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THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

From the painting by J. M. H. Hofmanu

THE BOY CHRIST

THE BOYS' LIFE OF
CHRIST

By

WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH

Author of "The Boy Problem," The Travel

Lessons on the Life of Jesus, ' '

etc.

WITH EIGHT HALF-TONE
ILLUSTRATIONS

FUNK y WAGNALLS COMPANY

NEW YORK AND LONDON
1906

LIBRARY of CONGRESS
Two CoDifs Received

DEC 6 1905

Co j)y right Entry
CLASS d, XXc. No.

/ 3 3 0 ¥^

COPY B,

BT3oa

Copyright, 1905, by
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY

[Printed in the United States of America]
Published, December, 1905

to -

4

^ TO MY THREE BOYS

CONTENTS

PAGE

A Word to Boys 11

A Word to Older People 13

I. A Boy from Nowhere 17

II. School Days Long Ago and Far Away 31

III. A Camping Tour in the Mountains- • . 36

IV. Three Days at College 44

V. The Village Carpenter 51

VI. A Voice from the Desert 61

VII. A Battle Royal 66

VIII. New Comrades 74

IX. A Wellside Dialog 89

X. A Summer of Sunshine 95

XI. A Family of Brothers ' 113

XII. The Martyred Hero 123

XIII. Rejected 132

XIV. The Men He Might Have Had 140

XV. The King Is Seen in His Glory 150

XVI. Nearing the Holy City 162

XVII. The Heirs of His Kingdom 179

XVIII. Three Whom Jesus Loved 187

XIX. The Triumphal Procession 199

XX. In the Den of the Wolves 207

XXI. A Feast for Remembrance 217

XXII. What Happened in the Olive Orchard 232

XXIII. The King Stands Before Kings 236

!
Tiii CONTENTS

PAGE

XXIV. The King Dies for His People 351 ;

XXV. The Morning of His Kingdom 258 j

Notes 267 I

The Leading Events in the Life of

Jesus 305

Index., r :.. 309 \

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Boy Christ Frontispiece

From the painting by J. M. H. Hoftnann

The Finding of the Savior in the Temple

Opposite page 50 v
From the painting by Holman Hunt

The Shadow of Death Opposite page 58^

From the painting by Holman Hunt

Jesus Cleansing the Temple Opposite page 86 v

From the drawing by J. M. H. Hofmann

Jesus Healing the Sick Opposite page 112 "

From the painting by Albert Zimmermann

Christ Washing Peter's Feet. . . -Opposite page 224
From the painting by Ford Madox Brown

Golgotha. • Opposite page 256

From the painting by Jean-L^on Gerome

*'If Thou Seek Him " Opposite page 262

From the painting by Ferdinand Pauwels

Map of the Country Where Christ Lived

Opposite page 267

♦♦31f ijat lost $}im as a Wtoti^tti toe
cannot Utl ^^im as a S>at)tor,"

Frederick W. Robertson

A WORD TO BOYS

When you pick up this book your first
thought may be: ^^Oh, I know all this: I
have been taught it ever since I was a child. ' '

But stop! Do you really know all about
Jesus Christ ? Do you know what he did when
he was your age and what kind of home he
had? Do you know how he lived when he
spent all his time out of doors with his twelve
friends, what were his habits and his pleas-
ures, and what was the plan of his life ? You
know some of these things about Napoleon
and Washington and Lincoln. Do you know
them about Jesus?

Then, too, while you have heard that Jesus
Christ is the greatest Figure in history, do
you know this of your own knowledge ? You
have read of heroes in Grecian history, in
English history, in the history of our own
country. Have you ever thought of Jesus as a
hero,— the greatest of all heroes? Do you
know just why He was a hero ?

This book deals simply with Jesus as the
boy's hero.

If you like the story of Jesus' life as told
in this book, you will surely be interested in
another story of the same life. It was written,
nearly 2,000 years ago, by one who had it
from the lips of one of Jesus ' closest friends,

12 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

the Apostle Peter. The author's name is
John Mark, and his story of the life is called
^^The Gospel according to Saint Mark." Let
me suggest that yon do something that proba-
bly yon have never tried : sit down and read
Saint Mark's story of the life of Jesns. It
is not very long. You can do it at one sitting
in less than an hour. I am sure yon will be
repaid by it.

A WORD TO OLDER PEOPLE

This book is a painting, rather than a pho-
tograph. That is, it has both background and
foreground. What is left in the background
is put there not for concealment, but only so
that the high lights may seem more intense.

There are many things therefore which
this book does not try to do. It does not
try to tell everything Jesus said and did.
It does not touch the theology or the phi-
losophy of Jesus' life. It does endeavor
to show the manly, heroic, chivalric, in-
tensely real and vigorously active qualities
of Jesus in a way to appeal to boys. This is
why it begins with the boyhood rather than
with the babyhood of Jesus. Boys do not care
for his teachings in detail. Of all their heroes
they ask: ^^What did he dof^^ The miracu-
lous is not emphasized, because it is more
helpful to boys to think how much Jesus re-
sembles themselves than how much he differs
from them. Even with these limitations, I
hope that this portrait is not without its halo.
The purpose has been to make the readers
see not only ''the highest, holiest manhood,"
but also the ''strong Son of God, immortal
Love. ' '

The book was not easy to write. There was
little opportunity for the element of surprise.
The time and place are so far away that it

14 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

was hard to make the book real and readable.
It has not seemed best to introduce to any ex-
tent the element of fiction. The treatment
of some of the events is imaginative, though
founded on careful Oriental study, and re-
marks are introduced in the dialog of the peo-
ple surrounding Jesus, which were the sub-
stance of the talk of the time. This is a harm-
less literary device. The words attributed to
Jesus, however, are in almost every case those
that have been recorded in the Gospels. And
every act of Jesus is one related in the New
Testament, except that in the opening chap-
ters the silence of the Gospels upon his boy*
hood is supplemented by a description of the
childhood life of the time from the most trust-
worthy sources. In this Jesus appears, I
trust, in a character harmonious with our
later knowledge of him. The pretty little in-
cident at the close of the first chapter is from
the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. Altho not
every event of Jesus' life is mentioned, there
is an endeavor to show its plan and order, a
knowledge of which many of our children,
with all our Sunday-school teaching, never
attain. There is also a careful attempt to
show, as far as my readers would care to
know, how Jesus developed from boyhood to
manhood.

The book is designed for home reading by
boys who are old enough to be thoughtful and
intelligent. If Doctor Hale is right in saying

A WORD TO OLDER PEOPLE 15

that all girls like boys' books, while no boys
like girls' books, this boys' book will, perhaps,,
prove as interesting to girls as to boys. I
have also thought it might be used for sup-
plementary reading in the Sunday-school and
young people's society.

For the latter purpose it may be accom-
panied by my ^^ Travel Lessons on the Life
of Jesus." With this use in mind, the book
is furnished with notes, ^ describing the scenes
of the life of Jesus as they appear to-day and
as they are illustrated in the ^^ Travel Les-
sons. ' '

While the reading of many books has con-
tributed to the preparation of this one, it has
not seemed wise in a story-book to burden the
pages with footnote acknowledgments. The
author has been especially indebted in the gen-
eral plan to Burton and Mathews, Stevens and
Burton, Stalker and Sanday, and in interpre-
tation and picturesqueness of detail, in various
measure, to Dawson, Brough, Bosworth, Fair-
bairn, Eenan, Farrar, and Edersheim. ' ' The
Twentieth CenturyNew Testament "and ^^The
New Testament in Braid Scots, ' ' by Wm. Wye
Smith, have been found helpful in attempts to
state the thought of Jesus in modern English.

Wm. Byrok Forbush.

The Madison Avenue Reformed Church,

New York.

* See Note 1.

THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

I

A BOY FROM NOWHERE

^' Let's play ^ Wedding M "

^^Oh, no."

^^We'll be the pipers."

^^No, we don't want to dance."

^^Well, then, let's play ^Funeral,' and yon
may be the chief monrners. ' '

^^We won't do it."

It was a group of boys and girls, barefoot-
ed, bnt dressed in bright colors.

They lived in a far Eastern land.

They were standing about idly, near the
fountain, in the small square of a lonely little
mountain village.*

It was a holiday. The springtime sun was
shining brightly. The square was a lively
scene. Women in colored gowns, with jing-
ling strings of coins around their foreheads
and cheeks, were carrying their water- jars to
the fountain. They were jostled by long-
legged street dogs and by donkeys loaded with
huge grain bags that hung across their backs.
Men were chaffering loudly near by in the
cattle market.

The day was before the children, but, altho

""^^SeTNote 5.

18 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

weddings and funerals were about all the
events that ever varied the life of their quiet
town, this hot morning they all seemed to feel
too lazy or too cross to begin to play.

Just then the children heard a clear boyish
soprano in the distance, and all turned eagerly
in that direction. A slender but sturdy lad
of about twelve, coming down the hill, walked
singing around the corner. He was dressed
in a long, close-fitting, striped blouse of brown
and white, and he carried an empty water- jar
on top of his white turban, beneath which
tossed his curly locks. Flashing dark were
his eyes. His smile was ever ready.

As he bent over to fill his jar at the wide
fountain that gushed out of the hill, he called
to one of the lads, and asked him why they
were not playing.

^^The boys are too disagreeable," broke in
a black-eyed girl before the one addressed had
time to answer.

^^Are the groomsmen still in mourning now
that their bridegroom is with them?" laughed
the boy at the well. For he was recognized
as the leader of their play.

Then lifting the full jar easily to the top
of his head, he called out, ^^Come with me."

They followed his vigorous steps in a chat-
tering line up the narrow street to his small
white-walled home, where he left the water-
jar inside the door in the shade, dropping a
green branch in it to keep it cool.

A BOY FROM NOWHERE 19

Doves were cooing in the eaves and chickens
were feeding in front of the house. The
father, a bearded man, stood in the doorway
planing an ox-yoke, and the mother sat in the
shaded porch holding a baby in her arms and
watching another little boy who was playing
with his oldest brother's pet lamb. She was
singing softly to the baby as he frolicked npon
her knee.

When he told his mother where he was go-
ing, she addressed him as ^^ Joshua." The
name was a heroic one, for it had been borne
by the great commander who had led his fore-
fathers ont of the desert and by the priest
who had been their champion when they re-
turned from exile. In the Latin language the
name is, Jesus.

^^ Where are we going?" asked the last of
the flying troop as they started in another
direction down the hill once more.

^^To the threshing floor, of course," shout-
ed back the leaders.

It was a flat, open space beside a dry creek-
bed, pounded hard so the grain would not be
trampled into it. In the summer the goats
were driven around it to beat the grain from
the husks with their hoofs. But the rest of
the year it was the children's playground.

First, they played ^^ Wedding." This was
the girl's favorite. The boy of the water-jar
gaily took his place as the bridegroom, and
taking out his flute, led off a jolly, prancing

20 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

procession consisting of the other boys, who
represented the groomsmen or '^the sons of
the bride-chamber.'' In another place the
girls gathered around the one they had
chosen as bride and carried make-believe
torches, waved myrtle boughs over her head,
and noisily pretended to beat drums and play
on pipes. Advancing, with singing and danc-
ing, the bridesmaids escorted the bride to her
future home.

This did not give exercise enough to suit
the boys, and soon they insisted on playing
' ' Funeral. ' ' Marching more slowly, boys and
girls together, they crooned a dirge, they
howled and beat their breasts, as they had
seen their elders do, for an Eastern funeral
is very noisy. And some of the boys rolled
on the ground and threw dust over their
heads, as the rest climbed up toward the old
tombs in the crags Aear the hilltop.

When they had come to the summit, nearly
breathless, they found sitting there, clothed
in his loose brown robe and leaning upon his
staff, the old minister of the village. He was
also their school-teacher, and they all loved
him.

Jesus and the others saluted him respect-
fully and sat down beside him.

Pretty soon the youngest said boldly, ^^Tell
us a story. Father Jacob."

^^A true story, if you please," said a boy
named Hosea.

A BOY FROM NOWHERE 21

So they gathered around the old man on
the hillcrest, while the sheep grazed around
them, and occasionally a gray eagle floated
with stately sweep above their heads.

From the spot where they were sitting one
could see a glorious prospect.^ Down below,
the little village was perched on the edge of
the eastward hillslope like a great white
wasp 's nest. Its flat roofs lay among terraced
gardens full of dark, wide-branched fig trees,
gray olives and feathery palms. But beyond,
on every side but one, was a sea of moun-
tains. Only one town could be seen, a city
on a hilltop, far to the northwest.

It would be worth while for you to turn to
the map in the back of the book and pick out
some of the famous places that would be seen
from this town where our hero was brought
up.

The white-bearded story-teller stood up,
and with a smile pointed his staff inquiringly
northward. Beyond a mountainous plateau
they could see the snowy shoulder of Mount
Hermon, the highest peak and the northern
boundary of their native land. At its foot
was the summer palace of their foreign mon-
arch.

But nobody wanted to hear about Mount
Hermon.

He pointed to the east. In the break of the
eastern hills they could see the chasm in

* See Note 4.

22 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

which flowed a river, and far beyond it the
steep dark walls of a noble tableland.

^^Oh, tell US about the mountains of Gil-
ead!'' shouted one of the boys. ^^Tell us of
Jephthah the great hunter."

^^No,'' said one of the girls, ^4t is too sad.
My mother told me about the death of his
little daughter and it made me cry. ' '

^^Then tell about Gideon's victory, and how
he chased our country's enemies over there
across the Jordan into the underwoods, and
then whipped the cowards of Succoth with
their own briar bushes. ' '

But not all could agree to hear even this
merry story, so he turned about and pointed
westward.

They saw a range of low hills and beyond
them a long, purple mountain, and still be-
yond that the blue sea.

^^Let us hear about the desert prophet, and
of how he conquered the priests of Baal with
the lightnings, ' ' cried another boy.

^^ Yes, tell us of Elijah," said a third eager-
ly. But no, the rest had often heard the well-
known story of Elijah's testing of the gods
of evil Queen Jezebel.

And so he pointed to the south. There the
hills drop down to a long, wine-colored plain,
a great triangle of waving grain and grass,
one of the most spacious and historic valleys
in the world. The story-teller's eyes flashed
as he looked.

A BOY FROM NOWHERE 23

Instantly all rose and shouted and clapped
their hands.

^^Yes! Yes! tell us of Jezreel! Tell us of
our country's battle-ground!''

And so the children gathered around him
and he told them splendid stories of their na-
tion's history, pointing as he talked toward
one hilltop or another, for every one of those
memorable places could be picked out from
where they were sitting. Yonder, southeast,
behind Mount Gilboa, he made them seem to
see intrepid Gideon testing the courage of
his volunteers at the water springs, and then,
the next night, executing that skilful strategy
by which he routed an enormous army with
no weapons but lamps and water pitchers.
Across this very valley below drove famous
King Jehu to kill wretched Jezebel, the
enemy of his people. Yonder, too, died the
boy-king Josiah in a daring but vain endeavor
to stem the power of Egypt, the mightiest
monarchy in the world.

^^Do you see yonder roadway?" he inter-
rupted.

And now the children watched eagerly as
he traced through the grain fields the royal
highway, down which they could even now
dimly see camel trains moving. It is the old-
est road in the world, the bridge between
Asia and Africa.

He told them how, many hundred years be-
fore, a warrior named Sisera, with his fierce

24 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

army in iron chariots, had come marching
toward their home, along this very road, from
yonder distant pass in the mountains at the
south. Then he pointed southeastward to the
round dome of Tabor, where a brave woman,
a mother in Israel, with a young man, hardly
more than a boy, to help her, had gathered
IsraePs untrained but eager minutemen to
the defense of their country. Into that field
of blood rushed down this little band of gal-
lant patriots. Then the skies suddenly dark-
ened, the rain fell in torrents, the plain be-
came a sea of mud and the chariot wheels of
the enemy could not move. With desperate
courage Israel's heroes fought among the
horses and war cars against tremendous odds,
and won. Back along that rain-drenched
road the enemy fled on foot. Many were
swept away in yonder flooded stream, be-
neath the site of Elijah's altar. But Sisera,
their chief, pressed doggedly eastward.

^^Is there any more?'' some one asked
breathlessly.

The children turned their faces again to-
ward the Jordan, and the speaker's voice fell
as he related the dread tragedy of the victory.
He told how the wife of Heber, of the kins-
men of the Hebrews, received the spent war-
rior kindly into her tent. Then he recited
the old war-song of Deborah and Barak. It
told how when he was drowsy, because of her
love for downtrodden Israel.

A BOY FROM NOWHEEE 25

^^She brought him butter in a lordly dish,
She put her hand to the nail,
And her right hand to the workman's ham-
mer.
Yea, she pierced and struck through his tem-
ples.
At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay ;
At her feet he fell :
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead. ' '

He chanted the dirge by Sisera's mother
and then sang the closing words of triumph:
''So let thine enemies perish, 0 Lord;
But let them that love him be as the sun when
he goeth forth in his might. ' '

It was by such tales as these that the school-
masters of Israel caused their children to hate
the sins that since those brave days had made
their nation weak and the enemies who had
brought them low.

Then he told them the finest story of all,
of the great shepherd-king who had carried
Israel on his heart, David, once the boy of
Bethlehem in Judah. Of his fight with the
lion and the bear on the lonely hilltops of his
father's pastures, of his duel with the giant
Goliath, and of his perilous life with King
Saul, the sad, wild monarch who both loved
and hated him so well, he spoke. ^^And
who ever won hearts as did he ? The mighty
Three who broke through an army to quench
their hero's thirst, the fearless Benaiah who

26 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

leapt down and slew a lion in a pit on a
snowy day, and prince Jonathan— oh! the
world well knows how their sonls were knit to-
gether. ' '

He paused, as if in thought. They could
scarce wait for him to continue.

Then he told how David with his dauntless
clan subsisted in the deserts as an exile, while
the prince went out to fight by his father's
side, and how when the long day of battle
had turned against them, those brave heroes,
noble father and tender son, lay down to-
gether in death on yonder summit.

^ ^ There it stands ! ' ' the old man exclaimed,
as he pointed beyond rounded Tabor to gray
Gilboa in the far southeast.

And in thrilling tones he recited the famous
*^Song of the Bow," which David, now king
of all Israel, sang, as he led the mourning
nation down the mountain.

''Thy glory, 0 Israel, is slain upon thy high

places.
How are the mighty fallen !
Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant

in their lives.
And in their death they were not divided.

I am distressed for thee, my brother Jona-
than.
Thy love to me was wonderful,
Passing the love of women.''

A BOY FROM NOWHERE 27

The children drew a long breath when this
story was done. The encircling hills seemed
still to shelter the watching spirits of these
heroes of the past. One of the lads, stretch-
ing himself to his utmost and shaking his
right arm toward that funeral mountain,
shouted :

^^Hail to you, mighty kings of old, and hail
to you, 0 David, great Shepherd of Israel."

Jesus clasped his playmate's hand with a
look of delight at such enthusiasm, for he was
himself of the family of their hero.

As the children w^ent down the hill they
spoke with gleeful voices of those great days
when God had made their nation so famous
through the deeds of its noble sons and daugh-
ters.

^^And he will do it again!" said one of the
older boys stoutly. ^^He will do it again!
What does the prophet say?

^^ ^Behold, a king shall reign in righteous-
ness . . .

And a man shall be as a covert from the tem-
pest: . . .

As the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land.'"

The teacher was pleased to note the bright
boy's ready memory.

^^When will our king come, Father Jacob?"

28 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

asked one of the girls wearily. ^^My father
says it has been very long. ' '

^ ^ He is coming, my child, ' ' said the old man,
laying his hand on her glossy head. ^^He is
coming. Out of Bethlehem, David's city, the
prophet has said onr Deliverer shall appear."

Jesus had fallen back beside the rabbi.

*^How shall the Messiah be known?'' he
asked.

^^It is written of him," the master an-
swered, ^ ^ ^ I delight to do thy will, 0 God. ' ' '

The boy walked on a moment in silence,
then as they came to a steep place, he gave
the venerable man his strong shoulder and
helped him down to his home.

The brows of the little patriots had dark-
ened as they thought of their long-suffering
land and the hated yoke of the proud Eomans.
But, when they reached the threshing-floor
again and had parted from the good rabbi
with hearty farewells, their spirits grew
brighter and they all wanted one more game
before dinner.

^^We'll play ^Kingdom,' " cried one.
^^That is the best game of all."

^^Who will be king?"

^^No, I!"

^^Andl!"

^'No, Jesus shall be our king," said Jesus'
chum, the boy who had quoted from the old
prophet. **He is the strongest. He is the

A BOY FROM NOWHERE 29

one who leads our games and makes peace
when we quarrel. Let Jesus be our king ! ' ^

And, with one accord, before he had a
chance to protest, they had seated the dark-
eyed lad on a knoll, and were crowning him
with blossoms. They put a palm branch in
his hand and spread their cloaks before him,
and two boys, one at his right and one at his
left, stationed themselves as his attendants,
while the rest stopped the good-natured pass-
ers-by, old and young, and merrily forced
them to approach, saying, ^^Come here and
adore our king, and afterward go on your
way in peace."

And then they all went home, tired, to their
dinners.

In a few moments Jesus had reached his
father's door. It was open toward the east.
The family were just sitting down on the floor
around the low stand which they used as their
table. As soon as the chattering little on^s
were still, Jesus, as the oldest son, stood and
asked the blessing. He sat by his mother's
side and told all the adventures of the merry
morning. His mother, whose name was Mary,
was especially pleased when he described how
the boys had crowned him king.

After Jesus had helped his mother with her
work the family rested for an hour or two
through the hot midday. Then the boy
walked out to the vineyards with his chum
and talked with the vine-dressers. When

30 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

night came he saw that the chickens were in
their shelter, and after he had eaten his sup-
per, he fed his lamb. Then his father shut the
house door and before the color had faded out
of the west the whole family was asleep.

II

SCHOOL DAYS LONG AGO AND FAR
AWAY

Would yon like to take a look into Jesns'
schoolhonse?

It is a low, sqnare stone bnilding near the
village fountain.

Over the door is an ornamental carving of
a bunch of grapes or a pot of manna.

Entering beneath a gallery in the rear you
find yourself facing a low platform, in the
center of which is a curtained chest.

It looks like a country church in New Eng-
land.

It is a church, for the schools of these days
were held in the meeting-houses, and, as I
have said, the ministers were the school-
teachers.

If you should look inside, though, when
school was in session, it would not remind you
much of an American schoolhouse. You think
of a group of boys and girls seated at their
desks, studying their lessons in perfect silence.
But in Jesus' village you would know as soon
as you were anywhere near the schoolhouse
by the noise that came from it, and if you
looked through the door or window you would
see all the scholars seated in a circle on the

32 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

floor around their teacher, who was seated
there, too, studying their lessons at the top of
their voices !

What kind of text-books did they have?
Arithmetics ? Geographies ? Spelling-books ?
Did each boy carry an armfnl of books as
schoolboys do in America?

There was but one text-book, and only one
copy of that. It was a queer-looking volume,
laid when not in use behind the curtains on
yonder platform. Written on a leather roll
from right to left, it was wound around two
metal staves and kept in a silk case.

It was the Old Testament.

Do you think that would be an interesting
school-book? It surely was to Jesus. The
stories of his country's heroes, the history of
his nation's wars, the words of its best and
greatest men are all found in its pages. It
was spelling-book, reader, geography, history,
language-lessons, poetry, lessons in behaviour
—all bound in one volume.

Jesus began to study it when he was a child
at home. Perhaps his mother taught him
first a birthday- verse, beginning with or con-
taining the same letters as his name. Then he
learned a few of the shorter psalms, especially
those used in the feast-day processions.

When he went to school his first lessons
were in the book of Leviticus.

Every lesson was a memory-lesson. How
patiently the old teacher drilled, drilled,

SCHOOL DAYS LONG AGO 33

drilled his scholars day after day. Those
shrill voices uplifted in concert were reciting
over and over, first the olden laws, then the
stories, and finally the Prophets and the
Psalms, until the children knew by heart, so
that they never could forget, thousands of
verses from their nation's book.

Not until Jesus was ten or twelve did he
begin to be taught the explanations of what
he had learned. Those ancient schoolmasters
believed in rote first, then reason.

School days in Galilee were not tiresome.
There were no lessons in the middle of the
day or in hot weather. About one day in four
was a holiday, and children did not go to
school much after they were twelve or four-
teen years old.

To-day we study many subjects in school;
drawing and painting and cooking and car-
pentering. In these days the homes did this
part of the school teaching. Every boy, no
matter how wealthy his parents, must learn
a trade. It was usually taught him by his
father. So Jesus learned from Joseph how
to handle the saw, the plane and the mason's
trowel, while his little sisters, Salome and
Mary, were learning from their mother how
to sew and keep house.

If the school-teacher taught Jesus to recite
the psalms, probably it was his mother who
taught him to sing them. She herself had

34 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

composed songs, one of which is still sung
to-day in all our churches.

In all countries those who become great owe
a great debt to their mothers. This was espe-
cially so in Israel. Motherhood was the best
thing Israel had. ^^God could not be every-
where, ' ' was one of their sayings, ' ' and so he
made mothers.'' Jesus owed much to his
mother. She taught him many things that the
village master did not know. The rabbi knew
what Abraham and Moses and David did.
But she could tell her boy what they hoped
and felt and suffered. The rabbi lived in the
past, but she, like that other peasant girl,
Joan of Arc, had visions of the future. She
did not, like the maid of Orleans, expect to
wield a sword. Her weapon for victory over
wrong was her boy.

No wonder that the greatest painters have
tried to portray her loving, thoughtful face.
No wonder that the whole world honors Mary,
who lived only that she might give the world
its king.

It seems as if all Nazareth were a school-
house. The view from the hilltop was a
course in history. The birds and flowers, the
trees, vineyards and meadows taught nature-
study. At the village fountain travelers
brought accounts of the geography of other
lands. It was even possible to learn a little
of their strange languages.

Then in one sense all the grown people of

SCHOOL DAYS LONG AGO 35

Nazareth were teachers. For everybody in
those days took the deepest interest in chil-
dren. They often talked with them, they an-
swered their questions and they taught them
all sorts of wise sayings. In every village
there were men who spent much of their time
thns conversing with yonng people, and in
one of the common sayings of the day chil-
dren were encouraged to learn from such
men. The saying was: ^^Stay close by the
seller of perfumes if you want to keep fra-
grant. ' '

in

A CAMPING TOUR IN THE MOUNTAINS

On the night of the holiday, which I spoke
of in the first chapter, the village went to bed
early, for the next day was to be a notable one.

Before the snn was np everybody had gath-
ered at the fountain. The fathers and moth-
ers and the older children were going to leave
for a ten days' tour. They were going to
the capital for the great annual feast, to cele-
brate the nation's birthday.

Donkeys were being loaded by the men with
baggage, the mothers were saying good-by to
their little children, who were left in their
grandparents' charge, and the children whom
we met yesterday were under the donkeys'
feet and in everybody's way, having a glad
time in prospect of the holiday. For a town
with nobody in it but grandparents and chil-
dren must be a very jolly one.

Soon the cavalcade started, the old rabbi
and the chief men with the village banner
riding ahead, surrounded by a crowd of boys,
among whom was Jesus. The rest followed,
all except the wom^en on foot.

Jesus parted with reluctance from his

CAMPING TOUR IN THE MOUNTAINS 37

younger playmates and his little brothers and
sisters. Even when the pilgrims could be
faintly heard by the villagers left behind,
singing their marching song from the hilltop,
he was seen waving his hand to them in fare-
well. But then his eyes turned eagerly to the
pathway before him.

For this was Jesus' first journey from
home.f

The procession straggled down the Naza-
reth hills to the great plain of Esdraelon. As
soon as it entered the old royal road it
joined a great throng of travelers, some their
countrymen living in foreign lands, others
Romans, Greeks, and even Ethiopians, com-
ing for trade or curiosity, to the feast. Here
were stately camels and gray mules covered
with gay saddle cloths, bearing bales of silks
and clothing and bundles of spices and mer-
chandise. And as they traveled slowly on
through the grain fields, dotted with wild
flowers of blue and purple and scarlet, they
were to the shepherd boys watching their
sheep beside the placid river, and to the farm-
ers and their wives, standing knee deep in the
yellow grain, a vision of wonder. The distant
hills had a delicate veil of green after the
recent rains and the air was sweet with the
breath of wild thyme.

They crossed the Kishon River,* now at full
springtime flood. Jesus looked with interest

t See Note 7. * See Note 6.

38 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

at Shunem, where Elislia gave the little boy
back to his mother, saw the weird caves of
gloomy Endor, where the old witch used to
live, and gazed in silent wonder at the huge
broken sculptures of ruined Jezreel, Jezebel's
old summer home. Toward night they
reached a sheltered spot between grassy
Mount Carmel and barren Gilboa, where the
road begins to climb the tableland, which was
the route of their to-morrow's journey. A
part of the caravan had already turned away
into a sandy pass through Carmel toward the
sea, on the long way to Egypt.

Their camping spot was close to a fountain
and near a cluster of gardens. Jesus helped
his father fasten their beast and gathered
sticks for a fire, so that his mother might cook
their pottage. After supper they two made a
couch and shelter of branches for the mother,
while they themselves prepared to sleep on
the ground under the stars. But sleep was
not to be thought of at once. In the distance
they could hear the marching songs of other
pilgrims who were approaching. Near by,
a great camp-fire was a center of attraction.
Jesus and the other boys were soon standing
in its blaze. Already a group of men had
gathered, some to exchange greetings and
news with new-found friends, some to tell
stories, and some to argue excitedly and end-
lessly about religion. Above, the young pas-
chal moon was shining, making the wooded

CAMPING TOUR IN THE MOUNTAINS 39

slopes of the encircling hills as distant against
the sky as in the day. Mnch did the boys hear
that evening, and these three full days, of the
strange languages and ideas of other lands
and still more of the glories of their own.

The next day their way was through the
highlands. The region belonged to the fa-
natic Samaritans, who thrust their tongues
out at them in hatred as they passed. Had it
not been the feast time they would have
taken a long roundabout course to avoid the
unpleasantness and danger of passing
through this region. But perhaps the slight
risk added a delightful element of excitement
to the younger pilgrims. They passed in
sight of the well where Joseph was left by
his envious brothers, and told each other
again the splendid tale of the trials and tri-
umphs of that princely youth, and soon they
came to the city of Samaria, which was the
new political capital, as Jerusalem was the
ancient religious capital, of the nation.

It must have seemed to the boys almost a
fairy town. The white houses in their green
foliage climbed up the hill to the king's mar-
ble palace at the top, and from its walls and
gardens one could look northward to a curve
of noble forest-crowned hills, westward to the
blue sea, and southward down the greenest
valley in all the land. They hurried down
this valley, for tho it was a beautiful, it was
not a friendly, city. On every side were olive

40 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

and lemon groves, fragrant as spice, and the
nightingales were already beginning to sing
in the branches.

A little beyond Shechem they fonnd their
second camping place. If an American boy
wonld rejoice to retr averse the old battle
ronte from Boston to Concord Bridge, he may
imagine how this lad enjoyed this historic
journey. Turn to your map again and follow
the boys of Nazareth as they climb along the
backbone of Palestine.

The halt was made in a narrow valley be-
tween two mountains.

^^This," said Jesus' father, pointing to the
bleak northern peak, "is Ebal, the mount of
cursing. ' '

He did not need to be told that the more
fertile cone was Gerizim, the mountain of
blessing, or that it was on these two hillslopes
that his great namesake, Joshua, had gath-
ered the nation in two bands and addressed
them after the conquest.

Close by was a low, whitewashed tomb.

Did his heart not throb when his father said
reverently,

^^The grave of Joseph.''

Here lay the body of that spotless prince,
Israel's King Arthur, after its long travels.
The whole nation had escorted it to its rest.

^^This spot of ground," the speaker con-
tinued, ^^was won by Jacob with his sword."
He also told how the great father of the na-

CAMPING TOUR IN THE MOUNTAINS 41

tion, Abraham himself, had come hither with
his flocks when he was seeking a safe home
in these rocky pastures.

A few moments later Jesus was looking
down into a deep well, from which in an in-
stant was drawn a bucket of ice-cold water.
He needed no one to tell him that it was that
oldest of memorials, the well of Jacob.

One more night was spent in camp after a
day of pleasant travel, enlivened by the glad-
some beat of drums and timbrels, and through
places equally memorable for their glorious
names.

By this time the children had learned to
guess which interesting town would look out
from the next hilltop, and merrily they an-
swered to one another :

^^ Bethel-"

^^ Where homesick Isaac fell asleep his first
night away from home on the stones of his
grandfather's altar.''

^^Gibeah?"

^'No. Eamah."

^^ Where Samuel, the king-maker lived."

^^Here is Gibeah, then."

^^Yes, the birthplace of King Saul."

This country was not, like Samaria, green
and watered and fertile, but it was gray, stony
and bare. It looked like the hills of New Eng-
land. Yet it was more dear, for the highland-
ers of Judea had always been the nation's de-
fenders.

42 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

The next morning there was a great shak-
ing and smoothing out of clothes and a put-
ting on of adornments, because by noontime
the eighty-mile journey would be nearly over,
and the Holy City, the goal of their pilgrim-
age, would be in sight. The travelers this
morning began to sing :

''I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go unto the House of the Lord, ' '

and other ancient songs that had been com-
posed on purpose for this journey.

Tho long awaited, the first sight of the
city^ was unexpected. They climbed a hill-
ock, and lo! it was all spread before them.
The great stone castles of the Eomans were
on the right, the old gray wall was around
it, and the hills were its guardians, but there
at the left before them was the Temple Hill
with its snowy terraces of marble and its
roofs of gleaming gold! A burst of song
arose as the Holy House flashed into view.
Then the whole company knelt in thanks-
giving.

Down through the fig and olive trees they
hastened, past the villas of the wealthy, meet-
ing now a band of iron-armored Roman le-
gionaries, now a group of silken-gowned doc-
tors of the law, until they entered the city
gate.

There was no question of paying for enter-

* See Note 8.

CAMPING TOUR IN THE MOUNTAINS 43

tainment. All Jerusalem was keeping open
house. But the city was already crowded
with hundreds of thousands of people. If
there was a curtain hanging over any en-
trance it meant, '^ Still there is room." But
if there was no room left, belated travelers
encamped cheerfully in the orchards outside
the gates.

Too eager to rest, too grateful to sleep, the
pilgrims from Nazareth, taking a hasty meal
and greeting many of their distant kinsmen,
hurried to join the great throng in the tem-
ple courts, and there they were found even
until midnight waiting in the moonlight their
turn to present their free-will gifts.

IV
THREE DAYS AT COLLEGE

They took but a few hours of sleep.

It was the edge of the dawn. Far aloft a
silver trumpet blew three times, and ere it
ceased the priest who had slept all night at
the portal beside the golden keys sprang to
his feet, kissed the master-key and swung
open the massive temple doors.

Before daylight the other priests had been
awake within, and had inspected the dark cor-
ridors in procession by torchlight. The fire
was rekindled on the altars, the sacrifice was
laid upon the coals, and when the worshipers
began to crowd in, the Holy House was ready
for the services of the day.

Jesus stood, in the early morning light, with
his parents in the Jewish Court. Proudly he
looked outside to the larger courtyard where
foreigners gathered curiously and looked up
and read the stone tablet, which warned them
of death if they ventured farther. But he
was one of ^^the Chosen People ;'' ^Hhe Sons
of God,'' they called themselves. And so,
when the strange washings and bowings and
recitatives went on, he watched eagerly, for

THREE DAYS AT COLLEGE 45

this service belonged to him; when the odor
of incense was diffuse'd he knelt with the thou-
sands ; as he watched it overflow the curtains
it seemed like the rising prayers of his nation ;
and as the officiating priest, with tinkling bells
on the border of his gown, walked here and
there beyond that rainbow-colored curtain,
he could tell by the music at what part of the
service he was engaged.

A little later he saw a company of priests
coming up from the valley beyond the walls
waviiig the bundle of grain, which they had
cut with a golden sickle. It was the first-
fruits of the harvest. And he saw them bring-
ing the golden pitcher of water from the
sacred wells.

Meantime, back in the home village of
Jesus, the old grandames and the little chil-
dren were searching their dark houses with
candles for any scraps of raised bread, and
were making the flat, white, tasteless loaves
which were the only bread they ate during
the whole feast.

The Passover was Israel's New Year's Day,
Fourth of July and Easter, all in one. But
how strangely different from ours were their
celebrations !

When the great day of the feast came, Jo-
seph, the father of the family, carried up the
choice yearling lamb which he had brought
for the sacrifice. When the priest had slain

46 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

it, Mary roasted it upon a cross of pome-
granate wood.

Away from the crowd, in an upper room,
Joseph and his wife and their boy ate the
sacred meal. Every part of it was a story
told in picture and action. There lay the
lamb upon the board, to remind them that re-
demption always is at the cost of life. Here
were the bitter herbs, type of the bitterness
of slavery, and a paste of fruits, emblem of
the mortar used by their fathers when they
were forced to make bricks in Egypt. They
ate standing and in haste, as if just fleeing
from bondage. Solemn thanksgivings were
offered and old songs were sung.

Then came the child 's hour. In every home
in Israel the youngest was taught to ask this
question :

' ' What do you mean by this service ? ' ^

Jesus asked the question.

Then Joseph told the story of the Exodus
again.

>^Many years ago we were a nation of
slaves. God stretched out his hand and saved
us from those who had laid tasks upon us,
making us their brickmakers and burden-
bearers. There came a night of darkness and
death. The pestilence was on the whole land,
even in the king's palace. Moses told us to
sprinkle lamb's blood on our door-posts, to
bind up our garments and to prepare for
flight. God looked through the darkness, and

THREE DAYS AT COLLEGE 47

where the blood was, there he passed over and
left men alive. He led us out through the
storm, and the divided seas, and the next
morning we were free upon a stranger's
shore. Since that day we have always kept
the sacrifice with a slain lamb, and we call
it the Passover.''

So, by action and story, this service, cen-
turies old, was meant to teach the children of
God's salvation, so that it might never be for-
gotten.

Go into any Jewish home to-day at Pass-
over, in the spring, and you will see how well
they remember. You will find the family con-
ducting this very service just as they did two
or three thousand years ago.

There was much to see in the city after the
feast was over, and among the busy shops en-
croaching even on the holy shrine, the stalwart
garrison and the child musicians in the tem-
ple, the Nazareth boys roamed together. But
Jesus went most often alone to the broad ter-
race below the marble house, where on sunny
feast-day afternoons the teachers of the sacred
law sat, and talked genially with any, even lads
like himself, who might care to meet them.
It was a sort of people's college. They were
the wisest, and some of them were the best
people of their time: Hillel the Great and
Hanan and Caiaphas and Nicodemus and Jo-
seph of Arimathea— some of whom were to

48 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

kill him in hate, some of whom were to bury
him with generous love.

Every boy has his questions, ^^ Who am I?'^
' ' What am I good f or ! " " What shall I live
for?" To answer such questions a boy needs
help. Jesus, too, felt that he needed help.

He talked about these things to the elders.
They were amazed at the quick understand-
ing with which he met their counsels and,
when they interested themselves to ask ques-
tions of him, at his answers.

Every day he came. His parents were visit-
ing their many friends. The city, tho crowd-
ed, was perfectly safe. Boys in that time
were allowed great freedom. The weather
was warm, and Jesus could sleep with his
young comrades anywhere, in safety. Jesus
had never caused his mother the slightest
anxiety. But as a lad he had always been
fond of play and adventure. He wore out
clothes just as other boys do. So she felt sure
he had found new playmates among the com-
panies that had first moved homeward, and
so, on the day appointed for their return, she
started from the city without even looking
him up.

A few miles north of the capital they halted
for the night, at the first stage for caravans.
Here they expected to find him waiting, or
thought that if they tarried, they could meet
him if he came later, easier than in the
thronged town. But no. They stayed over

THREE DAYS AT COLLEGE 49

night and lie had not come and was not to be
found.

Meantime Jesns was all day at the temple.
Here where the kings of his people had
walked, where the prophets had preached,
where the martyrs had died, he came. What
a world opened to this lad from Nowhere on
this first stay at the great city! He had ar-
rived, a boy ; he was becoming a man.

He felt that he could not go until his great
questions were answered. The greatest of all
was, What was he to do with his life? He
thought much about those brave men of old
who had lived for others. He thought how
sorely his downtrodden people needed a de-
liverer now. What could he do ? What was
he, all alone? Then he thought of God. It
was God helping Israel that had made Israel
strong. It was the men who had done God's
will who had saved their nation. What if he
were to try perfectly to do the will of God?

In a quiet corner of the great church the
noble boy knelt by himself, and perhaps his
only prayer was this: ''That I may do my
Father's will."

It was while he was brooding over these
things that the anxious mother broke through
the silken company of doctors seated on that
grassy terrace in the evening light and threw
her arms about her boy, crying, ' ' Child, why
have you dealt so with us ? Your father and
I have sought you in great distress,"

50 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

Yon will understand me when I say that
Jesus had a right to have forgotten all about
his mother just then. True, she was anxious,
but he was not a child now. His father need-
ed him in Nazareth, but the All-Father in
Heaven wanted his whole life. * And he had
this great life question which he needed all
the help he could get to solve, and he had to
solve it, as all boys do when they begin to be
men, alone.

So he looked, like one awaking, wondering-
ly into her face and answered, ^^How is it
that you are searching for me ? ' '

Up to this time his mother had been in the
habit of saying gently to him, ^^You must,"
and he had obeyed her. Now and henceforth
he felt a Voice within which said "I must."
That Voice, God's Voice, must hereafter be
obeyed. So he answered, ^^Did you not know
that I must be about my Father's work?"

She did not understand what he meant,
altho she thought of these words many times
later.

o

Ph

H

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P^
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THE VILLAGE CARPENTER

"What did the boy mean?

It may be the first thought that he had was,
that if he was to be the deliverer his nation
wanted he would probably need to remain in
the city and study and serve about the temple.

Many a boy feels that way. He has de-
cided upon some noble calling. ^'Let me be-
gin it at once ' ' is his cry. But he forgets his
need of knowledge and wisdom and experi-
ence, and that just at present the most im-
portant thing he has to do is to get ready.

So, back again up that steep pathway from
Esdraelon to forsaken Nazareth he went, to
obey, to love, to serve, and the wise men of
Jerusalem entirely forgot him.

