i LIBRARY OF C iXGRESS. !

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Jesus at Nazareth.

Seeing Jesus.

Page 97.

SEEING JESLTS.

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BY

Eev. HENRY A/ XELSOX, D.D.,

Of Lane Theological Seminary.

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PHILADELPHIA:

PRESBYTERIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE,

1334 CHESTNUT STREET.

NEW YORK: A. D. F. RANDOLPH & CO., 770 BROADWAY.

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Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by

WM. L. HILDEBURN, Treasurer,

in trust for the

PRESBYTERIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District

of Pennsylvania.

Westcott & Thomson, Stereotypers, Philada.

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CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Seeing Jesus 7

II. Jesus in Bethlehem 26

III. Jesus at Nazareth 37

IV. Jesus at the Jordan 51

V. Nicodemus' Visit to Jesus 63

VI. Jesus at Sychar 80

VII. Jesus at Nazareth again 92

VIII. Jesus at the Pharisee's Table 104

IX. The Transfiguration 116

X. Jesus with the Sinning Woman 129

XI. Jesus in the House of Martha and

Mary 144

XII. The Last Supper 161

3

DEDICATION.

To the children whose pastor I have been, and to those who were children when I was their pastor, this little book is affectionately inscribed, with the sincere prayer that they may all be so happy as to "See Jesus,1' "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

H. A. X.

Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Sept. 15, 1869. 1*

SEEING JESUS.

i.

SEEING JESUS.

E read in the Gospel, as written by John (xii. 20- 22), of "certain Greeks" who came to Philip, "which was of Beth- saida of Galilee, and de- sired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh, and telleth Andrew, and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus."

I have often wondered who those "Greeks" were; what country they came from ; why they came to Jerusa-

8 SEEING JESUS.

lem; and why they desired to "see Jesus."

Some think that they were Jews, who lived out of Judea in some of the countries in which the Greek language was spoken. There were many such in those days. The Jews had been dispersed into many lands by their captivities and their migrations; and those of them who spoke the Greek language might be called "Greeks" or " Grecians" although they were not of Grecian descent.

You know that now the Jews are still more widely scattered, even among all nations, according to God's ancient threatening against them if they should disobey him, and in punishment, doubtless of their great national crime, the rejection and murder of Messiah. JSTow, you know,

SEEING JESUS. 9

there are English Jews, and German Jews, and Italian Jews, and Spanish Jews, and so on. They are all Jews, by descent from Israel, and they are English, or Italian, or Spanish, or Ger- man, or American, according to the lan- guage which they speak and the coun- try in which they live. It was also true, in the New Testament times, that people might be Greeks who did not live in Greece. Ancient Greece was very much like modern England — a small country, belonging to a very energetic and enterprising people. They sent out many colonies, and at length it came to pass that their lan- guage was spoken, and their people were found, and their ideas prevailed in many countries; just as now you may go to Canada, and to Australia, and to New Zealand, and to India and

10 SEEING JESUS.

China, and you will find plenty of English men and women, wearing Eng- lish dress and speaking the English language, and doing everything in an English fashion. They are English men and women; and their children are English children, and will grow up to be English men and women although they may never have seen England in their lives.

So it was wdth Greece and the Greeks; and we cannot say whether these Greeks who wished to see Jesus, had come from Greece itself or from some other country. We cannot cer- tainly tell whether they were strictly Greek people, or (as I said before) Jewish people living in Greek prov- inces and speaking the Greek lan- guage. It is far more important to knoAV who he was whom they wished

SEEING JESUS. 11

to see than to find out who they were that washed to see him; and we are much better able to do so.

We are told that these Greeks were among those that came to Jerusalem "to worship at the feast." It is un- certain whether they were well in- structed in the true religion, and came with a good knowledge and a holy fear of the only true God, or whether they were worshipers of man}7 gods fabled in the Greek mythology. They may have considered Jehovah only another god, like their Jupiter and Neptune and Mars — a god who wTas the special patron of the Jews, and had a splendid temple in their chief city.

It is said that some people did go to Jerusalem in that way and make offerings in that temple.

12 SEEING JESUS.

The really interesting thing about them is, that they wished to "see Jesus. ': I do not know why. It may he that it was only as you Avould wish to see General Grant or General Sher- man if either of them were to come near your home, or as you would wish to see Queen Victoria or Emperor Napoleon if you were in London or Paris. The natural wish which we all have to see any famous person may have been all that there was in the minds of these Greeks. For the fame of Jesus had spread very far at that time. It was only a few days before the time of his crucifixion ; and his heavenly teachings and wonderful works had been talked about, and doubtless written about, in many letters for three years.

It would not be strange if quick-

SEEING JESUS. 13

minded Greeks, who had only thus heard of Jesus, should wish to see him. And how natural it was that they should apply to one of his dis- ciples, with a polite request that he would give them an opportunity ! Perhaps we can even find a reason why they applied to Philip rather than to either of the other disciples. Philip is a Greek name. It would sound more familiar to Greeks than some of the other names. If we were in a citv where we were strangers, and wanted to ask some question or some favor, we should be much more likely to apply to a man whose name was Smith, or Brown, or Williams, than to one whose name was Zai Ping- Wang, or Umpandi, or JNTordheimer, or Pulkowtski, or Dobinski.

We should feel more sure that he

14 SEEING JESUS.

was a person who could understand us. Even if we had no doubt about being able to make ourselves under- stood, still a name such as we had always been familiar with, which was the name of some of our neighbors, or perhaps of some uncle or aunt, who had given us toys, and at whose houses we had loved to visit, would attract us more than a strange-sounding name, that we could not pronounce if we saw it on a sign-board, and would not know how to spell if we heard it pro- nounced.

I do not know that this had any- thing to do with those Greeks apply- ing to Philip, but I think that per- haps it had, for it was not only a name that Greeks would understand, but that was very famous in Greek history. It. would be as familiar to

SEEING JESUS. 15

the readers of Greek* books as Wash- ington, or Wellington, or Cromwell are to the readers of English books.

At any rate, they came to Philip and told him that they wished to "see Jesus. y Philip seemed to be pleased with this — at least not displeased — for he went directly and spoke to Andrew about it (Andrew, you know, was from the same village with Philip — Bethsaida), and they together went and told Jesus.

John does not tell us whether the Lord consented to let the Greeks come and see him. He only tells us how Jesus immediately proceeded to speak some weighty and solemn words about the glorification which he, "the Son of man," wras about to have, and to in- timate, in his own wonderful style of parables, that he was to come to it as

16 SEEING JESUS.

the corn of wheat comes to its glorifi- cation by first falling down into the ground and dying, then springing up in green and living and fruit-bearing glory.

I do not think that the Lord refused to let those Greeks come and see him. I rather think that he, by his look or manner, gave his consent that they should come* up among those who were listening to him, and stand just as near him as they pleased, hearing his words and seeing his face.

He may (I think likely) have cour- teously waved his hand to them, showing them where to stand while they listened; and may have bent his eyes upon them for an instant — those deep eyes into which they might gaze as wTe gaze into the blue of heaven, and in which, if their own eyes were

SEEIXG JESUS. 17

opened, they could see that wonderful look of holy pity and sorrow which beamed from his pure and compas- sionate soul. But he could not stop from his teaching, and turn to some light chatting, or listen to any flowery compliments which their smooth Greek tongues might have ready for him.

Oh no. It was only a week till he would be crucified, and the burdening thought of that great agony was on him, too heavy for any idle words to interest" him, if he had not always been too serious and grave for that.

I hope that those Greeks did not merely "see Jesus y so as to gratify their curiosity, or so as to be able to i>*o home and describe him to their

friends — able to tell the height of his stature, the fashion of his garments,

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18 SEEING JESUS.

the length of his beard, and the pecu- liarities of his countenance; or to de- scribe to their artists the perfection of his form and features, surpassing those of their Apollo.

I rather hope that they saw him so as to feel the divine power of his pres- ence, and were quickened by those holy and mighty words which he . spake, "which are spirit and which are life."

For do you not know, children, that to see a person may mean little or may mean much? Do you not know that looking on the same face or the same picture, one person may see a great deal more than another?

I was once sitting with a friend who had come far to see me, and we were earnestly engaged in talking of some-

SEEING JESUS. 19

thing in which we both felt deeply in- terested.

Suddenly my friend raised his eyes, and they lighted on a little picture that hung on the wall near us — a little picture of a child's face.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, "that is a sweet picture — a lovely, dear face," and as he spoke his own face lighted up with a glow that fairly transfigured it.

He was the father of that little child — in heaven now, standing among the angels ; and although I had seen that child, and had loved her, and had held her in my arms, and called her by a name that is very dear to me, while I baptized her into "that Name which is above every name,' and although that little pic- ture had seemed to me a sweet and beautiful picture, I perceived that the

20 SEEING JESUS.

child's father could see unspeakably more in it than I could see.

I could understand this well enough, for my eye did not have to move far from that picture to fall upon another — the face of another child whom Jesus has taken to himself, in which I very well know that I can see more, much more, than any other man can see, or any woman except one.

Ah! thev tell us that "love is blind." Perhaps it is sometimes and in some respects; but I am sure that on the contrary love quickens our power to see — makes us able to see much of real beauty to which we should be blind without it.

And that is real beauty which hon- est and pure love sees. It is the most real and the most beautiful beauty that there is.

SEEING JESUS. 21

I have looked upon a living face in which some others would perhaps see nothing but the wrinkled, faded face of an old woman, but I could always see in it many unutterable things. I could always see a beautiful picture of home, and could read a touching history of Cares, and toils, and watchfulness, and patience; and I could see inexhaust- ible mother-love, fixed as the moun- tains and deep as the sea. I hope that each of vou, children, when you are as old as I am, will remember one old, wrinkled and faded face in which you can see beauty that could not fade, and which you may expect to see again "in the light of God."

Those Greeks that took pains to "see Jesus" did they see in him only such a form and such features? only a Galilean man, wearing plain clothes,

22 SEEING JESUS.

and behaving in a plain, unassuming, ordinary way? only a noble-looking, thoughtful, dignified man, saying and doing very remarkable things? Or were their eyes so opened that they could "see the Lamb of God" — that they could see " divine compassion beaming in his gracious eye?"

If we know how and why they came to him, we could better, judge how much they would see in him. If they came only from curiosity, such as we should all feel to see any famous per- son, it is not likely that they would see as much as if they came knowing that he was a Saviour from sin, know- ing that they were sinners and that they needed such a Saviour.

If they came thus, I should not have much doubt that they would look on him with that love and faith which

SEEING JESUS. 23

so open the eyes of people and make them see things that to others are invisible.

And now, my children, I am think- ing how it would be with yon if I could take you, as Philip (I suppose) took those Greeks, to "see Jesus" How much would you see in him? Would he appear to you "the chiefest among ten thousand,' or would he be to you "as a root out of dry ground, having no form nor comeliness?' That would depend on the question whether vou have felt his love in vour hearts or not.

I cannot take you* to see him in that way. He is no more known or seen "after the flesh." But the best part of that belie vino- and affectionate see-

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ing you can have now; for do you not perceive that that depends on

24 SEEING JESUS.

knowing him— really knowing him, I mean — knowing him not with the mind only, but with the mind and heart? Dear children, it just seems to me as if you w^ere saying to me, as those Greeks said to Philip, "Sir, we would see Jesus.r It is not necessary for me to go and speak wTith Andrew or any one else about it; for in the blessed New Testament it is plainly enough told me that I may bring you directly to him — may assure you that you may come to him, and no one may forbid you.

I am certain that he wishes you to know him, which is the best part of see- ing, and he bids me do all I can to help you thus to know him, thus to see him.

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Let me now lead you to some of the

SEEING JESUS. 25

places in which the holy evangelists show Jesus to us. I wish you to study those scenes so well that they will be fixed in your memories; so that after- ward, whenever you turn your thoughts to them, it will be like turn- ing your eyes to a picture — the pic- ture of some dear face or some scene of precious remembrance. I will try to help you to do this. May God keep me from making any mistakes, and help me show Jesus to you just as he is I And may he give each of you a ten- der, penitent, thankful heart, which can so love and so understand him that you will see in him the heavenly beauty which careless and impenitent minds cannot see, and do not conceive 1

II.

