See other formats

Full text of "Life-scenes from the four Gospels"

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 



Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 

Received October, 1894. 
No. S'tL-S'. Cte No. 






^B 

^:'. '.':. 

^f^'lS 



-'^.',v- 

. i -' iBSm 8&m 



"" in the iime of " 

( CHRIST. ^ 






Scale of Miles. 




- 

I' I 



i^MtpripQ 

h . .-V/'.WMM ! t 

^ . > ; | 

t.MCROI$~ ! % 

1 



<*> 



: ?-JtoZZ& I fera 

^KdEgy/i.. 

_ 7/ ^v- Ts^BWAvnWflta^.-^, ) T ?/ AfeL_ 



y.-. // 

ra*fr^^l 

a.BK X 
ry.JJ 




*, 



A /f ^-^^^- S S^ U 

yMM*-.* > niA. 



Retrsheh.i 






\MetJi NzmroA 

\^ 

Jaexef 

JE&Tv 

-T^.7.0 7 *'" 1 " 

BualTfitan 

l ?r v^ 

ZMrt<v. ....... 

*^^ 

f .* 

J^._^0| 
37t i 

*-- t r , 
- ^itwti 

Adiddli 








LIFE-SCENES 



FKOM THE 



FOUR GOSPELS 



THIKD EDITION, 

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



EY 

REV. GEORGE JONES, M. A., 

CHAPLAIN UNITED STATES NAVY. 



UHITB1TSITT 




PHILADELPHIA : 

J. C. GARRIGUES & CO., 

No. 148 SOUTH FOURTH STREET. 

J 868. 



' 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 
EEV. GEOEGE JONES, M.A., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for ths 
Southern District of New York. 



WESTCOTT & THOMSON, 
Stereotypers, Philada. 




PREJE. 



THE object in this book is to give a fulness to the scenes 
in the Gospels by means of the various knowledge which 
modern research has placed within reach ; and also to add 
freshness to them in our minds so much . accustomed to see 
them in one point of view. How far this is regarded as 
having been accomplished will appear in the following 
notice which the first edition has elicited in the " Sunday 
School Times/ 7 Philadelphia, from one of its correspondents. 

"This volume, by the Kev. George Jones, of the United States 
Navy, is replete with information and truly dramatic interest. Every 
statement in it has been subjected to severest tests, and been found to 
consist with the simple truth. 

" It is a graceful and captivating harmony of the gospels, in which 
the reader is carried along from one scene to another with true his- 
toric accuracy, and yet with an interest rivalling that excited by fable 
or romance ; while the careful sketches of the country and the 
customs of those days, introduce the sacred narrative to the mind as 
a new history, full of a reality never before so vividly seen and felt. 
*# * * * * * * 

" The exciting narrative of the whole life of our Lord is never in- 
terrupted, excepting where it is important to give descriptions of the 
country or its customs, and the reader moves along with the story, 
with a perception of its reality, as if he were himself an observer or 
an actor in its scenes. 

" The author has personally visited the land 'he describes, and with 
profound reverence for his subject, apparent on every page, writes 
with such singleness of purpose, simplicity and vividness, as to make 
the work truly ' life scenes from the four gospels. ' 

" Pastors, Sabbath-school teachers and Christians generally will find 
the book very valuable. It has in it a great deal of information 
sought out and selected with indefatigable labor, judgment and integ- 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

rity, and of undisputed authority. It is peculiarly calculated to 
impart a realizing and unwonted perception of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." 

The author must be allowed to acknowledge the great 
satisfaction afforded him by such testimonials received from 
all parts of the country and from persons of all conditions 
of life ; for never before did he put such severe and earnest 
labor, or so much heart into any undertaking as in this. 

While preparing the work he felt greatly encouraged by 
meeting with the following in the writings of others, calling 
it is true, for much more than he could hope to effect ; yet 
showing how much a work in this line of effort was needed. 

From, Canon Stanley's book on Sinai and Palestine. 

" So to delineate the outward events of the Old and New Testa- 
ment, as that they should come home with a new power to those who, 
by long familiarity, have almost ceased to regard them as historical 
truth at all so to bring out their inward spirit that a more com- 
plete realization of their outward form should not degrade but exalt 
the faith of which they are the vehicle this would indeed be an 
object worthy of all labor which travellers and theologians have ever 
bestowed on the East." 

From tJie N. T. " Christian Advocate and Journal" (Methodist) of 
June 1st, 1865. 

" We have never met with a book in which the life of Christ has 

been adequately delineated from the modern point of view 

The materials for illustration are abundantly at hand, and we trust 
one day to see them graphically and vividly employed for that pur- 
pose. The book, if properly executed, would vie in interest with 
any romance; for the tragedy culminating at Calvary is without a 
parallel in all the elements of pathos and sublime incident." 

From a Critique on Kenan's "TAfe of Jesus } " by a Professor in Theology. 

" This life of Jesus, so fascinating to the lovers of romance, may 
also lead Christian thinkers to depict the living Christ more vividly 
in all his human endowments, relations, and sympathies. We are, 
perhaps, too apt to dwell upon him as the centre of doctrines ; to 
substitute the abstract dogma for the living person. The success of 
Kenan's book is, doubtless, in part, to be attributed to the graphic 
beauty with which he depicts the scenes in the midst of which the 



PREFACE. 5 

youth of our Lord was spent ; to the air of living interest he throws 
around the personal narratives and the records of events ; to his use 
of a prolific and cultivated imagination in making resurrection of the 
past, so that it often seems like a present reality. How much more 
perfectly, without inconsistencies and contradictions, might this be 
done by the reverent Christian scholar, imbibing the full spirit of the 
evangelists, and using all the resources of thought and scholarship to 
illustrate the wondrous story of Jesus of Nazareth ! Let this but 
be written in a book, as it is inscribed on every loving and believing 
heart; let the radiant person of our Lord appear in visible majesty 
and grace, and such poor fictions as that of Renan will quickly 
vanish, as do the phantoms of a rayless night before the brightness 
of a rising sun." 

Any one attempting what is required in the above, will 
probably find the result to be far short of his wishes ; but 
if only a small portion is accomplished, still the importance 
of the subjects can make that small part worth the attempt. 

In a work like this, it is of the highest consequence to 
guard against a too free use of the imagination. When a 
certain amount of sure data are allowed in any circum- 
stances of human action or feeling, we may know that 
certain other things will be the accompaniments : and so far 
the author has gone in filling up these life pictures ; taking, 
in connection with this, all that can be gained from 
history, topography, and criticism respecting that country 
and the usages of those times. There is always in such ef- 
forts, a temptation to let the fancy have too much liberty ; 
but the sacredness of the subjects here was too great to allow 
of such indulgence ; and the author has endeavored to be 
constantly on his guard so as to keep to the truth in every 
case. Though wishing to place full and vivid life-scenes 
before the reader, he has felt it to be more important to be 
truthful than to be graphic. 

A scene which he once witnessed himself, has helped in 
the attempt to represent the listening multitudes in those an- 
cient days in Palestine. It is not often that any one has an 
opportunity of seeing a person of mature intellect and 
i * 



6 PREFACE. 

candid mind listening for the first time in his life to the 
Gospel of Christ ; but the author saw this once in the mis- 
sionary church in the centre of Shanghae, in China ; and 
the scene was a singularly interesting one. The missionary 
was preaching in the native language; very soon, a man 
apparently about forty-five years of age and with an open 
and intelligent countenance, rose in the congregation, as if 
unable longer to keep his seat. He stood during the rest of the 
discourse seemingly unconscious of everything but what he 
was listening to, his hands grasping the back of the seat be- 
fore him, his features lighted ,up and showing deep atten- 
tion, and his eyes never once removed from the speaker's 
face, a slight nod of the head frequently giving assent to 
what was said. After the services were over, he followed 
the missionary to his room ; mentioned that he came to the 
city on business from a distant town in the interior ; that a 
friend belonging to the same place had once heard the mis- 
sionaries, and had told him of them ; and that he had come, 
on this occasion, to hear for himself. 

It is true that no man can ever approximate to the power 
over an audience by him, of whom his enemies themselves 
declared that " never man spake like this man ;" but yet 
that sight showed in some slight degree, what may have been 
the scenes in Palestine when the 'crowds were following the 
Messiah, and listening to his preaching. It has been with 
the author constantly, while writing this book ; that in- 
tent face, that rapt attention, those glistening eyes, that sur- 
prised and pleased look, and those nods of assent. 

As respects the order of events in this work, that in Rob- 
inson's Harmony of the Gospels has been followed after com- 
paring it with works of a similar kind. For the purpose 
of enabling the reader to form a judgment for himself re- 
specting the truthfulness of the scenes depicted, references 
are given throughout to authorities, especially in the Scrip- 
tures themselves. 



PREFACE. 7 

The first edition of this book was in a cheap form, as it 
was but an experiment, and the author could not tell how 
the effort would be received : but the commendations from 
every direction lead him now to reproduce the volume 
somewhat enlarged and in better style of publication, and 
with pictorial illustrations of places and modes of life. 
These last have been prepared with great care, and in accor- 
dance with only the best authorities ancient and modern : 
they are it is believed correct representations : nothing has 
been introduced in them merely for the sake of pictorial 
effect. GEORGE JONES. 

UNITED STATES NAVAL ASYLUM, 
PHILADELPHIA, May Nth, 1867. 



Among the numerous books referred to as authorities in addition to the 

Scriptures it may be well to give here the following titles more in detail: 

H. S.Alford: "The Greek Testament, with a critically revised text and a 
critical commentary." 

8. T. Bloomfield: "The Greek Testament, with English notes, critical, philo- 
logical, and exegetical." 

Adam Clarke : Commentary on the Scriptures. 

Home: Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, by Thos. Hartwell Home, M. A. 

John : Introduction to the Old Testament from the Latin and Greek works 
of John Jahn, with additional references and notes by S. H. Turner 
D. D. and W. R. Whittingham, D. D. 

Jahn: Biblical Archaeology, translated by T. C. Upham. 

Josephus : Works of Flavius Josephus, translated by William Whiston, A. M. 

Lightfoot: The whole works of Rev. John Lightfoot. (9 vols.)Edited by 
J. R. Pitman. 

Olin: Travels in Egypt, Arabia, Petrea and the Holy Land, by Rev. Stephen 
Olin, D. D. 

F. A. D. Ohhausen : Biblical Commentary on the Gospels. 

Robinson & Smith: Biblical Researches in Palestine, <fcc. 

F. A. D. Tholuck: Commentary on the Gospel of Saint John. 

W. H. Thomson: The Land and the Book. 

Van de Velde: Narrative of a Journey through Syria and Palestine. . 



ILLUSTKATIONS. 



PAGS 
1. PHYLACTERIES * 

2. PROFILE SECTION OF PALESTINE EAST AND WEST 48 

3. PROFILE SECTION OF PALESTINE NORTH AND SOUTH 49 

4. MEZUZA 68 

5. REBATED WALL, CHARACTERISTIC OF JEWISH ARCHITECTURE: 

FRONT VIEW AND PROFILE SECTION 112 

6. PLAN OF HEROD'S TEMPLE 115 

7.-REMAINS OF THE BRIDGE CONNECTING THE TEMPLE WITH MOUNT 

ZION 117 

8. VESTIBULE TO UNDERGROUND PASSAGE LEADING UPWARD TO THE 

ANCIENT TEMPLE COURTS 117 

9. JEWS' PRAYING PLACE AT THE FOOT OF THE ANCIENT TEMPLE WALLS. 123 
10. UNDERGROUND RESERVOIRS RECENTLY DISCOVERED BENEATH THE 

SITE OF THE TEMPLE 124 

11. MOUNTS GERIZIM AND EBAL, JACOB'S WELL AND JOSEPH'S TOMB.... 136 

12. NAZARETH AS IT IS NOW: VIEWED FROM THE SOUTH-EAST 142 

13. MAP OF THE LAKE OF GALILEE AND ADJOINING COUNTRY 149 

14. VIEW OF THE LAKE OF GALILEE, HERMON, Ac., FROM THE SOUTH 152 

15. PLAN OF A DAMASCUS HOUSE *. 166 

16. NTAIN, PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND MOUNT TABOR: VIEWED FROM THE 

EAST 190 

17. POOL OF SILO AM AS IT IS NOW: VIEWED FROM THE SOUTH-EAST 230 

18. BETHLEHEM AS IT IS NOW: VIEWED FROM THE NORTH 239 

19. BETHANY AS IT IS NOW: VIEWED FROM THE SOUTH 248 

20. THE SYRIAN SYCAMORE 290 

21. MAP OF JERUSALEM AND ITS PRECINCTS 297 

22. VIEW OF JERUSALEM AS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE TIME OF CHRIST.... 302 
23. VIEW OF THE MOUNT OF OLIVES, THE TEMPLE, &c., AT THE TIME OF 

CHRIST'S PUBLIC ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 312 

24. ROMAN DENARIUS (" PENNY") 320 

25. THE FLAGELLUM 3FF> 

8 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEE I. 

AT THE JORDAN. 

PAGl 

John bap izing The river described Peculiar significance in this bap- 
tism of Jeivi Expectation among other nations as well as in Judea, 
that i great Conqueror was, at that time, to appear Circumstances 
to give it peculiar interest now Acts of Pilate 17-21 

CHAPTEK II. 

AT THE JORDAN. 

People flocking to the baptisms The Jewish hopes of universal con- 
quest not to be considered as extravagant John's appearance His 
annunciations draw closer attention to the prophecies The result 
Christ at the Jordan Suggestions concerning his personal appear- 
ance 21-32 

CHAPTEE III. 
THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. 

Description of it The Messiah led there to be tempted The inter- 
mingling of the supernatural with natural Our proper position 
regarding such things 32-36 

CHAPTEE IV. 

AT THE JORDAN. 

The deputation to John from the Sanhedrim The Pharisees and Saddu- 
cees described John is questioned, and his replies...., 37-46 

CHAPTEE V. 

CONDITION OF PALESTINE. 

That country central, and yet singularly isolated History Judea 
finally becomes a Koman province 47-58 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

JEWISH MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 

PAOB 

Great religious changes wrought by the captivity Dress Manners 
Education Jewish physiognomy The Mezuza 58-68 

CHAPTER VII. 

JEWISH FESTIVALS. 

Not so burdensome as they appear to us How they journeyed to them 
Some observances on their arrival 68-80 

CHAPTER VIII. 

OVERCLOUDING OF THE JEWISH MIND. 
The Oral Law and its Power The Talmuds 81-88 

CHAPTER IX. 

JOST, A MODERN JEWISH HISTORIAN. 
His views of that period: of the Baptist: of Christ 88-94 



CHAPTER X. 

AT THE JORDAN. 

Agitations, queries and doubts among the multitudes Discipleship 
commenced Various circumstances of it Cephas Nathaniel's ques- 
tion 95-100 

CHAPTER XI. 

AT CAN A IN GALILEE. 

Why Christ chose Galilee for the beginning of his ministry; and 
why such discipleship "What Josephus says of Galilee Christ at a 
Marriage feast The sensations in the company The question re- 
specting wines 100-109 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE TEMPLE. 

The first, second, and third Temples The last described Eecent explo- 
rations beneath 110-125 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE TEMPLE CLEANSED. 

Abominations in its courts Cattle, money-changers, &c Christ corrects 
the evil..., .. 126-130 



CONTENTS. \ I 

CHAPTER XIV. 

NICODEMUS. 

PACK 

Night-visit from this ruler John imprisoned 130-134 

CHAPTEK XV. 

IN SAMARIA AND GALILEE. 

Jesus passes through Samaria Claims the Messiahship Goes thence 
to Cana Cures a nobleman's son 134-140 

CHAPTEK XVI. 

AT NAZARETH. 

Plain of Esdraelon described Situation of Nazareth Christ preaches 
there in the Synagogue Claims the Messiahship The result 141-148 

CHAPTEK XVII. 

THE LAKE OF GALILEE, CAPERNAUM. 

The lake described Plain of Gennesaret Question about the situation 
of Capernaum 148-166 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

AT CAPERNAUM AND THROUGH GALILEE. 

Evening scene at Capernaum The Messiah goes through Galilee 
preaching and healing Leper healed 157-165 

CHAPTER XIX. 

AT CAPERNAUM THE PARALYTIC HEALED. 

How eastern houses are built The paralytic placed before Christ and 
healed The Pharisees and Doctors of the Law startled 165-171 

CHAPTER XX. 

AT JERUSALEM ; ALSO AT CAPERNAUM. 

Christ goes to the Passover Heals a man at the pool of Bethesda 
League between Pharisees and Herodians to put the Messiah to death 
He returns to Capernaum Heals many there 171-178 

CHAPTER XXI. 

SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 

Also the teachings of their Eabbis He heals the servant of a centu- 
rion..., 179-188 



1 2 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXII. 
AT NAIN. 

PAGE 

Situation of this city Ceremonies at Jewish funerals Only son of a 
widow restored to life 188-194 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

CASTLE OF MACHERUS JOHN'S DEATH. 
Messengers from John to Christ The end of the Baptist 194-198 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE TWO DINNERS. 

Christ makes another journey through Galilee Dines with a Pharisee, 
and the scene there He crosses the lake Storm; the sea calmed by 
his word Dinner with Levi Healings Another circuit through 
Galilee Again comes to Nazareth : 199-207 

CHAPTER XXV. 
"LET us MAKE HIM A KING." 

He crosses the lake Five thousand fed miraculously They would make 
him a king Storm on the lake He walks on the water Many 
healings Four thousand miraculously fed 207-216 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE TRANSFIGURATION. 
He goes to Csesarea Philippi The Transfiguration there 216-222 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

DISPUTE AMONG THE APOSTLES ON THE WAY BACK 
TO GALILEE. 

His mode of instructing them He goes through Samaria Ten lepers 
healed 222-227 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

JERUSALEM FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 

This feast described Dancing in the temple court as part of it 227-234 



CONTENTS. 13 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE MESSIAH AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 

PAGE 

Teaches there Officers sent by the rulers to watch him; the result. 234-245 
CHAPTER XXX. 

BETHANY AND THE ROAD TO JERICHO. 

Situation of Bethany The road to Jericho described Parable of the 
Good Samaritan. 246-252 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE MAN BORN BLIND. 

Different kinds of excommunication The blind man healed Conse- 
quences 252-259 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE FEAST OF DEDICATION. 

Why instituted Christ preaching at the temple Attempt at violence 
upon him He goes to Perea 259-263 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

RAISING OF LAZARUS. 

Message to Christ from Bethany Death of Lazarus Scenes then and 
afterwards at Bethany Lazarus raised 263-271 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

IN EPHRAIM AND PEREA. 

Many teachings and parables in these places Healing also Receives 
and blesses little children 271-278 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

JERICHO. 

The richness and beauty of its plain 278-286 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE MESSIAH AT JERICHO BLIND MEN HEALED. 

Zaccheus Startling rumor that the kingdom of heaven was immedi- 
ately to appear Bartimeus 286-291 

2 



14 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEK XXXVII. 

JERUSALEM DESCRIBED. 

PAG* 

Its picturesque appearance as seen from the Mount of Olives Recent 
explorations under the city 295-306 

CHAPTEK XXXVIII. 

THE PUBLIC ENTRY. 

The road across the Mount of Olives Christ goes from Bethany to Jeru- 
salem Multitudes meeting and attending him Their hosannas He 
weeps over the city Goes to the Temple Healings there Shouts of 
hosanna Indignation of the priests and Scribes 306-316 

CHAPTEE XXXIX. 

AT THE TEMPLE WOES DENOUNCED. 

Christ again cleanses the temple The Pharisees wish to put Lazarus 
also to death They unite again with the Herodians Woes denounced 
against them and the Scribes He predicts his sufferings The Hero- 
ism of Christianity 316-327 

CHAPTER XL. 
THE PLOT. 

They are determined to take the Messiah by subtilty and put him to 
death Difficulties in the way Their law for trials Their plot List 
of the high priests 327-335 

CHAPTER XLI. 

SUPPER AT BETHANY JUDAS. 

Christ's head and feet anointed at the supper Indignation of Judas 
His probable course of reasoning He bargains to betray Christ.. 335-340 

CHAPTER XLII. 

THE PASSOVER FEAST. 

Its origin The posture at table Christ and the Apostles at this supper 
He washes their feet Judas unmasked Usual order of the supper 
The Christian Eucharist instituted 340-352 

CHAPTER XLIIL 

GETHSEMANE. 

The Messiah and eleven disciples retire to this place His prayers there 
The sweat of blood Is seized and bound.... .. 352-358 



CONTENTS. 15 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

HALL OF CAIAPHAS. 

PAGE 

The Messiah taken to the house of Annas, and why Thence to the palace 
of Caiaphas The trial there The adjuration by the high priest 
The result Christ's claims to the Godhead throughout his preachings 
Peter denies his Lord His remorse 358-368 

CHAPTEK XLV. 

THE TRIAL BEFORE PILATE. 

This to be the Chagigah, or great day of rejoicing by the Jews The 
ceremony of cutting the first-fruits The regular Sanhedrim council 
The Messiah before them Formally condemned Taken before 
Pilate The governor's character by Philo The Trial there Christ 
is sent, next, before Herod Antipas Scene there Is returned to Pi- ^ 
late His crucifixion demanded How that punishment was regarded 
by the Romans Pilate yields to the demand, and gives sentence 
Judas and the Sanhedrim 368-383 

CHAPTEK XLVI. 

THE CRUCIFIXION. 

The usual scourging preparatory j how severe The Messiah is taken to 
the place of crucifixion Nailing to the cross The agonies attending 
such a death Darkness over the land The final agony and cry 
Earthquake The centurion's exclamation The side pierced "Be- 
hold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world".. 383-396 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

THE BURIAL. 

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus place the body in a new sepulchre 
The women follow it, and sit by the tomb The Jewish rulers pro- 
cure a guard, and seal the tomb How this night closed over Jerusa- 
lem..., .. 397-405 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

THE RESURRECTION. 

Moon near the full The guards at the tomb An angel appears The 
resurrection The guards bribed, and a false report sent abroad The 
Sanhedrim never dared to make issue with the apostles on this sub- 
ject. 405-4H 



1 6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEK XLIX. 

AFTER THE RESURRECTION THE ASCENSION. 

PACK 

The Saviour is seen repeatedly through forty days after his resurrection 
Galilee chosen for the Great Commission and the great promise 
The final manifestation of himself at the Mount of Olives His 
ascension 411-426 

CHAPTER L. 
"WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?" 

The account of him in the Gospels must have been from actual life 
Evidences for the Gospels, from early heathen writings : from Chris- 
tian writers of same time Notices of the evangelists The conclu- 
sion..., ... 426-410 



UHIVBRSIT7] 



LIFE-SCENES 



CHAPTER I. 
AT THE JORDAN. 

FT! HERE was a very strange scene at the banks of the 
Jordan. The time of which we are writing was about 
eighteen hundred and thirty-seven years ago ; and the scene 
referred to was a large gathering of excited people around a 
man of singular appearance, who was making a most won- 
derful announcement, and was engaging in a baptismal rite 
of startling significance. He was a gaunt ascetic; in his 
dress and manner, and in his authoritative language, remind- 
ing all who saw and heard him of the old prophets; and, 
indeed, in his appearance so much resembling Elijah, that 
the query was immediately started in every man's mind, 
whether he was not actually that prophet risen from the 
dead. The idea of such a resurrection of Elijah was 
familiar to the minds of the Jews; for the belief had long 
been universal among them that, restored to life, he would 
be the precursor of their expected Messiah. This man was 
proclaiming, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand." It was believed by the Jews that, at the appearing 
of the Messiah, they were to be initiated by baptism into 
the new dispensation of his kingdom; 1 and here, now, they 



1 Bloomfield on Matt. iii. 1. 
2* 17 



l8 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

were called to come and to be baptized ; and numbers, after 
confessing their sins, were led down into the Jordan for that 
rite. 

The scenery all around was in character with the strange 
performer in this ceremony; a desert spot, represented by 
a modern traveller to that region as a dreary waste., " weird, 
and singularly wild and impressive/ 7 The Jordan is a very 
peculiar stream. After issuing from the Lake of Tiberias, 
which is itself 652 feet below the level of the Mediterra- 
nean, its course is southwardly, in a valley called by the 
present natives El Ghor, or "the depression,' 7 five or six 
miles wide, and sunk from 1000 to 1200 feet below the 
adjacent country. Running lengthwise in the Ghor is a 
second valley, depressed below it to a depth of fifty feet, 
and with a width of 400 yards; and then, sunk again in 
this, and winding about in a most tortuous manner, is the 
channel of the river. The stream has an average width of 
fifty-six yards, with commonly a depth of from three to five 
feet. The current is usually rapid, for the distance between 
the Lake of Tiberias and the Dead Sea is, in a straight line, 
sixty miles, and the descent between them is 660 feet. 
Sometimes the stream presents cataracts, at others it expands 
and has a gentle flow. Where it is rapid, the bottom con- 
sists of rock or sand. The channel is fringed at its imme- 
diate sides with rushes or cane, and also with willows and 
similar trees, which, in the utter barrenness around, are a 
pleasant relief to the eye. Such is the stream so often 
referred to in our hymnology, and so dear, by its associations, 
to every Christian heart. Its channel being so far below 
the level of the Ghor that its water never overflows into the 
latter; and this wide valley having no springs, the region is 
mostly a scene of desolation, and appears to have been so in 
the earliest times. 1 The soil at the spot we have now under 



1 See Josephns De bello, iii. 10, I 7. 



AT THE JORDAN. 19 

consideration is described by modern travellers as "unfertile, 
and in many places encrusted with salt, and having small 
heaps of white powder, like sulphur, scattered at short 
intervals over its surface." 1 The hills bounding the Ghor 
are generally abrupt and broken, and are always naked and 
painful to the eye. On the east they are soon succeeded by 
ranges 2000 or 2500 feet in height; and, back of these, is 
finally the very lofty range of Mount Nebo, its summit 
forming a horizontal line smooth and unbroken, as if an 
immense wall had there been built up against the sky. 

This will give us an idea of the wildness and desolation 
of the spot called in the Scriptures "the Wilderness of 
Judea," where this strange man was now proclaiming his 
startling doctrines, and was administering baptism in the 
Jordan. His cry that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, 
quickly repeated throughout Judea, and also in the regions 
bordering eastwardly on the river valley, sent a thrill 
through every Jewish heart, and met there a ready response : 
for there had been an expectancy of this kind universally 
cherished by the Jews (a temporal kingdom however), and 
indeed, not confined to them alone. PERCREBUERAT, says 
the Roman historian, Suetonius, ORIENTE TOTO, VETUS ET 

CONSTANS OPINIO ESSE IN FATIS, UT EO TEMPORE JlJDEA 

PROFECTI RERUM POTIRENTUR : There' had been greatly 
multiplied through all the East an old uninterrupted opinion, 
originating in the decree of the Fates, that, at this time, persons 
coming from Judea should obtain universal dominion? Tacitus 
informs us that the multitude [in Judea] relied upon an ancient 
prophecy, contained, as they believed, in books kept by the 
priests, in which it was foretold that, at this time, the power of 
the East would prevail over the nations, and a race of men 



1 Eobinson's Bib. Researches. This Description of the Ghor and 
Jordan is drawn from Kobinson, Van de Velde, and the Dead Sea Expe- 
dition. 

2 In Vespas. 



20 LIFE- SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

should go forth from Judea to extend ilieir dominion over all 
ilie rest of the world. 1 Joseph us says: But now what did 
most elevate them [the Jews} in this war was an ambiguous 
oracle that was also found in their sacred writings , how, about 
that time y one from their country should become governor of the 
habitable world. 2 

These expectations, it is evident, had reference only to an 
earthly sovereignty; but as such they met even a heartier 
response among the Jews than any of a more spiritual 
character would have done; for the nation was just beginning 
to feel the full terrors of the Roman power, which had 
enclosed them in its iron embrace, and from which they 
knew there was no escape by human aid. Their indepen- 
dence may be said to have been fully bartered away for 
Eoman favor by Herod the Great. Archelaus, his successor 
to part of his kingdom, was deposed by Augustus Caesar, 
and banished to Gaul; and Roman governors were appointed 
to Judea; the sceptre having clearly, to every perception, 
departed, and their country now become only a Roman 
province, from which successive rulers tried who could exact 
the most. Roman soldiers were scattered, in garrison, in 
various parts; tax-gatherers ("publicans") were to be seen 
everywhere, and were constantly, to the eyes of the oppressed 
inhabitants, reminders of their subjection to foreign power, 
and were hated, not only for this, but for their unjust 
exactions; and most alarming of all, aii act of their present 
governor, Pontius Pilate, had shown them how insecure 
were their religious observances, and how exposed they were 
to the violation of the most cherished feelings of their 
nation. * Their law forbade their paying any homage to 
images; and the former governors, when ordering the Roman 
soldiers to Jerusalem, had directed them to come without 
the standards surmounted by the emperor's effigies, to which, 



1 Hist, lib v. 12. 2 j) e bel]O) vi 



AT THE JORDAN. 21 

when seen, honors were always required to be paid. Pilate, 
aware of this hostility to images, had recently directed his 
soldiers to be introduced into the city by night; 1 and morn- 
ing disclosed the hated effigies in Jerusalem, and in the 
castle of Antonia adjoining the temple enclosure itself. 
Horror seized upon all the people, and a deputation hastened 
with remonstrances to the governor at Csesarea. He treated 
their act as an insult to the emperor, and had the deputies 
surrounded by his soldiers; but the effort to overawe them 
was futile; they fell to the ground and offered their necks to 
the sword, rather than yield; and, finally, the obnoxious 
emblems were withdrawn. Afterwards, when the governor, 
seizing on some of the revenues of the temple, employed 
them in bringing water to the city, the inhabitants shocked 
at such use of the sacred treasures, rose in tumult; a collision 
with the soldiers was the consequence, and great havoc 
among the unarmed multitudes ensued. 



CHAPTER II. 
AT THE JORDAN. 

IT is not wonderful therefore, that just at this time the 
national heart was ready to be acted upon by such a 
scene as that at the Jordan, where the prophet-like man 
stood calling people to the cleansing of their hearts as a 
preparation for the new, significant rite connected with the 
coming of their expected great Deliverer; and that multi- 
tudes flocked to him from regions far and near. He had 



1 Jos. Antiq. xviii. 3, \ 1. 



22 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

selected a spot called Bethabara, or the house of the ford,* 
seemingly a thoroughfare, while also a place remote from 
such complications as might arise from crowded neighbor- 
hoods: and there, where all nature in its sternness harmo- 
nized with him and with the severe simplicity of his call 
and his act, he was soon surrounded by crowds "from 
Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about 
Jordan." They saw a man with only a garment of rough 
camel's hair such as was worn by the poorest, fastened by a 
leathern girdle; locusts and wild honey for his food. Lo- 
custs are still eaten in Syria, chiefly, however, by the Beda- 
win on the extreme frontiers of the desert, where after being 
semi-boiled and salted and dried, they are packed up and 
kept for use. They may be seen in the Syrian shops for 
sale, but are always considered as an inferior food, and are 
eaten only by persons of the poorest class. 2 This man had 
been brought up in the desert, and he still adhered to this 
abstemious food. 

Baptism was not unknown to the Jews, for it is generally 
admitted to have been a rite in use among them for the 
admission of proselytes, 3 and it was practiced by the Per- 
sians and other oriental nations. Josephus informs us of 
the Essenes, a noted sect in his nation, that "when 
a proselyte hath given evidence during that time of trial 
[a year] that he can observe their continence, he approaches 
nearer to their way of living, and is made a partaker of the 
waters of purification." 4 But the Essenes were a sect few 
in number and living in retired places; and these baptismal 

1 Van de Velde supposes Bethabara to have been at the present ford 
on the way from Nablus (Sychera) to Es Salt, about twenty miles above 
the Pilgrims' bathing-place near Jericho. He bases this opinion on the 
time (two days and a half) allowed in John ii. 1, in going from the bap- 
tismal scene, to Cana in Galilee. The width of the Jordan at this spot 
is 56 yards ; the depth about four feet. 

2 Thompson's Land and the Book. 3 Bloomfield. 
* De Bello, ii. 8, \ 7. 



AT THE JORDAN. 23 

scenes at the Jordan had evidently a significance different 
from anything which the nation had previously known. 
The prophet-like man gave them their significance, corres- 
ponding to the general belief of the dispensation to be 
inaugurated by the Messiah. 

That desert was now solitary no more. Crowds were 
flocking to it; for the cry of the Baptist that the kingdom 
of heaven was at hand, repeated over all the country, had 
startled the people out of the lethargy wrought by oppres- 
sions, or by a fear that God had withdrawn from them; 
for, during a period of 400 years, there had been no prophet 
in Israel. 

John the Baptist looked as if he might well be Elijah 
himself; so like him in this hairy dress, in his manner, in 
his authoritative proclamation ; and yet he was speaking of 
himself humbly, saying that one was coming immeasurably 
greater than he. 

What might the nation not expect? What hopes could 
be too extravagant to be indulged? We must not think 
them insane in their expectation of an universal dominion; 
for they believed that it had been promised by Jehovah, and 
almost every spot in their land bore testimony to God's 
former powerful action in their behalf. Just below this 
place, where John was baptizing, God had divided the deep 
waters of the Jordan in its rapid flow, and had kept them 
divided till his people had passed over dry-shod; there, 
Jericho had fallen simply by his almighty will ; their history 
was full of his direct interpositions for their advantage, 
what would he not do for them now, if the Messiah himself, 
the Prince, were to appear? 

Those eastern people are excitable and demonstrative, and, 
in their common moods, seem often to strangers to be wildly 
emotional ; and we may imagine the scene, as people hurried 
to the river and gazed on John with an intensity of feeling 
that had never before been raised in them by any man; and 



24 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

listened to his call to repentance and the reasons for it, and 
witnessed his baptisms; saw the penitents descend, with 
the sadness of grief in their faces; and saw them come up 
from the river, comforted and cheerful. Such feelings are 
contagious; and every new-comer felt in himself the need 
of penitence, and longings for relief that could be bestowed 
only by a power not of earth. 

The teachings of John were plain and simple. As a 
proof of penitence and of changed feelings in those apply- 
ing to him, he inculcated benevolence and kind acts : " He 
that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; 
and he that hath meat let him do likewise." 

The crowd around him was a mixed one; men among 
them shunned by their neighbors, looked down upon with 
dislike by almost every one in the nation, and yet with 
human feelings, and with the same longings as others to 
shake off the load of guilt and to be comforted. Such were 
the "publicans" who presented themselves before the Bap- 
tist. We can almost see their hesitating manner, their 
subdued look, and their timid approach. They were not 
repelled. No harshness shown, simply the injunction given, 
in order to prove the truth of their penitence: "Exact no 
more than is appointed you." 

Soldiers also came, with that old question of the human 
heart wanting relief, "What shall we do?" The Roman 
garrisons in Judea were drawn partly from Italy, but were 
chiefly composed of Syrians from the north of Palestine, or 
of foreign wanderers who had strayed into the country; and 
generally there was no good will between them and the 
Jews. But there were exceptions, such as we may see 
shortly after this, in the case of Cornelius of the Italian 
band. The soldiers at the Jordan pressed on towards the 
Baptist; for the powerful sympathies of the place had 
seized on them, and had changed their bold, fierce nature 
into one of humble inquiry. The crowds gazed earnestly, 



AT THE JORDAN. 25 

as they advanced. How would these men, famed for rapacity 
and violence, be received? Some looked on them with 
indignation at their presumption in intruding on such scenes; 
some with the cordiality begot by the new feelings at the 
baptism; all with deep interest as the Baptist addressed 
them. His words had a latent reproof, and yet were gentle. 
a Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be 
content with your wages." The rite was open to all coming 
in penitence. 

But there was suddenly a change in the character of this 
scene. A sensation was created among the multitudes by 
the approach of men of rank and power, who came 011 
proudly in the consciousness of their position, Pharisees 
with high pretensions to sanctity which they carried osten- 
tatiously in the large phylacteries on their foreheads and 
arms, and in the width of the borders to their garments 
drawing attention to their unusual observance of the Mosaic 
law (see Numbers xv. 37-41); also Sadducees proud of 
their wealth and assumed superior intelligence. Both 
undisguisedly despised the ranks inferior to them. The 
multitudes drew back as this newly arrived party swept 
haughtily on; and presently these caught the eye of the 
Baptist. 

What a change there was in him! How his eyes lighted 
up; how indignant the expression of his face; how changed 
was his voice from its former gentleness! And his words 
were stunning. " O brood of vipers, who hath warned you 
to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits 
meet for repentance: and think not to say within yourselves, 
We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God 
is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees ; 
therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is 
hewn down and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you 
with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is 



26 LIfE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he 
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; 
whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his 
floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn 
up the chaff with unquenchable fire/' 

The whole scene by the Jordan was becoming more and 
more confounding to people's apprehensions; for, not only 
had the bold ascetic stigmatized these Jewish leaders in a 
manner that must excite their wrath, but he had even seemed 
to cast disrespect on all claims arising from Abrahamic 
descent. He had ended also with words of terrific import 
respecting approaching events, when all false pretensions 
w r ould be scattered to the winds, and those who held them 
would be fearfully and eternally punished. Fear, awe, and 
a new sense of shrinking respect for the Baptist, crept 
through the hearts of the multitudes, while yet they con- 
tinued to be attracted by his general mildness and forbear- 
ance, and his gentleness to the truly penitent coming forward 
for the baptismal rite. 

The news of these scenes still continued to spread over 
the country, and crowds were still hurrying from all parts 
of it to that wild, dreary region, already filled with excited, 
wondering throngs. 

But who was this man, whose fame was now filling the 
land? People were asking the question everywhere, and 
the results of inquiry disclosed some very interesting facts. 

John's b'irth had been in the old age of his parents, and 
had been heralded by an angel. His father, a priest, while 
administering at the altar of incense in the temple, had seen 
the heavenly visitant who announced the approaching birth 
of the child, and said that he should be great in the sight 
of the Lord, and should be filled with the Holy Ghost. 
"And," continued the angel, "many of the children of 
Israel shall be turned to the Lord their God. And he shall 
go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the 



AT THE JORDAN. 27 

hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to 
the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared 
for the Lord." The father was struck dumb, at the time, 
on account of his unbelief; but recovered speech when the 
child, eight days after its birth, was brought to the temple, 
where, contrary to the expectations of relatives, he named 
his son John, according to the direction of the angel. These 
incidents were widely known at the time "throughout all 
the hill country of Judea," and produced dread as well as 
astonishment in the minds of the people. 1 He was, accord- 
ing to j:he direction of the angel, to " drink neither wine 
nor strong drink ;" and his training is believed to have been 
in that most desolate region called the " Wilderness of 
Judea," where probably he associated much with the Essenes, 
a singular people, living chiefly at the only verdant spot in 
that desert the fountain and ravine of En-Gedi, on the 
borders of the Dead Sea. In this desert 2 he "grew strong 
in spirit," and was prepared for his present work of teaching 
and baptizing. He was now about thirty years old, the age 
at which the Jewish priests entered upon the temple duties 
according to their law. 

Josephus says of him, that he "was a good man, and 
commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteous- 
ness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to 
come to baptism; for that the washing would be acceptable 
to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting 
away of some sins only, but for the purification of the body ; 
supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified before- 
hand by righteousness." 3 



1 His birth is supposed by Robinson and Reland to have been at Juttah 
(Joshua xxi. 16,) a town about five miles south of Hebron, and twenty- 
five miles south of Jerusalem. 

2 Luke i. 80. 

8 Antiq. xviii. 5, 2. Josephus gives John's popularity as the cause 
for Herod's putting him to death, "since," as he says, "they came in 



28 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

His exhortations were various ; ! but they all pointed 
clearly to the Messiah as now about to appear ; he asked 
no honors for himself; they were all to be given to one yet 
to come. In his recent address to the Pharisees and Saddu- 
cees, he sppjke of himself as immeasurably inferior to him 
whose appearance he was heralding ; for to bear the shoes 
of a master in that country was the task assigned to the 
meanest of servants, and yet the Baptist declared himself 
not even worthy of such an office as that. Therefore, while 
curiosity with regard to John was stimulated among this 
demonstrative people to the highest degree, it took a still 
more intense form as regarded the tenor of his predictions. 
The excitement among all classes was great. Their Kabbis 
pearched the Scriptures, and especially the prophecies, with 
an interest suited to their wonderful expectations of earthly 
glory and power to come with the Messiah, to their hatred 
of the Roman government, and to their felt position among 
all the nations of the earth : for the Jews were everywhere 
a slighted and despised people; while, on the other hand, 
" towards the rest of mankind," says Tacitus, " they nourished 
a sullen and inveterate hatred of strangers." 2 

The dying words of their great progenitor, Jacob, had 
been, ever since his time, dwelling as a perpetual hope in 
the national heart "The sceptre shall not depart from 
Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh 
come ; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." 3 

The sceptre had departed : was Shiloh now there, as John 
declared ? There was also a passage in Daniel pointing 
with peculiar significancy to the present time ; and every- 



crowds about him, for they were greatly moved by hearing his words;" 
and "they seemed to do anything he should advise;" and the king 
"thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he 
might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties by sparing a man who 
might make him repent of it when it should be too late." 
1 Luke iii. 18. 2 Hist. v. 5. s Gen. xlix. 10. 



AT THE JORDAN. 29 

where people were now searching, with new interest, into 
his prophetic words. " Seventy weeks," says that prophet, 
" are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, 
to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to 
make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting 
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and 
to anoint the Most Holy. Know, therefore, and understand 
that from the going forth of the commandment to restore 
and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, 
shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks." 1 
Allowing years for days, the seventy weeks or four hundred 
and ninety years from the edict of Artaxerxes for rebuilding 
the city (B. C. 458) would bring the time for the appearing 
of the " Messiah the Prince" exactly to this period. 

Thus all prophecy and all history were in harmony with 
John's annunciations respecting the Messiah ; even foreign 
nations were expecting the advent of the Jewish Deliverer. 
How would he appear? How spread his worldly con- 
quests ? How flash over the earth the glory of his reign ? 
were questions that had long been discussed in the Jew- 
ish schools ; all with results tending to make the Jewish 
mind earthly and selfish. The whole nation was in a state 
of intense expectancy. 

The Messiah came. 

But how different he was from what the excited Jewish 
anticipations had pictured of his appearing! 

Their favorite prophet had declared of him 780 years be- 
fore, "When we shall see him, there is no beauty that we 
should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a 
man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it 
were our faces from him ; he was despised, and we esteemed 
him not." 2 For the purpose of our redemption God saw 
fit that it should be so; but, notwithstanding that this pro- 



1 Dan. ix. 24, 25. ' Isaiah :iii. 2 and 3. 

3 * 



30 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

phecy was familiar to the Jews, still what a chasm between 
this actual appearing and that which they expected the ap- 
pearing of the Messiah would be ! 

One day, amid those crowds at the Jordan, a stranger 
from Galilee presented himself for baptism ; but John drew 
back 

" I have need," he said, " to be baptized of thee, and 
comest thou to me ?" The answer was simply : 

" Suffer it to be so now : for thus it becomcth us to ful- 
fill all righteousness." 

They descended to the stream, and Jesus received bap- 
tism of John. 

They appear not to have met before; 1 for their previous 
lives had been near the opposite extremes of Palestine, 
one in Galilee, the other in the desert region in the south 
of Palestine ; but the Divine power, under which John was 
acting, had given him admonition that the Messiah, whom 
he had been preaching, was before him ; and the stern, 
lofty-toned man felt awed before this higher Presence. The 
Messiah was there ! 

Of his personal appearance we have no authentic record f 
but never yet did a great thought take strong hold of any 
human being and not stamp itself for the time upon 
his face, and manifest itself in his eyes. Never yet 
was any grand emotion in the human heart, without im- 
pressing itself upon the features, and drawing there its un- 
mistakable lines. Never yet was any true, permanent 
greatness in man, without having, for itself, a presence, felt 
and known and recognized by all as such. God has not 
made all men great in form, or fair to look upon ; but he 
does make grandeur of soul stamp itself upon the face ; and 
he makes it heard in the intonations of the voice, and felt 



1 John i. 33. 

2 The description attributed to Lentulus is universally considered 
to be spurious. 



AT THE JORDAN. 31 

in the manner; a something, often undefinable, and yet 
making clear demonstration of itself. Sometimes these 
things are fleeting ; and they pass with the heavenlike no- 
bility of soul ; the lines of care and our lower Mature 
resuming their place : but sometimes, even in man, benevo- 
lence, and gentleness, and love, and nobility and power of 
thought, are so habitual as to impress themselves perma- 
nently on his looks ; and we are drawn towards him by an 
attraction which our hearts cannot, and we do not wish to, 
resist. And if this is so in man, earthy, dark in intellect, 
uncertain in judgment, compelled so often to grieve over 
sin, what must have been Christ the sinless, through whose 
face the Divinity looked out upon the universe which was 
his, and through whose eyes shone that love unutterable 
which brought him to our earth, here to die for us ? What 
a Being there was, then, before John and the multitudes, at 
Jordan ! a face, where Divine greatness, not fleeting but con- 
stant, had drawn the lines and sat constantly enthroned ; 
where gentleness, and meekness, and conscious omnipotence 
were harmonized ; and where every glance of the eye, every 
intonation of the voice, every lineament in the features, 
while showing the Divine supremacy within, were those 
also of one who had come in humility to seek and to save 
them that are lost. Who can wonder then, that when, even 
in the violence at Gethsemane, Jesus turned and looked 
upon his persecutors, they fell to the earth ? Who can won- 
der that, in the same night, a single look upon Peter turned 
that recreant's heart into a fountain of tears ? Or, that Pi- 
late, drawn by that majesty of Presence in Christ during the 
trial, sought with such determination to let him go? 

As the Messiah and John ascended from the baptism, a 
sign was given by which the latter, at the time he received 
his own Divine mission, had been informed, 1 that ie should 



John i. 33. 

/^A^^Of TH** 4 ^^ 

tHUVBESITtf 



tH 

\ /* 



32 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

recognize Him whom he was to preach, and might know that 
the " kingdom of heaven" had now come. He saw the 
heavens opened, and the Spirit of God descend and light 
like a dove upon Christ, while a voice came down from the 
supernal glory : " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased." 1 

The mission of the Messiah had thus its heavenly en- 
dorsement, and here its beginning. It began in the waters 
of the Jordan : it was to be sealed in blood. It began with 
the opening glory of heaven poured down : it was to end 
with the sun hidden at mid-day, and a supernatural darkness, 
as of night, over the earth. The heavens then opened once 
again, to receive him from mortal sight. 



CHAPTER III. 
THE DESERT. 

AMONG the mountains which, near the lower end of the 
Jordan, sweep in a semi-circular curve westwardly from 
the river and form a space for the great plain of Jericho, is one 
midway along called Quarantana, which rises almost perpen- 
dicularly from the edge of the plain to a height of twelve 
or fifteen hundred feet. 2 Of Jericho scarcely any vestiges 
can be found : the last solitary palm tree remaining from the 
forests of palms, for which the place was once famous, has 
lately disappeared : the plain, except a spot occupied by a 
few wretched dwellings, is desolate : the mountains bordering 
it have always been a scene of desolation, and the whole 
region is given up to lawless bands : yet, through the long 

1 Matt. iii. 16, 17. 2 Robinson. 



THE DESERT. 33 

hours of the night, a light may be seen far up among the 
crags of Quarantaua, showing that some pilgrim is doing 
penance in these wild solitudes. The front of the mountain 
is indeed honey-combed with hermits' cells ; for in ancient 
times the place was a favorite one for anchorites, and the 
mountain takes its name from a tradition that to it the 
Messiah, after the baptism in the Jordan, was " led up by 
the Spirit," and that he there spent the forty days of his 
temptations in the wilderness. It is not probable that a 
spot looking down over a wide scene of what was then 
busy life the great city and its surroundings would have 
been chosen for such an occasion : but back of it, that is, to 
the westward and southward, is a region harmonizing with 
all that we can conceive of those forty days of fasting and 
of the temptations. There, a great extent of country about 
60 miles from north to south, and \ 5 wide, bordered on the 
east by the precincts of the Jordan, and the Dead Sea and 
reaching on the west to within a few miles of Jerusalem 
itself, is one of singular barrenness and dreariness ; looking, 
says the traveller Maundrell, "so torn and disordered, as if 
the earth had suffered some great convulsion, in which the 
very bowels had been turned outward." It is, indeed, a 
region of utter barrenness and of constant gloom. The 
country is all broken into hills generally of steep ascent; 
and both hills and ravines are bare alike. The surface is a 
gray mouldering rock, or a gray earth, on which no vegeta- 
tion will thrive ; and the whole, from century to century, 
has laid quite bare to the baking sun and unfertilizing rains. 
Travellers through the deserts of Arabia tell us that the 
prevailing impression on their minds there is of antiquity, 
and with regard to that country, the exclamation is forced 
from them, " how old it is !" but this region in Judea looks 
as if it had never been young, but had been a blasted and 
an accursed place from the beginning. All avoid it who 
can. In the days of our Saviour, robbers haunted its 



34 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

thoroughfares ; and, in our time, the few paths crossing it 
are made by the feet of marauders; and he who sees a 
human being moving on its hills, however distant, expects 
violence, and prepares for defence. Deep chasms intersect 
it here and there, at the sides of which the rocks almost 
meet, hundreds of feet above, and shut out the day ; and in 
their faces are the mouths of caverns, such as gave refuge to 
David and his pursued band. 1 A recent traveller in notic- 
ing the more southern portion of this region, says the 
prospect before him was "indescribably stern and desolate:" 
and speaks of "the fantastic forms of the rocks on the 
foreground, a medley of gray limestones, yellowish gravel, 
and fragments of lava, here piled up in perpendicular cliffs, 
there laid one above the other in flat strata, and yonder rent 
asunder in frightful chasms; between these, a plain covered 
with a number of conical hills, white, gray and yellow, all 
the product of subterranean fire:" 2 this at the close of 
March, when vegetation in Judea is in its highest perfection. 
Of the more northern portions, equally desolate, we shall 
have a future occasion to speak more in detail. 

To this "Wilderness of Judea," as it was called, the 
Messiah, after his baptism, was " led of the Spirit to be 
tempted;" and there he remained forty days. 

We are now at one of those events in Christ's earthly 
ministry, where the supernatural is blended so greatly with 
the natural that, with our limited capacities, we have to be 
content with ignorance, and to gaze, though wonderingly 
yet silently, at the little which has been revealed. How can 
we understand, or expect to understand, where the spiritual 
and the material come thus mingled in joint action ; and 
where the mysteries of the unseen world, which our intellects 
in vain strive to penetrate, and which they could not com- 



1 1 Samuel xxiv. 
2 Van de Velde's "Journey through Syria and Palestine." 



THE DESERT. 35 

prehend if seen, are so imperfectly developed that we catch 
but a glimpse here and there as they flit before our minds? 
We must remember that the times we are now considering 
were those when the most wonderful event of all ages was 
having its scene of action on our earth ; when the Divinity 
took our nature, and in a union incomprehensible to us, 
Avas in great humility among men. Incomprehensible ; for 
how can we understand this, when the union of our own 
souls and bodies is a mystery beyond our comprehension, 
an every-day mystery, and familiar, but yet never once 
penetrated by human science? How can we understand, 
then, the Divine and human in one, or hope in the least 
degree to understand ? We may gather from the Inspired 
Word that in those days, when heaven came down to earth, 
and the two were blended as never before, and never to be 
again, that then a general agitation occurred, and spirits 
gave demonstrations of presence and power, in demoniacs 
and the possessed, to which the world at other times had 
been a stranger, and which have never been repeated since. 
The Scriptures tell us of a time yet to be, when the powers 
of heaven shall be shaken ; Christ coming to judge; a time 
far less mysterious than this period when he was on earth, 
God manifest, but in humility for man's redemption to be 
effected in the cross. Who shall object in these matters? 
Who dare gainsay concerning things beyond our comprehen- 
sion, when we cannot understand ourselves? Men are 
indeed but children the oldest and wisest in the world, but 
children when put in comparison with the supernatural 
world, where, with God, "a thousand years are but as 
yesterday;'' and where, among the infinites, our imaginations 
strive in vain for a resting-place for observation ; and so 
turn quickly back to earth, wearied and overwhelmed. 

Therefore, humility is now our rational and our better 
part; and, with such a sense of our condition we have 
repeatedly to gaze on the scenes recorded in the Gospels, not 



36 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

comprehending them, and compelled to be satisfied with 
present ignorance. It was a time, we may believe, when 
te the powers of heaven" and of hell " were shaken ;" as 
they never otherwise had been ; and our earth, the scene of 
action, had to witness unusual sights. 

Consequently, when these scenes of the temptation in the 
wilderness of Judea pass in those strange, shadowy forms 
before us, half revealed in the Gospels, half hidden, we 
gaze in wonder, but we acquiesce in not understanding more. 
How could we fully understand? 

Saint Paul, through the power of inspiration, tells us, 
" In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto his 
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high 
priest;" and that " We have not a high-priest which cannot 
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in 
all points tempted as we are yet without sin ;' 71 and the 
temptations in the wilderness appear to have been suited to 
the higher spiritual character of the tempted. There were 
three of them, applied to those feelings which are the most 
powerful in our own nature, to ambition, to vanity, and to 
bodily want; each applied in this case in a concentrated 
form ; but each in vain. But we cease to argue in matters 
so evidently above our reason ; we will wait patiently, till 
we may ourselves merge into the supernatural, and no longer 
see "through a glass darkly," but "shall know even as we 
are known." 



1 Hebrews ii. 17 j iv. 15. 



THE DEPUTATION. 37 



CHAPTER IV. 
AT THE JORDAN THE DEPUTATION. 

JOHN was still baptizing at the Jordan, still littering his 
call to repent, " for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ;" 
and still the excitement concerning him was continuing: the 
public wonder and curiosity indeed were on the increase. 
The Sanhedrim at Jerusalem was presently stirred up to 
take official action in his case. 

This body, awedptov, assembly, consisted of seventy per- 
sons, with the addition of the high-priest as president; and 
were from the following classes of persons: 1. Officiating 
high-priest; 2. Ex-high-priests, and heads of the twenty- 
four classes of high-priests, called, by way of honor, chief- 
priests ; 3. Such of the elders, i. e., princes of the tribes, 
heads of family associations, as were elected to this place, 
or put there by a nomination from the ruling executive 
authority; and 4. Appointments in a similar way from the 
scribes and learned men. 1 "It was required of these men 
that they should be religious, and learned in the arts and 
language; that they should have some skill in physic, arith- 
metic, astronomy and astrology ; also to know what belonged 
to magic, sorcery and idolatry, so as to know how to judge 
them. They were to be without maim or blemish of body; 
men of years but not extremely old ; and to be fathers of 
families, that they might be acquainted with tenderness and 
compassion. Their times for sitting were from the end of 
the morning service to the beginning of the evening service, 
but might be prolonged till the night, if necessary for con- 

1 Jahn's Archaeology. 



38 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

eluding any business commenced during the day ; but no 
new business could be undertaken in the night. Their place 
of assembling was in a room by the courts of the Temple, 
and was so arranged that a portion of it projected into the 
priests' court, in order that it might partake of the sanctity 
of the place ; and part was outside of it, so that the mem- 
bers could sit in the council, which no one could do in the 
court of the priests, except a king." 1 The first mention 
of the Sanhedrim is about the year B. C. 69 ; its origin is 
supposed to have been in the Council of 70 Elders appointed 
by Moses at Sinai, (Numbers xi. 16-24.) It had the power 
to judge all persons and all matters not left to inferior courts, 
a whole tribe, a prophet, the high-priest, and even the king 
himself if there were occasion. 2 

In every city there was a smaller tribunal of the judges 
and Levites for slighter cases: also a tribunal of 23 judges 
(synagogue tribunals, John xvi. 2,) which tried questions of 
a religious nature. 

The Sanhedrim felt now, that it had become of the high- 
est consequence to settle the important questions concerning 
John, which were agitating the public mind. Although 
the ascetic had not put himself forward as a leader, and good 
order had been maintained at the Jordan, yet the people 
were in an inflammable condition, and tumults might arise, 
in which case the Roman power would interfere, with ven- 
geance upon the whole nation. A wonderful prophet, too, 
this seemed to be, and the excitement was the greater from 
the lapse of centuries since a prophet had appeared. His 
annunciation of the kingdom of heaven as at hand was 
thrilling to every expectant heart: he was introducing a 
great revolution by initiating the crowds flocking to him, 
into a new religion ; and this without authority given, or 
asked of the rulers. He had offended also the two leading 



Lightfoot on the Temple. 2 Jalin's Archaeology. 



THE DEPUTATION. 39 

sects in Judea, by his invective hurled upon them as a brood 
of vipers, yet the people were quiescent, though admiring 
his boldness. The impression was growing, everywhere, 
that he was something beyond a mortal like themselves ; 
that he was Elias (Elijah), or Jeremiah, risen from the dead ; 
and, among some misinterpreting his declarations to the 
contrary, that he was the Messiah himself. The Pharisees 
believed that the power of baptizing Jews, and thereby 
forming a new religion, was to be confined to the Messiah 
and his precursors, the prophets, who they supposed would 
return to life for this purpose ; and although it was true 
that John's ancestry did not fully agree with the require- 
ments of their ancient prophets respecting the Christ, yet 
his mother was of the lineage of David ; and although in 
addition his place of birth had not been at Bethlehem, still 
it was not fully determined among the doctors that the Mes- 
siah must be born there. 1 So there was room for discussion 
among the Sanhedrim, even on the question whether John 
might not be the Messiah himself. 

Therefore, this national council, taking Pharisees, who 
were also priests and Levites, 2 for their deputation, sent 
them to John. 3 The Jewish rulers were almost exclusively 



1 See Bloomfield in loco. a John i. 19 ; i. 24. 

3 John i. 1 9. It is well to remark here on a circumstance in St. John's 
Gospel, of which I have seen no notice among critics, except Alford, al- 
though it is an important one. It is the distinction which this Evangel- 
ist appears to make between " the Jews" and "the people." By the 
former he seems to mean the leaders; by the latter, the masses. There is 
a striking example of this in ch. vii. v. 13, when the people (v. 12) were 
secretly querying about Christ, " but no man spake openly of him for 
fear of the Jews" The same distinction seems to be kept up uniformly 
in John, except where the term Jew is used as a distinctive national 
one. 

We have something like it when we use the words, " the English," and 
the "English people," meaning by the former a kind of abstraction of 
the rulers, or the sentiment seen in their government, and by the latter, 
the masses. 



40 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Pharisees, or persons professing to be such ; and that sect 
was more particularly interested in the proceedings at the 
Jordan : for their power lay in their influence over the 
masses of the people, the only instrument they could oppose 
to their rivals, the smaller but wealthier sect of the Saddu- 
cees ; and the masses were drawn powerfully to this prophet 
at the Jordan. 

The origin of both these leading sects is unknown, and 
we have no distinct traces of them previous to the Ptolemies, 
(B. C. 332), about which time the oral or traditional law 
also comes before our notice. The Pharisees were the advo- 
cates and conservators of this ; the Sadducees opposed it, 
adhering only to the written law. The Pharisees believed 
" that souls have an immortal vigor in them, and that un- 
der the earth there will be rewards and punishments, accord- 
ingly as they have lived virtuously or viciously, in this 
life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting 
prison, but that the former shall have the power to revive 
and live again." 1 The Sadducees asserted " that souls die 
with the bodies :" and in this opposition of belief on vital 
points, we have at once the groundwork of endless disputes 
between these sects. The Sadducees, however, were content 
to keep their cold philosophy to themselves, and seldom at- 
tempted to make proselytes ; but they were the wealthy men, 
and prided themselves on their superior wisdom and higher 
philosophy; to which the Pharisees opposed an affected 
sanctimoniousness, which drew to them the multitudes, over 
whom they had great influence, and by whom they more 
than counterbalanced the power in wealth belonging to their 
opponents. So domineering, indeed, was their influence in 
the nation in consequence of their successful zeal in making 
and keeping proselytes among the masses, that when a Sad- 
ducee had to take office, (which that sect did unwillingly), 



Jahn's Archaeology. 



THE DEPUTATION. 41 

he was often compelled, for his own comfort, to assume the 
character and pretend to the belief of the Pharisees. The 
latter had in the unwritten law, as we shall see by-and-by, 
an immense power, capable of bearing down any adversary 
who might oppose them, especially among the ignorant. 
With all this courting of popular favor, they however, 
thoroughly despised the populace, and called them in their 
writings " worms/' " people of the earth ;" and with other 
opprobrious epithets, refused heaven to them, declaring that 
" he who has not studied is never pious." 1 They affected a 
great outward show of religion, ostentatiously standing while 
at prayer, (standing was the usual Jewish posture in prayer), 
at the corners of the streets, so as to be seen in two direc- 
tions ; and sometimes commencing a prayer at one place and 
going to finish it at another. They made broad their phy- 
lacteries (written passages of Scripture, folded up and bound 
to the forehead and arm), and in their dress had an osten- 
tation of a similar kind. They were so fearful of contami- 
nation that they would not eat with their own people, if 
holding the unpopular office of tax-gatherers; and were dis- 
posed to spurn from their presence all who were not of their 
own sect ; 2 nor would they drink until the water had been 
strained, lest they might inadvertently swallow some unclean 
animalcules. With all this, they enjoined no internal right- 
eousness, substituting externals for it: forms took the place 
of holiness : an omission to wash the hands before meat was 
considered worthy of death, no matter what iniquity might 
be in the heart ; and they had brought the Jewish people 
into disrepute abroad as a nation of perjurers, 3 by teaching 
that an oath by the altar, temple, heaven, earth, sacrifices, 
etc., etc., was of small if any obligation, unless in it the 
name of God had been used. They were divided into sev- 
eral subordinate sects; and the Jewish official books, the 



1 Lightfoot. * Jahn's Archaeology. s Martial's Epigrams, xi. 95. 

4* 



42 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Talmuds, mention several distinct classes, under characters 
which show them to have been deeply immersed in the 
idlest and most ridiculous superstitions. Among them were 
the Truncated Pharisee, who, that he might appear in pro- 
found meditation, as if destitute of feet, scarcely lifted them 
from the ground ; the Mortar Pharisee, who, that his medi- 
tations might not be disturbed, wore a deep cap in the shape 
of a mortar, that would only permit him to look on the 
ground at his feet; and the Striking Pharisee, who shutting 
his eyes as he walked to avoid the sight of women, often 
struck his head against the wall. 1 

Such were the men who came now, in the authority of 
office, to settle the questions which had been discussed for 
weeks with deepest earnestness in Jerusalem and throughout 
all Judea and the regions beyond ; questions of momentous 
interest, but to which no one could yet give a satisfactory 
reply. It was known that John had made disclaimers of 
any high position ; but still the public mind was agitated ; 
for with these disclaimers, he was yet performing a rite be- 
longing only to the old prophets risen again, or to the Mes- 
siah : so, at least, they always believed. 

The crowds saw the officials approaching, and could easily 
surmise who they were, and why they came. All knew that 
it was among the duties of the Sanhedrim to inquire offi- 
cially into the pretensions of any one setting himself up as a 
prophet; and here were the inquisitors come now to do that 
work. The important queries which had so agitated the 
multitudes there, but which they had shrunk from putting 
to the Baptist would, they thought perhaps, be answered 
at last. 

The crowds gave way. Probably, in those haughty looks 
of the Pharisees they could read their own condemnation for 
being captivated by one not officially recognized, and not a 



Bloomfield. 



THE DEPUTATION. 43 

Rabbi ; their old reverence for priest and Levite, and addi- 
tionally for Pharisees, conservators of the unwritten law with 
its mysterious, undefined power, crept through their hearts 
again, as they saw these men approach, perhaps there to 
overwhelm all the Baptist's claims, and to hurl on his prose- 
lytes objurgations or even excommunications for having sub- 
mitted to the new rite. The deputation came in a man- 
ner to make impression of their authority, and to procure 
full and ready answers to their questions ; bearing the phy- 
lacteries upon their brows and arms, and the wide fringes to 
their robes, as became Pharisees and men of rank. We must 
give attention to them ; and we notice first the phylacteries, 
an awkward appendage, but which habit made less so to 
them. To construct a phylactery four pieces of parchment 
were taken, on which, with ink specially prepared for this 
purpose, were written four passages from the law, Ex. xiii. 
3-10; Ex. xiii. 11-16; Deut. vi. 4-9; Deut. xi. 13-21. 
These four pieces were folded together in a square form, and 
inserted in a leather case, from which proceeded thongs of 
the same material. Such a case was laid on the forehead 
between the eye-brows ; and the thongs, being passed behind 
the head, were tied there in a particular manner, and then 
carne round so as to fall over the chest. Another was laid on 
the inside of the left arm, at the elbow, and fastened there 
by thongs, one of which was wound spirally along the arm, 
and so, crossing the palm of the hand, was fastened to the 
fingers. This usage was founded on Ex. xiii. 9. 

The name phylactery is from the Greek, and signifies 
observatory, because it put them in mind of the law. In 
process of time the phylacteries came to be considered as a 
protection against evil spirits, or charms, and the Talmud 
says, " It is necessary that the phylacteries should be repeated 
at home at nights to drive away devils." 1 It is not certain 



Lightfoot. 



44 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

PHYLACTERIES. 



Far the head. 



For tJie arm. 




whether all the Jewish people wore them, or only those who 
were called scholars, and who pretended to more knowledge 
and devotion and study than the common people ; ! but all, 
both learned and unlearned, were bound alike to say over 
the phylactery sentences morning and evening, every day, 
no matter where they were. The time for this was at earli- 
est dawn, and in the evenings some time before the first 
watch. 2 Our Saviour condemns the width of the phylacte- 
ries, made for ostentation and vanity. The modern Jews, 
it is said, wear them at morning and evening prayers. 

This deputation approached, not over-confident of a favor- 
able reception, knowing as they did the Baptist's address to 
their Pharisee brethren on the former occasion : and now 
there was a striking scene ; that gaunt, sunburnt man, in 
his coarse dress of camel's hair bound by a leathern girdle; 
his unabashed manner before the officers, and his fiery eyes 
seeming to pierce them through ; their own stateliness and 
effort at ease and assurance, while their pretension to sanc- 
tity and the author itativen ess of office were impressing the 



Lightfoot. 2 Ib. 



THE DEPUTATION. 45 

crowd; the multitudes glancing from the new, admired 
favorite to their old, feared masters ; and back again to the 
fearless John. 

" Who art thou ?" the rulers asked. 

The words were authoritative and abrupt. He answered, 
not to their question, but to what he knew was in every per- 
son's mind. 

" I am not the Christ," 

" What then ? art thou Elias ?" 

" I am not." 

"Art thou that prophet?" 1 

"No." 

" Who art thou ? that we may give an answer to them 
that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?" 

" I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make 
straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias :" 
(the reply having allusion to a custom prevailing in those 
eastern countries, when a monarch was about to make a jour- 
ney ; at which times men were sent before to remove ob- 
structions and to make level the roads). 

" Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, 
nor Elias, neither that prophet?" 

"I baptize with water: but there staudeth one among 
you, whom ye know not ; he it is, who coming after me is 
preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy 
to unloose." 

Among them !! And all interest in the officials and in 
John himself must have been lost, as men started and turned 
inquiring glances among the crowd, making scrutiny for 
him about whom the astounding announcement had been 
made. No one could doubt that John meant by this, TJie 
Christ, the great Messiah that had been promised to the 



1 It is supposed that they referred to Jeremiah. (See Dout. xviii. 15-19 
and Matt. xvi. 14.) 



46 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

world. That was their answer, and such the intelligence 
that the emissaries were to carry back to Jerusalem, and to 
the Sanhedrim. 

Curiosity was at its utmost tension now: and the next 
day, as the crowds were watching John with a closeness of 
observation which they had never exercised before, they 
heard from him a sudden announcement 

" Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin 
of the world I" 

The multitudes turned quickly ; 

Was that the Christ ! 

He came with no pomp, but quietly among them : no 
earthly parade of power, no attendance ; not even with scho- 
lastic state, and disciples following him : but alone, in sim- 
plicity of dress and simplicity of manner. His kingdom 
was not of this world. 

But the multitudes might have noticed the wonderful 
dignity and majesty on that brow ; the quiet composure of 
manner, where conscious omnipotence calmly rested; the 
winningness of features, where unbounded love drew the 
lines, and fully impressed itself; and when he spake, the 
modulations of his voice, where gentleness and benevolence 
ruled, although at times that voice could take the impres- 
sive tones of command. 

John described to the earnest listeners how the demonstra- 
tion of the Messiahship had been made to himself, including 
the announcement from heaven, " The same is he which bap- 
tizeth with the Holy Ghost." He ended with proclaiming 
to the gazing, earnest, wondering multitude, thrilled with so 
many hopes, " And I saw and bare record, that THIS is THE 
SON OF GOD." 



CONDITION OF PALESTINE. 47 



CHAPTER V. 
CONDITION OF PALESTINE. 

THE Messiah had come : but before following him in his 
wonderful ministry, we must endeavor to familiarize our- 
selves with the country where this ministry was to be exer- 
cised, and the people who were to be its immediate recipients. 
The reader will excuse interruptions, for such purposes, in 
the narrative portions of this book. They will be as brief 
as possible : but without them we cannot understand the 
narratives themselves. 

The two ranges of mountains, Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, 
keep parallel with each other and with the eastern coast of 
the Mediterranean, for a distance of 150 miles, when finally, 
Anti-Lebanon shoots up into the majestic Hermon, rising to 
9376 1 feet above the level of the sea, its summit covered 
nearly all the year with snow. The region having for 
its northern boundary the southern extremities of these 
ranges (lat. 33 30' K), and on its south, the border of the 
Arabian Desert (31 10'); with the Jordan and its line of 
lakes on the east, and the Mediterranean on the west, is in 
modern times usually designated as Palestine; and such in 
this book will be the use of the word. It forms an extent 
of 170 statute miles from north to south, by a mean width 
of about 50 miles : and is generally a hilly country, with 
large plains interspersed however, among which that of 
Esdraelon (lat. 32 40') is of great dimensions ; while, just 
south-west of this commences the plain of Sharon, which 
thence onward southwardly, forms a wide and fertile border 



Survey by Majors Scott and Pope. 



48 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

along the Mediterranean. The region of abrupt hills be- 
tween this plain and Jerusalem forms what was called " The 
Hill country of Judea :" the utterly barren and blasted coun- 
try east of the latter, extending to the Dead Sea, has been 
already described. A cross section, from west to east in the 
latitude of Jerusalem, would give: 1st, The plain of Sharon, 
17 miles wide; 2d, The Hill country, 20 miles; and 3d, 
The wilderness, 15 in width; and then, the great depression 
of the valley of the Jordan. 1 Jerusalem is about 2610 above, 
and the Dead Sea 1312 below the level of the Mediterranean. 
If leaving Palestine we continue across the river eastwardly 
at this latitude, we come immediately to the very lofty wall- 
like range of Nebo beyond which is a hilly pastoral region, 
soon succeeded by immense wastes of sand. 

Profile, Section of Palestine E. and W. from the mountains of Moab to the 
Mediterranean in the latitude of Jerusalem. 

The horizontal distances are on a scale of 20 miles to an inch. The heights 
and depressions on a scale of 4000 feet to an inch. In such a profile the 
same scale for heights and distances cannot be preserved. The horizontal 
line shows the level of the Mediterranean. 



II 



Plain of 

Sharon, 
17 miles. 



Hill country, 
20 miles. 



Jerusalf 
2610 fe 



Wilderness of 

Judea, 
15 miles. 



Dead Sea. 
Depression 1312 
feet. Its depth 

1300 feet. 




1 These measurements are from Van de Ve*lde's trigonometrical sur- 
veys in Syria and Palestine. Capt. Lynch gives 2610 feet for the eleva- 
tion of Jerusalem : the aneroid 2749. 



CONDITION OF PALESTINE. 



49 



Profile, Station of Palestine N. and S., from the Dead Sea towards Mount 
Herman, along the line of the Jordan. 

The horizontal distances are on a scale of 35 miles to an inch: the eleva- 
tions 15,000 feet to an inch. The line marked a a a shows the level of the 
Mediterranean. 



Hebron. 




Dead Sea 



and 



Jordan 



to the 



Lake of 
Galilee, 



Palestine was thus a country of small extent, and singu- 
larly situated ; quite central to what was the civilized world 
in those ancient times, and therefore well adapted to be a 
radiating point of divine knowledge; and yet, by these 
northern mountains, by the Arabian desert, by the western 
sea, and by the sand on the east, almost isolated, and little 
open to corrupting influences from heathen neighbors. It 
had no safe harbor on its whole extent of coast, until Herod 
the Greatj at immense cost, formed one midway along ; build- 
ing there also, his political capital, Csesarea, named after his 
patron, Augustus Caesar. This latter was settled immediately 
by a motley population of Syrians and Greeks chiefly, as well 
as Jews : and from this mixture sprang finally the troubles 
which eventuated in the destruction of Jerusalem itself. 1 

At the time of which we are now writing, Palestine was 
divided into three nearly equal portions : the northern called 
Galilee ; the central, Samaria ; and the southern, Judea ; each 
with its distinctive and peculiar people, although those of 
Galilee and Judea went under the general appellation of Jews. 
A full understanding of the New Testament history requires 
that we should take some notice of the history of each. 



i See Jos. Antiq. xx. 8, 9. 



50 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

When Canaan was first parceled out among the twelve 
tribes, the large tribe of Judah had assigned to it the chief 
portion of what afterwards became Judea : while Ephraim 
had most of what was subsequently Samaria, the two being 
separated by the small tribe of Benjamin wedged between then 
at the east, and by the equally diminutive region of Dan at 
the west. Benjamin however, though small, was composed 
of a bold and energetic set of people: it gave Saul as the 
first king of Israel ; and afterwards Paul, the greatest of the 
Christian leaders and among the earliest martyrs for Christ. 

Judah and Ephraim, from their superior size and their 
position, soon took the lead among the tribes, and also be- 
came jealous of each other: 1 and finally (B. C. 975), their 
rivalship culminated in a separation of the tribes ; Benjamin 
alone adhering to Judah, while all the others went off and 
became a kingdom by themselves, Ephraim in this taking 
the lead. Its main city, Shechem, in the valley of Samaria 
unsurpassed in fertility and loveliness, became the capital 
of its new king. Among these people a semi-idolatrous 
religion soon took the place of the old Mosaic faith. Two 
hundred and fifty-four years after this (B. C. 721) the ten 
tribes were carried into captivity by Shalmanezer* king of 
Assyria; and their existence became eventually blotted out 
from history. The exceedingly fertile plain of Ephraim and 
its borders on the north, being rapidly covered with jungle, 
was becoming overrun with wild-beasts, when Shalmanezer 
sent colonists from Babylonia and other parts of his eastern 
dominions to occupy it, with whom a few of the former in- 
habitants who had been left behind, united : and thus was 
formed the distinct and very peculiar race of the Samaritans, 
retaining in part their eastern heathenism, and partly im- 
bued with the questionable religion of the ten tribes. 

One hundred and thirty-three years after the captivity of the 



1 See aiso Isaiah xi. 13. 



CONDITION OF PALESTINE. 51 

ten tribes (B. C. 588) Judah and Benjamin were also led 
captive to the east, Jerusalem having been taken by Nebu- 
chadnezzar, and their temple destroyed. Chaldea, now the 
ruling power in the east, had become the possessor of all 
Palestine. But this captivity did not long continue; for 
Cyrus, the Persian, having taken Babylon, (B. C. 538) gave 
these two tribes permission to return to Palestine and to re- 
build their temple, the sacred vessels of which he also re- 
stored. Some of the Jews remained in Babylon, while the 
others hastened back to their country : but during this time 
of their absence changes of importance among themselves 
had occurred. Their original language had ceased to be a 
spoken one. 

The Hebrew had for a long time been declining in pu- 
rity. The period about the time of Moses is called by 
critics its golden age ; that between David and Hezekiah, 
its silver age. From Hezekiah to the captivity it deterior- 
ated so much by the further introduction of foreign terms, 
that its iron age is placed in that period ; and during the 
captivity it ceased to be a spoken language at all. 1 Not that 
the transition had been very great. The dialects spoken all 
over the East had a general similitude, so great that the 
designation used by the Hebrews for very remote nations was 
that these did not understand their language. 2 But still the 
change, during this stay in Babylon, was such that, gene- 
rally, they could not any longer understand the Hebrew 
Scriptures when read in their religious assemblies; and al- 
though the original was still used in public worship, properly 
qualified persons had to be employed to give immediately a 
translation into the vernacular. 3 The new dialect which the 
people brought home with them was the Aramaic some- 
times called Syro-Chaldaic and was the language of Pales- 
tine in our Saviour's time. 



1 Jahn's Introduction to the Old Testament, \ 69. 

2 Deut. xxviii. 49, and Jer. v. 15. 3 See Nehemiah viii. 8. 



52 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

But there were differences also in this dialect. The places 
of captivity had stretched along the Euphrates, where the 
Chaldee and Syriac dialects were in use. On their return, 
those using the former settled in Judea, the others in Gali- 
lee j 1 and hence existed a difference of speech, by which a 
Galilean was speedily recognized as such by the dwellers 
further south. 

The Jews had permission from Cyrus to rebuild also the 
wall around their city ; and they came back with hearts full 
of zeal and of joy at the royal favor, in both of which the 
Samaritans would have gladly shared. But these people 
were repelled as a half-heathenish race; and immediately a 
settled feud began, which has continued down to the present 
time. The Samaritans endeavored to excite jealousies in the 
Persian monarch respecting the repairs in the city walls, and 
for some time with success ; but they finally ceased from such 
opposition, and established rival services, building also a 
rival temple on the mount Gerizim, which rises immediately 
above their capital city, Shechem, and which, with its oppo- 
site mountain, Ebal, had been the scene of a most singular 
event in the ancient times of Israel. There, after Canaan 
had been conquered, had been gathered the twelve tribes, 
one-half placed on Gerizim to bless, and half on Ebal to 
curse ; indeed, what region is there in all the country of 
Palestine that has not witnessed strange and wonderful 
events? To us, also, there is a standing miracle in the ful- 
fillment of the words of Moses when, after commanding the 
full assemblage to take place on Ebal and Gerizim, he added 
that if they and their posterity would not observe God's 
commandment they should become "an astonishment, a 
proverb, and a by-word among all nations," whither the 
Lord should lead them. 2 The Maccabean, Hyrcanus, de- 
stroyed this temple (B. C. 108), and annexed the whole 



1 Jakn's Introduction. 2 See Deut. xi. 29; xxvii. 12-26; xxviii. 



CONDITION OF PALESTINE. 53 

{Samaritan country to the Jewish nation ; and the bitterness 
from subjugation was then added to the former hatred and 
jealousies. The Samaritans, while receiving the Pentateuch, 
rejected all the other Jewish Scriptures ; and were, there- 
fore, still considered by the Jews as only a more dangerous 
set of heathen. What a Samaritan ate as food became, from 
that fact, as swine's flesh in the eyes of a Jew ; no Samari- 
tan might be made a proselyte ; no one of them could by 
any possibility, in Jewish estimation, attain to everlasting 
life. 

This was the country lying between the two Jewish dis- 
tricts of Galilee and Judea, and which had to be traversed 
in the frequent journeys between the two, unless a large 
detour was made across the Jordan and along its eastern 
banks. 

The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, after their re- 
turn from captivity, still formed a part of the Persian 
kingdom, and were heavily taxed for its support. Their 
temple had been rebuilt, (commenced B. C. 535), but Jeru- 
salem remained without walls, until the increase of the 
Greek power made it necessary to oppose obstacles to the ex- 
tension of that nation. Then Nehemiah was empowered by 
the Persian government to fortify the city ; but he had to 
do it by stealth, and at night, as the jealousies of the neigh- 
boring Rtates, particularly Samaria, were ever throwing ob- 
stacles in the way. The Persian nation finally succumbed 
before Alexander, and the Jews passed quietly into the 
power of that universal conqueror (B. C. 332), and through 
him, afterwards, of the Ptolemies. They lived under suc- 
cessive kings of that race, generally oppressed, and often 
treated with great cruelty, till Antiochus Epiphanes, the 
Illustrious or the Madman, for he had both these^. sur- 
names, fearing (B. C. 167) that they might seek relief 
from his tyranny in the increasing power of Rome already 
triumphant in Egypt, determined to wipe out their distinc- 



54 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

live character, and entirely destroy their individuality as a 
nation. He let loose his soldiers on the Sabbath, upon the 
unresisting Jewish people, and encouraged a general mas- 
sacre : the streets of Jerusalem ran with blood : the women 
were carried off into slavery : he ordered a general uni- 
formity of religion in all his dominions ; forced the people 
to profane the Sabbath, and to eat swine's flesh, and forbade 
the national rite of circumcision. He dedicated their tem- 
ples to Jupiter, placed an image of that god on their high 
altar, and ordered sacrifices to be there made to the Olym- 
pian deity ; and, finally, substituted the Bacchanalian rites 
for their great feast of tabernacles. Resistance only led to 
slaughter : barbarities and outrage had full possession of 
the land. 

The Maccabean family 1 now rose into eminence, first by 
slight resistance; then, after gathering strength, by heading 
a general revolt; and, finally, (B. C. 144), by establishing 
the complete independence of the Jewish nation. The 
alliance of Rome was sought for, and secured; and, finally, 
under Hyrcanus, Samaria, as already stated, and Galilee on 
the north, and Iduraea on the south, were (B. C. 108) 
brought into subjection to the triumphant kingdom of Judea. 
But a new power the Roman was spreading around, soon 
to absorb the Judean kingdom, as it did the rest of the 
world. In the case of Judea, Rome followed its usual 
successful policy of insinuating itself into nations through 
their intestine disputes. Two competitors for the Jewish 
throne, Hyrcanus and Aristobolus, both of the Maccabean 
family, asserted their claims, and appealed to Pompey (B. C. 
64) as the umpire; he ended by seizing on the kingdom; 
and from that time, although for twenty years there were 
resistances, and various bloody revolutions, Judea was under 



1 "Asmonean family" properly, but better known by the name of 
Maccabean, supposed to be derived from a standard which they bore. 



CONDITION OF PALESTINE. 55 

control of the Roman empire. Antipater. an Idumean of 
noble birth, profiting adroitly by these dissensions, had, as 
the supporter of Hyrcanus, risen into distinction; and at 
last, having procured from Rome the High Priesthood for 
his favorite, he was himself made Procurator of Judea. He 
was the father of Herod the Great, and appointed this son 
as governor of Galilee. The latter, after various reverses 
subsequently to his father's death, had the crown of Judea 
conferred upon himself by Augustus and Antony (B. C. 39 ;) 
and having, with the assistance of the Romans, rid that 
country and Samaria of all competitors, and freed Galilee 
from the bands of robbers that had infested it, he found 
himself, though still subordinate to Rome, firmly seated on 
the throne of Palestine. 

Herod was a man of extraordinary energies of mind and 
body. He rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, strengthened 
them with towers of great size and beauty, made for himself, 
on Mount Zion, a palace of vast extent and architectural 
magnificence, and completed the walls around Moriah, 
producing on that eminence a level platform of great eleva- 
tion; 1 thus making it a vast mountainous substructure for 
supporting the cloisters and temple with which he proposed 
to crown its heights. The temple erected by Zerubbabel 
500 years before, had suffered greatly from wars and the 
lapse of time; but the Jews looked with keen jealousy on 
any plans for its demolition ; and it was only by making 
large preparations of materials ready for the new edifice, 
previous to commencing any changes, that Herod could keep 
their apprehensions within bounds. The new temple and 
cloisters, built by Herod will be noticed in a future chapter 
of this book. The amazing sums necessary for his outlays 
for architectural and warlike purposes were procured partly 

i Josephus says 450 feet at the spot of the smallest elevation ; 600 
feet at the greatest, i. e., at the eastern side; but this is considered an 
exaggeration. 



56 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

by heavy extortions from his people; and came partly by 
contributions from Jews, scattered now over nearly the whole 
civilized world. The constant drain of wealth always 
tending towards Jerusalem was the cause of serious appre- 
hensions, even at Rome. Pompey found 2,000 talents 1 in 
the treasury of the temple at the time of his visit: Crassus 
plundered it of 10,000 talents; and both these incidents 
occurred at times when Jerusalem was also constantly sub- 
jected to visits from plundering hordes. 