His school-days were soon over. No doubt
the village teacher remained his friend, but
it was not long before he had taught him all
he knew. Probably he borrowed the great
roll of the holy writings in the village church
and read them over and over, for when he be-
came a man he knew them by heart. Like our
own Lincoln, he became a man of one book.

At once he went to work. His father was a

52 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

builder. The house was now full of little ones,
and the oldest boy was as busy as his father
in providing for their wants. Had you lived
in Nazareth then you would have seen him
standing among the shavings in the house
door, holding firmly the timber for his father
to saw, helping carry the finished work
through the street or tramping off beside Jo-
seph with his kit of tools to do work in some
neighboring village.

And he did not have many holidays. The
sacred festivals and the short rainy season
and the Sabbaths were his only days of rest.

Like every true boy, he was fond of the
water, and when work was dull he sometimes
walked down to the lake, fifteen miles away,
where he could fish with hook and net or learn
to handle the stout boats that sailed its treach-
erous waters. At seamanship, like everything
else that he tried, he seemed to be a little
more capable than anybody else.

As he stooped over the saw or pushed the
plane, do you suppose, like other boys, he ever
longed to get away and begin to be a man
and have his own future ? If he ever did, his
dreams were soon broken, for even while he
was a boy his father died and he was left with
the care of his mother and all the younger
children upon his own strong shoulders. Jo-
seph had been a kind father. He must liave
been, for Jesus thought of him every time he
spoke of God as ^^ Father.'' And he was glad

THE VILLAGE CARPENTER 53

to try to take his place, to think for his mother,
who had always thought for him.

But it is not an easy thing for a boy to sup-
port a family of eight. Did yon ever think
that he had to do that? Fortunately, people
did not need to have so many things as they
do to-day. Their regular meal consisted of
bread, a hot gravy, or eggs, or occasionally a
stew of meat, a simple relish, vegetables, and
sometimes milk or curds. The climate was so
mild that they lived mostly out-of-doors, and
about all the furniture they had was a table,
a small kitchen furnace for charcoal, a few
leather bottles, some wooden bowls, one or
two water-jars, some goblets, a wooden chest,
and some thick quilts for beds, which they un-
rolled and laid out on the floor at night. Of
course, Jesus, being a carpenter, made his
mother any conveniences she needed. But
her housework was very simple, and after she
had tended her chickens and her vines she had
plenty of time with her boy.

Can you seem to see the curly-haired lad
working at his bench in the doorway as Jo-
seph used to do? He is now so strong that
he can handle the heavier tools and do a
man's work. He makes plows and fits them
with iron shares, and spades and forks and
ax-hafts and ox-goads and heavy wooden har-
rows.

It would seem to us a hard and uninterest-
ing life, but the Nazarenes would not have

\

54 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

said so. ^^Why!'' I can hear one of them
exclaim, ^^ Everybody in the village has to
come to his shop, farmers, vine-dressers,
shepherds, drovers, merchants from near and
far, and he is always among the first to learn
the news. He it is who hears of sudden sor-
row or great joy, and he has a chance to know
from travelers a little what their wide world
beyond the hills is thinking and doing, and to
practise the language of other peoples. ' '

There was much repairing and rebuilding
for him to do, for he was a mason as well as
a carpenter, and the houses were built of mud
or stone. And then he went to every house
to carry benches and chests, so that he knew
everybody. And in every home the young
workman, so willing and cheerful, so fond of
good stories and friendly talk, was a great
favorite. Of course, all the children liked
him.

After Jesus had come home from the city
Mary began slowly to realize that her son was
now becoming a man. It was time to tell him
a secret, which belonged to her and to him.

One day they were alone.

Then she told him the story of his baby-
hood. ^Before he was born there had come
to her a vision that she was to be the mother
of a king. On the night of his birth, in Beth-
lehem of Judea,^ shepherds who had re-
ceived the same message came to his birth-

* See Notes 2 and 3.

THE VILLAGE CARPENTER 55

place to pay him homage. And a few
days later astrologers from distant lands,
of foreign speech, came riding on camels to
bring him gifts and bow at his feet. Then the
jealous Roman king, learning where he had
been born, had sought his life, lest his friends
should seize the throne for him. His parents,
making use of the astrologers ' gold, had hur-
ried him to Egypt, and there remained with
him until that king was dead. ' These things
she told him with eager face, and she showed
him a golden ornament that remained after
their exile, as a sign that these words were
true. ^^You will be a king some day," she
whispered, with shining eyes, but how or when
she did not know.

You have read of other princes in exile—
Bonny Prince Charlie and the Black Prince
and Richard of the Lion Heart. You have
perhaps thought of how they felt— waiting,
watching, making ready.

Think what such words as Mary spoke
would mean to you if they were told you by
your own mother. Would there be a day when
you would not be saying : ^ ^ I am going to be a
king. I shall save my people ! How shall I
be worthy of my kingdom!"

Training for kingliness— this sums up the
boyhood of Jesus.

The companions of Jesus' boyhood were
already at work in the fields and vineyards.
But every evening they all met at the village

56 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

fountain and talked over the day's work and
the latest news from the great world that lay
beyond the hilltops.

They had mnch to talk of. Theirs was a
conquered country. It was ruled by Eome,
much as India is to-day by England. But the
people hated their rulers. They felt toward
them much as our forefathers did before the
Revolution toward King George III. There
had been occasional uprisings of the people
against Eome, but most of them were waiting
for some one to spring from amongst them-
selves, who would become their king and de-
liverer. They had read even in their school-
book, our Old Testament, that a ^'Messiah"
or ^^ Christ" (the words mean, Consecrated
One) was to come, and '^he,'' they thought,
^^ would make their kingdom as glorious again
as his own ancestor, David, had made if

How eagerly must the young carpenter
have listened to their talk! Was not his
mother often by his side to whisper : ' ' They
are speaking of you, my son!" But he did
not say much in answer.

Did his neighbors think it strange that the
young man, who claimed to belong to the fam-
ily of David, should seem to care so little for
his country? Did they ever say: ^^Why is
Jesus always reading the sacred books in his
shop and in his home? He never offers to
read them aloud in the meeting-house service
and he never takes part in the debates, that

THE VILLAGE CARPENTER 57

follow the reading, about ^the Kingdom to
comer ''

Surely these discussions did not lack in in-
terest. There were almost as many ideas as
there were talkers. But after all they sifted
down to two parties. Most thought the king-
dom would come suddenly, like a comet's
flash, with war and victory and triumphs. A
few expected it to come quietly, like the day-
break, and gradually to cover the whole earth.

But Jesus kept listening and reading. He
walked alone a great deal among the hills, he
worked hard and gave his money to his
mother, and he taught his brothers their trade.

So Jesus worked away for nearly twenty
years, and it looked as if he would work on
so as long as he lived.

Did he get impatient now? When he was
twenty years old, when he was twenty-five,
did he become restless for other cities and for-
eign lands ? Those years between twenty and
thirty, those fiery, tireless years— we think
them the most precious in life. This future
king spent them in a dingy shop in that little
hamlet in Nowhere. Once a year there was a
precious week at the festival in Jerusalem.
Then the fog of dull, gray duty shut down
about him again and he was lost from sight.

Always busy, never in a hurry— that was
Jesus ' way. He did not begin his work until
he was ready. He never hurried, no matter
who summoned him. But when his work was

58 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

over, he was able to say of it, ^ ^ I have finished
the work Thou gavest me to do. ' '

One day a man stopped at Jesus ' door who
had just come up from the capital. He
brought great news. The whole family of
Jesus gathered to hear it, and their neighbors
joined them.

' ' The prophet has come ! ' ' was his message.

Some believed that their deliverer was go-
ing to be another father of his coimtry like
Moses. Others thought he would be a fearless
orator like Elijah.

^^AA^ioishe?''

' ' He wears a hair cloak and a leather girdle,
he came from the* desert and his food is rock
honey and—''

^^It is our Elijah!" the people said excited-

ly.

' ' What does he say I Tell us. ' '

^^He says, ^I am not he. I am a voice of
one crying in the wilderness. Make straight
the way'—"

^^For the king?"

^^He says, ^The kingdom draws near!' "

' ' Hallelujah ! ' ' they cried. ' ' AVhere is he ? "

^^He has come from the desert, and he is
now beside the Jordan. He is baptizing the
people."

' ' Are there many with him ? ' '

^^ Multitudes. All the people are hurrying
to him. ' '

See Note 9.

From the painting by Holman Hunt

THE SHADOW OF DEATH

«

THE VILLAGE CARPENTER 59

There was at once great excitement in
Nazareth. Many believed that this was the
call to a revolution. Some were sure that, in
answer to their hopes, the Messiah was get-
ting ready to ride as a conqueror from the
Jordan up the road that leads over the Mount
of Olives, and thence appear suddenly in the
city and the temple. The new herald, then,
must be gathering an army to prepare the
road before his triumphal procession.

^^The fishermen of Capernaum have left
their nets to follow him, ' ' was another start-
ling bit of news, which set many to crying
out, ^^Let us go, too. Let us rally and show
our loyalty to the kingdom ! ' '

And that very evening a considerable num-
ber of young men, a few of them armed, went
southward by the valley road down the Jor-
dan. Glance at the map, if you will, and trace
the route of their journey.

As they passed the home of Jesus they
shouted to him to ^^come on and fight for the
kingdom, ' ' and when he smiled and shook his
head, one of them hotly exclaimed, ^^ Don't
be a coward. Come on now and do something
to save your country. ' '

The Jordan plunges from the mountains
down into the deepest hollow in the earth's
surface. It rushes from its green shrubbery
into the awful Dead Sea, where bare and
frowning mountain peaks rise from its broad
valley like tomb walls for a giant's sepulcher.

60 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

Here, where the first Elijah had left the
earth, the second Elijah had appeared.

A day or two later Jesus quietly laid away
his tools, took off his workman's apron, said
good-by to his mother and his brothers, and
went alone to the Jordan valley.

VI
A VOICE FROM THE DESERT

The men from Nazareth found the prophet
in the midst of a throng of people. Most of
them were Jndeans from Jerusalem and about
there. A few had come down from the Gali-
lean lake.

He was about six months older than Jesus.
Dressed in a rough shepherd's coat of black
and white camel's hair, fastened at the waist
by a girdle of lion's skin, he stood by the bank
of the river. ^ He had a fierce face. His hair
hung over his eyes, which were deep and alert.
He did not utter orations or sermons, and he
did not say even pleasant things to win the
people. He spoke with a coarse mountain
dialect and a voice of thunder. ^^You de-
scendants of vipers ! What are you here
for?" he was heard to roar, when a very
respectable company of gentlemen ap-
proached him: ^^Who told you to come here
to take refuge from the coming judgment?
You say Abraham is your forefather. I tell
you God can make better descendants for
Abraham out of these pebbles. ' '

* See Note 10.

63 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

^^Who are yon?" asked a delegate from the
old temple teachers.

^^I am not the Christ, not I.''

^^Are you Elijah?"

^^I am not."

^^Are yon the expected prophet?"

^^No!"

^^Who are yon, then? Tell ns, for we mnst
carry word back to those that sent ns. Wha'
can yon say for yonrself ? ' '

The hermit pansed a moment as if in
thonght, and then answered them hnmbly bnt
solemnly by a passage from their ancient
writings :

^^I am a Voice of one who cries londly in
the desert :

^Prepare the way of Jehovah.
Every chasm mnst be filled np,
Every hill mnst be levelled.
The winding ways mnst be made straight,
And the stony pathways smooth,
And all mankind shall see Salvation from
God.' "

^^He is a crazy fellow," said his questioner
to his companion with a sneer. ^^He can do
no harm."

Bnt the multitude, moved by his words
about the coming deliverance, pressed nearer.

The first to speak was a despised tax-col-
lector.

^^What shall I do for the kingdom?" asked
he.

A VOICE FROM THE DESERT 63.

' ' Extort no more than the law allows, ' ' said
the hermit.

The crowd laughed, but some one said :

^^The kingdom will surely be here, when
the taxman does no more than that. ' '

^^And we. What shall we do?" asked a
burly Roman soldier.

^^Use no violence to any one. Exact noth-
ing by false accusations. And be content
with your pay. ' '

''And I? And IV ' asked several of the
fishermen.

''If you have two cloaks," was the practical
reply, "give one to your neighbor. If you
have food, share that also."

"A good answer," said several.

Then suddenly, as a group of people came
down into the water to be baptized, they heard
him shout :

' ' Repent ye ! Repent ye ! For the kingdom
of Heaven draws near. I, for my part, bap-
tize you with water. But there is one more
powerful than I coming, and I am not of
enough consequence even to unlace his shoes.
He will baptize you in the holy spirit and in
fire."

These strange doings went on day after day.
The hermit said nothing new. He seemed to
be a man of one idea. But more people kept
crowding in to hear the prophet. The sultry
plain became a great camp-meeting. A few
returned home to do as he said, but most re-

64 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

mained in curiosity to see what more wonld
happen. And each day the excitement of the
multitude kept growing. Nothing had been
said yet about taking up arms, and no leader
but the rough-clad exhorter had appeared,
and the prophet seemed to be looking with
ever more anxious face for his appearance.

On the third day the Galileans heard the
hermit suddenly shout :

^^See! God's Lamb, who takes away the
world's sin!"

The Passover and its sacrifice were in the
prophet's mind as he spoke.

There was a rush toward the river. Noth-
ing remarkable appeared to be happening.
They looked toward the sky and across to the
mountains of Moab. Down in the water stood
the skin-clad prophet, a long file of people
was passing him for the holy rite, but they
were all common people. As he spoke he had
come face to face with a young man, and he
appeared to hesitate about performing the
ceremony. The youth said something and he
hesitated no longer, but looked up into heaven
with the first smile on his face that men had
ever seen.

All the people were hushed in silence as the
young man turned to come out of the water.
Were they now to behold their Messiah ?

The Galileans were dumb with amazement.

It was the carpenter of Nazareth.

A VOICE FROM THE DESERT 65

Certain at last that he could become the
Deliverer toward whom the centuries were
pointing, Jesus had come among his people,
to give his whole life to his Father's work.

VII
A BATTLE ROYAL

The men from Galilee went back home dis-
appointed.

They believed that John the Baptizer was
insane. As for their fellow townsman, whom
he had so strangely pointed ont as their Mes-
siah, he had immediately disappeared.

The next day the prophet went on np the
river, the multitude gradually dispersed and
the Nazareth men went home. They were not
only disgusted but angry, for they knew what
ridicule they might expect in their native town
to come home so tamely after so brave a de-
parture.

Was the prophet surprised to discover in
Jesus the deliverer of whom he had dreamed ?

The carpenter was John's own cousin. The
clan spirit was mighty in Israel. More than
that, their mothers were loving friends. The
story has come down how Mary once went a
hundred miles on foot to visit her noble kins-
woman.

We may be sure the two young men had
often met as boys ; played together no doubt,
tested each other 's strength, talked as they

A BATTLE ROYAL 67

grew older of the great things they would like
to do, planned perhaps how they would do
them, like brothers, together.

Since they had become men grown they had
seldom met. Jesus was a workingman, John
became a hermit. Jesus went every year to
the temple. John never went. There was no
post in those days, so they could not write.

But men do not soon forget the dreams of
their boyhood. Neither had forgotten their
noble plans or their covenant to help each
other.

Jesus was John's hero. And John? Jesus
knew of his brave, lonely days in the desert.
He longed to help him, now that he stood
alone. He even longed to be like him. Jesus
wished to leave his own safe, comfortable
home, and take lessons of this sturdy teacher.
Into John's desert, where none live but wild
beasts, he would go. Jesus was by nature re-
tiring and gentle. He would there learn the
courage and the straight, clear speech that
this prophet had.

It had been easy up in the pleasant, quiet
mountain village to dream of living a splendid
life. But to come down here among the
noisy, careless crowds was like stepping into
a cold flood. To be baptized, with his fellow
countrymen, by the dauntless prophet had
been like the touch of knighthood. But would
that consecration hold if he were left alone?

Back into the bleak deserts whence John

68 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

had come he went in the strength of God to
meet the thoughts that were trying to tear
him from the unselfish life to which he had
pledged his sonL

He had made a rude shelter in a cave and,
according to an ancient custom of those pre-
paring for noble devotion, denied himself
food, so that his brain might be clear to think.

Picture yourself, no matter how brave, re-
moved from neighbors and the joyous face of
nature, and shut up in a narrow, deep chasm,*
with no sights but sand and rocks and grim
shadows and the prowling forms of lions and
jackals, and no sounds but their cries of cruel-
ty and of terror. It was like the canons of
New Mexico. Live thus for six weeks, through
the cheerless days and the bleak nights, and
where would be your pluck and cheer?

Jesus ' thoughts at the end of this fast must
have been like these :

^^I am already forgotten. I am not a
prophet. Nobody cares for my life. Why, I
am even starving ! ' '

Jesus was not a hermit. He was a hearty
young workingman. He suddenly found him-
self faint and famished, with scarcely strength
or time to seek human succor.

Then a voice seemed to say : ^ ^ If you are
a prophet, oh, if you are God's son— if you
are— command this stone to become a loaf."

He saw all about him the smooth loaf-

* See Note 11.

A BATTLE ROYAL 69

shaped stones of the desert. He knew that
since his baptism a mighty power had come
upon him. He could save men from sickness
and death. He could save others. Why not
save himself I

It was a little thing. It seemed harmless.
Why not! Life was dear. Must God's last
prophet die without speaking his message?
Would that help the world any? Was it any-
where written that the conquering Messiah
must be starved to death?

But stop. ^^ Would he so soon distrust that
he was God's child because of the pangs of
hunger ? He was going to teach men about a
kingdom. Was that kingdom going to consist
only of help for men's bodies? Was it going
to begin with his looking after his own com-
fort? And could not the king master even his
own body ? Better die than yield ! ' '

So he quietly said, as though in a dialog
with an unseen foe, the first word he had
spoken aloud for many days : ' ^ It is written :
Man shall not live by bread alone, ' '

Perhaps he found his way up the steep and
dangerous path from the desert to the nearest
village, and was given food. But he was not
ready to go from the desert. There was an-
other thing to settle. How would he do his
work?

Did he come to Jerusalem now, or was this
a vision ? It seemed that he was walking upon

70 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

the broad roof of the new portico,* that
looked sheer down into the Kedron chasm,
when another battle met him. Hundreds of
feet below, in the roadways that lead from
the mountain into the city, great numbers of
people were returning from the Jordan. Be-
hind him was the temple area where the
priests were sacrificing, full of worshipers
from many lands.

Was not the old prophecy fulfilled : ^ ' The
Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to
his temple. ' ' Was it not just here among the
crowds that every one expected the appear-
ance of the long-awaited Messiah? Was not
He that High Priest?

A voice seemed to shout in his ear : ^ ^Leap
down! Claim your kingdom at one blow.
The ancient Scripture foretells that if you are
the Son of God, angels shall alwa^^s protect
you. In an instant the people will welcome
you with shouts of joy.''

The idea was a fantastic one. But the sug-
gestion behind the idea was reasonable. How
could he lead men unless they believed in him?
Could he persuade them any too soon? What
was the use of waiting? And how could he
do it better than here and now? The people
were already excited to anticipation by John's
teaching. Everybody expected that the Mes-
siah would declare himself by some sensa-
tional, even extravagant, action. One act of

* See Note 12.

A BATTLE ROYAL 71

personal valor— only one— and victory! And
if he failed, then better death. What brave
youth would refuse such a challenge ?

^^Ah, you are God's son, are you, and you
have not a single sign of his protection or
power," the voice kept saying.

When he thought of himself, such a magic
test seemed right. But when he thought of
God, it was all wrong. To degrade God's
majesty by the test of foolhardiness, no mat-
ter how brave ? No !

^^Thou shalt not test the Lord thy God— so
it is written. ' '

He seemed to find himself ere long at the
border of the desert on a mountain summit
that overlooks the Jordan at the place of his
baptism.

It is a wonderful view. The whole world
seems spread out beneath. There is Jeru-
salem on the west; far beyond those eastern
cliffs is Babylon; the desert at the south
stretches clear to Egypt. And down below
shone Herod's marble palace, the emblem of
Rome, beside the old pilgrim road that had
been trodden by the armies of every conquer-
ing race since the dawn of history. And yon-
der danced the Jordan to its grave in the
Dead Sea, an emblem of life, so bright, so
brief. He remembered his mother's song and
dreams: '^You will be a king some day."
He saw the world. He saw himself, a man of
might and destiny.

72 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

^^ Quick!" said the voice once more. ^'If
you are the Son of God— and surely you do
not doubt it now— take the throne of the world
to-day. You can have it! It is mine; it is
yours, for it is your own voice you hear. Go
forth and save the world."

Yes, it was true. He could become a Caesar.

And the Jews expected it. They believed
their king would not only restore the king-
dom to Israel and make Jerusalem again the
city of the Great King, but they believed he
would possess all kingdoms and the glory of
them. Were they to be utterly disappointed?
Was there to be no revenge for all their sor-
rows ? Were the kingdoms of this world to be
kept forever by cruel tyrants, and were men
to suffer forever without a deliverer? What
was his kingdom, anyway?

Ah, he knew. Men looked for a Caesar, but
they needed a Savior. The only kingdom that
could help them was the kingdom of heaven,
that is, of love. He could do without men^s
crowns; he would bear men's crosses.

^^ Conquer and succeed!" the voice shouted
still louder. ^^ Refuse and be forgotten.''

Forgotten? Yes, it looked so. To be de-
spised and rejected of men would be his lot.
But, like a soldier who can not see anything
but danger and duty, he dared it all, and si-
lenced the tempting voice by this last rebuke
to his own tempest-tossed heart :

^^Get hence, you tempter! God alone is

A BATTLE ROYAL 73

king. Only to him shall you give homage;
him only shall you, him only will I, serve."

And so the greatest of all battles was won.

Did some lonely shepherd watch him as he
walked pale, calm, triumphant out of the
desert?

If so, little did he know that here came a
king, mighty tho lone, a captain whose sword
was henceforth, as an olden writer says,
' ' bathed in Heaven. ' '

VIII
NEW COMRADES

FiSHEKMEN make famous comrades.

They are strong, willing, patient, hopeful,
and they live out doors most gladsomely.

Jesus' desert life was over. Unlike John,
he was to be no solitary hermit, but the
world's friend. He needed a company of
friends to help him. And John knew that
the fishermen whom he had himself gathered
and trained were just the men Jesus wanted.

It was hard for John to let them go. John
was a young man with his life before him.
He had his fight, too. To let another step into
your place, to hear him praised instead of
yourself, to watch him doing the work you
want to do— is there anything harder than
that?

But John did not flinch. He believed in
Jesus ' greatness. He was true to his clan and
to his hero.

And he not only did it— he did it cheer-
fully.

^^He must increase. I must decrease," this
unselfish man said. ^^You heard me say that

NEW COMRADES 75

I am not the Messiah. ' ' Then he added this
beautiful sentence: ^^It is the groom, who
leads home the bride, but it makes the groom's
friend happy just to listen and hear the bride-
groom's voice."

So he told the fishermen to prepare to go
with Jesus.

He was talking one day with two of them.
The name of one was Andrew, of the other,
John. They were both young men. John you
will find particularly worth noticing. He was
the first to follow Jesus. He became Jesus'
dearest friend. He was the only one who
stood by him to the last. As he outlived all
the twelve, he was for years the only living
comrade of Jesus on earth.

He was probably the youngest of them all.
He was a fiery, obstinate, ambitious, but lov-
able fellow. He spent his last days, an exile,
because he was true to Jesus, at work in the
mines on a lonely island in the Mediterranean.
When he was too old to remember anything
else, it is said that he was accustomed to quote
to everybody one sentence of Jesus : ' ' Love
each other." ^^Why do you keep saying
that?" they asked him. ^^ Because if you will
do that," he answered, '^nothing else is nec-
essary." So he is known as the Apostle of
Love.

As the three talked, they saw some one pass-
ing them near the river. He was dressed in
the common, striped garments of brown and

76 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

white, worn by the peasants of upper Galilee.
The fishermen were startled to hear the
prophet suddenly exclaim, as he had at the
baptism, ^ ' See ! God 's Lamb ! ' '

Then in a lower voice he said. ^^Go to
him."

It was Jesns.

The two had met Jesns before, fishing by
the lake and down beside the river, bnt then
he was a carpenter. Now he was a rabbi.
They felt timid.

'^What shall we say?" whispered Andrew.

The yonng man solved their difi&cnlty by
turning around and asking courteously,
^^What are you looking for?"

^^Sir," said John, ^^ where are you living?"

^^ Just come and see," he said with a smile.

They followed him, and he went, not toward
a village but toward the hills, and there they
found a smoldering fire beside a running
brook, evidently the stranger's camping-place.
Their fear of him was soon gone when they
found him living as they themselves often did
in the fishing season.

It was then about four in the afternoon.
They spent the day with Jesus, and at night
walked on to their own homes* beside the lake.

Andrew had a favorite brother. The next
morning, being the Sabbath, he persuaded him
to walk out and call on the new teacher.

^^The Messiah is here!" he told him.

* See Note 13.

NEW COMRADES 77

^^ Where is he from?" asked incredulous
Simon.

' ' From Nazareth. ' '

' ' No prophet is coming from that place. ' '

' ' You come and see him, ' ' urged Andrew.

He was a splendid fellow, this brother,
straightforward and sturdy and with a shaggy
head. He had a laughing eye and a ready
speech, and his mouth, if not firm, was not
unkindly. He came slowly up to Jesus, who
was seated beside the camp-fire preparing din-
ner. Jesus rose to meet him.

The world knows how Jesus looked. The
fisherman John has told us. His body was
unusually tall and straight and strong, his
hands were hard from toil, his feet were
scorched by the desert, but it was his face
that ennobled him. His hazel eyes were like a
flame of fire, searching, eager, loving, and his
whole countenance was radiant with health
and joy, and his voice was as strong and musi-
cal as the sound of falling waters. No man
could look him in the eye whose heart was not
clean, but a child would have run to him at
once.

The two men faced each other. Simon
looked at Jesus and was satisfied. Jesus
looked at Simon and measured him. He saw
what you and I see now : the Giant among the
followers of Jesus. Only a fisherman, unlet-
tered and inexperienced, impulsive and nar-
row-minded. But here was the man who

78 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST v

would lead all the others, be their spokesman
and guide, and when the wall of the new tem-
ple of the kingdom was being bnilt, his life
would be the first great stone laid upon the
Foundation, Christ himself.

^^You are Simon," Jesus said at length.
^^You will be called, ^ Peter,' the Man of
Eocf

Jesus was not giving him a new name. He
was foretelling his character. Tell a man not
what he is, but what he can be, and you win
him. That sentence pleased the warm-hearted
fisherman greatly. He gave Jesus his hand,
and with it his heart.

Young fishermen, one after another, kept
coming out to Jesus' camp, until there were
five. They all took to him. And as they sat
and heard him tell stories by the camp-fire
under the stars they thought him the finest
comrade they had ever met.

The trouble with the hermit prophet had
been that after he had told his listeners to
stop doing wrong, he had no other message
for them.

^^That is all very well," said Peter and
John, ^^but we are not hermits. We are fish-
ermen with homes and nets to attend to. After
we have repented and stopped cheating and
given away our extra garments, what comes
next?"

The prophet could not tell them.

Jesus saw their difficult}^ They needed to

NEW COMRADES 79

see how to do God's will as the lonely hermit
had never tried to do it, right where they
lived, in the tasks and pleasures of every day.
How could he make this plain?

Just then all five were invited with Jesus
to a wedding !

What ! A worldi to save and its Savior off
to a wedding?

Why not?

For it is a world in which homes and mar-
riages and children and living with each
other are the constant things and the chief
things.

Jesus saved the world, by laying his life
alongside men's lives, in their gladness just
as much as in their grief.

John would have been an uncomfortable
guest at such a place, and he would have made
everybody else uncomfortable, too. The first
step in the education of John's friends was
for them to learn that to be happy and to make
others happy was the very life of the new
kingdom.

It was perhaps two days' tramp from the
deep Jordan valley up across the plain of
Esdraelon to Nazareth. Here they called for
Mary, the mother of Jesus, and then all
walked on together to a little village on the
tablelands beyond. The bride was probably
a relative of Jesus, perhaps his sister.

It was nearly night when they arrived.
They had hardly refreshed themselves with

80 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST ^

food when it was time for the bridal* proces-
sion to start. It reminded him of the play-
time of his boyhood. They seized torches,
like the rest, and hastened with songs to
escort the bride and her group of damsels to
her future home. As soon as the night had
fallen she emerged from her chamber in her
fairest robes, decked with flowers and covered
with a flowing veil.

The song of compliment grew louder.

^^ Ah, ha ! her red cheeks are her own,
Her hair hangs waving as it grew, ' '

the bridesmaids carolled. Wine and oil were
shared by the older people at this moment,
and nuts were scattered among the children.

It was a weird but merry sight when the
little company came out from the cottage and
passed down the narrow street, the torches
flaring and throwing up gigantic shadows on
every side, the flute and drum marking a
dancing step, and all, old and young, singing
the bridal song.

When they were near the bridegroom's
house he and his young friends came out to
meet them, and both bands melted into one,
as they crossed his threshold to the feast.

It was not a ceremony in high life, but they
were just as happy as anybody could have
been in kings' palaces.

The next day, while the feast continued,

* See Note 14,

NEW COMRADES 81

something very embarrassing occurred. The
wine gave out.

The groom in making his purchases had
not counted on the five Capernaum fishermen
who had so unexpectedly joined the company.

The mother of Jesus, who was in charge in
the kitchen, first noticed the impending dif-
ficulty. She did not want to tell the guests
or the host. What could she do ?

She would tell her son. She had not leaned
on him for twenty years in vain. She re-
membered the promise that she had awaited
so long. She knew his strange powers, and
that since he had given his whole life to God
in the Jordan they were now ready to be used.
What better place to claim his kingdom than
among his own proud kinsmen? Thus would
she share his fame.

But how foolish she was! The kingdom
from which Jesus would not borrow a loaf
for his hunger was not intended to be used to
open the mouths of his family with wonder.

And yet it was because of his own com-
panions that the wine had failed.

^Tiat would he do?

She called him away from the company,
among whom none was more happy than he,
and said, ^^ Jesus, they have no more wine."

And he, seeing the fond and ambitious look
in her eyes, answered her in the pleasant, re-
spectful fashion with which sons used to ad-
dress their mothers, ^^My lady, why must that

82 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST v

be a care to you and to me?" And then he
added, ^^My time is not yet come/'

Mary was perfectly relieved, altho she had
no idea what he meant or what he wonld do,
and she said to the two little serving maids
who were trudging from kitchen to banquet
room and back again, ^^ Whatever he says to
you, do it."

You know what he did. So delicately that
no one but these children knew it, he sup-
plied the lack in such a bountiful way that the
groom was even praised for his generosity.
And John and the other fishermen did not
learn what had happened until Mary told
them on the way home.

When the festivities were over, Jesus and
his mother and the fishermen walked back to-
gether clear to Capernaum. It was the last
time Jesus would see his mother for a year.
The purpose of bringing her to the lakeside
village was to let her choose a new home, for
Jesus saw that for his kind of life this larger
and more central town would be a better place
for him to live than the village where he was
brought up.

You will find Capernaum on your maps
marked as being on the northwest shore of
the beautiful harp-shaped Lake of Galilee.
But it has entirely disappeared, and nobody
to-day is sure just where it was. But at that
time Capernaum was a beautiful place. John
had lived alone in the lonely wastes near the

NEW COMRADES 83

Dead Sea waters, and made the people come
out to find him, but Jesus went to live amongst
men and chose his home in a bright and busy
city. Its white walls were reflected in a
limpid lake, which lay deep among yellow
hills, a sapphire sea in a cup of gold. It lay
along a shining beach. Its gardens, its trees
and its flowers were everywhere famous. The
little lake upon which it fronted was five hun-
dred feet below the level of the sea, and con-
sequently it had a hot and fertile climate.
There were many other lively towns by its
shore, too, in the largest of which stood the
new Golden House, a palace of their Roman
king.

It was rather early for the fishing season,
and in a few days Jesus and his new friends
were off on another long tramp together.
They were going to the capital to the Pass-
over.

They passed down the Jordan valley, walk-
ing two by two upon the narrow footpath.
Can you not imagine their eager conversation
as they reached one historic spot after an-
other, their songs on the way, their meetings
with old friends, and the good times beside
the camp-fire? It was on this journey that
Jesus probably saw John, the baptizer, for
the last time in his life.

Jesus was going to the feast, as all the men
of his nation went, to do honor to the ancient
custom, but as he sometimes walked alone

84 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST ^

ahead of the others, he was thinking of what
he might do at that feast that would help his
people.

He did not have to wait to find out.

You know how he loved the temple. He
always spoke of it tenderly as his ^'Father's
house. ' ' Every true Israelite so loved it. It
was not only the central house of prayer to
the Jews in all the world, but it was to them
all that our Capitol at Washington, our White
House, our national library, our noble old uni-
versities, are, all in one.

Now at this feast Jews coming from all the
world brought their gifts in foreign coin,
which must be changed into Jewish money.
All who came must also purchase victims for
the sacrifices. So the little shops of money-
brokers and enclosures of those who sold cat-
tle, sheep and doves had gradually filled the
narrow streets below the temple, and of late
had crept up into the very temple courts
themselves. These courts, which were very
broad and which had always been reserved
for foreigners who came to learn of the He-
brews ^ God, were now so filled with cattle that
even these worshipers w^ere crowded out.
Somebody, of course, was making money out
of these privileges. Some say the high priest
himself. And the worst of the wretched busi-
ness was that the people were helpless. If
they bought their lambs down in the city
shop^, the priests, who decided whether the

NEW COMRADES 85

animals were clean for sacrifice or not, might
refuse to accept them, so that they were
forced to buy in the temple at a double price.

All the way to the capital the people were
telling Jesus these facts. All the time he was
considering how he could stand up for them in
their wrongs.

As soon as he reached the city he hurried
to the temple that he might see for himself.

You can picture the disgraceful scene : the
stench of the animals steaming in the warm
April sun, the lowing of oxen, the bleating of
sheep, the rustling of frightened doves, the
clink of money and the loud protests of trade,
drowning out the prayers of the priests and
the chant of the temple children in the House
of God!

Jesus pushed his way through this throng
and stood on the steps above, surrounded by
the five fishermen. Nobody knew him. The
whole power of the priests and of the Eoman
city police was behind these merchants. The
people had gotten so accustomed to the sight
that they were indifferent.

It is not easy, is it, to speak out against what
everybody accepts as right? Especially when
those who are doing the wrong are successful,
well protected, and well thought of? It is
not pleasant to be called ' ' singular. ' ' It was
particularly hard for Jesus, for he was a
quiet body, not a bully or a braggart. And

86 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

one would hesitate before risking his life for
his own opinion in a case like this.

But that is just what Jesus did. He did
not wait until he had gathered an armed com-
pany. He did not even ask the help of those
he had. He just grasped up from the floor
a bunch of the rushes with which it was car-
peted and, armed with this apology for a
whip, secured the attention of all by a shout.

We can imagine some spectator telling what
follows :

^^With towering figure and majestic step
he advanced, flaming-eyed, first upon the cat-
tle dealers, and drove their beasts and tHe low
crowd of attendants from the doors and down
the broad steps. He upset the tables of
money. Even to those who sold doves he
came; there he hesitated, gently, lest the in-
nocent birds should be injured. He then said
sternly, ^Take them from this place. Do not
turn my Father 's house into a market place.'

^'The news of this courageous act spread
at once through the thousands that thronged
the city. The Passover had always been
anticipated by us as the time for seizing our
independence. But this deed did not, as the
fishermen expected, bring Jesus great crowds
of volunteers. We were too frightened to act.
He had delivered us from injustice, but he
had gone no farther. He was alone. He had
raised no army. He had issued no proclama-
tions. He had acted like a prophet rather

kl

From the drawing by J. M. H. Hofmann

JESUS CLEANSING THE TEMPLE

NEW COMRADES 87

than as king. Would not onr real king send
the Eoman soldiers to destroy this usurper
of authority?''

The teachers of religion were in session on
the sunny porch where Jesus as a boy, twenty
years before, had asked them questions, when
this startling news came to them. They
should have been delighted. They were sim-
ply dumbfounded. They sent a committee at
once to Jesus, who was still in the temple.

^^What sign can you show us, to prove that
you have a right to act in this way?" they
demanded sternly.

The people of the East are fond of puzzles.
These wise men liked to give puzzle-answers.
Jesus remembered some of the puzzles these
same men had told him as a boy to bewilder
him when he was seeking the truth. So he
gave them another, to think upon.

^^ Destroy this temple," he answered with
a smile, pointing to his own body, ^^and in
three days I will raise it up. ' '

^'But," stammered an old man who was
looking about him at the temple— one of the
wonders of the world— and had not noticed
the meaning of the gesture of Jesus, ^^But
this temple has been fully forty-six years
building (indeed it was still unfinished), and
how are you going to raise it up again in
three days?"

Jesus left them to think it over.

Many years later John and the others

88 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

solved the puzzle. Brick and stone do not
make a temple. This marble building jammed
with cattle was no longer a temple. The best
temple of Grod is a man.

The priests could not forget Jesus' words.
Three years after this these same men brought
these words up against Jesus as evidence
when they tried him for his life.

As the fishermen were walking out that
evening to their camp on the hill, talking ex-
citedly of this exploit of their young leader,
who was a guest in John's city house that
night, one of them named Nathaniel, said to
the others:

^^Well, it was a fine deed! And do you
know he brought to my mind that old saying,
^Zeal for Thy house shall even devour me.'
For the sake of our holy faith I believe our
master would give his very life. ' '

As the result of this brave act only one man
came to believe in the Nazarene. It was
Nicodemus, one of this college of the wise
men, and even he did not dare stand up for
his faith until it was too late to be of any use.

So after all, it was to a sad bed that Jesus
went that Passover night.

A WELLSIDE DIALOG

What was the plan of Jesus ' life ?

He was to become a king, was he not?

But he had not yet won his kingdom.
' Did you ever realize that he had a plan of
campaign just as much as did Napoleon or
Caesar?

I can show you something of his purpose
by a story.

He had decided to begin his work by help-
ing John the Baptizer. And so into gray,
stony Judea he went, baptizing as John had
done, and teaching the words John was teach-
ing.

He came one hot summer day at about noon
to a well in the land of Samaria, that region
of half-pagan country between the capital
and his home. It is possible that he took this
route because it was no longer safe to go by
the Jordan way, where the king had just
seized upon John and put him in jail.

This well* was that famous one, dug by
Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, when he was
a shepherd-chief in this valley. He had often
passed it and he always stopped beside it to

* See Notes 15 and 16.

90 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

rest. It stood alone in the midst of a broad,
fertile meadow, and here Jesus, exhausted,
threw himself down in the grassy shade, while
the hungry fishermen were foraging for food.

The Samaritans were, as I have told you, a
mongrel lot, like the dogs in their streets, and
the Jews would no more think of speaking to
them than to a dog. Yet they had the same
hopes and dreams as did the Jew. Perhaps
there was something good in them. The
young man at the well proposed to find out.

His drowse was interrupted by the rustle
of some one approaching, and when he saw
that it was a woman with a water pitcher he
rose to his feet.

She was a n'er-do-well from the near-by
village, a silly, sinful woman. She told her-
self that she came out here at this uncomfort-
able hour because of her reverence for this
sacred water, but the fact was that the other
women who came to the well in the village
would have nothing to do with her.

She had quickened her pace when she saw
that there was a man at the well, but stood
still when she saw that he was a Jew and a
rabbi.

So they faced each other. If lives are like
books, his was a heroic history in a golden
binding, hers was a paper-covered novel.

Surely he would ignore her. In those days
a rabbi would not address a woman, much less
a Samaritan one.

A WELLSIDE DIALOG 91

An hour later a wild-eyed woman in the
village square was saying in an awed yet
eager voice to all she met :

' ' Come ! come ! See the man who has told
me all that ever I did!"

What had happened ?

This was her story.

She told of going out to the well and meet-
ing a Jewish rabbi.

' ' I had just let down my water pot into the
well, when, with a start, I heard him say,
' Will you give me a drink ? '

''I filled my water jar slowly, saying with
a smile, ^You must be very thirsty if you,
who are a Jew, will ask a drink of me, a
Samaria woman. '

^^ ^If you knew God's free gift,' the stranger
answered gently, ' and who it is that asks you
for a drink, you would have asked him for
Water of Life— and he would have given it
to you. '

^^I set my jar down by the well and looked
up saucily at him.

'' ^You can not be a greater man,' said I,
^than our forefather Jacob, who gave us this
well and drank here himself with all his sons
and his cattle ? '

" ^But if anyone drinks of this water they
will become thirsty again,' said this strange
man, ^ while, if they drink that water that I
can give, they will be thirsty nevermore. '

** *Ah, me !' said I (with lazy mockery), 4et

92 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

me haye this water, so that I shall not thirst
and not need to come clear out here to draw. ^

'' ^Go,' said the young rabbi sternly, ^and
call your husband and come here with him. ^

^^I had gone too far.

^^ ^I haven't any husband,' I said with
downcast head.

" ^Very true,' answered he, and he told me
what you all know of my wretched history. I
confess I was not just then so much ashamed
to hear it as perplexed to see how he had
found it all out.

' ^ ^ I see, sir, ' I answered more respectfully,
Hhat you must be a sort of a prophet.' It
was fs. good chance to change the subject.
^Now our fathers have always worshiped on
this hilltop,' and I pointed to our temple on
the mountain. ^But in Jerusalem is where
you say people ought to worship. '

^^For the first time the Jew used the title
of respectful address. ^ Woman,' he said,
^believe me, a time must come when neither
here nor there will true worshipers worship
the father. Men will then worship Him every-
where, in spirit and truth. For God is a
spirit and it is in spirit that men must wor-
ship him. '

(He was trying to tell her what he had said
to the doctors : the true temple of God is man.)

^*But I am no thinker, and I yawned :

^^ ^Ah, well, I suppose that some time the

A WELLSIDE DIALOG 93

Messiah is coming. When he comes he will
explain everything to ns.'

i i fji]^^ rabbi towered above me.

^^ ^I am he— I who speak to you!' he said.