JESUS IN BETHLEHEM.

ETHLEHEM is a large

village, about six miles from the great city Jeru- salem. It is " beautifully situated on the brow of a high hill, which com- mands an extensive view of the sur- rounding mountainous country, and rises in pastures of vineyards, almond groves and fig plantations, watered by gentle rivulets that murmur through the terraces; and is diversified by towers and wine-presses."

This is the description of it as it is now (given by Dr. Kitto), anjl it is

26

JESUS IN BETHLEHEM. 27

probable that its appearance was not very different when Jesus was born there, and hundreds of years longer ago, when David, a young and ruddy- cheeked boy, lived there and kept his father's sheep. Perhaps he led them forth sometimes over the very pastures on which the shepherds were keeping their flocks when they saw that strange lio-ht and heard the sweet son 2; of the choir of angels, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will to men."

I would like to go to Bethlehem, not because it is a more beautiful vil- lage than many others, but because it is such an interesting Bible-place — the home of young David, who slew Goli- ath and was afterward Israel's noblest king, and the birth-place of the Son of David, the anointed king of Zion.

28 SEEING JESUS.

If we should go to England to visit the birth-place of her prince, the heir of her throne, we should find it in a splendid palace in the great city of London. But the birth-place of King Jesus was not a palace. It was a stable. If we could have gone there with the shepherds, we should have " found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger."

Can you not "see Jesus" with your mind's eye. You have seen pictures of him as he lay in that manger, the sweet face of his virgin mother close beside him, the grave, good Joseph standing not far away, and the won- dering shepherds or the adoring " wise men from the East" gazing reverently on the babe from which Mary gently unlifts the covering.

Who did "see Jesus" in Bethlehem?

JESUS IN BETHLEHEM. 29

We have already answered this question. Let us think over again who they all were.

1. The Shepherds. Humble men in a lowly employment were those to whom Grod saw fit to send down his bright angels, to tell them that his Son had appeared as the world's Re- deemer. They went to Bethlehem, found the lowly birth-place of the Saviour, saw the babe with his mother and Joseph, and soon pub- lished abroad the wonder.

Were they not happy men, those shepherds ? Surely they were favored men : whether they wrere truly happy, truly blessed, depends on the question whether they learned to know and trust and love the Saviour whose in- fant form Mary showed to them.

2. The Wise Men from the JEast

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30 SEEING JESUS.

These came from a very distant country — we do not know the precise place — where learned men watched the heavenly bodies very closely, and where probably something was known of the prophecies, and the expecta- tions founded upon them, among the Jews. For our Saviour was "the Desire of all nations. ,: People in many lands besides the land of Judea looked for a wonderful person, a teacher, a deliverer, a Saviour, to come from Grod about that time; and the most thoughtful and wise among them seem to have expected that he would appear among the people of Israel, whose wonderful history showed them to be the peculiar and chosen people of God.

"The wise men" of whom Matthew tells us we may well believe to have

JESUS tN BETHLEHEM. 31

been men who prayed to the true God, r who diligently studied all that they had read of his word, and to wThora he graciously made known the coming of his Son by a very remarkable star which they sawT in their sky at that time, and the peculiar motions of which led them to Judea, to Bethle- hem, and to the very spot where the infant "Kino- of the Jews" was with his virgin mother.

They saw Jesus, and presented unto him gifts such as Eastern people give to kings — "gold and frankin- cense and myrrh." "They fell down and worshiped him also." Did they worship him as wre do, as God? Or was it only that homage which in Eastern lands people pay to their human monarchs? Perhaps we can- not certainly know. But it seems to

32 SEEING JESUS.

me that Grocl would not bring them so far to see his Son without opening their minds and hearts to the true and saving knowledge of him.

Were these all the persons who saw Jesus in Bethlehem? All, so far as we know, besides the two to whom he was nearest and dearest — his virgin mother and the "just man" to whom she was espoused, and who knew that her babe was "the Son of Grod.': Strange, solemn and unspeakably de- lightful must have been the feelings of that good couple as they looked on their wonderful charge, as they watched over him, as thej^ held him, as she dressed and nursed him, and as they talked together or silently sat together, thinking that the Saviour of the world was now cared for, and was to be brought up by them. Blessed

JESUS IN BETHLEHEM. 33

among women was Mary ; and although so little is told us of Joseph, I know not another among all the men who have ever lived who is more to be honored than he. Surely God could not put upon a man any higher honor than to appoint him to be the guar- dian of her whom he would make the mother of the Christ — making him for that purpose such a just and con- siderate man as the virgin would then need to protect her.

As we see Jesus in this way, chil- dren— see him with our minds — think just how Ave should have seen him if we had been there with the shep- herds— how ought we to feel toward him?

Do you think that we need to pity him for being so poor? I do not think so. I do not think that a bed of sweet

34 SEEING JESUS.

hay, breathed on by innocent kine, and the faithful nursing of such a pure and simple and loving young woman as Mary, and the watchful care of such a prudent and good man as Joseph, were less fit for the infant Immanuel than the more splended provision and more pompous attendance which he might have had in a royal palace.

It was not by becoming the child of such lowly persons, but by becom- ing a human child at all, that the Son of Grocl showed his amazing conde- scension. It is no real evil to be poor, if we are not made poor by idleness or by vice, and if in our poverty we are honest and industrious and contented, keeping our homes clean and tidy, and living in them with kindness and love to one another, as wre are sure that Joseph and Mary did, and the

JESUS IN BETHLEHEM. 35

child Jesus, when they had taken him to their home in Nazareth.

Do you not think that we ought to feel thankful to the Son of God for consenting thus to become the Son of man ? I do. I know of nothing more wonderful, nothing else that shows such kindness, as that He wrho "was in the beginning with God, and who was God,v should consent to become a human babe, born of a human mother. To know that he did that for our sake — to be our brother, that he might save us and raise us up out of all our guilt and misery to his purity and his happiness and his eternal life — to know this ought, it seems to me, to fill our hearts wTith such thankfulness as no wrords and no songs can express.

Such thankful and adoring love to the babe of Bethlehem, if God shall

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SEEING JESUS.

awaken it in your hearts, will (I am sure) help you to become such chil- dren as Jesus loves — such as the child Jesus himself was.

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III.

JESUS AT NAZARETH.

" In the green fields of Palestine, By its fountains and its rills, And by the sacred Jordan's stream, And o'er the vine-clad hills,

" Once lived and roved the fairest child That ever blessed the earth — The happiest, the holiest That e'er had human birth.

" How beautiful his childhood was ! Harmless and undefiled ; Oh dear to his young mother's heart Was this pure, sinless child !

" Kindly in all his deeds and words, And gentle as the dove, Obedient, affectionate, His very soul was love. 4 37

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SEEING JESUS.

" Oh is it not a blessed thought, Children of human birth, That once the Saviour was a child, And lived upon the earth ?"

OULD you not like to "see Jesus" as he was in Nazareth, while his home was there, in the cottage of Joseph and Mary? It is only a little that the Bible tells us about that holy child- hood. We must believe that God did not think it best for us to have much or very particular information about it, else he would have given it to us in his Word. We must be content with what he has given, and must not try to be " wise above what is written.' Yet it is right for us to consider very attentively wrhat is written, and try to learn all that we can from it.

JESUS AT NAZARETH. 39

All that we know of Jesus' infancy is the account of his birth and being laid in a manger at Bethlehem, with the visit of the shepherds and the "wise men from the East;': his cir- cumcision; the presentation of him in the temple, when Simeon and Anna saw him; the carrying of him into Egypt, to save him from Herod's cruelty; and the taking him to his parents' home in Nazareth of Galilee. In this place "he was brought up.' There he spent the years of his child- hood and youth, even until he was thirty years of ao*e — old enough to enter upon his public ministry.

We may be quite sure that'he lived in a humble home, a lowly cottage. I do not, by any means, believe that it was a miserable or filthy hovel. There is not the slightest reason to

40 SEEING JESUS.

think that Joseph and Mary belonged to that class of poor people. Every allusion to them in the New Testa- ment gives me the impression that they were respectable and intelligent, and that by honest industry they lived comfortably.

I have no doubt that Mary was the kind of virtuous woman whom Solo- mon praises in the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs — who "layeth her hands to the spindle, and whose hands hold the distaff,'' who could spin and wTeave and sew, as we would express it. I connot think of Jesus as ever going ragged or dirty about the streets of Nazareth, though I can easily think of his mother sitting up and mending his clothes by lamplight after he was asleep; and then I can easily think of her as laying aside the mended gar-

JESUS AT XAZAEETH. 41

raents, and taking down from the shelf the roll of parchment on which the books of the prophets were written, reading perhaps the words, "Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given;' and those other words, "He was led as a lamb to the slaughter;' then leaning her head on her hand to think, remembering Gabriel's visit to her, when he hailed her as "highly favored among women ;" and those solemn words of the aged Simeon, about a sword that should pierce through her soul; then opening her eyes to look on the calm face of the fair young sleeper ; then softly step- ping to his bedside, silently kneeling, and tenderly, reverently gazing on him, pondering all these wonderful things in her heart.

We know also that Joseph was a

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carpenter, a man who "worked for his living,' and probably worked hard. As it was customary for every Jewish boy (even the sons of the rich) to learn a trade, and as in one place Jesus is called a "carpenter'1 (Mark vi. 3), we may fairly conclude that Jesus learned the same trade and worked at it with Joseph.

I am glad that it was in a humble home, the home of a poor man, that Jesus lived and grew up ; for I think it is easier for all classes of people to think rightly of him as their Saviour than if it had been in a kingly or lordly palace.

We are equally sure that in that home he was always obedient to his parents. One of the very few things that are said of him is, that he "was subject unto them." This was after

JESUS AT NAZARETH. 43

he had gone to Jerusalem, when he was t\velvre years old, and had aston- ished the learned doctors there by his knowledge of the Scriptures. I think it likely that this is mentioned by Luke (ii. 51) on purpose to prevent our supposing that a child of such ex- traordinary knowledge need not be subject to his parents. The example of Jesus teaches us that the more a boy really knows, the more dutiful and obedient to his parents is he likely to be.

Aside from this particular state- ment, we might be sure that he who came to honor Grod's law by first per- fectly keeping it, and then by dying, an atoning sacrifice, to redeem those who had broken it, would be obedient to the commandment, " Honor thy fa- ther and thy mother."

44 SEEING JESUS.

jNTever, then, we may be sure, did Jesus disobey his parents ; never did he speak or act disrespectfully or un- dutifully toward them.

We may be sure that this was so, not only while he was a little child, but when he grew older and larger, even up to his manhood, and as long as he lived in their house. Even after he became a public teacher and a worker of miracles, and quite down to the hour when he hung on the cross, we find that he was tender and re- spectful in his treatment of his mother, although he could not permit her, any more than any other human being, to control him in respect to anything belonoino- to his office and work as the Messiah of Grod.

We may also be sure that Jesus diligently studied the Scriptures.

JESUS AT NAZARETH. 45

When he was only twelve years of age, you remember, he went up with his parents to Jerusalem ; and when thev had started for home with their neighbors and friends, they found after two or three days that Jesus had stayed behind. They went back and found him in the temple talking with the learned doctors there, and aston- ishing them by his questions and his answers to their questions. I suppose he showed a better understanding of the prophecies and of all parts of the Scriptures that had then been written than any of those rabbis had. I sup- pose, too, we are to understand that the child Jesus had learned this wis- dom by study, for \ve read that he " increased in wisdom and stature.' He became a real child ; he did not merely have a child's body, but a

46 SEEING JESUS.

child's mind. I cannot explain this, cannot understand it, but I believe it, because the Bible so plainly teaches it. I think of Jesus, then, when he was a child at Nazareth, as diligently studying the holy Scriptures.

