved His disciples from their impending 
 peril, His first thought was to turn it to account in helping 
 
 1 o-iwTra, irecpLixojao. The latter word is used properly for "muzzling" 
 a beast — i Cor. ix. 9 ; i Tim. v. 18. Our Lord applies it also to the un- 
 clean spirit in the synagogue at Capernaum (S. Mark i. 25), Possibly there 
 is an allusion to "the Prince of the power of the air" having aroused the 
 storm. 
 
 2 SS, Mark and Luke both place the rebuking of the wind before His 
 complaint of the disciples' want of faith ; S. Matthew inverts the order. The 
 difference may have arisen from the former resting upon a general report, the 
 latter upon actual eye-witness of the scene. 
 
k 
 
 V. 35-41 The StiUing of the Storm 97 
 
 and preparing them for the greater dangers and difficulties 
 that lay in their future. Nothing could exceed the gentleness 
 with which He reproved their imj)atient distrust. " Why are 
 ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?" It was a 
 simple call upon them to remember what they had learned, 
 what proofs He had given of His power and His willingness 
 to help and deliver. And great fear came upon them — not 
 the fear which had made them tremble for their safety, but an 
 overmastering sense of awe. What they had just witnessed 
 was not altogether a new revelation, but it had torn away 
 another bandage from their eyes, and their apprehension of 
 Him Who was thus " gradually making Himself felt in all His 
 fulness," became proportionately stronger, and they asked one 
 another, in amazed surprise at their convictions, " What 
 manner of man is this," or, more literally, " Who then is this, 
 that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" The "then" 
 is by no means without its significance, for it points back to 
 what they had witnessed, and points on to the conclusion that 
 must be drawn from it. The truth which was unfolding 
 before them is clear and patent to us, that it was He of 
 Whom the Psalmist had written, "Then they cry unto the 
 Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their 
 distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves 
 thereof are still;" or again, "O Lord God of hosts, who is a 
 strong Lord like unto Thee ? Thou rulest the raging of the 
 sea : when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them." 
 
 The symbolical application of this miracle has been made 
 almost more frequently than that of any other, whether that 
 Galilean boat be compared to the Ark of Christ's Church, or 
 to the individual soul sustained in its voyage through " the 
 waves of this troublesome world " by the indwelling Presence 
 of the Captain of our salvation and the guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit. Under a very familiar figure in early times,^ the 
 Church is depicted as a ship supported in the sea by a great 
 fish, whilst a dove is sitting upon the top of the mast. The 
 fish was regarded as emblematic of Christ, because the Greek 
 word formed an acrostic, containing the initial letters of 
 "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour." The dove 
 perched upon the mast, represented the Holy Spirit, Who, 
 
 ^ For an account of the anagram, of. the author's After Death, 83. 
 
 a 
 
98 The Stilling of the Storm ch. iv. v. 35-41 
 
 as at the first creation, broods over the waters, and by His 
 gentle influence brings order out of confusion. 
 
 One of the great Latin Fathers ^ has appHed the several 
 parts of the miracle to the history of the individual soul 
 somewhat as follows : " We are sailing through life as through 
 a sea, and the wind rises, and storms of tempest spring up. 
 How is this, save because Jesus is sleeping in thee? If He 
 were not asleep in thee, thou wouldst be calm and at rest. 
 But why is He sleeping ? Because thy faith is asleep. And 
 what shalt thou do to be delivered ? Arouse Him. ' Master, 
 we perish.' Then He will awaken : thy faith will revive : and 
 though the tempests roar and beat into thy ship, yet, strong 
 in thy recovered faith, thou wilt defy the elements : the 
 danger will pass away, and thou wilt reach in safety the 
 haven where thou wouldest be." 
 
 ^ I owe this quotation to Trench on Miracles, 157. 
 
XXII 
 
 ^Ije 3D£moniac0 of (BaDara 
 
 S. Mark v. i-io 
 
 I, And they came over unto the and cutting himself with stones. 6. 
 
 other side of the sea, into the country But when he saw Jesus afar off, he 
 
 of the Gadarenes. 2. And when He ran and worshipped Him, 7. and 
 
 was come out of the ship, immedi- cried with a loud voice, and said, 
 
 ately there met Him out of the tombs WTiat have I to do with Thee, Jesus, 
 
 a man with an unclean spirit, 3. who Thou Son of the Most High God ? 
 
 had his dwelling among the tombs ; I adjure Thee by God, that Thou 
 
 and no man could bind him, no, not torment me not. 8. For He said 
 
 with chains : 4. because that he had unto him. Come out of the man, thou 
 
 been often bound with fetters and unclean spirit. 9. And He asked 
 
 chains, and the chains had been him, What is thy name? And he 
 
 plucked asunder by him, and the answered, saying, My name is Le- 
 
 fetters broken in pieces : neither gion : for we are many. 10. And 
 
 could any man tame him. 5. And he besought Him much that He 
 
 always, night and day, he was in the would not send them away out of 
 
 mountains, and in the tombs, crying, the country. 
 
 The night was closing in, when our Lord landed on the eastern 
 shore of the lake. He had embarked with the disciples in the 
 afternoon, when the sun began to decline at " the first ^ even- 
 tide," but the journey across, usually occupying two or three 
 hours, had been much prolonged by the storm which they 
 encountered : and it must have been late when they came to 
 land. It adds considerably to the weird character of the scene 
 to realise this. The solitude of the coast, the bleak barren 
 rocks, scarred and fissured with gloomy caverns, the wild 
 shrieks of " the possessed," were sufficient of themselves to 
 
 ^ The first evening was when the sun began to set, about three p.m. ; the 
 second when it actually went down, about six p.m. The Paschal lamb was 
 slain "between the evenings." 
 
loo The Demoniacs of Gadara chap, v 
 
 inspire one with a sense of awe, but it would be greatly inten- 
 sified by the gathering darkness, and all the more as the light 
 of the moon shone out upon the landscape. 
 
 It lends a peculiar interest to the story that, after years of 
 dispute, the locality has been incontestably identified by the dis- 
 covery of the ruins of the town of Khersa,^ exactly opposite to 
 Capernaum, and close to the shore. Two of the most accurate 
 writers on the Holy Land have described "the steep bluff and 
 perpendicular declivity " which overhangs the lake at this spot, 
 and satisfies most closely the requirements of the miracle. 
 
 As our Lord stepped out of the boat He was met immedi- 
 ately by a demoniac ^ coming out of the tombs with which the 
 mountain abounded, and of which so many traces still remain. 
 
 It would appear that it was a most aggravated case of 
 "possession," and as such was doubtless selected by three 
 Evangelists for especial notice. 
 
 S. Mark, as usual, is very vivid in his description, but 
 something is added to it by the other two. From a combina- 
 tion of all we gather the following results. 
 
 He wore no clothes ; he filled the air with his ravings ; he 
 was driven by a suicidal mania to cut himself with stones ; he 
 was the terror of the neighbourhood ; every effort to bind him 
 had failed, for he was endowed with prodigious strength, and 
 burst his chains ; he made his dwelling-place in the tombs, and 
 he was possessed by a legion of evil spirits.^ It is impossible 
 to conceive of a worthier claimant for the Divine compassion. 
 
 ^ This is probably the modern equivalent of the ancient Gergesa, which 
 Origen says was the scene of the miracle. Gadara, the modern Umkeis, is 
 distant one mile and a half from the lake, and separated from it by a river, 
 which sets it aside as impossible. 
 
 '^ S. Luke agrees with S. Mark in mentioning one demoniac. S. Matthew 
 speaks of two. It is possible that one was much better known than the other, 
 and the fame of his cure would be spread abroad and stress laid upon it. — S. 
 Aug. de Consens. Evang. ii. 24. S. Matthew, having been an eye-witness, 
 remembered the fact that he was accompanied by a second. There is no con- 
 tradiction, "qui plura dicit pauciora complectitur ; qui pauciora dicit, plura 
 non negat, " 
 
 ^ The case of "possession" has been rendered especially difficult from the 
 modern way of speaking of "the possessed of devils," unfortunately perpetu- 
 ated in the Revised Version. There is only one "devil." He is spoken of 
 many times in the New Testament, but never in the plural. The demons by 
 whom men were "possessed" were evil spirits, his emissaries or "angels." 
 
 Edersheim, in an appendix on this subject, sums up thus: " Greater con- 
 trast could scarcely be conceived than between what we read in the New 
 
The Demoniacs of Gadara 
 
 No sooner did he see Jesus in the distance than he recog- 
 nised Him, the spirit that possessed him at once acknowledging 
 the dreaded Presence of Him Who came to trample upon the 
 powers of evil. And he did homage to Him, and addressed 
 Him by a title of exceeding dignity, used only once elsewhere, 
 in the prediction of His birth by the angel. 
 
 It is said that the title " Most High God " was the one 
 commonly adopted in the formula of exorcism, and possibly 
 the demoniac was prompted to use it, as that with which he 
 was most familiar, from its frequent invocation over himself. 
 With an earnest adjuration he begged that he might not be 
 tormented. This he did, seeing that Jesus was about to cast 
 him out, not, as the Authorised Version renders it, " for He 
 said to him " — but " for He was on the point of saying to 
 him," — "Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit." Had 
 the Avord of authority once been uttered, it w^ould have been 
 too late to interpose, for Avhen Jesus spake, it was done. 
 
 Then followed the question of his name, and that mysterious 
 answer — " Legion,^ for we are many." The man had seen, 
 perhaps, the resistless might of the Imperial forces of Rome as 
 they swept down all opposition, and it seemed to him the fittest 
 symbol of the power which had taken him captive ; or it may 
 be from the double consciousness, which is so marked through- 
 Testament and the views and practices mentioned in Rabbinic writings." It 
 is often said tliat our Lord adopted the Jewish way of speaking, and treated 
 mental and physical diseases as though they were demoniacal possessions, and 
 the modern usage of the term ' ' lunatic " is quoted as a parallel. But there is 
 the widest difference between them. Cf. Trench, Miracles, 153. "Posses- 
 sion," it is true, was often accompanied by disease or infirmity, but often also 
 distinguished from them. — S. Mark i. 33, xvii. 17, 18 ; S. Luke \\. 17, 18. 
 The demons speak with more than human knowledge. — S. Mark i. 24 ; S. 
 Matt viii. 29. There is, moreover, a double consciousness in the possessed 
 which is inexplicable save by an objective possession. Is it possible that our 
 Lord could have so far yielded to popular prejudice as to embrace it in 
 His commission to the Apostles (S. Matt. x. 8), and to make it a matter of 
 thanksgiving to God when they reported their success? Cf. Edersheim, i. 480. 
 Archdeacon Farrar's theory that "any mental aberration, sudden sickness, 
 melancholy tendencies," and the like, were regarded as due to the direct influ- 
 ence of "demons" (Life of Christ, i. 236), can hardly be accepted, if the 
 above writer has correctly interpreted the opinions of his nation. He con- 
 cludes that there is no midway between rejecting the accounts of dispossession 
 as purely mythical, or believing that there was a demonised state different 
 from disease or madness. 
 
 1 Possibly it signified also that the evil spirits were banded together mider 
 officers in regular organisations, like the forces of an army. 
 
I02 The Demoniacs of Gadai^a chap, v 
 
 out, that it was the spirit within him that answered, and that 
 he hoped by such an exaggerated estimate of his force, to over- 
 awe and terrify his Adversary. 
 
 "And he besought Him that He would not send them away 
 out of the country." S. Luke has preserved a more definite 
 expression, which is full of suggestiveness — "that He would 
 not command them to go out into the deep." It was not the 
 Galilean lake which lay before them, but " the abyss," " the 
 bottomless pit," as S. John calls it, into which the devil and his 
 angels will be consigned ^ when their present liberty " to go to 
 and fro on the earth " is taken away, and the final sentence 
 passed upon them. 
 
 The sequel must remain for future consideration. We 
 notice now some thoughts arising out of the narrative as far 
 as it has proceeded. 
 
 The first touches the mode of treatment which the demoniac 
 received at the hands of his fellow-creatures. Here is a man 
 afihcted with the most terrible evil one can possibly imagine, 
 abandoned to his cruel fate, with nothing done, no step taken 
 in any direction, to mitigate his condition, but everything 
 almost purposely contrived to aggravate its misery. He is 
 driven from the haunts of men into a bleak barren region, to 
 seek shelter from wind and rain and cold, in caverns where 
 the dead lie buried ; he is chained from time to time to the 
 rocks, but only with the supernatural strength that belongs to 
 frenzy and madness, to regain his freedom. Forsaken by every 
 human being, he roams about by night and by day, not only to 
 the terror of others, but cutting and maiming himself among 
 the rocks and stones. 
 
 We have but to dwell upon such a picture of inhuman 
 neglect as this, and then contrast it with the treatment such 
 a deplorable case would have received in our own generation ; 
 and in realising this, we may well be thankful for the change 
 which Christianity has effected alike in the estimate and the 
 alleviation of suffering. 
 
 But not only do we note the neglect of the demoniac ; we 
 go further, and say that it was a case which of all others 
 
 ^ Milton helped very largely to propagate the erroneous belief that the 
 devil and the evil spirits are already in hell, in the place of torments. Cf. 
 Paradise Lost, ii. 115-120; iii. 200-210. 
 
V. i-io The Demoniacs of Gadara 103 
 
 deserved the greatest sympathy and consideration. He was 
 not, as far as we are able to judge, one who had brought that 
 terrible evil upon himself. A distinguished writer says, " We 
 should find ourselves altogether upon a wrong track did we 
 conceive of the demoniacs as the worst of men, and their 
 possession as the plague and penalty of a wickedness in which 
 they had greatly exceeded others. Rather we must esteem the 
 demoniac as the unhappiest, but not of necessity one of the 
 guiltiest of our race." There is indeed the widest gulf between 
 the condition of the traitor Judas whom Satan entered when 
 he committed an act of unparalleled baseness, and that of the 
 demoniac boy at the foot of the Transfiguration Mount, who 
 had not only been afflicted with epilepsy from childhood, but, 
 according to Christ's own words, was possessed by "an unclean 
 spirit." 
 
 But the question has often been asked. If demoniacal pos- 
 session was something distinct from disease, mental or corporal, 
 how are we to explain the fact that it is no longer existent ? 
 We do not stay to dispute the supposition that the phe- 
 nomenon has disappeared, further than to observe that in 
 the East, especially in India, the advent of the Gospel is 
 said to be not infrequently signahsed by manifestations of 
 Satanic agency not far removed in character from that under 
 consideration. 
 
 It has, however, been proved that epidemics, both moral 
 and physical, have appeared " at certain epochs, specially fitted 
 for their generation, have gradually declined, and totally disap- 
 peared in others less congenial to them." Now the days of 
 the Messiah were pre-eminently exceptional. To the powers of 
 evil it was a most momentous crisis, and it was to be expected 
 that they w^ould be strained to the utmost to counteract oppos- 
 ing influences from which they had so much to fear. 
 
 Demoniacal possession was, so to speak, their death-struggle, 
 the last convulsive spasm of an expiring force in the conflict 
 with Him Who came into the world for the avowed purpose of 
 planting His heel upon their prince's neck, and treading the 
 powers of evil under His feet. 
 
XXIII 
 
 ^l)t ^crti of x?^ine tie^tro^ttr 
 
 wS. Mark v. 11-20 
 
 II. Now there was there nigh unto 
 the mountains a great herd of swine 
 feeding. 12. And all the devils be- 
 sought Him, saying, Send us into the 
 swine, that we may enter into them. 
 13. And forthwith Jesus gave them 
 leave. And the unclean spirits went 
 out, and entered into the swine : and 
 the herd ran violently down a steep 
 place into the sea, (they were about 
 two thousand,) and were choked in 
 the sea. 14. And they that fed the 
 swine fled, and told zV in the city and 
 in the country. And they went out 
 to see what it was that was done. 
 15. And they come to Jesus, and see 
 him that was possessed with the devil, 
 and had the legion, sitting, and 
 
 clothed, and in his right mind ; and 
 they were afraid. 16. And they that 
 saw ?V told them how it befell to him 
 that was possessed with the devil, and 
 c7/so concerning the swine. 17. And 
 they began to pray Him to depart out 
 of their coasts. 18. And when He 
 was come into the ship, he that had 
 been possessed with the devil prayed 
 Him that he might be with Him. 
 19. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, 
 but saith unto him. Go home to thy 
 friends, and tell them how great things 
 the Lord hath done for thee, and hath 
 had compassion on thee. 20, And 
 he departed, and began to publish in 
 Decapolis how great things Jesus had 
 done for him : and all men did marvel. 
 
 It creates a feeling of surprise that there should be so large a 
 herd of swine feeding in a country where to keep such animals 
 was strictly prohibited by the Jewish Law. On the supposition 
 that the owners were Jews, a motive has been sought for their 
 destruction in its penal character. Nothing could be more 
 natural than that our Lord should manifest His displeasure, if 
 occasion offered, at such an overt act of disobedience. But 
 it is doubtful whether the facts of the case justify the 
 interpretation. History tells us how, after the conquest 
 of Palestine, large numbers of Romans settled in that neigh- 
 bourhood ; and in addition to this, it was the region of 
 
CI I. V. V. II 
 
 -20 The Herd of Swine destroyed 
 
 Decapolis, of the ten cities which had remained in the 
 heathen's ^ hands after the return of the Jews from captivity. 
 
 It will be well, therefore, to account for the destruction on 
 other grounds ; but we revert first to the circumstances which 
 led to it. During their conversation with our Lord the devils 
 besought Him that He would send them into the swine. It 
 is difficult to decide whether such a desire may be taken as 
 indicative of their natural propensity to all that was unclean, 
 or as a proof of their craft and subtlety. 
 
 " Unclean " spirits would seize instinctively upon the bodies 
 of those who, by excessive sensuality and indulgence of the 
 flesh, had laid themselves open to their inroads. ^ They seem, 
 moreover, to have found a congenial dwelling-place in the 
 tombs of the dead, which to the ancients were types of all 
 impurity. " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
 crites ! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, w^hich indeed 
 appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's 
 bones and of all uncleanness." It may have been the 
 same natural impulse that prompted them, when about to 
 be driven out of the bodies of men, to seek for a lodgment 
 in the lowest and most unclean of the brutes: — "Send us 
 into the swine." 
 
 Or again, it may have been nothing but a deep designing 
 plot to revenge themselves upon their destroyer. If only they 
 could be the means of annihilating their herds, the owners 
 would inevitably rise up against Him, at Whose bidding the 
 destruction had been caused. They would not tolerate His 
 Presence, but would drive Him out of their coasts. And so 
 we know it came to pass. 
 
 But whatever their motive in making the request, it was 
 instantly granted. No sooner was the permission given than 
 a wild panic seized the herd, and they rushed " madly down 
 the almost perpendicular declivity — those behind tumbling 
 over and thrusting forward those before ; and as there was 
 neither time nor space to recover on the narrow shelf between 
 
 1 Lightfoot says : ' ' You may not improperly guess that these hogs belonged 
 not to the Jews, but to the heathen dwelling among the Gadarene Jews ; for 
 such a mixture was very usual in the cities and countries of the land of Israel," 
 
 ^ This seems to contradict what was said above ; but all that was intended 
 there was that there were cases where ' ' possession " was not necessarily the 
 result of a sinful life. 
 
io6 The Herd of Swine destroyed chap, v 
 
 the base and the lake, they were crowded headlong into the 
 water and perished."^ 
 
 The swineherds fled in terror and dismay to the town hard 
 by, and told to their masters all that had happened ; and the 
 whole population was stirred by the tidings, and went out to 
 meet Jesus. 
 
 The account closes with two requests, which stand in 
 striking contrast to each other. The one was granted; the 
 other denied. When the owners of the swine came to Jesus, 
 they saw the poor demoniac, whom they had known and 
 feared, no longer naked and wild and raving, but "clothed, 
 and in his right mind;" but, instead of falling at His feet 
 Who had wrought that incredible change, and seeking for 
 themselves some gifts of grace, they could think only of their 
 miserable herds, and fill their minds with superstitious fear, 
 lest some worse loss should befall them. They saw in the 
 Saviour of men's souls " no beauty that they should desire 
 Him," and begged Him to "depart out of their coasts." It 
 was in accordance with a mysterious and perplexing principle, 
 often illustrated in Scripture History, by which men estranged 
 from God come offering a petition which is not refused, that 
 the prayer of the Gerasenes was at once complied with. The 
 request was granted, but how fatal the gift ! " He gave them 
 their own desire : they were not disappointed of their lust." 
 
 And this was the second request. "When He was come 
 unto the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil 
 prayed Him that he might be with Him" — but that was 
 refused ! 
 
 Where could he have been better, than where he craved 
 to be ? Where in the whole wide world could he find greater 
 safety from a relapse into the power from which he had been 
 rescued, than in the companionship of his Deliverer? But 
 He sent him away. The Gerasenes may drive the Master 
 from their shores, but the servant must remain, because God 
 would not leave Himself without a witness. It was possible 
 
 1 Milman and some others have imagined that the swine were driven down 
 the precipice by the demoniacs in a paroxysm of frenzy. This is inconsistent 
 with the narrative, which lends our Lord's sanction to what they did. Paulus 
 supposes that they began fighting among themselves, and in the confusion fell 
 over the cliff. 
 
V. II-20 The Herd of Swine destroyed 107 
 
 that the man, whom they knew, might win acceptance where 
 the Stranger was feared, and so He left him behind, that as he 
 had been a signal illustration in the neighbourhood of the 
 working of sin and evil, he might henceforward be seen as a 
 living monument of the transforming power of grace and 
 mercy. Thou " when thou art converted strengthen thy 
 brethren." 
 
 Now, setting aside the interpretation which regards the 
 destruction of the swine as a penalty inflicted on Jews for the 
 transgression of the Law, men's minds have been exercised to 
 find any satisfactory justification for an apparently unnecessary 
 waste of life and property. In considering the question we 
 can only appeal to one other miracle bearing any analogy to it ; 
 for often as Jesus exercised His almighty power to give life, 
 He exercised it only twice to take it away. In neither case 
 was it human life. It was that of the lowest of the creatures 
 in the animal, and of the fig-tree in the vegetable, world. It 
 is almost incredible that with all the provocation that He 
 received, in all the perilous circumstances in which He was 
 placed, He should never have revenged Himself, as men are 
 so eager to do, or have taken away another's life to save His 
 Own. 
 
 It should fill us with the highest conception of His super- 
 human meekness; and our wondering admiration should be 
 increased by the realisation of the fact that, almost immediately 
 after His departure, one of the very first miracles wrought by 
 the power which He had delegated to the Apostles was for the 
 destruction of two human beings. The deaths of Ananias and 
 Sapphira were no doubt a most salutary warning to the 
 infant Church, of the imperative obligation of perfect truth 
 and candour; but, looking at our Lord's acts, we are sure 
 that what seemed inevitable to S. Peter would somehow have 
 been avoided by Him, if only because He came expressly to 
 save life, and not to destroy it. 
 
 We shall, however, find ample justification for the two 
 solitary exceptions which the history of His miracles has left 
 on record The withering of the fig-tree was a parable in act, 
 designed to impress the Jews when words had completely 
 failed ; and the destruction of the swine resulted in the salva- 
 tion of the man. Now, if it be in accordance with Divine 
 
io8 The Herd of Swine destroyed ch. v. v. 11-20 
 
 Providence that so many animals should be slaughtered daily 
 to sustain men's bodies, we need feel no surprise that so great 
 a sacrifice should be made to save an immortal soul. And 
 when we realise what the " possession " had been, we can 
 appreciate the difficulty the poor demoniac must have experi- 
 enced in apprehending the possibility of deliverance. Not 
 till he saw the evil spirits by which he had been tortured 
 transferred to others — to the bodies of other creatures — not 
 till he saw them working upon others the very effects from 
 which he had suffered, could he be convinced of his salvation. 
 Surely, then, "those who know the worth of a human 
 soul — of a life restored to itself, to its fellow-men, and to God 
 — will hesitate before they presume to say that this destruction 
 of the swine was too dear a price to pay for its restoration." 
 
XXIV 
 
 %l)t Eai^ing; of 3|airu0' 3Daug:{)tcu 
 
 S. Mark v. 21-24, 35-43 
 
 21. And when Jesus was passed 
 over again by ship unto the other side, 
 much people gathered unto Him : and 
 He was nigh unto the sea. 22. And 
 behold, there cometh one of the rulers 
 of the synagogue, Jairus by name ; 
 and when he saw Him, he fell at His 
 feet, 23. and besought Him greatly, 
 saying, My little daughter lieth at the 
 point of death : / J)ray Thee, come 
 and lay Thy hands on her, that she 
 may be healed ; and she shall live. 
 24. And Jesus went with him ; and 
 much people followed Him, and 
 thronged Him. ... 35. While He 
 yet spake, there came from the ruler 
 of the synagogue's house certain which 
 said, Thy daughter is dead : why 
 troublest thou the Master any further? 
 36. As soon as Jesus heard the word 
 that was spoken. He saith unto the 
 ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, 
 only believe. 37. And He suffered 
 no man to follow Him, save Peter, 
 and James, and John the brother of 
 
 James. 38. And He cometh to the 
 house of the ruler of the synagogue, 
 and seeth the tumult, and them that 
 wept and wailed greatly. 39. And 
 when He was come in. He saith unto 
 them, Why make ye this ado, and 
 weep? the damsel is not dead, but 
 sleepeth. 40. And they laughed 
 Him to scorn. But when He had 
 put them all out, He taketh the father 
 and the mother of the damsel, and 
 them that were with Him, and entereth 
 in where the damsel was lying. 41. 
 And He took the damsel by the hand, 
 and said unto her, Talitha cumi ; 
 which is, being interpreted. Damsel, 
 I say unto thee, arise. 42. And 
 straightway the damsel arose, and 
 walked ; for she was of the age of 
 twelve years. And they were aston- 
 ished with a great astonishment. 43. 
 And He charged theni straitly that 
 no man should know it ; and com- 
 manded that something should be 
 given her to eat. 
 
 S. John closes his Gospel with a declaration that if all the 
 things which Jesus did " should be written every one, .... 
 even the world itself could not contain the books that should 
 be written." Among the unrecorded miracles, we can hardly 
 doubt, there were many instances of restoration to life. The 
 Evangelists were guided by the Holy Spirit to hand down the 
 
no The Raising of chap, v 
 
 history of only three, and a careful consideration of these has 
 suggested that they were selected of set purpose to represent 
 Christ's power over death in all its stages. The little daughter 
 of the ruler of the synagogue ^ had only just passed away, and 
 was lying on her death-bed. When the widow's son at Nain 
 was raised from the bier, he had been dead twenty-four hours 
 or less — for that was the longest time allowed to elapse before 
 the funeral 2 in the East. Lazarus, again, had been buried 
 out of sight for a considerable period, and the process of 
 decomposition had set in. 
 
 It is possible, moreover, that there was a further object in 
 the choice, viz., to show forth "a progressive development of 
 the Almighty power," the raising of Lazarus being, so to speak, 
 a more difficult work than that of the widow's son, and this 
 again than that of Jairus' daughter. 
 
 Now, while the two other miracles find a place each in one 
 Gospel only, this last is narrated in no less than three. There 
 must therefore be some circumstances connected with it 
 deserving more than common attention. 
 
 An apparent discrepancy in the several reports of the 
 father's words has been a stumbling-block to critical minds ; 
 but when rightly interpreted, it will be found confirmatory of 
 the truth, the variety of expression carrying with it an air of 
 naturalness that is quite convincing. He had left his child to 
 all human appearance at the point of death ; life was ebbing 
 so fast that when he found Jesus he realised the worst, and, 
 throwing himself at His feet, spoke of her as " dead ; " but as 
 he talked with Him, a flash of hope seemed to have crossed 
 his soul that she may have revived; and there is a correspond- 
 ing change in his language, — he had left her "at the point of 
 death." Those who know anything of the bed-side watching 
 by the sick and dying will readily understand this alternation 
 of hope and fear, and find no difficulty in the fact that the 
 
 1 Jairus was the president of the elders of the synagogue, by whom all its 
 affairs were managed. Lightfoot, quoting from the Talmud, says that he gave 
 orders who should read the Prophets, who should recite the Phylacteries, and 
 who should pass before the Ark. The subordinate officers were the 
 "Delegate," who read the prayers; the Chazzan, or deacon; and the 
 Batlanim, whose exact office is much disputed. 
 
 ^ Burial must take place before the expiration of the day on which one 
 died. For all the particulars connected with an Oriental funeral, cf. Thomson, 
 The Land and the Book, 99-106. 
 
V. 21-24, 35-43 Jairiis Daughter m 
 
 distracted father should express himself at one moment in one 
 way, at the next in another. 
 
 Jesus yielded to his entreaty, and went with him ; and we 
 can well imagine that no time would be lost, and the least 
 delay anxiously avoided. But suddenly Christ deliberately 
 stopped ; something unusual had occurred, and it was 
 necessary that it should be cleared up before they went any 
 further. He had felt a hand upon Him ; it was no common 
 touch, no mere jostling of the crowd, but a touch that had 
 drawn healing virtue from His Person, and that eager hurrying 
 multitude was bidden to halt, till the one who had done this 
 thing should be discovered. We can almost see the agonised 
 expression which must have clouded the poor father's face. 
 He did not dare to remonstrate, but every moment was 
 precious, and minutes must have seemed like hours. Was it 
 unkind, then, of Jesus to delay at such a time ? There were 
 some, no doubt, who thought so. Even S. Peter answered 
 impatiently ; but we are sure that one Who was all tenderness 
 could never be really cruel, or do otherwise than feel the 
 keenest sympathy with that intense anxiety. Indeed, so far 
 from that stoppage being a sign of indifference, it was actually 
 designed — fore-ordained for the father's good. Christ knew, 
 what Jairus did not know, viz., that the child was already dead. 
 He knew also that there was far too little of that faith in his 
 heart which was indispensable for the exercise of miraculous 
 power. There was none of the " venture " which our Lord 
 loved, of the undoubting conviction that He was able to do 
 all that was asked of Him, no simple appeal to "speak the 
 word only " which marked implicit trust ; ^ and in Plis tender 
 compassion He took these means to strengthen his faith by a 
 demonstration of power. 
 
 The message which was brought to him from home at that 
 moment was calculated to have the very opposite effect. 
 Perhaps Jairus' friends had discouraged his journey; they 
 may have heard as yet of no one being raised from the dead ; 
 and it would be useless to send for One to heal her sickness, 
 when she would certainly be dead before the Physician could 
 
 ^ Nothing short of our Lord's presence would satisfy him. He must come 
 and take some outward means for her restoration — " Come and lay Thy hand 
 upon her." 
 
112 The Raisijig of 
 
 arrive. And they lost no time in hurrying after him, as soon 
 as their fears were fulfilled, and brought the tidings, "Thy 
 daughter is dead," and urged him at once to return : "Why 
 troublest ^ thou the Master any further ? " 
 
 Now see how wonderfully all had been ordered. Had 
 those messengers arrived ever so httle sooner, Jairus might 
 have lost all heart, and abandoned his petition, and his little 
 child would never have been restored to him again. But their 
 arrival exactly coincided with His miraculous cure of the 
 woman with the issue of blood ; and as He had just given 
 proof of His power, so again He interposes with further 
 encouragement at the critical juncture : " Be not afraid, only 
 believe." 
 
 And what He meant by His words was simply this : " Thou 
 hast seen a poor sufferer healed of her infirmity by the touch 
 of faith ; cherish the same undoubting confidence in My 
 power, and thou shalt see greater things than this." 
 
 That act of healing and that word of assurance swept away 
 all lingering doubt, and he went on his way rejoicing. But 
 when they reached the house, they were confronted by every 
 sign and token of death. It was filled with hired mourners, 
 persons whose duty it was to make death appear as sad as 
 possible, a thing to vex the mind with the most painful 
 associations. 
 
 We can conceive no greater contrast than that between the 
 wild shrieks and wailings of the mercenaries, and the calm 
 consolatory utterance of Jesus : "The damsel is not dead, but 
 sleepeth."^ He did not mean that hfe had not fled, because 
 there could be no doubt on that point, but that death was not 
 what most men thought. " In the eyes of God we are not 
 dead, we only sleep. God is not the God of the dead, but of 
 the living, and when He is near, death is but a sleep." "Our 
 friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of 
 sleep." 
 
 And when Jesus had rebuked the tumult, He entered the 
 
 1 " Troublest." — Tlie original word is almost untranslatable. It means to 
 flay, excoriate ; hence to vex, annoy. 
 
 2 Some writers have assumed from this that she was only in a trance, and 
 that no miracle was performed : but our Lord uses the same language of 
 Lazarus ; and in Jewish phraseology death is most commonly spoken of as 
 sleep ; cf. Lightfoot iti loco. 
 
V. 21-24, 3543 Jairus Daughter 113 
 
 chamber where she lay, and, taking her hand, said, " Tahtha 
 cumi," 1 and she obeyed the word of omnipotence, and arose 
 and walked. No wonder S. Mark should have recorded the 
 exceeding astonishment with which the miracle was witnessed; 
 for in all probability it was one of the earliest occasions upon 
 which He had shown Himself triumphant over death. 
 
 His last command was that "something should be given 
 her to eat." In its literal application it speaks of the tenderest 
 forethought, but when spiritually interpreted it involves a 
 principle too often lost sight of, in the restoration of those that 
 are morally dead. To awaken the sinner to a sense of his 
 guilt, and to draw him up out of the degradation in which he 
 has been sunk, is only the first step, albeit a most important 
 one ; but the restored life needs proper sustenance ; and 
 unless fresh help and unfailing food be provided, " the last 
 state of that man is worse than the first." 
 
 If the history of many of those Missions which are such a 
 characteristic of this generation were to be written, there would 
 be tale after tale of reclaimed sinners relapsing into sin, simply 
 because efforts w^ere relaxed when the excitement had passed ; 
 because conversion was regarded as the end, rather than the 
 first step only, in the ever-progressing advance of a Godward 
 Hfe. 
 
 The Church's true mission is to follow in her Master's 
 steps, and, reading the inner meaning of His acts and words, 
 first to take the sleeping soul by the hand and bid it " arise," 
 and then after the awakening to strengthen it with the life- 
 giving food of Him Who said, "Whoso eateth My flesh, and 
 drinketh My blood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise him up 
 at the last day." 
 
 ^ S. Mark alone gives the very words used by our Lord, as on other 
 occasions. Talitha is a term of tenderness and endearment. S. Peter must 
 have remembered this when he said, " Tabitha, arise" (Acts ix. 40). 
 
 L 
 
XXV 
 
 ^Je Sflloman "mitl) an 3^mz of BlooD 
 
 S. Mark v. 25-34 
 
 25. And a certain woman, which virtue had gone out of Him, turned 
 
 had an issue of blood twelve years, Him about in the press, and said, 
 
 26. and had suffered many things of Who touched My clothes ? 31. And 
 
 many physicians, and had spent all His disciples said unto Him, Thou 
 
 that she had, and was nothing seest the multitude thronging Thee, 
 
 bettered, but rather grew worse, 27. and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? 
 
 when she had heard of Jesus, came in 32. And He looked round about to 
 
 the press behind, and touched His see her that had done this thing, 33. 
 
 garment. 28. For she said. If I may But the woman fearing and trembling, 
 
 touch but His clothes, I shall be knowing what was done in her, came 
 
 whole, 29. And straightway the and fell down before Him, and told 
 
 fountain of her blood was dried up ; Him all the truth. 34. And He said 
 
 and she felt in /ler body that she was unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath 
 
 healed of iha^ plague. 30. And Jesus, _ made thee whole ; go in peace, and 
 
 immediately knowing in Himself that be whole of thy plague. 
 
 There is a well-known series of pictures in Christian Art 
 known as " The Stations " on the Way of the Cross. In one 
 of these our Blessed Lord lies prostrate on the ground, and a 
 woman is wiping the great drops of sweat from His face with 
 her veil. That act of tender sympathy was regarded by the 
 early Church as so Christlike a thing that she clothed the 
 episode in a beautiful and romantic form, maintaining that 
 the impression of His face was left upon the veil ; ^ and the 
 sister of mercy who ministered to Him in His distress has 
 
 1 It is an interesting study to discover the idea underlying the mediaeval 
 legends : — e.o-. in the betrothal of S. Catharine to the Infant Jesus is repre- 
 sented the union of the pure and holy Christian soul with the one absorbing 
 object of its love ; in the leafy covering into which S. Etheldreda's staff budded 
 to protect her from the heat, the shelter which her great foundation at Ely 
 offered to many generations. For that of Veronica cf, luicharistic Poems by 
 A, Gurney, 
 
CH. V. V. 25-34 The Isstce 0/ Blood 115 
 
 come down to posterity by the name of Veronica, or " The 
 True Likeness." 
 
 According to one of the Apocryphal Gospels,^ which is 
 known for its preservation of some probable traditions, she 
 was the woman for whom Jesus had wrought this miraculous 
 cure. If the identity may be assumed, it was not merely an 
 act of womanly tenderness and compassion, but a grateful 
 return for remembered loving-kindness. 
 
 Further, as corroborative of the truth of this miracle of 
 healing, the Father of Ecclesiastical History testifies, three 
 centuries after its occurrence, that he had seen at Caesarea 
 Phihppi, which was said to have been her native town, a 
 monument erected in commemoration of the event. " At the 
 gates of her house, on an elevated stone, stands a brazen 
 image of a woman on her bended knee, with her hands 
 stretched out before her like one entreating. Opposite to 
 this there is another, of a man, erect, of the same material, 
 decently clad in a mantle, and stretching out his hand to the 
 woman." This monument Eusebius associates with the case 
 before us by a superstitious belief, which he says prevailed in 
 the neighbourhood — viz., that there was a mysterious plant 
 growing at the base, which year by year, as soon as it reached 
 as high as the hem of the brazen garment, became a kind of 
 antidote to all manner of sickness and disease. 
 
 The circumstances of the cure are very familiar. Our Lord 
 was on His way to the bedside of a dying child, followed by a 
 crowd of people, all expectant and eager to see for themselves 
 an exhibition of His healing power. Their curiosity had been 
 excited by the rumours of His " mighty deeds " in Capernaum, 
 nigh where they were. 
 
 Jesus was probably clad as the Jewish Rabbi invariably 
 was.^ On His head He would wear the Oriental turban, on 
 His feet sandals or shoes, according to the season of the year ; 
 His inner or under dress was the close-fitting tunic, reaching 
 
 1 The date of the Apocryphal Gospels is uncertain, but some belong to the 
 second and third centuries. 
 
 - Our Lord is usually represented without any head-dress. Edersheim 
 has shown in an interesting chapter upon Jewish Dress that it was held 
 as disrespectful to go with a bare head. The under garment was called 
 Chithuna, and is represented in the Greek x'-'''^^' There was another 
 upper garment besides the Tallith, called Goltha. Both had fringes, 
 
1 1 6 The Wo77tan imth chap, v 
 
 almost to the ground, and gathered in with a girdle : it was 
 " without seam, woven from the top throughout," while over 
 this was thrown "the Tallith," with the hems or fringes for 
 which such careful directions were given in the Law, and to 
 which such deep significance was attached : " Thou shalt make 
 thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture," . . . 
 " that ye may remember, and do all My commandments, and 
 be holy unto your God." 
 
 It was, no doubt, from the almost superstitious reverence 
 that had grown up for this part of the dress, that the woman 
 was impelled to grasp it, in the hope of being cured. For few 
 would deny that there was a strong element of superstition in 
 her faith. Our Lord, however, judged her according to the 
 standard of her times, and saw underlying her conduct at 
 least the principle of that which He ever regarded as a claim 
 upon His recognition. And so her touch was immediately 
 responded to. But He would not let her depart till her faith 
 had been hfted on to a higher level, and she was thoroughly 
 convinced how great things she was capable of effecting by it. 
 Hence the conversation that followed. "And Jesus, im- 
 mediately knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, 
 turned Him about in the press, and said, Who touched My 
 clothes ? " The question brought no answer, but it provoked 
 a remonstrance from the disciples. We find from S. Luke 
 that S. Peter was their mouthpiece. It creates a little surprise 
 that we should be indebted to another Evangelist for the know- 
 ledge of this, because that Apostle was so careful in reminding 
 S. Mark of much that told to his own disparagement. But it 
 was no idle question, as they supposed. There were many 
 around Him who had need to be healed, sick, no doubt, with 
 countless infirmities, and they had touched Him again and 
 again as they pressed upon Him, but they were not cured as 
 she was. And Christ would tell them why it was. They had 
 not touched in faith. 
 
 The poor woman had not dared to come forward, knowing 
 that her disease made her unclean. She was afraid that, if 
 
 Zizith, but which Jesus wore is doubtful. The four articles — the turban, 
 the girdle, the sandals or shoes, and the Tallitli — would be divided severally 
 to the four soldiers, while the fifth, the Chithuna, was raffled for by all. 
 Cf. Life and Times, i. 621-6. 
 
V. 25-34 ^^^ Issue of Blood . 117 
 
 she threw herself in His way, some of the bystanders to whom 
 she was known would cry out "Unclean," and her shame 
 would be exposed in the presence of the multitude. So it 
 was that she pushed as closely as she could, and then grasped 
 the fringe of His robe, and felt at once that the issue of her 
 blood was stanched. And when Jesus called for her "that 
 had done this thing," she hesitated for a moment ; she heard 
 the remonstrance of S. Peter, and hoped, perhaps, that nothing 
 more would be said ; but as the Saviour insisted, and looked 
 round, it may be He caught her anxious look, for " she came, 
 and fell down before Him, and told Him all the truth." 
 
 And what followed ? We lose some of the force of the 
 language in the English translation : " Daughter, thy faith 
 hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy 
 plague." They are different words ^ in the original, and the 
 first is greater than the last, — " Thy faith hath saved thee " — 
 saved thee not only from bodily infirmity, but from the soul's 
 sickness : go in peace, and carry away deliverance from the 
 lower, as a pledge and witness of that which is higher. 
 
 The story teaches the rightful place of faith in the w^ork of 
 salvation. That none can be saved without faith is so plainly 
 set forth in Holy Scripture that " he may run that readeth it ; " 
 but at the same time it is taught with equal emphasis, though 
 it may be more through acts than words, that it is the touch 
 of Christ which effects the cure, whether His hands are laid 
 upon us, or ours are stretched forth to lay hold upon Him. 
 This poor sufferer had faith before she touched ; she believed, 
 however imperfect her appreciation of the reality, that Jesus 
 was possessed of the means of healing, and that, though every 
 other remedy had failed, He could still bring relief. But it 
 was not till she laid hold of something external to herself, till 
 she brought herself into actual contact with Him, that her end 
 was gained. 
 
 It is the same in the Christian life now. We have faith in 
 the efficacy of the Incarnation for the purification from all sin, 
 and the Sacraments are given for the application of its virtue 
 to each individual. They are the means by which we may 
 
 ^ (yi(TWKe, the same expression as in verse 28 — saved or delivered — often used 
 in deliverance from bodily ailments, with a further sense underlying it. iryi-^s, 
 whole, healthy, sound. 
 
ii8 . The Issue of Blood ch. v. v. 25-34 
 
 follow up the internal conviction by the external act ; by which 
 the faith which satisfies us of the all-sufficiency of Christ, may 
 make us partakers of the Divine Nature, and quicken us by 
 the life-giving power of His Body and Blood. Herein faith 
 and works, the inner and the outward, are so combined, that 
 they not only cannot be severed, but that the result, so happily 
 produced by the combination, may in accordance with Scripture 
 phraseology be ascribed to the one or the other. 
 
 God the Holy Ghost tells us by the inspired Evangelist 
 that the drying up of the fountain of blood was the immediate 
 consequence of her touch. God the Son, on the other hand, 
 gives her the assurance of His Own lips that it was her faith 
 that made her whole. 
 
XXVI 
 
 %liZ Carpenter at jl^a^aretlj 
 
 S. Mark vi. i-6 
 
 1, And He went out from thence, Juda, and Simon ? and are not his 
 
 and came into His own country ; sisters here with us ? And they were 
 
 and His disciples follow Him. 2. offended at Him. 4. But Jesus said 
 
 And when the sabbath day was come, unto them, A prophet is not without 
 
 He began to teach in the synagogue : honour, but in his own country, and 
 
 and many hearing Hwi were aston- among his own kin, and in his own 
 
 ished, sajing, From whence hath this house. 5. And He could there do no 
 
 Afa?i these things ? and what wisdom mighty work, save that He laid Nis 
 
 is this which is given unto Him, that hands upon a few sick folk, and 
 
 even such mighty works are wrought healed the7n. 6. And He marvelled 
 
 by His hands? 3. Is not this the because of their unbelief. And He 
 
 carpenter, the son of Mary, the went round about the villages, 
 
 brother of James, and Joses, and of teaching. 
 
 Jesus turned from Capernaum to visit once more the scenes 
 where His early years had been spent. Nazareth was a very 
 different place from that busy town on the lake which was 
 astir with all the activity of a thriving trade. It was one of 
 the most obscure of Galilean villages ; like its neighbours, 
 Nain and Endor, the abode of oil-pressers and husbandmen. 
 It once must have had a Jewish name, but it found no place 
 of record either in the Bible or the Talmud. 
 
 After the reception which our Lord had met with some 
 nine months before, we are surprised that He should have 
 revisited it, but His human love of home quickened for- 
 giveness ; and though the Nazarenes had been filled with wrath 
 by His first sermon in their synagogue, and attempted His 
 life, ample time had elapsed for different feelings to spring up. 
 At all events it was worth while to give them another 
 
I20 The Carpenter at Nazareth chap, vi 
 
 opportunity j and so He found Himself once more in the old 
 home, lodging no doubt under the same roof with His mother 
 and brethren ^ and sisters. 
 
 On the Sabbath-day He joined the crowd of village^ 
 worshippers, and made His way to the synagogue, where for 
 nearly twenty years He had been a constant attendant. 
 Everything must have been perfectly familiar to Him : the 
 emblem - over the entrance, the holy Lamp, the Ark with the 
 Sacred Rolls, the reader's desk, or preacher's chair. What 
 memories they revived of bygone years, — years of eager 
 expectation when He must have longed for His work to 
 begin ! And now it was far advanced, far at least according 
 to its destined measurement. What His thoughts were, none 
 can tell, but we may be sure that when the Ruler asked Him 
 to read the appointed Lessons,^ and address the congregation, 
 His heart must have kindled with even more than wonted 
 desire to tell the glad tidings that He had to bring. 
 
 It was the custom on the Sabbath-day for an interpreter ^ to 
 stand by the reader and translate for the people the Hebrew 
 they had forgotten during their exile in Babylon.^ But none 
 such was needed that day. The language of the Old Testa- 
 ment and the vernacular Aramaic would be alike familiar to 
 our Lord : ^ and so the Haphtarah would be read, and the 
 explanation be given by the same lips. But the Preacher was 
 again to be disappointed. It was almost a repetition of what 
 
 ^ For their actual relationship of. pp. 70-74. 
 
 ^ The common emblem, judging from the remains which have been found, 
 was the Seven-branched Candlestick, which was singularly appropriate for a 
 place where instruction or illumination was one of the primary objects. For a 
 variation from the above at Tell Hlim cf. p. 26. 
 
 ^ For Lessons the Law was divided into fifty-four Parashahs, a word 
 signifying sections, "separated off." Cf. Pharisee, "separatist." The 
 Prophets were divided into Haphtarahs, from a verb "to dismiss," because 
 the congregation usually separated shortly after this part of the service. Cf. 
 Acts xiii. 14, 15. After the Return from Captivity it was usual to read the 
 Law only in the synagogues. This was stopped by Antiochus Epiphanes, but 
 after the revolt of the Maccabees Simon restored it, and added the Prophets. 
 Cf. S. Luke iv. 17. ^ He was called Methurgeman. 
 
 ^ After the Return the dialect they used in Palestine was that known as 
 Aramaic. At the same time the Quadrate form of Hebrew letters was 
 introduced, and the Scriptures were rewritten in this character by Ezra. 
 
 ^ The Old Testament Hebrew was only studied by Rabbis. We may be 
 quite sure that our Lord would read the Scriptures in the original language, 
 and not be satisfied with a version. 
 
V. 1-6 TJie Carpenter at Nazareth 1 2 1 
 
 had happened before. True, there was no outburst of 
 violence, but they were filled with incredulity and amazement. 
 There was no surrender of their old prejudices, no throwing ot 
 themselves at His feet in the simplicity of faith, no open 
 confession or outpouring of regret that they could ever have 
 doubted the truth of what they heard. Their hearts were 
 hardened against conviction ; and so they tried to divert their 
 thoughts from the substance of His preaching by recalling the 
 circumstances of His youth, when He had lived and moved 
 among them, a common man like themselves. 
 
 They spoke to each other of His cottage home. His father, 
 and His kinsfolk ; and the recollection of the carpenter's shop 
 in which He had worked took such possession of their minds, 
 that they had no power to understand the logic of facts and 
 the tremendous change they had brought about. 
 
 It is one of the few places where the veil is removed from 
 His early life. He was brought up to the trade of a village 
 carpenter. He worked with Joseph in building and repairing 
 boats for the lake, in making furniture for the synagogue, in 
 cutting down poles for tents, and, according to an early 
 testimony, in shaping ploughs and yokes for oxen. When at 
 home. His bench would be placed, as is the custom now, in 
 the public way ; when abroad. He would find His occupation 
 in such hamlets as Nain or Cana, or perhaps on the beach at 
 Bethsaida and Capernaum. Such sparing notice by inspired 
 historians teaches us to give no credence to the Apocryphal 
 legends ^ of the wonders that He wrought both in play and at 
 work. Had there been in His life at Nazareth even the least 
 exhibition of superhuman capacities, it would have been on 
 every one's lips, in a village where everything was known and 
 talked of; and instead of being amazed at His wisdom, when 
 in later years He taught in their synagogue, the people would 
 at once have regarded it as the fulfilment of His early promise. 
 
 No ; the brief question, " Is not this the carpenter ?" leaves 
 no doubt upon the mind that no " mighty works " had been 
 done by His hands before His ministry began. None can 
 doubt that there were abundant proofs even then that He was 
 
 ^ The Gospel of the Infancy and others introduce Him as working wonders 
 from His earliest years, e.g. to relieve Joseph, and correct bis mistalces in 
 carpentering. 
 
122 The Cai^penter at Nazareth chap, vi 
 
 no common Person : a perfect Boy, a perfect Youth, a perfect 
 Man, perfect at each stage as He passed through it, but with 
 no unveiling of that which was His from the beginning. 
 
 He in "Whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily," Who was " the brightness of His Father's glory, and 
 the express image of His Person," lived in such obscurity that 
 His neighbours only remembered Him as an undistinguished 
 member of Joseph's household. 
 
 It is quite possible that His fellow-villagers did not intend 
 the contempt such a question conveys to our ears. Perhaps 
 they wished only to be sure of His identity. The Jews, we 
 know, did not consider it mean to work at a trade. It was 
 the duty of every one, from the priest to the peasant, to learn 
 some craft, and S. Paul was not ashamed to labour with his 
 hands for his daily bread. 
 
 But whatever their motive, the fact remains : they rejected 
 His message, and evoked from His lips the oft -repeated 
 complaint, " A prophet is not without honour, but in his own 
 country, and among his own kin, and in his own house." It 
 is only a nobler dress for the commonest proverb, than which 
 none is truer, " Familiarity breeds contempt." He had come 
 to bring them an abundant blessing, but His hand was stayed. 
 S. Matthew tells us that " He did not many mighty works 
 there because of their unbelief." S. Mark, as though bent on 
 every occasion upon expressing His tender sympathy with 
 suffering, points out that an exception was only made, to heal 
 some that were sick. 
 
 Now from this short notice of our Lord's earthly occupation 
 during His preparation for His mission, we may gather some 
 fresh proof that " His ways are not our ways." It was a poor 
 beginning, as man measures, for the greatest work, to spend 
 so many years at a carpenter's bench. For though there may 
 have been nothing dishonourable in learning a trade, we can 
 conceive of no weaker credentials for One Who claimed to 
 regenerate the world, than that He had sat at no Rabbi's feet 
 in the schools of wisdom and knowledge, but had spent thirty 
 years in the meanest cottage among an ignorant and unlettered 
 population. And history tells how often His followers were 
 reproached with His origin. When Julian in his persecution 
 was waging war successfully against the Faith, it is said that 
 
V. 1-6 The Carpenter at Nazai^etk 123 
 
 one of his officers asked a Christian with scorn and contempt 
 what his Master, the carpenter's Son, was doing then. 
 " Making a coffin," was the meek reply of the injured saint. 
 And soon the news was brought that the apostate Emperor 
 was dead. Celsus, also another great adversary of the 
 Christians, had insolently upbraided them for being followers 
 of One Who had worked as a labouring man. 
 
 To those who read the lesson of those early years aright, a 
 working life wears a far different aspect. Henceforward it is 
 surrounded by a halo of dignity and honour ; and it is no 
 insignificant consequence that He should have made it im- 
 possible for ever that any man should be ashamed to work. 
 
XXVII 
 
 %\)z ^i00ton of tlje ^toeltie 
 
 S. Mark vi. 7-13 
 
 7. And He called unto Hzm the that place. 11. And whosoever shall 
 
 twelve, and began to send them forth not receive you, nor hear you, when 
 
 by two and two ; and gave them ye depart thence, shake off the dust 
 
 power over unclean spirits ; 8. and under your feet for a testimony against 
 
 commanded them that they should them. Verily I say unto you. It shall 
 
 take nothing for ^/leir journey, save a he more tolerable for Sodom and 
 
 staff only ; no scrip, no bread, no Gomorrha in the day of judgment, 
 
 money in //^<?^> purse : 9. but de shod than for that city. 12. And they 
 
 with sandals ; and not put on two went out, and preached that men 
 
 coats. 10. And He said unto them, should repent. 13. And they cast out 
 
 In what place soever ye enter into an many devils, and anointed v\^ith oil 
 
 house, there abide till ye depart from many ^kai were sick, and healed i/iem. 
 
 For the first time the Twelve fulfil their office as Apostles. 
 They leave their Master's side, and are sent forth as mission- 
 aries to hasten His Kingdom. S. Mark notifies the change 
 by appropriating to them in this place the new title of 
 Apostleship. 
 
 The mission upon which they were sent was to the Jews, 
 "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." The second 
 Evangelist says nothing of the large mission to the Gentiles, 
 but it fitly finds a place of record in the Gospel of one whose 
 watchword was the Universality of Christ's Kingdom.^ 
 
 That Jesus yearned from the beginning for the emancipa- 
 tion of the world none can doubt, but He Who did all things 
 
 ^ S. Luke is emphatically " the Historian of the Universal Gospel." Prob- 
 ably he was prompted to take this view mainly by S. Paul, the Apostle of 
 the Gentiles. The number 70 was regarded as the symbol of the nations of 
 the world, taken from Deut, xxxii. 8. At the Feast of Tabernacles 70 oxen 
 were offered in sacrifice for the Gentiles. Cf. Talm. Bab. Sukkah, 55, 6. 
 
CH. VI. V. 7-13 The Mission of the Twelve 125 
 
 "according to the counsel of His will" would not anticipate 
 the orderly sequence of events : " to the Jew first and also to 
 the Gentiles." To have disregarded that, would have excited 
 most bitterly the jealousy of His countrymen, as well as com- 
 mitted the Apostles to a work for which they were by no 
 means prepared. The first qualification for a message of glad 
 tidings to an alien people was the eradication of national 
 antipathies, and nothing but a continued witness of the 
 broadest sympathy could effect such a result. The hatred of 
 the " Sons of Thunder " for the Samaritans survived wellnigh 
 three years' companionship with the Saviour of the world, and 
 there is no reason for supposing that they were more prejudiced 
 than the rest. 
 
 " He began to send them forth by two and two." It would 
 have been well for the Church in all ages if the principle laid 
 down at the outset could have been generally maintained. 
 There is perhaps no sphere in which companionship is more 
 desirable. To be called upon to witness sin and misery in 
 their worst forms, to see the disease spreading and eating the 
 Hfe out of a people, and to find oneself powerless to check it 
 through distrust and unbelief, brings with it a depression of 
 spirits unknown in its intensity in any other field of labour. 
 If, as so often happens, the labourer has none to take counsel 
 with, none to cheer and sympathise with him, it becomes 
 almost unbearable. 
 
 Christ knew all this, and sent them forth, not singly, but 
 "two and two," that they might hold sweet converse together, 
 and strengthen and correct one another wherever strength and 
 correction were needed. And when we study their several 
 characteristics, we see how careful He was in pairing them 
 together. The fiery impetuous Peter is coupled with the 
 meditative Andrew ; James, so small of stature, with the lion- 
 like Jude ; the fanatical Zealot with the cold calculating 
 Traitor, that the enthusiasm of the one might quicken the 
 other's reserved and despairing spirit. 
 
 The same principle is being happily revived in the present 
 generation of missionary enterprise, and Colleges of priests 
 are being planted by the Universities in Central Africa and 
 Northern India for mutual help and encouragement in a 
 most difficult work. 
 
126 The Mission of the Twelve chap, vi 
 
 Our Lord's next care was to make the mission in a sense 
 self-supporting. " The workman was worthy of his meat ; " 
 and if they went forth in simple dependence upon their Master, 
 He would put it into men's hearts to supply their wants. 
 They were to lay aside everything that would impede their 
 progress in the way of baggage, every provision for the luxuries 
 and conveniences of travel, and their " bread should be given 
 them, and their waters be sure," and therewith they must be 
 content. 
 
 It is true that the East is proverbial for hospitality, and that 
 it was a favourable country in which to try the experiment. 
 To this day the Arab opens his door to the traveller, and if 
 you meet him abroad he is ready to share with you his only 
 piece of bread, or the last drop that is left in his wine-skin. 
 We can hardly expect, therefore, the same measure of support 
 to be extended to missions at large ; but there cannot be a 
 question that people for the most part value religion in pro- 
 portion to what it costs them. The intense love which we 
 are told heathen converts entertain for their churches arises 
 not infrequently from the fact that they have built them at 
 their own expense, and often, too, with their own hands. 
 
 No doubt His first purpose was to make them realise that 
 they were going forth not in their own but in His strength; but 
 we may not forget that a further reason has been suggested for 
 the command to leave behind their shoes and purse.^ 
 
 These things were always laid aside before entering the 
 Temple. It was a symbolical provision that in the service of 
 God there should mingle no thought of the affairs of the 
 world. Even so it may be there was reflected back 
 from that old command the idea that the mission on which 
 they were being sent was one which demanded the total sur- 
 render of all their energy and will for Christ's cause. 
 
 Yet further, before their departure our Lord quickened 
 their sense of responsibility by reminding them of the terrible 
 consequences awaiting any who should reject the message 
 with which they were burdened. Sodom and Gomorrha had 
 
 1 Edersheim refers to the Rabbinic injunction, "not to enter the Temple- 
 precincts with staff, shoes (mark, not sandals), and a money-girdle." It told 
 the worshippers that they were to "be wholly absorbed in their service." — Life 
 and Times, i. 643. 
 
■vr. 7-13 The Mission of the Twelve 127 
 
 perished in one of the most signal of God's punishments, but 
 no messenger had been sent direct from Him to warn them of 
 the consequences of their awful sin. They, on the other hand, 
 were going with credentials such as no ambassador had ever 
 borne, and the guilt of impenitence would be proportioned to 
 the force with which the truth was revealed. If those to whom 
 they went turned a deaf ear to their words, then let them know 
 that they had forfeited their birthright ; they were no longer 
 God's people, but outcast heathen ; and the very dust of their 
 land must be shaken in displeasure from the Apostles' feet, to 
 symbolise that they were left to their own uncleanness. 
 
 " And they went out, and preached that men should repent. 
 And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many 
 that were sick." S. Mark alone mentions the outward sign 
 that accompanied the healing. The use of oil in medical 
 treatment was widely prevalent, but, apart from its application 
 by the good Samaritan, it is only mentioned twice elsewhere 
 in Holy Scripture. Isaiah clearly has it in his mind when, 
 speaking of the wounds from which Judah suffered, he says, 
 " they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither 
 mollified with ointment," or more correctly, "oil." 
 
 " Is any sick among you ? " writes S. James. " Let him 
 call for the elders of the church ; and let them pray over him, 
 anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord." It was an 
 outward act accompanying the exercise of unusual power,^ 
 whether it was the prayer of the faithful rulers of the Church, 
 or the preternatural gifts of healing with which the Apostles 
 were intrusted. The purpose that it served was the same as 
 the anointing of the eyes of the blind by the Lord's hand : it 
 was for the quickening of the patient's faith, without which no 
 cure could be wrought. 
 
 Now the combination of the twofold work of preaching 
 repentance and healing the sick, first formed in this temporary 
 
 ^ Anointing the sick with oil is not spoken of from New Testament times till 
 the beginning of the fourth century. It is noticed in an Epistle of Innocent I. 
 to Decentius in 416 A. D. It is also referred to in the Orationes ad visitandum 
 Infirmorum of the Gregorian Sacramentary, A. D. 590, after which it is often 
 recognised both in the Eastern and Western Churches. In the first Prayer- 
 Book of Edward VI. it was provided that the sick man might be anointed "if 
 he desired it." In the Primitive Church its object was the recovery of the sick 
 through supernatural agency ; now it is only administered in the Roman Church 
 when recovery is considered impossible. Cf. Catech. Trident, ii. \\. 14. 
 
128 The Mission of the Twelve ch. vi. v. 7-13 
 
 mission, has continued throughout the history of the Church. 
 Care for the body and thought for the soul may never be 
 separated without harm and loss in ministerial usefulness. It 
 was the testimony of one of the bravest missionaries ^ that he 
 owed no small measure of his success to the fact that he was 
 possessed of the knowledge of medicine, which enabled him to 
 work many bodily cures, and win confidence for the reception 
 of his message. 
 
 It is the pride and glory of the English Church that her 
 priests are the truest friends of the sick and needy ; and 
 though it is promised that " they that turn many to righteous- 
 ness shall shine as the stars," our Lord has taught us that 
 when we shall be called to give in the account of our steward- 
 ship, the inquiry will mainly turn on what deeds of mercy and 
 compassion we have shown. It will be to those who have fed 
 the hungry, and clothed the naked, and visited the sick, that 
 He will give the invitation, " Come, ye blessed of My Father, 
 inherit the kingdom prepared for you ; " for " inasmuch as ye 
 have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye 
 have done it unto Me." 
 
 1 Dr. Livingstone in Central Africa. His case may be used to illustrate the 
 principle, though his doctrine was not that of the Church. 
 
XXVIII 
 
 l^eroDia^ and Ijer 2Daug!jter 
 
 S. Mark vi. 14-29 
 
 14, And king Herod heard of Him ; 
 (for His Name was spread abroad :) 
 and he said, That John the Baptist 
 was risen from the dead, and therefore 
 mighty works do shew forth themselves 
 in him. 15. Others said. That it is 
 EHas. And others said. That it is a 
 prophet, or as one of the prophets. 16. 
 But when Herod heard thereof, he said. 
 It is John, whom I beheaded : he is risen 
 from the dead. 17. For Herod himself 
 had sent forth and laid hold upon John, 
 and bound him in prison for Herodias' 
 sake, his brother Philip's wife : for he 
 had married her. 18. For John had said 
 unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to 
 have thy brother's wife. 19. Therefore 
 Herodias had a quarrel against him, 
 and would have killed him ; but she 
 could not : 20. for Herod feared John, 
 knowing that he was a just man and 
 an holy, and observed him ; and when 
 he heard him, he did many things, and 
 heard him gladly. 21. And when a 
 convenient day was come, that Herod 
 on his birthday made a supper to his 
 lords, high captains, and chief estates 
 of Galilee; 22. and when the daughter 
 
 of the said Herodias came in, and 
 danced, and pleased Herod and them 
 that sat with him, the king said unto 
 the damsel. Ask of me whatsoever 
 thou wilt, and I will give it thee. 23. 
 And he sware unto her. Whatsoever 
 thou shalt ask of me, I will give it 
 thee, unto the half of my kingdom. 
 
 24. And she went forth, and said unto 
 her mother. What shall I ask ? And 
 she said, The head of John the Baptist. 
 
 25. And she came in straightway with 
 haste unto the king, and asked, saying, 
 I will that thou give me by and by in 
 a charger the head of John the Baptist. 
 
 26. And the king was exceeding sorry ; 
 yet for his oath's sake, and for their 
 sakes which sat with him, he would 
 not reject her. 27. And immediately 
 the king sent an executioner, and 
 commanded his head to be brought : 
 and he went and beheaded him in the 
 prison, 28. and brought his head in a 
 charger, and gave it to the damsel : 
 and the damsel gave it to her mother. 
 29. And when his disciples heard of 
 it, they came and took up his corpse, 
 and laid it in a tomb. 
 
 Herod Antipas was only "king" by courtesy. His father 
 had originally intended to bequeath his whole kingdom to 
 him, but he altered his will on his deathbed, and, dividing it 
 into four portions, left one only to him, two to his brother 
 
 K 
 
130 Herodias and he7^ Dqitghter chap, vi 
 
 Archelaus, and the remainder to his half-brother Philip.^ His 
 right designation, therefore, was that which he more usually 
 receives of " tetrarch." Herod the Great had been engaged 
 in a long and troublesome war with a powerful border tribe, 
 ruled over by an Arabian prince or Emir called Aretas. When 
 at last it was brought to a close, it was an article in the con- 
 ditions of peace that the princess of the Damascenes should 
 marry one of his sons. Antipas was selected for the unhappy 
 union. Being based upon political convenience, with no 
 pretence of real affection, it was destined to be broken when 
 the strain came. Another of his half-brothers, Philip, who 
 had been disinherited from any share in the kingdom, had 
 been married in his father's lifetime to his niece, Herodias, 
 daughter of the eldest brother whom Herod the Great had 
 cruelly put to death. This, too, was a most ill-assorted 
 marriage, for her husband was more than double her age, and 
 there was no pretence even of love and affection between 
 them. She was of a passionate and imperious nature, and 
 chafed at Philip's ignoble descent, for his mother was a 
 Boethusian, while her own was a Maccabean princess ; but 
 what galled her even more bitterly was her exclusion from all 
 the magnificence and pomp of the regal courts. So it was, that 
 when the tetrarch Antipas was visiting her husband at Rome, 
 where he lived in a private capacity, she intrigued with him to 
 repudiate his Arabian wife and establish herself in her place. 
 
 He yielded to her infamous design, and, in violation of 
 every principle of law and morality, took her to his palace at 
 Tiberias to succeed his rightful but dishonoured queen, who 
 had fled to her own people, through fear of being poisoned by 
 her wicked rival. 
 
 It was an ill-fated step for Antipas ; for crime led on to 
 crime, lust to murder, and both brought a terrible retribution, 
 in war and depredation, exile and ruin. 
 
 The profligacy which was such a marked feature of the 
 Roman Empire at this period had doubtless infected the 
 
 ^ Herod the Great had several wives, viz. , Mariamne, a granddaughter of 
 Hyrcanus, by whom he had Aristobulus, the father of Agrippa : Mariamne, a 
 daughter of Simon, by whom he had Herod Phihp, the husband of Herodias : 
 Mahhace, a Samaritan woman, the mother of Antipas and Archelaus : and 
 Cleopatra, the mother of Philip, the tetrarch of lYachonitis, etc. He had 
 several other wives besides, but they are unconnected with Sacred History. 
 
V. 14-29 Herodias and Jier Daughter 131 
 
 Province of Syria, but the feelings of the people were shocked 
 by such an act of unblushing immorality in high places. And 
 John the Baptist was but their mouthpiece when he raised his 
 voice against the adulterous union : " It is not lawful for thee 
 to have thy brother's wife." 
 
 Herodias was not a woman to tolerate such reproof, and it 
 was not long before she succeeded in silencing his voice : she 
 dreaded the possibility of Herod's being stung by remorse 
 under the vehemence of his remonstrance, and putting her away. 
 
 Antipas also was in fear lest the people might be stirred 
 by his eloquence to rise in rebellion, and so John was cast 
 into prison. The distant fortress of Machcerus was chosen for 
 his incarceration, mainly to remove him as far as possible from 
 the machinations of the queen, for Herod well knew her 
 revengeful spirit, and shrank from the additional odium of the 
 murder of a man whom the people loved, and of whose 
 fearless integrity he himself was not insensible. Indeed, such 
 was the fascination of the Baptist's character, that his words, 
 with all the bitterness of their sting, with all the pangs of 
 conscience they must have stirred, did nevertheless give him 
 pleasure to hear, for we are told "He was much perplexed,"^ 
 or, if the ordinary reading be correct, with a strange incon- 
 sistency in which his better nature triumphed for a time, " he 
 did many things " under his influence, and " heard him gladly." 
 But at last the opportunity came for which the deep-designing 
 adulteress was always watching. The king's divorce of his 
 Arabian wife led to the proclamation of war. The desperate 
 father, whose warlike spirit had made the great Herod quail — 
 " the old desert lion, whose claws had been more than once 
 felt in Sebaste and Sepphoris " — took up arms to avenge his 
 outraged child, and the forces of the Tetrarch were being 
 massed on the frontier. Before they crossed, Herod, taking 
 the occasion of his birthday, entertained the chief captains and 
 civil authorities to a great banquet in the castle of jNIachcerus. 
 Considering the object of the war, we can well imagine that 
 the jealousy of the guilty queen would be excited to the 
 highest pitch by the presence of the officers of the army. To 
 ingratiate herself and make her cause more popular with those 
 who had undertaken to defend it, she persuaded her daughter, 
 
 ^ qirbpeL, for iiroiet., is found in the Sinaitic and Vatican MSS. 
 
132 Herodias and her Daughter chap, vi 
 
 the beautiful Salome, to submit to an act of no little con- 
 descension for their gratification. She placed herself in the 
 degraded position of the professional dancing-girls, whose office 
 it was by immodest arts to please the tastes of a licentious court. 
 
 The design succeeded almost beyond her expectations. 
 The royal host, flushed with wine, and gratified alike by the 
 condescension and the shameless exhibition which pandered to 
 his impure passion, offered her, with true Oriental exaggeration, 
 even the half of his kingdom as her reward. Salome was in 
 league with her mother, and knew that there was a prize she 
 coveted far more than the greatest of earthly possessions : it 
 was the riddance from the stern uncompromising censor of her 
 sinful life. The supreme moment had arrived, and, after the 
 briefest consultation with the author of the plot, the damsel 
 asked for the Baptist's head to be brought to her without delay. 
 The petition was granted ; but, though the king felt some 
 genuine sorrow that he had been betrayed into an uncon- 
 ditional promise, he had not the moral courage to see that no 
 oath could be binding which involved the commission of a 
 dreadful crime. One of his bodyguard was despatched to the 
 prisoner's cell, and the work of execution was soon completed. 
 It reveals with an unmistakable clearness the revengeful nature 
 of the real murderess, when tradition tells how, when the 
 bleeding head was brought into the banquet-hall, she tore out 
 the prophet's tongue in vindictive rage, just as the Roman 
 ladyi had pierced that of the dead Orator, under whose 
 denunciations she had smarted so bitterly. And so the 
 tragedy ended ; but its consequences lived on to haunt and 
 vex the lives of those who perpetrated it ; and they soon 
 showed themselves. 
 
 The fame of Jesus was now at its height, and the interest 
 of Antipas was awakened. All kinds of reports were spread 
 abroad concerning His Person and Character. Many said 
 that it was Elijah, whose reappearance every pious Jew was 
 anxiously awaiting : and the raising of the widow's son at Nain 
 shortly before this must have recalled the miracle at Sarepta 
 and quickened the imagination. 
 
 1 Fulvia, the wife of Mark Antony, in revenge for the Philippics, in which 
 Cicero had attacked her husband, maltreated the Orator's body, and pierced 
 his tongue through and tlirough with a bodkin. 
 
V. 14-29 Herodias and her Daughter 133 
 
 Others thought it was one of the old prophets, most 
 probably Jeremiah, come back to restore to them the Ark and 
 the Urim and Thummim, which he had hidden ages before on 
 the mountain where Moses died ; and it has been suggested, 
 not without reason, that the sadness of the Face that was never 
 seen to laugh, helped to revive the memory of " the prophet of 
 lamentation and tears and woe." 
 
 But there was yet a third belief that prevailed, for "it was 
 said of some, that John was risen from the dead," and it is 
 almost needless to say that it was this that laid hold of Herod's 
 mind. No matter that he was by profession a Sadducee, with 
 no faith in the Resurrection, his creed was forgotten in the 
 superstitious dread which the memory of his crime fostered. 
 The shade of the murdered prophet haunted him wherever he 
 went ; it followed him even beyond the seas ; and the fear it 
 engendered became "a byword and a proverb in Roman 
 society," and furnished material for the biting satire of a 
 heathen poet ;^ and was held up in the schools of the Stoics 
 to illustrate the miseries of a guilty conscience. 
 
 A prolonged agony like this was a fitting penalty for such a 
 heinous crime, but it did not exhaust the measure of Divine 
 vengeance. Salome was accidentally beheaded,'-^ and has 
 supplied to moralists a signal example of exact correspondence 
 between crime and its retribution. 
 
 Herodias, the evil genius of the king's life, shared his 
 punishment, as she had shared his sin \ for when he was 
 banished from his kingdom,'^ she followed his fallen fortunes 
 to Gaul, and there, dethroned and dishonoured, the guilty pair- 
 wandered about till an ignoble death closed a career of almost 
 unequalled guilt. 
 
 ^ Dean Plumptre has suggested that in the hnes, 
 
 "But when the feast of Herod's birthday comes. 
 
 Thou inov'st thy lips, yet speak'st not in fear, 
 Thou keep'st the Sabbath of the circumcised. 
 And then there rise dark spectres of the dead," 
 
 there is a direct allusion to this incident. Persius would have been a boy at 
 the time of the Baptist's murder ; for he died in the prime of life, a.d. 62. 
 The circumstance may well have fixed itself in his mind. 
 
 2 She is said to have fallen through the ice, the sharp edge of which 
 nearly severed her head from the body. 
 
 ^ He was banished by Caligula to Lugdunum, from which place he went 
 to Vienne. 
 
XXIX 
 
 %iz ifeetimff of tlje jFitje ^Ijougfanli 
 
 S. Mark vi. 30-44 
 
 30. And the apostles gathered 
 themselves together unto Jesus, and 
 told Him all things, both what they 
 had done, and what they had taught. 
 31. And He said unto them, Come 
 ye yourselves apart into a desert 
 place, and rest a while : for there 
 were many coming and going, and 
 they had no leisure so much as to eat. 
 
 32. And they departed into a 
 desert place by ship privately. 33. 
 And the people saw them departing, 
 and many knew Him, and ran afoot 
 thither out of all cities, and outwent 
 them, and came together unto Him. 
 34. And Jesus, when He came out, 
 saw much people, and was moved 
 with compassion toward them, be- 
 cause they were as sheep not having 
 a shepherd : and He began to teach 
 them many things. 35. And when 
 the day was now far spent. His 
 disciples came unto Him, and said, 
 Tkis is a desert place, and now the 
 time h far passed : 36. send them 
 away, that they may go into the 
 country round about, and zn^o the 
 
 villages, and buy themselves bread : 
 for they have nothing to eat. 37. He 
 answered and said unto them, Give 
 ye them to eat. And they say unto 
 Him, Shall we go and buy two 
 hundred pennyworth of bread, and 
 give them to eat? 38. He saith 
 unto them, How many loaves have 
 ye? go and see. And when they 
 knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. 
 39. And He commanded them to 
 make all sit down by companies 
 upon the green grass. 40. And 
 they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, 
 and by fifties. 41. And when He 
 had taken the five loaves and the 
 two fishes, He looked up to heaven, 
 and blessed, and brake the loaves, 
 and gave i/iem to His disciples to set 
 before them ; and the two fishes 
 divided He among ikem all. 42. 
 And they did all eat, and were filled, 
 43. And they took up twelve baskets 
 full of the fragments, and of the 
 fishes. 44. And they that did eat 0/ 
 the loaves were about five thousand 
 
 S. Mark calls our attention to the motive^ for our Lord's 
 retreat from Galilee. It was the need of rest for the Apostles 
 
 ^ There were other motives which suggested His leaving Galilee. S. Matt. 
 xiv. 13 specifies the report of the Baptist's death. Common prudence would 
 lead Him to avoid unnecessary danger — S. Matt, x. 23. 
 