^^At this moment the fishermen, his com-
panions, came up. I was overcome by these
fearful words, and frightened by the sus-
picious looks of those strangers. I forgot my
pitcher and hurried back. ' '

When she reached the village gate she was
only able to sob out to the few curious people
who were sitting in the square this strange
story and to repeat :

^^ Come— oh, come— see a man— who told
me all—that ever I did. Who is hef

Her neighbors would go a good way to see
anybody who could do that.

^^Eabbi, will you not eat?" said Peter cold-
ly, displeased that Jesus should have had any
conversation with such a person.

^^I have had meat to eat that you do not
know about, ' ' answered Jesus with a smile.

^^Who has given him any food?" asked
John.

^^It is meat to me," said Jesus simply, ^^to
do my Father's will." And taking up the
woman's water pitcher, he led the way toward
the village. The rest trailed on in discom-
fiture.

^^Four months, you say?" he turned and
replied, as he heard one of them comment on
the lateness of the spring, ^^ before harvest

94 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

comes? Look!" He pointed to a group of
people that was pouring out of the village
gate. ^^Look on the fields. They are whiten-
ing for harvest even now. ' '

Three days later he left a happy village be-
hind him. And some of her old neighbors
were overheard saying to the woman, ^^Now
we believe in him— but not because of any-
thing you said. But we have heard for our-
selves and we believe that He is the Savior
of the world. ' '

This story is a sample of his first campaign.
He did not wait for crowds, and he did not
organize crusaders. He started with the com-
mon people, anybody he happened to meet,
and he just gave them all the best he had.
His business was helpfulness. If he could get
men to do like him he would have a whole
Kingdom of Helpers, he would reap his har-
vest, he could save the world.

X

A SUMMER OF SUNSHINE

Finding that lie was becoming so popular
in Judea that the friends of John were get-
ting jealous of him, Jesus decided not to allow
himself to be the slightest hindrance to the
great leader, and he at once turned north to
Galilee.

The Galileans had heard of his exploit at
the Passover, and exaggerated stories of his
marvelous powers had reached them. These
patriots, unlike the people of the city, wel-
comed him with open arms.

On a day before the Sabbath, in early May,
he arrived at Nazareth. The fishermen had
now all gone back home and his mother had
moved down to Capernaum. As soon as he
came into the village he went about to see his
brothers and his old friends and playmates.
But he found that, even during his short
absence, they had changed toward him. No
longer did they meet him with the same frank
friendship, and, while they were evidently all
longing to watch him perform some wonder
in the village square, they were plainly jeal-
ous and suspicious of him.

96 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

He went to church the next morning, and
for the first time he accepted the invitation
to ascend the platform and take the roll of
the sacred writings in his hand to read and
explain.

The women were in the rear gallery behind
a screen, so that the audience that was in
sight was an andience of men. Some were
old schoolmates, others, younger men, were
of those who had been down to the Jordan
and had come back disgruntled. There were
even boys crowded close to the platform and
against the wall. All awaited him with eager
curiosity.

It had now been nearly a year since his at-
tendance at the village wedding near by.
There he had first shown his generous kind-
ness, in far-off Jerusalem he had proclaimed
himself as a leader, and in the other Galilean
towns, and even in despised Samaria he had
lingered. But in Nazareth he had never
spoken a public word nor done a deed of
power. Now surely he was going to exhibit
his prophetic might and make Nazareth the
center of all his work.

It was a warm springtime day. The doors
were opened so that those who could not
crowd in could hear. The blossoms sent their
fragrance within, a grape-vine shaded the
doorway and the house-doves could be heard
cooing in the eaves. It was a Sabbath of rest
and peace.

A SUMMER OF SUNSHINE 97

The Jewish service consisted, like onrs, of
praise and prayer and address. But there
was no regular preacher. Any one might
teach and anybody else might interrupt by
question or debate.

Jesus ' text was from Isaiah, a chapter about
Israel's coming Deliverer. He read a few
words, then closed the roll and gave it to the
attendant and sat down to speak. Every eye
was upon him.

^^ To-day/' he began, ^^has this Scripture
been fulfilled in your hearing. ' '

He went on to show how, just as the prophet
had described, he himself was teaching good
tidings to the poor, release to captives, sight
to blind men, and freedom to everybody.

^^ Where did he get his book-learning T'
asked one, half aloud. ' ' He has had no other
schooling than ours. ' '

^^Yes,'' one whispered to another, ^^he is
only the carpenter, our Joseph's son."

And still another said, ^^We all know who
Mary, his mother, is, and his brothers James
and Judas and Simon. ' '

^^Yes, and his sisters live here now."

^^ Listen," said another. ^^He is going to
make Nazareth a glorious place. What works
of power he has done with his hands else-
where ! ' '

Soon all forgot everything but the comfort-
ing words he was saying about the kingdom
of help and love which was to come. It was

98 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST ""

not preaching. It was conversation. He told
them apt stories, stories from their own work
and play; at which they smiled or looked
thoughtful; he used the homely proverbs
which were their common coin of speech.
They could understand every word he said.

Then he took up plainly their complaint
because he had removed his mother's home
to Capernaum and had done his public work
in places so far from his bringing up. Boldly
he answered that they themselves had already
driven him to this step. Did he not love
Nazareth? Did he not long to do glorious
deeds in her streets? For was not this the
place where he had studied the holy books?
Was not Joseph sleeping here in the village
burying ground ?

' ' But, ' ' he said, ' ' a prophet is never want-
ing honors except in his own country and
among his own folk. ' ' And he reminded them
how even their own Elijah was forced to leave
his own land to work in Tyre, and Elisha had
never healed anybody but a foreigner, and he
a leper.

A growl of anger had been heard while he
was saying these words, which, when he began
to appeal to his audience for witness to the
truth of what he was saying, grew into a roar
of rage. The disappointed Nazarenes could
stand this no longer. ^^Did the carpenter's
son think they were less worthy than Assyrian
lepers ? Were they to be scorned and ignored

A SUMMER OF SUNSHINE 99

by such as he, a son of their own streets?"
The congregation became a mob.

The yonnger men were the leaders, the
older ones who had been Jesus' playmates
were so excited that they did not restrain
them, and the hot-headed crowd seized the
speaker and dragged him outdoors and up
past his old home to the hillside where he had
played as a boy.

But when they came to its precipice, and
would have murdered him, he turned and
faced them. He was not afraid. He did not
use his power to smite them dead. He looked
them through and through. What happened
next? All they knew was that they found
themselves in a huddled group watching him
walk quietly down the hill and down the path
to the valley, until he was out of sight.

This was the only shadow upon a bright
summer. Henceforth he gave himself with
passionate love to Galilee, but Nazareth knew
him no more.

He went directly to Capernaum to his
mother 's house. And now began his cloudless
days by the lake shore. Everybody loved him
here. It seemed as if all the love that he had
won as a boy had followed down here to the
lake to bless him as a man.

The very next morning he went out to meet
his new neighbors. Not in the cool, quiet
church or the neat village square, but down
by the shore, where the smell of fish was

100 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST ^

everywhere and where the bare-legged fisher-
men were pushing out their stout boats and
the women were cleaning fish in the shade of
those drawn up on the sand.

As he began to speak the good-natured
crowd jostled him, so that he smiled and
paused, and laying his hand on the rail of a
boat that was grounded on the beach, he leapt
upon it and sat on the stern seat.

It happened to be Simon's, and as he
glanced down and saw its owner washing out
his nets he gave him a friendly nod, and then
talked on, the boat rocking beneath him in
the blue ripples sparkling in the sun.

When he was through speaking he came
down where Simon was and said, ^^Come,
push out into deep water and you all throw
out the nets for a haul. ' '

' ' We have been hard at work all night, sir, ' '
said Simon, ^^and have not caught anything.
But, as you say so, I will throw the nets out.''

Simon and Andrew and their father Jonas
launched the boat, and soon they enclosed
such a school of fish that the nets began to
break. They had to signal to John and
James, their mates in another boat, to come
and help them. And they filled both boats so
full of fish that they were almost sinking.

It was only a deed of kindness, a sort of
payment for the use of his boat, but Simon
was overwhelmed by the generosity of his
friend.

A SUMMER OF SUNSHINE 101

As soon as he got ashore he threw himself
at Jesus ' knees and exclaimed :

^^ Master, leave me, for I am a wicked
man ! ' '

Jesus grasped his hand as he had on the
first day they met, and cried heartily :

^^ Don't lose heart! From to-day yon shall
catch living men. Follow me now," he said
to the other f onr yonng fishers who had been
with him at Jerusalem, ' ' and I will make you
fishers for men." As soon as they had
brought their boats in and hung up their nets,
Ithey obtained permission of their parents,
said good-by to their friends, and followed
Jesus everywhere.

It was wonderful the way he would win
strong men to himself. A man would be at
work in his business, thoroughly intent on his
own work and his money. Suddenly he was
gone. He would be heard of miles away,
trudging over the hillpaths or camping in the
woods, tired, penniless, but perfectly happy.
And when he was asked why he went or what
he was seeking, he would simply point joyous-
ly to Jesus. It was He, the great Companion,
the Man with the singing heart, more than
what he said or did, that had charmed the
man from all he used to love.

One of those who felt the magic spell of
Jesus has told how he came to follow him.
His story of that great day in his own life is
also a picture of the whole plan of this new

102 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

Galilean campaign. You have all read his
written story, but when he told it aloud per-
haps it was like this :

^^The night before I came to Jesus, he, find-
ing that the crowd would not give him time
even to sleep, had crossed the lake in a boat
and, tired out, took his rest on the hard wood-
en bench in the stern.

^^ Suddenly one of our unexpected storms
from the cold mountains above swept down
upon them. The starry heavens grew dark
in a moment, a sheet of fog swept over them,
the waves rose and tossed, and whenever the
mist lifted the fishermen saw the white foam
rush along the taffrail and dash over, even to
Jesus' feet. Their sail was well furled and
they bent to their huge oars to keep the boat
steady, but in vain. Helpless in the grip of
the tempest, they became frantic with fear.

^^The nearest shook Jesus by the arm and
roused him.

'' ^Wake, captain!' he yelled hoarsely.
^We are sinking.'

^ ^ Jesus leaped to his feet.

'^ ^Cowards!' he shouted. ^Pull hard!
Take heart ! '

^^And in the noise of the gale they could
hear him shout as if he would also challenge
even the wild waves.

^ ^ Their courage came back, and as the wind
dropped and the waters grew still, one of the

A SUMMER OF SUNSHINE 103

sailors whispered to another, looking from his
oar to the fearless face of his captain :

' ' ' Can he give orders even to the winds and
the waters ? '

^^At the other side there came ont from a
cave-tomb down to the wharf to meet him a
giant maniac. He was a most fearsome sight.
He was fonl and naked, and npon his mighty
arms and legs were broken pieces of the
chains with which men had tried in vain to
hold him. Here he lived in the rocks, shouting
and yelling and gashing his body in his peri-
ods of rage with the sharp flint, and nobody
now ever dared come near him. The fisher-
men quailed before this fiend as he loomed
over them in the moonlight at the landing.

^^But Jesus stepped quietly out and faced
him.

^^ Would not the wild man tear him in
pieces ?

^^No. He fell humbly at his knees and em-
braced them, crying out in a shrill, piteous
voice :

" ^What is there between thee and me,
Jesus ? Son of God most high ! I adjure thee,
torment me not.'

^^For Jesus was saying gently, ^Come forth,
thou foul spirit.'

^^An hour later some of the simple shep-
herds of the region ventured around the
shadowed crags, and there they saw Jesus

104 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

seated beside the giant, who was now clothed
and in sound mind.

' ' They were so superstitions that they were
alarmed at the power Jesns had shown over
this mighty man, and they made signs at him,
entreating him to leave their coast. As Jesns
went toward his boat to do so, the healed giant
followed him, still talking reverently with
him. And when he understood that Jesus was^
now going away he was heard by the fisher-
men to beg eagerly :

' ' ' Let me be with you, Jesus. Let me, too,
be one of those who follow after you. '

^^ ^Go back to your own home,' said Jesus
gently, ^go to your old friends, and tell them
what great things God has done for you. '

' ' And through all that region, known as the
League of the l^en Cities, did the giant tell
of the majesty of the mercy of God.

^ ' Driven from this hostile shore, Jesus and
his friends spent the rest of the night in the
tossing boat anchored close to the land.

^^At earliest daylight they recrossed the
lake to Capernaum, and Jesus went to his
home. The people were already waiting for
him.

^^This* house where Jesus and Mary lived
had a flat roof. In the center was a courtyard,
and around the second story of this ran a
covered gallery. Here sat Jesus, and spoke
to the people who filled the gallery and the

* See Note 19.

A SUMMER OF SUNSHINE 105

upper rooms and the courtyard below. I was
among them. As always, he began by saying,
' The waiting-time is over ! The Kingdom of
God has come ! Turn now and trust the Joy-
ful Message ! '

' ' That morning a group of young men had
gone to the outskirts of the town to make a
call upon a friend of theirs who was para-
lyzed. The unfortunate fellow had no use of
his limbs whatever, and he lay all day help-
less upon his couch.

^^ While they were going they talked about
this Healer who was living in their home
town, and they were wishing that he could be
brought to visit their friend. This seemed
presumptuous to expect. For, like most of
the people of their time, they believed that
this visitation of sickness was because of some
sin which their friend had committed.

" ^Well, then, let's take him to the Healer,
if the Healer can't be brought to him,' cried
the most energetic of the quartet.

' ' They were full of this idea when they en-
tered the sick man's house.

' ' But the sufferer, discouraged and peevish
because of his complaint, would have nothing
to do with the plan.

^^ ^It will do no good. It would kill me to
be lifted, and I should come back worse off
than before,' he replied.

^^Then they all argued with him, and as
they discussed they grew more confident.

106 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

They became insistent. Finally they fairly
overwhelmed the helpless man with their talk
andj still against his will, they proceeded at
once to carry him into the town.

' ' He was resting npon a light, narrow pallet,
such as poor people use, and it was not dif-
ficult to lift it by the four corners with the
paralytic upon it.

^^With infinite care, not to jostle or disturb,
they broke step and conducted him to the
home of Jesus.

^' Jesus was in the very midst of his dis-
course when we heard a commotion below,
loud talking without and angry replies within.
Then there was silence.

^^A little later we could hear people
scrambling up the stairway that ran outside
the house wall, and when they found they
could not get in even to the crowded upper
rooms, they kept clambering on up to the
roof.*

'^Pretty soon there was a tearing sound,
then we were nearly suffocated with dust, and
then there came an opening to the sunlight.
These people were pulling off the clay cover
and ripping up the round rails that constituted
the roof.

^^What were they about?

^^It was impossible for Jesus to speak or
for us to listen in such confusion. But Jesus
sat in patience, and before long we saw four

* See Note 18.

A SUMMER OF SUNSHINE 107

flushed and anxious faces peering over the
broken edge above.

^' ^All right!' a voice exclaimed. In an
instant a mattress was gently lowered by two
ropes, until it touched the floor, we all made
way, and the sick man was laid before Jesus.

' ' With all the loving care of his friends he
had been considerably shaken up by his jour-
ney. He was still more disturbed inwardly
at the shock of his removal, and that he
should be thus unceremoniously exposed be-
fore a crowd of people, convinced as he was
that it would amount to nothing but his own
humiliation.

' ' The only persons who believed in his cure
were those four excited fellows who were
gently handling the ropes that had held up the
pallet of straw. It was certainly an embar-
rassing and vexing interruption to the sermon.

^^But Jesus looked up and could not forbear
a smile at the eager and painstaking trust of
the four youths. So he turned to the sick
man, who lay white and with closed eyes on
the floor, and said gravely to him: ^ Child,
your sins are forgiven.'

This unexpected remark was very startling
to the delegates from the Jerusalem teachers
of the sacred law, sent to keep watch of Jesus,
who sat close by, and it set them to buzzing
among themselves.

" ^Well, which is easier,' said Jesus, ^to
say, ^^Your sins are forgiven," or ^^Eise up

108 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

and walkr ' But in order that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority on earth
even to forgive sins, I say to you, ' he added,
turning again to the palsied one, ^Rise and
roll up your pallet and walk home. '

^^ And at once the man got up ! He took up
what he had been lying on and, when he found
that he could really walk, he went out, thank-
ing Jesus and praising God, to his own house.

^^The four young men on the roof were ap-
parently even more grateful and happy than
he, and the words of praise with which Jesus
continued his address were a sufficient reward
to them for their unselfish faith.

^^At noon people in the East generally take
a nap, but Jesus, unlike his countrymen, often
kept busy all day.

^^He left his home later— was it to get lum-
ber to make the needed repairs?— and went
down to the beach. There by the gate that
covered the highway between Damascus and
the capital I sat at my tax-collecting booth,
figuring up my accounts.

^^You all know what is thought of men of
my class. Partly because we are often dis-
honest, partly because we represent the hated
foreigners, we are ranked with assassins and
highway robbers.

^' ^Matthew, follow me,' said Jesus.

^^ Without a word,- 1 got up and followed
him, leaving my business forever.

^^I was so touched at being thus honored

A SUMMER OF SUNSHINE 109

that I at once invited Jesns to my house to
dinner.

'^It was a thoughtless and hasty idea of
mine. For it was one thing to talk in the
street with a man who had been a publican
and it was another thing to go to his home
and be his guest.

^^But my Master never flinched. He stood
by me.

^^He turned to some curious passers who
overheard.

^' ^It isn't the strong and well that need a
doctor,' he said to them boldly. ^It is those
that are sick. It is not the pious, but the god-
less that I have come to win. ' ' '

Matthew was not only an educated man, but
he was a thoughtful one. He seems always
to be listening, seldom speaking. And it was
to no little advantage that he listened and re-
membered so well. For when Jesus was gone
and the world was eager not to forget his
words, Matthew, the only educated man
among Jesus' friends, was one of the first,
not only to tell, but to write down the story
of his life.

In the midst of his dinner Jesus was inter-
rupted again. A village councillor rushed in
through the open door, sobbing with grief.

^ ' 0 Master ! " he cried. ' ' My little daughter
is even now dead. But come, place your hand
upon her and she will be restored to life. ' '

Jesus got up and hastened after him.

V

110 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

The crowd followed.

On the way a poor woman who was ill
pressed her lips to the fluttering fringe of his
garment and was cured.

In the street in front of the ruler's house
the paid mourners were already chanting the
sorrow of the house to the loud strains of
flutes.

Within were the wailing mother and sisters.

A messenger met them to say that the child
had just breathed her last. Why trouble the
teacher more?

^ ^ Be of good heart, ' ' whispered Jesus with
his hand in the councillor's. ^^Only have
faith."

At the door he hushed the singers to si-
lence.

' ' Why all this confusion ? " he said cheerily.
^^The little one is not dead. She is only
asleep. ' '

Shrilly they laughed him to scorn.

He beckoned to Simon, John and James to
follow him, and sent the rest away.

Together with the father and mother they
came into the sick-room.

He lifted the white sheet from the closed
eyes and raven hair. He took the tiny, cold
hand in his.

'^Little lassie!" he called, ^^I am speaking
to you. It is time to get up. ' '

And opening her eyes as if waking in the

A SUMMER OF SUNSHINE 111

morning, she smiled in the face of the teacher
she loved and flew to her mother's arms.

Jesus insisted that not a word of this should
go farther, and then told the happy mother
to be sure and give her a good supper.

Finally, evening came. The people went
up on their house roofs and rested in the cool-
ness after the sultry day. It was pleasant to
hear, borne by the breeze, the sound of the
surf and the songs of the fishers as they sailed
home from the deep. In the usually dark and
silent streets there were flashings of lanterns,
the soft patter of many sandals and the sound
of many voices.

For Jesus was sitting in his house door, and
people came crowding to him from other
places, lame and blind and epileptic. He told
them also about the kingdom as he helped
them all. In this work he was busy until late
that night.

This was the way he planned to spend his
time in Galilee.

To be to men a Friend, as God is our
Friend, was his motto.

If he could help by teaching, he would do
that. If he could help by healing, then he
would do that. For, indeed, his healing was
only another way of teaching God's love.

So every day he gave his very best. What-
ever he determined to do, even if it seemed
an impossible thing, he did it with all his
might.

112 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

And everywhere he was trying to find
others who would love God enough and men
enough to follow him and try to help do what
he was doing.

Soon he began to think of these friends, as
they joined him one by one, as a sort of Fam-
ily of Brothers. His own brothers, now
young men, were jealous of him, and, forget-
ting his patient care of them in their boyhood,
with the rest of the Nazareth people, had
turned against him.

At times they pretended to think he was
crazy, and talked of having him shut up.
Again they slandered him because, they said,
he was keeping bad company.

One day they came with his mother, for we
know not what mean purpose.

Somebody in the crowd said, ^^Sir, your
mother and your brothers are trying to get
a chance to speak to you. ' '

What could he do ? Would he expose their
meanness in public? No, he must be true to
them, even if they were not true to him. Be^
sides, his mother was there, and tho she might
be deceived, she meant him nothing but good.

He laid his hand on the speaker 's shoulder
and said to him fondly, as he swept the other
hand over the whole circle: ^^Who is a
mother to me and who are brothers of mine f
Here are my mother and my brothers ! These
that listen to God's word and do if

From the painting by Albert Zimmermann

CHRIST HEALING THE SICK

XI
A FAMILY OF BROTHERS

Whom should he choose?

There is a saddle-shaped mountain* about
ten miles southwest of Capernaum, where
Jesus was fond of going whenever he could
get a chance to be alone. Here climbing up in
the cool evening, he could gather apples on
the slope, drink from the brooklet that dashed
down the side, and watch the birds fly home
to their nests. After the sun had gone down
into the great sea, he sat wrapped in his cloak,
in a shelter on the eastern summit, and looked
down on the quiet lake, whose waters and vil-
lages were his parish.

Here he planned how he could help this one
and that one, how he might most wisely an-
swer the hostile questions that the doctors
from Jerusalem were beginning to send com-
mittees to ask him, how he could better build
his kingdom. Then for a long time he would
lift his heart into the atmosphere of heaven
and, having received from God peace and wis-
dom, would fall asleep.

But this summer night he could not sleep.

* See Note 20.

114 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

All night long he was thinking over the names
of the picked men of Galilee. He selected
eleven.

And who should there be from Judea and
Jerusalem? Yon know how little came of
those busy weeks in that part of the country
when he was helping John. The Judeans also
despised the men of Galilee. Yet there must
be twelve and at least one from Judea or else
the new brotherhood would not stand for the
whole nation, the Twelve Tribes.

A man had lately joined him who came to
Capernaum clear from the southern border
of the country. He was a business man, and
he had said to Jesus earnestly: ^^Sir, I will
follow you wherever you go."

He was keen, ambitious, full of enthusiasm.
Jesus put Judas down as the twelfth and last.

And now as early morning began to redden
in the east he washed his face in the cool
brook and ate his frugal breakfast of bread
and broiled fish. Even while he was eating he
could see a long line of people filing toward
him across the valley below from the shore,
and before the sun was high their bright-
colored garments dotted the hillside like blos-
soms.

When they had all come together and had
sat down, Jesus called the young men whom
he had chosen, and one by one they came and
stood around him.

'^ Simon, the Eock-Man."

A FAMILY OF BROTHERS 115

The proud face of the fisherman glowed to
hear himself called first.

^^Here, sir."

^^ James and John, the Thnnderers. ' '

This was Jesus' nicknames for the two
brothers, because they were so quick-tem-
pered.

^^ Andrew."

This was Peter 's brother.

They were all neighbors. Most of them
were old-time friends. At least four of them
were Jesus' own cousins. There were three
pair of brothers. So they were twined and
intertwined together by ties of blood and
neighborhood and clan— all but Judas of
Kerioth, the Judean.

There was applause from the company,
varying according to the popularity of each,
as one followed another to the side of Jesus.
They were proud to think that the captains
of their deliverer's new army were all but one
to be Galileans.

Wlien they had all been called, Jesus laid
his hands upon each one and kissed him on
the cheek, while the multitude bowed in
prayer.

Then he sat down, his twelve friends close
to him, and all the rest came near to hear
what he would say.

Do you remember how the great chieftain
Moses once went up on a barren mountain

V

116 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

and amidst its wild tlmnder tempests heard
the law of duty?

The people must have thought of that day
as they sat on this grassy hill together and
heard the law of love.

While they were settling down to listen, a
wild figure crept np stealthily behind them
and crouched as near as he dared, close to a
rock.

He was dressed in a long, tattered and
dirty cloak, a soiled cloth was across his*
mouth, and his hair was hanging over his
face, which was blotched and swollen. He
was a leper.* Once he had been as strong
and happy as other men, but suddenly this
terrible disease had appeared like a wound
upon his arm and then had spread to his
whole bodj^ He was driven forth from
among men and he lived in empty tombs in
the rocks. His wife left his food at the cave
door every morning, but she could never come
near him and he never drank from any well
that touched the lips of man. His was a hope-
less, living death.

He leaned over eagerly and bent his ear to
hear what Jesus would say.

The subject of his talk was suggested by the
joyous faces of the Twelve: '^Who the
Happy Are. ' '

He said : ' ' Happy are the people who are

* See Note 17.

A FAMILY OF BROTHERS 117

teachable. They shall have the kingdom of
heaven.

^^ Happy are the people who sorrow. They
will have comforting.

^^ Happy are the gentle.- They shall inherit
the earth. ' '

And so he went on unto the close of those
shining words which we call the Beatitudes, or
^Hhe Blessings/' closing by saying, especially
to the Twelve,

^^Yes, you are happy ones, whenever peo-
ple abuse you and persecute you and say
everything bad to you— untruly, and on my
account. Be happy ! Be glad ! Because your
repayment above will be exceeding great. ' '

One by one Jesus taught these sentences
to his listeners, who thought them very
strange. His way to happiness seemed a hard
one.

But over behind the rock the poor leper was
shedding tears of gladness. It was such as
he who could realize what Jesus meant.

When the lesson was over, all the people
began to stir about. The Twelve, who were
hereafter known by him as ^'Disciples," or
Learners, and ^^ Apostles," or Messengers,
led the way down the steep path.

As they turned a corner they saw a figure
crouching by the way.

A horrible, broken voice moaned, ^^ Un-
clean ! Unclean ! ' '

It was the leper.

118 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

He was obliged by law to warn people of
his presence. The Twelve stepped nimbly
over on the grass to go around him. But
Jesns saw that his being in the pathway meant
that he was waiting for him.

Jesns went clear np to him.

^^My son/' he said kindly, ^Vhat would
you like of me ? ' '

' ' Sir, ' ' answered the leper in a whisper, ' ' if
you are willing, you are able to heal me. ' '

Jesus was touched with pity at the wretch-
edness of the sufferer. The Twelve were hor-
rified to see Jesus put his hands on the leper 's
shoulders and cry out, '^I will! Be thou
clean. ' '

Such acts as these perplexed everyone.
After touching such men Jesus was always
obliged to remain in quarantine for several
days. Nobody could understand why he did
not cure the wretches from a distance. But
to him it seemed that such people, who were
entirely forsaken and abhorred by all men,
could not feel that God had come near them
in any other way quite so well as to have the
touch of the hand of a friend.

After this hilltop talk the Twelve lived with
Jesus. James and John had little opportun-
ity to fish any more, and they gave their fish-
ing boats over to their father, Simon and
Andrew used theirs as a sort of ferry for
Jesus in his tours about the lake, Matthew and
Judas had left their account books to their

A FAMILY OF BROTHERS 119

successors and, instead, Jndas was made
treasurer of the small savings of the Twelve.

Fancy one of the Twelve describing those
days later :

'^Sometimes we all went together, Jesus
walking ahead with Simon Peter or John or
James, and the rest of us following along the
footpath behind. In such a case we shared
together the pot-luck of the day, sometime's
buying food, sometimes catching it with hook
or net, oftener being the guests of various
people, who were glad to have such a noted
rabbi as their guest. Jesus had one singular
rule: He never refused an invitation. It
might be a nobleman, a doctor of laws, or a
man or woman who was very poor— never
mind; if that person wanted Jesus, Jesus
wanted him. He was even at times the guest
of thieves and villains.

^^He was not always teaching the people.
Sometimes he would rest for several days in
some quiet nook beside the lake and engage
in friendly talk with us, or help us discuss the
next week's work. Often he would change
his plans entirely when some needy person
called on him for help, or, again, he would
lead us suddenly, without any apparent cause,
to some far-off, lonely village, like Nain,^ or
Cana, where it would always strangely turn
out that somebody was in sore trouble.

^^ There was also a company of good women

* See Note 21.

120 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

down by the lake, including the wife of the
king's butler, the mother of the little girl
whom he had healed and one Mary of Mag-
dala, a noblewoman whom he had cured of
insanity, who supplied our company with food
and mended our clothes. When the weather
was pleasant and the distances were not too
great, some of our kinswomen, such as Simon
Peter 's wife, and Salome, the mother of John
and James, and Mary, the mother of Jude
and the other James, would walk with us, and
at times young people would follow along.
For they liked to hear his stories, and he was
ready, as the teachers of the law had been
when he was a boy, to answer their questions.

^^We began now also to go out in pairs.
This matter Jesus managed with much skill.
He sent us two by two, so that we might cheer
each other up and so that one might succeed
if the other failed. The three pairs of broth-
ers he sent together. To doubtful Thomas he
gave as a helper reliable Matthew, and he
gave to Judas of Kerioth, or Iscariot, to
strengthen his loyalty, Simon the Zealot, a
member of a hot-headed party that was work-
ing for a bloody revolution.

^' 'Don't you go to foreigners. Don't go
into Samaria. Just go to the lost sheep of
Israel's fold,' he said to us.

/' 'Eemember, I am sending you out like
sheep amongst wolves. They may bring you
into court an^ flog you. Every man may hate

A FAMILY OF BROTHERS 121

you. But those who persevere to the end will
succeed. And before you have gone through
the towns of Israel I shall come to meet you. '

^^So we started. We went in light march-
ing order. No extra shoes or overcoats, not
even a walking-stick. When we came to a
town we inquired for a God-fearing man, en-
gaged hospitality with him and lodged at his
house until we left town. If a man would not
take us in or the people of a village would
not listen to us, we quietly went to the next.
We said to everybody, ' The Kingdom is draw-
ing near!' We told people everywhere the
stories we had heard Jesus tell, we taught the
Blessings to those who would listen, and we
anointed sick folk with oil and prayed beside
them, as Jesus had showed us how to do.

^^It was quite different to try to interest or
attract strangers when Jesus was not present.
It was winter when we started. We waded
through the snows and faced the fierce winds
of the highlands. We plodded through the
thick mud of Esdraelon. We were often hun-
gry, shelterless, abused. But we kept on, tell-
ing the Good News and comforting those who
were in trouble, because the Master had told
us to do so and because we hoped that in some
way, we did not know how, all this was going
to help bring in the Kingdom.

^^ And it all came out just as Jesus had said.
As a matter of fact, we were not arrested on
this journey. Whenever one of us was in

122 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

perplexity, Jesus would manage to be near.
Often we all came back to him to tell our ad-
ventures. And when it was all over we saw
that it had been the happiest springtime of
our lives, for we had been helping our people
to love our Hero and our Friend. ' '

XII
THE MARTYRED HERO

While these sunny days are passing, we
must not forget John the prophet.

In the Roman king's stone prison on those
far-off crags east of the Dead Sea his heart
was breaking.

The way of his imprisonment was this :

The whole family of these kings, the He-
rods, was a bad lot. This especial one, Herod
Antipas, was both weak and wicked. He had
deserted his wife and stolen off with He-
rodias, the wife of his brother, who was also
his niece.

John never minced matters. When people
asked him what he thought of this adulterous
act, he said, ^ ^It is a sin for him to have her ! ' '
Herodias heard of what he had been saying,
and she persuaded her husband that John was
getting ready to start revolt and that he would
be safer in jail.

The king was very anxious to meet his fa-
mous prisoner, and when he saw the gigantic
hermit he was much taken with him.

Night after night, when the noisy revelries
of the palace were still, he called him into his

124 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

council room and had long talks with him, and
it became a sort of dreary comfort to John to
find that the king often accepted his advice.

But the news that came to John of the do-
ings of Jesus perplexed and discouraged him,
and the thought of his own helplessness made
him pace his cell as a lion does his cage.

''Whj doesn't Jesus announce the king-
dom? Why doesn't he gather an army to my
rescue? Why does he forsake Judea and
spend his time at ease among those worthless
Galileans? Is he really the Christ, anyway?"

John was allowed to have a few visitors,
and one day when two of his old followers
were with him, he ordered them to go to Jesus
and ask him what he was about.

When they found Jesus, the contrast be-
tween John's prison cell and the freedom and
joy that accompanied Jesus was surely start-
ling. They determined to stay with him for
a few days, so as to report all he did.

One occurrence especially impressed them*

Jesus and his friends were invited to a
dinner at the house of a man named Simon,
who was a member of a sect of stern Puritans,
who called themselves Separatists or Phari-
sees. These men, like the law teachers, were
getting more and more suspicious of Jesus.

The dinner was an elaborate one, but Jesus
had been invited as an exhibit for Simon's
guests, and Simon offered him none of the

THE MARTYRED HERO 125

customary courtesies. More than that, he
tried to discredit him.

It was a Roman custom to send female
slaves around the room to anoint the hair and
feet of the guests as they reclined on the long
couches.

These slaves were living lives of shame.
^^If Jesus is a real prophet," thought Simon
to himself, ^4ie will know what kind of a per-
son she is, and he will not allow her to touch
him. If he does allow her, we shall be able
to declare that he is no prophet. ' '

The woman went quietly about her task as
the meal went on. When she came to Jesus
and knelt down by his feet, it came over her
that she was touching the body of one who
had never known a stain of sin. Her heart
was broken with grief. She kept on at the
task, but Jesus could feel her tears falling
silently upon his feet.

The Pharisee meantime was chuckling and
nudging those about him in triumph.

^^ Simon," said Jesus at length from the
foot of the table, ^^I would like to speak to
you. ' '

^^Pray do, Eabbi," said Simon condescend-
ingly.

^^Once there were two people who were in
debt to a money-lender.- One owed twelve
million dollars, the other seventeen. As they
could neither of them pay him, he forgave
them both their debts. Which of them, do

136 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

you suppose, will feel the greater love for
himr'

^^Why," said Simon, puzzled, ^^I would
think the one to whom he forgave the greater
debt.''

^ ^ Precisely, " answered Jesus.

Then turning gently toward the woman he
continued :

^^You see this woman here. I came into
your house. You did not give me any water
for my feet, but she has wet them with her
tears and dried them with her hair. No kiss
of greeting did you give me, but she, since I
sat here, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You
did not sprinkle even my head with oil, but
she with perfume has covered my feet. ' '

^^And," he said', smiling upon her, ^^you
may be sure she is greatly forgiven, because
she has loved greatly." And as she went
away, he added, ' ' My blessing go with you. ' '

^^But, Simon," he added sternly, ^^ those
have been forgiven little who love but little. ' '

And rising up, he left Simon and his com-
panions, saying in frightened wonder,

'^Who is He— this One who is even forgiv-
ing sins?"

Then the stern friends of John, who had
been waiting for him and who were naturally
rather angry that he should seem to be loung-
ing at a feast while their leader was in jail,
stopped him.

^^ John the Baptizer has sent us to you, sir.

THE MARTYRED HERO 127

to ask: ^Are you the Coming One after all,
or are we to look for someone else?' "

Jesus made no reply at once. The people
who were in trouble were already crowding
the strangers away. After an hour, when he
had helped them all, he came over to where
John's bewildered friends were standing.

^^Go back to John and report to him what
you have just noticed and heard— the blind
are regaining their sight, the lame are walk-
ing, the lepers are being healed, and the poor
have the Glad Message told to them. And
tell John : Happy is the man who will keep
faith with me."

^^What do you think of John?" asked one
of the fishermen of Jesus when these dele-
gates had gone.

^^What did you go into the desert to see?

'^ ^A reed waving in the wind?'

^'If not, what did you go out to see?

^^A man clad in rich clothing? Ah, but
those live in kings' palaces. (Not in kings'
dungeons.)

''What then did you go to see?

'' 'A prophet!' you say.

''Yes, indeed! more than a prophet. There
is no one born of woman greater than John !

"And yet," he added to those who heard
this enthusiastic eulogy. "When I think of
what you are hearing and seeing, a little boy
in heaven's kingdom seems to me greater than

128 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

We do not know what John said when he
received Jesns' message. It was plain what
Jesus' words meant. ^^If I am doing God's
work, am I not doing his will? What matter
the results ? ' ' His own noble heart answered
to that appeal, for had he not done the right,
careless of the result ! And when he listened
to that final challenge, ^^ Happy is he who will
keep faith with me," his figure straightened
and his eyes glowed with resolve.

He might not fully understand Jesus, but
he could be true to him.

You will read far in your histories before
you will find a more heroic figure than his.
Day by day his mighty brain was gaining
dominion over the weak mind of the besotted
king. If he would consent to ignore the sin
with Herodias, power, freedom, glory were
his. Perhaps he would become prime minis-
ter, even king. He did not need even to alter
his own opinion. All he had to do was to
keep silent on the subject.

But he would not do it. He would not
honor the woman with a look when she swept
through the palace corridors, and if the king
ever mentioned her name he would roar out
at once, ^' It is a sin for you to have her!"

This— for he knew her cruel fury— meant
death.

She watched like a tigress for the hour
when she could crush him.

Never were the gayeties at that old stone

THE MARTYRED HERO 129

palace so constant as now. Each day had a
new form of pleasure, which lasted late into
the night. The king, sated or tired, almost
forgot his captive.

A holiday had closed with an all-night ban-
quet. The king and his guests were heavy
with wine. The entertainment had already
been varied and entrancing. The hour was
late.

Suddenly the curtains parted at the end of
the room, opposite the throne. The music
crashed and then was still.

A little girl was standing alone in the open
space, graceful, slender, shy. It was the
queen's only child.

The guests, among whom were some Jewish
chieftains from Galilee, were flattered by this
unusual honor done them, and hailed her with
a cheer.

The torches were brought into a half -circle
about her, and she began to dance.

She was full of health and life and as grace-
ful as a fawn. Her Roman teacher would
have been proud of her. They had seen hired
women dancers already that night, but to
watch this little innocent was like coming sud-
denly upon some wild creature in the woods at
play.

As he saw how she was pleasing his guests,
the king looked at her with proud love. When
she finished amid a storm of applause, he
called her, and she ran to his arms.

130 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

' ' What present must I give you, little one ? ' '
lie said fondly. ' ' Name it now and you shall
have it, if it be even a share of the kingdom. ' '

' ' Let me ask mother, ' ' she answered joyous-
ly, and she ran out.

Her mother had been all the time just be-
hind the curtains.

There was a moment's waiting. Then the
mother came in leading her daughter. Evi-
dently the little girl did not want that for
which her mother had ordered her to ask.

But the mother insisted.

' ' Give me, ' ' at last she said almost sobbing,
^^the head— of— John— here— at once, on a
silver tray."

Hideous boon!

The great room grew still.

The king was sobered. The horrible woman
had tricked him.

Should he rise and disown the thoughtless,
fatal promise ?

But she held him with her pitiless ej^es.
The company was watching.

She was the stronger.

He shook himself, gave a hoarse laugh of
shame, and made a sign to his executioner.

In a trice the ghastly head, its long hair
dripping with blood, glowered on the silver
tray, and was placed by a kneeling slave be-
fore the shrinking, frightened child.

Herod was never again the same man.

The gray stone palace seemed ever haunted

THE MARTYRED HERO 131

by the ghost of John and it was soon deserted.
When he heard of Jesus in the far north mov-
ing here and there with what seemed super-
natural power and influence he shrieked out,
^^Who is this that I hear such things of? It
is John, whom I murdered! He has risen
from his grave ! "

And Revenge, as well as Remorse, did not
forget him.

The father of his lawful wife overcame him
in battle. When the woman who had. been
his ruin influenced him to go to Rome to ask
Caesar for a royal crown, Caesar discovered
his shameful record, deprived him of his
throne, and drove him into lonely exile.

John's friends took up his broken body and
gave it burial. Then, homeless, friendless,
they came and followed Jesus.

XIII
REJECTED

Before they arrived the news reached
Jesus and the Twelve.

The Twelve were dnmbf onnded.

It was as when a man wakes from sweet
sleep and dreams, to find a brigand at his
throat.

Their summer's dream was over.

They had been sure of John's release, be-
cause they felt that Herod did not dare to
brave the anger of his people by killing their
hero. And now his corpse was stretched, as
it were, across the very doorway of the new
kingdom.

And if John, why not Jesus ?

If Jesus, which of themselves next!

Jesus was not taken by surprise. He had
known since his days in the desert that it
could not often be summer sunshine in his life.
He was ready.

Still his great heart was torn with grief.
The strong giant, his boyhood's hero, was
fallen. That fearless face was still, that voice
of duty was hushed forever. The man who

REJECTED 133

had unselfishly helped him when he began his
work could never help him again.

Late that evening, John's shattered fol-
lowers arrived.

Before sunrise Jesus called at each home
and awakened his friends from their troubled
sleep.

^^Come/' he cried, ^4et us get away, before
people are up, to some lonely spot by our-
selves, and rest awhile. ' '

It was a welcome word. Simon and John
and the other fishermen cleaned out the sail-
boat, the others got breakfast, and soon they
were off.^

There were perhaps about sixteen aboard
as they stole quietly from the Capernaum
shore, Jesus and the Twelve, the two friends
of John, and a boy, Simon Peter's son, per-
haps, who had slipped on under the shelter of
Jesus and who sat with him at the tiller.
Jesus was fond of boys, and one or more of
them was very likely to be found wherever
he was.

They had been together in Galilee nearly
a year now, and the springtime had come
again. They made an easterly course with a
fair wind, and as they drew near the solitary
beach, f the green hill-slopes, dotted with wild
flowers, and the thick shade of the trees by the
water looked very pleasant. They had eaten
their lunch on the water, because they ha'd

-* See Note 22. t See Note 23.

134 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

planned a walk up into the country and
wished to carry nothing with them. About
sunset they expected to return, and by dark
they would be home to supper.

But, as usual, they were interrupted.

The boat was hardly drawn up safely on
the sand before they heard voices along the
shore and saw white garments moving among
the trees.

