Pastor pastorum; or, The schooling of the apostles by our Lord

THIS BOOK

IS FROM
THE LIBRARY OF

Rev. James Leach

PASTOR PASTORUM

OR THE

SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES
BY OUR LORD

BY
REV. HENRY LATHAM M.A.

LATE MASTER OF TRINITY HALL CAMBRIDGE

SIXTEENTH THOUSAND.

CAMBRIDGE M
DEIGHTON SELt^AND CO

T.ONnn'Nr n Tn?T.T. A* orkxra T rr,r\

LONDON G. BELL & SONS, LTD.

First Edition printed May 1890

Reprinted with alterations

November 1890, October 1891, July 189?

Reprinted 1893, 1895, 1897, 1899, 1901, 1902

1904, 1905, 1907, 1908, 1910,1913,

PREFACE.

OF the general purport of this book, and of
what led to the writing, I have said all that
is necessary in the Introductory Chapter. The
ideas it contains were growing into distinctness
during the five and thirty years of my College
work, and to many of my old pupils they will
offer little that is new.

But although the book took its source from
teaching ; and instruction — but instruction divorced
from examinations — is in some degree my object
still, yet it is meant, not so much for professed
students, as for that large body of the public, who
entertain the desire, happily spreading fast among
the young, of understanding with as great exact-
ness as possible what it was that Christ visibly
effected, and what means He employed in bringing
it about.

I have avoided all technical terms of Divinity
or Philosophy, and where, as in Chapters II. and
III., I have been led to touch on theological specu-
lations, I have tried to present the matter in as
familiar a form as I could. Frequently, I have

iy PREFACE.

explained in the notes some geographical and
other particulars which a large majority among
my readers may not require to be told ; in this
case I must be pardoned for consulting the interest
of the minority.

A didactic purpose and a literary one, do not
always run readily side by side. A teacher who
desires to inculcate certain principles or ideas,
is ever on the look out for illustrations and recurs
to his topic again and again. So, having, as I
thought, certain topics to teach, I have brought
them back into view more often than I should have
done if I had written solely with a literary view.

I have not commonly given accounts of what
has been said by others on the points of which I
treat, or criticised conclusions different from mine,
for I know that this manner of treatment is not in
favour with the present generation. I recollect the
reason of an undergraduate, in my early days, for
preferring the instruction of his private tutor to
that officially provided — "The Lecturer tells you
that Hermann says it is this, and Wunder says it
is that, but Blank (the private tutor) tells you what
it is."

With the same view of making the book read-
able by the general public, I have abstained from

PREFACE. V

apologising when I have advanced a notion not
commonly received. In my first draft I had made
such apologies for what I say on the second and
third Temptations, on the Mission to the Cities, the
Transfiguration, the Denials of Peter and some
minor points — but I afterwards thought it better to
leave them out, and to disclaim here once for all,
any intention to dogmatize, or to fail in respect
toward the weighty authorities with whom I have
ventured to disagree.

In many cases, however, the views that I have
taken rather supplement than supplant those that
are commonly received. Writers on Divinity have
not so much opposed them, as failed to notice the
points on which I dwell. There is however one
topic — the parable of the Unjust Steward, on
which I find myself at variance with all the
writers on the subject I know of, excepting
perhaps Calvin, who begins his Comment on
Luke xvi. I by saying "The main drift of this
parable, is, that we must shew kindness and
lenity in dealing with our neighbours." He does
not, however, follow up this view as I have
done.

Though in so difficult a matter I cannot be
confident of being right, yet I do feel convinced,

vi PREFACE.

that the accepted interpretation of the. parable,
viz. that it is intended to teach the right use of
riches — "the really wise use of mammon" as
Gobel puts it — is wholly inadequate. So simple
a moral would have been pointed by a simpler
tale. Surely the riches would have been made
the giver's own. Moreover the salient point of
the outward story, that which first catches atten-
tion, always answers in our Lord's parables to a
cardinal matter in the interpretation. Here that
salient point lies in the words "Take thy bond
and sit down quickly and write fifty" and this
has but a very oblique bearing on the true use
of riches; the distinctive point of the outward
parable is the exercise of delegated power, and the
spiritual bearing must be in conformity with this.

I have everywhere followed the Revised Ver-
sion, and I must warn readers that where italics
occur in the longer passages they are not mine,
except in passage on p. 101. They are intro-
duced, not to mark words important for my purpose,
but simply because they are found in the Revised
Version where they indicate, of course, that the
corresponding word is wanting in the Greek.
For the course of events I have generally follow-
ed the Gospel of St Mark up to the time of

PREFACE. Vll

the feast of Tabernacles ; and after that the Gospel
of St John. Of the great historical value of the
latter I have, Like most biblical students, become
more deeply sensible, the more closely I have
studied it. Speaking of the absence of miracles
wrought in public during the week of the Passion,
p. 430, I have not noticed Matt. xxi. 14, because I
believe the Evangelist to refer to miracles that had
taken place during earlier visits to Jerusalem. It
was beyond the scope of my book tt> discuss the
differences of character of the different Gospels.

In a few instances I follow an order of events
different from that which is most commonly taken.
This order I have shewn in a Chronological
Appendix, in which I have tabulated the chief
events of our Lord's Ministry, taking them month
by month from the time of the Baptism to that
of the great day of Pentecost. I have made this
Appendix more full, in point of reference and
arguments in support of the dates, than would
have been quite necessary for readers of this book,
because I thought it might be made useful gene-
rally to students of the Gospel History.

I have to thank several persons for their
assistance and advice, especially Canon Hux table,
without whose kind encouragement at the out-

Viii PREFACE.

set the book might not have been written. I
must note that I have made use of an idea on
Luke xii. 49, which I first came upon, many years
ago, in a small publication of the Rev. A. H.
Wratislaw, then one of the Tutors of Christ's
College; and that I was in like manner set on a
track of thought by a sermon on the Temptation,
by T. Colani, published at Strasburg in 186*0.
I have acknowledged my obligations to Bishop
Ellicott's "Historical Lectures," and Edersheim's
" Jesus the Messiah." Many members of my own
College, and many other friends have assisted
me greatly with advice and corrections.

Although my book is not written with any
thesis about the Gospels to support, still I trust
that I have cleared away difficulties here and
there, and have shewn, in small matters, how one
account undesignedly supports another. If what
I have said shall lead to discussion on some of
the questions raised, or if I shall induce younger
men to apply themselves, in some of those direc-
tions towards which I have pointed, to work of a
literary kind waiting to be done, I shall not have
spent my time and pains without result

TRINITY HALL LODGE,
May ist, 1890.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTORY

CHAPTER I.

PAGE
I

CHAPTER II.

HUMAN FREEDOM

28

CHAPTER III.

OF REVELATION .

CHAPTER IV.

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS .... 74

(1) The attraction of hearers .... 77

(2) Selection 79

(3) Preparation . . .... 80

(4) Setting forth the Kingdom of God . . 82

(5) Teaching wrought by Signs ... 84

(6) Miracles as a practical lesson to the disciples 91

X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

PAGE

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS . .112
The Temptation to turn stones into loaves . 127
The Temptation on the Mount . . .134
The Temptation on the Pinnacle of the Temple 139

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE TEMPTATION TO THE MINISTRY IN

GALILEE . . ' . . . .147
Outset of the work 147

CHAPTER VII.
THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES . .188

CHAPTER VIII.
THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES . . .228

CHAPTER IX.

THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES. THE MISSION

TO THE CITIES . .... 270

CHAPTER X.

TO THOSE WHO HAVE IS GIVEN . . . .311

The Teaching by Parables . . . . 3II
Resumption of the Narrative . . . .328

CONTENTS. Xi

CHAPTER XL

PAGE

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM . . -349

CHAPTER XII.

THE LATER LESSONS 373

Different cases receive different treatment . . 373
Parable of the Unjust Steward . . .386
Our Lord refusing to judge .... 398
Our Lord's action prospective . • . . 41 1
Christ washing the Apostles' feet , . .419
Use of signs in the later Ministry . . . 425

CHAPTER XIII.

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION . . • 437
The Ascension . . . . . .457

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX , 473

INDEX OF TEXTS 491

GENERAL INDEX 495

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

IN this opening chapter I propose to lay
before the reader the leading ideas which will
be developed in the book. This will necessitate
some repetition, but many readers want to know
at starting whither the author is going to take
them, and whether his notions are such that they
will care for his company.

In the course of lecturing on the Gospels, being
myself interested in questions of education, my
attention turned to the way in which our Lord
taught His disciples. Following the Gospel History
with this view, I recognised in the train of circum-
stances through which Christ led the disciples,
no less than in what He said to them, an assiduous
care in training them to acquire certain qualities
and habits of mind. I observed also method and
uniformity both in what He did and in what He
refrained from doing. Certain principles seem to
govern His actions and to be observed regularly so
far as we can see, but we have no ground for .stating

2 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

that our Lord came to resolutions on these points
and bound Himself to observe them. A" man some-
times sees his duty so clearly at one moment that
he wishes to make the decision of that moment
dominant over his life and he embodies it in a
resolve, but we must suppose that Christ at each
moment did what was best. So that what I call a
Law of His conduct is only a generalization from
His biography, and means no more than that, in
such and such circumstances He usually acted in
such and such ways. I can easily conceive that
He might have swerved from these Laws had there
been occasion.

I have fancied that I got glimpses of the
processes by means of which the Apostles of the
Gospels — striving among themselves who should
be greatest, looking for the restoration of the
kingdom to Israel, and dismayed at the apprehen-
sion of their Master — were trained to become the
Apostles of the Acts, — testifying boldly before
rulers and councils, giving the right hand of fellow-
ship to one who had not companied with them, and
breaking through Jewish prejudices, to own that
there were no men made by God who were com-
mon or unclean. The shape which much of the
outward course of Christ's life took, His choice of
Galilee as a scene of action, His withdrawal from
crowds and His wanderings in secluded regions
were admirably adapted to the educating of the
Apostles; while His sending them, two and two,

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 3

through the cities was a direct lesson in that
self-reliance which reposes on a trust in God.
Were not these courses ordered to these ends?
The training was wonderfully fitted to bring about
the changes which occurred.

That this fashioning of the disciples should
have been a very principal object with our Lord
is easy to conceive. For what, except His fol-
lowers, did He leave behind as the visible outcome
of His work ? He had founded no institution and
had left no writings as a possession for after time.
The Apostles were the salt to season and preserve
the world, and if they had not savour whence could
help be sought ? Is it not then likely that the
best means would be employed for choosing and
shaping instruments for the work; and can we do
better than mark the Divine wisdom so engaged ?

On many sides the work of Christ stretches
away into infinity. God's purpose in having
created the world, and put free intelligences into
it, as well as the changes which Christ's death may
have wrought in the relation of men's souls to
God, belong to that infinite side of things, which
we cannot explore. But we can follow the treat-
ment by which Christ moulded the disciples, be-
cause the changes are not wrought in them by a
magical transformation, but come about gradually
as the result of what they saw and heard and did.

Changes are brought about in the disciples by
an education, superhuman indeed in its wisdom,

1—2

4 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

superhuman in its insight into the habits of mind
which were wanted, and into the modes by which
such habits might be fostered, but not superhuman
in the means employed. We can analyse the
influences which are brought to bear, judge what
they were likely to effect, and estimate fairly well
what they did effect, because they were the same in
kind as we now find working in the world. Christ's
ways, therefore, in this province of His work fall
within the range of our understanding. The
learners are taught less by what they are told
than by what they see and do. They are trained
not only by listening, but by following and — what
was above all — by being suffered, as in the mis-
sion to the cities of Israel, to take part in their
Master's work.

They are altered by their companionship with
our Lord, insensibly, just as we see the complexion
of a man's character alter by his being thrown
into the constant society of a stronger nature.
But Christ works on them no magical change.
Our Lord never transforms men so as to ob-
literate their old nature, and substitute a new one;
new powers and a new life spring up from contact
with Him, but the powers work through the old
organs, and the life flows through the old channels;
they would not be the same men, or preserve their
individual responsibility if it were otherwise. God's
grace works with men, it is true, but it uses the
organization it finds ;. and as much cultivation and

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

5

shaping of the disposition is required for turning
God's Grace to account, as for making the most of
any other good gift.

Christ's particular care to leave the disciples
their proper independence is everywhere apparent.
They come to Him of their deliberate will. They
are not stricken by any over-mastering impression,
or led captive by moving words. They are not
forced to break with their old selves ; their growth
in steadfastness comes of a better knowledge of their
Lord, and the more they advance in understanding
God's ways and therefore in believing, the stronger
are the grounds of assurance which are granted to
them ; the more they have, the more is given them;
the most attached are granted most.

Christ, we find, draws out in His disciples the
desired qualities of self-devotion and of healthy
trust in God, without effacing the stamp of the
individual nature of each man. He cherishes and
respects personality. The leader of a sect or school
of thought is often inclined to lose thought of the
individual in his care for the society which he is
establishing, or to expect his pupils to take his
own opinions ready made, in a block. He is apt
to be impatient if one of them attempts to think
for himself. His aim very commonly is

"To make his own the mind of other men,"

and a pupil who asserts his own personality, and
is. not content with reflecting his master's, is not of
the sort he wants.

6 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

But our Lord was a teacher of a very different
kind. He reverenced whatever the learner had
in him of his own, and was tender in fostering
this native growth. He was glad when His words
roused a man into thinking on his own account,
even in the way of objection. When the Syro-
phoenician woman turns His own saying against
Him, with the rejoinder, "Yes Lord, yet the dogs
under the table eat of the children's crumbs," He
applauds her Faith the more for the independent
thought that went with it Men, in His eyes, were
not mere clay in the hands of the potter, matter
to be moulded to shape. They were organic
beings, each growing from within, with a life of his
own — a personal life which was exceedingly precious
in His and His Father's eyes — and He would foster
this growth so that it might take after the highest
type.

Neither did He mean that what He told men
should only be stored in their memories as in a
treasure-house, there to be kept intact. They were
to "take heed how they heard." With Christ, the
part that the man had to do of himself went for
infinitely more than what was done for him by
another. If men had the will and the power to
turn to their own moral nutriment the mental
food which was given them, it would be well ; but
if His words merely lay in their memories, without
affecting them or germinating within them, then
they were only as seeds falling on sterile spots.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 7

The training of the disciples was partly prac-
tical, turning on what they saw our Lord do and
were set or suffered to do themselves, and partly
it came from what they heard. I want the reader
to go along with me in marking how this training
of the Apostles was adapted to generate the
qualities which the circumstances of their situation
demanded when Christ left the world ; and it is
in the practical part of the work that this is most
readily traced.

The selection of the Apostles may serve as an
instance of what I mean. They were to preach a
gospel to the poor — the movement was to spread
upward from below. This will be found to be the
law of growth of great moral principles which have
established their sway among mankind. The Apo-
stles therefore were chosen from a class which,
though not the poorest, had sympathies with the
poor. Again the Apostles were to be witnesses of
the resurrection to after times ; it was important,
therefore, that they should possess qualities which
would make men trust them ; had they been ima-
ginative, had they been enthusiasts, this would have
been a bar to the accepting of their evidence; but
the Apostles were singularly literal-minded men,
so little suspecting a metaphorical meaning in their
Master's sayings, that when He told them to beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees, they thought it
meant that, having no bread with them, they
would be constrained to eat some not made in

8 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

the proper way. We see no exaggeration in them,
no wild fervour, nothing that belongs to the religious
fanatic. Our Lord never employs the force that
such fanaticism affords ; when He meets with what
seems the result of emotion, as when the woman
breaks out with " Blessed is the womb that bare
thee," He always brings back to mind that doing
is more than feeling.

We shall have to note, moreover, the progressive
way in which our Lord taught His followers self-
reliance and faith, and the tender care with which
He lets His hold of them go by degrees. Wander-
ing along with our Lord, they grow into a capacity
for marking greatness, and trusting themselves to a
superior nature. When they are sent, two and two,
through the cities of Israel, they learn to use respon-
sibility, and to feel that His power could still pro-
tect them even when He was not by. They lacked
nothing then, for Christ provided for them ; but the
time should come when they would complete their
training and have real work to do, and then they
would have to employ all gifts which had fallen to
them. For the real conflict, both the purse and the
sword are to be taken ; prudence and judgment and
courage must be brought into play in doing God's
work as they are in doing that of every day life.

And when Christ leaves the world, the disciples
are not for long exposed to the revulsion which
the crucifixion would cause. They are not suffered
to feel their Master's loss and miss Him all at

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 9

once. They are not left to suppose that He had
altogether gone, that His cause had failed and all
was over ; so that they had better wake from their
delusion and go back, with blighted hope and faith,
to Galilee and their boats and nets. Soon comfort
came. The work for which they had been trained
was still to go on, only not in the way they had
expected. Tbeir following Christ was not to be
a mere episode in their lives : they had not been
wrong in thinking that they should serve Him all
their days. Christ is near them still, and they see
Him now and again. For forty days or more they
felt that He was in their neighbourhood, and might
at any time appear ; any stranger who accosted them
might turn out to be He. Thus they are carried
through the time when the effects of shock on their
mind and moral nature was most to be feared, and
they are brought one step nearer to the power of
realising that Christ is with them. After the Ascen-
sion, He is withdrawn from the eye of sense alto-
gether, His presence will henceforth be purely
spiritual, but no sooner do they lose sight of Him
in the body than the Comforter comes to their souls.
So long as men walked by the guidance of one
whom they saw by their side, they would not throw
themselves on unseen spiritual aid. The Comforter
would not come unless the Lord went away, but
as soon as He was gone the comfort came.

I now come to the oral teaching. Here we
note the same fitness of the means to the end,

10 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

but the purpose in view is a more abstract one:
a quality very essential for Christ's purpose is ex-
pansiveness. The truths which He revealed and
the commandments He gave were to be accepted
by different nations, and in various states of society:
they belonged therefore to what is primary in the
nature of man. It is in this that Christ's doctrine
differs from all systems. It does not belong to one
age or one nationality but to1 all. Whether this
character of Universality was due to prospective
wisdom or to chance, I do not now discuss; I only
say that the substance of Christ's teaching is suit-
able for men in different conditions ; that the form
in which it is put makes this teaching easy for the
ignorant to retain; and that the circumstances
which accompanied it were singularly conducive
to its spread. Christ arose amongst a nation which
was the most strikingly individualised of all peoples,
but He transmitted the type of Humanity in its
most general form. We mark in Him no trace of
one race or of one epoch ; He was emphatically
the Son of Man.