CH. VI. V. 30-44 Feeding of the Five Thousand 135 
 
 after the fatigues of their mission. And what a very natural 
 scene it is to which he introduces us ! An expedition had 
 gone out, and had been very successful, and those who had 
 taken part in it were eager to narrate their experiences to Him 
 Who had sent them forth. We can almost see Him seated 
 in their midst as they pour into His ears the stirring tale. He 
 knew it all even before they began, for His eye had never been 
 off them, and His spirit never absent from their side, but He 
 listened with patience as they told the wonders of their travel, 
 of deaf ears unstopped, and blind eyes restored to sight, and 
 fevers subdued by a single touch, and demoniacs dispossessed. 
 No sooner was the story told than we fancy we can hear them 
 in all the enthusiasm of success asking to be sent out again. 
 But what was the answer ? " Come ye yourselves apart into a 
 desert place, and rest a while." It must have sounded cold 
 and chilling, but He knew that exhausted nature must needs 
 be repaired. " Man goeth forth to his labour until the 
 evening" — but only so far. Night follows day, and rest 
 succeeds to toil. So it was that our Lord counselled a 
 temporary withdrawal from active work. The spot that He 
 selected was one of the mountains on the further side of the 
 lake, and they entered into the boat and rowed across. They 
 could hardly have enjoyed their seclusion more than an hour 
 or two before their place of retreat was discovered, and He 
 had no alternative but to come forth and preach to the crowds 
 whom from the mountain range He saw gathering together. 
 Many people, it is said, having observed the direction of the 
 boat, "went afoot thither," crossi^ig the Jordan where it flows 
 into the lake, and going in search of Him in the "desert 
 place," which lay on the north-eastern shore. Many more 
 were pilgrims who had turned aside from the great road by 
 which travellers went from Caesarea Philippi and the northern 
 district to Jerusalem. It was customary for the inhabitants of 
 neighbouring villages to join together, both for security and 
 for company, and to travel in one long caravan up to the 
 Annual Feasts.^ One such was then impending. It is very 
 
 ^ "The Songs of Degrees," viz., Psalms cxx. to cxxxiv. , were probably 
 sung by the company on the " goings-up " to the Feasts. Ps. cxxi. was 
 appropriate to their last halt within sight of Jerusalem ; Ps. cxxii, to their 
 entrance within the gates of the city. 
 
136 The Feeding of the chap, vi 
 
 significant that all the Evangelists call special attention to the 
 number of men, for it is well known that, except with certain 
 limitations, the attendance of women was not required at the 
 Feasts. 
 
 Jesus was moved with compassion at the sight, and began 
 at once to teach them, and heal their sicknesses ; and as they 
 hung spell-bound on His lips, and listened with rapt attention, 
 the day wore on, and the disciples became anxious and 
 fearful of what might happen if such a great mass of people 
 should be overtaken by nightfall far from shelter or human 
 habitation. S. John gives us to understand that the difficulty 
 of feeding the multitudes had been broached by our Lord 
 Himself, and that He had consulted PhiHp on the possible 
 sources of supply. Philip, making a rough calculation of the 
 numbers, intimated that to purchase the requisite food would 
 take above two hundred pence, a larger sum perhaps than 
 they had at the time in the common purse. Our Lord, 
 knowing what He would do, returned to His teaching ; but 
 the question which had been started exercised the minds of 
 the Apostles, and as they were quite unable to devise any 
 means for meeting the necessity, and it was now growing very 
 late, they came to Him in a body, and asked Him to dismiss 
 the people that they might go and provide for themselves. 
 To their astonishment He declined, and said, "Give ye them 
 to eat." They asked at once, perhaps in irony, whether He 
 intended that they should carry out Philip's suggestion, but 
 He repUed by asking what amount of food they actually had. 
 The answer, especially as recorded by S, John, showed the 
 utter insufficiency of the store. There was a little boy — the 
 fishers' lad, no doubt, whom they had brought from the boat 
 to carry their food — with five loaves, and those none of the 
 best, for they were made of barley, and two small fishes, — not 
 such as would satisfy hunger, but serving only to give relish ^ 
 and a savoury taste to their common bread. 
 
 But "man's extremity is God's opportunity." No sooner 
 did Christ see that the Apostles were satisfied that no ordinary 
 
 ^ These were a kind of sardine. They were caught in large quantities in 
 the lake, dried and salted, and eaten with bread by the common people. The 
 peculiar word used by S. John — orpdpLOP — indicates local knowledge. Cf. 
 Westcott on the Fourth Gospel, and Edersheim, Life and Times, i. 681, 682. 
 
I 
 
 V. 30-44 Five Thousand 137 
 
 means could avail, than He prepared for an exhibition of 
 miraculous power. Let them make the men sit down on the 
 grass. It was fresh and green at the time, for the spring 
 rainfall was only just over; and the crowd was at once 
 divided and broken up into manageable portions — that there 
 might be no confusion, that none might be passed over or 
 pushed aside — and arranged into " ranks, by hundreds and by 
 fifties." The peculiar word which is translated " ranks," ^ 
 indicates that the people were seated in "separate detach- 
 ments," with sufficient space left to move freely between them ; 
 but it is right to mention that, according to another etymology, 
 it signifies a " bed of herbs or flowers," and its usage would 
 then illustrate S. Mark's picturesqueness, the bright Eastern 
 costumes of the compact masses upon the brilliant green 
 having suggested to an eye-witness a close resemblance to a 
 bright and well-ordered garden. 
 
 However this may be, when all was arranged He took the 
 loaves and fishes into His hands, and, according to the Jewish 
 ordinance, as the Head of the house in which He presided, 
 " gave thanks," no doubt in the familiar form of " Grace : " 
 " Blessed art Thou, Jehovah our God, King of the world. Who 
 bringest forth bread from the earth." It was followed by a 
 marvellous increase. The method or process of the multi- 
 plication is not revealed ; whether it took place in Christ's 
 hands, or in the hands of the disciples, it is impossible to say. 
 S. Chrysostom accepts the latter supposition, and it would 
 certainly seem the most convenient, and perhaps the most 
 significant also. The result, however, was that all were filled. 
 An almost startling announcement follow^ed : " Gather up the 
 fragments." It must have sounded strange, indeed, coming 
 from the lips of One Who could multiply things as He would ; 
 but He designed to teach His disciples that no creative pow^r 
 should ever supersede careful thrift, that the most prodigal 
 bounty is fitly accompanied by the nicest economy. Obedient 
 to His word the disciples unstrapped the little baskets - which 
 
 ^ irpaaiax — areolativi — is usually derived from irpdaov, a leek or onion. 
 Most commentators (Farrar, Geikie, etc.) have assumed that it was a ' ' flower "- 
 bed, and have seen in it an apt figure for the gay scene. But there is no 
 trace of irpdaov being used of a flower. Possibly it is a foreign word with the 
 same root as " Pharisee," indicating "separation." 
 
 - The " cophinus " was a sort of wicker wallet in which a Jew carried 
 
138 The Feeding of the chap, vi 
 
 all Jews were wont to carry when travelling from home, and 
 filled them with the fragments; and behold "there was more of 
 what remained over than of the original stock." It may have 
 been intended to leave no doubt that a distinct creative act 
 had been performed : that the multitudes had been satisfied, 
 not by any sudden cessation of the cravings of hunger, but by an 
 exercise of preternatural power on the part of Him by Whom 
 "all things were made," and without Whom " was not anything 
 made that was made." 
 
 Now it cannot have been accidental that all four Evangelists 
 should have recorded this miracle, and with so much more 
 fulness of detail than is usually met with. There is no 
 apparent reason for such prominence in its primary teaching. 
 S. Hilary says the whole circumstance is a series of types. 
 One or two will suffice for our present consideration. In 
 all ^ the accounts it has been carefully recorded, with only 
 a slight variety of expression, that after blessing and 
 breaking the bread the Divine Master gave it to the 
 disciples, and " the disciples distributed it to them that were 
 set down." 
 
 Those multitudes, collected " out of all cities," foreshadowed 
 the numbers of people who should be gathered into the 
 Catholic Church "out of every nation under heaven." The 
 appearance of our Blessed Lord standing in their midst, and 
 miraculously providing from His Own hand for their bodily 
 wants, signified the place which He intended to occupy as the 
 Head of the Church, able and willing to supply out of the 
 inexhaustible fulness of His bounty whatsoever men of every 
 clime, and age, and degree, should need for the support of 
 their spiritual life. 
 
 The twelve disciples receiving the bread which He had 
 blessed, and distributing it to the people, after they were set 
 down and arranged in convenient groups, were but the first in the 
 line of a duly-appointed and unbroken Ministry, from whom, 
 through all the ages of the Church's history, the separate 
 
 "clean" food on a journey. It was such an indispensable article that in 
 Juvenal's time the Jews were ridiculed for possessing nothing but this and a 
 wisp of hay to serve as a pillow. — Juvenal, Sat. iii. 14. 
 
 ^ In S. John vi. 1 1 the direct mention of this is omitted in the best MSS. , 
 but it may be inferred from the general sense, as well as from the SteSw/ce, 
 here substituted for e'5w/ce of the other Evangelists. 
 
V. 30-44 Five Thousand 139 
 
 communities of the One Body were destined to receive the 
 Immortal Food. 
 
 And if we may draw a still further analogy, or press that 
 more closely which has already been drawn, we should note 
 the fact that Christ is carefully pointed out as the One Source 
 from Which the supply was taken, though it is not revealed 
 whether the real increase was made in His Own, or in the 
 hands of the Apostles ; and yet further, that the bread was 
 given only after the multitude had been taught at His mouth. 
 It is the clearest evidence that the Church must look to Him, 
 and Him alone, as her " stay and support," the Teacher and 
 Feeder of her people. He will feed her in soul and spirit 
 with His doctrine, and sacramentally with His Own most 
 precious Body and Blood ; and though we may grasp the 
 teaching, as the multitudes doubtless were able to do in a 
 measure, we must expect the manner of the continued gift of 
 His Sacramental Body to be shrouded in mystery, in the 
 same way as the method by which the loaves were multiplied 
 was hidden from their eyes. 
 
XXX 
 
 (laiaiamo; upon tlje »)ea 
 
 S. Mark vi. 45-52 
 
 45. And straightway He con- sea, and would have passed by them, 
 
 strained His disciples to get into the 49. But when they saw Him walking 
 
 ship, and to go to the other side upon the sea, they supposed it had 
 
 before unto Bethsaida, while He sent been a spirit, and cried out : 50. for 
 
 away the people. 46. And when He they all saw Him, and were troubled, 
 
 had sent them away, He departed And immediately He talked with them, 
 
 into a mountain to pray. 47. And and saith unto them. Be of good cheer : 
 
 when even was come, the ship was It is I ; be not afraid. 51. And He 
 
 in the midst of the sea, and He went up unto them into the ship ; and 
 
 alone on the land. 48. And He saw the wind ceased : and they were sore 
 
 them toiling in rowing ; for the wind amazed in themselves beyond measure, 
 
 was contrary unto them: and about and wondered. 52. For they con- 
 
 the fourth watch of the night He sidered not the miracle of the loaves : 
 
 Cometh unto them, walking upon the for their heart was hardened. 
 
 The miraculous multiplication of the loaves had produced 
 such an effect upon the multitudes that they believed the 
 long-expected Messiah had come, and were eager " to take 
 Him by force and make Him a king." The crown which 
 they would have offered Him contrasted greatly with that 
 which He knew that He must wear; and though He had 
 vanquished once and for all every temptation to mere earthly 
 greatness, the very presentation of the offer drove Him to seek 
 fresh strength to resist in prayer and communion with the 
 Father. 
 
 The north-eastern shore of the lake was especially suited 
 for retirement. It is the exact counterpart of the north- 
 western ; and together, it has been well observed, they reflect 
 "that union of energy and rest, of active labour and deep 
 
CH. VI. V. 45-52 Walking ttpon the Sea 141 
 
 devotion, which is the essence of Christianity, as it was in the 
 Hfe of Him in Whom that union was first taught and shown." 
 
 He was then in the neighbourhood of Bethsaida-Juhas,^ on 
 the further side, but before He could obtain the undisturbed 
 sohtude which He sought it was necessary to dismiss both the 
 multitudes and His disciples. We may well suppose that 
 those whose enthusiasm had just been so largely kindled 
 would be unwilling to depart, but we are not told of any 
 resistance on their part. With the disciples, however, it was 
 different, for it is said that He " constrained " them to get 
 into the boat : it implies that pressure was necessary to 
 overcome their reluctance. Every consideration must have 
 suggested the propriety of their remaining. He was sur- 
 rounded by strangers ; the country was bleak and desolate ; 
 the night was fast closing in ; and to do as He bade them was to 
 leave Him without any means of transport across the lake. 
 But His word was law ; and after remonstrating they did as 
 He commanded them. Could they have foreseen what awaited 
 them they would have been filled with dismay. He Who 
 sees the end from the beginning foresaw it ; but He foresaw 
 also the deliverance, and so bade them go. Their destiny 
 was the other Bethsaida, close to Capernaum, distant some 
 forty 2 or fifty furlongs — from five to six English miles. 
 
 After their departure Jesus ascended the mountain, and 
 continued a long time in prayer. It was a stormy night, but 
 there was a Paschal moon, and as the clouds broke, and the 
 light fell upon the lake. He saw the disciples in distress from 
 contrary winds. Eight or nine hours had passed, and they 
 had accomplished little more than half their voyage. It 
 required all their efforts to keep their boat from being driven 
 back by the hurricane, and dashed to pieces on the rugged 
 shore; but "about the fourth watch," as S. Mark says, 
 adopting the Roman division of the night, if, as is commonly ^ 
 
 1 Bethsaida-Julias was a village rebuilt and adorned by Philip the Tetrarch, 
 and dignified with the title of a town, called Julias, in honour of the Emperor's 
 daughter. The Tetrarch was buried there. 
 
 2 Josephus says the lake was forty furlongs wide, i.e. five miles. — Wars, 
 iii. 10. 7. For a further description cf p. 94. 
 
 3 The Jews, it is said, originally divided the night into three watches, but 
 after the establishment of Roman supremacy the number was increased to 
 four, which are all named in S. Mark xiii. 35 in the Authorised Version — 
 even, midnight, cock -crowing, and morning. When S. Peter was put in 
 
142 Walking upon the Sea chap, vi 
 
 supposed, it differed from the Jewish, Jesus went to them 
 walking upon the sea. Their faith had been sorely tried ; 
 their memories would go back to that other storm on the 
 self-same lake, which He had hushed at the mere bidding of 
 His word : but now for hours He had left them in peril and 
 danger. Was it a superstitious fear that some mischance had 
 befallen Him, and that death had robbed them for ever of 
 His Presence, that when His Form appeared upon the waters 
 they thought it was a spectre, a ghost from the other world ? 
 Was it again to try their faith still further that He "would 
 have passed by them " ? But when He heard their cry of 
 terror, He restored their confidence by the reassuring intel- 
 ligence, " It is I ; be not afraid." And no sooner had He 
 entered into the boat than the storm was hushed, and there 
 was a great calm. 
 
 S. Mark makes no mention of an incident so full of interest 
 and instruction that it has furnished material both for Christian 
 artists and preachers in every age. The impulsive rush to 
 meet Jesus in the enthusiasm of a new-born conviction, the 
 firm and confident step while all goes well, the sinking and 
 falling away when any cloud of doubt or fear hides from the 
 eyes the sustaining Presence, all have found repeated illustra- 
 tion in the spiritual experience of Christ's disciples, from the 
 time when Peter sprang from the boat and " walked upon the 
 waters," and "began to sink." 
 
 The reason for the omission in this Gospel is not far to 
 find. Though the memory of the Apostle's feelings when the 
 water yielded beneath his weight, and of the loss of confidence 
 that took his eyes off Jesus, were well worthy of record for 
 future generations of wavering Christians, he must have 
 thought that the first bold venture of faith, which led him to 
 do what man had never done before, would far outweigh in 
 the estimation of men his after misgivings, and bring him 
 more honour than shame. And so it was that, in accordance 
 
 prison he was intrusted to four quaternions of soldiers, one, that is, for each 
 watch. But in Talm. Bab. Berachoth, 3 b., we find reason to doubt the 
 triple division. It contains a discussion between the chief Editor of the 
 Mishnah and the somewhat older Rabbi Nathan. The former says there 
 were four watches ; the latter three, referring to Judges vii. 13, which speaks 
 of the " middle watch." But he is answered by a comparison of Psalm cxix. 
 62 with cxix, 148, where the expression "night watches" imphes two at least 
 after midnight, and therefore also two before. 
 
V. 45-52 Walking upon the Sea 143 
 
 with his invariable rule, he asked S. Mark to pass it by in 
 silence. 
 
 After what they had so lately seen of His creative power 
 in feeding the multitudes, we might have expected that such 
 an exhibition of omnipotence would have filled them with awe 
 rather than with wonder and perplexity. But their hearts 
 were slow to grasp the inner meaning of the mighty works 
 which He did, and it never even occurred to them that it was 
 quite natural for One Who could create the loaves and fishes 
 at His will, to control the winds and waves. 
 
 It helps us to understand the object for which they were 
 suffered, almost forced, to encounter the terrible perils of that 
 stormy voyage. It was part of the training by which their 
 Lord patiently led them onwards from weak beginnings, 
 compelled to subject them again and again to the same 
 disciplinary experience, only at each repetition drawing them 
 on to the perception of something higher. 
 
 This progressive feature in their training appears, perhaps, 
 nowhere more patent than in the special circumstances of the 
 two storms from which He delivered them. At first sight the 
 points of resemblance seem so numerous and so close that it 
 is not easy to see why both should have been recorded. 
 Closer consideration reveals such important and significant 
 differences that the double narrative becomes full of in- 
 struction. 
 
 In the first storm it was during daylight; they were near 
 to land ; " there were other little ships " crossing the lake at 
 the same time ; the danger was of the shortest duration ; and 
 Jesus was with them in the boat — asleep, it is true, but still 
 His Presence must have given them some sense of security. 
 
 In the second, they had to battle with the hurricane 
 through the hours of night ; they were " in the midst of 
 the sea ; " they were alone upon the waves ; the agony of 
 suspense and peril was prolonged for many hours ; and, 
 above all, their Guide and Protector was far away. 
 
 In the first miracle Jesus taught them to walk by sight ; 
 in the second, to walk by faith. 
 
 All was designed in the latter case to lead them to trust 
 Him, though invisible to the bodily eye, and though He 
 tarried, to wait for Him. It was a preparation for the coming 
 
144 Walking ttpon the Sea ch. vi. v. 45-52 
 
 severance, and an assurance that though He would leave 
 them, though He should ascend up far from human sight, 
 He would still remember them in their necessities, and 
 "deliver them out of their distress." 
 
 And through the Twelve He would teach the world, that 
 for all who put their trust in Him, when the waters of 
 adversity are high, and the storm of temptation is fierce, even 
 though no mortal eye may see Him, He still, as of old, 
 "treadeth upon the waves of the sea," and "walketh upon 
 the wings of the wind." He still repeats the comforting 
 assurance, " Be of good cheer : it is I ; be not afraid : " for 
 " though the waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly^ 
 yet the Lord Who dwelleth on high is mightier." 
 
XXXI 
 
 ^ratiition of tlje dlt^tv^ 
 
 S. Mark vi. 53-56; vii. 1-8 
 
 53. And when they had passed 
 over, they came into the land of Gen- 
 nesaret, and drew to the shore. 54. 
 And when they were come out of the 
 ship, straightway they knew Him, 55. 
 and ran through that whole region 
 round about, and began to carry 
 about in beds those that were sick, 
 where they heard He was. 56. And 
 whithersoever He entered, into vil- 
 lages, or cities, or country, they laid 
 the sick in the streets, and besought 
 Him that they might touch if it were 
 but the border of His garment : and 
 as many as touched Him were made 
 whole. 
 
 VII. I. Then came together unto 
 Him the Pharisees, and certain of the 
 scribes, which came from Jerusalem. 
 2. And when they saw some of His 
 disciples eat bread with defiled, that 
 is to say, with unwashen, hands, they 
 found fault. 3. For the Pharisees, 
 
 and all the Jews, except they wash 
 ^/leir hands oft, eat not, holding the 
 tradition of the elders. 4. And 7i'/ieu 
 they come from the market, except they 
 wash, they eat not. And many other 
 things there be, which they have 
 received to hold, as the washing of 
 cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of 
 tables. 5. Then the Pharisees and 
 scribes asked Him, Why walk not 
 Thy disciples according to the tradi- 
 tion of the elders, but eat bread with 
 unwashen hands ? 6. He answered 
 and said unto them, Well hath Esaias 
 prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is 
 written. This people honoureth Me 
 with their lips, but their heart is far 
 from Me. 7. Howbeit in vain do they 
 worship Me, teaching for doctrines 
 the commandments of men. 8. For 
 laying aside the commandment of 
 God, ye hold the tradition of men, 
 as the washing of pots and cups : and 
 many other such like things ye do. 
 
 After our Lord had stilled the storm upon the lake He 
 passed over to the other side. The exact point at which He 
 landed is not named, but it was somewhere on the edge of the 
 plain of Gennesaret. This was a small tract of country about 
 three miles broad, running inland a little less than twice that 
 distance, but in beauty and fertility it was unsurpassed, and 
 for historic associations it has been desio;nated " the most 
 sacred region of the lake, if not of the world." 
 
146 T^'adition of tJu Elders chap, vi 
 
 Its claim to such an honourable title arose mainly out of 
 the fact that it included Capernaum within its boundaries, the 
 city which was " exalted unto heaven " by the many mighty 
 works which were wrought in it. 
 
 It was no sooner known that the Great Healer had come 
 back to their shores than the people of the district hastened 
 to bring their sick to be cured. Wherever He went, alike in 
 town and village, the same sight met Him : the village greens 
 and market-places, and the roads in the less frequented 
 localities, were studded in every direction with the pallets 
 of the sick and diseased, and as He passed among them, 
 some, who had been told what befell the woman with the 
 issue of blood, implored permission to touch " but the border 
 of His garment," and all, " as many as touched Him,i were 
 made whole." 
 
 It was in the midst of His work of healing in the land of 
 Gennesaret, or shortly after it, that Jesus was called upon to 
 engage in a far less congenial occupation. The chief rulers at 
 Jerusalem had become alarmed at the influence He appeared 
 to be gaining, and, being dissatisfied with the accounts, which 
 must have reached them, of the complete failure of the 
 Pharisees of Sepphoris - and the Galilean Scribes, to convict 
 Him of breaking the Law, determined to send a deputation of 
 more competent disputants.^ 
 
 There are indications that they agreed beforehand that the 
 charge to be made against Him should be for a breach of "the 
 tradition of the elders," the gravity of which they had wholly 
 miscalculated. Tradition had gained such a firm hold upon 
 the Jewish mind, and was so constantly mixed up with the life 
 of the nation at this time, that a short history of its nature and 
 origin is almost necessary for a due appreciation of much that 
 is written in the Gospels touching the customs and practice of 
 the Jews. 
 
 It was an after-growth of the Captivity, originating not 
 improbably with the Great Synagogue, out of which the 
 
 1 It is impossible to decide whether the text (Him) or the marginal reading 
 (it) of the Authorised Version be right, because the pronoun is of both genders. 
 
 2 Cf. pp. 52, 53. 
 
 3 According to Westcott and Hort, "which came from Jerusalem, and had 
 seen"- — they had previously noticed it. "Cum vidissent," Jerome. Cf. 
 Speaker's Com. in loc. 
 
V. 53-56 Tradition of the Elders 147 
 
 Sanhedrim 1 was developed. The reverence and care for 
 Holy Scripture, revived by Ezra, and fostered by later Scribes, 
 led to the creation of a school of interpreters, whose comments 
 were handed down from generation to generation, and treated 
 with so much honour that the highest authority was sought for 
 their origin. Some Rabbi, bolder than his predecessors, put 
 forward the theory that God had given to Moses not only the 
 Ten Commandments, but also at the same time a full explana- 
 tion, even in the minutest detail, of all their applications. 
 This Oral Law, he said, had been revealed by Moses to Aaron 
 and his sons, and the memory of it was cherished and handed 
 on without any loss or diminution in the progress of transmis- 
 sion. As soon as such a view of its origin had gained accept- 
 ance with the people, its authority became equally binding 
 upon the conscience with that of the Written Law, and the 
 estimation in which it was held even higher. 
 
 In lapse of time it received its interpretation at the hands 
 of the Rabbis, and the disquisitions, illustrations, and additions 
 grew into a great body of doctrine ; and after the Jewish 
 motto, "Commit nothing to writing," had been forgotten, 
 these were all combined in a vast collection, under the title of 
 Gemara, or Talmud.^ The publication in writing of the 
 Mishnah itself, as the Oral Law was called, had preceded it 
 by two hundred years. It was issued authoritatively by Rabbi 
 Judah, the Holy, at the close of the second century of the 
 Christian era. 
 
 There were two familiar sayings among the later Jews, 
 which enable us to understand how widely traditionalism must 
 have conflicted with the teaching of our Blessed Lord. " The 
 words of the elders," they said, "are of more weight than the 
 
 ^ This is only one of many views, but we think the most probable. The 
 Mishnah refers its origin to the seventy elders associated with Moses, but this 
 was only a temporary institution. 
 
 ^ "Talmud" means doctrine or teaching; "Mishnah," repetition; 
 "Gemara," perfection or completion. The Mishnah is divided into six 
 Sedarim, or " Orders," on these subjects : i. Seeds, preceded by Benedictions, 
 etc., i.e. " the religio-agrarian laws," for tithes, first-fruits, etc. 2. Festival- 
 times ; on Sabbath observance, etc. 3. Women, marriage, divorce, etc. 4. 
 Damages, civil and criminal law, together with the well-known ' ' Sayings of 
 the Fathers." 5. Holy things, on sacrifices, etc. 6. Purifications, on what 
 is clean and unclean. These are all subdivided into Treatises. For a full and 
 interesting account of the whole question, cf. Artt. Midrash and Mishnah, 
 in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, by Dr. Schiller-Szinessy. 
 
148 Traditio7i of the Elders chap, vh 
 
 words of the prophets ; " and, even more startling than this, 
 " The Mosaic Law is as water, the Mishnah as wine, and the 
 Gemara as hippocras." Hippocras was a richly-spiced drink, 
 most highly esteemed. 
 
 Now one of the six books into which the Mishnah is 
 divided deals entirely with " Purifications." 
 
 It was in a matter relating to this subject that the deputa- 
 tion from the Sanhedrim made a direct attack upon our Lord. 
 Some of them had been present on an occasion when certain 
 of the disciples had eaten bread without the preliminary 
 purification enjoined in the Mishnah. To incur such a defile- 
 ment was to forfeit all claim to be regarded as a respectable 
 Jew. Indeed it was in their eyes nothing less than an un- 
 pardonable offence. It was even said that on one occasion 
 Rabbi Akiba being imprisoned, and allowed only sufficient 
 water to quench his thirst, preferred to die of starvation rather 
 than eat his bread with unwashen hands. 
 
 One reason why they were so scrupulous about this washing 
 was a strange belief that an evil spirit ^ settled upon their 
 hands directly they were defiled, and could only be removed 
 by ablutions. 
 
 The directions for the ceremonial were elaborately laid 
 down. S. Mark refers to them in the words, "The Jews, 
 except they wash their hands oft, eat not." The translation 
 " oft," founded upon the rendering of the Vulgate, has no other 
 authority, and is obviously untenable as being contrary to fact. 
 They washed only twice, at the outside, before meals. ^ Once 
 with "the first waters," when the hands were lifted up to let 
 the ablutions run down to the wrist ; once with " the second 
 waters," reversing the position, so as to let them run off at the 
 ends of the fingers. The allusion in the passage before us is 
 probably to the former of these, and the right translation of 
 the disputed word should be "by the wrist." For the 
 paraphrastic rendering "diligently," from the idea that the 
 word means "fist," and that rubbing "the fist" of one hand 
 
 1 Shibta, from a Hebrew root "to sit," was one of the demons "which 
 sits upon men's hands in the night, and if any one touch his food with 
 unwashen hands, that spirit sits upon that food, and there is danger from 
 it." 
 
 '^ There used to be another washing after meals before grace with ' ' the 
 last waters," but this obviously was not alluded to here. 
 
V. 1-8 Tradition of the Elders 149 
 
 in the hollow of the other indicates force and vigour, the 
 evidence is wholly insufficient, the Mishnah containing no such 
 direction. 
 
 Now, one special source of defilement here mentioned was 
 the market-place. No Jew could pass through an Oriental 
 bazaar without coming in contact either with a heathen or 
 some one ceremonially unclean. The crowd was so great that 
 the most careful precaution might fail to secure him from 
 accidental pollution, and the invariable custom was to wash 
 upon returning home. The word employed for this purifica- 
 tion is more literally " baptize themselves ; " but as immersion 
 was impossible under the circumstances, and yet further, as the 
 Mishnah nowhere enjoins it, the passage supplies ample jus- 
 tification for our mode of baptizing; it shows that the con- 
 ditions of that sacred rite are satisfied by affusion. ^ The 
 Jews guarded still further against defilement through drinking- 
 cups, domestic utensils, and household furniture. 
 
 With such religious scruples, it was only to be expected 
 that they would be offended at the apparent carelessness of 
 Jesus and His disciples. They asked Him how it was that 
 they too did not "walk" in the tradition of the elders, and 
 they used the expression advisedly, for " the walking," the 
 Halachah,^ was the title they gave to the Oral Law which 
 regulated the duties of daily life. 
 
 He went back for His answer, as so often, to the declara- 
 tions of the Old Testament. Some centuries before this, 
 Isaiah had denounced the formalism and hypocrisy of his 
 contemporaries, and the Holy Spirit had so ordered his words 
 that they should describe even more fully a later generation in 
 which the self-same faults would be more largely developed. 
 
 It cannot be too carefully noticed that no condemnation is 
 passed upon these rites of purification in themselves. Had 
 the Pharisees recognised their symbolism and deep moral 
 significance : had Jesus been certain that when they washed 
 their hands they thought of or prayed for purity of heart and 
 
 ^ It is quite true that primarily "dipping" was usuall)' adopted — S. Paul's 
 figure, "buried with him by baptism" implies this, — but the above passage 
 shows that to baptize is merely to pour water on or affuse. Cf. also S. Luke 
 xi. 38. 
 
 - Cf. Artt. in the Ency. Brit. , ut supra. 
 
150 Tradition of the Elders ch. vn. v. 1-8 
 
 life, He would have been the last Person to rebuke them, 
 however much they multiplied external forms and ceremonies. 
 These are useful as stepping-stones to higher things ; but the 
 moment they begin to satisfy in themselves they become 
 snares, and lead to superstition. 
 
XXXII 
 
 jfurtljcc '^ratiitionali0m 
 
 S. Mark vii. 9-23 
 
 g. And He said unto them, Full 
 well ye reject the commandment of 
 God, that ye may keep your own tradi- 
 tion. 10. For Moses said, Honour 
 thy father and thy mother ; and, 
 Whoso curseth father or mother, let 
 him die the death. 11. But ye say, 
 If a man shall say to his father or 
 mother, li is Corban, that is to say, a 
 gift, ^K whatsoever thou mightest be pro- 
 fited by me; he shall be free. 12. And 
 ye suffer him no more to do ought for 
 his father or his mother ; 13. making 
 the word of God of none effect through 
 your tradition, which yehave delivered : 
 and many such like things do ye. 
 
 14. And when He had called all the 
 people unto Him, He said unto them, 
 Hearken unto Me every one of you, 
 and understand : 15. There is nothing 
 from without a man, that entering into 
 him can defile him : but the things 
 which come out of him, those are they 
 
 that defile the man. 16. If any man 
 have ears to hear, let him hear. 17. 
 And when He was entered into the 
 house from the people. His disciples 
 asked Him concerning the parable. 
 18. And He saith unto them. Are ye 
 so without understanding also? Do 
 ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing 
 from without entereth into the man, 
 it cannot defile him ; ig. because it 
 entereth not into his heart, but into 
 the belly, and goeth out into the 
 draught, purging all meats? 20. And 
 He said, That which cometh out of 
 the man, that defileth the man. 21. 
 For from within, out of the heart of 
 men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, 
 fornications, murders, 22. thefts, 
 covetousness, wickedness, deceit, las- 
 civiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, 
 pride, fooHshness : 23. all these evil 
 things come from within, and defile 
 the man. 
 
 L 
 
 It is in perfect accord with S. Mark's custom that he should 
 notice the mood or temper in which Jesus rebuked the 
 champions of a dead formahsm. " Full well ye reject the 
 commandment of God." It bespeaks the sarcasm and 
 righteous indignation which He felt and must have expressed, 
 not only by the tone of His voice, but, we may well believe, 
 with a look of withering scorn. He had illustrated their 
 abuse of ceremonial observance by their slavery to the letter, 
 
152 Further Traditionalism chap, vn 
 
 and neglect of the spirit ; and then, advancing a step higher, 
 He showed what a pernicious effect traditionaHsm had in 
 perverting the first principles of morality. 
 
 The Law of God, as delivered to Moses in the Mount, had 
 placed the obligation of children "to honour their parents" 
 in the forefront of man's duty to his neighbour. Its observance 
 was of such momentous consequence that it was made " the 
 first commandment with promise," and the penalty of death 
 was affixed to the breach of it. 
 
 Now when God imposed this duty He was only setting His 
 seal to man's natural instincts. The relationship of their 
 offspring to parents is of the very closest kind, and carries with 
 it duties and responsibilities which unassisted Nature is quick 
 to recognise. It is strange that it should have been reserved 
 for God's chosen people not only to pervert this law of natural 
 ethics, but also to violate a commandment especially enjoined 
 upon themselves. The breach arose out of their traditional 
 regulations with regard to vows, since embodied in an elabor- 
 ate " Tract " of the Mishnah. From those which involved 
 personal obligation, ^ our Lord selected an example to illustrate 
 the open conflict between their admitted principles and the 
 plain teaching of the Mosaic Code. 
 
 The elders allowed a man to alienate any part or the whole 
 of his property from himself by dedication to God or the 
 Temple service. The common formula by which this was 
 done was this, "It is Korban,"^ and the word implied that it 
 was a gift or offering presented to the Lord. 
 
 Now cases might not be infrequent where parents, from a 
 variety of causes, became dependent upon their children for 
 support ; but if the latter, from any feelings of anger or 
 annoyance, desired to withhold their assistance, they had only 
 to repeat the famihar " Korban " over the special object of 
 parental need ; and even in extreme cases, where they wished 
 to be entirely quit of filial obligation once for all, they said 
 
 ^ There were two kinds, — vows of consecration and vows of obligation. 
 The former, when a man devoted anything for the Temple for sacrifice — wine, 
 etc. ; the latter, when he vowed to abstain from something which was lawful 
 in itself. 
 
 - Korban, derived from a Hebrew word, "to offer to God," "bring to the 
 altar, " Konam was perhaps derived from the Latin census; but some consider 
 that the Rabbis used it as a distorted form of Korban. 
 
V. 9-23 Fttrther Traditionalisvi 153 
 
 that everything which might have been used for their parent's 
 benefit was " Korban." It was this which our Lord selected 
 for special animadversion. The immorality of such conduct 
 was greatly intensified by a practice which could hardly have 
 been originally intended, but w^hich had been winked at, if not 
 openly allowed, in later times. It suffered a man to delay the 
 actual dedication, so that even after the words of alienation 
 had been spoken, he might still continue to enjoy the so-called 
 " Korban," though the rival claims of the parent were held to 
 be set aside as soon as ever the formula was pronounced. We 
 can well understand, then, how our Lord should rebuke those 
 who could tolerate such flagrant injustice, and declare that 
 such casuistry had struck a nail through the sacred bond, and 
 " made the word of God of none effect." ^ 
 
 Unable any longer to endure the thought of their sophistries. 
 He turned abruptly from the Pharisaic disputants. A crowd 
 of people had gathered in the neighbourhood, drawn together 
 no doubt by the importance which a deputation from the 
 Sanhedrim at Jerusalem would lend to the discussion, as well 
 as by their natural curiosity. The Pharisees had been openly 
 denounced, and the multitudes must know it, that their 
 confidence in such teachers might be shaken and destroyed. 
 Jesus waited till every one had come within reach of His 
 voice, and then, with a caution both at the beginning and 
 at the end, upon the importance of hearing and laying to 
 heart what He said, condemned Pharisaic externalism by the 
 sweeping assertion that nothing from without can defile a man. 
 It was the flattest contradiction to their system that could 
 possibly be given, and we can almost see them gnashing their 
 teeth against Him as He turned away with that parting curse 
 upon their creed. The die had been cast, and henceforward 
 there could be not even the semblance of a truce betw^een the 
 adherents of the Old and the followers of the New. 
 
 It seems strange that when He entered into the house, the 
 disciples should have asked him the meaning of His words. 
 They saw that there was something deeper than what lay on 
 the surface, for they spoke of His speech as a parable. It 
 
 1 The rendering of the Authorised Version loses the force of the words as 
 found in the best MSS. They are well rendered in the Revised Version : "If 
 a man shall say , . . ye no longer suffer him . . . making void . . ." 
 
154 Flirt her Traditionalism chap, vn 
 
 seemed to Him next to impossible that they could have failed 
 to comprehend its spiritual significance; that with all their 
 opportunities of discerning His mind, they should have made 
 so little progress that a simple parable like that required 
 explanation. Nevertheless, with that patience and gentleness 
 which characterised His education of them for their future 
 office, after a momentary expression of surprise, He unfolded 
 the true sense of the figure which He had used. There could 
 be no greater mistake than to suppose that a man was defiled 
 by what he ate. The Law had for a special purpose ^ drawn 
 a distinction between clean and unclean meat, and this affected 
 a man ceremonially, but no food could impart actual defile- 
 ment. Henceforward, too. He gave them to understand that 
 even ceremonial impurity would be done away. For S. Mark 
 tells us that He made the statement, " Whatsoever thing from 
 without entereth into a man, cannot defile him," ..." purging^ 
 all meats," — that is, pronouncing them clean. It may not have 
 conveyed this meaning to His hearers, but if we accept the 
 true reading of the passage, we have the witness of the Spirit 
 that He so intended it. It was an anticipation of the verdict 
 pronounced to S. Peter after the vision of the "great sheet :" 
 " What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." 
 
 Turning, then, from the ceremonial to the moral. He 
 showed that the only defilement to be feared was that which 
 came from within, — from the heart, which is the very cradle 
 of the affections and lusts. A long catalogue of sins follows, 
 — sins, many of which are commonly called sins of the flesh, 
 but which He Who is able to trace everything to its source 
 assigned to the depravity of the heart and will. At the head 
 of the list He placed the " evil disputings," so fresh in His 
 memory from His encounter with the Pharisees ; then adulteries 
 and fornications, the outcome of a corrupt imagination; murders, 
 which proceed from anger ; thefts and covetousness, from 
 secret promptings to overreach others and gain more than one 
 
 ^ The reason assigned in Lev. xx, 24-26 is to separate the Jews from other 
 nations as God's pecuHar people. " It was to be something in their daily life 
 to remind them of the Covenant which distinguished them from the nations of 
 the world." Cf. Speaker's Com. on Lev. n. xi. 2. 
 
 2 The reading of the best MSS. is Kadapi^cou, and is an observation made 
 by the Evangelist, "referring to the intention of the Speaker," — He spoke 
 thus, cleansing all meats. 
 
V. 9-23 Fzcrther TradiHonalism 155 
 
 has a right to ; knaveries and fraud ; lasciviousness or reckless 
 insolence, which outrages the decencies of life ; the malicious 
 glance and slanderous tongue ; the proud and haughty bearing 
 which bespeaks the self-centred man ; and last in the list, the 
 comprehensive sin of foolishness, which embraces every sense- 
 less wicked act. And " all these evil things," the Discerner 
 of the heart and thoughts of man assured His disciples, " come 
 from within, and defile the man." 
 
XXXIII 
 
 ^^e »)^ropIjenician (Lillomaix 
 
 S. Mark vii. 24-30 
 
 24. And from thence He arose, and unto her, Let the children first be 
 went into the borders of Tyre and ' filled ; for it is not meet to take the 
 Sidon, and entered into an house, and children's bread, and to cast it unto 
 would have no man know it : but He the dogs. 28. And she answered and 
 could not be hid. 25. For a certai7i said unto Him, Yes, Lord : yet the 
 woman, whose young daughter had an dogs under the table eat of the child- 
 unclean spirit, heard of Him, and ren's crumbs. 29. And He said unto 
 came and fell at His feet : 26. the her, For this saying go thy way ; the 
 woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician devil is gone out of thy daughter, 
 by nation ; and she besought Him 30. And when she was come to her 
 that He would cast forth the devil out house, she found the devil gone out, 
 of her daughter. 27. But Jesus said and her daughter laid upon the bed. 
 
 This incident seems to point to a somewhat new departure in 
 our Lord's mission. His ruling maxim had been, " I am not 
 sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." It had 
 not prevented Him from bestowing favour upon such of the 
 heathen as had come in His way. He could hardly have 
 failed to heal some that were sick among the inhabitants of 
 Decapolis ; and one instance is left on record of blessings 
 bestowed upon a Roman centurion. He was perfectly familiar 
 with the prophecies which foretold that the Gentiles should 
 profit by His coming, that He would be "a Light to lighten 
 the Gentiles," as well as " the glory of His people Israel ; " 
 but for manifold reasons He felt that His personal ministry 
 must be circumscribed, and confined within strictly Jewish 
 limits. 
 
 Now, for the first — for the only — time. He appears to 
 have passed into heathen territory. It has been maintained, 
 
CH. VII. V. 24-30 The Syjvpkemcian Woman 157 
 
 however, that He merely approached the confines without 
 overstepping the boundary Hne. It may be that " Tyre and 
 Sidon " were not only cities, but districts, and that the "coasts" 
 or '' borders of Tyre and Sidon " meant nothing more than "the 
 marches " which separated Phenicia from Galilee ; but the 
 statement of a later verse, that He went " through Sidon," leads 
 to the more natural conclusion that He did actually set foot 
 upon heathen land. 
 
 It is worthy of note, nevertheless, that it was not with the 
 intention of preaching or performing any ministerial work, but 
 mainly in search of privacy and seclusion. He needed rest 
 after His prolonged labours, and He may have felt it prudent 
 also to place Himself, in a time of some special excitement, 
 beyond the reach of Herod's machinations. No sooner had 
 He crossed the frontier than He sought shelter in a house. 
 To avoid any unnecessary offence to those who accompanied 
 Him, we may conclude that it was that of a Jew ; for, though 
 strictly a heathen country, the population had been a mixed 
 one for many centuries. 
 
 The fame of His doings had penetrated those parts, for the 
 scene of His chief miracles was not much above thirty miles 
 distant ; and though He expressed His desire to be left undis- 
 turbed, " He could not be hid." He was almost immediately 
 discovered by a poor woman, who was in great distress through 
 a terrible affliction which had befallen her child. Her nation- 
 ality is emphasised by the Evangelists with a variety of 
 expression. She is characterised vaguely as " a Greek," not in 
 the limited sense with which we are most familiar, but as a 
 generic term for non- Jewish people, very much as the Turks 
 and Asiatics adopt the designation of " Frank " for any 
 European. Her personal name has come down through 
 tradition as Justa, and that of her daughter as Bernice. She 
 is called by S. Matthew " a woman of Canaan " — an inliabitant 
 of the region into which those who escaped extermination had 
 been shut up ; and the title may have been selected to enhance 
 the loving-kindness of the Lord, not without reference to her 
 inheritance of the ancient malediction, "Cursed be Canaan."' 
 She is also called here a Syrophenician by descent, probably 
 to distinguish her from those Libyo - Phenicians ^ in the 
 ^ It is supposed by some that the above distinction was not known, and 
 
158 The Syrophenicimi VVoma^i chap, vh 
 
 northern coasts of Africa, whom the fame of Carthage had 
 made so widely known. 
 
 She was, no doubt, in religion a heathen, but was possessed 
 by principles which, when called into active exercise by the 
 Great Teacher, served her in better stead than the orthodox 
 creed did not a few of its professors. 
 
 She had heard of the fame of Jesus, probably from those 
 " about Tyre and Sidon " who had joined the crowds at 
 Capernaum a year before \ perhaps they had even told her 
 how the evil spirit had been cast out of the demoniac in the 
 synagogue, and in the fulness of hope and faith she had 
 believed all that she heard ; and now that the great Wonder- 
 worker was actually come within reach, she hurried into His 
 Presence, and, despite every hindrance, threw herself at His 
 feet in supplication for mercy. He must have been surprised 
 by the title with which she addressed Him, " Have mercy on 
 me, O Lord, Thou Son of David," for it was that which 
 bespoke the Jewish Messiah, the Saviour of the world. But 
 He met her petition by an instantaneous rebuff: "Let the 
 children first be filled : for it is not meet to take the children's 
 bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." It would have checked 
 the eagerness of most suppliants, but hers was no common 
 faith, and her determination to find relief was only equalled by 
 the soreness of her need. Though there was much that she 
 could not have expected, and for which she was unprepared, 
 in the language that He used, it was not altogether harsh, 
 and she caught at whatever seemed to mitigate it. It is quite 
 possible also that there was something either in the expression 
 of His face or the tone of His voice, which lessened the 
 discouragement. 
 
 She had often heard her people characterised as " dogs." 
 It was a title by which " the Jews, whose first care it was to 
 hate, to mock, and to curse all besides themselves, disgraced 
 the Gentiles." The noble nature of the dog finds no recog- 
 nition in the history of the Old or New Testaments.^ Among 
 Jews, dogs were regarded as wild, savage, undomesticated 
 
 that the true rendering is a Phenician Syrian, as in some copies, iLvpa ^obiacra. 
 In the LXX. Canaan is translated (^oiv'lktj. 
 
 ^ The only mention of a dog as a domestic animal among Jews is in Tobit, 
 where Tobias goes forth on a journey to Media, and " the young man's dog 
 with them," — Tob. v. 16. 
 
V. 24-30 The Syrophenician Wo7nan 159 
 
 animals, which prowled about cities as the scavengers of the 
 streets, with no masters and no homes. 
 
 But Jesus, by the use of a diminutive not to be expressed 
 in English,^ softened not a little the harshness of the comparison, 
 implying that the dogs to which He likened them were not 
 excluded from the house. Aod the woman, with the instincts 
 of a Gentile, with whom the dog was not only a favourite, but 
 an almost necessary companion, having its place at the do- 
 mestic hearth, turned it at once into an argument in her favour, 
 and replied, "Yes, Lord" — or if we admit the truer reading — 
 ' I accept the position, " for the dogs under the table eat of 
 the children's crumbs."' What she meant to convey must 
 have been something like this : ' I do not deny that the Jews 
 are the first object of Your care and ministration. They are 
 the true children ; and I am far from asking that they should 
 ever be superseded in their rightful prerogative ; but the very 
 fact that You should speak of their being first fed seems to 
 imply that our turn will come after them, and Your mitigation 
 of the harsh unfeeling byword, which the Jews adopt, encour- 
 ages me to persevere in my petition. Let the full board, then 
 — the plentiful bread of grace, — be reserved for the Jewish 
 children ; but only let me be as the dog under the table, to 
 partake of the crumbs of mercy and comfort that fall from it' 
 
 Such a pleading as that was irresistible : her prayer was 
 answered, and for that saying, and the greatness of the faith of 
 which it was the expression, her daughter was delivered from 
 her dreadful affliction. 
 
 The story places before us a pattern of meekness and per- 
 severance rarely equalled. How many, even with privileges of 
 teaching and education to which she was a stranger, would 
 have taken offence at the apparent insult of such a reception 
 as she met with ! But with all the forbearance of the meek 
 and quiet spirit, which disarms opposition, she discerned a 
 smile beneath His frown, and won her petition. How many, 
 again, if not offended and full of resentment, would have 
 turned away discouraged ! To have hoped, as she had done, 
 against hope, and then to have heard that there was One Who 
 could give her relief, and to have flung herself at His feet in 
 
 ^ The common term of contempt was Kuves. Jesus said KvvdpLa, catelli, 
 little dogs, pet dogs. 
 
i6o The Syrophenician Woman ch. vh. v. 24-30 
 
 the agony of supplication, and to be so received ! Could we 
 have been surprised if despair had taken possession of her, and 
 she had hurried from His Presence? But faith triumphed 
 over all disappointment, and "her daughter was made whole 
 from that very hour." Whether it was given to her to under- 
 stand it, we cannot tell; but rfie seeming harshness of her 
 Saviour's conduct was but a new revelation of His unfailing 
 love. The same love which, when faith was weak, prompted 
 Him to go forth to meet it, led Him to hold Himself back 
 when faith was strong, that it might be yet further purified and 
 made perfect through trial. 
 
XXXIV 
 
 Cije 2Deaf ^au toittj Stammering: tongue 
 
 S. Mark vir. 31-37 
 
 31. And again, departing from the and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that 
 
 coasts of Tyre and Sidon, He came is, Be opened. 35. And straightway 
 
 unto the sea of Gahlee, through the his ears were opened, and the string 
 
 midst of the coasts of Decapolis. 32. of his tongue was loosed, and he 
 
 And they bring unto Him one that spake plain. 36. And He charged 
 
 was deaf, and had an impediment in them that they should tell no man : but 
 
 his speech ; and they beseech Him to the more He charged them, so much 
 
 put His hand upon him. 33. And the more a great deal they published 
 
 He took him aside from the multitude, // / 37. and were beyond measure 
 
 and put His fingers into his ears, and astonished, saying, He hath done all 
 
 He spit, and touched his tongue ; 34 . things well : He maketh both the deaf 
 
 and looking up to heaven. He sighed, to hear, and the dumb to speak. 
 
 After leaving the borders of Tyre, where He had cured the 
 Syrophenician's daughter, our Lord proceeded to go "through 
 Sidon," ^ but whether He actually visited the ancient Phenician 
 capital, or only set foot on Sidonian territory, we have no 
 means of deciding. If the latter, He would turn southwards 
 after making a slight circuit, and take the great Roman road 
 direct to Caesarea Philippi. But if the former, He must have 
 crossed some of the numerous passes of the mountain ranges 
 of Libanus and Hermon into the neighbourhood of Damascus. 
 This would take Him through some of the grandest highland 
 scenery of Palestine ; and when we recall His love of Nature, 
 so often manifested in His teaching, it affords a strong presump- 
 tion that He would not be insensible to such a consideration 
 in the selection of His route. 
 
 We are told, moreover, that He came through "the midst 
 
 ^ This is the correct text according to the oldest MSS. and versions. Cf. 
 P- 157- 
 
 M 
 
1 62 The Deaf Man with chap, vn 
 
 V 
 
 of the coasts of Decapolis," which favours the supposition, for 
 Damascus ^ was one of the chief of those ten allied free cities 
 so designated by the Romans. Though situated within the 
 tetrarchies of Philip and Antipas, they were independent of 
 any authority but that of their provincial governor ; and their 
 populations, except so far as enterprising Jews might be 
 tempted there for purposes of trade, were entirely heathen. 
 On the Return from the Captivity the old possessors had been 
 unable to re-conquer them ; and the ruins of ancient monu- 
 ments, among* which are temples to numerous Greek divinities, 
 testify to their Pagan worship and customs. It is important 
 to notice this, because it involves our Lord in a larger in- 
 tercourse with the heathen than is commonly supposed, 
 and makes it by no means improbable that the group of 
 miracles here recorded were wrought upon them, and not upon 
 Jews. 
 
 At some stage of His journey through these parts they 
 brought to Him "one that was deaf, and had an impediment 
 in his speech." He had not been deaf and dumb from his 
 birth, but had lost the sense of hearing from some unrecorded 
 cause, perhaps a fever or an accident, and this deprivation was 
 followed in time, as usually happens, by a difficulty and 
 indistinctness in speaking.^ 
 
 What our Lord's motive was in taking him apart from the 
 crowd is by no means obvious.^ With our Saviour " a moral 
 dealing was the ultimate end of a physical cure," and this was 
 kept in view in the mode of working it. Possibly, then, it was 
 a symbolical action indicating the necessity of his being 
 separated from his own people, and brought out of heathen- 
 ism. More probably it was designed to concentrate his 
 attention upon our Lord's Own Person, and quicken his faith 
 to be healed. For the same reason, perhaps, He made use of 
 those manual acts of thrusting His fingers into his ears, and 
 
 ^ There is some difference in the ancient enumerations of the cities. Pliny 
 names Scythopolis, Hippos, Gadara, Pella, Philadelphia, Gerasa, Dion, 
 Conatha, Damascus, and Raphana (H. N. v. i8). He gives the extent of the 
 territory at about one hundred miles long, by sixty broad. 
 
 - fjLoytXdXos is used in the LXX. for dumb, but etymologically implies 
 merely ' ' difficulty of speech. " 
 
 ^ 2 This is the first occasion on which He adopted this course. The only 
 other recorded instance is in the kindred miracle that followed shortly after. 
 Cf. viii. 23. 
 
V. 31-37 Stammering Tongtie 163 
 
 touching his tongue with the spittle,^ because He could 
 employ no words to strengthen his confidence. He prepared 
 the man, so to speak, by a foretaste of what was to follow 
 through His intervention ; as an old writer has expressed it, 
 " by forcing His fingers into the ears, and moistening the 
 tongue. He testified that it was He by Whose hand the closed 
 passages could be pierced, and the tongue that clave to the 
 roof of the mouth recover its motive power." 
 
 Then followed an upward look to heaven, as well to convince 
 him that it was more than human aid that he was about to 
 receive, as to express His union with the Father. A moment 
 more and He heaved a sigh and uttered a groan of sympathy 
 for the sorrow that is in the world, and the w^ord of authority 
 — a single word — Ephphatha,- broke from His hps. He 
 spake, and it was done. 
 
 If we could be quite sure that the man was a Gentile — a 
 native of those Greek-speaking cities — the word would help to 
 the settlement of an open question, whether our Lord usually 
 spoke in the ordinary vernacular of the Jews, or adopted the 
 Greek of the more educated classes. If both languages had 
 been in familiar use by Him, the circumstances of the case 
 would at once have suggested the adoption of Greek rather 
 than Aramaic. It is of Httle consequence that He could not 
 in either case have been heard by the man himself; the 
 narrative clearly indicates that his friends had drawn near, and 
 were within sound of the Speaker's voice. 
 
 But, in whatever language, it was a word of power. "The 
 channels of hearing"^ were unstopped, and, if we accept the 
 reading of the oldest manuscript,'* "immediately the string of 
 his tongue was loosed." It is a significant change in the order 
 of words, affording additional proof that it was not a case of 
 congenital deafness. He needed only the restoration of the 
 
 ^ There was a belief at the time in the medicinal virtue of saliva. " It is 
 from this action of our Saviour that the Roman CathoHcs formed their custom 
 of touching with spittle the ears and nostrils of the person to be baptized." 
 Cf. Morison, S. Mark, 7?i hv. 
 
 - This is the Aramaic form of the Ethpael imperative. It has been thought 
 that the stress laid on the few Aramaic expressions, such as this, " Talitha 
 cumi," and " Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, " is an inference that He usually 
 spoke Greek, but it is hardly a legitimate one. 
 
 ^ aKoal, instead of tird, implies the sense rather than the actual organs of 
 hearing. •* The Sinaitic MS. 
 
164 The Deaf Man ch. vn. v. 31-37 
 
 sense of hearing, to recover the faculty of articulate speech, 
 and "he spake plain." 
 
 The oft-repeated charge was once more given — once more 
 to be disregarded — " that they should tell no man." It seems 
 strange that after what He had done, the mere knowledge of 
 His wishes did not insure obedience ; but the instinctive and 
 irrepressible desire, following upon the reception of any great 
 blessing, to speak of it to others was too strong for them. It 
 is quite possible that they misunderstood His motives, and set 
 it down to a modest shrinking from the praise and popularity 
 which in their eyes was so well earned; and this misconception 
 gave them an additional impulse to do what their natural 
 inclinations prompted, so "the more He charged them, so 
 much the more a great deal they published it." 
 
 S. Matthew testifies that it was not the only miracle of the 
 kind, but that multitudes of " lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and 
 many others," were healed, so that the amazement of the 
 people knew no bounds ; and he concludes with an expression 
 which goes far to confirm the belief that those upon whom 
 the miraculous cures were wrought belonged to the heathen 
 population. "They glorified," he says, "the God of Israel." 
 It would have been wholly inappropriate if applied to Jews. 
 
 S. Mark records the exclamations in which their admiration 
 expressed itself, and they carry us back to the utterances of the 
 prophet ages before, and are an unconscious witness to their 
 fulfilment, and to Christ's claim to the Messiahship : " Then 
 the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf 
 shall be unstopped : then shall the lame man leap as an hart, 
 and the tongue of the dumb sing." 
 
XXXV 
 
 ^Ijc jFeeDing of tljc Jfouc ^ijou^anti 
 
 vS. Mark viii. 
 
 I. In those days the multitude 
 being very great, and having nothing 
 to eat, Jesus called His disciples unto 
 Him, and saith unto them, 2. I 
 have compassion on the multitude, 
 because they have now been with Me 
 three days, and have nothing to eat : 
 3. and if I send them away fasting to 
 their own houses, they will faint by 
 the way : for divers of them came 
 from far. 4. And His disciples an- 
 swered Him, From whence can a 
 man satisfy these men with bread 
 here in the wilderness? 5. And He 
 asked them, How many loaves have 
 
 ye ? And they said. Seven. 6. And 
 He commanded the people to sit down 
 on the ground : and He took the seven 
 loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, 
 and gave to His disciples to set before 
 ihem ; and they did set them before 
 the people. 7. And they had a few 
 small fishes : and He blessed, and 
 commanded to set them also before 
 them.. 8. So they did eat, and were 
 filled : and they took up of the broken 
 meat that was left seven baskets. 9. 
 And they that had eaten were about 
 four thousand : and He sent them 
 away. 
 
 S. Augustine expressed satisfaction that the providential 
 record of this miracle by Evangelists, who recorded the kindred 
 miraculous feeding of the five thousand, had preserved it from 
 the attacks of hostile critics. But what kept them off in an 
 earlier age has been found to interpose no barrier in these 
 later times, when the credibility of the Gospel narrative is so 
 fiercely assailed. 
 
 This account has been spoken of as "a loose tradition,*' or 
 " an ill-remembered reproduction " of the former, but the only 
 ground for the supposition is the surprise of the Apostles, 
 "Whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the 
 wilderness?" If, it is said, they had seen a similar multitude 
 supernaturally fed, they would have expected a repetition of 
 
1 66 The Feeding of the chap, vm 
 
 the same creative act for a corresponding necessity. It is a 
 plausible objection, but admits, as will be seen, of satisfactory 
 explanation. Leaving this for the moment, we turn to a 
 consideration of numerous facts which are wholly inconsistent 
 with the suggested theory. Almost all the details of the two 
 narratives are different. The mode of distribution through 
 the agency of the Apostles ^ is the only point in which they 
 exactly agree. Some uncertainty, it is true, hangs round the 
 scene of this miracle, but the most that can be said is, that it 
 was at least in the same neighbourhood as the first There 
 is no question that that was in a desert adjoining Bethsaida- 
 Julias, on the north-eastern side of the lake. It may be in- 
 ferred that this was wrought on the same coast, for it is said 
 that Jesus had reached the further shore through the midst of 
 Decapolis, and that after the multitudes had been dismissed, 
 He took ship and crossed over to Magdala - on the Galilean 
 side. There is, however, no evidence to enable us to fix the 
 exact locality. 
 
 In all other points and characteristic features there is 
 distinct divergence. 
 
 In the earlier miracle the people were Jews, chiefly from 
 the Jewish towns of Capernaum, Tiberias, and Bethsaida, on 
 the western side of the lake, pilgrims preparing to go up to 
 the approaching Passover. In the later they were Gentiles. 
 All the history which immediately precedes is occupied with 
 our Lord's ministry among the semi -heathen population of 
 Decapolis ; and an expression of S. Matthew, in describing 
 the effect produced upon them by His miracles, where he says 
 that "they glorified the God of Israel," admits of no other 
 explanation than that they were not Israelites themselves. 
 This, added to their wonder at the sight of His miracles, 
 which would have been unaccountable in the Galileans after 
 a ministry of two years amongst them, leaves little doubt of 
 their non-Jewish nationality. 
 
 The time also differed. When the five thousand were fed 
 
 1 Cf. p. 138. 
 
 2 Magdala. I'he best MSS. give Magadan as the name of the place. 
 Possibly it bore both names. The modern El-Mejdil is clearly the represent- 
 ative of the former. The Ualmanutha of S. Mark is not mentioned elsewhere ; 
 but it must have been either a town or district on the south-western side of the 
 lake. 
 
[-9 
 
 Four Thousmid 167 
 
 the Passover was nigh at hand, as S. John says, and it is 
 borne out by the undesigned coincidence that the remaining 
 Evangehsts all call attention to the abundance of grass, 1 which 
 springs up in Palestine at this time of the year. 
 
 Whereas, in describing what took place at the second 
 miracle, there is no such allusion. It is merely said that they 
 sat "on the ground." From the sequence of events several 
 weeks must have elapsed, and, as usually happens in that 
 country, the verdure had dried up and withered, and called 
 for no observation. 
 
 There is, moreover, a marked difference preserved through- 
 out all the narratives in the kind of baskets used for gathering 
 up the fragments in the two cases. 
 
 In the first, each one of the Twelve unstrapped the wicker 
 wallet which, in accordance with custom, he would take with 
 him on his travels, and filled it with the broken pieces ; and 
 this accounts for the number of the baskets corresponding 
 with that of the Apostles. In the second a much larger 
 basket- was used, for on one occasion it served to hold S. 
 Paul when he was let down through a window in the walls of 
 Damascus. It is a noteworthy coincidence that the more 
 capacious basket is found in connection with a prolonged 
 sojourn in a heathen district, when a larger store of "clean" 
 provisions would be required than could be carried in the 
 ordinary cophinus or wallet.*' 
 
 Again, the multitudes in the first miracle were more, and 
 the loaves and fishes fewer in number than in the second ; and 
 herein may be found a further and decisive argument against 
 the supposed invention of the latter account. A forger would 
 have reversed the statistics, and made the numbers greater 
 and the provisions smaller in the second case ; for nothing 
 could be gained by inventing such a narrative if it did not 
 
 1 " The latter rain" fell during the greater part of the month of March, 
 and was followed by a great outburst of spring verdure, which would be most 
 noticeable about the time of the Passover. 
 
 ^ airvpis, Lat. sporta, was a large provision-basket, much used for meals, 
 hence the phrase deiwpov dirb airvpidos. It was perhaps more of the nature of 
 a hamper. 
 
 3 The miracle of the five thousand took place during a short absence only 
 from Galilean territory. The "cophinus" would contain ample provision for 
 this, but His travels through the towns of Decapolis had occupied a consider- 
 able time. 
 
1 68 The Feeding of the chap, vm 
 
 tend, so to speak, to magnify the wonder-working power of 
 our Lord. 
 
 Lastly, there is a striking difference in the results. When 
 the Jewish crowds witnessed that great creative act they were 
 filled with enthusiasm and excitement. The expected Messiah 
 had shown Himself in their midst, and they broke out with 
 the cry, " This is of a truth that Prophet that should come 
 into the world ; " and then they were so carried away with the 
 conviction, that nothing would satisfy them till they had tried 
 " to take Him by force and make Him a king." 
 
 The heathen multitude, on the other hand, less excitable, 
 because they had no such expectations, dispersed without 
 any demonstration, when their wants were satisfied and they 
 realised that Jesus was about to depart. 
 
 A full consideration, therefore, of the circumstances of the 
 second miracle furnishes ample proof of the authenticity of 
 the record — none whatever that it is of spurious origin. 
 
 The question of the Apostles, which has suppUed the 
 assailants of its credibility with their chief argument, admits of 
 a double solution, either of which will satisfy the requirements 
 of the case. If the multitudes were Gentiles, the Apostles 
 might well have hesitated before concluding that their Master 
 would work such a miracle for them, as He had done for the 
 Jews. There was no lesson harder for them to learn, than 
 that all 1 alike were eligible for His bounty. 
 
 Or again, we may find the explanation in their slowness 
 to believe. It is only another illustration of the proverbial 
 forgetful ness of past mercies. Had not God cleft the rock in 
 the wilderness to satisfy the thirst of the wanderers ? Had 
 He not given them quails from heaven ? And was it not true 
 that when the fountain dried up, and the pangs of hunger 
 returned, they forgot the past, and in their ingratitude mur- 
 mured against Him ? 
 
 It has been well said, " It is only the man of full-formed 
 faith, of a faith which as yet the Apostles did not possess, who 
 argues from the past to the future, and truly derives confidence 
 from God's former dealings of faithfulness and love." 
 
 The spiritual teaching to be derived from the history differs 
 
 ^ Cf. the case of the Syrophenician woman. "Send her away," they 
 cried. S. Matt. xv. 23. 
 
V. 1-9 
 
 Four Thousand 169 
 
 in no way from that which the kindred record supplied, but 
 we may gather an additional fragment of instruction from the 
 words, "So they did eat, and were filled." It is a significant 
 expression in the original, "They were fed to satisfaction." 
 That such a result followed, was the consequence of their 
 being fed by Him alone Who " satisfies the empty soul, and 
 filleth the hungry soul with gladness." There is need to be 
 reminded of this in an age when men are pointed to other 
 sources of satisfaction — to education, to culture, and to 
 refinement, and bidden to find their highest enjoyment in 
 these and suchlike pursuits. If they bear no reference to 
 Him towards Whom all that is noblest and best in Nature 
 and Art is designed to lead us, they will turn out to be but 
 " broken cisterns that hold no water." 
 
 There is only one answer to the inquiry, " From whence 
 can a man satisfy these men with bread?" and it is contained 
 in the words, "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, 
 and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst." 
 
XXXVI 
 
 %l)t 2Demauti for a ^i^n 
 
 S. Mark viii. 10-21 
 
 10. And straightway He entered 
 into a ship with His disciples, and 
 came into the parts of Dalmanutha. 
 II. And the Pharisees came forth, 
 and began to question with Him, 
 seeking of Him a sign from heaven, 
 tempting Him. 12. And He sighed 
 deeply in His spirit, and saith, Why 
 doth this generation seek after a sign ? 
 verily I say unto you, There shall no 
 sign be given unto this generation. 
 13. And He left them, and entering 
 into the ship again departed to the 
 other side. 
 
 14. Now ///(? disciples had forgotten 
 to take bread, neither had they in the 
 ship with them more than one loaf. 
 15. And He charged them, saying, 
 Take heed, beware of the leaven of 
 the Pharisees, and of the leaven of 
 
 Herod. 16. And they reasoned 
 among themselves, saying, It is be- 
 cause we have no bread. 17. And 
 when Jesus knew it, He saith unto 
 them, Why reason ye, because ye 
 have no bread? perceive ye not yet, 
 neither understand? have ye your 
 heart yet hardened ? 18. Having eyes, 
 see ye not ? and having ears, hear 
 ye not,? and do ye not remember? 
 
 19. When I brake the five loaves 
 among five thousand, how many 
 baskets full of fragments took ye 
 up ? They say unto Him, Twelve. 
 
 20. And when the seven among four 
 thousand, how many baskets full of 
 fragments took ye up? And they 
 said, Seven. 21. And He said unto 
 them. How is it that ye do not under- 
 stand ? 
 
 Our Lord had been travelling, if not actually in heathen 
 territory, at least where He had been brought into contact with 
 heathens. The eagerness with which He had been welcomed 
 in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon and of Decapolis, was in 
 striking contrast to the reception that awaited Him on His 
 return to Galilee. No sooner had He landed on the western 
 shore of the lake, in Dalmanutha, wliich was probably the 
 southern part not far from Magdala, than the Pharisees "came 
 forth " to meet Him. Whether it merely means that they 
 came from the neighbouring cities, such as Tiberias, where 
 
cH. VIII. V. IO-2I The De^nand for a Sign 171 
 
 they dwelt, or whether it points to a place of waiting, where, 
 it may be, they had watched the progress of His well-known 
 boat approaching, they lost no time in entering into a contro- 
 versy as soon as He arrived. 
 
 S. Mark, "for whom the beginnings of things had a 
 charm," says that they "began to question with Him, seeking 
 of Him a sign from heaven, tempting Him." The last w^ords 
 leave it quite clear w^hat their object was : they wished to put 
 Him to the test, to incite Him to make an attempt in which 
 they hoped He might fail. 
 
 They intimated that they were not satisfied with what they 
 had seen. The miracles of healing might be nothing more 
 than the result of superior medical skill ; the dispossession of 
 evil spirits, they had told Him before, they believed to have 
 been effected by Beelzebub. If He wished to establish His 
 Messianic claims above all doubt and suspicion, it behoved 
 Him to give them a sign direct from heaven, where neither 
 man nor devil could possibly be the moving cause. They 
 w^ould be quite satisfied if He would rain manna from above, 
 or stay the sun in its course, or awake the thunder in a clear 
 sky ; any of these would put the question on quite another 
 footing, and they would be the first to believe in Him. But 
 He knew their hypocrisy, and that beneath all their pretended 
 anxiety to be convinced, there lay a dogged determination to 
 shut their eyes to every sign, and close their hearts against 
 Him. 
 
 He might have reminded them in so many words that they 
 had the very evidence they asked for ; but it may be, having 
 in His mind the preternatural star which had presided over 
 His Birth, and the scene when the very heavens had opened 
 to attest His mission at His Baptism, He told them in irony 
 that all their boasted skill in watching the everchanging sky, 
 and pretending to be able to forecast sunshine and rain,^ fair 
 weather and foul, only aggravated their guilt in refusing to 
 discern the signs of the times. No sign. He solemnly assured 
 them, such as they asked should be given, not at least till it 
 would be too late, for when " the sun should be darkened " 
 
 ^ The Jews paid great attention to the forecast of weather. They watched 
 the smoke, e.g., at the Feast of Tabernacles. If it turned northward, they 
 expected much rain the following year ; if southward, little. Cf. Talm. Bab. 
 Yoma, 21 b. 
 
172 TJie Demand for a Sign chap, vm 
 
 in open day, they would have rejected Him for ever. No 
 wonder that "He sighed deeply in His spirit."^ It may have 
 been in His human shrinking from that fearful hour, when He 
 should hang upon the cross amid supernatural darkness ; it 
 must have been as well, out of the depths of an untold pity 
 for hearts that He longed in vain to save. And so, knowing 
 the utter uselessness of complying with their request, as far as 
 they were concerned, and having no temptation to make an 
 ostentatious display of miraculous power for His Own aggran- 
 disement, He quitted their shores, no more to return to do any 
 work amongst them.^ 
 
 From Dalmanutha He embarked, and the boat was turned 
 in the direction of the north-east coast. During the voyage 
 nothing was spoken ; at least there is no record of any con- 
 versation, and the thought of what had occurred may well have 
 filled the heart of Jesus with sadness and gloom. But as soon 
 as they landed, the disciples were troubled by the discovery 
 that, in the hurry and confusion of their sudden departure, 
 they had forgotten to supply themselves with necessary pro- 
 visions ; and while they were discussing what was best to be 
 done, Jesus broke His silence by bidding them "beware of 
 the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod." His 
 mind was full of His late interview, in which they had exhibited 
 such a complete misapprehension of His mission, and dreading 
 the possibility of its spreading to His disciples, He uttered the 
 warning with a more than usual caution."^ Their reply proved 
 that though they did not misapprehend Him, as the Pharisees 
 had done, they were yet slow of understanding, and with little 
 perception of spiritual truths. The mention of leaven suggested 
 at once the conclusion that He had overheard their discussion, 
 and they associated it with their need of bread."^ " He tells 
 us," they seem to say, "that if we buy bread from a Pharisee 
 
 ^ Cf. p. 36, n. 2. 
 
 " He did not return to carry on His work. In ch. ix. 30 we find Him 
 there, but only as it were in private ; ' ' He would not that any one should 
 know " of His visit. 
 
 ^ The combination of " Take heed, beware," is very expressive. 
 
 ■* There were frequent disputes about the use of leaven, whether e.g. 
 heathen leaven, or Cuthaean, were permissible; and Lightfoot says, "The 
 disciples thought that Christ cautioned them concerning the leaven of the 
 Pharisees ; but withal they suspected some silent reproof for not bringing 
 bread along with them." 
 
V. IO-2I The De}na7id for a Sign 173 
 
 or a Sadducee, the bread would defile us, as it would if we 
 bought it from a Samaritan." And at once He exposed their 
 mistake by recaUing the miracles which He had worked in 
 their presence for the supply of food by supernatural power. 
 How could they be perplexed by such a difficulty as this? 
 Then, after eliciting from them the fact that they had forgotten 
 nothing of the external circumstances — the numbers of the 
 people and of the loaves, and the basketsful of fragments that 
 remained over, and even the kind of baskets ^ which had been 
 used on each occasion — He asked in sorrow of heart, how it 
 was that they had failed so completely to understand the 
 meaning of His acts ? If they had learned nothing more 
 from them, they ought at least to have gathered this, that in 
 His Presence there need be no anxious care about bread. S. 
 Mark says no more, but S. Matthew tells us that their under- 
 standings were opened, and that they discovered that by "the 
 leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees," He spoke of 
 their doctrine. 
 
 ^ Cf. pp. 137 n. 2, 167 n. 3, 
 
XXXVII 
 
 m)z Blinti Q^aii at BetIj0aitia 
 
 S. Mark viii. 22-26 
 
 22. And He cometh to Bethsaida ; And he looked up, and said, I see 
 
 and they bring a blind man unto men as trees, walking. 25. After that 
 
 Him, and besought Him to touch He put His hands again upon his eyes, 
 
 him, 23. And He took the blind man and made him look up : and he was 
 
 by the hand, and led him out of the restored, and saw every man clearly. 
 
 town ; and when He had spit on his 26. And He sent him away to his 
 
 eyes, and put His hands upon him, house, saying. Neither go into the 
 
 He asked him if he saw ought. 24. town, nor tell ?/ to any in the town. 
 
 This miracle corresponds closely in many particulars to that 
 of the restoration of " one that was deaf, and had an impedi- 
 ment in his speech," and in parts the description is clothed in 
 the very same language. Both are introduced to the reader 
 in the same way : the scene is laid in the same district : ^ the 
 subjects of the cures are of the same nationality : ^ and the 
 mode of healing adopted is almost peculiar to these alone.^ 
 One distinguishing feature explains the motive that must have 
 weighed with the Evangelist in preserving the record of both 
 in such close proximity to each other. The point of difference 
 is that in the earlier, as in all other miraculous restorations, 
 the cure was immediate, in the later it was gradual and 
 progressive. 
 
 ^ All that is certain is that both were in the eastern territory. It has been 
 commonly assumed that the former miracle was wrought close to the Sea of 
 Galilee ; but it is an assumption, and has been here treated as such. Cf. 
 pp. 161, 162. 
 
 2 Cf. p. 163. 
 
 ^ The only other recorded instance is that of the blind man restored by 
 having his eyes anointed and washing in the Pool of Siloam — S. John ix. 1-8. 
 
CH. VIII. V. 22-26 The Blind Man at Bethsaida 175 
 
 Of the deaf man it is said, " They bring unto Him one 
 that was deaf, . . , and they beseech Him to put His hands 
 upon him ; " of the bhnd, " They bring a bhnd man unto 
 Him, and besought ^ Him to touch him." There is no change 
 of tense in the original, but the parallel is exact. 
 
 In both cases it is the friends who intercede. It illustrates 
 a truth that is full of comfort, that Christ was not infrequently 
 influenced as much by the faith of others, as by that of the 
 sick and afflicted themselves. Indeed, it has been said that 
 "the Gospel history almost throughout is a system of relief 
 through the medium of others." 
 
 The scene is the eastern side of the lake at Bethsaida- 
 Julias.^ There is no intimation that Jesus had crossed over 
 to the western shore, but every reason to believe that He had 
 closed His ministry there at the conclusion of His encounter 
 with the delegates from the vSanhedrim. His final direction 
 to the restored man not to go into the town, but to return 
 home, when added to other considerations, points to some 
 city of Decapolis as his native place, and consequently to his 
 heathen origin. He was led apart like the other, not, as has 
 been suggested, that when restored his eyes might rest upon 
 the beauties of Nature in the country, rather than on the works 
 of man in the town, but that, in privacy and undisturbed 
 intercourse with the Great Physician, his wants might be made 
 fully known, and his faith quickened into a more receptive 
 state. 
 
 It is one of the most touching pictures in the Bible, — 
 Christ, "the Light of the world," hand in hand with a man 
 that was blind. Well indeed may it have created surprise that 
 no Christian artist should ever have seized upon the subject, 
 so suggestive alike of exquisite treatment and spiritual teaching ! 
 We often wonder how deeply the spectators were touched by 
 what they saw, and w^hether that " vision of beauty " ever 
 faded from their memory, or remained as a joy for ever. 
 
 ^ It is the present tense in both, used, as so often by S. Mark, to make the 
 description more vivid. 
 