I have no doubt that he used to go to the synagogue every Sabbath-day with Mary and Joseph, nor that he listened very attentively when the portion of Scripture was read, and to any explanations that were given of it. I have no doubt that he learned to read, either at school or bv his mo- ther's teaching ; and I have no doubt that if we could have looked into that cottage, we might often have seen the little Jesus sitting or standing with the holy parchments unrolled before him, eagerly reading the words writ- ten by Moses, and David, and Isaiah,

JESUS AT NAZAEETH. 47

and those other holy men who " spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost;5

He wras a resolute, strong-spirited boy. The sweet song at the begin- ning of this discourse speaks of his kindness and gentleness and of his sinless purity. The same is tr.ue of many sweet songs that have been writ- ten about the childhood of Jesus ; and I sometimes am afraid that chil- dren may think so much of this gentle loveliness as to forget howr it is writ- ten that he " waxed strong in spirit" or fail to think what and how much that means.

I do not believe that a braver boy ever climbed the hills of Galilee. I do not believe that a braver boy ever trod the earth than Jesus of Nazareth.

His courage was very different from

48 SEEING JESUS.

that which leads a boy to challenge another to fight with him — a truer and nobler courage. Think of it, chil- dren. Do you believe that Jesus ever was afraid to do what he knew to be right? Do you think he could ever be kept from obeying his mother, or from doing any kind or right act, by the sneers or the threats of other boys or of girls ?

You remember how resolutely he withstood all the devil's temptations in the wilderness after his baptism ; do you suppose that he was never tempted of Satan while he was a child? We do not know that Satan appeared to him bodily, but I suppose that Jesus was tempted in the same ways that you are ; and we are sure that he never yielded. Oh what a strong, brave spirit was that !

JESUS AT NAZAKETH. 49

Boys, if really you " want to be like Jesus/ you must not only try to be gentle and sweet-tempered, but "strong in spirit" — fearlessly ready to under- take any difficult duty — ready to un- dergo any self- denial for the sake of doing good, and resolute to resist all manner of persuasions and temp- tations to sin.

How can you become so? (1) By be- lieving in Jesus, and (2) by then con- stantly striving to become like him, always praying for the help of his Spirit to make you so.

1. Believe in him. Take him for your real Saviour.

In order to this you have to think of him not merely as a child. Think of him as you know him to be — as the Jjamb of Grod, Son of Glod, the Re-

50 SEEING JESUS.

deemer of lost souls. Confess your guilt to him. Acknowledge your need of him. Thankfully take him as the Saviour of your soul, just as he kindly offers to be.

Then remember that he became not only a man, but a child, and that he knows just what help you need to fol- low him — to be his disciple now, while you are a child. Ask him daily for that help ; daily expect to have it; and daily strive to live, with that help, as the child Jesus lived.

He can make you gentle, obedient, truthful and fearless in right-doing, gentle and lovely, and at the same time strong in spirit, and growing more and more like that fairest, hap- piest, holiest child that ever had hu- man birth.

IV.

JESUS AT THE JORDAN.

[Matt. iii. ; John i.]

FTER the visit of Jesus to Jerusalem, u when he was twelve vears old,'

mi

we have no account whatever of him until he had grown to full manhood- -until he was about thirty vears of age. Then he was to begin his public ministry, working miracles and preaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven.

To prepare the way for this, John was sent before him. He was a little older than Jesus, and was the son of

51

52 SEEING JESUS.

Elizabeth, a cousin to Jesus' mother. He was very much like the prophet Elijah of the Old Testament, and was the person intended in the Old Testa- ment prophecy, which said that Eli- jah should come again. He came " in the spirit and power of Elijah," calling upon the people to repent — that is, to turn from their sins — and so to prepare the way for " the kingdom of heaven, r which was " at hand" — that kingdom of truth and holiness which Jesus, the Christ, was about to establish in the world.

Very many people went out into the wilderness of Juclea, where John preached, to hear him, and to the river Jordan, where he baptized them as the sign of their putting away their sins.

One day, while John was there at

JESUS AT THE JOED AN. 53

the Jordan preaching and baptizing, Jesus came to him to be baptized.

It is not easy for us to understand why Jesus should be baptized, as cer- tainly he had no sins to repent of. Perhaps it was because he "was made sin for us,r or was put in the place of us sinners, that it was proper for him to receive the sign of the washing awav of sins. At anv rate, we may know that it was proper, or it would not have been done. We know from what he said to John, that that was the way " to fulfill all righteousness."

At first, John was unwilling to bap- tize Jesus. He felt unworthy to do it — unworthy (as he said) even to untie his shoes. But when Jesus assured John that it was right, and was his will, John obeyed. We should never let our sense of unworthiness prevent

5*

54 SEEING JESUS.

us from doing anything which Jesus commands.

So John and Jesus went down the bank of Jordan together, or else Jesus came down to John, who was already standing in the river or at its edge, and John baptized him. I do not know how he did it — whether he took hold of his arms, and, leaning him gently backward, plunged his whole body under the water, as baptism is now sometimes administered ; or whether, lifting some of the water in his hands or in a cup, John poured it on the head of Jesus, bowed meeklv before him ; or whether, simply wet- ting his hand in the water of Jordan, he reverently laid it on the head of Jesus or allowed some drops to drip from his fingers upon him.

I do not see that it is of the least

JESUS AT THE JOBDAST. 55

consequence to know how it was done, any more than to know the size and shape of the loaf at the Last Supper, or of the pieces into which it was broken. In some way Jesus was baptized, or solemnly washed in water of the Jor- dan by John the Baptist ; and John consented to do this in obedience to Jesus, and on his assurance that that was the way for them "to fulfill all righteousness."

When the baptism was finished, we are told that Jesus " went up straight- way out of the wTater; and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and 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."

So, in the beginning of our Lord's

56 SEEING JESUS.

public life, God the Father solemnly and publicly declared him to be his Son, in whom he was well pleased ; and you know, my young readers, that when his life was finished and he had died on the cross, God gave still stronger assurance of being satisfied with his wrhole work by raisins; him from the dead and placing him at his own right hand on high.

Does it seem to you that you would like to have been there at the Jordan when Jesus was baptized, to have seen his holy form coming up the bank of the river, to have seen the heavenly dove descending, and to have heard that voice of God coming down out of the sky?

It seems so to me, and yet, on the whole, I think I would rather be here now than to have been there then.

JESUS AT THE JORDAN. 5

M

With the whole ]\Tew Testament to read, making us know all that Jesus did and suffered for us after he was baptized, and with all we know of what his religion has done in the world in all the eighteen hundred years since, I think that we can with our minds see Jesus at his baptism, and hear the voice of God declaring him to us, quite as effectually as we could have done if we had stood on the banks of Jordan and heard and seen with our bodily senses. We know that that Divine Spirit that hovered in dove-like form over the head of Jesus, and settled down so beautifully upon him, hovers invisibly over you and settles down as gently on each of your hearts, if you do not by levity, or by obstinacy, or by some kind of sin, drive him away.

58 SEEING JESUS.

I suppose that it must have been not many days after the baptism of Jesus that those things took place of which we are told in the first chapter of the Gospel by John :

" John seeth Jesus coming to him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh awav the sin of the world!"

"Again, the next day after, John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!'

Think what "the Lamb of God' would mean to the Jewish people to whom John was speaking! They had all read the book of Isaiah ; they had all heard many times in the syn- agogues that solemn passage in which the prophet says, "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as'a sheep

JESUS AT THE JORDAN. 59

before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. ' Probably most of them had seen the shearers seize a sheep and compel her to lie quietly down while they stripped her of her fleece; and probably all of them had seen lambs slaughtered for food and also for sacrifice. They were very familiar with this religious use of them. Thev knew that when the lamb was slain at the altar, when its red blood stained the pavement and its dead flesh was burnt on the altar, this was a part of Grocl's method of forgiving their sins. They had to do this in obedience to God, in order to obtain the forgiveness of their sins.

I do not suppose that they all under- stood how those sacrifices foreshowed the one great sacrifice of Christ; but now, when Jesus had come and the

60 SEEIXG JESUS.

time was near when that great sacri- fice of himself was to be offered on the cross, John made that solemn declaration. "See,' said he, "that holy man from Galilee, whom I bap- tized the other clay, and on whom the Holy Spirit visibly descended; lo, he is the Lamb of God. It will be the shedding of his blood that is to make the real expiation for your sins, to which the sacrifices of dumb animals have always been pointing forward. He is to be sacrificed for you."

My children, I think this has been made plainer to you than it was to those who heard John speak. You all know that Jesus died to save you, and that he is able and willing to save you just now.

If he were present with you bodily to-day — if a human form more majes-

JESUS AT THE JOED AN. 61

tic than you ever saw before were to come and stand before you — if he were looking upon you with a face of heav- enly beauty beaming with grace and truth — if from the sky above a dove- like form, glorious with heavenly light, were to descend and light upon him, and a clear voice from the heaven were to say, " This is my beloved Son" — if then your minister should say to you, " Behold the Lamb of Grod, that taketh away the sins of the world," what would you do? Is there one of you who would not bow before him and cry, uO Lamb of Grod, save me, even me?"

Then is there one of you who will not now bow to him (for he is with you though you see him not) and offer that same earnest prayer?

I do assure you, children, that that

62 SEEING JESUS.

Blessed One is with you now, just as able and just as ready to hear and save as if he were bodily before you.

Behold the Lamb of God! Look unto Jesus. Ask him to save you now — just now — and believe that he does save you. "Only believe.'1

w$r,

Y.

NICODEMUS' VISIT TO JESUS.

[John iii.]

ICODEMUS was one of the learned men of his time. He belonged to that sect which was pe- culiarly strict in religious observances — the same to which Paul had belonged before he believed in Jesus, before he learned how vain it is for sinful men to trv to commend themselves to God by any righteousness or works of their own.

Why do you suppose that Mcode- mus "came to Jesus by night?" I think it is generally supposed that he

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64 SEEING JESUS.

was a timid, cautious man — that he did not wish to have it known that he went to see Jesus, lest the other Pha- risees should hate him and persecute him. He may also have been proud, ashamed to have it known that he, a learned Pharisee, went to seek instruc- tion from a poor Galilean carpenter. I suspect that there were some such feelings in Mcodemus' mind. It would not be very strange if he had some such pride and some such timid- ity. He would not on that account be very different from many people that are alive now.

But there are some who think that the reason for his coming at night was a much better one — that it was simply because the Master was so much oc- cupied in the day-time, and had so many people around him, that Nic-

NICODEMUS' VISIT TO JESUS. 65

odemus could not then find such an opportunity as he wanted — that he was modest and kind, unwilling to crowd others away, unwilling to overburden the Master, and desirous of finding him alone and at leisure, so that he could sit down and have a good quiet talk with him, telling him the things which perplexed him, and asking him all the questions that he wished to ask, and hearing his answers and ex- planations without any interruption and without the uncomfortable feeling that he was in the way of any one else.

This may have been so, and when we recollect how well Nicodemus spoke for Jesus afterward in the Jewish council,* and how generously he joined with Joseph of Arimathea in giving him

* John vii. 50, 51. 6*

66 SEEING JESUS.

an honorable and costly burial after he was crucified,* it is quite pleasant to believe that he was influenced by good and honorable motives when he first "came to Jesus by night."

And yet we must not think it cer- tain that even a generous and honor- able man may not sometimes act too timicllv or even selfishly. The best men and the best children are not uniformly and consistently good. We must not think it necessary to make out entire consistency in all the con- duct of the persons we read of in the Bible, or of those with whom we are acquainted in our own time.

We will not try to study into the motives of Nicodemus any farther, and will be content not to know them, being very sure that Jesus knew them

* John xix. 39, 40.

. M

NICODEMUS VISIT TO JESUS. 67

perfectly. When he looked into jNTio odemus' eyes, he looked right down into his heart, and so he does into your hearts and mine.

I have suggested that perhaps Mc- odemus wished to see Jesus alone, even apart from his disciples ; but I am not at all sure of this. He may have been quite willing to talk with him in the midst of the twelve, who believed in him, and who would have a friendly sympathy with Nicodemus in all his inquiries, and would sit in re- spectful silence while he asked their Master questions, and would listen with him to the wise and instructive answers. Peter may have been there, with 'that white head and eager face which the painters give him in pic- tures, leaning far forward in earnest attention. John may have been there,

68 SEEING JESUS.

with that mild, heavenly look which they give him; and Matthew the pub- lican, and Andrew and Philip, and more or less of the others. If so, I have no doubt that they were all silent and solemnlv attentive to that won- derful conversation, and did not in- terrupt it by any word or any move- ment of theirs.