In all His sayings and doings, our Lord was
most careful to leave the individual room to grow.
Some of the "negative characteristics" of our
Lord's teaching arise out of this universality. If
we go to Him looking for a Social system or an
Ecclesiastical polity we find nothing of the sort
Humanitarian theorists have turned in disappoint-
ment from His word ; but a system suited to our

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 11

age must have been unsuited to Gospel times.
Christ gave no system for recasting Society by
positive Law, and no ecclesiastical Polity, for men
could make laws better when the circumstances
which called for them arose. He gave no system
of philosophy, for such systems are only the ways
of looking at some of the enigmas of life, which
suit the cast of mind of the nation or the generation
which shapes the system. So different nations and
generations should be left to make their systems as
of old, only a new truth was declared, and a new
force was set to work, which systems would hence-
forth have to take into account.

Again, the next world is what all want to
know about. If the founder of a religion would
win men's ears, he must set this before them. But,
as we cannot conceive a life under conditions
wholly different from that we lead, any description
must be misleading. False notions besides en-
gendering devotees and fanatics, would sap human
activity and arrest progress. Hence Christ speaks
to the fact of a future existence, but says nothing
of the mode. He assures us that eternal life awaits
those accounted worthy, but of the nature of this
life He says nothing. He gives no details on which
imagination can dwell.

Farther, Christ leaves no ritual. For a ritual
belongs to those outward things which must change \
it would in time symbolize a view no longer taken,
and if some should still cling to it from the idea

12 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

that it had a magic worth of its own, then it would
stand in the way of the truth it was meant to set
forth.

Laws, Systems, and Ritual, then, were raiment
to be changed as times went on ; with them there-
fore succeeding generations were left to deal. The
form must come of man, so to man the shaping of
it is left. But Christ gave what was more than
raiment and more than form. "The words that I
have spoken unto you," said He, "are Spirit and
are life." He gave seed thoughts which should lie in
men's hearts, and germinate when fit occasion came.

These thoughts were clothed in terse sayings,
such as a man would carry in his head and dwell
on the more because he did not see to the bottom
of them all at once. Moreover some of these
sayings, for instance, " For whosoever hath, to him
shall be given1," will startle the hearer as being
contrary to what he would expect ; and the more
he is perplexed, the more he is provoked to think,
and thereby a greater impression is made.

Other truths are wrapped up in parables. The
form of the parable, not the matter it conveys,
concerns me now. It is a form of speech which
imbeds itself deeply in the memories of men and
was admirably suited to preserve a genuine record
during the time when the Gospel should subsist as
an oral tradition. It put what was most important
into the shape which made it most easy to recollect.

1 Matth. xiii. 12.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 13

Nothing except proverbs takes hold of men's
memories so firmly as tales. The most ancient
literary possessions of the world are, probably,
certain stories containing a moral. Of course our
Lord's teaching in parables answered greater ends
than this of making His lessons easy to retain : but
this form of teaching agreed wonderfully well with
what the circumstances required. Next to tales in
respect of being easily remembered, come narratives
of detached striking acts. So the materials of the
Gospel History, sayings, parables, narratives of signs
and wonders, are cast into the forms best calculated
for safe transmission through a period of tradition.
We find the same suitableness of the form to the
needs of the case, in the shape in which the whole
Gospel has been delivered to us. I refer to its
being narrative instead of didactic, and coming
from the Evangelists instead of from Christ. If
our Lord had left writings of His own, every letter
of them would have been invested with such
sanctity that there could have been no indepen-
dent investigation of truth. Its place would have
been taken by commentatorial works on the de-
livered word. When writings are set before us and
we are told, "All truth lies there ; look no further;"
then our ingenuity is directed to extract diversities
of meanings from the given words; for matter
must be set forth in human speech, and human
speech conveys different meanings to differently
biased minds.

14 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

The Jews regarded their sacred books as the
actual words of God; hence came that subserviency
to the letter, and that stretching of formulae which
brought them to play fast and loose with their
consciences. The Scribes looked on their Law as
a conveyancer on a deed : they were bound by the
letter, and this led them to regard the Almighty as
One dealing with men under the terms of a contract.
This drew them out of the road which led to a
true knowledge of God, and helped to make them
"blind leaders of the blind." Our Lord breaks
down this slavery to the letter of the Scripture
which He found existing, and He is careful not to
build up a new bondage to His own words.

When matter has come down by oral tradition,
men can hardly worship the letter of it. We pos-
sess only brief memoirs collected by men, the
dates and history of the composition of which are
far from certain, so that room is left for criticism
and judgment. The revelation of God is, therefore,
not so direct that men will be awestricken and
shut their minds at the sight of it ; but human
intelligence can be brought to bear on the records,
whereby their meaning is brought out, and men's
intellects are braced by the exploration of lofty
regions. Men may without irreverence raise the
question, whether the narrator had rightly under-
stood Christ's sayings, and properly connected them
with the circumstances out of which they arose.

Our Lord, in Galilee at any rate, spoke Aramaic,

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 15

and we have merely the Greek ; we have only frag-
ments of His teaching; we possess different ver-
sions, agreeing indeed in essentials, but with such
differences, that we are forced to admit in the
writers a human possibility of error. We have our
Lord's words it is true, but not in the order, or in
the connection, in which they were spoken. There
is not only room for human judgment but a neces-
sity for it. Hence the form in which our Lord's
utterances have come down to us is suited to the
plan which seems to run through all our Lord's
teaching; it calls for the free play of the human
mind, and leaves room for the admission of a
certain choice as to what we accept as revealed
truth.

It is true that some Divines have endeavoured
to do what our Lord was careful not to do — they
have, by theories of verbal inspiration, endeavoured
to put our Gospels in the position that actual
writings of our Lord would have held ; and, so far as
they have succeeded, they have brought about the
evils which attended the notions of the scribes.
But the form in which we have the Gospels does
not lend itself to such a theory. If men go wrong
in this way they have only themselves to blame.

There is another way in which this form of the
Gospels answers to the plan of Christ's teaching. He
impressed men, above all, by His Personality, and
the record of His life is preserved to us in that
form which is best adapted to preserve person-

1 6 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

ality and store it up for the future, viz. the form o
memoirs put together by contemporaries, or by
those who were familiar with contemporaries.

History and literature furnish many instances
of men who have made their mark in virtue of a
striking personality ; whose reputation rests, not on
any visible tokens, — not on kingdoms conquered,
institutions founded, books written, or inventions
perfected or anything else that they did, — but
mainly on what they were. Their merely having
passed along a course on earth, and lived and
talked and acted with others, has left lasting effects
on mankind.

This may serve to put us in the way of under-
standing what was wrought by the Personality of
Christ : for our Lord's disciples followed Jesus of
Nazareth for this above all, — that he was Jesus of
Nazareth. Those of His own time had felt this
Personality working on them while they saw Him
and listened to Him. It is consistent, then, with what
we gather of His prospective care, that He should so
provide, that after generations should have as nearly
as possible, the same advantages as that with which
He lived upon the earth. This is effected by His
being presented to them in the Gospels, not as a
writer is in his works, not as a lawgiver is in his
codes, but as the man Christ Jesus, mixing with
men, sharing their feasts, helping their troubles,
going journeys with them, and in all these occasions
turning their thoughts, gently, with a touch that is

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 17

scarcely observed, towards that knowledge of God
which He came to bring.

Which is it that sways us most ? Is it the
teacher who tells us, — This is the way you are to
think, this is what you are to believe and what you
are to do ? Or is it the friend who blends his life
and heart and mind with ours, with whom we argue
and differ, but take something each from the other,
which assimilates with what is most our own ?
Surely we yield more freely to the one who helps
to foster our particular personality than to him who
would thrust it aside, and replace it by his own.

Now Christ, as portrayed in the Gospels, is
such a friend. He trusts to men's believing that the
Father is in Him, not because He has declared
it in set dogmas, but because He has been "so
long with' them." He is a friend who lifts us
out of our common selves, and helps each one
of us to find his own truest self: we catch fire
from the new light which he kindles in us, and we
become conscious of a new force, a spiritual one.
When the narrative brings us to the sacrifice on
the Cross, we see what the spectators saw, and
something more, for we see this new inward force
transcending all outward violence. When we turn
to the Sufferer on the Cross, we say " after all, the
Victory is there."

But not only is our Lord's Personality presented
to us in the literary form in which it can best be
put forth, that of the informal memoir, but we
T. 2

18 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

are given four such memoirs, each regarding its
subject from a different point. We have then
four different projections of what we want to con-
struct. The help of this is obvious ; and it is worth
mentioning that hereby there is more scope for
man's mental action than if we had only one
Gospel. By diligently comparing and fitting in
each with the other, we cultivate our mind's eye to
catch the lineaments of Christ's figure. A painter,
who has to produce a portrait from four photo-
graphs, has a less simple task than if only a single
photograph existed ; but his work will be more
intellectual ; it will do him more good, and the
result will be more of a conception and less of a
copy.

I believe that the education of man to a know-
ledge of God is part of the Divine purpose running
through God's ways, and I detect in the narrative
form in which our knowledge of Christ has been
delivered to us, a wise tenderness for the spiritual
freedom of man and a help to keep his faculties
alive.

I spoke just now of Laws of Christ's conduct.
The more we look at Christ's life and teaching
as a whole, the more we discern in it the obser-
vance of certain Laws, which give it unity and
order. When we stand near some large painting,
or masterpiece of Art, we are taken up with the
portion of it just under our eye ; we scan this or
that group and admire its finish and its truth.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 19

But when we go a little way off, and again look,
and give our minds to it, we become aware of a
different order of perfections in it, namely those
perfections which belong to it as a whole, as the
completed conception of a gifted mind.

So it is with the Gospel History. While we
read chapter by chapter we see what answers to
one group in the great picture; but when we have
the whole in our mind, we see a consistent purpose
holding it all together: we find that our Lord
always acts along certain lines, and carries out
certain principles. One of these, which lies at the
root of His ways of dealing with men, is His
carefulness to keep alive in each man the sense of
his personal responsibility, and of the dignity of
such responsibility. He would seem to say to each
man, " It is no small thing to have been entrusted
by God with the care of a soul which you may
educate for fitness for eternal life." We find in our
Lord, indignation, once, at least, even anger1,
towards men and their ways, but never contempt
or scorn. A man is, merely as a man, entitled
to be treated with respect. The enforcing of this
on the world is, among all the " Gesta Christi,"
perhaps the most noticeable now.

The simple fact of His dealing directly with
men themselves > shews that He owned their free
agency more or less. If men had been merely
puppets moved by strings, Christ could only have

1 Mark iii. 5.

2—3

20 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

benefited them by swaying the powers who held
these strings, and there would have been no mean-
ing in His addressing Himself to the puppets
themselves and giving His life for them. Now, if
men are free they must be at liberty to go in a
direction different from that which is best for them
— that is to go wrong ; and so it must needs be
that "occasions of stumbling" come, and cause
suffering. I mention these principles now, because
they are the bases of the Laws of which I am
going to speak. They will come before us again
further on.

The marking of uniformities in Christ's conduct,
and in His modes of conveying instruction, is
serviceable in this way. We perceive the Laws
(defined as in p. 2) by regarding Christ's career as a
whole ; and in return, the Laws, when perceived,
help us to grasp its unity and completeness in a
more thorough way ; and, besides this, we strengthen
our critical faculty, and arm it with a new criterion
which may become an effective weapon in argu-
ing on questions of internal evidence. For if we find
in any newly-discovered fragment, or even in the
Gospels themselves, that which runs counter to
what we think we have established as a Law, then
we have to ask ourselves whether it is likely that
the passage is spurious or imperfect or put out of
its right place ; or, on the other hand, whether our
Law has been framed too narrowly, and ought to
be restated or enlarged.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 21

Again, when we find a Law constantly observed,
and are sure that the narrative cannot have been
written up to the Law, because the narrators knew
nothing of such a Law ; then we come on a new
variety of internal evidence. If, in matters which
only a student would observe, our Lord is found to
adhere to certain ways, this favours the view that
the materials for the portrait came from life ; for an
artist drawing from description or following an
idea of his own must have missed these delicate
details now and then. This consistency uniformly
observed forms a sort of undesigned coincidence
ramifying through the mass, and holding it all to-
gether. The notion of Laws underlying our Lord's
action, and shewing their traces on the surface from
time to time, will be best illustrated by an example.
I shall take the rules which our Lord observes in
the working of Signs and Wonders; and so I must
here anticipate something of that, which I shall
make the subject of a whole chapter further on.

Our Lord is set apart from all other teachers by
His use of Signs and Wonders. We sha.ll enquire,
how He regarded them ? What use He designed to
make of them ? And, what more especially concerns
us now, what Laws He observes when He employs
them? These Laws we shall find — wrapped up as it
were — in our Lord's answers to the Tempter in the
wilderness. The narrative of the Temptation, which
seems, at first sight, to be a fragment unconnected
with the course of the action of the Gospel History,

22 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

becomes, when the Laws are noted,- the key to
the interpretation of much. Isolated phenomena
fall into system. I will relate the Temptations in
the order given by St Luke, and briefly state the
Laws indicated in the Tempter's suggestions to-
gether with our Lord's replies.

I. Christ will not turn stones into loaves to
appease His hunger in the wilderness. This refusal
contains two principles to which our Lord will be
found to adhere.

(1) He will not use His special powers to pro-
vide for His personal wants or for those of His
immediate followers.

When our Lord provided food for the five thou-
sand, the loaves and fishes the Apostles had with
them were enough for their own party1.

(2) Christ will not provide by miracle what
could be provided by human endeavour or human
foresight.

Our Lord will not even make men better by-
action on them from without ; He will not change
their being by any spiritual action without their
cooperation. When the Apostles said "Increase
our Faith," He worked no sudden change in them,
but He pointed out to them the efficacy of Faith, in
order that by longing for it, they might attain
to it.

II. Christ will not purchase the visible "king-
doms of the world and the glory of them" by

1 St Matth. xiv. 1 7.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 23

worshipping Satan — that is to say, He will not do
homage to the Spirit of the world to win the world's
support. He will not ally Himself with worldly
policy. He will not fight the world with its own
weapons, and become its master by giving in to its
views and its ways. In addressing the people He
runs counter to the notions they cherished the most.
He would not proclaim Himself as the Messiah,
or allow Himself to be made a King though
thousands, who were looking for a national de-
liverer, would have rallied round Him if He had
done so1. He would not conciliate the favour of the
great. He would not display His powers, for a
matter of wonderment, to satisfy the curiosity of
Herod, nor would He use them to repel violence by
open force. He would not hearken to the tempta-
tion which said, "Use your miraculous powers to
establish a visible kingdom upon earth; and when
this is done you can frame a perfect form of
society by positive Law."

III. Christ will not throw Himself from the
pinnacle of the Temple. The Temptation must
have been to do this in the sight of the people.
Else, why is this pinnacle chosen rather than any
other height ? The refusal points to the following
important Laws.

(i) No miracle is to be worked merely for
miracles' sake, apart from an end of benevolence
or instruction.

1 John vi. 15.

24 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

What appear to be exceptions to this rule cease
to be so when fully considered.

The walking on the waters, as we shall see
further on, was a step in training the Apostles to
realize His nearness to them, when He was not
before their eyes. The withering of the fig-tree,
which had leaves before its time, but no fruit, was
an acted parable bearing on the Jewish people.
These are miracles of instruction. We shall find
others of the same kind.

(2) No miracle is to be worked which should
be so overwhelming in point of awfulness, as to
terrify men into acceptance, or which should be un-
answerably certain, leaving no loop-hole for unbelief.

As, in the second Temptation, our Lord refused
to allow physical force to be used to bring men
to adopt His cause, so here He refuses to employ
moral compulsion. The miracles only convinced
the willing, men might always disbelieve if they
would. They might allow the fact of the prodigies,
and yet set them down to magic or witchcraft:
it was with many an open question whether to
ascribe them to God or to Beelzebub, for the latter
had, it was supposed, a share of power upon the
earth. But one popular criterion there was of the
power being God's: in heaven, said the Jews,
God reigned supreme and alone. A Sign worked
there would carry with it the autograph of God.
When Joshua would convince their fathers, he had
wrought a Sign in heaven; he had made the sun

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 2$

and moon stand still. Let Christ do this and they
would believe. No such Sign will Christ work. If
the world was to be converted nolens volens it
might as well have been peopled from the first by
beings incapable of error.

If the end of His coming had been to gain ad-
herents, His purpose would have been furthered
by granting a Sign which would have struck the
imagination of the masses; but to raise a large
immediate following was not our Lord's design.
He wanted only a few fit spirits as depositaries of
His word.

He came to educate men to know God. In
this knowledge lay the assurance of immortality.
The knowledge reached through this education
could not be imparted by any mere telling or
express communication, but had to be unfolded
from within the learner's self. Belief was to grow
and not to be imposed. It had two elements, a
perception of a Divine agency at work in the world,
and a personal trust in Christ who manifested God,
— a trust based on something like the devotion of
a soldier to his chief. That the probability that
His mission did really come from God, should be
made to exceed by a little the probability that it
did not, and that this balance of arguments should
lead people to acknowledge Him, was not what
Christ had in view. He sought only the homage
of free, loving, human hearts.

The Laws above mentioned will be found to

26 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

regulate the course of our Lord's actigns as regards
the performance of Signs and Wonders. They are
frequently violated in the Apocryphal Gospels,
never, I think, in the Canonical ones. There are
other Laws which I shall have to trace; one, which
is very important, is stated on at least two oc-
casions ; I have referred to it as being paradoxical
in form, and the more fitted to force itself on men's
minds on that account. It is the text, " For who-
soever hath to him shall be given, but whosoever
hath not from him shall be taken away even that
which he hath." This looks as if it would fall in
strangely with the Law of Natural Selection and
the Survival of the Fittest, in the organic world.
What I believe our Lord to have meant by it will
be discussed in its proper place.

I shall have also to speak of the prospective
bearing of much that our Lord says and does,
and to shew how this gives us a greater assurance
of our Lord's being " with, us always to the end
of the world." Christ seems to me to look over
the heads of the generation about Him far into the
future; His eye is fixed on the distance, but it does
not look out vaguely into space; it is turned in a
direction that is precisely determined. He walks
with the assured step of one who marches to a goal.
But what that goal is He never tells men, and when
He designedly keeps men's curiosity unsatisfied, we
may conjecture that no answer could be given with-
out touching on conditions of spiritual existence

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 27

beyond our ken. There may be such conditions
which we could no more conceive than we could
imagine space with another dimension, beside length
and breadth and height.

The history of the Church and of the work-
ings of men's minds may disclose the existence of
Laws, lying under the events of ages and operating
through them, analogous to those laid down by our
Lord for his own conduct ; and we may look along
the direction in which these Laws point. Some
have thought they descried, at the end, a time, in
which peace and righteousness should reign over the
whole world. But Christ Himself doubted whether
He should find faith upon the earth when He came1.
However, if He should not, still He will not have
failed, we can be sure of this. What He meant
to effect, whatever it was, will have come about.
Righteous souls may be garnered elsewhere, and
this earth may be only a school of life, a training
ground for the education and selection (for these
two go together) of beings who shall be fitted to
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

1 Luke xviii. 8.

CHAPTER II.