But, while indulging the national feeling in thus orna- 
menting the city and its sacred mountain, Herod was trying 
to undermine the national faith by foreign usages and 
amusements. "He built a theatre within the walls of 
Jerusalem, and an amphitheatre of immense size without. 
He celebrated quinquennial games on a scale of unrivalled 
splendor; invited the most distinguished proficients in every 
kind of gymnastic exercise, in chariot racing, boxing, and 
every kind of musical and poetic art; offered the most costly 
prizes; and even introduced the barbarous spectacles of the 
Romans, fights of wild beasts, and also combats of wild 
beasts with gladiators. The zealous Jews looked on in 
amazement, and with praiseworthy though silent abhorrence, 
at those strange exhibitions, so contrary to the mild genius 
of the great law-giver's institutions." 2 

Herod was, as already stated, from Idumea. When that 
country was added by Hyrcanus to Judea, the inhabitants 
were compelled to adopt the Jewish faith. But such a forced 
proselytism left the Idumeans still semi-pagan in belief; and 
hence we see the doubtful Judaism in Herod. He married, 
both from policy and affection, the beautiful Mariamne, a 
princess of the Maccabean family; but he failed still to 
secure the confidence of the Jews. 



1 A talent of silver was worth $1,505 ; of gold, $24,000. 
* Mill man's History of the Jews. 



CONDITION OF PALESTINE. 57 

Judea was, even during Herod's magnificent reign, fast 
becoming a Roman province; its independence and the glory 
of the Maccabean dynasty had departed. Herod, after a 
life of daring and successful ambition, and of domestic 
wretchedness, died, leaving by will his kingdom divided 
between his two sons, Herod Antipas and Archelaus; to the 
former, Galilee and Perea; to the latter, Samaria, Judea, 
and Idumea. Archelaus went immediately to Rome to 
have his limited kingship confirmed; and there met Herod 
Antipas, preferring a counter-claim under a former will 
of their father, made it was asserted, when he was in a saner 
state of mind. While they were absent contesting their 
claims, both regions of country fell into confusion; and the 
Prefect of Syria residing at Antioch, had to interfere; the 
wretched people being plundered and abused on every 
side. A deputation of five hundred Jews went to Rome to 
petition for the total abolition of the kingly government 
and the restitution of their ancient constitution ; and were 
joined in this by eight thousand of their countrymen resi- 
dent in that city. Herod's will was, however, confirmed by 
the imperial edict, and Archelaus took possession of his 
government: but his sovereignty, marked by injustice and 
cruelty, after continuing for nine years, was suddenly 
brought to a conclusion by a summons to Rome : his 
brothers and subjects were his accusers ; he was condemned 
and banished to Yienne, in Gaul, and his kingdom (A. D. 
12) reduced to a Roman province. P. Sulpicius Quirinius 
was now made Prefect, or governor-general of Syria, all 
Palestine coming under his jurisdiction ; and Coponius, a 
man of equestrian rank, was appointed governor of Judea. 
To the latter, two years afterwards, succeeded M. Ambivius ; 
then came Annius Rufus : next (A. D. 16) Valerius Gratus, 
and finally (A. D. 27) Pontius Pilate. Jerusalem itself had 
sunk, during the rule of these governors, into secondary 
political consequence, the residence of the governors being 



58 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

at Caesarea ; but the people, since the time of Archelaus, had 
enjoyed an unusual state of rest. This history, necessarily 
brief, can give the reader scarcely any conception of the 
disorders, tumults, exactions, and cruelties often barbarities, 
to which the people of Palestine had been subjected, through 
nearly the whole of this long period of time. 

The government was now unequivocally Roman : Pilate 
was over Judea as Procurator, and Herod Antipas Tetrarch 
of Galilee and Perea ; both subject to the Proconsul of 
Syria ; the Jewish laws and institutions, so far as they did 
not conflict with the Koman, were still left in force, the 
power of inflicting capital punishment being the only ex- 
ception ; that being reserved for the representatives of Rome. 
Such was the political condition of Palestine when our Sa- 
viour's public ministry commenced. 



CHAPTER VI. 
JEWISH MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 

THE captivity had wrought one very remarkable change in 
the Jewish character : it had cured them of their dispo- 
sition towards idolatry. It may seem strange that there 
should ever have existed such inclinations among a people 
distinguished, as they had been, by signal manifestations of 
God's power for them ; who had his law in their hands ; 
and who knew both the sternness of his prohibitions against 
this wickedness, and his irrevocable purposes for punishing 
it. But the whole world around them was given to idola- 
try: and they found it difficult to spiritualize even their 
own grand and wonderful system ; while, among all other 
nations religion was sensuous, that is, directed to the outer 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 59 

senses, which could more easily comprehend the nature and 
demands of such belief. To look inward and bind the soul 
to God, making it while on earth a part of the kingdom 
which is not of this world, is the highest act of our being; 
and the Jews had not only not attained to this, but had a 
very imperfect idea of what it could mean. When just re- 
leased from Egypt they were ignorant and they had for 
long years been brutalized by slavery. God, compassion- 
ating their ignorance and weakness, allowed them a religious 
system in some respects sensuous, but in every item typify- 
ing the unseen ; that is the tabernacle, the ark, the table of 
show-bread, the candlestick, the altar of incense, the mercy- 
seat, the cherubim, the golden ornaments, the purple hang- 
ings, the Urim and Thummim in which he condescended to 
make himself especially known and felt. So afterwards, 
also with the temple on Mount Moriah, honored as no other 
temple has ever been. But they regarded only the exterior; 
and by their own want of effort and by their worldliness, 
that which was meant to guide them to look within and then 
up to God, led them to the further sensuousness of their 
neighbors, often of the grossest kind. 

Temple, altar, cherubim, Urim and Thummim, all were 
swept away by the Assyrian conqueror; and only blackened 
ruins remained behind in their stead. 

In their captivity the Jews had to look more directly to 
God ; and they did it in mournings and humiliations, such 
as well befitted them, after so many vile apostasies in their 
own land. 

When they returned there was soon evident a great 
change and great improvement in these outward things. 
They had now the proseuchce and synagogues all over the 
country. The proseucha was a place of prayer, a simple, 
open space without ostentation or ornament, but generally 
in a spot outside of their cities or towns, shaded by trees. 
Here the traveller or the resident could bo\\ in soul, in God's 



60 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

great temple not made with hands ; and feeling that Jeho- 
vah was present, could lift up his voice and heart to him. 
The synagogues were places of more formal worship, and 
were soon in general use : there being, it is said, in Jerusa- 
lem alone, not less than four hundred and eighty during its 
later times. The worship in these was doubtless more of a 
spiritual nature than that in the temple itself; and what 
was also of consequence, oral instruction was here largely 
combined with singing, reading, and prayers. The Jew- 
ish people, in all this, had evidently taken a most important 
step in improvement ; but still there were counteracting cir- 
cumstances, (to be noticed presently, p. 81-88), terribly cor- 
rupting their hearts. 

The synagogues were of various sizes, but generally not 
large. As far as possible they were built in imitation of the 
temple at Jerusalem with an open court and corridors sur- 
rounding the court. In this was a chapel, or small build- 
ing, ornamented with four columns ; and in the chapel, on 
an elevated place, were the books of the law kept ready for 
use. The " uppermost seats in the synagogue" were those 
nearest this chapel, and these were the most honorable. In 
addition, there was erected in the court a large hall or ves- 
try, into which people could retire when the weather hap- 
pened to be unfavorable, and where each family had its own 
particular seat. To each building there were officers : 1st. 
The Ruler of the Synagogue, who presided over the assem- 
bly and invited readers and speakers, unless some persons 
who were acceptable, voluntarily offered themselves, (Luke 
viii. 41, and xiii. 14, 15). 2d. The Elders of the synagogue 
TrpsfffluTspot, or presbyters ; they appear to have been coun- 
sellors of the head or ruler, and were chosen from among the 
most powerful and learned of the people. The council of 
the elders not only took part in the management of the in- 
ternal concerns of the synagogue, but also punished trans- 
gressors of the public laws, either by turning them out of 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 6 1 

the synagogue or decreeing the punishment of thirty-nine 
stripes, (John xii. 42 ; xvi. 2 ; 2 Cor. xi. 24). 3d. The Col- 
lector of alms; and, 4th. Servants of the synagogue. 

When the people were collected together for worship the 
services began, after the usual greeting, with a doxology. A 
selection was then read from the Mosaic law, (Acts xv. 21). 
Then followed, after singing of a second doxology, the read- 
ing of a portion from the Prophets. (Luke iv. 17). The 
person whose duty it was to perform the reading placed 
upon his head, as is done at the present day, a covering 
called Tal.ith. (See 2 Cor. iii. 15). The sections which had 
been read in the Hebrew were rendered by an interpreter 
into the vernacular tongue ; and the reader, or some one else, 
then addressed the people. (Acts xiii. 15). 

It was on occasions such as this that Jesus and after- 
wards the Apostles, taught the people. The meeting, as 
far as religion was concerned, was ended with prayer, to 
which the people responded, Amen; after which a collec- 
tion was taken for the poor. 

Such was the synagogue worship of that period, often 
sanctioned by our Saviour's presence, and by his taking a 
part himself in the services. 

The modern Jewish synagogues are, as far as possible, 
imitations of those ancient ones ; and a visit to them is re- 
commended to any one who may desire to look far back into 
the remote times. We may also gain in them some idea of 
the adaptation to music of the language in which David 
wrote: for in these services the Hebrew is still almost ex- 
clusively used. It is desirable, however, to select a syna- 
gogue of the higher order : for in the inferior ones, both 
the language and the service are often repulsive, seeming to 
be a discordant jargon with but little appearance of 
devotion. 

On entering we notice that the heads of the men, as well 
as of the women, are all kept covered as in the ancient 



62 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

usages : also that the standing posture is that of prayer, as 
was the case in those former days. The eye too is caught 
immediately by a white garment, a simple, rectangular piece 
of cloth, six or eight feet long by three or four wide, which 
each male worshipper puts on as he takes his place, and 
leaves behind when he retires. In the wealthier synagogues 
it is of silk, in others of woollen stuff; but it is always 
white, with blue stripes across at the ends; sometimes, but 
not uniformly, a fringe at each end ; and in every case it 
has a number of cords a foot or so in length, of the same 
stuff, appended to each of the corners. In viewing this 
garment we are carried at once into the remotest antiquity : 
for these blue stripes at the end are "the ribbon of blue," 
and the cords at the corners represent the fringes commanded 
by Moses (Numbers xv. 3241, but more especially Deut. 
xxii. 12) to be worn as a reminder of the penalty for trans- 
gressing the Sabbath : " and it shall be unto you for a 
fringe, that ye may look upon it and remember all the com- 
mandments of the Lord and do them." The garment is 
called Taliihj and is sometimes made to cover also the head 
of the persons officiating in their religious service. It is 
worn by the congregation mostly over the shoulders, but 
also in a variety of ways across the back ; and forms not an 
ungraceful drapery. I have seen, in a country church in 
Scotland, every man with his plaid across the shoulder, 
making a very picturesque congregation ; but although the 
plaid is of the same size and shape as this garment, it wants 
the sacred associations of the Taliili: the latter is always 
white. 

The language is deeply guttural ; and to my own ear, 
traveller as I have been among the Turks, and also the Ger- 
mans, it has, as chanted in these synagogues, a familiar and 
very far from unmusical sound ; for it has both richness and 
power. Especially at the close of the worship, when the 
whole assembly unite in the singing, may we have some 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 63 

idea of the rich music as it floated in the old times from 
the heights of Moriah in the daily sacrifices ; or from their 
companies to and from the festivals, as they travelled over 
hill and valley, singing on their way their great hymns to 
God. 

Those ancient synagogues, and the nature of the worship 
offered there, in a large portion of which the whole assembly 
united, and also the address and instructions on those occa- 
sions, must have had a powerful influence in keeping the 
Jews, after the captivity, from the idolatrous tendencies so 
striking in the national character previous to that time. 

Of education there seems to have been little in our full 
meaning of that word. The sons remained at home under 
the care of the mother until five years of age, when the fa- 
ther took them in charge and taught them in the arts and 
the duties of life, and more especially in the Mosaic law, 
and all other things connected with their religion, (Dent. vi. 
2025; vii. 19; xi. 19). For further instruction, private 
teachers were provided ; or they were sent to a priest or Le- 
vite, who sometimes had numbers under his care. We may 
infer from Samuel, (1 Samuel i. 24-28), that there was at 
that time near the tabernacle, a school for the instruction 
of youth ; but the instruction, except in religious matters, 
was very limited. Astronomy in those days was apt to 
run into astrology, which was forbidden to the Jews : a lit- 
tle knowledge of mathematics sufficed for their wants : the 
sciences, in all nations at that period were few in number. 
The whole bent of the Jewish scholars was towards the study 
of their written and their traditional law, and the questions 
to which these gave rise. Their teachers enjoined on all 
parents to have their children taught some art or handicraft: 
and the Talmuds particularize many learned men who were 
engaged in manual labor. "What is commanded," says a 
Talmudic writer, " of a father toward his son ? To circum- 
cise him; to teach him the law; to teach him a trade/' 




64 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Their great cabalist, Rabbi Judah, " Our Holy Rabbi," as 
he was called, wrote, " He that teacheth not his son a trade, 
does the same as if he taught him to be a thief;" and Gama- 
liel (Saul's teacher) said, " He that hath a trade in his hand, 
to what is he like? He is like a vineyard that is fenced." 

" There prevailed among the Hebrews no little propriety 
and refinement of manners. The Orientals would be thought 
by Europeans to be excessive in their gestures and expres- 
sions of good-will, when in truth they mean no more than 
very moderate ones among us. 

" In the time of Christ the ancient mode of addressing 
those who were worthy of being honored, viz., My lord, or 
words to that effect, was in a measure superseded, and the 
more extravagant address of Rabbi, i. e., the great mighty, 
which originated in the schools, had become common among 
the people. 

" The salutation between friends was an occurrence which 
consumed much time : for this reason it was anciently incul- 
cated upon messengers who were sent upon business which 
required despatch, not to salute any one by the way, (2 Kings 
iv. 29 ; Luke x. 4). 

" The ancient Hebrew in particular rarely used any term 
of reproach more severe than those of adversary or opposer, 
raca, contemptible, nabal, fool ; an expression which means 
wicked man or atheist. When anything was said which 
was not acceptable, the dissatisfied person replied, It is enough, 
(Deut. iii. 26). The formula of assent was, Thou hast said, 
or thou hast said rightly. This is the form of expressing as- 
sent or an affirmative to this day." l 

Their dress, unchanged from century to century, was 
generally simple and plain. It consisted of a tunic (also 
worn by the Romans, as we see in their sculptures), which 
was a loose garment encircling the body, with short sleeves, 



Jahn's Archaeology. 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 65 

and reaching nearly to the knees. The Babylonians, Egyp- 
tians and Persians wore another and outer tunic of more 
costly material, a custom also adopted by the Jews, and re- 
ferred to in Matthew x. 10 and Luke ix. 3. The tunic being 
loose and bound by a girdle at the middle, made something 
like drapery, as we see in the ancient sculptures of Greece 
and Rome. The girdle was of leather, or flax, or silk, and 
was a hand's breadth in width. Over this was worn the 
Simlah or upper garment (the Talifli), simply a rectangular 
piece of cloth, eight or nine feet long by five or six in width, 
and thrown over the shoulders, or over one shoulder with 
the corners tied under the other, or wrapped around the 
body, or in any other manner that the wearer might choose. 
However worn, it was always a becoming drapery. Thrown 
over the head and held there by a fillet, as by the Arabs of 
the present day, it formed a protection from the sun. It 
was so large that burdens could be carried in it, (Exodus 
xii. 34; 2 Kings iv. 39), and one end thrown over the shoul- 
der in front and tied could be made a convenient receptacle 
or pocket, as in Luke vi. 38. At night the Hebrew wrapped 
himself in this simlah, and if travelling, his girdle un- 
clasped and laid on a stone for a pillow made all the pre- 
parations necessary for his repose. This is seen in those 
countries at the present time. So necessary was this simlah 
to the Jew that Moses enacted a law that when given as a 
pledge it should be returned before night. (Exodus xxii. 
25-27 ; Deut, xxiv. 13). 

These simple garments, the drawers, tunic and simlali, 
formed the usual costume of the Jew, a convenient and ap- 
propriate one in that southern climate : in winter the legs 
were often bound in cloth for warmth, and cloaks were worn 
also as a shelter from the weather. The cloak referred to in 
2 Tim. iv. 13, was a Roman garment worn as a protection 
from the rain, or on journeys. Long garments were worn 
by those affecting particular sanctity or wisdom. The Tal- 



66 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

mud says, "Rabbi Jochanon asked Rabbi Baruaah, what 
kind of garment is the inner garment of the disciple of the 
wise man ? It is such an one that the flesh may not be seen 
underneath him." The glossis is, " It is to reach to the very 
soles of the feet." 1 

White was esteemed the most appropriate color for cotton 
cloths, and purple for others ; black was used for common 
wear and particularly for mourners. On festival days, the 
rich and powerful robed themselves in white cotton, and the 
fullers had discovered a method of giving it a dazzling bril- 
liancy, which was very highly esteemed. Scarlet was much 
admired. The tunics of the women were longer than those 
of the men, and their dress was usually of finer quality of 
cloth ; they always wore veils, even at home, except in the 
presence of servants and of those relatives with whom nup- 
tials were interdicted : their hair was also dressed differently 
from that of the men. 

Add to the sandals, tunic, and simlah, a beard and some- 
times a turban or covering for the head, and we have an 
idea of the outward appearance of the Jew of those ancient 
times. The face which we call Jewish is by no means uni- 
versal : any one who will now, look around in a Jewish 
synagogue of the better kind, will see many faces of our own 
type, which would be not at all distinguishable in the street ; 
and doubtless in those remote periods the Jewish features gene- 
rally were of a cast superior to these seen now, after the long 
centuries, during which these people have been as the Pariahs 
of mankind. That universal traveller, Bayard Taylor, says 
of the Jews whom he met in Palestine, " The native Jewish 
families in Jerusalem, as well as those in other parts of Pa- 
lestine, present a marked difference from the Jews of Europe 
and America, They possess the same physical characteris- 
tics in the dark, oblong eye, the prominent nose, the strongly 



Lightfoot. 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 67 

marked cheek and jaw ; but in the latter these traits have 
become harsh and coarse. Centuries devoted to the lowest 
and most debasing forms of traffic, with the endurance of 
persecutions and contumely, have greatly changed and vul- 
garized the appearance of the race. But the Jews of the 
Holy City still retain a noble beauty, which proved to my 
mind their descent from the ancient princely house of Is- 
rael. The forehead is loftier, the eye larger and more frank 
in its expression, the nose more delicate in its prominence, 
and the face of a purer oval. I have remarked the same 
distinction in the countenance of those Jewish families of 
Europe whose members have devoted themselves to art or 
literature. Mendelssohn's \vas a face that must have belonged 
to the house of David." l 

Miss Martineau remarks on the same subject : " The idlers 
who hung about us [at Hebron] were a very handsome set 
of people ; and in the town we were yet more struck with 
the beauty of those we passed. Among all the Jews we saw, 
I observed only one who had what we call the Jewish cast 
of countenance. Here and at Jerusalem and elsewhere we 
saw many Jews with fair complexions, blue eyes, and light 
hair. Such eyes I never saw as both the blue and the 
brown ; soft, noble eyes, such as bring tears into one's own, 
one knows not why. The form of the face was unusually 
fine, and the complexion clear brown or fair ; the hair beau- 
tiful." 2 

That singular addition to their costume, the phylacteries, 
has already been described. When a Jew wished to make a 
profession of unusual strictness in observing the law, he en- 
larged their size, so as to make them a more striking object 
to the public eye. 

Mezuza was a name given to an appendage of a similar 
kind designed for the door-posts of their houses, both the 



" The Land of the Saracen." " Eastern Life.' 



68 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

outer doors and their chambers, and attached also to the 
knockers of doors on the right side. They wrote on parch- 
ment with a peculiar kind of ink, Deut. vi. 4-9, and xi. 13 : 
the parchment was rolled up and put in a case on the out- 
side of which was inscribed HP Shadai, one of the names of 
God, and the case was nailed to the door-post. As often as 
they passed this they touched the name of the Deity with a 
finger which they afterwards kissed. The Mezuza are still 
used in Jewish houses, and may sometimes be seen in our 
own country. 

The Mezuza. 1 




CHAPTER VII. 
JEWISH FESTIVALS. 

rilHBICE in the year every adult male was bound to appear 
~L at Jerusalem ; namely, at the feasts of Passover, of Pen- 
tecost, and of Tabernacles. This seems to have been a great 
demand on their time and means ; but religious observances 
were to the Jews no simple pastime, but the main business 
of life ; as their Sabbath, Sabbatical years, their tithes, sacri- 

1 This affords a good opportunity for elucidating Matt. v. 18: "Till 
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from 
the law, till all be fulfilled." The small letter on the left, the least in 
the Jewish alphabet is Yod, (Yot, Jot,) and the tips at the upper part of 
the letter on the right is what is meant by tittle (in the Greek of this pas- 
sage xtpaia, tip or horn). "Not the smallest letter or least part of a let- 
ter shall be dropped from the words of the law," &c. 



JEWISH FESTIVALS. 69 

fices, and feasts and festivals may testify. Their whole polity 
was a great religious system. God, according to this, was 
their owner as well as king. Their means, and they them- 
selves, were his. He had a right to their first-born of chil- 
dren : the firstlings of their flocks had to be offered to him ; 
so also the first of their fruits : nay more ; of the remain- 
der, one-tenth was still to be taken to the temple ; or to be 
changed into money if the owner was too remote to offer 
the substance; the money to be given for religious uses. 
There were also numerous other offerings which we will not 
stop here to particularize. 

In lieu of taking the first-born child, (due to God because 
he had saved the first-born of Israel from the destroying 
angel in Egypt), he had accepted for himself a tribe, that 
of Levi, and had set it aside for his service. Of this tribe 
he had then taken a portion the distinguished family of 
Aaron for the priesthood; the remainder being reserved 
for the other offices of the tabernacle and temple. But even 
after this, the first-born of all children had to be brought to 
the temple, and had to be there redeemed with money, ac- 
cording to the estimate of the priest, which was never to 
exceed five shekels ($2,50) in amount. The first-born of cat- 
tle could not be redeemed, but had to be offered to God : so 
also the first-fruits of the earth. 

These three journeys to Jerusalem, made each year, were 
not the inconvenient, laborious tasks which they may per- 
haps seem to us to have been. The two extremes of Pales- 
tine were only 170 of our statute miles apart : from the most 
remote portions of it a good pedestrian could reach Jerusa- 
lem in about four days; travelling as they did, with fami- 
lies and cattle, this distance would take about six; the nearer 
places, of course, less in proportion. Their word for feast, 
an cliag, means rejoicing ; l and such was doubtless the feeling 



1 From jjn to dance, to celebrate a feast by dancing. 



70 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

strongest in the heart of old and young in their families, 
while making preparations for such a journey, and while 
they were on the way. 

The writer of this work is the more able to picture 
to himself this act of going up to their festivals from 
having once travelled a day and a half with companies of 
German pilgrims on their way to a celebrated shrine, that 
of Maria Zell, (the Virgin of Zell), lying about forty miles 
to the southward of Vienna. The circumstances were all 
so peculiar and marked with the picturesque, and were so 
illustrative of what may have been in Judea, in those 
ancient times, that he will briefly describe them, speaking 
in the first person for the sake of convenience. 

I was making a pedestrian tour through Europe, and was 
at this time (August, 1833), proceeding from Trieste to 
Vienna. Having stopped at a wayside inn for refresh- 
ment one day, after dinner, I was dozing on the porch 
when I was roused up by three women travellers standing 
there bargaining for some soup. They had great loaves of 
brown bread on their heads, and were soon, by such aid, 
engaged in making a hearty meal. I asked them where 
they were going, and they said, "to Maria Zell." My 
informant, pointing to one of the company added, "This 
woman is becoming blind, and wanted to go there and pray; 
for Maria of Zell is powerful to help; this other is quite 
blind already." "But surely you cannot expect Tier to be 
restored." "No, but she would not stay at home." The 
person speaking could see, and was their guide; their whole 
journey to the shrine would occupy nine days. 

On the second day after this, while travelling on, I was 
passed by a young man, a long staff in his hand, and going 
like the wind; and he soon left me behind. In answer to 
my inquiry, as he lingered a minute with me, he said that 
he was going to Maria Zell. 

That evening I crossed a small stream, and followed a 



JEWISH FESTIVALS. 71 

winding road from it to the village of Fronleiten, on its 
bank, where I stopped to spend the next day, the Sabbath. 
At the tavern the} 7 gave me a bed in a large music room, as 
was often the case in the villages in Germany. Some time, 
during the night, it seemed as if the spirit of song was 
haunting the chamber and mixing itself with my dreams; 
and finally the music, soft yet strong, grew so powerful that 
I started from my sleep. The next act was to spring from 
my bed and to throw up a window opening upon the street. 
There was a spectacle below quite in unison with such 
dreams. The moon was about half an hour from setting, 
and cast a dim light on objects around. Along the middle 
of the street was a procession of pilgrims, in double file; 
they seemed, to my glance, to be all in white; and their 
rapid gait, in the dull moonlight, appeared more like the 
flitting of ghosts than the tread of earthly forms. As they 
passed, they were singing a hymn to some tune that harmo- 
nized with the scene and the occasion. They soon grew 
indistinct, and their hymn floated on the night air as if 
spirits were singing; and then we had again only the 
deserted street and the splashing of water in the fountain 
below. 

At sunrise I was again aroused by singing from many 
voices in the street; and found, on looking out, that it came 
from another company of pilgrims winding up from the 
river and entering the church. After concluding their 
worship, they proceeded on their way. Other processions 
succeeded ; and during the whole day, pilgrims were passing 
on towards Maria Zell. I found, on inquiry, that they were 
from the rural districts of Styria; that it was customary to 
make appointments each year, for particular districts, and 
that this was the year for pilgrims from that region. 

I began my journey early on the following day : and as the 
road, since leaving Gratz, had been most of the time ascend- 
ing, and was now fairly among the German Alps, the 



72 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

scenery on every side was marked with grand and striking 
features. I knew that there were pilgrims not far ahead, 
and by rapid walking soon joined a company of thirty-five, 
seated on the grass, at their morning meal. They appeared 
to be a family party; and there was a venerable-looking man 
at the head of it, by whose word they were governed, as 
they presently arose and formed a procession in double file. 
They were all provided for the journey with huge loaves of 
bread, which the women carried on their heads. Not long 
after setting out, the leader uncovered his head, and all the 
other men doing the same, the whole party engaged in 
solemn prayer; still, however, continuing their walk. This 
over, the hats were replaced and they all commenced singing 
a hymn. The effect was very fine. Their voices were good; 
the tune was a pleasant one; the grandest and most sublime 
forms of nature were all around us; a stream was dashing 
by our side, mingling its sounds not inharmoniously with 
the singing; and the gentle moving of the forest trees, as we 
passed along, seemed by the graceful motions and the soft 
murmurings, to intimate that nature herself was joining in 
the worship offered to nature's God. I looked in the faces 
of my companions, and read there clear signs of the sincerity 
of their devotions. Thus we travelled on, the whole party 
engaged in singing and praying alternately, for more than 
an hour; at the end of which time we arrived at a little 
chapel by the roadside, which they entered in order to 
commence more formal devotions. 

Here I left them ; and passing on, I soon joined a party 
of about 150 resting in the little town of Oflanrls; and this 
company, being more miscellaneous, was organized more 
carefully than the other. They occupied much of the time, 
as we proceeded, in singing and prayer: a slight rain, lasting 
two or three hours, did not interrupt either the journey or 
their devotions. 

They also stopped in the afternoon ; and I proceeded and 



JEWISH FESTIVALS. 73 

joined a party of about 250, a little further on the road. 
Their singing, as we travelled on, had the finest effect ima- 
ginable: for the rain had now ceased ; we were quite up, 
among the highest parts of the Alps; the softening influ- 
ences of evening were beginning to be felt upon the scenery, 
and upon our feelings; and, if to this, we add that the 
voices were good, and the airs musical and swevt, some idea 
may be formed of the evening walk, as our procession passed, 
winding among the mountain tops. 

About sunset, we came to a small village, and stopped to 
rest. I walked a little to one side, so as to have a view, at 
leisure, of the mountain scenery : for the spot commanded a 
most extensive prospect; and every Alpine height was now 
steeped in its own peculiar hue, running through the richest 
shades of blue, purple, green and yellow; while over some, 
floated canopies of vapor with ever-changing colors, which 
no human art could imitate. I soon, however, thought it 
best to return to my company : but they were gone, nor 
could I find them anywhere! The road in each' direction 
was in sight, for some distance ; but they were not there. I 
looked around, perplexed and troubled : till, at last, hap- 
pening to raise my eyes, I espied them scattered thickly over 
an adjoining hill-side so steep that I had previously not 
thought of looking for them there. It is called the " Seher- 
berg;" and is so steep, that, in climbing it, I often had to 
dig holes in the turf with my feet before trusting myself to 
the next step. On the way up, I passed four pilgrims at 
prayer, on a more level part of the ascent. When I joined 
the company again, which was on the summit, I found them 
all on their knees, in an open area among the trees. Their 
faces were toward their homes ; and their leader was re- 
peating something which seemed to be half-vow, half-prayer. 
Suddenly they all rose, and faced in the contrary direction ; 
when, kneeling again, they repeated their devotions: and 
then, all rising, they broke, with full, strong voices, into a 



74 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

hymn, the cadences of which were well adapted to the scene 
and the time. In double file, as before, and still singing, 
they descended the hill by a slope more gentle than on the 
opposite side ; and, at the bottom, we passed a large stone, 
which many of the company stepped to, and kissed. We 
came, soon after this, to a large tavern, which the pilgrims 
immediately filled, as their resting-place for the night. I 
went on to another, four miles distant; but which I found, 
on arriving there, to be already filled, like the other ; I how- 
ever succeeded there in getting a bed. 

On the morrow I joined this latter party, and went with 
them towards the shrine. At the expiration of a couple of 
hours, a bright object, like a gilded sun on top of a steeple, 
shone among the trees; and now, by a little way-side chapel, 
the whole company stopped for formal prayer. Soon after- 
wards we reached the precincts of the village, Maria Zell ; 
but before entering it my companions stepped aside to make 
their toilet at a stream crossing the road. At the church I 
found many others advancing on their knees through the 
court-yard toward the shrine. 

We may, from these scenes, have probably some idea of 
the circumstances attending the going up to the festivals at 
Jerusalem, in those ancient times. The chief difficulty with 
the German pilgrims was in finding accommodations for the 
night : but in those southern countries, people, when at 
home, often sleep from choice in the open air. The simlah, 
wrapped around the Jewish travellers, with the girdle folded 
and laid on a stone for a pillow, \vas all that was needed in 
that climate. Such was doubtless the night-rest of their 
Patriarch Jacob, when, travelling in this same country, he 
saw, in his dream, the angels ascending and descending; and 
so, in the morning he called his open-air liostdrie, where the 
bright stars had shone down upon him, and heaven's vault 
was the dome, a fit place for dreaming of angels Bethel, 
or the house of God. 



JEWISH FESTIVALS. 75 

The object of the Jewish festivals was " to perpetuate the 
memory of great events; to keep them firm in their religion 
by ceremonies and the majesty of divine service; to procure 
them certain pleasures, and allowable times of rest; and to 
renew the acquaintances, correspondence and friendship of 
their tribes and families, which, corning from distant towns 
in the country, met three times a year in the holy city." 1 
The periods for the festivals were: for the Passover, just 
when the harvest was ripening, but the gathering had not 
yet begun ; for Pentecost, fifty days after this, when the har- 
vesting had been finished ; for the feast of Tabernacles, just 
before seeding time had commenced : periods, consequently, 
when time among agriculturists could very well be spared : 
and the Jews were generally cultivators of the soil. Then, 
as regards weather, the feast of Tabernacles was about our 
15th of October, before the rainy season had set in : Pente- 
cost was at a time when not a cloud is ever seen in Pales- 
tine, but yet prior to the hot season : the Passover was on 
the 14th Nisan, which month corresponded to the latter part 
of our March and beginning of April ; and at the 14th 
Nisan we may consider the weather of that country to have 
recovered from the wintry storms, and to have become 
settled and clear; for, from the middle of April to the 
middle of September, rains and thunders are there little 
known. 

The weather, therefore, for these journeys we may believe 
to have been clear, but not warm, and favorable for travel- 
ling: the time could easily be spared, and the periods came 
when the heart was open for rejoicing and thankfulness. 
We may easily imagine the members of families, male and 
female, including the children fit for travel (for all seem to 
have gone, although it was compulsory only on the adult 
males) starting together, joining other families from their 



1 Calraet. 



76 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

neighborhood, or on the road ; cheerful, happy parties, and 
all the happier for the "pic-nic" kind of living on the way; 
making the journey easy, since there was no occasion for 
hurrying, and they were subject to little expense on the road. 
The morning and evening and other occasional devotions 
added a sacredness to the day ; and the cheerfulness in other 
incidents of the journey had only a better zest from this 
devotion. Their grand and noble hymns (and time, even 
to our day, has furnished no grander or more sublime hymn- 
ology) were chanted ; and, often and often, the full tones, 
in that rich Hebrew language, rose in sublime anthems in 
the clear air, amid the very regions of which those anthems 
spoke; the mountains and plains, all witnesses of God's 
miraculous powers, seeming now to take a voice and to join 
the singers in the great anthems of praise. The cattle in- 
tended for the coming sacrifices helped to carry the offerings 
of the first fruits or other burdens of the travellers : the 
horns of the oxen were sometimes gilded ; trumpets were 
blown before the processions, to herald joyfully their ad- 
vances towards the holy city, the temple, and the altars. 
The children had with them their pet lamb or kid, also 
decked and sporting along, unconscious of the death so 
closely awaiting it ; and resting at night with the head of 
the child nestled against it the animal itself still, as always 
before, a part of the family group. It was to be the coming 
sacrifice, was thus a part of their religion itself was to 
go before God accepted by him, from and for them ; and 
was to open their way towards paradise, and so was a sacred 
object even in its sportiveness : and then again, the children 
while hanging around their pet, with many a secret grief 
at the near final parting, were told of Abraham, leading 
even his favorite son for sacrifice at the same Mount Moriah 
to which they were travelling, and of his faith which they 
could now all the better appreciate from the trial required 
of themselves. Thus were infused into their young hearts 



JEWISH FESTIVALS. 77 

the lessons of their religion by practical teachings so well 
understood and never to be forgotten. 

But, on the whole journey, apart from the beauty of the 
scenery amid which the roads were laid, there were to all 
minds and hearts, historic lessons of strangest character and 
highest interest. If we suppose the festival journey to be 
from the northern part of Galilee, we see the travellers soon 
on the great plain of Esdraelon, vast in extent, and rich in 
beauty, on which rose the dome-shaped Tabor, with a town 
perched on its fortified heights. But the interest in natural 
beauty was sure to be mixed with grander thoughts ; for 
there, on Tabor, had their countryman, Barak, ranged his 
host of 10,000 men, while Sisera, with his immense army, 
and his 900 chariots of iron, waited to engage the Israelites 
on the plain below. There had the fearless prophetess, De- 
borah, without whom Barak had said that he would not go 
down, cried out to him, " Up, for this is the day : is not the 
Lord gone out before thee?" And so they had rushed 
down ; and the whole plain was soon covered with the flying 
enemy, slaughtered till not a man was left, except Sisera, 
who was spared to be slain by a woman's hand, because Barak 
had doubted God. How heartily, as the travellers passed 
on, did they now chant Deborah's song of victory, " Praise ye 
the Lord for the avenging of Israel" ending with " So let 
all thine enemies perish, O Lord." 1 Far to the west of them 
now rose gradually on the edge of the plain and in full 
view, Carmel, with its history of Ahab's heathen priests, 
gathered there by order of Elijah; the altars prepared 
there; the priests cutting their own flesh in frenzy, and call- 
ing on their gods in vain; and the heavenly lire, at Elijah's 
prayer, descending and consuming his sacrifice, and licking 
up the water in the trenches around. Soon the way laid by 
Jezreel, with its story of Elijah's hurried arrival there with 



1 Judges iv. and 
7* 



78 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

the king, after the prophets of Baal had been slain in Ivi- 
shon, on the western side of Esdraelon; and of the windows 
of heaven then opened in rain ; and also of Jezebel's fear- 
ful end under the walls of Jezreel. 1 On their left, also, lay 
Endor, telling of Saul's night journey thither from the 
neighboring mountain of Gilboa, where his army lay en- 
camped : and of the summons to the spirit of Samuel, and 
of the king's heart-rending ciy to the dead prophet, " God 
is departed from me and heareth me no more." 2 Further to 
the east they could see the isolated hill of Scythopolis (Beth- 
shean) with precipitous sides, and a castle on its summit, 
against the walls of which the decapitated body of Saul had 
been nailed by his triumphant foes. 3 What lessons of most 
powerful interest there were in all this journey to their fes- 
tivals ! Soon now, toward the southern side of Esdraelon, 
they passed the isolated range of Gilboa, 1,300 feet high, 
where Saul was defeated and slain : and here, with their 
chanting, mingled saddest notes, as filled with the memory 
of the great slaughter of their countrymen, they sang the 
lament of David, " The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy 
high places: how are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in 
Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askalon ; lest the 
daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the 
uncircumcised triumph. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there 
be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of 
offerings; 4 for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast 
away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed 
with oil. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the 
battle !" 5 

Their journey might lead also by Sychem and Jacob's 
well ; and they could picture the patriarch returned once 



1 1 Kings xviii. ; 2 Kings ix. 2 1 Sam. xxviii. 3 1 Samuel xxxi. 
4 Gilboa is to this day remarkable for its barrenness. 
* 2 Samuel i. 



JEWISH FESTIVALS. 79 

more to his native land, and finding here for a while, his 
home; and here, too, looking upon the two mountains, Ebal 
and Gerizim, they were reminded of the strange scene of 
blessing and cursing in the ancient times, to each item of 
which all Israel gathered there said, Amen. 

Shiloh also was on their way, with its mementos of the 
ark resting there for 328 years : and of Samuel brought up 
there : and of the sudden death of Eli, when it was an- 
nounced to him that his countrymen were routed in battle, 
and his children slain. Then they passed Bethel, where 
Jacob had his dream of the angels ; their whole journey 
from home to Jerusalem being indeed, through regions 
where history took to them a living and speaking form. 

Thus in prayer, and in singing their grand old hymns, 
and in pleasant intercourse they passed on ; until at last, 
having reached the heights of Scopus, they paused in mute 
admiration and joyfulness: and then they broke out in 
shouts of loudest praise: for, from this elevation, they 
looked down over a wide scene of beauty, in the midst of 
which lay " the joy of the whole earth," their own blest, 
sacred city, Jerusalem. 

On the road the crowds had thickened, new companies all 
the while uniting ; not as for one of our modern gather- 
ings, but for a deeply sacred and yet a glad purpose : devo- 
tion and joy mingled harmoniously and beamed on every 
face ; old associates were there with cordial greetings ; 
friends met from all parts of Palestine to strengthen the 
heart-bonds already formed. 

Of the feasts of Tabernacles and Passover we shall have 
notices in a future part of this work. The ceremonies at 
Pentecost were brief, and we give them here as a suitable 
conclusion to this part of our subject. The word Pentecost 
signifies the 50th : and was used because this feast was on 

o * 

the 50th day, that is, the expiration of seven weeks from 
the second day of the Passover feast. The object of it was 



So LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

to bring the Jews to acknowledge in the sanctuary at this, 
the ending of their harvest, the dominion of God over the 
fruits of the earth ; and also to thank him for the law given 
on Mount Sinai, on the fiftieth day after their coming out 
from Egypt. Assembled at Jerusalem, they formed into 
companies of twenty-four persons each, to carry their first- 
fruits in a ceremonious manner. Each company was preceded 
by an ox appointed to be sacrificed, his head crowned with gar- 
lands of olive branches, his horns sometimes gilded, a player 
on a flute preceding him. The offering of first-fruits con- 
sisted of two loaves of wheat bread, barley, grapes, figs, 
olives and dates. Each man carried his basket, and the 
king himself was not exempt from this act. They walked 
in pomp to the temple, singing hymns : and having arrived 
there before the priests, the Levites sang the 30th Psalm. 
The bearers then brought their baskets before the priest, 
and said : 

"A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went 
down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and be- 
came there a nation, great, mighty and populous," &c. 
"And now, O Lord, I have brought the first-fruits of the 
land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me." 1 

They placed the baskets beside the altar, and after pros- 
trating themselves, were free then for the social enjoyments 
of the occasion. 

Such was the nature of the Jewish institutions, and such 
their legitimate actions; a pleasing spectacle where religion 
and social joy were combined, and each helped to give a zest 
to the other; and where all life was made grand by its 
intimate relationship to God. 



1 Deut. xxvi. 4-10 : see also Numbers xxviii. 26-31. 



THE UNWRITTEN WORD. Si 



CHAPTER VIII. 
THE UNWRITTEN WORD THE TALMUD S, <t-c. 

BUT, over this fair spectacle of ordinances and worship, 
and over the Jewish heart, a cloud had been gradually 
drawn ; and it was every day darkening more and more. 
It came from the substitution of forms for the essence of 
religion ; from assumptions and pride in their leaders, and 
the hypocrisy which these engender; from innovations by 
the Pharisees ; and especially from The Unwritten Wordj 
(oral traditions) of which the Pharisees were the authors ; an 
instrument which it will be readily seen must, from its 
mysterious and undefined nature, have been capable of 
giving immense power to its possessors. The Jewish 
history of this very singular claimant of divine authority is 
thus condensed by Isaac Nordheimer D. P., Professor of 
oriental languages in the University of New York, drawn 
by him from the writings of R. Moses Ben Maimon, 
commonly called Maimonides, 1 the highest authority among 
the Jews : 

" All the laws given to Moses on Mount Sinai were 
accompanied by their interpretation; as it is written, 'I will 
give thee tables of stone and the law and the commandments 7 
(Ex. xxiv. 12). 'The law 7 means written law, and 'the 
commandments' its interpretation, the oral law. Although 
this oral law was not preserved in writing, Moses taught it 
all to the Seventy elders composing his Beth-din or tribunal. 
Eleazer the priest, Phineas his son, and Joshua, were like- 
wise instructed by Moses, especially the latter, who was his 



He died A. D. 1205. 



82 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

own immediate disciple. From Joshua, who spent his whole 
life in teaching it, the oral law was transmitted to many of 
the elders of the people; and from them and Phineas it 
was received by Eli. It then passed successively, through 
the hands of Samuel and his tribunal, David and his 
tribunal, Abijah the Shilonite and his tribunal, Elijah, 
Elisha, Jehoiada the priest, Zechariah, Hosea, &c., &c., [the 
whole list is given by the Jews] to Hillel. E. Gamaliel, 
his son, imparted it to his son Simon, from whom it was 
received by his son Gamaliel, [Saul's teacher], who was 
followed by his son, Simon the 3d. After him came his son 
E. Judah, generally called 'our holy Eabbi.' This E. 
Judah compiled the Mislma. From the death of Moses to 
his own age, no book had been composed for public instruc- 
tion containing the oral law; but, in every generation the 
chief of the tribunal, or the prophet who lived at the time, 
made memoranda of what he had heard from his predeces- 
sors and instructors, and communicated it orally to the 
people. In like manner, each individual committed to 
writing for his own use, and according to the degree of his 
ability, the oral laws and information he had received 
respecting the interpretation of the Bible, with the various 
decisions which had been pronounced in every age and 
sanctioned by the authority of the grand tribunal." 

E. Judah had become fearful that these traditions might 
fall into oblivion, and thus, A. D. 160, wrote them out, 
forming the Mislma or Second Law, as above described. An 
edition of this book published in Amsterdam 1698-1703, 
is in six volumes, folio ; and the vastness of the work shows 
us not only how difficult (if indeed possible) it was for any 
memory to retain it, but also what immense means it afforded 
the Eabbis, by its very vastness, for imposing on the Jewish 
people, coming to them as these traditions did, as the word 
of God. Indeed, the oral law, at a very early time, began 
to claim more power than the Written Word of the Penta- 



THE UNWRITTEN WORD. 83 

teuch. Before we proceed to give authority for this assertion, 
we must speak also of a consequent work, the Gemara, (i. e. 
completion], called so because in this book the oral law is 
supposed to be completed, or fully explained. The Gemaras 
contain an exposition of the contents of the Mishna, and 
discussions on disputed points of doctrine, also historical and 
biographical notices, .legends, disputations on astronomy and 
sympathetic medicine, aphorisms, apologues, parables, short 
and pithy sermons, and rules of ethics and of practical wisdom 
in general. There are two Gemaras, one called the Jerusalem 
Gemara, compiled at the city of Tiberias, about seventy 
years after the writing out of the Mishna, (or A. D. 230). 
The other, the Babylonian Gemara, was prepared a few years 
later: this latter, as published in Berlin in 1715, fills 12 
folio volumes. The Mishna and Gemara form, together, 
what is called the Talmud, or, referring to the two Gemaras, 
"the Talmtids," from the Hebrew Lamad, to learn. The 
Mishna is divided into six portions : 1, on seeds and agri- 
culture; 2, festivals; 3, women; 4, laws of civil life; 5, 
things holy ; and 6, purifications. Being written out so 
soon after our Saviour's time, it may be considered a fair 
exhibition of the excrescences which had at his time grown 
upon the Jewish religion, and which Christ so often and so 
severely denounced. The Talmud, as respects its claims to 
authority, says : u The written law is narrow ; but the tra- 
ditional is longer than the earth and broader than the sea." 
" The words of the scribes are lovely above the words of the 
law ; for the words of the law are weighty and light, but 
the words of the scribe are all weighty." " The Bible is like 
water; the Mishna like wine: he that hath learned the 
Scripture, and not the Mishna, is a blockhead." 

A great English scholar, Dr. Lightfoot, believing that 
an examination of these books might afford important infor- 
mation respecting those earliest times, and help us thus in 
understanding the New Testament, gave nearly all his life 



84 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

to this subject ; and Christian students must ever feel grate- 
ful to him for an undertaking so full of difficulties and 
attended with so much that was utterly wearisome and dis- 
gusting. He says in his own quaint language respecting 
the Talmuds : " The almost unconquerable difficulty of the 
style, the frightful roughness of the language, and the 
amazing emptiness and sophistry of the matters handled, do 
torture, vex and tire him that reads them. They do every- 
where abound in trifles, in that manner as though they had 
no mind to be read ; with obscurities and difficulties, as 
though they had no mind to be understood : so that the 
reader hath need of patience all along to enable him to bear 
both trifling in sense and roughness in expression." 

Speaking again of the representation of the Supreme Be- 
ing in the Talmud, he says: "With regard to this funda- 
mental doctrine of all religions, we must forbear to quote 
what would be offensive to the pious in perusal. Suffice it 
to say, that it speaks of God as the author of sin ; as need- 
ing atonement; as contracting pollution; as inferior to the 
Rabbis in knowledge : this, and more horrible blasphemies, 
are of common occurrence." 

Surely there was great need for a Divine Teacher, and for 
a Deliverer to appear ! Quotations from these books will be 
given in another part of this work. 

In searching for the origin of the abuses just detailed, we 
Lave no occasion to go very far ; for the Scribes and Phari- 
sees, " hypocrites,' 7 as the Saviour often declared them to be, 1 
" making the word of God of no effect through your tradi- 
tions, which ye have believed/' 2 readily furnish us with the 
clue to them all. 

"Scribe denotes generally any man learned, and is opposed 
to the word rude or clownish. More particularly the word 
Scribe denotes such as being learned, of a scholastic educa- 



1 Matt. xii. 13-33; xv. 7. fl Mark vii. 13. 



THE UNWRITTEN WORD. 85 

tion, addicted themselves especially to handling the pen and 
writing. Such were the public notaries in the Sanhedrim ; 
registrars in the synagogues; amanuenses, who employed 
themselves in transcribing the law, phylacteries, short sen- 
tences to be fixed upon door-posts, wills of contract, divorces, 
&c. But, above all, the fathers of the traditions were 
called Scribes, (who were, indeed, elders of the Sanhedrim), 
which is clear enough in such like expressions, ' The words 
of the Scribes are more lovely than the words of the law ;' 
i. e., traditions are better than the written law. i Scribes of 
the people' were those elders of the Sanhedrim who were not 
sprung from the sacerdotal or Levitical stock, but from the 
other tribes : the elders of the Sanhedrim, sprung from the 
blood of the priests, were the scribes of the clergy ; the rest 
were scribes of the people." 1 

The Pharisees, called so from the Hebrew word Pharash 9 
signifying to separate, have been noticed in a previous chap- 
ter ; and it is necessary to mention them here only as com- 
ing before us in history about the time when we have the 
first distinct notices of the traditional law. They and the 
Scribes were its conservators, and doubtless also its origina- 
tors. That all the Pharisees were wicked men is not to be 
supposed ; for we have record of individuals of probity be- 
longing to this sect ; but these were the few exceptions, and 
the character of the rest is emblazoned in our Saviour's pub- 
lic denunciations of them, the truth of which they did not 
dare to deny. It is not wonderful that such men, vainglo- 
rious and haughty, ambitious, overbearing and hypocritical, 
should persistently oppose the Saviour, and that he should 
so constantly warn the people against them and their works. 

There was another sect among the Jews called the Essenes, 
a quiet people, living by themselves, and almost entirely cul- 
tivators of the soil. Josephus speaks of them as only 4000 



JLiirlitfoot 



86 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

in number, and says, "They are Jews by birth, and seem to 
have a greater affection one for another than the other sects 
have. These Essenes reject pleasures as an evil, but esteem 
continence and the conquest over our passions to be virtue. 
They reject wedlock, but choose out other persons' children 
while they are pliable and fit for learning, and esteem them 
to be of their kindred, and form them according to their 
own manners." 1 In another part of his book, however, he 
intimates that some of them married, and that they were 
more numerous than as above described : but they do not 
seem to have exercised, or cared to exercise, any great influ- 
ence in national affairs. 

Another Jewish sect, the Herodians, were, however ambi- 
tious of such power, and stood boldly forward not only as 
the advocates of the Roman government, but also of princi- 
ples corrupting their countrymen. They took their name 
apparently from Herod the Great, and seem to have drawn 
their sentiments from him, namely : 1st, That the dominion 
of the Romans over the Jews was just, and that it was their 
duty to submit ; and 2d, That in the present circumstances, 
they might with a good conscience follow many of the 
heathen modes and usages. 2 Twice the Pharisees combined 
with them in attempts to entrap and destroy the Messiah ; 
and no further proof can be needed of the bitter hostility 
toward him by the former sect than their union thus with 
men whose avowed principles in national affairs were so 
utterly hostile to their own. 

We have now, through these preliminary remarks a view 
of the surface of Jewish society, and of some of its internal 
workings ; but after all there was a deep under-current of 
feeling and belief which we have not reached, and cannot 
reach. The power of the insolent Pharisee over the masses 
was tremendous, backed as it was by the traditional law 



1 De bel. ii. 8, \ 2. Prideanx see Calmet. 



THE UNWRITTEN WORD. 87 

claiming to be that of God, and which they might change 
into any form which seemed expedient : yet the people were 
ever ready to break from them, and the rulers were ever 
fearful of such revolt by their followers. We may know 
from this, that in the Jewish heart was a broad substratum 
of right feeling, which no Pharisaic cunning could destroy. 
While the Pharisees and the Sadducees and Scribes and 
Doctors, looked coldly on Christ, or sneered, or tried to de- 
stroy him, the people heard him gladly, followed him with 
admiration, wanted to make him a king; and more than 
once set their old doctrinal masters at defiance in their love 
to Christ, and their joy as they followed in his train. Where 
the general heart was so moved by him, there must have been 
much good and right feeling in it, notwithstanding the cor- 
rupting influences which their leaders had long and hypo- 
critically exercised over the land. 

The Jews had never been a popular people among other 
nations, and they could not be. Exclusive, antagonistic to 
all other religions; repelling all intercourse as adapted to 
bring heathenism among them; believing themselves to be a 
nation chosen of God from all the inhabitants of the earth, 
and favored of Him, they shut their hearts against all other 
people in that adversus omnes olios hostile odium, hatred 
amounting to hostility against all others, described by Tacitus 
(Hist. Lib. v. 5), and were regarded by ether nations in 
return with hatred mixed with, con tempt. "Credat Judeus" 
let a Jew believe it, expresses Horace's contemptuous opin- 
ion of their credulity. Their literature, even their poetry, 
was scarcely known beyond themselves; yet their poetry was 
the most sublime extant, and even to our day it has not been 
excelled. Their prophetical writing rises to a grandeur of 
sentiment and language without a parallel; and the father 
of Grecian critics on style, Longinus, quotes the opening of 
the first chapter of Genesis as the highest known specimen 
of the sublime. While Pharisaism and the heavy curse of 



88 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

the traditional religion were like a crushing weight upon the 
land, there must have been a mighty power in the original 
Jewish faith to keep religion alive at all under such a 
malign influence. Alive it was; and now springing up once 
more with vigor at that cry from the Jordan, "the kingdom 
of heaven is at hand," with the subsequent declaration, 
" Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of 
the world." 



CHAPTER IX. 
PRESENT JEWISH VIEW OF THAT PERIOD. 

THESE preliminaries in the last three chapters will en- 
able us to take a comprehensive view of the circum- 
stances attending the public ministry of Christ: but the 
reader would probably be gratified by seeing what are the 
present Jewish views of those times and circumstances. We 
therefore make extracts from a recent work, "A general 
history of the Jews," by one of their own people, Jost; 
considered by them as the most profound historian of the 
age. It was written in German, and portions have been 
translated by Rev. James Murdaugh, D. D. ; from which we 
make our quotation. Its deeply interesting character will 
render unnecessary any apology for its length, or for insert- 
ing it here in the text instead of in a note. 

Jost says : 

"Herod the Great tore in pieces all the framework of 
society, and gave it a new construction. Under him the 
people so visibly lost their national peculiarities, that they 
seemed ready to become extinct. Trodden down and op- 



PRESENT JEWISH VIEW. 89 

pressed by a tyrannical government, they turned their eyes 
towards the Holy Scriptures and their law, for comfort and 
consolation. They acknowledged themselves justly punished 
for their backsliding; and although the sanctuary and the 
sacrifices continued, yet every one could see that a priesthood 
which the king conferred on whom he pleased, and of whose 
incumbents he had deposed four and slain two, and a sanc- 
tuary which the king beautified merely as a permanent 
temple, the sanctity of which he was no way concerned to 
maintain, could by no means satisfy the requisitions of God's 
government, and of the Judaism resulting from it. Besides, 
the national tribunals were disregarded, and the king alone 
enacted laws and appointed tribunals on every occasion, 
according to his pleasure. The people had no protection, 
and they were harassed with acts of individual violence ; 
some were carried away by ambition, others by self-interest; 
some acted from compulsion, others from bigotry and 
hypocrisy. What would be the result of such a state of 
things, was a question which interested every friend of the 
public weal; and it was answered variously. One party 
adhered to the doctrine of Judaism, and looked for deliver- 
ance by a regent of the house of David ; another party were 
for waging war with everything of a foreign character; and 
a third party declared the kingdom of God to be at hand, 
in the way of a general repentance and reformation. 

"1. The first party connected themselves with the doctors 
of the law, and adhered to their schools. At the head of 
these schools, during the whole reign of Herod, stood two 
men entirely disconnected with political life, who devoted 
their time to the study and exposition of the doctrines of 
the law; namely, Hillel of Babylonia, renowned for the 
mildness of his disposition, his kindness and calmness, and 
Shammai, a man bold, vehement and decisive. Both were 
distinguished for learning, and both framed systems of 
Judaism, though they frequently clashed in regard to their 

8 * 



90 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

legal conclusions on particular points. And hence their 
schools were afterwards opposed to each other, and were 
characterized, that of Hillel for adhering more to the sense 
and import of Scripture, and that of Shammai for a rigid 
adherence to the letter. Both of these men mingled so little 
in the transactions of their times, that they became mythical 
personages. Only some particular sayings, characteristic of 
each, have come down to us. Thus Hillel inculcated as the 
fundamental principle of Judaism this maxim: Love thy 
neighbor as thyself. On the necessity of an early prosecution 
of knowledge, with his accustomed brevity, he said : Unless 
I for myself, who will ? If I only for myself what do I be- 
come? If not now, then when? On the nothingness of the 
world, compared with spiritual life, he said : The more flesh, 
the more worms; the more wealth, the more care; the more 
wives, the more poisoning ; the more maid-servants, the more 
unchastity ; the more men-servants, the more thieving, but the 
more knowledge, the more life; the more reflection, the more 
intelligence; the more benevolence, the more union. Gaining 
a good name is a good thing ; but a knowledge of the law pro- 
cures immortality. Respecting union he said : Separate not 
yourselves from the many. Do not account yourself safe until 
your dying day : and judge not your neighbor until you stand in 
his place. From Shammai we have only a few sayings. 
Make the study of the law the business of your life. Say little 
and do much. Be beforehand with every one. Yet the virtues 
of the man are particularly eulogized. By the influence of 
these two men, Rabbinism, or the authoritativeness of the 
teachers of the law, became predominant; Sadduceeism was 
nearly extinguished, and the interest of students in the ap- 
plication of the doctrines and precepts of the law to human 
conduct was amazingly shackled. By the Rabbis of after 
ages, Hillel was honored as being next to Ezra, the restorer 
of the law. (Succa J, end). To him in particular, has 
been ascribed the distribution of the whole law into six 



PRESENT JE WISH VIE W. 91 

parts: 1, of seeds; 2, of women; 3, of festivals; 4, of 
possessions and property ; 5, of sacred things ; 6, of things 
clean and unclean ; a distribution which has been perma- 
nently maintained. Under these six titles are arranged all 
that Judaism teaches respecting the law; and the whole, 
collectively, has since been called MISHNA, (Deuterosis) or 
the second rescension of the law. Yet all instruction was, 
at that time, given orally. Hence, though many persons 
understood the law, yet there were few who had talents for 
teaching. Possibly the Semicha, or the consecration of 
public teachers by the imposition of hands, which their 
principal doctors practiced, originated in this period. For 
not long afterwards the learned were always called Rabbis; 
which word became a title, and was an object of ambition. 
The introduction of such a mode of investiture greatly 
increased the power of the Rabbis, or rather established il 
on a firm basis. Rabbinism directed its aims against pagan- 
ism, and the dominion of the senses in common people. To 
all who intrenched themselves in this bulwark, the civil 
government became a matter of indifference, because it did 
not secure the proper object. From that period, the adhe- 
rents to Rabbinism have had a world of their own in which 
they lived and for which they died. We may also remark 
that the Rabbis for a number of centuries continued their 
labors to bring Judaism to perfection. The men who took 
the lead in the work set out with a very good idea, namely, 
to give to Judaism an enduring shell or covering that should 
defend it against all the storms to which it might be exposed. 
But many of their followers embraced only the shell, and 
sought for salvation in outward observances, in much prayer 
and fasting, in strenuously combating the slightest deviation 
from very trivial prescriptions ; and thus, either they were 
altogether in error respecting the kernel of doctrine, or they 
put on an apparent sanctity as a cloak to conceal their moral 



92 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

conduct. The majority were enthusiasts in the proper sense 
of the term, and lived only in an ideal world. 

" 2. On the other hand, there was at that time a large 
party who contemplated a full restoration of the Jewish 
commonwealth, and who overrated their own power. 

******** 
* * ## # #.# # 

" 3. A third party was actuated by totally different views. 
In the interpretation put upon the law by the first party, 
they could see only a tissue of external sanctity ; and in the 
zeal of the second party, only a useless effort that must draw 
after it the loss of what little union remained in Judea. Far 
from both, many, especially among the more plain common 
people who had no thirst for distinction, and no solicitude 
to maintain the fallen commonwealth, hoped for deliverance 
from the fluctuating state of things, and particularly from 
the evils of immorality, in accordance with the generally 
proclaimed oracles of the prophets. There can be no doubt 
that this expectation of a kingdom of God which should 
arise out of Judaism, and be a very different thing from 
what others anticipated, was very prevalent, especially 
among the later Essenes. They preferred a still and quiet 
life of devotion, and served the public chiefly as peaceful 
counsellors, and revered wise men. The spirit alone, the 
divine, the all-subduing spirit, could put an end to their 
calamities ; burst the fetters of the law on the one hand, and 
of worldly-mi ndedness on the other, and by his truth, bring 
not only the Jews, but all the Gentile world, to an internal 
tranquillity; which their religions, in combination with 
worldly power or oppression, could not secure. These views 
more or less matured, pervaded and animated a very con- 
siderable number of Jews, who waited only for the mani- 
festation of God, in order to see the work of redemption in 
successful operation. Their aspirations for it increased as 
the calamities multiplied. 



PRESENT JE WISH VIE W. 93 



"Recognizing the sinfulness of men by nature as a funda- 
mental principle, the Jews anxiously desired to find an 
atonement for sin. This was symbolized by sacrifices and 
by baptism. John, surnamed the Baptist, born a little prior 
to Jesus, and also destined to a high calling, travelled up 
and down the wilderness like the ancient prophets, proclaim- 
ing, < The kingdom of heaven draws near/ Kindly greet- 
ing all who resorted to him, he baptized many in the Jordan, 
and preached repentance as a preparation for the coming of 
Christ; whom moreover, he recognized in the person of 
Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus, also honoring the national custom, 
received consecration from him. Exciting high expectations 
in his childhood, and astonishing people by his wisdom in 
discourse with the doctors of the law when twelve years old, 
he at the age of about thirty, entered on his course as a pub- 
lic teacher. In Galilee his discourses had an overpowering 
influence ; and soon his triumphant superiority in reasoning 
with the Pharisees and Sadducees in their own way, pro- 
cured him general esteem and veneration. The mentally 
diseased often from mere internal conflicts exposed to exqui- 
site pain, found relief by him ; and other sufferings he was 
able to alleviate by his healing word. After various mira- 
cles which were beheld with amazement, but which did not 
so penetrate the soul as did his instructions, Jesus announced 
his vocation as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Saviour 
of the world, the Son of God, and in general as the person 
foretold by the prophets under various attributes ; and of 
course also as a king, yet not over an earthly realm, but 
over the spiritual world which was to be new created. His 
friends who were in some uncertainty respecting his mys- 
terious character, were at length brought gradually to the 
conviction that he was the Deity himself, manifested in a 
human form. The Pharisees who were advocates of the 
enlarged oral law, and especially of the expected glorious 



94 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

appearing at some time of a restorer of the commonwealth, 
saw in his denial of the holiness and atoning efficacy of cer- 
tain precepts of the law, and in the announcement of hie 
grand position, that redemption is to be sought for in a reno- 
vation of the soul, an entire prostration of their own system 
of doctrine. Although no one of the renowned doctors of 
Judaism encountered him in debate, yet he had to answer a 
great many captious questions, and often to hear his doc- 
trine branded as heresy. This occurred especially at Jeru- 
salem, where his adversaries took occasion from certain 
expressions, to accuse him of treason which the civil rela- 
tions of the country easily offered the means of doing. A 
Sanhedrim assembled under the Romish governor Pontius 
Pilate, found him guilty ; and Pilate, contrary to his own 
convictions, yielding to the urgency of the excited people, 
ordered him to be crucified. But the execution of the San- 
hedrim's sentence had an effect very different from that con- 
templated. The headlong procedure in disregard of the 
usual forms of justice, strengthened and united his followers. 
They saw in the transaction not merely the execution of an 
innocent person, but a conspiracy against the Deity with 
which he was filled, and by whose spirit actuated, he for the 
salvation of all, gave up his body to torture and contumely. 
From the period of Christ's crucifixion, his followers ceased 
to be Jews, and of course pass out of the province of our 
history into that of the church of Christ. The Jews them- 
selves did not at the time view this transaction so important 
as they must afterwards have found it to be." 



THE DISCIPLES CALLED. 95 



CHAPTER X. 
AT THE JORDAN DISCIPLES CALLED. 

WAS this the Christ ? The multitudes around John in 
their scrutinizing, earnest, anxious mood, might well 
be astonished while looking at him, just proclaimed to be 
The Son of God ; who was to baptize with the Holy Ghost ; 
whose shoe's latchet the Baptist had declared himself not 
worthy to unloose. The admiration of the throngs toward 
John had increased to the highest degree as the strange 
ascetic had stood before them, day after day, so earnest in 
manner and so bold in his denunciations ; a revivification, 
apparently, of their long dead, best beloved prophet; his 
appearance itself captivating their fancy and awakening en- 
thusiasm, while the rite he was administering was, alone, 
a proclamation of wonderful revolutions to come. But was 
this the Christ ? For he to whom John pointed was a sim- 
ple personage, in ordinary costume : one like themselves, ex- 
cept that grandeur of expression in face, and that dignity 
combined with simplicity and unassumingness of manner, 
which always belong to true greatness even in men. Here 
they produced a Presence which was indeed felt. But yet, 
with their expectations of worldly glory and honor and 
pomp in the Messiah, the crowds shrank from believ- 
ing. " Was this he," they thought, " who was to rescue them 
from the Roman dominion, and to build up a mightier 
earthly kingdom than any one ever yet known ; to flash over 
all the world his own glory and that of the Jewish name?" 
Greatly agitated they gazed, wondered, argued, doubted. 
Many a person has done the same ever since respecting thia 
Christ. The human mind is dazzled by displays of outward 



OF 



96 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

glory, and desires them as the immediate foundation for its 
reverence. Men require a mixture of awe for their devotion. 
Had Christ come in pomp and majesty, with the retinues of 
the great men of earth, there is many a heart at present 
dcfibting or repellant that would gladly open to receive him, 
But surely, so received, the heart could never feel him as ii 
does now. He was to be the Teacher and the Example as 
well as the Redeemer, and where, if such earthly pomp and 
circumstance had been around him, where could ever have 
been the force of such a sermon as that on the Mount, or of 
his parables, or of his injunctions respecting humility in soul 
and action, or indeed of all his great teachings felt now to 
be the life of the world ? where the power of his example, 
before which every human heart now bows down in rever- 
ence, though it may not imitate? where that blessedness of 
fellowship recognized in him by the lowly in life? how could 
any of this have been, if he had come amid exaltations and 
had so dwelt on the earth? 

He knew all this, and so he came, not only as man, but as 
man in humility and in commonness among men : bat yet, 
with the consciousness which he carried within him, what 
an impressiveness of internal power and grandeur there was 
to be recognized, on observation, as he appeared there among 
the astounded crowds about John ; astounded by the seeming 
contradictions, such lowliness yet such greatness claimed 
for him by the Baptist and through John by heaven itself. 
They were amazed and confounded ; they reasoned, doubted ; 
yielded willingly to doubts, for they clung to the old expec- 
tation of coming Jewish earthly grandeur, unwilling to let 
it go. 

On the following day, while two of John's disciples were 
standing near by, Jesus came in sight, and the Baptist's face 
again took the glow of inspiration, as he cried : 

"Behold the Lamb of God !" 

The two disciples, how they were thrilled by the words ! 



THE DISCIPLES CALLED. 97 

What a flashing of brightest thought in their minds ! What 
a glory of hope ! Could it be ? John had said it. They 
left their former master to follow the new. Christ turned 
to them : 

"What seek ye ?" 

" Rabbi, where dwellest thou ?" they said, apparently con- 
founded by their having no ready answer to his sudden 
question. 

"Come and see," was his reply; and they went to see 
how humble indeed was his place, and how unpromising as 
to earthly comforts was to be any discipleship to him. 

They were the first followers of Jesus. One was Andrew, 
the other is unnamed, but was doubtless John, a man blest 
with a true and affectionate nature ; one who could, most of 
all the men with whom Christ came in contact, appreciate 
the greatness of the love of Jesus for our race, and who was 
the most beloved in return. The record of this incident is 
from him, and in his modesty he has refrained from naming 
himself as of the first to join his Lord. The two remained 
with the Messiah through the day. 

On the morrow Andrew, stimulated by the power of his 
new convictions, restless under them and deeply earnest, 
searched for a brother then at Bethabara, a man quick, 
ardent, sympathetic and impulsive, often uncertain yet always 
with a readiness to drop error when seen and catch at truth, 
and to acknowledge and grieve for error ; in short, one of that 
class whose firmness of fidelity we cannot always trust, yet 
who always win on us and whom we admire and like in spite 
of their weaknesses and faults. It was Peter; and Andrew 
on finding him cried with joy : 

" We have found the Messiah !" 

The brother came promptly, for the cry met with quick 
sympathies in his sensitive nature came, gazed, took in the 
force of the wonderful Presence there was in Christ, and was 
addressed by him : 



98 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

" Thou art Simon the son of Jona : thou shalt be called 
Cephas," l (Kephas) ; the Messiah, as he said this, probably 
pointing to an adjoining cliff or high rock as an intimation 
of the future prominence of this disciple in the church. 

Another night was passed at Bethabara, such a night as 
people have who in the dim light spend their time in sur- 
misings and agitations about subjects of great national and 
individual welfare; for there were many reasonings and 
doubts and fears and hopes among this emotional people, 
about John's declarations, and about John, and especially 
about him upon whom the Baptist had now concentrated 
the attention of all. 

On the morrow Christ thought it best to leave this re- 
gion for Galilee ; but before going he called another indi- 
vidual to be his disciple, Philip of Bethsaida, a town just 
beyond the northern end of the lake of Galilee, and the 
residence also of Andrew and Peter. To Philip he simply 
addressed the words, 

"Follow me;" and the injunction was promptly obeyed. 

There was authority in the voice, mixed with all tender- 



1 The Aramaic Nfi^o, (Kepha), the language used on this occasion, is 
from the Hebrew Keph, *p, and the use of the latter may help us to the 
true significance of the name given to Peter. The author, after careful and 
thorough examination, can find this word used but twice in the Old Tes- 
tament, both times in its plural form, D^fi3, (Kephim), Job xxx. 6, literally, 
"To inhabit the caves of the earth and the rocks;" Jer.iv. 19, literally, "They 
shall go into thickets and into rocks /" each instance evidently indicating 
a cliff or prominent rock : the Greek, irtrpa, (Matt. xvi. 18), also means 
rock. Commentators suppose that " stability" and " firmness" are here in- 
dicated as the qualities of Peter, to be his characteristics after the descent 
of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost: but we know, (Gal. ii. 12-14), 
that he was not stable subsequently to that event. As Christ was accus- 
tomed to seize upon objects in nature for his elucidations, if we will sup- 
pose him on this occasion to have pointed to a cliff or high rock of which 
there was abundance at the Jordan valley, and to have intimated by this 
word that Peter should have a similar prominence among the Apostles, 
the expression becomes very significant and adapted to the occasion, aa 
well as strikingly prophetic. 



THE DISCIPLES CALLED. 99 

ness and kindness; and Philip felt it: nor could he have 
been a stranger to what had previously occurred. A new 
joy filled him as he opened his heart to the power of his 
convictions, and to the glory of being the follower of such 
a master, privileged to be near to Christ, to see him and hear 
him, and to be distinguished by him : but the joy of Philip 
was quickly subject to a check. 

There was among the throngs at the Jordan a man, Na- 
thaniel by name, belonging to Cana in Galilee, a town about 
eight miles north of Nazareth. He was an individual of great 
singleness of life and character, pure in heart and an ardent 
lover of the truth ; discriminating also and cautious against 
error, but readily open to conviction. To such a man the 
rumors and the excitement at Bethabara could not be 
otherwise than known; and inasmuch as he was looking 
earnestly and longingly for the fulfillment of Israel's great 
hope, he had probably this very morning been in retirement 
for prayer respecting this present engrossing topic. He had 
doubts peculiar to himself; for the proximity of his home 
to Nazareth, whence Christ had come, made him acquainted 
with the character of that place, which he believed to be 
bad. He was now met by Philip full of ardor and zeal, 
who exclaimed to him, 

" We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the 
prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph !" 

" Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" 

" Come and see." 

He followed Philip towards Christ, who when he saw him 
said to those around : 

" Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile !" 

The words doubtless had reference to the entire singleness 
of the man's purpose in his present seeking for light; and 
the earnest seeker spoke out in wonder, 

" Whence knowest thou me ?" 

To which the response was given : 



100 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

"Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under 
the fig-tree, I saw thee." 

" Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; thou art the king of 
Israel." 

" Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, 
believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven 
open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon 
the Son of man." 

Still greater was the amazement in all who heard. 



CHAPTER XI. 
AT CAN A IN GALILEE. 

THE events in the former chapters, it will be remembered 
occurred in Judea ; but we are now to follow the Mes- 
siah into Galilee. John's baptizings had been about twenty 
miles from Jerusalem, probably a little to the north of east 
from it; and this capital city or its neighborhood might 
possibly appear to be the best spot for the first general teach- 
ings and miracles of Christ. 

o 

But they were not. Judea was intensely and inveterately 
Jewish, in the worst meaning of the word. In the great 
proud capital were the Schools of their Doctors; and every 
one was not allowed to appear there as a public teacher ;' 
for although the form of authorization may not have been 
fully established then, as the Talmuds state to have been 
afterwards the case, when to be qualified, an individual must 
have been for some years as Collega of a Rabbi, and then 

1 See Matt. xxi. 20 : also Tholuck on this passage. 



AT CANA IN GALILEE. IOI 

promoted to the work of instruction to others ; yet, under 
Shammaiand Hillel, in the time of Herod the Great, the school 
had in all respects taken this shape. Christ's authority to 
teach would be questioned there at the very outset, and dif- 
ficulties be thrown in his way, and people's ears closed by x 
authoritative injunctions. There too was the high seat of 
all scholastic iniquity in the Unwritten Traditional Law, 
with which he was to come into violent antagonism; and in 
which, unbounded invention and authority could be united 
so as greatly to embarrass his work. There Pharisaic pride, 
Sadducaic vanity and insolence, and Herodian free- 
thinking would if necessary lay aside their distinctive 
tenets, and at once combine against him ; and his followers, 
men of humblest rank and uninstructed, would there 
be thoroughly scorned, for they belonged to a class 
against whom the Pharisee's code shut up the kingdom of 
heaven. 

Why did he choose such men for disciples? the reader 
asks. The answer will manifest itself to any one who will 
notice how education, as conducted in that country, dwarfed 
and perverted the intellect, and helped to make it impervious 
to the truth. It was important in these new doctrines to 
have as much as possible a tabula rasa, a clear page, on 
which to write the truths which Christ came to communicate 
to the world. Even these chosen men, John, Nathaniel, 
Andrew, Philip, etc., were always mistaking the doctrines 
of their master, especially such as referred to the fact that 
his kingdom was not of this earth. 

Galilee was a region very different from Judea. Although 
densely populated, it had no very large cities, but was an 
agricultural country with numerous villages; its inhabitants 
mostly a people of simple habits, frank, genial in feeling, 
open to instruction and ready to respond to any benevolent 
acts. Their bravery of disposition was shown soon after 
this in the fact that Joseplms, when collecting forces for 

9* 



102 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

the defence of his country, was able in this small district, 
to raise an army of 100,000 men. He says of this 
region, 

"Those two Galilees, [upper and lower, but essentially 
one] of so great largeness, and encompassed with so many 
nations of foreigners, have always been able to make a 
strong resistance on all occasions of war ; for the Galileans 
are inured to war from their infancy, and have been always 
very numerous, nor hath the country been ever destitute of 
men of courage, or wanted a numerous set of them ; for 
their soil is universally rich and fruitful, and full of the 
plantations of trees of all sorts, insomuch that it invites the 
most slothful to take pains in its cultivation, by its fruitful- 
ness ; accordingly it is cultivated by its inhabitants, and no 
part of it lies idle. Moreover, the cities lie very thick, and 
the very many villages which are here are everywhere so 
full of people, by the richness of their soil, that the very 
least of them contain above 15,000 inhabitants. In short, 
if any one will suppose that Galilee is inferior to Perea 
in magnitude, he will be obliged to prefer it before it in its 
strength ; for this is all capable of cultivation and is every- 
where fruitful." 1 

After calling the five disciples at Bethabara, as mentioned 
above, Christ proceeded to Galilee ; and just after his arrival, 
went to a marriage feast at Cana, to which he, his mother 
and disciples were invited. 

We will accompany him there, and notice carefully all 
the singular facts of this feast; for some of them have 
been nervously shrunk from, especially in modern times, as 
things difficult to be explained. 

We observe first the company and the occasion. 

The latter was one of the holiest, as well as of the most 
joyful, events in human life; so holy that a large part of the 



De Bello, III. 3, 2. 



AT CAN A IN GALILEE. 103 

Christian church has considered it a sacrament, or a solemn 
religious ceremony establishing new covenants between God 
and his people ; nor can its joyousness ever detract from its 
religious aspects ; for religion is itself always a new joy in 
the heart. We look therefore at the presence of Jesus on 
this occasion, as only giving new sanctions to a holy and 
blessed rite, the gladness in which is but an additional beauty 
to what is so beautiful in itself. That there could be no 
rudeness and no coarseness in the mirth there, and no excesses 
in any enjoyment sanctioned by such a presence, we have the 
assurance in all else that we know of his pure and holy life, 
and of his teachings, which descend with a searching power 
into the very thoughts of the soul of man. We see Christ 
then, in this scene, as in perfect harmony with the occasion ; 
and combined with his grandeur of aspect and with his 
gentleness and kindness to all, we mark his sympathy 
also with the happiness of the time and circumstance ; and 
we love him more from seeing how he entered into the 
gladness, as well as into the sorrows of human life. 

Among the company present there was a very singular sen- 
sation. Watchings, whisperings, uneasy earnest movements, 
unusual at such a time were noticed during all the feast. The 
five disciples, who were there, could not help but give infor- 
mation of the occurrences at Bethabara; and from this 
sprang up a scrutiny and a wondering, which spread quickly 
throughout the assembly. The impression was as it might 
have been if their outward vision had caught glimpses of a 
dim, undeveloped form of an angel floating in the atmosphere 
of their room, now partly revealed, now hidden in obscu- 
rity and as if they were expecting to hear the angel speak. 
There could be no tendency to unseemly merriment in that 
house ; but there was an impress! veness as of a strange pre- 
sence: and yet no one could look into those features of 
Christ so full of love to all men, without knowing that this 



104 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

impressivfiness was not painful, but only added to the general 
holy and genial affections of the time and place. 

There also was the mother of Christ, among the guests. 
She knew, and had entire faith in him in all respects : and 
while as attentive as others, she was trying to still her heart 
in the full strength of her faith. But a mother's heart 
would not be stilled, and her nervous anxiety followed him 
everywhere. With what entireness of affection she loved 
that son ! How glorious he was to her ! What reverence 
was mingled with her love ! How perfect her faith ! And 
yet, the future ? she could not divine it : and in the present, 
she was anxious and nervous through the great power of her 
love. 

The Jewish wedding feasts usually continued through 
seven or eight days ; and on this occasion, at the last of it, 
the supply of wine was exhausted. The mother of Jesus 
came to him to tell him that this was the fact. It is diffi- 
cult at any time, to enter into a mother's feelings, and the 
difficulty here is enhanced by the peculiarities of the case. 
Did she, overhearing the whisperings and surmisings, and 
probably the objections, and possibly scornful rejoinders by 
some, wish too eagerly for a miracle by one whom she knew 
to be so wonderfully endowed, in order that he might silence 
objectors and scorners ? Was she anxious to hurry demon- 
strations of the Divine power, which she believed would be 
eventually made? to interpose her maternal anxiety in a 
place where she ought to have had faith in the Divine ? 
The answer given her would seem to indicate this : but still 
not relinquishing her hopes, she directed the servants, 

" Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." 

There were several water-jars present which he directed 
to be filled with water which was done: then he said, 
" Draw out now and bear unto the governor of the feast." 
The latter, ignorant of what had been done, tasted the fluid. 



AT CAN A IN GALILEE. 105 

It had becone wine ! The ruler called for the bridegroom, 
and said : 

" Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine ; 
and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse : 
but thou hast kept the good wine until now." 

The only additional remark in the Gospel concerning this 
circumstance is, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in 
Cana of Galilee, and manfested forth his glory ; and his dis- 
ciples believed on him." 1 

This is all in St. John's Gospel ; but the world has ever 
since remarked freely, especially in these later days, and 
sometimes with equivocal innuendo, sometimes with infer- 
ences honestly yet injuriously drawn ; and the subject has 
become one that seems to require further comment in this 
place. 

The writer of this work was once about to sit down to a 
dinner party in Washington, the whole company consisting 
of clergymen except the lady of the house. In the conver- 
sation, before dinner was announced, questions were put to 
him about the Navy and its usages, etc., and he mentioned 
how he had been led to entire abstinence even in the use of 
wines by the importance of adding all possible power to his 
injunctions respecting the evils of intemperance in ships. 
The clergymen objected that "this was seeming to try to 
make one's self better than Christ ;" that " He drank wine 
and sanctioned the use of it in his first miracle ;" and that 
"what he had sanctioned no man ought to gainsay. For 
themselves they would not dare to put their example against 
His." In conclusion, we sat down to dinner with decanters of 
Madeira before us, a present from Ex-President John Quincy 
Adams to our host, and the present writer was the only per- 
son of entire abstinence on the occasion. Now these were, 
undoubtedly, conscientious men, honest in their belief; and 



1 John ii. 2. 



106 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

it is because honest conscientious men have such a view of 
the matter (while many others less scrupulous take courage 
by their example) that some comments on the subject are 
here introduced. 

Among religious people there is often a shrinking from 
allusion even to the wine-making at Cana, and sometimes in 
these later days a strange effort by friends of total abstinence 
at arguments which will not bear examination, and which 
perhaps cause a revulsion of feeling, a result quite opposed 
to that which the arguments were intended to effect. It is 
best to deal openly with the subject. Our Saviour's conduct 
needs no attempt at apology from man, and no hiding over 
or shrinking from ; indeed this very subject of Christ's first 
miracle comes before us as a singular test to ourselves of what 
is our disposition, or wish, or our heart's deep inclination 
respecting both him and ourselves. What do we wish to 
believe? How do we desire to come to conclusions? What 
are we willing to choose as our own action ? 

We will take a broad view of the subject of wines, mak- 
ing our remarks however as succinct as the case will admit. 
^ \ notice : 

1. New wines, not yet fermented, the must of ancient and 
modern times. Until fermentation (in which the alcoholic 
principle is formed) takes place, all wines are a perfectly 
harmless as well as pleasant drink. The vintage season in 
Palestine is in August 1 and September; the wine then made 
if left undisturbed by transportation will continue in its 
original condition for several months, the author is informed 
till spring, and this feast at Cana was at some time before 
the Passover, which occurred in March or April. 

1 The author purchased at Jaffa, in August, a bunch of grapes two feet 
long, and heard of others still longer, all of length inconvenient to be 
carried in the hand and making necessary such an act as we read of in 
Numbers xiii. 23. The grapes which are white, small and sweet are 
disposed scatteringly in the cluster, which is remarkable chiefly for its 
length. 



AT CAN A IN GALILEE. 107 

2. Wines in which fermentation is quite prevented. This may 
be done by boiling and other processes, but most easily by 
the former, which was often done. The wine was somewhat 
thickened, but the purpose of prevention was entirely an- 
swered, and the drink remained harmless and sweet: it 
could be diluted with water when used, and was then an 
agreeable as well as harmless beverage. Columella, a Ro- 
man writer on agriculture, says, " Some people boil away a 
fourth and others a third of the must." 

3. Wines drugged in order to prevent or check fermentation. 
A vast variety of recipes for this are given in the ancient 
Roman and Greek writers. The Greek wine of the present 
day is unpalatable to foreigners on account of its turpentine- 
taste received from this cause. In Roman wines alcohol was 
so unusual that according to Pliny the Falernian was the only 
one that could be made to burn with a flame. Solo vinorum 
flamma accenditur. 1 

4. Wines such as we see now in common use as a beverage 
in France and Italy. Rev. Dr. Duff, in his journey through 
France, says of their wine : " In this its native, original state, 
it is a plain, simple and wholesome liquid, which at every 
repast becomes to the husbandman what milk is to the shep- 
herd, not a luxury but a necessary ; not an intoxicating but 
a nutritive beverage." The author of this book, in more 
than six years of cruising along the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean, never as far as he can recollect, saw a drunken man 
among the natives, although wines were used by them almost 
as freely as water is with us. 

5. Sweet wines. A recent traveller in Palestine, W. 
C. Prime, who appears to have given the subject of wines 
there, as well as in other countries, a thorough consideration, 
says, that the good wines of that country are all sweet, lie 
having seen sour wine only twice in Palestine, and " this was 



1 Lib. 14; cap. 13. 



108 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

vile stuff." At Tiberias, by the Lake of Galilee, when de- 
sirous of replenishing his stores, he was taken to a wine 
cellar where were six different kinds of Galilean wine. 
" Some," he says, " was new and raw, unripe and unplea- 
sant, the bitter taste of grape seeds predominant ; other was 
better, more like a Baune Burgundy sweetened. One jar 
was not a little like dead champagne, and that which she 
[the owner] thought best of all was heavier than port, thick, 
oily and sweet, strong and sharp in the throat, but cloying 
to the taste. I have never seen anything like this wine 
elsewhere, except in Jerusalem, in the house of one Morde- 
cai, where I tasted the same. The Jews esteem it above all 
other wines. They take but little of it at a time, using it 
as we do a preserved fruit or jelly." He considered this 
cellar at Tiberias " a fair representation of the same reposi- 
tory" in ancient times ; and we now remark on this subject 
of sweet wines that the alcoholic principle in them is but 
slightly formed by fermentation; for their sweetness "is 
due to undecomposed grape sflgar, the ferment being ex- 
hausted before all the sugar is changed. This excess of 
sugar preserves the wine from further decomposition. Where 
the sugar is wholly decomposed the wines are called ' dry/ 
as claret, Burgundy, port, sherry, &c." l There being little 
fermentation, consequently in them but little alcohol can be 
formed. 