 2 Some have supposed that it was the Galilean Bethsaida, probably from a 
 mistaken idea that Dalraanutha, from which our Lord had just crossed over, 
 was on the eastern shore. On this supposition it has been concluded that He 
 was forbidden to enter the town because of the sins of the inhabitants. 
 " Woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! " 
 
176 The Blind Man at Bethsaida chap, vm 
 
 No sooner had Jesus and the Wind man withdrawn from 
 the crowd than He anointed his eyes, and laid His hands 
 upon them, and then inquired of him if sight had returned. 
 The man had not been born bhnd, so was able to recognise 
 objects ; but his vision was as yet imperfect, and in the mist 
 and through the film, the forms of men were magnified and 
 distorted. They looked like trees, but they could not be, for 
 they moved about. ^ Again his eyes were touched by the 
 Divine hand, and immediately he saw clearly,^ for every object 
 stood out in plain and well-defined outline. 
 
 In the light of the previous miracle, it calls for no further 
 consideration, save in that one particular which separates it 
 from every other. The mode of cure is a parable in act ; its 
 teaching is in exact harmony with that enforced by the gradual 
 growth of the corn, " first the blade, then the ear, then the full 
 corn in the ear." It is worthy of notice that both have been 
 preserved in this Gospel alone. In opening the eyes of the 
 spiritually blind God is not fettered; "there are diversities of 
 operations, but it is the same God that worketh all in all." 
 The life of the soul, then, may be developed at once by a 
 sudden crisis, for "with God all things are possible;" but the 
 normal process is according to the analogy of the natural 
 kingdom, or as the restoration of sight to the man at Beth- 
 saida, by gradual and progressive efforts. 
 
 If it should be thought that because in the majority of His 
 miracles the effect was immediate, and the cure complete, 
 therefore the same law of proportion should be expected in 
 the restoration of spiritual sicknesses, it must not be forgotten 
 that the direct teaching by parable has infinitely greater weight 
 than the indirect through act and deed. It is true that there 
 is much to be learned from our Lord's mode of working, as, 
 for instance, in this very miracle the means employed pre- 
 figured the human ministries of the Church, and we accept it 
 at once, because it is corroborated by what He taught openly 
 
 ^ According to the best MSS. his exact exclamation was, " I discern men, 
 for as trees I see them walking." Probably it expresses a broken utterance, 
 and might be understood thus : "I notice some men — that is, indistinct like 
 trees — ^but they cannot be trees, for they are walking about." 
 
 ^ KoX dt^^Xexj/ev is now accepted instead of Kal iiroiTjaev avrbv dva^\^\pat, 
 and the meaning is, he saw "the men," which were before indistinct, quite 
 clearly, and "all things" plainly that he looked at afterwards. 
 
V. 22-26 The Blind Man at Bethsaida 177 
 
 and without reserve. • He nowhere ^ said, either in sermon or 
 parable, that the sanctification of the heart was a sudden thing, 
 and therefore we refuse to interpret His instantaneous cures as 
 furnishing an illustration for the manner in which this moral 
 and spiritual change is to be sought or obtained. 
 
 On the other hand, we have no hesitation in accepting the 
 mode of healing in this particular miracle as a model for the 
 development of the inner life of the soul, because it is in 
 perfect harmony with what He taught in the parables that 
 dealt directly with the subject. It will be an encouragement, 
 in an age of religious revival and excitement, to quiet Christians 
 who are striving by the Holy Spirit and the appointed means 
 of grace to increase in wisdom and stature, not by abnormal 
 growth, but with steady advance from grace to grace till the 
 end is reached. 
 
 ^ The nearest approach is where the Father brings forth the best robe, and 
 a ring and shoes, for the Prodigal Son on his return (S. Luke xv. 22) ; but as 
 these were ornaments not of the slave, but of the free, it more probably 
 symbolises "his rehabilitation in Baptismal privileges," which do not carry 
 with them complete sanctification. Cf. Collect for Christmas Day. 
 
XXXVIII 
 
 ^^ Peter'0 great Coufe^i^^ion 
 
 S. Mark viii, 27-33 
 
 27. And Jesus went out, and His And He began to teach them, that 
 
 disciples, into the towns of Caesarea the Son of Man must suffer many 
 
 Phihppi : and by the way He asked things, and be rejected of the elders, 
 
 His disciples, saying unto them, and of the chief priests, and scribes, 
 
 Whom do men say that I am ? 28. and Idc killed, and after three days 
 
 And they answered, John the Baptist : rise again. 32. And He spake that 
 
 but some jffy, Elias ; and others, One saying openly. And Peter took Him, 
 
 of the prophets. 29. And He saith and began to rebuke Him. 33. But 
 
 unto them, But whom say ye that I when He had turned about and looked 
 
 am? And Peter answereth and saith onHisdisciples, He rebuked Peter, say- 
 
 unto Him, Thou art the Christ. 30. ing, Get thee behind Me, Satan : for 
 
 And He charged them that they thou savourest not the things that be 
 
 should tell no man of Him. 31. of God, but the things that be of men. 
 
 From Bethsaida-Julias our Lord, at one of the greatest crises 
 in His ministry, retired from His favourite haunts by the Sea 
 of Gahlee, and went northwards through the " coasts " and 
 villages of Caesarea Philippi. Whether He had visited this 
 place before is not certain, but the interest belonging to the 
 physical features of the country, as well as to its historic 
 associations, was such that He would naturally desire to see 
 it. The situation of the town is unique, and combines 
 elements of grandeur and beauty in the mighty overhanging 
 Hermon and the rich luxuriant plain watered with the springs 
 of the Jordan. If its identification with Laish or Dan be 
 abandoned, its ancient history is wholly Pagan. Under the 
 name of Panium it obtained notoriety for its sanctuary of the 
 god Pan. In Herodian times it was enlarged by the Tetrarch 
 
CH. VIII. V. 27-33 ^. Peter' s great Confession 179 
 
 Philip,^ and its name changed to commemorate both himself 
 and the Emperor. But its old heathen appellation was soon 
 revived. Paneas became the seat of a Christian bishopric, 
 and the ruins of the place are found in the site of the modern 
 Banias. 
 
 It was a turning-point in our Lord's history, and He felt 
 the necessity of undisturbed intercourse with His disciples. 
 He was anxious for an opportunity of talking over with them 
 the progress of events, and ascertaining from their lips the 
 general impression which His works and teaching had made 
 upon the people at large. Two years at least had passed — 
 two-thirds of the appointed time — amply sufficient to enable 
 them to form a decided judgment upon His claims. At first 
 He inquired about the opinions current among those who had 
 in no sense joined His society. What do "the men" say? 
 What do " the multitudes " say about Me ? The disciples had 
 often, no doubt, heard the subject freely canvassed, and they 
 gathered up the floating ideas of His Person into three main 
 convictions. 
 
 One party, influenced perhaps by the superstitious Antipas 
 and the Herodians, imagined that He was the murdered 
 Baptist risen from the dead ; another recognised in His 
 wonder-working power the long-expected Elijah ; while a 
 third, impressed by His anxious and sorrowful look, which 
 had deepened so much during the last weeks, as well as from 
 a hope that the lost treasures of the Temple were about to 
 be restored, thought that He was Jeremiah, or " one of the 
 prophets." Such was the popular judgment. It was perhaps 
 neither more nor less than He looked for. It showed that 
 He had got hold of the people ; that they were satisfied that 
 He was some " Great One," and that there was considerable 
 diversity in the character of His work, for He had revived the 
 memory of not one merely, but of several of their greatest ; 
 but no real progress had been made towards a general 
 acceptance of His true Mission as the Messiah. The Jews 
 had become so wholly engrossed in the idea tliat their future 
 
 1 Herod the Great built a temple in honour of Augustus ; Philip called it 
 Caesarea, and added his own name, both for his own honour and to distinguish 
 it from Caesarea, Turris Stratonis, the well-known sea-port of Palestine. Cf. 
 Joseph. Antiq. xv. lo. 3. 
 
i8o S. Peter' s great Confession chap, vm 
 
 Deliverer must restore their political independence, that they 
 had no eye for One Who seemed careless of their national 
 hopes and prejudices, and bent only upon the restoration of 
 spiritual privileges. Even the Baptist had need to be reminded 
 that there were other characteristics of the Messiah than the 
 power of deliverance from the hands of an enemy. 
 
 Fully convinced of the fact that, as far as the public at 
 large was concerned, there was no recognition of His Messiah- 
 ship, He turned to His near companions, with satisfaction, no 
 doubt, but not without anxiety, for "many of His disciples 
 had gone away backwards," and the shock may have been felt 
 by the Twelve; and He asked with an earnest emphasis, 
 "ButjF^?^^ — who do you say that I am?" It was a critical 
 moment. There was some excuse for the people. They had 
 only seen Him at intervals ; they had witnessed one miracle 
 here, and another there ; but the inner circle of disciples had 
 been with Him fi^m the beginning. Had that prolonged 
 training been only labour lost ? There was no hesitation in 
 the answer. AVith characteristic impetuosity, as the moutb 
 piece of all, confident that none would contradict him, S. 
 Peter broke out into the great confession, " Thou art the 
 Christ."^ It was a noble witness to the truth, and it called 
 forth a blessing upon him who bore it, though v^ith a praise- 
 worthy modesty it is suppressed in the Gospel which was so 
 peculiarly his own. 
 
 If we notice here the memorable words by which our Lord 
 followed up His blessing — words round which so much 
 ecclesiastical controversy has gathered, it is not to reopen the 
 unhappy strife, but simply to exemplify once more the custom 
 which He so largely adopted, and which gave to His teaching 
 a freshness unknown to the Rabbis, viz., of seizing His 
 illustrations from the sights by which He was surrounded. 
 
 It was, it is almost certain, as He looked upon the gigantic 
 rock crowned with the castle of Subeibeh,^ unassailable from 
 
 ^ The position of the pronoun is very emphatic in the Greek : vix€l% 5e riva 
 fxe Xtyere elvai ; 
 
 ^ The Anointed. He received this title as embracing in His Own Person 
 the three offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, to which men were admitted 
 by unction. Cf. i Kings xix. i6 ; Exod. xl. 15 ; i Sam. x. i. 
 
 3 It rises to the height of 1500 feet, and is guarded on all sides by in- 
 accessible gorges. It has been described as "the largest of its kind in the 
 
 i 
 
V. 27-33 '5'. Peter' s great Confession i8i 
 
 its strength and position, that He saw no inapt figure of the 
 soUd foundation upon which His spiritual kingdom was to 
 rest, and turning to the "Rock-man," whom He Himself had 
 named, He said, "Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will 
 build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it." 
 
 That splendid eulogy was soon to be followed by a severe 
 rebuke ; for the hopes which his confession had kindled, that 
 at least the Apostles realised His Mission, were immediately 
 dashed by the clearest evidence that their chief had wholly 
 misunderstood that the Messiah must be " despised and 
 rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with 
 grief." 
 
 The anticipation of the Cross, which was always present in 
 His mind, had found expression from time to time, but only 
 in enigmatical predictions. " Destroy this temple, and in 
 three days I will raise it up." " As Moses lifted up the 
 serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be 
 lifted up." " He that taketh not his cross and followeth after 
 Me is not worthy of Me." But they were passed by without 
 notice. Jewish ideas at that time hardly admitted of a 
 suffering Messiah ; indeed so wholly had the prophecies of 
 His humiliation dropped out of sight, that it has been said 
 that no Rabbi of our Lord's generation had ventured to teach 
 that He must suffer.^ 
 
 The time had arrived when the truth must be revealed 
 " openly," without reserve or disguise, and so " He began to 
 teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things," and 
 be publicly rejected by the great council of the nation, and 
 put to death. He did not fail to add that which should have 
 brought them consolation, that though death must be endured 
 He could not be holden of it, but would rise again after three 
 days. But this part of the announcement was wholly lost 
 upon the bewildered Apostle. His ambitious views, and his 
 intense personal love for his IMaster, made him rebel against 
 
 East, and equal in extent even to the pride of European castles at Heidel- 
 berg." — Stanley, Sin. and Palest. 397. The origin of the name Subeibeh, 
 given to it in the Crusades, is doubtful. 
 
 ^ Geikie, in a note on Die Leiden des Messias, by August Wiinsche, has 
 maintained that the extracts from Rabbinic writings, supposed to contradict 
 this theory, are all indecisive. Cf. chap. xlvi. n. g. 
 
1 82 S. Peter s Great Confession ch. vm. v. 27-33 
 
 the bare possibility of suffering and death, and taking Him 
 aside he remonstrated with Him, and protested that it must 
 not be. " God forbid ! it must not, it shall not happen unto 
 Thee." It was a temptation to Jesus to turn aside from His 
 predestined path. It was an echo of the voice which He had 
 heard in the wilderness at the outset of His Mission, bidding 
 Him exercise His power for His Own deliverance, and it 
 called for a rebuke not a whit less severe. 
 
 "Stand not in the way before Me; thou art a stone of 
 stumbhng and rock of offence, 'Get thee behind Me, Satan,' ^ 
 for your mind is set on earthly things, you cannot grasp the 
 counsel of the Most High. It is through suffering that I 
 must reign ; My Crown can only be won when I have borne 
 the Cross." It sounds harsh to our ears that our Lord should 
 repeat to a misguided but well-intentioned disciple language 
 which He had used to the subtle and malignant Tempter. 
 But he had been blessed in the highest terms for His 
 confession, though our Lord allowed that it could only have 
 been made under the inspiration of God ; even so is he most 
 severely rebuked now, though the temptation was recognised 
 by Christ as the suggestion of the Evil One, It was an 
 outspoken reproof calculated to awake him to a consciousness 
 of what he was doing, and by whose influence he was being 
 led ; and if we could read the story of his after-life, it would 
 doubtless testify to his gratitude for the revelation which it 
 made to him of the true nature of the Messiah's Kingdom. 
 
 1 It is quite true that " Satan " is used in the Old Testament merely for an 
 "adversary," as, e.g., " Let Satan stand at his right hand," but it is almost 
 impossible to soften the language, which is precisely identical with that used 
 to the Tempter, because S. Peter's suggestion was in spirit an exact echo of 
 his. 
 
XXXIX 
 
 Bearinij tlje Cro^s^ 
 
 S. Mark viii. 34-38 
 
 34. And when He had called the if he shall gain the whole world, and 
 
 people unto Him with His disciples lose his own soul? 37. or what shall 
 
 also, He said unto them, Whosoever a man give in exchange for his soul ? 
 
 will come after Me, let him deny 38. Whosoever therefore shall be 
 
 himself, and take up his cross, and ashamed of Me and of My words in 
 
 follow Me. 35. For whosoever will this adulterous and sinful generation ; 
 
 save his life shall lose it ; but whoso- of him also shall the Son of Man be 
 
 ever shall lose His life for My sake and ashamed, when He cometh in the 
 
 the gospel's, the same shall save it. glory of His Father with the holy 
 
 36. For what shall it profit a man, angels. 
 
 The connection of Christ's glory with His abasement, which 
 was brought out so strikingly when the confession of His 
 Godhead was followed by the prediction of His Passion, has 
 been very beautifully illustrated in the picture of a great 
 Christian artist.^ The scene is the Carpenter's shop at 
 Nazareth ; the toil of the day is over, the door is open 
 towards the west, when the wearied Son of Man stretches out 
 His arms for a momentary relief. The sun is just setting, and 
 throws His shadow upon the wall — the shadow of a cross. 
 At that instant His Blessed Mother, who is kneeling at a 
 casket containing the gifts of the Wise Men, takes in her hand 
 the crown which they had presented to Him as King, and 
 which she fondly hoped to see Him wear ; she hfts up her eyes, 
 and they light upon the dark shadow cast upon the wall. 
 
 Now there can hardly be a doubt that in her heart the 
 future of her Son was thus overclouded. It had been so 
 
 ^ Holman Hunt. 
 
iS4 Bearing the Cross chap, vm 
 
 clearly predicted to her when she took the Babe into the 
 Temple, that the anticipation of the predestined sword must 
 have pierced her soul again and again. But probably the 
 disciples were troubled by no such forebodings till the un- 
 reserved declaration of what awaited Him in Jerusalem gave 
 a rude shock to their hopes. The severe rebuke to S. Peter 
 for doubting the certainty of His prediction must have satisfied 
 them that there was no escape. They had then to face the 
 fact that their cherished aspirations, their hopes that all 
 obstacles would soon be overcome, and that they would sit on 
 thrones in His kingdom, were dashed by this new revelation. 
 There was, it is true, an element of consolation in His utter- 
 ance, but the bare thought that their Master must suffer and 
 die took such complete hold of them that they gave it no 
 consideration. 
 
 And then He had a still further disclosure to make. Not 
 only must He suffer Himself, but a similar fate was in store 
 for them ; and not for them only, but for all who wished to 
 become members of His Church. Self-sacrifice in place of 
 self-pleasing was to be the watchword of His disciples, and, as 
 though to impress upon them that it was a law of universal 
 apphcation, He called the people within the sound of His 
 voice before He proclaimed it. " Whosoever will come after 
 Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow 
 Me." 
 
 It was not altogether a new doctrine. Philosophers had 
 taught men that righteousness is naturally persecuted in a 
 sinful world. Plato had come very near to our Lord when he 
 said that " the righteous man will be scourged, tortured, and 
 bound, will have his eyes burned out, and at last, after suffer- 
 ing every kind of ill, will be impaled ^ or crucified." 
 
 But Jesus advanced a step further when He declared that 
 a man must take up the cross himself There could be no 
 mistake as to what it implied in its literal meaning. Cruci- 
 fixion was not a Jewish punishment, but since the Romans 
 had been in possession of Palestine^ the people had become 
 familiarised with it, and must have seen many a condemned 
 
 ^ dj/ao-xti'Si'Xeuw, not elsewhere used, is regarded by lexicographers as 
 equivalent to dvaaKoKoiri^eLv and avaaTavpovv. Cf. Herod, ix. 78. 
 
 ^ Syria was made a Roman province after the conquest of Pompey, B.C. 
 64, and Judcea was united with it A.D. 6. 
 
34-38 Bearing the Cross 185 
 
 criminal bearing the instrument of his death to the place of 
 execution. In His prevision of the early years of Christianity, 
 our Lord knew that such a death awaited some of those to 
 whom He was speaking. But the broad principle involved in 
 His declaration is that sacrifice is inseparable from the 
 Christian calling. 
 
 There is, we know, a wonderful spell in the cry, " Come 
 after me," " Follow me." All history, profane as well as 
 sacred, has shown us this. The great Roman general realised 
 its force when he called to his soldiers, who shrank from the 
 hardships of the Libyan desert, and promised to go before 
 them and to command them nothing which he would not first 
 do himself. Even so Christ designed to help His followers 
 by the assurance that He should first suffer that which they 
 would be called to bear. 
 
 In the first of the three arguments brought forward to 
 enforce the principle, some obscurity is caused from the want 
 of one English equivalent for the Greek word translated "life." 
 On His lips it had a double significance — viz., that which we 
 now live in the flesh, and that which we live in union with the 
 life-giving Spirit, — a lower and earthly life, and a higher and 
 heavenly. If, He argues, any man thinks only of the former, 
 and makes everything bend to that, with all its temporal 
 enjoyments and self-pleasing, he will forfeit all right to the 
 latter. If, however, he learns to sit loosely to that, and is pre- 
 pared to resign it whenever a strong sense of duty prompts 
 the resignation, he carries in his hand a passport into a higher 
 and nobler existence. "Whosoever shall lose his life for My 
 sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." 
 
 That is the first inducement, and the second is not unlike 
 it. It rests upon the vast disproportion between the two 
 lives. 
 
 He pictures to His hearers a man placed upon trial for his 
 conduct, and condemned to forfeit ^ all claim to eternal life, 
 because he has thought only of the present, and taken his fill 
 of its pleasures; and then He weighs in the balance one 
 against the other, what he has gained and what he has lost, 
 
 ^ r^M'<3w is a forensic term, to mulct, to amerce, to fine. The Authorised 
 Version, by rendering it here "lose," and in the parallel passage in S. Luke. 
 " be cast away," has missed all that the word implies. 
 
1 86 Bearing the Cross ch. vm. v. 34-38 
 
 and the former flies up at once and kicks the beam, for it is 
 "altogether lighter than vanity itself." The same truth is en- 
 forced under another figure. There are many things which may 
 be recovered by ransom or won back by exchange, but eternal 
 life, once forfeited, is past recovery ; at least no corruptible 
 things, such as silver and gold, neither "thousands of rams 
 nor ten thousands of rivers of oil," can effect a redemption or 
 offer the least compensation, for "it costs more to redeem 
 their souls, so that he must let that alone for ever." 
 
 His last argument is an appeal to the recompence and 
 requital at the Final Judgment. S. Mark records His 
 reference to the latter alone. It is a call to those who heard 
 Him to break with the spirit of that sinful and adulterous 
 generation, branded with unfaithfulness to their rightful Lord, 
 and not to be ashamed to confess Him openly; for if every man 
 is to be rewarded according to his works, then to be ashamed 
 of Christ before men entailed the fearful requital of being put 
 to shame by Him in the presence of the angels. 
 
 It was all perhaps a gloomy outlook, but it was broken by 
 gleams of bright anticipation if only they would have seen 
 them. True, He was destined to die ; suffering, humiliation, 
 and shame awaited Him ; but this was not the end, for He 
 spoke also of the resurrection and of His return " in the glory 
 of His Father." 
 
 And yet once more He promised that some of them would 
 live to see in this life a foretaste of the glory that should 
 follow. Yet forty years and Jerusalem would be destroyed. 
 All the present opposition would be crushed, and men should 
 see in the judgment about to fall upon the Jews a type and 
 assurance of that which would be consummated at the end of 
 the world ; and not only so, but it would be followed by the 
 establishment of His visible and spiritual kingdom upon earth. 
 The Church was destined to rise out of the ashes of the 
 Temple. Their eyes were to be delighted with a yet nearer 
 vision and manifestation of Divine glory, so soon to be 
 vouchsafed to the inner circle of the Twelve, and it could 
 hardly have been absent from His thoughts while He spake ; 
 but the intimation that all would not survive to witness the 
 coming of His kingdom with power is the clearest proof that 
 He looked beyond the Transfiguration. 
 
XL 
 
 ^^e ^tmt of tljc transfiguration 
 
 S. Mark ix. 1-4 
 
 1. And He said unto them, Verily and leadeth them up into an high 
 I say unto you, That there be some mountain apart by themselves: and He 
 of them that stand here, which shall was transfigured before them. 3. And 
 not taste of death, till they have seen His raiment became shining, exceeding 
 the kingdom of God come with white as snow ; so as no fuller on 
 power. earth can white them. 4. And there 
 
 2. And after six days Jesus taketh appeared unto them Elias with Moses ; 
 with Hi7ii Peter, and James, and John, and they were talkmg with Jesus. 
 
 The Transfiguration places us on " the summit-level '' of our 
 Lord's earthly life. Its teaching is of such momentous import 
 for the right understanding of His true Nature, that, no less 
 than the Resurrection, its credibility has been assailed by 
 hostile critics. It has, however, been providentially ordered 
 that, in addition to the triple record of the Evangelists in its 
 proper place of history, it should have been further corro- 
 borated by independent allusions in the writings of those who 
 were eye-witnesses of the scene. The three selected by our 
 Lord to be with Him were "the chosen out of the chosen," 
 to whom was vouchsafed the honour of the closest companion- 
 ship in the greatest crises of His life. They were destined, 
 He knew, to be present at the Agony, and in His tender fore- 
 thought He prepared them for the trial, strengthening their 
 faith by a vision of preternatural glory first, that its re- 
 membrance might bear them up when they should see " His 
 face marred more than the sons of men." It made such an 
 indelible impression upon their memories that two of them 
 
1 88 The Scene of the Transfiguration chap, ix 
 
 spoke of it long afterwards — one, in the sublime prologue of 
 his Gospel : " We beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only 
 Begotten of the Father ; " the other, in the Epistle that he 
 wrote just preceding his death, " He received from God the 
 Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to 
 Him from the excellent glory, Tliis is My beloved Son, in 
 Whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from 
 heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount." 
 What the mountain was we would gladly know for certain ; 
 but its name has not been preserved in the Sacred History, 
 and careful consideration shows that tradition is wholly un- 
 trustworthy, notwithstanding its age and unanimity. Even as 
 early as the fourth century it was assumed to be Mount Tabor. 
 Pious Christians made pilgrimages thither ; the devout Helena 
 built a church upon its summit ; monasteries were dedicated 
 to Moses and Elias ; and all through the Crusades it was 
 fought for with the same devotion as Calvary or Olivet. 
 
 There is nothing but the beauty and isolation of the 
 mountain that could have given birth to such a belief. It 
 rises "in isolated grandeur" out of the lovely Plain of 
 Esdraelon, "the most graceful of all the mountains of 
 Palestine," and the mind, in the absence of other considera- 
 tions, would be disposed to associate such a scene as this with 
 so beautiful a height. 
 
 But there are circumstances which lead us to look else- 
 where for the actual locality ; for although the position of 
 Tabor might appear to offer a suitable place for retirement 
 "apart by themselves," its summit at this time was really 
 occupied by a considerable fortress.^ 
 
 And further, only a few days before, Jesus, in company 
 with His disciples, was " in the towns of Cassarea Philippi." 
 No mention whatever is made of a journey into Galilee, which 
 must have been chronicled by S. Mark if it had ever been 
 taken, for he is always careful to note every change of place 
 in our Lord's wanderings. 
 
 Nowhere else than in the more distant north, on the ridge 
 
 ^ Josephus, Life, 37 ; Wars, ii. 20, 6. Hos. v. i, LXX. 'iTa^vpiov. 
 Polybius mentions tlie capture of Atabyrium, the name of the fortified 
 city on the summit, by Antiochus the Great. Josephus also speaks of its 
 being strengthened in his time. It was eventually destroyed in 1263 A.D. by 
 a brother of the famous Saladin. Cf. Morison, S. Mart. xvii. i. 
 
V. 1-4 
 
 The Scene of the Tracts figuration 189 
 
 of Hermon, could He find a place so well fitted to be the 
 scene of such a grand event ; ^ and if the reading which 
 describes His raiment as " shining exceeding white as snoiv " 
 be genuine,'-^ we might well conclude that the simile was sug- 
 gested by the surrounding circumstances. On Mount Tabor 
 no snow would have been found so late in the year ; but on 
 some parts of the range of Libanus it was almost perpetual. 
 
 We conclude, then, that this was the mountain which our 
 Lord ascended to pray, and it may be inferred that it was at 
 eventide ; for we know that He was wont to set apart the 
 night for prayer, and it is said that the Apostles were weighed 
 down with sleep. It is, moreover, incidentally noticed that 
 the descent took place in the morning. And how much more 
 glorious the scene would be if the splendour, which, no doubt, 
 would have outshone even the noonday sun, burst upon the 
 spectators out of surrounding darkness! "And as He prayed" 
 He was transfigured before them. The veil of flesh w^hich 
 had concealed the glory of the Godhead was, as it were, with- 
 drawn, and the full blaze of ineffable light broke forth from 
 within, while even His garments caught the wondrous rays, 
 and shimmered with the dazzling brightness of sun-smitten 
 snow. As the disciples wondered, " there appeared unto them 
 Moses with Elias." Reasons are not far to find why these 
 two should be brought back together from the other world to 
 take part in the scene. They were the representatives of the 
 quick and dead. Moses had died ; Elijah had ascended alive 
 into heaven. They were types of the two great divisions 
 which shall appear before the same Lord, when He comes in 
 the glory of which that was a glimpse and foretaste, the dead 
 and the living both standing before the judgment-seat of 
 Christ.^ 
 
 Again, it may have been because both had passed from 
 
 1 " It is impossible to look up to its towering peaks, and not to be struck 
 with its appropriateness to the scene. High up on its southern slopes there 
 must be many a point where the disciples could be taken ' apart by them- 
 selves.' Even the transient comparison of the celestial splendour with the 
 snow, where alone it could be seen in Palestine, should not perhaps be wholly 
 overlooked." — Stanley, Sin. and Palest. 399-400. Cf. Porter, Handbook, 
 423- 
 
 - (is xtwj' is omitted in the Sinaitic, Vatican, and Ephraem MSS. 
 
 3 It has been observed that the Transfiguration is linked on by the three 
 Evangelists to a striking conversation, part of which is, as it were, carried on 
 
190 The Sce7te of the Transfigu7'ation chap, ix 
 
 earth in mystery : the first buried by the hand of God in some 
 unfrequented valley apart from his countrymen, " cast away by 
 the breath of the Lord," and " no man knoweth of his sepulchre 
 until this day ; " the other not dying, but vanishing instant- 
 aneously in the midst of life, " lost in the flame of steeds and 
 the car that swept him from the earth," and his resting-place 
 also no man knew. Both had disappeared, no more to be 
 seen by mortal eye till, in far-distant times, the same Hand 
 that had carried them away should bring them back on the 
 Mount of Transfiguration. It suggests the mighty truth, that 
 however we are taken, whether lost to men in the depth of the 
 sea, or consumed by the devouring fire, it matters nothing to 
 the Great Keeper of His people, Who will bring all back again 
 at the last day. 
 
 But the chief motive, no doubt, was to unite together the 
 representatives of the three great dispensations of Divine 
 Government, — the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel. The 
 force of this meeting, and of the disappearance of the two 
 former, while the Third was left, will appear when we consider 
 S- Peter's proposal to " build three tabernacles." 
 
 Now the Transfiguration gives us a pledge and earnest of 
 our personal identity in the risen state. The disciples knew 
 that it was Jesus, although His Body was glorified, and " when 
 He shall appear we shall be like Him." And doubtless one 
 reason for the preservation of our identity is for mutual recog- 
 nition — that we may know hereafter those whom we have 
 known in the flesh. It puts before us a powerful incentive to 
 make friends on earth, with whom we may spend not only the 
 life here, but the eternal life in heaven. 
 
 Again, the scene opens up a further field of thought, when 
 
 we recall the fact that S. Peter was able to recognise Moses 
 
 and Elijah, though he had never seen them in the flesh. 
 
 Shall we then recognise the great saints in the world to come, 
 
 whom we have learnt by the study of their lives and works to 
 
 know as though we had seen them face to face ? There was 
 
 clearly something — it may have been some fingerings of the 
 
 splendour which illumined his face after communing with God, 
 
 in act in tlie Transfiguration, e.g. Christ had asked, ' ' Whom do men say that 
 I am?" The Apostles answered, "Some say, Elias ; and others, one of the 
 prophets." Moses and Elias are presented to them on the mount, and a voice 
 from heaven declares Christ to be God's " Beloved Son." 
 
1-4 The Sce?ie of the Transfiguration 191 
 
 which painters have tried to express by the famihar " horns of 
 Hght," — we cannot tell what it was, but it satisfied the Apostle 
 that the form was none other than that of Moses. Will there 
 be nothing by which, in like manner, we shall recognise the 
 Baptist, or the beloved disciple, or the Blessed Virgin, or 
 Mary of Magdala? Will the student of Theology, who has 
 read the mind of S. Augustine, or pictured the fiery Athanase, 
 with his feeble frame but lion heart, confronting the world for 
 the great Mystery of the Blessed Trinity, find no means of 
 identifying them when they meet hereafter? Will there be 
 nothing to mark painters like Fra Angelico or Raphael, or poets 
 such as Dante, or Tasso, or Milton? It must surely be that 
 marks of recognition, in all who have witnessed for God, and 
 moulded the minds of men by their words or works, will not 
 be wanting. Let us then look forward with prayerful hope to 
 being of the number of those to whom our Lord made such a 
 promise when He said, " Many shall come from the east and 
 west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
 in the kingdom of heaven," 
 
XLI 
 
 ^Ije %t0(Son^ of tlje ^ran^fiptation 
 
 S. Mark ix. 5-13 
 
 5. And Peter answered and said to 
 Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be 
 here : and let us make three taber- 
 nacles ; one for Thee, and one for 
 Moses, and one for Ellas. 6. For he 
 wist not what to say ; for they were 
 sore afraid. 7. And there was a 
 cloud that overshadowed them : and 
 a Voice came out of the cloud, saying. 
 This is My beloved Son : hear Him. 8. 
 And suddenly, when they had looked 
 round about, they saw no man any 
 more, save Jesus only with themselves. 
 
 9. And as they came down from 
 the mountain, He charged them that 
 they should tell no man what things 
 
 they had seen, till the Son of Man 
 were risen from the dead. 10. And 
 they kept //lat saying with themselves, 
 questioning one with another what the 
 rising from the dead should mean. 
 II. And they asked Him, saying, 
 Why say the scribes that Elias must 
 first come? 12. And He answered 
 and told them, Elias verily cometh 
 first, and restoreth all things ; and 
 how it, is written of the Son of Man, 
 that He must suffer many things, and 
 be set at nought. 13, But I say unto 
 you. That Elias is indeed come, and 
 they have done unto him whatsoever 
 they listed, as it is written of him. 
 
 S. Peter was bewildered by the wonderful vision, and seeing 
 that Moses and Elias were on the point of departing, he was 
 seized with a sudden desire to detain them. He proposed to 
 our Lord that they should "make three tabernacles;"^ but, 
 not knowing what to say, and yet eager, as ever, to give 
 expression to his feelings of awe and delight, "he spake 
 unadvisedly with his lips." Nothing could have been more 
 ill-judged than the proposal he made. It showed an entire 
 misconception of the object of that wonderful epiphany. He 
 was ready to place Moses and Elijah on a level with Christ ; 
 
 ^ In the corresponding passage in S. Matthew there is an ancient reading 
 TTOt-^crw, which brings out very strikingly the characteristic of impulse which 
 belongs to S. Peter. He ignores his brother Apostles, and will do what has 
 to be done himself. 
 
CH. IX. V. 5-13 Lessons of the Traitsjiguration 193 
 
 to re-establish, that is, the old Dispensations, instead of realising 
 that they were only preparatory, and in their very nature 
 transient. Two things which immediately occurred must have 
 convinced him of his error, A voice came out of the over- 
 shadowing cloud, testifying that Jesus was the Beloved Son of 
 God, and the Legislator and Prophet vanished out of sight. 
 
 The words, "This is My beloved Son,"^ had been spoken 
 before, when "the heavens were opened," and the Spirit of 
 God descended upon Him at His Baptism, but now they 
 were followed by an express command : " Hear ye Him." 
 Moses and Elijah, each in their time, had claimed the attention 
 of mankind, but now there was Another to Whom it behoved 
 all to take heed, because He was '•' the Son," the express 
 Image of the Father, by Whom, as never before. His eternal 
 counsels should be revealed. 
 
 " And suddenly looking round about, they saw no one any 
 more, save Jesus only with themselves." It was a symbolical 
 intimation that when He that is perfect and eternal had come, 
 all that was imperfect and preparatory should vanish away. 
 And that this latter was the character both of the Law and the 
 Prophets is obvious. Moses had Christ constantly in view, 
 and the entire scheme of Levitical worship which he was 
 inspired to draw up — the Tabernacle, the Passover, the scape- 
 goat, the burnt-offerings, and sin-offerings and trespass-offerings 
 — all were types, all looked forward to, and all were fulfilled 
 in Him, for "Christ is the end of the Law." And it was the 
 same with the Prophets. In various ways, either clearly or 
 obscurely, they predicted an age of surpassing glory which 
 should culminate at the Messiah's coming ; and to Him gave 
 "all the prophets witness that through His Name whosoever 
 believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins." 
 
 But yet further, not only was all prophecy fulfilled in 
 Christ, but the prophetic character also received its perfect 
 development in Him. The Jewish prophet spoke not only of 
 God, but for God ; yea, he was as it were the very mouthpiece^ 
 of God, delivering His message, and uttering His curse, and 
 
 ^ The voice from heaven says, " This is My beloved Son," and it was 
 intended to place Him in contrast, says S. Jerome, with Moses and Elias, who 
 were God's servants. 
 
 - This is the primary idea of the prophetic office. Aaron was the prophet, 
 the mouthpiece of Moses. 
 
 O 
 
194 The Lessons of chap, ix 
 
 striking home the arrow of conviction even into the hearts of 
 kings, careless of heathen threatenings, of bonds and imprison- 
 ments and death, because he felt that it was not he that spoke, 
 but God Who spoke through his Ups. 
 
 Then look on to the perfect embodiment, the complete 
 antitype in the Person of Jesus Christ, Who was the very Word 
 itself, "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 
 sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, 
 and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the 
 thoughts and intents of the heart." Consider all this, and the 
 folly of the Apostle's proposal becomes patent at once. Moses 
 and Elias and Christ were three no longer, no more separated, 
 but made one by God. Legislator and prophet both were 
 summoned to the scene of the Transfiguration, and both 
 symbohcally consigned their finished work into Christ's hands, 
 knowing that henceforth there was but one Dispensation, one 
 Tabernacle, one Gospel, — Christ the power of God, Christ the 
 wisdom of God, Christ the way, the truth, and the life, by 
 Whom alone we have access to the Father, God in Christ 
 reconciling the world unto Himself. 
 
 Such was the lesson that this mysterious scene was designed 
 to convey, but our Lord saw that it was beyond the spiritual 
 ken even of the inner circle of His disciples ; and so, as they 
 descended from the mountain. He laid the injunction upon 
 them that they should not attempt to describe what they had 
 seen, till He should have risen from the dead. Not till that, 
 of which this was in a measure typical, had come to pass would 
 they be able to grasp its significance. And they obeyed His 
 command, and, like the Blessed Virgin, pondered these things 
 in their hearts, wondering how the Resurrection of which He 
 spake could take place while they were yet alive. That for 
 which they, with all pious Jews, were looking was the General 
 Resurrection ^ at the last day, when all that are in their graves 
 shall awake, " some to everlasting life, and some to shame and 
 everlasting contempt." 
 
 There was yet another question which perplexed them as 
 
 ^ This doctrine, revealed at the first only to the few, and held even by 
 David not always witli uniform consistency, was little doubted after the clearer 
 language of Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel. For various shades of belief in 
 this, cf. Geikie's Life and Words, ii. 254. 
 
V. S-I3 i^^^ TrmisfiguratioV' 195 
 
 they came down. What bearing had this appearance of 
 EHjah upon the arguments of the Scribes? Their great 
 objection to the claims of Jesus to the Messiahship was that 
 He had not fulfilled the prophet's conditions. No reappear- 
 ance of Elijah ^ had preceded His coming. When they saw 
 that vision on the mount they thought that he was come as 
 the forerunner of His kingdom, and that His Messianic claims 
 would be recognised. But the prophet's disappearance had 
 dashed all their hopes. It was in answer to their bewildered 
 inquiry, that Christ opened their eyes to understand the spirit 
 of prophecy, and showed that Elijah had indeed come, as 
 Malachi foretold, yet not in that transient and glorious vision 
 w^hich they had just witnessed, but in the person of the Baptist, 
 who by his preaching and moral purification had prepared the 
 way of the Lord and made His paths straight. He it was of 
 whom Elijah was a type, and that not only in his work of 
 preparation, but in the sufferings he endured; for all the 
 persecutions of Ahab and Jezebel, and even worse, had been 
 repeated by the wicked Herod and his shameless queen, \vho 
 had "done unto him whatsoever they listed." 
 
 Now what is the most practical lesson to be drawn from 
 this sublime scene? We must turn to the account which 
 another Evangelist gives, and we shall find that it was during 
 prayer that our Lord was transfigured : " As He prayed the 
 fashion of His countenance was altered." 
 
 In one respect the Transfiguration of our Blessed Lord 
 can have no earthly counterpart, because it was with His Own 
 glory that He was transfigured ; whereas that with w^hich the 
 souls of the saints are illumined is not from within, but it is 
 thrown upon their lives from Him Who is the Source of all 
 true light and glory. 
 
 But here there is a point in which the two cases may be 
 brought into comparison. It was through the act of prayer, 
 when His human soul w^as holding close communion with 
 God, that " His face did shine as the sun." 
 
 It has been repeated in a lesser degree with the saints. 
 
 ^ Many of the Fathers think this was only partially fulfilled in the person 
 of John the Baptist, and expect that Elijah will really appear to "restore" 
 the Jews before the Second Advent. Cf. Chrysos. , Horn. Ivii. on S. Matt. ; 
 Aug., Tract, iv. on S. John. 
 
196 Lessons af the Transfiguration ch. ix. v. 5-13 
 
 Even so we remember it was after Moses had been communing 
 with God in the mount, speaking with Him face to face, that 
 his very skin seemed to catch the rays of Divine glory, and 
 the people were dazzled by the reflection. Again it was of 
 one who, with everything to divert his thoughts from higher 
 things, "looked steadfastly up to heaven," and became so 
 absorbed in the vision that was vouchsafed in answer to his 
 prayer, that we are told that "all that sat in the council 
 looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the 
 face of an angel." 
 
 And yet nearer home it has been vouchsafed to not a few 
 to watch by the side of a dying saint, and in moments of 
 intense prayer to see the inward joy of a growing nearness to 
 God kindle into an expression of almost unearthly brightness. 
 
 When, then, we read this wonderful story, be it ours to 
 realise that it has a message to us, not only of what we may 
 be in the resurrection, but that it gives us an assurance that 
 we may catch even in this life some ray of the Transfiguration 
 glory. 
 
XLII 
 
 %\\z 2Dcmoniac 3o^ 
 
 S. Mark ix. 
 
 14. And when He came to His 
 disciples, He saw a great multitude 
 about them, and i/ic scribes question- 
 ing with them, 15. And straightway 
 all the people, when they beheld Him, 
 were greatly amazed, and running to 
 Him saluted Him. 16. And He 
 asked the scribes. What question ye 
 with them? 17. And one of the 
 multitude answered and said. Master, 
 I have brought unto Thee my son, 
 which hath a dumb spirit : 18. and 
 wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth 
 him : and he foameth, and gnasheth 
 with his teeth, and pineth away: and 
 I spake to Thy disciples that they 
 should cast him out ; and they could 
 not. 19. He answereth him, and saith, 
 
 faithless generation, how long shall 
 
 1 be with you ? how long shall I suffer 
 you? bring him unto Me. 20. And 
 they brought him unto Him : and 
 when he saw Him, straightway the 
 spirit tare him ; and he fell on the 
 ground, and wallowed foaming. 21. 
 And He asked his father. How long 
 is it ago since this came unto him ? 
 
 14-29 
 
 And he said, Of a child, 22. And 
 ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, 
 and into the waters, to destroy him : 
 but if Thou canst do any thing, have 
 compassion on us, and help us. 23, 
 Jesus said unto him. If thou canst 
 believe, all things are possible to him 
 that believeth. 24. And straightway 
 the father of the child cried out, and 
 said with tears. Lord, I believe ; help 
 Thou mine unbehef. 25. When Jesus 
 saw that the people came running 
 together, He rebuked the foul spirit, 
 saying unto him, T/iou dumb and 
 deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of 
 him, and enter no more into him. 26. 
 And //le spirit cried, and rent him sore, 
 and came out of liivi : and he was as 
 one dead; insomuch that many said. He 
 is dead. 27. But Jesus took him by 
 the hand, and lifted him up ; and he 
 arose. 28. And when He was come 
 into the house. His disciples asked 
 Him privately, Why could not we 
 cast him out ? 29. And He said 
 unto them. This kind can come forth 
 by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. 
 
 It recalls almost to the letter a scene in Patriarchal history. 
 
 The leader of Israel was absent, communing with God on 
 the Mount. He to whom the people had turned in every 
 danger and difficulty for guidance was withdrawn from their 
 
The Demoniac Boy 
 
 sight, and God was writing on tables of stone those laws which 
 were to be the great bulwark of right, and a restraint upon sin 
 in time to come. It was a crisis with the powers of evil of 
 momentous import. And see what they did. They seized 
 the opportunity to revive in the heart of the people the old 
 spirit of Egyptian idolatry, and sent them to Aaron with the 
 petition on their lips, " Make us gods, which shall go before 
 us ; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of 
 the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." 
 
 What a contrast it is ! On the mountain height their head 
 is holding converse with Almighty God in perfect peace. On 
 the plain at its feet, the people have relapsed into all the 
 tumult and confusion of heathen worship. 
 
 Now turn to the counterpart in the scene before us. Christ 
 had gone up with His chosen disciples into the Mount of 
 Transfiguration, and in His absence the spirits of evil were so 
 active that for a time the rest of the Twelve were shaken in 
 their faith, and the enemies of Christ had gained a manifest 
 victory. A poor father, hearing with joy of what the disciples 
 had been doing elsewhere, had brought his boy to be cured 
 by them. It is perhaps the most distressing case we meet 
 with in the Gospels. Some of us know w^iat a terrible anxiety 
 it is to have dependent on our care and love, a person who is 
 subject to epilepsy. Now add to this all the aggravations 
 which the diiferent Evangelists bring out, — to epilepsy lunacy 
 — to lunacy a suicidal mania — and crown all this with that 
 dread mystery of evil which is called "demoniacal possession," 
 and then, if we are parents, think of this having happened to 
 our only son. We can imagine in some degree the eagerness 
 with which that anxious father betook himself to the disciples, 
 and the misery of disappointment which awaited him ! 
 
 Christ had given the disciples power to heal diseases, and 
 to cast out devils, and they had done it again and again ; and 
 the man knew that they had. Once they waged war so suc- 
 cessfully upon the kingdom of Satan that they hurried back 
 into the presence of their Lord, and boasted with pride that 
 "even the devils are subject unto us through Thy Name." 
 
 In the midst of all the confusion that followed upon their 
 present attempt and its failure, Christ descended from the 
 mountain, and " straiglitway all the people, when they beheld 
 
V. 14-29 The Demoniac Boy 199 
 
 Him, were greatly amazed, and running to Him saluted 
 Him." 
 
 We know how often it happens in common life. People 
 are quarrelling and wrangling together, some saying one thing, 
 some another, when suddenly a man who is an authority upon 
 the subject in dispute passes by, and is instantly appealed to. 
 Just in the same way, we are told, the people ran to meet 
 Jesus, Who at once inquired into the details of the case. He 
 discerned without difficulty, that there had been a general 
 failure of faith, without which no cure could be expected. It 
 was not merely the unbelieving Scribes and the helpless father, 
 but the disciples themselves, who were included in the stern 
 denunciation : " O faithless generation, how long shall I 
 be with you ? how long shall I suffer you ? bring him unto 
 Me." 
 
 And here we would notice especially two points. First, 
 that the child was seized by an attack of unwonted violence 
 directly he was brought into Christ's presence. " For straight- 
 way the spirit tare him ; and he fell on the ground, and 
 wallowed foaming." It is difficult to say with any confidence 
 how far the evil spirits were able to aggravate the diseases ^ of 
 the bodies they possessed, but we can hardly read of what 
 happened here, without feeling that there was a special mani- 
 festation of their power at this critical moment. And is it not 
 in exact accord with all we know of Satanic influence ? Is it 
 not invariably excited most vigorously, just when it is in most 
 iJanger of being counteracted ? 
 
 Look at it in its commonest mode of operation, in the sug- 
 gestion of unhallowed thoughts. Which of us is not all too 
 painfully aware that these are often forced upon the mind, 
 especially in our most sacred engagements ? Is it not even 
 the sad experience of some as they kneel in prayer, or draw 
 near to the Blessed Sacrament ? 
 
 Look at it again in its uncommon manifestation, in what we 
 meet here under the name of "demoniacal possession."- It 
 
 1 The power of Satan as the author of physical as well as moral e\-il is 
 indicated frequently in Holy Scripture : e.g. Job ii. 7 — Satan smote Job with 
 boils ; S. Luke xiii. 16 — Satan bound the daughter of Abraham with a spirit 
 of infirmity ; i Cor. v. 5 — The incestuous sinner is delivered over to Satan for 
 the destruction of the flesh. 
 
 '^ Cf. p. 100, n. 3. 
 
200 The Demoniac Boy chap, ix 
 
 has often been asked by those who doubt the reahty of this 
 mysterious phenomenon, why, if it ever existed, is it altogether 
 unknown now ? We believe the answer is, that it was a special 
 exhibition of Satan's power, called forth at a special time, and 
 under special conditions, — his last desperate struggle, in short, 
 with Him Who came into the world at that crisis for the express 
 purpose of trampHng him under foot. 
 
 And this is the reason why, when the father brought his 
 child to be healed, he was seized in the presence of his Healer 
 with that paroxysm of incontrollable frenzy. It was the expir- 
 ing rage, if we may so say, of the demon that possessed him. 
 
 And the second point to notice, is the conduct of our Lord 
 in the presence of this grievous calamity. How unlike what 
 ours would have been ! We should have been impatient to 
 vindicate our authority and recover the ground that had been 
 lost. We should have thought every moment of importance, 
 and commanded the unclean spirit to come out at once ; but 
 Christ never acts in haste. He is always calm and composed, 
 whatever others may be. Much as He must have sympathised 
 with the poor suffering boy before Him, there are others to be 
 thought of, — the bystanders, whose excitement must be calmed 
 by delay, and the unbelieving Scribes, the half-despairing father, 
 and His Own weak and faltering disciples. 
 
 The first requisite for the exercise of a miracle was faith ; 
 and see how He seeks for some latent germ which He may 
 awake in the parent's breast. There is no sudden inspiration, 
 but He draws him on step by step, from his doubting appeal, 
 " If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help 
 us." "If Thou canst," says our Lord, giving him back his 
 words. No ; not if I can do anything, but if thou canst 
 believe ; ^ there is no other bar to the exercise of Omnipotent 
 love but unbelief. And hear the father's delighted cry. How 
 natural it all is ! He has been told that it depends on some- 
 thing in himself, and in the passion of his joy, without staying 
 to reflect, he cries. Lord, " I do believe ; " and then, as the 
 recollection of all his doubts crosses his mind, he adds the 
 
 ^ If TTto-reOo-a . be oniiUed, as in the Sinailic and Vatican MSS., then, 
 though the sense remains the same, it must be differently interpreted, viz., 
 Jesus said to him, "Do you use the expression 'If Thou canst'? — why, all 
 things are possible to the man who believes." 
 
V. 14-29 The Demoniac Boy ^01 
 
 prayer, " Help Thou mine unbelief; " and his end was gained : 
 his boy was cured. But turn to the disciples. What shame 
 they must have felt ! What it was that had shaken their faith, 
 we can only conjecture. Perhaps they had suffered from their 
 Master's absence, or opposition was too strong for them with- 
 out the impetuous Peter and the " Sons of Thunder ; " or it 
 may be the depressing effect of Christ's prediction of His death 
 had been too great a strain on their confidence. But whatever 
 the reason, they had experienced a defeat ; the cause of Christ 
 had been imperilled, and but for His timely intervention, the 
 triumph of Satan and his allies would have been complete. 
 And then He told them, in answer to their inquiry as to the 
 reason of their failure — and they were remembered words for 
 years, — " This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer 
 and fasting." There is nothing too hard for the man who 
 asks in faith ; ^ even the very mountains, as the Rabbis say, 
 may be uprooted, and cast into the midst of the sea, if the 
 word be spoken by him who never doubts the Omnipotence 
 of God.'^ 
 
 But let our closing thoughts revert to the contrast which we 
 dwelt upon at the beginning ; and let us learn from the Chris- 
 tian painter the simplest but the most instructive lesson that this 
 page of sacred history or any other can ever teach. In Raphael's 
 great picture of the Transfiguration we may see at a glance all 
 that we wish to impress upon the mind. The upper part — the 
 mountain top — is a scene of transcendent peace ; in the lower, 
 divided from it by a simple belt of clouds, the demoniac boy 
 is the representative of the sin and confusion that is turning 
 the world upside down. And what is it that makes the con- 
 trast ? Surely it is nothing else than that which makes it in 
 our own heart and life, whether it be sunshine or gloom — un- 
 failing happiness or constant discontent — it is the presence, or 
 the absence, of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 ^ Kox PTjaTeia are omitted in Sin. and Vat. MSS. 
 '■^ S. Matt. xvii. 20 ; Bava Bathra, 3 b. 
 
XLIII 
 
 ^Ijc 3|ealou0^ of tlje ^po^tleg? 
 
 S. Mark ix. 30-41 
 
 30. And they departed thence, 
 and passed through Galilee ; and 
 He would not that any man should 
 know it. 31. For He taught His 
 disciples, and said unto them. The 
 Son of Man is delivered into the 
 hands of men, and they shall kill 
 Him ; and after that He is killed, 
 He shall rise the third day. 32. 
 But they understood not that saying, 
 and were afraid to ask Him. 
 
 33. And He came to Capernaum : 
 and being in the house He asked 
 them. What tvas it that ye disputed 
 among yourselves by the way? 34. 
 But they held their peace : for by 
 the way they had disputed among 
 themselves, who should be the greatest. 
 35. And He sat down, and called the 
 twelve, and saith unto them, If any 
 man desire to be first, the same shall 
 be last of all, and servant of all. 36. 
 
 And He took a child, and set him 
 in the midst of them : and when He 
 had taken him in His arms. He said 
 unto them, 37. Whosoever shall 
 receive one of such children in My 
 Name, receiveth Me : and whosoever 
 shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, 
 but Him that sent Me. 
 
 38. And John answered Him, 
 saying. Master, we saw one casting 
 out devils in Thy Name, and he 
 followeth not us : and we forbad 
 him, because he followeth not us. 
 39. But Jesus said, Forbid him 
 not : for there is no man which shall 
 do a miracle in My Name, that can 
 1 ightly speak evil of Me. 40. For he that 
 is not against us is on our part. 41. 
 For whosoever shall give you a cup of 
 water to drink in My Name, because 
 ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto 
 vou, he shall not lose his reward. 
 
 After leaving the scene of the Transfiguration, our Lord 
 turned southwards, and went to and fro ^ through the northern 
 parts of Galilee. He desired to avoid publicity, so would 
 probably leave the main roads, and turn aside to bypaths 
 through woods and fields. " He would not that any should 
 know it, for He taught His disciples;" rather it should be, 
 
 ^ The A. V. in S. Matt. xvii. 22 renders avaurp^^opivwv "while they 
 abode." — The expression rather implies constant moving about. 
 
CH. IX. V. 30-41 The Jealousy of the Apostles 203 
 
 " He was teaching " them. He had a lesson to impress upon 
 their minds which required both time and freedom from 
 distraction ; He had to prepare them for His Death, and the 
 failure of their earthly hopes and aspirations. From time to 
 time He had given hints of what was coming. On the eve of 
 the Transfiguration He had spoken with such clearness that 
 the chief of their number had been offended at His words, 
 and now He emphasises it by repetition. But their minds 
 were so set upon earthly things, and their hopes so circum- 
 scribed, that the announcement of coming shame was entirely 
 eclipsed by the predictions of glory, and they could think only 
 of the latter, and that, according to their own carnal con- 
 ceptions. So it was that, forgetting what He had said about 
 suffering and death, or allowing it only as a passing cloud to 
 overshadow their spirits for a moment, they thought that the 
 kingdom was near at hand. It was associated in their minds 
 with places of honour and distinction, and they began to 
 speculate on their respective claims. The promise to S. 
 Peter had no doubt excited the jealousy of some of them ; 
 and it may be the selection of " the Inner Circle " to be eye- 
 witnesses of His glory had given rise to heart-burnings, 
 possibly had tempted the chosen three to exalt themselves 
 over their brethren, for as yet even these were far from perfect. 
 At all events feelings of jealous rivalry had been aroused 
 among them, and they had disputed with each other on their 
 journeys who should be greatest in the Messianic kingdom. 
 
 When they came to Capernaum, Jesus, Who had been 
 conscious of their unworthy wTanglings, determined to rebuke 
 them; and He did it not by word only, but by a symbolical act 
 of striking significance. He began by teUing them that self- 
 seeking brings no real gain, and to desire distinction is certain 
 to end in disappointment. Humility, not ambition, is the 
 road to honour. Suiting the action to the word. He took a 
 little child, and folding him tenderly in His arms, pointed to 
 him as the model for them to copy, if they wished to attain 
 to true greatness. Who the child was, it would be interesting 
 to know. If S. Peter had children, which we are not told in 
 Scripture, it would in all probability have been one of his, for 
 the scene took place in his house, where our Lord usually 
 abode in Capernaum. Two traditions have come down, 
 
204 TJie Jealousy of the Apostles chap, ix 
 
 though neither of them from an early age, or resting upon any 
 substantial authority, — one, that it was Martial,^ a disciple of 
 S. Peter, and in later times a missionary Bishop in Gaul ; the 
 other, that it was S. Ignatius,^ the Martyr. 
 
 Now it must not be supposed that Jesus intended by that 
 act to withhold from the Apostles any supremacy in His 
 kingdom, or to imply that there would be no subordination in 
 order of dignity and honour. He cannot contradict Himself, 
 and we know that He promised shortly after that they should 
 " sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 
 The very figure of a kingdom, too, involved different degrees 
 of power and authority. But what He desired was to strike a 
 blow at their idea that there was any real resemblance between 
 a kingdom of this world and that which He was about to set 
 up. The principles of honour and advancement which held 
 in the two were essentially unlike. In the one, the self- 
 seeking and ambitious gain the pre-eminence ; in the other, 
 renunciation is the only certain pathway to distinction. In 
 the former, honour and power are sought by rivals, who are 
 always "struggling upw^ards to overtop and rule each other;" 
 in the latter, men " stoop down in lowliness and humility in 
 order to draw each other up." 
 
 Our Lord then having taught a lesson from the child as a 
 pattern of humility, now sets it forth as a type of the lowly in 
 station ; and shows how any "one of such children" deserves 
 kindness and consideration in His Name, and for His sake. 
 
 The reference to the duty of receiving others in Christ's 
 Name pricked the conscience of one of the disciples, and 
 recalled a scene which had lately occurred. They had fallen 
 in with a man, who was casting out evil spirits in the Name 
 of Jesus, having no connection with the Apostolic company, 
 and refusing to join it; and S. John makes known to the 
 Master what course they had pursued. "We forbad him, 
 
 ^ This rests upon the authority of Jansenius, but is contradicted by the 
 statement of Gregory of Tours that he was sent to Gaul in the time of Decius. 
 The Acta of S. Martial, now held to be spurious, gave him a place among 
 the seventy disciples. Cf. Cornel, a Lap. in Matt. xvii. 
 
 - This is found in Nicephorus and Symeon Metaphrastes. It originated 
 probably in the name of Ignatius, O^o0opos, being interpreted in a passive 
 sense, "borne or carried by God," rather than, as Ignatius explains it, 
 " bearing God in his heart." 
 
V. 30-4I 
 
 The Jealousy of the Apostles 205 
 
 because he followcth not us." But Jesus rebuked him for 
 what they had done ; and His words have been often claimed 
 as affording direct justification for those who elect to work in 
 separation from the Church. An examination of the circum- 
 stances of the case will show that the claim cannot be 
 maintained. 
 
 It is not told us in so many words, but there is sufficient 
 evidence that the man was working, not by his own in- 
 dependent will, but under Divine authority. Possibly he was 
 one of John's disciples, or perhaps one of the Seventy ; but 
 in any case he carried with him his credentials, for it is not 
 said merely that he was attempting to cast out evil spirits, but 
 that he was doing it. He was no pretender, such as we meet 
 with at a later period in the sons of Sceva, who used the 
 Name for the same purpose, but were unsupported by the 
 Divine co-operation. He was, by the Apostles' own con- 
 fession, exercising miraculous powers ; and the sole reason 
 which prompted them to stay his hand was an unworthy spirit 
 of envy and jealousy that anything should be done in their 
 Master's cause outside their own company. Jesus discerned 
 their motive at once, and not only reproved them, but went 
 on to extend the principle to other acts besides that of casting 
 out evil spirits. The least beneficent deed done simply for 
 Christ's sake — even " a cup of water " given in His Name — 
 should not lose its reward. 
 
 Now separatists from the Church often claim Divine sanc- 
 tion on the ground that their credentials may be seen in the 
 success of their work, just as his was ; but there is a broad 
 distinction between the two cases. It may be quite true that 
 God's work is sometimes done by them, as it was by him ; but 
 what He approved under certain conditions. He has only 
 permitted under others. For instance, the man of whom we 
 are speaking contravened no law whatever, and so Christ 
 could sanction both the act and the way in which it was 
 done. Dissenters from the discipline of the Church, on the 
 other hand, transgress the law of unity, which He laid down ; 
 and though the work they do may be done for His sake, and 
 accepted on that account, their mode of effecting it is contrary 
 to His original purpose, and cannot as such merit His 
 approval. 
 
2o6 The Jealottsy of the Apostles ch. ix. v. 30-41 
 
 It was no breach of Church order or discipKne at that time 
 not to follow the Apostles, because the Church was not yet 
 founded, and nothing had taken place to lead the Apostles to 
 suppose that separation from them was a violation of Christ's 
 law. The commission, " As My Father hath sent Me, so 
 send I you," had not yet been received. Had this event 
 happened after the Ascension or Pentecost, when the Church 
 organisation on Apostolic authority was definitely inaugurated, 
 the prohibition, "Forbid him not," would have worn an 
 altogether different aspect. It is an excellent illustration of 
 the dangerous mistake of isolating a passage from its context, 
 and treating a special direction as though it estabUshed a 
 general principle for all time, and under every condition. 
 We must interpret Scripture by Scripture. The true mind of 
 Christ on the subject of Dissent may be gathered with un- 
 mistakable clearness, both from His Own prayer for unity, and 
 from the utterances of those who were empowered to be its 
 exponents after the Church was founded. If it be suggested, 
 as it so often is, that it was spiritual unity for which He 
 prayed, S. Paul steps in and shows that he not only longed 
 for men to be of one heart, holding the unity of the Faith, 
 but that he deprecated most sorely separation from the visible 
 Body as the clearest proof of a carnal mind. " Whereas there 
 is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not 
 carnal, and walk as men ? For while one saith, I am of 
 Paul ; and another, I am of Apollos ; are ye not carnal ? " 
 And S. jude indorses the verdict when he says of those "who 
 separate themselves," that they are "sensual,"^ and have not 
 the Spirit of God. 
 
 ^ ■^I'XtKot, translated "natural" and " sensual" in the New Testament, is 
 used in a different sense from that in which it was used in classical Greek. 
 Scripture taught the tripartite division of man's nature, i Thess. v. 23. The 
 "natural" man is henceforward one in whom the ipvxhy '^ot the TTv^xjjxa, is 
 the ruling principle. Cf. Trench, Synon. of the New Testament. 
 
XLIV 
 
 S. Mark ix. 42-50 
 
 42. And whosoever shall offend one that never shall be quenched: 46. where 
 
 of these little ones that believe in Me, their worm dieth not, and the fire is 
 
 it is better for him that a millstone not quenched. 47. And if thine eye 
 
 were hanged about his neck, and he offend thee, pluck it out : it is better 
 
 were cast into the sea. 43. And if for thee to enter into the kingdom 
 
 thy hand offend thee, cut it off : it of God with one eye, than having two 
 
 is better for thee to enter into life eyes to be cast into hell fire : 48. 
 
 maimed, than having two hands to where their worm dieth not, and the 
 
 go into hell, into the fire that never fire is not quenched. 49. For every 
 
 shall be quenched : 44. where their one shall be salted with fire, and 
 
 worm dieth not, and the fire is not every sacrifice shall be salted with salt, 
 
 quenched. 45. . And if thy foot offend 50. Salt is good : but if the salt have 
 
 thee, cut it off : it is better for thee to lost his saltness, wherewith will ye 
 
 enter halt into life, than having two season it? Have salt in yourselves, 
 
 feet to be cast into hell, into the fire and have peace one with another. 
 
 Jesus had spoken of the blessedness of receiving children and 
 childlike men in His Name, and He now places over-against it 
 the fearful punishment in store for those who put a stumbling- 
 block in their path to impede their spiritual progress. Better, 
 infinitely better, to die a violent death, even the most dreaded 
 kind of death, than risk the salvation of the soul by commit- 
 ting such an offence as this. "It is better for him that a 
 millstone ^ were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into 
 the sea." It was a mode of punishment reserved only for 
 great criminals, and its terrors were aggravated by the thought 
 that the body could never be recovered for burial, the depri- 
 vation of which was the sorest trial. 
 
 ^ "Millstone." In the original it is "a stone turned by an ass " — not, 
 i.e. the ordinary one which women used in grinding, but a huge heavy stone 
 which would sink one " like lead in the mighty waters." 
 
2o8 Avoiding Offences chap, ix 
 
 Then from offences against others, our Lord proceeds to 
 warn men not to place stumbling-stones in their own way. 
 He selects the chief instruments of sin, — the hand, the foot, 
 the eye, — and counsels their immediate destruction, if need 
 be, rather than allow them to work the threatened mischief 
 
 It is the hand which men Hft up to do violence, as Cain 
 did to his brother, or to appropriate what does not belong to 
 them, like Achan. 
 
 It is the feet which hurry us into forbidden paths, as they 
 hurried Gehazi, or the old man of God whom the lion slew 
 for his transgression. 
 
 It is the eye which excites the lust to desire in the spirit 
 of Eve something which God has seen fit to withhold. To 
 hurt, to trespass, and to covet : what a common triple cord 
 of sin it is ! There is no important distinction to be drawn 
 between them, and any one of them by itself would have 
 sufficed, but the threefold repetition, as so often in Scripture, 
 appears to lend force to the warning. It is a recognised 
 principle in surgery to cut off a limb to save a life ; for the 
 wellbeing of the soul it must be applied, and with an unsparing 
 hand, to the instruments of moral temptation. The alterna- 
 tive is presented to us under the ghastly imagery^ drawn from 
 the familiar terrors of Gehenna. In the Valley of Hinnom, 
 on the south of Jerusalem, besides the fires of Molech which 
 blazed in the great furnace, through which the idolaters made 
 their children to pass, there was a constant burning of the 
 heaps of refuse, and the worm of corruption fed perpetually 
 upon the carcasses of -animals, and the offal of the city, which 
 was thrown there. It formed not unnaturally a lively emblem 
 of the terrible torments of the lost ; and Milton, who moulded 
 so largely the Christian idea of the pangs of hell, stereotyped 
 the old Jewish conception when he wrote — 
 
 "And black Gehenna called, the type of hell." 
 
 But there are many passages in Holy Scripture which show 
 that in the place of retribution there will be no need of any 
 external apparatus of torture such as this, but that the sinner 
 will be his own tormentor. 
 
 It is more in accordance with Divine revelation to con- 
 clude that there will be a close correspondence between the 
 
V. 42-50 Avoiding Offences 209 
 
 sin and its punishment. " Whatsoever a man soweth that 
 shall he also reap." "They have sown the wind, and they 
 shall reap the whirlwind." "They shall eat of the fruit of 
 their own way, and be filled with their own devices." " I'hey 
 that plough iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same." 
 Lusts and passions unchecked in this life may last on to the 
 next, and be there the instruments of an unending and in- 
 tensified torment, because the gratification of them wdll be for 
 ever denied. " He that is unjust, let him be unjust still : 
 and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still." 
 
 The same truth is indirectly taught by our Lord when He 
 tells us to cut off the special instrument of sin while w^e have 
 opportunity, rather than carry it with us in all its unimpaired 
 strength and vigour into the place of punishment. " It is 
 better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two 
 hands to go into hell." 
 
 Jesus then points to the necessity of sacrifice, intimating 
 that the surrender of hand or foot or eye is part of that 
 discipline which all must pass through. The salt and the fire 
 of which He speaks are, in relation to this^ allied forces : the 
 one preserving from corruption, the other purifying and 
 cleansing. It was for this reason that God enjoined that all 
 oblations should be seasoned with salt,^ and that "the fire 
 should try every man's work of what sort it is." 
 
 "Salt," He says, "is good;" good in the natural world, 
 and good in the spiritual ; but as in the one, if it lose its 
 virtue, it is fit only " to be trodden under foot ; " - so in the 
 other, the inward grace, of which it is the symbol, if it cease 
 to purify the life, becomes hopelessly useless. Christianity 
 which is no longer Christian, a " name to live " while one is 
 " dead," what profit is it ? 
 
 Remember, Christ seems to say, that you were made, at 
 your call to the Apostleship, "the salt of the earth." You 
 were destined to be in the New Society that element which 
 should purify the w^orld and preserve it from corruption. Be 
 jealous of the office unto which you were called ; let nothing 
 
 ^ The clause, " and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt," is omitted by 
 the Sinaitic and Vatican MSS. , and finds no place in the Revised Version. 
 
 - This expression was suggested from the custom of strewing salt which 
 had become worthless on the steps and pavement of the Temple in wet 
 weather to prevent the feet from slipping, 
 
 P 
 
2IO Avoiding Offences ^ ch. ix. v. 42-50 
 
 rob you of those gifts and properties, which should be a 
 savour of salvation to all around you. Do away at once with 
 those unworthy disputes about honours and distinctions, purge 
 out all selfish aims and ambition, "have salt in yourselves, 
 and have peace ^ one with another." c 
 
 ^ It is quite possible that the connection was suggested by His recollection 
 of the old ' ' covenant of salt," the symbol of peace and concord. 
 
XLV 
 
 ^\)t %ei\x> of 3Dit3orce 
 
 Mark x. 1-12 
 
 I. And He rose from thence, and God made them male and female, 
 
 cometh into the coasts of Judasa by 7. For this cause shall a man leave 
 
 the farther side of Jordan : and the his father and mother, and cleave to 
 
 people resort unto Him again ; and, his wife ; 8. and they twain shall 
 
 as He was wont, He taught them be one i^esh : so then they are no 
 
 again. 2. And the Pharisees came more twain, but one flesh. 9. What 
 
 to Nim, and asked Him, Is it lawful therefore God hath joined together, 
 
 for a man to put away his wife? let not man put asunder. 10. And 
 
 tempting Him. 3. And He answered in the house His disciples asked 
 
 and said unto them. What did Moses Him again of the same matter. 11, 
 
 command you? 4. And they said. And He saith unto them, Whosoever 
 
 Moses suffered to write a bill of shall put away his wife, and marry 
 
 divorcement, and to put her away. another, committeth adultery against 
 
 5. And Jesus answered and said unto her. 12. And if a woman shall 
 
 them. For the hardness of your heart put away her husband, and be 
 
 he wrote you this precept. 6. But married to another, she committeth 
 
 from the beginning of the creation adultery. 
 
 Many things happened between our Lord's departure from 
 Capernaum and the interview with the Pharisees with which 
 this chapter opens. S. Luke and S. John fill up the gap 
 which S. Mark has left. At this time He was in Perasa, and 
 His enemies seized the opportunity as a favourable one to 
 embarrass Him on the subject of divorce. The Governor of 
 that country had put away the daughter of Aretas/ and was 
 living witli the wife of his half-brother Philip. They expected, 
 no doubt, that Jesus would take the same view of the case as 
 the Baptist had done, and thus kindle the Tetrarch's animosity 
 against Him. If, however, they did not succeed in this aim, 
 
 1 Cf. p. 130. 
 
212 The Law of Divorxe chap, x 
 
 they were certain to embroil Him with one of the rival parties 
 into which Jewish society was then divided. S. Mark says 
 that they put the question on the legality of divorce, " tempting 
 Him." His answer must alienate one party or the other. 
 The controversy between them had arisen out of the in- 
 terpretation of a passage in Deuteronomy : " When a man 
 hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that 
 she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some 
 uncleanness ^ in her ; then let him write her a bill of 
 divorcement. " 
 
 The stricter and more orthodox school of Shammai laid 
 stress upon the words which spoke of " uncleanness," and 
 only permitted the dissolution of marriage on the ground of 
 deliberate immorality. The laxer Hillelites- dwelt rather 
 upon the preceding words, and pronounced divorce legitimate 
 " for every cause " in which the wife proved distasteful to her 
 husband. " If she go not as thou wouldst have her, cut her off 
 from thy flesh, and give her a bill of divorce, and let her go." 
 
 In the general laxity of morals and prevailing profligacy of 
 the times, this latter view had been accepted by the people at 
 large; and it is clear that the Pharisees who tempted our 
 Lord with this question belonged to the party of Hillel. 
 
 Jesus referred them to the instructions of their Lawgiver, 
 and when they sheltered themselves under the letter of his 
 directions. He took the opportunity of pointing out the true 
 character of the Mosaic legislation on the subject. It was 
 only intended to be permissive and provisional, enacted to 
 meet the special exigency of the times. Moses found himself 
 confronted by evils which he saw that it was impossible to 
 extirpate, for dissolution of marriage had become common 
 
 ^ Lit. "the nakedness or shame of the thing." It can hardly be under- 
 stood of adultery, because that was a capital offence. Cf. xxii. 20-22. From 
 verse 3 personal hatred was sufficient cause for divorce, but clearly the spirit 
 of the legislation made it unjustifiable save for some "immodest conduct or 
 grave physical defect." 
 
 2 Josephus, who was by no means a man of lax morals, spoke of divorcing 
 his wives as though it were a thing of most ordinary occurrence, needing no 
 apology. Cf. Life, c. 75, 76. Such grounds as these were regarded as 
 sufficient : "if she spin in public ; " "if she go with her head uncovered ; " 
 ' ' if she become dumb or sottish ; " "if she cook her husband's food amiss ; " 
 "if any man sees a woman handsomer than his own wife." But R. Akiba, 
 from whom the last is taken, explains that by "handsomer" he meant "of 
 nobler deeds." 
 
L 
 
 V. I-I2 The Laiu of Divorce 213 
 
 among the Jews, who had freely adopted the manners and 
 customs of surrounding nations. Owing to the hardness of 
 men's hearts the indissolubihty of the marriage-tie could not 
 be maintained ; but Moses determined to check divorce at 
 the arbitrary will and caprice of the husband. That such 
 was the spirit and tendency of his enactment is clear from the 
 fact that separation could only be effected by a duly prepared 
 and attested document.^ It would at least interpose delay 
 and difficulty, and possibly lead in many cases to reconsidera- 
 tion. But our Lord showed that such legislation could not 
 be final. It was a departure from the law originally laid 
 down, and though it may have been, and doubtless was, 
 expedient for the time, it could lay no claim to be permanently 
 observed. It was not the only instance in which retrogressive 
 legislation had been permitted : the principle was illustrated 
 in the allowance of slavery or polygamy, both of which, equally 
 with divorce, were only temporary relaxations of God's original 
 purpose. The ideal relation of the sexes was established at 
 the beginning, when "God made them male and female," one 
 wife for one husband, to be united so closely that they should 
 become not only one in heart and soul, but actually " one 
 flesh." It was an union designed for perpetuity, and this our 
 Lord clearly taught when He said, " What therefore God hath 
 joined together, let not man put asunder." 
 
 The Pharisees went away discomfited, but when He was 
 alone with His disciples in the house, the question was 
 reopened, and, in answer to their inquiries, He enforced still 
 more strongly the indivisible unity of them that are married. 
 It is so close, He says, that if outward separation should take 
 place, for either husband or wife to contract a second marriage, 
 in the lifetime of the other, would be a distinct breach of the 
 seventh commandment. Those w^ho wish to separate and live 
 apart must remain as they are after separation. 
 
 S. Mark has preserved a saying of our Lord's which is of 
 no little importance : " And if a woman shall put away her 
 husband." It struck another blow at the Jewish legislation of 
 the time by establishing an equality of rights between husbands 
 and wives, which the Jews denied by allowing the initiative to 
 be taken by the husband alone. 
 
 1 For specimen of. Lightfoot's Exercit. on S. Matthew v. 31. 
 
214 The Law of Divorce chap, x 
 
 Now it will be interesting to see what effect the reversion 
 by our Lord to first principles on the true teaching of marriage 
 has had upon Christianity. The Primitive Church speaks 
 here with a less certain sound than is usual upon matters of 
 momentous interest.^ The early Fathers were certainly divided 
 among themselves ; most of them, however, agreed in allowing 
 separation on the ground of "fornication," though they differed 
 not a little in their interpretation of the original word, rendered in 
 the xVuthorised Version "adultery" in the two passages where our 
 Lord had used it, in dealing with the subject of divorce. Again, 
 they were divided upon the lawfulness of contracting a second 
 marriage during the lifetime of the divorced husband or wife ; 
 but there can be no doubt that the prevailing opinion during 
 the first three centuries was decidedly against it. The only 
 known synodical decisions that bear directly upon the question 
 were given at the Synod of Elvira in 305 and the Council of 
 Aries in 314. The -former deals with a wife who leaves an 
 adulterous husband, the latter with a husband who puts away 
 an adulterous wife. In both cases the right of re-marriage is 
 denied, but there is this noteworthy difference : if the woman 
 disregarded the prohibition, she was to be permanently ex- 
 communicated, but in case the man did so, no provision was 
 made for imposing ecclesiastical penance upon him. The 
 Council was satisfied to decree that the men should be warned 
 in the strongest manner, " so long as their adulterous wives 
 are alive, not to take others." The civil laws at the time were 
 more considerate to the man, and the Church accepted the 
 principle; but in the 'middle of the fifth century the position 
 of man and wife was put on the same footing in this respect. 
 