HUMAN FREEDOM.

I HAVE spoken in the foregoing chapter of certain
characteristics of our Lord's ways of dealing with
men. In considering these ways we find ourselves,
at almost every turn, face to face with the great
enigmas of life which underlie all Theology.
Questions about Divine government and human
freedom will, 1 see, force themselves upon us.

It would keep this book more close to its pur-
pose, if I could proceed at once with the examina-
tion of what our Lord says and does, and leave
all these difficulties on one side, taking it for
granted that all my readers had arrived at their
own views about them ; or if I were to refer them
to works in which they are formally discussed.

But I trust my readers will forgive me, if I
suppose that it may be with them as with those
I have been used to teach — that is to say, that
they will be attracted by these perplexities, and
that they will be impatient at being told that just
what they want to ask lies outside my province.
Many too, I know, would never turn to any of the

HUMAN FREEDOM. 29

learned works on these matters, of which I might
give them the names.

I have resolved, therefore, to deal with these
matters once for all, in as familiar a way as I can.
I cannot, of course, give my readers solutions of
these questions; I can only tell them how I manage
to do without a solution myself, and put before
them the view of these matters which I hold till
I can get a better, so that they may more readily
enter into my views of Christ's Laws of action, and
understand what I write.

The characteristics of our Lord's ways which
particularly bring us in contact with these mysteries,
and which therefore concern us most now, are (i)
His care to keep alive in His hearers their sense of
being free and responsible agents; (2) His tolerance
of the existence of evil in the world.

These questions of free will and the existence of
evil have been for ages the battle-ground of divines,
and they come before us every day. "Why did not
God make every one good?" is a question which
occurs to every intelligent child. He runs to his
first teachers with it, and finding himself put off
with an answer that is no answer — for a child is
quick in detecting this — he gets his first notion
that there are matters which even grown-up people
know nothing about.

So, that I may not serve my readers in this way,
I give them all I have myself. I can no more tell
them "How" or "Why" God brought about the

30 HUMAN FREEDOM.

present state of things, than I can solve the great
mystery which is at the bottom of all mysteries :
" How, or Why, God and the world ever existed at
all?" But I think I can shew that free agency in
men, and the existence of evil, and also a reserve
in the revelation of God's ways — a question I shall
have to deal with next — are consistent with our situ-
ation in this world ; supposing that the mental and
spiritual development of God's creatures is the
proximate end and aim of the Spiritual Order.
Some hypothesis we must make as to a purpose in
the world, if we regard it as the work of a mind;
and this is the purpose which most seems to fall in
with what I observe.

Our Lord speaks of Divine action as "The
mystery of the kingdom of God1." He directs the
thoughts of His disciples to these ways by telling
them, not what they are, but to what they are like.
We shall never, while on earth, perfectly know
these ways, but Christ thinks it well for His dis-
ciples to strive after this knowledge, and to look
for lessons in all they see to help them towards it.

Not only does Christ give us what I have called
seed-thoughts on these matters, but He puts us in
possession of a unique method for leading men
towards the truth about them. He takes an in-
cident of familiar life, and uses it to set forth
spiritual verities. So when we must discourse of
these hard matters our safest course is to follow

1 Markiv. n.

HUMAN FREEDOM. 31

our Lord's way. No doubt, He meant to shew us
how to teach, as well as to tell us what to teach ; so
if we begin with a sort of allegory or parable, we
cannot be far wrong in point of form, however
feeble and faulty the execution may be. I
believe that the relation of a parent to his house-
hold affords likeness enough to that of the Father
to His world, to be used as the ground of a parable
on God's Will and Human Freedom.

Let us suppose that the father of a family, a
man of strong will, and steadfastly abhorring evil,
should conceive the project of forcibly shutting it
out from his home. We will suppose the house-
hold planted in a spot remote from human inter-
course, in some self-supplying island or dale
among the hills; and, as I do not mean to touch
on physical evil, let us suppose that no external
calamity comes nigh the dwelling. Here, let us
suppose, the children grow up, uncontaminated by
ill, knowing no temptation, reared in love and
kindness, treated wisely and with such even justice
that envy and jealousy find no room to enter.

The parent proposes to himself to do away
with all temptation, all chance of individual
aberration, and to cast his children's character in
a perfect mould. He would have them merge
themselves in him as much as possible, repeating
his thoughts and accepting his views without
questioning them, or supposing they could be ques-
tioned. All society, all books, but what he approves,

32 HUMAN FREEDOM.

are banished from that house, so that no whisper
of evil, no pernicious notions can po'ssibly intrude.
Evil is by him regarded as a pestilent weed, which
only exists, owing to some oversight in the making
of the world, for which he is at a loss to account.
It is at once to be eradicated whenever it is
espied.

Let us suppose that all goes well in our ima-
gined household — that the children love their father
and believe implicitly in him; that they are so
happy in their home and home pursuits that they
do not look beyond; and that the healthy labour,
which their common wants necessitate, gives room
for all their energies. Hence, there is no repining
at their narrow sphere, no longing for more stren-
uous activity or more varied life. Each does his
daily work, and returns to pleasant rest and a
happy home, and no more asks himself whether
he is happy than he asks whether the valves of his
heart are opening and closing as they should.
The father, then, looks around him, and sees his
ideal accomplished. He has a family of which
no member does anything but what he approves,
or has a thought but what he shares with him :
not one of them sets up an opinion different from
what he holds. It never occurs to them to doubt
the wisdom of any injunction. Life presents to
them no moral difficulties, because, as soon as any
question occurs to them, they run with it to their
father, and on receiving his reply put aside the

HUMAN FREEDOM. 33

matter, as being decided and disposed of for good
and all.

We might suppose the parent would look around
with unalloyed satisfaction. But a moment comes
when he finds something wanting. He is not
so thoroughly satisfied as he had expected to be
with the ideal which he has worked out. Some
misgiving obtrudes itself. He asks himself — Is
this condition, this merging of my children's wills
in 'mine, what is best for them or what is best for
me? Is not this goodness of theirs too negative?
Is it not rather the absence of evil than the presence
of good ?

Further he asks, am not / substantially alone ?
Is not mine the only independent mind in the
place, of which all the rest are mere reflections ?
Am I not intensifying my loneliness and all the
moral disadvantages that attach to it, by thus
rendering all who surround me merely portions
of myself? For my children are not separate
persons, but bits of me. Are not whole provinces
of moral activity shut out from me, by the very
fact of my having everything my own way ? Are
there not virtues which require opposition to call
them out ? Is it not good to have to ask ourselves
whether we are dealing fairly with opponents?
Is it not good to forgive wrongs ? Is it not good
to reach out a helping hand, and lift one who has
stumbled, back into his self-respect? I engage in
no struggles. In my world there are no misdoings
L. 3

34 HUMAN FREEDOM.

to forgive and no misdoers to restore. Have I
not closed against myself whole worlds of moral
action and of moral life ?

Then, as to my children, " Have I not been
wrong in supposing that they must be good be-
cause they have never done wrong ? They have
been so kept from the suggestion of evil that they
could hardly help going right. But could they
resist temptation if it came ? They have never
been braced by a struggle with it, nor marked the
ill fruits of evil. They take it on trust from me
that evil brings sorrow; but it usually comes in
disguise and declares itself harmless, and how should
they recognise it if it came ? " So, question after
question suggests itself, all destructive of his satis-
faction. " Can it be," he says at last, " that I have
brought up these children so as to be fit for no
world but that which I have carefully constructed
for them ? I used to delight in their goodness ;
but since I have suspected it to be mainly in-
stinctive— an innocence that is the outcome of
ignorance — my satisfaction in it is half gone.

At length, he is harassed with the idea that he
may have given up his life to a mistake, that what
he has done has cramped his own mental and moral
expansion, and that the excellence of his blame-
less family is only fair-weather goodness after all.
He casts about to think why it is that they have
"neither savour nor salt," and concludes "What
they want '^personality — and how should they have

HUMAN FREEDOM. 35

got it, living in a household where I have taken
care to be all in all?"

Then his thoughts run upon evil, which he has
been at such pains to shut out, closing against
it every cranny and chink. "God," he may say,
"has let evil into His world — was I right in keep-
ing it forcibly out of mine? May not the resist-
ing and assuaging of evil give occasion for good to
grow up, and feel its own strength ? Are there not
many kinds of goodness, brought out in this way,
which we could no more have without evil than
we could have light in a picture without shade ? If
there is no room for my children to go wrong,
what moral significance," he asks, uis there in
saying that they go right?"

So he is disheartened with his project, and gives
it up. He abandons his isolated way of life, and
gives his children freedom. He encourages them to
act and judge for themselves. Henceforth they can
choose their own books, their own friends their
own pursuits, and go forth into life, outside their
charmed circle.

Of course this involves the giving up of his
absolute power ; this is inherent in the nature of
things. A man cannot be an autocrat and have
free people about him. If he would have inter-
course with free intelligences, in order to get the
advantages to his own cultivation and expansion
of character which spring from such intercourse ;
this must be purchased by abdicating some of his

3—2

36 HUMAN FREEDOM.

powers, or putting them in abeyance. So the
parent forbears using his power, in brder that his
children may learn to be free, and that he may
hold communion with free, loving hearts, and en-
gage in discussion with unfettered minds.

Soon, he finds that he has to encounter oppo-
sition. The children are free to go wrong, and
wrong some of them will go : evil appears in that
household where it was not known. The father
sorrows over this, but when he reviews his con-
dition he finds that he has a countervailing com-
fort; the good that is left about him is now real
good. It is the good of persons who have known
and resisted evil. Besides this, there is more life
and greater vigour of character in his family, than
there was before. They no longer sit with folded
hands always waiting for direction ; they have
the air of persons who see a purpose before them ;
and they move along their way " with the certain
step of man." So he concludes that it is better
that all should engage in the struggle with evil,
even though some should fail, than that they
should move along paths ready shaped out for
them, shewing a merely mechanical goodness.

A great change has come over his life in another
respect, he is now no longer alone. Other wills
come into contact, sometimes into collision, with
his will ; a host of qualities, which had been folded
up and laid by for years, come again into use. He
is no longer among echoes of himself, but there

HUMAN FREEDOM. 37

are real voices in his new world. His views may
still prevail, but it must be, not merely because
they are his, but because they stand on solid
ground. He may still lead in action ; but it must
be because he has the leader's strength, because
he will venture when others waver, and decide when
others doubt.

Here we must leave him, and say a word or
two before making the obvious application of the
parable. We must not press the application too
closely or draw conclusions from the mere ma-
chinery of the parable : it must not, of course,
be supposed that I conceive God to have dealt with
man as the father does with his children; that is to
say, to have kept him at first in tutelage, and then
found it desirable to enfranchise him. The sole
object of the story is to familiarise the reader with
the need of freedom in moral growth. It shews
that for education to be carried out, the will must
be free to act. When we have brought this home to
his mind, we shall be the better able " to justify the
ways of God to man" in some important par-
ticulars.

The parable is designed to apply to the con-
dition of men on earth on the supposition, that
their education — in the largest sense of the word —
is the main work held in view : all depends on the
hypothesis that man is placed on earth to develop
his powers. The need of freedom for members of
the imagined family depends on their being in a

38 HUMAN FREEDOM.

state of growth. The parable would not apply to
spiritual beings, if we could conceive such, whose
qualities and character were unalterable. Perfected
beings have done with growth and struggle, and
have attained to the highest condition, viz.
existence in unison with God. But for imperfect
beings, struggling on to their goal, freedom is
required and the opposition of evil is indis-
pensable, in order that the moral thews and sinews
may harden.

Whenever we come upon an objection to the
ways of God's ordering of the world, which is put
in the form of a question, such as " Why was not
the world made in this way or that ? " we shall
find it a good plan, to follow out the line indicated
in the complaint, and see what would have come
about, supposing that God had made the world in
the way which is suggested.

From the imaginary case here put, we see to
what the common child's question leads us — the
question "Why did not God make all people good
and keep them so?" — If people had been "made
good and kept good," that is to say if they had
been constructed by God so as always to act as
His will prompted, then they would not in the
proper sense of the word have been people at all ;
they would have been mechanisms worked by God,
and so they could not have been "good" in the
sense in which we use the word of a man, but only
in that in which we apply it to a watch. There

HUMAN FREEDOM 39

could be no moral life without freedom ; there
could be no growth of character without tempta-
tions and difficulties to overcome ; no heroism, no
self-denial, no sympathising tenderness, no forgiving
love, without suffering or wrongdoing to call them
forth.

Moreover if not only people on earth, but all
created intelligences had, in like manner, been con-
strained to respond to every motion of the Divine
will, God would have been the one spiritual being
in the world and would therefore have been abso-
lutely alone.

Let us now suppose, and the supposition falls
in with what our conscience and the Bible tell us,
that in God all goodness dwells. This goodness
cannot lie stored away as in a treasure-house, so
as to be merely an object of contemplation, it
must be active and in operation. This is essential
to our idea of goodness, and it agrees with the
view of God which Christ presents to us, which
is that of a being ever operating. " My Father
worketh hitherto," says our Lord, "and I work."
For good to unfold, and advance toward per-
fection in its manifold ways, an arena is wanted.
The world we know of affords the arena required ;
in this, God has been working from the first
One kind of His work we can conceive to be
the suggesting thoughts to men; but if it be so,
He leaves the will free either to entertain or to
reject the suggestions, as we might those of a friend.

40 HUMAN FREEDOM.

That we may not lose ourselves in the immen-
sity of God and eternity, we will withdraw our
gaze from the rest of the Universe, and fix it on
this planet of ours, when organic life first began
to appear upon it. The spiritual and material
world might, before this, have been going on, each
apart, through countless ages; but a moment came
when the spiritual and the material were won-
drously blended, and life began upon the earth.
Different orders of being succeeded each other, and
fresh forces came into play. We may suppose that
God sympathised with all His creation, and that
the qualities that appeared in it reflected some-
thing in Himself. God may have rejoiced in
seeing the animal creation happy. The animals
were in a degree free, but they were not self-con-
scious ; they did not know that they were happy, or
that they were loved, and God may have required
for the full unfolding of His infinite capacity for
sympathy and love, to be in relation with beings
who could know Him and love Him, and know
that they loved Him.

Mr Erskine of Linlathen, in his excellent book
on the Spiritual Order, says " Is there not a com-
fort in the doctrine of the eternal Sonship, as a
deliverance from the thought of a God, whose very
nature is Love, dwelling in absolute solitude from
all eternity without an object of love?" We may
extend this observation to other qualities besides
love, from the exercise of which, a being who is

HUMAN FREEDOM. 41

alone in the world is necessarily debarred. Is it
not likely that a God of mercy, truth and justice
would frame a world of beings, in His dealing with
whom all these qualities should find scope and
exercise ? Without self-conscious beings having free
wills, how could this be done ?

Close by the side of this question of free will,
lies that of the existence of moral evil, in a world
made by a being who, by the hypothesis, is perfectly
good. When we supposed the world to be formed
for the evolution of moral goodness, we, perhaps
without knowing it, introduced the idea of moral
evil, implied in that of goodness ; for actual good
is evolved in resisting evil and repairing the mis-
chief it has done ; indeed many forms of it can no
more exist without evil as an antagonist, than a
wheel can turn without the friction of the road.

Now, as I have said, if men be left free, they
must have liberty to go wrong. For if they had
been originally made so perfect that they could not
go wrong, this would only mean that they were like
watches very excellently fabricated; they could
only move in one particular way, viz. the way in
which they had been designed to move by God.
Inasmuch as such beings would not be persons,
we could not feel gratitude or anger towards them,
nor influence them in any way. If men were like
this, there could be little or no growth, little or no
action of man on man. If, to take another suppo-
sition, man had been so made that it would be

42 HUMAN FREEDOM.

possible for him to go wrong, but that he had been
sedulously kept out of temptation 'and placed in
an abode where innocence reigned undisturbed ;
then we come to a case very like that sketched in
the foregoing parable.

There is a third case possible. God might make
men capable of going wrong, but might watch over
them and protect them, whether they craved His
help or not, whenever temptation approached. This
constant supernatural interference would soon have
destroyed all self-helpfulness ; men would never
have formed habits of avoiding or resisting tempta-
tion. "God," the man would say, "will not let me
sin — I may go as near to danger as I like, and need
take no care of myself, because I am sure of God's
protection." We know that a child does not learn
to take care of himself, so long as he feels that it is
the nurse's business to see that no harm happens
to him. We come then to this result. God requires
free self-conscious beings, for the full exercise
of the moral goodness in Himself and for its de-
velopment and manifestation in the world.

But He cannot give others freedom, and at the
same time provide that they should act only in the
way that He approves : because this in itself would
be a contradiction, and a contradiction not even
Divine power can effect. Hence these free, in-
telligent beings must be at liberty to go wrong,
and God must, in exchange for having free wills
about him, forego part of His absolute prerogative :

HUMAN FREEDOM. 43

and so He must allow evil a place in the world
because this is involved in the "liberty to go
wrong" just spoken of.

This brings us to the mystery of the "origin of
evil." I shall not lay myself open to the charge
made against divines, "That they no sooner de-
clare a subject to be a mystery than they set
to work to explain it." I can see that if man
is to be left free, evil must needs come, and
that without evil in the world none of the more
masculine virtues can be brought to the birth —
that is to say, I see that evil, being in the world,
serves to discharge a function — but I do not pre-
tend to say how it came. I do not maintain that
it came, solely, from man's misuse of his freedom.

From what we see in the world arises a fancy
that every thing must have its opposite, that light
presupposes darkness, and pleasure pain, and so
good may presuppose evil; but this fancy is not
substantial enough to build upon. Our Lord's
words on the occasions when He deals with evil,
are, to my judgment, most easily reconciled with
one another, and with the circumstances which call
them forth, by supposing Him to recognise a per-
sonal spiritual influence, presenting evil thoughts
to the minds of men ; the man remaining free to
choose whether he will entertain these suggestions
or not.

I return to my immediate subject — the function
that evil performs in the existing moral world. We

44 HUMAN FREEDOM.

read in the Book of Genesis that the earth was to
bring forth "thorns and thistles," and that man was
"to eat bread in the sweat of his brow1." This is
the result of a change worked, we are told, "for
man's sake." It was indeed for man's sake — though
in a different sense — that this was so. He would
have remained a very poor creature if the earth
had produced just what he wanted, without any
labour of his. This illustrates the function of evil
in the ordering of the world. Man's qualities,
moral and physical, are developed by it. It sub-
serves the progress of the human race.

We should have less heroism, without cruelty
and oppression from without ; and could have
no self-restraint, without temptation from within.
Piety and love indeed, when they had once come
into being, might exist without evil ; we may be-
lieve that they satisfy the souls of the saints in
heaven ; but among men they commonly owe their
birth to a feeling of shelter against evil, and to a
sense of pardoned wrong.