6. Finally, we notice that these last wines just enumerated 
have in them the following per centage of Alcohol : Port 
from 21 to 26: Sherry, 13 to 18: Claret, 14 or 15: Ma- 
deira, 19 to 26 : this, even when they are genuine, which 
we know to be in our country very rarely the case ; the 
wines in use here being manufactured in a great degree 
from vile and noxious drugs. Alcohol as a distinct princi- 
ple, was not known until A. D. 1313, and consequently 



Youman's Chemistry. 



AT CAN A IN GALILEE. 109 

could never have been infused into the ancient beverages, as 
it is constantly done with those of modern times, even into 
the best of the genuine ones now in the market. 

The whole subject is now before the reader, and he is left 
to draw conclusions for himself, as he doubtless will do : but 
any person ought to question very closely his own feelings 
before he can allow himself amid such a variety of innocent 
beverages as is above exhibited, to conclude that Christ per- 
formed an act that can in any wise encourage our modern 
usages in intoxicating drinks. The whole course of his 
pure and holy life was utterly set against any such encour- 
agement ; and we do violence to all his teachings and all his 
example, when we try to deduce any aid to ourselves in 
countenancing the strongly alcoholic wines of our day. Saint 
Paul's rule is clearly defined and commends itself to every 
man's convictions of right. " Take heed lest by any means 
this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them that 
are weak/' l " It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, 
nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, 
or is made weak." 2 Paul had drawn this principle of ac- 
tion from the true spirit of all Christ's teaching and ex- 
ample ; and men are assuredly contravening both when they 
quote this act at Cana in support of a contrary course. 

In reference to any loss of enjoyment by following the 
strict temperance rules, the author will take the liberty here 
to mention a reply which he recently made to a friend who 
with a bottle of champagne before him was taunting him 
jocosely on the loss of such enjoyment. " No, I am not a 
loser but a gainer by abstinence in such a cause, for I am 
all the while drinking champagne in my heart." The an- 
swer did not make a convert then, and probably it will not 
now ; but still it tells the truth. 



1 1 Cor. viii. 9. 2 Romans xiv. 21. 



1 10 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

CHAPTER XII. 
THE TEMPLE. 

AFTER these events at Cana, Jesus with his mother and 
disciples proceeded to Capernaum, by the lake of 
Galilee ; but they remained there only a few days, for the 
Passover was approaching, and it was according to the re- 
quirements of their law that he should go up to Jerusalem 
for the observance of the festival. 

Certain occurrences on this occasion require for the better 
understanding of them, that we should have a knowledge 
of the temple and its precincts ; and we enter upon a de- 
scription of it the more readily, because it was in itself a 
very grand object, as well as being a most important part of 
the Jewish system. The Messiah will come before us fre- 
quently in connection with this edifice and its surroundings, 
and we must endeavor to have it all clearly before our 
minds. 

This spot was the central object of the Jews' aifections 
both at home and wherever they were scattered over the 
world. The very stones were precious in their eyes. In distant 
lands the theme to their wondering children was the former 
glory that rested abidingly on Mount Moriah ; the presence 
of God as seen and felt there, the Urim and Thummim, the 
Ark, the bright cloud upon the mercy-seat, the spirit of 
prophecy ; all connected with the first temple which Solo- 
mon had built and had dedicated with sacrifices of sheep 
and oxen " that could not be told nor numbered for multi- 
tude/' and with prayers; while in "the holy place" within, 
" the priest could not stand to minister/' " for the glory of 
the Lord had filled the house of the Lord." That temple 
had long since been destroyed by the enemy's hand ; but its 



THE TEMPLE. Ill 

splendor and its honor from heaven were yet a living re- 
membrance in the hearts of all the Jews. 

Then had come the second temple built by Nehemiah, far 
inferior to the other, the foundations laid while the old 
men among them who had seen the glory of the first, " wept 
with a loud voice," as they remembered it ; and the younger 
were shouting with joy at the prospect of restoring the 
former worship ; " so that the people could not discern the 
noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of 
the people : for the people shouted with a loud shout, and 
the noise was heard afar off." 1 

Such were some of the grand and the tender associations 
connected with this sacred spot: but it had others also 
deeply interesting ; for Moriah was supposed to be the place 
where Abraham erected the altar for offering his son ; and 
it was certainly there that David interceded for his people, 
and built an altar at the time when the destroying angel 
was scattering pestilence over Israel, 2 because the monarch 
had numbered his subjects, trusting in them rather than 
in God. 

This second temple being unsuited to the grandeur of the 
purposes for which it had been erected, and having also be- 
come ruinous from age, Herod the Great determined to pull 
it down and to erect a larger one ; and finally he succeeded 
in placing before the Jewish people that great " Mountain 
of the House/ 7 as they termed it, vaster in size and more 
magnificent in its architectural claims, than was the case 
even with Solomon's temple itself. 

Mount Moriah is a short rocky ridge 318 yards wide, 
running north and south ; having on the east the deey. 
valley of Jehoshaphat, separating it from the Mount of 
Olives, and on the west a shallower valley called the Tyro- 
peon, (also valley of the Cheesemongers), 117 yards across, 3 
immediately beyond which rose the heights of Zion lined with 



1 Ezra iii. 12, 13. 2 2 Sam. xxiv. 25. 3 Eobinson. 



H2 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 



its battlemented walls. Solomon had by means of a wall built 
on the eastern side, and perhaps also across the southern part 
of this ridge, and by filling it up, formed a platform for his 
temple; but Herod faced each side of Moriah with a wall 
forming a rectangular substructure suited to the temple yvith 
which its heights were to be crowned. The foundation of 
this wall can still be traced nearly in its whole extent; 
while at the south-eastern angle it has an elevation of 
twenty-five feet in its original condition. This and similar 
remains aiford us an opportunity of studying some of the 
peculiar characteristics of Jewish architecture in those an- 
cient times, among which may be mentioned what travellers 
to that region have generally called bevelled stones, a wrong 
term which conveys an incorrect idea of this style of em- 
bellishment. The word rebated is the proper one, and the 
wood-cuts here appended will show what it means. The 
appearance is that of a raised panel on the face of the 
stone, the edges of the panels being about two inches from 
the joints which are carefully and nicely made. The blocks 
are of good white limestone, and some of them have mea- 
sured from twenty-four to thirty feet in length. 

Front view of a rebated wall, characteristic of the ancient Jewish Architecture. 





Profile Section of the same. 



THE TEMPLE. 113 

These walls having been carried to an elevation which 
though doubtless less than that given by Josephus 400 or 
500 feet was still considerable, the inclosed space was 
filled up with arched ways and earth ; and thus at a proper 
height a platform was made for their sacred purposes. Let 
the reader now imagine these outside walls to be carried still 
higher so as to enclose this platform as in a court, and to be 
battlemented. This court according to Josephus was 625 
feet square, 1 and was paved with marble of various colors ; 
and against the wall all around was a cloister or covered space 
thereof of which was of carved and ornamented wood- work, 
the columns supporting it of marble, each column a single 
stone. In southern countries where people live much in the 
open air, covered places for general resort are a great conve- 
nience, and the pillared spaces around the Grecian temples were 
for such a purpose as well as for ornament. The Greeks how- 
ever, finding these insufficient, soon began to erect what were 
called Stose inclosed courts with paved corridors, and had 
many of them. The Stoic sect of philosophers received that 



1 He says a furlong square, and doubtless meant the Roman furlong, 
equal to 625 feet of our measure ; but this must be too little even accord- 
ing to his own showing ; for it would not allow room for the measure- 
ments which he gives of the Sanctuary (or more holy place), within. The 
Talmuds give 750 feet for each side; and these are the dimensions 
adopted in the accompanying plan in this book. The ground is now oc- 
cupied by the Turks as their sacred enclosure, the Haram es-Sheriff, with 
the Mosque of Omar, a forbidden place to any but Mohammedans ; but 
the foundations of the old wall of substructure have been carefully mea- 
sured. They are according to Dr. Barclay on the East 1523^ feet; North 
1038; West 1600; South 916; agreeing nearly with those of Robinson 
and of Catherwood. This doubtless embraces the Castle of Antonia, 
which adjoined the temple on the North, with an extent of ground ac- 
cording to Josephus, equal to that of the temple courts. (De bel. v. 5, 
g 2). If we take the southern half of these measurements, and allow 
for the necessary inward slant of so high a wall and an offset above, we 
come very nearly to the dimensions in the Talmuds, thus settling a 
much-discussed and difficult subject. 
10 * 



114 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

name because Zeno their teacher delivered his lectures in 
one of these resorts, the Stoa Poecile. The Romans had 
also numerous stoae, sometimes private ones connected with 
their city palaces or their villas. 

These cloisters at the temple were thus in accordance with 
the habits of those countries and times ; but here they were 
also not only very beautiful in themselves but were a mag- 
nificent frame-work for the more holy places inclosed. On 
the north and east and west, they were formed by triple 
rows of columns (including half-columns against the wall) 
the pillars five feet in diameter and twenty-seven in height, 
with Corinthian capitals and a double spiral at the basis. 1 
The rows of columns were thirty feet apart, the whole height 
of the cloister fifty feet, and above it, at the outer edge, 
were the battlements of the wall. The southern cloister 
was on a still larger scale ; for here were four rows of col- 
umns, the outer and inner rows being as on the other sides, 
but the two middle ranges had twice the height of the 
others, with a width between them of forty-five instead of 
thirty feet. The western end of this central colonnade 
opened upon a stone bridge 350 feet long leading across the 
Tyropeon valley and connecting the temple with Mount 
Zion. Portions of the first or eastern arch of this bridge 
remain in their original condition and show the width of 
the bridge to have been fifty-one feet. It was doubtless 
the main thoroughfare for conducting the beasts to the 
temple for sacrificial purposes. 

In addition to this outlet by the Tyropeon bridge, there 
were seven of a different kind ; one into Antonia, and the 
others either by long flights of outside steps or by subterra- 
nean passages, of the latter of which some remains may yet 
be seen. In the present southern wall crossing Moriah is a 
double gateway, within which is a vestibule represented in 



Josephus. 




Plan of Herod's Temple, formed after Jcsephus, the Talmuds and Lightfoot. 
On a Scale of 250 feet to an inch. 

A. Holy of Holies. 

B. Holy Place. 

C. The Great Altar, with inclined plane to its summit. 

D. The Court of Israel, entered from E by the Gute Nicanor. 

E. Court of the Women ; rooms in its corners for various purposes. Like that of Israel, 
it had cloisters at its sides. 

F. " The Beautiful Gate of the Temple." (See Acts iii. 2.) 

G and II. Court of the Gentiles. Of the cloisters surrounding this, the one on the east is 
Solomon's Porch ; that on the south is the Royal Porch. 

I. Sanhedrim Room. 

K. Bridge leading over the Tyropcon. 

L. Part of the Castle of Antonia. 

M. Probable place of the Xystus. 

The waved lines at the sides and rear of the Temple represent chambers ; three stories of 
these at the sides and two at the rear. 

The gates of the cloisters are marked according to authority; but except at the castle of 
Antonia and the bridge and perhaps one other on the west, they probably mean the com- 
mencement of subterranean descents. 

There were numerous other chambers of less size about the cloisters and courts, but they 
could not be marked on such a plan as this. 

115 



THE TEMPLE. 



117 




Remains of the bridge connecting the temple court with Mount Zion. 

the second cut on this page. It is the commencement 
of a double vaulted archway of pure Jewish architecture, 
which by a passage 258 feet in length conducts to an opening 
into the Haram area above, as doubtless it formerly did 
to the temple courts. 




Vestibule to underground passage leading upward to the ancient temple courts. 



Il8 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

We return to contemplate once more the various objects at 
the summit of this "Mountain of the House/' where the 
pillared cloisters, rich as they were in architectural effect, 
engaged the attention only for a moment or two. The 
great court which they inclosed was called the court of the 
Gentiles, and was open to all the world; but the more sacred 
spot "The Sanctuary" could be visited by Jews only. 
This latter was a little to the North 1 of the centre of the 
court, and was on more elevated ground; it was 170 cubits 
from North to South, and 335 from East to West : its front 
toward the East. It was ascended to, on all sides by four- 
teen steps, on the uppermost of which was a balustrade of 
open stone-work three cubits high and elegantly wrought: 
In this balustrade, at short intervals, were pillars with inscrip- 
tions in Greek and Roman letters, declaring that "no for- 
eigner should go within that sanctuary." Within the balus- 
trade was a level space ten cubits wide, called "the Chel," 
and vacant, except that, toward its western end, the council 
room of the Sanhedrim, built partly on the more sacred 
ground of the temple court, was there extended so as to 
embrace also the Chel. Not only were foreigners excluded 
from these boundaries, but the sight of all within them was 
prevented by a wall forty cubits high, running all around 
the sanctuary along the inner border of the Chel. The 
Gentile in the court without might hear the voices of the 
chanters, and see the smoke of sacrifices ascending from the 
great altar, but even his vision might not profane the holy 
places, except so far as it could be indulged through the 
large gateways, of which there were nine in this wall, four 
on each side, and one at the east. These gateways were 
large, and were covered over with silver and gold: but 
the one at the east, called "The Beautiful Gate/' 2 was the 
most magnificent of all. It was of Corinthian brass, 



On authority of the Talrauds. 2 See Acts iii. 2. 



THE TEMPLE. 119 

and fifty cubits in height: its doors were forty cubits 
high, and were "adorned after a most costly manner, 
as having much richer and thicker plates of silver and 
gold upon them than the others. These nine gates had 
that silver and gold poured upon them by Alexander, father 
of Tiberius." 1 Additional steps led up from the Chel to 
this magnificent gateway; and passing through it, the visitor 
would find himself then in what was called "The women's 
court," an area 135 cubits square, and surrounded by clois- 
ters, formed by columns as in the larger court without. 
Private passage-ways at the entrance gave the women access 
to their separate place, probably above the cloisters; for, 
although this was called the "Court of the women," it was 
frequented by the other sex as much as by them. It was 
the place for that most extraordinary scene of dancing, 
which we shall notice, by-and-by, in describing the Feast 
of Tabernacles. 

The " Court of the Women" had four gates, one on each 
side : the Beautiful gate on the east, and opposite to it on the 
west a large and very rich one, called Nicanor. This last was 
reached by an ascent of fifteen steps from the women's court, 
and gave admittance to the higher platform and court, called 
"The Court of Israel," sometimes termed simply " The Court." 
This was 135 cubits from north to south and 187 from east 
to west, with columns and cloisters as in the other courts. 
But the reader must not suppose this area to be all plain, as 
in the women's court, for here was the great altar and be- 
yond it the temple itself. Standing at its eastern gate of 
entrance, Nicanor, (it had three others on each side), the 
visitor would see before him, at eleven cubits distance, a 
low wall running across the court and separating him from 
the " Court of the Priests ;" beyond that, at eleven cubits, 
the great altar, thirty-two cubits square and ten in height, 



Jos. De Bel. v. 5, \ 3. 



120 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

with an inclined plane of ascent on its southern side. Then, 
beyond the altar, was the Temple. 

This last stood on a platform the highest of them all. Its 
porch or entrance, 100 cubits wide and of the same height, 
was reached in front and at its two ends by twelve steps 
commencing not far from the altar and formed in pairs, 
three cubits between each pair. Josephus says : " The out- 
ward face of the temple in its front wanted nothing that was 
likely to surprise either men's minds or their eyes, for it 
was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, 
and at the first rising of the sun reflected back a very fiery 
splendor, and made those who forced themselves to look 
upon it to turn their eyes away just as they would have 
done at the sun's own rays. But the temple appeared to 
strangers, when they were at a distance, like a mountain 
covered with snow, for as to those parts of it that were not 
gilt they were exceeding white. On its top it had spikes 
with sharp points to prevent any pollution of it by birds 
sitting upon it. Of its stones some of them were forty-five 
cubits [sixty-seven feet] in length, five in height and six in 
breadth." 1 It was of such as these that the disciples said 
to Christ, " Master see what manner of stones and build- 
ings are here;" as if such solidity might set at defiance all 
common human events. Indeed, every part of the Moun- 
tain of the House combined great massiveness with rich- 
ness of decoration and often with elegance. The front of 
the temple was pierced by an immense open entrance seventy 
cubits high and twenty-five cubits broad, of which Josephus 
says, "This gate had no doors, for it represented the uni- 
versal visibility of heaven, and that cannot be excluded 
from any place." It seems to have been an arched way 
sixteen feet in depth (the thickness of the front) with sides 
highly enriched with architectural devices, and in this open- 



Bel. v. 5, I 6. 



I 



THE TEMPLE. 121 

ing was trained the celebrated vine of beaten gold, the clus- 
ters to which were five or six feet in length. 1 Of this vine 
the Talmud says : " For men would be offering some gold 
to make a leaf, some a grape, some a bunch, and these were 
hung upon it, and so it was increasing continually." 2 Taci- 
tus calls the building immensce opulentice templum? 

This was only the porch of the temple which narrower 
than the porch extended back at right angles to it, so that 
the whole structure was in a form like this J,. Back of this 
lofty arched way was another fifty-five cubits high and six- 
teen wide, and then were folding doors twenty cubits high 
and each five cubits wide, giving admittance towards the 
body of the temple ; next to these a veil, in the rear of this, 
folding doors similar to the last. The outer pair were com- 
monly called by the Jews " the great door of the temple/' 
because it had " a great front ;" and of this we have the re- 
cord, " the morning sacrifice was never killed till this door 
was opened," and that " he that was to slay the sacrifice killed 
him not till he heard the noise of the great gate opening." 

None but the priests could pass these doors, and entering 
they would find themselves now in " the Holy Place," a 
room forty cubits long, twenty wide, and sixty in height ; 
" the floor planked with fir-boards and then gilt with gold ;" 
the walls and ceiling of cedar both gilt likewise ; the walls 
carved into branches and open flowers to the height of fifty 
cubits, above which were windows admitting light. In this 
room were the seven-branched golden candlestick four-and- 
a-half feet high ; the table of show-bread, two cubits long by 



1 Josephus Be Bel. v. 5, 4. Tacitus says, "But because their [Jew- 
ish] priests when they play on the pipe and timbrels wear ivy around 
their head and a golden vine has been found in their temple, some have 
thought that they worshipped our father Bacchus, the conqueror of the 
east, whereas the ceremonies of the Jews do not at all agree with those 
of Bacchus." 

2 Lightfoot, 3 De Jud. lib. v. cap. 8. 

11 



122 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GQSPELS. 

one in breadth, and the altar of incense a cubit square and 
two cubits in height. 

Beyond these at the end of this room hung a veil, and a 
cubit further on, a second veil, this second the one spoken of 
by Josephus and others as " the veil of the temple/ 7 This 
latter was the one rent at the time of our Saviour's death. 
No one might lift these veils and pass beyond except the 
High Priest alone. 

The room to which this gave admittance, "The Holy of 
Holies," was twenty cubits square and as many in height, and 
was gilt throughout, the floor as well as the walls and ceiling ; 
the walls also enriched with precious stones. " In this there 
was nothing at all. It was inaccessible and inviolable, and 
not to be seen by any, and was called the Holy of Holies." 

Attached to each side of this main building were three 
stories of small chambers for temple purposes; 1 a similar set 
two stories in height being also at the western end. The 
central or main building rose considerably above all these. 
The walls in these edifices were of great thickness (five or 
six cubits) and solidity, as was requisite in a country subject 
to earthquakes. The porch extended fifteen cubits on each 
side beyond the main building and its attached chambers ; 
the steps leading up to it have been described as in pairs, 
three cubits between each pair, and on these successive plat- 
forms, or " degrees of steps," the priests stood when they 
sounded the trumpets, and also when accompanied by other 
instrumental music they chanted the psalms. 

Women were admitted beyond their own court, only when 
they brought sacrifices ; the Jewish men might come into 
the court of Israel ; they and the women also were allowed 
to pass the low boundary inclosing the court of priests when 
they came to touch the sacrifices they were about to offer on 
the great altar within that court. 

1 They are supposed to have given rise to the words: "In ray Father's 
house are many mansions," &c. John xiv. 2. 



THE TEMPLE. 



I2 3 



What a contrast to those temple scenes in the ancient 
times ; the old worship, the innumerable sacrifices, the re- 
joicing crowds at the festivals, the priest, the rabbi, the 
lordly Pharisee; to all this, what a contrast now in the 
scenes among the Jews at Jerusalem, to which city they yet 
come, often from far distant lands, to pray and mourn and 
die ! At retired spots, by the remains of this ancient wall 
of the " Mountain of the House," they may be very fre- 
quently seen with their lips at the joints between the stones, 
praying so that their breath in supplication may pass towards 




Jews' praying-place at the foot of the ancient Temple Walls. 

the sacred ground. No one but a Mohammedan is allowed 
to enter on the paved court above, once the temple precincts ; 
but the hearts of the Israelites still warm with affection to- 
wards their holy place, and when they die their bodies are 



124 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS 

carried across the Kedron and ouried on the lowest slopes 
of the Mount of Olives, so that the shadows of Moriah may 
be cast across their graves as the sun declines. They be- 
lieve also that in this valley of Jehoshaphat will be the final 
scene of the judgment-day, and that those who rise there 
will have peculiar advantages. 

Extensive vaults of masonry have been for some years known 
to exist under the southern end of the site of the Temple courts 
and Temple, but quite recent explorations have brought to 
our knowledge many still more interesting facts respecting 
excavations below those grounds ; among them a reservoir, 
736 feet in circumference and forty-two in depth, estimated to 
have a capacity of two millions of gallons, supplied in an- 
cient times by the aqueducts from Solomon's pools seven 
miles distant towards the south. The discoveries "tend to 




Underground reservoirs recently discovered beneath the site of the Temple at Jerusalem. 

shew that by a series of subterranean tunnels and valves its 
abundant waters could be used at will for flushing the cess- 
pools and sewers connected with the temple, and carrying 
off all the blood and filth, as the Talmud informs us down 
to the bottom of the Kedron." 

In the great Mosque of Omar, in the Plaram, is a rock of 



THE TEMPLE. 125 

ruddy limestone projecting above its floor, and regarded 
with great veneration by the Turks. It is irregular in 
form, nearly sixty feet in its greatest diameter, and rises 
five feet above the marble floor. 

It is supposed by some to be the spot of Abraham's altar, 
and to have been under the great altar of the ancient tem- 
ple. At its south-east corner is a door leading down to an 
excavated chamber about fifteen feet square and eight in 
height. The rock overhead is pierced with a hole three feet 
in diameter, and directly beneath this in the floor of the 
chamber is another hole with a pit beneath, called by the 
Turks the Well of Spirits, of unknown depth. 

A channel runs northward to this sacred rock from the 
great cistern above described, enters the Well of Spirits, 
then passes on northward 120 feet to a large double cistern 
hewn in the rock. From thence a tunnel descends east- 
ward, is joined by an aqueduct from the great tank at the 
northern-side of the Haram area, and appears to descend to- 
ward the Kedron. The Mishna says, " Beneath the altar 
was a cave whereby blood and filth were conveyed down 
into the Kedron valley, and the gardeners there paid as 
much as purchased a trespass-offering for the right to use it 
for fertilizing their gardens." 

These explorations have been made chiefly by M. Pierotti, 
formerly engineer in the Sardinian service, but more re- 
cently employed by the Pacha of Jerusalem. They are im- 
perfect, and doubtless much yet remains to be discovered. 

Vast subterranean chambers recently discovered under the 
part of Jerusalem called Acra, will be noticed in another 
part of this work. 1 

* The cubit referred to in this chapter is most probably Roman (equal 
to 18 inches of our measure) as Josephus, from whom the measurements 
are taken, was writing for the Komans. The Jewish cubit was equal to 
21.8 inches. 
11 * 



120 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
THE TEMPLE CLEANSED NICODEMUS. 

FROM Capernaum the Messiah had proceeded to Jerusa- 
lem to be present at the Passover, and having arrived 
there he went up into the temple. It was to the Jews the 
greatest of all their celebrations in the reminiscences it 
awakened, and was in parts of it a very solemn and in other 
parts of it a very joyful festival. The Jews came to it from 
even the most distant regions, and the numbers congregated 
at Jerusalem were calculated on one occasion for a statistical 
report to be sent to the Roman emperor, and were estimated 
at two millions seven hundred thousand. 1 

The reader who has perused the foregoing chapter and 
has in his mind the grandeur of this Mountain of the 
House, the courts, the altar and temple, would now imagine 
a scene suited to the place and the solemnities. But there 
was one far different, a scene of desecration of the sacred 
spot, of filth, of barter and sale, and of the unholy passions 
which the love of money begets. In order to understand it 
fully we must follow Lightfoot in some of his details. 

" There were thirteen treasure-chests at the temple which 
by the Jews were called Shoperoth, which signifies properly 
trumpets, because trumpet-like they were wide at the bot- 
tom and narrow at the top, that money put in might not 
easily be got out. Two were for the half-shekel that every 
Israelite had to pay for the redemption of his soul or life, 
for which the law is given, Exodus xxi. 30 : one chest for 
the payment of the last year, if he had missed to pay it at 



1 See Josephus, Be Bel. vi. 9, \ 3. 



THE TEMPLE CLEANSED. I2j 

the due time; and the other for the present. On the first 
clay of Adar [the month preceding Passover month] which 
answers to our February, there was a general notice given 
throughout the country that they should provide to pay the 
half-shekel; and on the 15th of that month the collectors 
sat in every city to gather it ; and they had two chests be- 
fore them, as were at the temple ; and they demanded the 
payment calmly and used no roughness or compulsion. On 
the 25th day of the month the collectors began to sit in the 
temple, and then they forced men to pay ; and if any one 
had not wherewith to pay they took his pawn, and some- 
times would take his raiment perforce. They had a table 
before them to count and change the money upon. 

"A man that brought a shekel to change and must have 
half a shekel again, the collector was to have some profit 
upon the change, and that addition was called Colbon. * * 
The Talmud and other authors discourse largely about this 
colbon, and who was to pay it, and who to be quit from it, 
and how much to be paid and to like purposes ; but the 
general conclusion is still for some profit, which exaction 
was that which caused our Saviour to overthrow the tables 
of the Colbonists (John ii. 15; Matt. xxi. 12); for these re- 
ceivers began to sit in the temple for that purpose but 
eighteen or twenty days before the Passover, and continued 
for that time when the concourse of people was greatest, and 
after it was over and done. 

" And so the market that was in the temple, the sheep 
and oxen, it is like, were not constantly there, but for such 
times of concourse, when the multitude of people and sac- 
rifices were so exceedingly great ; though indeed there was 
merchandizing of other things there all the year in the tab- 
ernse or shops that we have spoken of [in the Court of 
the Gentiles just inside the eastern gate]. The place where 
the marketing of the sheep and oxen was, was the great 
space of the Mountain of the House [Court of Gentiles] 



128 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

that lay on the south side of the courts ; for on the west and 
north the rock was too straight for such matter ; and on the 
east was the most common entrance of the people, and these 
cattle would have stopped up the way. 

" These collectors of the pole-tax (half-shekel) probably 
sat about the east gate Shushan, as being the chiefest en- 
trance/' 1 

There were besides those enumerated, money-chests for 
eleven other distinct kinds of collections, all in the temple 
courts ; and these last remained throughout the year. 

What a scene there was therefore, not for a day, but 
continuously through their feasts, in that large court be- 
longing to the temple ! In addition to the lambs for the 
Passover supper, there were many thousands of sheep and 
oxen slain at this festival. They were brought up here for 
sale; and while from the great altar within the sacred 
enclosure rose up the smoke of the sacrifices ; from this ad- 
joining outer court came strange discordant noises jarring 
terribly on the feelings of all who were there for devotional 
purposes. With the sounds of the sacred instrumental mu- 
sic or the chantings in front of the temple, the great Hal- 
lels of the occasion, were mingled the tramp and lowing 
of cattle, the sharp angry words of buying and selling 
among this demonstrative people, the loud and stern de- 
mands of the Colbonists or collectors requiring the half- 
shekel often from the poverty-stricken or reluctant, from 
whom their garments were taken by force when the money 
Avas not paid. The worst feelings of the human heart were 
cultivated there, and Devotion, even at this their most sacred 
time, was driven away or fled disgusted from the place. The 
whole scene was an outrage upon the time and occasion, and 
upon decency itself; and must often have been felt to be so 
by every right-thinking man. Therefore now when Christ 



Light foot Temple service. 



THE TEMPLE CLEANSED. 129 

reached that temple-court, and glancing around yielded to 
the sentiment which these outrages occasioned, there were 
many other persons doubtless ready and most willing to 
give their aid. 

He cleared the temple-court of its abominations. 

His disciples as they saw his face lighted up by his emo- 
tions beheld a verification of the Psalmist's words, " The 
zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." 1 Before the glance 
of his eye the conscience-struck traffickers fled : the cords 
from the loosed animals supplied him with a scourge, which 
indeed was scarcely needed ; for his words, " Make not my 
Father's house a house of merchandize, 77 stirred up that which 
had been latent in every heart, and brought a tide of con- 
viction which carried everything before it, the buyers and 
sellers retreating as best they could. The Colbonists fared 
no better amid their exactions ; for the poor found a friend, 
the money-chests \vere overturned and the tables cleared 
away. 

Strange scene indeed it was where people everywhere 
fled or were palsied in their convictions of the righteous 
dealing by a seemingly weak individual ; but when it was 
all over, the temple was in a new condition, cleansed now 
and restored to its legitimate use. 

But who was this, people asked who was this, the prin- 
cipal in this act ? They turned to gaze at him ; and the 
rulers also came immediately with the pertinent inquiry, 
" What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest 
these things? 77 

It was indeed a bold invasion of their rights which they 
had for so long a time abused, in giving what might be 
called their sanction to these abominations : and they came 
to him indignant, and also filled with astonishment at what 
he had effected with such slight means a strange power 



See John ii. 17. 



130 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

that seemed to be in him and of which they might well be 
jealous, conscious as they were of their own iniquity. 
Troubled, wondering, angry, resentful, their hearts were 
now in singular contrast to the strange, new quiet in those 
courts, and to the peace that had succeeded the turmoil. A 
new sacredness hung over the spot, where the smoke of sac- 
rifice seemed to go up purer than before, and where the 
chanting of the Hallels had more the breath of heaven ; 
but heaven was not in the hearts of these men, whose 
character the Baptist had already pointed out and held up 
before their eyes. 

To their inquiries now, Christ gave an answer in the 
figurative language of the country; and for the present, 
their curiosity as to his authority for such acts was not 
gratified. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
NICODEMUS JOHNS IMPRISONMENT. 

THE Messiah appears, during this visit to Jerusalem, to 
have performed some miracles of which we have no 
record ; but which occasioned a visit to him by a Ruler, upon 
whom recent circumstances had taken a strong hold. 

This Ruler Nicodemus by name came by night. 

Why by night? It may be that he thought his visit 
would have fewer interruptions at that hour; but the course 
of the conversation seems to point to a less commendable 
reason, in which moral timidity may have been involved. 
The admiration which he felt now, he afterwards continued 
to cherish, but still in secret; until finally, amid the heart- 






JOHN'S IMPRISONMENT. 131 

rending scenes of the crucifixion, all other feelings gave way 
before his reverence and love. Nicodemus rose up then, in 
manly, Christian strength. 

Now he sought the Messiah in the darkness, and was 
introduced: and they sat there in the dim light. How strik- 
ing the difference between the two! Nicodemus reverent, 
yet wanting boldness openly to acknowledge his reverence ; 
irresolute, yet drawn to Christ by a strong power of affection ; 
inquisitive, yet probably fearful of being convinced. On the 
other hand, Christ so gentle to his visitor, yet so determined, 
not wishing to repel, yet so earnest in inculcating that truth 
on Nicodemus which the Euler needed most. 

Nicodemus began the conversation. 

" Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God : 
for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except 
God be with him." 

The answer seems to have plunged, at once, into Nicode- 
mus's case, when Christ replied with emphasis : 

" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." You must have 
the new birth, which will make of you another being; will 
change your very soul, and make you decided for the truth, 
whithersoever your convictions may lead you, whether before 
the Sanhedrim or before kings, for my sake. 

The word "new birth" was not a strange one to Jewish 
ears. "If any man become a proselyte, he is a child new- 
born ;" "The Gentile that is made a proselyte, and a 
servant that is made free, behold, he is like a man new-born/' 1 
are words from their ancient Rabbis; but it was a new 
doctrine to be urged upon one already a Jew; and Nicode- 
mus received it with expressions of surprise. 

An entire change of soul wrought by the Holy Spirit was 
inculcated upon Nicodemus: and then Christ, in showing 



1 See Lightfoot in loco. 



I3 2 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

that the heroism which is to be a consequent of it and 
which was needed by the visitor, was not required of others 
while he was shrinking from it himself, spoke of his own fu- 
ture, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 
even so must the Son of man be lifted up : that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." 
But the teachings on this most interesting occasion went 
much further; and tell us that "God so loved the world, 
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life;" a 
sentiment which, if Jesus had never uttered any thing else, 
would be sufficient to be the life of the world. Many a 
perishing sinner has found it so to be. It contains in itself 
what, to use common language, may be termed "a whole 
body of divinity." 

The Messiah, after this, remained a short time in Judea, 
during which his disciples were administering the new 
ordinance of baptism to the multitudes offering themselves. 
Reports were quickly carried to the Pharisees that the num- 
ber even exceeded those who were resorting to John; 1 and 
the disciples of the latter hearing a similar rumor, hurried 
to their Master with a complaint to similar effect. John 
stopped complaints quickly by declaring that the Messiah 
"must increase, but he must decrease. He that cometh from 
above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and 
speak eth of the earth : he that cometh from heaven is above 
all. * * He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: 
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the 
wrath of God abideth on him." 2 

But the career of the Baptist was approaching towards its 
close. After remaining for a while at Bethabara, he had 
removed to "Enon near to Salim," a spot apparently about 
six miles north-east from Jerusalem, where, in a valley 



1 John iv. 1, 2. * John iii. 26-36. 



JOHN'S IMPRISONMENT. 133 

sometimes narrowing till it becomes a rock-lined ravine, 
half-a-dozen springs of the purest water burst from rocky 
crevices at various intervals, and form a stream "rivalling 
the atmosphere itself in transparency, of depths varying 
from a few inches to a fathom and more, shaded on one or 
both sides by umbrageous fig-trees, and sometimes contained 
in naturally-excavated basins of red mottled marble an occa- 
sional variegation of the common limestone of the country;" 
the quantity of water "sufficient to drive several mills." 1 
John had been preaching and administering the new ordi- 
nance for about a year and a half, when he was seized by 
the soldiers of Herod Antipas, and was hurried off to the 
castle of Macherus, situated towards the southern end of 
Perea, and not far from the north-eastern borders of the 
Dead Sea. His voice, which had rung out so boldly against 
all wicked men, while it was also gentle to the penitent, had 
now given unpardonable offence in the royal household itself, 
and the implacable, deadly hate of a woman had been aroused. 

Herod in one of his journeys had become enamored of 
Herodias, wife of his brother Philip, and although she was 
his niece he persuaded her to leave her husband and form a 
new connection with himself. John fearlessly denounced 
the libertine act, and so brought upon himself the wrath of 
the king and the vengeance of the still more vindictive para- 
mour. Herod doubtless gave out the report such as we 
have seen in a former chapter as stated by Josephus, but the 
result to John a year and a half after this fully verifies the 
Scripture account. 

We accompany the bold, brave man to his place of con- 



1 These extracts are from Dr. Barclay's "City of the Great King;" 
ind biblical geographers must feel greatly indebted to our country- 
man for establishing so undoubtedly the site of " Enon near to Salim" 
which had previously been a matter of uncertainty, but was gener- 
ally supposed to be in Galilee, near Scythopolis (Bethshean), although 
it was difficult to harmonize the place with Scriptural accounts. 
12 



134 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

finement; we see him whose life had always been so free 
and untrammeled, shut up, and wearing away his energies 
in the prison-house ; we watch him day after day wonder- 
ing whether relief would not come, whether the tyrant would 
not relent, whether the Divine power would not interpose, 
and we find him still a prisoner there, till his heart was 
weary and sick amid his blighted hopes. 



CHAPTER XV. 
IN SAMARIA AND GALILEE. 

was immeasurably in advance of the Jewish 
^ nation in all his doctrines, and this advanced position 
added greatly to the difficulty in successful teaching; for, 
not only were the minds of his hearers slow in compre- 
hending him, but moreover the truth when comprehended 
was frequently quite out of harmony with all that they had 
ever before conceived. The idea of man's universal brother- 
hood, so familiar to our minds through Christianity, was 
an entire novelty to the Jews, and was utterly repulsive as 
well as new. Even after the descent of the Holy Ghost at 
Pentecost a miracle was necessary in order to bring Peter to 
enter for the sake of religious instruction into the house of 
a devout Gentile, and he was reproved by his brethren for 
doing so : " Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and 
didst eat with them." 

We must bear in memory all this cramped and fettered 
condition of the national mind as we follow the Messiah 
and his disciples in their journeyings, and in his glorious 
teachings to them or to the assembled multitudes. 



IN SAMARIA AND GALILEE. 135 

He did not remain long in Judea, but returned to Galilee, 
passing through Samaria which was the most direct way. 

About twenty-five miles from Jerusalem the road de- 
scends into a plain extending northwardly about twelve 
miles, and about half way along this plain brings the tra- 
veller to where a narrow valley between two mountains 
opens suddenly at his left. This spot is exceeded in interest 
only by Jerusalem itself; for, of those two mountains, that 
on the south is Gerizim, the northern is Ebal ; and the tra- 
veller is here also by a well unmistakably dug by the patri- 
arch Jacob, while a small edifice a short way off shows un- 
doubtedly the burial-place of the remains of Joseph brought 
from Egypt 1 in that long journey of forty years. It is gra- 
tifying to be able so fully to identify all these places after 
such a lapse of time. The mountains are about 800 feet in 
height, rugged, and in places precipitous, and with only a 
few olive trees to relieve their desolate appearance. The 
valley between them is 400 yards wide, and ascends gently 
westward till at a distance of a mile and a half we come to 
the city of Nablus, the Shcchem of ancient times lying on its 
southern side. From this onward toward the west it widens, 
is abundantly supplied with springs, and is a region of ex- 
treme fertility ; six miles' travel in that direction brings us 
to the city of Samaria. Gerizim has on its summit exten- 
sive remains of its ancient temple ; near its foot, on the 
great plain, is Jacob's well ; Joseph's tomb is a little to the 
north of the well, just where the middle of the narrow val- 
ley opens to the plain. 

It is easy standing there to imagine the scene, when, in 
Joshua's time, all Israel were gathered there, according to 
the former command of Moses, one-half on each mountain ; 
those on Gerizim to utter the blessings, and those on Ebal 
the curses previously detailed, to each of which as uttered 



1 Ex. xiii. 19; Josh. xxiv. 32. 



136 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 




Gerizim. I Jacob's I Joseph's I Ebal. 
I well. I tomb. | 

Viewed from the East. 

the whole congregation were to respond Amen a wonderful 
and most solemn scene. It is easy also to imagine the Sa- 
maritans in generations afterward, when half-heathenish from 
the admixture of foreign nations they had been refused fel- 
lowship by the Jews, and had erected a rival temple in Ge- 
rizim, ascending to it with a grim hatred and jealousy of 
their neighbors, who boasted of their superior claims to 
Divine favor. 1 So too we may conceive the undisguised 
contempt for them by the Jews, felt and sometimes mani- 
fested as the latter had to traverse their country in passing 
directly between Judea and Galilee. Notwithstanding that 
"what a Samaritan ate as food became from that fact as 
swine's flesh in the eyes of a Jew;" that ^no Samaritan 
might be made a proselyte/' and " no one of them would 



1 One beneficial result of this jealousy has been to bring down to us, 
through a period of 2800 years, two distinct copies of the Pentateuch, 
without fear of there ever having been collusion between the copyists. 
Both copies are alike. The Samaritans still exist at Nabliis as a distinct 
people ; few however are left, and the nation seems to be near extinction. 



IN SAMARIA AND GALILEE. 137 

by any possibility in Jewish timation attain to everlasting 
life;" still there were probably some Jews residing there for 
trade, as they did also among the Gentile nations. 

With such feelings as the ancient history of this most in- 
teresting region was adapted to produce, Christ and his dis- 
ciples had travelled along this plain leading by the two 
mountains, and reached the celebrated well about the mid- 
dle of the day. Wearied he sat down there to rest, while 
his followers went into the city to purchase food ; and as he 
sat, there came to the spot to procure water a woman from 
whom he asked a drink. There is still, not far from the 
well, a village called Aschar which may be the same place 
as Sychar, from which she came, but more probably she 
was from Shechem, the present Nablus, and came this dis- 
tance for water on account of a superstitious belief in the 
efficacy of Jacob's well ; for her life was one that might 
readily lead her to any extraneous help in an endeavor to 
quiet her conscience. In reply to the request for drink she 
questioned the Messiah, " How is it that thou, being a Jew, 
askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?" and 
a conversation ensued in which he said to her, " But whoso- 
ever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never 
thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a 
well of water springing up into everlasting life." Other 
words there were from him, some of which were astonishing 
indeed, coming from one of his nationality ; for he said, 
" Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither 
in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father ;" 
and soon afterward he declared to her his Messiahship 
authority sufficient for breaking down all the old distinc- 
tions of time and place, and making a fraternity of all the 
nations of the earth. "The hour cometh," he said, "when 
the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and 
in truth : for the Father seeketh such to worship him." 
The disciples now arriving from their mission were sur- 

12 * 

- 



138 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

prised to find him in social conversation with a woman of 
Samaria, but they kept their wonder in silence, not daring to 
question him. But if astonished at this, how much greater 
was their astonishment when not long afterward they saw 
him proceed to Shechem to be there a guest of the Samaritans. 
The woman had gone up to the city and had spread such 
reports of him that the citizens came out and "besought 
him that he would tarry with them," which he did for two 
days. 

His disciples might indeed well be filled with wonder j 
for it was an entire breaking down of the old wall of sepa- 
ration: it was an entire giving up of all old feelings of 
pride, contempt and hatred : it was a substitution of affec- 
tion and kindness: it was an opening of the Jewish heart to 
take the hated Samaritans in. They were not prepared for 
this; and shrinkingly they followed their Master with 
many a protest in the lowest depths of their nature ; many 
a recoil which their feelings for Christ, full of love and 
reverence as they were and full of confidence, could yet not 
prevent them from having, and probably at times also mani- 
festing. Peter's impulses were ever ready to break out, and 
often got the mastery over him in secret if not in public. 
Even John, full of love as he was, came with reluc- 
tance into this strange fraternizing with men so long de- 
spised and slighted, if not hated. Indeed there must have 
been a great tumult in the souls of all these disciples, as 
during those two days they not only had to witness but to 
become sharers in this new condition of fellowship with 
Samaritans; as recoiling all the while, they were yet held to 
their fidelity by the wonderful force of that love and good- 
ness which they saw to be in Christ? 

What a power there is in thus teaching by example! 
Long afterward when their Master had ascended to heaven 
and had left them to their own guidance under the help 
of the Holy Spirit; when Peter was sent to Samaria to 



IN SAMARIA AND GALILEE. 139 

preach and to establish a church among the dwellers there ; 
and when John far off at Ephesus and Smyrna, had to seek 
for companionship and brotherhood chiefly among Gentiles ; 
then they remembered these scenes at Jacob's well and at 
Shechem, and they blessed God for such a teacher, by ex- 
ample as well as by precept. 

The Samaritans were powerfully affected by both, and 
when he left their city they declared, 

" We know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of 
the world." 

In Galilee to which he now proceeded, reports concerning 
him were spreading rapidly; for people from all that re- 
gion had been to the Passover: and they were telling every- 
where what they had seen and heard at Jerusalem. Among 
that simple agricultural people, accustomed to regard with 
reverence everything belonging to their religious metropolis, 
the news was astounding: and deepest interest, wonder, 
hopes, doubts, agitations of all kinds, met Christ and his 
disciples here, and were depicted on people's countenances 
wherever he went. An added rumor now gave intensity to 
this interest; for it was asserted that in Samaria, he had de- 
clared himself to be the Messiah, the Christ. 1 Astonishing 
as this claim was to every one, it gathered force as people 
gazed and listened; for he began immediately to preach in 
their synagogues, and it was evident to their apprehensions 
that there was something most extraordinary in his words 
and looks. He "had returned in the power of the Spirit:" 
and if in after times the face of Stephen was "as it had been 
the face of an angel," as filled with the Holy Ghost he 
spoke before the council of Jerusalem, what must have been 
the sight here as Christ preached in these synagogues, his 
countenance lighted up with the Divine expression, his eyes 
gleaming in the supernatural afflatus, his doctrines sublime 



1 See John iv. 26. 



*4 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

though clear, his manner having the stamp of authority, 
while at the same time it was winning and gentle! The re- 
sult might well be as we are told in the Scripture that it was, 
"He was glorified of all." 1 

Proceeding thus onward he came again to Cana, the scene of 
the marriage feast. There a man hurried into his presence. 
What a look there was in that man's eyes of entreaty, hope, 
anxiety: all that would be in a father's face when a son was 
sick, near to death, and here might be relief! He was a noble- 
man of Capernaum which was about fifteen miles distant : he 
had heard that Christ had returned from Judea to Galilee, 
and had hastened to him, and his beseeching cry was "to 
come down and heal his son." His entreaty seemed to 
be warded off: 

" Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe." 

He broke in with the exclamation, 

" Sir, come down ere my child die." 

" Go thy way ; thy son liveth." 

The man must have sprung to his feet with joy ; for 
he believed. He hurried homeward ; and was met on the 
road by his servants coming to inform him that his son was 
alive, and that the fever had left him. On inquiry it was 
known that the relief came when the healing words were 
pronounced at Cana : and the father " believed, and his 
whole house." 2 



1 Luke iv. 14-15. 2 See John iv. 46-53. 



AT NAZARETH. 141 



CHAPTER XVI. 
AT NAZARETH. 

IT was putting the claims of Jesus to be the Messiah, the 
Christ, to a very severe ordeal for him now to visit Naza- 
reth, where he had been brought up, where he had worked 
at the trade of his reputed father, a carpenter, and where 
all feelings of jealousy if not of indignant wrath at such 
claims would certainly be aroused, and might result in vio- 
lence itself. 

Yet he went. And although the inhabitants appear to 
have been exceptional among the frank and genial Galile- 
ans, as we conclude from Nathaniel's remark about the 
place ; yet here at the very outset of his ministry, he pro- 
claimed himself as fulfilling the prophecy respecting the 
Messiah. Could these people have ever found in his long 
residence among them his youth and manhood aught else 
than a perfect life, they would on this occasion have over- 
whelmed him with vituperation : but in their crowded syna- 
gogue there was but one voice raised there could be but 
one, and that was only against the astounding nature of his 
claim. " He the Christ ! !" We will soon enter into the 
synagogue with him, and witness that scene. 

First, of the place itself and its surroundings, amid which 
Jesus had been brought up. 

No portions of Palestine are so grand in general features, 
or so interesting in detail as those immediately surrounding 
Nazareth and in view from the adjoining heights. The 
town lies imbedded in a range of hills running east and 
west, forming the northern boundary of the plain of Es- 
draelon, which spreads out immense in extent, yet with 



142 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

scenery varied in every part. The eastern edge of this plain 
may be said to rest on the Jordan, along which it extends 
north and south about twenty-four miles. Carmel running 
north-west and south-east, forms its other boundary. Only 
the western end about seventeen miles across can be called 
level, its eastern portion being rolling like our prairies ; 
while also in that part rise Mount Gilboa, 1,300 feet high, 
Little Hermon, 1,862 feet, and Tabor, 1,800 feet, the last 
oonnected with a spur running out from the Nazareth range. 
The foot of Tabor is about six miles east from Nazareth. 




Nazareth as it is now, viewed from the South-East. 

This town is reached by a short valley running up from 
the plain, and rests on the western side of a recess a mile 
in length by half a mile in width. It contains now about 
3000 inhabitants, probably about the same number as in the 
Saviour's time. Thompson says, " The valley is certainly 
small, but then the diiferent swellings of the surrounding hills 
give the idea of repose and protection." 1 Among the hills 
are precipitous rocky bluffs adjoining the town. 

Robir.jon who was by no means given to enthusiasm in 

1 " The Land and the Book." 



AT NAZARETH. 143 

his descriptions, thus speaks of the prospect from the hill 
immediately back of Nazareth, the summit of which is 
1,100 feet above the sea ; a spot to which doubtless the 
Saviour had often withdrawn for enjoyment and reflection, 
while his earthly life was growing up in that grandeur which 
harmonized so well with this scene. That traveller says : 
" I walked out alone to the top of the hill over Nazareth, 
where stands the neglected Wely of Neby Isma'il. Here 
quite unexpectedly, a glorious prospect opened on the view. 
The air was perfectly clear and serene ; and I shall never 
forget the impression I received, as the enchanting panorama 
burst suddenly upon me. There lay the magnificent plain 
of Esdraelon, or at least all its western part ; on the left was 
seen the round top of Tabor over the intervening hills, with 
portions of the Little Hermon and Gilboa, and the opposite 
mountains of Samaria, from Jenin westward to the lower 
hills extending towards Carmel. Then came the long line 
of Carmel itself with the convent of Elias on its northern 
end, and Haifa on the shore at its foot. In the west lay the 
Mediterranean gleaming in the morning sun; seen first far 
off in the south on the left of Carmel ; then intercepted by 
that mountain, and again appearing on its right, so as to in- 
clude the whole bay of 'Akka, and the coast stretching far 
north to a point N. 10 W. 'Akka itself (Ptolemais, now 
St. Jean d'Acre) was not visible, being hidden by interven- 
ing hills. Below, on the north was spread out another of 
the beautiful plains of northern Palestine called el-Buttauf ; 
it runs from east to west, and its waters are drained off 
westward through a narrow valley to the Kislion, (el-Muk- 
atta) at the base of Carmel. On the southern border of the 
plain the eye rested on a large village near the foot of an 
isolated hill, with a ruined castle on the top ; this was Se- 
furiah, the ancient Sepphoris or Dio CaBsarea. Beyond the 
plain of el-Buttauf, long ridges running from east to west rise 
one higher than another until the mountains of Safed over- 



H4 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

top them all, on which that place is seen i a city set upon 
a hill/ Further towards the right is a sea of hills and 
mountains, backed by the higher ones beyond the Lake of 
Tiberias, and in the north-east by the majestic Hermon, with 
its icy crown. * * I remained for some hours upon this 
spot, lost in contemplation of the wide prospect, and of the 
events connected with the scenes around. In the village 
below, the Saviour of the world had passed his childhood ; 
and although we have few particulars of his life, yet there 
are certain features of nature which meet our eyes now just 
as they once met his." 1 

Among such scenes Jesus had lived, doubtless in far more 
hearty communion with them than with his townsmen of 
Nazareth. He might now look for a more favorable recep- 
tion of his teachings in any other part of Galilee than in 
this place ; for, even if its people had been of a better de- 
scription of character than they were, still the jealousies felt 
towards one who had grown up among them with no 
advantages of education or position, and who yet had 
suddenly become distinguished by fame, and was asserting 
such remarkable claims, would predispose them to regard 
him with suspicion if not with hostility. The rumors that 
must have been brought to them were startling; the 
proclamation of John, the scenes at Jerusalem, the miracles, 
his teachings in the synagogues ; there was in all this some- 
thing to shake their prejudices and to puzzle and perplex 
them ; but they argued, " Are not his parents here with us ; 
his brothers and sisters?" Prejudice still had rule; and the 
very greatness of his claims made the barriers to their belief 
in him the stronger. When the citizens of Nazareth heard, 
therefore, that he had come among them, and was about to 
proclaim his doctrines in their synagogues, there was a great 
agitation in the community ; anger, disdain, envy, and 
probably old dislikes, against one who had in life and char- 

1 " Biblical Researches." 



AT NAZARETH. 145 

acter always been so different from themselves; all this 
mingling with the intense curiosity, which was in every one's 
heart. One thing, they reasoned, might possibly satisfy 
them, namely, a miracle; and they might feel that they had 
a higher claim to miracles than Cana, or even Jerusalem 
itself. Keport had told them of wonders performed in both 
these places; perhaps they would witness similar, or even 
greater things, in Nazareth. So they hoped. Candor and 
fair judgment could not be expected among such a people; 
and a teacher given to expediencies would have avoided, in 
this preaching in their synagogue, anything that would be 
offensive to them ; that is, any prominence to the high claims 
of being the Messiah, and any allusion to their desire for a 
miracle to gratify curiosity. But Christ was not given to 
consult expediencies rather than the truth. 

People had hurried to the synagogue. He was there also; 
his face had long been a familiar one in that place. The 
congregation looked upon it variously ; some trying whether 
they could discover in it traces of that mysterious power 
with which he was said to be endowed ; some resistingly, yet 
still, in their unwillingness, half- impressed by a strange 
Presence that there was in him ; some scouting it all ; some 
stupidly curious; all watchful, and with few exceptions, 
predisposed to be skeptical, whatever might occur. The 
service began. The whisperings and surmises and cavillings 
had now ceased. All felt the power of the solemn worship 
stealing over their disturbed hearts ; and they perhaps felt 
that there was an additional impressiveness, as if some 
supernatural power was breathing over them and through 
all the room. 

The doxology was sung ; then came the reading from the 
Mosaic law ; then the second doxology was chanted : still 
there had been no unusual demonstration, only the senti- 
ment that a supernatural power might possibly be in their 
midst, and a consequent impressiveness which people could 

13 



146 LIFE-SCENES FROM 'THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

read in each other's eyes, with a half-subdued, a half- 
angry manner, as if the heart was resenting what it could 
not help but feel. 

Now came in order the reading of the prophets. It was 
customary for the ruler of the synagogue to invite readers 
and speakers, unless some one voluntarily offered himself; 
and Jesus presented himself for that purpose now. He 
opened at the prophecy of Isaiah, and read : 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath 
anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; he hath sent 
me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the 
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at 
liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year 
of the Lord." 

It was a well-known prophecy referring to the Messiah ; 
and often, through the long years since Isaiah's time, had 
the Jews fed themselves with glorious hopes from these 
words and those immediately following. He closed the 
book and handed it back to the minister, and sat down, 
the posture of speakers. What a breathless silence there 
was in that assembly ! He broke it by saying : 

"This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears/' 

It was a re-assertion of that which they understood he 
had claimed, now made directly before them; but hostility 
was for the present repressed ; for there was something in 
his look and manner that made astonishment keep other 
feelings in check; that strange Presence giving authority to 
his words. 

By Presence is meant that something undefinable which 
has impressiveness in any company where a person of great 
distinction and worth is felt to be ; in this case greatly 
heightened by "the power of the Spirit" which had previ- 
ously been noticed as "returning with him into Galilee." 1 



Luke iv. 14. 



AT NAZARETH. 147 

The people of Nazareth whispered to each other, "Is not 
this Joseph's son ?" and the question would express not only 
astonishment, but, among many, rage also at his claims. 
There was a mixed feeling; and it would soon show itself 
among these demonstrative people. He saw their feelings, 
and gave them a warning ; for he now began to speak again, 
and as he did so silence fell on the assembly. 

" Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician heal 
thyself! whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum do 
also here in thy country." 

Their hopes were high, their curiosity now most intense. 
Was he going to perform a miracle there? But he always 
reprobated idle curiosity, and especially that which would 
desecrate the miracle-working power for its gratification. 
So now he gave the reproof. They were wound up to the 
highest expectancy,* and he spoke, " Verily I say unto you 
no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you 
of a truth many widows were in Israel in the days of Eli as, 
when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, 
when great famine was throughout all the land ; but unto 
none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of 
Sidon, [a heathen place], and unto a woman that was a 
widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of 
Eliseus the prophet, and none of them were cleansed save 
Naaman, the Syrian [a heathen]." 

There was a storm of rage. Every angry feeling in them 
was roused at this intimation that the heathen might be pre- 
ferred before them. They rushed upon the speaker, and 
forgetting all else than what they considered so gross an in- 
sult to their nation and themselves, they hurried him out 
of their town to an adjoining precipice, bent on hurling 
him over. But their rage was futile. The super-human 
power was now exerted ; " he passed through the midst of 
them and went his way," leaving them to subdue as best 
they might their impotent wrath. 



148 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

He came thence to Capernaum, and now he made that 
city his home, such a home at least as his frequent journeys 
and labors would admit ; for his time on earth was not to 
be one of quiet enjoyment, but of self-denial and of labor 
wherever the good of others should require. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
THE LAKE OF GALILEE CAPERNAUM. 

HOW gem-like amid its beautiful environments, even in 
our day, is the Lake of Galilee ! but how much more 
beautiful in those ancient times ! Its immediate surround- 
ings are sufficiently marked with what is grand in nature to 
give it something of that character, but it is chiefly remark- 
able for a gentle, quiet, lasting beauty which never tires ; 
for this beauty has every variety of form, and changes at 
every hour of the day. Every one who reads the Gospels 
appreciatingly feels that he must love this lake on account 
of its associations, but it is a place very lovely in itself and 
in the natural surroundings with which it is enriched. 

The approach to it is thus described by Dr. Olin, one of the 
most graphic writers of travels in the Holy Land. He had 
been journeying all the day over the plain of Esdraelon, 
which, after leaving Mount Tabor, may be said to continue 
(though with a more undulating surface) in a northeasterly 
direction quite to the lake. Toward evening he came to a 
level spot of*great fertility and under cultivation, the thick 
grass on its waste places sprinkled over with flowers, and he 
says, u My attention had been so fully occupied with this 
scene of loveliness and these unusual tokens of industry and 
cultivation, always the more striking from being rare, as not 



THE LAKE OF 



I 49 



to have heeded our progress until we reached the eastern 
border of the pJain. We were now upon the brow of what 
must appear to the spectator at its base a lofty mountain 
which bounds the deep basin of the sea of Galilee, and forms 



LAKE OF GALILEE AND THENCE TO NAZARETH AND NAIN. 




13 



Scale of Statute Miles. 



1. Plain of Gennesaret. 

2. Khan Minyeh supposed site of Capernaum. 

3. Tell Hum supposed site of Capernaum. 

4. Probably an extension of Bethsaida into Galilee. 



150 LIFE-SCENE* FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

the last step in the descent from the very elevated plain 
over which we had been journeying during the long day. 
The sun had just set behind us in a blaze of red light which 
filled the western sky for many degrees above the horizon, 
and was slightly reflected from the smooth glassy surface of 
the beautiful lake whose opposite shore was visible many 
miles on the right and left, rising abruptly out of the water 
into an immense and continuous bulwark several hundred 
feet in height, grand and massive but softened by graceful 
undulations and covered with a carpet of luxuriant vegetation 
from the summit quite down to the water's edge. Beyond 
the lake stretched out a vast, and to our eye a boundless region 
filled up with a countless number of beautiful rounded hills, 
all clad in verdure, which at this moment was invested with 
a peculiar richness of coloring. In the remote distance, 
though full in our view, the snowy top of Mount Hermon 
was still glittering and basking in the beams of the sun, 
while a chaste, cool drapery of white fleecy clouds, hung 
around its base. The green graceful form of Mount Tabor 
was behind us, while on the broad and well-cultivated plain 
the numerous fields of wheat, now of a dark luxuriant green, 
contrasted very strongly and strangely with intervening 
tracts of ploughed ground. Independently of sacred asso- 
ciations this was altogether a scene of rare and unique beauty, 
nay, of splendid magnificence." 1 

Dr. Clarke, the English traveller, says, " It may be de- 
scribed as longer and finer than any of the Cumberland 
lakes." 

It is in shape an irregular oval, fourteen miles in length 
by seven at its widest part, the waters of great transpa- 
rency and 165 feet in their greatest depth. On its eastern 
side the mountains rise abruptly, but with green, sloping 
sides, and great billows of such hills pass to the east as far 



1 Olin's Travels. 



THE LAKE OF GALILEE. 153 

as the eye reaches, green but uninhabited ; as seems to have 
been chiefly the case also in the ancient times. On the 
southwest the mountain sides are in successive off-sets like 
huge terraces a thousand feet high in the aggregate; and 
there, four miles from the southern end of the lake, is Tiberias, 
once a place of some eminence for its hot baths and schools, 
now decayed and almost in ruins from earthquakes of recent 
date. Passing northwardly from Tiberias along the western 
border of the lake we come at the distance of three miles, 
to Mejdel, the ancient Magdala, and soon afterwards to a 
spot where the mountains sweep backward for a short space 
and leave room for the rich plain of Gennesaret. This 
plain, for reasons which will presently appear, must receive 
our particular attention, which indeed apart from historical 
associations, if only for its extreme richness it might well 
deserve. It lies opposite the widest part of the lake, a little 
more than midway along toward the north, and is nearly 
triangular in shape, about three miles in length by a mile 
and a-half in its greatest width ; is perfectly level and only 
a few feet above the water. It is a place of surpassing fer- 
tility. In those eastern countries wherever water can be 
procured for irrigation, the vegetation is most exuberant, 
and even the sandy shore at Jaffa, seemingly pure silex, is 
changed by artificial watering into richly-productive gar- 
dens ; but at Gennesaret the soil, a dark loam, is of itself 
of the greatest natural richness, while four very large foun- 
tains afford water that in ancient times was carried by artifi- 
cial channels all over the plain. On its south-west side is 
what is now called the " Round Fountain/' inclosed by a 
low, circular wall, 100 feet in diameter, the water about two 
feet deep, and beautifully limpid and sweet, bubbling up and 
flowing out rapidly in a large stream to water the plain be- 
low. Ten minutes' travel northwardly from this, conducts 
to another very copious stream coming down through a break 
in the mountain ; and at the northern end of the plain we 



154 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

have another large fountain gushing out from beneath the 
rocks, while around this, near the celebrated Khan Minyeh, 
other smaller fountains are clustered. Close by this last 
spot the mountain comes back again to the lake, and sends a 
short promontory out into its waters ; but a fountain a mile 
further north, still larger than any of the former, and strong 
enough to turn several mills as it bursts from the rocks, had 
its waters formerly conveyed by artificial channels to the 
plain of Gennesaret, about which they were distributed by 
similar means. The abundant supply of water, the natural 
fertility of the soil, the depth of the plain, 622 feet below 
the level of the Mediterranean, and with a hotter climate 
consequently than the table-land above, together with the 
adjoining lake, make this spot a very choice one in Galilee, 
and it had a wide reputation in ancient times. Josephus 
says of it: "The country also that lies over against this 
lake hath the same name of Gennesaret ; its nature is won- 
derful as well as its beauty. Its soil is so fruitful that all 
sorts of trees can grow upon it, and the inhabitants accord- 
ingly plant all sorts of trees there ; for the temper of the air 
is so well mixed that it agrees very well with those several 
sorts, particularly walnuts, which require the coldest air, 
flourish there in vast plenty ; there are palm-trees also which 
grow best in hot air ; fig-trees also and olives grow near them 
which yet require an air that is more temperate. One may 
call this place the ambition of nature, where it forces those 
plants that are naturally enemies to one another to agree to- 
gether ; it is a happy contention of the seasons, as if every 
one of them laid claim to this country, for it not only nour- 
ishes different sorts of autumnal fruits beyond men's expec- 
tations, but preserves them a great while. It supplies men 
with the principal fruits with grapes and figs continually 
during ten months in the year, and the rest of the fruits as 
they become ripe together through the whole year ; for be- 
sides the good temperature of the air it is also watered from 



THE LAKE OF GALILEE. 155 

a most fertile fountain." 1 Khan Minyeh at the northern end 
of this plain is distinguished as the place selected by many 
travellers for the site of Capernaum. There is a mound 
there with some ruins, and if sentiment only were to be con- 
sulted we should readily choose this spot by the cluster of 
fountains, where the adjoining upward slopes of ground 
allowed the view to extend fully over the garden-like plain, 
as well as over the beautiful lake. Arculfus, a French 
bishop at the close of the seventh century, mentions Caper- 
naum as existing in his time and seen by him from the op- 
posite side of the lake, and the description he gives corre- 
sponds only to this site at the fountains by Khan Miuyeh. 
Robinson says that taking into consideration all the circum- 
stances of historical allusions and descriptions, he is disposed 
to rest in the conclusion that this is the place. 

But there is another spot three miles to the north of this 
which puts in claims considered by many travellers to be of 
a more valid kind. The road on leaving Khan Minyeh, 
crosses a projection of land, and then keeps along the lake 
by the large fountain Tabiga already noticed, so copious as to 
turn several mills ; and then two miles further it reaches a 
projecting point or rather curve of the shore slightly ele- 
vated above the water, half a mile long by a quarter in 
breadth, covered with ruins of buildings, among which are 
many columns and remains of an edifice 105 by 80 feet in 
extent. The name of the place Tell Hum, is thought by 
Thompson to be from Kefr-na-Hum, the word Kefr or vil- 
lage, having given way to Tell or mound, from the heap of 
rubbish there. That writer is fully in favor of the claims 
of this spot : and the English exploring party recently sent 
out by an Association in London, assert that they have not 
only established the identity of this with Capernaum, but 
that they have laid open the foundation of the syna- 



1 De Bel. cxi. 10, 8. 



156 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

gogue of our Saviour's time. They probably refer to the 
large building noticed by Robinson and" Thompson, the 
beautifully colored marbles of which were from a mountain 
not far from the place. The remains of the dwelling-houses 
are of the black, compact basalt of the country, and may be 
said to extend to the fountain of Tabiga ; probably in the 
whole extent of shore to the plain of Gennesaret was a con- 
tinuation of dwellings, the great water-power of this foun- 
tain being adapted to draw a large population to its 
neighborhood. This town at Tell Hum was certainly one of 
some consequence. 1 Josephus speaks of having been taken 
to Capharnuome or Capernaum, after a fall from his horse 
in which he was hurt near the northern end of this lake. 2 

In either case, whether Capernaum was at Khan Minyeh 
or Tell Hum, it was in a beautiful as well as most populous 
region. The whole of the plain of Gennesaret was doubt- 
less like a garden with many valleys interspersed or border- 
ing on it ; and all the country above on the west, was full 
of habitations and in the highest state of culture. Indeed 
the whole region from the sea of Galilee westward, quite 
across the plain of Esdraelon to the Mediterranean, was prob- 
ably by far the most fertile and populous part of Palestine. 



1 The distance from Tell Hum to Nain might be an objection to this 
site, if we suppose that Christ made the journey from Capernaum to 
Nain (in this case twenty-five miles) in one day. See Luke vii. 11. 

2 Life, \ 72. 



CAPERNAUM AND GALILEE. 157 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
AT CAPERNAUM AND THROUGH GALILEE. 

ON the Sabbath after his arrival in the city the Messiah 
went into the synagogue and taught. People were as- 
tonished. It was not the jargon of the Scribes full of ob- 
scurities, and often of absurdities, such as have come down 
to us through the literary remains of their Rabbis, but was 
clear, within the comprehension of his hearers, practical, and 
had an authority in the manner of delivery corresponding to 
the words. No hesitancy or appearance of doubt in him who 
spake ; but it was the language of one who knew ; whose 
eye swept through all parts of his subject, the heavenly as 
well as the earthly, the Divine as well as the human, and 
who felt that he had power and authority thus to speak. 1 
" They were astonished at his doctrine/ 7 says the history, 
" for his word was with power." 2 In the synagogue was a 
demoniac, whom he healed by his word ; and afterward in 
the house of Peter, he restored to health also by his word, 
the mother-in-law of that disciple sick of a fever. 

Thus the early part of the Sabbath was passed in Caper- 
naum ; a time full of wonder and of strange surmisings 
among the people. Twice had this teacher declared himself 
to be the Messiah ; once in Samaria, and again in Nazareth : 
but he was so different from the Messiah whom the nation 
had expected : for here was no earthly pomp or glory, and 
no manifestation of a desire for kingly power ; but on the 
other hand humility, indifference to rank, and abnegation 
of all human glory. Yet there was a strange mightiness in 



1 Mark i. 22. 2 Luke iv. 32. 

14 



158 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

him. The spirits obeyed him. Disease left the wan and 
haggard frame at his command, and health flashed over the 
system : his very presence had a power in it ; his manner so 
gentle and winning, still inspired respect ; his face through 
which the inner being spoke out, seemed to be stamped with 
Divinity itself. 

Such was this teacher, as he had appeared that day, in 
divine instructions in the synagogue, and afterward among 
the people, filling them with many contradictory and per- 
plexing thoughts. His healing powers, however, they could 
understand, and these stirred them immediately into action ; 
and there was a hurrying to and fro not only in the city but 
in all the country round about. For the warmest and most 
active, as well as the most blessed sympathies of human 
nature were reached in this case; and people were carrying to 
the bedsides of the afflicted the cheering news that a healer 
was among them whose power both for mental and for 
bodily distress, was equal to every disease. If we would 
appreciate the gladness of such tidings, we must remember 
the condition of medical science even among the most 
learned practitioners at that time. There was a medical 
school at Antioch in Syria, and one at Alexandria ; but the 
facts on which the true principles of that science are built, 
are of subsequent discovery ; arid in Palestine at the period 
spoken of, physicians were rare and were little to be relied 
on when they could be procured. The sick were left to per- 
ish unaided, or were administered to blindly and with 
doubtful result. A modern traveller speaking of a Mis- 
sionary Christian physician with whom he was journeying 
in this same region of country, says of him, after they had 
stopped one evening, subsequently to a day's explorations, 
"Dr. Kelley is still busy with his patients who are all 
Druses and Mohammedans. How eagerly they listened to 
him, he has so won their hearts by his benevolent aid ! It 
is truly touching to see how the poor and miserable come to 



CAPERNAUM AND GALILEE. 159 

him for help for the body, and how they go away from him 
with the first tidings [of Christ] that ever met their ears." 1 

Evening came on in Capernaum after this preaching in 
the synagogue ; and the shadows of the Galilean hills were 
cast over the beautiful lake, and went ascending the green 
sides of the opposite mountains, a fair, quiet, Sabbath- 
evening scene without ; but within the city all was fermen- 
tation and bustle. " All the city was gathered together at 
the door" of the house where the Messiah was staying. "The 
whole region was stirred up, for the fame of Christ as a per- 
son wonderful in healing as well as in teaching had been 
rapidly spread abroad. As people heard of this certainty 
of cure, they hurried joyfully to communicate the intelli- 
gence to the sick. What intelligence it was! The wan 
from suffering grew flushed with hope : the wasted found 
sudden energy, and came panting on toward the Great 
Healer, or cried to friends for transportation : the despair- 
ing had new words of comfort whispered in their ears, and 
took courage for one further effort : volunteer aid was ready 
for those who needed it : and speedily among the crowds of 
the curious blocking up the street, were intermingled all 
forms and stages of disease trying to force their way. The 
dying, could his power reach them? So the anxious 
friends queried as they bore their precious burdens slowly 
and tenderly along. The chronic cases of many years, 
could they be healed? The plaintive voice so long sharp- 
ened by pain, and almost unused to any other than outbursts of 
anguish, could this ever be changed into joy and praise? O 
make way ! Let them see that Jesus : let them reach this 
Deliverer : let them come before him that he may see the 
distorted or wasted form and be moved to pity ! And on 
they struggled ; sometimes shrieking in agony as the crowd 
unwittingly jostled the couch ; sometimes so death-like that 



Van deVe.de. 




160 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

consciousness was gone, hope however attending, and 
shown in the tender looks bent over the sufferer. And as 
the sick were borne along, the healed met them with shouts 
of joy and praises to God ; while the wondering crowds 
could scarcely believe their own senses as they saw them re- 
turn as if brought alive from the dead. All who came were 
healed, the diseased both in body and mind. 

Thus the night settled down over Capernaum an agitated 
city' full of wonder, full also of joy. 

The Messiah, however, did not continue there long ; for 
much work remained to be done in other parts of Galilee. 
Rising in the morning, long before day, he went to a retired 
place for communion with Heaven ; but the disciples came 
to him there with the annunciation that "all men were 
seeking him." 1 The multitudes followed immediately after, 
with the entreaty that he would stay with them ; but he 
replied, "I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities 
also ; for thereto am I sent." 2 

Peter and Andrew, and also James and John, had before 
this returned temporarily to their former occupation as 
fishermen ; but having here received a more formal call to 
disci pi eship, they were with him again ; and henceforward 
continued to be his followers until the end of his ministry. 

He proceeded now to traverse Galilee once more, preach- 
ing and healing as he went. The multitude joining and 
following him had become very great; for his fame had 
extended throughout Syria, and to the great cities of Decap- 
olis east of the Jordan ; and people from all those regions, 
and from Jerusalem, and Judea generally, as well as from 
all parts of Galilee were hurrying to him : and the sick 
were brought, "all sick people that were taken with divers 
diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with 



Mark i. 37. 2 Luke iv. 43. 



CAPERNAUM AND GALILEE. 161 

devil?, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the 
palsy; and he healed them." 1 

What strange sensations there must have been among all 
these multitudes in Galilee, so intent and scrutinizing, 
watching the sick coming up, and beholding them immedi- 
ately depart well and sound ; joining, if only from sympathy, 
in the words of the healed men glorifying God ; amazed at 
all they saw, amazed at what they heard ; and yet, 
with all this, doubting. They could not doubt respect- 
ing the miracles; for these were obvious to their senses, 
and were public and repeated, till there could be no 
question about this .astonishing power in the Messiah, 
and respecting the endorsement thus given from Hea- 
ven, of his teachings and his claims. Yet they were 
not satisfied. They walked in a maze of thoughts. The 
Jewish mind had been concentrated on itself for so long 
a time, so dwarfed amid narrow prejudices, that it was 
difficult to give it enlargement of thought, and especially 
such enlargement as Christ was now endeavoring to produce 
a belief in the brotherhood of mankind. 

Our wonder at the Jewish obtuseness and their unwilling- 
ness to believe, except in their own way, may however be 
lessened, if we observe how, even at present, Christian 
churches adhere persistently, each to their own forms or creeds, 
and are unable, perhaps unwilling, to see truth in others ; 
and how a desire of personal self-glorification often unsus- 
pected by ourselves, may enter into our zeal for church- 
establishments when we should be zealous only for Christ. 

The Jewish people were obtuse to the truths now preached. 
There was wonderful power as well as beauty in these truths 
which their hearts acknowledged: there was a strange 
Presence in him around whom they were crowding, a seem- 
ing glow from heaven itself shining out through his coun- 



1 Matt. iv. 23-25. 
14* 



162 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

tcnance ; and his miracles had the stamp of divinity upon 
them ; but when he spoke to them of a kingdom in men's 
hearts and souls, embracing equally Jew, and Roman, and 
Greek ; making a brotherhood of all men, making it a duty 
to love even their enemies, whose iron heel was pressing 
their necks, their feelings revolted, and the glorious truths 
of the new kingdom fell idly on their ear. Their very 
belief in the coming of a Messiah was of just such a nature 
as to increase their selfishness and pride and arrogance, and 
to cause them to be earthly in their most cherished hopes ; 
for was he not to make them the supreme rulers on the globe ? 
This they believed, and their hearts rioted in the thoughts of 
their coming worldly triumph. Thus the multitude, as 
they followed Christ, and saw and heard, did it in much 
darkness of mind a cherished darkness which most of them 
did not wish to have turned into light. But still they had 
glimmerings of truth: some sought for more; some believed. 

So they proceeded, closely attending the Messiah in his 
progress through Galilee, watchful, often admiring, always 
full of wonder, and full of excitement. 

But one day they all recoiled in horror and dismay from 
the presence of Christ ; for there was suddenly before him 
and at his feet a form that scarcely seemed to be human, so 
disfigured was it with leprosy, the foulest and worst disease 
known in their land, considered also to be contagious when 
in its advanced forms, such as were clearly exhibited in the 
present case. The Jews regarded it as a visitation of Provi- 
dence, and called it ."the finger of God;" emphatically, 
"the stroke." Persons afflicted with it were excluded, by 
their law, from society, and were compelled to prevent any 
accidental approach to them by giving a distant warning cry 
of " Unclean, unclean !" How this man, if man he might 
now be called, had come to break through this law, it is 
impossible to say. Probably, a sudden hope had made him 
desperate in boldness ; the crowd had given way before him 



CAPERNAUM AND GALILEE. 163 

in horror and alarm : and there he was now at the feet of 
Christ, with a plaintive and broken cry. 

"Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." 

A competent writer says of this disease : " A recent lep- 
rosy may be healed, but an inveterate one is incurable. 
* * The common marks by which, as physicians tell us, 
an inveterate leprosy may be discerned, are these : the voice 
becomes hoarse, like that of a dog which has been long 
barking, and comes through the nose, rather than through 
the mouth ; the pulse is small and heavy, slow and disor- 
dered ; the blood abounds with white corpuscules, * * ; the 
eyes are red and inflamed, and project out of the head, but 
cannot be moved either to the right or left ; the ears are 
swelled and red, corroded with ulcers about the roots of 
them, and encompassed with small kernels; the nose sinks, 
because the cartilage rots; the nostrils are open, and the 
passage stopped with ulcers at the bottom ; the tongue is 
dry, black, swelled, ulcerated, shortened, divided into ridges, 
and beset with little white pimples; the skin is uneven, hard, 
and insensible ; even if a hole be made in it, or it be cut, a 
putrefied sanies issues from it instead of blood." 1 

An American author, who, during a residence of more 
than thirty years in Palestine, has seen the disease in all its 
forms, thus describes its progress as presented to his eyes : 
"The hair falls from the head and eyebrows; the nails 
loosen, decay and drop off; joint after joint of the fingers 
and toes shrink up and fall away. The gums are absorbed 
and the teeth disappear. The nose, the eyes, the tongue and 
palate are slowly consumed, and finally the wretched victim 
sinks into the earth and disappears, while medicine has no 
power to stay the ravages of this fell disease or even to 
mitigate sensibly its tortures." 2 

Such was the nature of the disease of this man, who, 



Robinson's Calmet. 2 Thompson's "Land and the Book." 



164 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

"full of it" 1 had now prostrated himself at the Messiah's 
feet, with the cry, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me 
clean." Abject he was in all but his faith. Loathsome, but 
glorious in faith. The body a horror, the soul resplendent 
through his faith. His tongue scarcely uttering intelligible 
sounds; but pronouncing the words of faith that brought 
salvation. How the crowds, crushing against each other, in 
their horror and desire to avoid contact with him, gazed 
and watched for the result ! It came immediately. 

"I will, be thou clean;" and Christ touched him. 

At the word, a transformation took place. The hideous 
disease was gone ; all the foul signs were swept away from 
his person, and he rose to his feet clean and sound, 2 a well 
man. With a thrill of joy such as no thought in our mind 
can reach he looked down upon himself; found that he 
could use all of his limbs ; felt the soundness all through 
his system ; saw the people no longer shrinking from him 
in abhorrence, but gazing in admiration and kindness, and 
approaching him lately so shunned, to satisfy themselves 
of this amazing change. His plaintive cry, "Unclean, 
unclean," was exchanged for thanksgivings and loud rejoic- 
ings amid 'the congratulations which soon poured upon him 
from the multitudes around. The man's burst of joy over, 
the Messiah charged him not to publish this abroad : for, in 
the strange city where they now were, the running of crowds, 
and the confusion and uproar, might give oifence to the 
authorities, as well as interrupt his work of teaching ; but 
the man's wild joy could not be restrained, and he published 
and "blazed it abroad." The Messiah, in consequence, 
could no longer openly enter the city, but kept outside, away 
from its thoroughfares : the people, however, came to him 
there, crowding from every quarter, far and near, in order 
to be healed. 3 



1 Luke v. 12. 2 Mark i. 42. s Luke v. 12-15 : Mark i. 40-45, 



THE PARALYTIC HEALED. 165 

But we must return to that miracle, to observe the central 
person in the wonderful scene : for, above all other interests, 
above the wonder of the cure itself, come before us the 
majesty of Christ himself, and the calm dignity of his 
words, I WILL, uttered in that quietude of conscious power 
which could have been witnessed only in one to whom infi- 
nite power had been forever familiar and who felt its 
existence in himself. We see this also in all his other 
miracles ; and it is even more remarkable than the miracles 
themselves ; a quietude in the perfect consciousness of power ; 
a simplicity of omnipotence^ which reminds us of the com- 
mand recorded in the Bible, "Let there be light: and there 
was light.'' 



CHAPTER XIX. 
THE PARALYTIC HEALED. 

FT! HERE was, soon afterwards, another scene where the 
Divinity within Christ asserted its rights and its powers, 
in a yet more striking degree. After healing the leper, he 
had spent some days in still further teachings and miracu- 
lous cures, through the country ; and then had returned to 
Capernaum; where, the rumor of his presence having been 
quickly spread, multitudes began to gather about him as 
before. They came in such crowds "that there was no 
room to receive them, not so much as about the door : and 
he preached the word unto them." 1 

The houses in those countries are built about a court-yard, 
and the annexed cut will give us an idea of the general 



Mark ii. 2. 



166 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

plan of construction of those of the better kind. It is that 
of the dwelling of an American merchant in Damascus, in 
which the author was lodged, during a visit to that city in 
1834 : and as habits are unchangeable in the East, it may be 
considered as an example of the houses in use in the times 
of which we are writing. 




Plan of a Damascus house. 

This house was entered by a narrow door from the street 
C. where the exterior was such that the building looked as 
if it was ready to fall and crush us rather than to give us 
shelter. Then there was a narrow, and dark arched way, 
and at the further end of this another door, passing which 
we were in a scene of a far different kind. This was an 
open court, B. B. about fifty feet by forty, paved with dif- 
ferently colored marbles, with a fountain in the centre lined 
with vases of flowers ; and at the further end a lofty arched 
way forming a recess ten feet in depth and extending nearly 
across the court. This recess A. was elevated above the 
court, and had at the rear, a divan with cushions of richly 
colored silks. This lofty recess with its luxurious couch 
had a most inviting appearance ; but just before reaching it, 
a rival attraction was presented on our left by a room 



THE PARALYTIC HEALED. 167 

intended for the hot hours of the day ; a chamber with 
dim light, a fountain near the door with a delicate jet of 
water just gurgling enough to soothe and lull to sleep, a 
raised pavement richly carpeted, and along the walls cush- 
ions as in the outer lewan. The walls of the court and 
chambers were enriched with gay colors in tasteful patterns, 
or with poetical inscriptions ; and the wood was colored 30 
as to represent japanned work of various designs. 

The reader may perhaps suppose this to be one of the 
palaces of the city, but it was a dwelling scarcely above the 
ordinary kind. We were taken, the day after our arrival to 
visit the palace of Abdallah Bey, which had three or four 
distinct courts, and where we counted eight fountains : also 
that of Ali Aga, and next to that of Abdi El Belzah Aga, 
all of large proportions and exhibiting a great display of 
wealth and of rich architectural adornment. 

Capernaum had undoubtedly far inferior architectural 
pretensions to the dwellings in Damascus: but the plan 
above given shows the taste of those eastern countries ; and 
the court-yard and the arched open recess were considered a 
necessity in every house, if within the means of the owner. 

It was probably in such a recess raised above the court 
that the Messiah was teaching on the occasion now before 
us; while the " Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by" 1 
occupied the divan, in his rear, and the densely packed 
crowds filled the court in front. 

The court may be shaded by an awning drawn across: or, 
as the author has often seen, by vines trained overhead, or 
sometimes in part by loosely fastened boards. 

Thus we may have the scene before us in this case : the 
speaker with his face lighted up in his glorious teachings; 
the Pharisees and doctors of the law watching with keen 
scrutiny and sifting every word uttered ; the multitudes full 



1 Luke v. 17. 



1 68 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

of wonder and admiration and full of awe: for "the power 
of the Lord," we are told, " was present to heal them." 

What a scene it was! How grand was that Presence 
where the Divinity was making itself clearly impressed, 
glowing in the expressive features and giving tone to the 
intonations of voice ; superhuman love speaking and teach- 
ing and manifesting itself in every word. 

Suddenly there was an interruption, and it was from a 
\ f ery singular cause. 

Out in the street four men had come bearing on a couch 
a paralytic who was unable to help himself. A new hope 
had seized him and them when they heard that Christ had 
returned to Capernaum, and with the quick tenderness of 
friendship they had been hurrying the sick man toward the 
Messiah, when presently they were brought to a stand by 
the crowd filling every spot about the door. It was found 
impossible to proceed ; for the archway was packed closely 
by human beings trying to catch the words of the Great 
Teacher within, and the people either could not or would 
not give way. A fear came over the sick man, .such a fear 
as can be known only to one long diseased and helpless, but 
who is suddenly roused by a great hope, and now that hope 
made seemingly vain. He turned his feeble gaze on the 
multitude full of entreaty, but they did not move ; exhor- 
tations from friends were of no avail ; probably every one 
believed that an effort to get through such a crowd must be 
in vain. But the friends were not to be baffled by difficul- 
ties ; they persevered, and they succeeded. 