 The Roman Church "^ upholds the inherent perpetuity of 
 the marriage-tie, and forbids either party, under any circum- 
 stances, to marry again during the other's lifetime. 
 
 The Anglican Church has never officially recognised any 
 other than judicial separation,^ and, by consequence, altogether 
 
 1 Clem. Alex. Strom, ii. 23 ; Tertull. contr. Marc. iv. 34 ; S, Hierom. Ep. 
 30 ; Epitaph. Fabiolce ; S. Chrys. Horn. xvii. in Matt. ; Origen, Horn, in 
 Matth. in loc. ; Epiphan. Hasr. 59. 
 
 ^ Cone. Trid. Sess. xxiv. Can. 7. 
 
 ^ Can. 107, A.D. 1604. It was decided in the Star-Chamber, Elizabeth 
 44, in the case of Foljambe, that adultery was a ground for judicial separation, 
 i.e. a nicfisa et toro, but not a vinculo. 
 
V. I-I2 The Laiv of Divorce 215 
 
 disallows re -marriage. The Commissioners^ appointed by 
 Henry YIII. aimed at relaxing the law, and were willing to 
 constitute adultery, cruelty, and desertion sufficient grounds 
 for an absolute dissolution, but these provisions never received 
 legislative authority. From this time forward, however, the 
 secular and ecclesiastical branches of the Legislature have 
 been in conflict : - the former striving to relax, the latter to 
 restrict, the rules of separation. The passing of the Divorce 
 and Matrimonial Causes Act in this generation (A.D.1867) ex- 
 tinguished the ancient jurisdiction of the Church, and allowed a 
 marriage to be nullified through direct appeal to a Secular Court. 
 
 The following considerations may help to the formation of 
 a sound judgment upon this and kindred questions connected 
 with the Marriage Laws. 
 
 If the directions of the New Testament are at all obscure, 
 as they confessedly are, to judge by the differing views of 
 commentators, instead of exercising the right of private 
 judgment, it is the safer course to accept the general inter- 
 pretation put upon them by the Church, which is the witness 
 and keeper of Holy Writ. Again, we may well hesitate before 
 doing anything which will tend to destroy the Sacramental 
 character of Holy IVIatrimony. That which was chosen as a 
 fitting type to represent Christ's union with His Church was 
 far more Hkely to have been regarded in the Mind of the 
 Spirit as indissoluble than otherwise. 
 
 Further, the experience of the last seventeen years proves 
 that the relaxation has encouraged immorahty, and is striking 
 at the root of the sanctity of family life. 
 
 And lastly, it behoves us to remember that dissolution of 
 marriage was only allowed in the Mosaic economy as a 
 concession to human weakness, owing to the hardness of men's 
 hearts ; and to sanction it now is to admit that the times are 
 so degenerate that we have reached no higher standard. We 
 can conceive of no severer satire upon the boasted progress 
 and civilisation of the nineteenth century. 
 
 ^ Cf. Reformatio legum Anglicanarum de Adult, et Divor. 
 
 - The House of Lords again and again granted decrees for dissolution in 
 opposition to the Ecclesiastical Courts. In 1798 it was enacted that the 
 Upper House could dissolve a vinculo in any case where the Church had 
 sanctioned divorce a mensa et toro. This intervention of the Spiritual Courts 
 was made unnecessary by the Act of 1867. 
 
XLVI 
 
 ^Ije ^ut^oritp for 3|nfant Baptism 
 
 S. Mark x. 13-16 
 
 13. And they brought young child- and forbid them not : for of such is 
 
 ren to Him, that He should touch the kingdom of God. 15. Verily I say 
 
 them : and His disciples rebuked unto you, Whosoever shall not receive 
 
 those that brought them. 14. But the kingdom of God as a little child, 
 
 when Jesus saw it. He was much he shall not enter therein. 16. And 
 
 displeased, and said unto them, Suffer He took them up in His arms, put His 
 
 the little children to come unto Me, hands upon them, and blessed them. 
 
 In the old English Office for the Baptism of Infants the 
 corresponding passage from S. Matthew's Gospel was the 
 portion of Scripture appointed to be read. It was wisely 
 changed at the first Revision under Edward VI. for this, 
 which, by certain additions, brings into still greater pro- 
 minence our Lord's care and love for little children. It 
 records, for instance,- the indignation which He felt on 
 realising that His disciples would have hindered the mothers 
 who were bringing their babes, ^ or the little children whom 
 an instinctive impulse was drawing to His side. " He was 
 much displeased," S. Mark says ; it is an expression nowhere 
 else applied to Jesus, and its application here not only 
 reminds us of the characteristic feature ^ of this Gospel, in 
 which the lights and shadows that passed over His face are so 
 often noticed, but serves also to emphasise His abhorrence of 
 the bare thought that children were not as dear to Him, or 
 had not as much claim on His attention, as grown-up people. 
 
 ^ S. Luke writes ^p^cprj, which implies that they were new-born babes. 
 - Cf. p. s. 
 
CH. X. V. 13-16 Authority for Infant Baptism 217 
 
 Again, S. Mark records the fact that " He took them up," 
 or folded them, "in His arms," which both points to the 
 hand of an eye-witness in the description, and at the same 
 time enables us to " perceive how by His outward gesture and 
 deed He declared His good-will towards them." 
 
 And lastly, we are assured of the fact, which, however, 
 could hardly be denied even if S. Matthew's version alone 
 remained, that His blessing accompanied the imposition 
 of hands. He "put His hands upon them, and blessed 
 them." 
 
 It is very difficult, with such a passage as this confronting 
 them, to understand with what reason the so-called Baptists 
 can withhold from infants the sacred rite of admission into 
 Christ's kingdom. Our Lord says, " Of such is the kingdom 
 of God ; " and in another place He assures Nicodemus that 
 there is no entrance there save through "the washing of 
 regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Ghost ; " for 
 " except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God." Read these two declarations 
 together, and it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that He 
 " favourably alloweth the charitable work of ours in bringing 
 infants to Holy Baptism." 
 
 It will be well, however, in this place to confirm this 
 opinion by corroborative arguments, both from analogy and 
 from the interpretation of Christ's purpose handed down from 
 the beginning. 
 
 Going back to the Jewish Dispensation, we find that infants 
 were admitted into covenant with God. Almost as soon as a 
 male child was born, certainly as soon as he had strength to 
 submit to the ordinance, he was circumcised. It was God's 
 appointed means by which He chose to admit the Jew into 
 covenant with Himself, to become one of His peculiar people, 
 or, as He so tenderly explains the relationship, to be numbered 
 among His children. Now we must bear in mind two cardinal 
 facts, borne witness to by God Himself, — first, that He is 
 always the same, that He is the Lord, and changeth not ; 
 secondly, that Christ came into the world to fill up and 
 develop the Divine institutions which He found in force : " I 
 am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Whatever principle, 
 then, God has once taught He will always teach. The exact 
 
2i8 Atithority for Infant Baptis7n chap, x 
 
 method of inculcating it may vary with circumstances, but the 
 principle remains unaltered and the same. 
 
 Now, when God said to Abraham, "This is My covenant 
 with you, . . . Every man-child shall be circumcised at eight 
 days old," He established the principle that infants were 
 eligible for the privileges which belonged to His people. 
 When Circumcision was superseded by Baptism the principle 
 remained untouched \ nothing was changed but the outward 
 form and manner of administration. 
 
 Again, Christ came to impart its fulness to the Law and its 
 ordinances. We naturally therefore expect that any change 
 will be at least by way of advance and improvement rather 
 than of retrogression and deterioration. And so it is found to 
 be on comparing the respective initiatory rites of the two 
 Covenants. When the Jewish child was admitted into the 
 family of God he became at once an heir of all the privileges 
 belonging to the chosen people, but there is no indication 
 that he received any inward gift or indwelling grace to enable 
 him to live up to his profession. The Christian, on the 
 contrary, is not only made in Baptism "an inheritor of the 
 kingdom of heaven," but also a partaker of the grace of 
 regeneration and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in the power of 
 which he may fulfil the duties of his high calling in Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 Such has always been the belief of the Catholic Church. 
 Now, seeing that unconsciousness was no bar to admission 
 into covenant with God in the Old Testament, unless children 
 under the New are to be placed in a wholly inferior position, 
 it is no impediment now. Indeed, if Christ had given the 
 least sanction to the idea that little children were ineligible 
 for the kingdom. His enemies, who were always seeking for 
 grounds of accusation against Him, would have eagerly seized 
 upon and pressed this point very strongly, to show the 
 inferiority of Christianity to Judaism. And it is worthy of 
 notice that not only were infants admitted by Circumcision into 
 covenant privileges, but, in the case of proselytes from other 
 religions, infants were actually baptized by the Jews. It is 
 testified to by Maimonides, one of the most learned of their 
 Rabbis, " An Israelite who takes a heathen child, or finds a 
 little heathen babe, and baptizes him, he becomes a proselyte." 
 
V. 1 3- 1 6 A uthority for Infant Baptism 2 1 9 
 
 When, then, our Lord commanded the Apostles to make 
 disciples of all nations by baptizing them, unless an exception 
 had been expressly made, the same laws would be observed as 
 had previously been in force. And history affords ample 
 testimony that the Primitive Christians so interpreted His 
 directions. Speaking of persons who must have been born 
 while S. John was living, ^ one of the earliest Fathers says that 
 they had been "made disciples in their childhood." Irenaeus, 
 too, asserts that Christ "came to save all by Himself; all I 
 mean who are regenerated to God by Him : infants and Uttle 
 ones, boys and youths, and older persons." Origen also 
 writes, " Infants by the usage of the Church are baptized ; " 
 and again, "The Church received a custom handed down 
 from the Apostles to give Baptism even to infants." 
 
 Many more passages of Scripture " and testimonies from 
 Patristic wTitings might easily be pressed into the service, but 
 enough has been adduced to afford strong grounds for the 
 assumption that He, Who knew the end from the beginning, 
 rebuked the disciples for keeping little children from coming 
 to Him for His blessing, that He might confirm at the outset 
 their claim to the privileges of the New Kingdom. That 
 laying on of Christ's hands upon the little ones in the coasts 
 of Judaea was a type of the blessings in store for those of 
 every nation who should be gathered into the fold of His 
 Church; and that single act established the principle "that 
 infants are proper subjects for sacramental influences, and 
 though they may be incapable of understanding God's mercy, 
 they are not incapable of receiving it." 
 
 ^ The first Apology has been held l)y some authorities to have been written 
 as early as 141 A.D. , but the most probable date was 147-8. The persons of 
 whom he speaks were, he said, sixty and seventy years old, which take back 
 their birth to time considerably antecedent to the Apostle's death. 
 
 - The argument usually drawn from the fact of " whole households " being 
 baptized — Acts xvi. 15, 33 ; i Cor. i. 14, 16 — is necessarily weak. The 
 most that can be urged is a probability that they included children, which is 
 perhaps somewhat strengthened by the suddenness of their admission. It is 
 hardly likely that whole families of adults would embrace a despised religion 
 in haste ; the difficulty is diminished if a portion of them were unconscious 
 children, for whose baptism a conviction was not requisite. 
 
 Perhaps the strongest evidence is to be found in the relationship of Baptismal 
 Regeneration to Original Sin. If evil may be received unconsciously, a fortiori 
 good, otherwise the work of the Second Adam is less extensive in its operation 
 than that of the first. Cf. i Cor. xv. 22, 
 
XLVII 
 
 ^^e laiclj goimg Euler 
 
 S. Mark x. 17-31 
 
 17. And when He was gone forth 
 into the way, there came one running, 
 and kneeled to Him, and asked Him, 
 Good Master, what shall I do that I 
 may inherit eternal life? 18. And 
 Jesus said unto him, Why callest 
 thou Me good ? there is none good 
 but One, that is, God. 19. Thou 
 knowest the commandments. Do not 
 commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not 
 steal. Do not bear false witness. 
 Defraud not, Honour thy father and 
 mother. 20. And he answered and 
 said unto Him, Master, all these have 
 I observed from my youth, 21. 
 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, 
 and said unto him, One thing thou 
 lackest : go thy way, sell whatsoever 
 thou hast, and give to the poor, and 
 thou shalt have treasure in heaven : 
 and come, take up the cross, and 
 follow Me. 22. And he was sad at 
 that saying, and went away grieved : 
 for he had great possessions. 
 
 23. And Jesus looked round about, 
 and saith unto His disciples. How 
 hardly shall they that have riches 
 enter into the kingdom of God ! 24. 
 And the disciples were astonished at 
 
 His words. But Jesus answereth 
 again, and saith unto them, Children, 
 how hard is it for them that trust in 
 riches to enter into the kingdom of 
 God ! 25, It is easier for a camel to 
 go through the eye of a needle, than 
 for a rich man to enter into the king- 
 dom of God. 26. And they were 
 astonished out of measure, saying 
 amohg themselves, Who then can be 
 saved ? 27. And Jesus looking upon 
 them saith. With men it is impossible, 
 but not with God : for with God all 
 things are possible. 
 
 28. Then Peter began to say unto 
 Him, Lo, we have left all, and have 
 followed Thee, 29. And Jesus 
 answered and said. Verily I say unto 
 you. There is no man that hath left 
 house, or brethren, or sisters, or 
 father, or mother, or wife, or children, 
 or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, 
 30. but he shall receive an hundred- 
 fold now in this time, houses, and 
 brethren, and sisters, and mothers, 
 and children, and lands, with per- 
 secutions ; and in the world to come 
 eternal life. 31. But many that are 
 first shall be last ; and the last first. 
 
 The name of the young ruler has not been preserved. It was 
 suppressed by the Evangelist, probably out of a tender con- 
 sideration for his feelings. It is thought by some that there 
 
k 
 
 CH. X. V. 17-31 T/ie Rich Young RiUer 221 
 
 are sufficient coincidences ^ between his history and that of 
 Lazarus of Bethany to warrant a conjecture as to their identity. 
 They are not, however, strong enough to justify any confident 
 conclusion. All that is certain is that he was a man of wealth 
 and social position, either president of some local synagogue, 
 or a member of the Great Council of the Nation. 
 
 As our Lord left the house he ran to meet Him in a state 
 of great excitement, and put to Him a question which he was 
 eager to have solved : " Good Master, what shall I do that I 
 may inherit eternal Hfe?" 
 
 It is said that it was an altogether novel mode of addressing 
 a Rabbi ; if so, he could hardly have been surprised that it 
 called forth some observation. He had used the title "good " 
 on the impulse of the moment, and Jesus tried to awaken 
 some serious reflection upon what it really involved. It 
 was not a term to be tossed about as a mere courteous 
 compliment, but one belonging to Him alone Who is 
 absolutely perfect. 
 
 It has been strangely supposed that in His reply, " Why 
 callest thou Me good ? there is none good but One, that is, 
 God," He repudiated the title, and that it furnishes an 
 argument against His Divinity. Christ cannot contradict 
 Himself Did He not say that He was One with the Father, 
 and did not that unity imply that He shared His goodness as 
 all His other attributes ? Is it not a fact that the Jews even 
 threatened to stone Him because He made Himself equal 
 with God? The sole reason then for His appearing to 
 disclaim the application of the title to Himself was an un- 
 willingness to accept it w^hen erroneously applied. 
 
 Then for the answer to his question the ruler was referred 
 at once to the Commandments. 
 
 It was no doubt a great disappointment to him. Lie 
 expected to be told of something new, of some grand heroic 
 deed by which he might win the prize. The common duties 
 of life he had fulfilled, according to the conventional standard ; 
 
 1 Dean Plumptre says that they ' ' are such as to carry the evidence to a 
 very high point of probabihty." He refers to indication of riches in the 
 precious spikenard whicli his sister lavished upon Jesus : to the fact that S. 
 Mark leaves her unnamed, as he has left the ruler : and to the correspondence 
 between the " one thing is needful," and the " one thing thou lackest." Cf. 
 Com. on S. Matt. xix. i6 
 
22 2 The Rich Young Rttler chap, x 
 
 and he answered, not perhaps in a wholly self-righteous spirit, 
 "All these have I observed from my youth." 
 
 It was the custom of Rabbis to kiss their pupils in token 
 of their approbation of their conduct, and it is possible that 
 the same mark was given on this occasion, and led to the 
 observation that Jesus " loved him." At all events, it sets 
 aside the idea that the above assertion was simply that of a 
 self-righteous man. There was something deep down in his 
 heart which attracted the Master, and made Him yearn to 
 enlist him for ever in His personal service. 
 
 But such a step involved a total surrender of all earthly 
 goods. He must leave everything if he would follow Him. 
 The other disciples had made the sacrifice, and there was no 
 reason why his case should be an exceptional one. True, it 
 was harder for the rich than the poor, and so he felt it. " He 
 was sad at that saying, and went away grieved." He was not 
 angry, and he offered no remonstrance, but a shadow fell 
 upon his face, as when a thick and lowering cloud casts a 
 sudden gloom over a sunny landscape. He did not dispute 
 our Lord's authority, for he was conscience-smitten, and found 
 himself weak when he thought he was strong. He felt as a 
 man feels when the physician makes an examination of his 
 constitution, and reveals some concealed and unexpected 
 mischief. The terrible awakening was followed by a 
 momentary struggle, for it was hard to disobey, but harder 
 still to yield to the advice ; and he who had come to Jesus so 
 full of eager hope and expectation went away with a heavy 
 heart. 
 
 We are apt to judge him harshly,^ but many allowances 
 ought to be made. He had been trained to look upon 
 poverty as an evil to be deprecated above all human miseries, 
 so dire in its consequences that a man was absolutely for- 
 bidden by the Oral Law to part with all his possessions ; and 
 to have embraced beggary, such as was put before him, 
 involved a sacrifice far beyond our imagination. 
 
 When he was gone, the Master turned to His disciples to 
 draw a warning from what they had witnessed. We lose 
 
 1 Sadler quotes from the Commentary of a Bishop of the Church : ' ' We 
 must place this young man in our memories by the side of Judas, Ananias, 
 and Sapphira." 
 
V. 17-31 The Rich Young Ruler 223 
 
 something of the true teaching by the familiar translation, 
 " How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the 
 kingdom of God ! " It is not the equivalent of " scarcely," 
 but betrays the difficulty, the distress, the harassing, the 
 irritations, which the rich man will experience on the journey. 
 When His disciples were perplexed by what they heard, He 
 reiterated the verdict almost in the same words, but prefaced 
 it by a term of endearment to remind them that He could not 
 be unduly harsh ; and He drove it home by a proverbial 
 saying that must have made His meaning unmistakable. It 
 matters little Avhether He drew His illustration from a familiar 
 object, some well-known wicket-gate^ called the "needle's 
 eye," through which no beast of burden could possibly pass 
 till it had laid down its load ; or whether the expression was 
 to be interpreted naturally as indicative of something superla- 
 tively difficult. It only added force to what had gone before, 
 for it called forth the astonished exclamation from the by- 
 standers : " Who then can be saved ? " 
 
 The disciples had listened with eager attention to the 
 conversation, and no doubt Peter spoke the thoughts of most 
 of them when, with characteristic impulsiveness, he asked the 
 Lord how far it applied to them. Had not they done just 
 that which He counselled the young ruler to do ? True, they 
 had no "great possessions," but such as they had they had 
 willingly surrendered. They had " left all, and followed Him." 
 And Jesus, knowing out of the depths of His Own experience 
 how great is the joy of self-sacrifice, how transcendently 
 superior to everything else, assures them that they will have 
 their reward both here and hereafter. Here in a vastly 
 intensified'-^ appreciation of earthly enjoyments, finding new 
 
 ^ Modern travellers have noticed that there are not infrequently two gate- 
 ways in Oriental cities, one for beasts of burden, and one for foot-passengers, 
 and that the name given to the latter is Es Summ el Kaytit, The eye of the 
 needle. Cf. Kitto, Pict. Bible, The figure of an elephant passing through 
 a needle's eye is sometimes used in the Talmud. Cf. Lightfoot zn loco. A 
 "cable" has been conjectured for "camel," but the reading rests on no MS. 
 authority, and would destroy the whole Oriental spirit of hyperbole, which 
 belongs to the proverbial saying in its generally accepted form. 
 
 - In the catalogue, "or wife" is omitted in some of the oldest MSS. and 
 versions, and "wives" are not mentioned in the list of those blessings 
 which will be multiplied, so that there was no ground for the sneering jest of 
 Julian about the multiplicity of wives which the Christian was taught to 
 look for. 
 
2 24 The Rich Young Ruler ch. x. v. 17-31 
 
 homes and new friends wherever they go, and seeing new 
 beauty in the commonest things — in earth and air, and sky 
 and sea. It was true they would meet " with persecutions," 
 but these would not mar their happiness, for by a mysterious 
 law, understood by those alone who experienced them, they 
 were accompanied by a "joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
 
 And hereafter they would receive the fullest compensation, 
 " an eternal weight of glory " in the life everlasting. 
 
 One further word of no less vital import before the con- 
 versation closed. It would humble them in the hour of 
 earthly triumph and success : it would console them in trouble 
 and depression, when the world turned its back upon them, 
 and they should find themselves lightly esteemed of men. It 
 was the assurance that hereafter human judgments would often 
 be reversed by the Divine, " the first should be last, and the 
 last first." 
 
 It lends a sad significance to the utterance to remember 
 that it was made in the hearing of Judas, and by One Who 
 "knew from the beginning who should betray Him." 
 
XLVIII 
 
 ^!je ^mliit!ou0 Kequc^t of 
 anti 3|ol)n 
 
 S. Mark x. 32-45 
 
 3Iame^ 
 
 32. And they were in the way going 
 up to Jerusalem ; and Jesus went 
 before them : and they were amazed ; 
 and as they followed, they were afraid. 
 And He took again the twelve, and 
 began to tell them what things should 
 happen unto Him, 33. saying. Behold, 
 we go up to Jerusalem ; and the Son 
 of Man shall be delivered unto the 
 chief priests, and unto the scribes ; 
 and they shall condemn Him to 
 death, and shall deliver Him to the 
 Gentiles : 34. and they shall mock 
 Him, and shall scourge Him, and 
 shall spit upon Him, and shall kill 
 Him : and the third day He shall rise 
 again. 
 
 35. And James and John, the sons 
 of Zebedee, come unto Him, saying, 
 Master, we would that Thou shouldest 
 do for us whatsoever we shall desire. 
 
 36. And He said unto them. What 
 would ye that I should do for you ? 
 
 37. They said unto Him, Grant unto 
 us that we may sit, one on Thy right 
 hand, and the other on Thy left hand, 
 in Thy glory. 38. But Jesus said 
 unto them, Ye know not what ye ask : 
 
 can ye drink of the cup that I drink 
 of? and be baptized -with the baptism 
 that I am baptized with ? 39. And 
 they said unto Him, We can. And 
 Jesus said unto them. Ye shall indeed 
 drink of \he cup that I drink of; and 
 with the baptism that I am baptized 
 withal shall ye be baptized : 40. but 
 to sit on My right hand and on My 
 left hand is not Mine to give ; but it 
 shall be given to them for whom it is 
 prepared. 41. And when the ten 
 heard it, they began to be much dis- 
 pleased with James and John. 42. 
 But Jesus called them to Him, and 
 saith unto them, Ye know that they 
 which are accounted to rule over the 
 Gentiles exercise lordship over them ; 
 and their great ones exercise authority 
 upon them. 43. But so shall it not 
 be among you : but whosoever will be 
 great among you, shall be your 
 minister : 44. and whosoever of you 
 will be the chiefest, shall be servant of 
 all. 45. For even the Son of Man 
 came not to be ministered unto, but 
 to minister, and to give His life a 
 ransom for many. 
 
 Our Lord had just before spoken the parable of the Labourers 
 in the Vineyard. It must have been while He was still 
 beyond Jordan, for such an illustration would be naturally 
 
 Q 
 
2 26 The AmbitioiLS Request of chap, x 
 
 suggested by the features of a Peraean landscape. The note 
 that they were going up to Jerusalem indicates that they had 
 crossed the ford. It was an eventful epoch in their journey. 
 The road to the scene of the Crucifixion was no longer inter- 
 rupted, and thither " He set His face steadfastly to go up." 
 Whether it was an impatient eagerness to reach the goal, such 
 as He expressed in the outburst, " How am I straitened till 
 it be accomphshed ! " or whether, in the anticipation of what 
 awaited Him, He felt that He must gather strength from 
 undisturbed communion with the Father, we cannot tell. All 
 we know is, that, contrary to His general habit, He was walk- 
 ing ^ in advance of the rest by Himself alone. It was so unlike 
 what they had been used to, that it led to anxious questionings 
 among His followers. 
 
 They saw perhaps an intense earnestness in His look that 
 bespoke grave forebodings, and their wonder grew into a 
 weird feeling of awe, and "they were afraid." And He, 
 knowing their thoughts, called the Twelve, who would 
 naturally be nearest in the crowd, and for the third time told 
 them of His coming Death, only now with a greater distinct- 
 ness, as befitted its nearer approach. He predicted even the 
 mocking and spitting, the scourging and crucifixion,^ who 
 would be the chief instigators, and who the agents by which it 
 should be accomplished. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, what He told them of the coming 
 shame and dishonour laid no hold upon their minds ; they 
 thought only of the glory that was to follow. Two of the 
 favoured three came, and either with their own mouth, or 
 through the intervention of their mother, preferred a request 
 for the two prominent places of distinction in the kingdom 
 which they supposed was about to be revealed. 
 
 There is no real discrepancy, such as has been alleged, 
 between the narratives of S. Matthew and S. Mark. One 
 puts the request into the mouth of the mother, the other into 
 that of the sons. James and John had laid the plan, and 
 
 ^ 7]v -rrpodycov avrovs. He was going before them, and "leading them to 
 the conliict as an intrepid general leads his soldiers to the battle ; " but it is 
 used of a shepherd also before his sheep, 
 
 - The Cross had been mentioned before, ch. viii. 34, but only indirectly. 
 Here it is spoken of as the instrument of His death. 
 
V. 32-45 SS. James and John 227 
 
 Salome fell in with it. All no doubt were present, and 
 it matters little by whom the petition was actually made. 
 The answer, according to both narratives, was addressed 
 to the sons, from whom it really emanated, directly or 
 indirectly. 
 
 Jesus asked them if they were ready to share His lot, to 
 drink the same cup of shame, and to be baptized in the same 
 sea of affliction and blood. He Himself would not enter into 
 glory till He had suffered pain, and those who would reign with 
 Him hereafter must suffer with Him here. In the confident 
 hope of strength to bear whatever might befall, inspired by His 
 Presence, they assured Him that they could do what He 
 asked. 
 
 He set His seal to their promise, seeing, it may be, their 
 future history, when the one should lay down his life as the 
 first martyr in the Apostolic company, and the other live on 
 to advanced age in persecution, and cruelty, and exile, cheer- 
 fully borne for the Master's sake. But they had misconceived 
 how the honour which they sought was to be won. It was 
 not as an arbitrary gift from His sovereign will, but to be 
 assigned on recognised principles of labour and reward. It 
 must be earned before it can be received. It is " not 
 Mine to give, but // shall be given to them for whom it is 
 prepared. " 
 
 This rendering of the Authorised Version is somewhat mis- 
 leading, and seems to contradict what is elsewhere taught, 
 that it will be the prerogative of Christ to award us our places 
 in His future kingdom. The contradiction has been avoided 
 by the Revised Translation : it " is not Mine to give, but ^ // 
 is for them for whom it is prepared." No doubt stress is laid 
 upon the word "to give," for, though it is in one sense a free 
 gift of God, it is in another and most true sense wages for 
 labour done. Men are predestined to receive it, but only 
 after a life which fits them for the reception. 
 
 Now as soon as the design of the two disciples had become 
 knov.n, the rest were filled with indignation. It was not that 
 they had any truer appreciation of the coming kingdom, for 
 
 ^ dW ots i]TOLpi.a(TTaL. dXXd is regarded by some as equivalent here to 
 et/xT7, which simphfies the construction, but the Revisionists have hesitated to 
 accept this interpretation. 
 
2 28 The Ambitious Request of chap, x 
 
 the old Jewish ideas were deeply rooted in them all ; and the 
 teaching of our Blessed Lord from the little child, whom He 
 had set before them as a pattern of all that is opposed to self- 
 seeking and pride of position, had left them unchanged. 
 What kindled their anger was the discovery that James and 
 John had been intriguing to forestall them, to steal, as it were, 
 a march upon them, and insure by anticipation the posts of 
 greatest honour. 
 
 When Jesus heard them wrangling, He called them all — 
 the two as well as the ten, — and pointed out how grievously 
 they had misconceived the nature of the kingdom He was 
 about to set up. It was wholly unlike those earthly empires 
 from which they had formed their ideas. In these, men in 
 authority, whether sovereigns or princes, chiefs or subordinates, 
 wield their power for their own ends. They too often 
 tyrannise and lord it over their subjects, exercising the brief 
 authority with which they are clothed in a total disregard of 
 the interests and wellbeing of the people under them ; but in 
 the Messianic kingdom there will be no ambitious striving 
 after power, no imperious exercise of supremacy, but all 
 authority will rest upon the might of meekness and the 
 sovereignty of service. "If," He seems to say, "you need to 
 be convinced, you have only to read the lessons of My life. 
 Do you not recognise Me, have you not all along recognised 
 Me, as your Head ? And yet is it not true that from the 
 beginning I have been ministering to others, exalted because 
 I have humbled Myself, ruling because I serve? If you 
 require still further proof, you h.ave only to wait a while ; for 
 the principle will receive its very highest exemplification when 
 I become obedient to the death of the Cross and give My 
 ' life a ransom for many.' " 
 
 One would have thought that such a sharp reproof could 
 not fail to leave a lasting mark upon His hearers, but it 
 needed even plainer teaching than this to eradicate views so 
 deeply ingrained in their lives. The same strife broke out 
 afresh at the close, in disputes for precedence ^ at the Table of 
 the Last Supper ; and He rebuked them again by a lesson of 
 humility never equalled ; and this time we would fain believe 
 
 ^ Edersheim, vol. ii. x., has drawn this out very fully, and concludes that 
 Judas claimed, and was allowed, the seat of honour next to our Lord. 
 
I 
 
 ;2-45 SS. James and John 229 
 
 that the impression was never effaced. It was surely a 
 picture not forgotten in after days, — that in which they had 
 seen the Lord make Himself their slave, when He rose from 
 supper, and laid aside His garments, and took a towel and 
 girded Himself, and washed the disciples' feet. 
 
XLIX 
 
 Blinti ©artimaeud at 5|enc^o 
 
 S. Mark x. 46-52 
 
 46. And they came to Jericho : manded him to be called. And they 
 
 and as He went out of Jericho with call the bhnd man, saying unto him, 
 
 His disciples and a great number of Be of good comfort, rise ; He calleth 
 
 people, blind Bartimasus, the son of thee. 50. And he, casting away his 
 
 Timasus, sat by the highway side garment, rose, and came to Jesus, 
 
 begging. 47. And when he heard 51. And Jesus answered and said 
 
 that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he unto him, What wilt thou that 1 
 
 began to cry out, and say, Jesus, should do unto thee ? The blind man 
 
 Thou Son of David, have mercy on said unto Him, Lord, that I might 
 
 me. 48. And many charged him receive my sight. 52. And Jesus 
 
 that he should hold his peace : but said unto him. Go thy way ; thy faith 
 
 he cried the more a great deal. Thou hath made thee whole. And im- 
 
 Son of David, have mercy on me. mediately he received his sight, and 
 
 49. And Jesus stood still, and com- followed Jesus in the way. 
 
 Three of the Evangelists have recorded this miracle, but with 
 such variety of detail that they have been accused of in- 
 accuracy. The divergence lies in the number of the blind 
 men and the exact scene of the event. S. Matthew mentions 
 two blind men, S. Mark and S. Luke one only. Again, S. 
 Matthew and S. Mark connect the miracle with our Lord's 
 departure from Jericho ; S. Luke with His approach to it. 
 There is an exact parallel in the difference of numbers, in the 
 case of the Gadarene demoniacs.^ One of the two was well 
 known, fallen perhaps from a position of social distinction, and 
 the preservation of his name Timaeus, Bartimoeus by S. Mark, 
 points to this. 
 
 The difficulty in accounting for the discrepancy touching 
 
 ^ Cf. p. xoo, n. 2 and 3. 
 
cii. X. V. 46-52 Blind Bartimaeus at Jericho 231 
 
 the scene is greater. We notice one or two of the solutions 
 which have been proposed. The Jericho ^ of our Lord's time 
 was more than a mile distant from the site of the ancient city; 
 and it is possible that one Evangelist was speaking of the 
 existing town, another of the ruins ; and if the miracle was 
 performed between the two it was naturally after our Lord 
 left the one, and whilst He was drawing near to the 
 other. Again, it is possible that the whole scene was not 
 continuous; that the attention of Jesus was called to 
 Bartimaeus as He drew nigh to the city, and, entering into 
 conversation with him, He heard his wants, but postponed 
 the cure from some cause unknown to us, but which seemed 
 to Him sufficient. Then on the morrow, as He left the 
 city, finding him awaiting His departure at the outskirts, He 
 completed the cure. S. Luke, who connects it with His 
 approach to Jericho, anticipates the end, and finishes off the 
 narrative as though the whole scene had been uninterrupted. 
 Precisely the same method is adopted by S. Matthew in his 
 description of the withering of the barren fig-tree. 
 
 If this be the right explanation, it helps to clear up the 
 discrepancy of the numbers. Bartimaeus, whom our Lord 
 found at the entrance of the city, encouraged by his interview, 
 foUow^ed Him into the crowd, and hearing that He was only 
 staying for the night on His way to Jerusalem, told to some 
 companion in affliction what had occurred, and they agreed 
 together to waylay Jesus as Lie departed, and both were 
 healed. 
 
 And now, confining ourselves to S. Mark's narrative, we 
 meet with many details of special interest. Jesus had spent the 
 night at the house of Zacchaeus,^ much to the annoyance, no 
 doubt, of His followers, who found it difficult to reconcile 
 their belief in Him with such a signal mark of favour to a 
 declai-ed enemy of Jewish hopes. Their spirits, however, were 
 revived by His entrance on the last stage of the journey which 
 was to end in the manifestation of His glory. But as they 
 
 1 Riha, or Eriha, is the modern name. It is a miserable village, consisting 
 of a few hovels. But in our Lord's time it was a city of considerable size, 
 being a priestly station. 
 
 - He was an dpx'TeXwj'Tys. It is uncertain what this signifies. Perhaps he 
 was one of the sub-inagistri more directly connected with the officials at 
 Rome. 
 
232 Blind Bar timaeus at Jericho chap, x 
 
 were departing, full of eagerness and impatience, they were 
 suddenly checked. A blind beggar had heard from the crowd 
 that Jesus of Nazareth v/as passing by, and with a flash of 
 faith recognising in Him the Messiah, Whose predicted 
 characteristic it was to take compassion on the miserable and 
 give sight to the blind, he cried aloud above the noise and 
 confusion of the tumultuous multitude, "Jesus, Thou Son of 
 David, have mercy on me." They dreaded at such a time the 
 least interruption, and endeavoured to silence him, but it may 
 be he had heard of cases like his own relieved by Jesus, and 
 he would not lightly submit to having his only hope thus rudely 
 crushed. He redoubled his energies, and his voice reached 
 the ears that were never deaf to the cry of the afflicted ; and 
 the order was given to those who were nearest, " Call him " ^ 
 to Me. And, as so often happens in excited crowds, which 
 are easily swayed, they changed instantaneously; rudeness was 
 turned into courtesy, and those who a moment before would 
 have driven him away, now give him every encouragement : 
 "Be of good comfort, rise; He calleth thee." 
 
 Flinging off at once the long cumbrous cloak, the Oriental 
 abba that covered his tunic, he sprang to his feet ^ with 
 impatient joy, and, perhaps led by the hand, or guided by the 
 sound of His call, he "came to Jesus." We are surprised 
 that He Who knew all, and Who could see his sad condition, 
 even if He did not know it before, should ask him to explain 
 his special need. It was a mark of tenderness, and bespoke 
 His desire to create a closer sympathy by listening to his tale 
 of misery, and to quicken his faith to be healed. Bartimaeus, 
 with exceeding reverence, addressed Him by a title not often 
 used, Rabboni,^ and pleaded for the restoration of his sight. 
 His prayer was immediately answered, and the assurance given 
 that his foith had " saved " him. It is not easy to say with 
 
 ^ (pu)vr](jaTe avrov. This is the reading of the majority of ancient MSS. , 
 N* B C L. 
 
 ^ dvaTrrjSrjaas, according to MSS. N B D and some old Versions. 
 
 ^ It is more deferential than the ordinary Rabbi, at least Ribboni (of which 
 in Hellenistic Greek Rabboni is the equivalent) was applied in a higher sense. 
 It was used by Mary on the morning of the Resurrection. It shows the 
 caprice of the Old Translators that the same word should be rendered in this 
 one place "Lord," and in the other Hterally reproduced, — "Rabboni," i.e. 
 mv Master. 
 
V. 46-52 Blind Bar timaeus at Jericho 233 
 
 confidence, in what sense Christ assured him that he was 
 "saved." The word is used in the original as well of a bodily 
 cure as of spiritual restoration. It may be that on the lips of 
 Him Who saw " the correspondencies of things outward and 
 inward," it was employed here "with a two-edged reference," 
 and predicted that the deliverance from that physical in- 
 firmity would be accompanied by the cure of his soul's sickness. 
 And so it came to pass, for he became an attached follower of 
 the Lord ; and if an old tradition be true, he braved the 
 obloquy of his countrymen, and stood by Him when all His 
 disciples forsook Him and fled. The Apocryphal Gospel of 
 Nicodemus records how, in defiance of the attempt to silence 
 our Lord's supporters, and to suborn false witnesses against 
 Him, Bartimseus gave evidence in favour of the Accused. 
 
 Now, the circumstances of the miracle are especially 
 suggestive from a practical point of view. 
 
 How often, for example, are our first efforts thwarted, when 
 we begin to reach forth to better things, by those from whom 
 we might most reasonably expect assistance ! Have we not 
 known parents discourage their children from claiming the full 
 privileges of their spiritual birthright, ostensibly from fear lest 
 they should fall away and increase their condemnation, but too 
 often really from a conviction of the obvious inconsistency of 
 their living up to a higher standard of religion than themselves? 
 Many a prodigal son might have been brought back, and 
 many an awakened sinner finally reclaimed, if his first good 
 resolutions and cries for mercy had not been rebuked, as was 
 the blind man's passionate appeal — O strangest of paradoxes ! 
 — even by those who were with Jesus. 
 
 Again, when our Saviour draws near to us in any of those 
 countless ways through which He woos back the wanderer, it 
 is the "sin which so easily besets us," the evil habit from 
 which we cannot tear ourselves, the companionship that is so 
 hard to scorn : it is this which impedes our progress, and 
 makes the return so difficult. Our only chance lies in flinging 
 aside by a single stroke all that endangers our obedience, and 
 in the joy of a sudden emancipation springing to our feet as 
 Bartimseus did. 
 
 Once more, he is an example in following Christ. He 
 " followed Jesus in the way." The original implies a continu- 
 
2 34 Blind Barti77taeus at Jericho ch. x. v. 46-52 
 
 ance in so doing. ^ It was no mere impulsive clinging to his 
 Benefactor in the outburst of gratitude for a new-found joy, 
 but in a constant wahs:ing in His footsteps Who has promised 
 to be a never-failing Guide to those who seek Him; for "He 
 hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." 
 
 ^ 7)Ko\ovdei, the imperfect tense. 
 
^Ije Cnumpljal (Kntrp 
 
 S. Mark xi. i-ii 
 
 I. And when they came nigh to 
 Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and 
 Bethany, at the mount of Olives, 
 He sendeth forth two of His disciples, 
 
 2. and saith unto them, Go yoiu- way 
 into the village over against you : and 
 as soon as ye be entered into it, ye 
 shall find a colt tied, whereon never 
 man sat ; loose him, and bring him. 
 
 3. And if any man say unto you. 
 Why do ye this ? say ye that the 
 Lord hath need of him ; and straight- 
 way he will send him hither. 4. And 
 they went their way, and found the 
 colt tied by the door without in a 
 place where two ways met ; and they 
 loose him. 5. And certain of them 
 that stood there said unto them. What 
 do ye, loosing the colt? 6. And 
 they said unto them even as Jesus 
 
 had commanded : and they let them 
 go. 7. And they brought the colt to 
 Jesus, and cast their garments on 
 him ; and He sat upon him. 8. 
 And many spread their garments in 
 the way : and others cut down 
 branches off the trees, and strawed 
 them in the way. 9. And they that 
 went before, and they that 
 followed, cried, saying, Hosanna ; 
 Blessed is He that cometh in the 
 Name of the Lord : 10. Blessed be 
 the kingdom of our father David, that 
 cometh in the Name of the Lord : 
 Hosanna in the highest. 11. And 
 Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into 
 the temple : and when He had looked 
 round about upon all things, and now 
 the eventide was come. He went out 
 unto Bethany with the twelve. 
 
 Our Lord arrived at Bethany on the eve of the Sabbath. 
 That day He desired to spend in retirement, to prepare 
 Himself for the great events of the coming week. He could 
 have found nowhere else such a fitting place, for it has been 
 well called "the picture of seclusion and holy peace." It 
 was the home of the family He loved most on earth, — of 
 Martha and Mary and the risen Lazarus. How the day was 
 passed, whether He visited the synagogue or remained apart 
 in secret communing with His Father, we are not told ; but as 
 soon almost as the morrow dawned the little village was astir 
 
236 The Triumphal Entry chap, xi 
 
 with excitement. Some of those who had travelled in His 
 company from Jericho had gone on to Jerusalem, and spread 
 the news of His approach far and wide. It was little more 
 than a month ^ since He had restored Lazarus to life. Such 
 a miracle as that must have- raised His fame to the highest 
 pitch, and being still fresh in their memories, would quicken 
 the curiosity of the people to see Him. And now it was 
 rumoured that the Great Wonder-worker was amongst them 
 again. As soon then as the Sabbath rest was over, crowds 
 flocked out from the city, and these, together with the 
 pilgrims ^ who had halted at Bethany on their way to the 
 Feast, gathered round Him as He started for His solemn 
 entry into the city. 
 
 It marks the greatest epoch in our Lord's life. From 
 this moment an entire change passed over His conduct. 
 Hitherto He had deliberately rejected every act of homage 
 from His subjects. It is true that the consciousness of His 
 authority had frequently asserted itself, but there had been no 
 open claim for its public recognition. When they desired to 
 take Him by force and make Him a king. Lie had withdrawn 
 into privacy to defeat their purpose. When for the encourage- 
 ment of the favoured Apostles He had given a momentary 
 revelation of His Divine glory, it was followed by a solemn 
 injunction that they should "tell the vision to no man." But 
 now all is changed j and it is no mere acceptance of proffered 
 homage, no concurrence in a popular demonstration, but the 
 initiation proceeds from Himself 
 
 They had barely started on their journey, when He sent 
 forward two of His disciples to the village ^ over-against them, 
 in search of an ass's colt, on which He might ride in triumph 
 into His city. The ancient prophecy had foretold that the 
 King of Jerusalem should come to Zion, not driving in 
 
 ^ This had taken place about midway between the Feast of Dedication in 
 the month Kislev (December) and the Passover. After that, Jesus retired to 
 Ephraim, where He continued till His last journey to Jerusalem. — S. John 
 xiii^ 54. 
 
 - In the crowded state of Jerusalem it was a common practice for those 
 who came up to the Feasts to lodge in the neighbouring villages, and to camp 
 out on the Mount of Olives. 
 
 ^ In all probability it was Bethphage, which, according to general belief, 
 was about three-quarters of a mile nearer Jerusalem than Bethany. But 
 Lightfoot supposes that it was the name of a district. 
 
V. i-ii The Trminphal Entry 237 
 
 chariots like other kings, neither mounted upon a horse, the 
 symbol of war, but as befitted the Prince of Peace, "meek 
 and lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of 
 an ass." 
 
 The messengers found exactly as He had said. The ass 
 was "standing without in a place where two ways met," ^ or as 
 it might be more properly interpreted, at the road which led 
 round to the back of the house. It is one of those vivid 
 touches which betray the hand of an eye-witness,- and it 
 suggests the probability that S. Peter, from whom the 
 Evangelist received his information, was himself one of 
 the unnamed messengers on our Lord's errand. 
 
 We are surprised that the owners should have so readily 
 acquiesced in their demand. There is however a reading ^ in 
 some of the oldest MSS. which certainly lessens the difficulty, 
 for it puts into the mouth of the disciples an assurance that 
 their Master would return the ass to its owners, when it had 
 served the purpose for which He needed it. " If any man 
 say unto you. Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath 
 need of him, and will send him back again." However it 
 was, their request was complied with, and they started to 
 meet Jesus with "the colt whereon never man had sat." At 
 once a new enthusiasm seized the wayfaring throng. It may 
 have been that the prophecy which had prompted Jesus to 
 send for the ass was not unknown to them ; for in an instant 
 they seemed to recognise Him as their King. They could 
 not turn that narrow mountain path into a royal road, but 
 they unwrapped their loose cloaks, and stretched them on the 
 ground for their King to pass over. It was the very homage 
 that Israel of old had paid when "they hasted, and took 
 every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of 
 the stairs, and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king." 
 
 Those who had come up from Jerusalem brought palms in 
 their hands, branches which they had plucked from the 
 gardens of Olivet on the way; and they cast them clown at 
 
 1 The common translation is from the Vulg. bivium. 
 
 2 Cf. p. 2. 
 
 ^ KOI evdews avrbv dTroorAXei (S A BCD) ttclXlv ojSe (SBC D). It makes 
 it part of the message which they were charged to dehver. So Orlgen under- 
 stood it in his Commentary. 
 
238 The T7Htmiphal Entry chap, xi 
 
 His feet to do honour to their King, and then turned and 
 went before Him. Suddenly at a bend of the road, the first 
 gUmpse of the city — one small portion only — met their eyes 
 as they wound round the hill. It was but a momentary and a 
 partial glimpse, but it was Mount Zion, on which David's 
 palaces had been built, and which was called emphatically 
 "the city of David." 
 
 That was enough ; for the incident struck the excited 
 multitude, as it could hardly fail to do, and shouts of triumph 
 broke forth from every lip. " Hosanna." ^ It was the cry of 
 the people, the holy " hurrah " at the great feast of joy — the 
 loud acclaim with which the heavens were made to ring 
 again, when the pilgrims flocked through the streets with their 
 branches^ or torches at the Tabernacle Festival. 
 
 " Hosanna to the Son of David." It was the prayer for 
 safety, the sacred " viva " for the heir to the Messianic throne 
 about to be established. " Blessed is He that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord." "The coming age" had dawned, and 
 " He that should come " had now appeared in His kingdom, 
 and this was their recognition that prophecy had been ful- 
 filled. " Hosanna in the highest." It expressed the belief of 
 the enthusiastic crowds that heaven would join with earth in 
 the recognition of His claims. And amidst such loud accla- 
 mations the King of the Jews entered Jerusalem. The 
 protests of the Pharisees fell on ears that heard not, or were 
 ignored with a righteous disdain, for nothing could stay the 
 stream of popular enthusiasm. And He Who came as King 
 into His capital, in fulfilment of what had been written, would 
 show Himself also as Priest, and, as Malachi had foretold, 
 "come suddenly to His temple." He was unrecognised by 
 those who should have been the first to welcome Him, but 
 when priests and Levites held their peace. His praise was 
 perfected " out of the mouth of babes and sucklings," for the 
 children, hardly knowing perhaps what they were doing, took 
 up the cry which they had heard in the streets, and shouted 
 aloud, " Hosanna to the Son of David." 
 
 1 It is found in the dosing Psalm of the Hallel, cxviii., which was sung at 
 the Feast of Tabernacles. It means "Save now," or "Save, we pray:" 
 LXX. aGiaov 8rj. 
 
 2 To add to the festive character of the gathering every one wore the /u/av 
 — a spray of palm or willow or myrtle by day, and carried a torch by night. 
 
V. i-ii The Triumphal Entry 239 
 
 S. Mark, contrary to expectation, has passed over un- 
 noticed an incident which must have left an ineffaceable mark 
 upon the memory of an eye-witness. We should have ex- 
 pected that it would occupy a prominent place in the narrative 
 wherever the story of the Triumphal Entry would be told ; 
 but neither he nor S. Matthew have given us the picture of 
 the most touching scene m. sacred history, — the Saviour of 
 the world weeping over the city in which He was going to 
 suffer and to die. We are indebted for this to S. Luke alone, 
 but it is noticed here, if only to point the moral of the strange 
 and wonderful scene we have been witnessing. " And when 
 He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it." 
 
 How was it that in the midst of all that homage, that 
 worship and honour to the King of kings. He had thoughts 
 of trouble and sadness ? It was because He could see into 
 futurity. That enthusiasm was all hollow^ and evanescent. 
 Their King in glory to-day — their Victim in shame to-morrow ! 
 But five days more, and all would be changed. The palm- 
 branches of Sunday would be turned into thorns on Good 
 Friday. Now they were eager to spread their garments before 
 Him, then they would strip Him even of His Own. Now it 
 is " Hosanna to the Son of David," — when four more suns have 
 set it will be "Crucify Him, crucify Him;" "not this man, 
 but Barabbas." 
 
 And He saw the vengeance that would overtake them. 
 He saw them outcast from their home, wanderers upon the 
 face of the earth, a byword in every land, an undying monu- 
 ment of the punishment that will come upon those who 
 neglect the warnings of God and refuse to receive His Only 
 Becrotten Son. 
 
LI 
 
 %l)t ^litljercd f ig:--tree 
 
 S. Mark xr. 12-14, 20-26 
 
 12, And on the morrow, when 
 they were come from Bethany, He 
 was hungry : 13. and seeing a fig 
 tree afar oflf having leaves, He came, 
 if haply He might find any f/iz//c>- 
 thereon : and when He came to it, 
 He found nothing but leaves : for 
 the time of figs was not yet 14. 
 And Jesus answered and said unto 
 it. No man eat fruit of thee here- 
 after for ever. And His disciples 
 heard it. 
 
 20. And in the morning, as they 
 passed by, they saw the fig tree dried 
 up from the roots. 21. And Peter 
 calling to remembrance saith unto 
 Him, Master, behold, the fig tree 
 which Thou cursedst is withered 
 away. 22. And Jesus answering saith 
 
 unto them, Have faith in God. 23. 
 For verily I say unto you, That who- 
 soever shall say unto this mountain. Be 
 thou removed, and be thou cast into the 
 sea ; and shall not doubt in his heart, 
 but shall believe that ^/lose things 
 which he saith shall come to pass ; 
 he shall have whatsoever he saith. 
 24. Therefore I say unto you, Whai 
 things soever ye desire, when ye pray, 
 believe that ye receive them, and ye 
 shall have them. 25. And when ye 
 stand praying, forgive, if ye have 
 ought against any : that your Father 
 also Which is in heaven may forgive 
 you your trespasses. 26. But if ye 
 do not forgive, neither will your 
 Father Which is in heaven forgive 
 your trespasses. 
 
 After our Lord had gone into the Temple at the dose of His 
 Triumphant Entry, the crowds must have dispersed, for He 
 returned with the Twelve alone when the evening drew on. 
 The night, we may well believe, was spent in prayer and 
 fasting,^ perhaps as was His wont on the mountain-side in the 
 open air. When the day broke His first thought was to visit 
 the Temple, and cleanse it from the terrible iniquities which 
 had filled Him with horror on the previous day. So it was, 
 
 ^ TjvXiaOT]. He passed the night in the open air. The fact that He was 
 hungry points to His not being in the house, where Martha would certainly 
 have provided for His bodily needs. 
 
CH. XI. V. 12-14, 20-26 The Withered Fig-ti'ee 241 
 
 that, absorbed in the work which lay before Him, He neglected 
 the morning meal, and set out at once for the city. As they 
 were on the way He caught sight of a fig-tree,^ standing alone in 
 some conspicuous place, covered with leaves. It was an 
 unusual thing so early in the year, and as the fruit of the fig 
 in Palestine appears before the foliage, it created an expectation 
 that haply He might find something to satisfy His hunger. 
 Perhaps " the hasty fruit before the summer " — the first ripe 
 fig — might be sufficiently advanced ; ^ at all events it was 
 worth while to turn aside and see what there was. But there 
 was " nothing but leaves." It was two months to the ordinary 
 season^ for figs, and, as far as fruit was concerned, that tree was 
 no exception to the general rule. The precocity of its foliage 
 had certainly held out a reasonable hope that it would be so, 
 but it was not fulfilled. 
 
 It is, however, made to serve another and a higher purpose; 
 and Jesus, with a deep insight into the spiritual teaching of 
 Nature, at once seized the opportunity of enforcing a 
 momentous truth. He "answered and said unto it. No man 
 eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever." There was no immediate 
 visible effect, no lightning-flash descending to strip it of its 
 leaves, and lay bare its branches, but an unseen shuddering 
 thrilled through every fibre and stem, as it was " struck to the 
 heart by the malediction of its Creator." And Jesus and His 
 disciples turned aside and went on their way, and thought no 
 more of what had happened, but on the morrow, as they drew 
 near to the place, a strange sight arrested their attention ; and 
 " Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, Master, behold, 
 the fig-tree which Thou cursedst is withered away." 
 
 ^ avKrjv fjLtav — S. Matt. xxi. 19. It was a single tree. Stanley says that 
 " Mount Olivet, besides its abundance of olives, is still sprinkled with fig-trees." 
 — Sin. and Palest. 422. 
 
 - Thomson says that he had plucked them in May in the district of Lebanon, 
 which would be at least a month later than the south of Palestine. 
 
 ^ Many interpretations have been given of the saying, " for the time of figs 
 was not yet," e.g. " for where {ov) He was, it was fig season," or "it was not 
 a favourable season for figs." These are only ingenious evasions of a difficulty. 
 The fact is plain. Figs were ripe ordinarily, according to circumstances, 
 between June and August. This event occurred about the 22d of April. The 
 appearance of this tree invited the passer-by to seek fruit on it, but it was only 
 to mock his expectations. It was exceptional in having leaves so early ; it was 
 not exceptional as regards fruit. So it was said it was not the time for figs, 
 and, it might have been added, nor for leaves. 
 
 R 
 
2 42 The Withered Fig-tree chap, xi 
 
 The incident is full of instruction. It reminds us of the 
 inseparable union between His Humanity and His Divinity. 
 He was hungry, and came looking for something which did 
 not exist ; it bespeaks His liability to that which was common 
 to man. 
 
 He cursed the tree by the fiat of an irresistible Will, and 
 Nature was arrested, and the fountain of life dried up. It 
 marks the possession of a power which is shared by no mortal 
 creature, but is the sole prerogative of Almighty God. Again, 
 it may be asked why He should curse a tree, an unoffending 
 tree. We know it has excited the scorn and ridicule both of 
 former and later generations, alike also of Pagan and so-called 
 Christian writers. They have seen in it nothing but an 
 indication of childish displeasure, or of an impatient and vin- 
 dictive spirit. But this is to measure His acts and words by 
 a merely human standard, whereas He not only " spake as 
 never man spake," but also did everything " according to the 
 counsel of His will." There was danger of the people forget- 
 ting that God is just as well as merciful. He had worked 
 countless miracles of love, healing the sick, giving sight to the 
 blind, restoring the dead to life again. Here is one of 
 judgment, one that foretells "the wrath to come;" but even 
 in this, justice is tempered with mercy, for whereas His deeds 
 of beneficence were performed on the bodies of men, when He 
 would display the severity ^ of His future judgment, it is the 
 tree of the field — not man — that is cursed. 
 
 Now there was something in this withering, of unusual 
 significance. Jesus had often taught by word. It was an 
 opportunity to make a new^ thing, and arrest attention by a 
 parable in action. It was the sequel of the parable of the 
 Barren Fig-tree, "a rehearsal, as it were, of the execution of 
 the judgment then denounced " upon the Jewish nation if they 
 continued to bear no fruit. The tree had been refreshed by 
 the dews of heaven ; the sunshine had warmed it with genial 
 rays ; the sheltering hill perhaps had warded off the chilling 
 blasts, and all the seasonable influences of Providence had 
 ministered to its growth, but only to bring forth an ostentatious 
 show of unproductive leaves. And as with that hapless tree, 
 
 ^ The only other case of destruction is of the lowest of the animals, the 
 swine. Cf. p. 107. 
 
V. 12-14, 20-26 The Withered Fig-tree 243 
 
 so with the nation. All the care and culture of the Great 
 Vine-dresser had been bestowed in vain ; there was nothing 
 but a deceptive and pretentious display ; they were for ever 
 giving promise of fruit, but yielding none ; there was no return 
 for unremitting attention ; they cumbered the soil, their end 
 was to be burned, they were "nigh to cursing." 
 
 Such was the cause for which the fig-tree was destroyed. 
 All that follows in the narrative seems at first sight difficult to 
 connect with what has gone before. The key to its interpretation 
 is found in that characteristic of love which prompted Jesus to 
 soften His judgments of wrath with words of promise.^ "Let 
 nothing," He seems to say, "rob you of your faith in God. 
 There is much about to happen by which you may be staggered. 
 You will see the nation, whose cursing I have foreshadowed in 
 the blasting of this tree, even yet more flourishing ; but be not 
 dismayed : all will be made clear in God's good time. And 
 as in this, so in all else, place imphcit confidence and trust in 
 God, and nothing will be impossible. There is no difficulty 
 which may not be surmounted in the power of faith : the very 
 mountain on which we are standing may be lifted up and cast 
 into yonder sea. I do not mean, I need hardly tell you, the 
 actual removal, but I desire to emphasise with My authority 
 the assurance, which such a figure so well illustrates, that no 
 act or deed, however arduous, is beyond the reach of him 
 whose faith is stayed upon God." 
 
 And it is precisely the same in every prayer that goes forth 
 from an undoubting heart. You shall have your petition 
 granted before you ask, for the wish will prevent your words, 
 and God can hear the one as well as the other, for He has 
 promised elsewhere, " It shall come to pass that before they 
 call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear." 
 
 There is however one precaution which may not be forgotten. 
 Forgiveness of injuries is a virtue little recognised by the Jew, 
 and yet it is the very condition upon which we must ask to be 
 forgiven ourselves. For " if ye forgive not men their tres- 
 passes, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." 
 
 ^ Westcott, Gospel Miracles, 25. 
 
LII 
 
 ^^e Cleansing of tlje Cemple 
 
 S. Mark xi. 15-19 
 
 15. And they come to Jerusalem : My house shall be called of all nations 
 
 and Jesus went into the temple, and the house of prayer ? but ye have 
 
 began to cast out them that sold and made it a den of thieves. 18. And 
 
 bought in the temple, and overthrew the scribes and chief priests heard 
 
 the tables of the money-changers, and //, and sought how they might de- 
 
 the seats of them that sold doves ; stroy Him : for they feared Him, be- 
 
 16. and would not suffer that any cause all the people was astonished 
 
 man should carry any vessel through at His doctrine. 19. And when 
 
 the temple. 17. And He taught, even was come, He went out of the 
 
 saying unto them, Is it not written, city. , 
 
 S. John has described a purification of the Temple at the 
 first Passover after the commencement of our Lord's Ministry, 
 The other three Evangelists record a similar act at His last 
 visit to Jerusalem. There are sufficient variations in the 
 narratives to overthrow the theory of those who think it 
 improbable that such an act would have been repeated, and 
 conclude that the sacred writers, either S. John or the Three, 
 have been misled as to the time of its occurrence. 
 
 In the fourth Gospel we find, when the language is rightly 
 interpreted, that Jesus drove out with His scourge only the 
 sheep and oxen, but in the other narratives the buyers and 
 sellers also were forcibly expelled.^ Again, in the former the 
 desecrators of the Temple are remonstrated with for turning 
 God's house into a " house of merchandise," but in the latter 
 
 ^ Trduras, to. re irpb^ara ical roi)s jS6aj, is not as in the A. V. "them all 
 . . . and the sheep and the oxen," but as in the R.V. Trdvras is in the 
 masculine gender, agreeing with /36as, the masculine being more worthy than 
 the neuter, according to the grammatical scale. 
 
CH. xr. V. 15-19 TJie Cleansing of the Temple 245 
 
 into "a den of thieves." The diiTerences are not unimportant, 
 for they well illustrate a principle of our Lord's dealing with 
 sinners, by which He treats them tenderly at first, but is 
 unsparing and severe, if the remonstrance is unheeded and the 
 sin repeated. 
 
 The circumstances which led to the profanation were these. 
 The Jews who came up to the Feasts from a distance would 
 obviously find it more convenient to purchase their sacrificial 
 victims on the spot, and cattle-markets were held in the city ; 
 but in lapse of time, when the authorities of the Temple 
 began to grow mercenary, they determined to have such a 
 large source of profit in their ow^n hands. The Court of the 
 Gentiles was always held in little respect by the Jews,^ and it 
 seemed to them quite justifiable to utilise it for their purpose. 
 There is some uncertainty about the first introduction of the 
 traffic into the Temple ; but it was probably before the 
 occasion when Bava Ben Buta " sent for three thousand of 
 the sheep of Kedar, and having examined whether they were 
 without spot, brought them into the Mountain of the House, 
 that is, into the Court of the Gentiles." There is no doubt, 
 however, that after this time, for about twenty days before the 
 Feast the corridors and arcades and outer walls of the sacred 
 enclosure ^ were commonly occupied by cattle-pens ; and the 
 solemn stillness of the precincts was broken by the unseemly 
 confusion of the lowing of herds and the wranglings of drovers 
 and pilgrims bargaining for their price. 
 
 Besides these there were the money-changers. After the 
 Captivity the Jews of the Dispersion, when they came up to 
 the Feasts, in common with those who dwelt in Palestine, 
 made each their offering for the Temple service. It was 
 enjoined in the Law that they should "give every man a 
 ransom for his soul unto the Lord . . , half a shekel after 
 the shekel of the sanctuary." There was only one coin in 
 which it might be paid into the treasury. It was intended as 
 a safeguard to prevent the Korban being desecrated by the 
 
 ^ It was separated from the Holy Place by the "Song" or epKiov dpvcpaK- 
 Tov XlOLvov, a low wall, on which, Josephus says, was the inscription, fiT) 5eiv 
 d\\6(pv'Kop evTos tov ayiov irapeluai.. The court was actually called the 
 "Choi" or "profane" place. 
 
 2 "The Booths" are frequently mentioned in Rabbinic WTitings. For 
 their connection with the extortion of the chief priests, cf. Edersheim, i. 371. 
 
246 The Cleansing of the Temple chap, xi 
 
 introduction of pieces of money upon which heathen emblems 
 were stamped. Those pilgrims therefore who came from 
 countries where non-Jewish money was current, as Babylon, 
 Alexandria, Greece, or Rome, were compelled to procure the 
 half-shekel by exchange. It was not only a fruitful source of 
 gain to the bankers, who demanded an exorbitant discount ; 
 their extortion kindled the indignation of our Lord, and His 
 ears were pained by the clinking of money and weights and 
 balances, and the strife of words and angry recriminations, 
 mingling with the prayers and praises of the sanctuary. 
 
 But this was not all. Even the offerings of poor women, 
 and others, whose very poverty might have exempted them 
 from fraudulent imposition, were included in the market.^ 
 
 The whole scene was such as would raise the righteous 
 anger of any one who was jealous for the honour of God's 
 House. It was almost a worse profanation than that which 
 made our cathedrals and churches scenes of riot and desecra- 
 tion in the times of Edward VL, when S. Paul's was turned 
 mto a stock-exchange for merchants, and its aisles were used 
 as common thoroughfares for both man and beast. 
 
 What may have suggested to our Lord the cleansing of the 
 Temple on both occasions in immediate connection with the 
 Passover, was most probably the Divine command to the Jews 
 to purge all leaven out of their houses on the eve of the Feast. 
 It was a highly symbolical act, for " leaven is born of 
 corruption, and corrupts the mass with which it is mixed." ^ 
 Well then may our Lord have been eager, alike at the 
 beginning and the close of His earthly Mission, to strike 
 home by a forcible illustration their need of real purification. 
 It may have been also that He remembered the ancient 
 prediction of the seer who foretold His last visit to Jerusalem : 
 " In that day there shall be no more the trader in the house 
 of the Lord of hosts ; " or that which closed the scroll of 
 prophecy, describing how the Messiah should "come suddenly 
 to His Temple" and "purify the sons of Levi." So it was 
 
 ^ Lightfoot mentions the extravagant prices which doves reached at one 
 time, and the efforts of Rabban Simeon to stay the injustice, by vi-hich the 
 cost was reduced from a piece of gold to two farthings. 
 
 2 For an interesting account of the " B'dikath Hachamcz," cf. Pieritz, 
 Gospels from a Rabbinical Point of View, 33. 
 
15-19 The demising of the Temple 247 
 
 that He drave the base traffickers from the sacred precincts,^ 
 and with all their unseemly strife and overreaching before His 
 eyes, appealed to them, in a voice of awe-inspiring terror, to 
 stay the evils which had changed a house of prayer into a cave 
 of brigands,^ wrangling over their ill-gotten gains. 
 
 That they dared not resist, but submitted to be driven out 
 at the bidding of a Man, Whose authority was backed by no 
 external force, may well have excited the sneer of the in- 
 credulous, who forget Who He was. It will create no surprise 
 in the miod, if we realise that it was He "out of Whose 
 mouth went a sharp two-edged sword," and Whose " eyes were | 
 as a flame of fire ; " or even if we only recall the many 
 instances in which guilty, conscience-stricken men have quailed 
 in abject terror before the majesty of innocence and offended I 
 purity. 
 
 Now this cleansing of the Temple has for all time a double 
 application in its practical teaching. 
 
 It is intended primarily to inculcate reverence for holy 
 places. It was the repetition in a more striking form of the 
 original command, "Ye shall reverence My sanctuary." And '^ 
 that our Lord designed not only to condemn open and ; 
 flagrant desecration, but also to discountenance the slightest \ 
 neglect or carelessness, is clear from the very significant 
 record. He "would not suffer that any man should carry any \ 
 vessel through the Temple." He was so consumed with zeal j 
 for His Father's House that He would exclude from its courts ( 
 all trace of worldly occupations. And we only catch His I 
 spirit of reverent awe when we enter a consecrated church \ 
 with the Patriarch's thought uppermost in our mind, " Surely 1 
 the Lord is in this place ; this is none other but the house of * 
 God, and this is the gate of heaven." 
 
 Again, it bids us look on to that great Purification of which 
 this was but a faint foreshadowing, when He shall come in the 
 final judgment to separate for ever the good from the bad, 
 and to banish from His Presence everything that offends. It 
 has pleased God that for a time the sinner and the righteous 
 
 ^ "Canaanite" as in the A.V. is often a synonym for merchant, because 
 tlie Phoenicians were the principal commercial nation. Cf. Prov. xxxi. 24 ; 
 Isa. xxiii. 8-1 1 ; Hos. xii. 7; Zeph. i. 11. 
 
 - aTrjXatov \rjaTU}i'. It is far stronger than in the A.V. KXeirTtjs is a thief, 
 but XrjaTrjs is a highway robber or brigand. 
 
248 The demising of t lie Temple ch. xi. v. 15-19 
 
 should live together, and that His rain of mercy should 
 descend upon the just and the unjust. He no longer drives 
 out with indignation and anger those who defile His Church 
 by their impurity and hypocrisy, but suffers them, even as He 
 suffered the traitor Judas, to go on their way with their sins 
 undiscovered. But it is only for a time. One day He will 
 come, as He came from Jerusalem, on that first Palm Sunday, 
 eighteen centuries and a half ago, and repeat the act of 
 cleansing, only with infinitely graver consequence to those 
 who shall be cast out. 
 
 How we shall escape that terrible expulsion will depend 
 upon our endeavour to keep through life another temple 
 undefiled, that is, the temple of our body. That form was 
 hallowed for ever by the Incarnation of our Blessed Lord, and 
 it is made to each one of us in Holy Baptism a dwelling- 
 place of the Holy Ghost. Let us learn then to reverence it 
 as God's sanctuary, and we shall have nothing to fear from 
 the Advent of the Judge at the last day. 
 
LIII 
 
 S. Mark xi. 27-33 
 
 27. And they come again to Jeru- heaven, or of men ? answer Me. 31. 
 
 salem : and as He was walking in the And they reasoned with themselves, 
 
 temple, there come to Him the chief saying, If we shall say, From heaven ; 
 
 priests, and the scribes, and the elders, He will say. Why then did ye not be- 
 
 28. and say unto Him, By what lieve him ? 32. But if we shall say, 
 
 authority doest Thou these things ? Of men ; they feared the people : for 
 
 and who gave Thee this authority to all men counted John, that he was 
 
 do these things ? 29. And Jesus a prophet indeed. 33. And they 
 
 answered and said unto them, I will answered and said unto Jesus, We 
 
 also ask of yoa one question, and cannot tell. And Jesus answering 
 
 answer Me, and I will tell you by saith unto them, Neither do I tell 
 
 what authority I do these things. 30. you by what authority I do these 
 
 The baptism of John, was // from things. 
 
 It was on the Tuesday in Holy Week, whilst Jesus was 
 walking in the Temple teaching the people as they gathered 
 about Him, that He was suddenly called upon to answer a 
 question of the gravest import. The circumstances under 
 which it was put were such, and the directness of the inquiry 
 was so unmistakably clear, that unless it could be answered 
 satisfactorily He would gain no further hearing. 
 
 After the cleansing of the Temple on the previous day, the 
 Sanhedrim held a hasty sitting, and determined upon the 
 adoption of some more urgent measures to compass His over- 
 throw. Their jealousy of His influence had been stirred 
 almost as soon as He began His Ministry, and it had culmin- 
 ated after the raising of Lazarus. S. John tells us that on 
 hearing of this they met at the house of Caiaphas (on the Hill 
 of Evil Counsel), and officially decreed His death. But their 
 
2 50 0217^ Lord' s Authority chap, xi 
 
 attempts at carrying out their decree had hitherto been defeated. 
 Accordingly, when He reappeared on the scene which had 
 witnessed their discomfiture, they reopened their plan of attack. 
 They sent a formal deputation of their members to confront 
 Him. It seems to have been carefully chosen with a view to 
 overawe Him, for it contained representatives from each of its 
 component parts,^ chief priests and scribes and elders. They 
 would be well known in the Temple, and if they could succeed 
 in shaking the belief in His claims. His popularity would 
 receive a shock, and the great obstacle in their way be 
 removed. 
 
 Jesus had taken upon Himself two offices, both of which, 
 at least since the prophets had disappeared, had been assigned 
 by general recognition to their body alone. He had usurped 
 the control and management of the Temple,^ and placed 
 Himself in the Teacher's Chair. Show us, they say, your 
 authority for such an unprecedented proceeding. If you say 
 that you are a Priest, as we are, the office by God's appointment 
 is hereditary. Prove your Aaronic descent. Or if you claim 
 the right to teach, show your commission. Name the Rabbi 
 from whom you received it, or the Scribe who ordained and 
 invested you with the symbols ^ of your office. " By what 
 authority doest Thou these things ? and who gave Thee this 
 authority to do these things ? " 
 
 He Who could read the hearts of men saw through their 
 design. He knew that their object was not really to learn the 
 nature of His credentials, but to entangle Him, to force Him 
 to put forth claims which they could seize upon as grounds 
 for an indictment. And He foiled their attempt completely, 
 
 ^ The hereditary spiritual office was represented by the heads of the twenty- 
 four Courses of the Priests. The Elders were the real Senators of the Council, 
 selected for age and dignity. The Scribes embodied the knowledge of the 
 nation. 
 
 2 He had called the Temple ' ' His " House, and had swept aside by a 
 single stroke all the rules and regulations which the Chief Priests had sanc- 
 tioned ; and as a Teacher He had taught the people with such an air of 
 authority that they regarded Him as superior to the Scribes, 
 
 ^ It has been said that every Scribe received at his ordination a key, as the 
 symbol of his office, showing that it was given to him to unlock the treasures 
 of knowledge. — S. Luke xi. 52; Plumptre on S. Matt. xvi. 19, and Lightfoot's 
 Exercit. in loco. For some account of an ordination of a Scribe, cf. Edersheim, 
 ii. 382, where, however, he denies the " tradition " of the key. 
 
V. 27-33 ^^^^ Lord' s Authority 251 
 
 as He always did when He discovered the least trace of dis- 
 honesty, by replying to the inquiry in a manner wholly 
 unexpected. His answer appeared to be only a clever evasion 
 of the question, but if they understood all that it involved it 
 was its direct solution. "The baptism of John, whence was 
 it ? " He meant, of course, his ministry in general ; but 
 because its chief characteristic was the washing away of sin, 
 the purification of the hearts of men in preparation for the 
 Advent, He used the term Baptism as synonymous with 
 Mission. And He asked them whether John received his 
 commission to baptize and preach from Cjod or from man. 
 The question placed them on the horns of a dilemma from 
 Avhich there was no escape. Supposing they admitted that he 
 had been sent by God, there was only one conclusion to be 
 draw^n. Christ would have told them at once that they had 
 themselves answered their own question as to His authority. 
 The aim and end of John's mission was to bear testimony to 
 Him. One great reason why the people flocked in such 
 crowds to his Baptism was that they might be prepared to 
 welcome Him Whose forerunner the Baptist professed to be. 
 The burden of his message was, " There cometh One mightier 
 than I after me. Whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down 
 and unloose." 
 
 And could there be any manner of doubt that John had 
 recognised Him as his successor ? Had he not said of Him, 
 " Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the 
 world"? To admit, therefore, the Divine authority of the 
 Baptist's mission, was tantamount to the admission of His ; 
 and this the Sanhedrists saw clearly enough. And not only 
 so, but such a recognition would leave them self-condemned, 
 for though in the first outburst of excitement some of them 
 were carried along in the stream of popular enthusiasm, when 
 they found how diametrically opposite His teaching was to 
 theirs, tliey had set their faces against Him, and denounced 
 His austerities in unmeasured terms. Not unnaturally then 
 the thought arose in their minds, " If we shall say. From 
 heaven ; He will say, Why then did ye not believe him ? "' 
 But supposing, on the other hand, they said that John had no 
 Divine commission, they would be no better off. That would 
 be to run counter to popular feeling, for " all men counted 
 
252 Our Lo7^d' s Authority chap, xi 
 
 John, that he was a prophet indeed." His coming had been 
 hailed with deHght by the nation. For four centuries they 
 had been waiting and watching for one of those accredited 
 messengers of God to come again amongst them. In all the 
 difficulties in which they found themselves placed, their 
 common lament shaped itself into a cry that the Urim 
 and Thummim anight be revived, or that some one might 
 come who should be authorised to speak to them direct 
 from God. And so when the Baptist came in the spirit 
 and power of Elias the whole population poured out to 
 welcome him. 
 
 The Sanhedrists knew well what a hold he had gained 
 upon the people, and to assert that his authority was only 
 based upon human appointment w^ould involve them in 
 consequences which they were by no means prepared to 
 face. 
 
 What then was to be done ? Only one course was open 
 to them. They M^ould evade the difficulty by a pretence of 
 ignorance. It was a question, they said, on which they could 
 pronounce no opinion. " We cannot tell." We can measure 
 the humiliation it cost them to make such a confession in the 
 hearing of the people, when we remember the claims which 
 they had arrogated to themselves to be the sole depositaries of 
 all legal and ecclesiastical knowledge. There was not a 
 question ever propounded in their schools, not a difficulty, 
 either of interpretation or history, which they would ever 
 acknowledge their inability to solve in some way. And if 
 only they had not shrunk from speaking the conviction of 
 their hearts at this moment, there was no reason why they 
 should do it even here. But anything was better than the 
 least sanction to the pretensions of their open and avowed 
 Antagonist ; and so, with a he on their lips, they went 
 away, smarting under the humiliation and the blow which their 
 pride had received, and determined to redouble their efforts 
 to bring about His death. 
 
 The interview abruptly ended with our Lord's refusal to 
 give any other answer to their inquiry than what they had 
 received. He then turned to the people and resumed His 
 teaching, to be interrupted again, if not by the same disputants, 
 yet doubtless by men urged on at their instigation, to try to 
 
V. 27-33 Our Lord' s Authority 253 
 
 bring Him into collision with the civil power,^ but with the 
 same result. No weapon of argument forged against Him 
 could stand, for He had truth on His side, and it always 
 prevailed. It was only when they enlisted treachery and force 
 on their side that their end was gained. 
 