Another office which evil performs is this. The
contention with it helps to bring out the difference
between man and man. If any members of the
family of my parable had possessed the germs of
a strong character, they could hardly have brought
fruit to perfection : the conditions of their innocent
life tended to uniformity. But as soon as temp-
tations came, latent differences would forthwith
1 Gen. iii. 18, 19.

HUMAN FREEDOM. 45

appear; the strong would grow stronger and the
bad worse. Now there is need of strong men
for human progress. They form the steps in the
stairway by which the race mounts. If life
were smooth and easy, men would, as it were,
advance in line, and the stronger men would not
so surely come in front of the rest. It is in times
of trouble that men are most apt to recognise worth
and capacity, and make much of them. So that
the trials and difficulties of human life which come
of evil, have this good effect among others, they
help to pick out the men who are fitted to be the
leaders of human movements and of human thought.
It may have struck us as strange that Christ
does not deal directly with these perplexing ques-
tions which trouble so many minds. We shall see,
later on, that His not doing so is quite consistent
with the uniform "tenour of His way." But
though our Lord does not lay down dogmas on
these points, yet His own actions and expressions
would, of course, accord with what He knew : if,
then, when we hit upon some view of this "riddle of
the painful earth," which commends itself to our
minds, we find that it clashes with what our Lord
does or says, then we may throw it aside at once :
and, on the other hand, if we arrive at a way of
looking at the matter which seems to harmonise
with what falls from Him ; then, we may hope, not
indeed that we have found a solution of the riddle,
but that our hypothesis will not mislead us, so

46 HUMAN FREEDOM.

long as we own it to be an hypothesis, and nothing
more.

We may be supposed then to have arrived at
this position. We assume the existence of a
mighty Divine being, in whom all goodness dwells.
We suppose that this world is an arena in which a
struggle is to be carried on between good and evil
by the agency of free intelligent beings; that by
means of this struggle the better natures will be
strengthened and developed, and come more and
more into action ; we suppose also that God whis-
pers counsel and comfort on the side of good.
Further than this we need not now go.

As regards the presence of evil in the world,
there are several sayings of our Lord which might
be noted. I must confine myself to one or two
of the most important.

First let us consider the following passage from
St John's Gospel1:

" And as he passed by, he saw a man blind
from his birth. And his disciples asked him, say-
ing, Rabbi, who did sin, this man, or his parents,
that he should be born blind ? Jesus answered,
Neither did this man sin, nor his parents : but
that the works of God should be made manifest
in him."

Here the disciples take it for granted, that the
blindness was a punishment for sin, either on the part
of the man or his parents. It is our Lord's prac-
1 John ix. i --3.

HUMAN FREEDOM. 47

tice — and a practice so uniform that we may call
it a Law of proceeding — not to enter into con-
troversy about wide-spread mistaken views on
merely speculative subjects : He usually gives a
hint, and leaves it to work in the hearer's mind.

Our Lord's answer in this case means, not, of
course, that the man and his parents had never
committed sin, but that the blindness was not
the result of that sin; and He passes rapidly
on to state His view of one purpose answered
by this infliction.

In His few words of answer our Lord lets fall
one of those hints, seed thoughts, as I have called
them, which lie so thickly in the Gospels.

Our Lord tells us, that the works of God were
to be made manifest by this man's infirmity. A
light is thrown by these words on one of the " uses
of adversity." Suffering gives room for moral
goodness to come into play. The world is full of
instances easy enough to note. Does not a sick
child in a family educate all around it to tender-
ness and self-denial ? What more touching lesson
in patience can be given than the sight of the
little sufferer, grieved at nothing so much as the
trouble it causes, making the most of every alle-
viation, grateful beyond measure for every look
or word of love. Rough brothers learn forbear-
ance and gentleness ; and to all the household it
becomes natural to think of something else before, or
at least beside, themselves. Wordsworth tells us of

48 HUMAN FREEDOM.

a half-witted boy whose helplessness and simplicity
fostered a spirit of kindliness in all the poor of the
village, and taught them to respect affliction.

Again in the parable of the Prodigal Son, we
are taught how there is "a soul of goodness in
things evil." The wickedness of the prodigal is
made a means of revealing to him and to all the
bystanders the Divine beauty and efficacy of for-
giving love.

We will now1 turn to the history of the cure of
the Daemoniac in the country of the Gadarenes.
I take the history in what seems to me the
plain literal sense, and I must suppose that
our Lord recognised some real evil existence,
which had possessed itself of the man, and
which, by its presence in him, had unhinged his
whole mental or nervous organisation. This ex-
istence is separable from him, but it requires, it
would seem, some body to inhabit and to work
upon. The daemon begs not to be suppressed or
annihilated, and our Lord grants his petition and
lets him go among the swine. He saves the man —
what other evils this daemon may work in the
world, so that he lets men go, is no concern of
His. The Son of Man is concerned only with
lives and souls — not with property in any way.

The point for us to note is this : Our Lord does
not annihilate evil. He does not regard it as an
outlawed intruder who had eluded God's notice,
* St Luke viii. 26 ; St Mark v. i.

HUMAN FREEDOM. 49

and who, as soon as he is discovered, is to be ex-
pelled from the universe at once. His Father has
suffered evil to be, and He, Christ follows in His
Father's ways : evil may still do its work, only not
on men. This evil influence, we must observe, is
something external to the man ; it would seem to
belong to an order of existences, engaged in working
ill as their congenial business ; whispering bad
counsel, something in the way that God's Spirit
whispers good, only, of course, not in such deep
authoritative tones; and, in these cases of possession,
it masters the whole being of the sufferer. Why this
was allowed to be, is of course a mystery, but yet
it is hardly a greater mystery than why evil in its
other forms should be allowed to exist, and with-
out evil in some shape, as we have seen, this earth
would be a very imperfect exercise-ground for
mankind.

To represent this case to our minds, let us
imagine some malignant "germ" that has caused
a plague amongst men, and which in time takes a
slightly different form, so that it is no longer
adapted to human beings, but finds its prey in
cattle instead. Then the plague among men is
exchanged for a murrain among cattle, which, as a
matter of fact, has been known to happen : this
answers to the allowing the daemon to go to the
swine. Evil is not forcibly exterminated, but it is
transferred from man to the lower animals.

So our Lord is gentle even with the powers of

JO HUMAN FREEDOM.

evil. They had their function, or they would not
have been there, and they were not to be crushed
out of existence before the time.

If it be, as I have argued, that evil had a
function in the world, then we can see why it
could not be removed by a universal decree. But
a single act of relief might be admissible in order
to testify to the presence of an exceptional power;
this would not engender in people the habit of
helplessly throwing themselves upon God. For
instance, Christ cures the son of the centurion
merely by speaking the word, but if He had
abolished all fevers by one decree, this would have
been to disorganise the existing order in the
universe. A King going on a royal progress
relieves the misery that comes in his way ; his
own kindliness, his royal dignity, and the need
of impressing on the people that their King de-
lights in doing good, and can do it, require him
so to do. But a regal donation for the relief of all
distress in the kingdom would turn it into a
nation of paupers. So our Lord bestows His
bounty on those who fall in His way.

He who asks, Why did not Christ suppress
evil ? may naturally ask also, Why did not Christ
sweep away all human error as to the relations of
God with man ? And why did He not so vouch
for the authenticity of His communication that
any doubt about it should be impossible? Now
we believe, that God has revealed Himself to man,

HUMAN FREEDOM. 51

and yet has left men in some degree free as to
what they will think about Him, and as fully at
liberty to examine the credentials of those who
have claimed to be His messengers, and to judge
of their authenticity, as they would be in a purely
human matter.

We find, as a matter of fact, that men who
have accepted Christ's revelation are not fettered
in mind by it ; but are most often enterprising,
energetic and bold searchers after truth. I believe
that it would have been unfavourable to the pre-
servation of this vigour of mind and to the temper
which should "try all things and hold fast those
which are good," if the full and absolute revelation
which some demand had been delivered to man-
kind, and all the problems which beset human life
had thereby been settled once for all. To the
questions " Why we are told what we are told ? "
" Why we are not told more ? " and " Why doubt and
ambiguities are not all cleared away ? " —we cannot
hope to give answers, but we may find ways of
looking at them which shall help in some degree

"To justify the ways of God to man."

It will be best to discuss this subject in a
separate Chapter.

4—2

CHAPTER III.

OF REVELATION.

IF I took the word Revelation in its widest sense
I should not attempt to treat of it here, for it would
comprise nothing less than God's education of the
human race. We talk of Natural Religion and
Revealed Religion, but all Religion has in it an
element of revelation from God. If God had not
provided man with a mind's eye suited to see Him
by, and also something that shadowed Him forth
which that eye could behold, we could have no
religion at all. Of the processes by which belief
has come about in men not the least notable is
this. Men have recognised in some new tidings
what they seemed to have been looking for, without
being aware of it. Some new teacher has become
the spokesman of thoughts which were lying in
them in a state too vague for utterance. Thus
"thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed1."
Now it is God who has planted these thoughts in
men, and He brings about the occasions which
reveal them.

1 Luke ii. 35.

OF REVELATION. 53

There are for man two worlds, that which is
without him and that which is within. Some races
from temperament or circumstances have been
most taken up with the former, with the workings
of nature and with active social life ; while others
have looked within rather than without ; — their
minds have found most congenial play in the con-
templation of their own natures, and in brooding
over the mystery of how they came to be what they
were. Corresponding to these two leading diversi-
ties of the human mind, there are two modes by
which men are brought to recognise a great spiri-
tual agency in the world.

The man of Aryan race, the type of the first
variety, caught sight of an infinite force underlying
all the workings of nature, and so conceived Deities,
with a personal will like his own, animating the
physical world. For the people of the Semitic
race on the other hand, the surpassing wonder was
their own selves — their minds turned to contem-
plating their own nature. In so doing they noted
this; they found something within them which
caused them to be happy when they acted in one
way — when they had done a kindness for example
— and made them unhappy when they had behaved
differently. This was so, even when no one knew
of the act, and when they looked to no con-
sequences from it. They called such actions right
and wrong ; but they asked, Where can this notion
of right and wrong come from ? This conscience

54 OF REVELATION.

too which witnessed of it — which strove with them
just as a friend might, and seemed to" be something
outside them — Where did that come from ? They
were led by this to conceive a spiritual personal
Being in the world who had left some trace of him-
self in men's hearts, and kept up some communion
with them through this voice of conscience. Thus
men of different stamps of mind were led along
different roads, to the notion of something Divine
in the world ; and we may say that God revealed
himself to man in these two ways. Now for know-
ledge to be sure and solid two elements must go
to the making of it. One from outside the
learner, and the other supplied by him. This out-
side element is in physical science provided by
observed fact, and what answers to it in theology
is authoritative revelation. Men can never feel
fully assured about what is wholly spun out of
their own brains, and has no external sign or testi-
mony to lend it support.

Revelation, in the sense in which I have to do
with it just now, means an authoritative communica-
tion from the Almighty, vouched by some outward
sign, or manifestation. It is with this outward sign,
and with the difficulties attending the ways of
bringing it about, that I am now chiefly concerned.

For the present we will suppose that among the
elements of human knowledge are truths revealed
by God. How is this element of absolutely certain
knowledge to be made to fit in with that which is

OF REVELATION. 55

only matter of opinion or provisionally true ?
Here we come on the great problem of Revelation.
How can the infinite be brought into the same
account with the finite ? We know that if we give
one term in an algebraical expression an infinite
value, all the rest go for nothing ; so likewise do
probable judgments vanish in the face of absolute
authority. But if Revelation is delivered in such a
mode that its declarations admit of no question
whatever, then its statements possess absolute cer-
tainty. Compared with such certainty all our
judgments would be doubtful and dim, like candles
in the presence of electric light. Would not this
sharp contrast discourage man from using his own
powers? But is it not by regarding this world as
an exercise ground for these same powers that we
come most near to understanding it ? Is it con-
sistent with God's ways, such as we make them
out to be, that after giving us faculties which would
find their amplest field in the consideration of
spiritual problems he should preclude the investi-
gation of them by solving them all Himself.

Again the truth delivered in any Divine Reve-
lation of the problems of the Universe would come
into contact with views based on supposed facts
drawn from History or Geology, or with truths
discovered by the human mind, and difficulties
would occur all along the line of demarcation
between what was infallible and what was not.
For instance, if the history of one nation were

56 OF REVELATION.

absolutely revealed, much of that of the nations
contiguous would be revealed too; 'more particu-
larly the results of the wars between them : and if
isolated facts belonging to science, such as those
relating to the formation of our globe, were com-
municated on Divine Authority, then systems of
Natural Philosophy, starting from these facts as
axioms, might claim, upon religious grounds, ac-
ceptance for every one of their conclusions. If
an independent system essayed to rear its head,
it would be crushed by coming into collision with
some statement that brooked no question. Such
scientific investigation as would be possible could
only proceed by deduction from truths authorita-
tively delivered. Observation and induction, which
have led up to the knowledge of nature we now
possess, would find no place. Man would be dis-
couraged from using his own endeavours to under-
stand the problems of the universe, and instead of
so doing, he would only pray the Almighty to tell
him all he wanted to know.

These ill effects do not follow in the case of
Christ's religion for two reasons. First, because
Christ does not reveal what man could find out for
himself; and therefore this revelation does not come,
so to say, into competition with human investiga-
tions. Secondly, because the genuineness of the
revelation is not vouched for by evidence which
is overwhelming and which finally settles the
question \ but is only supported by just enough

OF REVELATION. 57

external testimony to command attentive consi-
deration and respect. The evidence that the Sign
is of God is not so cogent that there is no escape
from it. If it were so, it would silence all dis-
cussion about the fact of Revelation having been
given, in the way in question, and would narrow
the area for the exercise of religious thought.

Reason may agree to bow to Revelation as being
God's declaration ; but she has a right to satisfy
herself that it is God's declaration, and she will
call in learning and rules of criticism to help her
in determining the question. Even when Reason
has satisfied herself as to the credentials of this Reve-
lation, there comes another question which gives
play for human intelligence. It is asked "What
does this Revelation mean ? " Language is the out-
come of the human mind, and all statements made
in language, this Revelation among the rest, must
be subject to the laws of the human understanding.

We see then, that both as to its credentials
and its meaning Revelation must always be open
to question ; and that a man is as much bound to
exercise his judgment upon these points as upon
the other problems of life. This would seem a very
natural state of things, yet it causes dismay to some
persons when they first begin to look into these
matters for themselves. They had expected, more-
over, to find such a balance of evidence on their own
side, that no one except from wilfulness and per-
versity could decide the other way. Examination

58 OF REVELATION.

shews that, regarding the question as one of histori-
cal evidence, and putting all prepossessions apart,
the two sides are more nearly in a state of equipoise
than they had been supposed to be ; and it is
remarkable that this kind of equipoise has been
maintained, as far as we can make out by history,
from the time of the Apostles till now. Arguments
and testimony have, from time to time, appeared on
one side, and have been answered from the other ;
and now and then some discovery has been made
turning the balance on this side or that ; but soon
some new idea has been started which has put
another complexion on the matter. So that
positive evidence has never been so complete and
decisive on either side as to prevent a man's habits
or the bent of his mind from swaying his verdict.

When young men first look into these matters
for themselves, having heretofore taken certain
notions on trust, they are apt to be aghast at the
unsettlement, and at the call on them to use their
own judgments and make up their minds. Unhap-
pily they have often been led to suppose that to
hold a particular set of opinions, merely as opinions,
without any effect being produced in their character
thereby, gives them a claim to some degree of
favour in the eyes of the Almighty: while to
question these opinions, or to enquire too closely
into the grounds on which they rest, is dangerous,
and calculated to bring them into disfavour with
Him. 1 cannot stop to combat this notion now.

OF REVELATION. 59

But whatever the reason may be, the fact is certain,
that when persons begin to investigate for them-
selves the bases of their belief, they find that many
statements which they had regarded as true beyond
all question are found to stand on less sure ground
than they had thought ; and since they fancy that
if the authority of any word of the Bible is shaken
they will soon have no standing ground left, they
become much disturbed.

Then it is that we hear the outcry: "Why
cannot all be made clear? Or, if we cannot be told
every thing, why, at any rate, is not that which we are
told put so plainly, that there can only be one way
of looking at it ? Why were not things so written
that one who runs may read ? Why are we not
given quite positive assurance of the truth of what
is revealed ? Why have we not a Sign in Heaven
as the Jews demanded, or, what would suit our
times better, an incontestable demonstration of the
truth of Christianity ? " " Why, in short," to use the
words of the objectors of the last century, " If God
desired to make a Revelation to man, did He not
write it in the skies ? "

To none of these " Whys " can we supply its
proper " Because." We cannot give the reasons of
a man's conduct unless we can enter into his
mind ; and as we cannot enter into God's mind,
we cannot give His reasons for having made the
ways of the universe such as we find them. But
though we cannot give the enquirer what he

60 OF REVELATION.

asks, we can do something to help him all the
same.

We may be able to shew him that it is better
for him only " to know in part ; " and we may also
be able to explain to him that a certain fringe
of shadow must needs encompass those portions of
truth which are revealed ; for if they had clear-cut
edges and hard outlines, when we had to fit them
together, like pieces in a dissected map of knowledge,
we should meet with all those difficulties about a
line of demarcation between truth absolute and
beliefs of opinion of which I spoke just now. The
service of all Revelation is to supply our craving
after infinity; and if our demand to have this
infinity presented to us in a finite form — for that
is really what we are clamouring for — could be
approximately gratified, then we should find that,
though a certain portion of the infinite field lying
outside human knowledge had been enclosed and
added on to our intellectual possessions, still we
were as far as ever from having what we wanted :
this new possession would have become finite, and
what we wanted was the infinite. We should have
got a new science in exchange for our old religion,
but the craving after infinitude would still remain.
The very definiteness introduced into these matters
we should find destructive of their fascination for us.

To take one point at a time, I will begin
with a side of the question which fits on to the
subject of the last chapter. These cries after cer-

OF REVELATION. 6 1

titude are, in fact, petitions to be relieved of free
will and responsibility in deciding religious matters
for ourselves. What the complaints come to is
this : Why am not I and every one else compelled
to believe certain truths about God's dealings with
man whether we like to do so or not ?

The point of the matter lies in these last
words. If we had no part of our own to perform
in accepting this belief, if it were no more a matter
of our own choice and feeling whether or not
we admitted the revealed truths, than whether
we admitted some indisputable fact in history or
some proposition in science ; then this belief would
not be religion for us at all, it would be a branch
of science and nothing more. It would have no
more moral significance than a proposition in
Euclid. To admit that a certain system may be
built up from premises that are undoubted, is
merely a matter of intellect. One man may have
a head to follow the steps and another not, but
conscience has no part in the matter.