Within an hour one of the largest com^
panics which Jesus ever met had surrounded
him. They had seen his boat on the lake, and
they had hurried around the shore to over-
take him. There was always a crowd now in
Galilee wherever Jesus was known to be, but
the presence in the town of a great many pil-
grims on their way to the Passover from for-
eign lands would account for this unusual and
restless concourse. And, as in most congre-
gations that gathered around Jesus, the pro-
portion of men was unusually great.

Jesus pressed back his private grief and his
disappointment, and even walked up to meet
and welcome them as if they had been invited
guests. He could see at a glance that most
of them were entire strangers to him. It was
not a congregation of believers. It was a
rabble.

The busy, wearying day dragged on. From
one noisy group to another he went, telling
the Good News of his kingdom and healing
the sick. As fast as one company departed,

REJECTED 135

another came in. There was not a moment to
stop, even to eat.

The crowd was restless. It appeared that
they were in the mood of demanding some-
thing. The death of John had changed them
entirely. The feeling of loving reverence
which he had always met in Galilee was all
gone. These men seemed to think now that
Jesus was about to escape or deceive them,
and that they must force him to declare the
date when he would seize his kingdom. His
teachings during the day left them dissatis-
fied and uneasy.

^^Oh, we have heard all this before/' one
was heard to murmur. ^^It is nothing but
love and peace and goodness. What has all
this to do with our kingdom? And now John
is dead and Herod has gotten his courage
again, and, unless a leader arises, we shall all
feel the tyrant's power more than ever."

Jesus knew all they were thinking.

As the heat of the day grew intense, and
the people got weary, they became even more
restless. They were hungry as well as tired.

^^Send them off," the Twelve kept urging
Jesus. ^^It is getting dark. There is no food
here. Let* them separate to the villages and
farmhouses about here and get lodging and
victuals."

^^We don't need to send them away. You
feed them," said Jesus.

< ^ We ? ' ' answered Philip.

136 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

^^Yes/^ said Jesus^ '^ where can yon bny
bread, so that they may all eatT'

^^Bny?" said Philip. A place to bny was
ont of the qnestion, bnt the cost was even
more impossible. *^It will take at least thirty-
five dollars ' worth of bread, and then no one
will have more than a morsel. ' '

^^Nevertheless, it is for yon to feed them,"
insisted Jesns. ^^How many loaves have
yonr'

Now that boy had stayed close to Jesns all
day, helping sick people to secnre his atten-
tion, and repeating over again Jesus' sayings
to those that were deaf or did not hear. Some-
time he intended to be a disciple himself. The
story is, that he became one later and grew to
be a bishop, and that his name was Theo-
phorns, ' ' one who carries God in his heart. ' '
When he heard Jesns ask this question he
was off like a flash and rummaging under the
boat seats.

When he came back with the little bundle
of lunch that had been left over, his uncle,
Andrew, stopped him and asked him what he
was doing. Then he turned to Jesus in apol-
ogy:

' ' The boy here, sir, says he has five barley
loaves and two herrings. But what are these
among so many people!"

^ ' Order the men to sit down in companies, ' '
said Jesus.

The Twelve arranged the entire crowd in

REJECTED 137

groups, like inilitary companies, and I dare
say many of the men regarded this as the be-
ginning of the organized military movement
of the new revolution.

But when they were all quiet he asked the
blessing and the meal began. How he did it
nobody knows, but he gave bread and fish to
the disciples and they carried food to the
crowd.

It was Passover time, the nation's birthday.
He was going away from them, it is true, but
not to escape or forsake them. He knew they
would not let him stay. But before he went,
he wanted them all to sit down as his guests
at a feast which should mark the birth of the
new nation, the Kingdom *of Human Brother-
hood. Ancient Israel had been fed thus by
God. So should the new Kingdom have its
beginning, an out-of-doors festival for all the
people.

Can you not seem to see that great multi-
tude on the hillslope? They looked— so Peter
many years later told his friend John Mark,
who wrote one of the accounts of this day—
in their garments of scarlet and yellow and
blue, against the background of the grass,
like great flower-beds. Can you see Jesus
standing in their midst, with his arm on his
boy-friend's shoulder, like the father of his
people?

They sat facing the sunset, and even as they
were eating they saw the sun drop down be-

138 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST "^

hind the mountain beyond the lake, whereon
he had taught them the Blessings. In the
clear evening light they could discern, clear
across those waters, which the wind was now
tossing into surge, the white villages, where
were their homes, and where Jesus had so
often visited them. And they did not know
that this mountain and those villages would
not see him any more before his death.

The generous feast stirred their excitement
beyond control. Like us they did not know
whence he had furnished this bounty. The
fragments Jesus was already dividing among
the poorest for to-morrow. How fine to have
a Bread-king, who would thus feed them
every day ! No more work, no more poverty,
no more taxes! And they crowded around
him shouting wildly, ' ' Our king ! Hail to the
king ! ' '

Jesus smiled sadly, but shook his head.

The disciples were as excited as the others.
Judas Iscariot said to him passionately, ' ' Sir,
you will throw away a great opportunity un-
less you act at once. ' ' Simon Peter was hard-
ly less urgent, tho more self-controlled. Jesus
quietly forced the Twelve into their boat
first, because he saw that he could never mas-
ter the mob until they were away.

Then he turned back to the crowd. Those
who came by boat he reminded that a storm
was coming and that they could not make too
much haste home. To those who had wives

REJECTED 139

and children with them he suggested the perils
of the darkness, and got them started reluc-
tantly upon the pathway back. Thinking
they could persuade him in the morning, even
the leaders, recognizing the dangers he point-
ed out, consented to leave him for the night.

And when the darkness had shut down and
the winds were abroad, and the stars were
clear and sharp in the cloudless sky, Jesus
was left on the hillside alone.

XIV
THE MEN HE MIGHT HAVE HAD

The temptations of the desert had come
back again: ^'Use the loaves to help your
own success," and ^^The kingdoms of this
world are yours, if you will only fall down
and worship Satan. ' '

This time the world itself was urging him
to yield. ^^Be our king!" it cried. ^^We
need you ! "

But the inner Voice said, No.

The next day was the Sabbath, and he
walked into the little stone meeting-house in
Capernaum, which a pious Eoman captain
had built, and gave them his decision. The
place was crowded, for they were all looking
for him. Jesus was as calm as if nothing had
happened. He was even smiling. He came
as their neighbor, not as their king.

^^You want me," he said, ^'not because I
showed you a token of God's love, but because
you ate my loaves and were no longer hun-
gry.''

' ' But, ' ' they cried, ' ' our fathers had manna
to eat in the desert. ' ' They remembered this,
as Americans remember Bunker Hill. Over

THE MEN HE MIGHT HAVE HAD 141

the front door of this very meeting-house was
carved a pot of manna.

^^Yes," he said gently, ^^bnt- it was not
Moses that gave yon heavenly bread. Onr
heavenly Father it is that gives yon the real
Bread from Heaven. ' '

^^Then, Master," they all said hungrily,
^^give us real bread always."

Just so, you remember the lazy Samaria
woman had said, ' ' Give me that living water,
so I shall not have to come to draw. ^ '

^^That Bread of Life am I," said Jesus.
' ' Those who come to me will never be hungry,
those who believe in me will never be thirsty
forever more. ' '

'•You!" they cried incredulously. ''Isn't
this Jesus, Joseph's son?" they said to each
other. "How is it that he says he came down
from heaven ? ' '

As long as Jesus offered his gifts they were
glad, but when he offered himself they re-
fused the best of all gifts.

And from this time most of the people of
Capernaum, his home, and gradually of all
Galilee, turned against him. Great numbers
that had followed him here and there were
no longer seen in his company.

Jesus knew it would be so. But he loved the
Galileans and it grieved him.

"Do you, too, want to leave me!" he said
to his Twelve one day.

"Whom should we go to?" asked Peter.

142 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

^^But don't you want to go!"

' ' No, Master, ' ' answered Peter stoutly, dis-
appointed tho he was at Jesus' action across
the lake, ^4t is you who have the words that
give us life. ' '

^^But," said Jesus sadly, thinking of what
Judas had said the night before, ^^altho I
chose the twelve of you, yet even of you one
is an enemy. ' '

Then he told his friends to load their haver-
sacks full, for they were to start on a long
journey.

Again he said good-by to his mother, for
this was to be a half-year's absence. He
spoke a kindly farewell to his brothers, who
were now living in their own homes. But I
am afraid they did not answer him cordially.

They regarded themselves as the religious
ones of the family. They were going to Jeru-
salem to the Passover feast and they probably
thought it very sinful that he should be tramp-
ing off in just the opposite direction.

Northwestward he led the Twelve into the
mountains of upper Galilee. They wondered
at him, as day by day they went farther from
home, and finally passed the boundary line of
their country and were over in Phenicia.

It was getting into the summer, but the
walking was pleasant on the wind-swept table-
lands and in the shadowed ravines.

They covered two hundred miles that sum-
mer.

THE MEN HE MIGHT HAVE HAD 143

They visited Tyre and Sidon, those mag-
nificent old capitals of that heroic race, which,
like sea gulls, had swept every sea and touched
the shore only to find nests for their young.

They looked with amazement at the crowd-
ed masts in the harbor of Tyre^ and the heaps
of varied merchandise along the wharves
from every country under heaven. They
stood face to face with black Moors, tawny
Egyptians, dark-eyed Spaniards, and a race
they had never seen before— the flaxen-haired
Saxons. They walked upon the cliffs of Sidon
and looked beyond its temples and royal
tombs, its groves and gardens and its fisheries
of the purple limpet, far over the blue sea,
whose waters, they knew, swept Greece and
Rome and Africa and the Pillars of Hercules,
and met the great ocean beyond the setting
sun, where lay the fabled islands of the Hes-
perides and the lost continent of Atlantis.

The Jews are not good sailors, but these
fishermen found fine company in those old
salts who lounged on the quays and who told
such fascinating tales of the sights in far-off
lands. In the excitement of these novel ex-
periences, I presume that, like boys who first
see the ocean, they longed to take one long
voyage to make such discoveries for them-
selves.

This was just what Jesus wanted when he
brought them to these foreign shores. Not

* See Note 24.

V

144 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

only wonld he have them forget the disap-
pointments of Galilee, but he wanted them to
begin to listen with sympathy, even with ad-
miration, to the thoughts of other races, so
that when they themselves became his mes-
sengers to other lands they would be able to
deal with their peoples with wisdom and un-
derstanding.

Already, while his influence among his own
people was growing less, the dauntless Com-
mander was planning his world-wide cam-
paign.

But it was not easy to accomplish this. The
fishermen were very willing to admire the
courage of these deep-sea sailors, but when it
came to religion, they regarded them as only
' ' dogs. ' ' That was the word they used for all
foreigners. It had always been a matter of
special displeasure to them that when some of
these Tyrians had come to Jesus in Caper-
naum he had received them so kindly and
taught them patiently.

One story only is told us to prove how in-
genious Jesus was in showing the Twelve
their own narrow-mindedness, by letting them
see the nobility and sweetness of nature of the
very people whom they despised.

One day he was resting in a Tyrian lodging
house. His wonderful teachings had already
made him so well known that he could not be
hid. It was a woman who found him out, the
first who had needed bodily help. She was

THE MEN HE MIGHT HAVE HAD 145

not of the noble Phenicians, she was of the old
aboriginal Canaanite race, that had settled the
land before the Jews did, just as the Indians
did our own country. But she was an intel-
ligent woman, even able to use the Greek lan-
guage.

She had come in behalf of her little daugh-
ter, who was insane. Jesus determined to let
this be a test of the human sympathy of his
friends.

' ' Have pity, my lord ! ' ' she cried.

But he deliberately turned away from her
and left the house.

The poor woman followed him, begging
earnestly for his help. Surely the disciples
would entreat him, out of mere human kind-
ness, to comfort her.

But no. They were pleased that he ignored
this ^^ heathen," and they even urged him to
send her away.

^^Lord, help me !" she shrieked in despair.

Jesus had overheard some of the conversa-
tion that his friends had been having with the
Tyrian sailors, in the course of which Peter
in his blunt fisherlike way had told the Tyri-
ans that they were only the street dogs that
roamed outside the households where the true
children of God had their home.

So he quoted Peter to the woman.

^^I have been sent," he said, as he turned
back to her, ' ' only to the wandering sheep of
Israel's fold. Let the children have enough

146 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

first, for it is not fair to take the children's
1 oaf and throw it to the household puppies. ' '

Was there a twinkle in his eye as he spoke,
or did she notice that he did not speak of her
race coarsely as homeless street dogs, but as
the pets which the Tyrians kept in their
houses ?

With keen mother wit she answered, ' ' Yes,
Lord, but the puppies often feed on the scraps
that fall from their Owner 's table ! ' '

Ah, that was a keen answer ! ^'Dogs" they
might be, but God was the Owner and Maker
of them all.

^ ' Well said ! ' ' cried Jesus with hearty pleas-
ure. ' ' What splendid faith ! Let it be as you
will. Go home. Your daughter is well. ' '

Splendid faith indeed!

The only other time he had ever been able
to use such warm terms of praise had been
a few days before in Capernaum. And then
it was to another foreigner.

The captain of the Eoman city guard, the
man who had built the Jews their meeting-
house, had a favorite slave, a boy, who was
sick.

He sent by the officers of the Jewish church
to Jesus this message :

^^Sir, my man-servant is lying ill at my
house with a stroke of paralysis, and is suf-
fering terribly. ' '

Even the Jews in this instance urged him
to come, for they said, ^^The man really de-

THE MEN HE MIGHT HAVE HAD 147

serves your favors, for he is devoted to our
nation and he built us our meeting-house. ' '

Jesus started at once to his home. But
when he was close by, the captain sent out
one of his own friends with another message :

^^Sir," he said, ^^I am not of importance
enough for you to come under my roof. That,
indeed, is the reason why I did not think my-
self fit to come to you. Just say the word and
the boy will get well. For I know how it is :
I myself, a man under the orders of others,
have soldiers under mine, and if I say to one,
^Go!' he goes, and to another, ^Do this!' he
does it."

It was then that Jesus had exclaimed again :
' ' Splendid faith ! Never in any Israelite have
I met with faith like that. ' '

Jesus insisted on meeting this gallant sol-
dier, and after praising him warmly he said,
as he did to this Tyrian woman, ' ' Gro home,
sir. It shall be according to your faith."

I can seem to see Jesus standing on the
cliffs of Tyre that summer evening looking
across the great sea and murmuring to him-
self what he had said in Capernaum regard-
ing that Eoman captain :

^^Many will come some day from the West
as well as from the East and take their places
at table beside Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in
the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the
kingdom will be banished into the darkness
outside. ' '

148 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

Such were the men he might have had, and
as he gazed toward Greece and Eome and the
nations beyond, did not the temptation come
to leave his own bigoted countrymen and
carry his Gospel himself to the outer world
that needed him and seemed so ready to wel-
come him? Did he foresee clearly then that
the march of his kingdom was to be ever west-
ward, and that the language of Greece, the
throne of Eome, the heart of the Saxon, yea,
of their children, the Saxons of the undis-
covered America beyond the seas, would be
subdued beneath the sway of his Gospel?

You will hear it said that Jesus was no
patriot.

The best answer to that is his next action.
Deliberately he turned his back on these op-
portunities in other countries which were so
attractive and hopeful. Back again he went
to try to help his own people, who he knew
had rejected him, and were beginning to hate
him.

First he led his friends eastward through
the deep gorge of the rushing Leontes Eiver,
up over the Alpine range of the Lebanon, to
where on some clear September day they
looked down the long eastern slopes to Damas-
cus, the Treasure City of the East, the Queen
of the Desert.

Mohammed, you remember, likewise once
looked down on this same city, and sighing,
^^Man can have but one Paradise— mine is

THE MEN HE MIGHT HAVE HAD 149

not here," turned away. So Jesus turned
from this earthly Paradise toward his own
people.

Still he lingered, as long as the impatience
of his followers would let him, among foreign
places.

He had, as the map shows, been bounding
a great circle in this journey. He completed
its circumference by passing southward along
the curve of it that lies east of the Jordan.

Beginning at the north with Damascus and
reaching southward east of the Jordan, there
was a group of important cities which had
formed a federation for defence against in-
vaders. They were called The League of the
Ten Cities, or The Decapolis.

They were mostly Greek towns. The beau-
tiful ruins of their pillared temples and fo-
rums are still seen to-day.

Jesus had the rare accomplishment of
knowing the Greek tongue, having picked it
up with much pains when a youth at Nazareth.

Do you remember the giant whom Jesus de-
livered and sent as a missionary through their
region, his native land? Bravely and well
had he done his work, and so when Jesus him-
self came among these people he received a
cordial welcome.

But the Twelve were not interested in these
foreign folk, and at length, in the early fall,
he brought them home to their friends in
Capernaum.

XV
THE KING IS SEEN IN HIS GLORY

All this time the foes of Jesus had been
gathering.

Who were they?

Not the Galileans. They had refused his
teachings because he would not lead them in
revolution. But they wished him no harm.

Not the Samaritans, for he was the only
Jew who had ever dared to be their friend.

Not the Judeans, for they had met him only
during the few weeks while he was helping
John.

His foes were at the capital.

Those law-teachers and priests hated him
because he had attacked their unlawful and
tyrannous traffic in the temple courts. They
were afraid he would rob them of all their
ill-gotten gains.

The Pharisees, Jewish Puritans, hated him
because he would not obey all the petty and
foolish ceremonies with which they had over-
loaded the Old Testament law. Why, they
even objected because Jesus rubbed the heads
of wheat off the stalk with his fingers when
he was walking through the fields on Sabbath

THE KING IS SEEN IN HIS GLORY 151

afternoons, because they said it was work.
Grinding grain, they called it! And when
people in suffering were brought to him on
Sunday they were horrified because he re-
lieved their pain at once.

Jesus once drew from his experience as a
carpenter a humorous illustration to show
these men how ridiculous it appeared for
them to make so much of little things, when
they had entirely forgotten about the great
things.

^^Why," said he, ^^do you scrutinize so par-
ticularly the splinter in your brother's eye,
and pay no attention at all to the timber that
is in your own eye ? How can you say to your
brother, ' Brother, let me assist you to get rid
of that splinter in your eye,' while you your-
self do not even see the timber in yours ? Out
with that timber from your own eye first!
Then you can see clearly enough to take the
splinter from your brother's eye."

The Sadducees, aristocratic free-thinkers,
many of them priests, who had always been
opposed to the Pharisees, agreed with them
for once in hating Jesus, because he stood up
for the poor and because his teachings threat-
ened their positions of privilege.

Now the power of Israel was in its capital,
Jerusalem. So here the wealth and strength
and leadership of the nation were at this time
gradually uniting to crush this one innocent
man.

152 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

We read to-day of ^^ graft" and greed and
political corruption in onr American cities.
Did you ever think that those three were the
monsters that, so long ago, brought Jesus
Christ to his death?

Jesus knew they would accomplish it.

Such a fate could be resisted by organizing
the country people against his foes, but that
would mean civil war. Back in the desert he
had decided to conquer men's hearts, not their
bodies.

It could be prevented by turning to some
other country, where multitudes were ready
to receive him. But this he felt would be
cowardice in deserting his trust.

He could keep on as before, fighting for the
few who would accept in their hearts his king-
dom of love to God and service for man.

That meant death.

We have seen Jesus as the gentleman, the
friend, the helper of those in trouble. But
he was more. He was ' ' God's man, ' ' obeying
God 's Voice, trying to be to men what God is,
to show our Father's full love to his children.
Love costs. And in doing God's will, Jesus
must pay the utmost cost. Because he loved
men, he must die for them. Every step to-
ward Jerusalem was a step toward death.

And yet he would take them, every one.

Even in the desert the right way had
seemed dark and dangerous. Now it was no
longer dark. It was deadly.

THE KING IS SEEN IN HIS GLORY 153

Almost any man will dare a heroic death
if he is brought suddenly into a great emer-
gency. The very need of instant action leaves
no time for fear.

The greatest hero is he who sees death far
ahead, knows he can escape it if he chooses,
thinks of it day after day, and then deliberate-
ly walks on and meets it face to face.

This is what Jesus did.

He started now from Capernaum, as soon
as he could get the Twelve away. And this
time they went north again, up the Jordan
valley, to Herod Philip's Caesarea,* the new
northern capital which the king of the north
country had builded upon the very shoulder
of lofty Mount Hermon. It was a city of true
Roman magnificence, at the northern outpost
of Israel and the sources of the Jordan.

On the way he taught the village people,
who, like those east of the river, were largely
of foreign descent.

He stopped one day to rest in the shade.
He was seated on a mossy stone. His friends
were reclining around him. It was peaceful
and still under those mighty cedars. The
world seemed far away. Suddenly Jesus
made it seem very near again.

^^By the way," he said, ^^who do people
outside say that I am 1 ' '

That question must have been asked in the
hearing of these twelve men a thousand times,

* See Note 25.

154 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

if it had been once, during the past two years.

Do you know, it is a question that is usually
answered easily enough. Did any one ask,
^^Who is Herod Philip?" instantly the an-
swer would be, ' ' He is king of the north coun-
try. " " Who is Herod Antipas T ' " King of
Galilee and Perea.'' ^^Caiaphasl" ^^He is
our high priest.'' Even ^^Who is Simon
Peter?" ^^Why, he is a fisherman of Caper-
naum. ' '

But who is Jesus?

People could not agree.

The Twelve reported what they were say-
ing.

^^Some say, John the Baptizer."

^^Some say, Elijah."

^^And some, Jeremiah."

^^And others say, Another one of the old
prophets, perhaps Moses, come back again. ' '

' ' But what do you say ? ' ' insisted Jesus.

There was a long pause.

Had they not wrestled together over this
question during all the months that they had
walked behind Jesus over those northern hill-
slopes ? Had they not been forced to dismiss
one after another of these popular answers?
What did they have in their place ? Did they
all agree?

Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot had
joined Jesus because they believed he would
lead an insurrection against Eome. His cous-
ins James and Jude had hoped to advance

THE KING IS SEEN IN HIS GLORY 155

their own prospects in life by the good for-
tunes of their distinguished relative. John
and the older James, altho they were truly his
friends, also hoped for high offices in the new
kingdom they expected he was about to estab-
lish. Andrew believed in him because of what
the prophet John had said about him, and his
brother, Simon Peter, believed in him because
he had learned to love him. Matthew and
Nathaniel and Thomas were perfectly unsel-
fish in their devotion. They trusted him, but
they did not understand him.

You get out of patience with the Twelve
because they were so slow to believe what we
all believe now about Jesus. But we have to
remember—what might not be true of you
and me, if we were in their places— that even
when they did not believe, they stood by him!

Jesus was waiting for their answer.

Finally, Simon, who had paused, not to be
more certain, but to make his words more
plain, said solemnly,

^^You are the Christ, the Son of the Living
God!''

Jesus grasped him eagerly by the hand. To
find a man who understood him gave him the
gladdest moment of his life.

' ' Happy man ! " he exclaimed, ' ' Simon, son
of Jonah. You did not get this from men.
This came to you from my heavenly Father.
And I will tell you again who you are. You
are the Man like Rock, and upon such rock

156 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

(the carpenter is speaking) I will build my
church, and the Powers of Death shall never
overcome it! And to yon, Peter, I give the
keys. Yon shall be Chancellor of the King-
dom. ' '

But a rock can be something else beside a
good foundation stone.

That very day Jesus went on to tell them
all what end he foresaw for himself as the
close of his work for men : those law-teachers
and the priests and the Pharisees would con-
spire against him in Jerusalem, and there he
must die.

As they all started on, Peter, who was walk-
ing beside him, drew Jesus to him and began
to remonstrate with him. The new Chancellor
thought he might as well give his king a little
wise counsel. His loving heart, too, could not
bear this terrible fear.

^ ^ God help you. Master ! " he said in broken
tones, ' ' That shall never be your fate. ' '

Weakness of soul is not to be borne even
from one's staunchest friend.

He swung Peter's hand from his shoulder,
and, turning, flashed upon him this sentence :

^ ' Out of my way. Tempter ! Now you are
a stumbling-stone to me. You look at things
in man's way, not in God's."

It was a hard moment for Jesus when the
voice of his strongest friend was raised
against his great decision.

He called the others up to where they two

THE KING IS SEEN IN HIS GLORY 157

were standing, and said sternly, ^^If a man
wants to go always where I go, he must re-
nounce self, and take up his Cross every day,
and follow me. ' '

The word ^^ Cross'' does not strike us to-
day with any peculiar force, but it was then
a horrible word. It was the punishment used
only by their Roman tyrants for the most
shameful crimes. When Jesus spoke thus,
it was as if he had said: ^^If you follow me,
every day you must walk behind me on the
way to the gallows ! ' '

Seeing how shocked they looked, he instant-
ly added this kindlier promise : ' ' But believe
me ; some of you who stand here will certainly
not die until you have seen God's kingdom
come in power. ' '

About a week later the lonely hero pre-
pared his soul for death.

He left nine of his friends in a village at
the foot of the mountain, and took Peter and
John and James with him. These three, the
Man of Rock and the Sons of Thunder, he felt
he could trust.

They had all seen the kinglike crest of this
sacred mountain from almost every point in
their native country, but they had never ap-
proached it before.

Soon they left the vineyards around the
villages, passed the many little shrines to
Roman and Grecian gods that peeped from
many a ravine or crowned the crests, and

158 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

crossed the snow-worn gravel beneath the
loftier peaks above.

It was the late autumn, and the forest-paths
were as golden as the halls of heaven. The
plains below were carpets of Oriental splen-
dor.

When night fell, the four strong climbers
had ascended far into the rarer atmosphere,
and they ate their supper beside some icy
brook that gushed from the snow-line, just
above.

From this silent eyrie they could look up
to the snowy summit and see off as far south
as the Holy City itself. They could plainly
discern the little lake whereon were their
homes. They looked from the waste beyond
Damascus at the east to the Great Sea, now
touched with the glory of the sunset. But
they were so far above all these earthly scenes
that they felt themselves in another world.

The unaccustomed air made them drowsy,
and soon the three fishermen were rolled up
in their heavy sheepskin cloaks beside the
camp-fire, and were at once asleep.

But Jesus was thrilled, rather than over-
come, by the star-decked sky, the snowy plains
and the silent world below. He seemed to be
looking down on all his past life.

Did he question it all ! AVas it a new temp-
tation?

At midnight the fishermen heard voices,
and sprang up half-awake.

THE KING IS SEEN IN HIS GLORY 159

Jesus towered in the moonlight above them.
Never had his splendid physique looked more
heroic. In the wondrous glow of moon and
snow, his face and long, white cloak seemed
dazzling with splendor. He was talking, talk-
ing about his death. And he was not talking
to himself. He seemed to be debating, ques-
tioning, answering. They were sure that they
saw others with him. The conversation in the
valley suggested to them that they were the
two ancients, Moses and Elijah.

The prince, who had gone down to become
the leader of a nation of slaves, and the
prophet, who had given his life to a thankless
people, were witnesses to the glory of a life
of love. The two patriots who had not failed
to find noble successors— in the commander
Joshua and the healer Elisha— could tell him
that such lives as theirs and his could not
finally perish. The man who had passed
from earth by the kiss of God, and the one
who had gone up in a chariot of fire, could
say that death is nothing to be feared.

And as they talked, the face of Jesus
glowed with even more unearthly beauty.
Whatever the struggle of those hours, Jesus
had triumphed. This hour he stood on the
mountain summit of his life's joy.

Even while the' disciples were looking and
listening, one of those billowy clouds, which
nearly always rests upon the summit, rolled

160 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

down like a flood of snow, and the thunders
rolled from peak to peak.

Now, indeed, they had seen the real glory
of God's Son, happy in conquering death,
beaming with life immortal. And they fell
upon the ground and hid their faces with
fright.

When the cloud passed they could see no
one but Jesus. He was now close beside them,
and he said with his usual cheeriness, ^^Up!
Don't be afraid."

After it was all over, Peter remembered
with shame that he had babbled something
about building some leafy tents, ^ so that the
guests of the vision might remain, as if he
could confine heaven in a mountain-shep-
herd's hut.

So, Jesus went down the mountain strength-
ened, not for translation, but for crucifixion,
to which he was to pass, not in company with
two saints, but between two murderers.

Together they walked down to meet the ris-
ing sun. At the old bridge over the Jordan,
at the foot, they found a jeering crowd, gath-
ered around a helpless boy, whom their
friends who had stayed below had tried in
vain to relieve.

Sharp was the contrast to their eyes, that
had just been blinded by a heavenly vision.
But if they had had sight to see, it was an
even more glorious thing to watch how pa-

*SeeNote 19.

THE KING IS SEEN IN HIS GLORY 161

tiently Jesus bent down among his limp-
hearted disciples and cured the young suffer-
er. For the valley, not the mountain, is man's
home. But the brook that gives men drink in
the valley has its source on the mountains.
So, altho they did not speak of this night
until after Jesus' death, they never forgot it,
and when that death came, and even when
they faced danger and death themselves, they
were comforted by what Peter called ^^the
Voice from heaven, when we were with Him,
in the Holy Mount."

That Voice, to which Jesus had listened all
his life, had said,

' ' This is the Beloved, my Son, who pleases
me so well. Listen to him. ' '

XVI
NEARING THE HOLY CITY

Now he began to talk about going to Jeru-
salem. He spoke often these days about the
cost henceforth of his service to himself and
to those who followed him.

One day a young man, noble and rich, came
rushing to him and fell on his knees, and
asked to be numbered with the Twelve. The
faces of his friends lighted up at the idea of
receiving such an influential ally.

Jesus looked at him with tender regard,
and then he turned to the dark, seamed faces
of those faithful few who had followed him
for three years through storm and sun, favor
and fury. It took a great soul to measure up
to those giants.

^^Go!" he said solemnly, ^'and sell every-
thing that you have and give to the poor.
Then come and follow me. ' '

But he was very rich. And he rose hesi-
tatingly from his knees and turned and was
soon lost in the crowd.

Then Jesus looked again at his disciples.

^^With what sore striving shall they win to
heaven that have the riches ! ' '

NEARING THE HOLY CITY 163

They were astonished at this new idea. But
Jesus said again :

^^My children, what sore striving shall it
be to enter God's kingdom. It seems easier/'
he added with a wry smile, ^^for a camel to
get through a needle's eye than for a rich
man to enter into God's kingdom."

' ' Then who can be saved ! ' ' they exclaimed.

' ' And we ? " interrupted Peter sadly. ' ' We
laid down everything and have followed
you."

^^Yes," answered Jesus heartily, ^^and no-
body who has, like you, left home or brothers
or sisters or mother or father or children or
land on my account, and for the sake of my
Good News^ shall fail of a hundred times as
much, even now in the present— tho not with-
out persecutions— and, in the Good Time
Coming, life enduring. But," he added,
^^many that were first shall be hindmost, and
many of the hindmost shall be first."

This remark gave encouragement to a wish
that had long been cherished by two of his
friends.

John and James, the brothers for whom
he felt the highest trust and love, came to him
when he was alone, led by their mother, who
was also one of those good women who had
been helping him in Galilee. With unusual
respect they bent low before him as if he
were a king.

164 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

^^What do you want, madam!" he asked
Salome courteously.

^'Sir,'' she said hesitatingly, ^^I want you
to do for us whatever we ask you. ' '

^^What is it you want me to do for you?'^

^^I want you to say that in your Kingdom
these two sons of mine shall sit, as viceroys,
one on your right side and the other on your
left.''

Was it not a joy to hear this warm con-
fidence of his nearest friends in his success?
But did they realize what that ^^ success"
meant ?

^' You don't know what you are asking," he
responded warmly.

^^Are you fit to drink the cup that I have
to drink?"

^^Yes," the two young men shouted, think-
ing he meant the wine cup of royalty, ^^we
can. ' '

^^You shall indeed drink my cup," he said
sadly, thinking of the sufferings they should
bear for him, ^^but as to the seat— that is not
mine to give. It belongs to those to whom it
has been assigned by my Father."

With such new sternness as this Jesus faced
the great struggle of his life. All around him
was danger. His Twelve were true, but just
now even the two best had shown that they
understood him no more than children, and
that they were thoroughly selfish. They had
ceased to be a help to him. He was complete-

NEARING THE HOLY CITY 165

ly alone. As they walked behind hnn^ strid-
ing straight on to what they restlessly feared
was some disaster, they were amazed at his
silence, and when they looked into his up-
lifted face they grew afraid of him. He was
going to the front. The Captain was hasten-
ing to the firing-line.

There is an old legend that wherever Jesus
walked, by night or day, a light followed and
surrounded him. Certain it is that from the
time when he turned his face toward Jeru-
salem, while he was no less human and lov-
ing, the light of the Transfiguration seemed
to grow and hover about him continually.

He seemed to regard Death as some mighty
warrior with whom he was even eager to have
a duel. They were astonished one day to hear
him exclaim as he pressed his hand to his
brow: ^^Oh! this baptism that I am to be
baptized with!— how I feel shackled until it is
accomplished ! ' '

Yet never was he more thoughtful in plan-
ning to do all his work well than now, with
his martyrdom fully in sight.

Three things, he told them, he had to do
before his death.

First, he must reach just as many of his
countrymen with his message as possible.

Second, he must make one more appeal for
loyalty to Jerusalem, the city that was the
heart of Israel.

Third, he must prepare the Twelve to carry

166 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

on his work after he was gone from their
sight.

He did the first thing by multiplying him-
self by eighty-two. Just before he left Galilee
he chose seventy more messengers, whom for
this special purpose he added to the Twelve.

Into every city or hamlet which he expected
to visit he sent them before him to prepare
the people.

Their marching orders were much the same
as the Twelve had received at first, only they
were not limited to the Israelites. Into de-
spised Samaria they went, and there Jesus
followed, finding, however, that his old
friends there would have nothing to do with
him, because he would not promise to leave
the Jews and live with them. This so
angered John and James (the Thunderers)
that they urged Jesus to smite the narrow-
minded wretches with fire from the sky.
Which, of course, Jesus did not propose to
do. All up and down the tableland east of
the Jordan they wandered, among its mixed
population of shepherds, and he was never
far behind them. From Jericho up to Jeru-
salem they climbed, through the dangerous
desert of John and the temptations, and Jesus,
tireless, climbed close to them.

The proclamation they carried was so sim-
ple that they could easily learn it. How
many have been comforted by it since then !

NEARING THE HOLY CITY 167

^^ Jesus says:

Come to Me, all you who are toiling

And moiling with heavy burdens,

And I will rest you !

Take My Yoke upon you, and learn from Me,

Because I am meek and gentle-hearted,

And you shall find rest for your souls.

For My Yoke is easy

And My Burden is light/ ^

It was the message of a carpenter-king.
The yokes he had made for the water-pots in
Nazareth had eased those who had burdens
to carry up the hills. The Yoke of his royal
Law of Love would make easy all the burdens
of people who worked and were tired.

^'Come to Me," he said.

Once it was it, the kingdom, now it was He,
the King. It was time for m^n to see that to
have the kingdom which he taught they need-
ed only to follow him.

To wear a crown and possess a kingship is
not to be a king. To be a king is to have men
who believe in you. So Jesus was already a
king.

The Seventy came back triumphant.

''Sir," they said, ''even foul spirits submit
when we use your name. ' '

He smiled with joy.

"Ah!" said he. "I have dreamed of the
Tempter himself fallen like a lightning flash
from the sky."

168 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

He saw now that his work could never die.
The name of not one of the Seventy has been
remembered, but that single message of Jesus
told even by unknown men has transformed
the world.

Do you believe that^

^^The world is not all good yet/' you may
say.

But what was Jesus' world?

It had not a hospital for the sick. There
was no shelter for friendless old people or
little children. It had not a single skilled
physician. Human life was very cheap. The
weak were often exposed on mountains to die.
Prisoners were killed for a thousand petty
crimes, or tortured or left in hopeless dun-
geons at the mere nod of the emperor.
Borne 's favorite sport was the killing of
slaves in the arena. Every nation hated
every other one. Wars were continual.
Women were burden-bearers. The majority
of the human race were bond-slaves. Except
in Israel, there were no real homes. The
world had its noble and generous spirits, but
for the most part it was a world of cruelty
and hatred and sorrow.

Do you need to be told how it has changed
since then!

Can you think of any institution of kind-
ness and mercy that has come that has not
come because of Jesus? Most of them have
even borne his name.

NEARING THE HOLY CITY 169

And now as to his approach to Jerusalem.

His own brothers, ever since the people had
tried to make him king after the great sup-
per by the lake, seem to have felt that Jesus
had made a great mistake. Their visit to the
Passover probably persuaded them that the
Jerusalemites were ripe for revolt. There he
could recover his lost chance. Such must
have been their motive— for certainly they
could not have meant him real harm— when,
on their return, they came to him and said :

^^Go on, now; march up to Jerusalem to
the harvest-feast, so that those who believe in
you there may see the signs you do. ' '

But Jesus told them sadly, as he had once
told his mother, ^^It is not time for me yet.
Your time is always ready. ' '

They went on without him, but a few days
later he went up quietly, through Samaria,
with the Twelve.

The priests and the Pharisees had already
decided to destroy him.

Some of the Pharisees who were not sharers
in the plot met him and warned him to leave
the city at once or he would be killed, either
by their own rulers or by Herod.

When he heard the name of the murderer
of his friend John, Jesus ' face kindled.

^ ^ Go to that fox ! " he thundered out. ' ' Say
to him: Take notice! I am going to drive
out evil spirits to-day and to-morrow. On
the third day I shall complete my work. Then

170 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

I must go on my way, because 'a prophet
must not die outside of Jerusalem ! ' "

In Jerusalem? What! In God's Holy
City? Yes.

' ' 0 Jerusalem ! Jerusalem ! " he exclaimed.
^^She who kills the prophets and stones the
messengers sent to her— Oh, how often I have
longed to gather your children round me, as
a hen takes her chickens under her wings, and
you would not come ! ' '

But he refused to run away.

You must remember that Jesus was quite
unknown in the capital. Only during the few
days when at an earlier Passover he was
helping John had he ever taught there, and
his brave cleansing of the temple had been
soon forgotten.

The common i3eople at once became inter-
ested in him.

^^He is a good man," one shopkeeper was
overheard saying.

^^No, no,'' said his conservative neighbor.
' ' He is leading people astray. ' '

Just then Jesus himself passed by their
store booths.

' ' Why are you all trying to kill me I ' ' Jesus
asked them.

They were astonished, for they had not
heard of these plots of their rulers.

' ' You must be crazy, ' ' the}^ replied. ' ' No-
body wants to kill you. ' '

And one of them began to say to the other,

NEARING THE HOLY CITY 171

' ' This is not the one, is it, that they are eager
to put to death? AVhy, here he is, speaking
out boldly, and they do not say anything to
him. Is it possible that our leaders have
found out that he is really the Christ? But,
then, we all know where he came from. Does
the Christ come out of Galilee? Doesn't the
Scripture say that it is of the race of David
and out of Bethlehem, the village to which
David belonged, that the true Christ is to
come ? ' '

And the other added, ' ' But when the Christ
comes will he be able to give more signs of
his mission than this man ? ' '

They began to feel some confidence in
Jesus.

In the meantime the rulers had sent police-
men to arrest him.

Their council, called the Sanhedrin, was in
session when they returned empty-handed.

^^Well,'' said Hanan ^^the vulture," the
high priest's father-in-law, their real leader,
^^Why haven't you brought him?"

Said the Eoman captain with a blush, ^^No
man has ever spoken like this one ! ' '

^^What!" replied Hanan with a sneer,
^^you aren't going to be one of his converts,
are you? Have any of us gone over to him,
or any of the Pharisees? As for the rabble
—they are cursed, anyway."

But some of the rest said, ^^What are we
going to do? For this man does show many

172 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

signs of his mission. If we let him alone like
this, everybody will believe in him, and then
the Eomans will come in, after he has stirred
the people np, and will rob ns of our temple
and onr nation."

Then the high priest himself spoke.

^^You don't know anything abont it. Yon
don't seem to realize that it is for our advan-
tage that one man should die, for the people,
instead of the whole nation being destroyed. ' '

At that point the member who had learned
to believe in Jesns the day when he cleansed
the temple took courage and spoke out.

' ' Sir, ' ' said he, ' ' does our Law pass judg-
ment on a man without first giving him a
hearing, and finding out what he is doing?"

Caiaphas was very angry.

'^Ah! You are a Galilean, too, are you?"
he flung back at him. ^^Look in your Scrip-
tures! You will find that no prophet is go-
ing to arise out of Galilee. ' '

A few of these councillors, influenced per-
haps by Nicodemus' words, did stop on the
way out to listen to Jesus.

Had any conqueror ever come to his capital
city as Jesus did?*

When Napoleon, fresh returned from his
victories across the Alps, awaited his election
by the people as emperor, he had already
crowded Paris with his soldiers. When
nobler Caesar came home from his successes
against Pompey^ he won the heart of Eome by

* See Note 28. ■

NEARING THE HOLY CITY 173

four magnificent triumphs, commemorating
in turn his victories in Gaul, Egypt, Pontus
and Africa. But when Jesus came to claim
Jerusalem's allegiance, he offered the city
nothing but himself.

The two shopkeepers, mentioned above,
went up to the temple one day to hear him
talk. This was what they saw :

The priests in their flowing, white robes
bound with their wide, bright-colored silken
girdles, and led by their chief, adorned with
his jewelled regalia, swept majestically across
the grassy terrace, but they met no armed
soldier and no display of pomp or power. A
brown-haired peasant, speaking the distinct
country dialect of the north country, was
seated among a few friends, dressed in coarse
garments like himself, talking to a group of
the poorer people of the city. He seemed
like a shepherd, not like a king.

Here, where the learned doctors had taught
him when a boy, he taught, but not as they.
He was telling the people stories. Napoleon
and Caesar had entered their capitals with
armies to win power for themselves. Here
was Jesus, single-handed, forgetful of self,
pleading only for the rights of God and the
rights of man.

The two shopkeepers happened by when he
was telling one of his favorite stories about
^^How Poor People Appreciate God^s King-
dom. ' '

174 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

^^Once upon a time a king was giving a
great dinner, a bridal-feast for his son. He
invited many people and sent a servingman,
when it was time for the dinner, to tell the
invited guests to come, as things were quite
ready.

^^But they all alike began begging to be
excused.

' ' The first man said to the servant, ' I have
just bought a field and I am obliged to go
and look at it. I beg you politely to present
my excuses.'