 1 Cf. p. 260. 
 
LIV 
 
 ^^e l^aralile of tlje cEirieparD 
 
 S. Mark xii. i-i 
 
 I. And He began to speak unto 
 them by parables. A ce?-tain man 
 planted a vineyard, and set an hedge 
 about if, and digged a place for the 
 winefat, and built a tower, and let it 
 out to husbandmen, and went into a 
 far country. 2. And at the season 
 he sent to the husbandmen a servant, 
 that he might receive from the hus- 
 bandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. 
 3. And they caught him, and beat 
 him, and sent him away empty, 4. 
 And again he sent unto them another 
 servant ; and at him they cast stones, 
 and wounded him in the head, and 
 sent him away shamefully handled. 
 5. And again he sent another ; and 
 him they killed, and many others ; 
 beating some, and killing some. 6. 
 Having yet therefore one son, his 
 wellbeloved, he sent him also last 
 
 unto them, saying, They will reverence 
 my son. 7. But those husbandmen 
 said amongst themselves, This is the 
 heir ; come, let us kill him, and the 
 inheritance shall be ours. 8. And 
 they took him, and killed him, and 
 cast him out of the vineyard. 9. 
 What shall therefore the lord of the 
 vineyard do ? he will come and de- 
 stroy the husbandmen, and will give 
 the vineyard unto others. 10. And 
 have ye not read this scripture ; The 
 Stone which the builders rejected is 
 become the Head of the corner : 11. 
 this was the Lord's doing, and it is 
 marvellous in our eyes? 12. And 
 they sought to lay hold on Him, but 
 feared the people ; for they knew that 
 He had spoken the parable against 
 them : and they left Him, and went 
 their way. 
 
 One Who was wont to illustrate His teaching by imagery 
 drawn from the objects which surrounded Him, could hardly 
 fail in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem to speak of vineyards. 
 The hills and table-lands of Judah were the home of the vine. 
 Five times our Lord availed Himself of this figure for His 
 parables, and though it is doubtful in what locality He spoke 
 that of the Labourers in the Vineyard,^ it is almost certain 
 
 ^ Probably He was then in Peraea ; if so, the same principle applies, as 
 Moab, no less than Judasa, was famous for its vines. There is no instance of 
 His referring to the vine in Galilee, where it grew most rarely, if at all. 
 
CH. XII. V. I-I2 The Parable of the Vineyard 255 
 
 that the remaining four are intimately associated with 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 In many places in Southern Palestine the features of this 
 parable may still be traced. The loose stone fences, like the 
 walls so familiar to the eye in Wales or Derbyshire ; the 
 remains of the old watch-towers,^ generally in one comer of 
 the enclosure ; and the cisterns hewn in the solid rock in 
 which the grapes were pressed — all remain to the present day. 
 It was the custom in our Lord's time for the owner in leasing 
 a vineyard to tenants, to arrange for the rent to be paid not 
 in money but in kind, a certain portion of the produce being 
 set apart as "a first charge " for the landlord. The system 
 prevails in modern times in some parts of France,'^ and more 
 widely under the name of "ryot -rent" in India. The inner 
 meaning of the parable is quite obvious. It had become 
 perfectly familiar to the Jews from the frequent comparison 
 of Israel to a vine in the Old Testament. Isaiah had said, 
 " The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel," 
 and had spoken of God as a Vine -dresser, bestowing the 
 utmost care upon the nation, only to receive in return a 
 worthless vintage. " He looked that it should bring forth 
 grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." 
 
 The Psalmist had sung of the vine brought out of Egypt, 
 transplanted into a carefully-prepared soil, and growing over 
 the whole land, only to be devastated by " the boar out of 
 the wood, and the wild beasts of the field." 
 
 Ezekiel had warned the nation that if they bore no fruit 
 they would be useless, just as the barren vine was good for 
 nothing but to be "cast into the fire for fuel." 
 
 Indeed, the figure seemed to the Jews so peculiarly appli- 
 cable that they appropriated it as their emblem, and it was 
 perpetuated "on the coins of the Maccabees, and in the 
 colossal cluster of golden grapes which overhung the porch of 
 the second Temple ; and the grapes of Judah still mark the 
 tombstones of the Hebrew race in the oldest of their European 
 cemeteries at Prague." 
 
 ^ The object of these was chiefly to protect the vines from robbers and wild 
 beasts, which would root them up. They presented a very isolated appearance, 
 rising out of the vineyards. " The lodge in the garden of cucumbers," in Isa. 
 i. 8, was no doubt such a tower of observation. 
 
 ~ It is called the mitayer system. It is known also in Italy and Persia. 
 
256 The Parable of the Vineyard chap, xn 
 
 Whether in the parable the hedge and winefat and tower 
 had each a special application in the system of God's Pro- 
 vidential care for His ancient people, we cannot say ; but at 
 least in one particular we may trace a peculiar fitness in the 
 figure of "the hedge." 
 
 What was it that protected the land of Israel year by year 
 during the three Great Festivals, when by the Divine Law the 
 country was denuded of its male population — when every 
 man, from north, south, east, and west, from the most un- 
 guarded districts, leaving their flocks and herds, their wives 
 and little ones, totally unprotected from their bitterest enemies, 
 went up to Jerusalem, the centre of religious worship ? 
 
 What was it that held in check the Moabite and Ammonite, 
 and the robber tribes of Arabia?^ It was the fence of 
 Divine protection, which, like " a wall of fire," God in His 
 Providence had built up, so that no one dared to pass it. 
 The husbandmen were the leaders and chief rulers of the 
 people ; the servants were the prophets. The successive 
 missions point perhaps to the earlier and later, — Elijah and 
 Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Baptist. All were 
 received with persecution and death. One was threatened 
 wherever he went, another sawn asunder, a third beaten and 
 thrown into the dungeon, a fourth denounced the people in 
 the Temple, and perished between the altar and the sanctuary. 
 Indeed, with such unbroken cruelty were the messengers 
 of God treated, that, looking back over the history of wellnigh 
 a thousand years, S. Stephen broke out into the indignant 
 question, " Which of the prophets have not your fathers per- 
 secuted ? " And when God sent to them His Son, trusting 
 that the hereditary reverence for the chief of the family would 
 revive their respect and allegiance, they waxed bolder and 
 bolder, till they crucified Him like a common malefactor, and 
 cast His Body out of tlie city. 
 
 And what was the fate of the wicked husbandmen ? It 
 adds not a little to the interest that, as S. Matthew records, 
 its justice was acknowledged by the very men who both 
 earned and endured it. It seems strange that, knowing, as 
 they must have done, that the parable was aimed against 
 
 ^ I feel that 1 am indebted to some one for this illustration, but cannot 
 recall where I have seen it. 
 
The Parable of the Vineyard 257 
 
 them, they should by their own Hps have condemned them- 
 selves, for, in answer to the question, " What shall therefore 
 the lord of the vineyard do?" they^ answered at once, "He 
 will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the 
 vineyard unto others." We can hardly doubt, however, that 
 it was intended as a blind, to hide from the people the con- 
 viction they must have felt. But it was fulfilled to the letter. 
 Nothing could have exceeded the misery which overtook 
 those miserable men at the destruction of their city. Their 
 threatened wretchedness is intensified by the peculiar allitera- 
 tion - which the first Evangelist has preserved : " He will 
 miserably destroy these miserable men." And not only did 
 they perish for their wickedness, but the vineyard was given to 
 others, and all the spiritual privileges which they had forfeited 
 were transferred to the Gentiles, and are now the heritage of 
 Cathohc Christendom. 
 
 Such was the predicted punishment for the wicked hus- 
 bandmen ; but what was in store for the rejected messengers ? 
 The " Hosannahs " ^ with which He, the Heir, the Well-beloved 
 Son, had been received, were still ringing in His ears, and the 
 Psalm, so familiar to every Jew, from which the people had 
 drawn their shouts of triumph, answered His thoughts. It 
 had been written^ to commemorate the completion of the 
 Second Temple after their Return from Captivity, and it was 
 sung at their favourite Feast. The Psalmist wished to con- 
 trast their present happiness with their former misery ; the 
 joy of independence and restoration to ancient rights with the 
 contempt and rejection they had endured at the hands of the 
 heathen. And he drew his imagery from an episode in the 
 building which had been noted by him for remembrance. 
 Among the stones and slabs from the marble quarries was one 
 which the builders set aside from some foolish caprice as 
 
 ^ The answer is put into their mouth by S. Matthew. Probably it was 
 taken up and repeated by Himself, as SS. Mark and Luke indicate. 
 
 ^ KaKovs KaKU)s (XTroAecrei. It is not easy to transfer the force into another 
 language, which is further increased by the juxtaposition of the adjective and 
 adverb. 
 
 ^ Cf, p. 238, n. I. 
 
 * It is the last of the collection forming the Hallel, cxiii. -c.wiii. The 
 Psalm has been assigned to David or Hezekiah, but there is a strong consensus 
 of opinion in placing it after the Return from Captivity, though the occasion 
 of its composition is disputed. 
 
258 The Parable of the Vijieyard ch. xn. v. 1-12 
 
 unfitted for use, and there perhaps it lay neglected and moss- 
 grown, till suddenly it was found to be exactly what was 
 wanted ; not, however, for some common occasion, but to be 
 raised to a position of the highest honour. 
 
 The circumstance was seized by the poet to depict the 
 change which the nation had experienced. The Rabbis, 
 passing by the predicted rejection, and thinking only of the 
 glory of the coming King as the Corner-stone of the nation, 
 had interpreted it in its secondary sense as of Messianic 
 application ; and Jesus knew that they had done so. It is no 
 matter of surprise, then, that His appeal to a well-known 
 scripture to describe their conduct should have stung the 
 Rulers and Scribes with resentment. That He should dare 
 to tell the people that One Whom they were plotting to 
 destroy would be set by God upon His holy hill, kindled to 
 the highest degree their hatred against Him. Gladly would 
 they have seized Him and silenced His voice for ever, but 
 the people were on His side, and they dreaded another public 
 demonstration — a repetition of Palm Sunday — if they attempted 
 to lay hands upon Him. And so they went away in a rage, 
 baffled for a time, but determined to redouble their efforts, 
 and lay deeper designs to bring Him into their net. 
 
LV 
 
 S. Mark xii. 13-17 
 
 13. And they send unto Him certain crisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye 
 
 of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, Me? bring Me a penny, that 1 may 
 
 to catch Him in His words. 14. And see it. 16. And they brought //. 
 
 when they were come, they say unto And He saith unto them, Whose i$ 
 
 Him, Master, we know that Thou art this image and superscription ? And 
 
 true, and carest for no man : for Thou they said unto Him, C;csar's. 17. 
 
 regardest not the person of men, but And Jesus answering said unto them, 
 
 teachest the way of God in truth : Is Render to Coesar the things that are 
 
 it lawful to give tribute to Ccesar, or Caesar's, and to God the things that 
 
 not? 15. Shall we give, or shall we are God's. And they marvelled al 
 
 not give? But He, knowing their hypo- Him. 
 
 Nothing could express more clearly the determination of the 
 chief men of Jerusalem to destroy Jesus, than to be told that 
 for the second time the Pharisees and Herodians had entered 
 into a compact together against Him. It would be difficult 
 in the annals of history to find a more striking example of 
 what is meant by " an unholy alliance." The ecclesiastic and 
 rigidly orthodox Religionist makes common cause with the 
 political and freethinking Secularist — the one bound hand and 
 foot to the Theocracy, the other the time-serving adherent of 
 the Herodian Court. ^ 
 
 It is not easy to discover the motives which prompted the 
 Herodians to accept such a position, for they evidently played 
 only a secondary part in the transaction. It is the Pharisaic 
 character that is stamped alike on the design and the mode 
 adopted for carrying it out. Their aim was to " catch Him in 
 
 1 Cf. pp. 58, 59 for further characteristics of the two pai-ties. 
 
26o The Tribute- Mo7iey chap, xh 
 
 His words." S. Matthew says to "entangle" Him. Both 
 expressions ^ in the original suggest the craft and wily cunning 
 of the hunter, who sets his traps warily, that the prey may fall 
 into them without any suspicion. They approach Him with a 
 courteous address,^ which reminds us of the traitor's kiss, cal- 
 culated as they believed to throw Him off His guard ; and 
 they praise Him for the well-known impartiality ^ and fearless 
 independence of His conduct ; and they made as though they 
 were in a difficulty which they had no hope of solving for 
 themselves. If He could help them to unravel it, a favour 
 would be conferred upon them. Such manifestly is the tone 
 which they assumed. The question was an oft-debated one, 
 but it may have been revived at this time through the presence 
 in Jerusalem ^ of Pontius Pilate, the representative of Rome, 
 and also of Herod, its vassal king. At all events, under the 
 circumstances, none more calculated to "entangle" our Lord 
 could be imagined. " Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or 
 not ? " Supposing He should admit the Roman supremacy, and 
 uphold the payment, they would take care that the people 
 should hear of it, and His growing popularity would receive a 
 severe check. The nation's hopes of finding in Him the pro- 
 mised Messiah Who should sweep the alien invader out of the 
 land, would be dashed to the ground by such a confession. 
 If, on the other hand, He should take the opposite course, as 
 they doubtless expected, and counsel resistance, their most 
 eager wishes would be realised, because it would place Jesus 
 completely at their mercy. They had only to turn to the 
 Herodians and bid them to delate Him to the Roman 
 Governor, promising at the same time to appear in court as 
 witnesses of His seditious counsels. The revolt of Judas of 
 Gamala a few years before, and the wide sympathy of the 
 
 ^ ira-^ihevw, to ensnare, or entrap, dypevoj, to take in hunting. 
 
 - AiddaicaXe, Rabbi, a deferential acknowledgment that they were prepared 
 to " sit at His feet." 
 
 3 " To regard the person " of any one hardly conveys the meaning of the 
 original /3\^7reti/ els irpoawTrov. It is to look at the external circumstances of 
 any one : the position, wealth, influence, etc. irpfxrwrrov was the persona, the 
 mask an actor wore, the character he assumed. 
 
 ^ Pontius Pilate was so unpopular that he usually resided at Ccesarea, and 
 only came occasionally to Jerusalem, as at the Passover, when his presence 
 would be required in case of disturbances. The same motives, to a less 
 degree perhaps, influenced the Herods. 
 
V. 13-17 The Tribute- Money 261 
 
 people with the course he had taken, would show Pilate the 
 necessity of dealing with such a case in the most summary 
 manner. Such was their deep-laid plot for placing Jesus in a 
 position from which, as they thought, there was no escape. 
 
 We can see them as they stood round Him, waiting after 
 the question was put, almost in breathless expectation, hardly 
 able to conceal their satisfaction that their Victim was snared 
 at last. But what a rude shock their hopes must have 
 received by the very first words of His reply ! " Ye hypocrites! 
 why do you tempt Me ? " It swept away at a stroke the whole 
 web of their craft and cunning, and must have prepared them 
 for another of those withering denunciations with which their 
 ears were so familiar. But " before the people," and doubtless 
 for their sakes, He chose rather to answer the question 
 deliberately ; and He did it, so to speak, out of the very mouth 
 of His questioners. As by a sudden flash of inspiration, and 
 with a presence of mind that made them marvel, He called for 
 the coin in which the tax was paid, not "the shekel of the 
 sanctuary," but the Roman denarius, and pointing to the 
 Emperor's head, and the familiar "legend " ^ that was inscribed 
 on the rim, asked what it meant. 
 
 One of the most learned of their Rabbis has told us what 
 the full force of that question was, and thereby enabled us 
 to understand the bewilderment with which they must have 
 heard it. 
 
 It was a common proverb among the Jews, "Wherever a 
 king's coin is current, in that country his authority is accounted 
 supreme ; " and it is illustrated by a curious dialogue between 
 David and Abigail. She begins by asking what evil she has 
 done to him. David replies that her husband has vilified his 
 kingdom. Abigail rejoins that it can hardly be David's king- 
 dom, seeing that Saul's coinage is still in circulation ; and she 
 concludes by the very pertinent question, " Is it not true that 
 Saul is to be regarded as king so long as the people use his 
 money ? " In further support of the acceptance of this prin- 
 ciple, at a date not very remote from that of which we are 
 writing, it is said that when the famous Barchochba raised the 
 
 1 It was accidental that this particular coin bore the Emperor's head, for out 
 of deference to Jewish prejudice this was usually omitted, and only the name 
 and title engraved on it. 
 
262 The Tribute- Money chap, xn 
 
 standard of revolt in the reign of Hadrian, giving himself out 
 to be the promised Messiah, he issued " a new coinage dating 
 from the liberation of Jerusalem," This, then, is the whole 
 gist of our Lord's reply : " You must recognise the fact. You 
 use Caesar's money, and by your own admission, without the 
 need of consulting Me, you are bound to acknowledge him as 
 your lord, and pay him his due." It is no matter of surprise, 
 then, that "when they heard these words they marvelled," and 
 were put to silence. 
 
 That command to " render to Caesar the things that are 
 Caesar's " involved a great deal. It taught them first the fact 
 that their cherished expectation of a promised freedom from 
 alien subjection was without foundation. It was nowhere 
 taught in Scripture, as they falsely boasted, that they should 
 be exempted from such a condition. "Thou mayest not set a 
 stranger over thee " was a prohibition against adopting such a 
 king of their own choice ; it had no reference to what should 
 be imposed by God as a punishment for national apostasy. 
 Christ's words awoke them to the realisation of the unwelcome 
 truth that they had forfeited their ancient privilege. Caesar's 
 government, therefore, demanded their recognition ; for it was 
 their bounden duty to make a proper return ^ for the advan- 
 tages of protection for life and property enjoyed through it. 
 And such an acknowledgment was in no way incompatible 
 with their allegiance to God. There need be no clashing 
 between the two spheres of obligation. Caesar might claim 
 their tribute as their emperor, but there was One to Whom, as 
 their God, something higher was due, even their faith and 
 reverence and love. The two sentences joined together by 
 Christ may never be dissevered, and they teach men in every 
 age, and under whatever government, that "they may never do 
 anything contrary to the rights of God in obeying princes ; and 
 never violate the rights of princes under pretence of serving 
 God." 
 
 In this world there are many Caesars. Our Queen, our 
 country, our family ties, our business occupations, all are in- 
 volved in the command to "render to Caesar the things that 
 are Caesar's." No faith however sublime, no prayers however 
 devout, can set a man free from the obligation imposed upon 
 
 1 Not 5(5x6, but aTTooore, "payback." 
 
V. 13-17 The Tribute-Money 263 
 
 him, to do his duty in that state of Ufe unto which it has 
 pleased God to call him. " If any man provide not for his 
 own, he is worse than an infidel." 
 
 But while we are zealous for all these public and private 
 considerations, as viewed from the side of temporal interests, 
 let us never forget to acknowledge Him by Whom kings reign 
 and prosperity is secured. 
 
 We ourselves are His every bit as much as the coin was 
 Caesar's. Our bodies are stamped with His Image, our souls 
 redeemed by Christ's Blood, our lives sanctified by His Holy 
 Spirit ; and for all these several blessings w^e are called not 
 merely to give, but to give back — to make a return for — what 
 we have received : as creatures, to Him Who created us ; as 
 redeemed, to the Redeemer ; as regenerated and sanctified, to 
 Him Who hath washed us in the laver of regeneration, and 
 renews us day by day with the spirit of holiness. 
 
LVI 
 
 »)aDtiuccan HDitficultie^ 
 
 S. Mark xii. 18-27 
 
 18. Then come unto Him the 
 Sadducees, which say there is no 
 resurrection ; and they asked Him, 
 saying, ig. Master, Moses wrote unto 
 us, If a man's brother die, and leave 
 his wife behi?id him, and leave no 
 children, that his brother should take 
 his wife, and raise up seed unto his 
 brother. 20. Now there were seven 
 brethren : and the first took a wife, 
 and dying left no seed. 21. And the 
 second took her, and died, neither 
 left he any seed : and the third like- 
 wise. 22. And the seven had her, 
 and left no seed : last of all the 
 woman died also. 23. In the resur- 
 rection therefore, when theyshall rise, 
 
 whose wife shall she be of them ? for 
 the seven had her to wife. 24. And 
 Jesus answering said unto them, Do 
 ye not therefore err, because ye know 
 not the scriptures, neither the power 
 of God ? 25, For when they shall 
 rise from the dead, they neither 
 marry, nor are given in marriage ; but 
 are as the angels which are in heaven. 
 26. And as touching the dead, that 
 they rise : have ye not read in the 
 book of Moses, how in the bush God 
 spake unto him, saying, I am the God 
 of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, 
 and the God of Jacob ? 27. He is not 
 the God of the dead, but the God of 
 the living : ye therefore do greatly err. 
 
 The chief actors in the last scene were Pharisees ; in this they 
 are Sadducees. It has been a common practice to condemn 
 both in the same breath and m unmeasured terms ; but such 
 a course is hardly justifiable. The Pharisee, whichever way 
 we look at him, has something reprehensible in his character. 
 The Sadducee, on the contrary, though holding doctrines from 
 which the Christian instinct naturally recoils, has in him much 
 that may enlist our sympathy. Modern writers speak of him 
 commonly as a freethinker, or sceptic, or infidel ; he met with 
 a more generous reception at the hands of our Lord. It is 
 quite true that Christ condemned Sadducean tenets, and 
 
cH. XII. V. 18-27 Saddticean Difficulties 265 
 
 warned people against them, but there is none of the scath- 
 ing denunciations with which He repelled the hypocritical 
 Pharisee. He read their hearts, and saw that many of them 
 were honest men with honest doubts, to whom the common 
 arguments appealed to by their brethren carried no conviction. 
 
 In illustration of this contrast of treatment we need refer 
 only to the controversy about the Tribute-money, and to this 
 on the Resurrection. Of the Pharisees in the former He 
 asks indignantly, " Why tempt ye Me, ye hypocrites ? " To 
 the Sadducees in the latter He offers the firm but gentle 
 remonstrance, "Do ye not therefore err ? " 
 
 Now, the Sadducean tenets were, for the most part, 
 negative. They are well summed up by S. Paul in the words, 
 "The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither 
 angel, nor spirit." It was on the first of these questions that 
 they engaged in dispute with our Lord in the Temple. They 
 disbelieved in the immortality of the soul, but the point on 
 which they raised the present controversy was the resurrection 
 of the body. It was provoked, no doubt, in a measure by 
 the strong materialistic views held by the Pharisees, who even 
 disputed whether a man would rise in the very clothes in 
 which he had been buried ; and we cannot but think that they 
 wished to expose their rivals by the somewhat coarse and 
 grotesque form in which they shaped their inquiry. They 
 appealed to a law ^ which had received the sanction of Moses, 
 and been generally recognised as Divine. 
 
 Seven brethren in succession, they imagined,- liad married 
 the same woman. If, as common Pharisaic teaching implied, 
 even physical human relationships would be reproduced in 
 the risen life, " whose wife shall she be of the seven ? " They 
 thought that if they could show that a restoration of these 
 earthly conditions in another world was simply impossible, the 
 whole theory of the resurrection w^ould fall to the ground. 
 Jesus might have replied that by the Jewish law she was the 
 
 1 This was called the Levirate Law, from Lcvir, a brother-in-law. 
 
 - It has been suggested that it was a " stock question " for discussion in 
 the Rabbinical schools. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others, suggest that 
 it was a purely imaginative case ; others interpret it as historically true. The 
 Sadducees lay stress upon the woman's childlessness throughout, lest it should 
 be answered that she was the real wife of the one to whom she bore a 
 child. 
 
266 Sadducean Difficulties chap, xn 
 
 real^ wife of the first, and if marriage ties were to be pre- 
 served hereafter she would continue so ; but He chose rather 
 to give a full and complete answer to the whole question. 
 He told them that they erred in their general denial of the 
 resurrection through ignorance of Scripture.^ There were 
 many passages in which it was taught with unmistakable 
 clearness ; it may be He had in His mind such a confession 
 as Job had made : " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and 
 that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : and 
 though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my 
 flesh shall I see God; " or the words of the Psalmist : "Thou 
 wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine 
 Holy One to see corruption ; " or of Isaiah : " Thy dead men 
 shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise ; " or 
 of Daniel : " Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth 
 shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and 
 everlasting contempt." Why He did not actually quote any 
 of these, but referred to another, in which the doctrine is only 
 taught inferentially, we shall see presently. 
 
 Then, having charged them with going astray through 
 ignorance of what was revealed on the fact of the future life. 
 He went on to show that they were in no less error from an 
 inability to recognise the power of God, Who might reproduce 
 the old relationships in the other world, but under new and 
 altered conditions. Marriage had been instituted to provide 
 for the continuance of the human race : it was " the counter- 
 poise of death ; " but just as there was no death among the 
 angels, so would it be with risen men and women hereafter; 
 " neither can they die any more." 
 
 " Marriages," says S. Augustine, " are on account of 
 children ; children on account of succession ; succession on 
 account of death ; where therefore there is no death, neither 
 is there any marriage." 
 
 Our Lord did not teach, as has been hastily assumed, that 
 there would be no reunion in the future world He does not 
 say that husbands and wives will be no more to each other 
 
 ^ This is clear from the fact that to whichever of the successive husbands a 
 child vi^as born, it was accounted legally the child of the first. 
 
 ^ He may also have intended to point to those passages which showed that 
 there would not only be a resurrection but a transformation. Cf. Phil. iii. 
 21 ; I Cor. XV. 44. 
 
V. iS-27 Sadducean Difficulties 267 
 
 than those who have been bound merely by common friend- 
 ship. That tie, which was held so sacred, so transcendently 
 superior to every other, that it was selected to typify Christ's 
 union with His Church, must have some recognition in the 
 perfect state ; but Christ leaves no doubt tliat all that is " of 
 the earth earthy " will have passed out of it when we meet in 
 heaven. Where love is purified from all carnal alloy, where 
 envy and jealousy have been wholly cast out, there will be 
 nothing even to make such a reunion as the Sadducees 
 sneered at, only under conditions of which they took no 
 cognisance, incompatible with perfect happiness. 
 
 Our Lord, then, having exposed Sadducean misconceptions 
 as to the mode of the future life suggested by this inquiry, 
 gives a direct proof of man's immortality. He takes it from 
 the books of Moses, The reason commonly assigned for the 
 selection is a belief that the Sadducees rejected all Scripture 
 except the Pentateuch. But it is pure supposition. Josephus,^ 
 who is very explicit upon their doctrines, does not even allude 
 to it. Another reason may be easily found. The ground 
 upon which the Sadducees denied the resurrection was that 
 Moses had not taught it. It is quite impossible for us to 
 understand the intense reverence which a Jew, and a 
 Sadducean Jew in particular, felt for Moses. Upon Divine 
 things he was the one authoritative teacher, the one man 
 whose word was indisputable, whose interpretation of the Mind 
 and Will of God claimed an unquestioned acceptance. 
 Prophets may have had dreams, and seers seen visions, but 
 Moses alone had talked with God "face to face," 
 
 Now, the Sadducees argued, Moses said nothing about the 
 resurrection of the body or a future life. The Pharisees 
 answered that though there might be nothing in the Written 
 Word, yet there was abundance in the Oral Law which Moses 
 had received, and wherever the Pentateuch failed, Tradition 
 stepped in to clear up the difficulty. 
 
 But this the Sadducee steadily refused to admit. He 
 asked for the evidence^ of its Divine origin, and he was 
 dissatisfied with that which was produced, as he well might 
 be. The reason why our Lord confined Himself in His reply 
 
 ^ Josephus says they denied that unwritten Tradition was binding on the 
 conscience. 2 q^ -^ j^j 
 
268 Sadducemi Difficulties ch. xh. v. 18-27 
 
 to Mosaic teaching, even at the risk of being misunderstood/ 
 when He had really so many other proofs ready to hand, was 
 that He recognised the Sadducee's position. In that para- 
 graph ^ of the Second Book which told how God had revealed 
 Himself to the great Lawgiver in the Burning Bush, a 
 declaration of the Almighty had been preserved which taught 
 the truth of man's immortality. " I," said Jehovah, " am the 
 God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of 
 Jacob." 
 
 Now when He said this nearly two hundred years had 
 elapsed since the last of these had been laid in the grave, and 
 their bodies had long ago crumbled to dust ; but if God was 
 when He spoke still their God, they could not have ceased to 
 be, and there must be a sense in which they were alive unto 
 Him — for He is not " the God of the dead, but the God of 
 the living." 
 
 It was an entirely new revelation to them, for though they 
 had read the words again and again, the profound truth which 
 underlaid them had never been brought to light till then. 
 Whether the Sadducees were convinced or not, we are not 
 told ; all we know is that their mouth was stopped, that they 
 were completely " gagged," ^ as the Evangelists say. There is 
 no doubt of the impression produced upon the bystanders. 
 The difficulty had often been a subject of dispute in the 
 schools, but no Rabbi, not even Hillel or Shammai, had been 
 able to meet it as the Sadducees demanded that it should be 
 met. But here was another proof that Jesus taught man "not 
 as the Scribes," and that " He spake as never man spake ; " 
 for " when the multitude heard this," we are told that " they 
 were astonished at His teaching," and the Scribes were unable 
 to conceal their admiration for what He had said. 
 
 ^ To some the argument might appear weak if it rested on a passage which 
 required careful explanation to bring out its meaning. If its bearing on the 
 resurrection had been at all obvious, it would not have been passed over 
 uniformly, as it was, before our Lord drew attention to it. 
 
 - "In the Bush " means in the section of Scripture so called, as in Rom. 
 xi. 2, "OfElias," A. V., ev 'HA/ct, i.e. probably in the section about him. 
 So 2 Sam. i. was ''The Bow." Gen. i. "In the beginning" was the title 
 given to the paragraph on Creation. 
 
 2 ifpljxwcre, i.e. put a muzzle upon them. Cf. p. g6, n. i. 
 
LVII 
 
 ^Ije (3tut Commantiment 
 
 S. Mark xii. 28-34 
 
 28. And one of the scribes came, other commandment greater than 
 
 and having heard them reasoning to- these. 32. And the scribe said unto 
 
 gether, and perceiving that He had Him, Well, Master, Thou hast said 
 
 answered them well, asked Him, the truth : for there is one God ; and 
 
 Which is the first commandment of there is none other but He : 33. and 
 
 all? 29. And Jesus answered him, to love Him with all the heart, and 
 
 The first of all the commandments h, with all the understanding, and with 
 
 Hear, O Israel ; The Lord our God all the soul, and with all the strength, 
 
 is one Lord : 30. and thou shalt and to love /n's neighbour as him- 
 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy self, is more than all whole burnt 
 
 heart, and with all thy soul, and with offerings and sacrifices. 34. And 
 
 all thy mind, and with all thy when Jesus saw that he answered 
 
 strength : this is the first command- discreetly, He said unto him, Thou 
 
 ment. 31. And the second is like, art not far from the kingdom of God. 
 
 namely this. Thou shalt love thy And no man after that durst ask 
 
 neighbour as thyself. There is none Him a7iy questioti. 
 
 The Pharisees who had previously encountered our Lord and 
 experienced a signal defeat, so far from being discouraged by 
 hearing that the Sadducees had fared no better at His hands, 
 returned to the engagement in the hopes of retrieving their 
 disaster. But they did not come in a body as before. They 
 selected one of their number to be their spokesman and 
 representative. He is here called a scribe, but by S. Matthew 
 a "lawyer," indicating that his particular functions^ were legal 
 rather than educational. The choice was not a fortunate 
 
 ^ The office of the Scribe was fourfold. He was the schoolmaster, the 
 interpreter of Scripture, a consulting lawyer, and a keeper of the public 
 records. The expression used here, po/xik6s, and in S. Luke xi. 45, differs 
 slightly from that found elsewhere, vofxodiddaKaXos. 
 
270 The Great Commandment chap, xh 
 
 one for the Pharisees ; for though they were animated by 
 malevolent and sinister feehngs towards Jesus, the man himself 
 was clearly actuated by other motives, and, while acquiescing 
 in the letter of his commission, disregarded its spirit. He 
 would hardly have earned the commendation of our Lord, had 
 he shared their intentions. It is true, S. Matthew says, that 
 he came "tempting " Him, but in the original the word does 
 not necessarily imply a hostile purpose any more than it does 
 when it is applied to God's "temptation" of Abraham. 
 However much, therefore, the Pharisees generally may have 
 hoped to ensnare Jesus, it is merely stated that the individual 
 lawyer wished to "test" His knowledge by what would be 
 called a " crucial " question. 
 
 The relative importance of different kinds of laws was an 
 oft-debated subject in the rival schools. Shammai, who was 
 the impersonation of a rigid formalism, defended the details, 
 even the most minute trivialities, of the Ceremonial Law, 
 while the more large-hearted Hillel, the advocate of love and 
 charity, upheld the supremacy of the Moral Code. 
 
 It will give us some idea of the perplexity in which the 
 whole matter was involved, to find that the Scribes had 
 divided and subdivided the Law, till they made as many 
 enactments as there were letters in the Decalogue. The 
 injunctions were 248, the prohibitions 365; 613 in all. 
 Some of these again were " hard and weighty," others " easy 
 and light." 
 
 We can readily understand then how eagerly an inquirer 
 after truth, whose belief in the Great Teacher's knowledge had 
 been stirred by what he had witnessed in the disputes just 
 closed, would come to Him for a solution of the difficulty. 
 Which, or rather " what kind ^ of" commandment is to have 
 the first claim on our obedience? Now, if it be correctly 
 asserted that a Jew, who had been careful to observe the rules 
 and regulations for the phylacteries,^ and tassels and fringes, 
 of their dress, was "regarded as having kept the whole Law," 
 the lawyer could hardly have been prepared for our Lord's 
 
 ^ TTOta, qualis. 
 
 2 The most minute directions were drawn up for these matters in the 
 Mishnah. The passages of Scripture written on parchment and enclosed in 
 the Tephillin were Exod. xiii. i-io, 11-16 ; Deut. vi. 4-9, xi. 13-21. 
 
V. 28-34 The Great Comjuandment 271 
 
 answer. It is true He referred to the phylacteries, but not to 
 notice their shape or colour or materials. Pointing to that 
 which his questioner had upon his forehead or arm recalled 
 the wearer to the meaning of the words that were written 
 therein, and so often recited by him. Every pious Israelite 
 repeated them twice daily in his Shema,^ " Hear, O Israel, the 
 Lord our God is one Lord;" and Jesus told him that the 
 demand which followed for a devoted love to Him as the 
 supreme object alike of the heart and soul and mind of man, 
 contained that which he was in search of — the commandment 
 of paramount obligation. There was however a second, 
 "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," not differing in 
 kind, for it was the natural outcome of the first ; but though 
 He had not been asked for it, Lie could not pass it by un- 
 noticed, because upon the two combined hung all the obhga- 
 tions comprehended under the revelation of God's Will "in 
 the Law and the Prophets." It was, in short, a summary of 
 the two Tables, embodying in few words man's duty to God 
 and his duty to his neighbour. Jesus pointed out that the 
 true test of love to God is love to man j and this He would 
 desire especially to enforce in the hearing of the Pharisees. 
 They were, as their name implied, "Separatists." Their 
 motto was, "Come not near to me, for I am better than 
 thou." 
 
 If then Christ had stopped at the first commandment, if 
 He had been content merely to answer the one question, 
 " Which is the first ? " the Pharisees would have gone away 
 unrebuked. But He would not spare them, and so went on 
 to tell them that there was a second ; and lest they should 
 think it less binding, or of a secondary importance, He added 
 that it was "Hke" the other, the only difference being, that 
 while love to God is the root of the principle, love to our 
 neighbour is its manifested fruit. 
 
 The grand simplicity of the answer won the lawyer's ad- 
 miration and reverence, and giving Him in sincerity the 
 designation which his fellows had used before in irony, he 
 expressed his approval in the words, " Rabbi, Thou hast 
 spoken the truth." He had doubtless himself, if we may 
 
 ^ It means "hear," and was given to the "office" from its being the 
 opening word. 
 
272 The Great Commandment chap, xn 
 
 judge from his answer,^ given the supremacy, as many others 
 did, to the Levitical law of sacrifices; but, as it were by a 
 sudden inspiration, he seemed to reahse the utter worthlessness 
 of these, where the spirit of which they were designed to be 
 symbohcal was wanting, as he felt it had been with the 
 Pharisees ; and he acknowledged that all the blood of bulls 
 and goats, all sacrifices and offerings, and whole burnt offer- 
 ings, on which they bestowed the most punctilious care, could 
 have no real weight in the balance against a genuine love for 
 God and man. Sacrifice was nothing in itself; it was only 
 acceptable to God in proportion to the self-surrender of him 
 who offered it. 
 
 It gives us a terrible insight into the state of feeling so 
 widely prevalent at the time, to be told that the Scribe fol- 
 lowed up this expression of admiration for our Lord's judg- 
 ment by the further confession, " I have often desired to hear 
 of these words, and had none to tell me." 
 
 It was followed by a comforting assurance that reason^ 
 had triumphed over prejudice, and that such an appreciation 
 of Divine truth had brought him to the very threshold of that 
 inheritance which God has prepared for those that love Him. 
 If, as we can hardly doubt, he went away to act upon his 
 convictions, he was not long left standing without, but entered 
 wholly in. 
 
 The result of the interview was that no one was any longer 
 found bold enough to engage in controversy with Jesus. 
 
 All the great parties in Jerusalem, ecclesiastical and 
 pohtical, had pitted- themselves successively in argument 
 against Him, and all had found Him more than a match for 
 them. They had tried to involve Him with the ujDholders of 
 the Theocracy, or to extract from His lips some expression of 
 sympathy with their hatred of Roman supremacy, which they 
 might turn against Him. But He had shown them " that the 
 powers that be are ordained of God." 
 
 They had ventured again to attack Him where they be- 
 lieved themselves to be invincible, viz., in the interpretation of 
 
 ■•^ His special reference to sacrifice — "more tlian all whole burnt offerings 
 and sacrifices " — shows that he had this especially in his mind at the time. 
 
 ^ vovvexQi'i. It is an unusual word, hardly \ 
 It implies an exercise of the I'oOs, " intelligently." 
 
V. 28-34 TJie Great Commandment 273 
 
 Scripture, but His answers had proved that He " of Whom 
 Moses and the Prophets " did write, Who was in fact the great 
 subject of the Revelation, knew far better than the most 
 learned Scribe the meaning of what was written. 
 
 And this was the end of their fruitless attempts. All the 
 weapons forged against Him had been repelled ; " and no 
 man after that durst ask Him any question." 
 
LVIII 
 
 2Dal3iD'0 »)on anti ILoVO, anti t|)e Mitioto'^ ^ite 
 
 S. Mark xii. 35-44 
 
 35. And Jesus answered and said, 
 while He taught in the temple, How 
 say the scribes that Christ is the son 
 of David ? 36. For David himself 
 said by the Holy Ghost, The Lord 
 said to my Lord, Sit Thou on My 
 right hand, till I make Thine enemies 
 Thy footstool. 37. David therefore 
 himself calleth Him Lord ; and 
 whence is He ;(Aen his son ? And the 
 common people heard Him gladly. 
 
 38. And He said unto them in His 
 doctrine. Beware of the scribes, which 
 love to go in long clothing, and love 
 salutations in the market-places, 39. 
 and the chief seats in the synagogues, 
 and the uppermost rooms at feasts : 
 40. which devour widows' houses, 
 
 and for a pretence make long 
 prayers : these shall receive greater 
 damnation, 
 
 41. And Jesus sat over against the 
 treasury, and beheld how the people 
 cast money into the treasury : and 
 many l/iai were rich cast in much. 
 42, And there came a certain poor 
 widow, and she threw in two mites, 
 which make a farthing. 43. And He 
 called unto Hi}n His disciples, and 
 saith unto them. Verily I say unto 
 you, That this poor widow hath cast 
 more in, than all they which have 
 cast into the treasury : 44. for all 
 they did cast in of their abundance ; 
 but she of her want did cast in all 
 that she had, even all her living. 
 
 At this juncture our Lord, having repHed to the inquiries of 
 all His adversaries, and silenced them by unanswerable argu- 
 ments, lays aside His defensive attitude and proceeds to 
 interrogate them upon a question of momentous import. All 
 their learned Scribes were agreed that the Messiah would be 
 the Son and Heir of the great king David.^ They had 
 allowed this one idea of His lineage to take such a complete 
 
 ^ The belief in a Galilean Messiah of the house of Joseph is said by some 
 to be late. The idea was that there would be two Messiahs ; the one of 
 Joseph's house would engage in battle with the one of David's, and that the 
 latter would then reunite the scattered tribes, and all would be restored 
 together. 
 
cH. xri. V. 35-44 David's Son and Lord 275 
 
 hold upon them that they had lost sight of another fact, 
 hardly less prominent in the Messianic predictions. Isaiah 
 had foretold in more places than one, that He would be not 
 human merely, but also Divine — not only born of a pure 
 virgin, but at the same time, "The Mighty God," " Immanuel, 
 God with us." And yet they had never understood his 
 language aright ; its deep inner meaning was a " sealed book " 
 to them ; and such passages as these they either treated as 
 Oriental exaggeration, or deliberately declined to notice. 
 
 There was a prediction in the Psalter which offered the 
 best possible illustration of their one-sided views. The 
 hundred and tenth Psalm ^ had been universally accepted as 
 Messianic ; but the Jews at large, under the teaching of the 
 Scribes, had seized only upon that portion of it which repre- 
 sented the coming King as a triumphant conqueror. After 
 their country had fallen under the dominion of Rome, their 
 Messianic hopes all took the shape of an intense longing for 
 some Great One who should "restore again the kingdom to 
 Israel." 
 
 It was to that part of this prophecy which they had over- 
 looked, that our Lord now called their attention. They were 
 quite right in receiving it as spoken by David, and inspired 
 by the Spirit of God ; but it opened with two expressions 
 which, on the reading of the Pharisees, called for further 
 explanation. One of these sufficed for our Lord's argument. 
 " The Lord said unto my Lord." David called the Messiah 
 his Lord. How was that reconcilable with their belief that 
 He was David's Son ? It only admitted of one solution. He 
 of Whom the Psalmist spoke was both his Son and his Lord : 
 his son, as born of a human mother " of the house and lineage 
 of David : " his Lord, as " God, of the substance of the 
 Father, begotten before the worlds." There was no escape 
 from this conclusion consistent with the veracity of the 
 Scriptures, which they never dared to doubt, however far short 
 they fell of their real teaching. Our Lord leaves them with- 
 
 ^ Many later writers and commentators have denied the Davidic author- 
 ship. Some have read the title as though it were " concerning David," others 
 have supposed the Psalm to be a very late composition. Unless we accept 
 the opinion of those who say that our Lord spoke merely according to the 
 views prevalent among His countrymen, there can be no question on the 
 matter. 
 
276 David' s Son and L 07' d, chap, xn 
 
 out further observation in the dilemma, and they do not 
 appear to have made any attempt to extricate themselves. 
 He mighty had it been necessary, have followed it up by 
 showing how the words that came after involved the Divinity 
 of the Messiah. " Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make 
 Thine enemies Thy footstool." It was the seat of the 
 Assessor, of One Who shared the Imperial power of the 
 Divine Kingdom, and of none other. David in the Spirit 
 had seen a prevision of the Ascension, when Christ should sit 
 down on the right hand of the Majesty on High till all 
 enemies should be subdued unto Him ; till, like a Mighty 
 Conqueror, He should plant His foot upon the neck^ of 
 every one who had rebelled against Him. But the simple 
 question was enough ; the Pharisees were completely dis- 
 comfited, and the great crowd " which had gathered round our 
 Lord were delighted by what they heard. 
 
 What followed this incident we learn more fully from the 
 first Gospel, which records the withering woes with which 
 Jesus denounced in most scathing terms the hypocritical 
 Scribes and Pharisees. S. Mark has preserved the briefest 
 possible summary of them, noticing merely His warnings 
 against their ostentation, their pride, their oppression of the 
 poor and helpless, and their religious hypocrisy. 
 
 His last words to them were meant to be deeply symbolical, 
 "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate;" and, as 
 though to suit the action to the word. He turned away to 
 leave the Temple. 
 
 It is another of many proofs of His desire to save His 
 adversaries, that He lingered in its courts after He had ceased 
 to speak. It might be that in the calm which succeeded the 
 storm they would reflect upon what had happened, and come 
 to Him even at the eleventh hour ; and one more chance was 
 given them. He passed into the great quadrangle known as 
 the Women's Court, and sitting down, perhaps upon one of 
 the fifteen steps that led up to the Sanctuary, found Himself 
 in full view of the Treasury. It was a corridor in which were 
 
 ^ The imagery is taken from a rude and barbarous age, in which tliis was 
 often literally done, as is testified to by not a few Assyrian monuments. 
 
 2 "The common people" is misleading. It is simply 6 7roXi)s 6xAos, the 
 large crowd. 
 
V. 35-44 and the Widow' s mite 277 
 
 fixed thirteen trumpet-shaped chests (neither the number nor 
 shape has ever been explained), for the reception of gifts and 
 offerings, each " trumpet " bearing a separate label to indicate 
 the purpose or object to which its contents would be appro- 
 priated. Now, while He was observing the varied demeanour 
 of the crowd of offerers, many of whom, no doubt with much 
 parade, cast in " many coins," ^ His attention was arrested by 
 the approach of a poor lone ^ widow, who came with the 
 smallest contribution legally admissible. Reading all her 
 condition at a glance, and seeing the strength of faith which 
 led her to throw herself entirely upon the Providence of God, 
 He pronounced her offering more acceptable than all the 
 riches of those who had given to God that which had cost 
 them nothing. 
 
 Now there are several thoughts suggested by the circum- 
 stance that are worthy of notice. 
 
 The first touches the juxtaposition of His censure of the 
 Scribes and the commendation of the widow. The rapacious 
 unfeeling " devourers of widows' houses," and the self-forgetting 
 self-sacrificing victim of their extortion, meet together in the 
 Temple, outwardly to engage in the same religious act ; but 
 the former, through their ostentation and pride, to incur 
 Divine displeasure, the latter, to win for herself an undying 
 fame by that "self-denial which is the essence of charity." 
 
 Another thought arises out of an expression preserved only 
 in the narrative as given by S. Luke : " All these have of their 
 abundance cast in unto the offerings of God." Every one of 
 those gifts was by Christ's verdict dedicated to God. Hoav 
 often do men withhold their support from institutions on the 
 plea that they are dissatisfied with the administration of their 
 funds ! There never was a time when the people could, 
 humanly speaking, have more reasonably declined to support 
 the House of God. Religion was never more hollow, nor the 
 priests more rapacious and self-seeking, and yet Christ de- 
 liberately says that all that was put into the Treasury was an 
 "offering of God." 
 
 Again, when was it that Christ's attention was drawn to 
 this poor widow? It was in the brief interval between the 
 
 ^ iroWa, not ttoXv ; probably K^pjuara is understood. 
 ^ /jLiap, single, by herself. 
 
278 The Widow's Alite ch. xh. v. 35-44 
 
 most awful denunciations He ever uttered, and the prediction 
 of calamities which reached onward from the overthrow of 
 Jerusalem to the dissolution of the world. Who but Christ, 
 in the midst of thoughts so big with the destinies of the 
 Universe, could have recalled Himself to take notice of a 
 poor woman, and express satisfaction at what He saw her 
 doing ? Truly, indeed, was it said of Him, " Who is like unto 
 the Lord our God, that hath His dwelling so high : and yet 
 humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and 
 earth ? " 
 
LIX 
 
 ^\)t fall of 3icru£^alcm forctolti 
 
 I. And as He went out of the 
 temple, one of His disciples saith 
 unto Him, Master, see what manner 
 of stones and what buildings are here. 
 2. And Jesus answering said unto 
 him, Seest thou these great buildings ? 
 there shall not be left one stone upon 
 another, that shall not be thrown 
 down. 3. And as He sat upon the 
 mount of Olives over against the 
 temple, Peter and James and John 
 and Andrew asked Him privately, 4, 
 Tell us, when shall these things be ? 
 and what shall be the sign when all 
 these things shall be fulfilled ? 5. 
 And Jesus answering them began to 
 say, Take heed lest any 7nan deceive 
 you : 6. for many shall come in My 
 Name, saying, I am Christ; and 
 shall deceive many. 7. And when 
 ye shall hear of wars and rumours of 
 wars, be ye not troubled : for such 
 things must needs be ; but the end 
 shall not be yet. 8. For nation shall 
 rise against nation, and kingdom 
 against kingdom : and there shall be 
 
 earthquakes in divers places, and there 
 shall be famines and troubles : these 
 are the beginnings of sorrows. 
 
 9. But take heed to yourselves : for 
 they shall deliver you up to councils ; 
 and in the synagogues ye shall be 
 beaten : and ye shall be brought 
 before rulers and kings for My sake, 
 for a testimony against them. 10. 
 And the gospel must first be published 
 among all nations. 11. But when 
 they shall lead you, and deliver you 
 up, take no thought beforehand what 
 ye shall speak, neither do ye premedi- 
 tate : but whatsoever shall be given 
 you in that hour, that speak ye : for 
 it is not ye that speak, but the Holy 
 Ghost. 12. Now the brother shall 
 betray the brother to death, and the 
 father the son ; and children shall rise 
 up against their parents, and shall 
 cause them to be put to death. 13. 
 And ye shall be hated of all men for 
 My Name's sake : but he that shall 
 endure unto the end, the same shall 
 be saved. 
 
 Our Lord's last words of threatening to the rulers of the 
 people, " Behold, your house is left unto you desolate," seem 
 to have taken the disciples by surprise, and made a deep im- 
 pression upon their minds. Built as the Temple was, it is 
 hardly to be wondered at that they should have been staggered 
 
28o The Fall of 
 
 CHAP. XIII 
 
 by the bare thought of its overthrow. As they were passing 
 out of its courts with the sentence ringing in their ears, all its 
 splendour and magnificence kindled their admiration afresh ; 
 and as it were to remind Him of the hard thing of which He 
 had just spoken, they begged Him to look at the building 
 whose impending ruin He had just foretold. There were the 
 porches and corridors and columns of unrivalled magnificence, 
 its different parts vying with each other in beauty and splend- 
 our. Indeed, such was the grandeur of the whole that the 
 Rabbis used to say that a man did not know what a fine 
 building was till he had seen the Temple of Herod. There 
 were the huge blocks of marble, quarried on a scale of 
 magnitude never equalled in the history of architecture,^ and 
 placed in position by a skill that puts to shame even the 
 boasted mechanics of the nineteenth century ; and besides all 
 these, there lay around them fresh materials for use, for the 
 work of building was still in progress.^ Could it be that the 
 fruit of all that labour was about to be destroyed, that the 
 vast preparations with which they were still busied would be 
 thus prematurely stopped? 
 
 There was no hesitation in our Lord's reply. It mattered 
 nothing that all the skill and labour of the world had been 
 concentrated on its building ; its purpose had been contra- 
 vened, its use abused, and nothing could stay the avenging 
 hand. " There shall not be left," He said, " one stone upon 
 another that shall not be thrown down." How that predic- 
 tion was fulfilled, history tells us. When Jerusalem was 
 destroyed, the walls were razed to the ground, and even the 
 foundations rooted up. The Jews themselves have recorded 
 how Turnus Rufus, the General whom Titus left to complete 
 his work, " ploughed up the Temple and places about it." 
 And Gentile writers also testify how three centuries later, in the 
 reign of the Apostate Julian, a great effort was made to defy 
 the ancient prediction and rebuild the Temple. Whether it 
 be only a rhetoric figure to express the unsurmountable diffi- 
 
 ^ It seems almost incredible as we read the descriptions in Josephus : " The 
 Temple was built of stones that were white and strong, and each of their 
 length was 25 cubits, their height was 8, and their breadth 12." He tells us 
 that as many as 18,000 workmen were employed in the building. — Antiq. xx. 
 9. 7. 
 
 2 It was begun about 20 B.C., and finished about 65 A.D, — Ibid. 
 
V. I -1 3 Jerusalem foretold 281 
 
 culties the builders experienced, or a fact of actual occurrence, 
 must always appear somewhat uncertain, but it is said that the 
 attempts to lay those gigantic stones upon their base again, 
 were defeated by an earthquake and lightning, and globes of 
 fire issuing from the foundations, which killed many of the 
 workmen.^ And though here and there some portions of the 
 walls still remain, many modern writers have narrated how our 
 Lord's words have literally come to pass, and every trace of 
 building, in the area on which the prophecy was delivered, has 
 entirely disappeared. 
 
 The answer of their Master silenced the Apostles. Leaving 
 the Temple by the Golden Gate, they descended together into 
 the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and turned up the slopes of Olivet 
 on their way to Bethany. It is said that there is a bend in 
 the road where the view of the Temple is exceptionally grand. 
 It was doubtless at that spot that they sat down to rest. With 
 their minds full of the dark forebodings, the four who were 
 with Him — and we notice that Andrew is for once admitted 
 to the inner circle of companionship — broke the silence that 
 must have followed upon that terrible prediction, and asked, 
 "When shall these things be?" The question was not 
 directly answered, but Jesus gave them certain premonitory 
 signs to prepare them for the event. 
 
 They had asked Him to tell them, not only when the 
 Temple would be destroyed, but when the end of the world 
 would come ; and we can only understand what follows aright, 
 by remembering the twofold object which was before His eyes. 
 The language of His answer has for the most part both a 
 primary and a secondary application ; but at the same time 
 some things of which He speaks can be appropriated literally 
 only to one of the two events in view, either the destruction of 
 Jerusalem or the dissolution of the world. 
 
 He begins by foretelling a succession of troubles and 
 disasters — agitations caused by religious fanatics, widespread 
 wars, clashing of nationalities, earthquakes and famine. All of 
 these happened as never before within the next generation. 
 
 ^ Many things are added by Gregory Nazianzen in his Invective against 
 JuHan to heighten the effect. Cyril, however, who was Bishop of Jerusalem 
 at the time, makes no mention of it. The miraculous nature of the interruption 
 is defended by Warburton. For further particulars cf. Milman, Hist, of the 
 Jews, in loco. 
 
282 The Fall of^ 
 
 CHAP. XIII 
 
 And such convulsions and revolutions as they were to witness 
 He told them they must regard as "the beginnings of sorrows." 
 We lose a great deal in our translation by not characterising, 
 as the original does, the nature of the " sorrows." They were 
 the pains as of a woman in travail ; the birth-pangs which 
 should issue in the regeneration of the world ; ^ and as such 
 they were in a still higher sense the commencement of that 
 labour, out of which, at the consummation of the ages, the 
 new heavens and the new earth will be born. 
 
 From these premonitory warnings of a general character, 
 our Lord proceeds to enumerate those which were more strictly 
 personal. For almost - all that follows refers immediately to 
 the Twelve. Before the destruction of Jerusalem all the 
 Apostles except S. John had died. On every one hardship 
 and cruelty, injustice and persecution, had done their worst, 
 and ten of them had crowned a life of suffering with martyr- 
 dom; for "Apostle and Martyr" is the title claimed by ah in 
 the Calendar of the Church. 
 
 The predictions began to be fulfilled when Herod Agrippa, 
 thirteen years later, laid hands upon James, the son of Zabdai, 
 and killed him with the sword. The full tale was told when 
 his namesake James, whom they called the Just, was thrown 
 from the gable of the Temple, and beaten to death by the 
 people.^ " Immediately after this," the historian adds, " Ves- 
 pasian invaded and took Judtea." We know what supernatural 
 strength they had given to them to bear their trials ; and they 
 were led to expect it when Jesus told them not to provide for 
 these terrible contingencies in the ordinary way. He gave 
 them no promise that by the Divine help they should convince 
 the gainsayers, or obtain release for themselves, but that they 
 should be able firmly and fearlessly to bear witness against 
 them. 
 
 Read the marvellous defence of S. Stephen when arraigned 
 
 ^ The destruction of Jerusalem was the removal of a great hindrance in the 
 progress of Christianity, F'or this reason it is characterised as the coming of 
 Christ's kingdom. — S. Matt. xvi. 28 ; cf. p. 186. 
 
 2 There is no trace in the history of the Apostles of that strife of creeds 
 which leads "brother to betray brother to death " (v. 12). 
 
 2 Josephus, Antiq. xx. 9, i, gives a somewhat different account of his death, 
 attributing it to the action of Ananus, by stoning before the Sanhedrim ; but 
 that of Hegesippus is confirmed by Epiphanius, 
 
V. I-I3 
 
 Jerusalem foretold 
 
 before the Sanhedrim. His testimony awoke such displeasure 
 and resentment that they rose in a body and cast him out of 
 the city. Can we doubt that it was in fulfihnent of this pre- 
 diction that the Holy Spirit put into his mouth those daring 
 words as " a testimony against them," " Which of the prophets 
 have not your fathers persecuted ? " 
 
 Or listen to S. Paul's vindication of the faith before Felix, 
 and that piercing argument for " righteousness and temperance 
 and judgment to come," which the Governor positively 
 trembled to hear, and the conviction is forced upon us that he 
 spoke under the same promised inspiration. 
 
 In the midst of all these grave predictions our Lord assured 
 them that nevertheless before the end " the gospel must first 
 be published among all nations." Doubdess this will only 
 receive its complete accomplishment in the secondary appli- 
 cation of the prophecy, but we hardly realise how near it was 
 to fulfilment before the destruction of Jerusalem. " The Acts 
 of the Apostles " fill us with amazement at the rapid progress 
 of Christianity in Europe and Asia under the teaching of two of 
 them. What should we not learn if the whole Twelve had 
 found chroniclers to record their labours ? Scattered traditions, 
 with more or less of certainty, show at least this, that mission- 
 ary work w^as carried on throughout the then known w^orld. 
 There is litde doubt that S. Thomas established the Church 
 in Parthia and on the shores of India, that S. Andrew 
 penetrated far into Russia, that Bartholomew preached in 
 Arabia and among the fire-worshippers of Persia, and it has 
 been said that even Central Africa, which the present gener- 
 ation burns to win back to Christ, was the scene of S. 
 Matthew's labours eighteen centuries ago. S. Paul's appeal to 
 " the hope of the gospel which was preached to every creature 
 which is under heaven," though doubtless written with Oriental 
 exaggeration,^ testifies to a widespread diffusion of the truth. 
 
 The paragraph closes with the assurance, " Pie that shall 
 endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." It was not of 
 temporary deliverance from the impending calamities at 
 Jerusalem that Christ spoke ; for the Apostles had perished 
 before that catastrophe came. It was eternal salvation, to be 
 
 ^ Such hyperbolical expressions are common in the Old Testament, and by 
 no means rare in the New ; cf. S. John xxi. 25 ; S. Matt. iv. 8 ; Acts ii. 5. 
 
284 TJie Fall of Jerusalem foretold ch. xm. v. 1-13 
 
 won by all who remained firm to their profession for Christ's 
 sake. It was the promise that " by their endurance they 
 should gain ^ their lives," in the highest sense, that they should 
 survive these earthly shocks and live on through the ages of 
 eternity ; for " if we suffer we shall also reign with Him ; " and 
 as He said to the Church of Smyrna, " Be thou faithful unto 
 death, and I will give thee a crown of life." 
 
 ^ The A.V. " In your patience possess ye your souls " is now abandoned. 
 There is some doubt whether the right reading be KT-ficraade, acquire ye, or 
 KTTjffeade, ye shall acquire. 
 
LX 
 
 jfurtljec f>reDiction0 
 
 S. Mark xiii. 14-23 
 
 14. But when ye shall see the 
 abomination of desolation, spoken of 
 by Daniel the prophet, standing where 
 it ought not, (let him that readeth 
 understand, ) then let them that be in 
 Judasa flee to the mountains : 15. 
 and let him that is on the housetop 
 not go down into the house, neither 
 enter therein, to take any thing out 
 of his house : 16. and let him that is 
 in the field not turn back again for to 
 take up his garment. 17. But woe 
 to them that are with child, and to 
 them that give suck in those days. 
 18. And pray ye that your flight be 
 not in the winter. 19. For i?i those 
 
 days shall be affliction, such as was 
 not from the beginning of the creation 
 which God created unto this time, 
 neither shall be. 20. And except 
 that the Lord had shortened those 
 days, no flesh should be saved : but 
 for the elect's sake, whom He hath 
 chosen, He hath shortened the days. 
 21. And then if any man shall say to 
 you, Lo, here is Christ ; or lo, He is 
 there ; believe him not : 22. for false 
 Christs and false prophets shall rise, 
 and shall shew signs and wonders, to 
 seduce, if it were possible, even the 
 elect. 23. But take ye heed : behold, 
 I have foretold you all things. 
 
 The prophet Daniel had aroused the fears of the people by a 
 prediction, thrice repeated, of the cessation of sacrifice in the 
 Temple, and the setting up of an "abomination that maketh 
 desolate." It seemed to have received its fulfilment when 
 Antiochus, after putting to the sword 40,000 Jews, desecrated 
 the sanctuary by offering swine upon the altar of burnt-offering, 
 erected a statue of Jupiter Olympius within the sacred pre- 
 cincts, and forbade the performance of all Jewish rites. Indeed, 
 the desolation was so complete that nothing but the heroic 
 valour of the Maccabean patriots saved the people from total 
 extinction. 
 
 Our Lord showed that the full meaning of the prophecy 
 was by no means exhausted, but the history of that terrible 
 
286 Ftirthe}^ Pi^edictio^is chap, xm 
 
 desecration was about to be repeated. There was destined to 
 be, however, one distinguishing feature that would vastly 
 intensify the calamity. It is not recorded either here or in 
 Daniel, but the Jews believed that the " sanctuary would be 
 burnt, when a sedition should invade the Jews, and their own 
 hands pollute the Temple." It may have been through some 
 traditionary prediction, such as that of Hosea, only clothed in 
 more definite form, " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself." 
 Bearing this expectation in mind, we have little difficulty in 
 discovering what " the abomination of desolation " really was. 
 It was not the presence of heathen troops stacking their arms 
 on the consecrated pavement ; neither was it the standards 
 pitched by Titus amidst the smoking ruins, though from the 
 Pagan devices which they bore every Jew held them in 
 " abomination." ^ However in other respects they may have 
 answered the description, they fell short in this, that they 
 could serve no such purpose as our Lord designed, as a signal 
 to the Christians to flee from the city. Escape would be 
 difficult, even after the final investment, but wholly impossible 
 when once Jerusalem was in the hands of the enemy. We 
 find the most exact fulfilment in the pollution of the Holy 
 Place caused by the Zealots. Three years before the close of 
 the siege they occupied the Temple, stopped the daily sacri- 
 fice, and made the Sacred Enclosure their headquarters for 
 rapine and murder. The people were completely paralysed by 
 their reckless ferocity ; but at last the noble Ananus, the one 
 man who might have saved the city, had not God willed it 
 otherwise, roused his countrymen to a sense of the fright- 
 ful sacrilege. The attempt, however, to expel them only 
 aggravated the desecration, for the courts were deluged with 
 blood, and 8000 bodies lay slain within the consecrated walls. 
 This was "the abomination of desolation" which our Lord 
 foresaw ; and it is worthy of notice that it was interpreted by 
 the Christians as the predicted signal for their departure, for 
 their flight to Pella among the mountain fastnesses of Gilead 
 coincides, in point of time, with the seizure of the Temple by 
 this band of marauders.^ 
 
 ^ In addition to this it is generally believed that the Roman eagles were 
 actually regarded as objects of worship. 
 
 - This was not possible after the Zealots had fully established themselves, 
 as they refused to allow any one to leave the city. 
 
V. 14-23 Further Predictions 287 
 
 The necessity of escaping to avoid the horrors of the siege 
 was so urgent that Jesus saw fit to enforce it under a variety 
 of figures. In the East the flat roofs ^ of the houses 
 often form a thoroughfare from one end of the street to 
 another. If it should happen that any one should be on the 
 house-top when the tidings reached him that the predicted 
 signal had been given, delay was so dangerous, that, leaving 
 all thought of his worldly goods behind, he must use all 
 possible expedition in reaching the gates of the city. If again 
 he should be working in the field, having gone forth from his 
 home in his coat or tunic, let him not think of going back to 
 fetch his cloak,^ but escape for his life without a moment's 
 delay. Happy the woman who found herself free from im- 
 pediment when the signal should be given, with no child at 
 her breast to retard her flight ! Unhappy their fate, S. 
 Matthew adds, if the trumpet should sound on the Sabbath- 
 day ! He Who said that the Sabbath was made for man 
 could hardly mean that the two thousand cubits of a Sabbath 
 journey might not be exceeded under such a pressure as this ; 
 but He knew the strength of their scruples, and how re- 
 luctantly others would assist them in their escape, even if 
 they themselves could overcome their objections. 
 
 The afflictions with which the city was threatened were 
 destined to exceed all that had ever been experienced in the 
 memory of man. And here, as in all else, history records the 
 exact fulfilment of the prophecy. 
 
 War, tyranny, sedition, famine, and disease combined in 
 an unparalleled manner to aggravate the miseries of the siege. 
 The assassins, by their desperate daring and reckless disregard 
 for human life, inspired all alike with fear. The rival factions 
 vied with each other for the mastery, and there was no 
 recognised centre of control or government. Incredible 
 horrors were perpetrated by the starving masses congregated 
 within the walls. The most loathsome food was sold at an 
 enormous price. IMothers even slew the children at their 
 breasts, and devoured them in their madness ; so that the 
 
 1 Cf. p. 38. 
 
 2 Cf. , for distinctive Jewish dress, Edersheim, Life and Times, i. 621-3. 
 The short under-coat only was worn at work ; the outer cloak w^ould be an 
 impediment, so was left at home. 
 
Further Predictions 
 
 CHAP. XIII 
 
 threatened curse for disobedience was literally fulfilled : " The 
 tender and delicate woman among you . . . her eye shall be 
 evil toward her children which she shall bear : for she shall eat 
 them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, 
 wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates." As 
 many as a miUion ^ of human beings perished by the sword 
 and disease. Those who attempted to escape from these 
 frightful calamities, and throw themselves on the mercy of 
 the besiegers, were instantly crucified. As many as five 
 hundred at a time of these miserable fugitives might be seen 
 writhing before the walls ; and this went on till, as the 
 historian says, " room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses 
 for the victims ; " and he sums up all in the pregnant sentence, 
 echoing so exactly the prophecy of our Lord, " Neither did 
 any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever 
 breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was 
 from the beginning of the world." 
 
 " Except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh 
 should be saved." A multitude of causes contributed to 
 hasten on the end. The chiefs were these. The population 
 of Jerusalem was swelled far beyond its normal extent by the 
 investment having taken place when the Passover was being 
 celebrated. Further, a great fire broke out at the commence- 
 ment of the siege, and destroyed large magazines of corn and 
 food which would have sufficed for many years. Yet again 
 the defence was weakened by internal factions, which wholly 
 prevented the besieged from presenting an united front to 
 their assailants. It was the conviction of Divine interposition 
 that drew forth from Titus, as he entered the city and realised 
 the strength of the position, the confession that without doubt 
 God had fought on their side, and expelled the Jews from 
 fortifications which no men or machines could have ever 
 overthrown. This cutting short of the days was designed in 
 the counsels of Almighty God to save the nation from utter 
 extermination, and "for the elect's sake." Whether these 
 
 1 Josepbus is not considered wholly reliable in his record of numbers. The 
 total killed in Jerusalem he puts at 1,100,000. 
 
 - Other causes of minor significance were the desire of Titus to get back to 
 Rome with all possible speed, his friendship for Josephus, and his love for the 
 Jewess Bernice. The first led him to prosecute the siege with the utmost 
 expedition ; the two latter to sliow mercy and consideration to the prisoners. 
 
V. 14-23 Furthe7^ Predictions 289 
 
 latter were the Christians ^ besieged in the doomed city, or 
 Jews whom the dissolution of their polity would attract to the 
 New P^aith, or in some mysterious way the remnant of the 
 chosen race according to the election of grace, we can only 
 conjecture. Enough for us to know that in the midst of 
 judgment God remembered mercy. 
 
 Eighteen centuries have passed awa}^ and the monuments 
 of this awful catastrophe still survive for our admonition. On 
 the Via Sacra at Rome, amidst the mouldering sculpture of 
 the Arch of Titus, records of the Fall of Jerusalem may still 
 be traced. City after city has arisen on the ruins of that 
 which was once "the joy of the w^hole earth," but only to 
 succeed to the inalienable heritage of siege and desolation. 
 It is a standing witness to the consequence of neglected 
 warning. Christ closed His threatenings with the caution, 
 "Take ye heed, behold, I have foretold you all things." 
 Prophet after prophet had called to them to repent, but the 
 people turned a deaf or disobedient ear to every invitation. 
 Then God sent His Son to arrest their attention, and for three 
 years He went in and out among them, healing their sick, 
 giving sight to the blind, and restoring the dead to life again, 
 — doing everything to win them back and lead them to 
 repentance ; but at last, when they despised and rejected 
 Him, and crowned the great pile of their iniquities by an un- 
 paralleled crime, they were left, for the vindication of Divinoi 
 justice, to perish in a corresponding ruin. 
 
 ^ The recorded fact of the escape of Christians seems to point to one of 
 the latter as the ripjht interpretation. 
 
LXI 
 
 %^t ^reDiction of tljc (£nD 
 
 S. Mark xiii. 24-37 
 
 24. But in those days, after that 
 tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, 
 and the moon shall not give her light, 
 25. and the stars of heaven shall fall, 
 and the powers that are in heaven 
 shall be shaken. 26. And then shall 
 they see the Son of Man coming in 
 ^/le clouds with great power and glory. 
 27. And then shall He send His 
 angels, and shall gather together His 
 elect from the four winds, from the 
 uttermost part of the earth to the 
 vittermost part of heaven. 28. Now 
 learn a parable of the fig tree ; When 
 Jiier branch is yet tender, and putteth 
 forth leaves, ye know that summer is 
 near : 29. so ye in like manner, when 
 ye shall see these things come to pass, 
 know that it is nigh, even at the doors. 
 30. Verily I say unto you, that this 
 generation shall not pass, till all these 
 
 things be done. 31. Heaven and 
 earth shall pass away : but My words 
 shall not pass away. 
 
 32. But of that day and ^/wi hour 
 knoweth no man, no, not the angels 
 which are in heaven, neither the Son, 
 but the Father. 33. Take ye heed, 
 watch and pray : for ye know not 
 when the time is. 34. Fo?- the Son of 
 Man is as a man taking a far journey, 
 who left his house, and gave authority 
 to his servants, and to every man his 
 work, and commanded the porter to 
 watch. 35. Watch ye therefore : for 
 ye know not when the Master of the 
 house Cometh, at even, or at midnight, 
 or at the cockcrowing, or in the 
 morning : 36. lest coming suddenly 
 He find you sleeping. 37. And 
 what I say unto you I say unto all. 
 Watch. 
 
 We pass now into a region where clouds and darkness are 
 round about us. Perhaps nowhere else are we so vividly 
 reminded of the mysteries in which the Divine Incarnation is 
 shrouded, or so forcibly constrained to confess that " there are 
 secret things which are the Lord's." 
 
 This deep and solemn utterance of our Blessed Lord to 
 His Apostles, touching the coming of the Son of Man to judge 
 the world, brings together two facts which the finite mind is 
 incapable of reconcihng, viz., that as God He knew all things, 
 
CH. XIII. V. 24-37 The Prediction of the End 291 
 
 but as man His knowledge was limited by the conditions of 
 His Humanity. The co-existence in the One Person of 
 omniscience and ignorance can only be apprehended through 
 faith. It is revealed in Holy Scripture, and on that account 
 demands our acceptance ; and we have no more right to cavil 
 at the assertion, than we have to doubt that, by virtue of His 
 Deity, He was supremely blessed, while through the infirmi- 
 ties of humanity He experienced sorrow and pain. 
 
 How often do we find that He exercised a perfect and 
 superhuman insight into the hearts and feelings of others, 
 reading their unspoken thoughts, and telling them what they 
 had carefully concealed, and showing that, as S. Paul said, in 
 Him were all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, although 
 S. Luke writes with equal plainness that His powers of per- 
 ception were limited by laws of progression, for " He grew in 
 wisdom" as He did "in stature." 
 
 It is in exact harmony with what we read of Him at 
 the grave at Bethany, that " His holy cheeks were wet with 
 human tears, while the loud voice of Omnipotence was crying, 
 ' Lazarus, come forth ! ' " 
 
 The Incarnation of Deity carries with it of necessity 
 difficult contrasts and paradoxes ; and for the solution and 
 reconciliation we must wait till we no longer see " through a 
 glass darkly, but face to face." 
 
 Turn now to the prediction before us. It is one wholly 
 beyond the range of human reason to conceive. It is not a 
 vision of the near future, of which there were premonitory signs, 
 such as a far-seeing mind, accustomed to discern times and 
 seasons, might be able to interpret. He passes wholly 
 beyond the horizon of things visible, beyond the destruction 
 of Jerusalem immediately preceding, and fixes the attention 
 on the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the world. 
 He speaks of certain days that were to follow the tribulation, 
 the beginning of which He had linked with the overthrow of 
 the Jewish capital. Its consummation was to be expected 
 only perhaps after centuries of persecution and affliction, during 
 which, as Luke implies, Jerusalem would " be trodden down of 
 the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." 
 Histor}^ is the best comment upon the meaning of the term. 
 Has there ever been a time since the Fall of Jerusalem in 
 
292 The P7^ediction of the End chap, xm 
 
 which the " dispersions " have not suffered tribulation ? The 
 record of inhuman cruelty and massacre in our own generation 
 shows that '' the end is not yet," and that our Lord's words 
 still await their fulfilment. 
 
 He told His disciples that strange phenomena would be 
 witnessed before the final accomplishment : " the sun shall be 
 darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars 
 shall fall from heaven." 
 
 The imagery is such as befitted so grand a theme. To 
 interpret it literally is to divest it of its sublimity and grandeur, 
 and to cavil at its inconsistence with scientific possibilities is 
 to apply to the language of the New Testament rules that 
 we should never think of in the interpretation of the Old. 
 Isaiah had employed precisely similar figures to foreshadow 
 the Fall of Babylon, and Ezekiel also in predicting the over- 
 throw of Egypt. 
 
 It may have been that the sun and moon and stars were 
 used as symbols for the centres of government, round which 
 ecclesiastical, political, and social systems revolved ; or possibly 
 He pointed to the destruction of heathen religions, and fore- 
 told especially the cessation of the worship of " the heavenly 
 host," because it had been the earliest and most widespread 
 form of idolatry.^ Enough to know that preceding the Advent 
 there will be vast changes, it may be physical and cosmical, as 
 well as social and spiritual, and out of the chaos to which the 
 world shall be again reduced, Christ will come in power and 
 glory, and gather in the elect whom He has sealed for His 
 Own. 
 
 At this point, with a transition as swift as that which trans- 
 ferred His thoughts from the type to the antitype, He reverts 
 to the dissolution of the Jewish Polity. A fig-tree, beneath 
 which in all probability He was sitting to rest with His disciples 
 on the slopes of Olivet,^ furnished Him with an illustration 
 
 ^ Saboeism has only one rival among the ancient systems of idolatrous 
 worship in its claim to be both the earliest and most largely adopted, viz., 
 Ophiolatry, 
 
 ^ Figs and olives were so often found together in this neighbourhood that 
 they seem "to justify the Mussulman's belief, that in the oath in the Koran, 
 ' By the olive and the fig,' the Almighty swears by His favoured city of Jeru- 
 salem with this adjacent mountain" of Olivet. — Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, 
 179. 
 
24-37 TJic Prediction of the End 293 
 
 for His teaching. Its fresh green leaves were the heralds of 
 the approaching summer. The generation then living ^ might, 
 if these were observant, see signs which would bespeak with 
 equal clearness the near fulfilment of the predicted destruction. 
 It was an echo of the previous declaration before His Trans- 
 figuration : " Verily I say unto you, There be some standing 
 here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of 
 Man coming in His kingdom."^ 
 
 All this our Lord foresaw through that Divine knowledge 
 which He had from being One with the Father. But there 
 were times when He chose to empty Himself, and to hold in 
 abeyance, as it were, the attributes of Deity, in order that His 
 Humanity might be fully expressed. Hooker, in dwelling on 
 the conjunction of natures in the Person of Christ, shows that 
 the properties of His Manhood may be seen in that nature 
 " which felt hunger after long fasting, was desirous of rest after 
 travail, testified compassion and love by tears, groaned in 
 heaviness, and with extremity of grief even melted away itself 
 into bloody sweats ; " and that these are not abolished by 
 association with the properties of His Deity. " We may not 
 imagine that the properties of the weaker nature have van- 
 ished with the presence of the more glorious, and have been 
 therein swallowed up as in a gulf" It is only by realising the 
 truth of this that we can understand what He meant when He 
 said in reference to the end of the world : '' Of that day and 
 that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in 
 heaven, neither the Son,^ but the Father." 
 