It was distinctive of the Son of Man that His
Gospel was to be preached to the poor ; and a
system which addressed only minds capable of
clear reasoning, could not be suited to all man-
kind ; in fact, it would necessarily set up a Hier-
archy of intellectual culture. So our Lord did
not speak to the understandings but to the hearts
of His hearers. He dealt with His disciples on
the supposition, that there was in them a germ

62 OF REVELATION.

which would respond to the quickening influences
of His teaching, and grow into a capacity for
eternal life. Just as the dormant seed germi-
nates when warmth and moisture reach it, so
would what was dormant in their hearts burst
into life and growth, when the required vivifying
influence was brought to bear. Our spiritual life
is made to depend not only on what is delivered to
us, but on our recognising the truth we want, and
seizing on it as what we are craving after : so that
we say, " I have always felt that there was some-
thing I was in want of; now I know what it is,
and I have it here."

The Jews, who would not believe, wanted to
be shewn a Sign from Heaven. They said, "Give
us a proof which is beyond contradiction, and we
will believe," which comes to saying : If we cannot
help believing, believe we will. But they did not
mean the same thing by the word "believe" as
our Lord did. Our Lord did not call on His dis-
ciples to accept notions about Him, but to believe
in Him, to trust Him as a child does his parent, or a
soldier his commander. What the Jews meant was,
that they would give credence to a particular kind of
evidence, as to the fact of His being their Messiah.

The demand for additional proof is dealt with
by our Lord in the parable of Dives and Lazarus.
The drift of a parable is usually pointed out in the
concluding words ; and the verse " If they believe
not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be-

OF REVELATION. 63

lieve though one rose from the dead1," spoken of
the rich man's brethren, is, I believe, the key to
one intent of this parable2. The state of mind here
pointed at is a common one enough. It is that of
the man who is rather uneasy at his own want of
belief; but thinks the blame should be laid, not on
any defect in himself, but on the want of propei
proofs and external light. He thinks that his
difficulty comes from the scanty evidence offered
him ; he has no idea that what he really wants
is a better moral eyesight to see it by. So
he begs for a little bit more of proof. If he
could only be satisfied, he says, on this point
and that, he would believe. But what would his
belief be worth ? Our Lord's answer goes to this :
— No amount of external testimony can supply
what you want, because the defect is within you. If
a man did come to you from the dead, you might
be terrified into acquiescence in everything he told
you — you would probably be stupefied into the
most abject submission — but instead of being
elevated into trust in God, you would, very likely,
be so cowed and paralysed, as to be incapable of
any feeling of a noble or spiritual kind.

In the present day people do not ask for Signs
from Heaven, or that men should rise from the
dead — but the same spirit shews itself in the same

1 Luke xvi. 31.

2 Trench, Parables, 4th Edition, p. 453. "The rebuke of un-
belief is the aim and central thought of the parable."

64 OF REVELATION.

way. The corresponding demand is, "Give us
an undeniable philosophical proof 6f the truth of
Christianity." " Shew us this," say men, " and we
will believe." Accept the demonstration of course
they must, if it be irrefragable; just as they must
accept the truth that the three angles of a triangle
are equal to two right angles ; but such acceptance
is a mental act of a wholly different order from
adopting a religious belief — from feeling for in-
stance that " Christ is with us to the end of the
world." Much confusion has arisen from this dif-
ference not being properly marked.

From what I said at first, as to the nature of a
revelation it appears that there are two elements in
it, one within us and one without us. We must have
"ears to hear" when God speaks — a faculty that
discerns His voice — and also we must have some
outward sign cognisable by human senses, or by
such judgments based on experience as we form
about historical evidence. I have just shewn that
the first requisite is essential for any religious
belief, and that it is a quality different from the
logical understanding. But when we come to the
attestation of the Sign which vouches the revela-
tion, then the understanding assumes its ordinary
jurisdiction. We are to judge by the common rules
of evidence as to the authenticity of this Sign and
the genuineness of our information. Reason and
instructed judgment are to be used in these matters
as in all others, and external evidence is allowed

OF REVELATION. 65

its weight by our Lord. When the Baptist sends
his disciples to enquire, our Lord works cures
before them, and bids them report what they saw.

A man wants some testimony to which he may
turn, which is independent of himself. There are
times when the surest believers mistrust themselves
and their intuitions and ask, " How am I to know
that this persuasion of mine is not a creature of
my own brain, due to my temperament and mental
conformation." " How can I call on other men to
accept it?" Men are not left, unaided, to the distress
of this kind of doubt. The Apostles were allowed
to witness the Transfiguration and the presence of
Jesus risen from the dead that doubt might not
overcome them in moments of physical weakness
or distress of mind. They could always turn to
these recollections and say "We know the glory
of God ; for we have seen it."

We are not to expect that the Sign which attests
a Revelation shall be guaranteed by a standing
miracle ; because such a standing miracle would be
out of harmony with all God's ways as revealed
in the Universe. For a standing miracle means
that God is always, in one particular direction,
visibly displaying the power elsewhere concealed.
If such a miracle existed there would be one set of
facts in the world not of a piece with the rest. If
instead of working the world as He does by self-
acting machinery, God were to reserve one depart-
ment for His personal management, He might as

L, 5

66 OF REVELATION.

well interpose in all, and direct all the movements
in the world ; in which case, as I s'aid in the last
chapter, the world would cease to have any inde-
pendent existence, and would become merely a
portion of the Divine existence.

So when it is demanded "That a revelation
should be written in the skies " we may ask, How
would you have God's autograph attested ? The
Jews, it will be said, had the visible Shechinah, the
light between the Cherubim ; but if this light
existed now, there would be no proof of its being
Divine : it would only be another phenomenon, and
science would take cognisance of it. If we had an
oracle declaring future events, all human enterprise
would perish — for enterprise rests on hope and fear.
The Delphic oracles would have paralysed action,
if they had been unerring, unambiguous, and easy
of access. A series of prophecies, it may be
thought, fulfilled from time to time, would serve
to authenticate revelation : and this aid is, indeed,
admissible in attestation of the Sign we speak of;
but it must be subject to the same condition which
must attach to all external testimony : it must not
be too clear or too strong. Men must always be
able to reject it, if they like : either by ascribing
the coincidences to chance, by declaring that the
prophecy brought about its own fulfilment, or by
some similar argument. If we had a series of
prophecies all of which, up to the present time, had
been fulfilled with due regularity, so that no one

OF REVELATION. 67

could doubt but that the rest would punctually
come to pass, human action would be very much
paralysed.

The miracles of our Lord's life serve us for our
" Signs;" and our assurance that they occurred is to
be based both on the external evidence, which in
this case is the testimony to the authenticity of the
record, and on the internal probability, which comes
out of the conformity of the miracles with the Laws
of Christ's action and the declared purpose of His
coming. The miracles could always be referred to
Beelzebub in old days, and they can always be
disbelieved or explained away now.

Since the external evidence is not conclusive on
this side or on that, the judgment formed must
depend partly on the degree in which the Scriptures
establish their own authority ; and this degree
depends on the mind and heart which the in-
vestigator brings to his work. One critic will
see nothing but difficulties. Another will say, Our
histories are photographs, imperfect no doubt, but
what they show must have been there when they
were taken : we see the main figures under different
aspects, but we know them for the same. Some
will feel as much convinced, from the character of
thought and expression, that certain sayings came
from our Lord, as a connoisseur in art might be
that a certain picture came from the easel of a
great master whose works had been the study of
his life : he knows the touch.

5-2

68 OF REVELATION.

Christ's great Revelation was not given in a book,
not in a history or a treatise, but in a Life and Death.
He shewed the world a Man who knew not Self,
and He also shewed it the Force that came from
God. Men will realize this Revelation in different
ways in different ages ; part may come to light at
one time, part at another. Sayings which have long
lain hardly noticed are one day found to be keys
to unlock a treasure, and give insight beyond what
we dreamt of. But besides this Revelation, per-
sonal to individuals, broad Truths are conveyed
which we should not otherwise possess.

Some of the leading Truths are these. That
Jesus came from the Father. That the Father loved
men who believed in Him, and owned them as
sons, and sent into their hearts1 a filial spirit which
should enable them to lay hold more firmly of this
Revelation. Christ tells them that He came to
manifest God to the world2, and that, whether they
chose to believe it or not, the kingdom of God
was drawn nigh to them8. He tells them that to
know God is eternal life4, and that they who are
counted worthy will attain a resurrection to such a
life6. Above all he tells them — and this is the very
charter of the Christian Church, without which her
Doctrines would be only a set of notions, destitute

1 Galatians iv. 6. 3 John xvii. 6.

* Luke x. ii. 4 John xvii. 3.

3 Luke xx. 35.

OF REVELATION. 69

of real vital power — " Lo, I am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world1."

There is no clashing with human knowledge
here, nothing that can tie the hands of the enquirer.
The advance in spiritual knowledge is not brought
about, simply by the communication of a new truth
from without, which had never been dreamt of
before : men feel rather as if they were reminded
of something they must once have known. There
appears, if I may so say, a tenderness of God in
dealing with man, a carefulness so to reveal himself
as not to obliterate a man's own personality, but to
leave him to feel that any resolution he has reached
is his own, arrived at, no doubt, by listening to God's
prompting ; without such prompting superseding
the action of his proper self. No two men repre-
sent God to themselves quite in the same way : He
was not the same for Peter that He was for John.

I believe that a revelation of God is needed
for the education of what is highest in man, and for
bringing him to the highest point he can reach;
and that God has been always revealing Himself in
one way or another. But the revelation of every age
must be suited to the character of that age. Man
must be educated up to it, or he cannot receive it.
Our Lord tells his disciples "I have yet many things
to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now2."
Later generations are taught in this same way.
The events related in the Acts, and the labours

1 Matth. xxviii. 20. a John xvi. 12.

70 OF REVELATION.

which came upon the Apostles fitted them by
degrees for fresh revelations. If our Lord had
declared to St Peter when he first joined him in
Galilee that the Gentiles should have as full a share
in Him and in the Kingdom as he would have ;
might not he too have turned away ? Or if, as is
likely, he had been personally drawn to Christ too
powerfully to quit Him, yet such a sudden shock
to all his notions might have closed his mind
spasmodically against new ideas ? For when a
man recoils from a view which unsettles him and
turns him giddy, he clutches at his supports with
iron grip. Many have been made bigots in this
way. Our Lord is careful to avoid for the dis-
ciples all turmoil of mind ; the new seed must be
left undisturbed that it may take firm root; so that
for our Lord to have disordered all St Peter's con-
victions by a premature disclosure, would have been
contrary to His ways of acting.

An age must be ripe for the truth, and the
truth must be ripe for the age for the last to profit
by the first. If the theory of gravitation had
appeared ten centuries ago, it would have passed
unregarded away, for then, nobody thought the
outer world worth scrutiny. On the other hand
the neo-Platonic philosophy which once moved
masses of men has now become so many words.
How then is Christ's revelation to last for all time?
It is enabled to do so, because there is life in it
and growth along with life; because Christ does

OF REVELATION. 71

not deliver propositions about God which men are
passively to receive once for all, but his sayings
fall upon the human heart, and are quickened
there, some in one generation and some in an-
other : each generation seizes on its proper nutri-
ment, and brings out of His sayings the special
lesson it requires.

St Paul, to recur to the quotation which is,
in fact, the burden of this chapter, speaking of the
effect produced by the preaching of the word on
the hearers says —

"The secrets of his heart are made mani-
fest1."

Christ's words reveal for a man the secrets of
his own heart to himself. They interpret to him
his own confused and dreamy thoughts. This was
what drew men so mightily to Him. It was not
so much the novelty of what He told them that
attracted them, as that they recognised in His
teaching old familiar puzzles, which had come and
gone through their minds, times without number,
only in such shadowy guise that they could not fix
and scrutinize them. Christ spake and then men
said " This is what has been always troubling us."
Here is what we have always been wanting to say,
and could not put into plain words — and now these
floating impressions of ours are found not to have
come by chance but to belong to truths set in our

1 i Cor. xiv. 25. This is commonly referred to a sense of guilt,
which is included, no doubt, but the words bear a wider meaning.

72 OF REVELATION.

being. God has " sent forth the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts crying Abba, FatheV." But He
would not have done so if we had not had the
capacity for being sons, to begin with.

We shall see too, when we think of it, that
a revelation to men can only come by man, or
in a voice or words like those of a man. Man's
understanding is fashioned in a certain way; his
language is the creature of his understanding ;
ideas could not be conveyed to him unless they
were clothed in language which he could under-
stand ; Revelation therefore must express itself in
terms of human notions because they alone can be
made intelligible in human speech. If God speaks,
He must speak after the fashion of men, or His
words will be an unknown tongue.

To take an illustration: If a man, owing to
something abnormal in his vision, became aware
of a new colour, something which had nothing
to do with red or yellow or blue ; he could
not communicate his new sensation because he
could find no pigment which would in any degree
represent it, and he could not describe it in
words, by likeness to anything in the world.
So God can only reveal to man about spiritual
existence what man can conceive, that is to say
only that to which he finds something analogous
in his own being ; for all must be put into that form
with which man's understanding can deal ; and the

1 Galatiaus iv. 6.

OF REVELATION. 73

only spiritual creature he can conceive is man;
the only ideas he can conceive are human ideas ;
his mind must work on the lines along which
men's minds move ; the only creature with whom
he can sympathise, and whom he can believe to
sympathise with him is man, and so — since there
can be no real teaching without mutual under-
standing— by man he must be taught. Christ's
revelation meets this need. It was as the Son of
Man that Christ declared Himself, and in this
character He conveyed to men the germs of all
the spiritual enlightenment they can receive. Does
not this throw light on the words, " No one knoweth
who the Father is save the Son, and he to whom-
soever the Son willeth to reveal Him1," and again,
" No man cometh to the Father but by me2 ? "

1 Luke x. 11. 2 John xiv. 6.

CHAPTER IV.

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

IT has been already observed that there is one
feature of our Lord's way of revealing truths to men
which distinguishes Him from all teachers before
or since. This is the use of Signs.

Miracles may have been attributed to those
who have promulgated creeds at various times, but
these miracles did not form a constituent part of
the teaching ; they were not blended with it as
those of our Lord were. They are introduced only
to serve for credentials, so that an appeal to them
may silence incredulity ; they convey no lesson,
they only serve for proof. I hope to shew that it
was otherwise with the signs wrought by Christ.

My especial concern in this chapter is not with
the nature or the credibility of miracles in general,
but only with the purposes for which Christ intro-
duced them ; and with the questions of how far
they were performed with a view to draw men to
listen and to set forth God's kingdom, and how far
for the purpose of working conviction. In the first

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 75

chapter I have stated certain Laws, which our Lord
observed in working Signs. These I shall presently
discuss; but what I am concerned with now is
the general question "Why did our Lord work
Signs ? "

I use the word " Signs " instead of miracles
because it is our Lord's own word. The latter
expression fastens attention on the wonderment
which these deeds raised in men. But our Lord
uses the word " Sign," which implies that these acts
were tokens of some underlying power which, in
these instances, passed into operation in an ex-
ceptional way. To our Lord, they of course were
not wonders, and He never dwells on their won-
drousness.

In the accounts of St Matthew, St Mark and
St Luke, the word " Signs " is that most commonly
employed by our Lord when speaking of His own
working of miracles; while in the Gospel of St John,
the term " works " is generally found in the like
case, though " powers " sometimes takes its place.
The expression " Signs and wonders " means, not
two separate sorts of works, but signs that make
men wonder : it means prodigies, worked to shew
a divine commission, taken on the side of the
awe they inspire. Our Lord only uses this ex-
pression twice — once when , He says that false
prophets shall come and "shew great signs and
wonders1,'' and again in His answers to the noble-

1 Mark xiii. 22 ; Matth. xxiv. 24.

76 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

man whose son was sick at Capernaum, "Unless
ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe1."
On these occasions the term refers to the popular
conception of the form which Divine interposition
would take. The expression "signs and wonders"
occurs very frequently in the Acts of the Apostles.
When, as here, we are in search of the purposes
which our Lord had in view, in something that He
did, it is of service to ask, " What purpose or pur-
poses did it actually fulfil ?" What He did would
not be likely to fail in producing the effect in-
tended, or to bring about a result not con-
templated by Him. So we must try to unravel
the complex effects of these signs, and to dis-
criminate the several ways in which they worked.

Some were witnessed both by the people and
by the disciples, and some by the disciples and
apostles only. The function of the miracles may
have been different in the different cases. But,
besides their effect on the actual witnesses, the
record of these mighty doings has had a prodigious
effect on generation after generation, from the time
when our Lord walked in Galilee to the present
day; and we may suppose that this posthumous
effect was included in the Divine design.

The character of our Lord's miracles we shall
find to be determined^ by the nature of the work He
came to do. The work and miracles were adapted
each to the other, and, owing to this, the study of

1 John iv. 48.

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 77

the miracles throws a light on His purpose, and
the more insight we get into His purpose the more
reason we see for the miracles being of the kind
they were.

We will consider, under different heads, the
various functions which Our Lord's miracles ful-
filled. That which comes naturally first in order is

(i) The attraction of hearers.

One effect of signs on the beholders lay on
the surface. They awoke attention; they caused
men's eyes to be turned to the Son of Man. Jesus
won a mastery over men's souls both by what He
did and what He said ; but the doing had to come
first, because without this He would not so soon
have gained a hearing. From a district of small
towns and scattered hamlets a crowd was not drawn
together without some cogent influence. It was the
rumour of the things " done in Capernaum1 " and
of other mighty works that caused the crowd to
gather, and attracted the multitudes who listened,
both in the synagogue and on the Mount.

The works of healing would be attractive enough
to draw within the reach of our Lord's influence all
who were likely to profit, as well as some who
were not: while His words and the influence of
His presence would attach to Him as true disciples
those, and those only, who had "ears to hear:" in
this way the crowd would be sifted.
1 Luke vi. 23.

78 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

One of the characteristics of our Lord, which
puzzled His followers, and which also'strikes us, was
His seeming indifference about the number, or the
worldly position of His adherents. He does not
aim at gaining converts ; when His popularity
seems at its height He withdraws from the people.
A warrior Messiah, or a prophet seeking to con-
vince the world, would have displayed signs suited
to attract the blind devotion of the multitude : he
would have wanted to prove his pretensions by the
striking character of his signs and wonders. Such
was the Messiah whom the Jews were led to ex-
pect ; in general they imagined no other, and for
no other did they care: so we find that it surprised
the disciples and the brethren of Jesus, that He
should content himself with healing poor sick peo-
ple in hamlets of Galilee, instead of confounding
Herod in Tiberias, or the scribes in Jerusalem.

And if we regard our Lord as a leader looking
to an immediate purpose and depending for success
on His influence with those of His own day, his
conduct is indeed inexplicable; but the whole
tenour of it falls in well with the view which
regards Him as setting afoot a movement which
was to go on working to the end of the world.
Hurry belongs to the mortal who wants to see the
outcome of his work, while eternity is lavish of
time1.