^^The next one said, ^I have bought five
pairs of bullocks and I am on my way to try
them. I beg you politely to present my ex-
cuses. '

^^But the next one said brusquely, ^I am
just married— and I can't come.'

''On his return the servingman repeated
all these answers to his master.

^^ Enraged at them, the owner of the house
then said to his servant. ' Go out at once into
the streets and alleys of the town, and bring
in here the poor and the crippled and the
blind and the lame. '

^^ Pretty soon the servant came again and
said, ^Master, your order has been carried
out. And yet there is room.'

^^ ^Go out,' said the king, 4nto the roads
and hedgerows and make people, both ill and
well-favored, come in, so that my house may
be filled. For, I tell you all, not one of those

NEARING THE HOLY CITY 175

men who were invited shall have a taste of
my dinner. '—And thus the bridal had its
guests.''

There was a quiet laugh around the entire
company. One shopkeeper nudged his fellow.
Everybody saw the point. The Pharisees had
by their pride and attention to their petty ob-
servances really excused themselves out-of-
doors from the Father's feast, while they,
themselves, because they knew they were
needy, might be wise enough to enter.

The Pharisees were furious.

Then Jesus continued, as he saw how ex-
ultant the people felt:

''But the king, coming around to see his
guests, spied a man, lacking a wedding gar-
ment. Says he to him, ' Friend, how came you
here without your wedding garment?' And
he had nothing to say. Then said the king
to his servitors, 'Bind him hand and foot and
cast him out into the darkness. ' There is the
weeping and gnashing of teeth. ' '

The two shopkeepers looked at each other
more soberly. The point was toward them
now. It was not enough to get in, then. One
must be fit for the feast of the kingdom.

The Pharisees rushed at him as soon as he
had finished.

"You are a Samaritan!" said one of the
councillors savagely. ' ' You are crazy ! ' '

And it made them so angry to hear him
that they actually collected a mob about the

176 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

temple, armed with stones, to kill him at once,
without a trial.

You can see how mnch justice could be ex-
pected from this kind of a court.

But quite a number of the common people
believed in what he said.

He left the city when the festival was over,
but, two months later, at about Christmas, he
came boldly in again, at the next national
festival, that of the Eededicating of the
Temple.

He was walking in the shelter of the Colon-
nade of Solomon, when a company of the
rulers met him again. They were a little
more respectful this time. It may be that his
wonderful success in winning people had
made them wonder whether he might not
really become, under their own management,
a patriotic deliverer from the Eomans.

^^How long are you going to keep us in
suspense r' they asked. ^^If you really are
the Christ, tell us frankly.''

^^I have told you,'' said Jesus, ^^and you
do not believe me. All the things I am doing
by my Father's authority bear testimony to
me. The Father and I are at one. ' '

^ * Blasphemy ! ' ' they shouted furiously,
bending down to snatch stones again to kill
him.

They could not scare him.

^^I have done many good actions in your

NEARING THE HOLY CITY 177

presence, with the Father's help. For which
one of them are yon going to stone me ? ' '

^^It is not for any good action. It is for
blasphemy. Yon keep making yonrself ont
to be God."

^'I said, ^I am God's son,' " he answered
qnietly. ^^Even onr Law has this statement
in one place, ^Ye are gods.' If those to whom
God's words were spoken were said to be
^gods,' why do yon cry ont against me, onr
Father's spokesman, when I merely say, ^I
am God's son?' "

Do yon see what he meant?

^^I am God's son, yes, and every man is
meant to be a child of God. ' '

That was what Jesns stood for. That was
all he wanted men to see.

Bnt greed and meanness had made these
men so afraid that they were going to lose
something if the world shonld believe snch
teaching that they were bonnd to kill its
teacher.

So, again they drove him from the city.

Again the leaders had disowned him, bnt
the common people, as in Galilee, were even
more eager to hear him.

When he was driven from the Holy City
he carried ont his third plan. In a little un-
known hamlet, near the desert, and across the
Jordan, in the pastures of Moab, and in the
valley of the Jordan, close to the place of his
baptism, he kept the Twelve near him until

♦See Note 26.

178 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

his last Passover, warning them patiently of
the sorrow that was to come— which they
could not believe— and telling them what to
do after he was killed.

Had not Jesus really failed ?

Judea had never paid him attention. Gali-
lee, and even Samaria, had already rejected
him. Jerusalem was not deeply moved.

He had the Twelve, a few Galileans, a few
foreigners. There were not six hundred per-
sons on his side. And soon he was to die, and
was this the measure of his ^^ kingdom!"
"Wliat was to prevent his being entirely for-
gotten?

Do you realize how little Jesus seemed to
worry about being remembered I He built no
temple, organized no society, wrote no book.
He did not even appoint any one to write his
biography. His company had a treasurer,
but no secretary. Indeed, who was there
among them all, unless it was Matthew, who
was competent to write a memorial of Jesus ?

But it is not how many, it is how much men
believe.

We have seen what God the Father could
do with one Life that was all his own. AATiat
could he not do even with five hundred ?

We look out to-day on a world that has been
leavened with the life of Jesus, and we re-
member what he said :

^^The Victory that conquers the World is
your Faith. ' ^

XVII
THE HEIRS OF HIS KINGDOM

' ' CoME^ sister Enth, it is time to get up. ' '

It was a boy who spoke these words, and the
drowsy listener was a baby of three or four.

Eemember that she was not lying in a little
white bed, in a sunny chamber, in our own
country. She was curled up in a dark corner
of a small room, on a brown mattress, that
lay on a hard earthen floor.

Tho the little room was small and bare, it
was clean and cool. Along the sides ran long
shelves, and upon these the busy mother was
already laying, folded up, the thin mats, upon
which the family had been sleeping. Over
these shelves were two cupboards, where food
and dishes were kept. There were a few
rushes spread on the floor, a lamp stood on a
basket in one corner and in another the break-
fast was spread on a low, square bench. The
door was open, and the sky and fields looked
pleasant outside. The father and older broth-
ers were already at work out in the vineyard.

The little one awoke with a smile, as she
saw her big brother bending over her.

^^Come, baby,'' he said, ^4ook! See how

180 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

bright the flowers are after the rain, and how
fresh the air is. It is going to be a fine day
for our journey, isn't it, mother?"

^^Yes," answered the mother hurriedly, ^4t
is a beautiful day, but we shall never get
started at all if a boy I know doesn't get his
sister ready."

Then the boy helped his little sister splash
her face and hands with water and gave her
the breakfast that was waiting.

There had been a great deal for the mother
to do that day. Dinner must be prepared for
the father and the two older boys, the lunch
must be put up and the house must be left
clean. Restless Euth must be held still until
her. short, brown hair had been braided in
three smooth strands, her little bright new
tunic must be girdled carefully with the many-
colored sash, the boy's jacket must be mended
where it was last torn, and the mother must
hastily arrange her own long, black hair and
put on the neat blue gown which was kept
folded on the top shelf for extra occasions.

All this time the mother's usually sunny
face was clouded. Her husband had not been
pleased with her proposed excursion.

^^A foolish trip," he had said, and ^ ^you'll
only have your trouble for your pains."

At length all was ready, and they walked
from the open door into the sunshine* It was
still early in the day, and the dew was not all
gone, while a cool freshness still lingered in

THE HEIRS OF HIS KINGDOM 181

the shade. The narrow pathway wound now
along the deep bed of a brook, now over a
bare headland, where brown-legged sheep
were grazing, and then went zigzag through
a grain field which was green with the soft-
ness of March.

Somehow the day grew happier as soon as
they were out of doors, and when they ate
their lunch beside the brook all the shadows
of the morning had passed away.

It was not a very long journey that they
had to take, and they walked very slowly, for
the baby was not a very vigorous traveler.

The last part of the way was the hardest.
Ruth, who had at first run hither and thither
chasing butterflies— like them in her bright
clothing and ceaseless flitting— began to take
slower and more sober steps, and at length
cried for her mother's arms. The boy, whose
name was Joseph, took turns in carrying her,
but before long they both of them got very
tired with their sleepy burden.

At length they came to the end of their jour-
ney. Just outside a little village at a cross-
roads were an old man and a lame man with
a crutch, and a few women and children seat-
ed on stones beside the highway.

They were all looking down the road that
led to the village.

Within a short time they saw a dust cloud
and all sprang to their feet with eagerness.

As the dust rose nearer they could see who

182 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

was coming. A tall young man, followed by
a dozen others of various ages, walked vigor-
ously and swiftly toward them. He was sing-
ing.

Instantly it seemed as if the other roads
were full of people, and quite a crowd soon
collected.

Was he a physician? For the sick were
being brought to his attention. Was he a
teacher? For the people were crowding to
ask him questions. Was he a soldier? For
the strong men who surrounded him obeyed
instantly his commands.

The mother had caught up her baby, who
was just waking up, and Joseph stood, some-
what frightened, close beside her.

One of the older men who followed the
youth spied a delegation of village councillors
coming up the road to greet him. He elbowed
his way ahead of his leader to make a passage
for him.

^^Away, woman,'' he said in a tone of au-
thority, somewhat loud, to the mother who
was peering up to the young man's face. ^^Do
not be troubling the teacher with your chil-
dren. He is tired."

The woman shrank back, grieved as a tim-
orous child.

But instantly the teacher's hand was on
Simon's shoulder.

^^ Suffer the little ones also to come unto
me, ' ' he gently said.

THE HEIRS OF HIS KINGDOM 183

All that Peter had seen was a tired, dnsty
woman of the humbler class, holding a baby
with tear-stained cheeks close to her bosom,
and an ordinary boy beside her. But Jesus
saw more. He saw a loving mother who be-
lieved in his goodness and who fondly hoped
that a word of blessing from the teacher
might act, as the touch of the ancient prophets
was wont to do, as a kindly spell over her
dear ones. He looked at the children and he
saw in their pure faces the hope of the world
when all these older people were in their
graves.

He took the baby from the mother's aching
arms and he beckoned the boy to a seat on
the stone beside him, near the roadway.

^^ These," he said to the other people who
looked in wonder to see a rabbi folding a baby
to his bosom, ^^ these belong to the kingdom of
heaven. Whoever does not take the kingdom
as a little child does is never coming into it,
and whoever does any harm to any of these
little ones— it would be better for him," he
added grimly, ^4f he had a millstone hung
around his neck and he were dropped down
into the middle of the sea. ' '

Immediately the ather mothers took cour-
age, and he was soon surrounded by a whole
flock of bairns.

As they drew near to him Jesus was heard
to say,

^^ Whoever shall welcome one of such little

184 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

ones as these^ for the sake of me, welcomes
me, and he who welcomes me, welcomes Him
that sent me. ' '

He called them up to him one by one, and
to all who were old enough to understand
him he said a friendly or cheerful word. And
upon the heads of all he laid his hands, and,
looking up to heaven, asked a blessing for
them.^

As mother and Joseph and the baby turned
to their homeward journey, the shadows were
already creeping across the valleys.

They stopped on the first small rise and
looked back. The people were already scat-
tering to their homes, and far along the wind-
ing road they could see the Lord Jesus hasten-
ing southward with his friends.

They did not know that he would be walk-
ing all night to bring help to the home of a
friend far, far away. They did not know that
he was on his way to meet the scourge and the
cross for them and for all the world. But it
was precious to all the world afterward to
remember that his last farewell to Perea, be-
yond Jordan, had been to brighten all the
future by blessing the children.

The road home did not seem long. The air
was cooler and the dew was falling. And the
mother's heart was so full of joy that she did
not mind having to carry the baby, who al-
ready seemed more dear to her because the

* See Note 29.

THE HEIRS OF HIS KINGDOM 185

Lord's hands had been laid upon her. And
the boy Joseph was happy, too. He was try-
ing to sing the marching song that he had
heard Jesns singing, and he was thinking of
the word Jesus had spoken in his ear, a brave
word, about what he wanted him to try to be
when he grew up and became a man.

It was not long, then, before they came in
sight of the home cottage, with father stand-
ing in the door and the boys running to meet
them.

How much they had to tell as they ate their
supper !

Joseph told everything, except what the
teacher had said to him. That was his own
secret.

^^ And what did he say to you, sister EuthT'
asked the older brother David, laughing.

^^Let me think," she answered, scowling up
her dainty face. ^^He said, ^ Happy— are the
pure— in heart, because they shall see—
God.' "

They were all still for a moment. It
seemed like a special message to each one.
Even the strong father was touched to tears.

That night the mother taught her little
daughter to pray for the good teacher that
he might be kept safe. In how many homes
were little children and boys and girls pray-
ing for their dear friend every night !

Soon they were all abed. And the pale
moonlight fell upon a sleeping household and

186 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

a resting world. But the Savior of men was
tirelessly pressing on all night long to Beth-
any, where sorrow and death awaited his com-
forting. Tired mothers and little children
had found rest in him— and he took his rest
in God.

XVIII
THREE WHOM JESUS LOVED

For over two years Jesus had been home-
less.

True, he had provided for his mother a
comfortable house in Capernaum, and his
brothers and sisters were all living with their
own families.

But he himself was a wanderer.

When another rabbi one day thought he
wanted to join him, he discouraged the lazy
man of indoor study by saying whimsically,
^^ Foxes have holes^ wild birds have roosts,
but I have no place of my own to lay my
head.''

But there was one place which now offered
itself to him, for the few days that were left,
as his home.

Bethany* was a small village, two miles
east of Jerusalem, over the hill.

Here lived a well-to-do family, known in
Jerusalem. The father and mother were
dead, but there remained two grown sisters
and a brother, a boy of about sixteen.

When Jesus got acquainted with them we

""♦SeeNote 27.

188 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

can not say. It may have been at his earliest
visit to the city. But this we do know, that,
like loyal Jews, they opened their house to
visitors to the national festivals, and here
Jesus was always entertained.

To the harvest festival, as we have seen,
had come Jesus, a few months before he visit-
ed Perea. He spent this feast at Bethany and
celebrated it at the home of his friends in
accordance with the peculiar customs of his
time.

The festival was a thanksgiving, not only
for the harvests of fruits, olive oil and grapes,
but also for the successful end of the ancient
wanderings of their forefathers in the wilder-
ness. So the whole week was spent by the
men and boys living in booths made of leafy
branches, which were supposed to resemble
the shelters in which their forefathers had
encamped. Jesus and young Lazarus lodged
in a small booth in the garden and the sisters
in the house. They all spent their leisure in
the daytime in a larger booth in the court-
yard.

While the Twelve and Lazarus were over in
the city enjoying the festival, Mary, the
younger sister, would sometimes sit in the
shelter of the large booth and listen to Jesus.
She was a young woman of brilliant mind and
keen memory, and many of his sayings would
have been lost to us if she had not remembered
them and told them to others.

THREE WHOM JESUS LOVED 189

The first day that Jesus was there, Martha,
the housekeeper, was making the greatest
preparations to do honor to her distinguished
guest. Mary, too, had helped with those
preparations, but she thought she could honor
him better if she forgot everything else but
this too short opportunity to listen to him.

Everything seemed to go wrong with busy
Martha that morning, and finally, as she was
passing the open front of the booth where
Mary sat, so much at ease, she snapped out,
^^Well, sir, you don't seem to notice that my
sister has left me to do all this work alone. ' '

There was no use getting angry at the tired
woman. Jesus smiled in sympathy.

''Oh, Martha, Martha!" he said, ''You cer-
tainly are anxious and bustling about many
things to-day. But really only a few are nec-
essary—or, indeed, one. Mary has made a
good choice,'' he added kindly, "and it is one
that will not be taken away from her."

It was Mary's good fortune to be present
one day when Jesus first spoke to his friends
words which are to-day taught to every Chris-
tian child in all the world. How many times
afterward she must have told the story, in
words, perhaps, like these :

' ' The Lord Jesus did not go up to the city
until the festival was partly through. He was
resting with us in his pleasant tent, open to
the breeze, but not to the sun.

190 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

^^Into our garden one day I came to show
the way, and the Twelve followed me.

^^We found him at prayer.

^^His eyes were closed. His worn, tired
face was shining. His hair, we began to no-
tice, was streaked with gray. His lips, curved
to a smile, moved slowly.

' ' We would not interrupt him.

^^We knelt at a little distance and watched
him, and when at length he gently opened his
eyes, we exclaimed with one accord, ^Lord,
teach us how to pray. '

^^It was then that he taught us the prayer
he had just been saying, which the world calls.
The Lord's Prayer. We had thought before
that prayer was a duty, but since we saw
Jesus talking with our Father we have come
to see that it is our recreation and our rest. ' '

Mary had another story, strange and won-
derful, to tell the world :

^^ After the Festival of Eededication in De-
cember it was no longer safe for Jesus to stay
near Jerusalem. It would have brought
danger to his friends as well as to himself.
So he spent this time with the Twelve, by
themselves, in solitary places in Perea and
Samaria, where he could warn them what they
were to do and suffer after his death.

^^In March, about five months after the
harvest festival, our brother Lazarus fell sick.
As soon as sister Martha had seen his hot face

THREE WHOM JESUS LOVED 191

and felt his burning hands, her first task was
to try to make him comfortable, and her next
was to say briefly to me, 'Send for the Lord
Jesns. '

''This was done at once, and with fresher
courage we both turned to the anxious work
before us. Martha is an excellent nurse, soft-
footed and still, mistress of countless cooling
draughts and home-made medicines, and all
her skill was put into play, for she saw at
once that he was very, very ill. And I did
what I could to help the dear boy to rest and
sleep. At first Lazarus tried bravely to get
up, and when that was forbidden he lay quiet-
ly and talked and laughed with us gaily, for
he did not know what it was to be unwell. As
he grew weaker, Martha told him that she had
sent for the great Physician, and he was much
pleased. Martha worked on in her busy way,
her lips close pressed, and I, when my part
was done, sat on the battlemented housestop
until night, looking wearily down the road,
up which we longed to see Jesus coming. And
Lazarus, when in a few hours delirium seized
him, rent our hearts with grief, by calling in-
cessantly the name of his friend, the teacher.
And before daybreak he was dead.

"According to our custom, he was buried,
at once, in the family tomb at the bottom of
the garden. And we two sat silent, hand in
hand, waiting for Jesus.

192 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

'' 'It he had only been here, our brother
would not have died, ' we wailed.

' ' But we did not blame him, only it seemed
that we must see his face.

' ' The news reached Jesus, it seems, among
the sheepfolds, far east of the Jordan. There
was a whole day of necessary duty before he
could even start. Then he spoke to the
Twelve.

'^ ^We must go back into Judea again,' he
told them.

" ^ Rabbi,' they said earnestly, Hhe Jews
were only just now trying to stone you. Are
you going there again ? '

^^With drawn, sad face he said gently, ^Our
friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. I am going
there to wake him. '

"' ^But if he is resting in sleep, he will get
well,' said Peter, misunderstanding him.

'' ^Lazarus is dead,' he answered softly.
^Let us go to him.'

' ' Still they held back. It might mean death
to them all.

^^Then Thomas, an obstinate fellow, hard
to convince, but trusty and brave, said im-
pulsively.

" ^Come! Let us all go, and die with
Jesus. '

^^The fourth day after our brother was
buried, Martha was coming up the garden-
walk from the tomb, when she saw a figure

THREE WHOM JESUS LOVED 193

pass silently and swiftly under the arbor. It
was John.

'' ^Jesns is near!' he said, ^Come out quiet-
ly and meet him.' For a company of our
relatives and friends from Jerusalem was
sitting about the house-door, lamenting.

^ ^ A little way up the hill she met Jesus, who
had hastened on ahead of the others.

" ^Oh, Master!' she burst forth the one
thought of those past long days : ^If you had
been here, my brother would not have died ! '
And as she looked into his deep eyes and ma-
jestic face, she added in unreasoning depend-
ence, ^Even now, I still feel that God grants
you whatever you ask him. '

" ^But, Martha,' said Jesus with a strange
note of courage, ^your brother is going to rise
again. '

^^ ^I know he will,' she said confidently—
^at the Resurrection of the Last Day.'

^^ ^I am the Resurrection!' he said. ^ Those
who believe in me will never die. '

'' ^Yes, Master,' she said, ^I have learned
to Relieve that you are the Christ, the Son of
God, the very one that was to come into the
world. '

^^She hurried into the house, where I sat,
holding the precious spikenard, with which—
I knew not why— I had still hesitated to anoint
my brother 's body.

'' ^Mar}^,' she whispered to me gently, ^the
Master is here and he is asking for you. '

194 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST "^

^^I, too, clasped his knees and spoke the
same fruitless wish as my sister.

'' 'Where have yon bnried him?' Jesns
asked me at once. He could not bear to enter
the house where he had once been so happy.

'' 'Come, Master, and see,' I answered.

''Down beneath the arbor and through the
flower-beds among which he had walked so
often, we led him, the other mourners follow-
ing at a distance.

"He stood a moment at the stone door of
the tomb, over which I had hung garlands of
flowers from the garden and field.

"The dear memory of the boy he loved,
our heart-broken grief, overcame him.

"Jesus burst into tears.

"The mourners, who had never seen Jesus
give way to any sorrow, whispered to each
other, 'How he must have loved him!'

"He whispered to Martha, 'Have the stone
door rolled open. '

" 'But, Master,' she whispered back, hor-
rified that Jesus should wish to look upon the
body that had already changed so much, ' You
forget that he has been dead four days.'

' ' ' Believe in me, ' he said calmly, ' and you
shall witness the glory of God.'

"His form stirred as if with an inbreath-
ing of divine majesty, he looked upward,
whispered a sentence of thanksgiving, and
then with a loud voice said,

" 'Lazarus, come here!'

THREE WHOM JESUS LOVED 195

^^And out from the dark cave, wrapped in
white, our boy came, and knelt at the feet of
Jesus/'

A few days after this Jesus came up to his
last Passover.

Few expected him, for it was becoming
known that the leaders had determined that
Jesus must die. But he came, openly and
boldly, and nearly a week before the great
day of the festival.

In the largest house in Bethany he was
given a dinner. Martha was now a bride.
The wedding, which had been interrupted by
her brother's sickness, had been celebrated
with joy, and the husband, one of those whom
Jesus had cured, was as eager as she to do
honor to their benefactor.

It was a family gathering, and the Twelve
were also included in the invitation.

Jesus occupied the seat of honor, and at
one side of him was Simon, the host, and at
the other reclined Lazarus. Martha, eager as
ever to be hospitable, served her guests, with
Mary as her helper. Was there ever a hap-
pier home than this on that springtime even-
ing, with the dearly loved boy, snatched from
the gates of death, seated close to the Master ?

But, as Mary stood at one side and watched
the laughing company when her work was
done, a deeper grief than any she had yet
known blanched her face.

196 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

Jesus had told her, as he had told the
Twelve, that he was about to die, and that
the time was near, even at this Passover. The
others felt the danger, but they trusted their
Master's power so much that they felt sure
he was going to turn his hazard into a more
startling triumph.

But as she looked upon his tired yet tran-
quil face, his faded, travel-worn garments,
and his feet, hardened and sore with his long
and loving pilgrimages, she realized that this
man of sorrows was very near his death.

She rushed to her own room in tears. As
she dried her eyes and started to return,
something she saw gave her a fresh thought.
She had accidently laid her hand upon the
little white jar of priceless spikenard that had
been bought for her brother 's body. A sweet
impulse seized her.

She returned to the dining-room and knelt
at Jesus ' feet, behind his couch, so softly that
no one noticed her.

But suddenly the rarest of perfumes filled
the whole chamber.

She was pouring the cruse of liquid gold
over his hair and covering his hot feet with
the cooling ointment.

A look of glad pride was in the eyes of
Martha and Lazarus when they knew of their
sister's generous act. The disciples of Jesus
were touched by the love to their leader thus
displayed. John, especially, sat smiling, tho

THREE WHOM JESUS LOVED 197

tears ran down his cheeks like rain. And the
face of Jesus shone with unaccustomed radi-
ance.

But it was not so with all.

Judas, the fellow Judean of Martha and
Mary, had no kinship of spirit with them.
With a voice intended to be politely insolent
he leaned across the table and snarled :

^^Why has the perfume been wasted like
this? It could have been sold for more than
thirty pounds, and the money given to the
poor.''

Meanness expressed always arouses more
meanness, and instantly there was a murmur
of voices that caught up the mock benevolence
that concealed real avarice.

Then Jesus said quietly but incisively to
Judas,

^^ Leave her in peace. Why do you grieve
her thus to the heart? A deed bonny and
sweet to my eyes is this that she has done for
me. You always have the poor with you and
whenever you like you can do good to them,
but"— here he paused— ^^you will not always
have me. She has done what she was able.
She has come beforehand— thus to anoint my
body for my burial. ' '

Then, laying his hand softly on her bowed
head he said,

^^And do you know that, wherever in the
whole world the Good News is proclaimed,

198 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST ^

even this that she has done will be told in her
memory. ' '

The joy— which the harsh words of Iscariot
had interrupted— again flowed on. The even-
ing closed with singing. The Twelve left the
house, chanting one of the Passover Psalms,
and Jesus stood in the doorway on the hill
with the two sisters and Lazarus and watched
his sturdy Twelve walk down the path in the
soft paschal moonlight, until he could only
barely hear the closing words of their hymn :

' ^ Precious in the sight of the Lord

Is the death of his faithful.

41. ^ ^ 4£. ^ «U, ^

•TT •TT VV" "Tf" Tf" -7^ ^

I will pay my vows to the Lord

In the midst of thee, 0 Jerusalem.''

XIX
THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION

A coMPAiTY of priests was standing in the
priests' court of the temple on Sunday of the
Passover.

They were talking about Jesus.

The marvelous deed at Bethany was al-
ready known. Lazarus had already been
visited and even threatened with death unless
he should preserve silence. The incompre-
hensible teacher had been heard of here and
there near the city, but he had already been
warned that the Sanhedrin would not endure
any attempt by him to make a public appear-
ance at Jerusalem. But with all this bravado
there was considerable anxiety among the
rulers. Too well they knew the power that
Jesus had already won among the people,
even at Jerusalem. The only question— the
question of their own very safety— was, How
would he use it?

They said to each other, ^^What do you
think? Is it possible that he will not come
to the festival?"

Even while they were talking, an unusual
stir was heard in the outer court, and a throng

V

200 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

of people was seen pressing out of the East-
ern, or Beautiful, Gate.

They hastened to the stairway, and, climb-
ing to the portico roof, they looked off across
the valley.

They saw a most remarkable sight.

That morning early Jesus had come from
Martha's home to the nearby camping-place
of his friends, and had said quietly to John
and James :

' ' Go over to the village facing you and you
will soon find an ass tied up there, with a foal
by her side. Unfasten them and bring them
to me. And if anybody says anything to you,
you are to say, ^The Teacher requires them,'
and he will send them at once. ' '

This command produced the greatest excite-
ment among the Twelve.

^^ Their leader was going to ride into his
capital ! ' '

The word soon spread among the great
company of Galileans, many of whom were
still faithful to Jesus. Among them were his
mother and his brothers, who were on their
way to the festival.

When Jesus finally left the home of Martha
on foot he found the roadway lined with many
familiar figures. As he mounted the ass, a
graceful white animal, entirely unbroken, the
enthusiasm grew, and their fear of the rulers
was so' far forgotten that a number began to
shout snatches of the Passover hymns. The

THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION 201

excitement was so great that they did not
stop to notice that he was not assuming the
role of an invading conqueror. For, if he
had wished to do that he would have chosen
a war-horse, not a beast of peaceful burdens ;
he would have dressed in armor and carried
a sword. Instead, he wore his faded peasant's
cloak, and his riding the ass implied not that
he was an invader, but that he was a king
already crowned, who was riding home to
his capital in peace.

As they went on over the top of the hill by
the southern roadway, still out of sight of the
city, the pilgrims camping on the mountains
rushed up from before and on either side to
meet the procession.* It was only when the
whole company had rounded the hill and come
out on a ledge of rock, that the city of David
sprang into view,t and it was then that the
curious priests on the temple portico saw the
cause of all the tumult.$

They saw Jesus in the midst, distinguished
by his white cloak and the white beast, paus-
ing at this first view of the Holy City. Close
to him stood his Twelve. All around was a
great multitude, some of whom had snatched
palm branches from the gardens on either
side, others of whom, lacking any other trib-
ute, had spread their cloaks in the road as a
carpet before his progress.

^^See!'' shouted one of the priests on the

"^ See Note 31 . t See Note 30. $ See Note 32.

202 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

portico roof to the rest, pointing with his
arm to the mountain-side crowded with peo-
ple. ^^Yon have made no headway. Look!
The whole world has gone after him ! ' '

The meaning of the procession was as plain
as words can speak. A Jewish king was com-
ing again to his capital as if, without blood-
shed, the days since David had been obliter-
ated !

The captain of the temple-watch sounded
the ^^ assembly '^ to his company, and the mea-
ger city garrison in the fort close by was
posted in readiness for an uprising from
within, or a concerted attack from without
the walls.

Even among those who walked beside Jesus
there were some of the Pharisees who fore-
saw at once the peril of the situation. A sin-
gle false step on Jesus ' part and there would
be a massacre.

Already the cries of the multitude, at first
mere expressions of wishes of good-luck or
hilarious shouts of ^^Hosanna!," had grown
to one united and fearful roar.

^^ Blessed is the One who is Coming— our
King!'' and,

^^God bless him! Blessed is the kingdom
of our Father David ! ' ' the people were shout-
ing.

^ ' Teacher ! ' ' yelled the Pharisees in alarm,
close to his ear. ^^Keep your followers still!
There will be murder ! ' '

THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION 203

But Jesus knew that when the mob better
understood his purpose, there would be no
bloodshed.

Already his face had taken on a deeper sad-
ness. As they rounded the mountain, and
saw the gray city rising out of the deep chasm
beneath them, surrounded by its ring of iron
hills, the whole assembly was struck dumb by
the sublimity of the scene. There, terrace on
terrace, within the ancient walls of stone,
climbed houses, palaces, fortresses and public
buildings, while in front of all, the gem of
which the rest was but the setting, shone the
Holy House, beneath the splendor of the noon-
day sun, a mass of snow and gold.

And now, they thought, all this was to be
snatched from Eome by one blow, and, ac-
cording to the psalms of old, through those
^^everlasting doors" of stone ''the King of
Glory'' was to enter in.

With one accord the great assembly on the
hillslope looked toward their king and await-
ed his action. Would he raise his hand now ,
and cause the walls to crumble that he might
ride over them, or would he rather, as many
of them expected, suddenly expand the Holy
City by a miracle until it should cover all
Judea?

There was not even upon his face a look of
jubilation.

Instead, his head was bowed in his hands.

They were not womanish tears of weakness ;

204 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

he was wailing aloud, as men in those days
wailed for the dead. And amid his cries they
heard him prophesying— what took place in
the lifetime of many of them— the awfnl de-
struction and slaughter of the city by the
Eomans.

It was an angry, a completely disappointed
company that trooped down the hill. When
Jesus dismounted at the spot where beasts
of burden were denied admission to the city,
all the crowd but the Galileans had deserted
him. And when the alert and alarmed Roman
captain with the anxious priests by his side
leaned over the portico by the city gate and
asked who this was under escort, even they
forgot all about their tributes to his royalty
and faltered out tamely, ^^It is the prophet-
Jesus— from Nazareth— in Galilee."

This was, on the whole, the bravest deed in
Jesus' life. It was needful to do just what
he did. In some way he must enter the Holy
City. He claimed to be king of the kingdom
of God, the kingdom which all his people ex-
pected and which none of them understood.
Should he go in alone ? That would deny his
kingship. Should he lead in an army? That
would prove him a traitor to the real kingdom
of heaven. The only other way was to claim
the kingship and claim it for just what it was,
the kingdom of peace and love and sacrifice,
and let the world think of him the worst it
chose.

THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION 205

He made his claim, and he never feared
the consequences. Whether he should fail
never troubled Jesns, but only whether he
should do his work well.

That night the Twelve were utterly dis-
heartened. They had secured arms, begun
the organization of companies and sounded
the people as to their readiness for a patriotic
uprising. And now their Master had made
all this work of no account. The priests and
Pharisees were jubilant. Jesus had lost the
confidence of the multitude. The populace
did not wish him to come to any harm, but if
he could be detached from his faithful Twelve
and hurried to trial and sentence, the rulers
could put him out of the way before the multi-
tude had time to interfere.

That very night the way to do this began
to open. Judas Iscariot, who had com^e to
Jesus chiefly because he believed that Jesus
was going to bring in Israel's restoration to
power, was so chagrined at the events of this
day, so angry at Jesus for what he thought
was a betrayal of his own sacrifices in giving
up his life to become a companion of those
rough Galileans, so disappointed to find that
he was never to cut any figure in the world,
that he determined to have revenge.

The Twelve had already begun to distrust
him, because of his petty dishonesty with their
common purse. Any possible influence as
their leader and spokesman had been crushed

206 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

by Jesus' knowledge and rebuke of him at
Bethany.

A snake, when it is approached by one it
fears, strikes, blindly and fiercely, and Judas,
into whom the serpent spirit had entered,
waited now in the company of Jesus only for
one opportunity to strike him down.

IN THE DEN OF THE WOLVES

If ever a general had a reason for a re-
treat, Jesus had now.

He had witnessed for his kingdom, and
thousands had seen and heard him. Now he
might retire and wait for his nation to ap-
preciate the noble faith he stood for.

Or he could meantime go to other lands.
That very day a company of Greeks had
come to him in the temple to entreat him to
visit their country. Once more the gleam of
victory among other peoples shone before
him.

^^No," he replied. ^^The time is come for
me to enter on my glory. Those who love
their own lives, lose them. Yet I am indeed
perplexed. . . . What shall I say? ^My
Father, bring me safe out of this hour of
trial?' No, for it was for this very thing
that I came to this time. I must say : ' Father,
honor thine own name. ' ' '

He would not flee, he might not even teach
elsewhere, he must not give up his task. Here
he must honor God, even if it cost him his all.

The next morning he walked directly into

208 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST "^

the temple andj coming into the Foreign
Court, saw again the crowd of hucksters buy-
ing and selling in the open court. Again he
burst upon them and drove them, dumb-
founded, from the gates, and as he returned
with flashing eyes, into the Jewish Court, to
say his prayers, a troop of choir boys, who
were just coming from the service of morn-
ing prayer and who had seen his noble act,
met him and hailed him with cheers.

^^Hail to the Son of David!"

At the same moment several of the priests
rushed out from their inner court to hush
them, and angrily said to Jesus,

^^ Don't you hear what these boys are say-
ing?"

^^Yes," said Jesus boldly, shielding the
frightened lads with his arm, ^^and did you
never read in the old song these words,
^Out of babes' and sucklings' mouths
Thou hast produced Thy perfect praise?' "

The next day, Tuesday, he was again early
in the temple, which was now so full of his
open enemies, planning his death, that it was
a very den of wolves.

Wliile they were awaiting the right chance
to spring upon him, they determined to un-
dermine him still further with the people by
outwitting him before them all.

Out to the pleasant grassy terrace where he
loved to walk and where there was always a

IN THE DEN OF THE WOLVES 209

company of pilgrims, they sent their keenest
and most skilful debaters.

One after another they came at him with
sudden questions, which they were sure would
cause the simple, uneducated Galilean to show
either his ignorance or his helplessness.

The Pharisees sent their committee. They
chose the most honest as well as the most
brilliant teacher of the law they could find, to
examine Jesus.

^^ Teacher," said he, ^^ which is the great
command of the Law?"

This was not a quibble. It was a test as
to whether he knew his Old Testament.

When Jesus answered, he summed up in
two sentences all the laws of his kingdom.

Jesus said to him, "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God tvith thy whole hearty and ivith
thy whole soul, and ivith thy whole mind.
This is the great and first command. And a
second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. On these two commands
hang the whole law, and the prophets. ' '

Even the scribe who asked the question was
carried beyond himself by such a magnificent
reply.

'^Well said, sir!" he exclaimed. '^To do
as you have spoken is indeed far beyond all
burnt offerings and sacrifices. ' '

Jesus was not accustomed to praise, espe-
cially from such a source. But he answered
courteously and heartily,

210 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST ""

^^Sir, you are not far from God's king-
dom. ' '

But the Pharisees wished their representa-
tive had asked something else.

Then came to meet him the high priest, sur-
rounded by a retinue of the Sanhedrin and
the priests.

The people made respectful obeisance as
this honorable procession of the gentry filed
out. They seated themselves on the terrace.

Caiaphas summoned Jesus to stand before
him, as if he were a culprit.

But he did not look like one, and he was
not frightened.

The unlearned teacher from Galilee stood
in his country dress before the shrewd and
accomplished prelate, his white silk robe
sparkling with the jewels of his office.

^^What right have you," Caiaphas said
sternly, ^'to act as you do? Who gave you
this right?"

The religious leaders claimed that nobody
had any right to teach religion without a li-
cense from themselves.

But had God never sent any teachers ex-
cept the ones they had authorized?

^^Sir," said Jesus quietly. ^^I also have a
question to ask you. If you tell me, then I
will answer you. It is about John's baptism.
Was it from God or from man? Answer me
that."

John had certainly been a staunch witness

IN THE DEN OF THE WOLVES 211

to Jesus ' authority, and John had never both-
ered to get a license for what he should say.

The question itself, indeed, was like a thun-
derclap. Instantly the priests began jabber-
ing around Caiaphas.

^^Why, sir," they said, ''ii we say ^from
God,' then he will say, ^Then why didn't you
believe in him T "

^^Yes," said others, ^^and if we say ^from
man,'— look at the people! They believe
John was a prophet. ' '

Jesus stood quietly smiling.

Pretty soon two of the doctors, in a very
shamefaced way, stammered out.

^^We— we don't know."

^^I, too," said Jesus, '^refuse to answer
you. ' '

After they had all hastily slipped away, a
group of Herodians, Jews who were toadies
at the Roman court, came out here, where the
onlookers by this time were awaiting with in-
terest the sword-play of this keen and uneven
duel.

^^ Teacher," they said, pretending that they
were well-meaning citizens in perplexity, ^^we
know that you are a true and loyal man, and
that you honestly teach God's word and are
not afraid of anybody. So, tell us your opin-
ion. Is it well to pay taxes to the emperor or
not? Shall we give or shall we refuse?"

They said to each other, ^^Now we've got
him! If he says ^No,' we'll arrest him for

312 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST ^

treason. If lie says^ ^Yes,' our patriotic com-
mon people will desert liim. ' '

He saw through their shrewdness. ^^You
hypocrites!'' he retorted bluntly. ^^Why do
you ask such a question?"

He had no money, so he added, ' ' Show me
the coin with which this tax is paid. ' '

He held up the silver shilling with the por-
trait side toward them.

^^ Whose head and title are these?''

^^The emperor's."

The very fact that they used the emperor's
coins showed that they owed something to his
protection.

^^Then what belongs to the emperor pay to
the emperor— and pay God what belongs to
God."

After that nobody cared to ask any more
questions.

Those who were called the wisest, the
wealthiest, the most religious people of the
nation, had tried to trip up Jesus, and he had
completely muzzled every one of them.

Then Jesus turned to the people who had
been listening and said,

^^ These teachers and Pharisees have sat
down in the chair of Moses. All things, there-
fore, they bid you do, practise and lay to
heart. But don't you follow their example^^
for they preach but they don't practise."

He turned back to the Pharisees and thus
fiercely addressed them :

IN THE DEN OF THE WOLVES 213

' ' Woe for you ! Eabbis and Pharisees, you
hypocrites ! You shut the kingdom of heaven
in men's faces. You neither go in yourselves
nor do you let those who would go in do so.
You are like tombs that have been white-
washed and look lovely outside, while inside
they are filled with dead men's bones and
filth. Oh, you hypocrites ! You build tombs
for the Prophets— and you are truly the chil-
dren of those who murdered the Prophets.
God sends you Prophets, wise men and rabbis.
Some of them you will kill and crucify, and
some you will flog in your meeting-houses and
pursue from town to town. Ah ! Fill up the
measure of your forefather 's guilt ! How can
you ever escape being sentenced to the Pit ? ' '

Were not these fearless words ! The Phari-
sees slunk away utterly overcome, for they
were every one true. And the people, seeing
the victory of Jesus, surrounded him with
congratulations. There were just a few even
of the Pharisees, like this honest doctor who
had last questioned him, who were convinced
that Jesus was right, and that, tho he stood
alone, he stood for the purity and goodness
of the nation. But they saw that the forces
that were against him were so strong and so
hateful that they did not dare to defend him.

Jesus rose now to leave the terrace and
the temple for the last time. He had said the
whole truth, and his foes would never let him
speak in those courts again.

214 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST ^

His victory over tlieir shrewd meanness
had not made him happy, for it only showed
how wicked man could be. But one little
event occurred on the way out that so pleased
him as to make up for all the bitterness of
that day of battles.

He sat down for a moment opposite the
chests where voluntary offerings were
dropped by the people.

Pompous Pharisees sent their golden coins
rattling loudly down into the boxes, and rich
Herodians took the opportunity, when many
pilgrims were passing, to toss in bags of
money.

Just then a widow came by and quietly
dropped in two ' ' farthings ' ' ( about one-sixth
of a cent) .

Jesus said to Peter and John, as she walked
away,

' ' There ! this poor widow has put in more
than all the rest. For the others put in some-
thing of what they had to spare, but she has
put in all she had to live on. ' '

As the Twelve climbed the hill at sunset,
they turned and looked once more at their
temple, whose walls now shone like amethyst
in the evening light.

^^What fine stones! What splendid build-
ings ! ' ' they exclaimed with admiration.

Then he sat down beside them and told
them what was to come.

''That temple will be burned. That glori-

IN THE DEN OF THE WOLVES 215

ous capital city will be thrown down. Yon
yourselves will be driven, scattered, into
every land, and even there suffering and bit-
ter death will await yon. ' '

What a prospect of defeat !

But listen to the undaunted Nazarene.
Sacred buildings might be destroyed, but, as
he had told the Samaria woman, the true tem-
ple of God is man, and man, even without
sacred buildings, can worship God. And man
shall not perish.

^^By and by," he said, ^^I, the Son of man,
will come in glory and take my seat on my
throne, and all the nations will be gathered
before me, and I shall separate men like a
shepherd, when he divides his sheep from
goats."