 Nothing could have impressed their minds more deeply 
 
 ^ From not l)eing able to realise that our Lord passes in thought from the 
 Destruction of Jerusalem to the End of the World, and vice versa, and for the 
 time may be dwelling on each one singly, men have found difficulty in understand- 
 ing this expression, and have been driven to strange interpretations of the word. 
 Strauss and De Wettc both referred this prediction to the Final Coming, and used 
 this promise as a sign of our Lord's fallibility. Some have interpreted it as 
 ' ' the race of the Jews " (Stier, Dorner, Alford) ; others of ' ' believers " (Origen 
 and Chrysostom) ; others again of " the human race." 
 
 - Cf 'p. 186. 
 
 ^ ovhh 6 Tlos, "not even" the Son. In the parallel passage in S. Matt, 
 xxiv. 36 tliey have fallen out of the Received Text. They have however con- 
 siderable authority, and are inserted in the Revised Version from MSS. B D. 
 
 S. Ambrose, de Fid. v. 193, indicated that they were wanting also in S. 
 Mark in the MSS. of his time : " Veteres non habent codices Gr^ci, quia nee 
 Filius scit. " Not improbably they were purposely omitted at a time when the 
 
2 94 The Pr^ediction of the End ch. xm. v. 24-37 
 
 with the absolute uncertainty of the time of the event than this 
 confession, that even He Himself could not tell them when it 
 would be. The necessity of being prepared for it He enforced 
 under a variety of figures, only one of which has been preserved 
 by S. Mark. When He had departed they must bear ever in 
 mind that they were left " to occupy " till He should return, 
 each with his appointed work to do in the household of His 
 Church. The attitude of mind that best befitted men so 
 situated was that of constant watchfulness, not only that they 
 might be awake ^ when ^ their Master should return, but that 
 He should find them at their posts fulfilling their daily task. 
 The two duties have been sometimes separated. Carried away 
 by the expectation that the Day of the Lord was immediately 
 pending, men have detached themselves wholly from the 
 present, and have drifted, like the Thessalonians, from the 
 anchorage of a settled mind, or been so agitated by fear that 
 they had no spirit or energy for the duties of life. Others 
 again, because the anticipations of men had been so often 
 mocked, have resolved to put out of view the promise of His 
 coming, and be satisfied to do their present work without refer- 
 ence to the future. Both these tempers of mind are rebuked 
 by the warning to the Apostlesu He alone obeys the Master's 
 command to watch, who is awake to the call of his worldly 
 occupation, in whatever station of life his duty lies, and who 
 at the same time looks out for Him in all that happens, " who 
 would not be surprised, or over-agitated, or overwhelmed, if he 
 found that He was coming at once." 
 
 orthodox did not scruple to defend the Faith by improper means. Cf. the 
 insertion in i S. John v. 7. 
 
 ^ "Watch" of the Authorised Version in vv. 33 and 35 is represented by 
 different Greek words — dypvirue^re and yprjyopeiTe. 
 
 2 In olden times the Jewish night had been divided into tliree watches — cf. 
 Judges vii. 19, — but Lightfoot has disputed this (Exercit. in Matt. xiv. 25). 
 The Rabbis, however, testify to the triple division. The fourfold watch was 
 adopted between the time of the Judges and David, not, as is commonly said, 
 when Judaea became a Roman province. Cf. p. 141, n. 3. 
 
LXII 
 
 ^ije mtt of Sl^ar^ of Bctljan?^ 
 
 S. Mark xiv. i-ii 
 
 I. After two days was the feast of 
 the passover, and <7/'unleavened bread: 
 and the chief priests and the scribes 
 sought how they might take Him by 
 craft, and put Him to death. 2. But 
 they said, Not on the feast day, lest 
 there be an uproar of the people. 
 
 3. And being in Bethany in the 
 house of Simon the leper, as He sat 
 at meat, there came a woman having 
 an alabaster box of ointment of spike- 
 nard very precious ; and she brake 
 the box, and poured it on His head. 
 4. And there were some that had in- 
 dignation within themselves, and said, 
 Why was this waste of the ointment 
 made ? 5. For it might have been 
 sold for more than three hundred 
 pence, and have been given to the 
 poor. And they murmured against 
 
 her. 6. And Jesus said, Let her 
 alone ; why trouble ye her ? she hath 
 wrought a good work on Me. 7. For 
 ye have the poor with you always, and 
 whensoever ye will ye may do them 
 good : but Me ye have not always. 
 8. She hath done what she could : she 
 is come aforehand to anoint My body 
 to the burying. 9. Verily I say unto 
 you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be 
 preached throughout the whole world, 
 this also that she hath done shall be 
 spoken of for a memorial of her. 
 
 10. And Judas Iscariot, one of the 
 twelve, went unto the chief priests, to 
 betray Him unto them. 11. And 
 when they heard it, they were glad, 
 and promised to give him money. 
 And he sought how he might con- 
 veniently betray Him. 
 
 This record of the anointing of our Lord in connection with 
 His coming Passion ^ is preserved by three of the EvangeHsts. 
 S. Luke, who passes it over, has however noticed another 
 which took pLice at a much earher stage in His Gahlean min- 
 istry. On both occasions it was in the house of a man named 
 
 1 S. John says that it was "six days before the Passover," which would fix 
 it on the Sabbath before His trivmiphal entry into Jerusalem. If his date be 
 correct, the Synoptists have introduced it later, possibly in order to bring it 
 into immediate connection with the betrayal by Judas, implying that his reso- 
 lution to sell our Lord for money arose out of his disappointment at missing 
 the three hundred pence. 
 
296 The Gift of 
 
 CHAP. XIV 
 
 Simon, who is designated in one narrative "the Pharisee," in 
 the other " the leper." In the former the woman who 
 anointed Him is unnamed, but described as "a sinner." In 
 the latter it was Mary of Bethany. It is no doubt possible 
 that the persons, though differently described, are to be 
 identified. If so, the case affords an interesting illustration 
 of unremitting gratitude for mercy and pardon. A woman 
 whose sins had made her an outcast from society found a 
 Friend in Jesus, and became henceforth a devoted follower. 
 Unable to tear herself from His company, she sat at His feet 
 till her sister complained ; and she repeated with most lavish 
 prodigality the anointing which was associated with her 
 forgiveness. 
 
 If S. Augustine was right in his conjecture (for he is 
 responsible for this view) we have here a striking example of 
 the principle, "to whom much is forgiven the same loveth 
 much." But there are grave reasons that would make us 
 hesitate, even upon such weighty authority, where it stands 
 almost alone, to accept the supposition. Suffice it to mention 
 that there is not the slightest trace of evidence discoverable, 
 historical or traditional, direct or indirect, that Mary of Bethany 
 had ever lived a life of sin and shame. 
 
 It is with hardly less injustice supposed that "the sinner," 
 of whom S. Luke speaks, was Mary Magdalene. The theory 
 rests upon no more substantial basis than the juxtaposition in 
 the third Gospel of the two events of the anointing by an 
 unknown woman, and the casting out of seven devils from 
 Mary of Magdala. And yet the belief in the identity of 
 persons, fostered so largely by Christian art, has taken such 
 a firm and lasting hold upon the popular mind, that "a 
 penitent " and " a Magdalene " are regarded as synonymous 
 terms. 
 
 The only safe course is to leave the earlier anointing vague 
 as the Evangelist left it. Had it been recorded by S. John, 
 the uncertainty would doubtless have been removed, on the 
 same principle which led him to disclose the name of the chief 
 actor in the later event, though it had been passed over in 
 silence by S. Matthew and S. Mark. When they wrote prob- 
 ably Mary was alive, and her name was suppressed out of 
 consideration for her feelings ; but when S. John composed 
 
Mary of Bethany 297 
 
 his Gospel, many years later/ all reason for the suppression 
 had been removed by her death ; and as she could not suffer 
 any inconvenience from the notoriety, the whole details were 
 made known. It was just what happened with regard to the 
 resurrection of her brother Lazarus. It has often created 
 some surprise that this crowning miracle of our Lord's works 
 should have only been recorded by one Evangelist ; but the 
 rest were doubtless influenced by the same motives which 
 guided them in concealing Mary's name. If the tradition be 
 true that Lazarus lived in his restored Hfe for thirty years, he 
 must have been alive when the first three Gospels were pub- 
 lished, and rather than make him an object of curiosity, 
 probably even of persecution from the Jews, the writers passed 
 over the miracle; but when S. John wrote Lazarus had died, 
 and so the veil of reserve was removed. 
 
 If we may attempt to picture the supper which was prepared 
 for Jesus at Bethany, we should place Him at the table between 
 Simon and Lazarus, and, if the tradition be trustworthy which 
 makes them father and son, and supposes the former to have 
 been healed of his leprosy by our Lord, it is impossible to 
 imagine a more touching scene. Both were trophies of His 
 power and love : both had been raised to life by His hand, for 
 while Lazarus had been actually called forth from the tomb, 
 Simon had been raised from a condition of living death. And 
 as they sat at meat, Mary came behind with an alabaster - vase 
 of the costliest unguent,^ and crushing the seal upon the 
 mouth, poured the whole contents over His head. The 
 fragrance was such that " the house was filled with the odour 
 of the ointment," and the expenditure so prodigal that it 
 excited the indignant surprise of some of the guests. Judas 
 made no scruple of expressing what others felt ; he was unable 
 to conceal his disappointment that an opportunity had been 
 
 ^ The date of this Gospel lias of course been very variously given. If we 
 accept Dr. Westcott's view, and probably we can find no one more trustworthy, 
 we should place it, on grounds of internal evidence and historical tradition, at 
 the close of the first century. 
 
 '^ It is described as " a calcareous spar resembling marble, but softer and 
 more easily worked." 
 
 2 The meaning of TrL<jTiKr}s is doubtful. If from irlvo}, probably " liquid ; " 
 if from iriaTis. genuine, unadulterated. '' Spikenard " probably originated from 
 the untranslated form in Latin, nardtis piUica, which was changed into spicata 
 nardus. 
 
The Gift of^ chap, xiv 
 
 lost of adding to bis ill-gotten store ; perhaps he thought too 
 that a manifestation of jealousy for the interests of the poor 
 would help to divert suspicion from himself. If the precious 
 ointment had been sold, it would have realised as much as 
 three hundred pence \ ^ perhaps in his eagerness to rebuke the 
 "waste" he calculated it at more than its value, but even at 
 his valuation Jesus showed that it was no reckless extravagance, 
 but a noble deed. It may have been that the dark back- 
 ground of the traitor's design made Mary's act of sacrifice and 
 love the brighter in His eyes, for it drew forth the promise of 
 almost unparalleled honour. To her alone of His followers 
 did He give an assurance, that what she had done should 
 never be effaced from men's memories in any age or time. 
 
 His words reveal a tone of sadness even in the midst of a 
 satisfaction that seems to light up His soul. They express the 
 never absent feeling which cast its shadow over His life, though 
 the bystanders probably failed to notice it. 
 
 Remembering perhaps the ancient prophecy that "the poor 
 shall never cease out of the land," He reminded them that 
 opportunities of relieving them would recur every day of their 
 lives, but it would not be so with Himself. " Me ye have not 
 always," He said. It was a gentle way of alluding to the end, 
 so rapidly approaching ; for His mind must have been full of 
 the thought that before a few more suns had set they would 
 know Him no more. 
 
 Then again every one imagined that the precious unguents 
 poured with such lavish profusion over His head were intended 
 to enhance His delight at the festive board ; but to Him it was 
 only an anticipation of His approaching burial. Whether He 
 had revealed to Mary's sympathetic heart the full knowledge 
 that His disciples were unable to bear, or whether He only 
 meant that her act might be interpreted as a preparation for 
 His death, we cannot tell ; enough to know that the deed was 
 one which went straight to the heart of Jesus, and gained for 
 her who did it an undying name. 
 
 If in the spirit of those who murmured against her, we are 
 ever tempted to object that the reward seems disproportionate 
 to the act, or that it would have been better deserved for a 
 service of far-reaching utility and benefit, we shall do well to 
 
 ' Al^out ^9 : 15s. 
 
V. Ill Mary of Bethany 299 
 
 pause and ask ourselves whether the world is really so poor 
 that it can afford to make no offerings of pure gratitude. " Is 
 there to be no poetry, no extravagance of sacrificing love, no 
 grand expression of great hearts, in splendid festivals and gifts 
 and institutions simply to the honour of God, and the glory of 
 Jesus — to the celebration of the sublimer moments of life ? Is 
 it so poor that the common necessity of every day — that the 
 every day of common necessity — can and must consume all our 
 earthly possessions ? " However man may rate our actions, 
 God does not weigh them in the balance of utility alone, but 
 far oftener by the standard of motive. 
 
 It is no doubt well at times to consider how much good we 
 can do with what we possess, but it is better, infinitely better, 
 to be filled with Mary's spirit of uncalculating devotion, to feel 
 within us an irrepressible passion which wells up in overflowing 
 love, entirely careless where else its streams may reach, pro- 
 vided only that they bring joy and refreshment to Him to 
 Whom we owe all that we have and all that we are. 
 
LXIII 
 
 ^6t Ha^t Supper 
 
 S. Mark xiv, 12-21 
 
 12. And the first day of unleavened 
 bread, when they killed the passover, 
 His disciples said unto Him, Where 
 wilt Thou that we go and prepare 
 that Thou mayest eat the passover? 
 13. And He sendeth forth two of His 
 disciples, and saith unto them. Go ye 
 into the city, and there shall meet 
 you a man bearing a pitcher of water : 
 follow him. 14. And wheresoever he 
 shall go in, say ye to the goodman of 
 the house, The Master saith, Where 
 is the guestchamber, where I shall 
 eat the passover with My disciples? 
 15. And he will shew you a large 
 upper room furnished and prepared : 
 there make ready for us. 16. And 
 His disciples went forth, and came 
 
 into the city, and found as He had 
 said unto them : and they made 
 ready the passover. 
 
 17. And in the evening He conieth 
 with the twelve. 18. And as they 
 sat and did eat, Jesus said. Verily I 
 say unto you, One of you which 
 eateth with Me shall betray Me. ig. 
 And they began to be sorrowful, and 
 to say unto Him one by one, A it I ? 
 and another said, Is \\. I ? 20. And 
 He answered and said unto them, // is 
 one of the twelve, that dippeth with 
 Me in the dish. 21. The Son of Man 
 indeed goeth, as it is written of Him : 
 but woe to that man by whom the Son 
 of Man is betrayed : good were it for 
 that man if he had never been born. 
 
 We can hardly understand aright what is written in the 
 Gospels touching the Last vSupper, and the Death of our 
 Blessed Lord, without a clear knowledge of the sequence of 
 events and ceremonies of the Jewish Passover. 
 
 On the 1 4th of Nisan two things took place of the greatest 
 importance. At the beginning of the day according to Jewish 
 reckoning, i.e. after sunset, or as soon as it could be con- 
 veniently arranged, the ceremony of putting away leaven from 
 the houses was gone through. ^ It began frequently with a 
 
 ^ According to the Mosaic Law, Exod. xii. 15, this was to be done on the 
 first of the seven days of unleavened bread, i.e. 15th of Nisan, but the Jews 
 
cH. XIV. V. 12-21 The Last Stipper 301 
 
 fictitious sale to a Gentile of everything liable to fermentation, 
 together with the domestic vessels which had been used in 
 connection with it. 'J'hen followed a search by candle-light, 
 conducted by the head of the family and some attendants, 
 through the different rooms, after they had been previously 
 cleared with most scrupulous care. In order, however, to 
 give significance to the act, it was usual to leave a small 
 portion of leavened bread at a .spot where it could not possibly 
 escape observation. This, as soon as it w^as discovered in the 
 ceremonial search, w^as swept up with considerable formality, 
 and carried away.^ 
 
 The second event, of even greater consequence, was the 
 slaying of the Paschal lamb. The limits of time within which 
 this might be done is expressed by the phrase "between the 
 two evenings," that is, from three o'clock to five, or from the 
 first decline to the setting of the sun. The father or re- 
 presentative of the house repaired to the Temple with a lamb 
 or kid, having a knife attached to its fleece or horns. Exactly 
 at the appointed hour the doors were thrown open, and the 
 priests stood in two lines, the one holding golden bowls, the 
 other silver. The victim was slain by the person who brought 
 it. The front row of priests caught the blood, and gave the 
 bowls to the priests in the row behind, by whom they were 
 passed up in succession, till at last their contents were poured out 
 at the foot of the altar. When this was over the preparation 
 of the lamb immediately followed. The fat was carefully 
 preserved for burning ; and two wooden spits were thrust 
 through the body crosswise by the priests. It was then taken 
 aw^ay to be roasted, and was eaten after sunset, or as soon as 
 it was dark, on the beginning of the 15 th of Nisan. 
 
 After the sun had gone down on Thursday in Holy \\'eek, 
 i.e. when the 14th day began, called by S. Mark "the first 
 day of unleavened bread," according to later usage,- Jesus 
 
 had made a point of doing it on the day previously. Lightfoot, Exercit. in 
 Mark xiv. 12. 
 
 ^ Cf. Pieritz, Gospels from a Rabbinic Point of View. 
 
 2 The Feast of Unleavened Bread properly began on the 15th and lasted 
 till the 2ist. Probably owing to the importance of " the search for leaven," 
 the day on which it took place came to be reckoned as the first day, and the 
 Feast was said to last eight days instead of seven. If, however, it could be 
 sliown that S. Mark wrote in Aramaic, all would be perfectly clear. ' ' On 
 
302 The Last Supper chap, xiv 
 
 sent forth two of the Apostles to prepare a room, where they 
 might eat the Passover. They were preternaturally guided to 
 the house of a man, of whom nothing more is known for 
 certain than that he was a disciple.^ If he had not sat at our 
 Lord's feet they w^ould hardly have said that they brought him 
 a message from "the Master." The room was already 
 furnished with couches and carpets ; and thither at a later 
 hour Jesus gathered the Twelve for His last Paschal meal. 
 
 Now it is only natural that the deepest interest should have 
 been felt in the site of the guestchamber. It was there, it 
 is believed, that the Apostles assembled together during 
 " Expectation Week " to await the descent of the Comforter, 
 and there that He came to them in the likeness of fiery 
 tongues.^ It was there also that Jesus appeared to them on 
 two successive Sundays after the Resurrection. This same 
 upper room was set apart as an oratory, in which, while they 
 attended the Temple for public services, the first Christians 
 celebrated the Eucharist; " continuing daily with one accord 
 in the Temple, and breaking bread ^ at home." Upon this 
 site was afterwards erected a splendid building which became 
 the Mother Church of Jerusalem. 
 
 What the meal was, of which our Lord partook on the eve 
 of His Passion, has been a subject of controversy almost from 
 the beginning. The first three Evangelists appear at first 
 sight at variance with the fourth, and those who refuse to see 
 a direct contradiction between them have been accused of a 
 disregard for the simple truth. SS. Matthew, Mark, and 
 Luke all speak of it as a Passover ; but S. John says that it 
 was "before the Feast of the Passover;" and he tells us that 
 when Judas left the table some of his brother Apostles thought 
 that he was gone to buy what was necessary " against the 
 Feast." Yet further, as indicating that the time for the 
 
 the first day of unleavened bread" means, according to Jewish usage, "on 
 the day preceding" it. Cf. Exod. xii, 15, where Rashi explains "the first 
 day " as " the day before." 
 
 ^ Many names have been suggested, — Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathasa, 
 Mark, — but there is no authority for any of them. 
 
 ^ The belief that it was a chamber in the Temple is almost impossible. 
 After all that had occurred the Jews could not have granted the followers of 
 Jesus a place of meeting there. 
 
 ^ That this refers to the great Christian Feast is shown by the rendering of 
 the Syriac Version, " Breaking the Eucharist." 
 
The Last Sttpper 303 
 
 Paschal Feast had not arrived when Jesus sat down with the 
 Twelve, he records that the Jews refused to enter the 
 Prsetorium on the following morning, lest they should be 
 debarred by ceremonial uncleanness from eating the Passover ; 
 and, once more, the day of the Trial and Crucifixion is called 
 by him " the preparation of the Passover." 
 
 If we are right in saying that Thursday evening was the 
 commencement of the 14th of Nisan, there can be no doubt 
 that the Paschal lamb could not possibly have been eaten at 
 the Last Supper. Under no circumstances might it be killed 
 till the close of that day, " between the two evenings." There- 
 fore S. John is strictly correct in all that he says. 
 
 But are we to conclude that the other Evangelists are 
 wrong? Certainly not. If our Blessed Lord was to be the 
 Antitype of the Paschal lamb, it was absolutely necessary that 
 He should die at the time appointed for the slaying of this ; 
 and it is expressly told us that He did expire just at the 
 moment when the lambs were brought into the Temple to be 
 slain. It follows, therefore, of necessity that He could not at 
 one and the same Feast both Himself be, and also partake of, 
 the Paschal lamb. He desired, He has told us, to eat "the 
 Passover " with His disciples, but He has nowhere said, 
 neither have the Evangelists suggested, that He ate "the 
 lamb." All that was possible was done. All other elements 
 (except perhaps the unleavened cakes ^) — the wine, the herbs, 
 "the charoseth" of figs and almonds and vinegar and spice — w^re 
 probably partaken of; and the song of praise, the second part 
 of the Hallel, closed the meal, as it always closed the Paschal 
 Feast. There was no inconsistency in calling it " the Pass- 
 
 1 We do not feel justified, after a careful examination of tiie circumstances, 
 in saying that the bread was unleavened. We have set forth at length in 
 "The Divine Liturgy," ch. xlviii., upon what grounds we conclude that 
 ordinary bread was used at the Last Supper. Suffice it here to repeat that it 
 is the opinion of Jews well versed in the usages of the Passover, and that it 
 seems to us to be the only possible explanation of the fact that the whole 
 Church for nearly a thouscmd years (and the Eastern Branch all through its 
 history) used none other in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The 
 Church adhered rigidly to our Lord's example in using mingled wine ; it 
 seems most unreasonable to suppose that she could have entirely disregarded 
 His example, had He used unleavened bread. We should certainly have 
 expected that He would introduce into the Paschal Supper one of its most 
 iliaracteristic elements, but it would seem that for some unexplained cause 
 He did not do so. 
 
304 The Last Stipper chap, xiv 
 
 . . ! • 
 
 over," as being eaten at the Paschal season/ even though the 
 lamb was wanting, just as there was none in giving the name 
 to the Feast which Jews of "the dispersion" kept out of 
 Palestine, or even out of Jerusalem, where that which could 
 only be slain in the Temple was perforce excluded from the 
 table. 
 
 When the Twelve assembled in the upper room a dispute 
 arose, probably for the order of precedence in taking their 
 seats. It is supposed that Judas claimed, and it explains 
 some difficulties to conclude that he was allowed, the first 
 place, viz., that on the left hand of the Host ; and we know 
 for certainty that S. John took that on His right. 
 
 The proximity of the traitor at such a time troubled His 
 spirit, so that He could no longer repress the awful secret, 
 which for Judas's sake He had kept close to the last. " One 
 of you shall betray Me." All had been guilty of shortcomings, 
 and it was well that they should have some searchings of heart. 
 But such a prediction as that, prefaced too with a solemn 
 assurance, " Verily I say unto you," filled them with sorrow, 
 and they asked, each in bewilderment, "Is it I ? " Nothing 
 but tenderness even now ; Jesus still withholds the traitor's 
 name, and answers, possibly so that only the nearest could 
 hear, that it is one who had just dipped ^ with Him in the dish. 
 Then, perhaps raising Plis voice. He pronounced the most 
 awful words that have ever been spoken : " The Son of Man 
 indeed goeth, as it is written of Him : but woe to that man 
 by whom the Son of Man is betrayed : good were it for that 
 man if he had never been born." We may search in vain 
 through the pages of history for a more terrible sentence. In 
 every age there have been open and determined sinners, who 
 have perislied, like Judas, almost in the very act of sinning — 
 men like Belteshazzar, or the Apostate Julian — and we can 
 hardly bring ourselves to think of them as otherwise than lost, 
 but we cannot tell what unknown and unseen ways of con- 
 verting the heart, even at the last, God may have, and we dare 
 not set limits to the Divine mercy. In the case of Judas, 
 
 ^ It is, in fact, referred in Deut. xvi. i, 2, 3 to other parts than the 
 Paschal lamb. 
 
 - There are two accounts, one implying that the act was over, e/uijSdxI/as, 
 the other that it was going on, ifxljaTrTO/j.ei'os. 
 
The Last Supper 
 
 305 
 
 however, every ray of hope is excluded. He alone of all 
 mankind has received his doom before the Day of Judgment, 
 and as S. Luke tells us, has gone "to his own place" — his 
 own, not because he was predestined to it, but because by a 
 life of constant, sustained deceit, in spite of the drawings of a 
 more than human love, and at last by an act of unparalleled 
 treachery and baseness, he earned it, appropriated it, and 
 made it "his own." 
 
LXIV 
 
 ^Ije feacnftcial Slsspect of tlje ^olp (tnt^avi^t 
 
 S. Mark xiv. 22-25 
 
 22. And as they did eat, Jesus And He said unto them, This is My 
 
 took bread, and blessed, and brake blood of the new testament, which is 
 
 ?V, and gave to them, and said, shed for many. 25. Verily I say 
 
 Take, eat : this is My body, 23. unto you, I will drink no more of 
 
 And He took the cup, and when He the fruit of the vine, until that day 
 
 had given thanks. He gave ii to that I drink it new in the kingdom 
 
 them : and they all drank of it. 24. of God. 
 
 If we follow SS. Mark and Matthew we can have no doubt 
 that Judas had left the Supper-room before our Lord instituted 
 the Holy Eucharist, and gave to His Apostles the precious 
 Food of His Body and Blood. S. Luke's Gospel, however, 
 suggests that his departure followed the institution ; but there 
 are sufficient grounds for concluding that the order of time is 
 not preserved in this part of his narrative. An instinctive 
 feeling of reverence makes us shrink from the idea that Christ 
 could have tolerated the traitor at the first celebration of a 
 Feast which, throughout all time, was to be a symbol of love 
 and union. Further, it would seem morally impossible that 
 Judas should be able to remain after realising that liis guilty 
 secret was divulged. And yet again S. John furnishes direct 
 evidence that after the sop, which revealed to the disciples who 
 it was that should betray Him, Jesus told him to do the fatal 
 deed " quickly ; " and accordingly " he went immediately out." 
 It is difficult to understand how, in the face of this 
 testimony, not a few of the early I'athers,^ the Schoolmen, 
 
 1 S. Hilary was very decided the other way. Cf. Comm. in Matth. 
 
 C. XXX. 
 
CH. XIV. V. 22-25 Tfi^ Holy Eucharist 307 
 
 and the Reformers, should have thought that he was present. 
 Even Bishop Wren,^ at the last revision of the Prayer-Book, 
 was unable to persuade his colleagues to alter the words of 
 the Exhortation which appeared to favour this view, "lest, 
 after the taking of that Holy Sacrament, the devil enter into 
 you, as he entered into Judas." 
 
 It was then, we believe, in the course of the Last Supper, 
 after the interruption caused by the terrible revelation of 
 Judas's design, that Jesus took one of the Paschal cakes — 
 probably the last that was usually eaten — and invoking upon 
 it a blessing, that it might fulfil the end for which He was 
 setting it apart, proceeded to deliver it to the Eleven, with the 
 declaration, " This is My Body." There was no Paschal 
 lamb on the table for them to partake of, and it was wholly 
 unnecessary, for as the true Antitype He was about to 
 supersede the type for ever. It was in view of this that He 
 gave them, by anticipation. His Own Body, the sacrificial 
 offering of which was already begun by the surrender of 
 Himself at that moment, though it would not be consummated 
 till the appointed time when the lamb was slain. 
 
 So also the cup of mingled- wine — the third at the 
 Passover, which was passed round for all to drink before they 
 rose from the table — He declared to be His Blood of the 
 New Covenant, then being shed, just as His Body was being 
 broken, for the remission of sins. As the blood of the 
 Paschal lamb, sprinkled on the posts of their houses, was 
 intended to remind God of His old Covenant with His people, 
 so Christ ordained that henceforth they should have the 
 pledge of a new Covenant with Him through His Own 
 Sacrificial Blood. 
 
 To the Apostles, familiar as they were with all the ritual of 
 the Passover, such acts could hardly fail to be interpreted 
 sacrificially. The Holy Eucharist was instituted " in sacrificial 
 terms, at a sacrificial time, and for a sacrificial end." 
 
 ^ He proposed to add " after the sop," to show that the entrance of Satan 
 into him was not because of his receiving the Sacrament. Cf. Scudamore, 
 Xot. Euch. c. XV. s. ii. 
 
 - The Gemarists say, ' ' The wise men agree with R. Eliezer, that no one 
 ought to bless the cup of blessing, till water be mingled with it." The Rabbis 
 used a different blessing over unmingled wine, \\z. , ' ' Blessed be He that 
 created the fruit of the tree," instead of " the fruit of the vine," which is the 
 expression here used by our Lord. Cf. Tal. Bab. Berach. 50 b. 
 
3o8 The Sacrificial Aspect of chap, xiv 
 
 The brief narrative of S. Mark suggests at once that it was 
 " a Feast upon a Sacrifice ; " and it is echoed by S. Paul 
 when he writes, " Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us ; 
 therefore let us keep the feast." Jesus gave His Body first to 
 be sacrificially slain, and then to be eaten, " as the antitype of 
 those offerings which, after being slain, were wholly or in part 
 consumed by the worshippers." 
 
 If Ave turn to the longer account given by S. Luke, its 
 sacrificial aspect is made still more prominent. This contains 
 a direction to the Apostles to celebrate it after His departure 
 as the " memorial " of His Death : " This do in remembrance 
 of Me." S. Paul, who was so closely associated with the third 
 Evangelist in the writing of his Gospel, adds the declaration : 
 " For as often as ye eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, ye do 
 show the Lord's Death till He come." 
 
 The full force of the expressions here used, and their 
 appropriateness to the Holy Eucharist, will be made clear by 
 a consideration of the ritual of the typical sacrifice of the old 
 Dispensation. It consisted of five-"- distinct actions, as 
 follows : — 
 
 1. The surrender and presentation of the victim by the 
 offerer. 
 
 2. The imposition of hands by the offerer, by which he 
 symbolically transferred his sins to his substitute. 
 
 3. The slaying of the victim, also by the offerer, to indicate 
 his acknowledgment that death was incurred by his sin. 
 
 4. The sprinkling of the blood upon the altar, or the 
 mercy -seat, by the priest, — the presentation and pleading 
 before God of that which "makes atonement for the soul." 
 
 5. The consumption of the body of the victim, either by 
 fire, or by the priest, or by the priests and people, or, as in 
 the Passover, wholly by the people. 
 
 When we turn to the Antitype we find that only the first 
 three of these are yet completely accomplished. 
 
 1 Sadler, in "The One Offering," has named four only, leaving out in his 
 enumeration, though of course he mentions it incidentally, the laying the 
 hands on the head of the victim. Cf. ch. x. Willis, in his ' ' Worship of the 
 Old Covenant," has named six, subdividing the "consumption" into two 
 actions, viz. , the burning and the partaking, but in either case it symbolises 
 Clod's acceptance of the sacrifice. In the former He consumes it Himself; in 
 the latter He gives it to others to consume. 
 
V. 22-25 i^^^ Holy Eucharist 309 
 
 Christ surrendered Himself in the eternal counsels of the 
 Godhead, and finally in the garden of Gethsemane. 
 
 The substitution of Himself to bear the sins of the world, 
 it would seem, began in the Agony, and was completed at the 
 moment that He cried, " My God, My God, why didst Thou 
 forsake Me?" 
 
 Again, He died once for all upon the Cross. It could 
 only have been of these three acts that He said : "It is 
 finished." 
 
 That He did not intend to indicate, as has been so often 
 said, that the whole sacrificial system was then for ever closed, 
 is clear from the fact that the action which alone gave efficacy 
 to the sacrifice had not even begun. This was the sprinkling 
 of the blood upon the altar, or the mercy-seat — the pleading 
 of its efficacy for the remission of sins. This Presentation of 
 Christ's Sacrificial Blood began when He entered heaven at 
 the Ascension, and it will continue till He shall come out 
 again. Christ will never cease to present to the Father " the 
 memorial " of His Sacrifice, perpetually exhibiting the marks 
 of His Passion — the wounds in His hands and feet, and His 
 pierced side, and interceding for us by its merits, till He shall 
 have delivered up His mediatorial kingdom at the end of the 
 world. Unless He is doing continuously what the Jewish 
 High Priest did momentarily during the brief period that he 
 remained within the veil, the contrast drawn in the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews l)etween them completely l)reaks down. 
 
 Now we shall see the bearing of Christ's pleading upon the 
 Holy Eucharist, wlien we compare the language He used to 
 the Apostles with that by which " the pleading of the blood " 
 is characterised in Holy Scripture. Its object is described as 
 to make "a remembrance — an anamnesis — of sins every )«ear." 
 The word is restricted in its Scriptural usage to " a memorial 
 before God." Thus the sacrifices of peace-offering were 
 designed to be ''for a memorial before God." Again, the 
 frankincense upon the shewbread was " for a memorial, even 
 an offering by fire unto the Lord ; " and Aaron was directed 
 to "set it in order before the Lord every Sabbath-day." It 
 was never used of any action or thing intended merely to 
 quicken men's remembrance. For this the Greek translators 
 always employed another word, '■^ mnemosiinoji,''' though in the 
 
3IO The Sacrificial Aspect of chap, xiv 
 
 Authorised Version this, too, is rendered "memorial." Thus 
 the brazen censers of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were made 
 ''a covering of the altar to be a memorial to the children of 
 Israel." So also the twelve stones set up after the crossing of 
 the Jordan were intended as " a memorial unto the children 
 of Israel for ever." 
 
 When, then, our Blessed Lord, at such a time, and amidst 
 such surroundings, used of the ordinance that He was in- 
 stituting a term which had been appropriated to sacrificial 
 memorials, "Do this in remembrance of Me," literally, "As 
 My memorial," or anajjinesis, those who received His com- 
 mand would naturally conclude that it was to be sacrificial in 
 its character. And there can be little question, to judge from 
 the terms commonly applied both to the Holy Eucharist and 
 to that whereon it was offered, that it was so interpreted by 
 the Primitive Church.^ 
 
 It was doubtless from a belief in some mysterious union of 
 the earthly oblation with the heavenly that this became the 
 great office of Intercession, that prayers for all estates of men, 
 as well the faithful dead as the living, curtailed in later times 
 with harm and loss to the Church, formed such an important 
 element in the service. It was that one, they felt, in which 
 they could rely upon the closest co-operation of Him " Who 
 ever liveth to make intercession " And what more inspiring 
 thought can we feel than that, when the Sacred Mysteries are 
 celebrated, we mortal creatures, not only the priests who 
 celebrate, but men and women, by virtue of a priesthood 
 which Scripture assigns to the laity, and which the Anglican 
 Church is so careful to recognise, are able to blend our 
 intercessory act, in all its weakness and imperfection, with the 
 all-si!fificicnt mediation of the Great High Priest in heaven ? 
 
 It is when we realise this that we understand how the 
 fourth of the ritual actions in Christ's Sacrifice is not yet 
 complete ; and how, whilst it is perpetually going on in 
 
 1 The following are a few illustrations from English Divines of recognised 
 orthodoxy. "Here is a commemorative, impetrative, applicative sacrifice." 
 — Bramhall, Ep. do la Millitiere : Works, i. 54. "The Eucharist was 
 instituted, ... if we may so speak, for a commemorative sacrifice." — 
 Andrewes, Resp. ad Apolog. " As it is . . . a representation of Christ's 
 Death, so it is a commemorative sacrifice." — Jer. Taylor, Life of Chr. , Disc, 
 xix. Cf. also his "Worthy Communicant." 
 
V. 22-25 the Holy Eucharist 311 
 
 heaven, it has its earthly counterpart, by His command, in 
 the representation of the Holy Eucharist. 
 
 So in like manner, as we have already intimated, the fifth 
 action, the participation of the Sacrifice, "once offered," is 
 still continued in the same service. 
 
 In the peace-offerings, the body of the victim, after being 
 accepted by God, was given back to the worshippers by 
 Him for a twofold object. First, it was to be partaken of 
 by them in token of their friendship with each other, and 
 with Him Who gave it to them ; secondly, it indicated that 
 it was God's food, by which their bodies were sustained and 
 refreshed. 
 
 Even so in the Holy Eucharist, the Church, keeping the 
 typical feast always in view, has been careful to employ every 
 safeguard for the exclusion of those in whom there is " malice 
 or hatred," or who are "at variance" with each other, as well 
 as " the open and notorious evil liver," who cannot possibly 
 be at peace with God. 
 
 Again, Christ Himself gives us back, from what, regarded 
 on the side of the Giver, is His Table, or, as it was happily 
 called in the first Prayer-Book, "God's Board," His Body, 
 which has been laid upon the altar by " the Commemorative 
 Oblation," to be eaten "after a spiritual and heavenly 
 manner."^ 
 
 And herein the transcendent superiority of the Christian 
 over the Jewish Sacrificial Feast is apparent. There is not 
 the faintest intimation that that of which the Jewish worshippers 
 partook had any direct influence upon their spiritual lives ; 
 but with us it is placed beyond the possibility of doubt. 
 Under the forms of bread and wine we receive that which " is 
 meat indeed and drink indeed," not merely for "the 
 strengthening and refreshing" of our bodies, but as the 
 immortal Food of the undying soul ; for Christ has assured 
 us, with all the solemnity of a twofold asseveration, " A^erily. 
 verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of 
 
 1 Cf. Art. xxviii. "The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the 
 Supper, only after a heavenly," etc. Bishop Guest, who re-wrote this article 
 in 1563, finding that his language was interpreted as derogating from the 
 doctrine of the Real Presence, explained that what he meant by heavenly was 
 "no earthly manner of eating," and by spiritual, "not perceptible to the 
 senses." 
 
312 The Holy Ettcharist ch. xiv. v. 22-25 
 
 Man, and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso 
 eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath eternal life ; 
 and I will raise him up at the last day." And again He has 
 said, "As the Living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the 
 Father : so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me." 
 
LXV 
 
 ^^ peter tDtirneti 
 
 S. Mark xiv. 26-31 
 
 26. And when they had sung an Him, Although all shall be offended, 
 
 hymn, they went out into the mount yet ^vill not I. 30. And Jesus saitb 
 
 of Olives. 27. And Jesus saith unto unto him. Verily I say unto thee, 
 
 them. All ye shall be offended because That this day, even in this night, 
 
 of Me this night : for it is written, I before the cock crow twice, thou shalt 
 
 will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep deny Me thrice. 31. But he spake 
 
 shall be scattered. 28. But after that the more vehemently, If I should die 
 
 I am risen, I will go before you into with Thee, I will not deny Thee in any 
 
 Galilee. 29. But Peter said unto wise. Likewise also said they all. 
 
 It was the custom of the Jews before breaking up from the 
 Paschal Supper to sing the latter portion of the Hallel ^ while 
 the fourth or last cup was being filled. The Psalms which 
 composed it were full of Messianic prophecy, and words like 
 these must have come home to the Lord and His disciples 
 with the deepest meaning : " The sorrows of death compassed 
 me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me." " Bind the 
 sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar." "The 
 stone which the builders rejected is become the head stone of 
 the corner." It was after this hymn of praise was finished 
 that they left the upper chamber and went down to the brook 
 Kidron on the road to Olivet. The Paschal moon was shining, 
 
 ^ The Hallel sung at the three great festivals consisted of Psalms cxiii. to 
 c.xvili. At the Passover the first two were sung at an early part of the Feast. 
 The part sung by our Lord contained, the Rabbis said, these five things : The 
 Exodus, the Dividing of the Red Sea, the Delivering of the Law, the Resur- 
 rection of the Dead, the Sorrows of the Messiah. In Talm. Bab. Pesachim 
 18 a. there is a dispute among Rabbis Jchudah, Jochanan, and Yaakob as to 
 tlie limits of "the Great Hallel." All agreed that it ended with the close of 
 Ps. cxxxv., but thev varied as to its commencement. 
 
314 ^. Peter warned chap, xiv 
 
 and they sat down from time to time to listen to the last words 
 of their Master. The first note He struck must have filled 
 them with the saddest forebodings. When the aged Simeon 
 took Him as a Babe in his arms at the Presentation in the 
 Temple, he had predicted that He would be " set for the fall 
 and rising again of many in Israel " — to some a rock of offence, 
 to others a stepping-stone to higher things. Recurring in 
 thought to this prophecy, Jesus reminds the disciples that it is 
 in part about to receive its fulfilment in them : " All ye shall 
 be offended because of Me this night." Then as His eye runs 
 back over the scroll of more ancient prediction concerning 
 Himself, He remembers how Zechariah had foretold that the 
 Shepherd should be smitten and the sheep be scattered abroad. 
 But just as the seer had lit up the gloom of his woful message 
 by the assurance that God would turn again His hands in 
 favour and kindness upon " the little ones " of the flock, even 
 so the Master promises that as the shepherd " goes before " 
 the sheep, and they follow him whithersoever he goes, He will 
 unite them again in their old Galilean ^ home. It is a voice 
 of sadness just touched with joy. "I look on," He seems to 
 say, " into the perils that await you ; I see the wolves that are 
 waiting to rush in the moment the Shepherd is removed ; I 
 see you scattered in every direction, but not for ever. I shall 
 return to My charge over you. My voice will be heard where 
 you have so often listened to it in the past, and you will know 
 it again, and come back to My fold." 
 
 But Peter thinks only of the predicted scattering, and asks 
 himself, "Why should I be scattered? it is cowardice to flee ; " 
 and his brave Galilean heart resents the imputation. I cannot 
 answer for the rest, he says, but your words shall never be true 
 of me. " Although all shall be offended, yet will not I." 
 
 But He Who foresaw the end from the beginning, and 
 knew what such self-reliance would lead to, instantly checked 
 him with an assurance that he would not only fail in the hour 
 of trial, but that his failure would be one of an inexcusable 
 kind. "Verily I say unto thee, that this day, even in this 
 night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice." 
 
 1 This was fulfilled, as we read in S. Matt, xxviii. i6, when Jesus gave His 
 first solemn charge to the whole body of disciples. This was, it is thought, 
 the first occasion after the Resurrection when they were all gathered together. 
 
V. 26-31 S. Peter w aimed 3^5 
 
 Long afterwards he remembered the warning, and though the 
 other Evangehsts have spoken only of one cock-crowing, S. 
 Peter himself wished the aggravation of his fall to be emphasised, 
 and told S. Mark of the double hindrance that the two cock- 
 crowings had put in his way.^ But even though our Lord 
 prefaced the warning with an asseveration that should have 
 made him tremble, he only replied wath more abundant pre- 
 sumption : "If I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee 
 in any wise ; " and encouraged by his boldness all the disciples 
 repeated his declaration. 
 
 Now we know how grievously this bold impulsive Apostle 
 fell when the crisis came. It will magnify the greatness of his 
 guilt if we try to bring out from the other records the additional 
 warnings by which in His forethought Jesus tried to arm him 
 agamst the coming temptation. 
 
 In what order they were given it is impossible to decide, 
 but in all probability it was before they left the upper room 
 that our Lord said to him, " Simon, Simon " — repeating his 
 name to attract closer attention, — " behold, Satan hath desired 
 to have you, that he may sift you as wheat : but I have prayed 
 for thee, that thy faith fail not : and when thou art converted, 
 strengthen thy brethren." The words must have struck the 
 Apostle with peculiar force. Satan had wished, and the 
 original word^ implies that God had not thwarted his wish, to sift 
 the whole ^ Apostolic company. The accuser of the brethren 
 hoped that in the final crisis all might prove to be chaff; but 
 Jesus assures S. Peter that he individually had been a subject 
 for His special intercession, that such a result might be averted 
 
 ^ Cf. p. 3, The first cock -crowing was about midnight ; the second 
 three hours later. It is probable that S. Peter would record the actual words 
 used by our Lord, and the other Evangelists the substance. By ' ' cock-crow- 
 ing " they meant the same as ' ' the second cock-crowing, " because the first was 
 not often mentioned, whereas the second was that which every one was 
 familiar with. Possibly the full expression used was, "Before the cockcrow 
 thou shalt deny Me ; before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny Me thrice." 
 The objection that cocks were forbidden at Jerusalem is invalid ; for whatever 
 the old rule had been, it has been proved that there was no law against them 
 at this time ; cf. Lightfoot ///. loc. 
 
 2 i^rjTTiaaTO, i.e. " obtained by asking." It is to be noticed, however, that 
 it was only granted that he might " sift " them, not that he might have his full 
 wish. 
 
 ^ The change from the plural i',uas to the singular ai is carefully to be 
 noticed. 
 
3i6 S. Peter warned chap, xiv 
 
 at least from him when the sifting should take place. Why, 
 the Apostle must have argued with himself, should I be singled 
 out ? It can only be because in His foresight the Master sees 
 that I shall be most in need of His help. 
 
 Again he must have asked in wonder, " What can the Lord 
 mean by speaking of my being ' converted ' ? At least it 
 implies that I shall fall into sin. I cannot turn back till I 
 have first turned away." But if these significant hints failed 
 to awaken him to a sense of his peril, he would surely be 
 aroused by his Master's parting words, the repetition of which 
 would redouble their force : " Peter, the cock shall not crow 
 this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest 
 Me." 
 
 Then there was a third voice of warning. After they had 
 all gone out, the Master told them that in a little time He Ws 
 about to leave them and go whither they could none of them 
 follow. It was doubtless a grievous blow to one and all, but 
 the announcement was received in silence save by S. Peter. 
 True to his impetuous, hasty nature, he altogether refused to 
 accept the position. Where can He be going? he seems to 
 ask himself in astonishment. There must be some danger 
 before Him which He thinks we are unable to face, and He 
 would gladly spare us ; but I can face it ; I will not be spared. 
 At the worst I can but lose my hfe, and that I am quite pre- 
 pared for; yes, " I will lay down my life for Thy sake." But 
 what a rebuff his courageous devotion must have received ! 
 What an awakening it should have been to the hoUowness of 
 his professions to have been met for the third time with the 
 same unvarying presage, " The cock shall not crow till thou 
 hast denied Me thrice." 
 
 Here then we have seen with what patience and persevering 
 kindness our Lord endeavoured to prepare S. Peter for the 
 trial that awaited him. That it was not rewarded was due to 
 several causes. It will suffice in this place to consider one 
 only, viz., his hesitation to believe the warning voice of his 
 Master, arising from an imperfect realisation of the true Nature 
 of Him Who spoke. Had he been possessed by an undoubt- 
 mg conviction of His Godhead he could hardly have ignored 
 such plain and repeated admonitions ; but here, as generally 
 throughout his discipleship, he failed to grasp the reality of 
 
V. 26-31 S. Peter warned 317 
 
 His Being. He seems to liave been for ever dwelling upon 
 His Humanity. We see it so plainly throughout this Gospel, 
 written under his guidance and supervision. It is a record of 
 repeated reference to all those characteristics which He shared 
 with mankind.^ Once or twice there was an outburst of some- 
 thing better, ventures of faith which carried him beyond what 
 was merely human, but it was only momentary ; there was no 
 abiding sense of His Divinity, such as would have made him 
 feel that whatever He said was absolutely true, and must come 
 to pass. If we learn nothing else from the history of S. Peter's 
 fall, let us carry away an undoubting assurance of the truth 
 which he failed to grasp, or forgot to his cost, that we are 
 disciples of One Who knows and sees everything, and means 
 whatever He says without qualification or reserve. " Hath He 
 said, and shall He not do it ? or hath He spoken, and shall 
 He not make it good ? " 
 
 1 Cf. pp. 4, 5. 
 
LXVI 
 
 d^etlj^emane 
 
 S. Mark xiv. 32-42 
 
 32. And they came to a place 
 which was named Gethsemane : and 
 He saith to His disciples, Sit ye here, 
 while I shall pray. 33. And He 
 taketh with Him Peter and James 
 and John, and began to be sore 
 amazed, and to be very heavy ; 34. 
 and saith unto them. My soul is ex- 
 ceeding sorrowful unto death : tarry 
 ye here, and watch. 35. And He 
 went forward a little, and fell on the 
 ground, and prayed that, if it were 
 possible, the hour might pass from 
 Him. 36. And He said, Abba, 
 Father, all things are possible unto 
 Thee ; take away this cup from Me : 
 nevertheless not what I will, but 
 what Thou wilt. 37; And He 
 
 Cometh, and findeth them sleeping, 
 and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest 
 thou? couldest not thou watch one 
 hour ? 38. Watch ye and pray, lest 
 ye enter into temptation. The spirit 
 truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. 
 
 39. And again He went away, and 
 prayed, and spake the same words. 
 
 40. And when He returned, He 
 found them asleep again, (for their eyes 
 were heavy,) neither wist they what to 
 answer Him. 41. And He cometh the 
 third time, and saith unto them. Sleep 
 on now, and take your rest : it is 
 enough, the hour is come ; behold, the 
 Son of Man is betrayed into the hands 
 of sinners. 42. Rise up, let us go : 
 lo, he that betrayeth Me is at hand. 
 
 One of the greatest disappointments a traveller meets with in 
 Palestine arises out of the difficulty of identifying the scenes 
 and places which were hallowed by the footsteps of our 
 Blessed Lord. Even the site of the Holy Sepulchre is a 
 subject of dispute. It is no little relief then to be told that 
 the traditional Gethsemane,^ at the foot of Mount Olivet, 
 almost unquestionably marks the locality of His final Agony. 
 Even the most careless have confessed to a feeling of awe and 
 
 ^ Gethsemane, irom gafh, a press, and shemcn, oil. It is situated about 
 half a mile from the walls of Jerusalem, on the north-west side of Mount 
 Olivet. 
 
CH. XIV. V. 32-42 Gethsernane 319 
 
 mystery as they entered "tlie garden." It is not so much 
 the Grotto, which is supposed to indicate the very spot where 
 the Saviour knelt to offer His thrice-repeated prayer. Neither 
 is it the bare ground — the terra damnata — on which the pious 
 monks assert that the grass has never grown since Judas stood 
 there to betray the Son of Man with a kiss ; but it is more 
 especially a cluster of aged olive-trees, with their great gnarled 
 trunks, and most venerable appearance, wholly unlike any 
 others upon the mountain — it is these which have always 
 quickened the thoughts and emotions of even indifferent 
 observers. "They will remain," it has been said, "so long 
 as their already protracted life is spared, the most affecting of 
 the sacred memorials in or about Jerusalem ; the most nearly 
 approaching to the everlasting hills themselves in the force 
 with which they carry us back to the events of the Gospel 
 History." 
 
 We can imagine the intense reality of the Passion coming 
 vividly before the mind, as one stood and looked up to those 
 time- hallowed monuments, and thought that probably they 
 were the very trees,^ or at least the immediate successors of 
 those which threw the shadow of the great Paschal moon 
 down upon the Redeemer ; and that beneath their branches 
 the sufferings of every age and people had culminated in the 
 awful Agony they w^itnessed. 
 
 It was to this place that our Lord withdrew after the Last 
 Supper was ended. Man craves for sympathy and nearness 
 of friends in times of trouble and distress, and we feel strength 
 and confidence from the presence of those who know most of 
 our inner life. Our Lord was true, then, to human nature 
 when He gathered to His side His chosen disciples, the 
 eye-witnesses of the Transfiguration, Peter and James and 
 John ; and in their ears spoke of the terrible burden of grief 
 that oppressed His soul. " He began to be sore-amazed ; " 
 the original word implies a sense of overpowering surprise, 
 something which made Him "astonied," and almost start 
 
 ^ The scientific investigations of the French botanist Bove led him to the 
 conclusion that they are 'at least 2000 years old. — R6cit in Bullet, de la Soc. 
 Gdogr., Paris, 1835, iii. 382. It is said, however, that in the siege of Jem- 
 salem, Titus had all the trees cut down round Jerusalem, — Joseph. Wars, 
 vi. I, I, and the loth Legion encamped on Olivet, id. v. 2, 3. If so, the 
 eight olive-trees now living may have sprung from the roots. 
 
320 Gethsemane 
 
 CHAP. XIV 
 
 back from its presence ; " and to be very heavy : " the most 
 trustworthy etymology^ indicates a loss of conscfousness, the 
 condition of one who is quite dazed, and at his wits' end. 
 
 And He was equally true to human nature when, in the 
 midst of this unutterable anguish. He removed from His 
 companions, and "went forward a little," "about a stone's 
 cast," seeking for sohtude, and undisturbed communion with 
 God. We shrink from too close an analysis of His prayer, 
 but at least we can see its intensity in its very repetition. 
 They are lower forms of sorrow that are found to vary their 
 mode of expression ; the deepest and sharpest agony is ever 
 content to fall back upon the selfsame words again and again 
 repeated. Those who see in Jesus Christ only the greatest 
 of martyrs maintam that the distress and anguish that He felt 
 in the Garden were nothing more than was natural in the 
 immediate anticipation of death. They say that it was the 
 dread of crucifixion which wrung from Him the eager sup- 
 plication that " the hour might pass from Him," and that His 
 Father would take away the cup that He had given Him to 
 drink. 
 
 But if it be so, how are we to explam the fact that Christ 
 was less brave than His followers? There was nothing to 
 correspond to this intense shrinking in the stoning of S. 
 Stephen ; nothing in S. Paul's bright anticipation of a death 
 which he knew must be that of martyrdom : nor in the un- 
 flinching courage of S. Polycarp : nor in the last hours of a 
 thousand others who have laid down their lives for the 
 Master's cause. No, to hint even that it was physical pain 
 which drew from His lips that exceeding bitter cry, is to 
 degrade Him below the level of the Christian martyr. If it 
 had been only that, He would have been nerved to bear it by 
 the prospect of the future, by the prevision of the Resurrection 
 and Ascension, of the exaltation and triumph, which ?Ie knew 
 would be the sequel of that degradation and defeat. 
 
 The Agony in the Garden finds its explanation alone in 
 the one great cardinal truth of the Christian Faith ; that He 
 made His soul an offering for sin, that (lod laid upon Him 
 
 ^ dSrjfxopelu is taken by Buttmann, Grimm, and others, from &8T]fxos, " away 
 from home, "all abroad," but it is more likely to be derived from a and 
 oarjfxuju, not knowing, unskilled. 
 
32-42 
 
 Gethsemane 321 
 
 the iniquity of us all : that He gathered up as it were the 
 sins of the whole world, and then, as though He were Himself 
 the sinner, by an inexplicable mystery which we shall never 
 fathom, but before which we must bow the head in awe, "was 
 made a curse for us," " was wounded for our transgressions, 
 was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace 
 was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." 
 
 It seems difficult to fix our thoughts in Gethsemane on 
 any other than the figure of our Adorable Lord, but the Holy 
 Spirit has placed before us in this awful crisis men of like 
 passions with ourselves, subject to all the weakness and in- 
 firmities of a sinful nature, that, taking warning from them, we 
 may learn how to bear ourselves in the hour of peril and 
 temptation. 
 
 It must have added another drop to the cup of sorrow, 
 already so full, to find Himself in the hour of His direst need 
 robbed of the sympathy for the sake of which He had kept 
 His best beloved disciples within His reach. It was part of 
 His predicted sufferings that He should be so bereft : " I 
 looked for some to have pity on Me, but there was no man, 
 neither found I any to comfort Me." They were there, it is 
 true, but only to increase — not to relieve — His anxiety ; and 
 turning to them with all the yearning of the tenderest affection. 
 He forewarns them of approaching danger. " Watch ye and 
 pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, 
 but the flesh is weak." 
 
 He had told them before to " watch," and it may be they 
 had endeavoured to do it in their own strength, and nature 
 had asserted its mastery. Since the terrible revelation of the 
 traitor at the Last Supper, the anticipation of the Passion had 
 become intensely real to them, and grief had laid such hold 
 upon them, that they were quite overpowered. Poor human 
 nature gave way under the strain, and they slept "for sorrow." 
 We know in our own experience what that expression means. 
 We have watched, it may be, by the bedside of the sick or 
 dying, hoping against hope, dreading the future when the 
 present is over, till at last the spirit becomes so crushed and 
 prostrate, that it yields to the claims of our lower being, and 
 we too sleep "for sorrow." They were all asleep, but S. 
 Peter is especially singled out for remonstrance. His re- 
 
 Y 
 
32 2 Gethsemajie ch. xiv. v. 32-42 
 
 peated protestations had given promise of better things, and 
 there is a world of sadness wrapt up in the expresssion of 
 disappointment, " Simon, sleepest thou ? Couldest thou not 
 watch one hour?" Is this the fulfilment of thy boast, "I will 
 lay down my life for Thy sake " ? 
 
 Well may our Lord have bidden them add prayer to 
 watchfulness ; but even then they failed, for again, and yet 
 again, He returned to find them weighed down with sleep. 
 
 We may not gather from this that the means within their 
 reach were insufficient, but we are forced to the conclusion 
 that they did not use them to the utmost. The same tempta- 
 tion is certain to be ours. There are times in the lives of 
 most men when they are called upon to pass through a 
 prolonged conflict with the powers of evil. For a season, it 
 may be, they watch and pray ; and then the suggestion comes 
 to them that they have watched long enough, and prayed long 
 enough ; or that God never expects more than men are able 
 to bear, and that the limit has been reached ; and so their 
 efforts are relaxed ; and then when the crisis comes, as it 
 came to S. Peter and the rest, they find that they have not 
 strength enough to meet it, and they deny their Lord, or 
 forsake Him and flee. We have been forewarned by this 
 record of the Apostles' failure : may we be forearmed, and not 
 found sleeping when nothing but continued watchfulness and 
 prayer can save us from falling ! 
 
LXVII 
 
 %iz Betrayal aiiD ^rce^t 
 
 S. Mark xiv. 43-52 
 
 43. And immediately, while He yet sword, and smote a servant of the high 
 
 spake, Cometh Judas, one of the priest, and cut off his ear. 48. And 
 
 twelve, and with him a great multi- Jesus answered and said unto them, 
 
 tude with swords and staves, from the Are ye come out, as against a thief, 
 
 chief priests and the scribes and the with swords and u'ifk staves to take 
 
 elders. 44. And he that betrayed Me ? 49. I was daily with you in the 
 
 Him had given them a token, saying, temple teaching, and ye took Me not: 
 
 Whomsoever I shall kiss, t/iai same but the scriptures must be fulfilled, 
 
 is He ; take Him, and lead Him away 50. And they all forsook Him, and 
 
 safely. 45. And as soon as he was tied, 51. And there followed Him a 
 
 come, he goeth straightway to Him, certain young man, having a linen 
 
 and saith. Master, Master; and kissed cloth cast about /n's naked i/ody ; and 
 
 Him. 46. And they laid their hands the young men laid hold on him : 52. 
 
 on Him, and took Him. 47. And and he left the linen cloth, and fled 
 
 one of them that stood by drew a from them naked. 
 
 In our bewilderment at the enormity of Judas's crime, we try 
 to discover some trace of extenuating circumstances. There 
 are so many instances in which men, who have not trained 
 themselves to resist in lesser matters, have been caught in a 
 whirlpool of sudden temptation, and carried away almost 
 before they knew where they were, that it is just possible 
 something of this kind happened to Judas. He had an innate 
 love of money, and instead of checking it in the beginning, 
 put himself in harm's w^ay ; and it may be, by frequent httle 
 pilferings from the common purse, which his too trustful com- 
 panions confided to his care,^ he lost the power of resistance 
 altogether. Then at last, when some overmastering impulse 
 
 ^ ejSdo'Tafej'. A.V. "He bare," more probably "used to take away." 
 Vulg. "exportabat," cf. S. John xx. 15. 
 
324 The Betrayal and Arrest chap, xiv 
 
 to gratify his ruling passion by a supreme act of treachery 
 seized hold upon him, he yielded a ready obedience. 
 
 But even if we could satisfy ourselves that he was surprised 
 in this way into that base covenant with the chief priests, there 
 is no excuse, no palliation whatever, admissible after the bar- 
 gain was struck. 
 
 A moment's reflection must have opened his eyes and 
 shown him that the paltry sum which they had offered (it was 
 but the price of a slave — the blood-money for a slave who had 
 been accidentally killed) was wholly inadequate to yield any 
 compensation for the shame it entailed. No, if we may judge 
 of the whole transaction from what is told of his conduct after 
 the compact was made, it was a cold-blooded, deep-laid design, 
 conceived and executed under no excitement of passionate im- 
 pulse, nor any imperious temptation, but marked throughout 
 by premeditated duplicity. 
 
 Let us follow his steps from the moment that he leaves the 
 Upper Chamber after discovering that his design is no longer 
 a secret. His first object is to preclude, by the most careful 
 precautions, all possibility of its miscarrying. He hurries first 
 to the chief priests and reports to them that the convenient 
 opportunity has arrived when their Victim may be secured " in 
 the absence of the multitude ; " for He was gone to pray in a 
 retired spot, at some distance from the bustle of the city, in 
 the Garden of Gethsemane. 
 
 He could hardly expect them to take part in the arrest 
 themselves (though in their eagerness they actually did so) ; 
 he therefore enhsts' the sympathy of their servants. He 
 had no doubt that they would enter cordially into the 
 plot, for they could not have failed to conceive an hatred 
 of One Who had spoken such bitter things against their 
 masters. 
 
 Then, having secured a goodly number of these, he seeks 
 reinforcements from the officers of the Temple, and the com- 
 pany of Levites, whose duty it was to keep watch and ward at 
 its gates and courts. This was amply sufficient for his purpose, 
 if all went well ; but if any unforeseen delay should arise, and 
 the capture not be made till the morning, when the populace 
 was astir again, it was quite possible that a rescue might be 
 attempted. The inhabitants were in an excited mood, as the 
 
V. 43-52 TJie Betrayal and Arrest 325 
 
 Triumphal Entry a few days before had clearly shown, and 
 they were as likely as not to create a tumult, which military 
 force alone would be able to suppress. Nothing remains then 
 but to appeal to the Roman governor. No doubt he sup- 
 ported his application by telling him that Jesus was a danger- 
 ous character, who aimed at the overthrow of the existing 
 authority. His request was granted, and a detachment from 
 the garrison stationed in the fortress of Antonia was told off 
 for the traitor's purpose. The whole company must be armed. 
 The soldiers of course had their swords ; the officers of the 
 Temple took their batons, and the rest such sticks or staves as 
 they could procure ; but even these precautions were not 
 enough. It was night, and although the great Paschal moon 
 was shining overhead, in that rugged Valley of Jehoshaphat 
 there were clefts of rock, and there were deep shadows thrown 
 from many objects, by which Jesus might conceal Himself and 
 escape. A supply of lanterns and torches was provided for 
 such an emergency ; and then, just when this weird and 
 motley crowd were prepared to start on their unhallowed search, 
 one last caution was given by the traitor. Jesus was well 
 known no doubt to many of them, for " He was daily in the 
 Temple \ " but to the soldiers He was probably a total stranger ; 
 let there be no mistake then on their part, no arrest of another 
 in the excitement of capture. " Whomsoever I shall kiss, that 
 same is He, take Him, and lead Him away safely." This pre- 
 concerted signal proved to be wholly unnecessary, but it was 
 employed for another object, which gives still further proof of 
 the traitor's resolute determination to carry out his wicked 
 purpose. 
 
 We cannot be sure of the sequence of events, but a com- 
 parison of S. John's narrative leads us to place a very important 
 circumstance before the kiss of betrayal. Jesus hearing 
 footsteps approaching goes forth of His Own accord to meet 
 the crowd, and before anything has been said asks the question, 
 " Whom seek ye ? " They answer, " Jesus the Nazarene ; " to 
 which He rephes at once, " I am He," and all were panic- 
 struck ; there was something so wholly unlike what they 
 expected. Whether, as some have thought, it was a second 
 flash of the Transfiguration glory, a "ray of Divinity" streaming 
 forth from His face in that hour of darkness, or whether it was 
 
Z^^ The Betrayal and A7'7^est chap, xiv 
 
 merely an intensified form of a mysterious power, which in 
 moments of apparent helplessness has so often disarmed an 
 assailant 1 — the calmness of innocence making the guilty 
 tremble — whatever the cause, the multitude staggered back- 
 wards and fell to the ground before Him. 
 
 Now, if it was after this that the kiss of betrayal was given, 
 we find in it a deeper purpose than the mere indication of his 
 Victim, The sign was no longer needed for that. When the 
 armed multitude rose to their feet, for a moment they must 
 have stood irresolute. Judas was in dread lest through their 
 fear all might miscarry even at the last. The vivid imagination 
 of a thoughtful writer has put the scene dramatically before us, 
 by imagining that some one whispered in his ear at this crisis, 
 " Judas, if thou approachest Him, thou art a dead man." " Be 
 not afraid," says the traitor, " He never injured any one. I 
 will show you there is nothing to fear." He knew by experience 
 that he might do it with perfect safety. " Rabbi, Rabbi," ^ he 
 cries, and then with an hypocrisy that finds no parallel in 
 history, kisses Him, not once only, but, as the original 
 language ^ implies, again and again. 
 
 What an exhibition it is of the Divine perfection of Christ's 
 character ! How completely was the spirit of revenge, which 
 is so sweet to the heart of man, held in check, just when we 
 should have thought ourselves more than justified in punishing 
 such baseness. AVell indeed has it been said, " Wouldest thou 
 know what Satan can do, and God can bear ; what the basest 
 of mankind can do, and the best of manhood can bear : behold 
 the lips of Judas who kisses, and the cheek of Jesus which 
 receives the kiss." 
 
 And so the traitor's end was gained ; the crowd, emboldened 
 by his impunity, closed around our Lord, bound Him, and led 
 Him away. 
 
 ^ Stier (Reden Jesu) adduces numerous examples besides those mentioned 
 above ; Probus, Pertinax, Stanislaus, and Coligny. Farrar adds to these 
 Avidius Cassius and a band of Egyptians falling prostrate before Simeon, the 
 brother of Joseph, recorded in the Talmud. 
 
 2 The Apostles used to call Jesus by the title of Ki'ptoj. Rabbi was a 
 colder form of address ; cf. S. John xiii. 6-37, and S. Matt. xxvi. 25. 
 
 ^ KaTt<pi\r\(sev. Kara in compounds often expresses intensity. When he 
 gives the signal to the company it is simply the uncompounded form. One 
 kiss would suffice for this. Its repetition was needed to re-establish the cour- 
 age of his followers. 
 
V. 43-52 The Betrayal and Arrest 327 
 
 But not alone for the meekness of His submission are we 
 filled with admiring wonder, but as well for the self-forgetfulness 
 which fixed His thoughts on those He loved — "If therefore 
 ye seek Me, let these go their way." Whatever awaits Him, 
 He will " tread the winepress alone," and, poor human beings 
 that they were, they yielded to the instinct of self-preservation ; 
 "they all forsook Him, and fled." 
 
 As they were fleeing from the spot a strange incident 
 occurred, which has been recorded by S. Mark alone. Some 
 unknown youth — it may have been the owner of Gethsemane, 
 or Lazarus,^ or S. Mark himself — almost certainly a man of 
 property - and position, hearing the tumult hard by, started out 
 of his sleep, and wrapped only in the fine sheet on which he 
 had been lying, ran out to see the cause of the disturbance. 
 The crowd were diverted for the moment by the sudden 
 apparition, and tried to seize him, but he fled away naked. 
 We can only conjecture why such an apparently trifling circum- 
 stance should have been deemed worthy of a place in the 
 sacred narrative. It may have been merely one of those vivid 
 details which imprinted themselves on S. Peter's memory ; or 
 possibly, if S. Mark was himself the young man, it attained 
 in his eyes a degree of importance out of proportion to its 
 general interest. 
 
 Now, what are the prominent thoughts which this story has 
 fixed in our minds? Betrayal and desertion. 
 
 We shrink from the idea that we can betray our Lord as 
 Judas did. And yet, at least in some degree, perhaps we may. 
 Our conscience when probed may compel us to say, we do ; 
 never, it is true, with the same heartless cruelty or premedi- 
 tated craft, but whenever we have received special privileges 
 and have misused them : w^henever to hide our wickedness we 
 pretend to be religious, and wear the mask of hypocrisy, we 
 are guilty of the traitor's duplicity, and like him betray our 
 Master with a kiss. 
 
 ^ Plumptre in his article on "Lazarus" in Smith's Bib. Diet., and also in 
 his Commentary, brings forward numerous arguments in favour of this view. 
 They are full of interest, and well worthy of consideration. Epiphanius, Adv. 
 Haer. Ixxviii. 13, suggests that it was James the Just, our Lord's brother. 
 
 2 * ' The linen cloth " (in S. Mark xv. 46. ' ' fine linen ") was a costly material 
 It was used for winding-sheets for the dead. 
 
328 The Betrayal and Arrest ch. xiv. v. 43-52 
 
 And do we ever desert Him ? Can we recall no times 
 when His Cause demanded our support, when His Word 
 was assailed, His Name blasphemed, it may be even the 
 morality of His Teaching called in question? And did 
 worldly considerations, the love of ease or indifference, or the 
 fear of being worsted or derided, seal our lips, and leave the 
 Christian Faith, like Christ, defenceless in the presence of its 
 foes ? If this be so, then we are of the number of those of 
 whom those humiliating words were written, " they all forsook 
 Him, and fled ; " and it was our desertion, as well as theirs, 
 which the prophet foretold, when he said, " I looked for some 
 to have pity upon Me, but there was no man : neither found I 
 any to comfort Me." 
 
[SUPPLEMENTARY.] 
 
 LXVIII 
 
 %l)Z (£;cammation before ^nna^ 
 
 S. John xviii. 12-13, 19-24 
 
 12. Then the band and the captain nothing. 21. Why askest thou Me? 
 
 and officers of the Jews took Jesus, ask them which heard Me, what I 
 
 and bound Him, 13. and led Him have said unto them : behold, they 
 
 away to Annas first ; for he was know what I said. 22. And when 
 
 father in law to Caiaphas, which was He had thus spoken, one of the 
 
 the high priest that sa?ne year. officers which stood by struck Jesus 
 
 19. The high priest then asked with the palm of his hand, saying, 
 
 Jesus of His disciples, and of His Answerest Thou the high priest so? 
 
 doctrine. 20. Jesus answered him, 23. Jesus answered him, If I have 
 
 I spake openly to the world ; I ever spoken evil, bear witness of the evil : 
 
 taught in the synagogue, and in the but if well, why smitest thou Me? 
 
 temple, whither the Jews always 24. Now Annas had sent Him bound 
 
 resort ; and in secret have I said unto Caiaphas the high priest. 
 
 It is necessary at this point to turn aside from S. Mark's 
 Gospel, for the stage of our Lord's life upon which we now 
 enter is so complicated that it requires a careful consideration 
 of the fourfold record to make it intelligible. Critics have 
 approached it too often in a hostile spirit, exaggerating trifles 
 and widening discrepancies, till they have been compelled to 
 pronounce the different accounts wholly irreconcilable. A 
 reverent investigation has satisfied us that, after legitimate 
 allowance has been made for circumstances, it is possible to 
 weave the details of the terrible story into a fairly explicit and 
 consistent whole. Feeling that hypercriticism is rebuked by 
 the solemnity of the subject, we " take the shoes from off our 
 feet " in the presence of the awe-inspiring fact, that we are 
 about to witness a trial in which the Prisoner at the bar is 
 
330 The Examinatio7t s. John wm 
 
 none other than He before Whose tribunal we shall all be 
 judged at the last day. 
 
 It may very fitly be divided into six separate stages or acts. 
 Before Annas, before Caiaphas in his own palace, before the 
 Sanhedrim in lawful assembly, before Pilate the first time, 
 before Herod, and again before Pilate for the final sentence. 
 Only four of these are recorded by S. Mark. Two preliminary 
 difficulties call for notice. Two persons, Annas and Caiaphas, 
 are spoken of as High Priests, whereas we know that there 
 could not be more than one holding the office at any given 
 time. Again, the palace where S. Peter denied our Lord 
 seems in one place to belong to Annas, in another to 
 Caiaphas. Both admit of explanation. We find that Annas 
 had been High Priest some time before, but for political 
 reasons had been deposed by the Roman Governor. The 
 history of the times shows that he was a man of commanding 
 influence,^ and his hold upon the Jews was such that they 
 refused, as far as they dared, to recognise the deposition, but 
 continued to regard him as their chief-pontiff, and to designate 
 him in familiar language by the high-priestly title. The man 
 actually in legal possession of the office at this time — " the 
 High Priest of the year," as he is significantly spoken of — was 
 Caiaphas ; and when the Jews designate him " High Priest," 
 it is only, as we should say, under protest, because the State, 
 which they were afraid openly to disobey, compelled them to 
 do so. Thus we see in the eyes of the Jews, by whose laws 
 the office was inalienable and for life, Annas was regarded as 
 their rightful High Priest, Avhile Caiaphas was legally in 
 possession of the dignity and title. 
 
 The question of locality is even more easily explained. 
 Annas, we are told, was father-in-law to Caiaphas. What 
 more natural than that they should occupy the same official 
 residence, each with his separate suite of rooms and offices, 
 but all within the same area, round the same courtyard ? 
 What more natural than that the first thought of Caiaphas,-^ 
 
 ^ He was sufficiently powerful to secure the High Priest's office for no less 
 than five of his sons besides his son-in-law. Lightfoot holds that be was 
 deputy High Priest, or " Sagan ; " Selden that he was President of the 
 Council, or " Nasi." 
 
 ^ Possibly Eleazar, Annas's son, who had preceded Caiaphas, may have 
 reinstated his father. But there was an interval of a year between the 
 
V. 12-13 before Annas 331 
 
 on his elevation to the office, should be to see his dethroned 
 father-in-law reinstated in his rightful home? What more 
 expedient, again, than that in those most troublous times, the 
 youthful and inexperienced Caiaphas should be able to consult, 
 without inconvenience, and as occasion might arise, one who 
 was accounted by the general verdict the most influential man 
 in Jerusalem ? Whether then it is the palace of Annas or of 
 Caiaphas that is spoken of, it is one and the same building. 
 
 Now it was past midnight when Judas, and the Temple 
 guard, and the military escort from Pilate, started to arrest 
 Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. It would seem that 
 they succeeded sooner than they expected, for the Court was 
 not ready to try Him when they reached the palace. They 
 at once decided that He should be taken before Annas. 
 We have no difficulty in suggesting motives which may have 
 led them to such a decision. The Jews would like to give 
 their favourite the satisfaction of seeing the common Enemy 
 of their nation a prisoner, or it was a mark of deference to 
 his position, which they would gladly pay, that he should be 
 the first to examine Him ; or perhaps — and it may have 
 weighed with greater force than either of the above — they felt 
 that the astute, far-seeing Annas was likely in such a pre- 
 liminary examination to hit upon the best grounds of accusa- 
 tion for Caiaphas to urge in the legal court. 
 
 But whatever their object, they brought Him before Annas. 
 He ^ questioned Him, we are told, about His disciples and 
 His doctrine, and it is plain enough what his design was in so 
 doing. He wished to make out that He belonged to some 
 secret Society, and was connected with a deep-laid plot for 
 promoting revolution. It would have been an excellent 
 charge to press before the Roman Governor, for the executive 
 power is generally alive to informations about suspected 
 conspiracy. But our Lord repudiated the charge, or rather 
 
 high priesthood of Eleazar and Caiaphas. The four other sons followed 
 Caiaphas. 
 
 1 There is great division of opinion as to whether the questioner was Annas 
 or Caiaphas. For the former there are among others SS. Chrysostom and 
 Augustine, Olshausen, Lange, Neander, Ellicott, and Luthardt. For the 
 latter Luther, Grotius, Bengel, and De Wette. Westcott suggests that the 
 examination took place in the chamber of Annas in the presence of Caiaphas 
 who took part in it. 
 
33^ The Examination s. John xvm 
 
 refused to be interrogated, appealing to the publicity of His 
 whole conduct, to the crowds which had flocked to His 
 preaching, and the multitudes He had healed. Let him 
 summon the worshippers from the synagogue at Capernaum, 
 or from yonder Temple, where He had spoken so openly. 
 Let him call up the blind and the lame, the halt and the 
 maimed, the lepers and the possessed of devils, to whom He 
 had ministered almost more than to any others. Let these 
 bear witness what He had taught ; whether He was the secret 
 intriguer, the seditious revolutionist that Annas suggested. 
 And He reminded him that by the laws of justice witnesses 
 must be called to establish every charge. " Why askest thou 
 Me ? ask them which heard Me what I said unto them. They 
 know what I said." 
 