1 A friend recalls to me St Augustine's words, " Deus patien*
est quia aelernus."

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 79

We shall see later on that it is foreign to our
Lord's ways to inflame the feelings and blind the
eyes of men by kindling speech.

The overmastering influence of a great leader
will " take the prisoned soul " of the people and
make it follow his will. But Christ's first care is to
leave each man master of his own will — the man
who is no longer so, ceases to count as a unit. Just
as this is seen in our Lord's teaching, so is it also in
the miracles which set that teaching forth — they
are not worked in the ways or the place that a
Thaumaturge would have chosen — people are not
invited to a spectacle — nor are the wonders so
overwhelming as to cause a whole population
to fall prostrate at our Lord's feet. The rumour
of them is sufficient to make those who "have ears
to hear" enquire further and "come and see;" and
a further function of " Signs " is then called into
play.

This function is that they should serve to select
from the multitude those fitted to follow our Lord.

(2) Selection.

I have said in a previous chapter that educa-
tion and selection are inseparable. Any process
that unfolds the powers which lie within men,
emphasizes, so to say, the differences between
them.

The witnessing of wonders, declared to be
wrought by the finger of God, must have stirred

8o OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

men's minds, and so brought about in them a species
of education, well calculated to winnotv out the chaff
from the grain.

But the quality, which this kind of education
seizes upon and develops, is not intellectual ability,
but the capacity for " savouring the things of God."
The miracles served as a. touchstone for detecting
this. Many would look, and wonder, and go their
way — they had seen a strange sight, that they would
allow, but it did not touch their souls : while to a
few others it would seem as if they had lighted
on what they had been watching for all their
lives. They had always seen dimly that there
must be in the world a living power ; not a dead
God in the keeping of the scribes, but a living God
who should speak in their hearts and to their
hearts, and they had found Him now. The minds
of those who were worth rousing were put on the
alert, and the sense of God's kingdom being near
them, the sense that this every day world was His
and worked by Him, was expanded within them.

(3) Preparation.

We have a distinct instance of the use of " Signs"
to produce preparation. The seventy were sent
working these Signs, " in every city unto which He
Himself would come." This preparation would
consist, partly, in the drawing out from the mass
those who were likely to profit. When our Lord
Himself came, these latter would be eager to hear

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 81

Him, and the great announcements He made would
not strike them as altogether strange. The district
over which these messengers were sent probably
lay outside the country where our Lord's ministry
had been chiefly carried on, and was only visited by
Him on this one occasion. This made it the more
important that the right men, rightly prepared,
should form His audience. His truths were not to
fail of taking root, from want of the soil having
been loosened beforehand. We shall see, over
and over again, how careful our Lord is to prevent
the opportunities He gives being lost. He never
neglects or underrates the need of properly pre-
paring men for receiving new truths : He employs
the ordinary means for effecting this, and He
would have the Children of Light be as wise in
their generation, and as judicious in the use of
such means, as the children of this world.

Again, the display of the miracles roused some,
the Scribes and Pharisees in particular, into active
hostility — they watched the Signs to find ground
for charges of blasphemy and Sabbath-breaking.
Priesthoods, occupied with the externals of their
function are aghast at the assertion of a living
and working God. The worldly are terrified also
and with the terror that awakens fury. These
classes answer to those servants in the parable
who said, "We will not have this man to reign
over us." Whenever a vital religion has been pro-
claimed it has found opponents of both characters.
L. 6

82 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

History witnesses to this, from the stoning of
the prophets to the assaults on religionists in
modern times; The miracles divided men into
three great sections : there were those who were
for Christ, and those who were against Him, and
between these came a body who were not wholly
indifferent or unaffected, but who quieted them-
selves with saying that such weighty matters were
no business of theirs.

This breaking up of men into friends and foes
was a kind of preparation for the Apostles' work.
When men begin to take sides their minds cannot
lie torpid : evil passion and selfishness mix with
their doings, no doubt ; but in the storm and stress
men get to the bottom of their own hearts and find
out their true selves ; and men's truest selves were
wanted by Christ.

So far we have spoken of miracles as means
of rousing attention and drawing out from the
mass those who had ears to hear. We will now con-
sider them as practical illustrations accompanying
the preaching, and

(4) Setting forth the Kingdom of God.

They shew not only how close this Kingdom is to
us but they also convey visible lessons, to help men
to conceive it aright.

We learn from our Lord's own lips that one
purpose for which He wrought Signs was to make
men sure that the Kingdom of Heaven was come

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 83

upon them. When He was charged with casting
out devils through Beelzebub, He says, after dis-
posing of the accusation,

" But if I by the finger of God cast out devils, then
is the kingdom of God come upon you1"

Whether Our Lord preached in the villages
Himself, or the Apostles or the Seventy, going two
by two, did so in His name the burden of their
preaching was always the same, They call on
men to change to a better mind, and declare that
the Kingdom of God is come nigh. The seventy
are bid to say to those who rejected them, " How-
beit know this that the Kingdom of God is come
nigh2." Whether men chose to own it or not,
God's Kingdom was near them even at their doors.
St Mark, at the outset of his history of our Lord's
Ministry, tells us8

" Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came
into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God,

" And saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom
of God is at hand : repent ye, and believe the gospel."

Christ declared that God was working under-
neath the ordinary agencies, which seemed to men
to be working of themselves. God had been so
working all along from the very beginning, but
now Christ had come to reveal God — that is to say

1 Lukexi. 20. 2 Luke x. u.

8 Mark i. 14, 15.

6—2

84 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

to make men sensible of the Divine presence and
Divine agency in all that went on both within them
and without. This revelation He would effect in the
ways best adapted to make men understand it.
And as the unlearned are most readily taught by
what is set before their eyes ; and as the teacher is
much helped by having something to shew ; so
Christ declares the Kingdom and its nature, not
only in parables and discourses, but by practical
instances and illustrations as well ; namely by
the Signs He wrought. It was as though He had
said, " I have told you that God's power was lying
close about you : Behold it operating here." The
combination of the word and the Sign, as the two
essential elements of the teaching, is expressly put
before us in one passage : we read,

"And they went forth, and preached every where,
the Lord working with them, and confirming the word
with signs following. Amen1."

(5) Teaching wrought by signs.

The Signs shew us, not only that the Kingdom
is God's, but something also of the nature of that
Kingdom as well.

Our Lord speaks of the power displayed in
miracles as God's power working through Him. It
is " by the finger of God " that He casts out devils
and the man who is healed is bidden to tell his
friends what God has done for him2.

1 Mark xvi. 20. 8 Mark v. 19.

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 85

Christ nowhere claims the power as His own.
It rests in God's hands; but it is granted to His
prayer, because His will and God's are one.

Moreover the Signs set forth God's love and
goodness to men, and thereby they tell us something
of His nature. All the Signs worked by our Lord
before the people at large, and all the works which
the Twelve and the Seventy performed in their
mission among the cities of Israel, were works of
healing ; with the exception of the two instances
of the feeding of the multitudes, which also were
works of Divine beneficence. There are other
miracles of a different character, as we shall see
presently, but those were witnessed either by the
disciples only, or by a circle of private friends as at
Cana of Galilee.

The men of Galilee had hitherto known the
Lord as the God of Israel, who was especially con-
cerned with the fortunes of their race and nation
as a whole ; but now they were told that He was the
Father of every person in that nation, and was sent
especially to the lost sheep among them. It was
this declaration — that of the individual relation of
each man to God, and of the preciousness of the very
hairs of his head in God's eyes — that constituted,
in great part, the comforting nature of the " good
tidings of God." The miracles wrought in connection
with the preaching could not bring this point very
prominently forward : but so far as the miracles bear
on the point they are in accord with the teaching.

86 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

They were worked, not upon masses of men at
once, but on individuals, and our Lord addresses
Himself personally to each particular sufferer, as
though his case was considered by itself. I shall
soon, for another purpose, notice two miracles
recorded by St Mark which afford good instances
of our Lord's sympathetic insight into individual
cases. He does not, on entering a village, ordain
that all the lepers in it shall be cleansed, or all
the palsied restored to the use of their limbs.
He condescends to take each case by itself.

There is hardly a case of healing narrated in
St Mark, who, of all our authorities, gives the
most detailed account, which does not shew traces
of special attention on the part of our Lord to the
spiritual and physical features of the particular
case. We will take for an instance the cure of the
sick of the palsy. The connection of what is
spiritual with that which is physical is here very
strongly marked. Our Lord begins by saying to
the man " thy sins be forgiven thee." It is possible
that the man's condition may have been due to
imprudence or something worse ; the thought of
this may have rankled in his mind and the mental
trouble may have aggravated the physical infirmity:
the great physician cures both together. His
restoration seems to come with the sense of pardon,
but he does not shew himself aware of his re-
covery, until our Lord bids him arise.

The shewing that the Divine power worked

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 87

blessings on men one by one, contained in itself a
lesson as to God's infinity; for a finite being
would have been incapable of concerning himself
for every unit of the world's population. Any
supply of energy, short of an infinite one, would
have been exhausted. Hence the notion of God's
personal care for each soul is bound up with the
conception of His infinity.

Christ does not begin with the abstract and say:
"God is infinite and therefore He can find room in
His heart to love men, every one ;" but He begins
with the concrete and says, " God does love you and
every one else : " and He leaves it to men to
arrive at the truth at the other end of the pro-
position : viz. that if God's strength is not lessened
by drawing upon it, this can only be because there is
no limit to it. From this infinity of God it also
follows that the distinction between what we
call great occasions and small ones — between oc-
casions that we think would justify Divine inter-
position and those which would not — may not exist
in God's eyes. In the presence of His infinity, the
difference between great and small things may
disappear ; certainly His measure will be a very
different one from ours.

This brings us to another point in the use of
miracles to illustrate the ways of God's Kingdom :
they exemplify the truth that God is no respecter
of persons. Neither the persons on whom they are
wrought, or before whom they are wrought, obtain

88 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

this privilege by any merit or superiority. Men
are not healed because they deserve it. As God
sends rain on the just and unjust, so Christ cures
the sick who come in His way, rich and poor
alike — the son of the nobleman, and the blind
beggar ; for our Lord, worldly distinctions do not
seem to exist. A man, as man, was of such trans-
cendent value in the eyes of the Son of Man that,
compared to this, little outer differences were but
as the hills and dales of the earth, which scarcely
roughen the surface of the globe when seen as a
whole. Men, too, are not, except for very special
purposes, picked out by Christ to witness the
miracles ; any more than they are in God's world
to receive special mercies, or the lessons, or the
afflictions of life. Those who were passing by saw
the Signs, some profited and some did not: Herod
and other great men would gladly have witnessed
a miracle, but it was not granted them.

The Signs wrought by Christ harmonise with
His teaching in another way: they never have the
air of ostentatiously overriding and superseding
Nature. His power, in its tranquil might, proceeded
calmly along the homely track of every-day life ;
just as if it had always been present ruling quietly
in its own domain, and might at any time have
interposed without effort, if the Spiritual Order
had needed it. A man is healed and an evil spirit
is quelled by a word, and a multitude in the
desert is supplied with food they do not know

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 89

how, — all proceeds in a calm continuous way.
Fresh energy is given to natural powers, and
effects are produced of vast magnitude and with
astonishing rapidity; but these powers seem to
work through the organs and along the channels
which nature provides: to our Lord there is one
primary source of all life and movement and light
and force, and that is God, from Whom all His
power comes. He does not call certain visible
manifestations nature, and refer others to God,
as though nature and God were different powers.
The Signs, accordingly, are worked in such a way
that it is hard to mark the particular point where
what is called the supernatural comes into play —
to say, in fact, when nature ends and God begins.
The cures, so far as. we can trace them, are effected
by the renewal of vitality in a disordered organ ;
this vitality would seem to proceed from Christ ;
just as the power which set life going on earth
proceeded from God.

"For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath
He given to the Son to have life in Himself1."

Here, of course, we pass beyond the realm of
the forces we can measure, but this imparted force
only restores the organs needed for the cure ; the
optic nerve is reinvigorated or the absorbent vessels
are stimulated to abnormal action, and the eye be-
comes again efficient. The man is not enabled to
see without an eye, as was claimed to be done by

* John v. 26,

QO OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

some workers of miracles in the middle ages;
and there is no miracle in the Gospels like that
mentioned in Paley's Evidences, where a man who
had only one leg becomes possessed of two. Christ
restores organs and withered limbs. He does not
dispense with the proper organ or create new
ones.

St Mark gives us full particulars of two cures,
of which we can in some degree trace the process.

"And he took the blind man by the hand, and
led him out of the town; and when he had spit on
his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him
if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see
men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands
again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and
he was restored, and saw every man clearly1."

From this it appears that the eye was gradually
restored, and our Lord's question shews that He
did not expect an instantaneous cure. He speaks
as a surgeon might who had performed an operation.
He does not take it for granted that the man must
have received his sight. He applies His hands,
a second time and then the ill-defined dark
objects which the man spoke of, become distinct.

The other case is that of one who was deaf and
had an impediment in his speech.

"And he took him aside from the multitude, and
put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched
his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and
1 Mark viii. 23 — 25.

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 91

saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And
straightway his ears were opened, and the string of
his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain1."

The restoration of the disabled organs is clearly
indicated here. I have referred to these two cases
a few pages back. We now come to —

(6) Miracles as a practical lesson to the disciples.

So far, we have spoken of miracles as per-
formed for the sake of the multitude ; in order to
draw them to listen and to sift from among them
those fit to become disciples: I have remarked
too how the "Signs" incidentally conveyed in-
struction, how they exhibited to the crowd the
goodness and the power of God. But there were
some miracles, as I have said in the first chapter,
which were especially miracles of instruction, and I
would say a word or two about those, before I pass
on to miracles as means of assurance. These
miracles of instruction were, in almost all cases, per-
formed when but few of the disciples were by; and
they are mostly wrought in the later period of our
Lord's Ministry.

Among the miracles of this class are, The mi-
raculous draughts of fishes, The walking on the sea,
The stater in the fish's mouth, The withering of
the fig tree, and the Transfiguration. The last
named, is not usually classed among miracles

1 Mark vii. 33 — 35.

92 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

or considered in books which treat of them, but
a " Sign " it certainly was and it carries lessons with
it which, bit by bit, the world is learning still.

That miracles should be employed as a means
of impressing truths on the learner, we can well
understand.

In no way could a great truth be presented so
forcibly to the mind as by being clothed in the garb
of a miracle. The wondrous circumstances would
print themselves on the mind's eye at once and for
ever; and as they recurred in lonely hours of
thought, something more of their drift and purport
would peep out every time. It is characteristic of
our Lord's ways, that His teaching yields its fruit
gradually; much as a seed-vessel driven by the
wind, which scatters the contents, now of one
cell, now of another, as it whirls along.

I trace in many miracles of instruction, a
bearing on the great movement in which St Peter
was the chief actor; namely, the calling of the
Gentiles, and the taking from the Jews there-
by their exclusive position, as the one people who
knew God. Our Lord quietly, and by slow degrees
familiarizes St Peter with this idea. He is not
suddenly brought face to face with a notion which
would cause a violent shock to his mind. With
men like the Apostles new ideas want a little
time to grow into shape : we know how easily
a man is startled into shutting his mind against
novelty when it is suddenly presented. St Peter

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 93

could not have been instructed as to God's plans
without a long course of explanation which it
was not our Lord's way to give : so He lets the
lesson lie in St Peter's mind till the circumstances
shall come which shall be the key to it.

Of what I call miracles of instruction, I propose
to consider two briefly, with a view chiefly to illus-
trating the way in which the instruction was con-
veyed.

There is this singularity about the Trans-
figuration, that our Lord foretells it, and in most
remarkable words.

"And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
That there be some of them that stand here, which
shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom
of God come with power1".

This promise I understand to mean that some
of the Apostles should, even while yet alive on
the earth, be vouchsafed a glimpse of another world,
and behold Christ in the glorified state which
belongs to Him. The expression " in no wise taste
of death," which occurs in all three accounts, must
mean that they should not only have this ex-
perience after passing from this life to another,
but even while yet in mortal frame. For six days
these words are allowed to work in the minds
of the disciples, and then :

1 Mark ix. r. Luke ix. 27.

94 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

"Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and
John, and bringeth them up into an 'high mountain
apart by themselves : and he was transfigured before
them1."

During the six days and on the way up the
mountain after they were taken from the rest,
Peter, James, and John must have wondered what
the " coming of the kingdom of God with power "
would be. This prevented their being so stupefied
with astonishment as to miss the lesson of the ap-
pearance. Here again we note our Lord's mode of
preparation for the receiving of truths.

I do not discuss the nature of the vision,
because I have now only to deal with the matter
as to its educational effect. When the Apostles
saw the glorified Lord with Moses and Elijah —
their impression was not fear but joy. — " It is
good for us to be here" says St Peter. He
thought they had arrived in another world, and he
proposes to build tents, as if he had landed in a
strange island. He expects to be always there.

But what, in the view I am taking is the
cardinal point of all, is the voice out of the cloud —
" This is my beloved Son, Hear ye Him*" In these
last words the old covenant is replaced by the new.
Moses representing the Law, and Elijah the Prophets

1 Mark ix. « — 8.

3 Mark ix. 7. Compare Deuteronomy xviii. 15, " Unto him ye
shall hearken."

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 95

— they who had been hitherto the spiritual teachers
of men, — stood there to hand over their office to
the Son. Their work in nursing the minds of a
people set apart as the depositary of the knowledge
of God was now at an end ; now Humanity had
succeeded to its heritage, and its teacher was to be
the Son of Man. A religion which is shaped by the
history and the mind of a particular people will be
cast in a particular mould : its outward form must
be rendered plastic if it is to become Universal. So
Moses and Elijah the teachers of Israel lay down
their functions in the presence of the chosen three,
who hear their Master owned as God's own Son,
to whom the world is henceforth to listen.

And when, many years later, the truth broke
upon St Peter so that he said :

" Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter
of persons : but in every nation he that feareth him,
and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him1,''

then a new light might illumine these recollections,
which had been laid by in his mind, and they would
draw a fuller meaning from the new idea by which
he was impelled ; and he would see how God's
purposes, long entertained, work to the surface by
degrees.

There is one miracle in which I can see no
other intent, than that of the instruction of the

1 Acts x. 34, 35.

96 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

disciples and, as it may not come before us again,
I will say a few words on it now. Tfie withering of
the fig tree was, as I have said in the Introduction,
an acted parable : the most circumstantial account
is that given by St Mark.

"And on the morrow, when they were come from
Bethany, he was hungry: and seeing a fig tree afar
off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find
any thing thereon : and when he came to it, he found
nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat
fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard
it1."

Of the next day it is related:

"And in the morning, as they passed by, they
saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter
calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold,
the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And
Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God*."