The house-tops in those cities are flat and are a common 
resort for the natives by day, and often their sleeping-places 
at night. It is easy also, as the author has often found, to 
pass from house to house over the low parapets, and although 
in this case the doorway from the street was crowded and 
the stairs of this court-yard could not be reached, yet in 
other courts access to the roof could be gained, and thus the 



THE PARALYTIC HEALED. 169 

spot right over the head of Christ as he stood in the recess 
teaching could be reached. The loose boards or awning be- 
ing then moved aside 1 the couch could be let down directly 
in front of the Saviour and by his feet. 

The crowds below as they saw the couch descending let 
'down with such tenderness and care, and saw the anxious, 
earnest faces of the friends above, were deeply moved; a 
common sympathy swept all other, feeling before it, as all 
bent toward the helpless, sad object before them in intensity 
of gaze at him and at Christ. None could doubt the result 
after such healings as they had witnessed, and especially 
when they saw the gush of sympathy in the face of the Mes- 
siah, but amongst the hearers there was a start of wonder 
in some of horror at the words they heard from him : 

" Man thy sins are forgiven thee." 

"Who is this which speaketh blaspliemies? Who can 
forgive sins but God alone?" were the swift thoughts filling 
with repulsion the hearts of those immediately about Christ. 
But although he knew these thoughts there was no dis- 
claimer by him but a full sanction to their conclusions. 

"What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier to 
say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk? 
But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon 
earth to forgive sins (he said to the sick of the palsy), I say 
unto thee, Arise and take up thy couch and go unto thine 
house," 

The man rose well and sound. It was wonderful not 
only to see the fullness of strength flushing through all 



1 Mark says, "uncovered the roof where he was ;" Luke, "they let him 
down through the tiling with his couch," Sia irfHv Kcpapwv, which here 
in our Bible is translated through the tiling. In Acts ix. 25, however, 
Sia is translated by, not through, Sib r m'^ouo-, by the wall. Also in 2 Cor. 
xi. 33, 6ia by the wall. The Greek word Kcpapoi, originally meant tiles ; 
afterward it was used for any kind of roof or covering. The passage 
here undoubtedly means by the roof or edge of the roof. 
15 



170 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

that body just before this so worn and utterly helpless, but to 
witness the sanction from God himself in this miracle to the 
claims of Godhead from Christ ! 

Jehovah had in their writings always declared himself to 
be "a jealous God;" and well might such a declaration be 
impressed upon them surrounded as they were with heathen 
temples and with false claims for deities adapted to lead 
their hearts astray ; but here was one charged with claiming 
the rights of Divinity, and in not a word abnegating these 
claims but endorsing them, yet sustained by Jehovah in 
this wonderful miracle before their eyes. 

The lately paralytic was there sound and strong, and what 
a rejoicing in his new power there was in him. Among the 
spectators there was a tumult of sensations, amazement, awe, 
fear, sealing for a few moments their tongues. Then came 
a rush of joy over all other feeling, and of glorifying God ; and 
as they went to their homes they repeated to each other, as 
well indeed they might, " We never saw it in this fashion ; 
we have seen strange things to-day." l 

Among them was one even more exuberant with joy he 
who was carrying his bed homeward, shouting out along the 
streets of Capernaum his glory ings to God. 

But discussions respecting the events of the day were con- 
tinued with deep earnestness long afterward at their homes. 
The Pharisees and Scribes especially were thoroughly per- 
plexed. There was such a strange power in that teaching ; 
there was such a greatness in the speaker uttering his doc- 
trines with authority, and these doctrines so clear and prac- 
tical, and carrying to the heart conviction of their truth. 
His position had all the marks of humility in life ; yet real 
greatness can afford to be voluntarily humble, and there was 
even a grandeur in this retiracy and unpretendingness of 
Christ, mingled as they were, with a latent power to which 



1 Mark xi. 1-12; Luke v. 18-26. 



AT JERUSALEM. 171 

there seemed to be no bounds. With this humiliation in his 
appearance he was claiming the attributes of God ! It was 
blasphemy in man; was he man? Their own eyes satisfied 
them as to his human form, but yet in his words, his doc- 
trines, his face, there shone out what might well be Divinity 
enthroned for a while on earth. What a Divinity, too, in 
his manner of address to the sick man ; his word simply to 
be healed, and he was healed, as in the old manner when 
God spake and it was done. 

And yet if he were the Christ, the Messiah, God with 
men, so unpretending and unambitious, so humble in all his 
surroundings and contented with them, what was to become 
of their nation's hope of dominion and glory? Judea was 
still to remain trampled under foot ; its expected triumphs a 
dream. Why should he appear also as he did ? Why in 
the form their eyes beheld? Why not, at least, in some 
pomp and circumstance of honor? 

Thus in doubts and queryings, and in feeding the heart 
with worldly passions, these Pharisees and Scribes wandered 
off from the truth. How many other men have since that 
time done the same ! 



CHAPTER XX. 
AT JERUSALEM ALSO AT CAPERNAUM. 

THE Messiah had given recently another proof of his 
preference of what was right above what was popular, 
by calling Matthew, a publican, from the very receipt of cus- 
toms to be a disciple. Accompanied by him and by others 
selected to this office, he went now again to the Passover at 



172 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Jerusalem disregardful of what the Rabbis and Doctors 
would say of his retinue taken from a class despised by their 
learned men, and called by them " earth" and " worms' 7 fit 
only to be trod upon. 

Indeed the whole party from Galilee were sufficiently 
humble in their dress, and were unpretentious in manner ; 
yet one of them was Lord, not of Judea only, but of the 
earth; and two of his followers have left writings the value 
of which it will require the fullness of eternity to show. 
Souls in this world and in the next, will not cease to bless 
the records of Matthew and John. 

There was a pool at Jerusalem called Bethesda, having 
five porches or colonnades attached to it, under the shelter 
of which were a great number of men, "blind and halt, and 
withered," waiting for the "moving of the water" in the 
pool. " For an angel went down at a certain season into 
the pool and troubled the water : whosoever then, first after 
the troubling of the water, stepped in was made whole." A 
very singular fountain with a similar periodicity of flow, 
which the writer of this book has himself seen, still exists 
at Jerusalem. A few days after the author's arrival in that 
city, he was one day going alone on the outskirts during the 
sickness of his friend and guide; and on the side of the 
valley of Jehoshaphat, not far below the old temple walls, 
he noticed an opening in the hill-side with steps leading 
down. He descended some distance twenty-seven steps 
cut in the rock ; and at last in the dim light, was just 
about stepping into a pool of water, when a timely dis- 
covery saved him from the partial bath. The fountain was 
about eighteen inches deep, and a few feet across, the water 
perfectly clear, but with a slightly foreign taste. Returning 
there a few days after this, he was astonished to find instead 
of the clear fountain, only a muddy puddle, with but a quart 
or two of water left. Others have noticed the same perio- 



AT JERUSALEM. 173 

dicity in this fountain 1 called the Fountain of the Virgin. 
A subterranean channel leading from it has since that time 
been explored and found to conduct to the pool of Siloam : 
and this "Fountain of the Virgin" is itself doubtless sup- 
plied by artificial conduits, from sources under the temple 
site, or perhaps from Acra. Its periodicity, though of course 
natural, has never been fully explained. 

The Messiah on this occasion of his visiting the pool of 
Bethesda, stopped near a man a cripple for thirty-eight 
years, lying there with longings to feel the power of the 
water ; often tantalized with a sudden hope ; then springing 
up with painful effort as the water was troubled, but only 
to be disappointed by seeing others more active than him- 
self step in and be healed. 

" Wilt thou be made whole ?" the words were addressed 
to him. 

" Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put 
me into the pool : but while I am coming another steppeth 
down before me." 

"Rise, take up thy bed and walk." 

There was power as well as authority in that voice. A 
movement ! strength ! the man was on his feet, whole and 
sound and strong ! He did not know the Healer, who, in- 
asmuch as many were assembling had withdrawn : but he 
did as directed, took his bit of mat or couch and started for 
his home. 

But it was the Sabbath : and the Jewish leaders meeting 
him, reproved him for the breach of its sanctity by carrying 
a burden on that day. He told them of the directions 
given him; and afterwards having met the Messiah, and 
discovered who it was that had healed him, he informed 
them that it " was Jesus who had made him whole." 



1 See Kobinson's Bib. Eesearches, and also Thompson's " Land and 
the Book." 
15 * 



174 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Christ was now in a city where whatever was fierce in 
bigotry, lofty in religious assumption, or deadly in malice 
when such prejudices were wounded, had their climax ; and 
the part of a teacher is not only to exhibit truths, but to 
expose their opposites for condemnation. In Jerusalem he 
must therefore soon come into collision with the rulers, from 
whom when once their ire had been aroused, only the fiercest 
measures of revenge might be expected, so far as the Roman 
power would permit. Of the Messiah's opinion of these 
men, " hypocrites," " serpents/' " generation of . vipers," we 
have a record further on in history ; and from the first, he 
knew them thoroughly in all the baseness of their nature 
and of their designs. Nor did he among them ever cease to 
place the full power, both of his teachings and his example, 
on the side of truth. We are too apt in our considerations 
of the gentleness, the mildness, the benevolence and the un- 
conquerable love of Christ in this his ministry, to lose sight 
of the moral force there was in him, and which it was that 
led to the plots against his life ; and as far as these rulers 
were concerned, brought him finally to suffer on the cross. 
This force made no parade of itself, and was seldom a prom- 
inent object in his character, often seemingly latent, but it 
was ceaseless in operation and ever felt : and where there 
was a necessity, then it came out fully, and openly, and de- 
cidedly, as we see in his cleansing the temple, and in the 
woes hurled there afterward on the Pharisees, and indeed 
through all his ministry on earth. His religion was indeed 
to be forever aggressive against all wickedness ; and he was 
himself aggressive ; but we recognize even in this, such a 
greatness of love that it often hides all else from our eyes ; 
and so to many persons in our day, Christ appears to have 
been tame and passive, when the fact is that the actually 
aggressive force in him is veiled from us by his more strik- 
ing traits of benevolence and love. Even in the scene which 






AT JERUSALEM, 175 

comes immediately after this in Galilee, his anger 1 was 
deeply blended with grief at man's hardness of heart. 

When the .healed man from the pool of Bethesda in- 
formed the rulers who it was that had directed him to carry 
his bed on the Sabbath, they immediately came to the Mes- 
siah with a murderous purpose in their hearts. He had 
before been obnoxious : they now began their plots for his 
life. His very first words to them were an assertion of the 
right through the Godhead in him, to act as he had done. 

" My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." 

They understand him perfectly, and they " sought the 
more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sab- 
bath, but said also that God was his Father, making him- 
self equal with God." 2 

But there was no retraction on his part ; only re-assertion 
in a more positive form. * * " For as the Father raiseth 
up the dead, and quickeneth them ; even so the Son quick- 
eneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but 
hath committed all judgment unto the Son : that all men 
should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." The 
address was continued in the same clear and decided lan- 
guage, with declarations of the power in heaven belonging 
to him, and of his supremacy in the judgment to come. 3 

While returning from Jerusalem to Galilee, as he was 
passing through a field of grain, his disciples being hungry 
plucked some of the ears, rubbed them in their hands and 
ate; a practice still always considered allowable in that 
country : but this was on the Sabbath, and some watchful 
Pharisees in the company taking offence at what they con- 
sidered a breach of the holy day, drew his attention to the 
act. He replied to them, closing with the remark, " The 
Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." 4 



* Mark iii. 5. 2 John v. 18. 

3 See John v. 19-47. * Matt. xii. 8. 



Ij LIFE-SCENES FROM THE SOUR GOSPELS. 

They had begun now to watch him, in order to find oc- 
casions for accusation, and he met their scrutiny readily ; for 
it would give him only the better opportunity for impress- 
ing his doctrines. An occasion for this offered itself soon 
after his return to Galilee. 

He had gone to the synagogue on the Sabbath and had 
taught as usual, after which he noticed in the congregation 
a man having a withered hand. Scribes and Pharisees were 
attentively observing both him and this individual, to see 
whether they might not find there another charge against 
him of violating the Sabbath. He knew it. 

"Rise and stand forth in the midst/' he said to the man ; 
and he did so. Turning to the Scribes and Pharisees who 
were then plotting for his life, he said : " I will ask you one 
thing ; Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to 
do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?" 

They did not answer ; and he " looked round about on 
them with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their 
hearts ; then towards the man, 

" Stretch forth thy hand." He did so : it was whole as 
the other. 

Those men who were plotting murder there in their hearts 
on the Sabbath, and yet would not sanction an act of mercy 
on that day, lest its sacredness should be violated, now went 
out; and immediately, for their fell purposes, formed a com- 
bination of a very singular kind with another Jewish sect. 
These were the Herodians, a set of men who it will be re- 
membered had become the advocates, first of Herod the 
Great, and were such now of his sons, Herod Antipas, king 
of Galilee and Perea, and of Philip of Gaulonitis ; main- 
taining that the Roman government was just, and that it 
was the duty of the Jews to submit; also that in the pre- 
sent circumstances they might follow with a good conscience, 
many of the heathen practices and modes. Nothing could 
be more at variance with the Pharisaic doctrines of a strict 



AT CAPERNAUM. 177 

adherence to their law, and of their proclaimed maxim, that 
God only was their king, and that it was wrong to submit 
to any other : yet these Pharisees now went forth from the 
synagogue, "and straightway took counsel with the Hero- 
dians against Jesus, how they might destroy him." 1 The 
Herodians might easily be persuaded that the Messiah was 
setting up a kingdom in opposition to that of their Master, 
Herod Antipas ; or, at all events, thdt dangerous tumults 
against the government might arise among a people at this 
moment so excited about a promised mighty King. The 
two sects, Pharisee and Herodian joined here in compact, 
their antagonistic principles made to act in concert, through 
their greater enmity toward Christ. 

With what feelings then of rage and jealousy must they 
have looked on the events which immediately ensued at Ca- 
pernaum ; throngs brought by his fame from all parts of 
Palestine, and from beyond its limits; people crowding 
around him ; the sick, in the multitude of applications, en- 
deavoring if only to touch him in order to be healed ; and 
demoniacs falling down before him, crying out, " Thou art 
the Son of God." We are puzzled here again, as we often 
are in reading the Gospels, by the notice of what is un- 
known in our own time, and seems to have been peculiar to 
the period of which we are writing, that is, men possessed 
of spirits of various kinds. In our entire ignorance as to 
the extreme thinness of the veil which separates the visible 
from the invisible world, and how easily it may be pierced 
by supernatural force when occasion requires, while to us it is 
so impervious, we can only content ourselves with the query 
suggested in a former part of this work, that if the powers 
of heaven are to be shaken when the Son of man comes to 
the judgment, how much more must they have been shaken 
during that wonderful period when he laid aside his glory 



Mark iii 6. 



178 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

which he had with the Father, and was a sojourner on our 
earth ? But these are facts about which we are little capa- 
ble of reasoning, as indeed we must be, whenever we try to 
peer into the supernatural, and to query about the mighty 
unknown wonders it contains. 

The scene at Capernaum had become an exciting one. 
People had come from Tyre and Sidon on the north, and 
even from Idumea arid its capital Petra on the south ; from 
the east of the Jordan, and from Jerusalem, and all parts 
of Judea ; l and a vast multitude were congregated, brought 
together by the fame of the Messiah's teachings and his 
deeds. Through these crowds the friends of the sick men 
were still hurrying them ; and people's sympathies were 
every moment excited by such sights ; by the wan and 
feeble, and the distorted by disease ; by eyes raised implor- 
ingly from couches ; or by faint voices entreating them to 
give way, that the Great Healer might be reached in time ; 
by the halt and lame, trying to force an approach ; and by 
the blind, asking to be directed amid the dense masses; 
while here and there over the various noises, rose the ac- 
knowledging cry of the demoniacs : " Thou art the Son of 
God." The scene indeed, might easily become tumultuous, 
especially through the instigation of enemies ; and the Mes- 
siah at last withdrew to the lake, where near the shore, a 
boat had been placed for his use. From this, his teachings 
could be more readily heard than among the dense throngs 
which had been pressing on every side. 2 



1 Mark iii. 8. See Mark iii. 7-12; Matt. xii. 15-21. 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 179 



CHAPTER XXI. 
SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 

A FTER the scenes in our last chapter, Jesus sought in 
-* the evening somewhere back of Capernaum, a retired 
spot for prayer ; and there he remained all the night in com- 
munion with Heaven. He needed rest after such a day as 
we have just been describing ; but he felt still more the 
need of the refreshment which such communion only could 
afford. 

Earth must have been to him lonely. Even his friends 
had few ideas in common with himself; and with all his 
teachings, quite to the last of his ministry, his immediate 
followers themselves did not understand the nature of the 
kingdom which he was endeavoring to establish. Where, 
indeed, could he find any one to join with him in that vast- 
ness of love which was for all mankind, or to comprehend 
its nature? His views of things were infinitely wider than 
those of the men around him, or of any man ; his know- 
ledge embraced both worlds, the seen and the unseen ; he 
was infinitely above all others, and thus to him there must 
have been a solitude on the earth into which no one could 
come bringing that companionship which even the highest 
natures long for, that full communion which makes the 
greatest happiness of our being. He had such fellowship 
with others as could be found in relieving their distress, in 
elevating them toward heaven by his teachings, and in ever 
doing them good by the mightiness of power at his com- 
mand ; but companionship there was none, and there could 
be none upon the earth. 

His full communion could be only with heaven; and in 



/8o LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

such a night as this, when retiring from all human beings, 
he put himself away from earthly things, then was his soli- 
tude broken, for the companionship of heaven came fully 
to him again. 

Thus he spent the night, and until the morning waked 
up the world to activity once more, and his work of teach- 
ing and healing was to be resumed. That day's teaching is 
among the most memorable things of earth, for it gave us 
the SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 

The narrow thoroughfares at Capernaum were ill adapted 
to be a place for extended and formal teaching, and no house 
could contain the multitudes thronging about him ; and re- 
cently he had been compelled to take a boat from which as 
it lay by the shore he could address them ; now he led the 
way back of the city to the heights of the table-land, which, 
as already mentioned, here overlooks the lake. Seen from 
below, the shore there has a mountainous aspect, rising to 
the height of 600 or 700 feet, although when examined 
from above, the ground shows itself to be only the ter- 
mination of the great Esdraelon. These heights are not 
uniform, however, but are broken into irregularities of 
elevation and depression, and one of these highest parts, 
called l( The Horns of Hattin," is pointed out by tradition 
as the scene of the interesting gathering on this day. This 
is, however, seven miles from the nearest admitted site of 
Capernaum, and seems to be too distant for the record as 
given in the Gospels; the actual place was more proba- 
bly on one of the more elevated heights back of the city 
itself. Wherever it was, our minds can easily bring before 
them the more strking objects in this region, some of which 
doubtless are alluded to in the address. 

From the plain of Gennesaret a deep valley or ravine ex- 
tends westwardly and then curves round toward the north, 
its rocky and often precipitous sides rising to the height of 
1000 feet, and giving shelter to vast flocks of pigeons, from 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 181 

which the place takes its present name, Wady Hamam or 
Vale of Doves. " Behold the fowls of the air :" (we may 
suppose them then floating along overhead) ; " for they sow 
not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet youi 
heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better 
than they?" 

Palestine in the spring is remarkable for the abundance 
and brilliancy of its wild flowers, and the delivery of this 
sermon was just after the Passover, and therefore some time 
in April. Dr. Olin, when near this spot, was struck with 
" the great profusion of flowering plants." " The tall grass," 
he adds, " waved with every breeze, and we seemed to be in 
the rnidst of a sea of vegetation." " Consider the lilies of 
the field/' said Christ, " how they grow ; they toil not, 
neither do they spin ; and yet I say unto you, that even 
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which 
to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, 1 shall he not 
much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ?" 

Within sight to the northward was a sharp peak rising 
to a height of 2650 feet above the Mediterranean, and now 
crowned by the city of Safed, among the houses of which 
are numerous rebated stones, which prove that the place was 
one of importance in those ancient times. This peak rising 
high and distinct above all other objects, with its city, gave 
striking force to the admonition: "Ye are the light of the 
world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither 
do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a can- 
dlestick ; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your 
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 

The place was indeed fitted well to be the scene of that 



1 Wild grass and weeds when dried were used for heating ovens See 
The Land and the Book." 
IS 



182 LIFE-SCENES FROM TPIE FOUR GOSPELS. 

sermon ; the op^n vault of sky above, the lofty elevation 
where the morning air was wafting the incense of flowers 
toward heaven, the wide prospect nature all around in its 
purity and grandeur seeming ready to say Amen to the pure 
and great word of Nature's God uttered there to men for 
man's imperishable soul. We cannot but contrast the scene 
of that morning with the one at Sinai its barren crags with 
the thunder and lightning making people stand afar off in 
fear, and remark how characteristic the two scenes were of 
the two dispensations to which they belonged. 

Another remark forces itself here on our notice, and that 
is the contrast between Christ mingling with the people, and 
Shammai and Hillel, the celebrated Rabbis and founders 
of schools in Herod the Great's time; those two men 
described by Jost as mingling "so little in the transactions 
of their times that they became mythical personages ;" and 
we contrast also their celebrated sayings with the clear, 
direct, practical doctrines in this sermon on the Mount. 

The disciples of Christ had become numerous, and he had 
now out of them selected twelve whom he named Apostles , J 
that is, " persons to be sent forth/ 7 who were to be more 
especial attendants on his acts and teachings and witnesses 
for him before the world. 

They accompanied him in this ascent of the mountain 
back of Capernaum, as did also many persons from the city 
and regions adjoining. 2 When on reaching the summit 
he sat down the position for teaching the multitudes 
gathered closely around, and their curiosity was intensified. 
The circumstances seemed to show that the teaching would 
be of a more important character than usual. What would 
it be? We can see them closing together, so as not to lose 
a word of what might be uttered ; their eager faces, their 
silence of attention and their listening attitudes giving evi- 



1 Luke vi. 13. 2 Inferred from Matt. vii. 28. 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 183 

dence of the deep interest which they felt. Were angels 
also listening? We believe they were, and generations 
since that of the tempted and tried and weary and sad and 
of the longing on earth for heaven, and for light in dark- 
ness, and for a sure foundation for faith and peace, have 
gone to those words and have found them just what their 
souls needed most. Yet there is no eloquence of words in 
them, no overwhelming grandeur of thought or sentiment; 
on the contrary, the language is very plain and the thoughts 
and sentiments are marked with great simplicity ; but we 
feel, while reading, that the soul's God and Maker is speak- 
ing to the soul, speaking to it in kindness and love. The 
scene was a great one, where those words ever since that 
time so productive of blessings to men were uttered. In 
our thoughts we glance over those intensely interested multi- 
tudes, to fix our eyes where theirs were fixed, on the central 
object of that assembly, on those features of God-like ex-** 
pression, those eyes lighted up by unutterable love ; on the 
lineaments where the Divinity enthroned was taking form 
to the human eye. In all that grand scene of nature he 
shows himself worthy to be highest over nature and in hea- 
ven, and we hear him speaking worthily even for him ; for 
they are the words of eternal life. 

When the occasion was over, and the people were return- 
ing down the mountain towards their homes, they went 
thoughtfully, not yet recovered from the astonishment which 
had settled upon them, while observing his doctrines and 
his manner : for they all felt as they acknowledged among 
themselves, that he had " taught them as one having author- 
ity, and not as the Scribes." 1 

We can see the better how well they might be surprised 
when we come to read of the usual instructions in their 
synagogues, and to notice the frivolous subjects of the teach- 



1 Matt. vii. 29. 



184 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

ings there. In order that the reader may himself forin 
some idea of these, we here give quotations from Rabbinical 
writings adduced by Lightfoot: for "although the words 
which he quotes were committed to paper subsequently to 
the birth of Christ, yet they are generally considered as 
correct representations of the moral and religious opinions 
which the Rabbis inculcated and which the Jewish people 
imbibed and observed in the days of our Saviour's ministry." 1 

We present some extracts made by that scholar, classified 
under different heads. 

" Absurd legends and stories. *R. Judah sat looking in 
the law before the Babylonish synagogue in Zippor : there 
was a bullock passed by him to the slaughter, and it lowed. 
Because he did not deliver that bullock from the slaughter, 
he was struck with the tooth-ache for the space of thirteen 
years.' Adam, when first formed, reached from earth to 
^heaven, and had a tail like an orang-outang. Og, of Basan, 
walked during the deluge by the side of the ark, and some- 
times rode astride on it; from one of his teeth Abram made 
a bedstead. The wings of the bird Bar Juchne, when 
extended, cause an eclipse of the sun : one of her eggs, 
which fell from her nest, broke down 300 cedars and inun- 
dated sixty villages, <fec., &c. 2 

" Opinions relative to the Sabbath. 'It is not only permit- 
ted to lead a beast out to watering on the Sabbath day : but 
they might draw water for him and pour it into the troughs, 
provided only they do not carry the water and set it before 
the beast to drink, but the beast comes and drinks it of his 
own accord.' ' Women may not look into a looking-glass 
on the Sabbath day, if it be fixed to a wall/ 'He that hath 
tooth-ache, let him not swallow vinegar to spit it out again: 
but he may swallow it, so he swallow it down. He that 



1 Preface to Lightfoot's works, by J. R. Pitman, A. M. 

2 These legends are fully equaled among \rabs of our time. 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 185 

hath a sore throat, let him not gargle it with oil ; but he 
may swallow down the oil, whence if he receive a cure, it is 
well. Let no man chew mastich or rub his teeth with spice 
for a cure : but if he do this to make his mouth sweet, it is 
allowed/ 

"Superstition with regard to amulets, charms, magic, &c. 
The senior who is chosen into the council ought to be skilled 
iu the arts of astrologers, jugglers, diviners, sorcerers, &c., 
that he may be able to judge of those who are guilty of the 
same/ ' The chamber Happarva, in the temple itself, was 
built by a certain magician, whose name was Parvah, by art 
magic/ ' Four and twenty of the school Rabbi, intercala- 
ting the year at Lydda, were killed by the evil-eye/ i. e., 
sorceries. The Talmud, after cautioning its votaries against 
drinking water by night, lest it should cause dizziness and 
blindness, instructs them, if they so drink, to guard against 
these maladies by repeating Shivriri, Vriri, Riri, Iri, Ri. 
' When a child laughs in its sleep in the night of a Sabbath, 
or a new moon, the demon Lilith is toying with it : then let 
the parents thrice exclaim, Begone cursed Lilith, and at each 
exclamation pat the nose of the child/ 

"Hypocrisy in prayer. ' R. Joachin said, I saw R. Jannai 
standing and praying in the streets of Zippor; and going 
four cubits, and then praying the additional prayer/ 

"Puerile and ridiculous descriptions. They detail the num- 
ber of angels and demons, their mode of birth, precise 
names, magnitude and stature, residences and peculiar offices. 
Equally childish are the reveries of the Rabbis, relative to 
the chorography of Paradise, its various divisions and names 
thereof. With the same accuracy they mark out the differ- 
ent compartments of Hell or Gehinnon ; the extent and 
inmates of each section, the various intensities of penal fire 
and the processes of purgation. 

" Drunkenness as a matter of religion. ' Rabba saith, A 
man is bound to make himself so mellow on the feast of 

16* 



1 86 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Purim that he shall not be able to distinguish between 
cursed be Hainan and blessed be Mordecai/ 

" Absurd calculations. ' The ladder of Jacob is the ascent 
of the altar and the altar itself. The angels are princes or 
monarchs. The king of Babylon ascended seventy steps : 
the king of the Medes, fifty-two ; the king of Greece, 180 : 
the king of Edom it is uncertain how many/ They 
reckon the breadth of the ladder to have been about 8,000 
parasangs, i. e., about 32,000 miles, and the bulk of each 
angel was about 8,000 English miles in compass. 

" Punctilious washing of hands. The Rabbins delivered, 
' The washing of hands for common things (or common food) 
was unto the joining of the arm/ ' The second waters 
cleanse whatsoever parts of the hands the first waters had 
washed. But if the first waters had gone above the juncture 
of the arm, the second waters do not cleanse, because they 
do not cleanse above the juncture. If, therefore, the waters 
which went not above the juncture return upon the hands 
again, they are unclean/ There are a great many injunc- 
tions on this subject. 

" National vanity. ( If one sees one of the Gentiles fall 
into the sea, he shall not fetch him up; for it is said, Thou 
shalt not stand up against the blood of thy neighbor. But 
such an one is not thy neighbor/ ' The nations of the 
world are likened to dogs/ 'An Israelite that slayeth a 
stranger sojourning among them is not to be put to death 
by the Sanhedrim for it; because it is said, If a man come 
presumptuously upon his neighbor/ ' If any one's ox shall 
gore his neighbor's ox ; his neighbor's not a heathen's ; when 
he saith neighbor's, he excludes heathen's/ 6 The dust of 
Syria defiles, as well as the dust of other heathen countries/ 
' Wicked heathen's little ones, all men confess they shall not 
come into the world to come/ ' Whosoever lives within the 
land of Israel is absolved from all iniquities. And whoso- 
ever is buried within the land of Israel is as if he were 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 187 

buried under the altar.' f The men of Israel are wise, for 
the very climate makes wise.' 

"Subtle distinctions. Any spittle found in the city was 
clean, except that which was found in the upper streets. The 
hinges of the gates of the temple were heard as far as a 
Sabbath-day's journey eight times numbered. The hinges 
indeed not farther, but the gates themselves were heard to 
Jericho. There is a dispute upon that precept, Levit. xvii. 3 : 
If any one kill a bird upon a holy-day, the Shammean school 
saith, l Let him dig with an instrument and cover the blood/ 
The school of Hillel saith, 'Let him not kill at all, if he 
have not dust ready by him to cover the blood.' 

"Intricate questions. Whether a man may bless God for 
the sweet smell of incense which he smells offered to idols ? 
"Whether a man at his devotions, if a serpent come and bite 
him in the heel, may turn and stoop and shake it off or not? 

"Logical deductions. The Jews do gather 613 precepts, 
negative and affirmative, to be in the whole law, according 
to the 613 letters in the two tables, and so many veins and 
members in a man's body. ' While he asketh necessaries 
for himself, let him not use any language but the Syriac, 
because the angels do not understand the Syriac language.' " 

More in the same style might be adduced, but this is suffi- 
cient to show the truth of Lightfoot's account of the Tal- 
muds, that " the amazing emptiness and sophistry of the 
matters handled do torture and tire him that reads them." 

Immediately on returning from the mountain to Caper- 
naum the Messiah was called upon again to exercise his 
power of miraculous healing ; the request was brought this 
time by the elders of the city. Jewish elders were the 
princes of tribes and heads of family associations. It was 
seldom that the Jewish rulers showed him any honors, for 
there seems to have been small affinity between him and 
them ; but they now came by entreaty of a Roman centu- 
rion who instead of bearing himself haughtily among them, 



1 88 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

they said, " loved their nation, and had built them a syna- 
gogue." His servant was sick of palsy, apparently in those 
frightful spasms when paralysis is verging on apoplexy, and 
was "grievously tormented." The centurion fearing, per- 
haps, that his being a foreigner might stay the benevolent 
hand of Christ, asked the elders to solicit him to come and 
heal, but modesty overwhelmed him even in this solicitude ; 
for while the Messiah accompanied by the rulers was on the 
way to his house, friends of the officer were sent to say that 
their master did not deem himself worthy to receive such a 
visitor : " But speak only the word, and my servant shall be 
healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers 
under me ; and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth ; and 
to another, Come, and he cometh ; and to my servant, Do 
this, and he doeth it." The Messiah turned to the elders 
with an expression of admiration at the man's strong faith, 
and added, that many such of other nations should enter the 
kingdom of heaven, while unbelieving Jews should be cast 
into outer darkness, where " there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth.' 7 They went no further, and the centu- 
rion's friends returning immediately found the servant well. 1 



CHAPTER XXII. 
NAIN. . 

writer of this, while looking out one day from an 
-L upper window of his lodgings in Pera, a suburb of 
Constantinople on the opposite side of " The Golden Horn," 

1 Matthew viii. 5-13 ; Luke vii. 1-10. Matthew speaks of the centu- 
rion as having come himself; on the law-maxim qui facit per alium facit 
per se ; any one who performs an act by another performs it himself. 



NAIN. 191 

saw just below him a procession advancing rapidly up the 
street. It was headed by persons carrying on their shoul- 
ders a species of bier or couch, on which was the dead body 
of a young girl one who might have been sixteen or seven- 
teen years of age. There was no coffin, simply the open 
couch, and the deceased lay there dressed in white garments, 
such as she had worn while living, the face uncovered, 
flowers scattered about the head and the dress and bier ; all 
reminding one but little of death, for the features were like 
those of a person in a quiet sleep. 

But still there was unmistakably there the majesty of death, 
that majesty which every one recognizes, and before which 
we are always filled with awe. 

We come now to speak of a scene in Galilee connected 
with death. 

The reader will remember that parallel to Carmel, the 
southwestern boundary of Esdraelon and near to it, is the 
short range of Mount Gilboa, and then also parallel but a 
little farther to the north another similar range, called Little 
Hermon. From the northern side of this last a short spur 
of table land projects,- on which in those days was a small 
city, called Nain, overlooking the plain below, with Endor 
not far off, and Mount Tabor about five miles to the north. 
The time of this scene was near the close of the day. Scarcely 
a finer spot could have been chosen for seeing the quiet of 
evening fall over the great landscape of Esdraelon than was 
this plateau of Nain, from which objects below were all dis- 
tinct the numerous villages, the orchards, the signs of busy 
husbandry, and the fields of waving grain ; for the time we 
speak of was at the harvest season over that immense plain. 
But as, in our history, we may consider ourselves outside of 
Nain, looking down over the interesting scene, we hear the 
quiet of the evening suddenly broken by loud wailings from 
a procession issuing from one of the city gates, and direct- 
ing its course toward an adjoining burial-place. It was a 



192 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

funeral procession conducted with all the demonstrations be- 
longing to such an occasion in the East. 

" The grief of the orientals formerly on the occasion of 
death, was as it is at this day in the East, very extreme. 
As soon as a person died, the females in the family with 
a loud voice set up a sorrowful cry. They continued it 
as long as they could without taking breath, and the 
first shriek of wailing died away in a low sob. After a 
time they repeated the same cry and continued it for eight 
days. 

" A box or coffin was not used except in Babylon and 
Egypt. The corpse was wrapped in folds of linen and 
placed upon a bier, and was carried by four or six persons 
to the tomb. * * The mourners who followed the bier, 
poured forth the anguish of the heart in lamentable wails ; 
and what rendered the ceremony still more affecting, there 
were eulogists and musicians who deepened the sympathetic 
feelings of the occasion by a rehearsal of the virtues of the 
departed, and by accompaniment of melancholy sounds." 1 

The greatness of the concourse 2 attending this funeral at 
Nain, showed the respect entertained for the afflicted family, 
and how wide was the sympathy felt in this particular case. 
The deceased had been an only son : his mother was a 
widow ; and the mourning here had the depth that can come 
only from such utter desolation as was hers. The Jewish 
dead were always buried outside their towns : and the pro- 
cession had now left the city gate, a long line of mourners 
filling the evening air with their lamentations and cries. 
The corpse was borne on a couch, with the face uncovered, 
as was the custom in that country: those calm placid fea- 
tures, and that depth of appalling repose in the corpse, con- 
trasting strongly with the agitations of the mourners and 



1 Jahn's Archaeology. See also Matt. ix. 23, and xi. 17. 

2 Luke vii. 12. 



NAIN. 193 

the loud cries and lamentations as the procession moved 
rapidly on. 

Another large company had just been ascending the hill ; 
and now it came upon the mourning train, which it stopped ; 
and that voice which we have listened to so often, those 
gentle tones, so full also of the power of command, said to 
the mother, 

" Weep not." 

The Messiah accompanied by his disciples had again left 
Capernaum, in his unremitting labors of teaching and heal- 
ing; and on his way to this place had been joined by a 
large concourse, all wrought upon by the feelings which such 
a time must have inspired, curiosity, reverence, wonder, and 
in many of them love : for, if only by his healings, the best 
affections of their nature had been roused. It had been an 
agitated throng : until as they had ascended the hill at Nain, 
the noises of all agitation had grown hushed under the influ- 
ences of the sounds of grief from the mourning procession. 
But the cries of grief also suddenly ceased : and then there 
was a quick gathering of both companies around the bier, 
expectation in its intensest form manifesting itself in every 
face, with awe such as the presence of death always begets ; 
and hope also perhaps, although they might think them- 
selves hoping against hope. 

For here on that bier was manifest the power that over- 
comes all powers. It was death. Could he reverse that 
decree ? 

So they crowded in a dense mass around the corpse, silent 
though deeply agitated, and gazing with awe on the calm 
stony face of the dead man, the quiet of which seemed to be 
almost a mockery of their throbbing hearts, their parted 
quivering lips, their, strained eyes. 

In the deep silence of the scene, all heard the words ad- 
dressed to the mother, "Weep not:" and they noticed the 
tones of unwonted compassion observable even in him who 
ir 



194 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

was always so compassionate. He touched the bier and 
spake, 

" Young man, I say unto thee, arise." 

It was death no more. The chest heaved, the features 
relaxed, the eyes opened ; the marble paleness and rigidity 
passed away. Life was there; the true breathing, active, 
perceptive life. The eyes of the restored man had a be- 
wildered, wondering expression, as if asking what all this 
meant ; but the ear immediately recognized his mother's tones 
of joy : 

" My son, my son !" 

He sat up and began- to speak ; and the crowd freed from 
the spell of deathlike stillness, sent up loud praises to God. 
They cried out joyfully and confidently, " A great prophet 
is risen up among us :" " God hath visited his people." 

Amid this scene of their rejoicing there was a more sub- 
dued yet touching spectacle, where the Messiah was de- 
livering to the mother the young man freed from the 
wrappings for the grave ; and where her joy and gratitude 
were trying to find vent in broken words ; and where she 
clasped her recovered son tightly to her heart, as if to feel 
of a certainty that it was all real, and that she might thus 
secure herself from losing him again. 1 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
CASTLE OF MACHERUS JOHN'S DEATH. 

FAB, over all Galilee, and through all Judea, and even 
into the remote southern borders of Perea, went the 
report of this greatest of all possible miracles, stirring up 

1 Luke vii. 11-15. 



CASTLE OF MA CHER US. 195 

wherever it spread, a belief that God had visited his nation. 
But yet even amid that flush of joy at Nain, and the cries 
of Glory to God by that empty bier from which Christ had 
just raised the dead, the shout was about a prophet come, 
not about the Messiah. God, they believed had not forgot- 
ten his people, and had sent them a great prophet ; but they 
kept their minds obstinately blinded against any Messiahship, 
except according to the old opinion, of their glory and do- 
minion to be extended over all the world. 

The rumor of this scene, and the rejoicings and hopes it 
gave rise to, reached away down to the castle of Macherus, 
John's place of strict confinement, where the vengeance of the 
tyrant ruler and of his wicked wife had never once relaxed. 
John had disciples still, who were allowed to visit him ; and 
they came now and told him of what had occurred at Nam. 1 
He had at this time been about a year in prison, and the 
long confinement had worn on the spirit of the bold and 
ardent man. It must have been to him indeed, a very 
wearisome time ; and often and often he had thought during 
his confinement, of the sensual tyrant revelling in power 
and luxury, and enjoying freedom, while he the man of God 
was left seemingly deserted of all aid human or divine. 
Doubts of God's goodness mix up with such thoughts as 
these, and have to be repelled by a powerful and active 
faith ; but often in spite of faith, they will yet return. If 
Jesus was the Messiah, so the Baptist might have queried, 
why was he John, left deserted, to pine away in solitude 
and confinement ? There was in Christ the power of won- 
derful miracles ; why was it not exercised for him, the mes- 
senger sent to prepare the way ? Jesus had even raised the 
dead ; why was there no word to set him the living, free ? 
There was no feeling of rivalry or envy in John, nor had 
there ever been ; but his was a condition where the soul pines 



1 Luke viii. 18. 



IQ6 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

and loses force under long restraints, and where its own 
thoughts and its chafed feelings sometimes become its worst 
tormentors. The various reports about Christ ; the questions 
started by the Rabbis ; the objections from the poverty of 
appearance and simplicity of life in Jesus ; the general dis- 
position through the land to receive him only as a great 
prophet ; all this must have reached John, perhaps in dis- 
torted rumors; moreover the gloom of confinement is al- 
ways fruitful in doubt. So, calling two of his disciples, he 
sent them to Jesus, with the simple but pertinent question 
" Art thou he that should come, or look we for another ?" 
The Messiah made no immediate reply, when the message 
was delivered ; and the messengers wondering at his silence 
stood aside to look on the spectacle now presenting itself. 
It seems to have been at Capernaum ;* but wherever it was, 
the sick and afflicted were now coming around him, and he 
was healing all who came. Among them were numerous 
blind men, 2 groping, stumbling, pushing their way among 
the crowd, with the energy of the great hope that was in 
them, and with their plaintive cry to Christ for help. It 
was, indeed, an exciting scene ; the crowds of applicants ; 
the anxiety and sympathy of friends ; the pathetic earnest- 
ness of all ; the gladness and rejoicings of the relieved ; the 
wonder of the blind, as sight was given ; their exclamations 
at what they saw; their earnest gazings on that face, all 
radiant with the divine benevolence; their thanks and 
praises, shouted out in return for this blessing, as the strange 
scenes of life were all developed to their eyes ; as, turning 
their sight everywhere, upon earth, and sky, and lake, and 
upon the loved face of friends, and upon the gazing crowds 
around, and then back again upon the Messiah, they drank 
in the joys of their new and wonderful life. 

The disciples of John looked on and saw it all ; and they 



1 Inference from Matt. xi. 23 2 Luke vii. 21. 



CASTLE OF MACHERUS, 197 

heard, from the crowds, of similar miraculous cures of other 
afflictions : and now., the Messiah calling them, charged them 
to go and report to their master what they had witnessed 
and heard; and, also, that "to the poor the gospel is 
preached." No word of censure on John for his doubts ; 
but only this declaration, "Blessed is he whosoever shall 
not be offended in me." 1 

Was this all ? So these messengers might have said, 
as they went on their long journey back to John's gloomy 
prison-house at Macherus. What they had seen and heard 
was decisive as to the Messiahship ; but could there be no 
token of deliverance for John himself? no hope to be car- 
ried back to the prisoner, so wearied, so worn, and so sad ? 
not one word from this great, loving soul of Christ, so full 
of benevolence to all around him, so ready to help the 
abject? no cheering hope to their master of earthly help 
from Him ? There was none. And thus it ever is in the 
mysteries of God : often he seems to leave us deserted, even 
when we look most for his help: but, "Blessed are they 
whosoever shall not be offended in him" 

John's life was, however, now about to have a tragic end. 
The deadly hate of the wife of Herod had never lost sight 
of him : and she feared also the influence he might have on 
the Tetrarch, who in his heart respected and honored the 
Baptist, 2 both as a man and prophet. At the first of his 
confinement she had tried to instigate the tyrant to have 
him executed ; 3 but a fear of John, and of the influence he 
had over the people, restrained the ruler : but now an oppor- 
tunity suddenly offered, of which she immediately availed 
herself. Herod, on his birth-day, gave a great supper to 
his lords and captains, and chief estates of Galilee ; and 
when all were inflamed with wine, the daughter of this 
woman came in and danced for the amusement of the com- 



Luke vii. 23. 2 Mark vi. 20. 8 Ib. 19. 



198 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

pany. The dancing in the east, unlike what it is with us, 
is mostly a slow and graceful posturizing, with a gentle 
movement of the arms and body : and it is often, also, las- 
civious. It is seldom that any woman of rank or dignity 
takes part in it ; and among the Jews, it was highly indeco- 
rous for a woman even to appear at any time before strangers 
without being veiled : but, in this case, all seems to have 
been forgotten in the madness of the hour; and, in that 
madness the Tetrarch, in return for the exhibition of herself 
swore to give her what she might ask, even if it should be 
the half of his kingdom. The oath was before all the 
lordly company : and the girl, with high gratification, with- 
drew immediately to consult with her mother as to what she 
should demand. The fiendish woman sprang at the oppor- 
tunity ; and told her to require the head of John the Baptist 
in a charger. The demand was made; and a feeling of 
horror passed through the company. The king would have 
canceled his promise ; but it was made so publicly, and in 
the presence of such high officers, that pride and the fear of 
incurring ridicule, forbade it ; and the order for execution, 
as she had required, was given. The head of John was 
delivered in a salver to the girl, and from her to her mother. 

The disciples of John came and received the body and 
buried it ; and then passed on to Galilee to communicate the 
circumstance to the Messiah. 

How many of such mysteries of human life remain to 
be cleared up when the great day of reckoning shall come, 
and Christ shall sit for the eternal judgment ! In the mean- 
time, we walk by faith, and not by sight; and, amid seeming 
incongruities in providences, we have the words still repeated 
down from the old times, "Blessed is he whosoever shall 
not be offended in me." 



THE TWO DINNERS. 199 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
THE TWO DINNERS. HEALINGS. NAZARETH, &C. 

THE query how, with all these miracles before them, 
could the Jewish rulers fail to be convinced? has some- 
times been asked with a secret sentiment perhaps at the 
bottom of it that the miracles were not what they claim to 
have been. Demonstrations such as these profess to have 
been, if perfectly clear and satisfactory, must have been fully 
convincing, such querists say. People were not convinced, 
therefore these demonstrations themselves were doubtful. 
We have not room here to discuss the subject of miracles, 
except so far as it refers to the Jews : in its wider aspects, it 
will be found fully and satisfactorily argued in other books. 

As to the Jewish rulers, they were clearly unwilling to 
believe;- and with such unwillingness, they soon found 
means for parrying the evidence. Quickly their unwilling- 
ness grew into a set hostility : and we need not go back to 
those times in order to see how enmity will darken the rea- 
son, and warp the judgment, and grow ingenious in finding 
arguments for abundant nourishment to itself. 

To yield their belief that Christ, inculcating humility both 
by doctrine and example and saying that his kingdom was 
not of this world, was the promised " Messiah, the Prince/' 
would be to give up all their dearest earthly hopes, their 
expectations to see the hated Roman power humbled, and 
themselves triumphant over the world. Fidelity to their 
old prophets, who they believed had predicted this earthly 
glory; fidelity to their nation, to their families, to every- 
thing hopeful for the future, seemed from the first to forbid 
their receiving Christ. Soon the feeling grew into hatred, 



200 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

for he was denouncing the Traditions, their greatest source 
of power ; he was drawing the people after him and away 
from them. The Jewish hate had seemingly a rancor be- 
longing only to itself, and Christ and every one connected 
with him might look for it in its most subtle and deadly 
furms. 

Therefore as respects these miracles which were so open 
and so decided in character (as well as numerous) that the 
facts could not be controverted, the Pharisees and Scribes met 
these facts in their own peculiar way, as the following inci- 
dent will show : 

The Messiah was again passing through all Galilee, 
" preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom 
of God," 1 and there was brought before him " one possessed 
with a devil, blind and dumb," whom he healed, so that the 
man both spake and saw. There was a cry of admiration 
from the spectators : 

" Is not this the son of David ?" The Pharisees rejoined, 

" This fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub 
the prince of the devils." 

He cut short their logic : 

" Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to de- 
eolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall 
not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided 
against himself: how shall then his kingdom stand?" and 
then, after some other remarks, he gave a terrible warning 
respecting the sin of which they had just been guilty : 

"All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven 
unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall 
not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word 
against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but who- 
soever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be for- 
given him, neither in this world, neither in the world to 



J Luke viii. 1. 



THE TWO DINNERS. 20 1 

come. * * O generation (brood) of vipers, how can ye, being 
evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the 
heart the mouth speaketh." 1 

Soon after this he was invited by a Pharisee to dine in 
his house, and he went, but he found himself there in the 
midst of an assembly Pharisees and Scribes and Lawyers 
from whose presence nothing but hostility could be expected. 
In those countries, for a man to invite another to break 
bread with him is to place the latter at once under the pro- 
tection of the host, who is bound then to defend him if ne- 
cessary even with his life ; and in all nations persons who 
invite a stranger to dinner are expected by the rules of hos- 
pitality to have the company at least not hostile to the guest. 
The Messiah, on looking around in this room, could see 
faces in which enmity if concealed for the present was ready 
at any moment to break forth, for they were the class of 
men who had already leagued with the Herodians for his 
destruction. 

At the outset the captious spirit of his host was displayed, 
because the guest had not conformed to a Jewish practice 
proper to some extent, but which the Pharisees had in- 
wrought into their system of traditional law, so as to give it 
prominence among those things making religion consist in 
external observances of their own prescription and not in 
the heart. "For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except 
they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of 
the elders. And when they come from the market, except 
they wash, 2 they eat not. And many other things there be, 
which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups 
and pots and brazen vessels and tables." On another occa- 
sion than the present, when Christ was upbraided with the 
practice of his disciples on this subject, he replied, " Well 



1 Matt. xii. 22-34. 

* For their silly rules in this washing, see page 186 of this book. 



202 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, 
This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is 
far from me. Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching 
for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside 
the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as 
the washing of pots and cups : and many other such like 
things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject 
the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tra- 
dition. For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother ; 
and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the 
death ; but ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mo- 
ther, It is Corban [devoted to God], that is to say, a gift by 
whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free. 
And ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his 
mother : making the word of God of none effect through 
your tradition which ye have delivered : and many such like 
things do ye." ' 

Such was the system upheld by the individuals whom 
Christ beheld around him now at this dinner, and by one 
of whom, his host, he was immediately cavilled at for not 
conforming to one of those traditionary rules. His reply 
was direct and pointed : " Now do ye Pharisees make clean 
the outside of the cup and the platter ; but your inward part is 
full of ravening and wickedness. * * * Woe unto you, 
Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are as graves which 
appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware 
of them." 

" Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also." 

The speakers now were the lawyers present, men whose 
business in life it was to expound the unwritten law. He 
turned to them: 

" Woe unto you also, ye lawyers ! for ye lade men with bur- 
dens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the bur- 



1 See Mark vii. 6-13. 



THE TWO DINNERS. 203 

dens with one of your fingers. * * Woe unto you, lawyers! for 
ye have taken away the key of knowledge ; ye entered not 
in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. 7 ' 

The scene presently became a tumultuous one, for the 
Scribes and Pharisees "began to urge him vehemently and 
to provoke him to speak of many things ; laying wait for him, 
and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they 
might accuse him." 1 

On his return to the Lake of Galilee, the multitudes still 
pressing about him in great numbers, 2 he sought refuge as 
on a former occasion, in a vessel by the shore, and taught 
them thence, conveying his teachings as was very often the 
case, in parables. 3 A parable is "an allegorical representation 
of something in real life or nature from which a moral is drawn 
for instruction," and was a mode of teaching common among 
a people so fond of figurative language. 

In the evening he directed the vessel to be launched 
out, so as to proceed to the other side ; and quite wearied, 
he sank into profound sleep at the stern. One of those 
sudden squalls to which the lake is subject came rushing 
down from the mountains, the waves rose and surged into 
the boat till it was near foundering, when the disciples 
awoke him: "Master, Master, we perish." He rebuked 
the wind and water, and there was a calm. They said 
to each other, " What manner of man is this that even the 
winds and the sea obey him ?" 

On the eastern shore he healed two demoniacs who had 
been " exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that 
way." 

When he had returned to the western side of the lake a 
great feast was made for him by Levi, (Matthew), one far 
different from that at the Pharisee's house ; for his fellow- 
guests here were the despised and outcast members of so- 



1 Luke xi. 37-54. 2 Matt. xiii. 1, 2. 

3 Luke xii. 1-59; xiii. 1-9 ; Mark xiii. 1-53. 



204 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

ciety publicans and sinners, " for they were many and they 
followed him." They were invited in to the feast, and Mat- 
thew, it will be remembered, had been himself a publican. 
The prying eyes of the Scribes and Pharisees followed him 
here, and these men came now to his disciples with indigna- 
tion, complaining, " How is it that he eateth and drinketh with 
publicans and sinners?" Christ had been looking on the guests 
with tenderness of regard, for they were men whose ears were 
open to truth, and their very outcast position in society 
made them draw near to him who was ever the friend of the 
lowly. He answered, " They that are whole have no need 
of the physician, but they that are sick ; I came not to call 
the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 

A very beautiful spectacle indeed it was the crowds of 
the lowly in life, often the despised, gathering about him as 
one of whose sympathy and kindness they were sure; while 
he, though so truly great, was never among them in a con- 
descension of goodness, but with a truth of love whose supe- 
riority could be felt only in its trying to elevate all and draw 
them up to itself; his purity never soiled, and the Divinity 
within him never lowered by this mingling with the abject 
of earth. 

Once more, after this feast with Levi, came an urgent ap- 
peal for help ; this one from a Jewish ruler, a father, who 
hurried to Christ and worshipped him. 

" My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy 
hand upon her and she shall live." 

The Messiah went, and on the way a woman long dis- 
eased, who touched but the hem of his garment, was healed. 
In the ruler's house he restored the daughter to life. 

He had passed out again, and was on his way along the 
street, when there was raised after him a loud and most 
plaintive cry 

" Thou Son of David, have mercy on us !" 

These words seem to be almost ringing in our ears, so true 



THE TWO DINNERS. 205 

they are to nature, like the language of simple earnestness 
in entreaty, and so sad from suffering. They were from two 
blind men, who had been informed that Jesus was passing, 
and who fearing to lose a moment raised the cry. 

He made no immediate response, but they continued call- 
ing after him with plaintive appeal, " Thou Son of David, 
have mercy on us !" and they followed him into the house. 
He said to them : 

"Believe ye that I am able to do this?" 

"Yea, Lord." 

" According to your faith be it unto you ;" and he touched 
their eyes. Light flashed in ; they saw ; their ecstasy was 
loud. 

" See that no man know it," he said to .them ; but they 
knew not how to be silent, and went proclaiming their joy 
and the deed all abroad. 

Yet, with all this fame of miracles wrought throughout 
Galilee, where men had glorified God everywhere for his 
having come, the Messiah was at this period rejected again 
at Nazareth, even although this town was but a short dis- 
tance (eight miles) from Nain, where he had recently given 
life to the dead. 

He was now making a third circuit through Galilee, visit- 
ing all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues 
preaching " the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sick- 
ness and every disease among the people/' l He came to 
Nazareth in his journey, and again as usual went to their 
synagogue on the Sabbath-day to preach. The citizens 
crowded there as before, full of curiosity, and were puzzled 
and greatly perplexed. They looked and listened with as- 
tonishment, as words of power fell from his lips, and as 
they witnessed the greatness of the being before them in 
that depth of wisdom and that extent of knowledge of 



1 Matt. ix. 35. 
18 



206 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Divine things which was shown in his discourse; his preaching 
also upheld by such miraculous powers as rumor had brought 
to their ears, and which many of them may have witnessed 
themselves. Yet, with a pertinacity which only a deter- 
mined and set jealousy could produce, they clung to the 
old ideas and said, " Is not this the carpenter, the son of 
Mary, the brother of James and Joses, and of Juda, and 
of Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?' Swayed 
back and forth during this discourse; one way by the power 
of his words, by his quiet majesty of manner, and by that 
strange, singular Presence which forced the acknowledg- 
ment from enemies, that "Never man spake like this man ;" 
and then carried again into the opposite by the humble cir- 
cumstances of his bringing-up, they settled at last into offence 
at his claims, and he left them ; nor does it seem probable 
that he ever again returned to Nazareth. 

" A prophet," he said, " is not without honor but in his 
own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. 7 ' 
He laid his hands there on a few sick persons and healed 
them. 

But the work of teaching was more than one individual 
could perform, unless his presence was miraculously multi- 
plied, so large was the field of labor, and the necessity for 
teaching so great ; for ideas had to be again and again re- 
peated in the ears of people so long misled by false teach- 
ings, and made obtuse by the Pharisaic absurdities. There- 
fore the Messiah now paused in his course to prepare his 
twelve apostles and to send them out to teach, with power 
also to heal. They were not to excite the prejudices of the 
Jewish people at present by teaching beyond their own 
nation, the time for a far wider mission being not yet come. 
They were to go out, two together, and in simple manner, 
trusting in God for what in respect to food and shelter might 
be needed on the way, and with a still higher trust in him, 
if they should be brought before governors and kings for 



"LET US MAKE HIM A KING." 207 

their Master's sake. The Spirit of God was to be in them, 
and to help them in all such trials. What was to be their 
reward? Honors and applauses? No; but, on the con- 
trary, they were to be hated of all men for his name's sake. 
They were to endure. That was to be their lot, endurance ; 
and this to the end ; and after life was over, then was to be 
their reward. People had accused him of being leagued with 
Beelzebub, "the prince of devils," thus associating him 
with one believed by the Jews to be the author of all pol- 
lutions and abominations in heathen worship ; and " how," 
he said, "could they, his disciples, hope to escape?" But 
in all this they were to be strengthened and supported from 
on high, and finally their reward would come. They were 
to go in the loftiest heroism, both physical and moral, and 
must not dare to shrink from duty. " He that findeth his 
life shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life for my sake 
shall find it." 

Such were the instructions and the admonitions and warn- 
ings given : thus he sent them forth, the first ministers of 
his word. 



CHAPTER XXV. 
LET US MAKE HIM A KING." 

THE rumors of what Christ was doing had reached the 
royal palace, and were creating great perplexity among 
its inmates. The base tyrant, now probably at his Galilean 
capital, was far from feeling at ease after the death of John; 
for the murder had left behind it, in the royal actors in that 
scene, a guilty conscience and its attendant alarms. 



208 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

The sensation was increased by a rumor that John was 
risen from the dead ; for that was the belief of some in the 
palace when they heard of these wonderful scenes in Galilee ; 
their guilty fears at once suggesting that he had come back 
perhaps to be an avenger in their midst ; others said that it 
was Elijah restored from the dead ; and some of them more 
indefinitely, that " one of the old prophets was risen again." 

Herod said, " John have I beheaded ; but who is this of 
whom I hear such things ?" and he desired to have a sight 
of the individual causing such a sensation throughout the 
land. 1 He was not gratified however at this time. 

The twelve now returned to the Messiah at Capernaum, 
giving an account of what during their recent mission, they 
had done and taught. 

They found such multitudes about him, that he had not 
opportunity for even the needed refreshment of food. 
Crowds were coming and going continually, and making 
constant demands upon his time and energies ; and nature 
became now quite exhausted, and could endure it no longer. 
He could refuse no one coming thus with earnest appeal* 
to his sympathy and kindness; but rest was absolutely 
needed for his human frame ; and therefore, having directed 
his disciples to have a boat prepared privately, he sought 
the requisite retirement by crossing the lake toward its 
north-eastern shore. 

But the crowds followed. Some of the company had re- 
cognized him in the boat when leaving the city; and the 
multitudes passing round the head of the lake, were soon 
gathered about him once more, on the other side. His sym- 
pathies were deeply stirred by their earnestness, and his 
compassion moved by their moral destitution; "for they 
were as sheep not having a shepherd." Having had some 



Luke ix. 7-9. 



"LET US MAKE HIM A KING." 209 

rest in the boat, he recommenced there both his teaching and 
healing. For the sick had also continued to reach this 
place, having helped themselves along, or been carried by 
their friends. 

The mountains east of the lake have already been de- 
scribed as rising in green rapid slopes ; and these appear to 
have been more a pastoral region than the western side. But 
on this occasion, the slopes were quickly covered by a crowd 
amounting to 5,000 men, besides women and children, 1 all 
actuated by the deepest earnestness, which they had shown 
by having followed him so far. To persons with such a 
feeling, the Messiah's kindness and tenderness were ever 
open ; and he continued his instructions and his healing till 
a late hour in the afternoon. His disciples then came to 
him and said : 

" This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed : 
send them away, that they may go into the country round 
about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread : for 
they have nothing to eat." He answered : 

" They need not depart ; give ye them to eat." The dis- 
ciples were astonished at the order. 

"We have here but five loaves and two fishes," they 
said. 

" Bring them hither to me." 

They were brought ; and he directed the disciples to make 
the people sit down in companies on the grass. He took 
the bread and fishes ; and looking up to heaven, he blessed 
and brake the loaves, and gave the food to his disciples ; 
the disciples then distributing it about among the hungry 
people. They ate abundantly, the food seemingly exhaust- 
less ; for it never failed in that unstinted meal : and after- 
ward, when all were satisfied, what remained was gathered 
up by his orders, making twelve baskets of fragments. 2 



i Matt. xiv. 21. Mark vi. 31-14. 

18* 



210 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Astonishment took possession of all the multitude, for 
they knew how scant had been the first supply, and by what 
a miraculous power it had been increased : and, as they had 
sat there on the grass, their eyes ranging over the thousands 
so fully satisfied, their feelings took words, and by-and-by 
these words began to have a singular purpose. The scene 
brought to their minds what they had read concerning the 
bountiful supply afforded by Jehovah himself to their fore- 
fathers on the deserts of Arabia. Here was a similar 
miraculous provision of food ; what was left after feeding 
so many thousand being even more abundant than the origi- 
nal quantity. The. visible power of God seemed to have 
come down into their nation once more. Why not recog- 
nize it? they thought and said. They had been listening 
that afternoon to teachings such as had never been heard 
from any one on earth before, so pure, so godlike : they had 
gazed with affection mingled with awe, on those features 
where a divine love seemed to be enthroned : they had seen 
this person receiving the diseased with such readiness and 
gentleness : and had seen them after they had been healed, 
dismissed with such words of kindness, that their hearts 
were all in harmony with their mental convictions, as they 
said to each other, " This is of a truth, the Prophet that 
should come into the world." 

But they went further. Enthusiasm is contagious ; and 
it is apt to be progressive. Daniel had spoken of the Mes- 
siah as THE PRINCE, and their whole nation, and even 
foreign nations, had been expecting a mighty king. Here 
was the Messiah now among them. " Let us make him a 
king!" 

He had been so humble in his mode of life, and so retir- 
ing and unambitious, that they must act for him, so they 
thought, and put him into the high place which the prophet 
had designated for him, and for which he was so well quali- 
fied. With Jesus for king, what might not their nation 



"LET US MAKE HIM A KING." 2U 

become? Such wisdom, such majesty, such power over the 
laws of nature, even creative power in his hands, all seem- 
ingly only waiting to be raised to that position of honor 
which was their right ! There might be resistance from 
Herod ; but that Tetrarch was already trembling with imagi- 
nary fears in his palace. There would doubtless be hos- 
tility from the Roman government ; but what government, 
or what array of arms, could withstand such power as was 
ever resting quietly in their Messiah, waiting for exercise ? 
There would be acquiescence on the part of their Scribes 
and Pharisees, when they once saw that the glory of their 
nation and wide dominion were to be the result. So the 
multitude could readily argue : and thus the excitement on 
that mountain-side increased, till whispers turned into out- 
spoken words, and words into open demonstration; and 
presently there was evidence that they were coming to take 
the Messiah " by force, to make him a king." 1 

But his kingdom was to be of a far different nature from 
that ; one in the hearts of redeemed men, and to be eternal : 
and knowing the intentions of the multitude, he quieted 
and dismissed them before they could commit themselves in 
the eyes of the authorities ; and then " departed again into 
a mountain himself alone," 2 for communion with heaven. 

He had previously sent his disciples back to the boat with 
directions to proceed to Bethsaida, 8 on the other side of the 
lake ; for there was a town of that name in Galilee, to the 
north of Capernaum, or more probably the Bethsaida of 
Gaulonitis extended also across to the west of the Jordan. 
This lake lying so far below the level of the Mediterranean, 
as if it might be in a deep basin scooped out in the earth ; 
is subject to sudden and violent storms which come rushing 
down from the vast high plateaus lying to the east and 



1 John vi. 15. 

* See Mark vi. 33-44 ; John vi. 1-16. Mark vi. 45. 



212 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

north-east of this, and also from the snowy Hermon, from 
which regions they are drawn down as into a funnel by the 
gorges and ravines worn by the water-courses converging 
about its north-eastern side. A traveller who had en- 
camped one evening in one of the valleys leading down to 
it on the east, says, " The sun had scarcely set when the 
wind began to rush down towards the lake, and it continued 
all night long with constantly increasing violence, so that 
when we reached the shore next morning, the face of the 
lake was like a huge boiling caldron. * * We subsequently 
pitched our tents at the shore, and remained for three days 
and nights exposed to this tremendous wind. "We had to 
double-pin all the tent ropes, and frequently were obliged to 
hang with our whole weight upon them to keep the quiver- 
ing tabernacle from being carried up bodily into the air." 1 

A storm somewhat similar, appears to have caught this 
boat with the disciples, when out upon the lake. Coming 
from the northward it would be contrary, and any effort to 
make headway against such a fury of the wind would be in 
vain : nor would it be safe to run before the gale, for that 
would put their vessel in danger of being immediately 
"swamped." 2 Their only safety was in keeping "head to 
wind," by a ceaseless and most vigorous use of their oars, 



1 " The Land and the Book." 

8 These storms in their suddenness and violence and want of premoni- 
tion, appear to resemble the "Northerners" which sometimes sweep the 
Gulf of Mexico, from the Mississippi to Vera Cruz. An officer of high 
rank in our navy, informs me that he was once lying at the anchorage 
near the latter, at the island of Sacrificios, in company with the British 
frigate Madagascar, when a northerner sprang up so suddenly that the 
ship had not time to secure all her boats. One broke adrift and floated 
off, on which the gunner called for volunteers to help save it, "for 
the honor of the ship." A crew offered, and they and he started for the 
purpose, running of course before the wind. Such was the fury of the 
gale that soon afterwards, the stern of their boat lifted on one of the 
short seas, was carried up, and the boat turned over "end for end." 
Every one on board perished. 



"LET US MAKE PI1M A KING:' 213 

amid those short, chopping seas, where any relaxation of 
their struggle would cause their boat to be filled and to 
sink. The meal on the hill-side had been late in the even- 
ing. Midnight came now and passed over this boat and its 
inmates out on the water, contending with the storm, and 
drifting into the middle of the lake. Their strength and 
hearts might well be giving way in this struggle, and in the 
seeming abandonment of them by their Master ; and thus 
also the fourth watch (three o'clock) 1 arrived, the boat still 
tossed and in danger of foundering. Suddenly they saw 
what seemed to be some one walking on the water, and ap- 
proaching them. Fright seized them, and they thought it 
an apparition ; for it might well seem that only a spirit 
could walk on those curling foam-covered waves ; but they 
were quickly reassured by the well-known voice of the 
Messiah. 

" Be of good cheer ; it is I ; be not afraid." 
One of them the impulsive Peter cried out : 
" Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water " 
and he was bidden. He was on the sea immediately : and 
just as Christ has often been to others, so he was to Peter, 
treating him according to his faith. 

Soon the heavy waves beginning to dash high against the 
disciple, who had been so far walking safely on the water, 
he forgot that the power which could make him walk at all, 
could sustain him in the heaviest seas : his faith gave way, 
and losing it, he lost the Saviour's help, and began to sink. 
We need not censure this disciple ; for we ourselves in our 
trials, often forget that God's arm is just as strong for us in 
rough weather as in mild, and then we also find the water 
beginning to close over us. He cried for assistance, and the 



1 The Jews had now adopted the Eoman mode of reckoning, and the 
fourth watch commenced at three o'clock. 



214 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

outstretched arm of Christ held him up, while the Master, 
in gentle reproof, said : 

"O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" 
The storm ceased when they reached the vessel, and the dis- 
ciples falling in worship before the Messiah exclaimed : 

" Of a truth thou art the Son of God." l 

They landed at Gennesaret, and as soon as it was known 
that he was there, news was spread through all the country 
adjacent ; and quickly the diseased were carried in beds and 
laid in the street that as he went by they might but touch 
the hem of his garment. All who touched were healed. 2 
So, also, wherever he went through the villages or cities or 
country, the sick too numerous to have special cases attended 
to were brought by willing friends and placed in a similar 
manner, and as he passed by them and they touched his gar- 
ment they found their health restored. 3 

It must seem strange that people should run into the ex- 
treme one day of wishing to force the Messiah to be king 
through admiration of him, and that the next day, in con- 
sequence of his teaching, even many of his regular followers 
should desert him the desertion so general indeed that he 
said to the twelve, "Will ye also go away?" Peter spoke 
up quickly in reply, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou 
hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure 
that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." The 
discourse that gave such umbrage was delivered in the syna- 
gogue at Capernaum, 4 and contains passages in which pro- 
found spiritual matters are figuratively introduced subjects 
at which captious persons might take offence. Perhaps the 
audience were captious in consequence of their disappoint- 
ment the day previous, and disposed to avenge themselves 
for their high-wrought but unsuccessful enthusiasm on 



1 Matt. xiv. 22-33; Mark vi. 45-51 ; John vi. 15-21. 

2 Matt. xiv. 34-36. 3 Mark vi. 56. 4 John vi. 22-71. 



" LET US MAKE HIM A KING." 215 

that occasion. It is a part of our nature to run into ex- 
tremes. 

Passing now beyond the boundary of Palestine on the 
north he healed there the daughter of a Syrophcenician 
woman, but soon afterward returning he went to the region 
south-east of the Lake of Tiberias, and in the brief narra- 
tive of the Gospels we again perceive him on one of the 
usually solitary mountains of this district; but it was not 
solitary now. Not far off were most of the cities of Deca- 
polis, and the fame of the Messiah had been spread over all 
the country, and soon great multitudes had come to him, 
" having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, and 
maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' 
feet ; and he healed them." 1 

There comes up before us a scene of uncommon beauty 
and interest as we read of those healings on that mountain. 
There the blind restored to sight saw him whom their 
eyes immediately sought sitting fitly vaulted over by the 
dome of heaven, and in his grandeur of Presence suited to 
be the centre of those wide surroundings of nature the 
great temple of nature not made with hands, where in the 
exercise of Divine power through love to men he showed 
himself to be the fitting Deity. "What gladness there was 
around him as the lately maimed and halt found that they 
were so no longer ; as the lately dumb broke forth in joyful 
exclamations carrying with them the sympathies of all; 
as the lately blind glanced at the varied sights of gran- 
deur and beauty on every side, but ever turned their eyes 
quickly to rest them in reverence and love on him whose 
face seemed to be reflecting heaven over our earth ! 

But the multitudes lingered, "and they glorified the God of 
Israel/' 2 until at last, as in a former case, there was danger 



1 Matt. xv. 30. a Matt. xv. 31. 



2l6 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

of suffering from hunger. The Messiah calling his disciples, 
expressed his compassion, adding : 

"I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the 
way." 

" Whence should we have so much bread in the wilder- 
ness, as to fill so great a multitude?" they asked, for the 
number was four thousand men, besides women and children. 

"How many loaves have ye?" and they answered : 

" Seven, and a few little fishes." 

He directed the people to be seated as on the former oc- 
casion, and having given thanks he broke the bread and 
gave the food to his disciples for distribution to the hungry 
multitude. When all were satisfied seven baskets of frag- 
ments yet remained. 1 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
THE TRANSFIGURATION. 

IN the extreme north of Palestine, and among the broken 
ridges which surround the base of the snow-crowned 
Hermon, the waters of a large fountain, called Banias, burst 
from a cave, and form at once a stream of considerable size. 
This is one of the three sources of the Jordan. At an early 
period the cave, the large fountain, and the picturesque coun- 
try around, overtopped by Mount Hermon, made this spot a 
much frequented resort. Near to Banias on an elevated 
table land, which is bounded by ravines and precipitous de- 
scents, stood a city of ancient date, but much enlarged and 
embellished by Philip, son of Herod the Great, Tetrarch 



1 Matt. xv. 29-48 ; Mark viii. 1-9. 



THE TRANSFIGURATION. 217 

of Batanea, Trachonitis and Auranitis, 1 to whom in the divi- 
bion of Herod's kingdom this district had fallen. He had 
thought the enlarged city worthy of the name of his patron, 
Tiberius Caesar; and Philippi, from his own name, was 
added to distinguish it from the other Csesarea on the Me- 
diterranean and present political capital of Judea. So this 
was called Ca3sarea Philippi. 

The Messiah, after having dismissed the multitudes con- 
gregated on the mountain in Decapolis, returned to the west- 
ern side of the lake from which he passed northwardly 
toward the region above described. There lacked now only 
about nine months of the time of his crucifixion, and during 
this journey he appears to have wished the twelve for their 
own sakes and for future purposes to make demonstrations 
before each other of their opinions respecting himself. They 
had been thrown everywhere into the society of doubting 
and captious men, and had heard the Pharisees and Doctors 
make objections and quote authorities, and had witnessed 
their rancorous hostility increasing every day. He wished 
the twelve to make it manifest to each other whether they 
were infected or not, and he put the question to them 

"Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" they 
answered : 

" Some say that thou art John the Baptist ; some, Elias, 
and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets?" 

" But whom say ye that I am ?" Peter answered : 
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." 
" Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, [Son of Jona] : for 
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Fa- 
ther which is in heaven,' 7 said the Messiah : and he then 
proceeded to give to that disciple a prominence of position 
in his future church. 2 The frank, prompt, generous nature 
of Peter had much in it that was attractive, notwithstand- 



1 Luke iii. 1. 2 Matt. xvi. 13-20. 

19 



2l8 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

ing the vacillation and timidity which he sometimes dis- 
played. 

The physical and moral courage of the twelve, was in- 
deed after a while to pass through terrible ordeals ; and 
Christ had warned them at the very outset of their apostle- 
ship, that they should be delivered up to the councils, and 
be scourged in their synagogues, and be brought before 
kings and governors for his sake; adding also, what was the 
hardest of all to bear, " Ye shall be hated of all men for 
my name's sake." 

The remainder of that discourse is startling on account 
of its positiveness, and its exacting nature; and it presents 
to us Christ not tame, as people often imagine him to have 
been, but decided ; and not only firm in present purpose, but 
drawing a terrible impressiveness from future scenes. He 
had said, " He that loveth father or mother more than me, 
is not worthy of me : and he that loveth son or daughter 
more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not 
his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." 

On this present occasion he said, " If any man will come 
after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and 
follow me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it ; 
and whosoever will lose his life for my sake, shall find it. 
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, 
and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in ex- 
change for his soul ? For the Son of man shall come in the 
glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall re- 
ward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto 
you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of 
death, till they shall see the Son of man coming in his 
kingdom." 

Was he exacting? Principle is always exacting. Patriot- 
ism is exacting. Love to one's country exacts the offer of life, 
requires the mother and father to give their son, the daughter 
to give her brother and the wife her husband, to the battle- 



THE TRANSFIGURATION. 219 

field and to death, if this be necessary. Why should re- 
ligion be less decided in its demands than principle or coun- 
try ? The Messiah had just been telling his disciples " how 
that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of 
the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and 
be raised again the third day ;" and he was not only him- 
self filled, but he was trying to fill them also, with the 
greatness of the work he came to perform, and which it was 
to be their duty to advance. Religion, such as this, is full 
of the grandest of all thoughts and all emotions, has them 
for its groundwork, and they make an essential part of 
itself. 

The grandeur and glory of heavetl is, in such thoughts 
and feelings given to the earth : and while listening to such 
words from Christ, we are readily prepared for what came, 
soon afterwards the scene of the transfiguration. 

Six days subsequently to the discourse related above, he 
took Peter, and James, and John, and conducted them " into 
a high mountain apart." The scene which followed there 
is one which painters have very often tried to depict, but 
always without success ; for how can any one represent the 
glory of heaven impressing itself on aught of earth : least 
of all can they do it, as here shining out through Christ. 
We are told that when Moses came down from receiving the 
law on Sinai, his face shone so that Aaron, and all the chil- 
dren of Israel shrunk away in amazement, and " they were 
afraid to come nigh him." He was himself not aware of 
the wonderful glory in his face, till he saw their fright as if 
something supernatural were before them ; and afterwards, 
" he put a veil on his face," 1 and repeated this, after every 
subsequent descent from the presence of God. When 
Stephen was before the council at Jerusalem ; all that sat 
there " looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had 



1 Exodus xxxiv. 29-35. 




220 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

been the face of an angel i" 1 and both this event and that 
at Sinai, may aid us in our endeavor to comprehend the 

1 Acts vi. 15. The reader has perhaps heard of death-bed scenes, 
where the face of the departing one has been suddenly lighted up, and 
has taken expressions, as if the spirit about to be released was reflecting 
the heavenly glory already so near at hand. 

The author of this book lately witnessed a very wonderful scene of this 
description, which he will here briefly sketch. 

There was a husband feeble as an infant, in a sudden illness, and 
thought to be near to death : in another chamber in the same house, 
was his wife also ill, and about to die. She had, just before this, when 
at a distance, been informed of his condition, and had hastened on to 
nurse him ; but in consequence of the fatigue of the journey operating 
on an already feeble frame, was herself immediately stricken down with 
a rapid disease. She was a person who, through life, had always seemed 
to belong rather to heaven than to earth ; so pure, so true, so lovely she 
was, so great in all excellence. It was the Sabbath, at night, a few days 
after her illness had commenced. She recognized in herself the ap- 
proach of death, and asked to be carried to her husband's room. The 
request was met with remonstrance, but she persisted : " You would not 
prevent a dying wife from going to take a last farewell of her husband?" 
She was put into a large easy chair, and thus carried and placed by his 
bedside. Many messages had passed between them during the day ; but 
they now met ; and it was in this brief meeting that the wonderful scene 
referred to occurred. Her face and all its expressions became angelic just 
like a reflection of heaven itself; there was a transfiguration, an efful- 
gence over all the features amazing to behold. Six other individuals 
were present, all of mature years, and this remarkable change was no- 
ticed by every one of them. Both of the sick persons were incapable of 
saying much, but she uttered a few words of blessing and of farewell. 
She sat there, a heavenly brightness and joy on her face, looking like a 
seraph ready to take the upward flight. This lasted about twelve min- 
utes, at the end of which time her weakness compelled them to remove 
her to her own apartment. When placed again on her bed, she made an 
audible prayer, the breathings of which seemed not to belong to earth. 
Then the forecloudings of the approaching last scene overshadowed the 
mind ; and so continued for about twenty-four hours, when death came ; 
and, without a struggle, her spirit passed as if angels had gently carried 
it away. 

The death-bed of Senator Foote (U. S. Senator from Vermont), also 
presents an example of the manner in which the thin veil between the. 
heavenly world and ourselves is sometimes penetrated by mortal vision. 



THE TRANSFIGURATION. 221 

scene cf the transfiguration now witnessed in the region of 
Csesarea Philippi. But they can lead us only to a partial 
appreciation of it: for what mortal can fully understand 
the event or the glory of an occasion when Heaven came 
down and enveloped the mountain top, and the Divinity in 
Christ glowed forth through his mortal frame, while Moses 
and Elias stood there beside him ; the veil between the two 
worlds withdrawn from before the apostles' vision, so that 
the supernatural became revealed. There ""His face did 
shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. 
.And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias 
talking with him." The apostles were filled with mingled 
awe, and fear, and delight; and the impulsive Peter, in his 
tumult of thought, cried out with a request, as if he could 
hope to make it all permanent. But such scenes belong per- 
manently only to a world not stained with sin. A bright 
cloud overshadowed them ; and from it proceeded a voice, 
"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear 
ye him." The disciples fell prostrate, their faces to the earth, 
before Jehovah himself who was felt tobepresent in this amaz- 
ingscene ; fear now filling their hearts. From this overwhelm- 
ing agitation, they were restored by the touch and voice of 
him who stands now between the terrors of the Unknown 



The scene is thus described by a member of Congress, who was with him 
on the occasion. 

" At seven o'clock, the dying senator expressed a desire to see once 
more the light of the sun in the heavens, and the capitol on which it 
shone and where he had so long served the people of his state and coun- 
try, and where his associates were soon to assemble. They lifted him up. 
His eyes were already dim ; and he sank back on his pillow. The words 
of the 23d Psalm were read and a solemn prayer delivered by one who was 
dearest to him of earth. He called her to his side, and folded her in his 
arms, asking, "Can this be death? Has it come already? Then look- 
ing with eyes of celestial radiance, and lifting up his hands, he said : * I 
see it ! I see it ! I see the gates wide open ! Beautiful ! Beautiful !' And 
then, without a pang, he immediately expired.' " 
19 * 



222 LIFE-SCENES Fl.OM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

and us, and who says still to us when prostrate, as he did to 
them, " Arise, and be not afraid." When they arose, and 
"had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus 
only." He charged them not to make these circumstances 
known until after his rising from the dead. 1 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
DISPUTES AMONG THE APOSTLES. 

ON their return to the place where the other apostles had 
been left these were found undergoing an examination 
by the Scribes, a great multitude of people also being around, 
who as soon as Christ was seen, hurried to him with glad 
salutations. Immediately a father was on his knees before 
him crying for compassion on his only child, a lunatic, whom 
he had brought to the disciples and presented in vain to be 
healed. But now there was hope, for the Messiah himself 
was there, and his power was equal to the cure. With a re- 
proof to his hearers for their want of faith he directed the 
child to be brought before him, and he turned to the beseech- 
ing parent : 

" If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that 
believeth." 

"Lord, I believe; helj? thou my unbelief," cried the 
father, with tears. 

The helpless boy fell to the earth in a fit, but the Messiah 
took him by the hand and lifted him up, and the happy 
father had him quickly in his arms entirely restored. 2 



Matt. xvii. 1-9. 2 Mark ix. 2-9, 



DISPUTES AMONG THE APOSTLES. 223 

They left that region for Galilee, and as they travelled 
onward the Messiah's inind was looking forward to the pain- 
ful end of the journey at Jerusalem, for he who could work 
miracles for the relief of all others must in that approach- 
ing frightful endurance on the cross work none for himself; 
and the human nature in him so mysteriously united to the 
Divine, had the full force of the anticipations of what was 
now soon to occur. Nevertheless he went steadfastly on. 
He tried again to prepare his disciples for what was coming, 
and repeated to them that he should be betrayed to his ene- 
mies and be put to death and should rise again, but they did 
not understand him, 1 and the only effect was a deep sorrow, 
in which they felt too much awed to seek relief in question- 
ing him on the subject, though it filled their hearts. 

But even in this time of sadness a most unseemly ques- 
tion was started among them who should be greatest in the 
approaching kingdom of their Master? and here we are 
again reminded how little in common there was between 
him and them, his chosen followers, and how solitary he 
was in the world. Man was formed for companionship, and 
the kind and loving nature of Christ was peculiarly fitted 
for its enjoyments, but there could be little companionship 
for him anywhere among the Jews even among his followers 
themselves. In this respect he could emphatically say, 
" The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but 
the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." 

On their arriving at Capernaum he called the apostles, 
and to his inquiry about their disputes they made no reply, 
but stood silent and abashed. He then took a little child, 
and setting him in the midst of them, he said : 

" Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and be- 
come as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom 
of heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as 



Mark ix. 30-32. 



224 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

this little child, is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. * * * 
He that is least among you all, the same shall be greatest." 

The Messiah was now about to take his final leave of Gali- 
lee, but previous to his departure he sent out from Caper- 
naum seventy disciples to go before him "into every city 
and place whither he himself should come." As he returned 
no more to this region their mission was chiefly, it would 
seem, into the country east of the Jordan (Perea), where 
and in Jerusalem his time after this period was chiefly spent. 
The seventy had nearly the same directions and the same 
authority as the twelve on the former occasion when sent 
through Galilee. 

He was himself now going up to Jerusalem for the Feast 
of Tabernacles, and was about to pass permanently from 
the simplicity and frankness and generous nature of the peo- 
ple in these rural districts to the capital and to a region of 
country over which its influence held sway, and was to en- 
counter at almost every step the superciliousness and pride 
and captiotisness of the Pharisees and Doctors and Scribes. 

The Messiah chose for this journey to Jerusalem the way 
through Samaria; and in that country immediately occurred 
one of those incidents which showed the bitter hostility be- 
tween its inhabitants and the Jews. He had sent messen- 
gers before him to one of their villages to make ready for 
his coming ; but the citizens of that place when they found 
that he was going to Jerusalem would not receive even him, 
all regard and curiosity giving way before their jealousy of 
the rival city and people. John, the most gentle of the dis- 
ciples, was enraged at this treatment, and he and James united 
in a request that the Messiah would allow them to call down 
fire from heaven to consume the place. The reply was, 
" Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the 
Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save 
them." 

How soon were these disciples to witness far greater 



DISPUTES AMONG THE APOSTLES. 22$ 

indignities offered to him in that city which boasted that 
God had especially chosen it for himself! 