After all, it seems to me at least quite as likely that Mcodemus and Jesus were entirely alone, or that only the beloved disciple wras present who has recorded the interview. If he was not, I suppose that JNTicodemus told him about it before he wrote his Gospel. That may have been after the Master had died and risen and ascended ; and John's conversation with him, and his telling John how he had learned about the new birth

NICODEMUS VISIT TO JESUS. 69

from his Master, may have been the occasion of John's mentioning uNTic- oclemus three different times in his Gospel.

So, when you think of Jesus talk- ing with JNTicoclemus, you may think of them with several of the disciples sitting silently around, or with only the lovely and thoughtful John meekly and attentively listening, or quite by themselves apart from all human beings. We do not certainly know which way it was, and God has not meant that we should know. •

Just so may any one of you learn what the new birth is, and may ex- perience it, w7hile you sit among many others listening to a sermon; or in your Sunday-school class, with live or six others around your teacher; when you are alone with your mother or

70 SEEING JESUS.

your pastor; or when you are alone with Jesus, as you kneel in your chamber ; or while vou lie in bed after your mother has put out the light, and said "good-night," and gone down stairs; andyou know that Jesusis there, awake and attentive, and asking you then to be his disciple and to trust vour soul to him.

This visit of N'icodemus to Jesus is important to us, because of what Je- sus said to him about the new birth : "Ye must be born again;" "Except a^ man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 1

Mcodemus, with all his learning, did not easily understand this ; and I think that Jesus left him to feel, and leaves us to feel, that there is something about it that cannot be understood bv the human mind. Ah! children,

NICODEMUS' VISIT TO JESUS. 71

these are some excellent and import- ant things which we can experience and enjoy, without fully understanding them ourselves or being able to ex- plain them to others. But God. by his Spirit, will make you understand all that is necessary of this great mys- tery, and all the mysteries of the Christian life, if you only will humbly ask him and trust him.

What our Lord says to JNlcodemus shows plainly that the new birth is very different from the natural birth ; and vet it is enough like it to be call- ed by the same name. You know that our Lord generally spoke in parables, that is, he used comparisons. When he wished to explain anything in " the kingdom of heaven," he used to com- pare it with something in this world — something that his hearers knew or

72 SEEING JESUS.

saw. He would say, " the kingdom of heaven is like" to something: "like to a mustard-seed," "like unto leaven," " like a net,': etc. — generally some very common and familiar thing well known to his disciples.

He taught Nicodemus, and he teaches you, that becoming a Christian is like being born.

What is it to be lorn? You all have birth-days. Many of you cele- brate them ; your parents and friends give you presents ; perhaps you make a little party for your friends. It is a joyful day. You say, " Now I am six years old — or nine — or twelve.' what- ever the number may be. So many years ago you were born. Nothing else that has ever happened to you seems so important — nothing else is so im- portant, except being " born again"

NICODEMUS' VISIT TO JESUS. 73

What is that important thing ? It is beginning to live. The day in which you were born was the first clay of your life. Before that, day and night, the world and heaven were nothing to you, for you ivere not. Then first you breathed this air. Then first you gave a feeble cry, by which your mother knew that you were alive — knew that God had not only made vour bodv

ml «/ ' v

perfect in its form and in all its parts and members, but had breathed into it the breath of life and you had become a living soul. Then first you lay in that mother's arms, were cherished, and warmed, and fed at her breast;, then first she looked fondly on you ; and then all that belongs to life in this world, with all its joys and all its en- dearments and all its hopes, began. Can you understand how it began ?'

74 SEEING JESUS.

I cannot. Seven times such a new life has begun in my own home. Seven times I have heard that first faint cry by which I have known that God had given me a living child. I have felt all the father's joy for it, and I have also felt at those times that God him- self had come into my house to do a wonderful thing, and to give me and mine a wonderful gift. Nothing else in this world is so wonderful as life — to be alive — to be a living soul. To beo'in to be alive is to be born. JNTo wonder that children and their pa- rents celebrate their birth-days — the days on which they began to live.

Perhaps it is to make us all feel this more deeply and more thankfully that sometimes God forms the perfect body of a child as fair and as perfect and as beautiful as any, and does not

NICODEMUS' VISIT TO JESUS. 75

make it alive — does not give it breath. It never utters a cry. The light never enters its eyes. Its perfect limbs and features are still as marble. It does not begin to live. Its disappointed pa- rents can only look sorrowfully on its little lifeless form, and then let their friends take it away and bury it. It is when we remember that this some- times happens that we feel how great and wonderful a thing it is to be made alive — that when each of us lay, such a newly-formed little infant body, God did make us alive, did " breathe into us the breath of life." God did this for each of us.

Just as God only could make you alive, so he only can make you a Christian. Your pastor cannot do it. Your Sunday-school teacher cannot. Your parents cannot. Your pastor

76 SEEING JESUS.

can baptize you. Your parents and Siindav-school teachers can instruct you. We can show, and help you to put on, all the outside appearances of Christianity; so can a mother or a nurse wash the body of her babe in pure water, and perfume it with sweet odors, and dress it in beautiful white garments, fit almost for an angel; but ah ! she cannot make it alive. Unless God does that, she has washed it and dressed it and perfumed it for its coffin, for its burial.

So your baptism, and your Bible, and your Sunday-school lessons, and all that we can teach you or do for you, will be of no use, unless God the Holy Spirit give you that new life, the beginning of which is being born again.

Has he, dear reader, done that for

NICODEMUS' VISIT TO JESUS. 77

you? If not, does he in this stillness do it even now for 37ou? We cannot tell how he does it, any more than we can tell whence the wind comes or whither it goes when we hear the sound of it, or any more than we can tell how the breath comes to make alive the new infant's body.

But we know that this life-giving breath has come when we hear the infant's cry, when we see its open eyes, when it tosses about its tiny arms, and afterward when we find it growing and becoming stronger and fairer, and looking and acting more and more like a living child day by day.

So, if you are born again, if the new, the Christian life has begun in you, God hears your soul's cry, which is prayer — real, honest prayer — the

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78 SEEING JESUS.

real, earnest wish going up to God for pardon and for peace and for purity, such as only he can give.

There will also be a desire for learn- ing his truth — "the sincere milk of the Word," as Peter calls it. You will love his word as an infant loves its mother's milk. If this new life is begun in you, you will dislike sin. You will be sorry for your sins and wish to be rid of them.

And more and more, as this new life goes on, you will increase in love to Christ, and trust in him and obe- dience to him.

Has God any children among these? I cannot tell, but he can ; and I will hope that he sees some among you whose hearts do truly pray and do truly love and trust Jesus. And may I not hope that even now, while you

NICODEMUS VISIT TO JESUS.

79

read of the new birth, you feel your heart going up to him in earnest prayer, and in tender sorrow for your sins, and in real love to Jesus; so that he, looking on your heart as he can, sees that it is changed — that you are born again?

VI.

maria

JESUS AT SYCHAK.

NCE in our Saviour's life- time upon earth he was journeying from Judea, the southern province of Pales- tine, into Galilee, its north- ern province, through Sa- which lies directly between them.

The people of Samaria were de- scended from remnants of the ten tribes of Israel which revolted from Rehoboam, mixed with people who migrated from Babylonish provinces, after a Babylonish king had conquered the country and carried away captive

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JESUS AT SYCHAR. 81

a large part of its former inhabitants. The mixed population that thus in- habited Samaria had a mixed religion ; that is, they had greatly corrupted the religion which Moses taught them by mixing with it a great deal of error and superstition from the idolatrous religions of the nations from which some of them had come.

Manv wars had been waged between them and the people of Judah, of which we read in the Old Testament history; and in the time of our Lord, although they were under the same imperial government of Rome, the people of the two provinces were very much opposed to each other.

So, although Jesus would some- times be traveling through Samaria with his disciples, they could not expect to have any pleasant and

82 SEEING JESUS.

friendly intercourse with the people along the wav.

Our Lord in his journey, at the time we speak of, had come near to the citv which at that time was called Svchar, but which we read of in the Old Testament by the name of Shechem.

Near to this citv was a famous well, called "Jacob's Well;" and it was a matter of much interest to the people to think that the patriarch Jacob had owned that well so many hundred years before that day, and that water was drawn from it for him and his family, and for their flocks and herds. So doubtless we should feel a great deal of interest in a well if we knew of one at which Washington or Christopher Columbus in his lifetime used to drink.

Jesus at the Well.

Seeing Jesus.

Page 83.

JESUS AT SYCHAR. 8

*>

" Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well."

Cannot you "see Jesus" sitting there? His garments are dusty, and his soiled sandals show that he has been walking a weary way, and he looks altogether like a tired traveler.

He is alone, for the disciples who journeyed with him have gone away into the city to buy food. "Meat " in the Bible means any kind of food.

While Jesus is thus sitting alone by the well there comes a woman of the city to draw water. After she had let down her water- pot or jar by a cord into the well, and had drawn it up full, Jesus asked her to let him drink. Probably neither of them had spoken till then, and we do not know whether the woman had taken much notice of Jesus. But now when he

84 SEEING JESUS.

has asked her for a drink of the cool water she has drawn from the deep wrell, she looks at him with surprise, and expresses her astonishment that a Jewish man should ask such a favor of her, a Samaritan woman.

How little did the poor woman know the person to whom she spoke ! To her eye he was a Jew — one of a hated people, between whom and her people there was contempt and enmity. She little thought that he was the Son of Man, belonging alike to people of all nations as their great Friend and Sa- viour, and the Son of God, his " only begotten and well-beloved,' who had come down from him to redeem a lost world, and who would return to sit again at his right hand, in power and glory unspeakable.

Observe how meekly and yet how

JESUS AT SYCHAE. 85

grandly the Lord replies : " If thou knewest the gift of God, and who he is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water."

The woman wonders how he could get such " living water," thinking of none but such as she has just drawn, and seeing that he has " nothing to draw with " — perhaps thinking also, there could not an v where be found better or more refreshing water than that from Jacob's well.

But Jesus lets her know that what he is able to give is much better than the water which refreshes our bodies and relieves us from the pain of thirst. It is something which relieves and blesses our souls, as cool water relieves and refreshes our bodies, and which, when we receive it, will bless us al-

8

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ways, being a well of water or a foun- tain of happiness within us, " spring- ing up unto everlasting life."

I presume that John has recorded only a part of what our Lord said to the woman, and afterward to her friends whom she called from the city. We know, from what is said in other places of the Bible, compared with what is here, that water, in Scripture, stands for the spiritual good which Christ bestows upon those who believe on him ; and it is very pleasant to find that many of the people of Sychar did, at that time, so listen to his preaching and so believe that they received that spiritual and saving good into their souls.

What is that spiritual and saving good which Jesus called " living water," and which he said should

JESUS AT SYCHAR. 87

" spring up unto everlasting life," in those who should receive it from him.

1. It is the pardon of our sins. Is not the feeling of guilt something like the feeling of thirst — a very painful feeling which makes us uneasv, un- comfortable, perhaps irritable ? At any rate, thirst is a feeling which can only be relieved by water or by some other cool drink. So the guilty feeling- is very uncomfortable, and it can only be relieved by pardon. The assurance that our sins are forgiven by one who has power (or a right) to forgive re- lieves us as pleasantly as a good draught of cold water relieves us from thirst.

Truly, Jesus who died for our sins, and who can and does pardon our sins, gives us that which to our un-

88 SEEING JESUS.

happy, guilty souls is very much like water from a deep cold well to our bodies when suffering from thirst and weariness.

2. Help to leave off sinning. We are taught to ask for the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts, and to purify them from evil by his gracious power. But not only are Christ and the Holy Spirit two persons of the One God, but we are also taught that Christ's work for us procured the Holy Spirit ; and when Christ went away from the world after his painful work of re- deeming it, he sent down the Holy Spirit to be wTith those who believe on him.*

We do no wrong then to the blessed Spirit, our Divine Comforter and Sanc- tifier, when we speak of Christ as giv-

* John vii. 39.