When our Lord remarked from a distance one
fig tree — probably one out of several, for Bethphage
was named from its figs — which alone was in full
leaf, He was drawn to it ; whether this was because
He saw occasion for impressing a lesson which He
had at heart to give, or because He really expected
to find refreshment, we cannot decide. The last
motive is not excluded, for though the time of figs
was not yet, still we are told that in Judaea the fruit
of the fig is ripe by the time the leaves have reached

1 Mark xi. 12 — 14. * Mark xi. 20 — a a.

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 97

their full size ; and this display of foliage therefore
gave prospect of fruit. We must not argue that our
Lord would, of his superhuman illumination, have
known that the tree was barren, for our Lord never
uses this source of knowledge to find out what may
be learned by ordinary means.

But whether our Lord approached the fig tree
with the lesson in His mind or not, the aptness of
the circumstance struck Him and the lesson it fur-
nished was given on the spot. It was unusual for a
tree to have leaves at that early season : by putting
them forth, however, it held out hopes of fruit which
it disappointed. This presented in a parable the
situation of "the Jews' religion1." They made a
show, and contrasted themselves with other nations,
they dwelt on the fact that they alone worshipped
the true God, and knew and observed His laws — they
invited admiration on this ground — but of all this
nothing came. So the fig tree seemed to say: "See
I am green when other trees are leafless, you may
look to me for fruit." It is said that this precocious
putting forth of leaves shews that the tree is diseased
and should be cut down, in like manner it was time
that the Jewish Hierarchy should lose its office.
It is to this Hierarchy that the words " No man eat
fruit of thee henceforth and for ever" are really
spoken. Mankind was no longer to draw its teach-
ing from the scribes and priesthood of the Jews.

1 6 'lovdaifffMS, Gal. i. 13.

98 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

Individual Israelites might of course enlighten
the world, as indeed they have done in a most
remarkable degree; but the Jewish nation as a
body was no longer to be the one recognised
channel of God's communication with mankind.
The leading people among them had wrapped them-
selves up in self-complacency and self-sufficiency;
they had moreover enslaved themselves to the letter
of their canonical books and to rabbinical traditions:
they were therefore neither ready nor able to ex-
pand when expansion was needed. In other words,
they were no longer fitted for a living world; which
must, of its very nature, grow and change and dis-
card all that will not change along with it ; and so
like the pretentious tree they were to wither away,
and no man henceforth was to eat fruit of them
for ever.

It would have been long before an Israelite
could have brought himself to see this meaning in
the words of our Lord; but St Peter must have
thought over this last miracle, all the more from
the apparent harshness of our Lord shewn in
it — from its being the solitary instance of a final
condemnation from His lips — and he must have
asked himself; What did it mean ?

There are many other miracles in which the in-
struction of the Apostles and notably of St Peter
seems to be the leading aim. The walking on the
water might have taught him how closely failure
treads on the heels of impulse : the prophecy,

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 99

" Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me
thrice," again conveyed this same lesson together
with much beside : and the words " Then are the
children free," which point the moral of the finding
of the stater in the fish's mouth, must have recurred
to St Peter when the Church at Jerusalem was de-
bating as to how far she could free her Gentile
members from the burdens of the Law. Of this
I shall speak again. I have adduced sufficient
instances to shew what I mean by miracles of
instruction and the way in which they worked.
Lastly we come to the important subject of

(7) Miracles as a means of proof .

The signs, worked by our Lord, whatever other
functions they fulfilled, had one office which in
the eyes of some apologists is so important as
to drive all other functions into the back-ground.
They are regarded as the main ground of con-
viction. The Apostles, it is true, make little appeal
to the Signs worked by Christ : this may have been
because they worked similar Signs themselves, and
knew that their enemies ascribed them to magic.
Their favourite arguments were the fulfilment of
prophecy and the resurrection of the Lord. The
earlier hearers were Jews, and the question with
them was, " Did Jesus of Nazareth answer to the
prophetic notices of the expected deliverer of their
race?" The Jews we hear " were mightily convinced"

7—2

100 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

by Apollos, not because he declared Christ's works
but because he "shewed by the Scriptures that Jesus
was the Christ V

But in time the early preachers addressed them-
selves to the Gentiles. The Jewish notion of the
Messiah was strange to hearers, who had never
heard of the prophets ; while the idea that God
should love the world and reveal Himself to it
commended itself to them, and they would expect
that such a revelation would be accompanied by
manifestations beyond human experience. The
consequence was that, after a century or two, less
was made of prophecy and more was made of
miracles : and if the question "What makes you
believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of
God ? " had then been put to all Christendom, the
answer of an overwhelming majority would have
been, "Because of the wondrous works which He
performed."

We shall see, however, that our Lord does
not Himself put Signs in the very forefront of
His claims to the allegiance of men. He only
appeals to them as subsidiary proofs ; on which
He would rest His cause when, owing to the
situation or the disposition of the hearer, no higher
kind of proof was available2.

It will be asked, "If miracles were only a sub-
sidiary ground on which our Lord claimed belief;
What was the primary one ?" We shall see that our

1 Acts xviii. a 8. * See next chapter.

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 101

Lord's first appeal was Personal ; He claimed men's
allegiance from what they had seen of Him and
from what they knew.

There is a passage in St John's Gospel which
brings this very clearly before us. The naturalness
of it and its fidelity to character and situation
are such, that I am as sure that these words passed
between Philip and our Lord, as if they were found
in all four of the Gospels, though they only occur
in the last. They occur in the final discourse of
our Lord when He and the Apostles are on the way
to the garden of Gethsemane. Our Lord has said,

"And whither I go, ye know the way. Thomas
saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou
goest ; how know we the way ? Jesus saith unto him,
I am the way, and the truth, and the life : no man
cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known
me, ye would have known my Father also: from
henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip
saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth
us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time
with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he
that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest
thou, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that
I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? the words
that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but
the Father abiding in me doeth his works. Believe me
that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or
else believe me for the very works' sake1."

1 John xiv. 4 — it.

102 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

In Philip's words we perceive an assurance of
the reasonableness of what he asks, which is most
true to the life. He never doubts but that God
could be brought before his eyes; — he supposed
that the clouds might be rolled away, so as to
reveal a form of awful majesty clothed with re-
splendent light, and with one glimpse of this he
would be content. He thinks that he makes a
most moderate request.

Our Lord shews a sort of surprise, that after
having been so long with them, going in and out
among them, they should have missed seeing that
God was in Him. It was perhaps this constant
companionship that stood in Philip's way ; that
what was Divine should have mingled with his
daily life was beyond his conception. God, he sup-
posed, could only shew Himself in some strange
and appalling manner. That God's presence is
reflected, in the least broken way, in that course of
things which is most normal and most ordinary,
was an idea that did not belong to Philip's race or
time; but Christ drops a germ from which it
should arise.

It is the concluding verse of the passage with
which I am most concerned —

" Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father
in me : or else believe me for the very works' sake1."

The first appeal is to that belief, which ought

1 John xiv. ii.

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 103

to have grown up from personal knowledge; that
failing, He points to the works. This belief was
of the same order as that which we have in the
rectitude of an honoured friend. In knowing a
man, we get to a deeper kind of knowledge than
we do in knowing an object : all we can tell about
an object is what its properties are, we know nothing
about what it is; but we do get nearer to knowing
what a friend is, our souls interpenetrate, as it
were, a little. So that if Philip had known our
Lord as Peter did, he would, like him, have
recognised the " Son of the living God." Sup-
posing, however, that he was not sufficiently
" finely touched " for such a knowledge, that he
judged mainly from his senses, and needed proofs
of which they could take cognisance ; then — as an
alternative course though a very inferior one — He
might believe for the mere Signs' sake. Signs
were provided to suit the cases of those who could
not believe without them.

But while many take it for granted that Christ
rested His claims on miracles and worked His Signs
to provide Himself with credentials ; others have
gone to the other extreme, and have urged
that Christ disparaged the belief that was en-
gendered by the sight of wonders. No doubt the
principle — "Blessed are they that have not seen
and yet have believed " runs through all our Lord's
teaching, but it was better they should believe from
the sight of such Signs as o:ir Lord worked— Signs

104 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

which were not coercive — than not believe at all.
Signs, certainly, have led men to believe, when,
either from inward or outward causes, they would
not have believed without. This effect I regard as
a good one, and all good that has ensued from
what our Lord did, I believe that He intended to
do.

The chief texts adduced in disparagement of
miracles are :

" Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will in no
wise believe !,"

and

"An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after
a sign2."

If signs and wonders were the appointed means
of bringing men to believe, " Why," ask the ob-
jectors, "are those blamed who cannot believe
without seeing them ? " " Our Lord," they say,
"here shews that He sets little value on the
belief that comes of seeing signs." This is, no
doubt, quite true of the sort of belief that comes
of the mere assent of a terrified man : but our
Lord did not terrify men, and the belief that
sprung from seeing His signs involved a will and
a disposition to recognize God's hand.

I do not feel sure, however, that the first text
really bears on the matter. I think it quite possible

1 John iv. 48. 2 Matt. xii. 39.

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 105

that the stress should be laid on the word see. The
nobleman <( besought him that he would come doiun,
and heal his son; for he was at the point of death1."
He thought that our Lord must go down to Caper-
naum with him and work the cure there; he cannot
believe that it will be done unless it is wrought
before his eyes. When he began to speak he
had not the faith of the Roman centurion; he
could not suppose that the power of healing could
be exercised from afar; but he soon caught this
confidence from looking on our Lord. If the text
have this sense it does not touch the question
before us.

The second text refers to a sign from Heaven.
It is spoken of those who wanted an overwhelming
miracle to be wrought, which should settle the
question and compel assent in the unwilling. The
generation is not called "evil and adulterous"
for seeking after such Signs as our Lord wrought,
for crowding to see the cures for instance, but,
for challenging Him to produce a Sign of a
very different character, a magical one, which, for
reasons explained in the last chapter, He would
not do.

Our Lord Himself on several occasions points

1 John iv. 47. Mr Sanday considers this miracle to be identical
with the healing of the centurion's servant, and that the "ye see" is
addressed to the elders who stand by. With this I am not prepared
to agree. See the Authorship of the Fourth Gospel, W. Sanday,
M.A., Macmillan and Co., a well-known and excellent book.

io6 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

to another result of His working .of Signs. It
rendered the rejection of Him a sin ; this was be-
cause the will was called into operation to explain
these Signs away. The leaders among those ad-
verse to Him invented loopholes, such as referring
the works to Beelzebub, and those who wanted to
escape being convinced availed themselves of them.
In this way, the acceptance or non-acceptance ot
Signs formed a touchstone for discriminating those
who virtually said " We will not have this man to
reign over us" — a section of people to whom I
alluded in the earlier part of the chapter. Men
were pardoned the unbelief of blindness and dul-
ness, but not the wilful hatred which went out of its
way to find grounds for rejection, and which would
refer works of pure beneficence to the chief of the
devils ; this shewed innate aversion. The follow-
ing are passages in point :

"Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Beth-
saida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre
and Sidon which were done in you, they would have
repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes1."

"He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If
I had not done among them the works which none other
did, they had not had sin : but now have they both
seen and hated both me and my Father8."

Again, it is easier to convey to another by

1 Matth. xi. 21 ; Luke x. 13. a John xv. 23, 24.

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 107

description an external fact than a personal im-
pression : and thus the evidence from Signs is easier
to transmit from man to man than that which
arises from realising a Personality. Those who
followed our Lord were subjugated by His influence;
some of us too may extract from His memoirs a
conception of His Personality : but it is only those
possessing the gift of seeing the reality in the
outline, who can lay hold of this source of belief;
while in a miracle, all can perceive credentials
given by God.

Our Lord's course of proceeding in a very im-
portant instance, the occasion on which John the
Baptist sends his disciples to Him, is a most in-
structive instance of His use of Signs. These Signs
furnished the kind of evidence most available in
that particular case.

When the Baptist is in prison he sends two
of his disciples to our Lord with the question,
"Art Thou He that cometh, or look we for
another1?" Many months had passed since the
baptism of our Lord, and it seemed that nothing
had been done. He was himself in prison, removed
from the presence, and personal influence of our
Lord. His recollections of Him were perhaps
fading, and his faith growing low. He was then
in the position for which the argument from signs
is especially suitable — nothing would help him
like facts. He was in the situation in which tens

1 Luke vii. 20.

io8 OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

of thousands of Christians are still — believing, and
yet having misgivings now and then whether what
they call their Faith may not be fancy, — longing for
something positive to cling to, some support outside
themselves. Such support our Lord affords the
Baptist ; He puts him as nearly as possible in the
position of a witness of the miracles.
We read :

"In that hour he cured many of diseases and
plagues and evil spirits ; and on many that were blind
he bestowed sight. And he answered and said unto
them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye
have seen and heard ; the blind receive their sight, the
lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear,
the dead are raised up, the poor have good tidings
preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall
find none occasion of stumbling in me l."

We have no other instance in which miracles
are wrought in order to assist one who is in doubt.
Our Lord does not give a direct answer to the
words "Art thou He that cometh?" If He had
said "I am He" — and yet had not restored the
kingdom to Israel as the Baptist expected, He
would only have led him into further bewilder-
ment. So his disciples take back for sole reply,
an account of "what they hear and see." The
works are such as our Lord continually performed;
but John's disciples are given a special opportunity

1 Luke vii. n — 73.

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. 109

of witnessing them for their Master's sake. The
Baptist is however certified of this ; a great work
of God was being carried on in the world, through
Him on whom he had seen the Spirit descend
when He rose from Jordan1.

Of the two grounds, then, on which our Lord
claimed men's allegiance — His personal influence
and the signs He worked — our Lord rests prefer-
ably on the first, but the second has its place and
it is an important one.

Our Lord is the great physician who deals with
all according as the case and the constitution re-
quire. In different ages men's minds require dif-
ferent kinds of proof. I believe that such different
kinds are provided — that there is lying ready for
each generation and each type of mind the degree
of evidence which is good for it and of the kind
which it is fitted to assimilate. Miracles are not
the sort of evidence most wanted now; but it was
the sort which for many centuries was looked on
as the most incontrovertible. It spoke to those
who could understand nothing else. It was for
many ages what men especially wanted, and there
it was to their hand. A future generation may
find their main ground of belief in Christ in a
realization of His Personality; and they may in
this way arrive at that kind ot knowledge of
Him which our Lord had hoped that Philip might

* John i. 32, 33.

HO OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS.

have gained. This we can scarcely obtain without
a careful study of our Lord's ways oT influencing
men.

I have not yet spoken of our Lord's miraculous
knowledge of events or of His insight into men's
hearts. There have been a few persons in the
course of the world's history who have, in a
wondrous way, discerned the ends towards which
events were working ; and others who have divined
the thoughts of other men. These gifts in the
fullest degree our Lord possessed ; and when He
needed stronger illumination for the purpose of
His work these faculties were exalted beyond
human range. The superhuman supervened, pro-
ceeding along the lines of human action ; and this,
like the powers whereby His other works were
wrought, came from the Father in answer to
prayer. By displaying this divining power He
converts Nathanael, and He forcibly impresses the
woman of Samaria. But effective as the display
of this superhuman penetration was for bringing
about conviction, it was much more than an
evidence of Divine power. The knowledge of this
insight of their Master into their hearts played a
large part in the Apostles' Schooling. They were
habituated by means of it to feel that their hearts
were known, and this habit became so much a part
of themselves that when Christ had left the world
they could realize to themselves that they were
under His eye still. This condition of mind was

OUR LORD'S USE OF SIGNS. in

required for their special work, and Christ's training
was directed to develop it within thorn as I hope
to show.

In the next Chapter I pass to the discussion of
the Laws which our Lord appears to follow in His
working of Signs.

CHAPTER V.

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

I HAVE already, in the introductory Chapter,
given my view of the principles which guided our
Lord in the exercise of His superhuman powers.
He is tempted to employ them when He saw they
should not be employed, and the Laws are drawn
from His refusals. Consequently they all take the
form that, for such and such a purpose, or under
such and such circumstances these superhuman
powers are not to be brought into action.

I will recapitulate the Laws before stated —

(i) Our Lord will not provide by miracle
what could be provided by human endeavour or
human foresight. He Himself, as far as we can
see, never employs superhuman power or illumina-
tion to effect what could be arrived at by human
effort

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 113

(2) Our Lord will not use His special powers
to provide for His personal wants or for those
of His immediate followers.

(3) No miracle is to be worked merely for
miracles' sake, apart from an end of benevolence
or instruction.

(4) No miracle is to be worked to supplement
human policy or force — as (for instance) those of
Joshua were.

(5) No miracle is to be worked which should
be overwhelming in point of awfulness so as to
terrify men into acceptance, or which should be
unanswerably certain, leaving no loophole for un-
belief.

Before going into particulars about these Laws
there is something to be said about the narrative
of the Temptation itself, and the form in which it
has come down to us.

The incident of the Temptation is recorded in
all the Gospels except that of St John ; but the
account in St Mark's Gospel relates only that our
Lord withdrew into the wilderness, and that He was
there "forty days tempted of Satan." In the
Gospels of St Matthew and St Luke we find, with
some small variations to be noted presently, what
is commonly known as the History of the Tempta-
tions of our Lord.

114 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

The narratives, taken from the Revised Version,
are as follows :

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilder-
ness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had
fasted forty days and forty nights, he afterward hungered.
And the tempter came and said unto him, If thou art
the Son of God, command that these stones become
bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God Then the devil
taketh him into the holy city; and he set him on the
pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou art
the Son of God, cast thyself down : for it is written, He
shall give his angels charge concerning thee : And on
their hands they shall bear thee up, Lest haply thou dash
thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, Again it
is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Again, the devil taketh him unto an exceeding high
mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the
world, and the glory of them ; and he said unto him, All
these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and
worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence,
Satan : for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil
leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered
unto him1."

"And straightway the Spirit driveth him forth into
the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days
tempted of Satan ; and he was with the wild beasts ; and
the angels ministered unto him*."

1 Matth. iv. i — ii. 2 Mark i. ia, 13.

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 115

"And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the
Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness during
forty days, being tempted of the devil. And he did eat
nothing in those days : and when they were completed,
he hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou art
the Son of God, command this stone that it become
bread. And Jesus answered unto him, It is written,
Man shall not live by bread alone. And he led him up,
and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a
moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee
will I give all this authority, and the glory of them : for
it hath been delivered unto me ; and to whomsoever I
will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship before me,
it shall all be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and him only shalt thou serve. And he led him to
Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple,
and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, cast
thyself down from hence : for it is written, He shall give
his angels charge concerning thee, to guard thee : and,
On their hands they shall bear thee up, Lest haply thou
dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering
said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God. And when the devil had completed every
temptation, he departed from him for a season V

1 Luke iv. i — 13.

8—3

Il6 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

What we find in St Mark may have been
generally known to our Lord's disciples from the
earliest period of the ministry. But the account of
the Temptations themselves, which we find in St
Matthew and St Luke, can only have come from our
Lord Himself. Assuming this to be the case, the
passage before us is singular in two respects.