They proceeded on their journey, and were entering 
another Samaritan town, when was heard that loud, plaintive 
appeal for help, now become familiar to the ears of his 
followers. The cry came from ten men, who stood far off ; 
since they did not dare to approach him, the laws of that 
country prohibiting it; for they were lepers. But from 
that distance the cry rang distinctly in the ear, it was such 
an earnest, beseeching one : 

" Jesus, Master, have mercy on us !" 

That disease, so loathsome and horrible in itself, had the 
further horror of cutting off those afflicted with it from all 
relatives and from home; and it could never have the 
alleviations which in other cases sometimes almost make 
sickness feel like a luxury, so tenderly is it ministered to by 
friends. The leprous man could have companionship only 
with other horrible objects like himself; and so these ten 
men stood together that day, isolated from all others, and 
raising their piteous cry. The Jewish laws, (Levit. xiii. 
43-46), said, " If the rising of the sore be white reddish, in 
his bald head or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy 
approacheth in the skin of the flesh ; he is a leprous man, 
he is unclean : the priest shall pronounce him utterly 
unclean : his plague is in his head. And the leper in whom 
the plague is, his clothes shall be rent and his head bare, 
and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall 
cry, ' Unclean, unclean/ All the days wherein the plague 
shall be in him, he shall be defiled; he is unclean; and he 
shall dwell alone, without the court shall his habitation be." 

A recent traveller in Palestine, says, u In my walks about 
Zion to-day, I was taken to see the village or quarter 
assigned to the lepers lying along the wall directly east of 
Zion Gate. I was unprepared for the visit, and was made 
positively sick by the loathsome spectacle." Meeting them 



226 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

also outside the city, he says, "they held up towards me 
their handless arms, unearthly sounds gurgled through their 
throats without palates in a word, I was horrified." 1 

So, as Christ was entering this Samaritan village, how 
intensified was the cry of those ten men, as if all existence 
were centred in that moment of hope. It came from them 
broken, gurgling, distant, but was heard. 

" Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." 

The company around all turned with earnestness toward 
him. His disciples were Jews, and had the jealousy of 
Jews toward the people of this country. Would he per- 
form his miraculous healing here, especially as they had just 
been rejected from one of the towns because they were of 
the race hated by this people and were going to Jerusalem ? 
The disciples, not yet recovered from their indignation, felt 
that here would be a good opportunity, by refusing these 
people help, to impress upon them a lesson of hospitality to 
strangers travelling through their country. The villagers 
also were gathering, and watching to see how it would end ; 
and there was agitation and excitement on every side; while, 
in the confusion incident to such curiosity, the sad cry from 
the lepers standing afar off was distinctly heard. 

What was the result? It was to be according to the faith 
of the applicants : and of this faith there was to be first, 
an open demonstration. 

" Go show yourselves unto the priests," he said to them. 

They went; and in going felt themselves healed. The 
terrible disease had disappeared from their system; their 
eyes saw the newly restored flesh, each on the other and on 
himself; they felt the new health coursing through their 
veins. We might imagine them now, all aglow with grati- 
tude, hurrying back to thank their Divine Restorer; but 
history gives a different account. Only one returned for 



"The Land and the Book." 



FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 227 

this purpose : he was a Samaritan. He came, glorifying 
God, and fell down on his face at the Messiah's feet with 
expressions of thanks. The Saviour said, "Were there 
not ten ? But where are the nine ? There are not found 
that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. 
Arise, go thy way : thy faith hath made thee whole." 1 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

JERUSALEM FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 

DURING the last of those scenes recorded in the preced- 
ing chapter, the Jews from all Palestine, and regions 
adjoining, and even from remote parts of the world, had 
been flocking towards Jerusalem. The Feast of the Taber- 
nacles, to which they were hastening, was their most cheer- 
ful festival, the :in, festivity or mirth, called so by way of 
pre-eminence : a time of great rejoicing ; all conducted in 
a manner and at a season to give a peculiar zest to their joy. 
The Passover was a season of more impressive solemnity : 
this feast of Tabernacles was a time more given up to mirth. 
Plutarch calls it a bacchanalian season; but there was 
certainly neither drunkenness nor rioting in it, though it 
must be confessed that there were scenes in this festival that, 
to a person imperfectly informed, might easily appear like 
the drunken orgies of Bacchus in heathen countries. 

The Rabbins were accustomed to say of this feast, "The 
man who has not seen these festivals, does not know what 
a jubilee is ;" and t-he Talmud, " Whoever hath not seen the 



i Lukexvii. 11-19. 



228 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

rejoicing that was upon the drawing of this water, hath 
never seen any rejoicing at all/' 1 

It was a double festival ; 1st, to commemorate the living 
in tents during the journeying of their forefathers from 
Egypt f and 2d, it was a thanksgiving for the fruits of the 
year, 3 answering thus to our own Thanksgiving Day. The 
time corresponded to our October : the fruits and harvests 
had then been gathered in : a time of rest for the husband- 
man had come : the garners were full : hearts were ready for 
rejoicing: and so, at this season, Jews from all directions 
moved towards their great city and their far greater temple, 
to have a week of festivity and worship, mingling religious 
devotion with the outpourings of the general joy. The 
people all lived, during that week, in booths made of 
branches of trees, erected on the flat house-tops of Jerusalem, 
or in the country adjacent ; great taste was exhibited in the 
construction of these booths: rains never troubled the 
country at this period: the habits of the people were simple, 
and there was no inconvenience to them in such an out-door 
life : it was a gathering, not of distinct families, but of the 
one great family of the nation ; and everybody came pre- 
pared to be happy, and to give outward demonstrations of 

jy- 

We may imagine, from our own yearly Thanksgiving-Day 
and the family gatherings on that occasion, what were the 
feelings of the Jews when the whole people old and young 
came up to their great national Thanksgiving, of divine in- 
stitution, in which it M r as a duty to be joyful before God for 
the blessings of the year. For seven days, no one, was allowed 
to eat or drink or sleep outside of the booths, which on the 
morning of the eighth day were all removed, although still 
the eighth day was the chief one of the festival, for it was 
the last, and they believed that upon the manner in which it 



1 Liffhtfoot. 2 Leviticus xxiii. 42-43. 3 Ex. xxiii. 16. 



FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 229 

was observed depended the rains and crops for the ensuing 
year. During the seven days supplications and sacrifices 
were offered for the whole world, but the solemnities of the 
eighth day were wholly on their own behalf. 

There was a place a little below Jerusalem, probably in 
the valley of the Kedron, where willows were cultivated 
for use in this festival ; for each individual was obliged to 
provide himself with what they called the lulabb, a bundle 
of two twigs of willows, three of myrtle, and a leaf of palm, 
tied together with a gold or silver or silken band, also a wil- 
low branch to lay before the altar. When they went up to 
the daily ceremonies in the temple they carried the lulabb in 
their right hand, and a pomecitron branch with fruit on it 
in the left. The children from early age were taught to 
sway the lulabb, and to join in the singing, and in their in- 
nocence and half serious gaiety they formed an interesting 
part of the great scenes of this festival on the temple heights. 
The Talmud said : " A little child as soon as he knows how 
to wave a bundle is bound to carry a bundle." Prepared 
with these the people came to the usual morning sacrifice 
which was at the earliest dawn, and this morning sacrifice 
itself had also a distinguishing feature belonging only to 
this feast. Wine was always a part of the daily offering ; 
but now a priest went to the pool of Siloam at the outlet of 
the Tyropeon valley, and with pomp and ceremony brought 
water from it in a golden vessel, the trumpets sounding as 
he reached the great court of the temple. He proceeded 
up the inclined plane of the altar to where two basins were 
standing, one with wine ; into the other he poured the water, 
and both fluids being then ceremoniously mixed they were 
poured over the morning sacrifice, the trumpets and cymbals 
sounding while was sung, " With joy shall ye draw water out 
of the wells of salvation," (Isaiah xii. 3). This part of ihe 
solemnities did not profess to be of divine institution, but 
had been established of old, they said, in memory of the 

20 



230 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

water so bountifully bestowed on their ancestors in the de- 
sert, and as the Rabbis testify was meant to be a symbol of 
the benefits to be some time poured out and dispensed by the 
Holy Spirit. 1 




The Pool of Siloam as it is now ; viewed from the south-east. 2 

When the libation was finished, and the smoke of the 
sacrifice began to ascend, the music recommenced, and their 
great hymn, the Hallel, rose on the morning air from the 
voices of that immense throng in these greatly elevated 
courts of the temple. The great Hallel consisted of the cxiii. 
cxiv. cxv. cxvi. cxvii. and cxviii. Psalms, and when they 
came to the beginning of Psalm cxviii., " O give thanks,' 7 &c., 
the whole company waved their branches toward the four 



1 Bloomfield. 

* It occupies undoubtedly the site of the ancient pool of this name, 
but is probably smaller. Its dimensions are fifty feet in length by from 
fourteen and a-half to seventeen in breadth, with a depth of eighteen and 
a-lialf feet. The water has now only a depth of three or four feet, being 
let off at that height by channels which conduct it to the garden below. 
It is supplied from sources beneath the site of the ancient temple, 
where seems to be a syphon which makes its flow periodical ; thence it 
is conducted to the Fountain of the Virgin noticed in chapter xx. of this 
book, and thence under Ophel to this place. Its outlet is properly at the 
arched way in this picture, but owing to some defect in the masonry it 
escapes otherwise into the pool below. 



FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 231 

quarters of the world, as they did also when they came to 
the " Hosanna," (or " Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord"), 
and again at the latter clause of the same verse, " O Lord, 
I beseech thee send now prosperity." The same shaking of 
the branch was repeated when they came to the last verse 
of that Psalm, " O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is 
good ; for his mercy endureth forever," and which was the 
finishing of the Hallel. 

When this iaily sacrifice was completed then commenced 
the additional sacrifices peculiar to this occasion ; i. e., on 
each day fourteen lambs and a goat; on the first day also 
thirteen bullocks; on the second, twelve; on the third, 
eleven, and so diminishing till on the seventh day seven 
bullocks were offered. At this sacrifice hymns peculiar to 
it were also sung ; on the first day the cv. Psalm ; on the 
second, the xxix. ; third day, the 1., beginning at v. 16 ; 
fourth day, xciv., at v. 16 ; fifth day, xciv., at v. 8 ; sixth 
day, Ps. Ixxxi., at v. 6 ; the seventh day, Ps. Ixxxii., at v. 
5 ; and we may very easily imagine the effect of the sound 
of so many thousands of voices on those temple heights, while 
the smoke of the sacrifices was curling upward toward the 
open sky. Sometimes the voices ceased, and the trumpets 
arid cymbals were substituted, and "then again the Hosannas 
burst forth like the voice of a great ocean during a storm. 1 
Every individual was required to go round the altar with 
his lulabb each day ; on the seventh day seven times. 

Thus it was during the day, but in the evening a very 
strange scene commenced, and for this we will quote from 
Lightfoot, whose quaint language is so well suited to such 
descriptions. 

" At the time when the water was brought from the pool of 
Siloam and poured on the altar they had not the liberty for 
their jollity, because of the seriousness and solemnity of the 



Ligbtfoot : Temple Service. 



232 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

service then in hand ; but when all the services of the day 
were over and night had now come, they fall to their rejoic- 
ing for that matter, which rejoicing is equally strange both 
for the manner and the cause. The manner was thus : 

" They went in the court of the women, and there the 
women placed themselves upon balconies round about the 
court, and the men stood on the ground. There were four 
candlesticks or beacons of exceeding bigness and mounted 
on exceeding great heights overtopping the walls of the 
court of the ' Mountain of the House* at a great elevation. 
The pipe of the temple began to play, and many Levites 
with their instruments in great abundance, standing on the 
fifteen steps that went down out of the court of Israel into 
the court of women, and whosoever of them and of the 
priests were musical, either with instrument or voice, joined 
his music. In the meanwhile the greatest grandees of the 
people, as the members of the Sanhedrim, the rulers of the 
synagogues, doctors of schools, and those that were of the 
highest rank and repute for place and religion, fell a danc- 
ing, leaping, singing and capering, with torches in their 
hands, with all their skill and might, whilst the women and 
common people looked on ; thus they spent the most part 
of the night. And the "more they abased themselves (like 
David before the ark) in this activity, the more they thought 
they did commendably, and deserved praise. 

" At last, far in the night, two priests standing at the gate 
Nicanor, do sound their trumpets ; and then come down to 
the tenth step and sound there again ; they come down into 
the court of the women and there sound for the third time; 
and so go sounding all along the court, till they come to the 
east of it; and there they turn themselves and look back up 
toward the temple and say thus, 'Our fathers who were in 
this place turned their backs upon the temple of the Lord, 
and their faces towards the east, towards the sun, but as for 
us we are towards him and our eyes towards him/ 



FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 233 

" h s the grandees danced, some of them would say thus, 
' Blessed be thou, O my youth, which hast not shamed my 
old age ;' and these were called ' Men of performance ;' and 
others would say, ' Blessed be thou, O my old age,' which 
hast gained my youth ; these were e Men of repentance ;' and 
both of them would say, i Blessed is he that hath not sinned, 
and he that hath sinned, and his sin is pardoned. 7 

"At length, weariness and sleepiness and satiety with 
their mirth, concludes the jollity, till another night. * * * 
This was the celebration of the feast of Tabernacles day 
after day, only there was this difference among the days : 
that on the night before the Sabbath that fell within the 
feast, and on the night before the eighth day, which was a 
holy -day, they used not their dancing, singing and rejoicing. 
On the eighth day they had the same solemnities with the 
days before, ate the pome-citrons, which they might not do 
before, and at night had the great rejoicing in the court of 
the women, and thus they concluded the feast : and there- 
fore, this by the Evangelist is called not only the last day, 
but also the great day of the feast, because it was a holy- 
day, and because it was the conclusion. 7 ' 1 

A very strange scene surely ; and if we now suppose our- 
selves on the Mount of Olives, which looked directly down 
upon the temple area and the whole city ; upon the lighted- 
up booths on the tops of the houses and over the whole 
country around; upon the immense columns at each angle 
of the women's court, with the blazing fires on their sum- 
mit ; and on the torches of the dancers waving to and fro, 
and circling about in intricate lines ; and then listen to the 
murmur from more than two millions of wakeful people at 
the festival, mingled with the sounds of musicians and sing- 
ers on the temple steps, we shall have a tolerably fair idea 
of what this great festival of Tabernacles must have been. 



"Temple Service." 
20* 



234 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

The distinguished Jewish authority, Maimonides, says of 
this dancing : " Because it was the rejoicing for keeping the 
law, to which no joy can be comparable ;" and therefore, he 
adds, " the common people and every one that would were 
not actors in this rejoicing; for they neither sang nor 
danced," but were only spectators : but the actors were the 
great men of wisdom and religion. 1 

A remarkable passage occurs in the Talmud respecting 
this festival. " Rabbi Levi saith, ' Why is the name of it 
called drawing of water ? Because of the drawing or pour- 
ing out of the Holy Ghost; according as it is said, With 
joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.' ' 

Such were the scenes at the feast of Tabernacles repeated 
day after day, for seven days, with the slight exceptions 
above noticed; and it was evidently a time of great hilarity, 
mixed with so much of a religious character as to give in 
their minds a sanction to great enjoyment. They felt it a 
duty to enjoy the present with thankfulness for the past; 
while also, from the solemnities of the eighth day, they 
might look for blessings on the coming year. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 
THE MESSIAH AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 

"TT/THEREishe?" 

The number of people estimated by Josephus, to 

be usually present at a Passover feast was, as already stated, 
two millions, seven hundred thousand; 2 and we may sup- 
pose that it could not be much less on such an occasion as 



See Lightfoot Temple Service. 2 Bel. vi. 9, 3. 



AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 235 

this. The temple ceremonies occupied but a small portion 
of their time ; and great sociability must have prevailed 
amid so large an assembly. We may easily suppose what 
was the universal theme ; and the great variety of forms in 
which it was discussed. 

The Messiah had not yet made his appearance there ; for 
such scenes as those described in our last chapter could have 
had little attraction for him ; and he had resisted the solici- 
tations of his kinsmen in Galilee to go up early to the feast. 
These last "did not believe in him ;"' for "a prophet is not 
without honor, save in his own country ;" and the claims of 
the Messiah must have been startling to his own connections, 
as we know they were to the people generally in Nazareth. 
We of our time, who know what has been the operation of 
his doctrines through eighteen centuries, and who can com- 
pare them with those of all other teachers, and see how pure, 
how perfect, and how God-like they are ; and can trace also, 
the greatness of his life down to the wonderful self-sacrifice 
in its close; and who also are free from the Jewish preju- 
dices of that day, and their extravagant expectations respect- 
ing the Messiah, may wonder at the obstinate resistance to 
Christ, and especially to the force of all those miracles 
wrought before their eyes. But we know how the Pharisees 
parried off this last ; and we must remember how cramped 
was the Jewish mind, how narrow their intellectual horizon, 
and how enslaved by fear the largest portion of them were 
to men ruling by the power of that mysterious undefinable 
unwritten law ; those rulers denounced by Christ as " hypo- 
crites;" "for," he said, "ye compass sea and land to make 
one proselyte; and when he is made, ye make him twofold 
more the child of hell than yourselves." 

At this feast were two sets of men putting the question, 
" Where is he ?" the rulers, who did so openly ; and the 



John vii. 5. 



236 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

multitudes, who through fear of them, 1 " murmured 2 con- 
cerning Christ," giving in suppressed tones, their opinions: 
some saying, "He is a good man; others, ' Nay ; but he 
deceiveth the people.' JJ There was among both classes an 
anxiety concerning him ; in the rulers it was mingled with 
fear as to what his influence on this vast excitable multitude 
might become; among the people was an intense desire to 
decide respecting him, by what their own eyes might see. 
The people from Galilee brought astonishing rumors of the 
miracles performed in their country, very great in number, 
and wonderful in character, which were here detailed in low 
tones ; the very caution used lest the rulers should hear them, 
only sharpening the curiosity of the hearers. Men from De- 
capolis, and from the region north of Galilee, also described 
what they had seen ; and the inhabitants of Jerusalem it- 
self could tell of the miracle at the pool of Bethesda, made 
more famous by the consequences which immediately en- 
sued. 

It was known that there had been a breach between Christ 
and their rulers, and that issue had been fully made ; they 
seeking his life and even uniting with the hostile element 
in the Herodians to effect their purpose; and he denouncing 
them as hypocrites, " transgressors of the word of God by 
their traditions," and " blind leaders of the blind." 3 It 
seemed as if it might be extremely perilous for him to ap- 
pear at the festival. Amid the hopes and fears on both 
sides the question was often repeated, 

Where is he?" 

Suddenly, in the middle of the feast, it was reported that 
he was in the city, and even in the temple, teaching there. 
Such public places, and especially covered porticos, as in the 

1 John vii. 13. 

2 Ihe word royyw/5s, translated murmuring, means literally a buzzing, 
very significant of their low tones in this conversation. 

3 Matt. xv. 3, 14. 



AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 237 

case of the stow in Greece and Rome, were the favorite re- 
sort of teachers in those days ; and the Messiah appears to 
have immediately proceeded to the cloisters of the temple, 
a place very well adapted to his purpose. 

The Jewish rulers were confounded. Pharisees and 
Scribes from Galilee had brought them accounts of his teach- 
ings in that region, and of the effects produced on the peo- 
ple there; how these admired and followed him, and 
approved his doctrines ; and here he was now in their very 
temple-courts, apparently about to produce there simi- 
lar effects. It was a bold act, this invasion of their own 
precincts, and this placing of himself publicly before them, 
both rulers and people in Jerusalem, as a teacher. And how 
attentively the multitudes were listening to him ! The 
rulers looked out from the Sanhedrim room, and observed 
among the thickly-packed masses the form of the Teacher, 
his earnest impressiveness of manner, the wonderful charac- 
teristic of that Presence which seemed to belong to him ; a 
glow in the face, that seemed to come partly from his earn- 
est words and the nature of his teachings, and partly from 
his inner being. They saw, and were filled with both won- 
der and alarm. It was evident that their combinations 
against his life had not frightened him into silence; and 
here now he was producing effects on those vast crowds 
which might render any further efforts against him danger- 
ous to themselves. What authority had he to teach? was 
a question which it seemed to be too late now to put, al- 
though this appears to have been his first teaching in Jeru- 
salem ; for the fixed attention of the multitudes, and their 
lighted-np and earnest faces, appeared to be fully endorsing 
his teachings, although the proceedings now were altogether 
out of regular order. He had received no authorization 
from their great schools, and indeed could never have re- 
ceived there such doctrines as he was now promulgating, 
especially when the denunciations of the Traditional Law 



238 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

came from his lips. There was an originality, with a fresh- 
ness and a clearness and convincing power in what he said, 
which were different from the mumblings and jargon of 
their schools ; but it was all unauthorized. Surprised and 
confounded, the rulers could not prevent admiration from 
mingling with their wrath; and yet their words, as they 
reached his ears, implied half a sneer : 

" How knoweth this man letters, having never learned ?" 
He answered : 

" My doctrine is not mine but his that sent me :" and 
then he proceeded to the declaration of a truth springing 
from the deepest philosophy of our nature. 

"If any man WILL DO the will of my Father, he shall 
know of the doctrine:" a sound philosophy, yet very little 
regarded by men. Our emotional nature governs us more 
than does our intellect. What, from the influence of our 
feelings, we wish to believe, we generally end with believ- 
ing. Our reason is a single element: the emotions are 
multifarious, often unsuspected by us, and when wrong 
making readily-admitted apologies : they crowd around the 
reason, and overshadow and blind it. Therefore, when we 
wish to seek truth, our first effort should be to look at our 
hearts, and to be certain that we desire it: and most of all, 
ought we to be certain that we are willing to take with it 
also its consequences, making it practical as fast as it is 
gained. Then shall we know truth. " If any man will do 
his will, he shall know of the doctrine." 

The Divine Teacher then referred to the annulling of 
Moses's law, notwithstanding their hypocritical professions 
of respect for it : for, basing their acts on such professions, 
they formerly (after the cure at Bethesda) " sought to slay 
him." 

"Why do ye go about to kill me?" The people living 
in Jerusalem were aware of that purpose in their rulers: 
but it was a new idea to strangers : and the audience in the 



AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES* 



239 



temple cried out in astonishment, " Thou art mad : who goeth 
about to kill thee?" He reasoned with them then about his 
former healing, and about the vindictiveness shown on that 
occasion, adding, " Judge not according to appearance, but 
judge righteous judgment." It had now become a scene of 
excitement among those people so given to strong, outward 
demonstrations and to quick emotions. Some of the people 
of Jerusalem said : "Is not this he whom they seek to kill? 
But lo, he speaketh openly, and they say nothing unto him. 
Do the rulers know that this is the very Christ?' 7 which 
remark was met immediately by objections; " We know this 
man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth 
whence he is." 

Their objection is another example of the difficulty which 
truth had to encounter in Judea; for a belief was current 
that there was to be a two-fold manifestation of the Messiah; 
the first at Bethlehem, after which he would straightway 



BL 




t is now: viewed from the North. 



disappear and be hid. Then again, he would show himself; 
but from what place or at what time that would be, no one 



240 LIFE- SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

knew. They believed that at his first appearance at Bethle- 
hem, he would do nothing remarkable: in his second coming 
rested the hope and expectation of the nation. 1 

The Messiah met their objection, " when Christ cometh, 
no man knoweth whence he is/' by referring to his divine 
origin ; and now his enemies all the while watching an 
opportunity made an effort to seize on him. But in this 
they did not succeed, " because his hour had not yet come." 

There was, however, after a while a more formal and 
official effort to put an end to these proceedings, and to 
seize upon his person. The Pharisees were informed that 
numbers of the people were believing on him, and saying 
among themselves, " When Christ cometh, will he do more 
miracles than these which this man doeth ?" which was a logic 
so clear to the understanding of the multitudes, and so conclu- 
sive, that it soon became alarming in its results. The 
reports from the Galileans here at the feast, had spread 
widely among the multitudes, who were mostly country 
people like themselves, who did not stop to argue much, but 
came by a quick way to conclusions ; and the effect was 
becoming epidemic. In a little while the public sentiment 
in Christ's favor might break through all those restraints of 
the leaders, which had kept the people in check. 

This danger must be met at once : and for this purpose 
the power of the Sanhedrim was invoked. 2 The chief 
priests were also called upon for help; for here, even in the 
temple, and near the altar and amid the festival celebrations, 
had this exhibition been made of the popular feeling in his 
favor. 

"There were several ranks of priests; all connected with 



1 The large building on the left in the wood-cut i the, church over the 
reputed place of the nativity. The town is undoubtedly on the site of 
the ancient Bethlehem. 

2 This is clearly the inference from John vii. 45-52. 



AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 241 

the temple. 1st The plebeian priests, namely, such as were 
not of the common people, but wanted school education, 
and were not reckoned among the learned nor such as were 
devoted to religion. For seeing that the whole seed of 
Aaron was sacerdotal, and priests were not so much made as 
born, no wonder if some ignorant and poor were among 
them. Hence is that caution given, 'that an oblation be 
not given to a plebeian priest/ and the reason is added, 
' Because whosoever giveth oblation to a plebeian priest doth 
all one as if he should give it to a lion, of which it may be 
doubted whether he will tread it under feet, or eat it or not. 
[These men performed offices at the altar, being instructed 
for such duty at the time]. 2d. There were others who 
were called Idiot and private priests, who, although they 
were both learned and performed the public offices at the 
altar, yet were called private, because they were priests of a 
lower and not written order. 3d. The written degree of 
priests was four-fold, besides the degree of the high priest : 
1, Heads of ephemeries or courses, which were twenty-four 
in number: 2, Heads of families in every course: 3, Presi- 
dents of various offices in the temple: 4, Any priests or 
Levites indeed, (although not in these orders), that were 
chosen into the chief Sanhedrim. Chief priests, therefore, 
here and elsewhere, where the discourse is of the Sanhedrim, 
were they, who, being of the priestly or Levitical stock, 
were chosen into that chief Senate/' 1 

The chief priests and Pharisees sent officers, probably 
from those connected with the Sanhedrim or temple, with 
directions to watch for a proper opportunity to seize upon 
him : and from that time he was closely followed and 
observed; his words were weighed by the spies; keen eyes 
were constantly upon him scrutinizing his actions; and 
official authority was waiting, till there should be some 



1 Lightfoot. 
21 



242 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

occasion when the seizure might be made without raising a 
tumult among the people. Matters semed to be coming to 
a crisis. All this time an under-current of admiration and 
of hearty affection among the multitudes was growing 
stronger every hour. He said to the people, " Yet a little 
while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. 
Ye shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am 
thither ye cannot come." These words perplexed both 
enemies and friends. 

The feast lasted, strictly speaking, only seven days ;' yet 
in the law there is also mention made of eight days; 2 and 
the eighth came gradually to be considered the greatest of 
all. In Josephus, (Ant. iii. 10, 4), the eighth day, together 
with the first, is designated as the time of especial rest. 
The singing and dancing the night previous had been 
intermitted, as that was the beginning of this, a holy day, 
the Jewish day always commencing at sunset. The 
booths were on this day taken down ; the lulabb was laid 
aside ; and the pome-citron was eaten, which could not be 
done on any other day. The libation of water with wine 
had now a more important meaning than on any other day ; 
for on the eighth day, according to the Talmud, "Judgment 
is made of the waters, and God determined what rains shall 
be for the following year." The Talmud says, also, " Why 
doth the law command, saying, ' offer ye water on the feast 
of the Tabernacles?' The Holy, blessed God saith, 'offer 
ye waters before me on your feast of Tabernacles that the 
rains of the year may be blessed to you." " In the feast of 
Tabernacles it was determined concerning the waters." 
" Why do they call it the house of drawing? Because 
thence they draw the Holy Spirit." 3 



1 Lev. xxiii. 34 : Deut. xvi. 13. 

2 Lev. xxiii. 36: Numbers xxix. 35: see also Nehemiah viii. 18. 

3 Lightfoot. 



AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 243 

Rains in Palestine are far more uncertain than with us, 
and therefore on this last great day of their feast their reli- 
gious exercises took an unusually interesting form. With 
the deepest earnestness they raised their voices in the Hallel ; 
with the most hearty devotion they joined in the exercises 
of the sacrificial offering, and particularly the one peculiar 
to this feast, the water-libation. 

This eighth day of the feast arrived. On the morrow 
the crowds were to disperse, and to return to their distant 
homes. It had been such a festival as they had never wit- 
nessed before, one of strong excitements, of discussions among 
themselves respecting this Wonderful Being possessing such 
miraculous powers, and so interesting in his teachings. They 
had seen him with their own eyes, and had heard him that 
face so striking from the Divinity glowing in all its linea- 
ments, and so winning, and that voice so gentle in its modu- 
lations, mingled however so strangely with authority. They 
did not wish to go away only half-satisfied, and now on this 
last day they watched for him, and when he came listened for 
his words with peculiar attention and a greatly increased in- 
terest. Their feelings yearned toward him, for he had 
spoken to their hearts, and his words had reached those eter- 
nal longings which the soul has for an inner life, calling for 
it with an earnest, unceasing cry. 

The first words from him this eighth morning startled all 
who heard him ; they were such an answer to all those long- 
ings : 

" If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. 
He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of 
his belly shall flow rivers of living waters." ' 

That very water of Si loam, carried now by them in a tank- 
ard and received at the altar with loud sounds of the trum- 
pets and cymbals and peculiar rejoicings, and when poured 



1 John vii. 37, 38. 



244 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

on with the wine in libations, accompanied by the loud 
Hallels of the immense multitudes, was believed by them 
to be significant of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, in- 
dicative of some mighty, direct, supernatural influences; 
and here now that Wonderful Being, wonderful beyond all 
that they had ever seen or heard of called to them : 

" If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink ;" 
and said, moreover, that those who thus came to him should 
be the means of allaying the thirst of others. Did not their 
souls thirst with a ceaseless cry to have the feeling assuaged? 
Every man there knew and felt this to be the case. 

Many said when they heard him : 

"Of a truth this is the prophet;" others, their hearts 
fully responding to his words, 

" This is the Christ." Some replied : 

"Shall Christ come out of Galilee?" And in their ignorance 
of his birth-place they quoted against him the Scriptures 
which said that he ought to come from Bethlehem. Thus 
a disputing arose among the crowd, and there was an agita- 
tion in those temple precincts ; the sacrifices at the altar con- 
tinuing in the meanwhile. Some would have seized him, 
but the Eoman garrison in Jerusalem was on these occasions 
particularly careful to repress tumults, and there was a lofty 
watch-tower at the south-east corner of Antonia from which 
every part of the temple courts was overlooked. 1 There 
was consequently no violence to him at this time. 

The officers sent by the Sanhedrim t<f watch him and to 
seize him if a safe opportunity for doing so should offer, 



1 Jos. De Bel. v. 5, $ 8. " And as the entire structure (of Antonia) re- 
sembled that of a tower, it contained also four other distinct towers at its 
four corners, whereof the others were but fifty cubits high, whereas thai 
which lay upon the south-east corner was seventy cubits high, that from 
thence the whole temple might be viewed." For this tower see the view- 
in chapter xxxviii. of this book. 



AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 245 

now came and presented themselves before their superiors in 
session in the council chamber. 

" Why have ye not brought him ?" was the angry demand. 
They answered : 

" Never man spake like this man." 

With eyes flashing scorn and anger the Pharisees spoke 
out: 

" Are ye also deceived ? Have any of the rulers or of 
the Pharisees believed on him ? But this people who know 
not the law are cursed." 

One voice in the Sanhedrim was raised for the purpose 
of checking such proceedings, rather however in expostula- 
tion with the rulers than in defence of Christ. It was that 
of Nicodemus, not yet bold as he afterwards became, but 
still not willing by silence to seemingly endorse their action. 

"Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and 
know what he doeth ?" he asked ; and the remark brought 
a storm of wrath upon him. 

"Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, for out of 
Galilee ariseth no prophet." 

Their hatred led them to malign even their own best pro- 
phets and to falsify history, for Elijah was from Galilee, as 
was also Jonah and perhaps Nahum and Hosea. 1 

This council seems to have broken up in tumult of pas- 
sion : "And every man went unto his own house." 2 

Another scene of dancing and similar festivities during that 
evening formed the closing event of the Feast of Tabernacles. 



Alford. 2 John vii. 11-53. 



246 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 



CHAPTER XXX. 
BETH ANT AND ROAD TO JERICHO A PARABLE. 

AWAY from the turbulence of the city. It is very plea- 
sant to accompany the Messiah as we may now do to 
a quiet retreat in the country, and to a family of friends 
whose feelings were all in harmony with his own. 

Across the Kedron and directly opposite the city on the 
east is the Mount of Olives, a range about two miles in 
length and having three rounded summits, the central one 
appearing to the eye the highest as seen from the city. This 
is 114 feet above the average height of Mount Zion and 
227 above the Haram area. This mountain with its grace- 
fully curving outline is a beautiful feature in the landscape, 
and the olive trees scattered over its sides are still nume- 
rous enough to justify its ancient name. It has now scarcely 
a dwelling on it, but in those former days it was perhaps 
studded all over with houses and gardens, and must have 
presented as looked on from the city a very charming scene. 
The writer of this work has still a glow at his heart as he 
remembers how, after having entered Jerusalem by night, he 
early on the following morning on reaching the house-top and 
looking out had directly before him this mountain, over the 
middle summit of which the sun was showing its first beams 
in a cloudless sky. Nor was the view enjoyed afterward from 
the summit of the mountain less exhilarating, taking in as 
it did an immense extent of country, the " chatoyant tints" 
of the high mountain of Moab and Ammon and Pisgah's 
top, the Dead Sea, the plain of Jericho, and the verdure 
marking the course of the Jordan, while the utter desola- 
tion of " the wilderness of Judea," just to the east of the 



AT BETH ANT. 247 

spectator, gave force by contrast to the variegated habit- 
able country in all other directions, and especially to the 
valleys just on the west and to the city picturesque in itself 
and rich as is no other on earth in thrilling associations. 

Two shorter roads cross the mountain going directly up 
by zigzag, while a third, the caravan road of former times as 
it is still, ascends slantingly along the south-eastern part, and 
toward its summit crosses through an opening among the 
rocks. This last road and this opening where a person com- 
ing from the east first gets sight of the city, are all places 
very dear to the Christian ; for along this way the Messiah 
doubtless came when making his public entry into Jerusa- 
lem, and at this highest point where the view of the city 
opened upon him he wept over the devoted place. If we 
are proceeding eastward from Jerusalem by this road, then 
after following it around the southern end of the Mount of 
Olives, we descend along some spurs on the eastern side, and 
at about two miles from the city come to a village of about 
twenty houses in a dilapidated condition, but pleasantly 
situated, for a fountain with sparkling water gushes from 
the side of the hill, and olive trees abound, which Robinson 
describes as musical with the songs of nightingales. . 

The name of this place sends a gush of tender and plea- 
sant feelings into the Christian heart; for this is Bethany, 
undoubtedly on the site of the town of that name in our 
Saviour's time. It lies in a nook on the south-east side of 
one of the spurs of Olivet, and a writer says of it, "the 
broken ground and glens [just below on the south] and 
' braes' with the glimpses of the deep descent which leads to 
Jericho, save it from being common-place, and give to it a 
certain wild, sequestered, Highland character of its own. 
When it was well cultivated and well wooded it must have 
been of all the places near Jerusalem the most peaceful as 
well as the most picturesque." 

Here was a family consisting of two sisters, Mary and 



24 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Martha, and a brother, Lazarus, hospitable, genial and kind, 
among whom the Messiah could find a most welcome fellow- 
ship in his feelings, and also companionship as far as he 
could have companionship on earth. To this place he re- 




Sethany as it is now; viewed from the south. 



tired after the harassing scenes of that last day of the festi- 
val ; and soothing indeed must have been the quiet of the 
retired spot as well as the warm sympathy of this family. 
But such indulgence was not to be protracted, and in the 
morning he returned to the temple for further teaching, and 
"all the people came unto him." The Scribes and Phari- 
sees came also, bringing a case before him, which they 
hoped would place him in a dangerous position with regard 
to the Roman government, or to the people. The Mosaic 
law required the individual brought into his presence to be 
put to death : and they demanded of him a decision. If he 
should decide according to the ancient law, it would be as- 
suming a right reserved by the Roman power exclusively to 



1 This is from a stereoscopic picture, the full accuracy of which may 
therefore be relied on. 



AT BETH ANT. 249 

itself; if against the law, then the rulers would charge him 
before the people with trying to abrogate the Mosaic ordi- 
nances. He relieved himself from the dilemma in a manner 
which put the rulers themselves to confusion and shame. 1 
The teachings in the temple then proceeded ; but they were 
continually interrupted by cavils and efforts of the rulers to 
bring him into odium among the multitudes ; and finally 
with a charge, 

" Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil ;" and again : 

" We know that thou hast a devil," which charges he met 
fearlessly ; in his reply, claiming covenant rights as inherent 
in himself and not received through Abraham. He ended 
with the declaration, 

" Before Abraham was, I am ;" on which their fury broke 
all bounds ; and from the repairs going on in the temple 
area, they took up stones to stone him. He however es- 
caped from their hands. 2 

In reading these teachings and discussions, we must re- 
member the sententious nature of the language in these coun- 
tries, not only in that time but also in our day; a mode of 
speaking often very different from our own. 

From an occasion probably occurring at this period, we 
have one of the most beautiful of his parables : and as his 
words were often suggested by the scenery about him, we 
may suppose the parable to have been delivered at Bethany, 
or near to it ; this town being just on the edge of the dreary 
" wilderness," which extended the whole way thence to 
Jericho and the Dead Sea. We remark here also that Jeri- 
cho was one of the cities appropriated to Priests and Le- 
vites, and that at the times of which we are writing, 12,000 
of them resided in that city. The road towards it from 
Bethany is thus described by an American traveller/' 

" The road beyond Bethany [eastward] continues to de- 



John viii. 2-11. 2 John viii. 



250 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

scend, though a number of ridges extend across from the 
north, terminating at a valley on our right, into which our 
road pretty soon declined. We followed this valley for 
three hours or more in a direction nearly south-east. The 
whole region is formed of limestone rock, commonly broken 
and precipitous, and shooting out spurs into and athwart the 
straitened way, so as to make our progress slow and labori- 
ous. We were perpetually clambering over rocks and going 
down broken, precipitous declivities, which though really 
productive of no other evil than delay and fatigue, often 
threatened more serious dangers. A little grass [April 20], 
and a few stunted trees appeared in the valley and on the 
hill-sides, upon the first part of the route, just enough to 
relieve this dreary region of the aspect of absolute steri- 
lity which characterizes the deserts of Arabia. [He then 
arrives at a fountain and the remains of a Khan, midway 
between Jerusalem and Jericho. The bottom of the valley 
beyond the Khan is sparingly supplied with verdure ; the 
mountains on either side are bare, and ' exceedingly dreary].' 
At the end of perhaps an hour-and-a-half from the Khan, 
we left the valley to the right hand and entered upon a re- 
gion far more rugged than that through which we had pre- 
viously passed. The verdure gradually diminished, till at 
length not a shrub or blade of grass was visible. Still there 
was less bare rock than before, nor was it of so dark a hue. 
The surface of the stone was more loose and shelving, and 
in many places reduced to debris. The road runs along the 
edge of steep precipices and yawning gulfs, and in a few 
places is overhung with the crags of the mountain. The 
aspect of the whole region is peculiarly savage and dreary, 
vieing in these respects, though not in overpowering gran- 
deur, with the wilds of Sinai. The mountains seem to be 
loosened from their foundations and rent to pieces by some 
terrible convulsion, and then left to be scathed by the rays 
of the sun, which scorches this naked land with consuming 



AT BETH ANT. 251 

heat/" 1 The place is still infested with robbers, as of 
old. 

A lawyer, one of those persons whose business it was to 
explain the Mosaic ordinances, but more especially the 
Traditionary Law, asked the Messiah, 

" Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" and 
this dialogue followed, 

u What is written in the law? how readest thou?" 

" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with 
all thy might, and thy neighbor as thyself." 

"Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt 
live." 

" And who is my neighbor ?" said the lawyer. Jesus an- 
swered, 

" A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and 
fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and 
wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And 
by chance there came down a certain priest that way ; and 
when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And 
likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked 
on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain 
Samaritan as he journeyed, came where he was; and when 
he saw him he had compassion on him, and went to him, 
and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set 
him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took 
care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he 
took out two-pence and gave them to the host, and said 
unto him, 'Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spend- 
cst more, when I come again, I will repay thee.' Which 
now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him 
that fell among the thieves? 

"He that showed mercy on him." 



1 Dr. Olin. See also Josephus. Bel. iv. 8, I 2. 



252 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

"Go and do thoti likewise." 1 

The lawyer completely thwarted in his purpose, and made 
to condemn himself, must have winced under the applica- 
tion. He, an official expounder of the oral law was directed, 
in a manner which he could not refute, to take a Samaritan 
as an example, when this oral law said, " If one sees one of 
the Gentiles fall into the sea, he shall not fetch him up ; for 
it is said, Thou shalt not stand up against the blow of thy 
neighbor. But such an one is not thy neighbor." 2 

The Messiah himself remembered the ten lepers recently 
cured in Samaria, of whom only one returned to show his 
gratitude, and that one a Samaritan. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 
THE MAN BORN BLIND. 

IT is always an interesting spectacle when bold, simple, 
plain truth comes into antagonism with the cunning 
chicanery of men. Truth is almost sure to gain the victory, 
even to human apprehension ; and its opposite writhes all 
the more under defeat, because the means producing this have 
been so simple. 

A case of such a nature in Jerusalem, comes before us 
now in this history; the opponents being on one side, a 
street beggar; on the other, the Jewish Sanhedrim; the 
former single and alone, even his parents being afraid to 



1 Luke x. 25-37. 2 Lightfoot. 



THE MAN BORN BLIND. 253 

sustain him, though conscious that he was right ; the latter 
armed with power, and using as an instrument of terror, a 
new decree, that " if any man did confess that Jesus was 
the Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue." There 
were three degrees of excommunication among the Jews : 
the first or slightest of which was separation from the syna- 
gogue, and a suspension of intercourse with all Jews whatso- 
ever. It lasted thirty days; and, if the individual did not re- 
pent, the time might be doubled or tripled. The second kind 
of putting out of the synagogue was called the curse. It was 
pronounced witli imprecations in the presence of ten men ; 
and it so thoroughly excluded the individual from all com- 
munion whatever with his countrymen, that they were not 
allowed to sell him even the necessaries of life. The third de- 
gree was solemn and absolute exclusion from all intercourse 
and communion with any other individuals of the nation ; 
and the criminal was left in the hands of God. 1 

The Messiah had returned from Bethany to Jerusalem, 
and was passing along one of its thoroughfares with his disci- 
ples when they came upon an object that might well excite 
commiseration a man blind from his birth. In the disci- 
ples, however, the case gave rise to a psychological query, 
and they turned to the Messiah with a question which ap- 
pears singular to us, but which arose out of notions more or 
less current at that time : " Master, who did sin, this man 
or his parents, that he was born blind?" The belief in 
metempsichosis, or previous existence of souls, was univer- 
sal among the Pharisees ; but as, in their opinion, the souls 
only of good men could be removed into other bodies, while 
those of bad men were subject to eternal punishment, 2 such 
a belief could not have given rise to this question. Light- 
foot says: "It appears from this dispute that the ancient 
opinion of the Jews was that the infant from its first quick- 



1 Jahn's Archaeology. 2 Jos. Bel. ii. 8, 14; Antiq. xviii. 1, \ 3. 

22 



254 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

erring had some stain upon it. And the great doctor, Judah, 
(compiler of the Mishna) was originally of that opinion 
himself." The sweeping remark of the Pharisees in verse 
24 of this chapter 1 intimates that both the man and his 
parents were originally guilty of sins with which they them- 
selves could not be charged. 

The Messiah replied to the disciples that the cause of his 
being so born was in God's own purposes for good, always 
wider than any individuality ; to which he added some other 
remarks, and then he spat on the ground and made clay 
with the spittle, and having anointed the eyes of the blind 
man he bade him go and wash in the pool of Siloam, which 
was at the outlet of the Tyropeon valley, and probably not 
far from where this incident occurred. 

What did the man himself think of this? The blind are 
quick-witted, and also sharp in hearing ; . and his obeying so 
promptly the direction shows that he fully understood who 
was addressing him and what were his powers, and the poor 
man must have been trembling with the excess of hopes. 
He stopped not, however, for inquiry or further remarks, 
but stumbling in his haste, earnest, almost wild with expec- 
tation, he hurried on, reached the fountain, washed, SAW. 

Could he believe it himself? And yet there before him 
were objects all revealed houses, earth, trees, sky, men 
a world open all at once upon him full of its strange, mov- 
ing scenes and its beautiful sights. How often had he won- 
dered how things looked ! now he saw. How often had he 
tried to imagine what color was ! there were colors every- 
where now, though he knew not their names. There was 
the water gurgling at the fountain, with its old familiar 
sound; he saw it now; yonder was a mountain Olivet, 
was it ? Yonder yes, that he knew must be the temple ; 
yonder the bridge high in the air spanning the valley of the 



1 John ix. 



THE MAN BORN BLIND. 255 

Tyropeon. That hill and city on the left of the bridge he 
knew must be Zion and Jerusalem. Great, glorious, grand, 
all was to him beautiful, wonderful ! But where was Jesus, 
he who had given all this blessedness to him? The man 
turned back again up the Tyropeon valley, and went toward 
the city, stumbling now even worse than before. Distant 
objects seemed to be close by, and he put out his hand to 
touch them, for his eyes had not yet learned to measure dis- 
tances. He raised his foot at inequalities yards off, and 
brought it down, almost falling as he did so on level space. 
He was more uncertain and puzzled in his movements than 
he had ever previously been, and he went on hesitating and 
almost falling on the even road, yet amused at his mis-steps, 
and delighted at everything he saw. 

But his ears, so sharp always,- were listening with painful 
earnestness for that voice which he was sure he would recog- 
nize ; he wanted to see him. Other voices he soon heard, 
and they were in loud dispute : 

" Is not this he that sat and begged ?" some asked. 

" It is he/' some remarked. 

"He is like him," said others. The man said: 

"I am he." 

" How were thine eyes opened ?" 

"A man who is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine 
eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash, 
and I went and washed and I received sight/' 

"Where is he?" 

" I know not. " 

He would have been rejoiced to know, but he had at pre- 
sent no further opportunities for searching, for the Jewish 
rulers had their watchful agents about the city, and before 
the man could do further mischief to their cause by satisfy- 
ing the curiosity of the people he was seized and led before 
the Sanhedrim itself. 

It was the Sabbath-day when all this occurred. 



256 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

The Sanhedrim were excited by what they saw and heard. 
The man was before them with eye-sight as good as theirs ; 
everybody said he had been born blind. If so, it was a 
miracle of the clearest and most decided character, and could 
not be contradicted. What should they do? He had been a 
street beggar, and every person knew him, and knew what 
the extent of his affliction had been. He could not be 
silenced, for the fame of this event was already spreading 
everywhere about ; they could, however, perhaps confound 
him by questions, and make him contradict himself, or 
through fear swerve off from any acknowledgment of the 
healer. They would try. 

They asked him how he had received his sight : and he 
answered, as he had before done to the people in the streets. 

"This man," they said, "is not of God because he 
keepeth not the Sabbath day :" for, some of the Rabbins 
expressly forbade applying saliva at all to the eyelids on 
the Sabbath : others allowed it in case of inflammation of 
the eyes. 1 

" How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles ?" said 
other members of their council. 

Their own Sanhedrim was becoming divided. They tried 
him again : 

" What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine 
eyes?" 

" He is a prophet," replied the bold man, bluntly and 
decidedly. 

But there might be hopes from his parents : they might 
be induced, through fear of excommunication, to give th<? 
subject another character, perhaps to prevaricate, or at least 
be led to contradict their son. They were sent for, and 
made their appearance before the council. The latter 
asked : 



1 Lightfoot, in loco. 



THE MAN BORN BLIND. 257 

"Is this your son, who was born blind? how, then, doth 
lie now see ?" 

" We know that this is our son, and that he was born 
blind: but by what means he now seeth, we know not: or 
who hath opened his eyes we know not : he is of age ; ask 
him : he shall speak for himself." 

The poor man looked at them. They were his parents: 
and, O how often, in childhood and manhood, he had 
desired, with most intense longing, to see their faces, to 
know what were their features, how they looked. He saw 
them now, his own father and mother, standing there ; and 
the longings of those many years were being satisfied. He 
was not able, yet, to read emotion in features ; but his quick 
ear knew, long ago, all the intonations of their voices: and 
he knew, at this time, only too well, what these intonations 
in their reply meant ; and that they were basely abandoning 
their son to the Sanhedrim, through fear, in the very hour 
and joy of his recovery ; leaving him to run the risk, alone, 
among those cunning men. 

The rulers addressed him again. He was bolder now, 
even than before ; bold in his indignation at the meanness 
of these rulers, who, he saw, were hoping to browbeat his 
parents into a contradiction of their son's words, and a 
denial of the greatness of his blessing; and bold, also, 
through determination to adhere to his true Friend of that 
morning, who had given him the blessing. 

" Give God the praise," they said, " we know that this 
man is a sinner." 

" Whether he be a sinner or no," he answered, " I know 
not. One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I 
see." 

"What did l.e to thee? how opened he thine eyes?" 
They hoped *for some stumbling or contradiction in his 
words. The brave, quick-witted man seems now to have 
been in a quiet, secret enjoyment of their dilemma. Indig- 

22* 



258 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

nant that this insolent and crafty tribunal should tempt him 
to a falsehood, and to deny his benefactor, and to assist in 
the downfall and perhaps violent death of one who had 
raised him to a joyous life, his contempt broke through all 
bounds, and threw a cutting sarcasm into his answer. 

" I have told you already, and ye did not hear : where- 
fore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?' 7 

" A stormy scene ensued. They saw now that he knew 
of Christ as one making many disciples : how could he, 
the shrewd beggar, help knowing it, when the passers by at 
his thoroughfare had, for days, been full of talk about the 
Messiah ? They saw that he had been playing with their 
ill-disguised hate and revengeful purposes towards Christ ; 
and, losing their dignity, they broke upon him with revi- 
lings : 

"Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. We 
know that God spake unto Moses : as for this fellow we 
know not from whence he is." 

He answered, as before, in assumed simplicity, but severe 
sarcasm : 

" Why, herein is a marvellous thing that ye know not 
from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now 
we know that God hoareth not sinners ; but if any man be 
a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. 
Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened 
the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not 
of God he could do nothing." Their reply to his logic was 
only a fierce invective loaded with Pharisaic assumption and 
scorn, 

" Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach 
us?" And so they drove him out of the Sanhedrim's 
presence. 

There is a very beautiful appendage to all this ; and it is 
in the gentleness and childlike simplicity of the brave man, 
when, not long afterwards, he met the Messiah himself. 



THE FEAST OF DEDICATION. 259 

His observations on the human face had not given very 
satisfactory results; for they had shown him angry and 
malignant passions at work ; the cowed, timid looks of his 
parents ; the workings of disputatious curiosity ; the angry 
scenes of the Sanhedrim ; the violence of gesture and man- 
ner, when they drove him out. He knew that the benevo- 
lent being, who had given him the great blessing, was not 
to be sought among such men as these ; but where and when 
should he see him, and hear those well remembered tones of 
kindness again ? He heard them suddenly. The Messiah 
had knowledge of this violence in the council chamber, and 
had perhaps come to look for him; and the man's eyes were, 
at last, fixed on the features so different from those in the 
Sanhedrim ; and he heard the same tones that had thrilled 
him before. He was asked : 

" Dost thou believe on the Son of God ?" 

" Who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him ?" 

" Thou hast seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee." 

" Lord I believe." And he worshipped him. 1 



CHAPTER XXXII. 
THE FEAST OF DEDICATION. 

IT will be remembered that under Antiochus Epiphanes 
"the Illustrious," or "the Madman," (B. C. 167), the 
second temple at Jerusalem, built by Zerubbabel, was defiled ; 
the exercise of the Jewish rites of religion was forbidden ; 
a statue of the Olympic Jupiter was placed on the great 



John ix. 1-38. 



260 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

altar, and sacrifices to that god were there offered by the 
Grecian priests. When the nationality was restored by the 
Maccabees, and the city was in part recovered (B. C. 165) 
by the brave Judas, of that race, he found shrubs and weeds 
growing in the courts of the temple, and a scene of complete 
desolation over the desecrated grounds of Moriah. With 
loud lamentations, and with the sounds of martial music, 
the Jewish people went up to the temple ; and while a por- 
tion of them, with arms in their hands, kept watch on the 
Syrian garrison still holding the adjacent citadel, others 
purified the grounds, constructed a new altar, provided 
vessels for the temple services, and instituted, on the 25th 
of December, 1 the Feast of Dedication, to be continued 
seven days, which was ever afterwards held sacred in the 
Jewish calendar. The other three great feasts could be cel- 
ebrated only at Jerusalem, but this might be observed at 
their homes. It was a time of great rejoicing; and as lights 
were kept burning in every house throughout the night, this 
festival had also the name of Phota, or Lights. 

The anniversary of this feast occurred not long after the 
events named in the last chapter, and one day during its 
continuance, as the Messiah was walking in the east cloister 
of the temple Solomon's Porch he was surrounded by the 
rulers coming evidently with no friendly intent. They ad- 
dressed him : 

"How long dost thou worry our minds; 2 tell us plainly 
if thou be the Christ ?" 

The elements were wintry around that lofty colonnade, but 
no sky could be more dark and lowering than were the pur- 
poses of those men; for the city was deeply affected by the 
miracles of Christ, and the Pharisees were every day finding 
themselves more powerless among the people, while their 
thirst for vengeance was daily increasing. Every effc rt had 



'Alford. 2 Ewf TTOTE rr\v \\iVXnv tjH&v aTpetg. 



THE FEAST OF DEDICATION. 261 

shown how futile their anger was becoming, and worse than 
that how easily they might be foiled by the very singleness 
and simplicity of the means used for their defeat. They 
had tried repeatedly to entrap the Messiah, either by efforts 
to lead him into the intricacies of their law, or by questions 
intended to involve him with the government, or by placing 
him in situations where whatever might be his action, trou- 
bles they hoped would ensue. 

"How long dost thou trouble our souls?" they said now, 
as with faces marked indeed with trouble they encircled 
him in that portico, ready for any violence that opportunity 
might suggest, yet feeling the strong necessity for caution ; 
for the tower seventy-five feet high at the south-west corner 
of Antonia looked directly into this portico, and Roman sol- 
diers were as in all other festival times, especially on the 
watch. 1 

The Messiah said in answer to their question : 

" I told you, and ye believed not ; the works that I do 
in my Father's name, they bear witness of me; 7 ' and we 
can imagine him looking calmly and placidly upon them as 
they scowled and winced at this simple and powerful logic. 
For the multitudes around listening to this dialogue would 
all remember the miracle of the man born blind and re- 
stored to sight. He added : 

" But ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep, as I 
said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, 
and they follow me ; and I give unto them eternal life ; and 
they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out 
of my hand." Then, finally, he gave the climax to their 
rage by declaring : 

" I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE." 

There were stones lying near; they seized them and 
threatened to stone him. 



1 Jos. Bel. ii. 12, 1. 



262 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

" Many good works have I showed you from my Father ; 
for which of those works do ye stone me?" he said. 

" For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, 
and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." 

He made no disclaimer to this charge in his reply, but 
they listened, forbearing violence till he added: 

" If I do not the works of my Father believe me not. 
But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works ; 
that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and 
I in him." 

Again their wrath became furious, and there was a rush 
in order to commit violence, but he passed safely from among 
them " his time had not yet come." 1 

He crossed over the Jordan into Perea, and it is a relief, 
as we read his history, to find him once more away from that 
city of turbulence and violence and of corrupt men false in 
doctrine and hypocritical in life. 

He was now breathing the pure country air among a peo- 
ple of more simple habits and more open to the truth. It 
will be remembered that he had some time before this, while 
yet at Capernaum, sent out seventy of his disciples with 
directions to go "to every city and place whither he himself 
would come." They had recently returned to him at Jeru- 
salem, making report of their mission with joy; 2 and in his 
thanksgiving on that occasion we have words referring to 
his selection of such men : 

" I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that 
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and 
hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father, for so it 
seemed good in thy sight." 3 

Indeed, the scenes which we have just been witnessing in 
Jerusalem show clearly the wisdom in the Messiah's choice 
which excluded such men as the schools produced. 



John x. 22-39. a Luke x. 1. 3 Ibid, verse 21. 



RAISING OF LAZARUS. 



The people resorted to him in Perea, and believed on him 
there. They said, "John did no miracle: but all things 
that John spake of this man were true." 1 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
RAISING Of LAZARUS. 

" T AM the resurrection and the life : he that believeth in 
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whoso- 
ever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 

What a power there is in words ! 

Those words of Christ have been like symphonies over 
the world, ever since they were uttered ; reaching the dull 
ear of the dying; floating about the solitary home of the 
mourner grieving for friends laid in the grave; meeting us, 
inscribed on the church-yard gate, as if heaven itself had 
been writing on its portals; and through all life, giving us 
the courage to meet calmly the fearfulness of its end. 

" I am the resurrection and the life : * * * whosoever 
liveth and believeth in me shall never die." The history 
connected with those words is a very remarkable one. 

The Messiah, as just narrated, had gone to Perea to 
deepen the instructions given there by the seventy, and for 
other labors in that large, and in some portions of it popu- 
lous, region. He was yet, however, somewhere in the neigh- 
borhood of the Jordan, when a message from the family at 
Bethany reached him, with a very touching, though modest 
appeal : 

" Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick." 

The message did not ask him to come back ; but the sim- 



John x. 41. 



264 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

pie fact of its being'sent had evidently in it some kind of 
expectancy, either that he would come, or that he would 
send a healing communication, or at once speak relief. He 
who could open the eyes of the blind, and had cured 
so many in Galilee by a word, among them the distant son 
of the nobleman at Capernaum, could heal now his sick 
friend by a similar mandate, even if he should not come to 
him : he who was so ready to relieve strangers, and had 
stopped before the beggar at the wayside to speak words of 
pity and help, would not surely fail now, in the instance of 
those to whom he was so much attached. The message came 
from the sisters of Lazarus, stating the case respecting their 
brother in simple but aifecting language : 

" Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick." 

But he sent no healing word back again : nor did he ap- 
pear disposed himself to go : for he continued still two days 
in the same place. Such seeming abandonment in their dis- 
tress, of those who had showed him hospitality so often, 
might very well excite wonder in the minds of the disciples. 
This family were among the few of his open and avowed 
friends, defying the edict of the Sanhedrim : but he seemed 
now to forsake them in their hour of pressing need. His 
remark, when the message from Bethany reached him, might 
appear to his twelve followers to have even a tinge of self- 
ishness in it : " This sickness is not unto death, but for the 
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified there- 
by." They watched him anxiously; for no one could know 
that family at Bethany, as they did, without loving them ; 
but still there was no message thither ; no word of relief. 
Finally, he said : 

" Our friend Lazarus is dead." 

The disciples were shocked and distressed. Just so had 
he treated John. Was this treatment of nearest friends a 
sample of what they themselves might expect? They had 
rejoiced in his supernatural powers, and had felt that, what- 



RAISING OF LAZARUS. 265 

ever afflictions might come upon them, they had a friend in 
their Leader, who through the greatness of his power was 
equal to every extremity. But was this case, and was John's 
an example of his relief? He had told them that they 
should be persecuted for his sake ; and had drawn many a 
dark picture of the sufferings they were to endure ; and had 
called upon them to brace themselves up for endurance : 
what then ? To be deserted in the end ? They had always 
comprehended his meaning imperfectly. His words had a 
mystical sense to them, containing promises of final victory 
and rewards ; but all these promises had come to them 
darkly and were but half understood. His present kindness, 
goodness, and power had been their trust; but here was a 
manifestation that startled them, a desertion to their appre- 
hension of a beloved friend and a kind family : Lazarus was 
dead ! 

In the meanwhile, those sisters at Bethany had watched 
by the bedside of the dying man ; mingling with their af- 
flictions, as they saw life ebbing away, many a discomfort- 
ing thought of him who might so easily have helped, and 
did not help. They had to keep this grief to themselves ; 
for they could not, before their visitors and sympathizers at 
the bedside, speak words that might seem to be disparaging 
to Christ, or containing reproach : and these thoughts were 
all the more corroding and heavy because they had to be 
kept hidden within their hearts. They had listened, with 
painful nervousness, for quick footsteps bringing news of his 
coming : none came. Hope rose at every unusual sound out 
by the door, and died away, and rose again ; and still kept 
flickering on, as the life, too, was flickering there, on that bed 
of pain. 

All in vain : in vain ! 

The blow came at last. They had been cherishing a 
double hope, both of Christ's quick presence, and his word 
of healing : all was lost. They had now a double grief, the 

23 



266 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

crushing weight from their brother's death, and also from 
that apparent neglect by one whom their brother and they 
had so much loved and trusted, and by whom he might have 
been, but was not, saved. 

They buried the corpse in the usual manner ; their friends 
from the village and from Jerusalem condoling with them, 
and giving the usual loud tokens of grief. These friends 
sometimes and the sister could not help overhearing them, 
if indeed, the words were not spoken for their hearing 
sometimes wondered why Jesus had not come or sent help ; 
occasionally intermingling words of doubt about bis power 
or affection, or censures for his neglect ; but the sisters had 
to keep their own thoughts and feelings crushed down within 
themselves, a very heavy weight on their already over- 
burdened hearts. 

When he had announced the death of Lazarus to the dis- 
ciples he had added : " And I am glad for your sakes that I 
was not there, to the intent that ye may believe ; nevertheless 
let us go unto him." 

Thomas, referring doubtless to the late attempt at Jerusa- 
lem to stone him, and to his own predictions about his ap- 
proaching death, said to the other disciples, " Let us also go 
that we may die with him." They now proceeded toward 
Bethany ; by slow stages, however, for they were four days 
getting to that town, although the distance was not very great. 

Their journey was in the winter time, 1 and lay across that 
desolate region of the Wilderness of Judea, always gloomy, 
but doubly so at this season of the year. As the apostles 
followed the Messiah over the bleak, cold waste they had 
time for many reflections, and their reflections might well be 
of a sombre kind, corresponding to the scenes around. They 
had left home, occupations, domestic comforts, in order to 
follow this new Master, proclaimed by John to be the Son 



1 Just after the Feast of Dedication. 



RAISING OF LAZARUS. 267 

of God. Bright visions of earthly glory and power had been 
flashing before them, but not one of these had ever yet been 
realized. On the contrary, they had been scoffed at by the 
rulers at Jerusalem, and their Master himself was near be- 
ing stoned in the very temple by the agents of the Sanhe- 
drim. He had miraculous powers undoubtedly, but he 
never exercised them for any aggrandizement of himself 
and followers, as may have been their chief expectations in 
leaving all to follow him. He had just been telling them 
what they might expect in future. Honors, power, glory, 
rank? No, but stripes, persecutions, hatred, and death by 
violence. He had promised them comfort from on high, 
and had given assurance of his help ; but here was Lazarus, 
the beloved friend, neglected in his need and now dead. 
What, as respected themselves in the dreary prospect of the 
future ? more dreary far than this utter desolation of na- 
ture around them, the crumbling, chalky cliffs, the shelter- 
less wastes, the sharp, biting winds, the wintry skies, frown- 
ing down on the wide, bleak scene below. 

They drew their garments around them, their hearts more 
gloomy than the skies or the wastes of the wilderness ; and 
so they travelled over those long miles, till at last they came 
in sight of Bethany, no cheerful greeting however awaiting 
them now as in the former times. 

The Messiah did not enter the town at once, but remained 
on its outskirts ; intelligence, however, was immediately car- 
ried to Martha, one of the sisters, that he had come. She 
hurried out, and that deep additional grief as of a felt ne- 
glect broke out before him : 

" Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died." 
She added, " But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt 
ask of God, God will give it thee." He said : 

" Thy brother shall rise again ;" and she replied : 

" I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the 
last day." 



268 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

" I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in 
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever 
liveth and believeth in ine shall never die. Believest thou 
this?" 

" Yea, Lord ; I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son 
of God, which should come into the world." 

Leaving him there she hurried back to her sister Mary 
with the news : 

" The Master is come and calleth for thee." 

The lamentation on such occasions lasted eight days, and 
there were many mourners and sympathizers in the house, 
who seeing Mary rise hastily and go out followed her, say- 
ing: 

" She goeth unto the grave to weep there." 

Hurrying on, the whole company of visitors came imme- 
diately in front of the Messiah, and found Mary at his feet, 
where she also^had let out her bitter grief in the same cry 
as that of Martha. 

" Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died." 

The company around joined their weeping with hers. The 
Messiah was convulsed with strong emotions in his deep 
sympathies with human griefs, for this scene was but a sam- 
ple of what is ever occurring in our world. He asked : 

"Where have ye laid him?" 

" Lord, come and see." 

" Jesus wept." 

" Behold," said the company, " how he loved him." Some 
of them asked : 

" Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, 
have caused that even this man should not have died?" 

Again as they were advancing toward the tomb came over 
him that convulsion of grief. There could be no longer a 
doubt in the mind of any one, of his affection for Lazarus, 
and of his deep sympathies in the distress before him ; and 
the feelings of the sisters, if any doubts had crept into them, 



RAISING OF LAZARUS. 269 

were fully satisfied. In silence they reached presently the 
place where the body had been interred a cave with a stone 
in front closing the entrance. The mourners were thinking 
of the gloom and desolation within, the horror of that aban- 
donment by the world to corruption and the worm, when 
the silence was broken by Christ's ordering the stone to be 
taken away. Martha interposed a remonstrance that by this 
time the body must be offensive, for it had now been there 
four days ; but he replied : 

" Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou 
shouldest see the glory of God ?" 

The scene changed immediately, for now every one sup- 
posed that there was some strange demonstration at hand. 
The solemnity of mourning and the wailing cries ceased, 
crowds pressed forward, a low murmur of voices went among 
them: "What was meant? Corruption had advanced in 
the body, death's work had been fully sealed by decay, all 
power now seemed to be in vain. What would he attempt?" 
The mourners at Bethany, from Jerusalem, seemed to have 
been from the higher classes, 1 and strange feelings were 
at work in their hearts, some of these not friendly to Christ. 
But curiosity was uppermost. 

By this time the stone had been rolled away. They could 
see within where the dim light half revealed the scene in 
which death held his fearful rule ; the silence and gloom all 
made more impressive by the deeply earnest life-scene at the 
mouth of the cave. For solemnity had given place to in- 
tense curiosity, and the agitated faces of the crowd showed the 
fulness of their emotions ; every lineament drawn into the 
utmost tension of expectancy. The company tried to read 
in the face of the Messiah his intentions, or they peered into 
the entrance of the tomb, all so quiet and death-like there. 



1 See John xi. 31, 33, 36 and 45, in connection with John's distinction 
between "the Jews" and "the people," in vii. 12, 13. 
23* 



270 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Christ's features still showed the marks of his recent strong 
emotions, but his face, though sad in its deep sympathies, 
had yet on it the grandeur of power and command. 

The first commotion from this expectancy ceased, and was 
succeeded by a painful silence among the crowd. They 
gazed on Christ ; and when his lips now opened, their hearts 
throbbed as if about to burst in their emotion. But it was 
not as they expected. It was in prayer. 

" Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I 
know that thou hearest me always : but because of the peo- 
ple which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou 
hast sent me." 

Turning then to the grave, he said in a loud voice, 

" Lazarus, come forth !" 

There was a sound in the cave, where all had just been 
in that stillness of death ; a rustling, as of a movement 
there ; a further noise of motion ; and Lazarus presently 
stood before the gazing, excited, frightened, shrinking throng; 
his body still swathed, as customary with the dead, and a 
napkin bound over his face. This was removed ; and the 
features, though shrunken and emaciated by the disease, 
were full of life. The sisters had their loved brother again ! 

The feelings of the crowd had been worked up to such a 
pitch of tension that it seemed as if their nature could 
scarcely have stood the trial of that scene much longer ; but 
now they breathed freely again, and their full hearts found 
vent, some in tones of joy, some in praises and thanksgiv- 
ings, and in congratulations to the family and to Lazarus 
himself. Some of them turned wondering, glad, and be- 
lieving eyes on the Messiah himself, and received full faith 
in him into their own hearts, with a reverence and affection 
that filled them with new and thrilling joys. Some went 
straight to the Pharisees to tell them what had been done. 

In Jerusalem there was a commotion in consequence. The 
news of the miracle, the most wonderful that could be per- 



IN EPHRAIM AND PEREA. 2jl 

formed, spread rapidly over the city ; and the members of 
the Sanhedrim were called together, much puzzled, and now 
greatly alarmed. 

"What do we?" or, "What shall we do?" they said ; 
" for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus 
alone, all men will believe on him; and the Romans will 
come and take away both our place and nation." 

But Caiaphas, then high priest, relieved them from their 
dilemma by declaring authoritatively : 

" Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expe- 
dient that one man should die for the people, and that the 
whole nation perish not." 

They took him at his word, prophetic and not fully un- 
derstood even by himself; and from that day forth " they 
took council together for to put him to death." 1 They be- 
lieved that Christ or themselves must perish: and the man- 
ner in which his fame was spreading, and the astounding 
nature of his miracles gave them, now, but a little time 
for choice. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 
IN EPHRAIM AND PEREA. 

THE site of Ephraim, the city to which the Messiah re- 
tired with his disciples after raising Lazarus, and the 
determination of the Sanhedrim in consequence, 2 is not fully 
known at present, but is supposed to have been where el- 
Taiyibeh is now situated. This is a town twenty miles 



i John xi. 1-53. 2 John xi. 54. 



272 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

N. N. East of Jerusalem, and on such a lofty eminence as to 
overlook portions of the wilderness of Judea, adjacent to it 
on the east, and also the valley of the Jordan, with part of 
Perea beyond the river. From this he made visits to the 
neighboring country, and also extensive journeys through 
Perea; but there is some obscurity attending this part of our 
Saviour's life. Doubtless it was active ; and critics place, 
during these few months, the healing of the infirm woman 
in a synagogue, exciting the indignation of the rulers of that 
place of worship, because it was done on their Sabbath-day. 1 
On another occasion he was dining with a Pharisee on the 
Sabbath, when a similar case occurred. The hospitalities 
of the house were no safeguard against the machinations of 
his enemies, and " they watched him." 2 A man afflicted 
with dropsy was brought there, perhaps in order to produce 
results on which the Pharisees and lawyers who were also 
guests, might bring against him a charge of violating the 
Sabbath. He knew their thoughts, and said, " Is it lawful 
to heal on the Sabbath day ?" They considered it best to 
be silent ; and taking the man, he healed him, and sent him 
away; saying to the company, in the same strain with which 
he had recently silenced the rulers in the synagogue : 
" Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit 
and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath- day ?" 3 
The people rejoiced at " the glorious things done by him." 

The Messiah observed the jealous eagerness of the guests 
to have the places of highest honor at the feast; and he 
gave them on this occasion some admonitions on the subject, 
ending with the declaration, " For whosoever exalteth him- 
self shall be abased ; and he that humbleth himself shall 
be exalted." Then, turning to his host, he added, in a 
similar strain : 

" When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy 



1 Luke xiii. 10-17. 3 Luke xiv. 1. 8 Luke xiv. 5. 



IN EPHRA1M AND PEREA. 273 

friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy 
rich neighbors ; lest they also bid thee again and a recom- 
pense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the 
poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind ; and thou shalt 
be blessed ; for they cannot recompense thee ; for thou shalt 
be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." 

We have next, in these journeyings, a scene altogether 
characteristic ; and with it some parables, which have ever 
since been food to the souls of men wherever they have 
been heard. 

We are told, "Then drew near unto him all the publicans 
and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and Scribes 
murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners and eateth 
with them." The Jewish Rabbis stalked with a lordly step 
among those of inferior degree; they felt it necessary to 
sustain their reputed sanctity by a distance of manner, and 
by the exclusiveness of caste : but it was not so with Christ. 

Therefore we may readily imagine with what feelings of 
attachment, as well as of wonder, the multitudes followed 
him ; gazed upon those features so divine in their expression ; 
felt attracted by that Presence which seemed not to be of 
earth, not awed into a fear of approaching ; and listened to his 
words, so different in their meaning, and in the tone in 
which they were uttered, from anything else which they had 
ever before heard. 

We also who have followed him through so many scenes 
where angry passions were raging tumultuously about him, 
may find it a relief to sit down now and listen quietly to 
his biessed words. 

"What man of you," he said, "having an hundred sheep, 
if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in 
the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find 
it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoul- 
ders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth 
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Re- 



274 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

joice with me ; for I have found my sheep which was lost. 
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over 
one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine 
just persons, which need no repentance. 

" Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she 
lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, 
and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath 
found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, 
saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I 
had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the pre- 
sence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. 

"And he said, A certain man had two sons; and the 
younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the 
portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto 
them his living. And not many days after, the younger son 
gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, 
and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And 
when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that 
land ; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined 
himself to a citizen of that country ; and he sent him into 
his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his 
belly with the husks 1 that the swine did eat; and no man 
gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, 
How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough 
and to spare, and I perish with hunger ! I will arise and 
go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have 



1 It is much to be regretted that in our English version of the Scrip- 
tures, this word (Kepariuv) is thus translated. It should have been pods, 
and refers to the fruit of the carob, a tree frequently to be seen in those 
countries. In Cyprus there are large orchards of them, and the fruit is 
there fed largely to the swine. It grows in pods from six to ten inches 
in length, resembling those of our honey-locust, lined inside with a ge- 
latinous substance. The tree (ceratonia siliqua of Linnaeus) is an ever- 
green, and resembles our apple-trees, though more bushy and thick-set 
and with longer leaves, of darker green : in Cyprus it produces very 
abundantly, but through Palestine in smaller quantities. 



IN EPHRAIM AND PEREA. 275 

sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more 
worthy to be called thy son : make me as one of thy hired 
servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when 
he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had 
compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 
And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against 
heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be 
called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring 
forth the best robe, and put it on him ; and put a ring on 
his hand, and shoes on his feet : and bring hither the fatted 
calf, and kill it ; and let us eat, and be merry : for this my 
son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found. 
And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in 
the field : and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he 
heard music and dancing. And he called one of the ser- 
vants, and asked what these things meant. And he said 
unto him, Thy brother is come ; and thy father hath killed 
the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 
And he was angry, and would not go in : therefore came his 
father out, and entreated him. And he answering said to 
his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither 
transgressed I at any time thy commandment : and yet thou 
never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my 
friends : but as soon as this thy son was come, which hath 
devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him 
the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever 
with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we 
should make merry, and be glad ; for this thy brother was 
dead, and is alive again ; and was lost, and is found." The 
whole of this beautiful parable has individual, personal 
application; but probably, at the close of it, we are to under- 
stand the Jewish feeling at the incoming of the Gentiles. 

This period during the Messiah's last retirement from 
Jerusalem spent probably chiefly in Perea, in order to 
deepen the instructions by the seventy abounds in parables 



276 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

ancf practical admonitions ; among the former, that of the 
Rich Man and Lazarus, and also one showing to every per- 
son who feels himself to be a lost sinner, how he must 
approach to God. 

" Two men went up into the temple to pray : the one a 
Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and 
prayed thus within himself, God, I thank thee that I am 
not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, or even as this 
publican. I fast twice in a week, I give tithes of all I pos- 
sess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift 
up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his 
breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, 
this man went down to his house justified rather than the 
other ; for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased : 
and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." 

A scene occurred during this visit to Perea, which paint- 
ers have often endeavored to exhibit on canvass, but which 
is far beyond the powers of art to reach. It is easy to por- 
tray man in the coarser passions, and grosser exhibitions of 
his nature : but the more any individual rises into the true 
heaven-like nobility of soul ; and the grand thoughts and 
great emotions of such nobility show through the eyes and 
take expression on the face, the more the act of copying 
verges upon the impossible. Who then can paint the 
Messiah, in any scene, but especially in that to which we 
now refer? 

It was that of his receiving the little children brought to 
him in order that " he might put his hands on them and 
pray." His disciples rebuked those who brought them, but 
lie checked them : 

"Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid 
them not ; for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I 
say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of 
God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." 



IN EPHRAIM AND PEREA. 277 

He took them up in his arms and put his hands on them 
and blessed them. 1 

His kindly, genial feeling toward children, and the man- 
ner in which he attracted them toward himself, form one of 
the most pleasing characteristics of his ministry on earth. 
Often we are lost in wonder, and often we are awed by the 
incidents of this ministry, but there is a charm to all our 
finer feelings of admiration and love as we observe the chil- 
dren clustering about his knees, and see from all those scenes 
how strong must have been the sympathy in them toward 
him and in him toward them. He speaks of their likeness 
to the kingdom of heaven ; he tells us that unless we be- 
come humble like a child, have its full, unquestioning love 
and confidence, but in our case toward God, the humble 
yielding up of ourselves to Him, as children give themselves 
into their parents' arms, we cannot see the kingdom of God. 
The oldest of us are indeed scarcely more than infants in 
the wide stretch of our existence. 

The greatest men are more frequently than otherwise noted 
for a childlike simplicity of manners, and Coleridge says, 
" Men of true genius give themselves up to the first simple 
impressions of common things. They are content to won- 
der and smile and admire, just as they did when they were 
children ; it is the opening of the heart to all sweet influ- 
ences." 

One of the most beautiful things in the world is a person 
mature in years, but still keeping the heart fresh as in early 
life. Individuals may sometimes be seen even of advanced 
age, but with feelings all genial and kind and responsive, in 
their heart-life never growing old. But such persons are 
rare. The writer of this work has had the happiness to 
number among his intimate friends one of this class, a per- 
son (lately deceased) of the highest scientific reputation 



1 Matt. xiz. 13-15; Mark x. 13-16. 



278 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

abroad as well as at home, but more remarkable still for 
carrying the bloom and freshness of life even beyond his 
eightieth year. He loved children, and they always loved 
him. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
JERICHO. 

A STRANGER travelling in the times of our Saviour, 
-*- eastwardly from Bethany along the high-road already 
described, would, after five or six hours spent in crossing 
that dreary Wilderness of Judea, be then startled by a view 
as if some sudden enchantment had operated upon his sight. 
Standing on a hill-top, all around him as bare as barrenness 
itself can be, he would now look directly down on one of the 
most verdant and most perfectly beautiful spots on the face 
of the globe, a mass of deepest and thickest verdure, a gar- 
den-like place twelve miles or more in length by seven in 
width, all in the highest cultivation ; palms, the most beau- 
tiful and graceful of trees ever seen in any country, waving 
their feathery tops as in groups or singly all over the land- 
scape they rose high above other trees of great variety and 
beauty; a large city also with signs of wealth about it, 
palaces, a castle for defence, a hippodrome, an amphitheatre, 
villages and scattered dwellings amid the unbroken garden, 
fountains and rivulets gleaming in the sunshine, a river mean- 
dering along the farther edge of this vast plain, beyond the 
river a narrow plain backed with a range of lofty moun- 
tains, and on the right a lake or sea stretching on till hid by 
some mountain spurs. 



JERICHO. 279 

The plain was that of Jericho ; the city was one called by 
the same name ; the river, the Jordan ; the wide expanse of 
water, the Dead Sea ; the mountains on the east, the range 
of Nebo, Moses' place of mysterious burial by unseen hands. 

Even now, although almost entirely forsaken and lying 
waste, this plain of Jericho still breaks most agreeably on 
the traveller's eyes, so long blinded by the glare from the 
white hills of the Wilderness. What then must it have 
been in those days we are speaking of when Jericho was 
among Jewish cities exceeded in size only by Jerusalem, and 
when the plain was the pride and boast of all the nation for 
its fertility, its extraordinary productions, and its climate 
(called " Egyptian") seeming in temperature as if some choice 
spot of an intertropical country with its heat had been taken 
up and set down here in a region entirely different ! This 
tropical nature of the climate made the place a favorite re- 
treat in winter for those who might wish to escape from the 
bleakness of the " Hill Country" of Judea, and of the capi- 
tal itself. 

The conformation of the ground here is singular. It 
looks as if an immense region had been scooped out of the 
general natural elevation in that country, making room for 
a great plain, for a sea, and for a river, all sunk down to an 
unnatural depth. The Dead Sea, to which the southern end 
of this plain extends, has its surface 1312 feet below that of 
the Mediterranean, 1 and therefore a traveller coming from 
the " Hill Country" of Jerusalem, and the equally elevated 
grounds of the " Wilderness," seems here to descend into a 
chasm in the earth, which indeed is really the case. Yet in 
this chasm flows the Jordan to discharge itself here into that 
sluggish lake; and the plain of Jericho which at its southern 
end borders on the Dead Sea, has but a small elevation above 
the stream. Travelling on this plain toward the river we 



Stanley's Sinai and Palestine. 



280 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

come, on approaching it, to a descent of fifty or sixty feet; then 
there is again a level for a short space, and then about six 
feet below is the Jordan fringed with willows and rushes, 
its width here from eighty to a hundred feet, its depth ten 
or twelve, and its current very strong. 1 

The great depth of this plain with the reflection of the 
sun upon it from the bare surrounding hills, will account 
for its tropical growth of plants and trees. The palm grew 
here in such luxuriance that in the days of Moses (Deut. 
xxxiv. 3), Jericho was already designated as the " city of 
palm trees." Josephus speaks of the palms in his day, as 
being " of many sorts different from each other in taste and 
name ;" and adds : " The better sort of them yield an ex- 
cellent kind of honey, not much inferior in sweetness to 
other honey. This country will produce honey from bees : 
it also bears the balsam, which is the most precious of all 
the fruits in that place ; cypress trees also, and those that 
bear the myro-balsam; so that he who should pronounce 
this place to be divine, would not be mistaken, wherein is 
such plenty of trees produced as are very rare and of the 
most excellent sort. And indeed, if we speak of those other 
fruits, it will not be easy to light on any climate on the hab- 
itable earth, that can well be compared to it, what is here 
sown comes up in such clusters : the cause of which seems 
to me to be the warmth of the air, and the fertility of the 
waters ; the warmth calling forth the sprouts and making 
them spread, and the moisture making every one of them 
take root firmly, and supply that virtue which it stands in 
need of in summer time/ 52 He adds : " The ambient air is 
here, also, of so good a temperature, that the people of the 
country are clothed in linen only, even when snow covers 
the rest of Judea." 

Herod the Great had built there a palace for himself, 



1 Eobinson. 2 Bel. iv. 8, | 3. 



JERICHO. 281 

which was afterwards repaired and ornamented with great 
splendor by Archelaus : also an amphitheatre and a hippo- 
drome, and on a- spur of mountain overlooking the city, a 
citadel, and in it a very fine and strong building dedicated 
to his mother, and called Cypros. 1 

This hippodrome came by-and-by, to have a strange his- 
tory connected with it, one of the most singular in all the 
records of purposed crime. For Herod, when that dreadful 
disease which ended his life was growing upon him, and he 
found that he must die, determined that there should be, by 
compulsion, a general mourning throughout Judea at his 
death. He ordered the principal men of the Jewish nation 
to assemble at Jericho : and when they had come, had them 
shut up in the hippodrome. He now sent for his sister and 
her husband, and laid before them his plan, which was that, 
at his decease, his soldiers should be let loose upon these 
men, and all of them should be put to death, in order that 
" the whole nation should mourn from their very soul, which 
otherwise would be done in sport and mockery only. So" 
continues Josephus, " he deplored his condition with tears 
in his eyes, and obtested them by the kindness owed from 
them as his kindred, and by the faith they owed to God, 
and begged of them that they would not hinder him of this 
honorable mourning at his funeral. So they promised him 
not to transgress his commands." 2 His orders, however, 
through the mercy of the intended executioners, were not 
carried into eifect, which Josephus says, was considered 
as a great " benefit" by the nation. 

It is difficult to determine the northern limits of the 
plain of Jericho ; but it is about twelve miles from north to 
south, and seven in width. 

The soil is described by Kobinson as of extreme fertility, 
which was in those ancient times assisted widely by large 



1 Bel. i. 2, \ 9. Antq. xvii. 6, 2 5. 

24 * 



282 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

and copious fountains, most of which still remain. About 
four miles from the Jordan, is the fountain called now Ain 
Hagila, three-and-a-half feet deep and of purest water, 
sending forth a stream which waters the whole plain below. 1 
To the northwest of this, and also in the plain, is Ain es 
Sultan, bursting forth from the foot of a group of mounds 
which probably designate the site of the Jericho of Joshua's 
time, which seems after its destruction at that period never 
to have been rebuilt. This gives a supply of sweet water 
" which runs off through the plain in a stream twenty feet 
wide, and from eighteen inches to two feet deep, and after- 
wards divides into many little rivulets/' 2 used for irrigation : 
and three miles northwest from this, is the still larger foun- 
tain of Duk, with a stream sufficient in volume to have for- 
merly turned mills, ruins of which are now on its banks. 3 
In addition to this, there have been lately discovered por- 
tions of an immense reservoir, formed by damming up the 
waters of a valley (Wady Kelt] having its outlet into the 
plain on its western side, near the opening of which valley 
is supposed to have stood the Jericho of our Saviour's time. 4 
Of the numerous artificial channels, elaborately constructed 
for the distribution of all these waters, there are still exten- 
sive remains. 