 And then some brutal attendant of Annas — tradition has 
 aggravated the injury by saying that it was Malchus whose 
 wound Jesus had just healed — knowing that He was defence- 
 less, without a human friend of any kind to protect Him, 
 smote Him cruelly on the face. To the lasting shame of 
 Annas he suffered the cowardly blow to pass unrebuked.^ 
 The injured Prisoner, instead of scathing His assailant with 
 indignant scorn, checked every expression, every sign of 
 resentment. How unlike what we should have done ! How 
 unlike even S. Paul himself when he was placed in similar 
 circumstances, and answered with righteous anger and in- 
 dignation, "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall, for sittest 
 thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be 
 smitten contrary to the law ? " But why this mighty contrast ? 
 this unparalleled meekness ? It was the perfect illustration of 
 His teaching, " Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, 
 turn to him the other also." It had been predicted two ages 
 before by Isaiah that He should " give Plis back to the smiters 
 and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair ; " and by 
 Micah, that they should "smite the judge of Israel with a 
 rod ^ upon the cheek ; " and even the Sibyl had added the 
 
 ^ Such conduct was strictly forbidden by Jewish law. Bynaeus, ii. 320, 
 enters into particulars of the penalties incurred thereby : if with the open 
 hand 200 drachmas, with the fist 400. Cf. Lange, iii. 234, etc. 
 
 " Cf, marg. S. John xviii. 2, "with a rod" for "with the palm of his 
 hand." 
 
V. 19-24 before Annas 333 
 
 prediction that " the hands of the unclean should smite their 
 God." 
 
 And here was the beginning of the fulfilment. It was only 
 the beginning, for again and again we shall see it repeated 
 with increasing severity, till the very dregs of ill-treatment 
 shall be wrung out, and the tale of derision completely 
 exhausted. 
 
 " Annas then sent ^ Him bound unto Caiaphas the High 
 Priest." Such are the words with which the first act of this 
 terrible drama closes. Jesus is bound. He Who came " to 
 preach deliverance to the captive," and " to set at liberty them 
 that are bruised," is Himself in bonds. He might, we know, 
 have " burst those bands asunder," and rent them like withes 
 with more than Samson's strength, but prophecy must be 
 fulfilled. And in like manner, as it was by His stripes that 
 we should be healed, by His abasement that we have been 
 exalted, by His Death that we might live, even so it was 
 ordained that by His captivity He should open the prison 
 doors, and purchase for us the liberty with which He would 
 set all men free — the perfect freedom — " the glorious liberty 
 of the children of God." 
 
 ^ "Now Annas had sent Him bound unto Caiaphas," A.V, , but it is 
 ungrammatical to render the aorist aTTkareCKev as a pluperfect. 
 
LXIX 
 
 Before an Jnrormal Court 
 
 S. Mark xiv. 53-65 
 
 53. And they led Jesus away to 
 the high priest : and with Him were 
 assembled all the chief priests and 
 the elders and the scribes. 54. And 
 Peter followed Him afar off, even into 
 the palace of the high priest : and he 
 sat with the servants, and warmed 
 himself at the fire. 55. And the 
 chief priests and all the council 
 sought for witness against Jesus to 
 put Him to death ; and found none. 
 56. For many bare false witness 
 against Him, but their witness 
 agreed not together. 57. And there 
 arose certain, and bare false witness 
 against Him, saying, 58. We heard 
 Him say, I will destroy this temple 
 that is made with hands, and within 
 three days I will build another made 
 without hands. 59. But neither so 
 did their witness agree together. 60. 
 And the high priest stood up in the 
 
 midst, and asked Jesus, saying, 
 Answerest Thou nothing? what is it 
 which these witness against Thee? 
 61. But He held His peace, and 
 answered nothing. Again the high 
 priest asked Him, and said; unto 
 Him, Art Thou the Christ, the Son 
 of the Blessed? 62. And Jesus said, 
 I am : and ye shall see the Son of 
 Man sitting on the right hand of 
 power, and coming in the clouds of 
 heaven. 63. Then the high priest 
 rent his clothes, and saith, What 
 need we any further witnesses ? 64. 
 Ye have heard the blasphemy : what 
 think ye? And they all condemned 
 Him to be guilty of death. 65. And 
 some began to spit on Him, and to 
 cover His face, and to buffet Him, 
 and to say unto Him, Prophesy : and 
 the servants did strike Him with the 
 palms of their hands. 
 
 We left our Lord as He was being taken from a preliminary 
 examination in the palace of Annas to Caiaphas the legal 
 High Priest. Now we shall find that He appears before 
 Caiaphas twice, the first time to be tried by members of the 
 Sanhedrim, sitting informally ; the second time by the same 
 body legally summoned to ratify the previous decision, 
 Caiaphas being president on both occasions. 
 
 We speak of the Council before which Jesus was first 
 
CH. XIV. V. 53-65 Before an Informal Court 335 
 
 brought as an informal one. It has, however, been con- 
 jectured that it was the Lesser Sanhedrim, which consisted of 
 twenty-three members, and sometimes sat as it were in com- 
 mittee to recommend to the larger Assembly. As two of the 
 Evangelists, however, speak of it in wider terms, we may fairly 
 conclude that it was at least intended not to represent an 
 inferior court, but the whole Sanhedrim. 
 
 As soon as he was informed of the arrest, and while the 
 examination before Annas was proceeding, Caiaphas would 
 probably summon such Sanhedrists as he knew to be within 
 easy reach. There would be, of course, the chief priests who 
 had their quarters in his own residence, and others — no 
 inconsiderable number, we may be sure — who were sufficiently 
 excited about the arrangements and compact with Judas, to 
 hold themselves in readiness for any emergency. 
 
 Caiaphas was especially anxious to get the trial through as 
 quickly as possible ; but seeing that under no circumstances 
 might the Sanhedrim sit to try a capital cause before day- 
 break, he thought the best thing that he could do would be, 
 by the production of evidence and in other ways, to advance 
 the proceedings so far, that, when the formal assembly met, 
 there would be little for them to do but ratify the verdict at 
 which most of the members had previously arrived. 
 
 Now, the very first thing that we read is that all the 
 Council exerted themselves to procure false witnesses agamst 
 Him ; and they found plenty ready enough to take their 
 bribe and invent an accusation, for though the narrative says 
 that they " found none," it clearly means, none who answered 
 their purpose. Their evidence was nothing but a tissue of 
 obvious falsehoods and contradictions. At last, just when 
 they were despairing of success, two came forward with 
 apparently a consistent story ; they said they had heard Him 
 speak disparagingly of the Temple. But again there was a 
 failure. Their statements were inconsistent.^ One said His 
 words were, " I am able to destroy this Temple," another said 
 they were, " I will destroy " it. It is more than a verbal 
 discrepancy ; probably neither of them spoke the truth. 
 What He really did say is told us by S. John : " Destroy this 
 
 ^ The Jewish Law required the concordant testimony of at least two 
 witnesses before condemning a man to be guilty of death. Cf. Deut. xvii. 6. 
 
33^ Befo7x an hiformal Court chap, xiv 
 
 Temple ; " " destroy ye this Temple, as I know very well that 
 ye will, and then in three days I will raise it up." 
 
 Jesus 'was silent through all this Babel of accusation. He 
 knew that the whole evidence was false from beginning to 
 end, and it was the judges' business, not His, to expose its 
 utter worthlessness. Till some charge should be adduced 
 more substantial than any that had been spoken to as yet, no 
 defence was needed. 
 
 Caiaphas might have interpreted this silence as acqui- 
 escence, and closed the proceedings, but this would have 
 opened a door for delay when the Sanhedrim proper should 
 meet. Moreover, he chafed at our Lord's calmness and 
 dignity, and could ill brook to have his authority thus openly 
 set at defiance. Still more, perhaps he felt that the charge 
 was a most unsatisfactory one, even if properly supported, to 
 lay before the Roman Governor, who had shown by his 
 conduct that he cared little enough for the Temple.^ At any 
 cost a better case must be made out ; so, springing up from 
 his seat and confronting the Prisoner, he commanded Him to 
 break silence. " Answerest Thou nothing? What is it which 
 these witness against Thee ? " but it was all in vain. At last 
 he made a final appeal. " I adjure Thee by the Living 
 God ; " "I put you on your oath before Him, Whose curse 
 falls on those who swear falsely ; " " tell me whether Thou be 
 the Christ ? " and then he followed it up by a question of 
 even greater moment still, "Art Thou the Son of the 
 Blessed ? " The crisis had come. The title must be claimed 
 before He died, so with a dignity and composure that must 
 have filled them with awe, at least for the moment. He 
 answered, " I am ; " "I am the Messiah. I am the Son of 
 God." 
 
 In pretended horror at the confession the enraged Caiaphas 
 rent his priestly cloak,^ crying " Blasphemy." " Every one 
 
 ^ Pilate appropriated the sacred treasure, Korban, which was set apart 
 for the service of the Temple, to the construction of certain aqueducts. It 
 led to disturbance and bloodshed. 
 
 2 In S. Mark it is "the under-garments " xirtDi/as, in S. Matthew "the 
 outer," '{.1x6.710.. In the Talmud directions are given as to the length and 
 direction of the rent. It was to be a palm's breadth, and from the neck 
 downwards. Cf. Buxtorf, Talm. Lex. p. 2148. If we follow S. Mark we 
 must suppose he had on his unofficial dress at tlie time. 
 
V. 53-^5 Before an Informal Court 337 
 
 must be agreed;" and amidst an unanimous ^ shout of "guilty," 
 the informal Council broke up in confusion, and Jesus was 
 left at the mercy of the attendants and bailiffs of the Court, 
 while the judges hurried off and prepared for their re- 
 assembling, to pass sentence in accordance with the legal 
 formalities. 
 
 Now, we can hardly close the consideration of this, the 
 second stage in the trial, better than by noting carefully for 
 what He was condemned. On the oath of " The Faithful 
 and True Witness," in the Name of God, and in the face of 
 death, knowing in what sense the High Priest had used the 
 title "Son of God," He hastened to accept it. He broke 
 silence which no expostulation, no threat whatever could 
 provoke Him to break, because, as He said, He " came to 
 bear witness to the truth," and now, for the first time in the 
 trial, the truth is at stake. And so, without a moment's 
 hesitation, in no lower sense, but in all its fulness, in the very 
 language in which the challenge was given, He accepts it. 
 "Thou hast said." "I am." 
 
 What further evidence do we need of His Divinity ? Is it 
 worthy of no weight with those who find difficulty in re- 
 cognising it, that He claimed it Himself, He Whose truthful- 
 ness they would never dream of doubting ? We can conceive 
 of nothing more convincing than the fact, that in the supreme 
 moment of His earthly life, surrounded by all the solemnity 
 which an adjuration of the Most High could impart to the 
 scene, He claimed that Sonship which, in the language of the 
 Jews, implied nothing less than equality with God. It was 
 not because He confessed that He was the Christ that they 
 charged Him with blasphemy, but for the word that He spake 
 — " I am," " I am the Son of the Blessed." 
 
 Take we heed, then, lest we too accuse Him of blasphemy ; 
 lest by withholding that which He claims we be found con- 
 senting to their verdict ; for unless He deceived Caiaphas — 
 and God forbid the thought ! — it is indeed true as S. Paul 
 said, "That in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily." 
 
 ^ It is clear from this, compared with S. Luke xxiii. 51, that it was not 
 the formal court, but a gathering of fanatical opponents of Christ. There 
 was at least one at the legal court who voted differently. 
 
LXX 
 
 ^. ^tttv'0 fall 
 
 S. Mark xiv. 66-72 
 
 66. And as Peter was beneath in again. And a little alter, they that 
 
 the palace, there cometh one of the stood by said again to Peter, Surely 
 
 maids of the high priest : 67. and thou art one of them : for thou art a 
 
 when she saw Peter warming himself, Galilean, and thy speech agreeth. 
 
 she looked upon him, and said. And thereto. 71. But he began to curse 
 
 thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. and to swear, saying, I know not this 
 
 68. But he denied, saying, I know Man of Whom ye speak. 72. And 
 
 not, neither understand I what thou the second time the cock crew. And 
 
 sayest. And he went out into the Peter called to mind the word that 
 
 porch ; and the cock crew. 69. And Jesus said unto him. Before the cock 
 
 a maid saw him again, and began crow twice, thou shalt deny Me 
 
 to say to them that stood by, This is thrice. And when he thought there- 
 
 one of them. 70. And he denied it on, he wept. 
 
 An Oriental palace was frequently built in the form of a quad- 
 rangle. A porch or gateway in the front led to a large inner 
 courtyard/ open to the sky, round which were the servants' offices 
 and public reception-rooms, sometimes raised by steps above 
 the level of the ground.^ The living-quarters of the occupants 
 were on the second story." At the time of which we are 
 reading, Jesus was being examined by the informal Court 
 gathered under the Presidency of Caiapbas in one of the lower 
 chambers. After He had been brought in by the party who 
 arrested Him, the gateway of the palace was closed to avoid 
 the possibility of a rescue, for the High Priest v/as in fear of a 
 
 ^ This is mistranslated " palace" in the A.V. 
 
 ^ " Beneath in the palace," or "below in the courtyard," as it should be 
 rendered, need imply no more than this ; not that the Council-chamber was 
 on the upper story. ^ Cf. pp. 38, 39. 
 
CH. XIV. V. 66-72 S. Peter's Fall 339 
 
 reaction in favour of the Prisoner. The attendants and other 
 servants of the judges remained within call in the inner yard. 
 It was past midnight, and as the air was cold at that season, 
 they lit a fire in their midst, and began to talk over the excit- 
 ing events of the last few hours. Meanwhile two of the 
 Apostles, S. John and S. Peter, having recovered from the 
 panic which had seized them in the Garden, found themselves at 
 the porch of the palace. S. John, perhaps as being a friend of 
 Caiaphas, was known to the portress, and had no difiEiculty in 
 gaining admission ; but his companion was shut out. We 
 often read of apparently trivial incidents preventing a great, 
 catastrophe or saving lives which must otherwise have been 
 lost, and they are regarded as Providential interpositions by 
 those who have met with them. Was it not some such merciful 
 Providence that literally closed the door in the very face of the 
 Apostle on that fatal night ? Was it not an echo of the forgotten 
 warning, " Thou canst not follow Me now " ? Knowing as we 
 do the terrible consequences of his admission, we may well re- 
 gret that he was not superstitious enough, as men say, to hurry 
 away from the scene. 
 
 There is a marked change in his conduct at this stage. 
 The courage and daring which made him draw his sword at 
 once in defence of his Master has forsaken him. There is no 
 longer any hope or thought of defending Him, and curiosity 
 has succeeded to devotion. He could actually bring himself 
 to play the part of a common spectator, and as S. Matthew 
 says, " he went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end." 
 It was certain to bring him into trouble, for he had at once to 
 disguise himself, to wear a mask, and play a character that w^as 
 not his own. And so it came to pass that as he stood in the 
 crowd, pretending to no greater interest in the proceedings 
 than the rest, he was surprised by the observation of a maid 
 who belonged to the palace. She had recognised S. John as 
 he entered, and now, when she joined the other servants who 
 were in the courtyard, a sudden blaze of the fire lit up S. 
 Peter's face, and she recollected his features as well, and made 
 the observation, "Thou also w^ast with Jesus of Nazareth." 
 Perhaps the Apostle thought within himself that she would be 
 satisfied if he evaded the question, so he said that he did not 
 know Him, nor quite understand what it was that she meant. 
 
340 S. Peter 's Fall 
 
 CHAP. XIV 
 
 His purpose was gained, and suspicion averted for a time ; but 
 prudence suggested that he should withdraw as soon as he 
 conveniently could, and he exchanged the bright glare of the 
 fireside for the shade and retirement of the porch. While he 
 was standing there the ^ maid, who had been silenced by his 
 ready denial, seeing him again, became more than ever con- 
 vinced that she was right in her opinion, and she told the people 
 about her that she was sure he was "one of them." They at 
 once took the matter up and asked him, as S. John tells us, 
 " Art not thou also one of this Man's disciples ? " " and he 
 denied it again." " About the space of one hour after " the 
 accusation was renewed. He had regained confidence, and 
 ventured to take part in the conversation that was going on. 
 Under the influence of his excitement, some peculiarity of 
 speech, generally thought to have been "a confused thick 
 utterance of the guttural letters,"'^ betrayed his "provincial" 
 origin. The bystanders at once detected it, and said to him, 
 " Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and 
 thy speech agreeth thereto." Others took up the charge, and 
 one especially who had good cause to remember him — for he 
 had cut off his kinsman's ear — came forward and confronted 
 him with a most emphatic question, "Did not /^ see thee in 
 the Garden with Him?" "But he began to curse and to 
 swear, saying, I know not this Man of Whom ye speak." 
 
 Now it is well known that there are varieties of detail in 
 the four records of S. Peter's threefold denial. The dis- 
 crepancies have been spoken of as irreconcilable, and attempts 
 to shake the credibility and trustworthiness of Holy Scripture 
 have been based upon this supposition. Careful examination 
 will show that " the incidents given by the different Evan- 
 gelists are completely in harmony with the belief that there were 
 three denials, that is, three acts of denial, of which the several 
 writers have taken such features as seemed to be most 
 significant for their purpose."* The multiplicity of charges 
 
 ^ The definite article is in the original, and points to the identity of this 
 maid with the one who had charged him before. 
 
 2 It is supposed that their pronunciation of Hebrew had become affected by 
 their intercourse with Gentiles. It was so thick and unintelligible that they 
 were not allowed to read in the synagogues. Cf. Lange, iii. 247. 
 
 ^ It is ernphasised by the insertion of 670), 
 
 ^ Dr. Westcott in liis commentary on S. John has given a carefully pre- 
 
V. 66-72 S. Peter's Fall 34 ^ 
 
 again may well be illustrated out of our own experience. We 
 have witnessed, no doubt, a scene in which a crowd of people 
 in a state of excitement are setting upon an individual whom 
 they believe to have done something of which they disapprove. 
 No sooner has one begun to accuse him of it than another 
 comes up and adds to the charge, another insists upon it with 
 gestures of violence, another can prove it if they will only let 
 him speak, and then perhaps several cry out at once. The be- 
 wildered man tries to exculpate himself from the Babel of 
 charges. He says anything and everything in the excitement 
 of the moment, and at last, when matters become desperate, 
 loses all control over his words. 
 
 This is almost exactly what happened in the last " act of 
 denial," in the courtyard of the High Priest's palace. S. 
 Peter was driven to bay by a multitude of excited assailants, 
 and perhaps hardly knowing, certainly not realising, what he 
 said, he appealed to heaven and called down Divine vengeance 
 upon his head if his denial were untrue. And at that moment, 
 in the lull which such an awful adjuration must have produced, 
 " the second time the cock crew." Simultaneously with the 
 sound, which, coming when it did, must have brought a rush 
 of tumultuous thoughts into his mind, the eyes of the Master, 
 Whom he had so basely denied, were fixed upon him. He 
 was being led out by an armed escort from the private 
 Council-chamber towards the porch,^ and "the Lord turned 
 and looked upon Peter," and that look, " sharper than any 
 two-edged sword," pierced him to the very heart, for " when he 
 thought thereon " ^ he went out and was overwhelmed with 
 grief There is a very touching tradition which, whether true 
 
 pared table of the three denials and helped to cleai- away some of the difficulties. 
 In the first, all the Evangelists are practically agreed that the charge was 
 brought by the portress ; in the second the charge is made indirecdy by the 
 same and another maid, directly by "another man" and some undefined 
 people spoken of as " they ; " in the third indirectly by "another," and directly 
 by the kinsman of Malchus, and in a different form by the bystanders. 
 
 1 This was on His way to the Lischath Haggazith, if the Sanhedrim still 
 held its sittings there. If not, perhaps they were going to one of the " Booths." 
 In either case they must have left the palace. 
 
 - eTnjSaXwv has received a variety of interpretations. ' ' Throwing his 
 mantle over his head," "throwing himself into it," "thinking it over." 
 ^Kkaiev, the imperfect tense, shows that it was not a mere outburst of grief, 
 but lont^ continued. 
 
342 S. Peter 's Fall ch. xiv. v. 66 72 
 
 or not, is at least in perfect accord with the depth and reaUty 
 of his penitence. It is said that for nearly forty years, till a 
 martyr's death sealed his repentance, the remembrance of that 
 scene never left him, and that *' morning by morning he rose 
 at the hour when the look of his Master entered into his soul, 
 to pray once more for pardon." 
 
 Two practical reflections arise out of this fateful episode of 
 the Apostle's fall. It teaches us the peril of trusting too much 
 to our feelings. There was no one in the Apostolic company 
 who could compare for an instant for zeal and enthusiasm with 
 the warm-hearted and impulsive Peter. It led him to cast 
 himself into the sea when he saw the Master coming : it 
 betrayed him into rebuking Jesus for even hinting at His 
 Passion : it impelled him also to draw his sword and attack the 
 very foremost in the fray, when they came to arrest the Lord in 
 Gethsemane. And yet he has proved for our admonition that 
 the most fervent zeal may evaporate and be wasted, unless it 
 be chastened and safeguarded by constant watchfulness and 
 prayer. 
 
 Again, we may learn from his example that warnings o! 
 danger are only disregarded at our peril. " Thou canst not 
 follow Me now." That word, spoken by One Who had never 
 deceived him, should have made him more wary. "Put up thy 
 sword into the sheath ; " it was meant to tell him that some- 
 thing over and above physical courage was needed in that 
 hour. " The door of the palace closed in his face ; " it ought 
 to have kept him from treading on forbidden ground. Let 
 the consequences of his self-confidence bring home the value 
 of the Apostolic precept, "Be not high-minded, but fear." 
 
LXXI 
 
 Before tlje ^anljeDrim 
 
 S. Mark xv. i 
 
 I. And straightway in the morning whole council, and bound Jesus, and 
 the chief priests held a consultation carried Him away, and delivered 
 with the elders and scribes and the Hlin to Pilate. 
 
 When the irregular assembly in the house of Caiaphas broke 
 up, our Lord was left to the tender mercies of the attendants 
 and servants of the chief priests. We know well how con- 
 tagious cruelty is, especially amongst men of a coarse nature, 
 and we are not surprised that the unjust treatment which the 
 Prisoner had received at the hands of Caiaphas and the priests 
 should have been followed up by worse indignities from the 
 menials of the Court. They knew that they had nothing to 
 fear, and began at once to give rein to their cruel passions, 
 and subjected their unbefriended Victim to the most shameless 
 violence. They spat upon His face, to mark the extremity 
 of contempt. They blindfolded His eyes, and because He 
 refused to guess who it was that struck Him, they taunted 
 Him with His claims to the prophetic office. But He had 
 set His face like flint, and nothing could divert Him. The 
 Scriptures should all be fulfilled. " I hid not IMy face from 
 shame and spitting." " He is despised and rejected of men." 
 " His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form 
 more than the sons of men." And so no utterance escaped 
 His lips ; no hand was raised against them ; although a single 
 word or the slightest movement would have sufficed to 
 paralyse the arm of His oppressors, or throw them, like Judas 
 and his company, prostrate on the ground. 
 
344 Before the Sanhedrim chap, xv 
 
 But while all this barbarity, this work of darkness, was 
 going on, the day dawned ; and with daylight the legal 
 Sanhedrim might open its formal session. 
 
 Where the Court was held at this time is a matter of 
 doubt. The regular place of meeting was the " Lischath 
 Haggazith " — or chamber of hewn stone, at the south-east 
 corner of the Temple Mount; or perhaps at this time in "the 
 Booths of the sons of Annas." An expression which S. Luke 
 uses, " they led Him up ^ to their council " appears to point 
 to the former. But wherever it was, we may feel sure that no 
 time would be lost. They had everything to fear from delay. 
 A reaction might set in at any moment, and the turbulent 
 Galileans were as likely as not to rise up in support of their 
 Countryman. The citations to the commissioners had doubt- 
 less been issued immediately on the arrest, and the Court was 
 constituted at once. 
 
 The rules which regulated the proceedings of the Sanhe- 
 drim in the ordinary exercise of its judicial functions have a 
 special interest for us, if it be only to see how they were 
 disregarded in connection with our Blessed Lord. 
 
 The judges were ranged in the form of a semicircle. The 
 High Priest, or in his absence, the " Nasi " or prince,^ 
 occupied the Presidential seat in the centre. A distinguished 
 dignitary, selected for his age, and called " the Father of the 
 council," sat on his right hand ; another, probably the most 
 learned, entitled " the wise man," on his left. The rest of the 
 judges took their seats in order of precedence, an equal 
 number on either side, while at the two extremities of the 
 crescent sat two scribes, — one to record the verdict of ac- 
 quittal, the other the sentence of condemnation, as the 
 case might be. The prisoner, with bailiffs and officers of 
 the Court behind him, stood immediately confronting the 
 President. 
 
 Now, nothing could have been contrived more in the in- 
 terests of the prisoner than the rules of the Court. The 
 motto, if not written on the walls, was known and recognised 
 
 1 The reading a'Kr\'ya'^ov however is adopted for av-q-^or^ov in the Revised 
 Version. The fact that Judas, on hearing that the sentence was pronounced, 
 flung the money down in the Temple, seems to favour the view that the 
 Chamber was " Haggazith," not the " Booths." 
 
 - In later times his Presidency was confined to legal and ritual cases only. 
 
V. I Before the Sanhedrim 345 
 
 by every member: "The Sanhedrim aims at saving, not 
 destroying Kfe." The judges were chosen for learning, 
 blamelessness of character, and moderation of temper ; and 
 there was one most touching and noteworthy provision — those 
 only were qualified to adjudicate who were fathers of children. 
 It was supposed to afford some guarantee that they would be 
 influenced in their verdict by feelings of love and tenderness. 
 The prisoner was held to be innocent till his guilt was proved ; 
 and each witness as he came forward to give his evidence was 
 enjoined to speak the strict truth, lest a life should be unjustly 
 sacrificed.^ Counsel was directed to watch the proceedings 
 in behalf of the accused ; and lastly, to avoid the possibility 
 of a decision, involving fatal consequences, being given under 
 the impulse of excitement, though a sentence of acquittal 
 might be passed at once, no condemnation could be pro- 
 nounced till a whole day had elapsed from the close of the 
 sitting. All this shows w^hat a parody of justice the trial of 
 our Lord really was. 
 
 It is probable that as soon as the Court was formally 
 opened, Caiaphas tried to get the previous verdict indorsed 
 without any further examination of the Prisoner ; but objec- 
 tions were raised. We know who one at least of the objectors 
 was, viz., Joseph of Arimathsea, for we are told that he had 
 "not consented unto their counsel and deed;" and we can 
 w^ell imagine that he was supported in his protest by 
 Nicodemus. 
 
 It is quite clear that other members of the council were 
 not satisfied with the High Priest's assertion as to what he 
 had elicited from the Prisoner, for they put the question 
 themselves, saying to Him, "Art Thou the Christ? tell us." 
 
 In a moment their reception of His doctrine from the 
 beginning, and His recollection of the manner in which His 
 answer to Caiaphas had been denounced, came up before 
 Him, and with a calmness and dignity which is surprising on 
 the lips of One Who was being tried for His life. He replied, 
 
 1 There is a tradition that heralds were sent forth for forty days before our 
 Lord's execution, inviting witnesses to speak in His favour ; and finding none, 
 they hanged Him on the eve of the Passover. This is absent from the ordinary 
 editions of the Talmud, but is found in the unmutilated edition published at 
 Amsterdam, 1645. Cf. Talm. Bab. Synhed. 43 a. Such a supposition, how- 
 ever, is contradicted by the whole proceedings at the trial. 
 
346 Before the Sanhedrim chap, xv 
 
 " If I tell you, ye will not believe : and if I also ask you, ye 
 will not answer Me, nor let Me go." "If," that is, "My 
 works and My life have not taught you ; if My solemn vin- 
 dication of the title to which your High Priest testifies has 
 not convinced you, what need to repeat it?" or again, " If I 
 put a question to you to prove My claim, your lips will be 
 closed lest your enforced admission compel you to acquit Me, 
 which you know you are resolved under no circumstances to 
 do.^' 
 
 And then as the consciousness of His greatness came 
 pouring in upon Him, — some sudden inspiration perhaps to 
 strengthen Him for the approaching crisis, — He realised the 
 whole iniquity of the trial ; the priests and elders and scribes 
 sitting before Him to administer justice as the delegates of 
 God, and yet violating every principle of it by word and deed : 
 and the vision of another assize flashed before His sight. He 
 saw that which Daniel had seen by anticipation, the Ancient 
 of Days coming to judgment, and Himself the Assessor of the 
 Judge, and He declared to the astonished Court, " Hereafter 
 shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of 
 God." 
 
 It was a direct claim to Divine honour, and though they 
 knew what answer He would give, though some of them had 
 seen the High Priest rend his sacerdotal robe in pious horror 
 at the confession, they courted a repetition of the dreaded 
 blasphemy, and with one voice, " then said they all, Art Thou 
 then the Son of God?" Again He claimed to be One with 
 the Father, and out of His Own mouth they condemned Him 
 to be worthy of death. 
 
 But the Sanhedrim could give no effect to its verdict. By 
 their own confession the Jews had lost the power of life and 
 death : ^ "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." 
 If, however, they had resolved to take the matter into their 
 own hands they would probably have done it with impunity, 
 but there was one grave reason to prevent their doing so. 
 They had condemned Jesus on a charge of blasphemy, the 
 
 1 Some have thought they merely meant that it was illegal to do so at the 
 Passover ; but it is an unnatural explanation of the words. Pilate assumes 
 that the power resides with himself. S. John xix. lo ; cf, note in Westcott 
 on S. John xviii. 31. 
 
V. I 
 
 Before the Sanhedrim 347 
 
 penalty for which was stoning. This in their eyes was too 
 honourable a death for Him to die. Nothing would satisfy 
 them short of crucifixion ^ — the Roman punishment reserved 
 for slaves or their worst criminals. Their only course there- 
 upon was to deliver Him up to the civil power. Its chief 
 representative, Pontius Pilate, was then at Jerusalem.'-^ It was 
 Passover- time, and his presence was indispensable for the 
 good order of the populace. 
 
 The Sanhedrists went in a body with the Prisoner, hoping 
 no doubt to overawe the Governor by their number and the 
 weight of their office. 
 
 It was most probably as Jesus was being conducted from 
 the council-chamber to Pilate's residence, that Judas realised 
 that He was sentenced to death. 
 
 Before then the next stage of the trial begins, we shall do 
 well to see what effect it produced upon him. When once 
 the excitement of the arrest was over, and his part had been 
 played, he was left to his own reflections. And in the dark- 
 ness of the night the awful truth of his deed of shame must 
 have forced itself upon his conscience, and many visions have 
 come up before him — visions of the past, so full of unspeak- 
 able love and tenderness — visions of the future, so big with 
 doom and retribution. No doubt the Evil One buoyed him 
 up with hopes — hopes that were only destined to mock and 
 increase his misery. Perhaps he persuaded him that his 
 remorse was wasted, for even at the last the Divine power 
 might be exercised, and Jesus be saved from the hands of His 
 enemies, and so the traitor's act would ultimately redound to 
 His greatness. 
 
 But now, to his unutterable dismay, he realised that Jesus 
 was condemned, and on the point of being delivered up to 
 
 ^ Crucifixion was common among Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, 
 Assyrians, and many other nations. Among the Jews there was a kind of 
 crucifixion, in which the body was tied to a stake after death — Deut. xxi. 22, 
 23, — and this was held in great horror because of the saying, "He that is 
 hanged is accursed of God. ' ' 
 
 - His usual residence was at Caesarea. He had made himself so unpopular 
 in Jerusalem by his disregard of Jewish customs and prejudices that he gener- 
 ally kept away from the Holy City. 
 
 It is doubtful whether he resided, when at Jerusalem, in the Fortress of 
 Antonia, or in the Herodian Palace, on the north-western corner of the Upper 
 City. Josephus, Wars, i. 21, i, and v. 4, 4. 
 
34^ Before the Sanhedrim ch. xv. v. i 
 
 the Roman Governor, and he was seized with horror. Instead 
 however of taking the only step that could possibly have 
 helped him, — instead of hurrying at once to his Lord, and 
 flinging himself upon His mercy for pardon and forgiveness, — 
 he fled to the chief priests, who had shared with him the guilt 
 of the betrayal, and implored them to undo the awful crime. 
 " I have sinned," he cries, " in that I have betrayed the 
 innocent blood." 
 
 But he might as v/ell have cried to the stones of the 
 Temple, for they had no word of comfort to give him : he had 
 accomplished their purpose, and had been paid for his work, 
 and might take the consequences. 
 
 "Whichever way he looked was hell : 
 Himself was hell." 
 
 In a wild moment of distracting frenzy his life was closed by 
 a suicidal hand — that life of which alone it may ever be said 
 without fear of contradiction that there is no hope. " It were 
 good for that man if he had never been born." 
 
LXXII 
 
 Before dilate tlie first time- and before l?eroD 
 
 S. Mark xv. 2-5 
 
 2. And Pilate asked Him, Art 
 Thou the King of the Jews? And 
 He answering said unto him, Thou 
 sayest if. 3. And the chief priests 
 accused Him of many things : but 
 He answered nothing. 4. And Pilate 
 
 asked Him again, saying, Answerest 
 Thou nothing? behold how many 
 things they witness against Thee. 5. 
 But Jesus yet answered nothing ; so 
 that Pilate marvelled. 
 
 [SUPPLEMENTARY] 
 S. Luke xxiii. 8-12 
 
 8. And when Herod saw Jesus, he 
 was exceeding glad : for he was 
 desirous to see Him of a long season, 
 because he had heard many things of 
 Him ; and he hoped to have seen 
 some miracle done by Him. 9. 
 Then he questioned i^'ith Him in 
 many words ; but He answered him 
 nothing. 10. And the chief priests 
 
 and scribes stood and vehemently 
 accused Him. 11. And Herod with 
 his men of war set Him at nought, 
 and mocked Hi}7i, and arrayed Him 
 in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him 
 again to Pilate. 12. And the same 
 day Pilate and Herod were made 
 friends together : for before they were 
 at enmity between themselves. 
 
 " It was early," probably not yet seven o'clock,^ when the 
 members of the Sanhedrim arrived at the gate of the 
 Prsetorium. Pilate was already astir, for he could hardly be 
 indifferent to the result of the proceedings in which his own 
 soldiers had been taking part. He must have been surprised 
 by the sight of such a deputation, and he gave orders at once 
 for their admission into the hall ; but as they were Jews, and 
 
 ^ It will be remembered that since sunrise, when the Sanhedrim met, time 
 must have elapsed for the trial, and for taking the Prisoner to the Praetorium. 
 
35° Before Pilate the first time chap, xv 
 
 intended to eat the Passover that evening,^ they were pre- 
 cluded from entering a heathen dwelhng. There was certain 
 to be something there that would make them ceremonially 
 unclean. 
 
 The Governor, with some political tact, deferred to their 
 religious scruples, and went out himself to meet them in the 
 courtyard. They hoped to settle the matter with little 
 delay ; so pointing, no doubt, to the Prisoner, Who stood in 
 their midst with His hands bound, and, if tradition be true, 
 with a cord fastened round His neck, they told him that He 
 had been tried and condemned to suffer the extreme penalty 
 of the law. It may be they thought the presence of such 
 an august body would overawe Pilate, and with an air of 
 importance claimed that it was the duty of the Roman 
 authority to execute their judgment when once it had been 
 pronounced. But he had no idea of accepting such a 
 position as that, and submitting to be a mere tool in the 
 hands of the Sanhedrim. His instincts, too, as a Roman 
 judge rose up in protest against such a course, and he 
 demanded that the nature of their charge should be formally 
 stated : " What accusation bring ye against this Man ? " But 
 they were most anxious to avoid another examination, and 
 tliey replied that he might rely upon it that He was a criminal 
 of a dangerous character, otherwise they would hardly have 
 brought Him for execution. With no little irony he advised 
 them to carry out their own sentence, and drew from them 
 the humiliating confession that they had been deprived of the 
 power to do it. 
 
 Finding that there was no chance of getting Him executed 
 off-hand, they brought forward an accusation. Pilate's 
 question, which S. Mark introduces so abruptly, leaves no 
 doubt what it was. They changed their ground completely. 
 Jesus had been condemned for an ecclesiastical offence ; but 
 their indictment was purely political. They accused Him of 
 setting up a rival kingdom to that of Caesar. It must have 
 excited Pilate's suspicions at once, for " he knew too much 
 
 ^ The expression, eat " the Passover, " implies, as was maintained above, 
 that it was not hmited to "the Paschal lamb," for the latter would not be 
 eaten till after 6 P.M., when the day on which their uncleanness had been 
 contracted would close. 
 
V. 2-5 Before Pilate the first time 351 
 
 about Jewish expectations to suppose that the Sanhedrim 
 would hate and persecute one who would free them from the 
 Roman authority." He determined, however, to examine ^ 
 the Prisoner, and took Him into the judgment-hall. Probably 
 a certain number of the Jews sacrificed themselves, and, 
 disregarding their scruples about ceremonial impurity, went in 
 also, for Pilate speaks afterwards of the examination having 
 taken place in their presence. 
 
 "And Pilate asked Him, Art Thou the King of the Jews ? " 
 There is much more implied by the order of the words in the 
 original. " Thou, — is it possible that Thou," this poor 
 defenceless Prisoner I see before me, "art a king ? " Before 
 He could answer, it must be clearly understood in what sense 
 the title was used. He was no king in rivalry with Csesar ; 
 but He was the King Messiah, the Head of the spiritual 
 empire ; and in this sense He accepted the title, and said 
 unto him, "Thou sayest it." 
 
 Pilate, probably not understanding such subtle distinctions, 
 put to Him a practical question touching His conduct : 
 " What hast Thou done ? " and he was so fully satisfied by 
 the answer, that he went out, and not without some show of 
 displeasure at their attempt to entrap him into the execution 
 of an innocent Man, told them that their charge - had com- 
 pletely broken down upon examination. 
 
 The announcement was received with a storm of charges : 
 "The chief priests accused Him of many things." But to the 
 Governor's amazement they drew forth not a word of defence. 
 Not even a direct appeal from himself could induce Jesus to 
 break silence ; and again the charges were reiterated : " He 
 stirs up the nation ; He rebels against Caesar ; He tells us 
 that we ought not to pay the Imperial taxes ; there is not a 
 town or village from Dan to Beersheba, from Galilee to 
 Jerusalem, where He has not preached His seditious doctrines." 
 
 ^ Pilate being only a Procurator, would have no Quaestor to examine 
 prisoners, but must conduct the inquiry in person. It marks the accuracy of 
 the Gospel narrative. 
 
 - ov^kv aiTLov (S. Luke), ovdefxiav ahiav (S. John), clearly refer to a 
 judicial charge or indictment, which is hardly implied in "no fault at all." 
 A.V. 
 
352 Before Herod s. Luke xxm 
 
 Before Herod 
 
 Pilate was in the greatest perplexity. He was satisfied of 
 the Prisoner's innocence, but he lacked the moral courage to 
 act upon his convictions. He knew that he himself was in 
 disgrace at Rome ; for complaints had been made at head- 
 quarters of his disregard for the customs and feelings of the 
 native population, and he was not prepared to face another 
 reprimand, especially as his enemies would be sure to make 
 capital out of the alleged claims to royal authority, and put 
 the matter before the Emperor in the worst possible light. It 
 was a great relief therefore to him when he discovered a way 
 of escape from his embarrassing situation. The Jews, in the 
 multitude of accusations, had spoken of Galilee as the scene 
 of Christ's revolutionary teaching. It was a common practice 
 to try a prisoner, not where he was arrested, but where his 
 crime had been committed.^ By a fortunate coincidence the 
 Tetrarch of Galilee was then in Jerusalem for the Passover ; 
 he would at once shift the responsibility from himself, and 
 send the chief priests to make good their charges before 
 Herod's tribunal. 
 
 Now, if Pilate was delighted to be rid of the Prisoner, 
 Herod was overjoyed to receive Him. Long before this, he 
 had been hoping and v>^ishing to see Him. Tales of His 
 miracles were in every one's mouth in Galilee. It so 
 happened that his steward's wife was one of a number of 
 women who had been healed by His touch or word ; and, 
 like Susanna and Mary Magdalene, she could not tear herself 
 from His side. Doubtless she sent home to her husband 
 reports of the wonderful works which Jesus did, and being 
 repeated at Herod's court, they wrought his curiosity to the 
 highest pitch. 
 
 And now at last the Wonder-worker was before him, and, 
 as he probably congratulated himself, under the most favour- 
 able circumstances, for, coming as a Prisoner on trial for His 
 life. He would naturally be anxious to conciliate His judge. 
 But how little did he understand with Whom he had to deal ! 
 
 Herod began the examination by asking about His miracles, 
 
 1 It was to take him, as it was said, from the "forum apprehensionis ad 
 forum origfinis vel domicilii." 
 
V. 8-12 Before Herod 353 
 
 — scoffing questions perhaps connected with His followers. 
 It may be that he reminded Him of the death of the Baptist, 
 and hinted that if He kindled his displeasure He might share 
 his fate ; ^ but it was all in vain. Not a word, not a syllable, 
 could he extract from Him ! And why this silence ? He 
 had replied to Caiaphas, and to Pilate ; why not to Herod ? 
 It must have been because He knew all his shameful history, 
 and if He had spoken then it could only be to brand him as 
 a murderer and adulterer,^ and to ask by what right one who 
 had so outraged morality, and transgressed tlie laws of God, 
 dared to sit in the seat of judgment for the administration 
 of justice. But "there is a time to speak, and a time 
 to keep silence," and so He held His peace ; for it was 
 part of His predestined sufferings that He should be 
 oppressed and persecuted by His enemies, and yet not open 
 His mouth. 
 
 The proud prince of Galilee found himself treated with 
 disdain by a Prisoner in chains. Had Herodias been with 
 him, no doubt she would have urged His immediate execution, 
 but he had suffered too many pangs of remorse through the 
 Baptist's death to wish himself to risk a repetition. 
 
 The chief priests and scribes were in despair. Driven 
 from one tribunal to another, they could get no judge to 
 speak the fatal word. They must have almost wished that 
 they had taken the matter into their own hands, and stoned 
 Him for blasphemy. Anything would have been better than 
 this prolonged suspense. " They stood and vehemently 
 accused Him ; " but no vehemence, no remonstrance, could 
 move Herod to deal with the case seriously. He was quite 
 ready to make Jesus suffer for His contemptuous behaviour, 
 but the charge of aspiring to the throne of the Caesars was too 
 ridiculous to be entertained for a single moment. They 
 might, if they chose, treat Him with the ridicule He seemed 
 to deserve. Let them give Him in mockery the Royalty He 
 claimed, and see how He would bear His royal honours. 
 And so the King of kings submitted to be made a laughing- 
 stock of the soldiers, and to be set at nought by a profligate 
 prince, who should have covered his face with shame in His 
 
 ^ It was Herod Antipas, the same who had John beheaded. 
 - Cf. xxviii., pp. 129 if. 
 
 2 A 
 
354 Before He^^od s. luke ch. xxm. 
 
 Presence. They dressed Him " in a gorgeous robe,^ and sent 
 Him again to Pilate," and with this the fifth act in the trial 
 ends. 
 
 " And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends 
 together; for before they were at enmity ^ between themselves." 
 It is an echo of the alliance between Pharisees and Herodians; 
 another illustration of the acknowledged principle that there is 
 something so hateful to the carnal mind in truth and innocence 
 that men are ready to forget all their differences and opposi- 
 tions in creeds, and in politics, in habits of life and thought, 
 provided only they can compass its overthrow. 
 
 Everything that Christ said was out of harmony with 
 His generation. Hypocrisy and falsehood had impregnated 
 society everywhere, and when He came to bear witness to the 
 truth, there were none to welcome His coming ; but all wicked 
 men and sinners of every kind became confederate against 
 Him. 
 
 "The servant is not above his lord;" and though none of 
 His followers will ever be called to bear the same isolation 
 from the world, every one who loves truth and righteousness 
 above all else, may have to suffer loss of friendship and 
 sympathy, for He Who foresaw the end from the beginning, 
 declared : "If they have persecuted Me, they will also 
 persecute you." Every faithful disciple, however, can feel 
 assured of that which was His support : " And yet I am not 
 alone, because the Father is with Me." 
 
 ^ If, as has been supposed, Xa/i7rp6s means white, it may have been chosen 
 in mockery to indicate that He was candidatus, seeking the kingly ofifice. Cf. 
 Polybius, X. 15. Plumptre on S. Luke xxiii. 11 traces in this a vindictive 
 retaliation for His denunciation of those Herodian courtiers who were 
 " gorgeously apparelled." S. Mark xi. 8; S. Luke vii. 25. 
 
 ^ Possibly it arose through the slaughter of certain of his Gahlean subjects 
 mentioned in S. Luke xiii. i. At all events this may have been one cause of 
 the quarrel. 
 
Lxxiir 
 %\)t jfinal ^rial aiiti tlje Condemnation 
 
 S. Mark xv. 6-15 
 
 6. Now at if/ia^ feast he released chief priests moved the people, that 
 
 unto them one prisoner, whomsoever he should rather release Barabbas unto 
 
 they desired. 7. And there was one them. 12. And Pilate answered and 
 
 named Barabbas, w/iic/i lay bound said again unto them, What will ye 
 
 with them that had made insurrection then that I shall do iinto Him Whom 
 
 with >^?;«,- who had committed murder ye call the King of the Jews? 13. 
 
 in the insurrection. 8. And the mul- And they cried out again, Crucify Him. 
 
 titude crying aloud began to desire 14. Then Pilate said unto them. Why, 
 
 him to do as he had ever done unto what evil hath He done ? And they 
 
 them. 9. But Pilate answered them, cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify 
 
 saying, Will ye /'/zd:^' I release unto you Him. 15. And so Pilate, willing to 
 
 the King of the Jews ? 10. For he content the people, released Barabbas 
 
 knew that the chief priests had unto them, and delivered Jesus, when 
 
 delivered Him for envy. 11. But the he had scourged Hi)n, to be crucified. 
 
 To the bitter disappointment of Pilate, who hoped that he had 
 escaped froni the responsibihty of giving judgment, the Prisoner 
 was again brought before him. The Tetrarch of GaUlee saw, 
 as clearly as he had done, that the charge of menacing the 
 Roman authority by treasonable claims was wholly without 
 foundation ; but unlike himself, having nothing to fear from 
 the Jews, he gave his decision at once against an unjust 
 execution. It is true that he subjected Jesus to the cruelty 
 and ridicule of his soldiery and court, but this was only to hide 
 his mortification at not witnessing the performance of a 
 miracle. Declining to be any party to a judicial murder, he 
 ordered Jesus to be taken back to Pilate's jurisdiction. 
 
 During the interval, in his moments of calmer reflection, 
 
35 6 The Final Trial chap, xv 
 
 Pilate could have only become more and more convinced of 
 the Prisoner's innocence : and now the conduct of the Tetrarch 
 corroborated his convictions. " I have found no fault in this 
 Man : no, nor yet Herod : for I sent you to him ; and lo, 
 nothing worthy of death is done unto Him." 
 
 But the chief priests and rulers were more clamorous than 
 ever for judgment to be given. Again the Governor thought 
 that he saw a way of escape. He determined to appeal from 
 the Sanhedrim to the people, to the crowds that by this time 
 had gathered before the judgment-hall. He knew that the 
 chief priests had delivered Him "for envy," because they 
 feared the effect of His growing popularity. The reports, 
 too, of Christ's enthusiastic reception a few days before must 
 have reached him, if he had not actually witnessed it himself. 
 He had everything, therefore, to hope from the course he pro- 
 posed. 
 
 It was an old Paschal ^ custom — a touching memorial of 
 their deliverance from Egyptian bondage — to grant an amnesty 
 to any prisoner the people asked for ; and Pilate took this 
 opportunity of reminding them of their privilege. There 
 happened at this time to be a prisoner of note in confinement 
 at Jerusalem. He was in all probabiHty a man of birth, alike 
 if his patronymic indicates that he was the son of Abba, or, as 
 is more likely, the son of a Rabbi ; but whether he was a 
 robber-outlaw, who hved by plunder, and did not scruple to 
 sacrifice the lives of his victims ; or whether he was a Jewish 
 patriot, who had risen in rebellion against the hated Roman, 
 and in the heat of conflict had shed blood, we have no means of 
 judging. If the former, Pilate might have selected him as one 
 whom the people would fear to let loose ; if the latter,^ it 
 accounts at once for his popularity with the mob, " Not this 
 Man, but Barabbas." 
 
 It is quite possible that his release had been suggested as 
 an alternative to that of Jesus, from the similarity of their names. 
 There is an old tradition, dating back from the close of the 
 
 ^ KOJT €opT7]v, at feast-time, seems to leave it more general, but S. John 
 xviii. 39 confines it to the Passover. 
 
 2 Had he been merely an insurrectionary leader it is difficult to understand 
 how Pilate would risk proposing a name which was sure to be popular. 
 S. Luke, however, distinctly mentions that he was imprisoned for 
 " sedition." 
 
V. 6-15 and the Condemnation 357 
 
 second century/ that Barabbas was called Jesus, and that the 
 exact form of the question which Pilate put to the people was 
 this : " Whom will ye that I release unto you, Jesus Barabbas, 
 or Jesus Which is called Christ ? " 
 
 It matters little, however, what it was that prompted Pilate 
 to propose him to the people, the result is the same : the 
 robber, the revolutionist, the murderer was chosen — the Holy 
 One, the Harmless, the Saviour was rejected. 
 
 It was another disappointment to Pilate, and wholly 
 unexpected. He had every reason for beHeving that the popu- 
 lace would be on his side, and if he could only be satisfied 
 that they would support him, he would have been prepared to 
 brave all the threats of the hierarchy. But the priests were 
 more than a match for him. Directly they recognised the 
 danger, they ran in among the crowd, and moved the people 
 — "Ask for Barabbas," "Cry for Barabbas;" and their eager- 
 ness made itself felt. A mob is easily swayed by a few 
 powerful enthusiasts ; and it was so at this critical moment, for 
 when Pilate asked what he should do with Him Whom they 
 called " the King of the Jews," urged on again no doubt by 
 the priests, who stirred the worst passions of their nature, they 
 cried, " Crucify Him," " Crucify Him." It was a death wholly 
 repellent to Jewish feelings, and one that would never have 
 suggested itself to the people, who had no bitter animosity 
 against Him ; but crucifixion alone would satisfy the revenge- 
 ful rulers, whom He had denounced with such withering scorn ; 
 and it was their cry really, not the people's, which Pilate heard : 
 "Let Him be crucified." 
 
 Again the judge's conviction of His innocence becomes 
 manifest. " Why should I crucify Him ? " he asks, " What 
 evil hath He done ? " 
 
 We know not exactly at what stage in these tumultuous 
 proceedings it was, but after " he was set down on the judg- 
 ment-seat," he received a message, which must have made him 
 
 1 Origen spoke of it as a common reading, but approved of the omission on 
 dogmatic grounds. He says, " Several MSS. also had not the name '\-t]ao\J'i." 
 This implies that the majority had it. Its omission is certainly easier to 
 account for than its interpolation. Olshausen, Meyer, De Wette, Ewald, 
 Klein, and Wordsworth, and others, accept it. It is rejected by Alford, 
 Tischendorf, Westcott, and Hort. It is found now only in five ctirsive MSS,, 
 and in the Armenian and Jerusalem Syriac Versions. 
 
35^ The Final Trial chap, xv 
 
 more reluctant than ever to assent to the execution. The dream 
 of Procla^ was the last effort of a Merciful God to save him from 
 violating his conscience to the end.^ That God "Who would 
 not answer Saul by prophets or by dreams, Who for centuries 
 had ceased to speak by Urim and Thummim," broke the 
 silence of eternity to deliver a weak and wavering judge from 
 eternal ruin. We cannot tell what visions stirred the spirit of 
 the heathen's wife ; we know not, save by tradition, who she 
 was ; but she came forth from her obscurity to utter a last 
 warning to the conscience of her husband, to save him from 
 incurring everlasting shame. If we may hazard a conjecture 
 as to the time when the message reached him, we would 
 suggest that it was after he had delivered Jesus to be scourged.^ 
 Was it this which prompted his last appeal to save the Prisoner ? 
 Seeing the awful plight in which the frightful lash had left 
 Him, clothed with the mock symbols of royalty, all smeared 
 with blood and shameful spitting, he determined to make a 
 final effort to move the sympathies of the people. Repeating 
 his reiterated attestation to Christ's innocence, Pilate led Him 
 out to the multitude, and with no irony or bitterness such as 
 when he said, " Behold your King ! " he pointed simply to a 
 human Being in abject misery ; and the words he used have 
 echoed on through all the ages; painters have striven in a thou- 
 sand ways to express their meaning, and preachers have caught 
 them up at every Passion-tide — Ecce Homo! "Behold the 
 Man!" 
 
 It was a sight to draw tears even from the flinty rock, but 
 it roused no sense oif shame, and stirred no chord of compas- 
 sion. It made the obdurate Jews even more clamorous for 
 the execution of their wicked will, and awoke a still fiercer 
 
 ^ Her name is given in Ecclesiastical tradition both as Procla and Claudia 
 Procla. She is said to have become a Christian afterwards, and has been 
 canonised by the Greek Church. 
 
 " It was regarded as a Divine interposition by many of the Fathers, — Origen, 
 Athanasius, Chrysostom, Hilary, Augustine, etc. Yox the influence such a 
 dream was likely to have upon a Roman at this time, cf. Suetonius, August. 
 91, and Julius Caesar,' 81. 
 
 ^ The probable site of the scourging has been discovered by Captain 
 Warren among the ruins of the Prastorium. It is "a truncated column, no 
 part of the construction, for the chamber is vaulted above the pillar, but just 
 such a pillar as criminals would be tied to to be scourged." Fergusson fixes 
 the date at not later than the Herodian period. Cf. Westcott on S. John xix. i. 
 
V. 6-15 cmd the Condemnation 359 
 
 outbreak than before: "Crucify Him," "Crucify Him." But 
 Pilate would not relent ; we are even told that he took steps to 
 release Him, and then their last device was tried — the 
 desperate effort ^ reserved till all else had failed : "If thou let 
 this Man go, thou art not Caesar's friend." And he yielded at 
 once. That name of Caesar acted like a potent spell, and 
 made a slave of one " to whom political success was as the 
 breath of life." The craven fear of imperial displeasure com- 
 pelled him to bow to the will he had so long resisted. 
 "Already in imagination the wretched man saw himself in the 
 presence of his gloomy and suspicious master, informed against, 
 condemned, degraded, banished."'^ His sense of justice and 
 his strongest convictions all were sw^ept away in an instant as 
 by a whirlwind ; and for the pride of worldly station and the 
 favour of an earthly king he has gained the execration of 
 Christendom, and eternal shame before God and man. 
 
 1 It is the first time they say anything calculated to irritate him and set him 
 against them. It was a threat he might or might not resent — they knew not 
 which. 
 
 ^ Traditions vary as to the scene of his banishment. Either Vienne on the 
 Rhone, or the neighbourhood of Mons Pilatus, near Lucerne. Cf. Scott, in 
 Anne of Geierstein. 
 
LXXIV 
 
 ^ije 9^dtk 3|utie^titurc, ant! bearing: tije Cro^0 
 
 S. Mark xv. 16-22 
 
 16. And the soldiers led Him away And when they had mocked Him, 
 
 into the hall, called Praetorium ; and they took off the purple from Him, 
 
 they call together the whole band. and put His own clothes on Him, and 
 
 17. And they clothed Him with led Him out to crucify Him, 21. 
 
 purple, and platted a crown of thorns, And they compel one Simon a Cyren- 
 
 and put zV about His /lead, 18. and ian, who passed by, coming out of the 
 
 began to salute Him, Hail, King country, the father of Alexander and 
 
 of the Jews. 19. And they smote Rufus, to bear His cross. 
 
 Him on the head with a reed, and 22. And they bring Him unto the 
 
 did spit upon Him, and bowing place Golgotha, which is, being in- 
 
 t/ieir knees worshipped Him. 20. terpreted. The place of a skull. 
 
 If we were reading the narrative for the first time, when we 
 had reached this point, we should experience a great sense of 
 rehef; we should feel that now Jesus is taken out of the hands 
 of His countrymen, with all their intense spite and animosity, 
 at least He will be subjected to no unnecessary suffering. He 
 liad provoked no retaliation from the Romans : He had 
 spoken no bitter things against them. No " Woe unto you, 
 ye heathen ! " had ever made them quail beneath His righteous 
 anger. But prophecy must be fulfilled. It was ordained that 
 He should drain the cup of suffering to the dregs ; and so just 
 when no cruelty was expected, there it was exercised upon Him 
 in its most brutal form. All the agents of evil were let loose 
 in that " hour and power of darkness," and all alike, young and 
 old, Jew and Gentile, became confederate against Him. 
 
 " The soldiers led Him away into the hall, called Praetorium, 
 and they call together the whole band." The headquarters 
 
cH. XV. V. 16-22 The Mock hivestihtre 361 
 
 of the Roman army of occupation were at Csesarea, but a 
 detachment was kept in Jerusalem to overawe the populace, 
 who chafed at foreign rule, and were always ready to rise in 
 rebellion.^ This cohort had their barracks round the quad- 
 rangle of the palace. As soon then as Pilate's body-guard 
 had conceived the idea of ill-treating the Prisoner, they called 
 out all their comrades to take part in their cruel sport. They 
 had heard Jesus charged with claiming the imperial dignity, 
 and they resolved to give it to Him in mockery, and see how 
 He would bear His royal honours. They fetched from the 
 guard-room some cast-off scarlet cloak of one of their generals,^ 
 or perhaps from the Praetorian wardrobe a purple robe, such 
 as Caesar wore when he took the field ; whichever it was, it was 
 intended to represent a royal dress. Then they crowned Him. 
 We usually ^ink of it as with an Eastern diadem ; but it was 
 far more probably in imitation of the victor's wreath, which 
 the Emperor of the time was so fond of wearing, as the 
 statues of Tiberius abundantly testify. One of the soldiers 
 must have run into the garden of the palace, or down the 
 rocky valley hard by, and gathered a handful of thorny bram- 
 ble ; of what kind ^ it was, has been often disputed. Those 
 who thought most of the infliction of pain fixed on an 
 Acanthus, with long spikes that sting as well as prick ; others 
 who saw in the crowning more of mockery than cruelty chose 
 the Nebk — the Spina Christi — which, with its pliant twigs and 
 bright ivy-like leaves, best recalls the imperial wreath. Which- 
 ever it was, it is enough for us to feel, as an evidence of the 
 restitution wrought by the Incarnation, that what sprang from 
 the ground as a curse on Adam's transgression, was woven 
 into a crown, and worn by Christ. 
 
 Next a tall reed was brought and thrust into His hand for 
 a royal sceptre, and the picture was complete — the mock in- 
 vestiture finished. Then the derisive homage began. It was 
 not a single act of mockery ; for S. Mark, who is so precise in 
 
 ■^ The whole detachment numbered from 400 to 600 men. 
 
 2 S. Mark speaks of it as " purple : " S. Matthew as " scarlet :" possibly 
 it was scarlet with the purple " laticlave. " The ancients did not distinguish 
 colours very accurately. 
 
 2 In Christian Art it is usually represented by a wreath of leafless twigs with 
 long thorns. S. Chrysostom favours the idea that the coronation was for 
 mockery : " they insulted Him with the crown of thorns." 
 
362 The Mock Investiture^ chap, xv 
 
 his language, uses tenses^ throughout which imply repetition. 
 Not improbably, therefore, the whole cohort passed by before 
 Him, each one kneeling as he passed, and mingling some 
 word or act of insult with his mock obeisance. 
 
 No sooner was this derisive exhibition concluded than 
 Pilate led Jesus forth, wearing the mimic insignia of royalty, 
 for his last appeal to the people. We have seen with what re- 
 sult.^ He was brought back only to be stripped of the scarlet 
 cloak, and led forth to die. 
 
 Where the Via Dolorosa or " Way of the Cross " began we ■ 
 may conjecture with confidence, for the site of the Praetorium, 
 from which it led, has been fixed ; but where it ended, is 
 wrapped in obscurity. Tradition, however, has not hesitated 
 to mark out the whole route. Particular spots connected with 
 certain events — some recorded in Scripture, some not — are 
 pointed out to the traveller ; and many a pilgrim, believing 
 that he was literally treading in the footsteps of our blessed 
 Lord, has gone barefoot from the beginning to the end. But 
 the path which those holy feet really trod on that terrible day 
 is buried, and everything associated with it, deep beneath that 
 which now meets the eye. 
 
 The scene of the Crucifixion was called by the Evangelists, 
 in Aramaic, Golgotha, in Latin, Calvary, and, as interpreted, 
 the " place of a skull." Familiar illustrations, in which skulls 
 and bones lie whitening on the ground, have led us to look • 
 upon it as especially associated with the dead. But we would 
 notice that it is not called the place of skulls, but of a skull. 
 It was not the custom of the Jews to leave bodies unburied ; 
 and we may be quite sure that a wealthy man, like Joseph of 
 Arimathsea, would not have fixed his garden or pleasure-ground 
 in close proximity to any spot ceremonially unclean. Golgotha 
 was simply a rounded knoll, bare perhaps of trees and grass, 
 in shape like a skull, ^ lying beyond the gate in the suburbs of 
 the city. 
 
 But whatever the road may have been by which Jesus went 
 
 ^ The imperfect, ^tvtttou, iviiTTvov, irpoaeKwovu. 
 
 - Cf. p. 358. 
 
 •^ S. Luke says, "the place which is called 'a skull,'" not, as the other 
 Evangelists, " of a skull." The Hebrew word is derived from a root signify- 
 ing to roll, hence "round." There is nothing in the Gospels to indicate that 
 it was a " mountain." This is traditional. 
 
V. i6-22 and bearmg the Cross 363 
 
 to the scene of His death, we know that those who led Him 
 out compelled Him to carry the instrument of His execution 
 on His Own shoulders. Christian Art has misled us in its re- 
 presentation of what it was that He carried. It was then the 
 usual custom in cases of crucifixion to make the condemned 
 criminal bear to the place of execution, not the whole cross — 
 this in the majority of cases after the exhaustion produced by 
 the scourging which preceded, would have been physically 
 impossible — but only the two transverse beams. They were 
 tied or lightly nailed together in the shape of the letter V , and 
 placed like a yoke on the criminal's neck. Crucifixion was 
 borrowed, we must remember, from the Romans, and the 
 Roman convict certainly so carried them, as we may gather 
 from the name which he received in consequence, furcifer — 
 " forkbearer "^ — the most contemptible designation which a 
 Roman could receive. 
 
 Now we are told that for some reason or other, the soldiers 
 "pressed into the service" one Simon, to help to bear the 
 burden. He who was thus honoured above all men — who 
 alone was permitted to lend any human aid to the Great 
 Sufferer in that awful hour — was one of the African Jews, of 
 whom there were sufficient in Jerusalem to have a synagogue 
 of their own. He was returning from his work in the field 
 with his two boys, Alexander and Rufus,^ when he was rudely 
 seized and compelled to aid in bearing the Cross. In all 
 probability he manifested some sympathy for Jesus, which 
 drew attention to him ; and there is a most touching representa- 
 tion of this feeling in one of a series of well-known pictures 
 in Antwerp Cathedral. No sooner have they arrived at the 
 place of execution than Simon, having done all that lay in his 
 power, and seeing that they are about to nail Jesus to the 
 Cross, unable any longer to endure the sight, takes his 
 frightened boys by the hand and hurries them from the spot ; 
 and theirs are the only faces which, in that vast crowd on Gol- 
 gotha, are turned away from the Cross. 
 
 And now we come to the point where, we think, the teach- 
 
 ^ It was used like the English "gallows-bird "or " hang-dog." 
 
 2 It is a coincidence that S. Mark, writing especially for Romans, mentions 
 
 the sons, who were probably well known to them, for S. Paul salutes Rufus in 
 
 his Epistle to the Romans xvi. 13. 
 
364 The Mock InvestUtire, chap, xv 
 
 ing of Christian Art is at fault Knowing how much sacred 
 painting has done in bringing the Life of our Lord home to 
 the hearts of men, remembering too out of our own experience 
 the lasting, the ineffaceable impression which certain pictures 
 have made upon the mind, we almost hesitate to say a word 
 in disparagement ; but it does seem that in one important 
 point the great painters who have treated the subject have 
 missed the truth. It all turns upon the reason why Simon was 
 compelled to bear the Cross. Was it because our Lord was 
 unable to bear it Himself, because, in short, He fell, as a late 
 tradition says, three times prostrate beneath its weight ? or was 
 it only because the soldiers were impatient, and though Jesus 
 was Himself equal to the burden they had laid upon Him, 
 they thought it would expedite matters to call in the assistance 
 of another ! Men have learned to believe the first, but, in our 
 judgment, erroneously.^ Christ taught mankind by example 
 almost more than by precept. Many of His great acts were, 
 so to speak, typical, and the way in which He bore His Cross 
 was to be an example and encouragement to those whom He 
 told again and again to take up their cross and follow Him. 
 
 Now if He had succumbed to the burden and sunk helpless 
 to the ground, the example would have lost more than half its 
 force. 
 
 Christian Art, though probably it would have excited less 
 compassion for the Sufferer, would have taught a truer and 
 deeper lesson, if it had embodied the sentiment which pre- 
 vailed in the earliest ages of the Church, when, under a pro- 
 found sense of His all-sufficient power, men held that from the 
 moment that the Cross was laid upon His shoulders till it was 
 removed by other hands. He never proved unequal to the 
 burden He was called on to bear. 
 
 But though the lesson we ought to draw from this is that 
 the faithful Christian must never lay down his cross, too many 
 of us need to be reminded that it is incumbent upon us all to 
 take it up. "Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come 
 
 1 There is an expression in S. Mark xv. 22 which may favour the idea that 
 He was sinking beneath the burden— ^epoi'crtj/ avrov — which may be, but is 
 not necessarily, "they bear Him." In the A.V. it is "they bring Him." 
 But even on the supposition that they actually carried Him, it is no proof that 
 He could not have struggled through, had they not been so impatient to get 
 the execution over. 
 
V. i6-22 and Bearino; the Cross 365 
 
 ^> 
 
 after Me, cannot be My disciple." He does not say will not, 
 but cannot be. It is as much an impossibility that we 
 should be recognised as Christ's servants without discipline 
 and self-denial, as that any man shall be able without holiness 
 to gaze upon the Beatific Vision hereafter. We are all from 
 our very birth apt and prone to sin ; and mortification of self 
 is one of the great correctives placed within our reach by Him 
 Who would have all men to be pure, even as He is pure. To 
 crucify the flesh, then, with its affections and lusts, is a necessity 
 of our being, and to take up the cross on our own shoulders 
 is the first necessary step in the execution of our purpose. It 
 was the realisation of this truth which gave birth to the watch- 
 word of the martyrs in an earlier age : " No cross no crown." 
 Bear the cross, and bear it bravely, till God's Own hand shall 
 take it away ; then at the last we shall be able to say with all the 
 confidence of S. Paul : " Henceforth there is laid up for me a 
 crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
 shall give me in that day." 
 
LXXV 
 
 at tlje ^lace of €xtmtion 
 
 S. Mark xv. 23-32 
 
 23. And they gave Him to drink He was numbered with the trans, 
 
 wine mingled with myrrh : but He gressors. 
 
 received z'/ not. 24. And when they 29. And they that passed by railed 
 
 had crucified Him, they parted His on Him, wagging their heads, and 
 
 garments, casting lots upon them, saying, Ah, T/ioii that destroyest the 
 
 what every man should take. 25. temple, and buildest ii in three days. 
 
 And it was the third hour, and they 30. save Thyself, and come down from 
 
 crucified Him. 26. And the super- the cross. 31. Likewise also the 
 
 scription of His accusation was chief priests mocking said among 
 
 written over, THE KING OF themselves with the scribes, He saved 
 
 THE JEWS. 27, And with Him others; Himself He cannot save, 
 
 they crucify two thieves ; the one 32. Let Christ the King of Israel de- 
 
 on His right hand, and the other scend now from the cross, that we 
 
 on His left. 28. And the scrip- may see and believe. And they that 
 
 ture was fulfilled, which saith. And were crucified with Him reviled Him. 
 
 It was probably as soon as they arrived at the place of cruci- 
 fixion that the stupefying draught ^ was offered to our Lord. 
 The compassionate Avomen of Jerusalem were wont to provide 
 it at their expense, and bribe the executioners to admin- 
 ister it before the painful process of nailing the prisoner to the 
 cross began. Jesus was parched with thirst, and would gladly 
 have drunk it, as He took the proffered vinegar afterwards ; 
 but when He recognised what it was, He refused to drink. 
 He determined to look death in the face with all its possible 
 horrors, and submit to the full penalty of the first transgression ; 
 
 ^ Lightfoot quotes from the Talmud to prove that it was in fulfilment of 
 the Scripture, "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish," — Prov. 
 xxxi. 6. The reading of S. Matt, xxvii. 34 — "vinegar mingled with gall," 
 according to the best MSS. is oluou for 6^ov, and the right interpretation of 
 the word rendered " gall " is found to be in harmony with S. Mark's account ; 
 cf. Speaker's Com. on S. Matt, xxvii. 34. 
 
cH. XV. V. 23-32 At the Place of Execution 367 
 
 and no anodyne or soporific potion might cloud His faculties 
 at such a time, or dull in the smallest degree the sharpness of 
 the pain. It is probable, though not certain, that our Lord was 
 nailed to the Cross while it lay upon the ground, and that it 
 was then raised into its position, as is represented in the great 
 picture of Rubens in Antwerp Cathedral. 
 
 The shape of the Cross on which He suffered has been much 
 debated. Some ancient Fathers, fancying they found a typical 
 reference in the crossing of the hands over the head 
 of the scape -goat, and in the peculiar mode in which 
 Jacob blessed his grandsons, often assumed that it was 
 in the form of what is commonly called a S. Andrew's 
 Cross ; others again, seeing in the mystical mark or Tau set 
 upon the foreheads of the righteous in Ezekiel's vision a 
 foreshadowing of the Cross, concluded that it was like that 
 which bears the name of S. Anthony, in form like a capital T. 
 
 It is far more probable that it was what is known familiarly 
 as the Latin Cross. It was prefigured by the transverse spits 
 which the priest placed in the Paschal lamb. Its four arms, 
 pointing to the four quarters of the globe, symbolised " the 
 breadth and length and depth and height " of Christ's universal 
 Church. It is a strong argument in favour of this form that 
 " the inscription " was set above the head of the Crucified, 
 which would be impossible in either of the other forms. 
 
 After condemnation the grounds upon which a criminal had 
 been found guilty were briefly inscribed upon a tablet. This 
 was either hung round his neck or carried before him to the 
 place of execution. 
 
 This, in our Lord's case, was written by Pilate himself. In 
 his desire to take his revenge for the humiliation to which the 
 Jews had subjected him by compelling him to act in open 
 violation of his expressed convictions, he bore an unconscious 
 testimony to the truth — " This is the King of the Jews." And 
 not only so, but he took steps to make it known in every 
 quarter, when he wrote the inscription in " Hebrew and Latin ^ 
 
 1 This is the order in S. John xix. 20, according to the best MSS. The 
 parallel passage in S. Luke xxiii. 38, "in letters of Greek and Latin and 
 Hebrew," is of doubtful authority. 
 
 It may be that different Evangehsts have reproduced the differences of 
 languages. The laconic "the King of the Jews," suggests at once "Rex 
 Judseorura," and would be naturally chosen for Roman readers. 
 
368 At the Place of Execution chap, xv 
 
 and Greek." In Hebrew, that it might be read in the ver- 
 nacular of the common people ; in Latin because it was the 
 official language of the Government ; in Greek, to render it 
 intelligible to the foreigners, amongst whom that tongue was 
 widely spoken. These were the three great languages of the 
 world; they "gathered up," it has been beautifully said, "the 
 results of the religious, the social, the intellectual preparation 
 for Christ, and in each witness was given to His office." 
 
 No sooner was the Cross secured in its place than the 
 executioners began to appropriate the clothes of the Crucified. 
 They were their customary perquisite. The act deserves our 
 attention, because it is one of those details which had been pre- 
 dicted ages before with such remarkable exactness : " They 
 parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture did 
 they cast lots." It is commonly supposed that the outer 
 garments were cut up or torn into four parts, for there was a 
 quaternion of soldiers, and the language of S. John appears to 
 favour this view : "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified 
 Jesus, took His garments, and made four parts, to every soldier 
 a part ; and also His coat (or tunic) : now the coat was 
 without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said 
 therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it,^ but cast lots 
 for it, whose it shall be : that the Scripture might be fulfilled." 
 
 If, however, our Lord was clothed as an ordinary Jewish 
 Rabbi, He would wear a tunic, a cloak, a head-dress, a girdle, 
 and sandals or shoes. The last four would be distributed, one 
 to each executioner. What direct motives prompted them to 
 set aside the tunic -to be drawn for by lot, rather than any 
 other part, we cannot tell ; but on the authority of S. John we 
 are compelled to believe that it was so overruled for the ful- 
 filment of prophecy. 
 
 The time of the crucifixion is fixed by S. Mark at 
 the "third hour," while S. John says that it was "about the 
 sixth hour " when Pilate yielded to the clamour of the Jews, 
 and "delivered Him unto them to be crucified." 
 
 ^ It appears as though " let us not rend it " pointed to the other garments 
 having been rent; but had this been so, "it" would probably have been 
 emphasised. One piece was over after the distribution, and the only alter- 
 native was to divide or cast lots for it. For reference to Jewish dress, cf. 
 Edersheim, i. 621-6. The common tunic was made in two pieces. Oi;r 
 Lord wore one made like that of the High Priest ; cf. Joseph. Antiq. iii. 7, 4. 
 
V. 23-32 At the Place of Execution 369 
 
 In all probability S. John followed the modern Western 
 mode of reckoning the hours from midnight, for traces of this 
 are found in Asia Minor, where he was living when he wrote. ^ 
 Making a legitimate allowance for the qualifying expression, 
 " about " the sixth hour, there is little difficulty in reconciling 
 the statement with " the third hour " of S. Mark, i.e. nine 
 o'clock - by the Hebrew reckoning ; especially as a considerable 
 time would necessarily elapse between the " delivering up " and 
 the actual crucifixion. 
 
 To increase the ignominy of our Lord's death it had been 
 prophesied" that He should be "numbered with the trans- 
 gressors." The spirit of revenge which moved Pilate so 
 strongly against the Jews led him unwittingly to further the 
 eternal counsels of God. He had been forced to release 
 Barabbas at their will, but there were others in prison for the 
 same offence, " that had made insurrection with him." He 
 will show what respect he has for the choice of the people, by 
 crucifying the comrades ^ of their favourite side by side with 
 Him Whom they hate. 
 
 In the Apocryphal " Acts of Pilate,"^ which carries us back 
 to the earliest times, their names are preserv^ed as Dysmas and 
 Gestas. 
 
 S. Mark, following the first Gospel, records how they both 
 joined in the general reproach of our Lord on the Cross. The 
 passers-by jeered Him derisively for His boasted powers, and 
 bade Him take that opportunity to prove their existence. 
 The chief priests, afraid perhaps that the inscription might 
 deceive the people, let them see what they thought of it by 
 their taunting jibes, and asked Him in irony to give some 
 
 ^ Cf. Westcott in loco for a full examination. 
 
 - If it be maintained that S, John and S, Mark both followed the Hebrew 
 mode of reckoning, then possibly the explanation may be found in regarding 
 the ' ' third hour ' ' merely as a division of the day, corresponding to a " night 
 watch," and embracing the whole time from three to six. S. Jerome sug- 
 gested that the numerals representing three and six had been confused. 
 
 ^ The verse is absent from the best MSS. It was probably a marginal 
 note calling attention to the fulfilment, which our Lord had anticipated in S. 
 Luke xxii. 37. 
 
 ^ The two thieves are designated by the same word as Barabbas, not 
 thieves, KXe-rrral, merely, but robbers, XriaTai, which points to the identity of 
 crime ; and, taken in conjunction with S. Mark xv. 7, is almost conclusive as 
 to the connection. 
 
 ° For a full account, cf. Westcott on S. John xix. add. note. 
 
 2 E 
 
370 At the Place of Execution ch. xv. v. 23-32 
 
 evidence of His Royalty, that they might "see and believe." 
 The heathen soldiers too took part in the mockery and insult ; 
 but the wicked blasphemy reached its climax when those who 
 were " in the same condemnation " reviled Him for His im- 
 potence to save. 
 