JESUS AT SYCHAR. 89

ing us, through the Holy Spirit, help to leave off sinning.

I know that there are some chil- dren who long for this as they would for cold water if they were thirsty. You not only wish to be pardoned for the sins which you have already done, but you wish to be rid of sin, to be helped to leave off sinning. This is just what Jesus does for us if we ask him and trust him.

" I cannot feel thee touch my hand

With pressure light and mild, To check me as my mother did,

When I was but a child ; But I have felt thee in my thoughts,

Fighting with sin for me ; And when my heart loves God, I know

The sweetness is from thee."

This help to leave off sinning, which you all so much need, and which some of you so much desire, is just what

8*

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the Lord Jesus gives, and loves to give, to those who ask him for it and expect it of him, "Ask, and ye shall receive."

3. The comfort of hope. It is very painful to be afraid; it is dreadful to look forward without anything good to hope for. A despairing look is the most miserable that we ever see on the face of a man, or woman, or child; and this is because despair is the most miserable feeling that can be in any one's heart.

But what else can so light up a human face as hope?

Hope in the heart shines through the face. Hope is one of the very best parts of happiness.

But what other hope is there like that of the Christian — that which Christ gives? The hope of heaven!

JESUS AT SYCHAR. 91

the hope of eternal life! This is yours, children, if you give yourselves to Jesus in love and trust; and will not the continual refreshment of this be in you "a well of water springing up unto everlasting life?"

Dear children, seeing Jesus now sitting wearjr and thirsty at the well of Sychar, hearing his gracious words to the woman of Samaria, will not you believe on him? Will not you trust yourselves to him, and ask and re- ceive his "living water" — pardon of your sins, help to leave off sinning, and the blessed hope of everlasting life?

Every one of you may have all this, all this relief and refreshment and blessed hope, now and always.

VII.

JESUS AT NAZAKETH AGAIN.

[Luke iv. 16-30.]

HEN Jesus had come again into Galilee, going thither through Samaria, after his baptism and temptation in the wilder^ ness of Judea, he was one Sabbath-day at Nazareth, the village in which he had passed his childhood. He went to the synagogue — that is, the place of worship. This was his custom always, wherever he might be. He had already become quite famous, and you can easily see that

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JESUS AT NAZARETH AGAIN. 93

the people of that village, being met in the synagogue, would take much notice of their celebrated townsman coming in among them. It appears that he did not go and take his seat among the people, but with those who conducted the services. A very im- portant part of those services consisted in reading the Scriptures. It is said that they had the whole of the five books of Moses divided into so many portions that there was one for each Sabbath of the year; and portions of the prophets and other Scriptures were also read.

It seems that Jesus was the reader for that day. Whether they asked him to be so, or he took the office upon him of his own accord, we do not know. It is evident that they were willing and considered it proper that he should

94 SEEING JESUS.

read, for the book was given to him, and it was the book or roll that con- tained the prophecies of Isaiah.

The place which he read, as we have it divided into chapters in our Bible, was the sixty-first chapter, and is one of the most interesting and beautiful prophetic descriptions of the Messiah. When he had read the passage, he gave the book from which he had read back into the hand of the "minister" — (that was not the preacher, but the man who took care of the synagogue and the things in it — somewhat as our sexton does) and "sat down."

See Jesus, children, as he sits down before that congregation of his old neighbors, who have known him all his life, and known him as a humble and obscure laborer's child, growing

JESUS AT NAZABETH AGALST. 95

up as himself a humble laborer. Lately he has been gone from among them — gone to Judea, to Jerusalem — and they have heard very wonderful things of his saying and doing there, and in other places. There probably has been much talk in Nazareth about him whom they called Joseph's son; and nowT that he has come home to them, and come to the synagogue, and they have heard him read that beau- tiful and wonderful passage of Scrip- ture, as he sits down it is no wonder that all their eyes are " fastened upon him." His sitting down is according to their custom, different from ours. Reading the wrord of Grod, to which they w^ould show every mark of re- spect, they always stood up; but one who was going to explain the Scrip- tures or give religious instruction

96 SEEING JESUS.

used to do so sitting, as professors and teachers with us do in their class- rooms.

So Jesus sits down in the synagogue after reading from Isaiah, and ex- plains what that prophecy means : "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.' He lets them know that he himself is the person of whom the prophet spoke — that he is the great Deliverer, and Healer, and Saviour of miserable, oppressed, ruined mankind. How long he spoke, or how largely he explained that truth to them, we do not know. It is not likely that Luke wrote all that he said, but he spoke in such a way that they "all wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth."

As he goes on, however, to unfold

JESUS AT NAZAKETH AGAIN. 97

his claims further, and to declare God's sovereign way of dealing with men, they become displeased, and at length furiously angry, and suddenly rushing upon him, they hurry him out of the city toward a precipice, in order to throw him down and kill him. He does not let this succeed, for the time has not yet come for him to die, but passes among them and es- capes.

It is not easy perhaps to see exactly what it was that made them so angry, though it was something in his dis- course; and it shows us that God's own truth, rightly explained by One who could make no mistakes, did then make men dreadfully angry. It has probably happened many times that men have become angry at the truth of God rightly and faithfully preach-

9

/

98 SEEING JESUS.

ed, without the fault of the preacher, though doubtless it may happen by the fault of a preacher—any other preacher except the Lord Jesus and the apostles infallibly inspired.

But though we wonder and grieve that the people of Nazareth should so foolishly and wickedly reject the Sa- viour whom God has sent to them, de- spising him because he has beep, a poor child and man in the midst of them, and refusing to be convinced by his wronderful works and words, let us attend to those u gracious words,' and try to improve them as if we now heard them " proceeding out of his mouth."

1. Seeing Jesus, wre see the great De- liverer of mankind from their mis- eries.

" To bind up the broken-hearted "—

JESUS AT NAZARETH AGAIN". 99

" to proclaim liberty to the captives " — to proclaim "good tidings to the meek," is his mission ; for this he is u sent1 Very much like this is it when he says, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.'1 He comes as the friend of all the lowly, all the down-trodden, all the sorrow- ful. He comes to soothe, to heal, to comfort. More grandly in our time than in all times before is he fulfilling this great mission.

The chains of bondage are stricken off from more hands, and the prison- doors of slavery are opened to more captives, in our time than ever before. Alexander, the great emperor of Rus- sia, and our own noble President Lin- coln proclaimed liberty to many mil- lions of slaves. But did they do this great work? — Alexander and Lin-

100 SEEING JESUS.

coin? They did it only as instru- ments in the hand of God. When President Lincoln received a petition from a great number of children, praying him to emancipate all children that were slaves, he wrote to the wo- man who had sent the petition, " Tell those little people I am glad that they have such good and kind sentiments ; and although I have not power to do what they ask, I wish them to re- member that God has, and that it ap- pears to be his will to do it."

Yes, our dear President felt that God was doing this great and wonder- ful thing, and that he was only an in- strument in God's hands. It is God our Saviour, our Bible teaches us, ex- alted to the mediatorial throne, who rules the wrorld. He is proclaiming liberty to the captives. He is direct-

JESUS AT NAZARETH AGAIN. 101

ing the great and wonderful and fear- ful movements, which, we may well believe, will not cease until every human fetter not only in our country, but in all the world, shall have been broken in pieces.

You know also, children, that when- ever the Gospel of Jesus has been re- ceived, and just in proportion as it has had effect, efforts are made for the relief of all kinds of human misery. Poverty, sickness, orphanage, every form of suffering and want among men, the followers of Jesus seek to relieve. Nothing else so much as his word and his example, operating in the lives of his followers, binds up the broken-hearted and comforts those that mourn.

2. Seeing Jesus, we see the only One who can relieve and deliver us from

9*

102 SEEING JESUS.

the sin and misery in which we are. You, my clear children, are not all orphans — you are not all poor — you are not slaves. You have freedom and comfort and security under a good government, because the truth of Christ made your ancestors free many generations back, and these great gifts of Christianity have been handed down to you from those an- cestors. You should not forget that your temporal happiness and privi- leges are Christ's gifts to you. But he offers you what is far better than this ;

" He comes, the prisoners to release, In Satan's bondage held."

You, my dear children, all need him to release you from the slavery of sin — a far worse slavery than that

JESUS AT NAZARETH AGAIN". 103

of the negroes, and to save you from guilt and misery everlasting.

Children, will you be like the wicked Nazarenes, who would not hear Jesus, but thrust him out of their city? or will you rather be like the people of Sychar, who heard him and believed on him?

This day may that Scripture be ful- filled in your ears ! This day, if you will accept him, his Gospel shall bring peace and pardon and salvation to you.

VIII.

JESUS AT THE PHARISEE S TABLE. [Luke vii. 36-50.]

E often read in our Bible of Jesus sitting at a table or "sitting at meat.' If you would "see Jesus" at a table, you must remember that they did not set their tables at all as we do. Instead of chairs, they had wide couches, more like what we call "lounges,'1 but broad enough for a man to lie down across one of them, having his head toward the table, resting the weight of his body on his left elbow, and his

104

JESUS AT THE PHARISEE'S TABLE. 105

feet extended away from the table, just off the farther edge of the couch. The servants who brought the food would come up on the opposite side of the table, where there would be no couch, and other servants could pass alono- the back side of the room and wash the feet of the guests, without disturbing them or hindering them from eatino- or conversing.

They wore no boots or shoes. Their sandals were only soles of shoes fast- ened on by straps, somewhat as we fasten skates; and in walking about their feet would become dustv, and it would be very refreshing to have them washed. I should think they would generally wash them before going to the table, but it might sometimes be more convenient for quests to take their places at once on those broad

106 SEEING JESUS.

couches, and let the servants cool and cleanse their feet as they lay.

On one occasion, Luke tells us, our Lord was invited by " one of the Pharisees," to "eat with him," and he accepted the invitation.' As he sits, or rather lies reclining, partaking of the friendly Pharisee's food, and doubt- less conversing with him and his other guests, there comes in a woman, who goes along on that side of the room where Jesus is reclining and stops at his feet. She evidently has come in on his account. Does she know him? Does she love him? Will she speak to him?

She does not speak to him. She leans forward over his feet, and im- mediately her tears drop on them like rain. At the same time the loose tresses of her long hair fall forward,

JESUS AT THE PHARISEE'S TABLE. 107

veiling her flushed face and covering his feet as she stoops to kiss them. So abundant are her tears that they fairly "wash1 his feet, and her hair dropping upon them serves the pur- pose of a towel. When she has thus wept a while over the feet which she so affectionately caresses, and has become able to stop her abundant tears, she takes a box filled with very costly and fragrant ointment, breaks it and pours it over the feet of the Saviour. It fills the whole room with a delicious odor, and calls the attention of all present to the woman's remarkable behavior.

To the host, whose name we find to be Simon, the behavior of our Lord seems equally remarkable. He won- ders that he will allow a woman to take such liberty with him, and thinks

108 SEEING JESUS.

he cannot be a prophet, else he would know that she is a bad woman.

]N\) doubt he does know it, and knows equally well what is passing in the Pharisee's mind.

So he speaks a parable to Simon in the hearing of all his other guests, and Luke afterward writes it down for the instruction of mankind in all com- ing ages. In the parable Jesus tells Simon of a man who had two debtors, one owing him a small sum of money, and the other owing ten times as much. As neither of them was able to pay, the generous creditor " frankly forgave them both." Now " which of them will love him most?" asks Je- sus, and Simon readily answers, " I suppose- he to whom he forgave most." Then Jesus calls his attention to the extraordinary love which the

JESUS AT THE PHARISEE'S TABLE. 109

poor woman has shown to him, and lets him know that it is because of the forgiveness of her many sins.

He afterward speaks gently to her words of sweet encouragement, assur- ing her that her sins are forgiven, however many and however dark they may be, and bids her " Go in peace y

From this I think we ou°*ht to learn our Lord's wav of treating sinners and the proper effect of such treat- ment upon them.