^^Then," he told them, ^^the faithful will
be told that they shall now enter into posses-
sion of their eternal kingdom, because they
have fed and clothed and visited and com-
forted their King, on earth. But these will
answer in surprise, ^We do not know that we
have ever done any such things.'

^^Then the King will answer, ^Just so far
as you did so to men, my brothers, however
lowly, you did it to Me. ' ' '

It was dark when they went over the hill-
top. The stars were just peeping out. They
did not understand at all what their Lord
meant, but when, in the after years, the trials
all came true as he had said, they remem-

216 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST "^

bered, and, because he had laid down his life
for them, they believed in him and his prom-
ise, they fought the Good Fight, they finished
their course, they kept the Faith. And the
whole world bows to-day in homage before
those unconquerable heroes, the Apostles of
the King,

XXI
A FEAST FOR REMEMBRANCE

Wed]n^esday was a busy day for Judas.

Jesus did not go to Jerusalem at all. He
took much rest in sleep, he sat quietly on the
housetop or walked alone in the garden and
the fields, and when evening came he talked
cheerfully with his friends of Bethany and
with the Twelve.

He was gathering his strength for the last
battle.

But Judas had slipped away into the city
in the morning and hurried stealthily to the
temple. In a small chamber there the high
priest and his father-in-law and a few Phari-
sees and doctors were sitting in informal
council.

Hanan was saying for the fiftieth time, ' ' If
we can only get him suddenly, away from his
Twelve, we will destroy him. ' '

But Caiaphas said, ^^We had better not try
it at the festival, or there will be a riot among
the people. ' '

Hanan, however, urged that if it could be
accomplished then, his death would make all
the deeper impression.

218 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST ""

At this very moment a servant entered and
announced that a man was at the door who
desired to confer with them.

' ' Show him in, ' ' said Caiaphas after a mo-
ment's hesitation. ^'If he knows nothing of
this, remember, we are met on public busi-
ness. But it may be that he brings us in-
formation bearing on this very matter."

It was Judas.

As soon as the conspirators looked at him
they were amazed, because they recognized
him as one of the most prominent of the
Twelve.

Did he come with a message of conciliation
from his Master ?

Alas ! no. He was now fully set on revenge.
Jesus' defiance of the priests, the Pharisees
and the Herodians on yesterday had caused
him to see, what the rest of the .Twelve, who
were less acute, would not see, that Jesus
must die.

Judas was confident that he had been be-
trayed by a deceiver. He would make peace
with the slayers of Jesus and thus secure his
own safety. He would show this Galilean who
had defrauded him of a chance to make his
life of some consequence that it was of enough
consequence to be that Galilean's ruin.

The fever had so burned his soul that he
was as one possessed.

It took but a few sentences from him for

A FEAST FOR REMEMBRANCE 219

all present to see that the easy tool to their
opportunity was in their hands.

Jesns would soon return to the city. Judas
could find out his movements in advance, he
would inform them at once, they would arrest
him quietly, and before the people had a
chance to shout rescue for their persecuted
deliverer they could be persuaded that he was
only a condemned criminal, an enemy to the
nation.

When it came to settling the price of the
bargain, all in the room saw that they were
dealing with a madman.

^^The price of a slave! The price of a
slave ! " he kept crying in a querulous mono-
tone.

And, as if he were a child to be petted and
pleased, they weighed out to him at once the
few pitiful coins, only about twenty-three dol-
lars, which he hastily dropped into his bag,
and then hurried furtively away.

The next morning, Thursday, the Twelve
called early at Martha's door and asked
Jesus, who was seated in the garden with Eis
friends, if he had yet planned for the Pass-
over celebration.

He called Peter and John to one side.

^^You go into the city and make ready for
us all," he said.

^^ Where shall we go?" asked Peter, who
was surprised that Jesus should venture to

220 THE BOYS^ LIFE, OF CHRIST ^

expose himself in the capital again at the
very height of the feast.

Foreseeing what was to come, Jesus had
already planned to celebrate the festival a
day in advance, and had arranged a signal
with a friend named Mary, who lived there,
so that he might use her upper chamber with
no danger to herself from those who might
be seeking to arrest him.

' ' You go into the city, ' ' he said, and he in-
dicated the street, ' ' and there a man carrying
a water- jar will meet you. Follow him.
Wherever he goes in, you say to the owner
of the house^ ^The Teacher says: ^^My time
is coming. Where is the room for me to eat
the Passover with my friends?'' ' He will
himself show you a large upstairs-room all
ready, and that is where you are to make
preparations for us."

Judas, who had resumed his outward calm-
ness, insisted, as treasurer, on accompanying
them, and so the three went away into town.

Judas Iscariot bought the Passover lamb
and killed it, and after they had made the
proper offerings at the temple the three went
to the house, where the upper room was, to
roast it.

The young man carrying the water- jar as
a signal was easily found. He led them to
the outside stairway and showed them the
room. It had been conveniently fitted up with
a low table in the center and three long

A FEAST FOR REMEMBRANCE 221

couches arranged in horse-shoe shape around
it. Upon the table they arranged the lamb^
the bitter herbs, the unleavened cakes and
several cups of wine:

When night came they all, dressed in their
humble best, went quietly over the hill to-
gether. Jesus, who knew that he would not
return, lingered to say a word of loving fare-
well to each of the staunch friends of Bethany.
Bethany was home to Jesus. From his home
he went out to die. It was at Bethany, aftef'
the trials all were over, that he was last seen
by men.

The young man who had showed the ar-
ranged signal in the morning, Mary's son,
John Mark, met them at the corner and
watched at the foot of the outer stairway un-
til he was certain that the little company
above had not been followed.

Two of the Twelve, at the suggestion of
Peter, had provided themselves with swords,
so that, in case they were attacked at the
supper, they might defend themselves.

It was some sad premonition rather than
any reason that caused them to do this, for
the Passover, which was the Jewish New
Year, was supposed to be the time when all
malice and revenge were cleansed away from
men's hearts as was the old leaven of the old
year from their houses.

But that was not the case, even among the
Twelve.

222 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

All the way into town the conversation
among their different groups had been as to
the way in which the kingdom wonld be pro-
claimed. For^ while no one was so stupid as
not to see the grave danger into which Jesus
had came from having stirred up the enmity
of the rulers, it was now the very end of the
festival, which Jesus had plainly taught was
to be the great one of his life. They had
never listened when he had tried to tell them
that it was at this time he would die for men.
The glamour of Sunday's crowd was still in
their eyes, and they argued that he who had
fed the multitude and raised the dead could
at any time at a single word become master
of Jerusalem.

This discussion naturally led to excited talk,
and heart-burnings about the relative rank
which each would have in the new dynasty.

Simon Peter was favored by the majority
as vice-regent because of his ability, which
had been so generally acknowledged among
them that he had usually been their spokes-
man.

But James and John stood by each other as
brothers. ' ' We, ' ' said they, ' ' have been even
closer to Jesus. We ought to share the of-
fice between us. ' '

According to their law any company of
friends might buy a lamb between them for
this festival. In such a case they constituted
for that occasion one family. It was as a

A FEAST FOR REMEMBRANCE 223

family of brothers, then, with Jesiis as their
father, or head, that they had now come to-
gether. Twenty-one short, busy, happy years
had passed since as a boy in his own family
he had first eaten the Passover.

But when the Twelve entered the room they
were so excited with their dreams of a king-
dom that they forgot, and, as if this modest
chamber were a royal banquet room, they be-
gan at once to claim the seats of honor.

Jesus, of course, was offered the head of
the table, which was the central place on the
left wing, then John crowded in ahead of him,
and Judas Iscariot displaced James behind
him, while Simon Peter, who was of too big
a mind to engage in this petty fracas, quietly
went across and sat at the foot of the oppo-
site table.

The Paschal supper opens with the blessing
of a cup of wine, which is handed around to
all. Then the head of the family rises and
washes his hands.

After Jesus had washed, at the side of the
room, they were surprised to see him return,
in the garb of a slave. His cloak was re-
moved, a towel was bound around his waist
and he bore a basin of water in his hands.

Amidst perfect silence he came to John,
and, kneeling on the floor behind him, he
washed and wiped his feet. It was the cus-
tomary service rendered to guests at a din-
ner, but they could not afford a servant, and

224 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

they were too proud to do any such meal
act for each other.

This he did for Jolm, then for Judas, t -q
for James, and so for all the rest.

The Twelve grew more uneasy as the L '\
went patiently around, fetching and carry:' ^
water, and kneeling beside each one. TL,-
felt as if they were young children being ten-
ed by their father.

When he had nearly finished he came [q
Peter, who was bursting with indignation.

^^You? Master! Were you going to wasli
my feet ? ' ' he exclaimed.

^^You may not understand now what I am
doing," Jesus answered, ^^but you will learn
by and by. ' '

' ' Never ! ' ' cried Peter.

^^But unless I wash you," replied Jesus,
^^you have nothing in common with me."

^^Then, Master, not my feet only, but my
hands and my head, too!" exclaimed Peter
in earnest affection.

When he had put his cloak on and reclined
again at the table he spoke to them again.

^^ Don't you understand yet what I have
been doing? I have given you an example,
so that hereafter you may do as I have done
to you. The kings of the Greeks and the Eo-
mans are accustomed to lord it over them.
But it is not to be so with you. On the con-
trary, those who are greatest among you must

From the painting by Ford Madox Brown
CHRIST WASHING PETER'S FEET

A FEAST FOR REMEMBRANCE 225

become like the youngest, and the Chief is he
who serves.

^^You are the men who have stood by me
in my trials. Just as surely as the Father has
granted me a Kingdom, shall I assign you
places of power.

^^Yet this very night they will strike down
your Shepherd and all his Sheep will be scat-
tered.

^^ Simon! Simon! listen. The Tempter de-
manded leave to sift you like wheat. But I
prayed for you, Simon, that your faith should
never fail. And I look to you, when you have
returned to me, to strengthen your Brothers. ' '

Simon Peter sprang to his feet.

^^ Master!" he exclaimed. ^^If every one
else falls away from you, I never will. With
you I am ready to go to the dungeon, yes, and
to death, too.''

The rest, too, excitedly raised their hands
and swore an oath of unbroken allegiance.

^^And yet, Peter," said Jesus sadly, ^^the
cock will not crow to-morrow morning till you
have three times disowned me. ' '

Then, realizing that the fatal blow would
be struck that very night and anxious for
their own safety, he inquired anxiously if any
of them were armed. He was relieved to
learn that they were thus prepared.

It was but a few moments after Jesus had
made his astonishing prophecy of Peter's im-

226 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

pending weakness that lie made another sad
forecast.

As they were eating, each reaching across
the table in his turn, Jesus said,

'^Look! The hand of the man that is be-
traying me is here beside me on the table ! ' '

There was an incredulous cry. Every hand
was snatched away. What! His own table-
comrade? His guest? Each man looked at
his neighbor with terror and thought of his
own weaknesses with fear.

^ ^ It is not I, is it. Master ? ' ' they each asked
in grief.

^^It is one of you Twelve," said Jesus.

Then, even Judas, with affected anxiety,
said, over Jesus' shoulder,

''It is not I, is it. Master?"

And Jesus whispered back, to show that he
knew his treachery, ''It is— even as you have
said. ' '

Then Peter, eager to crush the traitor and
prevent his plot, beckoned earnestly to John
who faced him, leaning against Jesus ' breast,
to try to find out which one it was.

He leaned back on Jesus' shoulder and
whispered,

"Who is it. Master?"

Jesus in a low voice said, "It is the one to
whom I shall give this piece of bread after
dipping it. ' '

The action was not an unusual one. The

A FEAST FOR REMEMBRANCE 227

father of the family at this time would dip a
piece of bread with a bit of the lamb in the
bitter herbs and hand it to his oldest son.

Jesus gave the morsel to Judas, whisper-
ing,

^^ Whatever you are going to do, make haste
with it."

The frightened traitor slunk from the
room, before Simon Peter had grasped the
meaning of what Jesus had just been doing.
The rest thought that he had been asked by
Jesus to go on some errand of mercy.

Outside, the sky was completely overcast,
and it was through utter blackness that the
traitor, his life saved by Jesus, and he him-
self expelled gently but firmly from the
Twelve, rushed with rage through the city to
the temple.

There he met Hanan, who, on the ground
that he had gotten track of a dangerous revo-
lutionist, had secured from Pilate, the gov-
ernor, the promise of a cohort of soldiers.
To these Hanan added a company of the tem-
ple police.

Judas, who had learned that Jesus planned
to take the usual route back to Bethany, spent
the evening in disposing various squads of
men at convenient points along the southern
route from the city.

After Judas had gone out, and the Pass-
over meal was over, Jesus leaned across the

328 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST ""

table and took some of the unleavened flat
cakes and an nntouclied cnp of wine.

They all looked toward him with anticipa-
tion.

He blessed God, broke the bread in pieces,
and gave it to them, saying as he came to
each,

^^Take it and eat it. This is my body."

Then he took the wine cup and, continuing
in prayer, he carried it to each one.

^^This,'' he said, "is my Covenant-blood.'^

And when they had all eaten and drunk he
said simply,

' ' Continue to do this for a remembrance of
me."

It was the only time he ever expressed any
anxiety lest he should be forgotten. As we
have seen, he left no temple, book or organiza-
tion. But temples, libraries and kingdoms
since that time have perished and been for-
gotten, while that simple supper has survived
as his eternal memorial. For, ever since that
night, those who are of the family of Jesus
have kept the custom, as he wished, and this
household feast in honor of his life and death
is still called: The Lord's Supper.

Before they left the room he told them
again plainly about his death, using that term
of special tenderness which had become of
late his habit.

^^My children," he said, ^^I am going to be

A FEAST FOR REMEMBRANCE 229

with you only a little while longer. You will
look for me, but you can not come where I
am going. Love each other ! Love each other
just as I have loved you. It is by this that
any one will know that you belong to me— by
the love you bear each other. ' '

*^ Where are you going, Master?'' anxious-
ly cried Peter.

^^ Where you can not follow now. But later
you shall follow me. ' '

^^Why can not I follow you now, Master?
I will lay down my life for you. ' '

Then Jesus turned to the others and, as
he saw their utter grief, he spoke those words
that the whole world holds dear.

Have you ever been afraid to die? You
need not be ashamed to confess it. Others,
braver than you, have shuddered to think of
the last hour. These Twelve were now look-
ing over the brink of death. Jesus was to
go over and out of sight. They would be
alone. Then soon they, too, must go, and
never return.

How would Jesus reassure them?

^'Do not be broken-hearted. Trust in God.
Trust in me, too." Now hear the Teacher
speaking as a carpenter: ^^ There are many
resting places in my Father's House. I
should have told you, had it not been so. I
am going there to fit up a home for you. And
if I do go and prepare it, I shall come back

230 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST ^

again, and I will take yon with me, so that
yon may be where I am.

^^Now I am going to beqneath yon some-
thing. It is called— Eest of Heart. I give it
to yon. I do not give to yon as the world
gives. In the world yon will find tronble.
Bnt take conrage— I have wrestled with the
world, and I have conquered!

^^Come, let ns be going."

It was midnight when they left the npper
room.

Yonng Mark, who had been sleeping be-
low, awoke as he heard them on the stairs,
and, still anxions for the Master's safety, he
canght np the linen bed coverlet, threw it over
his tnnic as a shawl and followed after. Had
he not done so, the events of the next honr
wonld not be known to ns.

As they walked down into the Kedron val-
ley, Jesns, seeing that they were still over-
whelmed with grief, began one of the Pass-
over hymns, and the rest, with faltering notes,
at length joined in.

The woods were, as eJesns knew, fnll of sol-
diers. Jndas was Inrking near to ponnce
npon him. Was there ever a braver honr
than when, as the great Shepherd led his
sheep throngh the valley of the Shadow, he
flnng that song in the very face of death!

As they came to the last ominons words
of the anthem:

A FEAST FOR REMEMBRANCE 231

^^Bind the Sacrifice with ropes,
Even to the horns of the altar, ' '
Jesns turned aside into an olive orchard,^
which they had often visited, as their camp-
ing place for the night.

* See Note 33.

XXII

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE OLIVE
ORCHARD

Listen to John Mark's story.

^^The Twelve were quite exhausted with
the day's excitement, and hardly .had they
reached the orchard before most of them were
wrapped up, on the grass, asleep.

^^But Jesus had already asked John and
Peter and James to keep awake and stay near
him.

^' ^I am sad at heart,' I heard him say
tenderly, ' sad even to death. Keep near and
watch with me. '

^'The clouds were now gone, and the full
moon in all its glory shone down on the silver
leaves of the olives.

^^ Jesus withdrew still farther into the
shadow and threw himself on the ground in
prayer. Even the chosen three could not
withstand their drowsiness, and in a few mo-
ments they, too, had reclined against the trees,
and they fell asleep.

^^ Seeing the Master lying still so long a
time, I feared that he was in a faint and, steal-
ing by a side path, I crept close enough to him
to hear his voice.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE ORCHARD 233

^^He was in terrible pain of heart. All the
evening he had thoughtfully concealed his
own grief from any of us. But he loved these
men so much, tho they were so weak, and he
was distressed to leave them. Still it was
more than earthly partings that caused his
agony.

''It was not the fear to die.

^^Whalj he feared was not death on the
cross, but that he might die before he reached
the cross ; that he might fail just at the very
last in his witness for the Father to men.

" ^Father,' I heard him whisper, 4f it is
Thy pleasure, put this cup from me. ' But in-
stantly I overheard him add quietly, ^Only,
not my will be done— but Thine.'

^^Time and again he came back to where
the three were, in unbearable need for their
loving sympathy, and every time he found
them asleep for weariness and grief. He
looked upon them with pity— and said softly,
^How soundly you sleep! Oh, rise, and be
at prayer, that you enter not into temptation. '

^^As he knelt again, I saw the sweat drop
from his anguished face, and it was red with
blood.

^^But at length he won the victory. He
quietly repeated the prayer that begins, ' Our
Father which art in heaven,' and returned
with calm face through the moonlight. Never
from that hour through all the last dreadful
day was his composure shaken.

234 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST !^

' ' There was already the rustle of approach-
ing feet, which marked time as if they were
keeping step.

' ' ' Get up now, ' he said, hurriedly awaking
each one of the Twelve. 'We must be going.
Listen ! Look ! my betrayer is close at hand. '

^^ Judas had tracked Jesns to his favorite
resting place, had gathered the scattered
squads from the hill, and was marching upon
them with several hundred men, all armed,
and carrying torches and lanterns.

^^To cover the escape of his friends, Jesus
hastened out to the entrance of the garden.

^^Here he met Judas, who had eagerly
pressed ahead.

^^None of the soldiers knew Jesus, so the
traitor had given them a sign.

a ^The man that I kiss will be the one,' he
had said. 'Take him prisoner.'

"So he went up to Jesus at once and ex-
claimed, 'Eabbi! I am glad to see you,' and
kissed him again and again, as if with eager
affection.

" 'Friend!' said Jesus, amazed at the
meanness to which the traitor could go, 'is it
with a kiss that you would betray me ! '

"Peter was the only one who made any
defense. Indeed, they were overwhelmed by
numbers. Several of them hardly escaped.
I myself was easily found by means of the
white coverlet, and it was only by leaving it
in my pursuer 's hands that I got free.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE ORCHARD 235

^ ^ Seeing that by parleying with the soldiers
he might be able to rescue all the Twelve,
Jesus turned to the captain of the guard and
said, ^Wlio is it that you are looking for?'

^^ ^ Jesus of Nazareth/ he replied.

^^ ^I am he/ said Jesus.

^^The soldiers eagerly raised their torches
so that they threw a bright light upon the face
of Jesus.

^^ A look of awful power flashed from Jesus'
countenance.

^^The soldiers, who had expected to see a
frightened peasant, skulking among the trees,
gave one glance at this gigantic and splendid
figure and started backward.

^^If a king might be known by his appear-
ance, it was a king whom they were arresting.

^^ ^I am Jesus of Nazareth,' he said again.
^If you are looking for me, let these others
go.'

' ^ Satisfied that all of his fold were safe, the
Shepherd submitted.

^^And they loaded him with chains and
brought him back to the city."

XXIII
THE KING STANDS BEFORE KINGS

It was to Hanan's house that Jesus was led.
He, more than his weaker son-in-law, the real
high priest, had secured Jesus ' capture.

John, who, as we know, owned a house at
Jerusalem and who had some influence there,
secured entrance for himself and Peter, and
they heard the private examination of Jesus.

The serving-woman at the door noticed
Peter's country brogue and said,

^^Why, you are one of the man's followers y
aren't you?"

Peter looked around in alarm and, before
he thought, answered sharply,

''No, I am not."

Then, lest he should be questioned further,
he stepped out into the courtyard and joined
the soldiers who were warming themselves in
front of a bonfire.

While this private examination was going
on, messengers, sent hurriedly here and there,
gathered a dishevelled minority of the Sanhe-
drin, and by two o'clock at night Jesus had
been led, still shackled, across the courtyard

THE KING STANDS BEFORE KINGS 237

to Caiaphas ' official residence, and the illegal
Jewish trial had begun.

They had succeeded in their first plot : they
had Jesus captive before the people were
aware. The second plan was, to get him sen-
tenced to death before the people found it out.

But was this easy to do 1

Many witnesses had been held in readiness,
who were now put forward against him, tell-
ing a confused story about a threat that Jesus
had once made to destroy the temple, but their
testimony was so trivial and contradictory
that it was ridiculous. Nobody, it is true, not
even his comrade John, said anything in his
behalf, and the friendly councillor, Nicode-
mus, had not been notified of the meeting.

Finally, Caiaphas in despair tries his last
move. He knows what Jesus claims to be.
Probably he will deny it now that all other
evidence has fallen through, but if he should
confess it— ah! there is a chance.

The high priest stood up.

^^Have you no answer?" he said sternly.
^^What have you to say to the evidence that
these men are laying up against youl"

Jesus made no reply, as he had made none
before to the helpless statements of the hired
perjurers.

The high priest then continued: ^^Eaise
your right hand. Upon your oath now and
in the presence of the Living God, tell us the

338 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

truth: Are you the Christ, the Son of the
Blessed r'

Jesus might have denied, on the ground
that these unbelievers had no business to hear
the truth. He might have continued silent.
Either course would have saved his life.

But he would not deny his mission, even to
his murderers.

^^I am!" he cried with hand upraised to
heaven. ^^And ere long you will see the Son
of man seated on the right hand of the Al-
mighty. ' '

^^What profanity! "What need we any
more testimony!" cried the high priest in
glee, and he tore his cloak in two, as if to
show how horrified he felt at this monstrous
statement.

^^You heard his wicked words?" he shout-
ed. ^^What is your verdict?"

^^He deserves to die," they all yelled.

The Sanhedrin had long ago been deprived
by the Eomans of any power over men's lives,
but in their cruel rage and triumph these ven-
erable councillors rushed at him as if they
would themselves execute the sentence of
death forthwith.

Must I tell you what the leaders of his
nation did that black night?

As he stood helpless with manacled hands,
they spat in his face, they drew a cloak over
his head, and then struck him in the face,
yelling, ^^Ah! Now play the prophet. Tell

THE KING STANDS BEFORE KINGS 239

US who struck you then. ' ' And they even en-
couraged the brutal soldiers to beat him with
their fists and staves.

Finally, tired out with their abuse, they
went home to their breakfast.

As they were leading Jesus out across the
courtyard again to the dungeon, Peter, who
had waited in the firelight all this time in
dumb and frightened anxiety, was at that very
moment engaged in a dispute with the sol- .
diers. Another lassie had come up to Peter,
as he started for the door, and said to him,

i 6 There is no use denying it. You are one
of that fellow's followers. This man here,"
she said to the others, ^^was with the Naza-
rene— with Jesus.''

^^ Woman," he said shamefacedly, ^^I don't
even know him. ' '

But another, a man-servant, affirmed posi-
tively,

'^Why, he was undoubtedly with him. His
very Galilean tongue tells on him. Are you
not a Galilee man?"

Then one of the soldiers who had gone out
to Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, came up close
to Peter and lifted his chin and gazed into his
face.

'^Didn't I myself see you with him in the
orchard ? ' '

Then Peter in utter terror began to swear
and to curse as in his old fisher days, and to
shout,

240 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

^^I never knew this man you are talking
about. ' '

It was just at this moment that Jesus,
bound and bruised, was led across the open
corridor connecting the two palaces. As he
passed, he looked Simon Peter in the eye. At
the same instant, on a nearby roost, a cock
crew.

Peter was crushed as by a blow. The cock
crowing— that look— the triple disowning!

It had all come out as Jesus had said.

The disgraced man rushed out into the
morning light to hide his shame and bemoan
his failure.

Judas Iscariot had been present through
both hearings. ' ' Now, ' ' he had thought, ' ' the
priests will soon show up this pretender ! ' '

But he listened with amazement. Even his
disordered brain could discern that the cap-
tive was perfectly innocent. When he saw
Jesus rise in the old grandeur and once more
proclaim his kingdom, amazement changed to
bewilderment. Was he right ? Were the lead-
ers not only mistaken but malicious! Was
the Messiah about to be murdered by his own
[people? Was he that Chosen One's mur-
derer ? Then, when they began their tortures
and he saw the man who had stood by him
so many times when others had deserted him,
and even when he was unworthy of himself,
suffering such agony, he could endure no
longer. He rushed shrieking from the palace.

THE KING STANDS BEFORE KINGS 241

Before seven o'clock in the morning the
Sanhedrin was called together in regular ses-
sion in the temple. While they were waiting
for Jesus, Judas again appeared before them,
standing in the semicircle, about which they
were sitting.

The madness had left him, but remorse had
taken its place. Perhaps he hoped his con-
fession would save Jesus.

With cold, white face he said, as he laid his
purse containing the petty amount of the
blood-money upon the desk before Caiaphas,
^'I have done wrong in betraying this good
man to death. ' '

^^What is that to us?" asked Caiaphas with
a sneer. ^^You must look out for that your-
self."

Judas flung the bag upon the temple floor
and fled away.

What he had done could not be hindered.
He could not longer endure the horror of his
own self. He could not live after his victim
was murdered. That very morning, while the
soldiers were nailing Jesus to his cross, he
went out to a lonely field on the side of a hill
south of the city, which he had intended to
purchase with the blood-money, and hung
himself. And before nightfall his hideous,
broken body was found fallen from the parted
rope at the bottom of a cliff by the roadside.

Like Hanan, the high priest offered the
Sanhedrin no evidence, he allowed no defense.

342 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST^'

He simply secured from Jesus another oath
that he claimed to be the Christ and said,
' ' Why do we want any more witnesses ? ' '

Then, without any vote of condemnation, he
hurried the captive over to the palace of the
Eoman governor.

They were by no means yet sure of their
purpose. It was all very well to browbeat the
fearful and hoodwink the ignorant in their
own body, but Pilate would demand legal evi-
dence. What did this officer of Kome care
about blasphemy? All foreign gods were
alike to him.

What charge could they make?

Pilate was not pleased to see them, for they
were old trouble-makers.

According to their strict rules of ceremonial
purity they could not enter a foreigner's
house that sacred day, altho they could de-
file their own homes and hearts with malice
and murder.

Pilate came grumbling out upon his porch
to meet them.

^^ What is the charge against this man?"
he said gruffly.

They were still perplexed as to what to say.

^^If he had not been a criminal, we should
not have handed him over to you, ' ' answered
Caiaphas.

^^Well,'^ said Pilate, starting to go back
into his house, ^Hake him yourselves then,
and try him by your own law. ' '

THE KING STANDS BEFORE KINGS 243

* ^^But we have no power to put any one to
death/' they confessed in impotent rage.

^^Oh, that is what yon want, is it?" said
Pilate, as he entered his door. Then turning
back he said to the soldiers guarding Jesus,

' ' Bring him in here. ' '

Away from that noisy crowd he would soon
find if there was anything at the bottom of
-this.

He seated himself and bade Jesus stand be-
fore him.

The evidence was repeated to him. He lis-
tened without interest to the confused and
pointless testimony, until finally one sentence
caught his attention.

^^ What's that?" he said. ^^King? What
do you mean?"

He turned and faced Jesus and looked him
over.

^^Are you the king of the Jews?" he asked
with a sneer.

Eemember, Pilate had never heard of
Jesus. That shows how much stir he had
made in the world. It shows also how little
interference he had ever met from the Eo-
man authorities.

He looked at him impartially. He saw sim-
ply a Galilean peasant ; not a wild revolution-
ist nor a hardened criminal. The man seemed
perfectly harmless.

■^Did you suggest that," answered Jesus

344 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

quietly, ^^or have other people said that to
yon about me ? ' '

^^Do you take me for a JewT' Pilate an-
swered crossly. ^^It is your countrymen and
your own priests that have handed you over
to me. What have you been doing, now?"

^^My kingdom," said Jesus firmly, "is not
one of this world's kingdoms. If it had been,
of course my servants would have been fight-
ing to prevent my being handed over to the
Jews, but, as it is, my kingdom is nothing of
that kind."

^'So you are a king after all!" exclaimed
Pilate.

'^Yes. I am King, as you say," answered
Jesus. ^'I was born for this, I have come
into the world for this one thing— to bear
witness to the Truth. Everyone who is on
the side of Truth hears my voice."

' ' Truth ! ' ' asked Pilate scornfully. ' ' What
is that?"

He made up his mind that Jesus was a
dreamer.

He came out to the waiting Jewish rulers
and said, ^^Why, I don't find a charge by
which this man can be held. I shall— "

With a shout they interrupted him. They
had thought up an entirely fresh accusation.

^^He is stirring up sedition by his teaching
all through Judea, starting from up in Gali-
lee and coming all the way down here. ' '

^^ Galilee?" asked Pilate. ^^Then I will

THE KING STANDS BEFORE KINGS 345

send him to King Herod. He belongs in his
jurisdiction. ' '

Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee and Perea,
the murderer of John the prophet, happened
to be in the city at the time of this festival,
and altho Pilate had not been on good terms
with him, he thought he saw a chance here to
win over an enemy.

Herod was delighted to meet Jesus, for he
had heard much about him from John the
Baptizer. He had forgotten his own super-
stitious fears, and it occurred to him that he
might get this strange Galilean to do some of
his magic for his entertainment.

But to the slayer of his heroic friend, Jesus
would not condescend a word.

Finally the silly king lost his temper and
determined to have some sport in one way if
not in another. So he sent for some old
clothes, and, dressing him up in a ridiculous
dress of bright colors, he made a spectacle
of him for his courtiers, and then sent him
back in this way through the city streets.

If Pilate had done the just thing at first
and released Jesus when he first saw that he
was innocent, he would have saved himself
much trouble. But within an hour Jesus was
led back to him again and he had his decision
to make all over.

The more Pilate talked with Jesus the more
he was impressed by his innocence and the
more he liked him. Jesus would not defend

246 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

himself, for he knew it was only a waste of
words. When he declined to alter or repeat
his straightforward answers, and Pilate, los-
ing his temper in his anxiety to find some
way to release him, said, ^^AVhy do yon refnse
to answer mef You don't seem to realize that
I have power to release yon and also to crn-
eif y yon, ' ' Jesns answered, pityingly and for-
givingly, ^^Yes, bnt it is the one who handed
me over to yon who has the greater sin to
answer for. ' '

Altho Pilate hated these treacherons Jewish
rulers, he had always gotten along with them
as peaceably as possible. At once another
compromise suggested itself to him.

^^This man you have brought before me
charged with misleading the people. But I
have examined him and found him innocent
of every one of these things of which you
accuse him. Nor has Herod succeeded other-
wise. As a matter of fact, he has done noth-
ing worthy of death. I shall have him flogged
and then release him. ' '

It was an outrageous decision. Flogging,
which was done in those days by leathern
thongs with iron ends, was so severe a punish-
ment that culprits often died beneath the
blows.

But Pilate hoped to win pity from them
because of his sufferings and thereby save his
life. How much simpler it had been to do the
fair thing and release Jesus at once and drive

THE KING STANDS BEFORE KINGS 247

this wolf pack from his courtyard with his
troops !

In another half hour Jesus was led again
before them. His back had been striped with
deep gashes, the blood was running from his
body in streams, and the whole cohort of six
hundred imbruted Romans had made sicken-
ing sport of him with all the fiendish cruelty
they possessed.

Again Jesus and Pilate stood face to face
on the raised portico.

Even Pilate was overwhelmed with con-
trition. The soldiers had thrown an old red
war cloak over his bleeding shoulders, they
had crushed a crown of sharp briars over his
forehead and they had stuck a reed in his
hand, to make him appear like a mock king.
He was pale, trembling, fainting. But in si-
lent courage and dignity he never seemed the
true king of men that he was more than now.

As Pilate turned to look at him, the morn-
ing sun broke through a cloud upon the
Savior ^s form. It lighted his hair and the
country chaplet to a coronal of glory, starred
with the rubies of his blood. It lit his eagle
face and deep eyes with a touch of tender
beauty. It fell upon the bound hands that had
been so often put forth in mercy. It stole to
the worn and patient feet, now entering upon
their last journey.

And Pilate, as he looked, started back in
superstitious terror, remembering the strange

248 THE BOYS' LIFE .OF CHRIST

dream that his wife had just told him, that a
son of the gods was about to be killed upon
the cross.

Pilate pointed to him in silence.

Then he said in brief eloquence :

^^ Behold! The Man!''

The real greatness of Jesus was manifest.
Not eloquence, not deeds of power, not cour-
age—great as they are and greatly as Jesus
possessed them. The greatness of Jesus was
love. No man ever loved like this man.

But the priests and rulers, who had been
planning what to do next, burst forth with
one hoarse, prolonged shout,

' ' Kill him ! Kill him ! Kill him ! ' '

Stirred by the omen of the dream, thor-
oughly alarmed by the shoutings which
seemed to portend a popular uprising, Pilate
did only one thing more, weaker and more
foolish than any other.

It was the custom then, as it is still in some
countries, to give a free pardon to some nota-
ble criminal on every high festival day.

Pilate thought of one Jesus Bar-Abbas, a
desperate murderer, who was really and
plainly guilty of the very crime of which
Jesus was charged.

Did these rulers want to show their patri-
otism? Here was the chance.

^^I will set free Jesus, this so-called king
of yours, and I will execute Jesus Bar- Abbas,
the traitor," he suggested.

THE KING STANDS BEFORE KINGS 249

The rulers, who had by this time gathered
a rabble from the dregs of the city, instantly
led them in yelling :

^^No! Away with this fellow! Kill him!
Release Bar- Abbas nnto us."

It is a strange thing that the word ^^ Bar-
Abbas" means '^son of the Father." They
chose Jesus, the false ^^son of the Father," a
rioter and murderer, instead of Jesus the
true Son of God.

And as he still hesitated, a deeper cry burst
upon his ears, bearing the menace that al-
ways caused him more terror than any other :

^^If you let this fellow go, you are no friend
of the emperor. Anybody who makes him-
self out to be a king is setting himself against
the emperor."

^^But what shall I do with this king of
yours ? ' '

They forgot even their untold hatred of
Rome in their keener hatred of Jesus.

^'We have no king but Caesar," they cried.
**Let this man be crucified."

Pilate could ill afford to have any com-
plaint carried to Caesar. Innocent as he
might seem if he did justly in this matter,
there were other deeds— pillage, injustice,
even murder— of which he could not afford
to let the emperor have knowledge.

Pilate was beaten.

But he must cover up his defeat somehow.

He did so in a weak and pitiful manner.

250 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

He sent for a basin of water, and, in memory
of an old custom by which a jndge thus dram-
atically washed off responsibility from him-
self, he washed his hands before them all, say-
ing,

^^I am not answerable for the bloodshed of
this innocent. You look to it j^ourselves. ' '

And the leaders of Israel shouted in care-
less exultation, '^His blood be on our heads,
and on our children's."

XXIV
THE KING DIES FOR HIS PEOPLE

North of the city, outside the gate, close
to the road along which Jesus had walked so
many times when coming in from Galilee,
was the Hill of Execution,^ or, as it was
called from its gruesome shape, Golgotha, a
name that means ' ' Skull. ' '

Thither they dragged Jesus.

It was now about nine in the morning.

First marched a Roman captain at the head
of a squad of soldiers, carrying aloft on a
pole the name and supposed crime of the vic-
tim. Pilate in his helpless rage had insisted
on printing thereon this bitter insult to the
Sanhedrin :

THIS IS
JESUS OF NAZARETH,

The King of the Jews.

Jesus and two thieves, who were also to be
crucified that day, followed, bending beneath
the cross-bars upon which they were to hang.
A mixed crowd of rulers and rabble and curi-
ous spectators surrounded them. A few of

See Note 34.

252 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

Jesus' own friends, including his mother, the
other Marys, Salome, the mother of James
and John, and John himself, brought up the
rear.

Jerusalem was now thoroughly awake.

One thing I must remind you just here.

It was not the Jewish people who murdered
Jesus. It was only a small group of their
rulers. The people simply neglected, wa-
vered, were hesitant. They did nothing, while
his foes were active. Neglect, not rejection,
let Jesus die. The people were already mur-
muring at this atrocious deed of violence
against their beloved teacher. But the men
said, ^^ What's the use? It is all over. It is
too late. Already he has been condemned by
our rulers, and can we rescue him from a regi-
ment of soldiers?" But the women felt no
such resignation, and from house-door and
shop-window and the sides of the narrow
streets they and their children looked upon
him with streaming eyes of pity and bewailed
him with loud laments.

He was going to the most shameful form
of death and to the most agonizing. But he
forgot his own anguish entirely. He despised
the shame. At every step he turned from side
to side, speaking tender and thoughtful words
to these women, entreating them all to pray
as never before for their doomed nation and
for the welfare of their own little children.

The death of Socrates has always aroused

THE KING DIES FOR HIS PEOPLE 253

the sincerest admiration. Men have cher-
ished the memory of the calmness of that ven-
erable man, in drinking the fatal hemlock,
after his condemnation by the highest law
court of his nation, and dying with fearless
dignity among his friends. But what shall
we say of Jesus, so young, so strong, so beau-
tiful, condemned without a show of justice,
exhausted by loss of blood and sleep and
food, nailed with spikes through hands and
feet to a tree, exposed to heat and thirst and
to the gaze of men, and deserted even by his
friends, retaining to the last moment the very
majesty of God?

It is a precious memory to those who love
him that he was the same Jesus to the very
end.

When he fainted by the city gate, and they
forced a foreign Jew hurrying as a belated
pilgrim to the festival to turn back and carry
the shameful cross in his place, he walked
beside the disappointed and embittered man
and spoke to him with thanks and sympathy.

When they jolted his trembling body as the
cross was dropped into the hole in the earth,
he prayed God to forgive those who were
murdering him, because, after all, they were
ignorant of what they were doing.

He refused to stupefy himself with the
drink which merciful women of the city pro-
vided for such cases, for he thought it was
cowardly to die unconscious.

254 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

And while he was dying, the heartless Eo-
man soldiers were carelessly casting lots in
their helmets for his clothing, the only world-
ly goods he possessed. Even the seamless
robe, which Mary, his mother, had woven for
him in Capernaum, went to warm some bar-
barian sentinel as he guarded Israel 's capital.

That mother, pierced to the heart with woe,
clung to the foot of his cross, sharing, as
mothers will, without a thought of herself, the
shame of that dreadful day.

John was the only one of the Twelve who
braved death to be present. Jesus the night
before had saved all their lives in the olive
orchard, but to-day they had forsaken him.
This one faithful comrade he drew nearer by
calling his name, and then he spoke also to
his mother. The words were few and feeble,
but, oh, so thoughtful.

^^John. See! your mother.

^^ Mother, he will be your son."

And as long as she lived, John took care of
her for Jesus.

He repeated snatches of those holy psalms
which he had learned as a schoolboy and had
loved all his life.

His divine demeanor so moved one of the
thieves who hung by him, and who had even
joined with the mob in yelling insults and
curses at him, that, afraid to die, he begged
Jesus to forgive him when he took possession
of his kingdom. Jesus assured him that on

THE KING DIES FOR HIS PEOPLE 255

that very day he should awake with him in
glory.

A weird shadow had been slowly settling
over the earth all day. Soon after mid-
day it grew dark as night.

Gradnally the howls and curses of his ene-
mies died away in terror, and only the sobs
of the women, his friends, who knelt close by,
could be heard. Even the Eoman soldiers
had ceased their dice-playing and drinking
and were dumb with superstitious awe. The
very earth seemed tottering in revolt against
the slaughter of its king.

Those were six hours of mortal agony, but
not a word of weakness came from his lips.

Crucifixion does not itself kill. It simply
exposes the helpless sufferer to heat, thirst,
fever and the wild birds of prey. These did
not kill Jesus. He died of a broken heart.

But his last word to men was a cry of vic-
tory. ^ ^ It is finished ! ' '

Then, like a child who comes at night to
his father's arms, he said softly, ^^ Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit. ' '

And he fell asleep.

The Eoman commander, remembering leg-
ends of the passing of some of the ancient
divine heroes, spoke the mind of the watch-
ing world, when he exclaimed, as Jesus
breathed his last :

^^ Surely this man must have been a Son
of God!"

256 THE BOYS^ LIFE OF CHRIST

The Jewish rulers who had killed Jesus
were equally agitated.

Their victim's death had seemed like a
coronation.

They returned to their council chamber in
the temple, and in the brightening light of
evening they saw a sight that caused them to
tingle with terror.

The heavy temple doors were rolled open,
the silken curtains of sunset colors that had
always hidden their Holy Shrine had been
torn apart by the earthquake, and even the
foreign visitors, the heathen, were peering
curiously within.

*^What did that Galilean say one day on
this very spot? ^I am the Doorway. No one
comes to the Father except through Me, ' and
again, ^I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men
unto me.' "

One of Jesus' secret friends, named Jo-
seph, a member of the Sanhedrin, owned the
garden at the foot of the Hill of Execution.
He and Nicodemus asked Pilate for the priv-
ilege of burying the body of Jesus there in
his new family tomb. Wliile the soldiers were
taking the body down from the cross they dis-
covered that the cause of Jesus' death was a
rupture of the heart.

But the rulers were so afraid, even of his
senseless corpse and of his suddenly remem-
bered word about ^^ raising in three days the
temple of God," that they even ventured to

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THE KING DIES FOR HIS PEOPLE 257

Pilate again and besought him for a guard
of soldiers to prevent after all some unknown,
but impending undoing.