 Through all this Babel of invective the Redeemer was 
 silent ; not a single rejoinder escaped from His lips. The 
 silence was only broken to speak pardon to a penitent soul : 
 it was when an exhibition of unparalleled meekness touched 
 the heart of one of the poor criminals hanging at His side. 
 Realising, as by a sudden illumination, the awful gulf that lay 
 between innocence and guilt, and reaching out with a faith 
 that baffles comprehension, he begged the Crucified to re- 
 member him when He should come in His kingdom ; and at 
 once His lips were unsealed — to grant even more than he 
 asked, " To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." 
 
LXXVI 
 
 "li?e galje up.tlje (BWt'' 
 
 S, Mark xv. 33-3S 
 
 33. And when the sixth hour was Elias. 36. And one ran and filled a 
 
 come, there was darkness over the spunge/u// of vinegar, and put zV on 
 
 whole land until the ninth hour. 34. a reed, and gave Him to drink, saying. 
 
 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried Let alone ; let us see whether Elias 
 
 with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, will come to take Him down. 
 
 LAMA SABACHTHANi ? which is, being 37. And Jesus cried with a loud 
 
 interpreted, My God, My God, why voice, and gave up the ghost. 38. 
 
 hast Thou forsaken Me? 35. And And the veil of the temple was 
 
 some of them that stood by, when rent in twain from the top to the 
 
 they heard zV, said, Behold, He calleth bottom. 
 
 At this point a manifest change seems to pass over the scene 
 of the Crucifixion. Up to this hour Jesus has borne all that 
 was laid upon Him without a murmur or complaint of any 
 kind ; His only thoughts have been for others — for His mur- 
 derers, for the penitent robber, for His desolate Mother ; and 
 so far not a word of sympathy has been uttered. But now 
 the climax of the Agony is reached, and where the voice of 
 man is silent, Nature speaks. 
 
 Darkness fell upon the whole land^ of Judasa. It was 
 doubtless Hmited in its area, not widely dissimilar from that 
 which happened at the Exodus, when " there was a darkness 
 in all the land of Egypt three days," while all " the children 
 of Israel had light in their dwellings." It is true that a great 
 
 ^ The expression "the whole land" is ambiguous. If it may not be 
 stricdy limited to the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, it must be interpreted as 
 an Orientalism common to Scriptural phraseology. Cf. S. Matt. iv. 9, S. 
 Luke iv. 25, Acts ii. 5, S. James v. 17. 
 
372 '' He gave 2ip the Ghost'' chap, xv 
 
 earthquake and noonday eclipse ^ did occur in this year, as we 
 learn from the testimony of more than one ancient writer, but 
 the extinction of light of which the Evangelists write cannot 
 be scientifically accounted for on natural principles. And 
 surely if a miraculous brightness had illumined the night to 
 signalise the birth of God Incarnate, we need not wonder that 
 the heavens should have gathered a supernatural blackness in 
 token of His death. 
 
 Now it was out of this thick gloom, or perhaps just as the 
 light broke out again to symbolise that His struggle with the 
 powers of darkness was over, that He uttered that most 
 mysterious cry, "My God, My God, why didst Thou forsake 
 Me ? " A cloud had passed between His human soul and 
 His Father's face : He had been driven Hke the scapegoat 
 bearing the people's sins into the very wilderness of desolation. 
 It was a cry of immeasurable alienation, but in its very accents 
 it implied that union had been restored. "Even from the 
 remotest bound of a nature thus traversed in all the measures 
 of its infirmity for man's salvation, the Saviour cried unto God 
 as His God, yea and He ' was heard in that He feared.' " 
 
 Whether the language He used was the Hebrew "Eli" or 
 the Aramaic " Eloi," ^ there was something in the cry that 
 recalled to the spectators the name of Elijah. If they were 
 Jews, it may have been that in their bewilderment they caught 
 only the first syllable, and with their superstitious fears 
 quickened by the preternatural darkness, thought that "the 
 great and dreadful day " was at hand. 
 
 If, on the other hand, they were Romans, they must have 
 seen how the people regarded Elijah, the patron saint of the 
 distressed, and lived in expectation that he would appear in 
 every crisis of difficulty and danger. It was not unnatural 
 then that they hastened to the conclusion that the Crucified 
 was calling for His dehverer. 
 
 ^ This is on the evidence of Phlegon, a freedman, of Adrian. He says 
 that " there was a greater eclipse than any yet known, and that the sixth hour 
 of the day became night." Strauss and others bring forward numerous 
 parallels of darkness occurring simultaneously with the deaths of great men, 
 and conclude that the Evangelists adopted a superstitious belief. 
 
 ^ S, Mark usually gives the exact form of our Lord's words, so we may 
 conclude that it was ' ' Eloi," though of course it makes it harder to understand 
 how it could be mistaken for Elijah. 
 
V. 33-38 '' He gave 21 Jy the Ghost'' 373 
 
 While they were waiting another cry was heard, " I thirst ; " 
 and, moved to pity, one of the soldiers took the sponge from 
 the neck of the earthen jar, and, dipping it in the wine, which 
 they had provided for the sentry, held it on a reed or stalk of 
 hyssop to His dying lips. The penalty of sin had been fully 
 paid, its curse had been borne in all its intolerable weight, 
 death was imminent, and He accepted the draught. 
 
 Then followed the loud voice — an unwonted precursor of 
 death, for Jesus died as none other died, and that cry was the 
 last proof He could give of His power — the fulfilment of His 
 Own declaration, " no man taketh jMy life from Me, but I lay 
 it down of Myself." ^ 
 
 At that moment "the veil of the Temple was rent in twain 
 from the top to the bottom." The significance of this occur- 
 rence is full of interest, and worthy of the closest consideration. 
 The whole structure of the Tabernacle, upon which the 
 Temple was modelled, was one of a complex and profound 
 symbolism, such as befitted a plan drawn by no human 
 architect, but revealed by God. It was divided into three 
 parts, — an Outer Court, the Holy Place, the Holy of Holies. 
 The whole congregation of Israel were admitted into the first, 
 the priests into the second, the High Priest alone into the 
 third ; and they represented in type respectively the World, 
 the Church, and Heaven. Both the Holy Place and the Holy of 
 Holies were entered through a veil or curtain called the outer 
 and the inner, or sometimes the first and the second. Which 
 of the two veils was it which was rent in twain, when Jesus 
 gave up the ghost ? The early Fathers, with the exceptions of 
 two of the greatest, Origen and S. Jerome, and nearly every 
 modern commentator, have concluded that it was the inner 
 or second veil. From this view we dissent - upon the follow- 
 ing grounds : It is commonly assumed that the rent signified 
 that henceforward heaven was opened to all believers through 
 the death of Christ. But is this true ? Was not the effect of 
 the Passion the unsealing of mysteries confined before to the 
 Jewish nation ? Was it not the breaking down of " the middle 
 
 ^ S. John X. 17, 18. S. Augustine says, "non earn deseruit invitus, sed 
 quia voluit, quando voluit, quomodo voluit." 
 
 2 Two modern wTiters agree more or less with the view here stated, viz., 
 Douglas in "Jerusalem the Golden, " and Willis in " The Worship of the Old 
 Covenant." Hug also accepts this interpretation. 
 
374 " He gave tip the Ghost'' chap, xv 
 
 wall of partition " which excluded the Gentiles ? Was it not, 
 in short, the throwing open of the gates of the Church, so that 
 there should no longer be any distinction between circumcision 
 and uncircumcision^ bond and free, male and female ? " In 
 Christ Jesus," says the Apostle, "ye who were sometime afar 
 off were made nigh by the blood of Christ." The Church was 
 henceforward to be composed not of one but of all nations ; 
 it was necessary therefore that this should be foreshadowed in 
 type. It could only be done by destroying the curtain which 
 concealed the chamber that represented the Church, i.e. the 
 Holy Place, not the Holy of Holies. 
 
 But if the second or inner veiP was not rent at the 
 Crucifixion, what change was effected in respect to the Holy 
 of Holies, which symbolised heaven ? By the death of Christ 
 apparently none. Whatever change passed over this resulted 
 from His Ascension ; but it was not so great that it deserved 
 to be marked by the rending of that which precluded the 
 general admission. Now what was the change ? The inner 
 veil shrouded the Presence of God from the common gaze ; 
 and when the High Priest entered, the mystical Shekinah 
 might only be seen through a cloud of incense. 
 
 This obscuration of the Divine Glory was provided for in a 
 remarkable manner. We learn from the Mishnah that the 
 curtain was a double one, with a space between about a cubit 
 in width. When the High Priest passed into this intervening 
 space, before he drew aside that which hung next to the inner 
 Chamber, he poured incense over the glowing brazier in his 
 hand, and, entering with downcast eyes, waited to look up till 
 the smoke had completely filled the place. It was a merciful 
 provision, Moses says, to save the High Priest from death, 
 which he must have incurred had he looked upon the full 
 brightness of the Divine Presence. 
 
 But the vision of God is no longer veiled to our High 
 Priest, for He sees It in all its undimmed glory, even face to 
 
 ^ In the Hebrew, different words are used for the two veils ; and generally 
 KaTaireraaixa, that here used, represents in the LXX. the inner, and KoXv/mfxa 
 the outer, but by no means universally, as is too commonly asserted. Cf. Ex. 
 xxvi. 37, xxxviii. i8, xl, 6, 8, 19 ; Numb. iii. 26, all cited by WiUis. Further, 
 it is KaraTreTaa/j-a vaov, i.e. that part which contained both the Holy Place 
 and the Holy of Holies. If it were the veil of the latter only, we should have 
 expected ayicop ayicov. Cf. Heb. ix. 3. 
 
V. 33-38 '' He gave up ike Ghost'' 375 
 
 face. This at once connects the symbolism of the Inner Veil 
 with the Ascension, not with the Crucifixion. This veil was 
 not rent, because the heaven which it typically concealed is 
 not yet thrown open for all to enter. We are still waiting 
 without — some on earth, some in Paradise. Our Forerunner 
 has entered, and His entrance is the pledge by which we may 
 have boldness to believe that we shall one day follow, even by 
 that " new and living way which He hath consecrated for us, 
 through the veil, that is. His flesh ; " but as yet we may only 
 do so by faith, for the road will be really trodden by no other 
 feet till the Resurrection. 
 
 We can no more say that we are free to enter heaven than 
 the Jewish nation could have claimed that they had access to 
 the Holy of Holies. They could enter in the person of their 
 representative High Priest, and so can we by ours, but only in 
 Him, not with Him. We can be there in hope, not in reality. 
 For the actual adnvission in our own persons we must wait till 
 the veil is for ever rent or removed, as it will be at the general 
 Resurrection. 
 
 It was, then, we believe, a rent in the outer veil, made as 
 it were by the hand of God Himself, that must have terrified 
 the Jewish worshippers as they flocked into the Temple at the 
 hour when Christ expired upon the Cross. But, like all the 
 other preternatural signs, it left the hardened Jews more 
 obdurate than before. 
 
 It seems incredible to us that they could have withstood 
 such irresistible evidence. "The heavens had rejoiced at 
 Christ's birth ; a new star had sprung into light, and a company 
 of angels filled the air with their song. The sea had acknow- 
 ledged Him, and made itself a pathway for His footsteps ; the 
 earth trembled to its centre at His death ; the sun knew Him, 
 and withdrew its shining ; but though the whole material 
 world bowed down before Him, the unbelieving Jews refused 
 Him His due, and, harder even than the rocks, showed no 
 sign of repentance," and they now reap the fruits of their 
 unbelief 
 
LXXVII 
 
 EaiD in tlje d^talje 
 
 S. Mark xv. 39-47 
 
 39. And when the centurion, which waited for the kingdom of God, 
 
 stood over against Him, saw that He came, and went in boldly unto 
 
 so cried out, and gave up the ghost, Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus, 
 
 he said, Truly this Man was the Son 44. And Pilate marvelled if He were 
 
 of God. 40. There were also women already dead : and calling unto him 
 
 looking on afar off: among whom the centurion, he asked him whether 
 
 was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the He had been any while dead. 45. 
 
 mother of James the Less and of And when he knew it of the centurion, 
 
 Joses, and Salome ; 41. (who also, he gave the body to Joseph. 46. 
 
 when He was in Galilee, followed And he bought fine linen, and took 
 
 Him, and ministered unto Him;) Him - down, and wrapped Him in 
 
 and many other women which came the linen, and laid Him in a sepul- 
 
 up with Him unto Jerusalem. chre which was hewn out of a 
 
 42. And now when the even was rock, and rolled a stone unto the 
 
 come, because it was the prepara- door of the sepulchre. 47. And 
 
 tion, that is, the day before the sab- Mary Magdalene and Mary the 
 
 bath, 43. Joseph of Arimathasa, an mother of Joses beheld where He 
 
 honourable counsellor, which also was laid. 
 
 Every Roman legion was divided into twenty companies, each 
 numbering, when the army was on a war footing, a hundred 
 soldiers, and commanded by an officer hence called a " cen- 
 turion." The one of whom we are reading doubtless belonged 
 to the detachment stationed in Antonia ; and when the qua- 
 ternion of soldiers was told off to see the execution duly 
 carried out, such was the interest and excitement aroused, he 
 deemed it advisable to accompany them himself 
 
 He witnessed, therefore, all that took place from the time 
 that Jesus left the Prsetorium ; and there were many things ^ 
 
 . ^ In S. Matt, xxvii. 54 it is said that his confession was due to " the earth- 
 quake and those things that were done ; " but there is a diversity of reading. 
 
CH. XV. V. 39-47 Laid in the Grave 377 
 
 that filled him with wonder. He knew well how a Roman 
 could set his face as flint, and meet death without a sign of 
 fear ; he had no doubt often seen it on the field of battle. 
 But there was something in our Lord's whole demeanour, in 
 His forgetfulness of self, in His thoughtful care for others, and 
 especially in His prayer that those who were crucifying Him 
 might be forgiven, which was quite beyond his experience. 
 He was amazed, too, at the manner of His death, — at the 
 loud expiring cry ; and when, in addition to all this, he felt 
 the very ground quake beneath his feet, he gave utterance to 
 the conviction forced upon him by these things, in the 
 memorable confession : " Truly this was a righteous Man ; 
 this was the Son of God."^ We must interpret the testimony 
 by the standard of the centurion's knowledge, not by that of 
 Christian faith. It is quite possible that he knew something 
 of the Messianic expectations of the Jews and of the claims of 
 Jesus to be the Son of God (for the title was one which the 
 priests frequently cast in His teeth as He hung upon the 
 Cross), and it may be that he had come to the conclusion 
 that One Who could deport Himself as He had done, what- 
 ever claims He made, -could be no Pretender. But it is 
 perhaps more probable that he looked at the whole scene 
 simply from the heathen standpoint, and felt that he had had 
 before him a character that approached nearer to his own 
 ideal of righteousness than anything he had ever seen before. 
 
 Whichever interpretation we accept, it was a noble witness 
 to the truth ; and to the lasting honour of him who bore it, no 
 less than three Evangelists have been guided by the Holy 
 Spirit to place it on record. 
 
 From the heathen centurion we turn to the Jewish disciple, 
 Joseph of Arimath^ea. The part that he played in the last 
 offices for the Dead has been deemed worthy of even greater 
 honour, for it finds a place in all the Gospels. 
 
 Apart from this a special interest attaches to his name for 
 Englishmen, from his supposed connection with this country. 
 He is one of the few Scriptural names that are associated with 
 
 Tii yevofieva, i.e. all that had happened, and rot, yivoju-eva, the things that were 
 happening at the time of the earttiquake. The former, which has the greater 
 authority, has been accepted in tlie above. 
 
 ^ S. Alatt. and S. Mark give the latter, S. Luke the former half. Probably 
 the real utterance combined both. 
 
37^ Laid in the Gj-ave chap, xv 
 
 the early legends of British history. He shares the distinction 
 with Pudens, Claudia, and S. Paul. Tradition says that he 
 was sent by S. Philip as a missionary to this island, and that, 
 settling at Glastonbury, he erected the first Christian church 
 in Britain, made of wicker twigs, on the site where the noblest 
 abbey was subsequently built. His pilgrim's staff, which he 
 drove into the ground, is said to have taken root and grown 
 into an umbrageous thorn, to protect him from the heat. We 
 smile perhaps at the legend, but it was only the romantic 
 dress in which an imaginative age clothed an important 
 truth. It tells how, from a small and unpretending enter- 
 prise, the founder, whoever he may have been, was able to 
 raise up a vast monastery, within the walls of which he took 
 refuge himself, and offered means of shelter to others from the 
 bustle and turmoil of the world. 
 
 But all this rests upon uncertain authority. In the Gospels 
 we read that he was a native of Arimathaea, in all probability 
 the later name of Ramathaim,^ where Samuel was born. 
 
 He was a man both of birth ^ and position, enjoying the 
 highest dignity coveted by a Jew as a member of the Supreme 
 Council of the nation. He was the only councillor of whom 
 we know for certain that in the trial before the Sanhedrim he 
 gave his vote for our Lord's acquittal. It is extremely probable 
 that Nicodemus did the same, though it is not recorded. They 
 were men between whom we may trace many correspondences,^ 
 both in social position and in natural temperament. The con- 
 duct of both in connection with the Burial of our Lord bespeaks 
 forethought and preparation. It is not improbable that, when 
 they realised that they could do nothing to avert the execution 
 of the sentence, they determined that, though unable to help 
 Him while living, they would at least honour Him in His 
 death. So it was that Joseph prepared, or resolved to give 
 
 ^ There are no less than eight places, each of which has been claimed as 
 its modern representative. 
 
 ^ This is generally implied by eixyxyHJ-^v. 
 
 ^ Both were Sanhedrists, both rich. If Nicodemus is identified with Nico- 
 demus Ben Gorion, of Talmudic fame, he was proverbially wealthy. He was 
 a timid follower of Jesus at first, coming to Him "by night" only, but after- 
 wards braved everything for Jesus' sake. So too with Joseph,— the attention 
 called to his becoming bold implies that he was making a venture alien to his 
 natural temperament. 
 
V. 39-47 Laid in the Grave 379 
 
 up, the newly-made tomb, which he had designed for himself; 
 and that Nicodemus procured, by a lavish expenditure, spices 
 for embalming far in excess of the usual requirements. 
 
 It was the custom of the Romans to leave the bodies of the 
 crucified to waste away upon the cross, or to be devoured by 
 birds and beasts of prey. The Jewish law, resting on the 
 belief that crucifixion was "a reproach to God,"^ ordered that 
 bodies should be removed before sunset and buried. The 
 place of burial was the polluted Valley of Hinnom, amidst all 
 that was unclean and vile, where the worm of corruption never 
 died. But it had been foretold ages before by David that the 
 Holy One should " see no corruption," and Isaiah had declared 
 that His should be no unhonoured grave, but that He should 
 rest "with the rich in His death." 
 
 Now, as soon as Joseph learned that Jesus had given up 
 the ghost, he waxed bold, and went in to the Praetorium, and, 
 caring nothing for the dangers he encountered by such a ven- 
 ture, begged of Pilate that the Body of the Crucified might be 
 given to him. It was a common custom for Roman governors 
 to yield to such a request only on consideration of a bribe in 
 money; and Philo has suggested that Joseph had recourse to 
 the expedient, but the statement of S. Mark that Pilate " gave " 
 — in the original it is "gave as a free favour" — the Body to 
 him contradicts the idea. The request seems to have taken 
 him by surprise ; he could hardly believe it possible that Jesus 
 was dead, for in crucifixion criminals usually lingered for two 
 days or more. The answer, however, to his inquiries from the 
 officer who was responsible for the due execution of the sen- 
 tence, satisfied him that He had been dead some time,- 
 sufficiently long to preclude the possibility of a swoon being 
 mistaken for death. 
 
 The readiness with which the petition was granted affords 
 additional evidence of the spirit of revenge wliich seems to 
 have stirred Pilate so strongly against the Jews after their 
 victory over him. To rescue the Body of Jesus from the 
 
 ^ The Hebrew in Deut. xxi. 23, literally rendered, is "a curse of God is 
 he that hangeth " etc. , and the Jews debated whether the ambiguous phrase 
 implied that it was a curse pronounced by God, or, so to speak, felt by Him, 
 i.e. a reproach to Him. The latter was generally accepted, because so many 
 Jewish patriots were hanged. 
 
 - fi TrdXat a.-KiBa.vev. 
 
3^0 Laid hi the Grave ch. xv. v. 39-47 
 
 common fate of criminals, and to deliver it up for an honour- 
 able burial at the hands of a wealthy citizen like Joseph, was 
 an act of retaliation in exact accord with his feelings towards 
 them, and a rebuff well calculated to sting them to the quick. 
 
 The centurion gave up the Body according to the Gover- 
 nor's directions, and from that moment no indignity could be 
 offered to it. Joseph and Nicodemus, with their attendants, 
 carried it into the sepulchre. They would pass through the 
 entrance into an open court or chamber, in the rocky sides of 
 which the recesses were cut, and there paid the last offices that 
 the utmost reverence and care could suggest. They laid the 
 Sacred Form in the most honourable niche, and rolled the 
 Golal — the round flat mill-stone — before the entrance ; then 
 the Sabbath began, and all were at rest. 
 
 '^And Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Joses, 
 beheld where He was laid." It has been beautifully said that 
 " it is the glory of woman that she seldom forsakes those she 
 loves, even when things are darkest." It finds its fullest illus- 
 tration in the example of those who, when all the disciples, 
 save the one who was most like them in womanly devotion 
 and love, had forsaken Him, took their station at the foot of 
 the Cross : who, when driven back by the soldiers, or priests 
 and rulers, watched with anxious gaze from a distance, and, 
 when all was over, were unable to tear themselves from His 
 grave. Their love and devotion received its reward, for it was 
 to them that He Whom they loved gave the first manifestation 
 of His risen life ; and it was they who were chosen to bear the 
 glad tidings of His victory to the sorrowful disciples. 
 
LXXVIII 
 
 %l)t 2Detiout cLcllomen 
 
 S. Mark xvi. i-8 
 
 I. And when the sabbath was past, right side, clothed in a long white 
 
 Mary Magdalene, and Mary the garment ; and they were affrighted. 
 
 mother of James, and Salome, had 6. And he saith unto them, Be not 
 
 bought sweet spices, that they might affrighted : Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, 
 
 come and anoint Him. 2. And very Which was crucified : He is risen ; He 
 
 early in the morning the first day of is not here : behold the place where 
 
 the week, they came unto the sepulchre they laid Him. 7. But go your way, 
 
 at the rising of the sun. 3. And they tell His disciples and Peter that He 
 
 said among themselves, Who shall goeth before you into Galilee : there 
 
 roll us away the stone from the door shall ye see Him, as He said unto you. 
 
 of the sepulchre ? 4. And when they 8. And they went out quickly, and 
 
 looked, they saw that the stone was fled from the sepulchre ; for they trcm- 
 
 rolled away : for it was very great. bled and were amazed : neither said 
 
 5. And entering into the sepulchre, they any thing to any ma?i ; for they 
 
 they saw a young man sitting on the were afraid. 
 
 When the stone was rolled to the door of the sepulchre, 
 and Joseph and Nicodemus went their way, two at least of 
 the devout women remained watching. How long they kept 
 their holy vigil we are not told ; neither is the least record 
 given, of what it would be so interesting to know, in what way 
 the Sabbath that followed that terrible day was spent by those 
 heart-broken mourners. Knowing as we do, how the holiest 
 men and women have found comfort in the services of the 
 Sanctuary, when their hearts have been burdened with grief, 
 we can feel almost sure that they went to the Temple at the 
 appointed hours. If so, the sight that met their gaze as they 
 entered must have inspired them with fresh awe, for full in 
 view before the throng of worshippers was the great curtain or 
 the Holy Place, rent in twain from the ceiling to the pave 
 
382 The Devout Women chap, xvi 
 
 ment. They would go back to their homes only to ponder in 
 yet deeper amazement on all that had happened. 
 
 As soon as the Sabbath was over, after the sun had set, 
 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, 
 went out to buy spices for a further embalming of the Sacred 
 Body.^ In the haste of the burial, though everything no doubt 
 was done with reverence, much was left which the tender 
 ministries of women ^ could alone supply, and they hastened 
 to fulfil their hallowed task. It would seem from a comparison 
 of the several accounts that there were two companies ; 
 possibly those from Jerusalem in the one, those who had their 
 home at the more distant Bethany in the other. They all set 
 out, no doubt by pre-arrangement, in the morning watch, and 
 the first to arrive at the sepulchre was Mary Magdalene. In 
 her passionate impatience to see once more the Form of Him, 
 to Whom she owed so much, she outstripped her companions. 
 The first glimpse of the sacred spot was enough ; it was still 
 dark, but she could see "the stone taken away from the 
 sepulchre," and without waiting to examine, she hastened to 
 the conclusion that the Body must have been removed by 
 violence, and ran back to Jerusalem to tell her apprehensions 
 to S. Peter and S. John, under whose roof the Blessed Mother 
 had found a home. 
 
 Meanwhile the women whom she had left drew near to the 
 place. They had not thought of any obstacles to impede them 
 in the execution of their pious errand ; they had not heard that 
 the Jews had placed a sentry over the tomb ; but suddenly a 
 difficulty occurred to one of them, and it was taken up by all, 
 and formed a subject of anxious conversation.^ They had 
 seen the force that was required when Joseph and his servants ^ 
 
 1 "Had bought" in the A.V, is misleading. It is the ^ox\-=X,rf^bpaa(i.v, 
 not the pluperfect. If they remained till after sunset on Friday watching by the 
 tomb, they could have had no opportunity before this of making their purchase. 
 Some, it is said, did prepare their spices on Friday evening, but not these, 
 S, Luke xxiii. 56. 
 
 2 Though Christian Art has commonly represented the women as taking 
 part in the Burial, there is no authority for it in Scripture. The men buried 
 our Lord, the women sat over-against the sepulchre and beheld where He was 
 laid, 
 
 2 The imperfect tense implies that it was a subject of continued talk and 
 anxiety. 
 
 •* There is no mention of these ; but as Joseph's house was close by, and it 
 was impossible for him to do it without help, they would naturally be called. 
 
V. 1-8 The Devout Wome7i 383 
 
 had rolled the " great stone " to the entrance ; and they were 
 oppressed with fear, lest after all, their wishes might be 
 frustrated. But immediately the sun rose, and they saw to 
 their amazement that the stone had been already rolled back 
 from its place. 
 
 The description of their perplexity, so life-like and true to 
 nature, is given by S. Mark alone. It is another of the 
 beautiful little touches that lend such grace to the Gospel that 
 is fullest of human affections and feeling. 
 
 As soon as they entered the sepulchre they found that their 
 Lord was risen. At what precise moment He burst the bands 
 of death we cannot say ; it was doubtless simultaneously with 
 " the great earthquake " (which they must have felt as they 
 drew near), for, as Nature had been moved when her Lord laid 
 down His life, so would she manifest her recognition vrhen 
 He willed to take it again. 
 
 But the fact of the Resurrection was declared to them by a 
 messenger from heaven. Angels had proclaimed His birth : 
 had appeared to Mary and Joseph and the shepherds : had 
 ministered to Him in the wilderness : had strengthened Him in 
 Gethsemane ; and they came now to assure His followers of 
 the Resurrection, as they did forty days later, after He had 
 ascended, to promise His reappearance at the final consumma- 
 tion. The stone had been rolled away, not for the Lord to 
 come forth, for He, Who needed not that doors should be un- 
 locked or gates thrown open for His admission, could be held 
 back by no material barrier ; but the angel had down come to 
 give the women an entrance into His tomb, and to deliver 
 His message. 
 
 And this was the glad tidings: "Tell His disciples and 
 Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee : there shall ye 
 see Him, as He said unto you." It was a deeply significant 
 word that the angel used — " goeth before you." In fulfilment 
 of prophecy, He Himself had been smitten, and His flock 
 had been scattered, like sheep not having a shepherd. As 
 soon as the armed multitude had closed around Him at the 
 gates of Gethsemane, terror had seized them, as when a wolf 
 cometh, and they "all forsook Him and fled ;" but He would 
 gather His Own together again, and they should know His 
 voice and follow Him, and be one flock once more. 
 
3^4 The Devout Wo7nen chap, xvi 
 
 We wonder, perhaps, why this should be singled out for a 
 special announcement from all His intended appearances, and 
 why Galilee should have been selected for the scene of the 
 manifestation. It was not only because it was to be in the 
 presence of the whole company of believers, witnessed "by 
 above five hundred brethren at once ; " but far more, perhaps, 
 in view of His intention there to commit to them in their 
 Apostolic brotherhood His solemn charge, and assure them of 
 His abiding Presence. 
 
 And why was Galilee^ to be thus favoured above Judaea 
 and Jerusalem ? It was GaUlee of the Gentiles ; and the com- 
 mission they were to receive was not for Jews only, but for 
 Gentiles — for every nation and people and tongue. It was 
 fitting, therefore, that the meeting-place — the very soil that 
 they trod — should lend force to the comprehensiveness of the 
 message : " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
 every creature." 
 
 For what reason, again, was S. Peter chosen to be an in- 
 dividual recipient of the glad tidings? The selection is re- 
 corded in this Gospel alone, and its mention is due, no doubt, 
 to the Apostle himself, to whom it was of such vital moment. 
 
 There is something exceedingly touching in the addition. 
 Jesus knew well that the piercing look which He had cast upon 
 S. Peter as he crossed His path in the High Priest's court had 
 left him crushed beneath the weight of his terrible sin. He 
 knew, too, how he would be filled with a sense of utter 
 unworthiness, and might think himself excluded for ever from 
 the Apostolic company. And this was an anticipation of the 
 assurance He had in store for him cf complete forgiveness, and 
 of restitution to his forfeited office. 
 
 It was doubtless out of the same longing to deliver His dis- 
 ciple from this crushing despair that He was unable to wait for 
 the promised meeting in Galilee, and, as we are told, before 
 the sun had set on that very day He "appeared unto Simon." 
 What passed between them has not been revealed, but it needs 
 no prophet's skill to divine at least the import of the Redeemer's 
 words : " Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white 
 as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." 
 
 1 Nowhere else but in Galilee could such a large body of believers be gathered 
 together. 
 
V. 1-8 The Devout Women 385 
 
 The account of the devout women concludes with their in- 
 stantaneous departure to fulfil the behest : " I'hey went out 
 quickly, and fled from the sepulchre." All that they had seen 
 and heard filled them with amazement, and sealed their lips to 
 all whom they met on their way to the city, " neither said they 
 any thing to any man, for they were afraid ; " but when they 
 found the disciples, they told the glad tidings with exclamations 
 of joy. But what a disappointment awaited them ! Their 
 words seemed but "as idle tales, and they believed them not." 
 
 It is a reflection full of sadness that all alike were so " slow 
 of heart to believe " what Jesus had told them of the re- 
 surrection. The devout women seem never to have thought 
 of it ; there is not the slightest hint, not the very faintest pre- 
 sentiment, that they expected His words to come true, and 
 that even without their ointment and spices His Body would 
 see no corruption. 
 
 The Apostles received message after message to assure them 
 that He was alive and had been seen ; but it was not till they 
 had touched ?Iim standing in their midst, and had been 
 assured by the manifestation of His wounds, till He had with 
 His Own voice upbraided them with their unbelief and hard- 
 ness of heart, that they were fully convinced. It is indeed sad 
 that it should have been reserved for enemies alone to recall 
 His forgotten promise, " After three days I will rise again." 
 
 2 c 
 
LXXIX 
 
 %l)Vtz :^ppearancej^ on tlje ^ap of tlje 
 Ee^urcection 
 
 S. Mark xvi. 9-14 
 
 9. Now when /es?/s was risen another form unto two of them, as 
 early the first day of the week, He they walked, and went into the 
 appeared first to Mary Magdalene, country. 13. And they went and 
 out of whom He had cast seven told zV unto the residue : neither be- 
 devils. 10. A /id she went and told lieved they them. 
 
 them that had been with Him, as they 14. Afterward He appeared unto 
 
 mourned and wept. 11. And they, the eleven as they sat at meat, and 
 
 when they had heard that He was upbraided them with their unbelief 
 
 alive, and had been seen of her, and hardness of heart, because they 
 
 believed not. believed not them which had seen 
 
 12. After that He appeared in Him after He was risen. 
 
 If there is difficulty in weaving out of the fourfold record of 
 the trial of our Blessed Lord a consistent whole, it is largely 
 increased, when we attempt to harmonise the different narra- 
 tives of His Risen Life. The hardness of this latter task 
 arises in the main out of the evidently fragmentary character 
 of this portion of His Sacred History. Ten ^ or more mani- 
 festations of our Lord are described, each Evangelist mention- 
 ing at least three, but no two Evangelists precisely the same 
 
 ^ The best accredited order of the appearances is as follows : — 
 
 1. To Mary Magdalene alone. S. Mark xvi. 9 ; S. John xx. 14-17. 
 
 2. To the Women, i.e. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. vS. Matt. 
 
 xxviii. 9, 10. 
 
 3. To Simon. S. Luke xxiv. 34 ; i Cor. xv. 5. 
 
 4. To the Two Disciples going to Emmaus. S, Mark xvi. 12 ; S. Luke 
 
 xxiv. 13-32. 
 
 5. To the Aposdes, Thomas being absent. S, Mark xvi. 14 ; S. Luke 
 
 xxiv, 36-49 ; S, John xx. iq, 20. 
 
CH. XVI. V. 
 
 9-14 The Three Appem^aiices 387 
 
 three. Each fragment has, so to speak, a virtue peculiarly its 
 own,i yet altogether combine in impressing us with one truth. 
 It is that Christ rose, not merely to prove that He had con- 
 quered death, but to teach men the possibilities of a higher 
 life. Lazarus and the daughter of Jairus, and the widow's 
 son, had risen to continue their former existence, and to die 
 again. Jesus rose to live in His Risen Body a glorified life, 
 and to die no more ; and herein He has given us an earnest 
 and pledge, not only that we shall rise again, but that we shall 
 be "changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as 
 by the Spirit of the Lord." 
 
 S. Mark has done little more than leave the briefest allu- 
 sions to four of the Appearances during the forty days. It can 
 hardly be doubted that he was guided to make his selection 
 for the purpose of bringing into prominence the truth upon 
 which we spoke at the close of the last chapter. Not once 
 only, but three times he dwells upon the reluctance of the dis- 
 ciples to believe the tidings of the Resurrection. 
 
 When S. Peter and S. John found that Mary's fears were 
 realised, they "went away again to their own home;" but she 
 remained behind, struggling wdth an inconsolable grief, and 
 unable to tear herself from the spot. And to her, first of all 
 His followers, Jesus manifested Himself in His Risen Form. 
 S. Mark gives no details of the scene ; for " S. John alone was 
 capable of recording them in their incomparably beautiful 
 conciseness and depth." 
 
 " She turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and 
 knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, 
 why weepest thou ? whom seekest thou ? She, supposing Him 
 to be the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, if thou have borne 
 
 6. To the Apostles with Thomas. S. John xx. 26-29. 
 
 7. To Seven Disciples by the Sea of Gahlee. S. John xx. 1-23. 
 
 8. To the Eleven in the presence of 500 brethren. S. Matt, xxviii. 
 
 16-20 ; S. Mark xvi. 15-18 ; Acts i. 3 ; i Cor. xv. 6. 
 
 9. To S. James, the Lord's brother, i Cor, xv. 7. 
 
 10. The final appearance preceding the Ascension. S. Luke xxiv. 50, 
 51 ; Acts i. 9 ; I Cor. xv. 7. 
 Some harmonists have divided the eighth into two separate appearances. 
 Probably our Lord appeared at other times, of which there is no record ; e.g. 
 it is hard to believe that He did not show Himself unto His Mother. 
 
 ' The reader is referred to one of Dr. Westcott's most interesting and 
 suggestive books, in which the characteristic features of each is drawn out, 
 " The Revelation of the Risen Lord." 
 
388 TJn^ee Appearances on the 
 
 CHAP. XVI 
 
 Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take 
 Him away." 
 
 She did not recognise Him, for she was absorbed in her 
 grief, and had no hope of the Resurrection, no thoughts but 
 of death. "Jesus saith unto her, Mary ;'' and the familiar tones 
 touched a chord of sympathy, and brought back the associa- 
 tions of the past. Then turning at once to satisfy herself that 
 it was really true, she gathered the whole force of her new- 
 found joy and conviction into the exclamation, " Rabboni," 
 my Master ! ^ 
 
 " She has no loftier title for Him than that which past ex- 
 perience had made precious ; she assumes that the return to 
 the old life exhausts the sum of her Master's victory over 
 death;" and when she would have clung ^ to Him, He pointed 
 her to the fact that, till He had ascended, she would not be 
 able to enjoy that uninterrupted intercourse and closeness of 
 union for which she longed. That could only be felt through 
 the Presence of the Comforter, which depended on His return 
 to the Father. Meanwhile He had a message to send to His 
 brethren, and she should be the bearer of it : " Say unto them, 
 I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and 
 your God." What a shock of disappointment she must have 
 felt, when they gave no credence to her word ! 
 
 The second manifestation of which S. Mark speaks is that 
 to the tw^o disciples on the road to Emmaus.^ One was Cleo- 
 pas, the other is unnamed.^ They started that first Easter after- 
 noon to go to a village a few miles distant ; their hearts were 
 filled wnth sadness, for they in common with so many of our 
 Lord's disciples had experienced a dreadful disaster. They 
 had been living in expectation that Jesus had come to restore 
 the fallen glories of their nation, and make the name and place 
 
 1 The interpretation given by the Evangehst excludes the idea that 
 "Rabboni" expressed "my Divine Master," as has been suggested, cf. 
 Westcott ill loco. In the best MSS. it is, "and said unto Him, in the 
 Hebrew tongue, Rabboni." The termination /, which usually signifies 
 " my," had probably lost its significance, as the Evangehst does not notice it. 
 
 - It is more than " touch " in the original, cf. Col. i. 20, where its distinc- 
 tion from dtyyavio is thus expressed — " don't handle acprj, don't taste, don't 
 even touch Oiyrjs," cf. Lightfoot in loco. 
 
 " The identification of this place is truly a vcxata quccstio, cf. Smith, Bib. 
 Diet. 
 
 •* It has been conjectured that it was S. Luke, but upon no sufficient 
 authority. 
 
V. 9-H Day of the Resurrection 389 
 
 of Jewry once more a power in the world. But the scene on 
 Golgotha shattered all their hopes. They had seen their ex- 
 pected Deliverer expire on the Cross. All the promises of 
 the past were to them now but as idle tales ; the report of the 
 women who had been early at the sepulchre ; the vision of 
 angels telling that He was alive, all failed to give them comfort. 
 And as they walked, and talked of what had happened, lo ! 
 *' Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them; but their 
 eyes were holden that they should not know Him." 
 
 Their sadness was the power of attraction. It is the echo 
 of His first question to Mary, " Why weepest thou ? " That 
 was the sympathetic chord which drew " the Man of Sorrows " 
 in both cases to their side. 
 
 And how did He comfort them ? Just as He comforts 
 His sorrowful servants now; by solving all their perplexities 
 from the promises and predictions of Holy Scripture, and 
 then by the fullest manifestation of Himself in " the Breaking 
 of Bread." 
 
 He began with the books of Moses and the prophets, and 
 " expounded unto them in all the Scri[)tures the things con- 
 cerning Himself." As He unrolled the long scroll of prophecy, 
 and quoted passage after passage, which foreshadowed His Cross 
 and Passion, and the after-exaltation at the right hand of God, 
 these doubting souls were built up in the great truth, that all 
 had happened by the determinate counsel of God, and for the 
 salvation of the world. It is no wonder that their hearts burned 
 within them while He talked by the way ; or that, like the 
 Patriarch wrestling until daybreak with one whom he might 
 not know, they refused to let Him go, until they had received 
 His blessing. And He went in to tarry with them, and " He 
 took the bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to them," — 
 it is precisely the same language in which His action at the 
 Institution of the Blessed Sacrament is described, — "and 
 their eyes were opened, and they knew Him." 
 
 As soon as He had vanished from their sight, they arose 
 and returned to Jerusalem, eager to make known their glad 
 experience; and they found "the Eleven "^ assembled for 
 their evening meal in the Paschal Chamber. They were 
 
 ^ S. Paul calls them "the Twelve." In both cases number is not signified 
 so much as their ofificial character. 
 
39° The Three Appearances ch. xvi. v. 9-14 
 
 received with the joyful announcement that "the Lord had 
 risen " and that one of their own number had actually seen 
 Him. But how imperfect as yet was their grasp of the nature 
 of the Risen Life ; for no sooner did the two disciples tell 
 what had befallen them on the road to Emmaus, than their 
 old incredulity^ revived, and they refused to beheve their 
 report. 
 
 It was while they were speaking that Jesus Himself appeared 
 in the midst, and "upbraided them with their unbelief and 
 hardness of heart." The doors of the chambers had been 
 firmly barred, for they feared that the Sanhedrim might arrest 
 them for the abduction of the Lord's Body ; but no material 
 barrier could stay His entrance, and He suddenly stood 
 amongst them. They thought it was a spirit from the other 
 world, and were filled with fear. 
 
 Then followed His patient resolution of all their doubts : 
 the exhibition of His wounds ; the palpable apprehension of 
 His flesh and bones; the participation of food before their 
 eyes ; and then "the day breaks and the shadows flee away." 
 
 If, as we are taught, Christ's Risen and Glorified Body is a 
 type of that which each one of us will put on when "this 
 mortal shall be clothed with immortality," it enables us to look 
 forward with assurance to the preservation of our identity, and 
 to recognition and reunion in the future life. " When He 
 shall appear we shall be like Him." "We shall be also in the 
 likeness of His Resurrection." We shall be changed, but yet 
 the same. Nothing will be left in the grave, but all will be 
 transfigured, " that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious 
 Body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue 
 all things unto Himself" 
 
 ^ Possibly their changed feelings arose from an inability to understand the 
 almost simultaneous appearance to the two disciples and to S. Peter, when so 
 far distant from each other. 
 
LXXX 
 
 %\\t ^mittmnion in d^alilee, anb tlje ^^ccn^fon 
 
 S. Mark xvi. 15-20 
 
 15. And He said unto them, Go ye shall not hurt them ; they shall lay 
 
 into all the world, and preach the hands on the sick, and they shall 
 
 gospel to every creature. 16. He recover. 
 
 that believeth and is baptized shall be 19. So then after the Lord had 
 
 saved ; but he that believeth not shall spoken unto them, He was received 
 
 be damned. 17. And these signs up into heaven, and sat on the right 
 
 shall follow them that believe ; In hand of God. 20. And they went 
 
 My Name shall they cast out devils ; forth, and preached every where, the 
 
 they shall speak with new tongues ; Lord working with //lem, and con- 
 
 18. they shall take up serpents ; and firming the word with signs following, 
 
 if they drink any deadly iking, it Amen. 
 
 We are drawing to the close of the Forty Days, and the time 
 for the predicted manifestation in Gahlee is at hand. In 
 anticipation of it some of the disciples left Jerusalem, after 
 our Lord appeared to them the second time in the Upper 
 Chamber, and " He showed Himself to them again at the 
 sea of Tiberias ; " but the great meeting of which both He 
 and the angels had spoken was yet to come. 
 
 Of the scene of it, all we are told is that it was a mountain. 
 It may have been that whereon He had been transfigured, 
 some ridge of Hermon ^ in the distant north ; more probably 
 it was "the Horns of Hattin," from which He had delivered 
 His first sermon at the opening of His mission. Nowhere so 
 well as in the neighbourhood of the Lake could so large a 
 number as five hundred brethren be gathered together. ^ 
 
 What charge the Risen Lord had for these has not been 
 
 1 Cf. xl., pp. 187 ff. 
 
 2 It had been the chief scene of His labours, and He must have made 
 many disciples in Capernaum and Bcthsaida. In Jerusalem we are told the 
 number was only 120. — Acts i. 15. 
 
392 Manifestation in Galilee chap, xvi 
 
 recorded. The special commission to preach and to baptize 
 was given to the Eleven ; it is prefaced with the same 
 declaration of His authority as had preceded His delegation 
 to them of the ministry of Reconciliation. Then He had said 
 to them : " As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I 
 you ; " now He says, " All power is given unto Me in heaven 
 and earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations, 
 baptizing them into the Name ^ of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things 
 whatsoever I have commanded you." 
 
 It is this commission which S. Mark records, as our Lord 
 may have repeated it, in altered words : "Go ye into all the 
 world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that 
 believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth 
 not shall be damned." It is an independent witness, but it 
 can only be rightly understood when read by the light of the 
 corresponding record. 
 
 There are three expressions in it which, by reason of much 
 misunderstanding, call for consideration. 
 
 To " preach the gospel " finds its true explanation in the 
 words which S. Matthew has preserved, "teaching them to 
 observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." It 
 involves the inculcation of faith in the Incarnation, the 
 Resurrection, Remission of Sins, and Sacramental Union with 
 Christ by Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. These doctrines 
 stand out luminous in the injunctions of Christ, and can have 
 no subordinate place in the preaching of His Apostles. 
 
 Again, "he that believeth not" has been commonly re- 
 garded as a general synonym for any one who does not hold 
 the Catholic faith. But we know that even apart from the 
 wide world of heathendom, there are countless multitudes, 
 who through some of the manifold chances of life — accidents 
 of birth or education, or an invincible ignorance — have been 
 shut out from the influence of the faith as it is in Christ. It 
 can hardly be supposed that our Lord taught the Apostles 
 that such were guilty in the sight of God. 
 
 1 In Scripture the name implies far more than the title, viz. , the Essence, 
 the Being, the Nature of God ; and to be baptized into (ets ovofxa) involves the 
 idea of union M^ith, and participation of, and points to a restoration of that 
 close communion between man and God, which had been severed by the Fall. 
 
V. I5-20 The Ascension 393 
 
 The original expression translated " he that believeth not," 
 implies far more than mere negative unbelief. It involves the 
 deliberate rejection of declared truth, and should be rendered 
 "he that disbelieveth." Yet, further, in this passage it 
 appears to have a distinct reference to those commandments 
 which the Apostles had just before been empowered authorita- 
 tively to offer for men's acceptance. Of such as refused them 
 under these circumstances it may be Said, though in an altered 
 sense, " It had been better for them not to have known the 
 way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn 
 from the holy commandment delivered unto them." 
 
 "He that believeth not shall be damned." In lapse of 
 time the usage of language often undergoes change and 
 modification, and this word "damned"^ affords a striking 
 illustration. When the authorised translation was made, it 
 did not necessarily imply anything more than "condemna- 
 tion ; " but later generations have interpreted it as though it 
 expressed an irreversible sentence of eternal death. Notwith- 
 standing, then, an instinctive dread of diminishing the terrible 
 sin of disbelief, we feel constrained to protest against the 
 harshest interpretation, when one that is more lenient is most 
 strictly correct. Condemnation in itself need not refer to the 
 final judgment. While, therefore, the message which Christ 
 bade the Apostles deliver, is to all who receive it "a savour 
 of life unto life," by putting them in the way of salvation, we 
 are not justified in saying that it will be "a savour of death 
 unto death " to those who reject it, or that they will be finally 
 lost. It may be so, but the words of our Lord, " He that 
 disbelieveth shall be condemned," do not assert that it must 
 be so. 
 
 One further manifestation of Himself was yet to be 
 vouchsafed by our Lord. In anticipation of the approaching 
 Pentecost the Apostles returned to Jerusalem ; and there, on 
 the fortieth day from the Resurrection, Jesus found them 
 assembled together, "and led them out as far as Bethany." 
 There, on the wild uplands overhanging the village. He finally 
 withdrew from the eyes of His disciples. It was while in the 
 act of benediction that He was parted from them, rising from 
 
 ^ KaraKpLucj is used nearly twenty times in the New Testament, but is only 
 on one oilier occasion renclcred "danined," Rom. xiv. 23. The uncom- 
 pounded form, however, is once so translated. 2 Thess. ii. 22. 
 
394 The Ascension 
 
 the earth, higher and higher, till "a cloud received Him out 
 of their sight." 
 
 " And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord 
 working with them, and confirming the word with signs 
 following." The co-operation of Christ was in fulfilment of 
 His promise, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end 
 of the world." At first the credentials of their Apostolic 
 commission were attested by the exercise of supernatural gifts. 
 The casting out of evil spirits from the "possessed," which 
 had been so characteristic of Christ's work, was continued in 
 His Name. The outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost filled 
 " devout men out of every nation under heaven " with amaze- 
 ment, "because that every man heard them speaking in their 
 own language." The venomous viper was shaken from an 
 Apostle's hand, and fell harmless to the ground ; S. John, it 
 is said, and even the disciple Barsabas, drank the cup of 
 deadly poison and felt no hurt ; while the very shadow of S. 
 Peter, and clothes of S. Paul, seemed to be endowed with 
 healing virtue, for the confirmation of the faith. But the 
 co-operation of Christ was promised, not for the Apostolic age 
 alone, but for all time. The miraculous gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost were withdrawn, and the third generation, at the latest, 
 buried the last of "The Twelve;" but other men entered 
 into their labours, and the office has been perpetuated by an 
 unbroken lineage, so that those who minister in Christ's 
 Church to-day can feel that the voice that sent them forth was 
 but the echo of that which spake on the Galilean hill to the 
 first in the ministerial line. 
 
 That Presence Which arrested the attention of an un- 
 believing age by startling manifestations has been vouchsafed 
 to the Church through all its chequered history in the power 
 of an unseen but undiminished co-operation. In the Church 
 at large it is borne witness to by the influence of Christianity 
 upon the evil spirits of oppression and cruelty, of greed and 
 profligate living. It has shown itself in a thousand ways in 
 the alleviation of sickness and disease, and the tenderer care 
 for the bereft of reason ; while in a later age at least the 
 Pentecostal gift of tongues has been virtually repeated, by the 
 translation of the Gospel of glad tidings into wellnigh every 
 spoken language. 
 
V. I5-20 The Ascension 395 
 
 In the Ministry, that same Presence has been the inspiring 
 motive -power of Christ's accredited priests. In baptizing 
 converts or infants into His kingdom, they have felt that, 
 though they saw it not, it was He Who opened the door to 
 let them in. In preparing candidates for Confirmation, it was 
 not upon their own catechetical skill that they depended, but 
 upon the help of Him Who is " the Instructor of babes ; " in 
 absolving the penitent, it was, they knew, His voice that sealed 
 the pardon ; in presenting the Sacrifice of the Altar, they 
 relied upon the Great High Priest in heaven to win acceptance 
 for it from the Father by uniting it with His all-prevailing 
 intercession. 
 
 It is true the Divine co-operation has not been visibly 
 realised with unvarying uniformity ; but this was just what He 
 foretold in the terms of His promise, " I wall be with you," 
 not simply " alway," but " all the days " ^ — days when the 
 brightness of His Presence shone out like the sun in its 
 noonday glory, days when the clouds that concealed It seemed 
 only just fringed with Its light — days of victory, and days of 
 defeat — days when the Church arose like a giant in his 
 strength, and carried everything before her — days also when 
 the hands of Aaron and Hur fell paralysed at their side, and 
 victory inclined to the world. But through all the past 
 vicissitudes of eighteen centuries of waxing and waning faith, 
 and through all the future yet to come, Christ's promise has 
 been, and ever will be true — " Lo, I am with you all the days 
 unto the end of the ages." 
 
 Evidence for the Authenticity of the last 
 Twelve Verses 
 
 Of Uncial MSS. 5^ omits them altogether. B omits them, 
 but leaves a vacant space of about sufficient length to contain 
 them ; which indicates that the copyist saw them, but for un- 
 known reasons declined to insert them. L, a MS. of the eighth 
 century, has another ending, but subjoins this also. They are 
 inserted in all the old Uncial MSS. The Cursive MSS. all 
 
 TTctcras ras rj/jjpav 
 
396 TJie Ascension. ch. xvi. v. 15-20 
 
 contain the verses, but some state that they were of disputed 
 authority. 
 
 Of ancient Versions, all the oldest contain them, with the 
 exception of one MS. of the old Latin. In the evidence of the 
 Fathers, we find Eusebius, S. Jerome, and Victor of Antioch 
 questioning their authenticity, but not themselves deciding 
 against it. 
 
 Irenasus, Hippolytus, James of Nisibis, and perhaps Justin 
 Martyr, are all in favour of the insertion. 
 
 The Internal Evidence is so difficult to state briefly, that the 
 reader is referred to the lengthy dissertations of Dr. Hort against 
 S. Mark's authorship, and of Dean Burgon, Dr. Scrivener, Canon 
 Cook, and Mr. M'Clellan in favour of it. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abba, the Oriental, 232, 
 
 Abiathar, 53, 
 
 Ablutions of the Jews, 148. 
 
 Admission of S. Andrew into the 
 
 Inner Circle, 281, 
 Agony in the garden, the, 320. 
 Alabaster, 297 n. 
 Alexander and Rufus, 363, 
 Anamnesis, a memorial before God, 
 
 310. 
 Ananus : sacrilege of, 286. 
 Anglican and Roman Churches on 
 
 divorce, 214. 
 Annas and Caiaphas, High Priests, 
 
 330- 
 
 examination before, 329. 
 
 Anticipation of Sacramental Ordi- 
 nances, 31. 
 
 Antiochus ; his desecration of the 
 Sanctuary, 285. 
 
 Antitype of the Paschal Lamb, 303. 
 
 Apology, Justin Martyr's first, 219 n. 
 
 Apostles, call of the, 23. 
 
 jealousy of the, 203. 
 
 return to Jerusalem, 393. 
 
 Appearances on the Day of Resurrec- 
 tion, three, 386. 
 
 of our Lord after the Resurrec- 
 tion, 386 71. 
 
 Arimathea, Joseph of, 377. 
 
 his petition to Pilate, 379. 
 
 Aries, Council of, on Divorce, 214. 
 
 Arrest and Betrayal, the, 323. 
 
 Ascension, the, 393. 
 
 Atabyrium, capture of, by Antiochus, 
 188 n, 
 
 Augustine, S. on Marriage, 266. 
 
 Authenticity of the last twelve verses, 
 evidence for the, 395 n. 
 
 Authority, our Lord's, 249. 
 
 Authority for Infant Baptism, 216, 
 Authorship, the Davidic, of Ps. ex. , 
 
 275 >"• 
 
 of the Gospels, the, i. 
 
 Avoiding offences, 207. 
 
 Baptism of Jesus, the, ii. 
 
 — probable scene of the, 12. 
 
 Authority for infant, 216. 
 
 Baptismal Regeneration and original 
 
 sin, 219 n. 
 Baptist, preaching and appearance of 
 
 the, 6, 
 Barabbas, who he was, 357, 
 Barchochba, revolt of, 261. 
 Barley harvest, time of the, 51 n. 
 Bartimaeus at Jericho, Blind, 230. 
 Baskets, Jewish, 137 n. 
 Bearing the Cross, 183, 362. 
 Beatitudes, site of the mount of, 61, 
 Ifcelzebub, meaning of, 66. 
 Beheading of the Baptist, the, 132. 
 Behef in the Galilean Messiah, 274 ;/. 
 Bethany, home at, 235. 
 
 the Supper at, 297. 
 
 Beth phage, 236 n. 
 Bethsaida-Julias, 141 n. 
 Betrayal and arrest, 323. 
 
 the kiss of, 326. 
 
 Blasphemy against tlie Holy Ghost, 
 
 65' 
 lilessing, the cup of, 307 n. 
 Blind man at Bethsaida, 174. 
 Blood, Christ's Sacrificial, 309, 
 Booths, 245. 
 Boy, the demoniac, 197. 
 Brethren of our Lord, the, 70. 
 Bush, in the Section of Scripture so 
 
 called, 268 n. 
 
398 
 
 htdex 
 
 Caiaphas and Annas, High Priests, 
 
 330- 
 Calais lighthouse-keeper, the, 82. 
 Call of the Apostles, the, 20. 
 
 Levi or Matthew, the, 43. 
 
 Canaanite, synonym for merchant, 
 
 247 n. 
 Capernaum, its Synagogue, 25. 
 
 its modern site, 26. 
 
 length of the Lake of, 141 71. 
 
 Capture of Atabyrium by Antiochus 
 
 the Great, 188 ?^. 
 Carpenter at Nazareth, the, 119, 
 Centurion, his confession, 377. 
 Ceremonies of the Jewish Passover, 
 
 302. 
 Character of Holy Matrimony, the 
 
 Sacramental, 215. 
 Characteristics of S. Mark's Gospel, i. 
 
 of the Twelve, 60, 125, 
 
 Chests in the Treasury, the, 277. 
 Child taken up by our Lord, 203. 
 Christian Art, teaching of, 363, 364. 
 Christianity in Europe and Asia, 
 
 progress of, 283. 
 Church and Dissent, the subject of, 
 
 205. 
 Circumcision and Infant Baptism, 
 
 217. 
 Cleansing of the Temple, 244. 
 
 motive for the, 246. 
 
 Clothing of our Lord, 115. 
 Cock-crowings, the various, 315 /?. 
 Commandment, the Great, 269. 
 Commission to preach, the, 392. 
 Commissioners of Henry VHI. on the 
 
 Divorce Law, 215, 
 Commissions, the three Apostolical, 
 
 37 n. 
 Condemnation of our Lord by Pilate, 
 
 355. 
 Confession of S. Peter, the, 178. 
 Construction of Eastern houses, 38. 
 Corn-fields, Disciples in the, 52, 
 Council of Aries on Divorce, the, 214, 
 
 of Chalcedon, the, 91 n. 
 
 of Nicsea, the, 91. 
 
 Court, our Lord before an Informal, 
 
 334- 
 
 of the Gentiles, 245. 
 
 Covenant of vSalt, the, 210 71. 
 Cross, bearing the, 360. 
 shape of the, 367. 
 
 Crown of Thorns, the, 361. 
 Crucifixion, 347 ti. 
 
 scene of the, 362. 
 
 time of the, 368, 
 
 Cry, the mysterious, 372. 
 Cup of Blessing, the, 307 n. 
 Cure of the demoniac, the, 28. 
 
 of the paralytic, the, 40. 
 
 Custom, the Paschal, of releasing a 
 
 prisoner, 356. 
 Cyrene, Simon of, 363. 
 
 Darkness in the land, 371. 
 
 Date of S. John's Gospel, 297 ?i. 
 
 David at Nob, 53. 
 
 David and Abigail, dialogue between, 
 
 261, 
 David's Son and Lord, 274, 
 Davidic authorship of Ps. ex. , 275 71. 
 Deaf man with stammering tongue, 
 
 the, 161. 
 Degrees, songs of, 135. 
 Demand for a sign, the, 170. 
 Demoniac, cure of the, 28. 
 
 boy, 197. 
 
 Demoniacal possession, 198. 
 Demoniacs of Gadara, the, 99. 
 Denial, four records of S. Peter's, 340. 
 Desecration of the Sanctuary by 
 
 Antiochus, 285. 
 Destruction of the herd of swine, 104. 
 Devotion of the holy women, 380. 
 Devout women, the, 381. 
 Difficulties, Sadducean, 264. 
 Disciples in the corn-fields, 52. 
 
 going to Emmaus, 388. 
 
 Dissent and Church, 205. 
 Divinity of the Messiah, 274. 
 Divisions of the night-watches, 141 «., 
 
 294 71. 
 
 of our Lord's Trial, 330. 
 
 Divorce, the law of, 211. 
 
 Hillel and Shammai on, 212. 
 
 the Early Fathers on, 214. 
 
 the Council of Aries on, 214, 
 
 the Synod of Elvira on, 214. 
 
 Anglican and Roman Churches 
 
 on, 214. 
 
 Josephus on, 212 71. 
 
 Dog as a domestic animal, 15S n. 
 Duties of a slave, 1 1 71. 
 Dysmas and Gestas, 369. 
 
Index 
 
 399 
 
 Eagles, the Roman, 286 n. 
 Eastern houses, construction of, 38. 
 Ecce Homo, 358. 
 Eclipse a.t the time of the Crucifixion, 
 
 372. 
 Elders, traditions of the, 145. 
 Eleven in the Paschal Chamber, the, 
 
 389- 
 Elijah compared with the Baptist, 7. 
 
 type of the Baptist, 195. 
 
 and Moses, reasons for their 
 
 appearance at the Transfiguration, 
 
 189. 
 Eliphaz, prediction of, 16. 
 Elvira, Synod of, on Divorce, 214. 
 Emblems of the Evangelists, 4, 
 Emmaus, the Disciples going to, 388. 
 End, the prediction of the, 290. 
 Entry, the triumphal, 235. 
 Ephphatha, 163. 
 Epiphanius, views of, 73, 
 Eucharist, institution of the Holy, 
 
 307. 
 sacrificial aspect of the Holy, 
 
 306. 
 the Holy, the intercessory office, 
 
 310. 
 Events and ceremonies of the Jewish 
 
 Passover, 302. 
 Evidence for the authenticity of the 
 
 last twelve verses, 395 71. 
 Examination before Annas, the, 329. 
 Execution, at the place of, 366. 
 Eye, the needle's, 223 n. 
 
 Fall of Jerusalem foretold, 279, 285. 
 
 S. Peter's, 340. 
 
 Fathers, the, on divorce, 214. 
 
 united testimony of the, i. 
 
 P\asting, the principle of, 47. 
 
 laws respecting, 47. 
 
 Feast, the Passover, 502. 
 Feeding of the five thousand, 134. 
 
 site of the, 135. 
 
 four thousand, 165. 
 
 Fig-tree, the withered, 240. 
 
 parable of the barren, 242. 
 
 Figs, season for, 241. 
 
 Flesh, thorn in the, 28. 
 
 Flight to Pella, the Christians', 286. 
 
 Fulvia, wife of Mark Antony, 132. 
 
 Furcifer, fork -bearer, term of reproach, 
 
 Gadara, demoniacs of, 99. 
 (jalilean Messiah, belief in the, 274 ti. 
 Galilee, scene of the manifestation, 
 384. 
 
 the manifestation in, 391. 
 
 Garments, parting of the, 368. 
 Gemara or Talmud, the, 147. 
 Gentiles, Court of the, 245. 
 Gethsemane, 318. 
 
 Agony in, 320. 
 
 derivation of the name, 318 ;/. 
 
 Ghost, blasphemy against the Holy, 
 
 65. 
 Gift of Mary of Bethany, 295. 
 Golal, or round mill-stone, the, 380. 
 Gospel, date of S. John's, 297 n. 
 Gospel of S. Mark, its characteristics, 
 
 I. 
 of Nicodemus, the Apocryphal, 
 
 233. 
 
 of the Infancy, the, 121 ;/. 
 
 Gospels, authorship of the, i. 
 Great Commandment, the, 269. 
 Guest, Bishop, on the doctrine of the 
 
 Real Presence, 311 «. 
 Guest-chamber, site of the, 302. 
 
 Hallel, singing of the, 313. 
 Harvest, time of the barley, 51 //. 
 Ilelvidius, views of, 73 n. 
 Henry VHI.'s commissioners on the 
 
 divorce law, 215. 
 Herod Agrippa lays hands on S. 
 
 James, 282. 
 Herod Antipas, 129. 
 
 • our Lord before, 349. 
 
 Herodians, 58. 
 
 Herodias and her daughter, 129. 
 
 Ilillel and Shammai, 9 //. 
 
 on divorce, 212. 
 
 Hinnom, valley of, 208. 
 
 the Jewish burial - place, 
 
 379. 
 Holy women, devotion of the, 3S0. 
 Home Life of the Apostles, 30. 
 Horns of Hattin, the, 391. 
 Hosanna, meaning of, 257 «. 
 j Houses, Eastern, 38. 
 
 Identification of the child taken up 
 
 by our Lord, 203. 
 Ignatius, S. , 204. 
 Infant Baptism, authority for, 216, 
 
400 
 
 hidex 
 
 Infants under the Jewish Dispensation, 
 
 217. 
 Influence of S, Peter on S. Mark, 2. 
 
 Satanic, 199. 
 
 Inscription, Pilate's, 367, 
 
 Institution of the Holy Eucharist, 
 
 307. 
 Intercession at the Holy Eucharist, 
 
 310. 
 Investiture, the mock, 360. 
 Issue of blood, woman with an, 114. 
 
 Jairus, raising of his daughter, 109. 
 James, martyrdom of S. , 282. 
 
 ■ the Just, 282. 
 
 the Bp. of Jerusalem, S., 73 n, 
 
 and John, SS. , their ambitious 
 
 request, 225. 
 Jealousy of the Apostles, the, 203. 
 Jericho, blind Bartimaeus at, 230. 
 
 site of, in our Lord's time, 231. 
 
 modern name, 231 n. 
 
 Jerusalem, fall of, foretold, 279. 
 — — - the Apostles return to, 393. 
 
 predicted fall of, 279. 
 
 Jesus : His baptism, 11. 
 
 ■ His clothing, 115. 
 
 Jews, ablutions of the, 148. 
 John, beheading of S,, 132. 
 John's Gospel, S., date of, 297 11. 
 Joseph of Arimathea, 377. 
 
 ■ • his petition to Pilate, 379. 
 
 Josephus on divorce, 212 11. 
 
 Judas, 304. 
 
 his presence at the institution of 
 
 the Holy Eucharist, 306. 
 his flight to the chief priests, 
 
 348. 
 of Gamala, revolt of, 260. 
 
 Khersa, 100. 
 
 Kiss of betrayal, the, 326. 
 
 Korban, 152. 
 
 Last Supper, the, 300. 
 Laticlave, the purple, 361 n. 
 Law of divorce, the, 211, 
 
 the Levirate, 265 n. 
 
 subdivision of the, by the 
 
 Scribes, 270. 
 ■ — — respecting poverty, 222. 
 respecting fasting, 47. 
 
 Laws, different kinds of, 271. 
 Lazarus identified with the rich young 
 
 ruler, 221. 
 Leaven, formal search for, 301. 
 
 use of, 172, 
 
 Lebbasus or Thaddseus, 62 n. 
 Legend of S. Veronica, the, 114. 
 Legendary History of S. Mark, 
 
 4 n. 
 Leper cleansed, the, 34. 
 
 Simon the, 297. 
 
 Leprosy, 34. 
 
 the type of sin, 37. 
 
 Lesser Sanhedrim, Council of 
 
 the, 
 
 the. 
 
 335- 
 
 Lessons of the Transfiguration, 192. 
 — — in the Synagogue, the, 120. 
 Levi or Matthew, call of, 43. 
 Linen cloth, the, 327 n. 
 Lischath Haggazith, the, 344. 
 Lord, the brethren of our, 70. 
 — — - David's Son and, 274. 
 Lord's authority, our, 249. 
 Lord's Prayer, the, 25. 
 
 temptation, our, 15. 
 
 Lulav or palm, 238 n. 
 
 Mach^.rus, description of, 21 n, 
 Magdala, site of, 166. 
 
 Mary of, 296. 
 
 Maimonides on baptism, 218. 
 Malchus, our Lord smitten by, 332. 
 Man with the pitcher of water, 302 n. 
 Manifestation in Galilee, 391. 
 Manna, the pot of, at Capernaum, 26. 
 Maries, the three, 70. 
 Marriage in heaven, 266. 
 Martial, S., 204 n. 
 Martyrdom of S. James, 282, 
 
 the Just, 282. 
 
 Mary of Bethany, her gift, 295. 
 Matrimony, the sacramental character 
 
 of holy, 215. 
 Meaning of the Shema, 271 n. 
 Meir, Rabbi, 'j'j. 
 Messiah, belief in the Galilean, 274 71. 
 
 Divinity of the, 274. 
 
 Messianic prediction, 275. 
 M^^ayer system, the, 255, 
 Mill-stone, its meaning in the original, 
 
 207 71. 
 
 Miracle, requisite for a, 200. 
 Mishnah, divisions of the, 147 n. 
 
Index 
 
 401 
 
 Mission of the Twelve, 124. 
 
 Mite, the widow's, 277. 
 
 Moab, famous for its vines, 254 tl. 
 
 Mock Investiture, the, 360. 
 
 Money-changers, the, 245. 
 
 Mosaic and Christian Priesthoods 
 
 compared, 37. 
 Moses on the Resurrection, 267. 
 Moses and Ehas, reasons for their 
 
 presence at the Transfiguration, 189. 
 Mother of S. Peter's wife, 30. 
 Mount of Beatitudes, site of the, 61. 
 Mustard-seed, parable of the, 89. 
 Mysterious cry, the, 372. 
 
 Name, in the, of, meaning, 392 
 
 of Ignatius, the, 204. 
 
 Nasi, the term, 330 n. 
 
 Nathanael (or Bartholomew), 61 7l. 
 
 Nazareth, the Carpenter at, 119. 
 
 Necessity of prayer, 33. 
 
 Necessity of sacrifice, 209. 
 
 Needle's Eye, the, 223 n. 
 
 Nicodemus, Apocryphal Gospel of, 
 
 233- 
 Night-watches, division of the, 141 //. 
 
 Offences, avoiding, 207. 
 Office of the Scribe, 269 ?i. 
 Ophiolatry, 292 n. 
 Oral and Written Law, the, 147. 
 Ordination of the Twelve, 60. 
 
 Palace, an Oriental, 338. 
 
 Palm or Lulav, 238 n. 
 
 Parable of the Mustard-seed, 89. 
 
 Sower, 75. 
 
 explained, 80. 
 
 Vineyard, 254. 
 
 Paralytic cured, the, 40. 
 Parting of the garments, 368. 
 Paschal custom of releasing a prisoner, 
 
 356. 
 Passover, events and ceremonies of 
 
 the Jewish, 300. 
 
 Feast, the, 303. 
 
 Pella, Christians' flight to, 286. 
 Peter, S. , his great Confession, 170. 
 
 warned, 313. 
 
 Peter, S. , his Fall, 340. 
 Phylacteries, the, 270 n. 
 Pilate, acts of, 369. 
 his inscription, 367. 
 
 Pilate, his usual residence, 347 «. 
 
 our Lord before him, 349. 
 
 his question to our Lord, 351. 
 
 his unpopularity, 260. 
 
 scene of his banishment, 359 n. 
 
 Place of execution, at the, 366. 
 Possession, demoniacal, 103, 198. 
 Pot of manna at Capernaum, the, 26. 
 Poverty, law respecting, 222. 
 Power of Satan, the, 199 n. 
 Prayer, necessity of, 33. 
 Preaching of the Baptist, 6. 
 
 Christ, the, 21. 
 
 Predicted Fall of Jerusalem, 279. 
 Prediction of Eliphaz, 16. 
 
 Messianic, 275. 
 
 of the End, 290. 
 
 Presence of Christ in the Church 
 
 alway, 394. 
 Presentation of Christ's Sacrificial 
 
 Blood, 309. 
 Priesthoods, the Mosaic and Christian, 
 
 37- 
 Priestly cloak rent, 336. 
 Principle of Fasting, the, 47. 
 Procla, dream of, 358. 
 Progress of Christianity in Europe 
 
 and Asia, 283. 
 Prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi, 6. 
 Prophecy fulfilled in Christ, 193. 
 Psalm ex., 275. 
 Publican, the term, 9 n. 
 
 Rabbi or Rabboni, distinction be- 
 tween, 232 71. 
 Raising of Jairus' daughter, 109. 
 Ranks, interpretation of the word, 
 
 137- 
 Recognition of the Saints, 190. 
 Records of S. Peter's denial, 340. 
 Regeneration, 87 «. 
 Request of SS. James and John, the 
 
 ambitious, 225. 
 Resurrection, Old Testament testimony 
 
 to the, 266. 
 
 Moses on the, 267. 
 
 declared by an Angel, 383. 
 
 three appearances on the day of 
 
 the, 386. 
 
 appearances after the, 386 n. 
 
 Return to Jerusalem, the Apostles', 
 
 393- 
 Revolt of Barchochba, 261. 
 
402 
 
 Index 
 
 Riha or Eriha, modern name for 
 
 Jericho, 231 71. 
 Ritual of the Jewish Sacrifice, 308. 
 Roman and Anglican Churches on 
 
 Divorce, 214. 
 Roman eagles, the, 286 ?z. 
 
 Legion, division of the, 376. 
 
 Roof of an Eastern house, 38. 
 Rufus and Alexander, 363, 
 Ruler, the rich young, 220. 
 identified with Lazarus, 
 
 221, 
 Rules of the Sanhedrim, 344. 
 
 SAB^EISM, 292 71. 
 
 Sacramental ordinances, anticipation 
 
 of, 31. 
 character of Holy Matrimony, 
 
 215. 
 Sacrifice, necessity for, 209. 
 
 ■ Ritual of the Jewish, 308, 
 
 Sacrificial aspect of the Holy 
 
 Eucharist, 306. 
 Sacrificial Blood, Christ's, 309. 
 Sadducean difficulties, 264, 
 Safed, description of, 82. 
 Sagan, the term, 330 71. 
 Salome, daughter of Herodias : her 
 
 end, 133 71. 
 Salt, why used in sacrifice, 209. 
 
 covenant of, 210 ?^ 
 
 Salvadora Persica, 89. 
 
 Sanctification, 87 71. 
 
 Sanctuary, desecration of the, by 
 
 Antiochus, 285. 
 Sanhedrim, our Lord before the, 343, 
 
 rules of the, 344. 
 
 Council of the Lesser, 335. 
 
 Satan, power of, 199 ti.. 
 
 Satanic influence, 199. 
 
 Scene of the Transfiguration, 187. 
 
 Scene of the Crucifixion, 362. 
 
 Scribe, office of the, 269 n.. 
 
 Scripture, true way to interpret it, 
 
 2060 
 Season for figs, the, 241 71. 
 Separatists, the, 58. 
 
 their motto, 271, 
 
 Shammai and Hillel, 9, 
 
 on divorce, 212. 
 
 Shape of the Cross, 367, 
 Shema, meaning of, 271. 
 Shemoneh Esreh, 25 7i. 
 
 Shewbread, the, 53. 
 
 Sick, unction of the, 127 n. 
 
 Sign, demand for a, 170. 
 
 Simon of Cyrene, 363. 
 
 Site of the Guest-chamber, 302. 
 
 Jericho in our Lord's time, 231. 
 
 Slave, duties of a, 11 n. 
 Son and Lord, David's, 274. 
 Songs of Degrees, 135 n. 
 Sower, parable o:' the, 75. 
 
 explained, 80. 
 
 Spikenard, 297 7i. 
 Spina Christi, the, ']j, 361 n. 
 Stilling of the storm, the, 94, 
 Subdivision of the Law by the 
 
 Scribes, 270. 
 Sunset, time of, 99 71. 
 Supper at Bethany, the, 297. 
 
 the Last, 300, 
 
 Swine, destruction of the, 104, 
 Synagogue at Capernaum, the, 25. 
 — — its identification, 26. 
 
 its site, 26 n. 
 
 lessons in the, 120 ??, 
 
 Synod of Elvira on divorce, 214. 
 Syrophenician woman, the, 156, 
 System, the Metayer, 255 n. 
 
 Talmud or Gemara, 147. 
 Temple, pinnacle of the, 17 «. 
 
 cleansing of the, 244. 
 
 motives for, 246. 
 
 description of the, 280. 
 
 treatment of it by Turnus Rufus, 
 
 280. 
 
 attempt to rebuild the, 280. 
 
 veil of the, 373. 
 
 Temptation of our Lord, the, 15. 
 
 its scene, 15. 
 
 Testament, Old, testimony to the 
 
 Resurrection, 266. 
 Testimony of the Early Fathers, x. 
 Thorn in the flesh, the, 28 i^. 
 Thorns, crown of, 361. 
 Tiberias, 21 t?. 
 Time of the Crucifixion, 368. 
 Tishbite, the, 6 71, 
 Tradition of the Elders, the, 145. 
 Traditionalism, 151. 
 Transfiguration, scene of the, 187 
 
 lessons of the, 192. 
 
 Treasury of the Temple, 276, 
 Trial of our Lord, 330. 
 
Index 
 
 403 
 
 Triumphal Entry, the, 235. 
 Twelve, characteristics of the, 125. 
 
 mission of the, 124. 
 
 ordination of the, 60. 
 
 Unction of the sick, the, 127. 
 Use of salt in sacrifice, 209. 
 
 Valley of Hinnom, the, 208. 
 
 the Jews' burial-place, 379. 
 
 Veil of the Temple, 373. 
 Veronica, legend of S., 114. 
 Via Dolorosa, 362. 
 Vineyard, parable of the, 254. 
 
 Walking upon the sea, 140. 
 Watches of the night, 141 ?i. 
 Watchfulness enjoined by our Lord; 
 
 294. 
 Widow's mite, the, 277. 
 Wife's mother, S. Peter's, 30. 
 Withered fig-tree, the, 240. 
 Witnesses procured, false, 335. 
 Woman with an issue of blood, 114. 
 Woman, the Syrophenician, 156. 
 Women, the Devout, 381. 
 W^ritten and oral law, 147. 
 
 Young man vv-ho fled, the, 325^. 
 
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