Bordering northwardly on the Wady Kelt, and just over 
this supposed site of the ancient city, is the Mount Quaran- 
tana, standing out quite distinct from all the other bare 
hills, which, by their semi-circular sweep towards the west 
make room for this plain. 

To a person standing on the plain in the morning, and 
looking southwardly, a heavy fog in that direction usually 
shuts out all objects from the sight ; but, as the sun gets 
higher in the sky, the mists roll heavily away, and that 



1 Robinson. 2 Durbin's Observations in the East. 

' Eobinson. * Ibid. 



JERICHO. 283 

strange phenomenon, the Dead Sea, lies all exposed. The 
Jordan pours its waters into this sea, and there they are lost; 
there is no outlet to it, no life in it : every living thing that 
enters it dies ; the wind sometimes ruffles the water, but the 
sullen, lead-like waves fall without any glad murmur upon 
the shore, and the surface soon subsides again to its dull ap- 
pearance as of some immovable molten substance. When 
earthquakes shake the country around, there come up, from 
the depths of this sea, huge masses of asphaltum which float 
towards the shore, as if they might be dark messages of 
woe from the cities sunk beneath. A fruit growing by this 
sea, though fair to the eye, is found when bitten into, to be 
composed of a film for the exterior, inside of which are only 
dry filaments and dust. An adventurous traveller some 
years ago, launched a boat upon this sea, determined on ex- 
plorations : he was found a few days afterwards, on its 
banks, gasping and exhausted ; was taken to Jerusalem, but 
scarcely lived to reach the city; the memory of what he saw 
perishing also with him. A party of our own country men after- 
wards made the attempt, and lived through it : but one, the 
bravest and the best, came from it drooping and ill, and died 
immediately afterwards at Beyrut, in a vain attempt to reach 
his home. Near the southern end of the sea, the awe-struck 
visitors to its shores will find a hill entirely of salt ; and 
will think of the strange circumstance attending Lot's family 
in the destruction which once came over this place. 

The climate of the plain of Jericho is, in summer, insuf- 
ferably hot, made more trying by a sight of the snow-clad 
summit of Hermon looming up in the clear atmosphere, and 
distinctly visible, although 100 miles to the north. East 
of the Jordan, at this spot, is a plain about three miles 
wide, immediately beyond which rises the vast range of 
Mount Nebo; and both that mountain, and the plain 
between it and the river, had associations of absorbing 
interest in the Jewish mind. For, over this range, the 



284 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

immense hosts of their forefathers had poured down, and 
there on that plain they had rested, after their journey from 
the place of bondage ; their wanderings of forty years, con- 
cluded now: and on that high, sky-line of Nebo, Moses 
had stood, forbidden by the Almighty to go further ; and 
there he had taken his view of the Promised Land. How 
attentively had he gazed over the whole region ; his vision 
extending to the Mediterranean whose gleaming waters 
were fully in sight ; to the sands of Arabia spread out far to 
the south ; to the snowy Hermon on the north : between 
them a fair, pleasant country, but which he was not to 
enter. 

This great leader and lawgiver one of those men men- 
tally and morally of colossal proportions, whom earth but 
rarely produces, who had spoken with God on Sinai, 
was forbidden to lead them further ; and for an incident 
which must have risen up in the Jewish memory, at this 
time of the ministry of Christ, with peculiar force. One 
rash word spoken in anger had caused this exclusion of 
Moses from the promised possession ; and this great range 
of Nebo, the barrier which he might not pass, was forever 
to the Jewish mind a remembrancer of God's determination 
that no human being should ever dare to invade any divine 
right. 

On one occasion during that long journey through the 
wilderness of Arabia, the people had been murmuring for 
water; and Moses and Aaron were told by Jehovah to strike 
with their rod a certain rock, whence water would then 
flow. They proceeded to the act, but gave not God the 
glory. "Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water 
out of this rock? * * And the Lord^aid unto Moses 
and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in 
the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not 
bring this congregation into the land which I have promised 



JERICHO. 285 

them." 1 Aarjn was buried, during the long journey, on 
Mount Hor ; and here, on Nebo, the steps of Moses were 
stayed ; and there he died and was buried ; and that lofty 
mountain range before Jericho, so strangely like an even 
wall or barrier built far up into the sky told, and to the 
last will tell, of God's isolation in his Divine majesty and 
power. No man dare ever say WE before him in thai 
greatness of his glory, or in the exercise of aught even of 
his communicated power. 

Yet here was one. He had just said, "I and my Father 
are one." He had repeatedly asserted prerogatives belong- 
ing only to God: the power to forgive sins; the supreme 
seat in the great judgment to come, when all the world 
would be gathered before him, and he be seated in the glory, 
and power, and dominion belonging to Jehovah : when 
charged with making himself equal with God, he had 
not denied it; and he was at this time at the Jordan, on his 
way to Jerusalem, where his entry into the city would be a 
triumphal one, and where the immense crowd attending and 
meeting him on the way would shout to him " Hosanna," 
that is, " Save, Lord, we beseech thee ;" " Hosanna in the 
highest ;" an invocation given only to God, but which was 
there to be addressed to Jesus, without reproof or check 
from him. 

And even here in Jericho, with Nebo looking down upon 
him, would be performed by him one of the greatest of 
those miraculous acts, to which he was always appealing as 
confirmation of the justness of his claims. 

God only can perform a miracle. That is, only He who 
has established nature's laws as irrevocable, can reverse them ; 
and here now, by that spot which Moses could not pass, 
because he had on one occasion not sanctified God, here 



1 Numbers xx. 10-12. 



286 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Jelovah was going to establish, by his own act, the claims 
of one always asserting equality with God. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 
THE MESSIAH A T JERICHO : BLIND MEN HEALED. 

THE Messiah was now on his way once more toward 
Jerusalem. His disciples, on a former occasion, when 
he was about to go to Bethany in order to restore Lazarus, 
and had declared to them his intention of going into Judea, 
had said, in alarm, " Master, the Jews of late sought to 
stone thee, and goest thou thither again ?' n That subsequent 
miracle at Bethany had produced in the rulers a more delib- 
erate and determined purpose to put him to death f and 
now, when he indicated his intention of proceeding to Jeru- 
salem, his followers showed both amazement and fear. 3 
Their apprehensions as they followed him in Perea, on the 
road toward Jerusalem, took a more gloomy cast from his 
own words on the way; for he began here to repeat 
what he had before intimated of the closing scenes of his 
ministry, only more definitely and more clearly, and with 
a declaration that these were near at hand. " Behold, we 
go up to Jerusalem ; and the Son of man shall be delivered 
unto the chief priests, and unto the Scribes ; and they shall 
condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles; 
and they shall mock him, and scourge him, and spit upon 
him, and shall kill him ; and the third day he shall rise 
again." 

The journey, therefore, along the roads of Perea, was a 



1 John xi. 8. 2 Ib. verse 53. * Mark x. 32. 



THE MESSIAH AT JERICHO. 287 

sad one. Dim as were the apprehensions of his disciples 
respecting the nature of his kingdom, they still understood 
language so unmistakable as this; and saw that they were 
about to lose him, who had so long been their leader, and 
teacher, and their constant friend. Much there had been 
about him which they had tried in vain to comprehend; but 
his kindness to them, even among the strange enigmas of 
his ministry that had so often puzzled them, had been uni- 
form ; and even when he had observed occasion to reprove 
them, it had been done with such gentleness as to strengthen 
their attachment and love. One exception there was in this 
feeling of affection toward him, but that was confined to a 
single individual and was not yet made clearly manifest. In 
following him, they had often been thrown into the society 
of opposers ; and sometimes they had been made to feel the 
secret force of hostility when people were backward in man- 
ifesting it towards himself. Questions innumerable concern- 
ing him had been propounded to them, often such as they 
were unable to answer, frequently on subjects greatly puz- 
zling to their own minds. They were Jews still, only half 
enlightened by all his teachings ; for the Jewish mind seemed 
to need a miracle to break through the old incrustations 
which enveloped it : but their feelings were truer than their 
intellects; and in their hearts, they had appreciated that 
grandeur in the character of Christ, that true greatness, 
which could afford to be humble; the wonderful power, not 
in his teachings only, and his miracles, but in his gentleness 
and love to all, and especially to themselves. 

Respecting his kingdom, promised by the Baptist, some- 
times alluded to by himself, they had heard many disputa- 
tions among his friends and enemies, and in these they had 
often shared. Their interest in this subject was strong and 
personal. Ambition had its power over their hearts; and 
even during this sad journeying towards what their Master 
had declared would to him end presently in sufferings and 



288 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

shame and an ignominious death, James and John, aided 
by their mother, preferred a request, that they might have 
the preference (sit next to him) in his glory, respecting 
which, however, their ideas must have been very indistinct. 

" Are ye able," he asked, " to drink of the cup that I 
shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I 
am baptized with ?" 

" We are able." 

" Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with 
the baptism that I am baptized with: but to 'sit on my right 
hand and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be 
given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father." 

The ten heard of the request, and were indignant, and he 
took the occasion to enjoin humility and mutual kindness 
on all : 

" Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your 
servant : even as the Son of man came not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for 



many." 



No wonder that, amid all their darkness of intellect and 
selfishness of nature, their Divine Master was greatly 
admired and loved ! 

They crossed the Jordan now for the last time with him ; 
and entered upon the garden-like plain of Jericho, which 
presented at every step scenes of busy life. If anything 
could win an individual off from sad and disturbing 
thoughts, it might have been found in the sights now around 
them ; where the rivulets, led carefully from so many foun- 
tains, gurgled pleasantly by the road-side ; or, crossing the 
path, were lost amid the profuse vegetation which they 
aided in this most prolific soil ; where fruits and flowers con- 
stantly greeted the eye ; and where birds were filling the air 
with their melody. The labor of the husbandman was here 
abundantly rewarded ; and a profitable trade existed between 
this favored region of gums and palms, and other parts of 



THE MESSIAH AT JERICHO. 289 

the country: the balsams of Jericho were sought also by 
foreign nations and valued at their courts. 

The business of a tax-gatherer was here an unusually 
profitable one; but here, as elsewhere, odious to the Jews. 
A man in that office might be thoroughly honest, and even 
far more than usually benevolent; but he would still be 
looked upon with suspicion and dislike. He wore the 
Roman badge of servitude, and was connected with a class 
disreputable for extortions and overreaching; and any 
increase in wealth would make suspicions attached to him 
only the stronger. Zaccheus, the chief of these tax-gather- 
ers at Jericho, was a man of the widest and largest charity ; 
and of strictest probity also; for while the Jewish law 
required restitution two-fold in case of wrong-dealing, he 
gave back four- fold to any one whom he might unwittingly 
have injured. Yet he was "a sinner' 7 in the estimation of 
the people here, and was so branded : his occupation alone 
was a sufficient cause for condemnation in their eyes. 

He had heard of Christ: and there was very much in 
these reports, not only to awaken his curiosity, but to enlist 
his feelings of affection ; for they spoke of the Messiah's 
wide benevolence, his kindness, his gentleness to all, mixed 
yet with power. He had never spurned any one seeking 
help : he had shown himself the friend of the humble and 
the slighted by the world ; publicans themselves had gath- 
ered around him, and had not been repelled. When charged 
with eating with such, and with sinners, he had said that he 
came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. 
The heart of this man had warmed toward Christ: and 
now this great and wonderful being was there in Jericho. 
But the tax-gatherer, repelled by the citizens, and taunted 
with sharp epithets, dared not thrust himself forward among 
that throng, which now, as the Messiah advanced along the 
highway, was continually growing more and more dense ; 
and Zaccheus being a small man, there seemed to be no 

25 



290 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

probability of his even getting a sight of him whom his 
heart was already prepared to reverence. But there is a tree 
in that country with branches near to the ground; und, one 
of these being just in advance of the company he hastened 
to it, and drew himself up till he could see over the heads 
of the advancing throngs. 




The Syrian sycamore. 1 

They came on : and, now, opposite to him, was that fade 
he had so longed to see ; that great being, of whose power 
and benevolence and divine wisdom he had heard so much. 
But what was his astonishment when he found the eyes of 

1 This tree is entirely different from our sycamore. Its brandies grow 
out near the ground, and its large widely spread roots extend upward 
like buttresses to the trunk. These roots take such a strong hold on the 
ground as to give the greatest force to the passage in Luke xvii. 6, " Be 
thou plucked up by the root," &c. It bears fruit like figs, growing di- 
rectly from the large branches. 



THE MESSIAH AT JERICHO. 291 

the Messiah turned directly and attentively upon him ; and 
to hear himself addressed 

" Zaccheus, make haste and come down, for to-day I must 
abide at thy house." 

If the tax-gatherer was astonished, equally so were the 
multitudes ; and while the former hurried down and joyfully 
accompanied the Messiah, a displeased murmur ran among 
the people, "that he had gone to be guest with a man that 
is a sinner." They could not understand it, and self-invited 
too ! " Was he ignorant of the man's occupation ?" thus the 
murmurs ran among the crowd " or was this done purposely 
to give an open defiance to all their prejudices and feelings 
of caste? or was it done in contempt of themselves?' 7 Some 
turned away in disgust, others followed to the door, curiosity 
still strongest in their minds : all were displeased. 

In the meantime the two, followed by the disciples, had 
entered the tax-gatherer's house. A stir and commotion 
within the dwelling at such an unexpected Presence, won- 
dering looks fixed intently on that face of benignity and 
kindness, peering eyes outside trying to have cognizance of 
what was going on ; such was the scene as Zaccheus standing 
before the Messiah said, in a sort of a defence of himself 
from what he knew was the general impression respecting 
his business and life 

" Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, 
and if I have taken anything from any man wrongfully I 
restore him fourfold/' 

" This day is salvation come unto this house," was the an- 
swer, " forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the 
Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was 
lost." 

But through all this scene in the receiver-general's house, 
and doubtless throughout the city also, there were rumors 
and whisperings foreign to the scene itself, greatly exciting 
the people wherever they were heard. These were, "That 



292 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

the kingdom of God should immediately appear" ' The ori- 
gin of the rumor was, doubtless, in a distorted report of the 
Messiah's recent declaration respecting his going up to Jerusa- 
lem. He was known to be on his way to that city. Something 
decisive it was believed from his own words was then to en- 
sue. He had spoken of his death as to occur there, but also 
of his rising again. What could this last mean, they sup- 
posed, but the assumption of that earthly power and glory 
so long awaiting the Messiah, prophesied of him for so long 
a time? We shall see in a few days how strong was the 
under-current in his favor among all the multitudes, and 
how quickly it could bear them into open demonstrations in 
his favor. His fame had spread throughout the nation. 
People felt him to be great. This feeling of his greatness 
was that which led the Pharisees after he had denounced 
them, to be so inveterate and so deadly in their hostility. A 
common man they could have disregarded. All felt that 
Christ was very far above that. His very humility of ap- 
pearance gave to the mightiness of power evident in him 
a stronger relief; his very gentleness and kindness made 
more striking the grandeur of character that sat so majesti- 
cally, and withal so naturally on him in all that he did and 
said. The Pharisees hated him, because he had this force, 
this grandeur, this wonderful Presence, which no humility 
in appearance or in life could annul or conceal, which his 
humility only made more prominent and more striking; 
he was himself the truest exemplification of his doctrine, 
u The first shall be last, the last shall be first." 

So the Pharisees hated and feared him. He had denounced 
their hypocrisy and their abrogation of God's law by their 
traditions. He was carrying the hearts of the people away 
from them, and they felt that their power was on the wane. 
The multitudes, although often murmuring at Christ's words 



Luke xix. 2. 



THE MESSIAH AT JERICHO. 293 

or actions, as in this recent one of going to be a guest with 
Zaccheus, still returned to him with new fealty and affec- 
tion ; for their hearts responded to his greatness without 
assumption, his force without harshness, his gentleness and 
kindness to every one. 

He spent the Sabbath at Jericho. At his leaving the city 
vast multitudes attended him, for in addition to the usual 
curiosity this new rumor of the mighty revolution soon to 
be the new kingdom was filling men's minds and occupy- 
ing their tongues. Advancing onward they had reached the 
edge of the city, the great crowd causing a bustle as they 
pressed around him, when above all their noises rose sud- 
denly a very distinct and most earnest cry 

" Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me !" 

It ceased for a moment or two, and over in the direction 
from which it had come were now heard angry objurgations 
and efforts to stifle the cry, but immediately the voice rose 
louder than before, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy 
on me!" 

It was from a beggar, Bartimeus by name, a blind man 
sitting by the road-side, that the cry had come. The sounds 
of an unusual crowd had fallen on his ear, as he sat there in 
darkness, the light of broad day quenched to his sightless 
balls. The multitude increased and were excitedly talking 
as of something unusual on the road. He stopped his own 
petitions for alms to inquire what it meant, and was told 
that " Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." What a thrill shot 
through the blind man ! Jesus there ! He raised the cry. 

It was offensive, however, to many of the crowd, for SON 
OF DAVID was one of the titles which in all Jewish belief 
was to be applied to the Messiah, and unbelievers quickly 
threw in their angry commands to him to be silent ; enraged 
men crowded about him, indignant, sharp tones and harsh 
words rung in his ear, but with a blind man's quick in- 
stincts he understood at once both them and his only hope, 

25* 



294 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

and he cried out only the louder in that cry of his earnest 
faith. 

Presently the angry men about him were pushed aside, 
and a friendly voice said, 

"Be of good comfort; rise : he calleth for thee." 
Jesus had stopped when the cry reached his ear, and had 
directed that he should be brought to him. The blind man 
dropping his outer garment in his haste, was led how he 
hurried those leading him! they seemed to be so slow! and 
now he felt that he stood before the Messiah. The colloquy 
was too earnest to be other than brief. 

" What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" 
" Lord, that I might receive my sight !" 
" Go thy way ; thy faith hath made thee whole." 
LIGHT ! yes, there was light poured into those balls : a 
world of faces flashed upon him, all of them with such in- 
tensified and startled looks; all but one, and on that, calm- 
ness and benevolence ruled ; that gentle face of Him bless- 
ing, even in his very look, those who had faith for the 
blessing. Him he saw, and a loud cry of gratitude, and 
praise, and of glorifying God burst out ; not from the healed 
man only, but from all the company around. They had 
gazed upon him as he had been led up ; saw his eager face; 
saw his hurried, agitated manner ; saw his sightless eyeballs, 
showing that there was an utter blank there; heard the 
colloquy : and gazing as if their whole souls were in their 
intensified look, saw these balls take clearness and expression 
of intelligence; saw the astonishment and joy in the man's 
face ; and involuntarily they burst out, too, in loud acclama- 
tions of praise to God. 

The restored man joined them most gladly in following 
Christ. 1 



1 Mark x. 46-52 ; Luke xviii. 35-43 ; Matt. xx. 30-34. Matthew 
speaks of two as being healed. Mark and Luke of but one. It is probable 



JERUSALEM. 295 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 
JERUSALEM. 

THE interest of this history now concentrates at Jerusa- 
lem ; and the events which transpired there make it 
necessary to give a detailed description of the city itself. 
Jerusalem with its surroundings was unique, picturesque, 
and in many parts beautiful, a place well worthy of our 
minute attention, even apart from the sacred associations 
which it must always have in our minds. 

The reader will imagine a valley running nearly north 
and south, (more accurately N. 5 E.) the valley of Jehosh- 
aphat, at the bottom of which, in the wet season, flowed 
the brook Kedron ; it was perhaps then as now, a dry water- 
course in the summer months. On the west side of this 
valley, we reach, by a steep ascent, at the height of 190 feet, 
the present surface of Moriah, which is 318 yards across. 
This has for its western boundary, the valley of Tyropeon 
(also formerly "the valley of Cheesemongers/') about half 
the depth of that of Jehoshaphat, and 117 yards in width. 
Crossing this valley westwardly, and again ascending to an 
elevation about equal to that of Moriah, we find ourselves 
on Mount Zion, " beautiful for situation, the joy of the 
whole earth." This mountain (or rather hill) is 600 yards 
across and three-fifths of a mile in length. On the west 



that Bartiraeus was the more noted of the two ; and it is a maxim among 
critics qui plura narrat pandora, complectitur ; qui pauciora memorat pluro 
non neyat ; he who describes the larger number embraces in it the fewer: he 
who notices the fewer, does not deny the larger. A similar case occurs in 
Matt. viii. 28-31 ; Mark v. 1-21 ; and Luke viii. 26-40. There may have 
been a healing also, before entering Jericho. See Luke xviii. 35-43. 



or 
OTI7BE 



296 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

and south of it passes the valley of Hinnom, shallow at 
first, but deepening as it goes southwardly, till at the south- 
west bend of Zion, it has a depth of 150 feet; and finally where, 
after curving around Zion on the south, and then taking an 
easterly course, it unites with the valley of Jehoshaphat, it 
is 300 feet deep. The Tyropeon, nearly at the point 
of their junction, opens into both, and has in it at its open- 
ing, the Pool of Siloam, placed by Milton (by poetic license) 
though 700 yards distant, "fast by the oracles of God. " 
Our imaginary journey, as the reader perceives, was from 
east to west; it passed just at the southern edge of the temple 
enclosure, which enclosure was opposite the northeast corner 
of Zion, a high stone bridge across the Tyropeon uniting 
the two. The portion of Mount Moriah south of the tem- 
ple-enclosure was called Ophel, and was occupied by the 
Nethenim or servants dedicated to the use of the temple 
(Nehemiah iii. 26): it terminates in a bluff forty feet high, 
just above the fountain of Siloam. 

The city wall, on the west and south, kept along the edge 
of the almost precipitous descent to the valley of Hinnom, 
until the Tyropeon was reached, when stretching across this, 
and then over the lower end of Ophel, it thence skirted the 
valley of Jehoshaphat, till it reached the southeastern angle 
of the great wall supporting the temple platform. On the 
north side of Zion, the wall also skirted the edge of the 
mountain, on the verge of a descent of thirty cubits, 1 and 
finally crossed the Tyropeon to the western wall of the tem- 
ple enclosure. 

In the course of time, a larger space was needed for the 
city ; and a hill, called Acra, adjoining Zion on the north- 
ward, and like that "surrounded by deep valleys," 2 was also 
enclosed by a wall carried along on the edge of its preci- 
pices, except where this crossed the lower ground to be 



1 Jos. Bell. v. 4, 4. 2 Ib. v. 1. 




Scale of yards. 
Map of Jerusalem and its environs, as they were in the time of Christ. 

A. Mount Zion. 

B. Acra, or Lower City. 

C. Temple Enclosure. 

D. Tower of Antonia. 

E. E. Bezetha, at that time built upon; not enclosed till A.D.40. The dotted lines show 
the probable course of these subsequent walls. 

F. The reputed place of the crucifixion. 

0. G. Valley of Jehoshaphat and Brook Kedron. 

II. Valley of Hinnomt the Lower Pool of Gihon is marked in it. 

1. Probable site of the Xystus, or place for public assemblies. 
K. Bridge across the Tyropeon. This valley extended down to 
L. The Pool of Siloam. 

M. Ophel. 

N. Double-arched bridge over the valley of Jehoshaphat ; (on authority of the ancient 
Rabbins). 

O. 0. 0. The Mount of Olives. 

P. Mount of Offence. See 1 Kings xi. 7 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 13. 
R. Camel road to Bethany and Jericho. 
S. Bethany. 

T. T. Probable route of David when escaping from Absalom. 2 Sum. xv., rvi. 
U. Present Damascus Gate. 



JER USA LEM. 299 

united with the wall of Zion, at a gate called Gennath : on 
the east, this wall of Acra, joined the tower of Antonia 
situated at the north of the temple enclosure. 1 

The city, however, grew finally even beyond Acra, and a 
large space of ground, north and east of that hill, reaching 
to the valley of Jehoshaphat, was covered with houses ; 
but this, called Bezetha, was not inclosed in our ^ Saviour's 
time; the wall afterwards bounding it on three sides, hav- 
ing been built by Agrippa at a period shortly subsequent 
to the crucifixion. 

Zion, Moriali, and Acra, although called mountains, in 
historical descriptions, did not rise above the general level 
of the country adjacent, and could be termed such only in 
consequence of being isolated by the surrounding valleys : 
but all this region had a considerable elevation above the 
Mediterranean, Zion being 2610, and the Mount of Olives 
2797 feet above the level of that sea. 

Let a spectator be supposed then in those ancient times to 
be seated on the Mount of Olives, and gazing down over 
Jerusalem. He would perceive that the general level of the 
city inclined to the eastward, and that every object was thus 
brought distinctly into view. The whole was like a map at 
his feet. Prominent over all, as well as nearest to him, 



1 No subject connected with the topography of Jerusalem lias given 
rise to such warm discussions as the course of this wall. The author after a 
most patient and thorough examination of the opposing authorities, has 
placed Acra in the northern extension of Moriah, (there wider than fur- 
ther south ;) this being apparently the only spot that would admit of Jo- 
sephus's description of its walls. Such a position also corresponds best to 
all the facts in his description of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. 
What is now called " the Damascus gate," was undoubtedly connected 
with that wall ; and the author has placed it at the northwestern angle in 
his map of Acra, in this book. 

The difficulty in topographical researches is enhanced by the fact that 
the present city is built upon about twenty feet of debris of the old one, 
which help to fill up valley? and to make outlines obscure. 



300 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

would be the " Mountain of the House," that huge mass of 
masonry composed of large stones with rebated faces and ris- 
ing to a height that overtopped every thing else, as if jealous 
respecting its pre-eminence* In fact, the summit of Acra, 
which was originally higher, had been cut down in order 
that " the temple might be superior to it." 1 From his eleva- 
tion on the Mount of Olives the spectator would be able to 
look over the ramparts of the exterior wall of the temple 
enclosure, and to see within it parts of the long cloisters 
with their marble columns in triple or quadruple rows, and 
the great marble-paved court ; he would see then rising on 
this platform the more sacred courts reached by great ranges 
of marble steps, and by huge doors glittering with gold and 
silver; and finally the temple itself, its front 150 feet wide 
and as many in height, "covered all over with plates of 
gold." The great altar would be sending up the smoke 
from its sacrifices, and even at his elevation he might hear 
the chanting from the many voices of worshippers, or the 
trumpets and other instruments sounded from the steps of 
the temple by the altar. 

Then below on the high stone bridge connecting Moriah 
with Zion would be multitudes passing between the temple 
and the city. 

The picturesque outline of the city walls would next per- 
haps attract the notice of the spectator, for as they were 
erected mostly on the edges of the precipices, their battle- 
mented outline, and the numerous towers built to strengthen 
them, would all stand out distinctly before his eye. Some of 
these towers had a singular combination of solidity below with 
an airy and delicate architecture above. The solid impenetra- 
ble substructure of one of them, Hippicus, at the northwest 
corner of Zion, still remains, the rebated work on its stones 
giving a good architectural effect to the solid unbroken wall. 



1 Jos. Bel. v. 4, g 1 ; Ibid. v. 5, I 6. 



JERUSALEM. 303 

Just eastward of Hippicus, and forming part of the defences 
at the northern end of Zion, were two other principal towers, 
one of which we will allow Josephus to describe: "The 
second tower which he [Herod the Great] named from his 
brother Phasaelus, had its breadth and its height equal, each 
of them forty cubits, over which was its solid height of forty 
cubits, over which a cloister went round about whose height 
was ten cubits, and it was covered from enemies by breast- 
works and bulwarks. There was also built over that clois- 
ter another tower, parted into magnificent rooms and a place 
for bathing, so that this tower wanted nothing that might 
make it appear to be a royal palace. It was also adorned 
with battlements and turrets, more than was the foregoing, 
and the entire altitude was about ninety cubits." 1 It will 
be remembered that it stood on the edge of a descent of thirty 
cubits. Hippicus was smaller, but similarly ornamented, 
and just eastward of Phasaelus and in the same wall was 
the tower Mariamne, named after Herod's late wife, smaller 
also than the latter, but "its upper buildings were more 
magnificent and had greater variety than the other towers 
had/' "Now as these towers," says Josephus, "were tall 
they appeared taller by the place on which they stood, for 
that very old wall wherein they were was built on a high 
hill, and was itself a kind of elevation that was still thirty 
cubits taller, over which the towers were situated, and thereby 
were made much higher to appearance." The other towers 
in the line of walls were inferior in ornament, but "the 
niceness of the joints and the beauty of the stones were in 
no way inferior to those of the holy house itself." These 
towers were twenty cubits wide, and as many in height, and 
above this solid substructure were rooms " of great magnifi- 
cence," and cisterns for rain-water ; Acra had forty and Zion 
sixty of such towers attached to their walls. "The whole 



1 Jos. Bel. v. 4, \ 3. 



304 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

compass of the city [including Bezetha] was thirty- threfc 
furlongs," or about four miles and a quarter of our measure, 
the dimensions not large, but we must remember that the 
cities of that region are compactly built, the streets being 
frequently only four or five feet in width. The population 
at the time of our Saviour is supposed to have been 200,000. 
Tacitus estimated it at much more than that. 

The palace of Herod the Great and its grounds were among 
the most striking features of the city, and for these, lest any 
other description may seem extravagant, we will again resort 
to Josephus. He had just been describing the towers Mari- 
amne and Phasaelus in the northern wall of Zion, and he 
adds : " Now as these towers were themselves at the north 
side of the wall the king had a palace inwardly thereto ad- 
joined, which exceeds all my ability to describe it, for it was 
so curious as to want no cost or skill in its construction, but 
was entirely walled about to the height of thirty cubits, and 
was adorned with towers at equal distances, and with large 
bed-chambers that would contain beds for a hundred guests 
a-piece, in which the variety of the stones is not to be ex- 
pressed, for^i large quantity of those that were rare of the 
kind was collected together. Their roofs were also wonder- 
ful, both for the length of the beams and the splendor of 
their ornaments. The number of the rooms was also very 
great, and the variety of the figures that were about them 
was prodigious ; their furniture was complete, and the great- 
est part of the vessels that were put in them was of silver 
and gold. There were besides many porticos one beyond 
another, round about, and in each of these porticos curious 
pillars, yet were all the courts that were exposed to the air 
everywhere green. There were moreover several groves of 
trees, and long walks throughout them, with deep canals and 
cisterns, that in several parts were filled with brazen statues 
through which the water ran." ' 

1 Jos. Bel. v 4, 24. 



JERUSALEM. 305 

There was also a palace on Acra, of which however we have 
no definite account. The castle of Antonia, joined to the 
northern side of the temple enclosure, was also a conspicu- 
ous object, both on account of its situation with one turret 
overtopping the temple precincts and looking directly down 
into its courts, and also for its vastness and magnificence ; 
" for the inward parts had the largeness and form of a palace, 
it being parted into all kinds of rooms and other conveni- 
ences with a court and places for bathing and broad spaces for 
camps, insomuch that by having all conveniences that cities 
wanted it might seem to be composed of several cities, but 
by its magnificence it seemed a palace." l 

The walls and towers were constructed with the white 
limestone, (Josephus calls it white marble), of that region ; a 
large portion of which was probably taken from beneath the 
city itself. Some curious persons, lately observing a small 
hole just outside the present northern city-wall, not unlike 
a burrow in the banks of a rabbit warren, enlarged it a lit- 
tle ; and through it they presently slid down into a subter- 
ranean chamber, about seven hundred feet long from north 
to south, and from three to four hundred feet in width, the 
height from ten to fifty feet. It has all been cut in the solid 
rock, with rude pillars at intervals to support the roof. A 
recent explorer says, " It was evidently a quarry, and I could 
see that the stones were all hewn and polished on the spot. 
On every side were immense piles of chippings, still bear- 
ing, like the rocky walls, the marks of the chisel. At the 
extreme end several huge blocks remain, not completely dis- 
lodged. From hence down to Moriah is an easy slope, along 
which they could easily have been rolled ;" and the floor of 
the chamber is descending, and in several places is hewn 
smooth. This quarry is underneath what in our map is 
represented as Acra. Doubtless there are many chambers 
and passages under Jerusalem, yet unknown. 

1 Jos. Bel. v. 5, 8. 
26* 



306 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

The grounds beyond the walls were covered over with 
gardens, among the enclosures of which the Roman soldiers, 
in the first assaults by Titus, became entangled and suffered 
bloody defeats. On the south of the city were the " king's 
gardens ;" and where the valleys of Hinnom and Jehosha- 
phat unite is still the well called after Nehemiah, which 
often overflows and refreshes the flat surface adjoining. 

Many an individual in those days lingered on the heights 
of Olivet, to gaze long on that scene below ; on the city, 
like a hive of human beings, many of its common struc- 
tures, doubtless, giving evidence of the wealth which the 
whole world poured toward Jerusalem ; on the battlemented 
walls and the numerous towers, all, from their position, 
brought into strong relief; on the castles and palaces, and 
the long, high bridge between Moriah and Zion, with its 
numerous passengers in full view ; on the beautiful green 
frame- work of gardens surrounding the city ; and most 
especially on the Mountain of the House, lifting its crown- 
ing splendor of the temple high in the air; the glitter of 
its gold partly hid by the smoke from the sacrificial altar 
curling upward, while were heard the sounds from the wor- 
shippers there, now sinking into low notes of music, and 
now rising to loud strains in the hallelujahs, and filling the 
air with their melody. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
THE PUBLIC ENTRT. 

FT! HE Messiah was now on his way to Jerusalem for the 
J- celebration of the Passover festival; and proceeding on- 
ward, after the cure of Bartimeus, he arrived in the even- 
ing at Bethany, where he was to spend the night. 



THE PUBLIC ENTRT. 307 

On the morrow, it quickly became evident that the pub- 
lic enthusiasm respecting him was going to break through 
all bounds, and to make a demonstration of itself, such as 
had never yet been seen. The rumor, " that the kingdom of 
God should immediately appear" was still spreading, and 
people were wrought up to a state of the highest expectancy; 
the excitement all the greater in consequence of the vague- 
ness of their surmisings, in which both curiosity and imagi- 
nation had the widest scope. He was now in Bethany, 
where he had raised the dead : what could not power such 
as that effect? Bartimeus and his companion had followed 
him, full of enthusiasm and ready to testify to every one 
whom they met, what had been done for them : many of 
those around Christ, had themselves witnessed this wonder- 
ful act. The excited company at Bethany was soon in- 
creased in consequence of the circulation of this new and 
stirring rumor circulating in Jerusalem itself and among the 
throngs already come up to the festival. For, although it 
wanted yet four days to the Passover, large numbers 1 had 
assembled, some of them from distant lands. 2 Strangers 
and citizens were full of excitement; and the feeling re- 
specting Christ, which had been kept hushed through fear 
of the rulers, and had dared to show itself only in whispers, 
was now beginning to take an outspoken and decisive char- 
acter. " How was this new kingdom to be established ?" 
The bitter hostility of the rulers toward him was well 
known : their plots for his death were also surmised. His 
denunciations of the hypocrisy of most of them had been 
public. " Would vengeance now overwhelm them, and 
make clear the way for his supremacy ? ?J " What would 
this new kingdom be?" We may well imagine what an 
excitement such surmisings would occasion amid a demon- 
strative people, such as they were; and that amid it, enthu- 



1 John xii. 12. 2 ib. verse 20. 



308 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

siasm for the Messiah would be constantly on the in- 
crease. 

Early in the morning he sent two of his disciples to a 
spot in the neighborhood of Bethany, where he said they 
would find an ass and her colt tied : these they were to 
bring to him. The owner, when informed who needed 
them, gave his immediate consent. There was an old pro- 
phecy by Zechariah, whose favorite theme had been the 
coming of the Messiah, and whose words were therefore 
greatly treasured by the Jews : " Rejoice greatly, O daugh- 
ter of Zion ; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem : behold thy 
king cometh unto thee: he is just and having salvation; 
lowly and sitting upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of 
an ass." 1 Even the triumphs of Christ were not to con- 
tribute to human pride. Kings advancing towards their 
capitals in triumphal processions, choose all the pomp and 
circumstance that can dazzle men's eyes; and whatever 
glory earth can afford is put in requisition, amid which the 
recipient of honors advances with a heart swelling in grati- 
fied ambition. What a contrast was there here, where even the 
triumph carried with it lessons to pride and pomp ; where 
humility ruled ; and where the emotion most manifest was 
to be in tears over approaching human woes. 

The principal road from Jericho through Bethany to 
Jerusalem has now doubtless exactly the course that it had 
in those ancient times. After leaving Bethany it passes by 
curves and gentle ascents along the offshoots of the eastern 
side of Olivet, until about half way to the city, it crosses, 
at considerable elevation, over the southern shoulder of the 
mountain, and by a gap among some cliffs emerges on its 
western side. There the city and temple burst suddenly 
upon the sight ; and as the ground on which they stand haa 
a slight inclination toward the east, the full extent, and all* 

1 Zech. ix. 9. 



THE PUBLIC ENTRY. 309 

the picturesque beauty and grandeur of Jerusalem and its 
surroundings are placed fully before the eye. The slanting 
descent thence to the Kedron is nearly a mile in length, 
and most of it is in full view from any part of the city and 
from the cloisters of the temple. 

The numbers attending Christ had multiplied; and as 
they advanced along the roads toward the city the excite- 
ment constantly increased. They had an indefinable idea 
that something extraordinary was to occur; the kingdom 
of heaven immediately to appear; and the accordance of the 
present scene with their ancient prophecy, this unusual 
manner of the Messiah's approach to the city, roused their 
expectations into the strongest enthusiasm. "Tell ye the 
daughters of Zion, Behold thy king cometh ;" and truly lie 
was there ! His kingdom mistaken, but the mistake adapted 
only to increase the powerful sensation. The enthusiasm 
presently broke through all the bounds that had been im- 
posed by the fear of their rulers ; the people from other 
parts of the country being indeed less fettered by this than 
the residents in Jerusalem. The multitudes, as they hurried 
out in great numbers to meet the procession, gathered up 
palm branches 1 such as they were accustomed to wave in 
their Hallels to Jehovah at the Feast of Tabernacles : and 
soon the cry arose, both among those preceding and those 
following the Messiah, " Hosanna," (that is, " Save, Lord, 
we beseech thee"), " Hosanna in the highest," u Blessed is 
the King that cometh in the name of the Lord : peace in 
heaven and glory in the highest." It was as if the temple 
service had been transferred to the heights of Olivet, the 
open mountain serving as God's grandest of sanctuaries, 
with spontaneous worship poured out there from overflowing 
hearts. Christ's enemies had quickly taken the alarm ; and 
Pharisees mixing with the crowd, cried out to him ? 



1 John xii. 12, 13. 



310 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

" Masted, rebuke thy disciples." 

But, far from disclaiming this worship paid to him as 
God, he replied, 

" If they should hold their peace, the stones would imme- 
diately cry out/' Their worship received no rebuke. 

In the city and on the cloisters of the temple people 
gathered in groups to gaze with extreme wonder at the sight. 
Fresh multitudes were hurrying up the mountain, at- 
tracted by the flying rumors, and as the enthusiasm was 
contagious were equally joining in the hosannas. "Blessed 
is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord/' was 
repeated among the cries : and the throngs were now cutting 
branches from the trees, and strewing them, as also their 
garments, in the way 1 before the Messiah, tokens of honor 
usually shown to eastern kings in those days. 2 

It had become a triumphal procession ; and the shouts of 
ff Hosanna in the highest," " Blessed is the kingdom of our 
Father David that cometh in the name of the Lord," " Ho- 
sanna to the Son of David," "Save, Lord, we beseech thee," 
floated over Moriah and over Zion ; a worship, the sponta- 



1 Matt. xxi. 8. 

2 Tholuck, in loco. The Targum on Esther, x. 15, says, "when Mor- 
decai went forth from the gate of the king's house, the streets were 
covered with myrtle and the porches with purple." See also 2 Kings 
ix. 13. 

The following singular incident is from Robinson's Researches, Vol. 
ii. p. 162: "At that time [just after the rebellion in 1834, against the 
Egyptian conscription] when some of the inhabitants [of Bethlehem] 
were already imprisoned, and all were in deep distress, Mr. Farran, then 
English consul at Damascus, was on a visit to Jerusalem, and had ridden 
out with Mr. Nicolayson to Solomon's pool. On their return, as they 
rose the ascent to enter Bethlehem, hundreds of the people, male and 
female, met them, imploring the consul to interfere in their behalf, and 
afford them his protection ; and all at once, by a sort of simultaneous 
movement, they 'spread their garments in the way' before the horses. 
The consul was affected to tears, but had, of course, no power to inter- 
fere." 



THE PUBLIC ENTRT. 313 

neity and heartiness of which were manifest to every one 
who heard. 

But suddenly the noises ceased ; and all turned to look 
in new wonder at him, who was the centre and the object of 
the demonstration. 

He was weeping. 

Had they been Pharisees and scribes around him, using 
taunts and threatenings, he could have met their insults 
with unruffled feelings; but these rejoicings of friends and 
these strong demonstrations of affection melted his heart 
into tenderness, as he thought of the doom gathering over 
the city there spread out, and so fair to look upon, and 
which would soon leave scarcely a vestige behind ; its peo- 
ple, and the hundreds of thousands who gathered there from 
all countries, after indescribable sufferings massacred, or 
tortured to death, or carried into slavery in distant lands. 
His prescient eye saw the Roman legions encircling the 
place ; saw the rush of combatants ; his ear heard the shouts 
of rage or despair ; he saw the dying and dead covering 
mountain-sides and valleys, after the fierce sorties. He saw 
the Roman lines of circumvallation ; and the sickening 
scenes within them throughout the city, as famine was 
doing its horrible work, till even a mother could feed on 
her own child ; saw the madness of sectaries among the 
people, till Jew was murdering Jew, and the streets were 
running with blood and were covered with corpses in 
the fratricidal combats ; saw finally the assault, the last 
struggles of the people, not for life, but in the madness of 
death, as the foreign hordes filled the streets and houses ; 
saw the temple on fire and people throwing themselves by 
hundreds from its battlements to the great depths below, 
resistance over only death now left. 

He was weeping ; and the crowds so lately filling the air 
with their joyful cries and their hymns of hosannas, stood 
now silent, looking on with curiosity and wonder. He said: 

27 



3H LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. ' 

"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, 
the things which belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid 
from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee that 
thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass 
thee round, and keep thee in on every side : and shall lay 
thee even with the ground and thy children within thee ; 
and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another ; 
because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." 

The multitudes heard him with very deep sadness ; but 
their reverence and demonstrations of affection were unaba- 
ted as the procession moved on, and so continued down the 
mountain and across the Kedron, and as they ascended by 
the eastern gate into the corridors of the temple. 

The whole city was by this time in a state of excitement; 
and people were hurrying about with the inquiry, what 
could it mean ? When they found at last that the noises, 
the hosannas, and exclamations were ascending now from 
the temple courts, thither streamed the vast city population, 
Pharisees, Scribes, Kabbis, the common multitudes, all 
in confusion hastening there with the hurried question : 
" Who is this ?" The crowds there answered : 
" This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee." 1 
Immediately some left the crowd, hurrying back to their 
homes. In those homes and along the streets were the de- 
crepid, the diseased, and the blind; and friends hastened 
now to them, with the thrilling intelligence that Jesus, with 
his miraculous healing powers, was in the temple. What 
news to them ! With outstretched arms, and appealing 
voices, they begged to be carried or led : and very soon the 
throngs about Christ were pushed asunder by eager men 
forcing openings amongst their dense masses and carrying 
the diseased; or by blind men, with objurgations and entrea- 
ties in the same breath, making their eager way, disregarded 

1 Matt. xxi. 10, 11. 



THE PUBLIC ENTRT. 315 

alike of priest, or Rabbi, or commoner ; only one thought 
filling their whole soul that wild, strange hope that they 
might receive sight and be cured ; their hope forcing every 
thing aside so that they might be quickly before Christ. 

The throngs yielded readily when they saw the cause; 
for the expectation of witnessing miracles became immedi- 
ately as intense almost as was the hope of the infirm them- 
selves. The lame were before him : they were healed. The 
blind pressed into his presence, and stood there for a moment 
or two, with faces showing the wrought-up feelings within, 
and with their sightless eye-balls so drearily blank and sadly 
disfiguring. But only for a moment : for at the word from 
Christ, those eye-balls changed ; a perceptive power had shot 
in them : the intensely earnest and entreating countenance 
was suddenly brightened with an expression of wildness of 
delight ; the spectators saw how perfect the cure was ; and 
all mingled with the joyful cry of the relieved men, their 
shouts of praises and of glorifying God. No wonder that 
there rang through all those courts of the temple such 
spontaneous, heartfelt strains of thanksgiving as had never 
been heard there before ; and could never have been known 
in the formal hymns and ceremonies of the priests. No 
wonder that the hosannas rose up louder and louder, shout 
after shout, as new and still more extraordinary cases of 
curing occurred; and that the children who had crowded 
there with the rest, and are always in their warm fresh 
hearts, quick in sympathies with sorrow and joy, and quick 
for open demonstrations, joined readily in the cry, 

" Hosanna to the Son of David ! Hosanna to the Son of 
David !" which was repeated everywhere in the courts. 

But there were also intensely angry faces among the 
crowds; and presently men rushed up to the Messiah, 
chief-priests and scribes they were, with the exclamation : 

"Hearest thou what they say?" 

Indeed the cry, " Hosanna to the Son of David," was a 



316 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

full acknowledgment of his Messiahship ; and unchecked as 
it was by him, it filled up the measure of these men's indig- 
nation and rage. They had witnessed the miracles just 
performed ; but in them sympathy with distress was extin- 
guished by malice, and by seeing how the crowds were 
carried away by his merciful deeds. They gnashed their 
teeth at the hosannas so broadly expressive, and broke in 
with the inquiry above : 

"Hearest thou what they say ?" ] referring to the children. 

" Yea : have ye never read, Out of the mouths of babes 
and sucklings thou hast perfected praise ?" 2 

It was a favorite method with the Messiah to parry their 
malicious assaults with some question which they could not 
answer, or which threw them into confusion, in which they 
lost their power to hurt. 

The Pharisees said among themselves, as they retired, 
discomfited from the scene, 

" Perceive ye that ye prevail nothing ? Behold the world 
is gone after him." 3 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 
AT THE TEMPLE. WOES DENOUNCED. 

THE Messiah returned that evening to the quiet of Beth- 
any, leaving behind him however in Jerusalem an 
agitated people, full of emotions of various kinds. The 
hosannas, long after night had spread its silence over the 
city, seemed to the rulers to be still ringing in their ears ; 
and the scenes on the side of Olivet, and in the temple, 



1 Matt. xxi. 15, 16. 2 Ps. viii. 2. John xii. 19. 



AT THE TEMPLE. 317 

the outburst of enthusiasm among the populace the mirac- 
ulous cures and consequent rejoicings were still haunting 
them, long after they had retired to their homes. 

Their chagrin was not allayed the next morning by rumors 
of fresh occurrences ; namely, that Christ was again in the 
temple, and was a second time cleansing it of the abomina- 
tions which notwithstanding his former expulsion of the 
Colbonists and the sellers of oxen and birds, had been re- 
newed in the temple courts. " It is written," he said, " My 
house is the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den 
of thieves." Many of the people had suffered from the 
haughtiness and extortions of the Colbonists, and were glad 
now to see severity used upon them ; and the convictions 
of all were with him as regarded the desecration of the 
temple, where chaffering had once more taken the place of 
prayer, where the lowing of cattle was mingling with the 
sounds of people's devotions, and the spirit engendered was 
that of greedy gain. 

When the place had been cleansed and order restored, the 
Messiah proceeded to teach in the cloisters ; the multitudes 
still retaining the enthusiasm of the previous day, and list- 
ening with the deepest earnestness to his doctrines. But 
among them were men now fully bent on his destruction, 
provoked to still greater wrath by the events of the morn- 
ing, and by seeing how in every act whether of gentleness 
and healing, or of force, he was carrying with him and 
from these rulers, the affections of the people. They " feared 
him because all the people were astonished at his doctrine/' 1 
In the evening he returned to Bethany. 

On the next day he came again to the temple, and recom- 
menced his teaching, when the chief priests and elders irri- 
tated beyond endurance, made an effort to overpower him 
by an official demand respecting his power to teach. 



i Mark xi. 15-18. 
27* 



318 LIFE- SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

"By what authority doest thou these things? and who 
gave thee this authority ?" 

Their object was doubtless to bring him into discredit 
with the people by making it evident that he had received 
no scholastic training, and had no diploma from the Rabbis : 
but it was defeated in a very simple manner. Indeed, the 
simplicity of means by which, often, their chicanery was 
foiled, is one of the most striking things in his encounters 
with these men. He said, 

" I will also ask you one thing ; and answer me. The 
baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men ?" They 
saw the drift of the question, and hesitated. If they should 
say from heaven, he would ask, why then do ye not believe 
him? If of men so they murmured to each other, "all 
the people will stone us : for they be persuaded that John 
was a prophet." They answered : 

"We cannot tell." 

"Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these 
things." 1 

"We must frequently observe the great skill combined with 
very simple means with which Christ either parried or re- 
butted the attacks upon him by the rulers. They tried 
every method for bringing him into a dilemma, some con- 
tradiction of himself, or some position of danger before the 
people or before the government. Lengthy discussions with 
such men would have been unwise, yet it was necessary to 
answer them. His new doctrines that for instance of the 
kingdom where all men loving God would be equal before 
Jehovah were often adapted to produce a revulsion of feel- 
ing in any Jewish audience, yet still they were truths which 
had to be uttered. The cunning of his adversaries was of 
the sharpest kind, and ready t:> take ad vantage of every pre- 
judice among the people, and to use it as a means of as- 



1 Mark xi. 27-33. 



AT THE TEMPLE. 319 

sault : and so they came with questions, often frivolous ones 
which yet required attention ; or others adapted to entangle 
him in a variety of ways. Sometimes he relieved himself, 
as in this instance, by simply putting a counter-question : 
very often by a parable containing simply an answer, or a 
refutation, or perhaps a very startling doctrine couched in a 
manner not to give offence to the listening multitudes, of 
whom he was evidently more hopeful than of the leaders. 
Sometimes however he broke through all trammels, at the 
risk of giving deadly offence to both. Indeed if we con- 
sider what the universal prejudices of the Jewish people 
were, we must believe that there was a wonderful attrac- 
tiveness in Christ to keep the multitudes from discarding 
him entirely, after some of his bold declarations. Once, 
as we know, all did leave him except the twelve, and he 
said to them, " Will ye also go away?" 

He gave now in the temple-courts, while the people and 
rulers were about him, an instance of this boldness by utter- 
ing some parables exceedingly sharp in their tenor and ap- 
plication: for the conclusion was, " Therefore I say unto 
you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and 
given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." 1 

It was a prophecy of a most frightful nature to them. 
The chief priests and Pharisees were aware that the appli- 
cation bore chiefly on them as the rulers, " but when they 
sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitudes :" 
for the people, even with such a terrible warning sounding 
in their ears, had still the glow in their hearts toward him 
occasioned by the incidents of that day. If the leaders had 
attempted violence on him, the multitudes would have re- 
sisted and a tumult ensued, with a consequent vengeful in- 
terference by the Roman government : for through all these 
scenes the guards were keeping a careful watch from that 
tower in the southeast corner of Antonia. 

1 Matt. xxi. 28-32, and 33-46 ; xxii. 1-14. 



320 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

But a crisis was evidently approaching. The rulers, in 
connection with their intended violence toward him, were 
consulting " that they might put Lazarus also to death ; be- 
cause by reason of him many of the Jews went away and 
believed on Jesus." 1 

At present, uniting once more in a strange fellowship with 
their opponents, the Herodians, they sent some of their 
disciples with the latter ; and both having made their way 
up to the Messiah, they began in a suspiciously-complimen- 
tary address : 

" Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the 
way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man ; for 
thou regardest not the persons of men. Tell us, therefore, 
what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, 
or not ?" 

If he should answer in the negative, the Herodians were 
there to accuse him of hostile feeling toward the Roman 
government; if in the affirmative, he must excite the hos- 
tility of the Jews, to whom the tribute was hateful in its 
nature, and burdensome from its excess. 

He saw their cunning, and the wickedness in their appar- 
ent compliment that he cared for no man, nor regarded the 
persons of men. 

" Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites ?" he said. " Show me 
the tribute money." 

A penny (a Roman denarius) was brought. 

" Whose is this image and superscription ?" They told 
him it was Csesar's. 




A Denarius of the time of Tiberius Caesar. 



John xii. 10, 11. 



AT THE TEMPLE. 321 

" Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Cae- 
sar's ; and unto God the things that are God's." 

They gained nothing by this attempt ; and another was 
now made by the Sadducees, unbelievers respecting any fu- 
ture state. They came to him propounding a certain case, 
intended to perplex any opponent to their doctrine; and 
they were answered : and then came a lawyer, " tempting 
him." 

" Master, which is the great commandment in the law ?" 
He answered : 

- " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the 
first and great commandment. And the second is like unto 
it, Thou slialt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two 
commandments hang all the law and the prophets." 

He himself became interrogator now. 

" What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?" 

The Pharisees answered, " The son of David ;" and some 
questions on this subject finished the colloquy, and the pub- 
lic effort of his enemies on this day. 

But it did not finish the exciting scenes in those tem- 
ple-courts. It was a mixed assemblage there; the rulers, 
Scribes and Pharisees; the disciples; the vast multitude 
which had been increasing every day at Jerusalem for the 
Passover, and which had gathered up here to hear the words 
of this Wonderful Person. He turned now to these last 
and to his disciples, and cautioned them against the Scribes 
and Pharisees, showing how the precepts of these men were be- 
lied by their conduct ; and denouncing their hypocrisy and 
vain-gloriousness, their impositions on the people, and their 
assumptions. Of persons wishing to be his own followers, 
he said, 

" But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. 
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased ; and he 
that shall humble himself shall be exalted." 



322 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

He turned then to the Scribes and Pharisees themselves. 
His words recently spoken had excited the astonishment of 
the multitudes, for they were not accustomed to hear their 
religionists publicly addressed in his bold, denunciatory style, 
and the leaders themselves had winced repeatedly as with 
many a scowling look and many a vow of vengeance they 
had listened to what they dared not dispute with one who 
seemed to penetrate their hearts, and who knew their lives 
so well. They saw also the looks of the people evidencing 
even through the marks of astonishment their approval 
and assent to what he said, and witnessed with horrified 
forebodings the enthusiasm he was lighting up in the hearts 
of the multitudes, who were evidently fast sliding away 
from the Pharisaic rule. But there was little time for their 
observation of others, for he turned now directly to them- 
selves, and their blood curdled with rage at words which 
now fell on their ears. 

"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 
ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye 
neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are en- 
tering, to go in. 

"Woe unto yon, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 
ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long 
prayer ; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 

"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 
ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte ; and when 
he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than 
yourselves. 

"Woe unto you, ye blind guides, who say, Whosoever 
shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever 
shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. Ye 
fools and blind. * * * 

"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 
ye pay tithes of mint and anise and cummin, and have 
omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, 



AT THE TEMPLE. 3 2 3 

and faith ; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave 
the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, 1 
and swallow a camel. 

"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 
ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but 
within they are full of extortion and excess. * * * 

" Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for 
ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear 
beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones 
and all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear 
righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and 
iniquity. 

"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! be- 
cause ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the 
sepulchres of the righteous. * * * Wherefore be ye wit- 
nesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them 
which killed the prophets. 

" Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 

" Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape 
the damnation of hell ?" * * * 

It was terrible, and the people stood in silent astonish- 
ment and awe, wondering to hear denunciations poured out 
in this burning, lava-like stream, on the sanctimonious- 
looking men lately so lordly and pretentious, now standing 
mute in self-conviction or in rage. It must have been a 
strange thing too to see those features of Christ, usually 
marked with such gentleness, mingled with grandeur, now 
worked up into an expression awful in its power, as if the 
terribleness of the final judgment-seat were here being anti- 
cipated and exhibited on Moriah's temple heights. They 
gazed with wonder on that face, lighted up as they had never 
seen it before ; they trembled at words so terrible, the more 

1 In a former page was noticed that they strained the water for drink- 
ing, lest they might inadvertently swallow unclean animals ; the camel 
was also an unclean animal. 



324 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

terrible because the multitudes felt their justice upon men 
whom their better feelings had long taught them to doubt, 
though fear had kept them in restraint. There was a mighty 
eloquence in the language, a singular force in the manner of 
delivery, and a horror of doom in the terrible climax, that 
held the people in breathless wonder, and filled them with 
awe. If to any one now the words seem to be too terrible, we 
must remember that these were men who, thoroughly wicked 
at heart, were making the highest claims for sanctity, and 
were exercising the largest power over the nation, giving 
tone to society and character to the country, both at home 
and abroad. They were, above all, the authors and conser- 
vators of that mysterious, terrible, unwritten law, which 
might be moulded into any form, and in every form was 
claiming a power greater than God's own Word. He shows 
in this address some of the uses to which it could be applied, 
but doubtless we have exhibited to us only a small portion of 
the evils of which it was the origin. The people had always 
succumbed to these men; it was desirable that the nation 
should be aroused, as if by a peal of thunder, and if it were 
yet possible should be disenthralled. 

But presently the language changed. The speaker turned 
from the woes to a rapid sketch of the murderous persecu- 
tions these men would soon instigate and carry into exe- 
cution on " prophets and wise men and scribes" coming after 
him, and to notice the terrific visitations gathering over the 
city in consequence of their iniquitous rule, and then carried 
away by his knowledge of the horrible scenes which he knew 
these rulers were bringing on the city, and by his sympa- 
thies he broke out in that lamentation over it which has 
never been equalled for pathetic force of language : 

" O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets 
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would 
I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gather- 
eth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! Be- 



AT THE TEMPLE. 325 

hold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto 
you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed 
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." 1 

Doubtless it was this lament which when these exciting 
scenes were all over, and he was preparing toward evening 
to leave the courts, led the disciples to say, as they pointed to 
the temple and its " goodly stones and gifts :" 

" Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings 
are here !" 

They thought perhaps that the sacredness of the spot and 
the costliness of the work and offerings, a hearty tribute of 
the nation to God, might produce an exception for it in the 
foretold doom, but there was to be none. 

" Seest thou these great buildings ?" he answered ; " there 
shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be 
thrown down/' 2 

A quiet evening after so exciting a day, fell on the Mes- 
siah and his disciples as they were ascending Olivet on their 
way to Bethany once more; the last night, it was to be, 
which the Master was to spend in that house of kind and 
hospitable friends. 

On the ascending slope of the mountain he sat down for 
a while by the road-side over against the temple, 3 and against 
all that fair scene of city and country below : temple, palaces, 
battlements, towers, and the great hives of human habita- 
tions, all distinctly in sight. The smoke of the evening 
sacrifices was ascending ; the evening sounds of a large city 
(sounds never noisy as with us, no rattling of carriages, but 
more gentle) filled the air; it was such a quiet and calm 
and fair scene that it might seem as if to last forever ; so 
little there appeared outwardly to court danger, and so much 
of peace and innocent enjoyment and repose. 

But within the walls there were fierce and hellish passions 



Matt, xxiii. 1-39. 2 Mark xiii. 1, 2. 3 Mark xiii. 3. 

28 



326 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

at work in the hearts of rulers, and secretly and with silent 
steps the ruin of Jerusalem was now drawing near. 

As the Messiah sat there by the road-side gazing down 
with eyes in which such anticipations might be read, the dis- 
ciples came to him and said privately : 

" Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign 
will there be when these things shall come to pass?" He 
replied : 

" Take heed that ye be not deceived/' l and he gave them 
signs by which they might know of the approach of the final 
catastrophe to Jerusalem; 2 by observing which afterward 
it doubtless was that so many of the Christians taking re- 
fuge in other cities were then saved. But the scene which 
he sketched there to the disciples of their own future must 
have been appalling to them, even with the dimness of com- 
prehension and the mistakes which still affected their minds. 
He said : 

" They shall deliver you up to councils, and in the syna- 
gogues ye shall be beaten, and ye shall be brought before 
rulers and kings for my sake fora testimony against them/' 3 
" They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, de- 
livering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, being 
brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake." " Ye 
shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kins- 
folks, and friends, and some of you shall they cause to be 
put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my 
name's sake. But there shall not a hair of your head perish. 
In your patience possess ye your souls." 4 

He promised them supernatural help, which at that time 
could be but imperfectly understood by them ; but he called 
them to meet dangers of which they did have a clear com- 
prehension the hatred of all men, betrayals, insults, vio- 
lent death. 

1 Luke xxi. 7. Matt. xxiv. 15-28 ; Luke xxi. 20-37. 

' Mark xiii. 9. * Luke xxi. 12-19. 



THE PLOT. 327 

The world has never yet appreciated the heroism of Chris- 
tianity, perhaps never will appreciate it. The milder qual- 
ities of that religion gentleness, peacefulness, and other 
traits, meekness and forgiveness of injuries considered mean- 
spirited by the world are so much oftener dwelt upon in 
men's minds with sensations of shrinking from them, that the 
great, noble heroism of Christianity is not well understood. 
This itself is also not an impressive heroism except on pecu- 
liar and rare occasions, for its acts lie in self-conquest deep 
in our hearts, in a fixedness of endurance which insults can- 
not shake, and in a preparedness for death itself in the Mas- 
ter's cause, if that should be required. Persecutions to this 
last extent do not often occur now, but the heroism to meet 
them, if they should come, must be received into every man's 
heart before he can be a Christian in truth. The Master 
led the way in this, knowing all the horror of such an end, 
and feeling it, yet meeting it still. He called his disciples 
to it here on the mountain-side, not disguising any part, but 
showing clearly what they had to encounter ; he requires it 
of his followers now the highest and noblest feeling in man, 
courage unto death for a principle and through love. Such is 
Christianity if received into the soul ; such in its incipiency, 
in its constant staying there, and to the last gasp of life. 



CHAPTER XL. 
THE PLOT. 



WHILE the events just narrated were transpiring on the 
side of Olivet the Sanhedrim were in session in the 
house of Caiaphas, the high-priest, witff the determined 



328 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

purpose to take Jesus by subtilty and to kill him, 1 and the 
seizure in order to be successful they believed must be effected 
by night not by day. For the popularity of the Messiah 
among the multitudes was now so great that an open, pub- 
lic attempt would only recoil upon themselves. 

They believed that it was necessary now for something 
decisive to be done, and that their action must be prompt. 
The scenes of that day in the temple showed that there could 
be no circumventing him, or bearing him down by the 
weight of authority, and that by no cunning could he be 
made to commit himself -in the eyes of the government or 
the people. In all such plots they had met with worse than 
defeat. And the closing events at the temple, the warn- 
ings against them and those woes had stung them into a rage 
which they felt demanded only one result. 

But oven among themselves there were men now secretly 
favoring Christ ; kept from avowing it through fear of their 
compeers, and of the decree that any one acknowledging 
him should be excommunicated. "They loved the praise 
of men more than the praise of God," 2 and perhaps no bet- 
ter example of the crushing weight of the Pharisaic power 
could be given than this awe felt by part of the rulers them- 
selves, sealing the mouth and preventing any outward de- 
monstration, although in their secret conscience believing in 
Christ. We are soon to have in events to be detailed an ex- 
emplification of the subtility and unscrupulousness of the San- 
hedrim exhibited in their ready violation of all their own laws 
and usages, and of the political pretensions of their whole lives. 

They met this time, for the sake of secrecy, not in their 
chamber at the temple, but in the house of Caiaphas ; and 
there they laid their plans. 

There were several very serious difficulties in their way. 
In the first place, they had not the power to put any man to 



1 Matt. xxvi.*S-5. 2 John xii. 42, 43. 



THE PLOT. 329 

death. Three years previously, the Roman government had 
taken this privilege from the Sanhedrim : and, although, 
not long after the crucifixion, Stephen was stoned to death 
just outside of Jerusalem without authority from the gover- 
nor, it was done by a sudden rush, and an irregular act of 
violence, not by formal vote of the Sanhedrim, although 
doubtless they were pleased with the result. In the case of so 
great a personage, and so beloved by the people as the Mes- 
siah, any such deed could not be attempted ; especially at 
the Passover, when the governor himself was at Jerusalem. 

In addition to this, " the whole criminal proceeding pre- 
scribed in the Pentateuch rests upon three principles, which 
may be thus expressed : publicity of the trial ; entire liberty 
of defence allowed to the accused, and a guaranty against 
the dangers of testimony. One witness was not sufficient." 1 
The Hebrew lawyers, in relation to cases where life was at 
stake, maintained that, "A tribunal which condemns to 
death once in seven years may be called sanguinary." " It 
deserves this appellation," said Dr. Eliezur, " when it pro- 
nounces like sentence in seventy years :" 2 moreover, according 
to the Talmudists, it was not lawful to try causes of a capi- 
tal nature in the night, and it was equally unlawful to 
examine a cause, pass sentence and put it in execution the 
same day. The last was very strenuously insisted on. 3 The 
proper and constant time for the sitting of the Sanhedrim 
was from the end of the morning service to the beginning 
of the evening service ; sometimes the sessions were pro- 
longed till night, and then they might determine what they 
had been deliberating on by day: but they might not begin 
any new business by night. 4 

The forms of trial also, allowed to the accused every op- 
portunity for defence; and placed the greatest restrictions 



1 Olshausen. 2 Olshausen. 8 Jahn's Arch. 
* Lightfoot Courts of the Temple. 

28* 



33 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

upon judges against haste in action. Says an eminent 
French advocate who has written on this subject: 

"On the day of trial, the executive officer of justice 
caused the accused person to make his appearance. At the 
feet of the elders were placed men who, under the name of 
auditors or candidates, followed regularly the sittings of the 
council. The papers in the case were read, and the wit- 
nesses called in succession. The President addressed this 
exhortation to each of them : ( It is not conjectures, or 
whatever public rumor has brought to thee, that we ask of 
thee : that we are not occupied by an affair, like a case of 
pecuniary interest, in which the injury may be repaired. If 
thou causest the condemnation of a person unjustly accused, 
his blood, and the blood of all the posterity of him, of whom 
thou wilt have deprived the earth, will fall upon thee: God 
will demand of thee an account, as he demanded of Cain an 
account of the blood of Abel. Speak/ * * * The 
witnesses were to attest to the identity of the party, and to 
depose to the month, day, hour, and circumstances of the 
crime. After an examination of the proofs, those judges 
who believed the party innocent stated their reasons : those 
who believed him guilty spoke afterwards, and with the great" 
est moderation. If one of the auditors or candidates was 
entrusted by the accused with his defence ; or if he wished, 
in his own name, to present any elucidations in favor of in- 
nocence, he was admitted to the seat, from which he ad- 
dressed the judges and the people. But this liberty was not 
granted to him if his opinion was in favor of condemning. 
Lastly ; when the accused person himself wished to speak, 
they gave most profound attention. When the discussion 
was finished, one of the judges recapitulated the case. They 
removed all the spectators ; two scribes took down the votes 
of the judges ; one of them noted those that were in favor 
of the accused, and the other, those who condemned him. 
Eleven votes out of twenty-three were sufficient to acquit ; 



THE PLOT. 331 

but it required thirteen to convict. * * If a majority of 
the votes acquitted, the accused was discharged instantly ; if 
he was to be punished, the judges postponed pronouncing 
sentence till the third day : during the intermediate day, 
they could not be occupied with anything but the cause ; 
and they abstained from eating freely, and from wine, li- 
quors, and everything which might render their minds less 
capable of reflection. 

" On the morning of the third day they returned to the 
judgment-seat. Each judge who had not changed his 
opinion said, I continue of the same opinion and condemn. 
Any one who at first condemned might, at this sitting, ac- 
quit ; but he who had once acquitted was not allowed to 
condemn. If a majority condemned, two magistrates im- 
mediately accompanied the condemned person to the place 
of punishment. The Elders did not descend from their 
seats; they placed at the entrance of the judgment-hall an 
officer of justice, with a small flag in his hand; a second 
officer on horseback, followed the prisoner, and constantly 
kept looking back to the place of departure. During this 
interval, if any person came to announce to the elders any 
new evidence favorable to the prisoner, the first officer waved 
his flag, and the second one, as soon as he perceived it, 
brought back the prisoner. If the prisoner declared to the 
magistrates that he recollected some reasons which had es- 
caped him, they brought him before the judges no less thaii 
five times. If no incident occurred, the procession advanced 
slowly, preceded by a herald, who, in a loud voice, addressed 
the people thus: 'This man (stating his name and surname) 
is led to punishment for such a crime ; the witnesses who 
have sworn against him are such and such persons : if any 
one has evidence to give in his favor, let him come forth 
quickly.' " ] 

1 " Trial of Jesus," by Dupin, Advocate and Doctor of Laws. Trans- 
lated from the French by J. Pickering, LL. D. 



33 2 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Such were the restrictions which the chief-priests and 
scribes and elders chiefly Pharisees should have felt in 
their deliberations " to take Jesus by subtilty and kill him;" 
but they had now determined, in order to accomplish their 
purpose, to disregard all restrictions of usages and law. If 
they could seize him by night, well into the night, when 
the multitudes would be asleep, they might avoid an uproar 
among the people : if they could, by a night conclave, estab- 
lish charges against him and condemn him, he would then, 
when the people would awake in the morning, be in an 
attitude of an already convicted criminal ; and the multi- 
tudes would be stupefied, or at least kept in a state of won- 
der, and thus in check : moreover, if they could condemn 
him on a charge of blasphemy, the most hideous of all 
charges in the eyes of the Jewish nation, the people not 
knowing how the trial had been conducted, but only of the 
condemnation under it, might be led, by a sudden revulsion 
of feeling to swerve from favor to the opposite extreme of 
hatred, and might themselves join in the condemnation. 
The rulers might also work on the intense popular feeling 
of pride in their temple, by charging him with a wish to 
destroy that temple ; and could enter this also in their con- 
demnation. Then there would be but another step to be 
taken ; and the way for that would now be prepared. The 
Sanhedrim could not order an execution ; but, they might, 
on the charge of treason against the Roman government, 
induce the governor to give such an order : and this ruler 
was now in Jerusalem, ready to their hand. His residence 
was at Csesarea ; but he was always in this city on the great 
festivals, for the double purpose of guarding against insur- 
rections, and of holding court for the trial of great criminals; 
the inferior one being left to the Jewish elders themselves. 
The Sanhedrim wanted, in this case, to have a punishment 
inflicted that would not only gratify their revenge, but 
would stamp the sufferer with infamy, and annihilate respect 



THE PLOT. 333 

and hope in his adherents; and this could be brought about 
most readily by charging Christ with attempting to put 
down the Roman authority, and to elevate himself, as king, 
instead ; a crime sure to bring on him the severest punish- 
ment that the Roman power could inflict. If the governor 
\vould not listen to this charge, they might then take one 
step further, and one pretty sure to be successful, by insinu- 
ating that charges against his own loyalty could be sent on 
to Rome, and be laid at the feet of Tiberias, whose keen 
jealousy of power and unscrupulous despotism were fully 
known to all. 

Such was clearly their arranged plan : for it is evident 
that, through the whole trial, they proceeded according to a 
settled scheme of action ; and the suborned witnesses, previ- 
ously prepared, knew, when brought forward, exactly what 
they were to say. 

The meetings of the Sanhedrim were properly in their 
own room by the temple or in their larger council house 
below ; but in case of emergency, they might be held in the 
palace of the high priest; and this was to be now their place 
of consultation, as there it would have less publicity than in 
their usual places of assemblage. 

We have seen on a former occasion the kind of men, of 
which their law required the Sanhedrim to be composed. 
The high priest was president; and in order that the reader 
may have some knowledge of the High Priests and their 
title to respectability in the Jewish nation, the subjoined list 
from Lightfoot is furnished, beginning with the 23d from 
the Babylonish captivity ; we will remember, here, what the 
Jewish writer, Jost, says on a former page, " that a priest- 
hood, which the king [Herod] conferred on whom he pleased, 
and of whose incumbents he had killed two and deposed 
four, &c., could by no means satisfy the requisitions of God's 
government, and of the Judaism resulting from it." The 
list is as follows : 



334 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

23. Hyreanus ; his mother, Alexandra, an ambitious woman and the 
equally ambitious Pharisees, rule the nation. 

24. Aristobulus, younger brother of Hyreanus, after the death of 
their mother, makes war upon his brother, drives him from his 
kingdom to a private life, and takes both his priesthood and his 
kingdom to himself. They both desire help from the Romans, 
Scaurus and Pompey: Aristobulus, provoking Pompey, causes 
the sacking of Jerusalem and the subjugation of the Jews to the 
Roman yoke, from under which they were never relieved. 
Pompey restores the high-priesthood to Hyreanus and carries 
Aristobulus and his son Antigonus to Rome. 

25. Alexander, son of Aristobulus, escaping from Pompey on the 
way to Rome, is made high-priest ; tries to subvert the govern- 
ment, and his effort is twice suppressed by the Roman Gabinius. 

26. Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, escapes from Rome, and gets the 
high-priesthood. Hyreanus (23d high-priest), delivered into his 
hands by the Parthians, kneels before Antigonus, who bites off 
his uncle's ears, so that the latter might no longer aspire to the 
high-priesthood. 1 Antigonus is taken by Antony, whipped, cru- 
cified, and decapitated. 

27. Ananelus, an inferior priest, sent for out of Babylon, is made 
high-priest by Herod. Alexandra, daughter of Hyreanus, com- 
bining with Mariam, Herod's wife, had him deposed, and 
caused him to be succeeded by 

28. Aristobulus, fifteen years of age, of rare beauty. After one 
year's enjoyment of it, he is drowned by Herod's order, and 
Ananelus (No. 27) is restored. 

29. Jesus son of Farans. Herod deposes him. 

30. Simon son of Boethius. Herod married his daughter, and made 
him high-priest. 

31. Matthias, son of Theophilus. Deposed by Herod. 

32. Jozarus, son of Simon (No. 30). Herod deposes him. 

33. Eleazur ; made high-priest by Archelaus. 

34. Jesus, son of Sie ; gets Eleazur removed, and has his place. 

35. Jozarus (No. 32) again. Was high-priest at the birth of Christ. 
Removed. 

36. Ananus ; made high-priest by Cyrenius. Removed. 

37. Ismael; appointed by Valerius Gratus, governor of Judea. 
Removed by Gratus at the end of one year. 2 



1 Jos. Bel. i. 13, I 9. 8 Jos. Ant. xviii. 2, { 2. 



THE SUPPER AT BETH ANT. 335 

38. Eleazuiv son of Anamis ; appointed by Gratus ; held it one 
year ; removed by the same. 

39. Simon ; appointed by Gratus ; held it one year. 

40. Caiaphas, also called Josephus. He was Gratus's creature also. 

These four changes were made by Gratus in eleven years. 
Annas, or Ananus, who had been high-priest, four changes be- 
fore him, is said to be high-priest with him, (Luke iii. 2). Cai- 
phas was [afterwards] removed by Vitellius. 1 

This will help us to form an idea of the tribunal plotting 
the death of the Messiah by subtilty, and before which he 
was to appear for judgment a body of seventy men, almost 
entirely Pharisees chiefly such characters as he had deline- 
ated in his temple address ; some believing on him, but too 
timid to acknowledge their belief; at their head a high- 
priest, at a time when that office was given or taken away 
at the caprice of the Roman governor, and was little re- 
spected ; the Sanhedrim, sufficiently full of hate itself, and 
stimulated still more by the other Scribes and Pharisees. 
The recklessness with which this body proceeded in the 
trial to tread under foot all former laws and usages and 
went forward to the end, shows the strength of the venom 
in their hearts. 



CHAPTER XLI. 
THE SUPPER AT BETHANY. JUDAS. 

THE means which the Sanhedrim desired for effecting 
their purposes were speedily found. There was a traitor 
among the disciples themselves. 

Events have just been multiplying so fast, that an effort 



Lightfoot. 



LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

will be necessary, in order to keep them clearly in "Our minds. 
We therefore recapitulate and observe that, 

The 9th of the Jewish month, Nisan, corresponding to 
our Saturday, (the Jewish Sabbath), the Messiah spent at 
Jericho. 

10th. He came to Bethany. 

llth. His public entry into Jerusalem ; returns for the 
night to Bethany. 

12th. Comes again to Jericho. Cleanses the temple; 
teaches ; returns to Bethany. 

13th. Wednesday. Again in Jerusalem ; discourses in the 
temple. The woes denounced. The Sanhedrim have their 
consultation and form their plans. 

On the evening of this last day, after those denunciations 
in the temple, and the quiet scene on Olivet where the disciples, 
in the anticipation of common danger, drew nearer in heart 
to their Master than ever before, he and they proceeded to 
Bethany, where they were now entertained at supper in the 
house of " Simon the leper," Lazarus being one of the 
guests at the feast. 1 Among the Jews, a slight dinner, 
chiefly of fruits, milk, cheese, etc., was eaten at eleven 
o'clock of our time, their principal meal being at six or 
seven in the evening. Their feasts were always at this lat- 
ter time. Hands were washed before eating, and the feet 
of the guests or travellers also, sometimes by servants, or by 
members of the family, where particular honor was in- 
tended, 2 as is done indeed at the present day. 

This time was one when all the tender sensibilities of 
Christ's friends were deeply aroused ; for there was in all 
of them a sense of some impending danger to him of 
probably some fearful calamity ; his own words, the known 



1 Matt. xxvi. 6 ; John xii. 2. 

2 See 1 Sam. xxv. 41 ; Gen. xviii. 4, and xix. 2 ; also " Robinson's He- 
searches," Vol. iii. p. 25, describing the manner in which the feet of his 
party were washed at Eamleh. 



THE SUPPER AT BETH ANT. 337 

fierce and cunning wrath of his enemies, and the scenes of 
the day, all going to show that a crisis must be drawing 
nigh. Every person knew that those woes hurled so thickly 
on the rulers would not be forgotten : these men had never 
been so reprobated, exposed, and in effect defied, before ; and 
all this now by one individual, without resources in govern- 
mental help or powerful friends. Only a miracle could save 
him ; and that exercise of power although within his reach, 
he had intimated he would not exert. He had said that he 
would submit, and had declared that his death by violence 
was near : and the prophet long before had said that he 
should be " led as a sheep to the slaughter," that " the chas- 
tisement of our peace was [to be] upon him/' that "with his 
stripes we should be healed," and that the Lord had " laid on 
him the iniquity of us all." 1 He himself knew that this 
would be his last supper at Bethany among these friends ; 
for his hour would now soon come. 

While they were at this meal, Mary, the sister of Lazarus 
came in, and opening a vessel of very costly perfume, she 
poured some of it on his head, 2 and with it also washed his 
feet, after which she wiped them with the hair of her head ; 
the scent of the opo-balsam filling all the house. There was 
a secret indignation among some of the disciples at this 
waste, when they thought how the money might have been 
spent among the poor, and Judas spake out his thoughts, 
" Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence 3 
[equal to $45 of our money] and given to the poor ?" not that 
he felt uncommon sympathy for the poor, but " because he 
was a thief and had the bag and bore what was put therein." 
The Messiah said, " Let her alone : against the day of my 
burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have 
with you ; but me ye have not always." 4 

i Is. liii. 5, 6. 2 Matt. xxvi. 7. 

8 A penny, or Denarius, was a day's wages for a laboring man : See 
Matt. XTC. 2. * John xii. 3. 

29 



33^ LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

What momentous events seem at times to hang on little 
things: seem to us; but in the inscrutable counsels of 
God, where, and where only his purposes and our free 
agency can be reconciled, they do not seem so to depend ; 
all being foreknown to him. From this time Judas was a 
traitor, the worst that the world has ever known. 

When he had been selected to be among the twelve, ho 
was probably a man in character and disposition much liko 
the others, but of financial capabilities better than theirs. 
They were all dark in mind and self-seeking ; but still with- 
varieties of dispositions and intellect, which in their peculiar 
position became every day more developed and marked. 
Christ exerted no miraculous power over their wills, but 
left their affections and wills free to act ; trying to influence 
them by his own great example and teachings ; still leav- 
ing them to choose. With Christ himself before him day 
by day, for about three years, Judas still chose the wrong. 
What a wonderful history his would be if we knew it ; 
those transitions from bad to worse, and still worse in his 
heart ; the struggles there, for there were doubtless such, 
early in his case ; the admiration for Christ gradually less- 
ened by base passions rising in him and taking its place: 
the affection always weak perhaps, but sometimes lighted up 
to greater strength, then flickering and dying away, and at 
last dead : and then all the soul's life in him dead. 

Doubtless Judas endeavored in his own mind to justify 
himself; as what man in his case does not? and probably 
with a result half satisfactory to himself. He might try to 
consider himself an injured man, led on for three years with 
expectations of great final triumph and reward; but 
thwarted just at the very time when the reward seemed to 
be within reach. On Monday the multitudes had saluted 
his Master in terms of reverence and worship. Once be- 
fore they had endeavored to put him in the seat of royalty, 
but he had withdrawn himself from them ; and now the 



THE SUPPER AT BETH ANT. 339 

outburst of enthusiasm had broken through every restraint 
and the shouts of their hosannas had rung over Jerusalem 
and through the temple cloisters. How easy would it have 
been for Jesus, sustained by his miraculous powers, to have 
made himself the mighty earthly ruler so long expected and 
hoped for ; and to have aggrandized and made glorious the 
whole Jewish nation ! And in refusing this, (the traitor 
might argue) he had done a wrong to all the Jewish people ; 
and especially to Judas, who might in that new kingdom 
have become so wealthy. Worse than that, he had offended 
all the rulers and insulted them (still, Judas arguing) with 
woes heaped on them, and insulted the nation by declaring 
that God was withdrawing his favor from it, soon to give it to 
another people. So all hopes of aggrandizement and wealth 
from this source had perished from the mind of Judas, who 
had hoped to be treasurer in that great earthly kingdom 
which all were expecting to see established. 

One other bitter ingredient had just been put into that 
cup, where every drop seemed to him now to be turning into 
gall. It was when the Messiah on their way from Jerusa- 
lem had told his disciples that they should be everywhere 
persecuted, betrayed by father and brother ; should be hated, 
and some of them put to death. He had spoken of the 
Comforter that should be with them and of their inward 
peace and their final rewards in heaven ; but an avaricious 
man could see nothing in all this except the suffering and the 
persecution and the losses ; no requital to a heart like his. 

Here now at the supper when his indignation about the 
waste showed itself, he was met with a reproof, gentle in its 
tone and very mild, but in his state of feeling all the more 
provoking to him from its very mildness. It manifested 
such a want of an appreciation of money and of him, the 
treasurer; he felt also now, from Christ's insight into his 
character, that his hypocrisy was to him unmasked, his mo- 
tive known and his thieving revealed. 



340 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

So Satan entered into him now, 1 unresisted, and had the 
full possession. 

One thought more, and that was quickly supplied by the 
Tempter. If Christ must die, why then might not he, Judas, 
have a pecuniary benefit from the event ? 

The love of money is declared in Scripture to be the root 
of all evil ; and on the very next day Judas went to the 
Jewish rulers to bargain for betraying his Master, with whom 
he could still remain, and of whose movements he could in- 
form them, and also the most fitting time for their purposes. 
All was soon agreed upon. He asked them, " What will ye 
give me and I will deliver him unto you ? And they cove- 
nanted with him for thirty pieces of silver/' the price of a 
slave according to the old Jewish law. 2 



CHAPTER XLII. 
THE PASSOVER FEAST. 

A GREAT festival commemorative of the most remark- 
--*- able event in the Jewish history had come down to 
them from the day when they first properly began to be a 
nation. Their forefathers had been slaves in Egypt. One 
night, after a series of miracles designed to set them free, 
but resisted by the Egyptian monarch, a visitation the most 
appalling possible to their bond-masters was to effect their 
deliverance. The first-born in every family was to be that 
night slain by a divine judgment throughout that whole 



1 Luke xxii. 3. 

2 Exodus xxi. 32. If this money was in shekels, thirty pieces would 
amount to $15 05 of our money ; if the Koman stater, to $22 50. 



THE PASSOVER FEAST. 341 

country, the houses of the Israelites alone being excepted. 
It was a momentous time ; on the one side seemingly their 
last hope of deliverance from slavery ; on the other a visi- 
tation made that raised a universal cry of anguish, wailing 
for the Egyptian dead over all the land, and those dead the 
favored ones, the first-born, in every house. In the morning 
the Jews were sent off deliverance had come. 