So the friends of Jesus buried him. And
as they bore him to the garden tomb they
marveled that so slight a body had sustained
so unwearied a life. They laid it in cool
spices and fair, white linen, cleansing its
sacred, wounds and washing away its stains,
grieving in blind, tearful unfaith, yet com-
forted at even this ministration to the dear
remains. After the Sabbath was over they
proposed to come and embalm the body.
When they had finished, the guard rolled
against the entrance a huge round door of
stone, which they sealed with the royal signet.
And all night long the sentinels paced to and
fro before the king's sepulcher.

That night was starlit and silent. John sat
in his dark home soothing the gray-haired
mother of Jesus. Simon Peter knelt in the
agony of penitence in Gethsemane in the very
spot where Jesus had prayed. The rest were
scattered fugitives.

And wearily the hopeless Sabbath drew on.

XXV

THE MORNING OF HIS KINGDOM

Can you begin to feel the grief of the
friends of Jesns?

The Prince of life, that Heart of hearts,
was dead. Hatred and shame had done their
will with that shining spirit.

It seemed the end of everything.

Bnt was there not a hope— jnst a glimpse
of light in the tempest?

Could the King be defeated? Could his
words of life live on and the Giver of life be
dead?

What had He himself said? ^^I have wres-
tled—a^(i I have conquered!^^

How eagerly we read those fragments in
the Eesurrection Story and wish they were
more than fragments.

The deserted tomb,^ left by the Lodger-
for-a-night— the One like a gardener, walk-
ing with blossoms in his hand— the Guest at
supper, made known by his uplifted hand—

One tale is more complete.

* See Note 35.

THE MORNING OF HIS KINGDOM 259

Some of the fishermen had gone back to
the lake.

They went out one night toward the farther
side to fish for the large lakefish.

Everything hereabouts reminded them of
their Lord.

Across the lake were their homes and his
at Capernaum. Above and beyond they could
dimly see m the moonlight the mountain
where he had called them and taught them
the Blessings This very coast that lay close
by through the fog was the one on which he
had fed the multitudes. Farther south he
had healed the Gadarene giant and preached
m the Decapolis. The whole lake had been
made sacred by his words and deeds when he
had sailed with them upon its waters.

Toward morning they heard a cheery voice
on shore shouting through the mist, '^Lads
have you any fish?"

^''No," they replied, wondering.

"Cast your net over on the other side of
the boat, and you will find some."

And, sure enough, they did.

Where had this sort of thing happened be-
fore ?

Who was it that knew the lakefish better
than any of them?

John, of course, remembered.

''It is the Master!" he exclaimed.

In a flash Peter cried, "Here, John, hold
this net. I'm going ashore."

260 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

He leapt out of the boat and swam the hun-
dred yards to the strand.^

When the rest came in, pulling the laden
net, as soon as they were close enough to get
a glimpse through the fog, they could see him,
sitting with Peter, beside a fire. Jesus was
roasting some of the fish, like herrings, which
he had caught off the shore with hook and
line for their breakfast. ^^ Bring some of the
large fish up,'' said Jesus to Peter.

So he ran down, and they laid these also
on the coals.

They all sat in strange silence as they ate
breakfast. The sun, athwart the mountain-
tops, was just smiting through the mists.

There was Jesus putting the fish on pieces
of bread and handing it about just as he had
done so many times before when they had
camped together, in those years beside the
lake. And yet he was not the same. Between
that supper in the upper room and this break-
fast at the lakeside, between the agony and
the triumph— something had intervened.

When they arose to go, Peter, according
to his old-time custom, strolled along the
beach beside Jesus. John was close behind.

Peter dreaded, 3^et he longed, to be alone
with Jesus.

Jesus was the one to break the silence.

^^ Simon," he said, ^^are you more devoted
to me than these others areT'

* See Note 36.

THE MORNING OF HIS KINGDOM 261

Peter was not so ready to boast of his loy-
alty as he had been the night of the betrayal,
but neither was he willing to deny it.

^^I am, Master," he answered heartily.
' ' You know I love you. ' '

^^But, Simon, are you really devoted to
me?"

Simon replied again as before.

Once more Jesus looked Simon keenly in
the face. Three times Simon had disowned
him. By a three-fold confession he must
atone.

^^ Simon, do you honestly love me?"

Peter was pained and grieved.

^^ Master," he cried, ^^you know all. You
can see that I love you. ' '

' ' Then, ' ' said Jesus, pointing to the others,
^^Tend my sheep."

Do you remember how Jesus had told Si-
mon that he was to be Chancellor of his king-
dom? Had he forgotten? Was he mistaken?

No, you begin to see. Jesus had said, ^^The
Chief is he who serves." Simon was to be
the first great Servant and Comforter of the
Brotherhood of Followers.

But Jesus had still more to tell him.

^^When you were a boy, Peter, you could
run wherever you would. But by and by men
will take you up and carry you where you
would not go. ' '

This puzzle meant that some day he should

262 THE BOYS' LIFE OF CHRIST

be carried to a violent death. The story is
that later he^ too, died upon a cross.

' ' Still will yon follow me ? " asked Jesns.

^^With my whole heart I will,'' he an-
swered, nndannted.

Then, turning to John, who was coming
np nearer, Peter pnt his arm affectionately
npon his old friend's shonlder, and, remem-
bering how dear he, too, was to Jesns, he
said,

^^And, Master, this man: what about him?"

Bnt Jesns would not tell him.

' ' Never mind about him, ' ' said Jesus gent-
ly. '^It is enough for you to follow me."

It is in the account of Jesus' life which
came to us from this same John that we have
this lakeside story.

There he leaves Jesus^ walking on, with
Peter and himself, ^^ alive f orevermore. "

And thus we love to think of him still, walk-
ing with those that love him, according to
that last word, which Matthew tells us he
said, ^^I shall be with you always."

For if we have Jesus, we have not only
Hero and Friend, but ^^God with us," the
King of Glory.

The Twelve waited in the supper-room un-
til, touched with the flame of his Spirit, they
went forth to disciple the world. ^ ' They did
not wish him back, because they knew that he
had never gone away. ' '

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THE MORNING OF HIS KINGDOM 263

Those saintly men and pure-hearted women
of the Christ Day passed away. Others in
unbroken rank have succeeded them— mar-
tyrs, heroes and confessors.

The kingdom has gone on without ceasing.
Wherever Love is there it reigns.

And at the heart of this Kingdom still
dwells our King. Saints who have had vi-
sions have seen Jesus in glory. He was not
at rest or forgetful. He was standing— by
his throne— in expectant eagerness, watching
and awaiting his soldiers doing his will.

Thus his kingdom sees Him forever— the
expectant Christ.

For, what he expects of all, he expects of
each. To each one of us who walks beside the
sea of life Jesus still comes, and his message
is the same as to Simon Peter of old— no less,
no more :

^^ FOLLOW ME/^

NOTES

THE HOLY LAXI>

WHERE JESrS LIVED.

NOTES

Nofe I. Following the Footsteps of Jesus

In order to make the life of Christ perfectly real, it
seems necessary to know more about the places in which
He lived. In the main part of this book we have made a
chronological study of the life of Christ. The purpose of
these notes is to make a geographical study. Beginning
with note 1, the reader is supposed to enter the Holy Land
at Joppa, which is the most frequent landing-place of
pilgrims to-day, and to take the consecutive journey to the
different sites connected with the life of Jesus, traveling
in the same order as the events of that life. These de-
scriptions are outlines of those places as they appear to-
day. The best means, outside of a \dsit, for making these
places real to us has been prepared by Underwood &
Underwood, who have made stereographs of the places
described in notes. These thirty-six photographs are num-
bered to correspond with the numbering of our notes. It
will be helpful to the reader if, before reading each note,
he turns also to the map of the Holy Land and fin^s the
exact location of the place which is described.

The traveler to the Holy Land, c^s you will see by the
map, approaches it from the west, coming directly to the
long, straight coast line which reaches unbroken from
Tyre on the north to Gaza on the south. Altho he can
see only the harbor of Joppa, the whole land is before
him, from Galilee and the Lake of Galilee on the north
to Judea and the Dead Sea, seventy-five to one hundred
miles to the south, with the Mediterranean Sea washing
the shore line on the west. As the traveler looks eastward
to Joppa from his steamer, across the reefs which choke
the harbor, Egypt is three hundred miles behind him to

268 NOTES

his right, and Asia Minor five hundred miles behind him to
his left. Joppa, or Jaffa, anciently the only seaport of
Jerusalem and Palestine, is a compact city of Moham-
medans and Christians, which is built on a whaleback
rise of rocky ground, the only eminence on the southern
coast. The walls of its flat-roofed houses are of blue,
pink, white and yellow, and sparkle in the brilliant sun-
light. The tower of a monastery, the minaret of a mosque
and an occasional palm tree break the sky-line. In this
mooring, through which the passenger is taken in a small
boat, once lay logs of cedar for Solomon's Temple, cut
at the far north on Mount Lebanon and floated down the
coast. In this town lived Dorcas, and here Peter saw the
vision that opened his heart to the world.

The traveler to-day, impatient to set foot on the Holy
Land, must clamber down the side of his steamer and
intrust himself to the fierce-looking boatmen who will row
him through the breakers to the rocky landing place.

After we have landed here, we shall wish to go at once
to Bethlehem, the place of our Savior's birth. We go
along the roadway to the left, through dirty, narrow
streets, past the huddled houses, amongst a mixed throng
of Europeans, Egyptians, Northern Syrians, Palestine
peasants, Bedawin of the desert, dogs and beasts of bur-
den, until we reach the railroad station or the roadway of
our departure. Straight before us stretches the plain of
Sharon toward Jerusalem. The people who come to
Bethlehem usually lodge at Jerusalem. It is up hill all
the way, rising twenty-five hundred feet in forty miles
by a funny old-fashioned road. One can go in this way
in five hours, or if he travels by camel spend two days
on the way.

Note 2. The Main Street of Bethlehem To-day

On the map of Palestine find Bethlehem, a short dis-
tance southwest of Jerusalem. The little town is built on
the eastern slope of a watershed, a part of Judea's table-
land. It is twenty-seven hundred feet above the sea level.

KOTES 369

and the air is clear and dry. It stretches along the hill-
sides, and from its highest part we can see to the east as
far as the Dead Sea, to the north the hills that hide Jeru-
salem. We approach it from the northwest, and let us
suppose that just at the entrance to the market-place we
pause and look back along the main street. It is only a
long and narrow lane, which appears unusually clean for
an Oriental street, but its only drainage is on the surface
down to the gutters at the side. The soft limestone houses
are not ancient, and they differ from that in which Joseph
found shelter for Mary and her son in that they have two
stories and outside balconies which were unknown then,
but the flat roofs with growing plants and the small out-
side windows remind us of the houses of the olden time.
Some of them have outside stairw^ays, which were a com-
mon method in olden time of approaching the roofs. This
lane is <3rowded with people ; most of them are Christians.
They wear the turban rather than the fez, and the women
of Bethlehem to-day, as probably in the time of Christ,
have a special local costume, with a stiff head-dress and
peculiar cloak. The children have bright faces and are
attractive, though they go barefooted and dress in rags.
You can never look down a Palestine street without see-
ing at least one of the half -wild street dogs. It was along
such a lane as this that Joseph and Mary came at the end
of their long journey from Nazareth, and when they went
to Jerusalem and returned, at the time when they pre-
sented Jesus in the Temple. Hither came the magi from
Herod, and Herod^s soldiers on their bloody errand.

Note 3. In Bethlehem To-day

As soon as we leave the main street of Bethlehem and
turn southward, we find ourselves in the village square.
It is at the east end of the town overlooking the valley,
with its olive orchards, meadows and sheep-folds. From
the outer windows of the buildings that surround the
square, one can look down upon the field of the shepherds.

270 NOTES

whence they came to visit the Babe who was to be their
Savior.

The square to-day is filled, as it was on that day when
Joseph came to be enrolled in the census, with camels and
donkeys, the beasts of burden of the rich and the poor,
such as those of the magi and of Joseph. The latter are
loaded with firewood; the former having come a longer
distance, are unladen as they rest. Thi buildings that
surround the square to-day are of a better class than those
usually seen in Palestine, for their owners are Christians,
probably- prosperous dealers in curios. Across the square
is a ruined mosque, but the Mohammedans have not wor-
shiped in Bethlehem for over seventy years. Just be-
hind us is the entrance of the Church of the Nativity, the
oldest Greek church in the world. Even to-day, among
the tawdry trappings of the gold and silver lamps, the
marbles and ivories, the brilliant flames and soft incense,
one can see that the grotto of the nativity underneath the
church is only an irregular cave in the rock. Here was
the Inn of Bethlehem, a bare, open place like this, with a
lean-to, already full of guests. In one of the mangers for
cattle below the Babe was laid, amidst the slime and reek.
Little did it look like the birthplace of a King.

Ere we go away from Bethlehem we shall not forget
that once, perhaps across this very market place, ran the
shepherd boy David as he came in from his father's
pastures, and that Ruth may have walked here many
times at morning and even when going to or returning
from the barley fields of Boaz.

Note 4. The View from the Hilltop at Nazareth

From Bethlehem the holy family went down to Egypt
and returned to Nazareth — which, as the map shows, is
about ninety miles due north of Bethlehem — along the
coast, past Joppa, so as to avoid the new Herod. We
may imagine ourselves transported along the direct route
over the tablelands of Judea and Samaria. Palestine,
like all Gaul, was divided into three parts. Judea and

NOTES 271

Samaria were two. The third and northern part was
called Galilee. Nazareth was in lower Galilee.

It is a steep climb up into Nazareth, a hillside town
whose slopes face southw^ard.

If you should walk to-day to the roof of the English
Orphanage, near the top of the hill at Nazareth, and look
southward, you would see the same view that Jesus saw
when He was a boy. Beyond, winding down into the
Plain of Esdraelon, would be the path up which you had
clambered into the town, the same road down which Jesus
walked when he went across the valley. You can see
from here to the south, as the text suggests, on the left
the valley that leads up to Mount Gilboa, connected with
the exploits of Gideon and Saul, and at the right the
crest of Carmel where Sisera's army first debouched upon
the plain. You are sixteen hundred feet above the Medi-
terranean. You. can see the flashing reflection of a stream
that is a branch of the River Kishon, which flows west-
ward into the Mediterranean. As the watershed between
the Mediterranean and the Jordan is here, a stream a few
rods to the left, flows in the opposite direction into the
Jordan. The sharp hill beyond, at our left, seems to
mark a slice cut out of the range, as if on purpose to
open up this glorious vista. That hill is by some called
" the Mount of Precipitation,'' because they believe it was
where the people of Nazareth tried to cast Jesus down.
But it is so far away that it seems more likely to have
been some steep place on this hill above the village on
which we are standing. Nazareth is on every side but
this enclosed by mountains as a flower is by leaves. The
chalky limestone, w^hich peeps through the verdure like
snow, shows how scanty is the soil. You recognize the
olive and the cypress. The fig, the mulberry, the lemon,
the pomegranate and the almond grow in the gardens.
This village is also the northern limit of the palm.

The houses below us lie in snowy whiteness. It is
interesting to try to pick out one which resembles the
house in which Jesus was brought up, which, of course,

272 NOTES

is not standing to-day. Most of the houses still have flat
roofs where the inhabitants can enjoy fresher air than in
the stuffy streets, or watch the flocks and herds, or in
summer lie down to sleep. The streets are narrow and not
very clean. The houses on either side present a blank
wall, which is broken here and there by little recesses used
for shops and stores.

The house in which Jesus lived probably had only one
or two rooms. It may have been built of stone like those
to-day or of dried mud whitewashed. It probably had
no window and no chimney. A hole in the roof and the
open door answered instead. But as the people lived an
outdoor life, even cooking outside in fair weather, the
house was a sufficient shelter.

All the water, to-day, as then, for the entire village,
must be brought from a large spring or fountain near the
foot of the hill.

Note 5. The Fountain at Nazareth

We can come down from the hilltop through one of
these narrow streets to the very fountain from which
Mary used to draw water. The arch over it may be a
modern one, but the fountain is the only one Nazareth
ever had. This fountain is conducted from a spring
above, over which to-day stands a Christian Church on
the site where, it is claimed, the angel appeared to Mary.
Just to our left is another church, which claims to oc-
cupy the spot where Jesus attended the synagog, and
later preached His first sermon. The women of Nazareth
have always been noted for their beauty, owing, it is
claimed, to the blessing of the Virgin Mary. They dress
like the women of Bethlehem, except that instead of a
stiff head-dress, on each side of the face is a rouleau of
silver coins fastened to a pad which is fitted to the head.
It is to coins worn in this fashion that our Savior
alluded in the parable of the Lost Piece of Silver. As the -
women come with their empty jars, they carry them on the
side, then turn them upright as they take them away full.

NOTES 273

They seem very hea^^y, but the women carry them with a
light, graceful step up the steep lanes of Nazareth. The
loaded donkeys on their way to Cana or Jerusalem or
Damascus are seen to-day as then, and just beyond is
the village Inn, an open court with a shelter at one side,
as was the Inn at Bethlehem. A cattle market is often
held there.

Note 6. The Sights in Crossing the Plain of Esdraelon

When the Nazareth cavalcade went down into the Plain
of Esdraelon moving southward, the first streams they
crossed would be flowing westward, but as they went
onward to where the Plain slopes toward the Jordan the
brooks would all be flowing eastward. This eastern end
of the Plain has always been frequented by shepherds^,
some of whom have their homes beyond the Jordan.

To these streams they still come, as in the days when
Jesus walked through, leading their sheep " by the side of
still waters." They live wild, lonely lives, but, as in the
time of Jesus, they are faithful to their flocks, still some-
times in this very Plain protecting them from the Bedawin
robbers at the cost of their lives. They often carry the
smaller lambs in their bosoms or under their arms in the
folds of their cloaks. They find dogs indispensable for
their assistance to protect from wild animals as well ag
from robbers. These dogs, like the neglected ones in the
towns, are shaggy and savage. The sheep are usually
white, but sometimes brown. In stormy weather they
are sheltered in the hillside caves or in rough enclosures
of stone. Even as in His day, the shepherds lead their
sheep instead of driving them, and they know their sheep
by name. The goats come down to the water with the
sheep, but the flocks seldom mingle.

It was in the spring, when the ewes bring forth their
young and the thick mud of the Plain has dried and pro-
duced its early crop of grass, that Jesus on his way to the
Passover would pass through innumerable flocks. The
fact that the first employment of his forefathers was that

274 NOTES

of shepherds and that sheep were the customary victims
of sacrifice, as well as because of the beautiful analogies
they suggest, would help explain his frequent references
to shepherds and sheep.

Very likely the sheep which the Nazareth men brought
to Jerusalem for sacrifice came either from the Plain of
Esdraelon or the sheepf olds of Bethlehem.

Note 7. The General Outlines of the Holy Land

Now that Jesus is going out into the world it is desira-
ble to know the outlines of that little country which was
to be the sphere of his work. The map, especially the
relief map, becomes necessary here.

You notice first its four great divisions, strips of vari-
ous heights all broadening toward the south. They are,
from the left; the lowland plain, the tableland sloping
gently down to the west and steeply to the east, the Jordan
Valley and the highlands east of it. These divisions are
cut in two, as you observe, by the Plain of Esdrae-
lon, bounded on the south bj?' the Carmel range, which at
its western end juts out into the sea. How remarkable
are the contrasts of elevation. Here, close to us, is the
Dead Sea, thirteen hundred feet below the level of the
sea, and there, just beyond the little lake that is the source
of the Jordan, is Mt. Hermon, nine thousand feet above
it. The levels of these four strips vary so much in
climate as well as in elevation that five out of the eight
physical zones of the earth are represented within this
tiny country. Between the Mount of Olives, two thousand,
seven hundred and twenty-three feet above the sea, and
the valley of the Dea Sea, one thousand two hundred and
ninety-two feet below it, twenty miles distance, one can
find the pine and the palm, the cane and the wheat, the
skylark and the grackle, the mountain wolf and the
gazelle. The mountains around Jerusalem may be seen
covered with snow, while the Jordan valley is green with
tropical desert. North are the glaciers of Hermon ; south
is the steaming cauldron of the Dead Sea.

NOTES - 275

It is a little country. From Hermon's summit it is all
visible. Nearly every high hill on the central tableland
comprehends a view both of the Mediterranean and the
Jordan, the western and the eastern boundaries.

It is interesting to notice how Jesus covered this land
over and over again in his journeys. With the exception
of the lowland plain, he seems to have gone into every
part.

In his first journey to Jerusalem he comes directly over
the backbone of the central tableland, past Tabor, Gilboa,
Carmel, Ebal and Bethel.

When he went to his baptism he walked down to the
Jordan valley at Beth-shean and traced that stream down
its deep, hot valley, nearly to the Dead Sea.

His temptations took him through the Wilderness of
Judea, between the Dead Sea and Jerusalem.

When he returned to call his first friends he went up
this valley to the Lake of Galilee and Capernaum, on the
northwest shore, passing through Tiberias, the northern
capital. Down this valley he came again with the fisher-
men to the Passover.

Then he made a circuit of Judea with them, possibly
going even as far south as Hebron.

He went back to Nazareth and Cana over the tableland
through Samaria.

His first year's ministry took him all about Galilee, with
his headquarters at Capernaum. The Mount of Beati-
tudes is west of the lake.

When he had been rejected at Bethsaida he went into
upper Galilee and Phoenicia to Tyre and Sidon on the
coast and perhaps over the mountains eastward in sight
of Damascus on the border of the great plains of the
Assyrian desert. He returned home through the Decapo-
lis east of the Lake.

After he had returned to Capernaum he went due north
up the Jordan and climbed Mount Hermon, at the time^
of the Transfiguration.

Down the Jordan or over the tableland he went for the

276 NOTES

last time to Jerusalem. Thence he is heard of in Perea,
the region east of the Jordan, in Samaria and in the
borders of Judea.

At the Passover at Jerusalem he gave his life.

Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Phoenicia, Decapolis, Upper
Galilee, Perea, Jerusalem — all these in turn witnessed the
working out of his systematic, orderly campaigns of
testimony.

If you like to work out the campaigns of your favorite
military heroes, keep the map ever before you and master
in the same manner the campaigns of Jesus,

Note 8. Jerusalem from near the place from which it
was first seen by Jesus

There is a hill a little northeast of Jerusalem, now
called Mount Scopus, but named by the Crusaders Mount
Joy, because in their invasion of the Holy Land from
Acre on the north it was the point from which they first
caught sight of their coveted goal. This spot is not far
from the old roadway from Nazareth, so that if we enter
as Jesus did, this is the view he had, one which includes
the whole of the city at once. From this viewpoint the
northeastern corner of the city is directly before us, with
the full length of the eastern wall stretching off to our
left, and the northern wall more dimly seen extending off
to the right. The city is seen to be built on a headland or
tongue of land stretching southward, which drops down
at the south into two valleys, the Valley of Hinnom on
the west and south, and the Valley of the Kedron on the
east. Since Jesus' day the city has been growing steadily
northward and now there is as much of it outside as
within the walls. The largest dome in the city is seen
over the center of the eastern wall — the Dome of the
Rock — and stands in the midst of the Temple area, on
the site of the Temple. A white modern tower near the
center of the city belongs to the German Church of St.
John, and a short distance farther to the right are the two
domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

NOTES 277

Jerusalem in those early days, as now, was a walled
city, and the wall on the east side had, perhaps because it
was nearest the Temple, been demolished and rebuilt
oftener than any other. The present wall is about three
hundred and fifty years old.

This wall rises at the further corner, its oldest part, to
a height of one hundred and eighty feet above the ground.
The rubbish that has gathered at the root is in places from
sixty to ninety-five feet deep. The wall is now hemmed
by extensive cemeteries, and this fact, with the sombre
gray of the dome-roofed houses and the oppressive silence
of the place most of the day, makes the city, upon ap-
proach, seem a most mournful place.

The '' Dome of the Rock,'' which stands on the site of
the Temple, is very close to this eastern wall. The city
was probably then, as it is to-day, a collection of low,
uninteresting houses with narrow streets, but it was the
Temple that made it glorious. How its white marble
must have shone beside the brick limestone and mud of
the humbler houses! In Jesus' day the view of it was
somewhat obstructed, however, on the side nearest to us
by the Eoman fortress of Antonia. West of that was
probably the council house of the Sanhedrin. Still fur-
ther west was the gymnasium and the lofty palace of the
Asmoneans, built by the ancestors of the patriot Macca-
bees and used in the time of Jesus by Herod as his
residence.

The gate which pierced this eastern wall nearest the
Temple (seen nearest the Dome of the Rock from here)
was the chief entrance to that holy place, and, as it opened
into the path to the Mount of Olives and Bethany, which
are east of the city, was the one used most often by Jesus.
It is called the Golden Gate and is now sealed up.
Nearer us in this eastern wall is St. Stephen's Gate, so-
called because, according to a very ancient tradition, it
was from this gate that Stephen was dragged by the mob,
and just outside it he was stoned.

278 NOTES

Over the hills that surround the city, to the southwest,
lies Bethlehem.

Note 9. Where did John the Baptist Live ?

On the way from Jerusalem to Jericho the traveler
passes through a part of the Wilderness of Judea.
Among the many brooks that plunge down the canons
of that waste of rock and sand is one called the Wady
Kelt to-day, which many believe to be the Brook Cherith
of the Old Testament. The region is that of the exile of
Elijah. Up under the shelter of the perpendicular crags
is a convent which claims to occupy the site of Elijah's
shelter.

As John's hero was Elijah it would not be strange if
this very spot, which has for generations been held in
tradition as Elijah's Cherith^stopping place, should have
been his abode. The deep gorge, the brook and the path
that follows it part of an old thief -infested road. There
is a cave above the convent: a good hiding place for
Elijah and for a man who had many things to think out.
Ah! how still it would be, and how lonely those tawny
cliffs and somber bushes. Such a man would need to be a
hunter and woodsman and naturalist, a Thoreau for sim-
ple living; a St. Francis perhaps in his communion with
the beasts, but in his m.oral courage a John Knox who
dared to stand before kings and queens and tell them the
truth. You know how simple and direct and fearless
often are those who dwell aloof and think on noble things.

Note 10. Baptizing in the Jordan To-day

Ten or a dozen miles east of the old convent in the
Cherith canyon is the Jordan, and there, at the spot
nearest to the road from Jericho to the river, is still
pointed out the scene of John's baptizing. It is in the
midst of a jungle of small trees and flowering shrubs.

How turbid and uninteresting is this River Jordan,
which was the scene of Joshua's triumphant crossing,
which is glorified in our hymnology as the symbol of the

NOTES 279

Christian's death and into which Russian and Coptic
pilgrims rush each year by thousands to wash their sins
away ! The bushes that line the shore have been torn
away in the rapid fall of the river from its lofty fountain
one thousand three hundred feet above in the Lake of
Galilee. This is near the Dead Sea, you know, the deepest
bowl in the earth's surface, one thousand two hundred
and ninety feet below the level of the sea.

We should remember concerning" this river, to which
thousands of modern pilgrims come each year, that it
was never to the Hebrews a sacred or beloved stream.
It is unlovely, its shores were never thickly populated
and it was never more than a boundary line to Israel.

The Russians to-day who are baptized in the Jordan are
dressed in their shrouds, surrounded by spectators who
wear the garb of the time of Jesus, and protected by
Arab chiefs who have guarded them from the assault of
other tribes down the dangerous road from Jerusalem
to Jericho.

Note II. The Plain of Jericho

Only four or five miles westward, across the plain from
the traditional site of the baptism of Jesus, we may stand
on the acclivity that leads up to the traditional mount of
the temptation, and, therefore, get a part of the same
view southeastward which Jesus would see if He climbed
to the mountain top. Yonder to the right we have our
first glimpse of the Dead Sea, and to the left, see the
Jordan glimmer in the sun as it rushes to its grave in the
Dead Sea. Still farther away, beyond the Jordan, stand
the gray ramparts of the hills of Moab, which rise at the
extreme left into Mount Nebo, the burial place of Moses,
who from those mountains caught sight of the Canaan he
could not enter. Could we see farther beyond the sea at
the right and over the intervening cliffs, we would catch
sight of Machaerus,, Herod's castle, where John the
Baptist suffered imprisonment and death. Looking
nearer, we see the once fertile and palm-covered plain of

280 NOTES "^

the Jordan, covered now only with stunted trees and
bushes. It is a picture of the wreck of human glory.
There have been at least three Jerichos. Where the plain
rises near us into a higher plateau, over which a path
runs, stood Old Testament Jericho. The few heaps
there now are later than those of the walls which tumbled
down at Joshua^s attack. The aqueduct near us was prob-
ably here in Jesus' time, and stretches down across the
plain to New Testament Jericho, which is at the extreme
right and half way to the sea. Modern Jericho is to the
left in the distance, a miserable village. We are over a
thousand feet below the level of the ocean and over three
thousand five hundred feet below Jerusalem. The climate
is sultry and enervating. Jericho, though rich, has, be-
cause of its nerveless inhabitants, been the spoil of many
captures. Smith says : " She never stood a siege, and
her inhabitants were always running away. No great man
was born in her, no heroic deed was done in her. She
was only a pantry of Judea.'^

The Israelites came down over the mountains of Moab,
at our extreme left, from their last camping place at
Heshbon. They crossed the river near the traditional
spot of the baptism of Jesus. Before them stood this
Jericho, " city of palms,'' hidden by a forest of luxuriant
foliage eight miles long, the capital of the district, which
must be captured if they would make any further advance
into the white limestone mountains of Judea, that stood
like a rampart before them. Down the path before us,
near ancient Jericho, is Elisha's spring, the only spring
of good water anywhere near either ancient or modern
Jericho. It was these waters that Elisha sweetened, and
from here down to the river walked Elisha and Elijah at
the latter's translation. From this well must have come
the water upon Zacchaeus' table when our Lord was enter-
tained here, and from this fountain the Herod who slew
the infants of Bethlehem, and who spent his last days at
Jericho, must have drunk.

If Jesus climbed to the top of the mountain behind us

NOTES 281

He would have looked in every direction. The view
reaches from Hebron to Bethel and Ramah on the west,
and includes the Holy City. A temptation suggested by
this mountain-top vision of all the kingdoms of the world
would embrace IsraeFs history from its passage of the
Jordan to its glory under Solomon when this height was
the center and not the outpost of his extended domain.
It would include Abraham and Moses and Elijah and
Elisha and David. It would consider this narrow path
from the Jordan as the roadway of prophets, priests,
kings, crusaders and armies of all nations. Through this
valley once moved the stately train of Cleopatra, here
passed Herod's funeral and here camped some of our
own forefathers on their holy quest to the sepulchre of
Jesus.

Note 12. The View from the Eastern Wall, "the
Pinnacle of the Temple '*

If we return from Jericho to Jerusalem we can stand
on the eastern wall of the city just about where " the
pinnacle of the temple '' was and look over the chasm of
the Kedron.

Here we can see how deep is this gorge, or valley, of
Kedron, which runs along this east side of Jerusalem.
Yonder across the valley is the Mount of Olives. Beyond
that hill lies Jericho and the Jordan from which we have
come. The road farthest to the left leads to Jericho, and
the roads running off to the right lead to Bethany, which
lies just over this hill, believed to be the one over which
Christ came from Bethany at the time of His triumphal
entry into Jerusalem. A small enclosure, containing tall,
dark cypress trees, and a few old olives, down there where
the several roads meet, is the Garden of Gethsemane,
where later Jesus spent His last night of awful suffering.
The modern tower at the top of the hill claims to occupy
the site of the ascension. Thus the places of the Agony,
the Triumphal Procession and the Ascension were all in-
cluded in his view at his temptation.

282 NOTES

Note 13. Life on the Shore of Galilee

When Jesus went up the Jordan from Jerusalem to
Capernaum he probably passed through Tiberias.

Bethsaida and Capernaum have vanished, but the town
of Tiberias^ the capital and home of Herod Philip, re-
mains, and in its busy life we can see what was the
nature and toil of the fishermen who followed Jesus, and
from whom He chose many of His friends and disciples.
A moment^s study of the life of the fishermen is appro-
priate here, because, with the exception of the brief min-
istry in Jndea, the Master's life divides into four periods :
the ministry in a human home, the ministry of service in
Galilee, the ministry of teaching in Perea, and the min-
istry of atonement in Jerusalem, and we are really just
now entering the second period, among the fishermen of
Galilee, of which the Judean work had been but a brief
interruption. A broad, stout fishing boat, with its curious
sail, moored beside the old Roman fortress of Tiberias
now, is such a boat as that in which Christ often sailed
this sea, and from its stern preached to such a motley
company as those on its shores to-day. The people are
still many of them Jews. The fish that the fishermen
catch now are the small fish, such as the boy brought to
Jesus, not the large ones caught out in the depths of the
lake. The lake still swarms with fish, but the inhabitants
are too indolent to go out after them. In the time of
Jesus, Josephus says that the fishing and the attendant
commerce supported nine large towns on the lake shore,,
so that in his day the houses and hamlets must have been
nearly continuous, at least on the western side. To-day
all but Tiberias are obliterated, and the site of Caper-
naum is not even known.

The fortress of Tiberias is a reminder of its Roman
palace, where reigned in Jesus' day Herod Philip, the
mildest and best of the Herods. Perhaps because it was
so largely a foreign city it is not mentioned in the gospels
that Jesus ever preached in Tiberias.

NOTES 283

Note 14. A Wedding To-day in Palestine

The wedding procession, says the Hastings Dictionary
of the Bible, naturally fell into two parts. First, the
bridegroom and his friends marched to the home of the^
bride. The attendant throng gave vent to its jubilant
feelings in dancing and shouting. Then came the return,
the escorting of the bride to the house of the groom by
himself and his friends. The close of this journey at the
bridegroom^s gate is a scene we may witness 'in any
Palestine street to-day. We may see the bride, in her
gala array, mounted, carrying her husband's sword, used
in the service to symbolize his authority, the groom and
his friends are by her side, the women attendants of the
bride are following behind. The rest are interested neigh-
bors. Jesus at the feast would have been in the company
of escorts to the bride, and when once within the house,
would have been seated near the bridal party and " the
master of the feast.''

Note 15. The Region about Jacob's Well

If we sEould stand on the slopes of Mount Ebal to-day
we could look over the top of the tableland of Judea as
far south as Shiloh and even Bethel. The path that
stretches southward, as the map shows, is approximately
the one along which Abraham traveled from Shechem to
Bethel. It is the road up which the wearied Jesus came
on his way back to Nazareth. Returning to Galilee,
Jesus stepped aside at Jacob's well, which may be seen
in the white enclosure of the Greek monastery garden
down to the left. He took the road to Galilee, close to
the foot of the mountain, when he went on to Sychar.
He passed Joseph's tomb (a white-domed building),
which Jacob won from the Amorites with his sword and
gave to Joseph. Here to-day Hebrews, Samaritans,
Mohammedans and Christians face in four different direc-
tions and pray to the Supreme God. Shechem and
Samaria, as you see by the map, are at the end of the
path which passes out of sight between the mountains to

284 NOTES

the west. A ruined temple within the more ancient
temple .of the Samaritans is still seen on the summit of
Gerizim. There they claim Abraham went to sacrifice
Isaac, and there they keep the Passover. Joshua's home
was beyond the slope of Gerizim. It was amid these his-
toric scenes, between the peaks of Ebal and Gerizim,
that Joshua gathered Israel for the dedication of the land.
There is a little Moslem chapel behind us which had once
been a sacred place among the peasantry, and which may
be the site of the monumental altar which Joshua erected.
Gerizim, the mount of blessing, is sometimes represented
by the poets as green, and Ebal, the mount of cursing, as
bare, but both are equally bare to-day.

Note i6. Jacob's Well

As we descend into the little chapel which surrounds
the mouth of Jacob's well, which is now several feet below
the surface of the meadow we see in its center a round
smooth stone well-curb, which marks perhaps the only
place where we may be absolutely sure that Jesus once
sat. The well at one time was one hundred and twenty
feet deep, but so many stones have been thrown into it
by pilgrims, that it is now not more than seventy-five feet
deep. There is still plenty of water at the bottom, and,
of course, every traveler wants a cool cup from the
patriarch's well. You will perhaps see close to the well a
water- jar and a copper pail with rope for drawing water
from the well, and even a woman of Sychar with head-
dress and veil who, as she sits by the well, will remind
you, in her very manner, of the woman who sat there and
talked with Jesus. This ruined chapel contains to-day a
few hanging lamps and sacred pictures, and is taken care
of by the Greek monks.

Note 17. Modern Lepers

Forty or fifty of these wretched people may generally
be seen outside Jerusalem. They seat themselves by a
wall near the Garden of Gethsemane. They are found in
other parts of Palestine, living in pitiful seclusion, ^^ afar

NOTES 285

from the dwellings of men/' Such horrible sights make
plain to travelers to-day the awfulness of misery and sin
to which Jesus ministered. These lepers to-day, with
horrible, unintelligible sounds, beg from the passer by,
but never attempt to come near him; yet Jesus touched
them. The disobedience and ingratitude of the leper often
marked his disfigurement as one of soul as well as of
body.
Note i8. The Court of a Village House in Galilee

As Jesus comes back from Jerusalem and Samaria to
begin his Galilean ministry, we want to know more about
the house life of the people among whom he now made
his home.

Some of the houses which stand to-day in Galilee re-
semble in their structure the homes of Jesus' day. They
are built of substantial limestone masonry, and their
arches have carven religious emblems. The house is a
castle, forbidding and windowless without, but with
plenty of social life in the grass-grown inner court, where
the family live most of the time in fair weather. The
flat roof covers an upper room, approached by a stair-
way on the outside. Goats, who furnish milk and meat,
and whose skins are receptacles for wine, share the
sociability w^ithin. They sleep with the cattle in the first
story under the archways. Several families live together
in these large houses. The number of children and dogs
present suggest how noisy their family life must be. You
will still see the woman grinding at the mill with her
kneading trough near by, and others washing clothes,
with an extremely frugal amount of water. The earthen-
ware is dilapidated, and the waterpots remind us of those
used in Nazareth and Cana.

Jesus probably taught when he was at home in a win-
dow or gallery of the second story overlooking the court-
yard, and the people were around him and below. If the
house where he spoke were a one-story one, he would sit
or stand in the doorway and the people were both inside
and without.

286 NOTES

Note 19. Summer Houses and House Roofs in Pal-
estine.

A study of the house roofs of Galilee to-day gives us
new light on the outdoor life of the ancient Galileans.
They are flat, made of small poles covered with brush-
wood and hardened clay. In springtime they often soften
up and soak down into the house. It is easy to realize
how men could climb up to them by the outside stairway
and break them up when they wished to let their fellow
sufferer down to where Jesus was.

Each roof, according to the ancient law, has a battle-
ment for the protection of those who may rest on the roof
or those passing below. Where the houses are near to-
gether it is possible to run from one roof to another,
which gave rise to the saying, " Tell it upon the house-
tops.''

Over the door, close to the ceiling, two or three small
holes are sometimes left for smoke to pass out in weather
which requires that the house door be shut. Chimneys
are unknown.

Upon these roofs the people to-day often build shelters
of green branches, which are open to the air but not to
the sun. It was in such booths that the Israelites of the
time of Jesus spent the Feast of Tabernacles, and it has
been conjectured that seeing such summer shelters at
Caesarea, where they are common to-day, suggested to
Peter his wish to build three such " tabernacles '' for
Jesus, Moses and Elijah. The housetop thus was to Jesus
the place of quiet thought and prayer and of converse
with his friends. His talk with Nicodemus, with its
reference to the springtime breeze, may well have been
upon a Jerusalem house roof.

Note 20. From the Mount of Beatitudes to Capernaum

The twin peaks of Kurn Hattin, a dozen miles south-
west of the supposed Capernaum, are commonly believed
to be the mountain where Jesus spoke the Beatitudes.
They are accessible to all lower Galilee, and the view from

NOTES 287

the top commands the chief places of Jesus' Galilean
ministry.

Here, where Jesus spoke His words of peace, was
fought, in 1182, the last battle between the Crusaders
and the Saracens, when the Christian kingdom of Judea
passed away. The steep cleft in the range between the
mountain and the Lake is called the Valley of the Pigeons,
because of the multitude of pigeons that make their nests
m its walls. Just beyond it is Magdala. The level place
beyond, on the northwestern shore of Galilee, is the Plain
of Gennesaret. Somewhere on that curve of shore lay
Capernaum and Bethsaida, long vanished and lost.
^ Up through that gorge, which Herod just before Jesus'
time had cleared of a nest of robbers, and through the
fertile grain fields, Jesus must have often walked to the
grassy slopes of his favorite mountain retreat. Here the
Twelve and the multitudes gathered at his bidding. This
is probably also that " mountain in Galilee '' where he is
said to have appeared after the resurrection.

Note 21. Nain and Mount Tabor in Galilee

The little village of Nain would never have been heard
of if Jesus had not performed a deed of mercy near it.
It lies up in the hill country a long way west of Caper-
naum and south of Nazareth. It nestles on the north-
western slope of the range of Little Hermon, and looks
across the valley at Mount Tabor, the most beautiful hill
m the Holy Land. Find it on your map, and note its
relation to other familiar places in Galilee.

^ It is always easy enough to recognize Mount Tabor,,
rising, a perfect cone, out yonder to the northeast. There
Barak quartered his army, and in that plain below van-
quished Sisera. The Sea of Galilee lies a few miles away
to the right of Tabor, and Mount Hermon, sixty miles
away in the same direction. Nazareth is about seven miles
due north, or to the left of Tabor. This town of Nain is
near the road over the hills between Nazareth and Jeru-
salem. The Damascus road passed around to the left of

288 NOTES

Tabor, but did not touch this little town. Two miles
away on the road to the Sea of Galilee is Endor. Just
over the hill behind us (Little Hermon) is the place
where Jesus saw the shepherds watching their flocks.
Nain, too, has a sheepfold, a ruined courtyard, where
sometimes a woman, with her children around her, may be
regarded as '' the porter of the sheep." Only about
twenty Moslem houses mark this site of little side-tracked
Nain, which was probably never larger, and the only
substantial building in the place is the Greek church,
which commemorates the one golden deed that gives to
Nain its interest.

The road from the Jordan over which Jesus came on
His way from the prosperous cities to the isolated hill
towns, to perform His miracle, lies away to the east of
this village. There is a hill behind and to our right
pierced with many rock-hewn tombs, and there our
Savior met the wailing procession and the broken-
hearted widow outside the village and gave her back
her boy.