1. The fact that this woman felt her- self to be a sinner made her welcome to Jesus. When Simon said in his heart, " She is a sinner " he probably meant that she was a disgraceful sin- ner — a disreputable, abandoned, out- cast woman. He probably regarded

her as a woman whom it would dis~ 10

110 SEEING JESUS.

grace him to associate with, and per- haps felt that Jesus was disgraced and polluted by her touching his feet.

There are many people who care a great deal more for honor than they care for purity, and dread dis- grace much more than guilt. The real guilt of anything in the sight of God does not trouble them so much as the shame of it in the sight of men. Probably the Pharisee was one of that sort. His pride and what he con- sidered his delicacy were shocked by seeing a vile woman kissing the feet of one who passed for a prophet.

I dare say the poor woman had felt the burden of disgrace, Probably she had been scorned and pushed aside by those who claimed to be respectable — not unlikely those who had led her into sin had helped to push her down

JESUS AT THE PHARISEE'S TABLE. Ill

into shame, as such selfish and cruel tempters generally do ; and her situ- ation may have been as forlorn and wretched as that of disgraced women always is.

But it does not seem to me that this was much in her mind at the time we are speaking of. I do not think that any scornful looks of the Pharisee into whose house she had come were observed by her. I do not believe that she took notice of him or of any one except Jesus. And I do not think that she went to Jesus with any idea that he would rescue her from disgrace. She was feeling a heavier burden, a deeper sorrow, than that of being de- spised by men and pointed at and insulted. She felt that she was a sinner. She felt her guilt more than her shame. That guilty feeling hurts

112 SEEIXG JESUS.

us m the very deepest place of our souls — the deepest and the tenderest. When we are once made to know what sin is in the sight of God, and that he in his holiness sees it and hates it in our souls, it does not then seem to be of so much importance what our fellow-men think of us. So I think it was with this woman, and that she came into Simon's house, and came near to Jesus, even to his feet, ■with her heart aching with the dread- ful feeling of guilt. "A sinner?" Yes, indeed she was. Simon could not speak the word with half the loathing that she felt for herself, nor could he, in all his pride, begin to im- agine the horror at her own guilt with which she was shuddering.

But she somehow felt and believed that Jesus could help her, even in that

JESUS AT THE PHARISEE^ TABLE. 113

trouble — could make that burden fall off frbm her. How she knew this I cannot tell, nor how well she under- stood it. I do not suppose that she could have explained it. If Jewish doctors or Christ's disciples had ques- tioned her about it, I think it likely she could not have answered a word. But she believed in Jesus. She knew enough for that, and that was enough to save her. She might have known much more, and not have done that; and then she would not have been saved. It is not by knowledge that we are saved, but by faith, by trust.

She just trusted Jesus. She came to him because she trusted him — showed that she trusted him by com- ing to him; and you see that her com- ing with such a painful sense of sin

made her welcome to Jesus. That 10*

114 SEEING JESUS.

was the very thing that made her welcome. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Let those who really are and really feel guilty — who are and feel that they are sinners — come to Jesus, and know that on that very account they are welcome.

Is that so with any of you?

2. There is nothing else that pro- duces such love as the forgiveness of sins. This penitent woman, whose many sins were forgiven her, loved Jesus unspeakably. She could not have told him how much she loved him. She did not try — did not think of trying. She did not speak to him. Perhaps she could hardly have looked him in the face. But her simple ac- tion showed that she loved him with her whole heart, and felt that nothing

JESUS AT THE PHAKISEE's TABLE. 115

which she had was too precious to be given to him.

So will it be with us when we have been made to feel our guilt, and, trust- ing in Jesus, have felt the sweet assur- ance of forgiveness. Our most pre- cious things will not seem too precious to be given to Him who has given his blood for us.

*.<&

__

IX.

THE TEANSFIGUEATION.

[Matt. xyii. 1-8 ; Mark ix. 2-8 ; Luke ix. 28-36.]

HERE is a beautiful en- j^gravihg which may be found at some of the pic- ture-shops, and perhaps on the parlor walls in some of your homes, which repre- sents the scene in which I would now like to help your minds to "see Jesus."

It does not represent him in the plain garments which he commonly wore, but in robes of heavenly bright- ness, " white as the light." On either side of him are two other figures,

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THE TRANSFIGURATION. 117

human in shape, but glorified like unto angels, looking reverently to- ward him, their acknowledged Lord. A mountain is beneath their feet, yet they do not stand upon it, but seem floating in the air above, Jesus higher than the others. Prostrate upon the ground are the figures of three men, " overshadowed by a bright cloud, their hands shielding their dazzled eyes," so as to give them a glimpse, such as they can bear, of the glorified Master.

These engravings are copies of a painting, made more than three hun- dred years ago, which hangs unfaded in the palace of the pope in Rome. It was painted by Raphael, and is (I believe) considered the greatest paint- ing that any human artist ever pro- duced.

118

SEEING JESUS.

What is the scene which that fa- mous picture represents ?

THE TRANSFIGURATION.

Mark, Matthew and Luke all de- scribe it. They speak of it as about a week after a conversation which Jesus had had with his disciples, in which he had asked their opinion of him, and Peter had declared him to be "The Christ of God." Matthew and Mark say, "after six days,' and Luke says, "about an eight days.' He does not speak exactly, but only as one who remembers that the time he speaks of is about a week. So it might happen if some soldiers who were under General Grant at the time of Lee's surrender were telling how long that was after Lee's army was driven out of Richmond. They left

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THE TRANSFIGURATION. 119

Richmond on one Sabbath, and sur- rendered on the next Sabbath. jNTow, one soldier might call this " about eight days," counting both the Sab- baths, and another might say it was " after six days," counting only the davs between those Sabbaths on which the two things happened.

Thev have not told us which moun- tain it was on which this wonderful scene was witnessed. It has commonly been supposed that it was Tabor, a mountain to which you can go from Nazareth in about two and a quarter hours, and which it takes about an hour to ascend. It stands alone in a plain, having a circular base, and ris- es about a thousand and three hun- dred feet from the plain.

We do not know, however, that the transfiguration took place upon Tabor.

120 SEEING JESUS.

There are several other mountains in that part of the land to which all that the sacred writers say about it would perhaps apply as well. It may be that God has not let us know the pre- cise spot where this occurred, lest we should superstitiously pay too much respect to it. Doubtless he would have us care less about knowing the ground on which our Lord's transfig- uration took place than about rightly understanding the great religious truth which it signified.

Only three of the twelve disciples witnessed the transfiguration — the same three whom he took with him when he raised the daughter of Jai- rus and when he went to his agony in the garden. These were Peter, James and John. Peter in his second Epistle alludes to this, in a wav that showrs

THE TRANSFIGURATION. 121

how very important he felt it to be. (See 2 Peter L 16-18.)

Peter, you remember, it was who said, " Lord, it is good for us to be here," and who proposed to " build three tabernacles," or tents, for the Lord and his heavenly visitors. I think it was like Peter thus to forget him- self and his fellow-disciples in his eagerness duly to honor and accom- modate his Lord and the glorified saints who were with him.

But although it was a good and un- selfish impulse that prompted Peter to propose this, it was not a proposal which the Lord thought best to accept. Hardly had he done speaking before the heavenly visitors had disappeared, and Jesus w^as alone with the three disciples, looking, I suppose, as he or- dinarily did. Before long they all 11

122 SEEING JESUS.

went down to the plain together, where they found a poor boy torment- ed by the devil, and his afflicted father, who had besought the disciples to heal him, and they could not. The Master himself had to come down from the mount of glory, to be busy again with works of mercy among suffering, wretched people.

What did Peter and his two brother disciples learn from the transfigura- tion ? And what should we learn from their account of it?

1. See how it honored Jesus. Moses and Elias (called Elijah in the Old Testament) were two as distinguished characters as the Old Testament men- tions. The Jews gave great honor to Moses, and were proud to call them- selves " Moses' disciples." Oocl had honored him by speaking to him face

THE TRANSFIGURATION. 123

to face, and by giving to him the Law, for his people and for all mankind. He had greatly honored Elijah also, not only by sending him as a prophet to warn his people and their king- when they had become very wicked and disobedient, and giving him mi- raculous powers to overawe theiti and to support his authority, but by at last translating him to heaven in " a chariot of fire.' These two were sent to pay such honor to Jesus, and to make his disciples know that such glorified saints as they were subject to him.

Moses, you know, being the receiv- er of the Law for God's people, was looked upon as the inspired founder of the Jewish religion, and many of the Jews were jealous of Jesus, as if he sought to overthrow that religion. He

124 SEEING JESUS.

said that he came " not to destroy, but to fulfill it;' and we can see how much it might help the disciples, who were Jews and had Jewish prejudices, to see such honor paid to Jesus by Moses. They needed to learn that while " the Law was given by Moses," and ""grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," Moses and Jesus Christ were not opposed to each other, but Jesus was Moses' Lord. Jesus would honor and fulfill the Law that was given by Moses : Moses would acknowledge and honor the Gospel of salvation which is by Jesus Christ. In heaven they sing " the song of Moses and the Lamb " in utmost harmony. We can- not honor Jesus unless we love and strive to obey the Law.

2. We may see what interest was taken in heaven in the work which

THE TRANSFIGURATION. 125

Jesus was doing upon the earth. This is not the only instance in which that was shown.

You recollect that after his tempta- tion in the wilderness, when the devil left him, " angels came and ministered unto him;" and you must also re- member that in his agony in Gethse- mane "there appeared unto him an angel from heaven strengthening him,,! Those holy beings in the world of bliss who had not sinned, and did not need to be saved from sin, took such deep interest in the work and the agony by which we were to be saved, and had such S}7mpathy with Him who suffered to save us.

In this instance, not two unfallen, but two redeemed spirits, who had been blessed for ages, came to con- verse with their Lord and ours of 11*

126 SEEING JESUS.

"the decease which he should ac- complish at Jerusalem."

If we ever go to heaven, when we have been there for ages we shall estimate Christ's work and suffering, without which we could never come thither, far more highly than we now do or can. Those who neglect this great salvation surely do not view it as Moses and Elijah did.

3. We see what strong reason the disciples had for trusting in Jesus. Peter tells us how he felt about this, in his second Epistle: "For we have not followed cunningly-devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him front

THE THANSFIGUKATIOST. 127

the excellent glory, This is my be- loved Son, in whom I am well pleased, And this voice which came from heaven we heard wThen we were with him in the holy mount." 2 Peter i. 16-18.

It seems as if none of the manv other . things which Peter saw and heard — the raising of Lazarus and of Jairus' daughter, and all — made so strong an impression on his mind as this.

Peter was surely as well qualified to estimate this correctly as any one living now can be. I am disposed to take his estimate, and just to be- lieve that he and the others heard God speak to them out of the cloud uon the holy mount," assuring them that He who was there and thus trans- figured was his own beloved Son, to

128 SEEING JESUS.

whom they and all men should obediently listen.

Peter and the others have testified this to us, so that our obligation is the same as was theirs — the same as if we had been on the mount, had seen the heavenly whiteness of Jesus' robes and the heavenly glory of his face, and heard that voice of Grod "out of the excellent glory."

Children, do you obey that voice? Have you obeyed it? Will you now obey it?

The beloved, the glorious Son of God calls you to be his followers — to take and have him for your Master and your Saviour. Will you, do you obey?

X.

JESUS WITH THE SIXXIXG WOMAN.

[John viii. 2-11.]

^ TOLD you before of a re- pmarkable picture in the Pope's palace at Rome, representing our Lord Jesus Christ in his transfiguration; that is, in the glorious appear- ance which he assumed upon the mountain to which he had gone with three of his disciples, and where Moses and Elijah met him and talked with him.

There is another beautiful picture by one of those old painters, represent- ing our Lord in another scene, in

129

130 SEEING JESUS.

which I would like to help you see him. Indeed there are more than one picture of that scene, and of some of them there are engravings of which there are many copies, and probably you have all seen some of them.