The Feast of the Passover in commemoration of this 
passing by the Israel itish houses when all others were 
visited by the vengeful messenger, was the greatest of all 
the Jewish festivals, and brought to Jerusalem the whole 
Jewish people from their own region and from distant lands. 
This immense assemblage had on their arrival to divide 
themselves into companies of not less than ten or more than 
twenty, 1 and each company had to prepare a lamb, or if no 
lamb could be found, a kid to be eaten on this occasion. It 
was to be a male of that year without blemish, and was to 
be brought on the day before the commencement of the fes- 
tival to the great altar of the temple, and killed there be- 
tween the hours of three and six in the afternoon. This 
was to be on the 14th of the month Abib, (afterward called 
Nisan), the first month of their sacred year. The blood was 
sprinkled at the foot of the altar, the fat taken out and thrown 
into the fire on the altar, the body carried home for the sup- 
per and roasted whole, the skin given to the owner of the 
house. All houses in Jerusalem were on this occasion open 
indiscriminately to the public, and might be used by com- 
mon right during the feast. The flesh not eaten at the sup- 
per was to be burned together with the bones. There was 
also other meat, called the peace-offering, placed on the table 
to take off the edge of their appetites, so that they might 
not eat voraciously of the Paschal lamb, also in case it might 
not be sufficient for a large company. 



1 Tholuck. 
29* 



34 2 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

At or before noon of the 14th all leaven was to be care- 
fully removed from the houses, and during eight days they 
were to eat only unleavened bread, in commemoration of the 
haste with which their ancestors had left their place of bond- 
age. Bitter herbs 1 were also to be provided for this Paschal 
supper, and they had also a sauce, called charoseth, composed 
of things sweet and bitter pounded together in memory of 
the clay in which their forefathers labored when making 
bricks in the land of Egypt. 

After sunset (now the beginning of the 15th, by the Jew- 
ish reckoning, their day beginning at sunset), the company 
assembled and took their places around the table, reclining 
on couches, (the posture of freemen), to show that they had 
got out of servitude into freedom. On other occasions the 
Jews might choose their posture, and they often sat at table, 
but at the Paschal supper their rulers prescribed that "a 
man is bound to eat and to drink and to sit in a posture of 
freedom," that is to recline. 

That was the usual posture among the Greeks and Ro- 
mans at their feasts. They leaned on the left arm, a cushion 
or bolster under the shoulder assisting to ease the posture; 
and if there were several at table, the chief person occupied 
the middle place, the others in front or back of him, or 
similarly arranged at other tables placed at right angles with 
this. As they reclined slantingly to the table, so as to bring 
each man's head before the chest of the one next behind 
him, if the former wished to speak to the latter, especially 
if it was anything secret, he leaned his head back on the 
bosom of the other (in sinus recmnbere, Plin. Epist. iv. 22). 
The Gemara says of the Persians that, "when they could 
not discourse because of their way of leaning at meals, they 
talked by signs either with their hands or upon their fin- 



1 Ex. xii. 8. 



THE PASSOVER FEAST. 343 

gers :" and the Jews had probably adopted the same custom 
daring their captivity in Persia. 

On the morning of the 14th of Nisan (our Thursday) the 
Messiah sent two disciples, Peter and John, from Bethany to 
Jerusalem, to prepare for the Passover supper : in the even- 
ing he and the remainder of them followed to that city. 
We may easily imagine the traitor, in this to him uncon- 
genial, but for the present necessary, companionship; for he 
was watching for the best time and place in which to execute 
his contract with the Sanhedrim. He had that day bar- 
gained with them ; had returned and joined the party of the 
disciples ; and was now accompanying them to unite in the 
Paschal supper. What a thoroughly depraved wretch he 
must have felt himself to be, in spite of every effort of 
justification in his own mind ! We can imagine him, some- 
times afraid to look his Master or companions in the face ; 
sometimes trying to be brazen and composed, but failing 
continually in the effort; sometimes shrinking away and 
wishing to be apart from the company ; and again mingling 
with them in order to prevent suspicion, and because he 
hated to be alone with his own thoughts. We can see his 
eye cowering before the looks of others ; or assuming an 
impudent, or affectedly-composed, or defiant expression ; 
sometimes startled by words from them which were innocent 
of any particular meaning, but yet, in his convictions, seem- 
ing to be pointed at him ; often wondering whether his own 
changed tones of voice, or his unaccounted-for absence, in 
the morning, or his present manner, might not have betrayed 
him. He followed on, thus, over Olivet, and into the city; 
feeling, as he entered it, that he was bound by a hellish 
compact with the rulers there ; and that men so determined 
in malice as they had showed themselves to be, held him 
now in their power, in a kind of triumph through his 
weakness and baseness. He had seen that triumph in their 
gladness and the glistening of their eyes that day, as the 



344 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

compact was made; and he knew that they despised him, 
while they were thankful and glad. Of his Master, and of 
that long-continued kindness to him, and gentleness, and 
Divine goodness, he dared not think at all, to-day; for 
every such thought was a dagger, and made him shrink 
with pain. 

They proceeded to the room selected for this meal, and 
soon afterwards took their places at the table ; John being 
in front of the Messiah, as they reclined on their couches. 
But, alas ! even in this time of deep distress when, as they 
had been informed, the hour of agony and death was close 
at hand, the old feeling of ambition and strife revived. 1 
Perhaps it was on the question, who should have the second 
place of honor at the table, which was always the one just 
in front of the Master; perhaps it had originated from some 
other matter even more discreditable than that; but the 
Saviour, how merciful, how gentle, how Godlike in this 
mercy and gentleness! said to them, "The kings of the 
Gentiles exercise lordship over them ; and they that exercise 
authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall 
not be so : but he that is greatest among you, let him be as 
the younger ; and he that is chief as he that doth serve. For 
whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth ? 
Is not he that sitteth at meat ? but I am among you as one 
that serveth/ 72 &c. So, in order to impress this injunction, 
he arose from table and, laying aside his upper garment, 
took a basin and towel, and entered on a very menial office, 
that of washing their feet. By the usages of that country, 
this was never done by a superior to an inferior ; and when 
he came to Peter, that impetuous disciple drew back : 

" Lord, dost thou wash my feet ?" and declared that it 
should never be done. 



1 Luke xxii. 24. 2 Ib. 25-27. 



THE PASSOVER FEAST. 345 

" If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me," was 
the reply ; and the startled disciple cried out : 

"Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." 1 

Judas was amongst them, and Christ, doubtless, washed 
his feet also. How the conscious traitor must have shrunk 
at his touch ! 

The company, however, was not long troubled with the 
presence of this man. Soon after their reclining at table, 
the rest of the disciples, for the first time, became aware 
that there was such a traitor among them. The Saviour 
said : 

"Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with 
me shall betray me." 

A shudder must have gone through them, with a deep 
gloom on the heart ; and there must have been a quivering 
of the lip, as they all asked, 

"Lord, is it I ?" 

No consciousness among the eleven, but a query by each 
whether he was suspected, and a wish, by the expected 
answer, to stand acquitted before the company. They turned 
upon each other inquisitive and doubting glances; those 
men who had been with him so long, so attached, erring 
often, always dark in apprehensions, grieving him by their 
mistakes; but traitor! who was the miscreant? Their 
glances went around the table; their feelings were warm 
with indignation ; they were ready to shrink from each 
other : after all this fellowship, and these pleasant commu- 
nings, a traitor ! Who was he ? Peter could bear it no 
longer ; but gave John a secret sign to question further ; and 
this disciple, leaning back so as to bring his head on the 
Saviour's breast, asked, in a whisper, who it was. The 



1 John xiii. 6-9. "Among the duties required from a wife towards 
her husband, there was one, that she should wash his face, his hands, and 
hia feet. This was expected by a father from his son ; the same from a 
servant ioward his master." Lightfoot. 



34 6 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

answer was a certain signal by which John could know and 
could communicate to Peter who was the individual. 1 To 
Judas he said : 

" That thou doest, do quickly ;" an expression enigmati- 
cal to the rest, but the traitor, excited and thrown off his 
guard, asked 

" Master, is it I ?" The answer was 

"Thou hast said," 2 equivalent to, "It is thou." He left 
the room unmasked, a fugitive from their company and from 
his Lord lost. 

One of the disciples gone, and he a traitor ! 

There was a vacant place at the table. What of the rest ? 
A gloomy feeling fell on the company, such as there always 
is from desertion. A vacancy sometimes has connected with 
it remembrances of worth and nobleness, but there was none 
in the present case. Baseness, hypocrisy, treachery were the 
remembrances that Judas left behind, and there was no wick- 
edness that now they might not expect from him, directed 
probably against themselves. Contempt for his conduct 
could scarcely buoy them up, for he had been one of them, 
and they felt that the baseness had been directly from among 
their own company. They were prostrated in spirit by the 
discovery, felt disgraced, dishonored by the recent compa- 
nionship what suspicions might not the Master have now 
about them? They looked toward the vacant place with a 
deep sinking in their hearts, toward the Master so long the 
beloved, the admired, the venerated, in their inmost soul. 
His face was very sad. Could he doubt them? Nay, why 
might he not doubt them now? Eyes were turned again 
upon him, trying to read in his face expressions of confi- 
dence and trust in them. He spoke by-and-by, and the 
words were even more dark and gloomy than their saddest 
thoughts. " All ye shall be offended because of me this night, 



1 John xiii. 23-28. 2 Matt. xxvi. 25. 



THE PASSOVER FEAST. 347 

for it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep 
shall be scattered abroad." Even on the back of this asser- 
tion there was no censure of them, but simply the promise, 
" But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Gali- 
lee." 1 Indeed there was almost too much prostration of 
feeling among the company generally for any sentiment ex- 
cept grief; yet even then hope was given to them. But 
Peter spake up, for his heart recoiled at the thought of the 
general desertion, and he knew not yet how weak he him- 
self was. His voice was confident : " Though all should be 
offended of thee yet will I not be offended/' Ana Lie looked 
for an approval of his bravery. It came not, but the an- 
swer, " Verily I say unto thee that this day, even in this 
night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice." 2 
The tones of the Saviour's voice must have been even sadder 
than the words, and both drew from Peter with still greater 
vehemence the assertion, " If I should die with thee, I will 
not deny thee in anywise." And the others said the same. 3 
They had been roused up by Peter's vehemence ; their feel- 
ings rallied around their Lord, and they broke through the 
gloom consequent on Judas's desertion to make bold protes- 
tations of their fidelity. It was not kept. 

The whole procedure at this meal was specially prescribed, 
and according to the account of the Talmud it was as fol- 
lows : 

1. The guests being placed around the table they mingled 
a cup of wine with water over which the master of the 
family (or if two or more families were united a person de- 
puted for the purpose) gave thanks and drank it off. The 
thanksgiving for the wine was to this effect : " Blessed be 
thou, O Lord, who hast created the fruit of the vine," and 
for the day as follows : " Blessed be thou for this good day, 
and for this holy convocation which thou hast given us for 



1 Mark xiv. 30, 31, Matt. xxvi. 31, 32. 8 Ibid. 32-35. 



34 8 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

joy and rejoicing. Blessed be thou, O Lord, who hast sanc- 
tified Israel and the times. 7 ' 

2. They then washed their hands, after which the table 
tt as furnished with the Paschal lamb roasted whole, with 
bitter herbs and with two cakes of unleavened bread, toge- 
ther with the flesh of the peace-offering and the cliaroseth or 
thick sauce above mentioned. 

3. The officiator, or person presiding, then took a small 
piece of the salad, and having blessed God for creating the 
fruit of the ground he ate it, the other guests following his 
example, after which all the dishes were removed from the 
table that the children might inquire and be instructed in 
the nature of the feast. (Ex. xii. 25, 26). The text on 
which they generally discoursed was Deut. xxvi. 511. 

4. Then replacing the supper they explained the import 
of the bitter herbs and Paschal lamb, and over a second cup 
of wine repeated Psalms cxiii. and cxiv., with an eucharistic 
prayer. 

5. The hands were again washed, accompanied by an 
ejaculatory prayer, after which the master of the house pro- 
ceeded to break and bless a cake of the unleavened bread, 
half of which he distributed among the guests, reserving 
half beneath a napkin if necessary for the apkicomas or last 
morsel, for the rule was to conclude with eating a small piece 
of the Paschal lamb. 

6. They then ate the rest of the cake with the bitter herbs, 
dipping the bread in the charoseth or sauce. 

7. Next they ate the flesh of the peace-offering, and then 
the flesh of the Paschal lamb, which was followed by re- 
turning thanks to God and a second washing of the hands. 

8. A third cup of wine was then filled, over which they 
blessed God or said grace after meat, (whence it was called 
the cup of blessing), 1 and the wine was drank. 



1 See 1 Cor. x. 16. 



THE PASSOVER FEAST. 349 

9. Lastly, a fourth cup of wine was filled, called the cup 
of the Hallel, over that they completed the supper eithel 
by singing or reciting the great Hallel, a hymn of praise 
consisting of Psalms cxv. to cxviii., inclusive, and also with 
a prayer. 1 

If the Messiah followed this order it was doubtless in the 
fifth and eighth parts of it that the eucharistic feast of the 
Christian church was instituted : " Take, eat, this is my body, 
which is given for you ; this do in remembrance of me. 7 ' 
" This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed 
for you." 

" My blood of the new covenant ;" for that is here the 
meaning of the word. A covenant is an agreement between 
two individuals to do or forbear some act or thing ; a con- 
tract: and it was here a contract by the Messiah on one 
side to be sealed with his own life-blood. 

There was once, long before this time, a scene of great so- 
lemnity at the foot of Sinai, just after God had given to 
Moses on the top of the mountain the written covenant : 
and that scene was when that covenant was ratified by the 
people of Israel, with the shedding of the blood of victims, 
burnt-offerings and peace-offerings to God. There had 
just then been the most imposing event that our world has 
ever witnessed : for on Sinai there were " thunders and 
lightnings, and a thick black cloud upon the mount, and the 
voice of the trumpet sounding loud : so that all the people 
that were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth 
the people out of the camp to meet with God : and they 
stood at the nether part of the mount. And Mount Sina : 
was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon 
it on fire : and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke 
of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. * * * 
And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings, 



1 Home's " Introduction," originally from Lightfoot. 
30 



350 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

and the voice of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, 
and when the people saw it they removed and stood afar off. 
And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us and we will 
hear : but let not God speak with us lest we die." 1 

Their leader had now come down from the mountain top, 
and from the cloud shrouding that Majesty which none might 
see clearly and live ; and he told to the people " all the words 
of the Lord, and all the judgments : and all the people an- 
swered with one voice and said, All the words which the 
Lord hath said will we do." He wrote down the words ; 
and built an altar, and erected twelve pillars to represent 
the tribes. Then on this altar, they offered burnt-offerings 
and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the Lord. And 
Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins ; and half of 
the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book 
of the covenant, and read it in the audience of the people ; 
and they said, 

"All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be 
obedient." 

" And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the peo- 
ple, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the 
Lord hath made with you concerning all these words." 2 

It was a grand and most solemn and imposing spectacle. 
How different from it in all the outward seeming, was this 
spectacle in the private room at Jerusalem, where Christ who 
had just before laid aside his upper garments to wash his 
disciples' feet, now brake the bread to them, and gave them 
the cup to drink. But there was a moral grandeur in this 
simple scene, which no cloud enveloping a mountain, and 
thunder and lightning there, could ever reach : for he said 
respecting this new covenant, " This cup is the new testa- 
ment in my blood, which is shed for you." 3 His own 



i Exodus xix. 10-18 ; xx. 18, 19. 2 Exodus xxiv. 3-8. 

8 Luke xxii. 20. 



THE PASSOVER FEAST. 351 

blood it was which was to be sprinkled on all nations; 
lie the sacrifice for all the world ! 

Tae Israelites moved off from Sinai, awed and frightened 
by the earthquakes and the signs on the mountain's brow ; 
and they said to Moses, " Speak thou with us and we will 
hear ; but let not God speak with us, lest we die ;" but the 
words of Christ draw us toward him and toward heaven, 
through the fullness of love to all men which they display. 

Having finished the Passover meal, they sang their hymn : 
and then before leaving the room, there was an address from 
the Messiah to his disciples, and afterwards a prayer, to both 
of which angels might well have been listeners; for the 
words seem to blend together both heaven and earth. They 
were the last of the teachings of the greatest Teacher earth 
has known or ever will know. 

We perceive in the words of this address, shades of 
thought never seen but in the truest and deepest affection, 
which always has promptings of its own peculiar kind. " In 
my Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so I 
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And 
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and 
receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be 
also." That was a most tender as well as true regard, which, 
when he should get into possession of the kingdom in 
heaven, would not be contented till it had brought him to 
take them up to himself. Yet they were frail men, full of 
darkness and errors. 

HOW TENDER AND BEAUTIFUL IS THE LOVE OF CHRIST ! 

He had now almost completed his mission on the earth. 
He had been our Example and our Teacher : one act re- 
mained, to die for us. The cross was to be raised up be- 
fore all the world as evidence of God's hatred of sin, and of 
the unyielding nature of his law against unrighteousness ; 
Christ to be there, the expiation, the voluntary sacrifice of- 
fered for all mankind. " As Moses lifted up the serpent in 



3j2 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
eternal life. 771 He had often looked forward to this event 
with shudd wrings of his human nature at its horrors ; yet 
he turned not aside, but said, " For this cause came I unto 
this hour." The hour was now close at hand. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 
GETHSEMANE. 

THE traitor in the meanwhile was busy in his work. 
He knew the habits and resorts of the Messiah ; and 
was forwarding preparations for the seizure, which the San- 
hedrim intended to make this night. Their plans were laid: 
they had now a ready instrument for the first act, bought 
with their gold. A company was formed, subordinates of 
the Sanhedrim and temple, 2 armed and sufficient in number 
to bear down opposition: but strong as it was, the chief 
priests and captains and elders also attended, 3 to see that their 
work was surely done. The traitor had given as a signal, 
the act of kindest friendship in salutation, " "Whomsoever I 
shall kiss, that same is he ; hold him fast.' 74 

Silently their preparations were made; the traitor some- 
times looking to see that the company was sufficiently large 
and of the right spirit; sometimes sending his thoughts 
back to that supper- table, to the agitating question put around, 
"Is it I? 77 and to the sadness on the Saviour's face in that 
scene ; and, most of all, to the words respecting himself by 



1 John iii. 14, 15. Mark xiv. 43. 3 Luke xxii. 52. * Matt. xxvi. 48. 



GETHSEMANE. 353 

Christ, "It had been good for that man if he had not been 
born:" 1 and sometimes, perhaps, he queried, whether Christ 
would not, when this party should appear, disperse, or over- 
awe them by his miraculous powers; or pass unharmed from 
among them, as he had often done before. Perhaps Judas 
expected this last : and thought with a high degree of satis- 
faction that in such a case he would still have his pay 
secured. 

Thus they were prepared, and were awaiting in Jerusalem 
the order to move. 

It was the time of the full moon ; and a mellow light was 
shed on the streets of the city and the hills about it, as the 
Messiah and his disciples left their supper-room, and, pass- 
ing the eastern gate, descended the slope leading down 
toward the Kedron. They went along in sadness; their 
minds filled with the solemn events at that Passover meal, 
and with the sense of the fierce trials close at hand ; and as 
they met, or passed, company after company on the way, the 
festive gladness of the latter came jarring on their hearts. 
How easily could a few words from the Messiah, then, have 
aroused all those multitudes, more than two millions in 
and about the city, and have made them the quick executors 
of his will and power: for the general enthusiasm toward 
him needed but a spark to make it, to all opposers a consu- 
ming flame ; and his miraculous powers could also have 
called even angels down, if need should be. But he passed 
on in silence : he did not desire observation, but retirement 
and a few hours for prayer : and he would then be ready for 
the self-sacrifice which was to drain his life-blood. His 
hour had come : and the deed he knew, was necessary for 
the redemption of our race. 

But still the trial to his human nature would be horrible; 
and he felt it already with a shrinking and a quivering 



1 Matt. xxvi. 24. 
30* 



354 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

through all his frame ; the death convulsions foreshadowing 
themselves during the silent anticipations of that night. 

We cannot understand the mysteries of the divine and 
human natures in Christ. All we know is that the human 
nature was such as ours, with all its capacity for suffering 
pain ; and that, having lived our life here, God knows, from 
his own sufferings, to pity man: also, that the Divinity 
was in him there with its greatness and power ; and doubt- 
less too, with such a keenness in all the intellectual and 
emotional sensations in this suffering, as our minds can never 
comprehend, and our hearts can never know. It was so in 
all the life of Christ ; his intellect, his emotions, not simply 
ours but ours sublimed and passing off to those of the God, 
though still having their home here on earth. How far 
all this might work concentrated horrors infinite in extent, 
into these few hours of time at Gethsemane, and into 
these anticipations, and into the sufferings when they really 
came, who can tell ? " The spirit of a man may bear his 
infirmities, but a wounded spirit, who can bear it $" If so 
with man, how was it with Christ ! 

Across the valley of Jehoshaphat, and somewhere on the 
slopes of Olivet, was a garden, Gethsemane 1 by name, which 
he had been in the habit of frequenting with his disciples f 
and to this place they now ascended ; the hushed noises of 
the city, and of those of the multitudes who had not yet 
gone to repose, scarcely reaching that retired spot. The 
Messiah felt the need of prayer of communion with the 
Father, and of strengthening for the coming hours, in which 
his human nature would be so fearfully tried. Having 
reached Gethsemane, he said to the disciples, u Pray that ye 
enter not into temptation ;" and then, taking Peter, and 
James, and John, he went with them further into the garden 
apart from the rest. Here, also, he left these three, saying, 



Meaning "place of olive presses." 2 John xviii. 2. 



GETHSEMANE. 355 

as he did so, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto 
death :" and he went then further, alone, for prayer. He 
fell on his face ; and it was a time of anguish such as no 
human thought can ever reach. We know it but in part 
from his words of prayer, "O my Father, if it be possible, let 
this cup pass from me ;" "take away this cup from me;" 1 yet, 
with the addition, " nevertheless, not what I will, but what 
thou wilt." The fearfulness of the struggle in him is only 
shadowed to us ; for the reality cannot be reached by words. 
"Sorrowful, even unto death" and that in Christ! in him 
who had come to suffer, and to redeem the world by suffer- 
ing this death, and had predicted it frequently, and had 
advanced steadily toward it, but was now involved in 
horror so great that, for a moment, this had the mastery. 
What must the agony in that prayer have been ; even the 
Divine nature borne down, as if dissolution were near ! 
What a depth of horror was there! Yet, "not as I will, 
but as thou wilt ;" and with those words the fierceness of 
that almost mortal anguish passed away. 

The prayer was brief; for such sensations could not be 
endured by any human nature long ; and he came back to 
w r here the three disciples had been left. They were asleep. 
How different their quiet rest, their unconsciousness, the 
relaxed limbs and the breathing in their deep repose, from 
the agony that had just been almost crushing him, and which 
still made itself felt in all his system ! The night, also, so 
mellow and so calm ! The light of the full moon over the 
hushed landscape ; and the soft music of the nightingales 
harmonizing with all else made it a scene of perfect mid- 
night beauty; but all this the mellowness, the beauty, 
the nightingales' song, all jarred terribly on a nature so 
distressed and just now so wildly tossed with horror, almost 
so abandoned, seemingly, of heaven and earth. 



1 Matt. xxvi. 39 ; Mark xiv. 36. 



35^ LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

He awoke the disciples with words of half reproach, but 
which, in his gentle nature, were qualified immediately with 
an apology for them : " What ! could ye not watch with me 
one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into tempta- 
tion : the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." 1 

He left them a second time, retiring once more for prayer, 
and the convulsion of anguish again passed over him, but 
modified by an entire resignation to the will of God. " O 
my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except 
I drink it, thy will be done." The convulsions that seemed 
as of a divinity perishing, "my soul sorrowful unto death," 
must have been indeed frightful beyond any but infinite 
power to understand. 

He came back again to the three disciples, and found them 
as before in deep and quiet sleep, for it was late now and 
" their eyes were heavy." Again, in strong contrast to his 
own feelings was that hush in all the scene, as if nature 
might be almost in mockery of its Master ; the world in its 
perfectness of repose appearing to have shut him out and to be 
closed against him abandoned in his agony ; and yet it was 
to ransom its millions and bring them to salvation that he 
was about to suffer. He spoke to the disciples again, but 
they answered him confusedly and only half aroused, and he 
left them once more for his retirement and prayer. There 
was a strange restlessness in the Messiah that night, a part 
of the terrible nervous strain upon his system, and of the 
agitations of his internal being how different from his 
former long seasons of quiet communion with God on the 
mountains of Galilee ! These were briefer, broken times of 
prayer, with an agitation that could not long admit of quiet 
even in such communion. FOR THE PRAYER ITSELF WAS A 
CONVULSION; and during this third one a sweat of blood 
broke out upon him, the bloody perspiration falling in great 



1 Matt. xxvi. 41. 



GETHSEMANE. 357 

drops to the ground. 1 In that anguish, which brought the 
blood thus oozing from his face and body, an angel came to 
his side to sustain and comfort him. 

Mortal man may never fathom the depth of that agony in 
Gethsemane ! 

He came a third time to his disciples, and told them that 
the hour was now at hand. 

This was indeed soon apparent even to their half-aroused 
consciousness ; for torches and lanterns were now seen gleam- 
ing amid the garden-alleys on Olivet, and voices coming 
nearer were heard, and very soon the company in Gethse- 
mane were all surrounded by a^rude multitude armed with 
swords and staves. Judas came forward : 

'" Hail, Master !" and he kissed him. 

The others pressed around. 

" Whom seek ye?" the Messiah asked. 

"Jesus of Nazareth." 

" I am he/' he said, and faced them calmly, and as he did 
so the company shrank down before him, for there was a 
strange power in that Presence even there, although his 
greatest humiliations were begun. Urged on, however, by 
their leaders the armed men seized him, and a scene of con- 
fusion for a little while ensued. Peter made resistance, and 
a servant of the high-priest was maimed, but Christ healed 
the man adding a reproof to his follower for the act : " Put 
up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which my Father 



1 Luke xxii. 44. Dr. Mead from Galen, observes : Contingere inter- 
dum poros, ex multo aut fervido spiritu adeo dilatari, ut etiam exeat san- 
guis per eos, fiatque sudor sanguineus : It happens sometimes that by great 
or deep mental agitation the pores are so much dilated that blood issues from 
them and there is a bloody sweat. (Quoted from Clarke's Commentary.) 
" An interesting example of a sweat of blood, under circumstances of ter- 
ror, accompanied by loss of speech is given in an article by Dr. Schneider 
in Casper's Wochenschrift for 1848, and cited in the Medical Gazette for 
that yeax."Alford. 



LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

hath given me, shall I not drink it ?" ] He said also to 
Peter, " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, 
and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of 
angels ? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that 
thus it must be." 2 He spoke further to the leaders, asking 
why they had come as against a thief with swords and 
staves? He asked no favors of them for himself, but for his 
disciples that they might be allowed to depart uninjured. 
They proceeded immediately to bind him, 3 and then led him 
away. The disciples fled. 4 



CHAPTER XLIV. 
HALL OF CAIAPHAS. 

THE Pharisees and chief priests and rulers had so far 
succeeded. It was night, and the millions at the pass- 
over having eaten the paschal supper were now asleep. A 
comparative quiet reigned in Jerusalem and through its 
suburbs and on Olivet, as the armed men having the Mes- 
siah now bound in their charge passed back in the city and 
threaded its streets. They were conducted first to the house of 
Annas. This individual, called also Ananus, had been high- 
priest himself, and was yet styled such as a token of respect ; 
he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, at present in the high 
priesthood, and father also of Eleazar, late high-priest, and 
was moreover at this time Sagan or prefect to the priests, an 
office of which there is frequent mention among the Rab- 
bins. 6 His age and his former and present offices gave his 

1 John xviii. 11. 2 Matt. xxvi. 53, 54. 

8 John xviii. 8, 12. * Mark xiv. 50. 

5 Lightfoot, in loco. 



HALL OF CAIAPHAS. 359 

opinions weight; and the proceedings of this night, all so 
irregular in their character, needed every extraneous aid that 
could be procured in order to shield the perpetrators. For 
in the morning when the multitudes would wake up and 
receive information of these acts during the night, there 
would be a great excitment and many inquiries would be 
started tending to a tumult, against all which they desired 
to be able immediately to present the highest Jewish autho- 
rity. Annas had no power as a judge, and any meeting at 
his house would be an informal one, but it was important 
to be able to quote his opinion in a decided manner before 
the populace. 

From his house they proceeded very soon to the palace of 
Caiaphas himself. The Sanhedrim in the meantime had 
been collecting there, and the Messiah still bound was now 
in the presence of his judges evidently met not for trial but 
for condemnation. The case had been already in their minds 
fully prejudged. This was not, however, a formal sitting of 
the Sanhedrim ; for such according to their laws could not be 
held by night, and no trial could regularly be commenced at 
night ; and as these judges would in the morning be on trial 
themselves in the minds of the people, it was necessary to 
keep up the appearance of adhering to the forms of law. 
All the while over the Sanhedrim hung the dread of the 
populace and of tumults, and of thus being foiled at last. 
They planned that when their decision should come before 
the people it should come suddenly, and should be a deci- 
sion adapted to stamp such black infamy upon the accused 
as would astound and stupefy the hearers, until the gover- 
nor's quickly-added judgment should put the whole matter 
into the hands of the military, and not only defy resistance 
from the multitudes, but also save the Sanhedrim from the 
consequences of possible tumult by having made it a govern- 
mental affair. Therefore the object was to have now a secret 
examination in order that all preparations might be made 



360 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

for a quick decision in the formal, regular meeting, which 
the Sanhedrim would afterwards have at earliest dawn. 

The house at Damascus, described in chapter xix. of this 
book, will afford us a good idea of the plan of this one of 
Caiaphas ; but the latter was probably on a much larger scale, 
and its raised reception room at the side of the court was of 
sufficient proportions to accommodate the council now assem- 
bled. We may presume that instead of a recess with one 
arch and divan, as in the former house, this had several 
arches and columns separating its large hall from the court, 
but with no other division between it and the spectators in the 
court. As the high-priest was president of the Sanhedrim, 
his palace would in all probability have such a place for 
public trials, where the proceedings both within the hall and 
without would be open to inspection on either side. The 
present was however very far from being a public trial, but 
was a secret conclave as it had need to be. Peter who had 
followed his Master at a distance found, on presenting him- 
self, that the doors were closed against him, and he was ad- 
mitted only at the solicitation of John, who was known to the 
high-priest, and who spoke to the woman doing duty as 
gate-keeper, 1 that office being sometimes occupied by women 
in Judea. 2 

The court was now filled with soldiers and attendants ; the 
two gates giving access from the street were shut against in- 
truders ; the place was lighted up by torches flaring from the 
columns or walls ; the Sanhedrim, at least such of them as 
were willing to engage in this secret, hellish work were there, 
sitting and gloating their eyes on him whom they felt to be 
at last in their power, and were determined to make their 
victim ; the Messiah stood before them bound and guarded. 

So the examination began. 



1 John xviii. 16. 2 Lightfoot. 



HALL OF CAIAPHAS. 361 

False, suborned witnesses had been provided and were 
ready for their part of the work. 

The high-priest commenced with asking the Messiah about 
his disciples and his doctrines, hoping to find some admis- 
sions made by which he might bring charges of a weighty 
character, but he could find none. There was a sublime dig- 
nity in the Saviour as he stood and answered. His case was 
evidently prejudged, his judges were fixed in purpose, and he 
knew it all ; they were trying to entangle him by admis- 
sions; there were men there also ready for personal vio- 
lence ; and he saw all of this. But he answered calmly and 
with dignity : " I spake openly to the world, I ever taught 
in the synagogues and in the temple whither the Jews always 
resort, and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou 
me? Ask them which heard me what I have said unto 
them ; behold they know what I said." This challenge to 
a fair examination by witnesses was met by gross violence 
from one of the officers who struck the Saviour with the 
palm of his hand with the sharp question : " Answerest 
thou the high-priest so?" It was calmly borne. "If I 
have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil ; but if well, why 
smitest thou me." 1 

The Messiah had been asking for only what was custo- 
mary in Jewish trials, or rather for less than that; for he 
asked but a candid examination of those who had listened to 
his teachings, while it was customary in these trials to begin 
with the testimony for the accused, giving the witnesses a 
fair hearing, and encouraging them to speak for the defence. 
Instead of that, the Sanhedrim now began with seeking for 
false witnesses against him, but they sought in vain. Many 
were offered, but their evidence was contradictory and none 
of it of a sufficiently damnatory kind. 2 At last came two 
who declared that they had heard him say, " I am able to 



1 John xviii. 19-23. 2 Matt. xxvi. 59-60. 

31 



362 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days ;" ' 
and at their testimony the eyes of the judges glistened, for 
here was a charge that would work against him before all 
the people, holding as they did their temple in such reve- 
rence, and feeling such pride in its greatness. However, 
even in this charge the witnesses were not agreed. The Sa- 
viour did not reply to them. 

At last the high-priest, wearied with the impotence of his 
efforts so far and out of patience, determined to force a crisis, 
and to have a decided answer in a matter that he believed 
would produce condemnation in the minds of all men, peo- 
ple as well as Sanhedrim, and to insure success he com- 
menced with their most solemn form of adjuration or oath. 

" I adjure iliee by the living God" he said, " that thou tell us 
whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God/ 72 which was a 
form of demand that put the adjured person under the curse 
of the law, unless he should make reply, the answer so re- 
turned being considered under oath whose falsity was ac- 
counted perjury. 3 The interest of the assembly was wrought 
up to the highest. Men leaned forward, and a deep silence 
fell upon that room. The Messiah had hitherto refused to 
answer the false and frivolous charges brought 4 before judges 
so resolved to condemn ; but he now replied, 

"Thou hast said," [a common form, meaning "yes, it is 
so :"] "nevertheless, I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see 
the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and 
coming in the clouds of heaven." 5 

It was enough. They had succeeded : and a wild scene 
of triumph, execration, rage and violence quickly ensued. 
The high priest rent his robes, crying out, 

"He hath spoken blasphemy : what further need have we 
of witnesses ? Behold ye have heard his blasphemy : what 
think ye?" 

1 Matt. xxvi. 61. * Ibid. 63. 3 Tholuck in loco. 

* Matt. xxvi. 62. 5 Ibid. 64. 



HALL OF CAIAPHAS. 363 

" He is guilty of death ;" was shouted from all parts of 
the hall : and they now rushed upon him, spit in his face, 
buffeted him, and striking him with the palms of their 
hands, asked, scornfully and tauntingly, " Prophesy unto us, 
thou Christ, who is he that smote thee ?" J Even the ser- 
vants joined in these insults and taunts. 2 

Greatness is never so great as when calmly sustaining 
itself amid insults and injuries; truth never so grand as 
when it stands unflinchingly, unmoved amid danger : and so 
the Messiah had stood throughout this trial ; so continued 
to the last. He had been sublime often in his powerful 
teachings, and in his omnipotence, when he stayed nature's 
laws, and bade all diseases relax their hold, and the dead to 
live ; but sublimer still he was in his mildness and forgive- 
ness among all these his enemies offering him insults and 
violence and thirsting for his blood. 

One thing must come out clearly to our minds in this 
matter; and that is, the decisive manner in which he asserted 
his Godship here; and in which he allowed them to act 
upon that as his claim, to the last. The Sanhedrim were 
condemning him on such a claim ; yet there was no retract- 
ing or denying, on his part. They understood him clearly 
and fully, and charged him with blasphemy, in making 
himself God; and had pronounced him guilty of death for 
it. If he meant to assert no such title, it was easy to say 
so, and to disabuse their minds, and, at least, deprive them 
of all excuse in their meditated deed of death ; but he put 
in not one word to that effect. 

Indeed, through all his ministry, that claim had been his 
great offence in their eyes. They had been willing to ac- 
knowledge him as a prophet ; but he had again and again, 
publicly and fully asserted for himself more than that, even 
the Godship and its authority and rights. A claim like 



Matt. xxvi. 65-08. 2 Mark xiv. 65. 



364 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

this, and indeed any remote inclination to it, was, in the eye 
of the Jewish law, the most awful crime that could be com- 
mitted, indeed an unpardonable one. We have seen how 
Moses and Aaron were shut off by Jehovah himself from 
entering the Promised Land, simply for arrogating to them- 
selves, in a momentary excitement, divine authority in 
performing a miracle ; and so rigidly and severely was every 
sin of blasphemy regarded in the Jewish law, that each one 
hearing words of this nature was bound to rend his clothes 
on the spot, as a sign of abhorrence. The Talmuds also 
say, respecting testimony to such language : " When wit- 
nesses speak out a blasphemy which they have heard, then 
all hearing the blasphemy are bound to rend their garments." 1 
This law of blasphemy, "as it was understood among the 
Jews, extended not only to the offence of impiously using 
the name of the Supreme Being, but to every usurpation of 
his authority, or arrogation by a created being of the honor 
and power belonging to him alone. Like the crime of trea- 
son among men, its essence consisted in acknowledging or 
setting up the authority of another sovereign than one's own, 
or invading the power belonging exclusively to him."* 

Often had the Messiah startled his audiences by his claims 
either to the attributes of God or to the Godhead itself; but 
the majesty and the mightiness of the power clearly inherent 
in him had borne down opposition ; and the clamors raised 
at his seeming assumptions were lost in the loud shouts by 
men healed of all diseases, and by their friends ; joy, love, 
gratitude, triumphing at the time. Once, however, they 
took up stones to stone him, " for blasphemy," they said ; 
"and because that thou being a man makest thyself God." 

Here now, before the Sanhedrim ; charged with the same 
thing; condemned to death for it; violence used; that charge 



1 Lightfoot. 

2 J. Pickering, LL.D. See also Lev. xxiii. 16; Deut. xiii. 



HALL OF CAIAPHAS. 365 

of blasphemy evidently one that was to go out officially from 
this hall, and to be repeated before the multitudes of the 
Passover ; he made no disclaimer, but allowed the record 
of his claims to the Godhead to stand. And so it remains ; 
Jesus condemned for making himself God, and executed 
for it, he admitting the charge, and, without protest of error 
on their part, allowing them to proceed. 1 

In the large court adjoining this hall, watching all these 
proceedings with an agitated, and often sick and failing 
heart, was a disciple, ardent, quick, and yet weak ; he who 
had said impetuously at the supper, " Though all men shall 
be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended." 
"Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee." 
" I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death." 
The disciples had fled when their Master was seized at 
Gethsemane, but Peter and John had followed the crowd in 
their midnight progress along the streets ; and John, having 
influence at the high priest's house, had been allowed to 
enter, and as we have seen, had got Peter admitted within 
the precincts. In the court, at some suitable spot, a fire had 
been built ; for the night was cold : and, as Peter sat there 
among the soldiers, peering timidly but anxiously around, 
he was charged by some one of the female attendants with 
having been also with Christ. He denied it : " Woman I 



1 Jewish writers all say, that, admitting the Gospel historians to be 
true, this must be the view of the case. Mr. Jos. Salvador, a physician 
and learned Jew of Paris, in a recent work, " Histoire des Institutions de 
Moise et du Peuple Hebreu" says, " But Jesus, in presenting new theories, 
and giving new forms to those already promulgated, speaks of himself 
as God." In a note he adds : "The expression ' Son of God' was in com- 
mon use among the Jews, to designate a man of remarkable wisdom and 
piety. It was not in this sense that Jesus Christ used it." In another 
note, respecting the rending of his garments by Caiaphas, he adds, " I 
repeat that the expression 'Son of God' includes here the idea of God 
himself : the fact is already established and all the subsequent events 
confirm it." 
31* 



366 ' LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

know him not." 1 It was a terrible fall from the high pro- 
fessions that he had made, and from his vaunted readiness 
to die with Christ : his impulsiveness wanted the calm and 
immovable courage of John, which led this loving disciple 
afterwards to stand by the cross, and to show his affection 
for his Master even there. Peter was, in after times, one of 
the boldest of Christian ministers, and fully redeemed him- 
self from the contempt forced on us by this conduct in the 
court, as we see him cowardly shrinking to one side, false 
and base. He withdrew from the brightness of the fire; 
and approached the arched way ; but was there recognized 
by the woman keeping the gate, who said, "This fellow was 
also with Jesus of Nazareth." One false step ; and now 
another: for he declared, with an oath, "I do not know the 
man." 

The scene in the hall itself, during these denials by the 
disciple had become as we have seen, tumultuous, with out- 
cries and wrath and violence. Peter saw his Master mal- 
treated : he saw the rush of the crowd in that more ele- 
vated place of judgment : he heard their cries of execration 
and of abhorrence, affected or real ; saw that face so glorious 
even still in its majesty of kindness and its forgiveness, spit 
upon and buffeted ; he witnessed the madness that ruled 
there; and saw the great triumph that lighted up the faces 
of the high priest and other leaders, as they felt that their 
enemy was now securely entangled among their toils, and 
could not escape. As the torches threw their ruddy light 
upon all the scene, and portions of the tumultuous crowd 
were thrown into strong relief, or, retiring into the shadows, 
were succeeded by others, the faces bore still the same ex- 
pression of wrath and malignity and triumph bent upon 
Christ. Peter saw and heard all ; too anxious for his Master 
not to be closely observant, yet shrinking from being him- 
self observed. 



1 Luke xxii. 57. 



HALL OF CAIAPHAS. 367 

There came at last a lull in the noises ; for morning was 
now approaching, and the rulers having done their deeds of 
darkness to their satisfaction, were separating, in order to 
prepare for the more formal meeting of the Sanhedrim, 
which must be held at the earliest hour of the day. Peter 
lingered still. His heart had failed him in his recent temp- 
tation, that which Christ had cautioned him to pray against 
and he despised himself for the weakness which he felt 
was still on him : but he could not bring himself to leave 
the place ; and he hung about the court with a strange tu- 
mult in his heart, affection, reverence, anxiety, fear. Proba- 
bly his Master, in some of the latter scenes, had noticed the 
disciple's face filled with affection and yet fright ; and had 
also met Peter's eyes among the crowd. Another tempta- 
tion came to the disciple, and he cowered under it still more; 
his heart entirely giving way, till he seemed to be trans- 
formed into another man. A person said to him, " Surely 
thou art one of them : for thou art a Galilean, and thy 
speech betrayeth thee;" for the Galileans interchanged 
some sounds in their language so as to make some of their 
words difficult to be understood by the people of Judea. He 
cursed and swore: "I know not the man of whom ye 
speak." The words caught the ear of the Messiah ; and he 
turned and looked on the wretched culprit; on that face so 
filled with fright and shame ; the eyes of the Saviour ex- 
pressing compassion mixed with gentle reproach. It was 
Peter, the boaster that he would die with him ; and the cock 
now giving warning of approaching day, had not crowed 
twice before he had thrice denied his Lord, this last time 
with oaths. At this look of Christ, the disciple went out, 
and wept bitterly. 

The faint dawn, soon afterwards struggling through the 
night, and coming slowly over the Mount of Olives, saw in 
those streets, a man convulsed with grief and shame, hum- 
bled and self-accusing, and filled with remorse : not much, 



368 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

seemingly in that large city, and this tumultuous world ; 
but yet a sight that angels love to look upon ; for, in such 
penitential feelings, souls are purified and saved. How the 
disciple must have loathed and abhorred himself! 

Peter afterwards became strong and brave for his Lord, 
confessing him boldly before rulers, and amid direst perse- 
cutions : and, it is believed, he unflinchingly met a martyr's 
death in his Master's cause. 



CHAPTER XLV. 
THE TRIAL BEFORE PILATE. 

THE day at last broke fully over Jerusalem; and the 
people in that region being early- risers, the vast mul- 
titude in and about the city were soon astir, ignorant yet of 
the scenes at Caiaphas's house, and thinking with gladness 
of the occasion before them ; for the day succeeding the 
Passover-meal was always their high festival day. The 
whole of the Passover season was to be a time of rejoicing, 1 
but this day was always given to peculiar ceremonies, and 
sacrifices for feasting ; and, as it was the sixth day of the 
week, (our Friday), and the morrow would be their Sab- 
bath, a more solemn time it seemed to them that an 
unusual enjoyment of festivity was to be crowded into this 
day. 

On this, the 15th of Nisan, all the males were bound to 
appear in the court of the temple, bringing with them a 
burnt-offering for their appearance and a double peace-offer- 
ing, one for the solemnity, and one for the joy of the times. 

1 See Deut. xvi. 10-12. 



TRIAL BEFORE PILATE. 369 

These offerings were called in their language, Chagigah, 
a word meaning festivating or rejoicing ; and were to be a 
bullock or sheep, (2 Chron. xxx. 24, and xxxv. 7, 8), quite 
distinct from the sacrifice for the Passover supper, and for a 
different purpose. Part of this chagigah offering was given 
to the priest, and with the remainder " they proceeded to 
their feastings together with great mirth and rejoicings, ac- 
cording to the manner of that festival." 1 This day was also 
the one from which the fifty days to Pentecost were to be 
numbered ; and (which usually added greatly to its joyous- 
ness), it was the time when the first fruits of their barley 
harvest were to be presented to God ; before which no one 
was permitted to cut any grain f and so this day was called 
a sacred day. The cutting of this first fruit was a matter 
of ceremony. Those who were deputed by the Sanhedrim 
for the ceremony of reaping it went forth in the evening of 
the feast (Chagigah) day ; and people flocked with them to 
see the sight, and also that it might be done with the greater 
pomp. When it grew dusk, he that was about to reap said, 
"The sun is set;" and all said, " Well." He repeated, 
" The sun is set ;" and the people replied again, " Well :" 
"With this sickle;' 7 "Well:" " With this sickle ;" "Well:" 
"In this basket;" "Well:" "In this basket;" "Well." 
And if it happened on the Sabbath-day, he said, " On this 
Sabbath;" "Well:" " On this Sabbath ;" "Well:" "I will 
Reap;" "Reap:" "I will Reap;" "Reap." And so, as he 
said this thrice over, they answered to it all, " Well." 3 Their 
regular Sabbath (as, after sunset, was the case in this in- 
stance) did not hinder this ceremony ; and on the next day, 
the sheaf was offered in the temple, after which, and not be- 
fore, the Jewish people might proceed to their harvesting. 

Such in the regular order of things would have been this 
Chagigah or great festival day, a time of peculiar feasting 



Lightfoot. 2 Leviticus xxiii. 9-11. 3 Lightfoot. 



37 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

and rejoicing; and now with the feelings suited to it the 
great multitudes rose on that (Friday) morning in the bright- 
ness and freshness of the dawn. 

But the Sanhedrim had been yet earlier risers, for their 
work had to be quickly done. As the earliest morning light 
crept down into the judgment-hall and the court-yard, and 
upon the wearied and exhausted individuals there the Mes- 
siah still among them the members of the Sanhedrim, with 
the chief-priests and elders and scribes 1 might have been 
seen gliding toward the house of Caiaphas, where they were 
soon formed into the regular council prescribed by their law. 
They could now pronounce a legal judgment, and their ac- 
tion was rapid, the way to it having all been prepared dur- 
ing the night. The Messiah was placed before them. 

"Art thou the Christ? tell us," they demanded. 

"If I tell you ye will not believe," he replied; "and if 
I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go. Here- 
after shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power 
of God." 

They were impatient, for time was pressing, and all cried 
out as with one voice, 

" Art thou then the Son of God ?" 

" Ye say that I am :" (the Jewish form, equivalent to, " I 
am"). 

" What need we any further witness ?" they cried " for 
we ourselves have heard of his own mouth." 

He was immediately condemned. 

From this he was taken while it was yet early 8 to Pilate's 
judgment-hall. 

In the meantime, by means of various spreading reports, 
the multitudes were coming to a consciousness of these trans- 
actions, and they stood appalled their senses almost para- 
lyzed by what they heard. Their enthusiasm toward the 



1 Mark xv. 1; Luke xxii. 66. 2 Luke xxii. 66-71. s John xviii. 28. 



TRIAL BEFORE PILATE. 37 1 

Messiah had been very great. All had taken him to be at 
least a prophet; many believed him to be much more than 
that. The rumor of a few days previous, that " the king- 
dom of heaven was shortly to appear/' had turned all eyes 
toward him in expectation of something wonderful in which 
he was to be the great and glorious leader, and they had con- 
versed about it among themselves until curiosity, if not en- 
thusiastic, had highest power. They remembered also the 
scenes in the temple; his majesty of appearance there, his 
teachings and the force of his words, his countenance so 
grand in its changing expressions as he hurled the merited 
woes upon Pharisees and Scribes ; they remembered his heal- 
ings in the temple and the general joy caught from the 
healed men the hosannas shouted out and caught up again 
repeated till the temple courts were filled with the sounds 
of glorifying him as God ; and the scenes just previously on 
the descent of Olivet, where the throngs were spreading 
their garments in his way, and hailing him as king and 
more than king " Hosanna," "Save, Lord, we beseech 
thee." Those among the multitudes who had not witnessed 
these things had heard them repeated in their ears so often, 
and with so much of the eastern enthusiasm of manner that 
they had caught the same feeling and now"! Now the 
rumor went that he had been condemned at a formal meeting 
of the Sanhedrim for BLASPHEMY ; that witnesses had sworn 
to his saying that he would destroy their temple ; that he 
had been sentenced to death, and was at present before the 
Roman governor, whither their rulers had taken him in order 
to have the sentence confirmed ! 

Those of the multitudes who hastened toward the judg- 
ment-seat of Pilate found there that the rumor was true, and 
found the Roman soldiers by the gates and in the judgment- 
hall. The great Roman power had hemmed him in on every 
side. A shudder as if their own dissolution were at hand 
crept through the crowds, among whom however the agents 



37 2 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

of the Sanhedrim were now also at work infusing doubts 
and uttering anathemas against him whom the rulers had 
condemned for blasphemy. 

Pilate is described by Philo, a learned Jewish writer 1 of 
that age, as a man " with a nature inflexible and implacable 
in its arrogance;" he had been appointed Procurator of Ju- 
dea, A. D., 2ti, and had made himself odious to the Jews by 
his cruelty and savage nature of which we have an example 
in his having compelled the Jews to mingle the blood of 
some of their own people in their sacrifices at the temple, 
(Luke xiii. 1). 

Before this man the Messiah still bound now stood for 
trial, his accusers who were the Sanhedrim having followed 
him and being now there also with their charges and their 
fully settled plans. 

Judgment among the Romans was always public and sub 
dio, (in the open air); and in order to make their decrees 
more solemn, officers of high rank took with them a tesse- 
lated pavement (in Heb. Gabbatha, John xix. 13), which 
was placed on an elevated spot ; on this pavement was put 
the JBema or judgment-seat, and on this the judge took his 
place when a trial was about to be commenced. This was 
in the present case in front of the Governor's palace ; and 
about it, the Jewish elders were now standing for accusation ; 
but they refused to enter the palace itself, that being a Gen- 
tile's residence, entering which would defile them till even- 
ing, and prevent their joining in the Chagigah ceremonies 
on that day. 2 Pilate, however, could take the accused per- 

1 Born in Alexandria, where he wrote about the year A. D. 40. 

2 The reader will observe that this removes the seeming difficulty in 
John xviii. 28, which has sometimes puzzled commentators. The pass- 
over mentioned there must have been the Chagigah eaten during the day, 
and from which any defilement in the morning would have debarred 
them. Such defilement continuing only till sunset could not exclude them 
from any religious duty after sunset ; but they wanted to share the Chagi- 
gah feast. The whole seven days' feast of unleavened bread was often 



TRIAL BEFORE PILATE. 373 

son within the palace for private examination there. The 
hall back of the judgment-seat had its guard of soldiers and 
officers, and the Governor had also his officers at the Bema 
where he took his seat. 

Pilate, according to the Roman legal usage, demanded of 
the accusers what charges they had to bring : but they tried 
to evade the question, and to see what their own authority 
could effect. 

" If he were not a malefactor, we would not have deliv- 
ered him up unto thee," they said. The Governor rejoined 
with a sneer, 

" Take ye him and judge him according to your law :" 
and they now showed their object : 

" It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." 1 

He saw their purpose : and saw the calm and dignified 
face before him, the noble expression of features, the gran- 
deur even yet marked upon that brow. How unlike a cul- 
prit ! How strange that such a person should be brought 
before him as a malefactor to be put to death ! He looked 
on the countenance of the crowd of accusers, malignant 
amid all their attempts at hypocrisy ; fierce, though under 
the assumptions of rank and justice; wrathful in their very 
first words before him; and lighted up with < eager ness for 
revenge. They were dark, scowling faces, though their 
owners stood in robes of office around the bound individual 
before him, whose features expressed even then only benig- 
nity and kindness, mingled with calmness and resignation. 

He again demanded of them an accusation, and they now 
brought forward a political charge, " We found this fellow 
perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute unto 
Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, a king." 2 The 
Governor gazed at him, and felt a wish for a private inter- 
called the Passover, (as in Josephus, Bel. ii. 1, 3, also Ant. xi. 4, 8) 
and in 2 Chron. xxxv.7, 8, bullocks are called the Passover offering. 

1 John xviii, 28-31. 2 Luke xxiii. 2. 

32 



374 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

view : he would not have such a person maligned by thoso 
hypocritical men without any means of help. So Pilate 
withdrew to the hall in the rear, and had Christ brought 
there to him. 

"Art thou the King of the Jews?" he asked. The 
Messiah answered, 

" Thou sayest it," (a form of assent) : and added, 

" Sayest thou this thing thyself, or did others tell it thee 
of me?" The reply to that was indignant, 

" Am I a Jew ? Thine own nation and the chief priests 
have delivered thee unto me : what hast thou done ?" The 
Messiah replied : 

" My kingdom is not of this world : if my kingdom were 
of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should 
not be delivered to the Jews i 1 but now is my kingdom not 
from hence." 

" Art thou a king, then ?" 

" Thou sayest that I am a king [equivalent to Yes, I am 
a king]. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I 
into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. 
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." 

" What is truth ?" said Pilate, a skeptic probably as re- 
gards all truth, as a Roman courtier might readily be ; and 
still more so, surrounded as he was with such hypocritical 
faces as were those of the accusers ; for he had immediately 
seen that " for envy " they had delivered Christ. 2 

He did not wait for an answer to this question, but went 
out before the expectant crowds, who were eager for his re- 
turn. The Sanhedrim had felt that there was good reason 
to dread such an interview : and they stood now, with ill- 



1 It is observable that here also the distinction is kept up between the 
people and the rulers, the latter obviously meant by the word Jews, it is 
well to bear it in mind in the further reading of John respecting the trial 
and crucifixion. 

2 Matt.xxvii. 18. 



TRIAL BEFORE PILATE. 375 

disguised anxiety on their faces, and in alarm. Pilate's 
words confirmed their fears. 

" I find no fault in him at all." 1 Filled now with open 
fierceness, they pressed warmly once more the accusation, 
which they believed must ultimately alarm the Governor. 

"He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all 
Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place." 2 From Gali- 
lee ! thought Pilate : and he was glad ; for it would give 
him an opportunity to throw the trouble and the odium that 
might arise from this trial on Herod, Tetrarch of Galilee, 
who was now in Jerusalem. He probably also expected 
some gratification of spite in the perplexity it would occasion 
Herod : for these two governors were at enmity at this time. 
He therefore sent the Messiah to Herod, who was pleased ; 
for now at last, this ruler had an opportunity of seeing one 
of whom he had so often heard ; and rumors of whose mira- 
cles were so astonishing that he had even taken him to be 
John risen from the dead. He hoped perhaps to see some 
miracle performed. 

Before this monster of lust and cruelty, the Messiah was 
now standing ; the accusers having accompanied him there. 
They might hope for better success before such a mixture of 
baseness, and weakness and barbarity, as Herod had shown 
himself to be in the case of the Baptist : and they now urged 
their accusation with new vehemence ; while the Tetrarch 
himself put question after question, with greater and greater 
bitterness and savage feeling, as he found himself not re- 
plied to in any one of them. The Saviour opposed to the 
contemptible ruler and his insolent questions, as he had pre- 
viously done to his accusers before Pilate, 3 only the calm 
dignity of silence ; until the Tetrarch, irritated by receiving 
no reply, turned on him his soldiers, who, with the ruler, 
"set him at naught, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a 



1 John xvii. 34-38. 2 Luke xxiii. 5. 3 Matt, xxvii. 12. 



LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

gorgeous robe :" after which he was sent back to Pilate, 
These missions between the two governors brought about a 
reconciliation between them, and they now became friends. 1 

The governor of Judea was perplexed ; for on the one 
hand was the Sanhedrim, with the weight of their position, 
and their official condemnation in this case, with accusations 
also of a political nature, which, if disregarded, might bring 
him into trouble; and on the other he believed in the Mes- 
siah's innocence, and saw their motive in all this malignant 
action ; and he had been also cautioned by his wife, warned 
in a dream 2 "to have nothing to do with that just man." 
He made an effort at extricating himself through an old 
custom, which was to yield up to the people's clemency on 
this day, any malefactor whom they might demand ; and 
now, as they were becoming" clamorous for this favor, a hope 
sprang up in the governor that they might be less savage 
than their rulers, and might designate the accused for this 
favor. He said to them, 

"Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?" 3 

The rulers were startled ; but they were not to be readily 
foiled. They immediately mingled with the multitude, 4 
repeating charge after charge against the Messiah; sustaining 
these with all the authority of their office ; appealing to the 
people's reverence for their temple, there in full view; and 
using such other devices as their malignity could invent ; 
and soon there were symptoms of disapprobation at Pilate's 
suggestion. There was in prison a notorious felon, Barab- 
bas by name, put there for robbery and murder, and attempt 
at sedition; and from those crowds probably many of them 
of a base sort, such as could sympathize with that culprit-^ 
after a while, arose a demand : 

"Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas." 5 



1 Luke xxiii. 6-12. 2 Matt, xxvii. 19. 3 Mark xv. 9. 

4 Matt, xxvii. 20. 5 Luke xxiii. 18. 



TRIAL BEFORE PILATE. 377 

"What will ye then that I shall do unto him ye call the 
King of the Jews?" asked the Governor. And they an- 
swered with the terrific cry, 

" Crucify him !" 

Pilate was horror-struck, and attempted to remonstrate : 

" Why, what evil hath he done ?" But the cry was only 
vociferated more fiercely, 

" Crucify him I" 1 

They were going far beyond their own law, which ordered 
stoning to death, as the severest punishment for the greatest 
crime known among them, namely, blasphemy : but this did 
not satisfy them now. They demanded the most cruel and 
the most painful of all Roman punishments, one exciting 
such horror among the Romans themselves, that Cicero says 
of it, "Ab oculis, auribusque et omni cogitatione hominum re- 
movendum est:" 2 it should be banished from eyes and ears, and 
even from the very thoughts of men: so ignominious also, 
that it was inflicted, as the last mark of detestation, on the 
vilest of people, was the punishment of robbers and mur- 
derers, provided that they were slaves ; but it was thought 
too infamous a punishment for freemen, let their crimes be 
what they might. 3 

One word from the governor, an order for acquittal 
would have been decisive ; and we may wonder that it was 
not given, when he heard their horrible demand, especially 
as he had just said to them, "Behold, I, having examined 
him before you, have found no fault in this man touching 
those things whereof ye accuse him : no, nor yet Herod : for 
I sent you to him, and lo nothing worthy of death is done 
unto him :" 4 but we must remember, not as an exculpation, 
but as one of the facts in the case, that Pilate was amenable 
to Rome, to which their accusations against himself, could 



32 



1 Mark xv. 12-14. 2 In Verrem. 

3 Adam Clarke. * Luke xxiii. 14, 15, 



37^ LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

easily be sent. He thought he would try whether their 
malice might not be satisfied if the object of their vengeance 
should be degraded and punished before their eyes; his 
claims of kingship being made the badges of his disgrace. 
He, therefore, had the Messiah scourged ; and delivered him 
into the hands of his soldiers, who " platted a crown of 
thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple 
robe, and said, Hail, King of the Jews ! and they smote him 
with their hands ;" "they smote him on the head with a 
reed, and did spit upon him/' and bowed their knees in mock 
worship :' after which Pilate coming out said, 

" Behold I bring him forth to you that ye may know that 
I find no fault in him." 

Jesus was led before them wearing the crown of thorns 
and the purple robe. Mockery it was, but, even still there 
was a dignity in his manner which they could not tear from 
him or disguise, and a strange Presence recognized by Pilate 
even there, as if the kingship thrust forward in mockery 
was felt to be actual truth. He said to them, 

"Behold the Man!" and there broke out again that 
fierce demand : 

" Crucify him, crucify him." The governor saw that all 
efforts at conciliation were fruitless ; there was now only one 
shout from them, and that for blood ; he looked down on 
the fierce, and determined faces, and saw no relenting there, 
only malice, and but half-suppressed rage against himself. 
He quailed before the possible consequences of this in his 
own person : it would be the easiest and safest thing for him 
to yield. But even in yielding, he put in a protest : " Take 
ye him and crucify him ; for I find no fault in him." In 
their triumph now at success, and their attempts at justifica- 
tion, they overshot their mark. " We have a law and by our 
law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of 



1 John xix. 1-3; Mark xv. 18, 19. 



TRIAL BEFORE PILATE. 379 

God." The governor was startled and amazed ; it was a 
new aspect in the affair ; for hitherto they had been urging 
it upon him on political grounds. The strange dignity of 
the accused had before impressed him ; his calmness, truly 
like that of a God while all were raging around him for his 
destruction ; the majesty which no mocking could put 
down. He went back to the hall again, and summoned the 
Messiah. " Whence art thou ?" he said. 

There was no reply. Pilate was urgent for an answer, 
and tried to bring the terrors of his power to his aid. 

" Speakest thou not unto me ? Knowest thou not that I 
have power to crucify thee and have power to release thee ?" 
The answer was : 

" Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except 
it were given thee from above; therefore, he that delivered 
me unto thee hath the greater sin." 

Outside there was a feeling of impatience becoming 
strong among the rulers. They dared not come to the hall, 
for that would defile the hypocrites \ but these interviews 
and colloquies in it were always to them subjects of distrust 
and fear. Previously they had found their cause suffer from 
such an examination by Pilate ; and now, when he appeared 
again before them, he made still further efforts for the re- 
lease of Christ. But they had one powerful means kept in 
reserve for extremities, and such an extremity seemed now 
to have come. Of all the Roman emperors, Tiberius (then 
ruling) was the most jealous and implacable : and, in his 
eyes, majestatis crimen omnium accusationum complementum 
est (Tacitus, Ann. iii. 38) ; "the crime of treason is the climax 
of all accusations" They cried out loudly to Pilate : 

" If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend ; 
whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Caesar. 1 

T/iou art not well affected toward Ccesar ! 



1 John zix. 4-12. 



380 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

He resisted no more. They had conquered, and they 
knew now that by this threat of accusing the governor, whose 
soul crouched with fear before the bloody tyrant, their tri- 
umph was secured. 

The governor seated himself on the judgment-seat at the 
tesselated pavement, and the Messiah was brought before 
them once more. He said, 

" Behold your king I" and there arose a storm of wrath 
with shouts, 

"Away with him, away with him, crucify him!" 

"Shall I crucify your King?" he asked. 

They were now mad with rage, for they cried out the 
chief-priests leading in it, 

" We have no king but Ccesar." l 

The rulers must have felt a thrill of horror in their own 
hearts as the words burst from them ; for it had always been 
their boast that they had no king but God, and would ac- 
knowledge no other ; and this they had always put forward 
as their grounds of resistance to the Roman power and its 
claims. But madness filled them at this time. Their words 
were blasphemy and treason against God, according to all 
they had ever professed before ; they were making themselves 
contemptible in their own eyes and abhorrent to all the na- 
tion, and faces in the multitude there showed horror at the 
cry ; but there was no open protest, and the blasphemy and 
treason stand yet against the rulers in the madness of that 
hour. 

Pilate on the judgment-seat called for water, and per- 
formed a significant act. He washed his hands publicly so 
that all might see it, and declared before them, 

" I am innocent of the blood of this just person ; see ye 
to it." 

An answering cry came from the whole assembly there, 



1 John xix. 13-16. 



TRIAL BEFORE PILATE. 381 

and it contains under the circumstances the most frightful 
words ever uttered by human lips : 

" His blood be on us and our children !" l 

" Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required." 2 
He had Barabbas released then and delivered into their hands. 

What were the feelings of the multitudes in Jerusalem all 
this while? The people who had cried their hosannas, the 
admiring throngs that had gazed on his miracles, the men 
cured, the blind men of Siloam and of Jericho, and the halt 
and blind healed in the temple, what were their thoughts? 
Lazarus, the disciples, where were they? Was there no 
voice from any one of them ? There must have been a 
sickening sensation throughout the city, a feeling that a 
dark, hellish deed was being done, and a resistance in men's 
hearts to the whole proceeding of the Sanhedrim. "Why," 
the people must have thought, " why the secret stealing upon 
the party in Gethsemane? why the night-council? why the 
violation of all precedents and of all Jewish law? why this 
indecent haste ?" The hellish malice of the Pharisees and 
chief-priests was manifest ; the instigations to the crowd to 
release Barabbas a robber and murderer, and to demand 
crucifixion as regards Jesus ; their goadings on of the un- 
willing Governor ; all this was too transparent not to be seen 
through and understood, and the hearts of all true men must 
have recoiled from it in horror and disgust. But what, to 
their apprehension, could they do? It was now but three 
hours after sunrise, 3 and already Pilate had pronounced the 
sentence, and Jesus was in the hands of the Roman soldiers ; 
the power of that colossal Roman empire had closed around 
him, and he was hemmed in by it to his death* True it .was 
reported that the Sanhedrim had in formal conclave con- 

1 Matt, xxvii. 24, 25. 

2 Luke xxiii. 24. This governor after having ruled ten years was de- 
posed and banished to Vienne, where he is said to have committed suicide. 

3 See Mark xv. 25. 



382 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

demned him for blasphemy, even on his own words before 
them ; but men through the city still recoiled with a sicken- 
ing sensation from the whole thing as a dark, hellish work. 
Those who thought of God's justice, even if they did not be- 
lieve in Christ, trembled ; those who believed in him felt 
crushed to the earth and knew the truth of their Master's 
word that a woe was gathering to burst over all their land. 

There was one man among them almost frenzied. It was 
Judas. He had probably hoped that there would be some 
way of escape for the Messiah, some miracle from him per- 
haps for his own deliverance, and he had scarcely antici- 
pated such an end. He had the money; Christ he had 
hoped would escape. Thus he had doubtless reasoned, and 
the Pharisees he had thought would be doubly overmatched. 
Therefore the most restless man in all Jerusalem in watching 
the proceedings of the council, and at the Prsetorium, was 
doubtless this traitor, in whose heart remorse was taking its 
everlasting hold. Now the end had come, and with it came 
recollections and anticipations, and a fearfulness of horror ; 
for hell was already lighted up in his heart. He saw the 
flashing of triumph in the Pharisees' eyes; remorse was 
blazing in a frenzy from his own. He hurried to their 
council, which seems to have adjourned from the Prsetorium 
to their council-room, and entered it with the cry, 

" I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent 
blood." There was only a cold-blooded, sneering answer : 

" What is that to us? See thou to that." He flung down 
their money and rushed out. Was the woe at the Paschal 
supper pursuing him? Had it not been ringing in his ears 
all the night and all the morning? " Woe unto the man by 
whom the Son of man was betrayed ; it had been better for that 
man if he had not been born." l Remorse and the woe were 
upon him, and the wretch immediately committed suicide 
by hanging. 8 

1 Matt. xxvi. 24, a Matt, xxvii. 5. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 383 

The Sanhedrim gathered up the money ; it was not lawful 
they said to put it into the treasury of the temple, as it was 
the price of blood ; so they bought with it a field for bury- 
ing strangers and called the place " The Field of Blood." 



CHAPTER XL VI. 
THE CRUCIFIXION. 

PILATE had yielded. As soon as he had discovered the 
motive of the Jewish leaders, " that for envy they had 
delivered him," ' and saw that they proposed making himself 
the instrument of their malice, and moreover saw the great- 
ness of the Messiah under these trying circumstances he had 
"determined to let him go;" 2 but his own nature was too 
pusillanimous to allow him to hold unflinchingly to the right 
amid dangers to himself, and at that argumentum ad homi- 
nem at the last he had withered and lost his manhood. We 
can almost see him as in the symbolical act he was washing 
his hands, ashamed of himself, trying thus but unsatisfac- 
torily to his own heart to shake off the responsibility of the 
condemnation, warm in admiration of the wonderful being 
whom he had delivered to the leaders to be crucified, and 
despising and hating them. What a contempt he must have 
felt for men, who while they were so instigated by deadly 
malice and were urging him to crucify an innocent person, had 
yet refused to enter his hall lest they should be defiled by cross- 
ing the threshold of a Gentile, and so should be unfitted for 
the religious ceremonies of the day. 



Matt, xxvii. 18. 2 Acts iii. 13. 



384 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

He was glad to see them go at last ad vacate his pre- 
mises, but as he turned from them it must have been with 
many compunctions as to his own conduct, and a sense of 
meanness and degradation in himself. He felt however that 
he had obtained one great triumph over these base men, and 
that was when they had given the lie to all their former pre- 
tensions, and had lowered their pride and had abjured all 
that they had ever declared sacred and inviolable, in that 
mad cry from them, " We have no king but Caesar." 

There was usually before crucifixion a scene of horrible 
suffering and indignity, from which the outrages already in- 
flicted by the soldiers on the person of Christ may perhaps 
have saved him on this occasion. It was the scourging by 
theflagellwn, an instrument so frightfully severe that people 
sometimes died under the infliction. 1 Horace calls it horri- 
bileflagellum. It consisted of a handle with thongs " knotted 
with bones or heavy indented circles of bronze, or terminated 
with hooks, in which case it was aptly denominated scorpion." 
It was used solely in the case of slaves who were as already 
stated, the only persons who could be executed by crucifixion, 
the punishment for theft and murder. Luke 2 says that 
Pilate proposed to scourge Jesus, and John 3 speaks of a 
scourging during the trial. Matthew's record 4 is "Then 
released he Barabbas unto them, and when he had scourged 
Jesus he delivered him to be crucified;" and similar to this 
is the account by Mark. 5 Commentators are divided on the 
question whether there was but one scourging, that is during 
the trial, or in addition the customary one after sentence had 
been pronounced. The soldiers, of whose barbarity we have 
proofs during the trial, would be ready for any subsequent 
cruelties ; and such a scourging may have produced the ex- 



1 Jalm's Archaeology. 2 xxiu. 16 and 22. 

3 xix. 1, * xxvii. 26. 6 xv. 15. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 



385 



haustion which led them to compel Simon the Cyrenian to 
assist in bearing the cross. 1 




It was against all Jewish law to examine a cause, pass 
sentence, and put it in execution on the same day, 2 but law 
and usage were nothing to their leaders on this occasion. 
They wanted the life-blood no matter at what cost or how 
procured. 

The movement from the judgment-hall was onward toward 
the place of crucifixion, the Saviour as was customary on 
such occasions bearing his cross ; though soon owing to his 
exhaustion the soldiers compelled a man coming from the 
country to assist in supporting its weight. The crowds had 
gathered in large numbers, some of them stupefied, amazed, 
stunned, but helpless now ; for any resistance, if they felt so 
disposed, would be insurrectionary, and would only bring on 
them the quick vengeance of Rome ; some were exultant 
and noisy in their demonstrations of triumph and joy. As 
the company moved onward to the place of crucifixion, 
weeping was heard in the crowd, and the Saviour turned 



1 The cross was usually about ten feet in length. Hasselquist, a Swedish 
naturalist, supposes that the crown of thorns was made from the naba or 
nabka (so called by the Arabs) very common in that country. It has nu- 
merous small and sharp spines and leaves much resembling ivy ; the lat- 
ter circumstance adding to their mockery, as it seemed to represent a vic- 
tor's wreath. 

2 Jahn. 

33 



386 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

toward the sounds. Sympathy, kindness, commiseration 
at last and in that company; people wailing and lament- 
ing aloud! They were women, and their voices sounded 
strangely among those mixed, discordant noises, where taunt- 
ings and revilings and rejoicings were the general manifes- 
tations of feeling. He turned sadly toward the women ; 
exhaustion and pain showed themselves in his tones, but he 
thought even then more of these mourners than of himself. 

" Daughters of Jerusalem,' 7 he said, " weep not for me, 
but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold 
the days are coming in the which they shall say, Blessed are 
the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps 
which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to 
the mountains, Fall on us ; and to the hills, Cover us. For 
if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done 
in the dry?" 1 

Once more onward toward the place of execution ; the 
crowds half-awed by the solemn words, and by the indefi- 
nite danger foreshadowed in the language of one always so 
prophet-like, but the leaders were there applying fresh stimu- 
lants to rage and to tauntings and obloquy. A Roman offi- 
cer; Roman soldiers ; Jesus with his burden ; two malefactors 
also with their crosses bearing him company as if an addi- 
tional degradation was attempted to be forced upon him by 
their companionship ; the rulers of the Jews still unwearied 
and determined to see the end fully accomplished ; the crowds, 
some awed and silent, some vociferous and insulting; the 
women, their voices of wailing mingling with the harsh 
sounds of bold, fierce men such was the company that ad- 
vanced along the thoroughfares of Jerusalem from the Go- 
vernor's palace to Calvary. 

A spot called Golgotha, signifying "the place of a skull," 
being a slight elevation with its summit in full view was to 



1 Luke xxiii. 27-30. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 387 

be the scene of the crucifixion, and they soon arrived there ; 
for it was not far from the Prsetorium, and just outside the 
city walls. There the preparations were quickly made. The 
garments of the person to be executed were always the per- 
quisites of the Roman guards, and those of our Saviour 
were now divided among the quaternion or four soldiers, the 
outer one falling to one of them by lot. The preparations 
for nailing him to the cross were soon completed. It was 
customary, in respect to the very horrible pains suffered in 
this first act, to give previously to the individual a stupefy- 
ing potion ; and such an one was now handed to the Messiah, 
but after tasting it he refused to drink. 1 

He was then nailed to the cross. 

" Father, forgive them," he said, as they did this, " for 
they know not what they do." 2 

The company had been painfully attentive, even the most 
hardened and cruel ; a deep horror, a solemnity, a shrinking 
in their nerves as they heard the grating sounds of the nails 
in his limbs; a shuddering through the crowd; sobs and 
sounds of weeping here and there, and then a shout of deri- 
sion and scorn, with bitter tauntings, drowning all other 
sounds ; such was the scene. What fiends men can be when 
they are under wicked leaders, and are stimulated by hellish 
passions ! and devils seemed to have a terrible power there in 
that hour of the crucifixion of Christ. The cross now had 
been put in its place and elevated, and it stood there with 
its burden bloody from the stripes and the nailing, and with 
its inscription in Greek and Latin and Hebrew : 

" JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS." 8 

The Jewish leaders had requested Pilate to change it to a 
different form, containing a pretension to be king ; but he 

1 Matt, xxvii. 34. 2 Luke xxiii. 34. 

3 Latin was the official language; Greek was the one usually spoken 
in that country by the learned ; and Hebrew, or rather its cognate, Ara- 
maic by the common people. 



388 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

refused. The chief priests and scribes and elders were there 
leading on the tauntings : " He saved others, himself he cannot 
save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down 
from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in 
God ; let him deliver him now if he will have him ; for he 
said, I am the Son of God. 77 Their action, their language, 
their feelings were hellish ; there seemed to be nothing hu- 
man left in them, and yet these men were the rulers of the 
nation. 

The crowds joined mostly in these cries, and in their own 
peculiar way. They had followed, some engaged in the in- 
terest of the rulers and their agents, some from idle curiosity, 
some from better motives ; but there had doubtless been in 
many, the expectation of some great phenomena, a great 
miracle, perhaps some supernatural effort at release, some 
struggle by that strange power in him for deliverance; and 
now that there had been none they were angered, and would 
feel that there was some revenge due them for their disap- 
pointment. They tried to have it, led too, as they were by 
men in authority; the soldiers also, and even the two cru- 
cified malefactors, or at least one of them, joined in their 
mockings and taunting cries. The shouts of the people 
showed how the cunning device of the priests in suborning 
witnesses to say that they had heard him threaten to destroy 
their temple, had succeeded in revolutionizing their feelings; 
for their cry was, "Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and 
buildest it in three days, save thyself, and come down from 
the cross. 771 The priests sneered at him, in their own pecu- 
liar way, "He saved others; himself he cannot save. 7 ' 
One of the malefactors by and by, struck to the heart by 
the strange scene, the revilings cast on one so innocent, the 
gentleness and forgivingness of the sufferer in his greatest 
pains, the contrast between the raging, venomous people 



Mark xv. 29. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 389 

and Christ, rebuked his companion as he was saying, " If 
thou be Christ, save thyself and us." 

"Dost thou not fear God/ 7 he said, " seeing that thou art 
in the same condemnation ? And we indeed justly ; for we 
receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done 
nothing amiss." He added to Jesus himself, 

" Lord, remember me when thou comeBt into thy king- 
dom." 

It was but a simple prayer : it was the first appeal ever 
made to the Cross of Christ ; and it was answered in kind- 
ness: 

" Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me 
in Paradise." 1 

There stood near to the cross a group, a singular one it 
was amid that scene of scoffing, and malice, and triumph at 
Christ's sufferings ; for the faces and actions of these per- 
sons gave demonstration how deeply they sympathized with 
the sufferer. They were his mother ; her sister, wife of 
Cleophas ; Mary Magdalene ; and the faithful John. Best 
love is ever bravest ; and these loved the most. They stood 
there, true to him, their souls writhing under those taunt- 
ings and those scornful insulting cries. They looked to- 
ward the cross ; and they there saw the marks of agony ; 
the anguish apparent in his face, and in the spasms and con- 
vulsions of his body ; that face so gentle and calm, and so 
God-like always, but now clouded with the pain which ex- 
pressed itself in every line and feature ; the eyes now blood- 
shot ; the brow and form wounded and bloody ; the lan- 
guor of exhaustion stealing over the limbs and frame. Not 
one word, however, of complaint from him ; his eyes still 
showed love to them and to all. His voice and tone when 
he spoke, were now as always, in kindness and love. 



1 Luke xxiii. 39-43. 
33* 



39 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

He addressed them ; but his words were few, in conse- 
quence of his spasms of agony : 

" Woman, behold thy son !" and to John, 

" Behold, thy mother :" 

Those tones had the marks of pain in them ; but yet how 
true they were to his strong, undying love ! John took her 
from that hour as his own mother, to his home. 1 

The hours dragged on ; and the anguish increased. In one 
of our best authorities we have the following account of the 
effects of crucifixion : 

"1. The position of the body is unnatural, the arms be- 
ing extended back and almost immovable. In case of the 
least motion an extremely painful sensation is experienced 
in the hands and feet, 2 which are pierced with nails, and the 
back, which is lacerated with stripes. 2. The nails being 
driven through the parts of the hands and feet which abound 
in nerves and tendons, create the most exquisite anguish. 
3. The exposure of his many wounds to the open air brings 
on an inflammation which every moment increases the poig- 
nancy of the suffering. 4. In those parts of the body which 
are distended or pressed, more blood flows through the ar- 
teries than can be carried back into the veins. The conse- 
quence is that a greater quantity of blood finds its way from 
the aorta into the head and stomach than would be carried 
there by a natural and undisturbed circulation. The blood- 
vessels of the head become pressed and swollen, which of 
course, causes pain and redness of the face. The circum- 
stance of the blood being impelled in more than ordinary 
quantities into the stomach, is an unfavorable one also, be- 



1 John xix. 25-27. 

a Gregory of Nazianzen has asserted that one nail only was driven 
through them ; but Cyprian, (De passione), who had been a personal wit- 
ness to crucifixions, and is consequently, in this case, a better author- 
ity, states on the contrary, that two nails or spikes were driven, one 
through each foot. Jahn's Archaeology. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 391 

cause it is thai part of the system which not only admits of 
the blood being stationary, but is peculiarly exposed to mor- 
tification. The aorta not being at liberty to empty, in a free 
and undisturbed way as formerly, the blood which it receives 
from the left ventricle of the heart, is unable to receive its 
usual quantity. The blood of the lungs is therefore, unable 
to find a free circulation. This general obstruction extends 
its effects likewise to the right ventricle, and the con- 
sequence is an internal excitement and exertion and 
anxiety, which are more intolerable than the anguish 
of death itself. All the large vessels about the heart, 
and all the veins and arteries in that part of the sys- 
tem, on account of the accumulation and pressure of blood, 
are a source of inexpressible misery. 5. The degree of 
anguish is gradual in its increase, and the person crucified 
is able to live under it, commonly till the third, and some- 
times even till the seventh day." 1 

The group of friends felt all the bitterness of those still 
continued gibes and taun tings, and the wagging of heads at 
him, by the passers by ; for the spot was at some thorough- 
fare, probably near the angle where the walls of Acra and 
of Zion met, and by the gate Gennath, in the latter. They 
were themselves a marked object, with their deep sympathy 
depicted in their faces ; and many a look of contempt was 
directed at them ; but no violence dared to be offered in the 
presence of the Roman officer and his soldiers: and the 
elders and rabble felt too much engrossed with their taunt- 
ings of Christ to give much time to others of less note. 
Was there not one sentiment of compassion in the revilers ? 
no feeling for the anguish shown on that brow and in the 
convulsed limbs? Their words show only malignity, and 
spite, and triumph. 

But after a while, as this was going on, every one in 



1 Jahn's Archaeology. 



39 2 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Jerusalem and in the region about it became conscious of a 
singular gloom darkening the air and settling down over all 
objects; becoming deeper and deeper; coming silently and 
enwrapping everything, the city, and temple, and moun- 
tains around. People stopped, and looked at each other in 
wonder ; and presently in alarm : for it was becoming night, 
although the time was at full mid-day. The crucifixion 
had been at nine o'clock :' it was now twelve; but soon there 
was no sun to be seen in the sky, only the blackness of 
darkness everywhere. Men groped along in uncertainty of 
motion, deep horror now in every heart. The Chagigah 
ceremonies had been going on in the city, and at the temple, 
and the great altar fires were blazing on Moriah with the 
sacrifices there. Very many of the people, it is true, had, 
from early morning, felt no heart for the festivities of this, 
their great day of rejoicing : for they had been stunned by 
the announcement of the seizure and binding and condem- 
nation of Christ, and by the scenes at the Prsetorium ; and 
a sickening sensation had crept through them, when they 
heard of the crucifixion : but others, deceived by the artful 
proceedings of the Sanhedrim, or callous, or fickle, or un- 
willing to lose the rejoicings that had always made this day 
so cheerful, were proceeding with the Chagigah festivity, 
when this darkness came settling down over their mirth, 
and substituted for it, horror and alarm. They left their 
feasts untouched ; they sat in silence, or whispered to each 
other, or hastened to secret places, as if fearful that, in 
this blackening gloom, some mighty Avenger was coming 
through the air ready to strike, they could not tell where, 
or whom, or how. Some ascended rapidly to the sacred 



1 Third hour, (nine o'clock), according to Mark xv. 25, which agrees 
with Matthew and Luke. The Gospel of John says at the sixth hour, 
(or noon), which is evidently an error by transcribers ; the Greek letter 
representing six being very similar to that for three. In some of the 
best ancient Greek readings, we find the third hour, also in John. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 393 

precincte of the temple, thinking that perhaps there might 
be more safety or less alarm in that place ; and found the 
priests, with pallid faces, looking in their white dresses about 
the altar lighted by the strong glare from its fires, more like 
unwilling spirits of doom aghast at their work, than like paci- 
ficators between God and man, and the ministers of joy on this 
festive day. There was universal horror, and a momentarily 
increasing fear amid these millions congregated at Jerusalem. 
The words of Christ to the women, on the way to Golgotha, 
were spreading among the crowds, " Daughters of Jerusalem, 
weep not for me, but for yourselves and for your children," 
&c. : and people also remembered his frequent prophecies re- 
specting the city and its terrible approaching end. " Had the 
time now come?" they thought. "Was this the begin- 
ning?" Men sat down, covering their faces in the horror 
that was chilling them through ; or stood like statues, as if 
turned to marble in this fear that was paralyzing every fac- 
ulty : women clasped their children to their hearts, and shed 
over them their silent tears, or broke into wailings at what 
seemed to be the doom already arrived. 

All nature was mourning as at some horrible event ; and 
all thoughts were turned towards the scenes at Golgotha, 
the cross, the victim, the deepening agonies there. That 
spot was involved in the darkness, as if heaven would not 
look upon it, and was shrouding it from all sight ; or, as if 
heaven was sympathizing with the sufferings there, and 
veiling itself in gloom. 

So the hours passed on, in this unnatural and frightful 
darkness, until the ninth hour (three o'clock) was near at 
hand. The anguish of Christ had been increasing, with all 
the peculiar mental as well as bodily distress belonging to 
that mode of suffering. Death was approaching, a death in 
which all the powers are strained into the fullest agony be- 
fore they finally give way. The mind is fearfully affected ; 
and the writhings and distortions of the higher, intellectual 



394 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

nature form the greatest of the horrors which precede the 
dissolution. 

Such a spasm came now. There was a cry, extorted by 
its anguish. 