Note 22. The Fishermen^s Boats of Galilee

The entire circuit of the lake is only thirty-five miles.
Josephus said the population around its shore was one
hundred and fifty thousand. Bethsaida was on the north-
east shore, the Gadarene region was east and southeast
of the lake. We can look across the lake from near the
western shore in front of Tiberias clear to the Gadarene
coast. We have learned something of each side of the
lake, except the southern, which does not appear in the
history of Jesus.

This Lake of Galilee is six hundred and eighty-two feet
below sea level, and has a tropical climate with the most
sudden and dangerous storms. The boats are, therefore,
built broad of beam and with easily shifted sails. Some
of the parables were spoken from the prow of such boats
as those of the present to men who were as rugged as
the Galilean fishermen of to-day. It was in as frail a

NOTES 289

craft as these, on this very lake, that the wearied and in-
domitable Jesus slept until His disciples, used to such
storms as they were, awoke Him in fright and implored
His aid. Such boats were His ferry across the lake for
works of mercy or periods of rest, and often Jesus helped
hoist such sails or labored with Andrew and Peter at the
long, slender oars. The fact that Jesus seems to have
been regarded as the captain whenever he was aboard
makes legitimate the inference in the third chapter that
he w^as an excellent sailor and that his seamanship was
learned when he was a youth at Nazareth. He learned
how to catch fish, too, probably with both the hand-net
and the boat-net. Seines were unlawful in these waters.

Note 23. The Northwest Shore of the Lake of Gali-
lee as seen from near Bethsaida

The highland at the extremity of the plain of Genne-
saret, between its ruined towns and Bethsaida, gives the
remarkable view westward of the chief scenes of Jesus-
Galilean ministry such as was visible to those who fol-
lowed Jesus to Bethsaida. See the map. In the distance
are the mountains of Galilee. The great rent through the
nearer mountain is the valley of the Pigeons, and through
that valley we can see the traditional Mount of Beatitudes,
upon which we stood (see Note 20) and looked down to
this shore. Jesus' boyhood home, Nazareth, lies about
twenty-five miles away beyond those mountains directly
before us. Capernaum is supposed to have been situated
on the shore somewhere behind us, the place where Jesus
came to make His home for a whole year, the second year
of His ministry. Chorazin was located up in the hills.
What prophecy of Jesus has since then been fulfilled?

The feeding of the Five Thousand was upon such a
strand and hillside as this. It was probably on a similar
stretch of shore a few miles behind us near the entrance
of the Jordan into the lake. We catch here the situation
and the view which Jesus could have had in looking
towards this shore from the " mountain '' where He spent

290 NOTES "^

that night in prayer ; we are looking upon the shore where
Jesus and His disciples landed the next morning.

Note 24. Tyre To-day

The journey of Jesus from Capernaum to Tyre and its
location should be studied on the map.* Little does it look
to-day as Jesus saw it.

It can best be seen across the bay from a quay looking
toward the shore and the east. This town was once the
Venice of ancient times, the mistress of the seas. A
ruined breakwater and some broken pillars are about all
there is of it now, for the ancient prophecies have been
fulfilled, and it is now only ^^ a place for the spreading
of nets.^' From the forests of Lebanon, through which
Jesus came, were cut the cedars for Solomon^s Temple by
Hiram, and floated to Joppa from this port. You can
see two sections of the ancient wall, and round columns
in the water, black with moss, that long before Christ
supported graceful arches and magnificent palaces. Paul
came here on his last visit to Jerusalem, and somewhere
on this strand the Syrian disciples knelt and prayed with
him at his departure across yonder waters to the south.

Note 25. The Approach to Mount Hermon

Jesus approached Caesarea Philippi and Mount Her-
mon from Capernaum. His first view of both was, as
the map shows, looking north. At the bottom of a deep
gorge south of the city runs a stream that is one of the
sources of the Jordan, which near here starts on its south-
ward course. This brook, the clearest and most beautiful
of the Jordan sources, proceeds from one of the largest
springs in the world, bounding forth from it in full flood,
able to sweep away horse and rider if they should fall
over this low wall. The round knobs that project from
the town wall to-day are columns from an older building
thrust in to patch this structure, which was built in the
time of the crusade by Turkish captives under the last of
the Christian conquerors.

NOTES 291

Mount Hermon " the sacred/' whose lower slopes are
close to the village gate, is the only mountain in Palestine
that is snow-crowned all the year. It rises nine thousand
feet above the sea. From its summit Jesus could see to
the east Damascus, to the south all the scenes of his min-
istry, to the west the Mediterranean.

How beautiful it must have been to have rested alone
with Jesus on that mountain side !

Up the path that now enters the ruined village Jesus
probably passed with the twelve; yonder crest may as
well as any other be the scene of the vision, and it may
have been waiting where now stands the village gate that
the father sought in vain for the disciples left behind and
for his demoniac boy, to whom Jesus came with ready
aid in what someone has beautifully called " the trans-
figuration in the valley.^'

Mighty as was the fortress of Caesarea, noble as was
yonder snow clad peak, their associations to-day are en-
tirely with this one visit of the Galilean Teacher.

Note 26. The Parable of the Good Samaritan

It is startling to find that not only are the scenes of
Palestine to-day the same, and the activities again being
reenacted as in Jesus' day, but that even the deeds men-
tioned in his parables or stories still occur. The student
will be glad of one such evidence of the essentially pictur-
esque and personal character of the Master's parables.
At several times during His ministry Jesus was in Jericho .
near the scene of His earlier temptations, and now when
he came up from Perea he passed along the dangerous
roadway from the Jordan to Jerusalem. The Parable of
the Good Samaritan, which is undated, may have been
spoken after his first visit to Jericho, Jerusalem and
Samaria, and so have been suggested by all these places,
and even by some recent actual occurrences, for thefts
were constantly occurring there, as they are even to this
day. For it was a life-like character study of the typical

292 NOTES

priest and Levite of Jerusalem, and Jesus laad found ir^
Sychar of Samaria that there were really " good ^^ Samari-
tans. A traveler who goes to-day down this very Jericho
road will still take a chieftain to prevent being robbed,
and he may be sure that the chief himself and his com-
panions are also actually robbers, because the distinction
between a guide and robber in this vicinity is still usually
that of the same man when in and out of paid employ-
ment. With the substitution of donkeys for horses, the
modern victim would have in costumes, faces and even in
leathern wine-bottle the impression to the eye which Jesus
gave to the mind when He told this story,

Note 27. Modern Bethany

Bethany, like Bethlehem and Nazareth, is on a hill-
slope. It is now a wretched, squalid place. Down to the
east runs the road leading from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Far to the south stretches the way of the wilderness.
Naturally the largest ruin in the town, two ruined towers
at the south end, are pointed out as the house of Simon
^he leper, and the largest open ruin in the heart of the
village is said to be the house of Mary and Martha. In
and near Bethany to-day one still sees on the woman's
brow the chain of coins from which the ^^ one piece of
silver,'' in Jesus' parable, spoken near by, was men-
tioned as being lost. On the sunny southern slope of
Olivet one will also still get a fine impression of an
orchard of figs, standing near the site, perhaps, of the
very one that Jesus looked to with disappointment when
he was walking from Bethany into Jerusalem. Bethany
was probably named for its orchards, for it means " house
of dates." The town has no history apart from Jesus,
and nothing unique except the terraced walls that sur-
round it. Lazarus' tomb is pointed out in the middle of
the village, but the ancient rock tombs are further east
beside the road.

NOTES 293

Note 28. The Scenes of the Jerusalem Miracles

The miracles in Jerusalem were few, and, so thorough
has been the destruction of the city, that the site of but
one is now known. This is the Pool of Siloam. This an-
cient pool is south of the city in the Valley of the Kedron
and fed from the so-called Fountain of the Virgin up tha
valley. The present surrounding wall was built three
centuries ago by Sultan S oilman, but there is little change
in the appearance from Jesus' time except that it was
once less neglected and the water was more fresh and
clean than now. In Nehemiah's day the pool was well
known, for it was being repaired then, and in King
David's time it lay in the midst of the Royal Garden, just
below Solomon's palace. Across the valley is the village
of Siloam, where Solomon built a temple of idols under'
the caves of Mount Moriah. Only a few rods south of it
is the Hill of Evil Counsel, where Judas is said to have
plotted, and at its foot is the Potter's Field, bought with
the price of his treachery. This pool is lined with maiden-
hair fern and blossoms. Its waters flow out, and, after
having been used by the city washerwomen, irrigate the
gardens below, where once were the pleasant resting places
of the Hebrew kings. A Christian church later stood over
this pool. One of its broken pillars can still be seen in
the water. Women still come with water pots from
Siloam and Jerusalem and use its befouled water for
drinking purposes. There is, therefore, as in the blind
man's day, always some curious spectator on the path or
climbing down the steep steps into the pool. How vivid
the story all seems even now! Dr. Hurlbut puts it this
way:

" How pitiful he must have looked, staff in hand, pick-
ing his path through the streets of the city ! ' Here, blind
man, let me wipe off those spatters of dirt ! ' ^ No ; leave
them alone, the Master put them there, and I am going
to wash them off in the Pool of Siloam. Can you show
me the way ? ' That was his cross, his confession of
Christ, a confession that every one must make in some

294 NOTES

way, if he would be saved. Can you not see him slowly
walking down that path, tapping with his staff the rocks
on either side as he goes? Look at him clambering down
those steep stone steps ! Now he has reached the Pool.
See him dipping up the water with his hands and washing
oif those brown earth stains from his face ! Now he looks
up with a startled, amazed expression. A light flashes
from those eyeballs, no longer white as of old. The man
can see I How strange the new sense of sight must have
seemed to him ! No doubt, from force of habit he shut his
eyes, over and over again, and felt his way along the path
as of old.''

Note 29. Blessing Children To-day

It is a common sight in the Holy Land now to see a
modern Greek teacher of Jesus' gospel giving his blessing
to a group of children in the very village where Samuel
was a child, and in which it is possible that Jesus blessed
the baby ancestors of these little ones twenty centuries
ago. We do not look for aught that shall remind us of
the Master in the genial, dark-skinned ecclesiastic with
his queer clerical cap and cloak and his prayer beads, nor
do we find in the mothers' faces the reverence and eager-
ness with which the mothers of old brought their littlq
ones to Jesus. But it has always been true in Canaan,
since the days of the patriarchs, and even until now, that
the blessing of a good father or teacher has been felt to
have prophetic and protecting power. If Jesus walked
down Ramah's street^ mothers dressed probably like these
of the present — for, as you see, each village seems to have
and retain its local costume — came to greet Him; and
children are always the same, and so when a loving
mother lays upon the wrist of her squirming child an
amulet, while other stolid babies with not over-clean f ace^
sucking their thumbs peep in interested attitudes around
the corner while the priest mumbles his benediction, they
may remain for us typical of the children of Jesus' day.

NOTES 295

Note 30. Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

Let us suppose ourselves standing beside Jesus on the
Mount of Olives, and let us so master the marvelous scene
before us, that we may carry with us through life an
accurate and vivid knowledge of the place where those
remarkable events in the last days of Jesus' life occurred.
Turn to your Bible Dictionary map of Jerusalem and
locate all these places. Just this side of the eastern wall,
but just beyond our vision at the right, is the probable
site of the pool of Bethesda, and the utmost reach of our
vision at the right includes the Damascus gate on the
north by which Jesus entered the city from Nazareth.
Calvary is at its north, a few rods away. Some distance
down the valley beyond our vision limit on the left is the
Pool of Siloam. Bethany is behind us, and Bethlehem
five miles to the southwest. Below us is the modern seven-
domed Russian Church, and beyond it, far down at the
right, Gethsemane. Across the valley and under the city
wall you see innumerable graves, once a Mohammedan
cemetery. In the wall, almost in the middle of our range
of vision and very close to where we were standing when
we first looked from the eastern wall (see Note 12), is an
elevation having a double arch under it. It is the Golden
Gate, which the Turks have walled up because they be-
lieve that a conqueror, of the Christian faith, will some
time enter here and dispossess them!

Through this gate the Mohammedans also believe the
good will pass in to Paradise, after having crossed the
Kedron " on that bridge which is sharper than the sharp-
est sword.''

It was through the gate at this spot, you remember,
that Jesus often passed on His way from or to Bethany.
The portion of the city nearest us is the Mohammedan
quarter which includes the Temple site; beyond it at the
right in the Christian quarter is the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre. The Jewish and Armenian quarters are at
our left, and beyond the Temple area.

The large enclosure just beyond the wall, longer from

296 NOTES

north to south, is the place of the Temple enclosure, and
the octagonal building, '^ The Dome of the Rock " (wrong-
ly called the Mosque of Omar), stands where stood the
Temple. On that plateau Abraham laid Isaac on the
altar; that was Araunah^s threshing floor which David
bought for an altar place; before that altar Solomon
stood, and Hezekiah prayed, and Isaiah beheld his glori-
ous vision. There stood the second Temple, built by the
returning exiles. There Christ came as a boy of twelve
to question with the doctors, to drive out the money-
changers, and at many other times. Around the Dome
you see fountains and praying places. The Temple en-
closure on the south was, perhaps, a little north of where
we see it now. On the west it was probably bounded by
the huge stones which now constitute the Jews' Wailing
Place. In the extreme right-hand corner of the enclosure
stands a tower on the site of the Tower of Antonia, where
Paul was imprisoned and from whose staircase he ad-
dressed the throng. Perhaps that is where Pontius Pilate
lodged and where Jesus was brought to trial. At the right
of the Dome, near the center of the city, are the white
wall and dome of the newly restored Church of St. John,
dedicated by the German Emperor in 1898. It was the
site of the headquarters of a knightly order of the Crusa-
ders. A short distance to the right of the church is the
dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Away to
the left is the Tower of David, the lower stones of the
original structure being still in place, crowned by Macca-
bean, Roman and modern layers. That tower, instead of
the Tower of Antonia, may have been the palace of the
Roman governor. All these places burst at once upon
the vision of the people who surrounded Jesus when they
came out on this ledge of the Mount of Olives.

Solomon's own house and the royal courts once filled the
space south of the wall at our left. Still farther south
was the older part or " the city of David," and in that
region stood the ark in its Tent of Meeting under David,
and there tradition locates David's and Solomon's tombs.

NOTES 297

Solomon extended the wall around Mount Zion, the south-
western hill, the Jewish and Armenian quarters of to-day,
and there the increased population during his prosperity
found its home. Ever since then the city has tended to
grow continually north.

It was down to our left, where the two valleys that
bound the city, Jehosaphat or Kedron on the east, and
Hinnom on the south, meet, that David caused Solomon
to be hailed as king, and up this valley below us he rode
on King David's mule and sat down on David's throne.

It was of this historic occasion that the excited people
were thinking when they hailed Jesus as " the Son of
David."

From where we stand the prevailing color, except at
sunset, when it is purple, is gray, except " the Dome of
the Rock," which is of a faint metallic green. The walls
are gray with a touch of orange. The houses are gray
with a touch of blue. Unwatered, unshaded, unhallowed,
it has been described as to-day '^ a city of stone in a land
of iron with a sky of brass."

We go down into the valley now to study in a cosmo-
politan holy feast throng of to-day the varied elements
of the procession that followed Jesus.

Note 31. Throngs that Come up to Jerusalem To-day

The Mohammedans to-day counteract the influence of
the great number of Christian pilgrims who come to
Jerusalem before Easter by organizing Moslem pilgrim-
ages to the reputed tomb of Moses, some distance from
Jerusalem. The throngs that gather to-day among the
old tombs on the slope outside the eastern wall of Jerusa-
lem, on the very spot where the Passover throngs met
Jesus on his way into the city, are as varied and cosmo-
politan as those who then came up to the festival. And
their appearance is much the same. True, here and there
is a modern umbrella, carried by a continental tourist or a
traveled Muslim, to keep off the hot April sun, but the
flowing robes, the turbans, the loaded donkeys, look as

298 NOTES

they did two thousand years ago. Surely the women with
unveiled faces are not Mohammedans. The languages
spoken are as diverse as on the day of Pentecost. Here
an old sheikh, who looks much as we think of Abraham,
sits among his large family. There a woman stands erect
— it is always a woman — under a burden half her bulk,
poised upon her head. Another is bringing up the hill a
filled water-pot upon her shoulder. Some are preparing
lunch. Some are trading, some gossipping. All are wait-
ing— for what ? Probably some petty detail of the week's
celebration. But as w^e walk among them, the centuries
disappear and we seem to be with those who wait for
Jesus to ride down yonder hill and across the valley and
up toward the Beautiful Gate of the temple.

Note 32. The Mount of Olives from Jerusalem

Not only is Jerusalem magnificently seen from the
Mount of Olives, but the entire western slope of that
mount is also clearly seen when one looks east from almost
any elevated spot in the Holy City.

Let us fancy ourselves clear across on the western side
of the town. Even from there we can see the path down
which Jesus rode, and we can also look into the heart of
the city of to-day which stands on the ruins of the
recreant Jerusalem of old.

We are standing, let us say, on the flat roof of a large
building, a hospice for religious pilgrims. It gives us an
excellent view down into the ancient city itself. As we are
in the Christian quarter, the nearer roofs are tiled and
rather pointed, and not those flat surfaces which we saw
in other places and which were universal here in Jesus^
day. But the stairways to the roofs and the upper rooms
remind us that somewhere near by — tradition says to our
right (south) half a mile, in what is now called the
Coenaculum, or David's Tomb, — the disciples were prepar-
ing twenty centuries ago to eat the Passover with Jesus.

The blind house walls are so massively laid that in
pacing the more solitary streets you seem to be threading

NOTES 299

the mazes of a liuge fortress. The streets are never
straight for fifty rods. Though narrow and overhung by
tlie houses and by many archways, the brilliantly draped
Orientals coming out into the sun from the dark door-
w^ays make a constant surprise of color.

You discover, of course, the Church of the Holy Sepul-
chre, the large dome in front of us and to the left, built
on the site which Constantine believed to be that of the
tomb of Jesus; and the modern Church of St. John, off
to the right, where it was believed St. John lived, to which
place he took Mary after the crucifixion and where were
the headquarters of the Knights of St. John in the Cru-
sades. In the distance, beyond '' the Dome of the Hock,"
we can see the three paths that climb the Mount of Olives.
Over the left one of these did David go when he went over
the brook Kedron in flight from Absalom, and down a
path farther to the right his greater Son rode on Monday
of Passion Week. Over which of these roads did Jesus
go most often those nights of the week when He went to
Bethany to catch a brief rest with His best friends in His
foster-home? And where on this mount, do you suppose,
was delivered His mystic discourse about the last things?

Imagine this mountain crowded with camping pilgrims,
the cavalcade of Jesus, coming around onto yonder ledge
of rock and thence descending the hill, and you get some
idea of the excitement from one end of the city to the
other when he rode in from Bethany on Sunday of Pas-
sion Week. It did seem for an hour that the world had
gone after him.

Note 33. Gethsemane

We have already located the little walled enclosure of
Gethsemane in the Kedron valley just east of the gate in
the eastern wall.

You know just where you are, for you can see the
Golden Gate and the long stone ramparts just across the
Kedron, and you are probably looking at the spot where
the ancient pathways entered the city and the Temple at

300 NOTES

its Beautiful Gate. Just where we stand at the eastern
side is said to be the spot where Judas betrayed his Master
with a kiss.

This enclosure, only one hundred and fifty by one hun-
dred and sixty feet, is just over the bridge that crosses
Kedron and at the crossing of the roads that lead up to
Olivet. We have looked down upon it before, and know
that in addition to its eight gnarled and hoary olives,
which date back to the seventh century, it contains some
mournful cypresses. Apparently, the garden once ex-
tended much farther up the valley, since it would seem
that Jesus would have sought a more secluded spot for
prayer; we are in its nearer and lower corner. The
Romans are known to have cut down all the trees when
they besieged the city, using many, perhaps some of the
olives of Gethsemane for crosses for the stubborn Jews,
but these are probably direct descendants and by only one
remove from those which gave the garden the name of
" Olive press.^' This enclosure is now tenderly cared for
by the Latin Church and Franciscan friars, who, as you
can see, cover every foot with flourishing blossoms and
shrubs.

Note 34. "The New Calvary"

Recent Christian scholarship has turned somewhat from
the site of the old Church of the Holy Sepulchre to some
spot outside the city as the true place of the crucifixion.
It is indeed startling to stand upon the housetop of an
inn, that touches the edge of Jerusalem's northern wall,
and find ourselves face to face with the bare, skull-like
mound which has come of recent years to be accepted by
the growing number of Christians as the true site of the
crucifixion and burial of Jesus. The resemblance of the
hill to a human skull is the most picturesque, though not
the most convincing reason, for calling this Golgotha,
" the place of the skull.'' But it may have been its use as
a burial place rather than its shape that gave it its name.
There are graves upon its summit, and the large opening
at the right marks the so-called Tomb of Jeremiah. The

NOTES 301

Jewish law (Lev. 1:10, 11) did name the place of execu-
tion as " northward.^^ The early Jewish writings tell us
that this hill had long been a place for the execution of
criminals, and received the name " Place of Stoning."
A reputable Christian guide told Dr. Hurlbut that the
place has long been especially hateful to the Jews of the
city, who always utter a curse when they pass it, though
they know not why, and that their words translated are,
" Cursed be the man who ruined our nation by calling
Himself King." This place is also, as we know Calvary
was once, a garden outside the city and beside a public
way, the Damascus road. Beside that road, beyond the
hill on the left, sleeps the Queen Helena, the mother of
Constantine, who believed that she discovered in Jeru-
salem the true cross and our Lord's sepulcher. Whether it
be the veritable Golgotha or not, it certainly does give to
the eye a reality of conception of the scenes of the Pas-
sion, for which one is grateful in a land where so many
sacred spots have been concealed by obscuring shrines
and buildings.

At the end of an enclosed garden at the bottom of the
cliff is a small entrance to a tomb, hollowed out of the
rock, which has been believed by General Charles Gordon
and many others to be the very tomb in Joseph's garden
in which the body of Jesus was laid.

Note 35. The So-called **Tomb of Our Lord'* at
** The New Calvary "

Only one burial place was ever completed here, altho
two others were left unfinished, and there is room for
the forms of two angels, " one at the head and the other
at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain."

Standing here within a few rods of the place where
Jesus was crucified, and looking into such a new-made
tomb as that in which Joseph laid Jesus, if not the very
one, can we realize the feelings of Mary and the women,
of John and Peter, as they came hastily through the
garden that Easter dawn and wondered at the unsealed

302 NOTES

and open tomb and then turned in grief and went away,
to find, each in his own time, the risen Lord"?

A little northwest of this spot is a vast system of
sepulchral eaves which were used as tombs. Here at the
opening of one of them may be still seen a great round
flat stone and the groove below in which it has been rolled
when the sepulcher was closed. The stone must be very
heavy. When it rolls forward, too, it goes down an in-
cline and drops into a niche. To roll it in its channel, and
.especially to roll it away from the tomb entrance, would
require the strength of two men, and would be far beyond
the power of women like those who came to the entrance
of Jesus' tomb. Moreover, when shut, the tomb could be
easily sealed, as we know our Lord's tomb was sealed when
the watch was set.

Note 36. Where Did Jesus Meet the Disciples by the
Lake?

It has been customary to suppose that Jesus met his
friends at the retired place on the northeast shore, where
he withdrew with them when he fed the five thousand.

Just here in this quiet cove is the spot pointed outi
where the seven disciples had been all night fishing, and
where Jesus met them and welcomed them with the break-
fast which He had caught and cooked with His own
hands. From this shore, as we saw from a preceding
standpoint (see Note 23), you can see, through the cleft
hills at the west, the Mount of Beatitudes ; and where else
should be the ^^ mountain in Galilee where the Lord had
appointed them," upon which He should speak their
world-wide commission, but this one where He had first
proclaimed the laws of His kingdom and from which He
could see almost all the scenes of His ministry ! Thus the
ministry, which began in Galilean homes in Nazareth and
Capernaum by this lake, and wandered at times to Judea,
Samaria, Tyre, Decapolis and Caesarea Philippi and
which culminated at Jerusalem, completed its circuit by
this last return to the lake in Galilee, which had been its
center all these years.

THE LEADING EVENTS IN THE

LIFE OF JESUS THE KING

WITH APPROXIMATE

DATES

THE LEADING EVENTS IN THE LIFE

OF JESUS THE KING WITH

APPROXIMATE DATES

After Stevens and Burton

THE BOY SOLDIER; in his Home

Jesus was born in Bethlehem — Christmas, B. C. 5.
He was exiled to Egypt — Late winter, B. C. 4.
He came to Nazareth to live — Sometime between
B. C. 2 and A. D. 4.

He visited his Capital — April, A. D. 7.

THE OPENING CAMPAIGN :

He was consecrated in the River Jordan — Summer
of A. D. 26.

He fought the Battle of the Wilderness, with his
great Adversary — immediately afterward.

He chose his first recruits.

He cleansed his Capital — April, A. D. 27.

He helped John, his ally in Judea and Samaria,
April to December, A. D. 27.

THE CAMPAIGN IN GALILEE : With the People

He lived among his People at Capernaum, Decem-
ber, A. D. 27, to the Summer, A. D. 28.

He chose his Generals and issued the Great Procla-
mation to his People — Early summer, A. D. 28.

He gave a Supper to his People by the Lake and
refused an earthly crown, March, A. D. 29.

He retreated into Phoenicia and northern Galilee,
April to September, A. D. 29.

He was seen in his real Glory on Mount Hermon — •
Autumn, A. D. 29.

306 LEADING EVENTS

THE CAMPAIGN IN PEREA : With his Generals

He trained his Generals to extend his Kingdom
—November; A. D. 29, to April, A. D. 30.

THE CAMPAIGN IN JERUSALEM :

With his Enemies

The King entered his Capital in triumph, April 2,
A. D. 30.

He was rejected by his Enemies and betrayed by
one of his Generals, April 6, A. D. 30.

He conquered the last Enemy, April 7, A. D. 30.

His Kingdom began its eternal victory.

INDEX

INDEX

Abraham, 34, 41, 61, 89, 284.

Andrew, 75, 115, 136, 155.

Annas, see Hanan.

Annunciation, The, 54.

Anointing of Jesus by a sinner, 125; by Mary of Beth-
any, 195.

Apostles, The, 112 ; called, 113, 118 ; sent out, 120 ; speak,
135; oppose Jesus, 138; speak, 154; misunderstand
Jesus, 155, 164, 200, 222, 223; mentioned, 177, 190,
195, 205; commended, 216; promise loyalty, 225;
saved by Jesus, 235; forsake Jesus, 237; gather after
the resurrection, 259; go forth as missionaries, 262.

Baptism, 63, 64, 67, 278, 280.

Bar Abbas, 248, 249.

Barak, 24, 287.

Beatitudes, The, 117, 121, 138, 259.

Beatitudes, Mount of, 113, 116; described, 286.

Bethany, 186, 187, 195, 200, 217, 281, 292, 293.

Bethlehem, 28, 54, 170; described, 268.

Bethsaida, Day at, 133; Jesus after the resurrection at,

302.
Boats, 52, 100, 102, 133, 134, 282.
Boy, at Bethsaida, 136 ; at Capernaum, 146 ; at Caesarea,

160; blessed by Jesus, 179.
Boys in the temple, 208.
Bread of Life, 141.
Brothers of Jesus, 19, 57, 97, 142, 169, 187, 200.

Caesar, Julius, 172.
Caesarea Philippi, 153, 286.
Caiaphas, 154, 172, 210, 217, 237, 242.

310 INDEX

Calvary, see Golgotha.

Camping out, 38, 68, 78, 119, 121.

Cana, 80, 119.

Capernaum, 59; described, 83, 100, 111; home of Jesus,

99, 104; mentioned, 98, 140, 146, 149, 153, 187, 287.
Carmel, Mount, 22, 38.
Carpenter work, 52, 53, 54, 57, 156, 167.
Centurion, of Capernaum, 140, 146, 147; at Jerusalem,

171; at the Cross, 255.
Children blessed by Jesus, 179, 294.
Christ, see Jesus.

Cleansing of the Temple, 84, 208.
Clothing described, 17, 18, 61, 158, 201, 254.
Coins, 17, 84, 212, 214, 219, 272.
Crucifixion, The, 251.
Cross used at Passover, 46; mentioned by Jesus, 157;

borne by Jesus, 251.

Damascus, 148.

Dates in Jesus' life, 305, 306.

David, 25, 34, 56, 170; Jesus' ancestor, 27, 56; Jesus

hailed as successor of, 208.
Dead Sea, The, 59, 71, 279.
Deborah, 24.
Decapolis, 104, 149, 259.
Desert, The, 61, 68, 69, 278.
Disciples, The, of Jesus, 112; see Apostles.
Disciples, The, of John, 59, 63, 74, 124, 126, 131, 132.
" Dome of the Rock, The," Jerusalem, 276, 277, 296, 297,

299.

Elijah, 22, 24, 100, 154, 278, 280; at the Transfiguration,

159.
Elisha, 38, 159, 280.
Esdraelon, Plain of, 22, 37, 121, 274; described, 273.

Farmers mentioned, 37.

Feasts, see Temple, Passover, Harvest, 297.

Feeding of the Five Thousand, 135, 289.

INDEX 311

Fishers of Capernaum, 59, 74, 111, 118, 143, 144.

Fishing, 52, 259, 282, 288, 289, 302.

Flowers, 37, 133.

Food described, 53, 136, 260.

Fountain at Nazareth, 17, 272.

Funeral, a game, 20.

Furniture described, 53, 179.

Galilee, 95, 275, 282; Jesus' ministry in, described, 102;
rejects Jesus, 141; mentioned, 150, 172, 204, 244.

Galilee, Lake of, described, 83, 133, 139, 282, 288, 302;
storms upon, 102, 139 ; Jesus beside, after the resurrec-
tion, 259.

Games, 17.

Gerizim, Mount, 40, 92, 284.

Gethsemane, 232, 281; described, 299, 300.

Gideon, 22.

Gilboa, Mount, 23, 26, 38.

Gilead, 22.

Golgotha, 251, 300.

Good Samaritan, Parable of the, 291, 292.

Gospels, of Matthew, 109, 262; Mark, 12; John, 262.

Greeks, 37, 148, 207.

Hanan, 171, 217, 227, 236.
Harvest feast, 188.
Heber, 24.

Hermon, Mount, 21, 153, 290, 291.
Herod Antipas, 123, 135, 169, 244.
Herod the Great, 280.
Herod Philip, 153, 154, 282.
Herodians, 211.
Herodias, 123.

Heroism of Jesus, see Jesus, Heroism of.
Holidays, 17, 33, 52 ; see Feasts.
Holy Land, 274; see also map opposite 267.
Houses described, 19, 29, 53, 104, 179, 180, 269, 272, 285,
286.

312 INDEX

Isaiah quoted, 27, 73, 97.

Jacob, 40.

Jacob's Well, 41, 89; described, 283.

Jairus' daughter healed, 109.

James, mentioned with John.

Jehu, 23.

Jericho, 279.

Jerusalem, journey to described, 36, 203; city described,
42, 276, 293, 295, 298; mentioned, 151, 165, 169, 170,
199; Jesus' entry into, 200; aroused at the death of
Jesus, 252; its destruction prophesied, 215.

Jesus Christ, annunciation of, 54; birth of, 54; name of,
19 ; at play, 17 ; at school, 31 ; going first to Jerusalem,
36, 44; the carpenter, 51; baptism of, 61; temptation
of, 66 ; called the Lamb of God, 64, 76 ; calling his first
friends, 74 ; at the wedding at Cana, 80 ; first cleansing
of the temple, 85; talks with Nicodemus, 88; ministers
in Judea, 89, 95; in Samaria, 89; in Galilee, 95; first
rejected at Nazareth, 96; at Cana, 119; removal of
home to Capernaum, 99 ; calls four disciples, 100 ; tours
Galilee, 101, 119; a day of miracles, 101; chooses the
Twelve, 113; gives the Beatitudes, 116; heals a leper,
118 ; sends out the Twelve, 119 ; at the Pharisee's dinner
is anointed, 125; sends message to John, 127; feeds
the five thousand, 136; is rejected in Galilee, 141; goes
to Phenicia, 143; to Decapolis, 149; to Caesarea, 153;
calls forth a confession from Peter, 155; is transfig-
ured, 158; moves toward Jerusalem, 162; sends out the
Seventy, 166; goes to the harvest feast at Jerusalem,
169; lodging at Bethany, 187; teaches the Lord's
Prayer, 190; teaches in the temple, 172; is driven
from the city, 177; blesses children, 179; raises Laza-
rus, 194; teaches the Twelve in places apart, 177,
178; is anointed at Bethany, 196; enters Jerusalem in
triumph, 199; receives the Greeks, 207; the boys, 208;
his enemies, 209; watches the widow's gift, 214;
prophesies the end of Jerusalem, 215; celebrates the

INDEX 313

Passover, 217; institutes the Lord^s Supper, 228;
prays in Gethsemane, 232; is betrayed and arrested,
235, 236; is tried before Caiaphas, 237; the Sanhedrin,
238; Pilate, 242; Herod, 245; Pilate, 246; is crucified,
251; rises from the dead, 258; appears in Galilee, 259;
is alive forevermore, 263.

Jesus, Character of: ruggedness, 77; kin'^liness, 54;
charm, 18, 29, 81, 101, 122; industry, 54; fidelity, 52,
55, 73, 156, 233; courage, see Heroism; helpfulness,
94, 111; intellectual ability, 208; interest in history,
21, 34, 39; interest in books, 34; interest in man, 90,
168 ; patriotism, 55, 137, 148, 203 ; wide sympathy, 118,
126, 132, 134, 137, 146, 147, 161, 162, 182, 214; love,
112, 132, 162, 182, 186; magnanimity, 253, 254; in-
terest in worship, 43, 44, 84; love of God, 28, 49.

Jesus, Heroism of. Instances : in daily fidelity, 57 ; at the
temptations, 66; in self-effacement at Cana, 81; in
cleansing the temple, 86; in chivalry to sinners, 91; in
facing foes at Nazareth, 99; in the storm, 102; before
a maniac, 103; in refusing an earthly crown, 138; in
facing death, 152, 164, 215 ; in facing his foes at Jeru-
salem, 169, 175, 177, 192, 207 ; in riding into Jerusalem,
204; in rebuking the leaders, 213; in singing at the
Kedron, 230 ; in the Garden, 233 ; in speaking the truth
at the cost of his life, 238 ; at his death, 253.

Jezebel, 22, 28.

Jezreel, see Esdraelon.

John the Baptist, announced, 58 ; described, 61 ; preaches,
62, 63 ; baptizes Jesus, 64 ; his relations with Jesus, 66,
67, 127, 132; tempted, 74, 123, 128; his limitations, 78,
127; sees Jesus for the last time, 83; imprisoned, 89,
123; sends inquiries to Jesus, 124; receives reply from
Jesus, 127; estimate of by Jesus, 127; murdered, 128;
mentioned, 154, 210, 278.

John the Evangelist, described, 75; comes to Jesus, 76;
has a home in Jerusalem, 88; mentioned, 87, 93, 110,
118, 119, 155, 157, 193, 219; called, 115; seeks vi^e-

314 INDEX

royalty, 163, 164, 212; angry, 166; at the Lord's Sup-
per, 223; at the trial of Jesus, 237; at the cross, 254;
adopts Jesus' mother, 257; with Jesus after the resur-
rection, 260; tells Jesus' life, 262; on Patmos, 75.

John Mark, see Mark.

Jonathan, 26.

Joppa, 267, 268.

Jordan, The, 22, 59, 71, 89, 177, 184, 278, 280.

Joseph of Arimathea, 256.

Joseph the Prince, 39, 40, 98, 141.

Joseph of Nazareth, 19, 33, 40, 46; death of, 52.

Joshua the Leader of Israel, 19, 40, 159, 284.

Josiah, 23.

Journeys of Jesus, 275.

Judas Iscariot, 114, 115, 120, 138, 142, 197; betrays
Jesus, 205, 217, 227, 234; remorse of, 240; suicide of,
241.

Judea described, 41; Jesus in, 95; mentioned, 150, 283.

Kedron, 70, 230, 281, 297.

Kingdom of God, expected, 28; announced, 61, 105; its
character, 70, 72, 81, 94, 117, 132, 135, 138, 163, 204,
209; accepted and reigned over by Jesus, 55, 69, 167,
263; worldwide, 148, 215.

Kishon River, 24, 37.

Lamb of God, The, 64, 76.

Law, see Teachers, and Old Testament.

Lazarus, 188, 199.

Lebanon, 148.

Leper healed, 116.

Lepers described, 284.

Lord's Prayer, The, given, 190.

Lord's Supper, The, instituted, 228.

Magi, The, 55.

Maniac restored, 103 ; becomes a missionary, 104, 259.

Mark, 12, 220, 221, 230, 232.

INDEX 315

Martha, 189, 219.

Mary the mother of Jesus, 19, 29, 33, 34, 65; teaches
Jesus, 34; finds Jesus in tlie temple, 49, 50; her daily
life, 53; tells Jesus of his future, 54, 55; attends wed-
ding at Cana, 81 ; removes her home to Capernaum, 82 ;
mentioned, 97, 142, 200, 252, 254; at the cross, 254;
goes to live with John, 257.

Mary the mother of Jude and James, 120, 252.

Mary Magdalene, 120, 252.

Mary of Bethany, 189.

Matthew, 101, 108, 120, 155, 262.

Messiah, The, promised, 28; Jesus thinks of himself as,
65; Jesus acknowledged as, by Peter, 155; also 72, 75,
155.

Moab, 64, 123, 177.

Moses, referred to, 34, 46, 141, 154; at the Transfigura-
tion, 159.

Mothers, 34, 183.

Nain, 119, 287.

Napoleon, 172.

Nathaniel, 88, 155.

Nazareth described, 17, 21, 34, 54, 270; rejects Jesus, 95.

Nicodemus, 47, 83, 172, 237, 256.

Old Testament, studied by Jesus, 32, 51; mentioned, 150,

177.-
Olives, Mount of, 9, 59, 295, 298.

Palace at Jericho, 71; at Tiberias, 83; at Caesarea Phil-

ippi, 21; at Jerusalem, 236, 240.
Palestine, see Holy Land.
Parables, 174, 291, 292.
Paralytic cured, 105.
Passover described, 36, 44, 221, 222; attended by Jesus,

36, 44, 83, 200, 227; mentioned, 134, 137, 142, 195, 196,

200.
Peter, described, 77; comes to Jesus, 77; speaks, 93, 141,

145, 160, 163, 182, 229; Jesus uses his boat, 100;

316 INDEX

gives himself to Jesus, 101; mentioned, 12, 110,
118, 119, 155, 157, 183, 219, 222; called, 114; opposes
Jesus, 138; confesses the Messiah, 155; opposes Jesus,
156; at the Lord's Supper, 223; defends Jesus, 234;
at the trial of Jesus, 236 ; denies Jesus, 239 ; penitence
of, 257; with Jesus after the resurrection, 260, 261;
his vision at Joppa, 268.

Perea, 166, 177, 184, 190.

Pets, 19, 30.

Pharisees described, 124; Simon one of the, 125; oppose
Jesus, 150, 169, 209, 236; mentioned, 175; condemned
by Jesus, 213.

Phenicia, 142, 290.

Philip, 135.

Pilate, 242, 256.

" Pinnacle of the Temple, The,'' 70, 200, 281.

Playmates of Jesus, 17, 31, 36, 55, 59, 95, 99.

Priests, 44, 45, 84, 169, 173, 199, 210.

Prophets lef erred to, 27, 28, 33, 56, 62.

Proverbs of the Jews, 34, 35.

Psalms, 33, 42, 198, 203, 230, 231, 254.

Resurrection, The, 259.
Rich young man, 162.
Roman empire. The, 56, 176.
Roofs, 106, 107, 286.

Sabbath, The, 151, 257.

Sadducees, 151.

Sailors, 143, 144.

Salome, traditional name of Jesus' sister, 33.

Salome, mother of John and James, 120, 164, 252.

Salome, daughter of Herodias, 129.

Samaria described, 39, 40; Jesus in, 39, 89, 166, 190;
mentioned, 120, 150; visited by the Seventy, 166; re-
jects Jesus, 166.

Samuel, 41.

Sanhedrin, The, 171, 210, 236, 238, 241.

INDEX 31?

Saul, 25, 41.

Schools described, 31.

Scriptures, see Old Testament.

Sermon on the Mount, 115.

Seventy, The, 166, 167.

Shepherds, 37, 55, 273.

Sidon, 143.

Siloam, Pool of, 293.

Simon the Leper, 195.

Simon, see Peter.

Simon the Pharisee, 125, 126.

Simon the Zealot, 120.

Singing, 25, 26, 34, 198, 200, 230.

Sisera, 23, 287.

Sisters of Jesus, 19, 33, 97.

Socrates, 252, 253.

Soldiers, 255; see also Centurion.

Superscription on Jesus' cross, 251.

Swords, 221, 225, 234.

Synagogues described, 31, 96, 97.

Syro-Phenician woman, 145.

Tabernacles, 160; see Harvest.

Tabor, Mount, 24, 287.

Teachers of the law, 20, 47, 87, 150.

Temple described, 42, 44, 47, 203; cleansed, 84, 208, 173;
Feast of Rededication of, 176; Jesus preaches in, 173,
177, 208; Jesus leaves, 213; veil rent, 256.

Temple site, see " Dome of the Rock."

Temptations of Jesus, 68, 140, 158, 281.

Temptations of John the Baptist, 74, 123, 128.

Thieves on the Cross, 254.

Thomas, 120, 155, 192.

Tiberias, 282, 288.

Tomb of Jesus, 257, 301, 302.

Transfiguration, The, 159, 291.

Twelve, The, see Apostles.

Tyre, 143, 147, 290.

318 INDEX

Unleavened bread, 45.

Veil of the Temple, 45; rent, 256.
Voice of God, The, 50, 152, 161.

Water jars, mentioned, 18, 90, 93, 220, 223.

Water of Life, 91, 141.

Wedding, a game, 19 ; at Cana, 80, 283 ; parable of, 174,

Widow, 214.

Womanhood, 168, 252.

Zacchaeus, 280.

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