It represents our Lord standing in the midst of a court of the temple — standing erect with a very mild and affectionate and yet a sorrowful look upon his face, while not far from his feet is a woman half kneeling and half sitting upon the ground, bowing down her head, covering her face with her hands and looking perfectly over- whelmed with shame and sorrow.

Do you know what woman that wras? Her name is not given in the Bible ; we do not know whose daugh- ter or sister she wTas ; and w7e do not know whether she was married or

JESUS WITH THE SINNING WOMAN. 131

single. We know nothing else about her except what is in the story which that picture illustrates.

She had been guilty of a most dread- ful and most shameful sin — the most shameful sin of which a woman or a man can be guilty — the sin which is for- bidden in the seventh commandment, and against which Grod kindly means to warn you and to guard you by the shame which you feel for anything that is indecent or immodest.

The woman had been guilty of that sin — she had been detected in it — and now she was covered with that over- whelming shame.

Harsh, stern men had led her into that public place, into the presence of the holy Jesus ; had told him of her offence; had cited the law of Moses, which required such sinners to be

132 SEEING JESUS.

stoned to death ; and had asked him what should be done about it.

What do you suppose must have been her thoughts and feelings at that moment? No doubt she knew that her accusers were right in what they said about the law. She must have known that she deserved to be stoned to death ; must have felt that she was not any longer fit to live among de- cent and virtuous people ; and if she knew how holy Jesus was, and how strictly he explained the law of God, must she not have expected that he would condemn her ? When her accu- sers had done speaking, and there was silence, I think the poor woman must have been shuddering with dread of the fearful words she must have ex- pected him to speak.

But see him. Making no answer,

JESUS WITH THE SINNING WOMAN. 133

he stoops down and writes on the

ground with his finger. Nothing else

could make him seem more perfectly

inattentive to all the men have told

him. But they keep on pressing him

to answer — not because they really care

to be instructed by him, but because

they think the case will puzzle him,

and that any answer he can give will.

bring him into trouble : and that is

just what they wish, for they are his

enemies.

, But Jesus sees deeper into their

hearts than they think, and knows

more about their lives. He knows

that they are no better than the poor

woman whom they wish to kill. So

he rises up to his full height ; turns

his mild but keen, piercing eye upon

them, and says : " He that is without

sin among you, let him first cast a 12

134 SEEIKG JESUS.

stone at her." Not a man of them touches a stone — not a man of them dares to do it. They go out one by one and leave the accused woman alone with Jesus.

Now let us see how Jesus will act toward such an unhappy sinner.

1. He does not drive her away from Ids presence. Would you think that such a holy person as Jesus wrould be willing to let such a sinful and polluted creature be so near to him? It must be very unpleasant for one who is pure and holy to be with guilty and impure beings. I doubt whether we can know how unpleasant it is. The disgust which vou feel at the si°'ht of wThat is filthy and loathsome, the pain it gives you to be obliged to stay in a filthy and loathsome place, cannot be equal to the aversion of a perfectly

JESUS WITH THE SINNING WOMAN*. 135

holy being toward all that is sinful. Such a being loathes and hates sin bevond all that we can imagine.

Yet the holy Jesus does not tell this polluted woman to go away from him, and he does not turn in disgust and go away from her. Why is this? He pities her. He loves her. He wishes to cleanse her from her pollution, to save her from her sin. Just as the most delicate woman, when her own child has a loathsome disease, cover- ing it all over with frightful sores, does not turn away from it, but sits by its bedside or holds it on her lap day and night, caressing it more fondly than when it was well and beautiful — just as many a refined lady has delighted to be in the hospitals, where the soldiers of our country lay, notwithstanding all the loathsome

136 SEEING JESUS.

sights and smells which she had to endure — just so the blessed Jesus, who has come from that heavenly home into which nothing unclean can ever enter, and to whom all sin is infinitelv loath- some, is walling to be with the most guilty and vile in order to save them. He came down from heaven on pur- pose for this, and he is too noble in his goodness to be turned away in disgust from the very creatures whom he came to save.

So there he stands, looking kindly on the poor woman at his feet. We see no kindling of anger in his face; it is full of sorrow and pity, full of com- passionate love.

2. When he speaks to the woman he does not harshly denounce her for her sin.

Is this because he does not dis-

JESUS WITH THE SINNING WOMAN. 137

approve of her sin as strongly as the men who have accused her? None of you will think so, I am sure. No one could possibly disapprove of every sin more strongly than Jesus. His Sermon on the Mount gives us the strongest idea we have of the hatefulness of sin, and he there teaches us that sin in the mind, in the secret thoughts, is as hateful to him as when it comes out in actions. Why then does he not re- proach or denounce this woman? I think he saw that there was no need of it. He saw into her heart as easily as into those of her hypocritical accusers, and I think he saw it full of sincere sorrow and shame. She did not need him to tell her that she was wicked; she knew it — she felt it — and the thought almost crushed her, almost

sunk her into the ground. He did not 12*

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like to add anything unnecessarily to her trouble. It did not give him any pleasure to inflict pain upon a guilty person. I believe he also knew that to speak harshly to the sinful is not al- ways the best way to make them feel their guilt and repent of it. He did speak harshly to proud hypocrites who had no proper sense of sin, but never to humble penitents. He always treated them with the greatest tenderness.

His words to the sinful woman are, " Neither do 1 condemn thee.r Won- derful, gracious words ! How like heavenly music must they have sound- ed to her, bowed down as she was with sorrow and shame and fear ! Would she think that he did not blame her? By no means. She would understand him to mean that he did not require her to be punished — did not condemn

JESUS WITH THE SINNING WOMAN. 139

her to be put to death. She is for- given— forgiven by ■ Him who "has power on earth to forgive sins" — by the Son of God.

3. Yet he makes her know and feel that she must forsake her sin — must leave off sinning. " Go and sin no more," he says to her, and these ap- pear to be his parting words. We are not told what became of the woman afterward. We should like to know whether she obeyed the Saviour and ever afterward led a pure life, as be- came his disciple, or whether she fell again into sin and was lost. For my part, I believe the former. I do not believe that one to whom our Saviour thus spake was less than a true pen- itent and a true believer in him ; and such a one, I am sure, he would never give up to Satan. " He is able

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to save to the uttermost,' and he does save to the uttermost, all who come unto Grod by him ; and they are all penitent sinners who humbly trust themselves to him to be brought un- to God.

But what we know is this, that if this woman was saved by Christ, it was by being cured of her sin — by being made obedient to his word, " Sin no

more.

n

Can you think of anything else so well calculated to call a person away from a sinful life? Could anything else awaken such desire to leave off sinning, to become free from sin, as to have been so near to the holy Saviour, to have found him so kind and good, and to have heard such gracious words from him ?

Could anything else be so encourag-

JESUS WITH THE SINNING WOMAN. 141

ing to a penitent sinner really desiring to lead a new life — a life of piety and purity — as to be so treated by the Sa- viour— to have it made evident that he does not think it useless to say, " Sin no more?"

It is not useless for Jesus to say that to us, and it is not useless for us to try to obey him. Sincerely and humbly trying, we may have him to help us. We ought to expect his help, and to depend upon having it by con- stantly asking for it. Never should we let a day pass without recollecting that we need the help of Jesus in this very matter of getting free from sin. It should encourage us to this to re- flect on his gentle and kind treatment of this erring woman.

We are all sinful as she was. If we have not been left to fall into such

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shameful misconduct, we mav have done other things quite as wicked. We may be as bad in heart, even in that same respect, for our Saviour teaches us that impure thoughts, the indulgence of impure desires, break the com- mandment as truly as gross actions. Whatever sin there is in us is loath- some to the Saviour. Yet he has the same kind patience, the same tender compassion toward us as he had to- ward that sinful woman. We may, and should with our minds, " see Je- sus " looking upon us just as kindly as he looked upon her.

There are two wavs of being' affected by this, which are very opposite ; one of which will save you, and the other of which will ruin you.

If you conclude, because Christ is so gentle and gracious, that you may be

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easy in your sins and go on sinning without fear, that will ruin you. Jesus is not a Saviour at all to those who willingly go on in sin. To those who thus abuse his grace he will at last be " revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance." Nothing is so dreadful as "the wrath of the Lamb,' which will consume all such abusers of his grace. But if, instead of being encouraged to go on in sin by the gentle mercy of Jesus, you are encouraged to turn from sin and come to him, and to be- lieve that he will accept you and will help you leave off sinning, as well as pardon you for all your past sins, and if, trusting his mercy, you do honestly and faithfully try to "go and sin no more," he will help you, he will keep on helping you, and, enduring to the end, you shall be saved.

XI.

JESUS IK THE HOUSE OF MARTHA AND

MARY.

ETHANY is a little vil- | lage not quite two miles from Jerusalem, just over on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives. Travel- ers visit it now, and there are monks living there who show them what they call "the house of Mary and Martha," and also the sepulchre from which Lazarus came forth when Jesus called him after he had been dead four days. But I believe there is not much evidence that the monks are correct in this. We could not be

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certain of finding the exact spots where Lazarus was raised and where he lived with his sisters, but we should have no difficulty in finding Bethany, and we have reason to think that, in many respects, it is much the same sort of village now as when our Lord used to visit it. Groins over the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem, Ave would have a right to think that we were walking along the same road which the feet of the Master often trod. It would be very pleasant to do this. But it is not necessarv, and we have not now the opportunity. We can. however, by attending to what the evangelist Luke has written (Luke x. 38-42), bring before our minds what happened in that cottage so long ago, almost as clearly and per- haps quite as instructively as if we had

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been there at the time, and had seen the house and the sisters and the Master, with our bodily eyes.

I suppose that Jesus was in that house many times. John tells us (John xi. 5) that " Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus.' The whole beautiful story of Lazarus being sick and dying, and of Jesus raising him to life, seems to me to show that those sisters were well acquainted with Jesus, and felt free to go to him, or to send messages to him, as to a dear Friend of whose love and sympathy they were sure.

I think that they were such people and had such a home that Jesus liked to be with them in their home when, weary with his labors in Jerusalem, he needed rest and refreshment; and I do not think that any other human home

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and family ever had higher honor put upon them than that of being thus visited and thus regarded by Him who came down from heaven. Yet this is an honor and a blessedness which any of us mav have for our home and family if we will be in spirit and tem- per and life and faithful love to Jesus what the family in Bethany were. He will not now come to us in bodilv presence, but he will come with a presence that is just as real and just as able to bless us.

Let us now go in thought to Beth- any, and let us try to bring before our minds what Luke has described so clearly that it will be as if we saw

it-

" Martha received him into her house.' ' I suppose that Martha was the older sister, and so the house was

148 SEEING JESUS.

called hers : she seems to have had the superintendence and direction of the household affairs, and she appears to have been a diligent and careful house- keeper. ~No doubt she liked to have her house and her table and all that belonged to them in good order ; and then she loved to welcome so good and excellent a person as she knew Jesus to be to the enjoyment of all the com- fort and rest and refreshment which her house and her table could afford. When Jesus came, she " received him into her house " — no doubt with the most hearty welcome.

Luke goes on to tell us, however, that " Martha was cumbered about much serving.' This means that she was very busy, and taking a great deal of pains in providing what she thought needful for the comfort and refresh-

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ment of her guest ; and when she found that Mary seemed forgetful of all this, and had sat quietly down at Jesus' feet to listen to whatever he would say, she seems to have been dis- satisfied, perhaps a little fretful, and she complained of her sister to Jesus. Oh if we could have seen Jesus then, as he raised his eyes from the humble and attentive learner at his feet and turned them upon the busy, flurried, yet kind and well-meaning housewife avIio stood by his side! Her interrup- tion and her complaint did not flurry him — nothing ever did that. With perfect composure, yet I think with a touch of tender sorrow in his tone, he said " Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about manv things, but one thing is needful;" and then I do not believe that any other

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human voice could tune itself to the heavenly sweetness with which he said, " and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from her.': Can you imagine the infinite satis- faction which filled Mary's heart when she heard those words, and when she looked up again into that face that looked down so kindly upon her ?