"Eli! Eli! lama Sabacthani," meaning, "My God, my 
God, why hast thoti forsaken me ?" 

Men with hearts steeled against all sympathy, and full of 
malignity, were still about the cross ; and they said, mista- 
king the words 

"Let be: let us see whether Elias will come to save him." 

The mental spasm, however, was soon over; and the God- 
like nature in him had again the supremacy ; but what a 
horrible darkening there had been to bring forth that 
desponding cry ! 

During these pains, the body is parched by a burning 
sensation ; and to his complaint of thirst now, the soldiers 
filled a sponge with their vinegar, or sour wine (their com- 
mon drink), and it was handed to him on the extremity of 
a hyssop stalk. 

The end had come. He said, 

" It is finished." 1 " Father, into thy hands I commend 
my spirit." 2 

One cry, a piercing, anguished cry, drawn from him by 
the death agony, and it was over. 3 The sufferings had 
ceased. 

Nature, as if in sympathy, was convulsed. The earth 
shook as if it were in terror; the rocks were rent in sunder; 
the veil of the temple, hiding the holy of holies from the 
eyes of all but the high priest, was rent in twain from top 
to bottom, as by unseen hands ; graves opened of their own 
accord, and bodies of the dead appeared moving about, as 
though the grave were resigning its power, its dominion 
gone. The centurion who had been superintending the ex- 



1 John xix. 30. 2 Luke xxiii. 46. 3 Matt, xxvii. 50. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 395 

ecution exclaimed, " Truly this was the Son of God." 1 A 
fear had come on all who were watching there, and others 
joined the officer in the exclamation : they smote on their 
breasts, 2 and returned to the city, fear, sadness, remorse fill- 
ing their hearts. The physical darkness had now passed 
away, and light was restored to the earth once more. 3 

The group of friends by the cross had not been the only 
sympathizers watching these sad events. There were others 
further off people true to Christ still in their hearts, some 
of whom had followed him from Galilee, 4 but powerless to 
help. To them the former group had retired toward the 
last of these scenes. In addition to their sympathies, there 
were many very sad thoughts among his friends on that day, 
understanding very imperfectly as they did the nature of 
the kingdom which he had come to establish among men. 
Their love for him had given rise to many hopes of seeing 
him aggrandized in the world; some hopes there had also 
been for themselves : all such hopes were quenched now. 

Life in the malefactors still lingered on : and it was cus- 
tomary with the Komans, when this was the case longer 



1 Matt, xxvii. 54. a Luke xxiii. 49. 

3 This darkness was undoubtedly miraculous ; but there was a singular 
case of darkness, from natural, though still unexplained causes, on what 
is called in New England "The Dark Day," which occurred on the 19th 
of May, 1780. President Dwight, in speaking of it, says : " Candles 
were lighted in many houses ; the birds were silent and disappeared, and 
the fowls retired to roost. The legislature of Connecticut was then in 
session at Hartford. A very general opinion prevailed that the day of 
judgment was at hand. The House of Representatives being unable to 
transact their business adjourned. A proposal to adjourn the Council 
was under consideration. When the opinion of Col. Davenport was 
asked, he answered, 'I am against an adjournment. The day of judg- 
ment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause 
for an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty ; I wish 
therefore that candles maybe lighted.'" This darkness, like that at Jeru- 
salem, seems to have been local. 

4 Luke xxiii. 49. 



39 6 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

than they wished in any sufferer on the cross, to hasten 
death by breaking the bones of the legs with a mallet ; or, 
by plunging a spear into the heart ; or, by kindling a fire 
below, thus to hasten the end by suffocation. The day fol- 
lowing this would be the Jewish Sabbath ; and it was im- 
portant to have the bodies removed before sunset, when their 
holy day would commence : so the soldiers came and broke 
the bones of the malefactors, but there was no necessity for 
this violence on the Saviour's body, and it was spared : one 
of them however, to try whether there might not still be 
life, thrust a spear into his side, and there came out blood 
and water, decisive evidence that death had taken place. 1 

Silence had fallen gradually upon this scene ; the leaders 
fully sated in their revenge, had left, and most of the peo- 
ple had dropped off toward their homes in fear and remorse. 
A few remained, watchers from affection ; and the Roman 
guard was still on duty there. 

We turn to gaze on that spectacle ; the cross, the body, 
the bloody marks on brow and limbs, the stamp of death on 
the victim slain; slain for us. 

" BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, WHICH TAKETH AWAY 
THE SIN OF THE WORLD." 



1 Serum and blood, showing that the blood had resolved itself into its 
constituent principles, as it always does after death. 

" The researches of modern surgery have established the fact that an 
effusion of blood would have taken place in any case, being the natural 
consequences of such a wound, and is, under the circumstances, decisive 
evidence of the actual death of Christ." Bloomfield, in loco. 

"In order to ascertain whether Christ was really dead or not, or 
whether he had merely fallen into a swoon, a soldier thrust his lance into 
his side (undoubtedly his left side), but no signs of life appeared. If he 
had not been previously dead, a wound of this kind in his side would 
have put a period to his life, as has been shown by the physician Eschen- 
bach and by Gruner. The part pierced was the pericardium; hence 
lymph and blood flowed out." Jahn's Archaeology. 



THE BURIAL. 397 



CHAPTER XLVII. 
THE BURIAL. 

supernatural darkness had passed; but the hearts 
of the multitudes were still palpitating with the fear 
and awe which the recent events had produced ; the pall 
over all nature, the earthquake, the significant rending of 
the veil of the Holy of Holies, the dead moved from their 
graves. They felt that a horrible deed had been done, for 
which they might look for some avenging hand : and, when 
the people who had been to the crucifixion, and had joined 
in the derision there, now returned smiting their breasts in 
horror and remorse and reporting the words of the Cen- 
turion and others who had witnessed the end, " Certainly 
this was a righteous man/' "Truly this was the Son of God," 
a deep dejection fell on the city, a gloom of the soul darker 
than that which had just before been filling their sky. 

Sunset was approaching. After that they were bound to 
go out and cut the first fruits with festivity : they had no 
heart for it now. 

As the morrow would be the Sabbath, the time from three 
till sunset was called " the preparation ;" being given to 
cooking and preparing their food for the holy day : some- 
times the whole of Friday was called the day of preparation. 
The Jewish law also directed that the bodies of persons ex- 
ecuted should be buried before sunset of the day of execu- 
tion ; and those at Calvary must now be removed. 

There were members of the Sanhedrim believing on 
Jesus; but that horrible punishment of excommunication, 
decreed, a year before, on any one who might confess him, 
and the rancorous spirit of that body, had kept them in a 

34 



39$ LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

craven fear ; but two of their number now broke through 
thL feeling; Joseph of Arimathea; and also Nicodemus, 
who had, three years previously, come to Jesus by night. 
They had taken no part in the deliberations and the con- 
demnation at the house of Caiaphas; and the Sanhedrim 
had, probably, used the precaution to keep all doubtful per- 
sons from the councils on these occasions. Joseph had been, 
at heart, a disciple : and is spoken of as a good man and 
just, waiting for the kingdom of God : and although it 
would have been more creditable to him to have shown his 
discipleship earlier, we must remember that the heroic spirit 
of Christianity had not yet taken a decided form, except in 
the Lord himself; and, also, how dark and cramped the 
minds of the Jews were, respecting the Messiah. The 
eleven themselves had all fled, when their Master was seized 
at Gethsemane. 

Joseph now went boldly to Pilate, and asked that the 
body of Christ might be delivered up to him. The gover- 
nor sent for the centurion having it in charge, to inquire 
whether death had taken place so soon ; and, being satisfied 
of this, gave orders that it should be given to the applicant ; 
who now, assisted by Nicodemus, took it from the cross. 
The former was a wealthy man, and possessor of a garden 
having in it a new tomb, in which no one had ever yet been 
laid. 1 Thither they transported the body of the Messiah ; 
having wrapped with it in the clean linen of its shroud, a 
very large quantity of spices, (aloes and myrrh), 2 which 
would absorb the juices, and keep it in preservation for 
embalmment when the Sabbath should have passed. They 
laid it thus in the new tomb, and rolled a very large stone 
against the mouth of the sepulchre. 3 The faithful women 
from Galilee, had, never, through all this day, deserted their 

1 It was an ancient custom for families to have burial places in their 
garden. See 2 Kings xxi. 18-26. 

2 John xix. 38-42. 3 Matt, xxvii. 60. 



THE BURIAL. 399 

Lord: they had now followed the body to the sepulchre; 
and when it had been removed from all human eyes, they 
still sat down opposite the spot, gazing there tearfully; still 
faithful to him in death. 1 

It was, however, only fidelity to the strong affection pro- 
duced by the past ; for all hopes in them respecting Christ 
on this earth were now extinct. He had often spoken of 
his resurrection from the tomb on the third day ; but, what 
is now familiar to us, through history, was, at that time, to 
them an unknown future, with fo retellings concerning it so 
strange and foreign to their ideas as to bring to the mind no 
comprehension of their meaning; and all his followers had 
believed, when he foretold his rising again, that he spoke of 
the final resurrection at the end of the world. Nicodemus 
and Joseph had so little expectation of a near rising again 
that they had enveloped the body in spices, so as to preserve 
it for embalmment after their Sabbath ; these women them- 
selves, when they afterwards came to the sepulchre, on the 
resurrection morning, had with them spices 2 for the embalm- 
ing : and even the eleven, on that third day, when they 
heard that he had arisen, treated the report as an idle tale. 

So, at this time, in all the followers of the Messiah hope 
was dead, except what there might be in a far distant day, 
when the end of all things should come. The world was a 
blank to those who had trusted in him as the Messiah that 
was to do so much for the nation and for himself, and, per- 
haps, for them. Crucified ; dead ; what was there to hope 
for now? How longingly had friends, how tremblingly 
had enemies, all through that day, been in a half-expectation 
as of some miracle for his own deliverance ! but none had 
come. It was ended now : the closed sepulchre, and the 
huge stone 3 rolled against its mouth, seemed to these watch- 



1 Luke xxiii. 55 ; Matt, xxvii. 61. 2 Luke xxiv. 1. 

8 Mark xvi. 4. 



400 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

ers an obliteration of all the hopes which they had enter- 
tained. So they believed; but affection still remained; and 
they sat there, tearfully by the sepulchre as the sun went 
down and the evening shadows began to gather around. 

But they were startled soon by the martial tread of armed 
men, and by numerous irregular footsteps of others, advan- 
cing along the alleys of the garden. On these came ; and 
presently a company of soldiers filed up, and stood in array 
before the sepulchre; while chief priests and Pharisees 
busied themselves to make sure that the body was still safe 
within the tomb. 

Hatred had been more keenly observant than affection, 
respecting Christ's words; and was now more attentively 
revolving them ; and the fears of these rulers had pictured 
to them a possible surreptitious disposal of the body : and 
especially were they alarmed when they found that two of 
the Sanhedrim itself, one of them a man of large pecuniary 
resources, were the leaders in taking the body from the 
cross, and depositing it in a sepulchre belonging to one of 
these now acknowledged disciples, men of rank. They 
had hoped that in the death of Christ their troubles would 
cease; but a worse possible one had suddenly started up. 
The body in the tomb and garden belonging to Joseph, now 
courageous, as he had just shown himself to be in going to 
Pilate for it, and a man of means sufficient to enable him to 
hire men for any purpose ; he and Nicodemus also able to 
give the protection of their rank to subordinates ; while in 
the Sanhedrim were others, also, secretly favorable ; how 
easy, they thought, would it be, and under these circum- 
stances (judging others by themselves) how likely, to 
steal the body away, and to start then the report of an actual 
resurrection ! So, when they heard the particulars of the 
burial, they hastened to Pilate. 

u Sir," they said, " we remember that that deceiver said, 
while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. 



THE BURIAL. 401 

Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until 
the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him 
away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead : 
so the last error shall be worse than the first." Pilate 
answered curtly, 

te Ye have a watch : go your way, make it as sure as ye 
can/' 1 

The Roman garrison in Anton ia could easily furnish men, 
with officers to take command : 2 and, with this power from 
the Governor, they found themselves immediately provided 
with what they needed : and a sufficient guard, 3 with the 



1 Matt, xxvii. 63-65. Pilate's words, "Evre mwmtSiav, may mean either 
ye have or have ye, the word, T E,xere being both in the indicative present 
and imperative. 

2 It is obvious, from Matt, xxviii. 12-15, that the guard was composed 
of Roman soldiers ; for, had they been Jewish watchmen from the temple 
there would have been no occasion to bribe them to secresy, or to offer to 
stand between them and Pilate, if their unfaithfulness should reach his 
ears. 

3 Bishop Porteus, in his lectures on Matthew, gives sixty as the num- 
ber of men composing this guard. He says : " The chief priests went to 
Pilate as soon as the sun was set on Friday, the day of the preparation 
and crucifixion ; for then began the following day or Saturday, as the 
Jews always began to reckon their day from the preceding evening. 
They had a guard as soon as they possibly could after the body was de- 
posited in the sepulchre; and one cannot help admiring the goodness of 
Providence in so disposing events, that the extreme anxiety of these men, 
to prevent collusion, should be the means of adding SIXTY unexceptionable 
witnesses (the number of Koman soldiers on guard), to the truth of the 
resurrection, and of establishing the reality of it beyond all power of 
contradiction." The writer of the present work united with a friend, a 
professor in a theological seminary, himself a library of erudition, in a 
search among numerous ancient folios and quartos for the Bishop's au- 
thority for stating so large a number ; and we both were surprised to find 
how little, on this subject, could be found among commentators and other 
writers. All that we could discover was a quotation in Poole's Synopsis, 
from Theophylact (tenth century), KowruSla etfiKovra 'earn orpanomoj', a guard 
consists of sixty soldiers. The rulers would take care that, on this occa- 
sion, the guard should be a large one. 

34* 



402 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Pharisees and chief priests in company, were quickly on 
their way to the sepulchre. The number of their watch was 
large, but these leaders were resolved that no precautions 
should be wanting ; and that all secret plottings by the dis- 
ciples, or violence from any revulsion of feeling among the 
populace should be equally guarded against. They took 
care to see at the sepulchre, that the body was yet there safe ; 
and then, drawing a cord across the stone which filled the 
entrance, and sealing the ends of this cord with their seals 
to the rock on either side, they felt now satisfied, that, with 
the soldiers in addition stationed about the place, they had 
made all secure. They thought, as they retired from the 
garden to their homes, that they might now have rest. 

But with such remembrances as were theirs men cannot 
calmly and quietly rest. Night came down silently over the 
city, stealing on so imperceptibly that it might seem as if 
trying as it always does to soothe and to invite to quiet and 
repose, but there was a seething of many feelings all through 
Jerusalem, and through the country around that was hostile 
to rest. 

The rulers themselves felt that the day's acts had written 
up against them a terrible record which they had some time 
or other to meet. The excitement of the previous night and 
of the day was over, and they could now reflect ; the strong 
tension on the nervous system was past, and left them ex- 
hausted. They sat down to think. Tired and worn as they 
were, many thoughts in them, enemies to peace were harass- 
ing them, and were to harass them forever. Conscience is 
never dead, and it now came stinging like a viper, and tell- 
ing them that their earnest zeal in all this was but masked 
revenge? Why their night assemblage, if truth and justice 
only were required? Why the suborning of witnesses? 
"Why their actual breaking through all the old rules for trial 
although preserving the forms? Why their untiring persist- 
ence? Why the forcing of things to this terrible end? 



THE BURIAL. 403 

Was not all this course a tacit acknowledgment in themselves 
that their cause was not good ? that they were fighting against 
truth and right ? Suppose moreover that this wonderful be- 
ing should be the Messiah after all ? and should be their 
future judge? * 

Whatever doubts there might be on that subject there was 
one which had in it a terrible certainty ; for to gain their 
ends this day they had humiliated themselves before the 
Roman governor, a Gentile as they had never done before. 
Their own cry, "We have no king but Caesar," was still 
ringing in their ears. It was to ring there forever. It had 
always been their proud boast before their countrymen and 
the world, that they did not and would not bow to the Ro- 
man yoke. Had they not bowed their necks and themselves 
put the yoke on this day before Pilate and before the pub- 
lic? But far worse than that they had forsworn God. 
Their opposition to Rome had always been on the ground 
that God was their King, and that they could have no other. 
But the mad cry, " We have no king but Caesar," was cast- 
ing off God and was swearing fealty to the bloody, despica- 
ble monster at Rome in place of Jehovah ; was blasphemy; 
was shutting themselves out from God. And was not the very 
fact that they could be induced to do this in that persecution 
to death, a proof that their cause was the devil's cause, and 
that they were only his dupes? So their consciences whis- 
pered as they laid down to rest. 

But they slept at last. Nature wearied out and exhausted 
gave way at length, and they dropped into repose wrapped in 
such divams as proud men utterly humiliated, and men feeling 
that they had just publicly abjured God, and substituted for 
him the vilest of all earthly tyrants may have ; so they slept, 
to wake again to a frightful consciousness on the morrow. 

The night settling down found the disciples crushed in 
heart, and with no consciousness of noble, heroic conduct as 
a relief. They knew and felt how pusillanimous their course 



404 LIFE SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

had been. John only had possessed courage enough to stand 
near the cross an acknowledged follower of Christ. Their 
hopes of earthly glory were now gone ; their Master had 
met a felon's death; they themselves might soon be seized 
by the same relentless Sanhedrim and dragged to punish- 
ment ; what a vista had Christ's oft repeated predictions as 
to themselves opened to their view ! Yet their recollections 
of him were precious. Faithless as they had been, one of 
them false, they clung the, more pertinaciously to the me- 
mories of his kindnesses, his counsels, his gentleness in their 
mistakes and waywardness, his constant love to them; and 
their affection to his memory still constituted a bond among 
themselves saddened, and borne down by a consciousness of 
their baseness in deserting him in his hour of need. Humbled 
they truly were, but unconsciously to themselves they had 
in this humility and this feeling of self-accusation, and in 
their affection to the memory of Christ, the elements which 
would yet be worked into greatness of life. They slept at 
last, worn out with long agitation slept such a sleep as the 
sorrowing and despondent have. 

As twilight spread over the vast throngs in the city and 
on the hills around, these talked uneasily and gloomily of 
what they had that day seen and heard. A great many of 
them remembered the Crucified as he had moved among 
their hills and valleys in Galilee and Perea, the crowds fol- 
lowing and shouting their gratitude at his healings ; the 
whole world there glorifying God for what their eyes be- 
held of his wonderful greatness and goodness. Some of 
these multitudes had cried Hosanna to him here at Jerusa- 
lem only a few days before, and they recollected how full their 
hearts had then been of admiration and love. They remem- 
bered his stopping amid the joy of the shouting train to 
weep over Jerusalem, and his spoken lamentation then and 
on the following day over the city. Many in their hearts' 
deep convictions still hailed him with Hosannas as the Mes- 



THE RESURRECTION. 405 

siah. But if he were the Messiah then what must be thought 
of their country's sin that day ! So they queried sadly and 
anxiously as night sank down upon them and they retired 
to their rest. 

The city and country slept ; the rulers from the exhaus- 
tion of the previous night and day ; the disciples worn out 
with sorrow and self-reproach ; the people weighed down 
with gloomy thoughts. They slept : and, penetrating with 
its fangs deeper and deeper in the nation's vitals, so as to 
hold, with a sure and unrelenting grasp ; and beginning al- 
ready its devourings, to be continued till the life of that 
people should all be like a quivering nerve, wherever they 
might be found, was the doom intensified by that hideous 
prayer, 

" HlS BLOOD BE ON US AND ON OUR CHILDREN/' 

Jesus had prayed that they might be forgiven ; but for- 
giveness is not forced on those who do not ask for it them- 
selves, and who persist in wrong ; and the Jews still insist 
on the justice of that condemnation. 

That prayer has never yet been cancelled. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 
THE RESURRECTION. 

THE hours passed heavily by, over those guards at the 
sepulchre; and morning came, the Jewish Sabbath 
with its long hours of entire rest ; only the most necessary 
duties of life being allowed on their holy day. But people 
through these hours rested uneasily; for their thoughts were 
ever turning towards that body lying in the sepulchre, and 
to the events of the preceding day ; and many discussions 



406 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

now took place ; often renewed, always unsatisfactory ; some- 
times greatly exciting, generally of a gloomy kind. Sunset 
came again at last, closing their wearisome Sabbath, to which 
day even the temple solemnities could give no relief; for the 
voices of the multitude raised in their sacred melodies were 
dulled by an undefined dread. For, had not a mysterious 
power on the previous day, rent from top to bottom the veil 
shutting the Holy of Holies from common eyes? a fact of 
portentous significance, especially combined as it was with 
the numerous other terrors and unnatural events. Even 
their Most Holy Place had not escaped. 

The night came down again on Jerusalem ; the moon was 
near the full, and a mild light was shed on every object, 
the city, the garden, the sepulchre, and the guards pacing 
back and forth in their watch in front of its sealed door. 
At the previous sunset had been according to the Jewish 
reckoning the beginning of the third clay since the cruci- 
fixion ; and twenty-four hours from this period would re- 
lieve the guard from their duty, and the Sanhedrim from 
their fears ; for the specified time for his rising would then 
be past. The grave had not yet been invaded ; the seals 
had not been broken ; the guard were cautioned to particu- 
lar vigilance in the short remaining time ; though, indeed, 
scarcely was caution necessary ; for the Roman discipline 
was the severest ever known, and was particularly and pro- 
perly so respecting the vigilice or watches at night. 

Hour after hour passed on in quietude ; the pleasant, mel- 
low moonlight lying on the sleeping city, on the crests of 
Moriah and temple pinnacles, on battlemented walls and 
castles, on the garden, on the helmets and breast-plates, and 
spears of the guards, giving a charm to the scene, height- 
ened by the entire silence around, which was broken only 
by the pace of the watch in front of the tomb. It had got 
at last to be near morning; in a little while the dawn would 
begin to creep upward in the eastern sky. 



THE RESURRECTION. 407 

Suddenly the earth shook, and the whole garden was illu- 
minated by an unnatural light, so dazzling as almost to blind 
the beholder ; and the guards stood paralyzed and trem- 
bling at what they beheld. An angel was there; "his 
countenance like lightning, his raiment white as snow." He 
had descended suddenly and was among them in the over- 
whelming glory of the heavenly world, compared with 
which all earthly beauty in the scene around was blank and 
drear ; except the glory of the tomb, by which he now 
stood, and which reflected back the dazzling brightness from 
his face. The glare lighted up all objects around, and made 
distinct to the eye everything which now occurred. 

The angel rolled away the stone from the mouth of the 
tomb. 

JESUS CAME FORTH ALIVE. 

The resurrection had come. 

There was no mistaking that form standing in the blaze 
of the heavenly light : the hands and feet pierced by the 
nails of the crucifixion ; the wounded side; the brow marked 
by the thorns ; that majesty of countenance, each feature 
and mark clear and easily recognized ; and all manifest to 
the returning senses of the guard. 

Christ, the crucified unto death, was before them ; and 
had come out from the sealed and carefully guarded tomb. 

The guard recovered from their stupor of amazement and 
fear : it was in vain to contend with the supernatural, and 
with power such as was before their eyes : their work of 
guarding was indeed over, and it was manifest had all been 
in vain. No seal, no bars, the millions of the world to 
guard such a place and to keep the dead there, would not 
have availed. 

Early on that morning, a hasty admission was demanded 
into the houses of some of the chief priests ; and these men 
were astonished to see several of the soldiers before them, 
showing marks of great alarm. They brought the news 



408 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

that Christ had risen, and described the circumstances at- 
tending his coming forth among the living, himself alive 
again. 

The intelligence was astounding. The rulers had pro- 
vided against the surreptitious taking of the body by the 
disciples ; but here was an account which, if it should spread 
abroad, would bring the whole Jewish people upon them in 
a tempest of excited and angry feeling, demanding punish- 
ment on the abettors of the crucifixion : and the numerous 
guard which they had placed there in order to make sure 
that there should be no fabricated story of a resurrection, 
would now every one of them, be evidence that a resurrec- 
tion had actually occurred. 

The danger of that terrible reaction among the vast mul- 
titudes was imminent; and to prevent it, the guards must 
at once be bought over if possible ; no matter what the cost 
might be. They were all quickly sent for ; and in the mean 
time, swift messengers through the city brought the Sanhe- 
drim together, to an exciting consultation about this amaz- 
ing news. The soldiers were brought before them : and the 
ample pecuniary means at the command of the rulers were 
turned to account. 

"Say ye," this was the injunction "Say ye, His disci- 
ples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And 
if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him 
and secure you." 

The soldiers knew that the same golden means could be 
made effectual with the governor likewise ; and consequently 
little danger would accrue to them ; so they took the bribe, 
and spread abroad the prescribed report, 1 which the Sanhe- 
drim took care to have repeated by their special messengers 
sent out for that purpose through the city and country around. 2 

1 Matt, xxviii. 11-15. 

2 The authority for this last is Justin Martyr, a cotemporary with the 
apostle John. 



THE RESURRECTION. 409 

The story was a bold one : for every person knew that 
the punishment to any Roman soldier sleeping on his post 
was death ; and these guards were circulating a report, which 
showed on the face of it, a gross infidelity to their trust and 
a clear violation of all military law ; and therefore stamped 
the authors of the story as unworthy of belief. Every one, 
too, would ask, how could it be possible for the number of 
persons necessary to such a stealing as this, to come and re- 
move the heavy stone and carry awa*y the body, without 
waking such sleepers by the noise which they must neces- 
sarily make ; the guard being so numerous as it was? But 
the report, though carrying such improbabilities on its front, 
had its intended effect upon many of the people, backed as 
it was by the emissaries of the Sanhedrim; and took a per- 
manent hold on the public mind. 

We will here anticipate history a little, in order to re- 
mark that the Sanhedrim never dared to join issue with the 
apostles on this subject; although, soon after this event, the 
latter were preaching the doctrine of the resurrection in 
Jerusalem itself, and making thousands of converts by this 
preaching. These eleven men, so timid lately, after they 
had undergone the wonderful change produced by the de- 
scent of the Holy Ghost on them on the day of Pentecost, 
preached boldly and publicly the resurrection) of which they 
offered themselves as evidence. Peter and John proclaimed 
this at the temple, in Solomon's Porch, before the multitudes 
and priests: charging on them that they "killed the Prince 
of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof 
we are witnesses" 1 The rulers heard them, and were 
" grieved that they taught the people and preached through 
Jesus, the resurrection of the dead ;" but although they laid 
hands on them and confined them till the next day, they 
dared not dispute the fact itself, and bring to issue the ques- 



1 Acts iii. 15. 
35 



410 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

tion, on which friends and enemies all saw that the whole 
fabric of their new religion was resting. 1 Why did they 
not for consistency's sake, and for their own cause, prosecute 
the disciples ; and have an official investigation before the 
Sanhedrim, if they had dared to do so; especially now when 
their own story of the stealing had the lie publicly given to 
it in the very temple precincts, the apostles offering them- 
selves as witnesses ? On the next day after this seizing of 
Peter and John, " the rulers and elders and Scribes, and 
Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alex- 
ander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high 
priest," assembled; and the two disciples, Peter and John, 
were brought out and placed before them, a determined and 
formidable assembly indeed. But there was no charge made 
there of preaching falsehood ; simply the question asked ; 

" By what power, or by what name, have ye done this ?" 
Peter replied to them, and said it was through 

" Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God 
raised from the dead :" and the rulers dared not there dis- 
pute the fact of the resurrection. They only, after the 
apostles had been removed to give opportunity for consul- 
tation, decided, " But that it spread no further among the 
people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak hence- 
forth to no man in this name :" 2 and this was done ; but 
still there was no attempt to make any issue on the question 
of the resurrection. 

Again, soon after this threat and charge to the apostles, a 
large number of the latter were in the temple preaching as 
before. They had been in prison, but were released by su- 
pernatural interposition : in the morning the prison door 
was found open and the room empty ; and the apostles were 
obeying the words of their delivering angel, " Go stand and 
speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life." 



1 1 Cor. xv. H-17. 3 Acts iv. 17. 



AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 411 

The multitudes were around them in this preaching, capti- 
vated by their words ; and the messengers of the Sanhedrim, 
sent to bring the teachers again before that body, had to do 
it without violence, lest the crowd should stone the messen- 
gers themselves. The Sanhedrim were almost humble in 
theii appeal : " Did not we straitly command you, that ye 
should not teach in this name? and behold ye have filled 
Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's 
blood upon us." 

But there was no denial by these leaders of the resurrec- 
tion, which, in every contest with the apostles, the rulers felt 
must be conceded as an admitted fact. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 
AFTER THE RESURRECTION THE ASCENSION. 

THE hearts of the disciples and of the followers of 
Christ had, through that Jewish Sabbath, been burdened 
with a heavy load. They had all mistaken his prediction 
concerning his rising again, a circumstance that seems strange 
to us, looking as we do at this event through the light of 
history ; but to their minds it was a truth too great to be 
fully comprehended, and was mingled with visions of a ge- 
neral resurrection at the end of the world. Any dim idea 
that they might have received from the plainness of his 
words was swept away by the horrors at Calvary where 
their Master might have seemed to them to be deserted of 
God and man. 

Consequently on this night they had not been watching, 
but Christ's enemies for other purposes . had watched. The 



412 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

disciples did not see the glory of the resurrection, but 
strangers did. The former were left to sleep, though the 
Lord had risen from the dead. 

The assembling of the Sanhedrim and the calling of the 
matter before that council had all been very early ; for when 
some women came to the sepulchre at dawn 1 they found no 
one there. On the way these followers of Christ had been 
querying how they should get the great stone removed from 
the entrance; for they were bringing spices with the inten- 
tion of having the body embalmed. No thought in them 
of his rising again as the object of their errand very clearly 
proves. 

These women were the ones who had at the crucifixion 
stood watching the scene, some near, some further off, and 
who had afterward followed the body to the tomb; Mary 
Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James 2 and 
other followers from Galilee. 

They came into the garden with their burden of spices. 
They found that the stone had been rolled away; the tomb 
was open ! They ran to look in ; it was empty ! 

Amazement was their first feeling ; then alarm. " Who 
had taken the body? For what purpose? Where was it? 
There had been such hate shown by the ruling powers dur- 
ing the last three days that nothing was too dark for them, 
no act that they might not perpetrate : or had friends taken 
the body from some mistaken motive?" Thought at such 
moments is far quicker than words, and these queries were 
flashing through their minds, only however creating per- 
plexities. Mary Magdalene, having given a glance to assure 
herself that the sepulchre was empty, turned and ran back to 



1 Matthew says, "as it began to dawn;" Mark, "very early;" "at the 
rising of the sun ;" Luke, "very early ;" John, "when it was yet dark." 
For such metonomy of sun-light, see Judges Lx. 33 ; Ps. civ. 12 ; 2 Kinga 
iii. 22. 

2 Luke xxiv. 10. 



AFTER THE RESURRECTION'. 413 

the city to the lodging-place of Peter and John whom, on 
seeing them she saluted with the lamentation : 

" They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, 
and we know not where they have laid him." These two dis- 
ciples started immediately for the tomb. 1 

In the meantime the women left behind had entered the 
sepulchre. Two men suddenly appeared now beside them ; 
angelic messengers they were quickly seen to be; and the 
women, trembling with fear, bowed down their faces before 
them. 2 One of the angels said, 

" Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus which was 
crucified. He is not here ; for he is risen, as he said. Come, 
see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell 
his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and behold he 
goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him ; lo, I 
have told you." 8 

They hurried off, trembling still at the thought of what 
they had just seen and heard, but filled with an ecstatic joy. 
What glorious tidings were these of which they were the 
messengers ! Risen, alive again, soon to meet them once more ; 
they should see him again, now far more glorious and more 
wonderful even than before! They stopped not, but were 
hurrying back to the city full of eagerness to communicate 
the news when, on the way, they met the Saviour himself! 

He stood before them! What was he like? The same 
to all outward senses as previously, except that he now bore 
in his hands and feet the marks never, never, we may be- 
lieve, in the glorified body to be erased; the marks from 
that sacrifice of himself made for the redemption of the 
world. 

They knew him at once, and at his salutation, "All hail I" 



1 John xx. 1-3. 2 Luke xxiv. 4, 5. 

s Matthew xxviii. 5-7. Matthew and Mark speak of one angel ; Luke 
of two. The same criticism applies here as in a former case, Qui plura 
ncirrat pauciora complectitur. 
35* 



4H LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

they fell at his feet embracing them and worshipping him. 
He said : 

"Be not afraid; go tell my brethren that they go into 
Galilee, and there shall they see me/' 

He left them, and hurrying on their mission they soon 
reached the house where all except Peter and John were 
staying, but here they received a terrible check to their eager- 
ness and joy. The disciples treated their story as an idle 
tale! 1 

The nine listened to their earnest words, which were almost 
incoherent through their haste and agitation, looked at them, 
saw how they trembled still from excitement, and how pale 
their looks ; heard their confused voices in the earnestness 
of their asseverations, the tones of joy and earnestness and 
disappointment intermixed ; and concluded that some strange 
phantom in their confused senses had bewildered them. The 
disciples were never disposed to credulity, and throughout 
this day they showed an amount of the opposite feeling 
which seems strange to us with our present means of judg- 
ing of these things. But the resurrection was to them a new 
thought ; even to us now it is an amazing one though familiar 
to our minds. They had been weeping 2 at their loss; the 
other feeling was too great a joy to suddenly find admittance 
amid such gloom. 

Peter and John, on the report of Mary Magdalene, had 
started from their home in another part of the city, and 
John's warm affection brought him the first to the sepulchre, 
where he stooped and looked reverently in not venturing to 
enter. Peter arriving soon had greater boldness and went 
in, and John also entered now. The empty tomb betrayed 
no signs of a rapid and confused departure, for the linen 
clothes used for enveloping the body were folded, and the 
napkin for the head had been wrapped up and laid by itself. 3 



Li.ke xxiv. 11. 2 Mark xvi. 10. 3 John xx. 4-7. 



AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 415 

They queried as they stood there, now joined by Mary Mag- 
dalene who had followed them, and were perplexed by what 
they saw. Thieves had not taken the body, for the spices 
were there, and in that case would not have been left be- 
hind ; friends had not done it, for they would have taken 
the grave-clothes also. No account of a resurrection had yet 
reached these two, and " they knew not the Scripture" about 
his rising. 1 Their eyes confirmed what they had heard con- 
cerning the removal of the body ; but the rest was still to 
them a dark perplexing mystery. They returned to the city 
leaving Mary Magdalene still at the tomb. 

She was left there alone, weeping, outside the sepulchre ; 
but presently stooping down, she looked in to see the spot 
where the body had just been lying. She was startled at 
seeing two angels sitting tjiere, one at each end of the tomb; 
the heavenly visitants, their robes of white, and their medi- 
tative posture, harmonizing with the sacred place. They 
addressed her : 

" Woman, why weepest thou ?" 

" Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know 
not where they have laid him," was the reply ; her simple 
language evidence of the full strength of her grief. 

She turned as she said this; some other person was 
standing near her ; but her eyes, holden, as was afterwards 
the case with the two disciples going to Emmaus, or over- 
flowing with grief, failed to recognize who it was. A 
voice, also unrecognized said, 

" Woman, why weepest thou ? whom seekest thou ?" 
Her mind was full of the one thought of the abstraction of 
the body; seemingly with scarcely a glance at the questioner, 
whom she supposed to be the gardener, she replied. 

" Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me, where thou 
hast laid him, and I will take him away." 



1 John xx. verses 9, 10. 



4*6 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

There was but one word in reply to this ; but it was in 
that tone so well known to her 

" Mary !" She turned : 

" Rabboni !" (Master) : and she fell at his feet. It was 
Jesus himself. 

Her joy, and love, and reverence were making demonstra- 
tion in the act of worship, as she lay there, her heart over- 
flowing with gladness. Alive! restored to them! The 
marks in the feet showed that it was no phantom, but the 
same! Not a spirit, but himself! In her reverence and 
joy, she would have clung to these feet, but there was not 
time for such demonstrations now. He said, 

" Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: 
but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto 
my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your 
God." 1 

She went to deliver the message; her soul all full of glad- 
ness, and of that one thought that the Lord was among 
them again, living, speaking; that face, so grand always, 
glorious still in its benignity and kindness ; that voice, still 
full of its old intonations of mercy and goodness: Jesus 
was alive again ! her thoughts gave swiftness to her move- 
ments ; and she was soon before the apostles in their city 
home. But the manner in which they received her message 
grated on all her sensibilities. They refused to believe that 
it could be so ;' 2 the very enthusiasm of her feelings was to 
them a proof that an excited imagination had deceived her. 
The announcement, they thought, was too astounding to be 
believed: they wanted the evidence of their own senses; in- 
deed, they argued, could they even then believe? 

Our knowledge of the Saviour, after his resurrection, is 
but fragmentary. In the history of the Gospels he comes 
before us suddenly, and without preparation of circum- 



1 John xx. 11-17. 2 Mark xvi. 9-11. 



AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 417 

stances ; and then disappears ; to be revealed again, without 
explanation or cause given : his earthly ministrations always 
so mysterious to us, must indeed be doubly so in that space 
lying between earth and heaven ; the interval between the 
resurrection and his ascension. 

At this place, however, the inquiry may suggest itself to 
the reader, what was the nature of the body in which he 
now appeared ? There have been three opinions started by 
learned and good men : 1st That it was a spiritual body, 
such as the dead shall have after the resurrection ;' 2d That 
it was the same body as before, but glorified, or as the earlier 
writers express it, changed in its qualities and attributes : 
and 3d That it was the same body as before, but which 
was to be spiritualized and glorified at the ascension. It 
will be best only to remark here, that the last of these 
opinions seems to be the correct one. The body of Elijah 
was also spiritualized at the moment of its ascension from 
the earth. As respects the sudden transportation from place 
to place, or a sudden appearance or disappearance, all diffi- 
culties in any of the above views cease in comparison with 
the resurrection itself. We are among the supernatural 
agencies ; and admitting the power of the resurrection, we 
must admit power for the rest. 

Christ thought it best to remain, after the resurrection, 
forty days 2 on earth. It was important to give full proof 
of his having risen again ; not only immediately after that 
event, but at subsequent times and different places ; and these 
to be occasions, when men's minds would be recovered from 
the first surprise, and a cooler judgment be exercising itself. 
It was important also that the disciples, whose mission was 
to be so extensive and dangerous, should not have a feeling 
of sudden and entire desertion ; but should have a sense of 



1 1 Cor. xv. 43, 44. 2 Acts i. 3. 



41 8 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

a nearness to them, a care and affectionate regard, all open 
to their outward senses, and giving an assurance to their 
mind and heart that their Lord had not forsaken them, 
would not forsake them, in this new relative condition be- 
tween him and themselves. Being with them, as he was, 
for forty days ; not continuously, in which case familiarity 
might have lessened reverence; but at intervals, and under 
circumstances to give assurance of his identity, his deep 
affection, and his continued supernatural powers, and also, 
with these powers, of a greatness in his Presence more won- 
derful even than before, he could thus make them have a 
fulness of faith in his final parting words " Behold I am 
with you alway, even unto the end of the world." They 
would, indeed, need the consciousness of that presence in 
many a scene of their after life, the arena with the wild 
beasts ready to tear them to pieces, and the rage of men 
more savage than beasts ; and they could have it all the 
stronger, from the feeling that he had, in his affection, lin- 
gered with them, these forty days, to afford them proof of 
his care and attachment in his new state, and to give words 
of kindness and love, uttered in their ears ; manifestations 
of his closeness with them which they could fully under- 
stand. With such a feeling, not of forsakenness, but of tlie 
Presence derived from the forty days, and the demonstration 
to their senses that they were not, and to their hearts that 
they never could be, forsaken, they could go forth into the 
world, as they did, to meet all its rage, and, amid that rage, 
to persevere. 

On this day of the resurrection, two disciples were going 
to Emmaus, a village seven-and-a-half miles northwest 
from Jerusalem ; and were talking sadly as they went about 
what they had recently seen and heard. They were joined 
on the way by the Saviour himself, who inquired the cause 
of their sadness and the subject of their conversation. 



AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 419 

" Their eyes were Jiolden that they should not know him. 7 ' 1 
One of them asked him in surprise, 

"Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not 
known the things which are come to pass there in these 
days?" And in answer to a question from him, they spoke 
of the Messiah as "a prophet mighty in deed and word be- 
fore God and the people/ 7 and gave a statement of the trial 
and crucifixion. " But we trusted," they said, " that it had 
been he which should have redeemed Israel ;" and added 
that they had been astonished by the reports of the women : 
and that the sepulchre was certainly empty, as some of their 
own number had seen. He replied to this : 

" O fools [unintelligent] and slow of heart to believe all 
that the prophets have spoken :" and proceeded then to ex- 
plain the prophecies relating to himself. 

Coming to the village, he was invited to go with them to 
their home : where now at table, assuming the office of host 
instead of guest, he took bread and blessed it, and brake 
and gave to them to eat. They knew him then, for the re- 
striction was taken from their sight : but he vanished, as 
they became aware who he was. They said, 

" Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with 
us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?" 

They returned to the city immediately, and hastened to 
the room where the apostles (except Thomas, 2 ) with others 
were assembled; the doors carefully closed through fear 
of their Jewish enemies ; 3 but as they entered, full of the 
joyful news, they were met at once by the no less joyful 
annunciation that he had appeared to Peter that day. 4 These 

1 Luke xxiv. 16. 

2 Luke calls them " the eleven," (though Thomas was absent), just as 
Paul in 1 Cor. xv. 5, says, " he was seen of the twelve," though Judas 
was then dead. 

3 John xx. 19. 

4 Luke xxiv. 34; 1 Cor. xv. 5. The circumstances of this appearing 
are no where described. 



420 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

two described their meeting with him ; but, while they were 
yet speaking, Christ himself stood in the midst of the as- 
sembly, with the salutation, 

" Peace be unto you." 

The suddenness of his appearance overcame all who were 
present. How could any but a spirit enter through that 
closed door, and stand so suddenly in their midst? They 
shrank, terrified before so dreaded an object, a spirit of un- 
known nature, as he seemed to them to be ; but he hastened 
to re-assure them. 

" Why are ye troubled ? and why do thoughts arise in 
your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I 
myself; handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones as ye see me have :" and he showed them his hands 
and feet. 

There was a whirl of sensations in their hearts, a joy that 
longed to be full, for it was mixed with doubts ; a belief 
struggling for ascendency and yet the truth seemed to be 
too great for belief; hope, mixed with doubts; love, that 
longed to clasp the feet of the Master, and yet fear; a full 
recognition of the features with their grand and gentle, and 
now pitying expression ; and yet how could it be that he 
was the same? The crucified, the dead, how could it be? 

How different from this doubtfulness in the strong yet 
shrinking natures of these men, was the quick and full be- 
lief of the weaker, and yet more courageous because more 
loving natures of the women, as shown that day ! 

The company had been at supper when he entered. To 
assure them fully he asked for meat, and he ate before them ; 
and afterwards he gave explanations of the prophecies, and 
counsel respecting themselves after he should have left the 
earth ;' and also a symbol of the future descent of the Holy 



1 Luke xxiv. 36-48. 



AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 421 

Ghost on them, after which they would have the power of 
knowing hearts, and of forgiving sins. 1 

Eight days subsequently he showed himself again to the 
disciples in their room in Jerusalem, Thomas on this occa- 
sion, being present; and to this doubter, who had openly 
expressed his requirements of clearer demonstrations before 
he would believe, he gave tangible evidences of his identity. 

"Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and 
reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side ; and be 
not faithless, but believe." Thomas exclaimed on this 

" My Lord and my God !" The Saviour replied, 

" Thomas, because thoti hast seen me, thou hast believed : 
blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed." 2 

There was to be a great occasion in Galilee, to which the 
Saviour, in the meeting with the women on the morning of 
his resurrection, had adverted, with directions to tell the 
disciples to proceed to that region, the number of his follow- 
ers being greatest there. 

There, it was intended, should be the most impressive 
manifestation of himself and to the largest number, and 
there also the grand commission to preach the Gospel to all 
the world. 

First, however, there was a more private interview with 
his disciples on the borders of its lake. Some of these had 
again resorted to their former means of livelihood, and while 
they were employed in fishing the Saviour appeared on the 
shore and invited them to a meal already there prepared. 
They were Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James and John, 
with two others not specified by name. 

Could Peter ever see the Saviour now without thinking 
of the scene in the house of Caiaphas, and of his own sin 
and shame? The dawn after that night had beheld him in 
the streets bowed down with remorse and convulsed with 



1 John xx. 22. 2 John xx. 26-29. 

36 



422 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

grief, but no tears and no remorse could ever efface from his 
memory the terrible sin of that denial of his Lord. But 
his bitter repentance had brought forgiveness. The Saviour 
had through all that sin seen a warm-hearted, generous na- 
ture, whose very impulsiveness might under* the great influ- 
ences of the Spirit yet bring out the best results. Christ 
pitied the weak and loved the good that he saw in him. 

On this occasion he must have shrunk from his Lord 
almost with a hatred of himself, ashamed to look into the 
face of one so beloved and revered, whom yet he had so 
basely denied with an oath. After the meal the Saviour, 
as if to lift up this fallen disciple from that despairing 
consciousness of his degradation, and to reinstate the penitent 
in the eyes of his companions, turned to him especially : 
"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?" 
The language employed on this occasion was doubtless Ara- 
maic, but the singular distinctive power of certain words in 
both question and answer, as given in John's record, must 
have had its equivalent in what was said, or it would not 
have been so carefully preserved as it is in the Greek of the 
Gospel. We follow the history as in John : 

" Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?' 7 
The word used is dfanaz (agapas), which signifies a strict 
union of affection, a feeling of strong love; and Peter on hear- 
ing Christ seems to have shrunk into a horror at his unwor- 
thiness to respond in the same expressive terms. There is 
another word, <pd& (philo), signifying an affection of less en- 
dearment, a warm friendship, and the convicted and now 
modest though still ardent disciple resorted to it. He an- 
swered, "Yea, Lord, thou knowest that <pt)M <rs (pJiilo se) I 
have affection for thee." " Feed my lambs," was now the 
injunction of Christ by which Peter was publicly reinstated 
in his apostleship. 

But there was such a hiatus between the Saviour's express- 
ive word and that of the apostle, that Christ wishing in his 



AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 423 

great tenderness and kindness to place the fallen man, even 
in the language of his regard, on the same level as the others 
tried to draw him to it, and he asked once more, 

"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me (agapas me)?" 

" Yea, Lord," said the remorseful, diffident man again, 
" <pdoj ff (pliilo se), I have affection for thee." 

" Be a shepherd to my sheep," was the injunction now. 

Christ then as if unwilling to distress the sad and shrink- 
ing disciple by such contrast of terms used the same one as 
Peter : 

"Simon, son of Jonas, <pdZi<; (phileis) me? Hast thou 
affection for me?" 

The disciple grieved because he asked him this third time 
pJnleis me? answered warmly, 

" Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest pliilo se, I 
have affection for thee." Christ gave the injunction, 

" Feed my sheep." 

What a history in Peter's heart there is caught by glimpses 
in this dialogue ; the long remorse, the prostration from his 
former confidence in himself; affection ardent yet all en- 
veloped in shame; days and nights of mourning; a heart 
now chastened by his grief! 

What a tenderness and depth of love in Christ is also here 
made manifest ! 

The Saviour addressed some further remarks to him, sig- 
nifying the trial before him, and what death he should die, 
adding then to him, " Follow me." * 

Peter turned and saw John close by. These two, the affec- 



1 John xxi. 15-23. For this difference in phraseology see Alford in loco. 
It is all lost in our version, where the repetitions in the questioning seem 
to want force. Alford says agapan is more used for " that reverential love 
grounded on high graces of character;" philein for "personal love, human 
affection." 

In the first and last of Christ's injunctions to Peter are WOKS, feed; the 
second one is no/^atve, be a shepherd. See Bloomfield in loco. 



424 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

tionate, gentle, brave man, and the rash, impetuous, but 
really timid one, had by the magnetism of opposites which 
we often see in life formed a mutual attachment, and Peter 
said in his old, impulsive manner : 

"Lord, and what shall this man do?" 

" If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? 
follow thou me ;" and these words being mistaken a report 
was spread from that time that John was not to die, con- 
firmed seemingly, for a while, in after periods by the very ad- 
vanced age to which that apostle lived. 

The mountains of Galilee had ever been the favorite re- 
sort of Christ, and through all that region he had left the 
chief marks of his goodness and love and of his divine 
power; and therefore we might have expected here some- 
thing peculiar in these last manifestations of himself. It 
was so. He had directed the eleven to meet him here ; and 
on this occasion doubtless we must place the meeting with 
the five hundred brethren alluded to in another part of the 
Scriptures. 1 Here was the great mission for an universal 
Gospel given to his followers. Some of those present at this 
meeting doubted their own senses, so amazing was the fact 
of the resurrection j but others worshipped, their hearts full 
of mingled sentiments, awe, reverence, wonder, tenderness, 
and deep and clinging love. For there were in him the 
marks of the wounds at Calvary, and all remembered his 
words about the meaning of the sacrifice of himself there 
made. 

Standing among them on the mountain-top where they had 
met, he said : 

" All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 
Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 



1 1 Cor. xv. 6. 



AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 425 

have commanded you ; and lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world." 1 

The eleven then returned to Jerusalem ; and he met them, 
now, on the Mount of Olives, and went with them along on 
the road to Bethany, by spots to them full of recollections 
of recent, stirring events. Was it the memory of the late 
triumphal passage across that mountain, and the loud Hallels 
of the people, which started the query by them, 

"Lord, wilt thou, at this time, restore again the kingdom 
to Israel ?" 

It was indeed necessary that these men, so persistent in 
the old Jewish errors, should have supernatural enlighten- 
ment before going on their wide mission to the world ; and 
he now again promised it to them. He directed them to 
remain at Jerusalem till it should come. "For John truly 
baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
Ghost not many days hence." 2 

The party were now approaching Bethany. He knew 
that in a few minutes that last separation would take place. 
In his presence they had felt confidence, strength, comfort. 
Very soon they would be left ; and what a fight there was 
before them in the world ! and what a duty to be performed ! 
But they were to be strengthened for it, as, indeed, all men 
are for duty. He said to them, "Ye shall receive power, 
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ; and ye shall 
be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and 
in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 

He now lifted up his hands and blessed them. 

They must have trembled at the significancy of the act. 
There might well be a rush of all tender emotions as he 
finished the blessing, for they were losing him. He was as- 
cending floating upward, and heaven was drawing its own 
to itself. It was at a season when the sky of Palestine is 



1 Matt, xxviii. 16-20. 2 Acts i. 5 and 6. 

36 * 



426 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

usually cloudless; but as the disciples with uplifted eyes, 
gazed intently, a cloud formed, and gathered around him, 
and shut him from their sight. 

Two angels stood beside them. 

" Ye men of Galilee," they said, " why stand ye gazing 
up into heaven ? This same Jesus, which is taken up from 
you into heaven shall come again in like manner as ye have 
seen him go into heaven." 1 

They felt that they were left alone : but they knew that 
they were not deserted by their Lord. His presence is with 
all who love him, and will be so, evermore. 



CHAPTER L. 
" WHAT THINK TE OF CHRIST?" 

WE have been able in this book to see him only in part ; 
for such a work as this could not attempt to embrace 
all his life on earth. Many acts and nearly all his teachings 
had to be omitted ; and, far more than that, there was a 
great purpose in both his life and death the humiliation 
and sacrifice of a Divine being for the sin of the world, 
which in its fulness must be beyond the comprehension of 
any human mind. He comes before us strangely in the 
Gospels; we gaze upon him for a while, and our highest 
wonder and warmest affections are enlisted as they never can 
be in any one else : but as we try to comprehend, he passes 
from us, as he did from the disciples of old when near to 
Bethany, and a cloud receives him out of our sight. Our 
intellect and our heart however both know that there has 



1 See Luke xxiv. 50-53; Acts ii. 4r-ll. 



" WHAT THINK TE OF CHRIST*" 427 

been present with them, ONE, before whom they gladly 
bow, saying with the apostle " My Lord and my God !" 

The world, ever since his appearance, has acknowledged 
a perfectness both in his life and teachings, to which nothing 
can be added, from which men can take nothing away. He 
stands alone before us. No one can be compared to him. 
He is so far above all else that no similitude can be ima- 
gined : and yet, very strangely, we do not feel that he is 
very far removed. There was such a lovingness in him for 
all men that, although he is infinitely above all, we have a 
consciousness that he is not very far away, but is near to us. 
What a Lord and God we have in this Christ! one felt to 
be Infinite, and whom we worship with all reverence, yet 
whom our hearts can cling to with all the fulness of their 
love, for we know that he has shown infinite love to us. 

In reading the Gospels, we must be fully convinced, that 
the writers of them drew their materials from an actual life. 
No man or set of men could have invented such a character 
and such teachings and exemplifications of teachings : least 
of all could Jews have done it : and especially at such a 
time. He was entirely at variance with all the expectations 
and longings of the nation : his precepts and foretellings 
went for the extinction of Jewish hopes, the most extrava- 
gant that any country ever cherished : the people were the 
most bigoted in the world and had the attendants of bigotry, 
a watchful jealousy and selfishness : they were vain and 
proud : they persistently and strictly declined all social 
intercourse with other people : yet here, in these writings, is 
exhibited to us, as the promised Messiah and the great hope 
of the nation, an individual breaking through exclusiveness 
and teaching universal charity, universal brotherhood, uni- 
versal love : advocating a kingdom in the heart, in lieu of 
their expected external dominion and glory, and saying 
" Whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be the servant 
of all." Now, the writers of these memoirs (the Gospels) 



428 LIFE- SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

were not capable of inventing a character and teachings such 
as these. If any one wishes to see the beau ideal of Jewish 
teachers and their sayings, let him look at Shammai and 
Hillel their most distinguished men in those times, as shown 
in the Jewish history quoted in this book. Where indeed 
has been the philosophic or the imaginative thinker of any 
time or country who could have invented such a character 
as that of Christ, and could have delineated it so consistently 
in varied action as is done in these books? The writers of 
them could, evidently have drawn their materials only from 
actual life. 

It would have been most in regular order to notice at the 
beginning of the present work the evidence respecting the 
authority of the Gospels ; but the author thought it would 
be best to leave this to the conclusion, as the reader might 
then feel more interested in the examination of that subject. 
We give the evidence in the reverse order of the time of its 
occurring, beginning at periods when the Christian religion 
was fully engrafted on national forms and institutions, and 
became part of the world's widest histories. 

We notice first, the evidence from Pagan authorities. 

Julian (surnamed the Apostate) wrote, (A. D. 331-363), 
against Christianity. He bore witness to the authenticity 
of the four Gospels and referred to the genealogies in Mat- 
thew and Luke by name, and recited the sayings of Christ 
in the very words of the Scriptures. He also bore testimony 
to the Gospel of John as having been composed at a time 
when great numbers in Greece and Italy had been converted 
to the Christian faith. He admitted the miracles of Christ. 

HierocleSj president of Bythinia, a learned man and cruel 
persecutor of Christians, wrote (about A. D. 303) against 
their religion. His work, or extracts from it, refer to at 
Ic-ast six out of the eight writers of the books of the New 
Testament. Instead of suggesting any suspicion that this 



" WHAT THINK TE OF CHRIST." 429 

book w?^ not written by those to whom it was ascribed, he 
confined his effort to hunt out flaws and contradictions. 

Porphyry wrote (about A. D. 270) a work against Chris- 
tianity. His learning was extensive. He " possessed eveuy 
advantage which natural abilities, or political situation could 
afford to discover whether the New Testament was a genu- 
ine work of the apostles and evangelists, or whether it was 
imposed upon the world after the decease of its pretended 
authors. But no trace of this suspicion is any where to be 
found; nor did it ever occur to Porphyry to suppose it was 
spurious." His writings contain plain references to the 
Gospels of Matthew, Mark and John ; and speaking of the 
" Christians," he calls Matthew their evangelist. He con- 
ceded the miracles of Christ as real facts. 

T/ie Talmuds (about A. D. 230); refer to the nativity of 
Christ, and his journey into Egypt, and agree that he per- 
formed numerous miracles, which they ascribed to his hav- 
ing acquired the Shemmaphoresh, or the ineffable name of 
God, which they say he clandestinely stole out of the tem- 
ple : or they impute his power to magic arts. 

Celsus flourished A. D. 176, or about seventy-six years 
after the death of Saint John. His works have about eighty 
quotations from the books of the New Testament or refer- 
ences to them. " Among these there is abundant evidence 
that he was acquainted with the Gospels of Matthew, Luke 
and John. His whole argument proceeds upon the conces- 
sion that the Christian Scriptures were the works of the 
authors to whom they are ascribed. Such a thing as a sus- 
picion to the contrary is not breathed ; and yet no man ever 
wrote against Christianity with greater virulence." 1 

The younger Pliny, in a letter to Trajan, written A. D. 
107, (or seventy-four years after the crucifixion), from By- 
thinia, where he was pro-consul, says: "For this super- 



1 Mcllvain's Lectures. 



43 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

stition is spread like a contagion, not only into cities and 
towns, but into country villages also;" and "that there are 
many of every age, of every rank, and of both sexes," ad- 
hering to it. He put many to torture, and could learn 
from them only " that they were wont, on a stated day, to 
meet together before it was light, and to sing a hymn to 
Christ, as to a god alternately ; and to oblige themselves by 
a sacrament not to do anything that was ill ; but that they 
would commit no theft, or pilfering, or adultery ; that they 
would not break their promise, or deny what was deposited 
with them, when it was required back again ; after which it 
was their custom to depart and to meet again at a common 
but innocent meal," 1 probably their feast of charity. It 
may be as well to quote his account of the manner of treat- 
ing those brought before him : " I asked them whether they 
were Christians or not? If they confessed that they were 
Christians, I asked them again, and a third time, intermix- 
ing threatening with the questions. If they persevered in 
their confession, I ordered them to be executed ; for I did 
not doubt but, let their confession be of any sort whatsoever, 
this positiveness and inflexible obstinacy deserved to be pun- 
ished." The Christians had already become so numerous 
in Bythinia, (a region bordering northwardly on the Black 
Sea and Sea of Marmora), that, according to this letter, the 
heathen temples had been almost forsaken, and " few pur- 
chasers for the sacrifices had of late appeared." 2 

Tacitus, who wrote about the same time as Pliny, speak- 
ing of the Christians, says : " The name was derived from 
Christ, who in the reign of Tiberius suffered under Pontius 
Pilate, the procurator of Judea. By that event, the sect of 
which he is the founder, received a blow which for a time 
checked the growth of a dangerous superstition ; but it re- 
vived soon after and spread with recruited vigor, not only 



1 Quoted from his letter to the Emperor. a Epist. lib. x. Ca. 97. 



"WHAT THINK TE OF CHRIST?" 431 

in Judea, the soil that gave it birth, but even in the city of 
Rome ; and he then describes the persecutions of the Chris- 
tians under Nero (thirty-one years after the death of Christ), 
in a manner which shows that they must then have been 
very numerous in that city. 1 

We may apparently be allowed to add : 

Josephus (born A. D. 37). He says, " Now, there was 
about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him 
a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of 
such men as receive the truths with pleasure. He drew 
over to him, both many of the Jews, and many of the Gen- 
tiles. He was the Christ ; 2 and when Pilate, at the sugges- 
tion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him 
to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake 
him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as 
the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other 
wonderful things concerning him ; and the tribe of Chris- 
tians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day." 3 

Lastly Ada Pilati. It was customary for the governors 
of provinces to send to the emperor an account of remark- 
able transactions in the places where they resided, which 
were preserved as the acts of their respective governments. 
Such ACTA PILATI are referred to by the early Christian 
writers in their controversies with heathen opponents or their 
appeal to heathen governments, as things well known. Eu- 
sebius, bishop of Csesarea (A. D. 315) says, "Our Saviour's 
resurrection being much talked of through Palestine, Pilate 

J Annal. lib. xv. \ 44. 

2 Literally " Christ was this man," 6 xpitrrog IVTO$ rjv. The genuineness 
of this section in Josephus's writing has been doubted, mainly because it 
is thought to be too strong from one still an unbeliever ; but it is found 
in all the copies of his works which are now extant, whether printed or 
manuscript ; in a Hebrew translation preserved in the Vatican library, 
and in an Arabic version preserved by the Maronites on Mount Lebanon. 
See the subject discussed in Home's Introduction, vol. ii. 

3 Antiq. xviii. 3, 3. 



43 2 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

informed the emperor of it as likewise his miracles, of which 
he had heard ; and that being raised up after he had been 
put to death, he was already believed by many to be a God." 
Justin Martyr, in his first Apology for the Christians, which 
was presented to the emperor Antoninus Pius and the senate 
of Rome, about A. D. 140, having mentioned the crucifixion 
of Christ and some of its attendant circumstances, adds, 
" and that these things were so done, you may know from 
the ACTS made in the time of Pontius Pilate." Afterwards, 
in the same apology, having noticed some of our Lord's 
miracles, he says, " And that these things were done by him, 
you may know from the ACTS made in the time of Pontius 
Pilate." Tertullian in his Apology for Christianity, (about 
A. D. 200), after speaking of the crucifixion, resurrection and 
ascension, speaks of " an account of all these things relating 
to Christ" sent by Pilate to Tiberius. 1 

We proceed now to the evidence from Christian writers, 
of whom we have an unbroken series extending back into 
the times of the apostles. These are in such numbers that 
we have room only to glance at them and to give an epitome 
of what may be gathered from their works. They are as 
follows : Jerome , (about A. D. 378), who wrote many works, 
and whose catalogue of the New Testament Scriptures is ex- 
actly like our own; Origen, (A. D. 185 to 253), bears testi- 
mony to the authenticity of the New Testament as we now 
have it; his pupils, Gregory, bishop of Neo-CaBsarea, and 
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, did the same ; Cyprian, a 
martyr, (A. D. 258), quotes largely from our sacred books; 
Tertullian, (A. D. 160-220), recognizes the four Gospels, as 
written by the Evangelists to whom we ascribe them, and 
has large extracts from their works ; Clement of Alexandria, 
preceptor of Origen, quotes largely from most of the books 
of the New Testament; Atlienagoras, (A. D. 180), indis- 



1 Home's Introduction. 



"WHAT THINK TE OF CHRIST?" 433 

putably quotes from Matthew and John ; Irenceus, (A. D. 
170), wrote treatises from which we learn that he received 
as authentic and canonical Scripture the four Gospels, the 
authors of which he describes, and the occasions on which 
they were written ; Melito, bishop of Sardis, Hegesippus and 
Tatian, all of about the same period, have left us similar testi- 
mony; Justin, (born about A. D. 89, suffered martyrdom about 
164), who studied first the Grecian philosophies, and then 
embraced Christianity, has left us numerous quotations from 
the four Gospels, which he uniformly represents as contain- 
ing the genuine and authentic accounts of Jesus Christ and 
of his doctrine, and says that these memoirs were read and 
expounded in the Christian assemblies for public worship ; 
Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, (about A. D.I 10), bears ex- 
press testimony to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, which 
he ascribes to these evangelists ; Polycarp, an immediate dis- 
ciple of St. John and bishop of Smyrna, (suffered martyr- 
dom about A. D. 166), has, in the very small portion of his 
writings now remaining, about forty allusions to the different 
books of the New Testament; Ignatius, (bishop of Antioch, 
A. D. 70, suffered martyrdom about 110), distinctly quotes 
the Gospels of Matthew and John, and cites or alludes to the 
Acts and most of the Epistles ; Hermas, cotemporary with 
St. Paul, (see Epistle to the Romans xvi. 14), has left a work 
in three books which contains numerous allusions to the 
New Testament; Clement, bishop of Kome and fellow- 
laborer of Paul, (see Philippians iv. 3), wrote an epistle, 
several passages in which exhibit the words of Christ as 
they stand in the Gospels, and cites most of the Epistles ; 
Barnabas, fellow-laborer with Paul, (Acts xiii. 2, 3, &c.), is 
the author of an epistle still extant, in which are expressions 
identically the same as some occurring in the Gospel of Mat- 
thew, and one in particular which is introduced, with the 
formula it is written, which was used by the Jews when they 
cited their sacred books. He quotes mostly from the Old 

37 



434 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

Testament, as he was arguing chiefly with Jews. But his 
epistle contains the exact words of several texts in the New 
Testament, in addition to those noticed above, and allu- 
sions to some others, with many phrases used by the Apos- 
tle Paul. 

In the writings of these last five, (called the Apostolic 
Fathers, because cotemporary with the apostles), although 
their references to the Scriptures are often only fragmentary, 
there is scarcely a book of the New Testament which one 
or other of them has not quoted or referred to ; and they 
uniformly speak of them as " Scriptures," " Sacred Scrip- 
ture/ 7 and as the (< Oracles of God." In quoting from them 
they most frequently use the same words which are still read 
in the New Testament; and even when they appear to have 
quoted from memory, without intending to confine themselves 
to the same language, or when they have merely alluded to 
the Scriptures without professing to quote them, it is clear 
that they had precisely the same texts in their view which 
are still found in the books of the New Testament. In all 
the questions which occurred to them, either in doctrine or 
morals, they uniformly appealed to the same Scriptures 
which are in our possession. 

We have thus a cumulative evidence from both the ene- 
mies and friends of Christianity, making irresistible the con- 
clusion, that at the time and in the country as claimed on this 
occasion, books were written which are called the Four Gos- 
pels (we omit notice of other parts of the New Testament); 
and to this conclusion concentrate also the facts of Christian 
churches and Christian institutions as our own eyes see them : 
churches and institutions which must have had an origin 
at some time, and which can be assigned only to that time and 
that place. These books show in each of them striking indi- 
viduality of style and manner, and yet with this there is a 
similarity which proves that they must have a common 
source of information. Three of them appear to have been 



"WHAT THINK TE OF CHRIST?" 435 

written, each independently of any other ; for there are notable 
discrepancies which would not have occurred had they been 
produced in concert. These differences which are sometimes 
so great as to puzzle commentators can however be reconciled. 

Matthew had been a publican. Tax-gatherers, as we have 
already noticed, were extremely odious to the Jews. The 
farmers of the taxes employed portitores or inferior officers ; 
and he was apparently one of these, having been taken from 
" the receipt of custom," as he himself describes. 1 His Gos- 
pel presupposes in the reader a knowledge of Jewish cus- 
toms and of the country to such a degree as to show that it 
was written for Jews ; and there is some reason to suppose 
that it was composed in the vernacular, Aramaic; probably 
however it was both in that language and in Greek, the former 
about A. D. 38, and designed for Jewish converts at home ; 
the latter, A. D. 61, for such converts abroad. Josephus 
also wrote his history in both these languages. Greek was 
in those days the universal language adopted by those who 
wished their writings to be extensively read. As a collec- 
tor of customs Matthew would be acquainted with that lan- 
guage, and Jews were scattered abroad over the world; his 
Gospel seems however to be mainly designed for converts 
at home, and to be suited to a time of severe trials in the 
Christian church there, probably those conducted by Saul. 

Mark (probably the same as John, Acts xii. 12), was not 
an apostle. He was son of a sister of Barnabas, and was 
with him and Paul in their first mission, fiom which he 
withdrew in a manner to displease the latter. He after- 
wards, however, reinstated himself in Paul's favor, and was 
with him in his imprisonment at Rome ; 2 thence, it is be- 
lieved, he went into Asia where he joined Peter, whom he 
accompanied to Rome. It was during this last period in 



1 ix. 9. See also Mark ii. 14 and Luke v. 27. 

2 See Col. iv. 10 and Philemon 24. 



LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

the imperial city, while with this apostle, that Mark's Gospel 
is supposed to have been written, from materials supplied by 
Peter, whose amanuensis he indeed seems to have been. 
The humility of that apostle is conspicuous in every part of 
it, where anything is related of him, his weakness and fall 
being fully exposed to view, while the things which redound 
to his honor are either slightly touched or wholly concealed. 
If so written, it was about A. D. 60 or 63. The frequent 
Latinisms in this Gospel indicate a Roman origin, while tho 
Hebraisms in its Greek show that the author was a Jew. 
It was evidently designed for Gentile believers, as is evident 
by his explanations of Hebrew customs. Robinson in his 
Harmony of the Gospels remarks that Mark and John " fol- 
low, with few exceptions, 1 the regular and true sequence 
of the events and transactions recorded by them." Matthew 
and Luke " manifestly have sometimes not so much regard 
to the regular order of time as they have been guided by the 
principle of association/' transactions having certain relations 
to each other, being often grouped together, though they 
may have happened at different times and various places. 

Luke "the beloved physician" as Paul styles him, appears 
to have been of Gentile parentage but to have embraced 
Judaism in early life; we infer the former from a distinction 
made by Paul (Col. iv. 11 and 14) between him and three 
others "who are of the circumcision;" while also his Juda- 
ism may be inferred from his intimate knowledge of the 
Jewish religion, rites, ceremonies and usages, and also from 
the fact that when Paul was assaulted at Jerusalem on the 
charge of bringing Gentiles into the temple, Luke is not 
mentioned, although he was the companion of this apostle 
in that city. He appears, on the authority of the ancient 
Christian writers to have been born at Antioch in Syria, 



1 The exceptions are Mark ii. 15-22; vi. 17-20 ; xiv. 27-31 ; xiv. 66-72; 
in John xii. 2-8; xviii. 25-27 ; xx. 30, 31. 



"WHAT THINK TE OF CHRIST?" 437 

where, as well as at Alexandria in Egypt, was a school for 
medicine. A knowledge of medicine did not always imply, 
in those days, great progress in general learning ; but the 
style in Luke's writings, although showing many Hebraisms 
is more polished than that of the other Gospels, and the 
classic idioms and Greek compound words are numerous. 
He comes before us, first as Paul's companion (probably 
physician) in Galatia, whence he accompanied that apostle 
to Philippi. There they separated, but they were reunited 
at Troas in Paul's journey to Jerusalem, to which Luke ac- 
companied him, whence he also followed him to Caesarea. 
It was doubtless during Paul's confinement of two years in 
this last city, that Luke wrote his Gospel, that is during the 
years 58 and 60. Philip the evangelist was a resident there ; 
and between this city and Jerusalem there was constant com- 
munication : and thus Luke from his very frequent opportu- 
nities of intercourse with the immediate followers of the 
Messiah, could draw ample authentic materials for his his- 
tory. There is clear evidence all through his Gospel that 
it was written for the benefit of Gentile converts. 

John during the early times of the Christian church 
remained in Jerusalem, where he assisted in the council held 
A. D. 49 or 50. We learn from the early Christian writers 
that he afterwards removed to Asia Minor, where he founded 
and presided over seven Christian churches, making his 
residence chiefly at Ephesus, which after Jerusalem had been 
destroyed, became the chief centre of Christian labors. It 
is believed that he wrote his Gospel in that city, at a date 
long after the others : for the efforts in it to explain Jewish 
usages indicate that he was writing for a people little 
acquainted with such matters. Opinions as to the precise 
time of his writing vary from the year 68 to 97. He 
appears studiously to omit notice of those passages in 
Christ's history and teachings which are given in the other 
Gospels, or if he mentions them at all it is in a cursory 

37* 



43 8 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

manner. This has led to a general belief that he wrote ill 
order to supply deficiencies in their accounts ; but probably 
his more immediate object was to counteract some heresies 
then growing up in the Christian Church. 

These are the writers of the four books purporting to 
give a history of the ministry of Christ on earth. They do 
not delineate him : they simply describe events. They tell 
in a plain manner what they, or others with whom they 
were conversant, saw and heard ; often giving us only hints 
of facts, sometimes great masses of miraculous or other facts, 
but without attempts at analyzing or drawing conclusions, or 
at side remarks of their own. Simply a history, told in a 
plain direct manner and in lucid style. 

We must remember the character of the period when 
those histories were written, and mark the aggressive nature 
of the religion which they presented to the world. It was 
a religion aggressive against all others. It admitted no 
compromise with opposing doctrines and no hesitancy in 
preaching its own ; it was to be proclaimed in the face of 
hostile governments and rulers ; it made war on heathenism 
and Judaism ; it was subversive of all religions but itself, 
and demanded activity in such subversion. Its friends were 
warned that they would be seized upon, imprisoned, betrayed 
by nearest kinsmen, and put to death for it: but they were 
to persevere and still to make war on all other religions. 
Now, such a condition of things would of course provoke 
every species of hostility ; and the claims of such a system 
would have the keenest scrutiny respecting every one of its 
items. Rage, jealousy, indignation, scorn, hatred, vengeful 
power, all this would be let loose upon the advocates of 
Christianity, .who, if smitten on one cheek were to turn the 
other to the smiter, but were still to persevere, still to preach. 
We have a striking exhibition of such things in Pliny's let- 
ter to Trajan quoted above ; and that is an exhibition only 
in Bythinia of what was universal. Such were the times 



"WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?" 439 

when the Gospels were produced and first read ; surely not 
times when untruths could be foisted upon the world, and 
cast in the teeth of such enemies as Christianity encoun- 
tered, or could produce advocates ready to die for them. 
Truths, such as the Gospels present could do this, but only 
truths: nothing else could safely meet investigations such as 
these accounts challenge and would assuredly receive, or 
could have such results as were theirs. 

But, with all these conclusive facts from history before us, 
the internal evidence of the Gospels is yet the most satisfac- 
tory; for it comes without intervening authorities, directly 
and clearly to our minds. Christ is there before us, and we 
can see for ourselves. The simple fact of himself thus 
before us is better proof, a greater miracle it may be called 
because appealing to our intellect, than the restoring to 
life of the dead was to the outward senses of the believers 
at Bethany or Nain. There is such a singleness in him, such 
an aloneness in qualities, such a well-defined exception from 
everything ever before or since seen or conceived of, that, as 
he is placed before us, he is the best evidence for himself 
and for all his claims. 

We have been following him through many scenes, some- 
times of applauses, where he was glorified of all, sometimes 
of humiliations and pain, even to buffeting and a most 
agonizing death. How equal he is in all ! In his inter- 
course with the humble and despised of the earth, publi- 
cans and sinners, in his commonness among men, the 
Divinity in him is never lowered in our eyes ; and on the 
other hand, we feel that the shoutings of Hosanna to him, 
hailing him as God, do not rise up to the height of his 
elevation, and that no earthly honors could do so. He was 
perfect man and perfect God. He gave love like a God, for 
he died in it; and he demanded love like a God love 
greater than we may have to father or mother or brother or 
sister and a readiness to die in it for him. " He that lovetli 



44 LIFE-SCENES FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

father or mother more than me is not worthy of me," is the 
language of one feeling himself to be above parents and 
nearer to us than parents and all of earth. His demands 
on us are the largest: no two masters he the only one. 
Yet he died for us : died that, through the strangest of all 
mysteries, we might have life through his death. What a 
bond there is between him and us ! We may believe also 
that in heaven, where that only is great which is good, these 
scenes on our humble earth had infinite greatness, for they 
may solve an enigma even in omnipotent power showing 
the Divine love to exist in the highest type of this affection, 
that is a self-sacrificing love. 

We can see Jesus in some respects better than those twelve 
apostles could see him ; for we behold him through an at- 
mosphere purified for more than eighteen centuries by his 
example and teachings : and as he thus appears before us we 
find it difficult to recognize his human form, for to our 
cleared vision this is transfigured as it was on the heights of 
Hermon and we see heaven in communion with him. We 
know how the experiences of many nations, through many 
generations, have borne testimony to the life-giving nature 
of his doctrines and of his appearance on our earth ; we 
know how through him as years have rolled on, millions 
constantly have felt comforted cheered and blest, have been 
made happy in life and more than conquerors in death : and 
as we gaze at him we hear the accumulations of Hallels 
through all time since the scene at Calvary, the Hallels of 
mortals brought into a glorious soul-life by his death : we 
hear shouts and see throngs, very far greater than on the 
side of Olivet ; and in their cry we gladly join, "HoSANNA 
TO OUR LORD AND GOD ! HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST !" 



INDEX. 



Acra, Mount, 296. 

Altar of the Temple, 119. 

Annas's house, 358. 

Antiochus Epiphanes, 53. 

Antonia, tower of, 305. 

Apostles chosen, 182. 

Apostles sent forth, 206. 

Apostles return, 208. 

Aramaic language, 51. 

Archelaus, 57. 

Argumentum ad hominem, 379. 

Ascension of Christ, 425. 

Attempt to seize Christ, 240. 

Authorities for the Scriptures, 428, 434. 

Baptism among the Jews, 22. 
Bartimeus, 293. 

Beautiful gate of the Temple, 118. 
Bethabara. 22. 
Bethany, 247. 
Bethesda, pool of, 172. 
Bethesda, healing there, 173. 
Bezetha, 299. 
Blind man healed, 202. 
Blind (man born) healed, 253. 
Bloody sweat, cases of, 357, note. 
Body of Christ after the resurrection, 
417. 

Caesarea Philippi, 217. 

Caiaphas' hall, and the trial there, 

359. 

Calmed, sea of Galilee, 203. 
Cana, marriage feast, 102. 
Cana, Christ's second visit to, 140. ' 
Capernaum, where, 155. 
Capernaum, healings at, 159, 178. 
Centurion's servant healed, 187. 
Chagigah rejoicings, 369. 
Chel, 118. 

Children as a model, 223. 
Children received and blessed by 

Christ, 276. 
Cleansing of the temple, 129, 317. 



Cloisters of the temple, 112, 113. 

Colbonists, 127. 

Condemnation of Christ, how re- 
garded now by the Jews, 365. 

Court of the Gentiles, 118. 

Court of the women, 119. 

Court of the Priests, 119. 

Crucifixion, how regarded by tho 
Romans, 377. 

Crucifixion, its effect on the body and 
mind, 390. 

Dancing in the Temple court, 231. 
Darkness, supernatural, 392. 
Decapolis, 4000 fed, 215. 
Dedication,feast of, 259. 
Demoniacs healed, 203. 
Deputation from the Sanhedrim to 

John, 37. 

Desecration of the temple, 126, 317. 
Desert of Judea, 32, Ac. 
Dinner with a Pharisee, 201. 
Dinner with publicans and sinners, 

203. 

Disciples, the first attached, 96, <fec. 
Disciples, the 70 sent out, 224. 
Disciples, they return and report 

their mission, 262. 
Disputes among the apostles, 223. 
Divinity or its attributes claimed by 

Christ, 169, 175, 261, 362, 370. 
Dress of the Jews, 64. 
Dropsy healed, 272. 

Education among the Jews, 63. 
Ephraim, city of, 271. 
Esdraelon, plain of, 141. 
Essenes, 85. 

Excavations under the temple, 124. 
Excavations under the city, 305. 
Excomunication, kinds of, 253. 
Expectations concerning the Messiah, 
19. 

441 



442 



INDEX. 



Feast of Pentecost, 79. 

Feast of Dedication, 259. 

Feast of Tabernacles, 227. 

Feast of Passover, 340. 

Feast of Passover, posture at, 342. 

Feast of Passover, order of, 347. 

Feeding of five thousand, 209. 

Feeding of four thousand, 216. 

Festivals, 68. 

Festivals, journeying to and from, 

75, &c. 
First-fruits, ceremony at cutting of, 

369. 

Flagellum, 384. 

Force of character in Christ, 174 
Funeral ceremonies, 192. 

Gabbatha, 372. 

Galilee described, 101. 

Gemara, 83. 

Gennesaret, plain of, 153. 

Gethsemane, 354. 

Gil boa, mount of, 142. 

Golgotha, 386. 

Good Samaritan, and parable of, 251. 

Governors of Judea, 57. 

Guards at the tomb, 401. 

Guards bribed, 408. 

Hallels, 230. 

Healings, miraculous, 140, 159, 160, 
162, 169, 173, 176, 178, 187, 194, 200, 
202, 204, 205, 206, 209, 214, 215, 222, 
226, 254, 270, 272, 294, 315, 358. 

Hebrew language, its changes, 51. 

Herod the Great, 55. 

Herod Antipas, 57. 

Herod Antipas, wishes to see Jesus, 
208. 

Herod Antipas, Christ before him, 
375. 

Herodians, who they were, 86. 

Herodians and Pharisees conspire 
against Christ, 177, 320. 

Heroism of Christianity, 327. 

High-priests, list of, 334. 

Hillel, 89. 

History of Palestine, 50, &c. 

Horns of Hattin, 180. 

Hosannas to Christ, 309, 315. 

Houses in Palestine, 166. 

Jacob's well, Christ there, 135. 
James and John, their ambitious re- 
quest, 288. 

Jericho described, 278. 
Jerusalem described, 295, &c. 
Jewish teachings, 184. 
Jewish manners, 64. 
Jews how regarded by foreigners, 87. 



John at the Jordan, 17. 

John's teachings, 24. 

John's history, 26. 

John is imprisoned, 132. 

John sends messengers to Christ, 195. 

John is beheaded, 198. 

Jordan described, 18. 

Joseph of Arimathea, 398. 

Jost, a modern Jewish historian, 88. 

Judas determines to betray Christ, 

340. 

Judas is unmasked, 346. 
Judas hangs himself, 382. 

King, they would, make Christ King, 
211. 

Lake of Galilee described, 148. 
Lawyers, 202. 

Lazarus restored to life, 270. 
Leper healed, 164. 
Lepers, ten others, 225. 
Leprosy described, 163, 225. 
Little Hermon, 142. 
Loneliness of Christ, 179. 
Lord's supper instituted, 349. 
Lulabb, 229. 

Maccabees, 54. 

Manifestations of Christ after the res- 
urrection, 413, 416, 418, 420, 421, 
422, 424, 425. 

Manners of the Jews, 64. 

Messiah, expectations concerning, 20. 

Messiahship claimed by Christ, 137, 
146. 

Mezzuza, 68. 

Mishna, 82. 

Money-chests and money-changers, 
at the temple, 127. 

Moriah, 111. 

Mount, the sermon on, 180. 

Mount of Olives, 111, 246, 308. 

Nain, dead man restored to life, 194. 
Nathaniel, 99. 
Nazareth described, 142. 
Nazareth visited by Christ and the 

scene there, 141, <fec. 
Nicodemus, 130, 245, 398. 
NobleTnan of Capernaum, his son 

healed, 140. 

Palestine described, 47. 

Paralytic healed, 169. 

Passover supper, how observed, 347. 

Perea, 224. 

Peter named, 98. 

Peter, his want of faith, 214. 

Peter at the Passover supper, 344, 347. 



INDEX. 



443 



Peter denies his Lord, 365. 
Peter questioned at the lake of Gali- 
lee, 422. 

Pharisees described, 40. 
Phylacteries described, 43. 
Pilate, his character, 372. 
Pilgrims in Austria, 70, Ac. 
Plot against Christ, 328, Ac. 
Priests, ranks of, 240. 
Prophecies respecting Christ, 28. 
Proseuchse, 59. 

Public entry into Jerusalem, 306, Ac. 
Publicans, 24. 

Rebated stones, 112. 

Resurrection of Christ, 405, &c. 

Resurrection not disputed by the 
Sanhedrim, 409. 

Roman governors, 57. 

Roman governors, standards in Jeru- 
salem, 20. 

Ruler's daughter healed, 204. 

Rumors that the kingdom of heaven 
should immediately appear, 292. 

Sadducees described, 40. 
Samaria described, 52. 
Sanhedrim how composed, 37. 
Sanhedrim, their council room at the 

temple, 118. 

Scribes, who they were, 84. 
Sepulchre sealed, 402. 
Sepulchre open, 407. 
Sermon on the mount, 180. 
Shammai, 89. 
Simlah, 65. 
Solomon's porch, 260. 
Stones in the temple, size of, 119. 
Storms on the Lake of Galilee, 203, 211. 



Supper at Bethany, 335. 
Synagogues described, 59. 

Tabernacles, feast of, 227, &c. 

Tabor, Mount, 142. 

Talith, 65. 

Talmuds, 83. 

Tell Hum, 155. 

Temple, 110, Ac. 

Temple, twice cleansed, 128, 317. 

Temptation of Christ, 34. 

Traditions, 81. 

Trafficking in the temple, 128. 

Transfiguration of Christ, 221. 

Trial in the house of Caiaphas, 359. 

Trial before Pilate, 368, Ac. 

Trials in Judea, rules for, 330. 

Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, 306. 

Tyropeon valley, 295. 

Unwritten law, 81. 

Veil of the temple, 122. 
Veil rent in twain, 394. 
Vine of gold, 121. 

Washing of hands, 186, 201. 
Water made wine, 105. 
Water, Christ stills the, 203. 
Water, Christ walks on, 213. 
Weeping over Jerusalem, 311. 
Wilderness of Judea, 32. 
Wilderness, road across, from Beth- 
any, 249. 

Wine among the ancients, 106, Ac. 
Woes denounced, 322. 

Zaccheus, 289. 




THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
STAMPED BELOW 



AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 

WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
WILL INCREASE TO 5O CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
DAY AND TO $I.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
OVERDUE. 



LD 21-100w-7,'39(402s)