Would not you like to be sitting thus at Jesus' feet and hearing his words? Then surely you will try with me to get all the good instruction we can from the words wThich he spake to Martha and Mary. It will, I think, help us to do this to have brought all that scene so distinctly before us.

Let us now try to understand these two things :

I. What Jesus reproved in Martha.

II. What he commended in Mary.

MARTHA AND MARY. 151

I. In Martha. — 1. He did not blame her for taking good care of her house. I cannot think that Jesus would have been pleased to find Martha's house in disorder, or to have seen evidences that she was not tidy and diligent and thrifty. It could not have pleased him to see her indifferent to his com- fort or that of her sister and brother. I have no doubt that it was pleasanter to Jesus to be in a house well and neatly kept than in one which was untidy and disorderly; nor do I be- lieve that he disapproves of the care and attention and diligence which are necessary to make a house comfortable and inviting. " Jesus loved Martha." I have no doubt that he saw sincere kindness and sincere love to himself in Martha's bustling activity and her anxious caretaking.

152 SEEING JESUS.

2. But he saw that she carried that to excess. It was right for her to take care of her housekeeping, but she was taking too much care of it. It was right for her to take pains to make all the inmates of her house, and especially her Lord and Master, comfortable, but she was taking too much pains for this — more than was necessary and more than was proportioned to its import- ance. He did not need so "many things " as she was troubling herself to provide to satisfy him. It was not rierhtlv honoring him to think that he wished so much trouble to be taken for his bodily comfort. It rather grieved him.

3. There was something untimely in Martha's being so busy just then. Probably she thought that was the very time to be so, when the Master

MARTHA AND MARY. 153

was there, and that was her very opportunity to serve him. But Mary thought that was the verv time and the precious opportunity to hear him, to be taught by him, to learn from him the way of salvation. And we find that Jesus thought her nearer right than her sister. Martha was wrong in giving up to such things as she busied herself with, time that she might spend so profitably in listening to the " words of eternal life" from the lips of the Lord Jesus. She was especially wrong in not considering that then was her opportunity for this, and in not more readily under- standing that he would be better pleased with seeing her give more time and thought to those heavenly things, instead of giving so much to the earthly things.

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II. In Mary. — Jesus saw and com- mended the disposition to prefer being Ms disciple to everything else. I say being Ids disciple. I am very anxious that you should rightly understand ,what that is, and I think that Mary's behavior may do much to show you what it is. I do not know anything else so becoming to a disciple as to "sit at Jesus' feet and hear his word.'' For you should know, children, that a disciple is simply a pupil, a scholar. A disciple of Jesus is one who learns of

*

him. Matt. xi. 29. Mary was exactly that. She sat at his feet in humility. She liked to take a low place. She listened, not merely to gratify her curiositv, to notice what interesting things he would say, nor to observe how beautifully and eloquently he would say them, but to be instructed,

MARTHA AND MARY. 155

to be directed, to be made wise unto salvation.

We have good reason to think that she listened in a teachable and obedi- ent spirit.

She was so much in earnest about this as to lay aside everything else to attend to it. I suppose that for the time she forgot everything else — even forgot that her dear Lord would need supper by and by to refresh him. He did not blame her for this ; he was pleased with her for it. He defended her from the censure of her sister, as he did afterward from the harsher cen- sure of Judas, who blamed her for wasting precious ointment upon her Master's feet.

He liked her unworldly disposition. He was pleased that she neither thought time too precious to be spent

156 SEEING JESUS.

in listening to him, nor monev too precious to be spent in anointing him, manifesting her love to him.

Is not this, then, that which our Lord commended in Mary, that she so loved to be near him and to listen to him that nothing else whatever could in- terest her so much ? — that for nothing- else whatever would she give up or neglect that privilege? This I consider only another way of stating what I stated before, that she preferred being Ms disciple to everything else.

That was the good part which Mary chose, and which Jesus said should not be taken from her. He would not let Martha take it from her bv unsea- sonably calling her away from his feet to the business of housekeeping. He would not consent that she should be made to think anything

MARTHA AND MARY. 157

else more important than learning of him.

I think that his kind words carried to Mary's mind a stronger assurance than that. I think he meant to assure her that nothing whatever shotild pre- vent her from obtaining the infinite blessing which she sought. She should he his disciple, and should have the happiness, the salvation which he gives. What he gave her she should never lose.

Is there any one of you, my chil- dren, who feels just as Mary felt and chooses just as Mary chose? — who would rather have the privilege and happiness of being a disciple of Jesus than anything else you can think of? Then do not doubt that Jesus has exactly the same mind toward you that he had toward Mary of Bethany. If

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4

your choice is the same as Mary's, of that good part, then be sure that it " shall not be taken from you."

But you must really have that choice — must really be of Mary's mind — must really prefer that good part to everything else.

»• CD

And now what else is there to which you should not prefer this? You see that it would not be wise to let household cares so occupy your at- tention as to draw your minds away from Christ— that it is better to be contented with a very plain and fru- gal way of living than to be so per- plexed and harassed with housekeep- ing cares as to have no time to com- mune with Jesus and to learn of him. So it is. I hope you will all continue to think so when you are grown — when you, girls, may be at the head of

MARTHA AND MARY. 159

households, and you, boys, may be men of business. But even now, while you are children, you are liable to make the same kind of mistakes.

You may prefer play and pleasure to Christ. He does not blame you for liking to play, he does not wish to de- prive you of real pleasure, but he sees very quickly if you prefer play and pleasure to him. Can you expect him not to be grieved and displeased with you if he sees that?

You may prefer success in your school-studies to Christ. He does not dislike you to be good scholars. He wishes to have you faithful and dili- gent in your studies and in efforts to improve your minds. But it is not so important that you excel in your studies as that you be disciples of Jesus — really, humbly, teachably sit-

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ting at his feet and hearing his word, learning of him.

Nothing else is so important as that. Nothing else is indispensable. That is the one thing needful.

XII.

THE LAST SUPPER.

[Matt, xx vi. ; Mark xiv. ; Luke xxii.]

ET us trv to "see Jesus " as he sat with his disciples at " the Last Supper" We mean by this the last Passover supper in which he took part, and the last meal at which he sat down (or reclined) before his crucifixion.

It is in an upper room in the city of Jerusalem, in the house of a man of whom we know nothing except that he was willing to give this accommoda- tion to Jesus and his disciples; for

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Jesus had sent two of his disciples into the city, telling them that they would meet "a man bearing a pitcher of water,' who would readily give them the use of a suitable room, on their simply telling him that "the Master ■ desired it; and so it came to pass. Is each of us as ready to give up to him whatever we learn that "the Master' calls for?

The furnished upper room has been made ready; the passover lamb has been killed, and the passover supper with unleavened bread has been pre- pared. The Master sits there, or re- clines upon a couch, and all his twelve apostles are reclining with him.

They probably expect that he will give them instruction concerning his heavenly kingdom — such as he has often given before, or perhaps more

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solemn and important. But when they look upon him as they are to- gether at the table, they see that he is exceedingly sad. His expressive face, which beamed so brightly with heavenly joy when he lifted up his eyes to heaven (as they have some- times seen him do), and said, "Father, I thank thee," now wears a look of sorrow such as was never seen on any other countenance. He knows what is before him — knows what he is going to suffer, and already the fearful shadow of that agony is upon him.

While they are thus reclining to- gether, as closest and dearest friends, Jesus tells them that one of them will betray him, and by a sign wrhich he gives shows that he means Judas. The traitor leaves the table, and goes

164 SEEING JESUS.

out to find the enemies of his Lord, and to betray him unto them.

I am inclined to think (though per- haps the evangelists have not made this perfectly clear) that it was after Judas went out that the Lord took bread, and blessed and brake, and gave to them, telling them, " This is my body" and then passed the cup of wine to them, having given thanks over it, and having said, " This is my bloody

He bids them eat the bread and drink from the cup " in remembrance of him." So he makes this a memo- rial supper — a supper to keep him in remembrance — to help his disciples remember him.

At the same time he tells them that he is about to die for them, to give up his body to be mangled and

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Ills blood to be shed, to redeem them from sin, from u the curse of the Law."

Is it any wonder that those apostles who looked on the Saviour then, who saw his face when it had that look of loving sorrow upon it, and heard his voice, in such touching tones, asking those he was going to die for, to remem- ber him — is it any wonder that they al- ways afterward had it for a custom to come together and " break bread," and taste wine in remembrance of him ; and that they handed down this cus- tom to those who loved Jesus after them ; and that it has come down through all the generations of be- lievers ever since — even to us?

While we are trying to " see Jesus " at that Last Supper, we must not forget to notice one remarkable thing which

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he did. He rose while the disciples were reclining, and took a basin of water and a towel, and went around washing all their feet and wiping them with the towel. That was the usual work of a servant — very unfit work for the noblest person in the company. Oh how unfit for the no- blest Person who ever came into this world ! He teaches us by this that there is nothing that ever needs to be done for any of our fellow- creatures, which we ought to think it beneath us to do.

If ever you feel unwilling to stoop to any low and unpleasant work that needs to be done, to render any hum- ble service to a poor, suffering person, I hope that you will remember Jesus, and see him, your Lord and Master, washing the feet of his disciples — not

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one of whom was worthy of the honor of washing his feet, any more than was John the Baptist of loosing the latchet of his shoes.

And now, having tried to " see Je- sus ' at the Last Supper, and know- ing that then and there began the Christian practice of breaking bread and tasting wine in remembrance of Jesus dying for us, let us study this Christian practice a little more.

There are three principal names by which we call it:

1. The Lord's Supper. It is easy to see what this means. The Lord instituted it, and we observe it in re- membrance of the Lord.

2. The Communion. The apostle Paul teaches us to call it so, for he says: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the

168 SEEING JESUS.

blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" A communion is a sharing or partaking together, as a family do, when they all sit down together at one table to eat, or around one fireside to enjoy each other's com- pany, to share together the pleasures of conversation, or of singing, or of read- ing— all bound together in one common love. So it is with the family of Christ — those who are united to one another in a common love and trust toward him. They express this, and show it, when thev commune together in the Lord's Supper.

3. The Sacbament. We give this name to baptism also, as well as to the Lord's Supper. It is not given in the Bible, but it is a very proper name, and has a very solemn meaning. It

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means an oath. You know that when a witness is called to testify in a court, he first puts his hand on the Bible or else lifts it up toward heaven, and swears, or solemnly promises, "that he will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth;" and the officer of the court says, "So help you Grod.r This is a solemn appeal to God. It means that the witness knows that God hears all that he says, and he consents to be fearfully pun- ished by God, if he shall not tell the exact truth, just as he has promised.

When the President is inaugurated — that is, when he begins to be Presi- dent— he stands on the porch of the Capitol, amid a great crowd of the peo- ple, and takes an oath, in which he promises to govern the nation according to the Constitution and laws of the

4

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country, and the Chief Justice says, "So help you GodJ and the President says after him, " So help me God.1' When soldiers are first taken into the army, they take an oath to be obedient to their officers, and to fight faithfully for the flag of the country, the pre- cious " star-spangled banner,' against all its enemies.

In the language of the old Romans such an oath was called sacr amentum ; and from that we have made our word Sackament. Everv time that we take the cup and the bread at the Lord's Supper, we renew our oatJi, our solemn promise, to be the Lord's, and to try to live faithful, prayerful, useful Chris- tian lives; and we solemnly pray the Lord to help us do so.

Dear children, has this little book

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helped you to "see Jesus?" Do you see him, as the good evangelists, Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, have taken so much pains to show him to us? Seeing him, do you love him? Are you sorry for your sins? Do vou con- fess your sins to Jesus? Do you believe that his blood was shed to atone for your sins? Are you honestly trying to live and act every day as Jesus wishes you to? Do you really wish to sit at his table, among his disciples? Then I would advise vou to 2:0 to your pastor and tell him just how you feel. Perhaps your Sabbath-school teacher or your father or mother will go with you, if you wish it. I am sure that your pastor will be very glad to have you come to him; and if you do truly love and trust the Lord Jesus, he will be glad and thankful to give you the

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bread and the cup, to help you to remember him — to help you more distinctly and more aifectionately to SEE JESUS.

THE END.

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