First, Because the Evangelists have here, and
here only, altered the form of what our Lord de-
livered, and changed into a narration in the third
person what must, in the first instance, have been
expressed in the first.

Secondly, Because this is the only instance in
which our Lord breaks through His reticence as to
His own personal history on earth. Here and here
only does He give us a glimpse of what had befallen
Him or of what had passed within His breast.

St Matthew and St Luke differ as to the order
of the second and third Temptations. I have
adopted that given by St Luke. According to my
view, our Lord in the one rejects the use of
physical violence and in the other that of moral
compulsion. It is more after our Lord's way to
proceed from what is concrete to what is abstract,
than in the reverse order.

I feel strengthened in this view by some of
the characteristics of the Gospel of St Matthew, in
the form in which it has come down to us. This
Evangelist has always the Kingdom before his eyes.
He would therefore be inclined to account the

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. II?

rejection of "all the kingdoms of the world and
the glory of them" as the highest possible instance
of the renunciation of self; and as he accounted
it the most severe of the temptations he would
naturally place it last. St Matthew moreover
throughout his Gospel often puts together the
discourses of our Lord according to their subject-
matter, and not in the order in which they were
spoken. He would therefore have no scruple
about changing the order of the account of the
Temptations which may have come before him
as a detached document. On the other hand
we do not know of any bias of St Luke which
should lead him to prefer one order of events to
another.

Another slight variation may be noticed. St
Matthew tells us that He was " led up of the Spirit
to be tempted of the devil1." The words imply that
He was led up with a view to undergoing temptation.
But in St Mark and St Luke we have " being
tempted" without any intimation of purpose.
Grave difficulties attach to the view that our Lord
went into the desert with the set purpose of
seeking and confronting temptation. Moreover it
is of the essence of temptation that it should come
on us unawares. If we know that endeavours are
about to be made to persuade us to a particular
course, we close our ears to all that pleads for it —
being forewarned, we are forearmed; so that, as

1 Matth. iv. i.

Il8 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

regards these words, and indeed throughout the
passage, I place more confidence in the version
of St Luke than in that of St Matthew, or, to
speak more accurately, that of his translator
from Hebrew.

The words "Get thee hence," at the close of
St Matthew's relation of the temptation on the
mount, have been supposed to indicate the final
banishment of the Tempter, and therefore to shew
that this temptation came last. The force of the
argument rests on our supposing, as no doubt the
author of St Matthew's Gospel did, that the events
here related formed three distinct visible scenes,
occurring in close succession, towards the end of
the forty days. Whereas I hold that we have here
a representation of our Lord's inward conflicts,
clothed by Him in a garb of outward imagery,
that they might be the better understood. If this
view be taken, the trials may have gone on simul-
taneously throughout the forty days, and may
have been so far like our own inward troubles
that one harassing perplexity may well have been
most pressing at one moment and another at
the next. But if these struggles are represented
by visible occurrences, these occurrences must
necessarily be related one after the other. The
words " Get thee hence " might refer not necessarily
to a final banishment, but only to the end of one
assault. St Luke's version is reconcileable with
the view that he understood our Lord to be speak-

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. IIQ

ing figuratively and personifying the voices that
tempted him.

It may be asked, "At what period of His
ministry did our Lord give the disciples the account
of what passed in the desert?" We can only guess,
but the guess is worth making. We do not know
whether the account which we possess was con-
tained in what critics call " the original document,"
on which the Gospels of St Matthew and St Mark
are supposed to be based. Its omission by St
Mark rather favours the supposition that it was
not. It may have been, in the first instance, put
down in writing by one who heard the recital from
our Lord's lips, and may have come into the hands
of the evangelists as a separate "parchment1."
This document might contain no note of the
time and place at which our Lord delivered the
account — and, in .the absence of information on
this point, the compiler of the gospel might have
made the alteration from the first person to the
third, if ft had not been made before, and have
inserted the account in the place belonging to
it in the order of events. I conjecture that the
communication was made near the end of the
ministry, possibly after the feast of the dedication2,
at the time when

" He went away again beyond Jordan into the place
where John was at the first baptizing; and there he
abode3."

1 2 Timothy iv. 13. 2 Dec. 20, A.D. 29- 8 John x. 40.

120 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

The place would recall what had happened
after He had been " driven " from that spot by the
Spirit into the wilderness about two years before.

Other considerations also lead me to this con-
jecture.

It is strange that no allusion is ever made to
so important a record : and this would be far more
strange if the knowledge had lain in the minds of
the Apostles all through the period of our Lord's
ministry, than if they had only obtained it when the
close was at hand. Moreover, the absence of any
account of the circumstances under which the re-
lation was made inclines me to think that this must
have taken place at a time of which our records are
scanty ; and there is no time in the sacred history
of which the narrative is less full than the period
at which I place the communication, viz., the early
spring preceding the Passion of our Lord.

There is also this consideration of a different
kind. In all education there are two elements, that
which is communicated by the teacher ready made,
and which the pupil has only to register, and that
which the learner elicits by turning over in his
mind the matter which gives food for thought. In
our Lord's teaching of the disciples the proportion
of the latter element to the former steadily in-
creases from first to last. At first, sayings are
given them to remember; latterly, they receive
mysteries on which to meditate. In the Sermon
on the Mount men are told plainly what it was

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 121

desirable for them to know ; afterwards, the teach-
ing passes through parables and hard sayings up
to the mysteries conveyed by the Last Supper.
The lessons of the Temptation have the form
of the later teaching of our Lord: they contain
hard matters and only yield their fruit by being
long laid to heart.

Not only would the lessons of the Temptation
have been more intelligible to the Apostles towards
the end of the ministry than at the beginning; but,
turning as they do on the use of superhuman
powers, they would suit the time when the Apostles
were about to exercise similar powers themselves.

Now comes the great question of all : -In what
sense is the narrative to be taken ?

Many writers accept it as literal history and
suppose the Tempter to have appeared in bodily
form and to have conveyed our Lord, also in the
body, both to the mountain top and the pinnacle
of the Temple. Others have regarded it as a
vision ; and intermediate views have been adopted
by many.

On one point fortunately we may be pretty
confident. The substance of the history came
from our Lord. The most unfavourable critics
allow this, from the extreme difficulty of refer-
ring it to any other source. It cannot have been
introduced in order to make the Gospel fall in
with Jewish notions of the Messiah, for there are
no traditions that the Messiah should be tempted :

122 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

and if the passage had been devised by men, the
drift of it would have been plainer, and the tempta-
tions would have been such as men would feel
might have come upon themselves. We have many
accounts, in the legends of the saints, of the sort of
trials which present themselves to the imagination
of human writers ; and they differ totally from
these.

I have let fall already a few words shewing in
what way I regard the passage. I must now speak
more fully on the subject.

It may be assumed that, in all our Lord's deal-
ings with His disciples, His primary purpose was
to do them good. He did not leave behind Him
this reference to His sojourn in the wilderness
and its momentous results, merely as materials
for biographers. The trials which had beset Him
would soon beset them also in doing the work He
destined for them ; before He left them He would
therefore relate in what disguises the temptations
had appeared and how they had been repelled.
Behind the Apostles, who formed as it were the
front rank of His audience, there stretched long
files of hearers, — all those to whom His words have
since come. At the end of this file we ourselves
stand ; and those among us who have special gifts,
and are tempted to use them for selfish ends,
or for putting a yoke, physical or mental, upon
other men, may well take them to heart. My
business however now is with the Apostles. It

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 123

was likely that our Lord would give them some
hint as to the principles on which superhuman
power can be safely employed : and it was certain
that this lesson would be put by Him in the form
which would best convey it, and which would make
the most lasting impression. The form then, as
well as the matter of the lesson, must be worth
studying closely.

One reason why this passage has such a power-
ful interest for men is that the history is a personal
one. Our Lord riveted the most earnest attention
of His hearers by speaking to them of Himself;
and something of the same effect is felt by readers
of the story now. We know how a teacher at
once enchains the interest of his class when, leaving
things abstract, or what he finds in books, he says,
"Now I will tell you something that happened to
me;" and we can understand the eagerness with
•which the Apostles would gather round our Lord,
and can imagine how intently they would gaze upon
Him, when He told them that He, like them, had
been tempted, that He too had fought hard battles
and that- He would tell them what they were.

Another source of interest is that the story
deals with inner struggles in a figurative way — the
voices are personified and the action is localised.

That Satan should have appeared in a bodily
form is, to my mind, opposed to the spirituality
of all our Lord's teaching. Such an appearance
presents endless difficulties, not only physical but

124 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

moral. If our Lord knew the tempter to be Satan,
He was as I have said forearmed ; if He did not
know him, this introduces other difficulties. He
must at any rate have been surprised at meeting a
specious sophist in the wilderness. Milton deals
with the subject with great skill, from his point of
view, in Paradise Regained. Certain points he
leaves unexplained, and those I believe to be
inexplicable. They are these. I cannot understand
that our Lord should suffer Satan to transport
Him to the mountain top, or to the pinnacle of
the Temple, or that the Evil One should propose
to Jesus to fall down and worship him.

I can however readily comprehend that our
Lord should represent under this imagery and
under these personifications what had passed within
Himself. He could not indeed bring the lesson
home to His hearers in any other way. To have
represented mental emotions, to have spoken of
the thoughts that had passed through His mind,
would have been wholly unsuited to His hearers.
We know how difficult it is to keep up an interest
in a record of inward struggles and experiences.
Men want something to present to their mind's
eye, and they soon weary of following an account
of what has been going on within a man's heart,
void of outward incident. A recital of what had
passed in our Lord's mind would have taken no
hold of men's fancy and would soon have faded
from their thoughts. But the figure of Satan

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 12$

would catch their eye, the appearance of contest
would animate the hearers' interest; while the
survey of the realms of the earth, and the dizzy
station on the pinnacle of the Temple, would take
possession of men's memories and minds.

The Apologue was to Orientals a favourite
vehicle for conveying moral lessons ; and we have
a familiar instance in English Literature of the
attraction of allegory. Would Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress have possessed itself, as it has done,
of the hearts of whole sections of the British
race, if, shorn of its human characters and its
scenery, it had only analysed and depicted the
inward conflicts, the mental vicissitudes and religi-
ous difficulties of a sorely-tried Christian youth ?

The use of the name Satan must be con-
sidered. This name, which means the enemy,
occurs in the Old Testament, in the book of Job
and elsewhere but not in the Pentateuch. The
Jews we know had a daemonology of their own.
The gods of the heathen they regarded as devils,
of whom the Sidonian deity Beelzebub was Prince.
Our Lord never countenances these views. I be-
lieve that He uses the word Satan in a generic
sense to personify evil spiritual influences exercised
upon earth.

When the Apostles returned safe after being
sent through the cities, our Lord regards this as an
augury of their success in the great conflict and
says that He "beheld Satan fallen as lightning

126 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

from Heaven1." We have clearly impersonation
here. He says also " If Satan hath risen up against
himself and is divided2," a supposition which
excludes the idea of an individual being, and
agrees with the collective meaning I attribute to
the term. When St Peter rebukes our Lord for
declaring before His followers that He would be
"rejected and killed and after three days rise
again," our Lord says "Get thee behind me, Satan."
St Peter, by saying of the suffering of which
our Lord spake "this shall never be unto thee8,"
unwittingly had acted as the ally of those who
would tempt our Lord from yielding implicitly
to His Father's will, and our Lord therefore calls
him Satan. On the whole then I lean to the
view that the communication, or discourse of our
Lord, which has been preserved in the form of the
narrative of the Temptation, was delivered by Him
in the form of an apologue or species of parable,
in which our Lord, after Eastern fashion, introduced
Satan as an embodiment of the powers of evil.

It must not be supposed that by giving up here
the personality of the tempter we are making an
abatement of what is superhuman in the Gospel, in
order that, in virtue of having so done, we may hope
to win this or that section of doubters over to our
side — the whole question of evil remains a mystery,
and in mystery there can be no degrees. It is of no
use endeavouring to make infinitya trifle less infinite.

1 Luke x. 18. * Mark iii. 26. 8 Matth. xvi. 21.

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 12?

Whether the word Satan be here used col-
lectively or personally is altogether a different
question from the existence of intermediate in-
telligences, and is quite an open one even for the
most orthodox.

Temptation to turn stones into loaves.

I now come to the Temptations themselves.
As these trials were mental, we can only realise
them by imagining what, consistently with our his-
tory, may have passed in our Lord's mind. What
actually did so pass is of course beyond our know-
ledge altogether. We are however justified in
supposing that, as our Lord was "tempted as
man," the thoughts and feelings which actuated
Him would be such as men might follow and more
or less understand.

It would appear that when God lays a work on
a man He gives him a general view of the end to
be kept in sight, a vehement desire to accomplish
it, and a forefeeling of the capacity so to do. But
He does not shew him how he is to do it, He does
not make the way clear so that he sees his course
before him and marks its several stages. If a man
were so guided he would not fulfil the conditions of
human agency, there would be no room for his
own will to act, he would have no responsibility.
He would move along a pre-arranged path. God
would, in effect, be doing all and he nothing, and

128 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

so it would come to much the same thing as if the
work were done once for all by Go'd's fiat, in-
dependently of human action — and this, as we have
already seen, is not God's way of governing the
world.

When St Paul takes his last journey to Jeru-
salem, the Spirit, he tells us, " testifieth unto me in
every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide
me." That he must go to Jerusalem he knew and
to go he was resolved, but what course of conduct
he was to adopt or what the result was to be
he did not know at all ; afterwards in like manner,
he knew that he was to bear witness at Rome, but
he had no directions as to what he was to do. It
was left to him to act as seemed to him to be
the best. This may give us a help towards un-
derstanding how it may have been with our Lord,
when the mighty charge unto which He was born
came home to His mind, and He felt, rising in
Him, the wondrous powers given to aid Him in
carrying it out.

Our Lord when driven by the Spirit into the
wilderness would take no thought of food or
shelter. The one thing He craved for was to be
alone ; He must have solitude, and the wilderness
provided that

When He reflected, He could hardly help
asking Himself whether this light which had
shone upon Him — this voice from Heaven, — were
the resuscitation of His Diviner life or only

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 129

something in His own eyes and ears ? A sure test
lay ready : when He had heard Himself hailed as
the Son of God a conviction had risen in Him that
God would give effect to His commands. He had
only to try whether this was so and all doubts would
be resolved. Perhaps the whisper came " Try this
experiment in a very small matter first" Who
could think this apparent caution and prudence
came from an ill quarter ?

Spiritual evil always chooses a trifle, something
from which it seems that no harm can possibly
come, to win its victim to the first false step. Our
Lord was hungry, and loaf-shaped stones were
lying all about Him. Why not turn a few actually
into the loaves they looked like? In so doing,
how could He possibly be wrong ?

However plausible the appeal of the Tempter, it
was not entertained. We can conceive that a whole
array of objections would arise ; some may have
been such as these —

This putting of God to trial by a test of my
own choosing, that I may determine whether I will
believe His words or not : this implying that I will
admit His authority if He speaks in one way and
not if He speaks in another — Is this befitting one
called to a work like this ?

Then came another point — He was hungry. As
St Mark says nothing about the fasting it will be
best not to assume that the fasting was part of our
Lord's original purpose; but as, in the desert of

L, 9

I3O THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

Judea, food could not be got without a journey of
some miles, our Lord, whether designedly or not,
had put Himself out of the immediate reach of
food. Should He remedy this by using the mys-
terious power with which He felt He was invested?
This power was given Him to forward God's King-
dom upon earth — should He use it for Himself?

Then the tempter might return to the assault.
There are fluxes and refluxes in human feeling; we
are always afraid that we have gone too far in one
direction, or been too obstinate about our own
point ; it strikes us that perhaps we have made
more of it than it was worth, and then we listen
submissively to the other side.

Such a whisper as this may have come — " These
powers are given you to enable you to set up God's
Kingdom upon earth ; for this you must win adhe-
rents. These adherents must be maintained. Your
opponents are supported by the great ones of the
earth; the God of Heaven has committed to you
His powers for the support of yours. This little
incident of the loaves only points the way to a
much weightier matter ; you must use your special
powers to supply your own bodily wants in the
coming contest, — why not begin with using them
for this purpose now ? "

Here we have arrived at the gravest point of the
debate — Were these powers really to be used for
His bodily wants or not ? As the true conditions
of His work rose before Him, the principles grew

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 131

clearer ; He was to deliver mankind as the Son of
Man, He was to work as man, to suffer as man,
that suffering men might always look to Him,
saying " He was one of us." And how could this
be, if His lot was so unlike theirs that He met His
own wants by a word of command directly they
arose ? How could His followers own the duty of
labouring for their daily bread, if stones at a word
were turned into loaves for Him ? How could He
tell men not to think overmuch of the meat that
perisheth, if He had used Divine powers to pro-
vide it for Himself as soon as He possessed them ?
If He were to be the stay of loving human hearts,
He must say to men, "As you live, I live: of all
your ills and troubles I claim my part"

Our Lord's answer points out a train of thought
along which He may have passed, until at length
He reached a firm resolve and reduced the Tempter
to silence. It will not be irreverent to imagine
what might, consistently with what we learn, have
been its nature.

Man wants no reminding that he lives by bread.
There is no fear of his not giving care enough to
the needs of his body ; but there is danger lest he
should think of nothing but these needs, and starve
his soul and become such that eternal life, without
a body to care for, would only be a condition of
aimless weariness. He resolved therefore to keep
His powers apart for spiritual ends. He will work
no miracle to shew that He can work a miracle, or

9—2

132 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

to assure either Himself or others that He is the
Son of God ; neither will He use this power to
provide what others win by toil, or to preserve
Himself or His followers from the common ills of
human life.

There are a few of our Lord's Signs which
might, at first sight, look as if in them this principle
were not observed. At the marriage of Cana in
Galilee, the Sign is worked as an act of kindness
to save the host irom mortification arising from an
accident.

I have mentioned, as regards the miracles of the
loaves and fishes, that on both occasions the supply
which our Lord's own company had with them was
sufficient for their immediate wants. The crowds,
however, had, by their rapt attention to our Lord,
been detained away from their homes and their
supplies, and, if they had had to go a distance to
buy bread, they would have suffered from taking so
long a journey fasting. The case was an excep-
tional emergency parallel to that of illness, and our
Lord meets it by miraculous means.

The miraculous draughts of fishes benefited pro-
bably all who were partners in the vessel, but they
were not wrought to meet any necessity on the
part of our Lord. All night long they had taken
nothing ; this scarcity may have been part of the
lesson of the miracle, and the great draught is only
a bounteous compensation. This is a miracle of
instruction, as I said in the last chapter: it tells

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 133

men that a turn comes at the moment when they
are about to give up, and that the faith which
bears up long is rewarded. Moreover, to recur to
what I said in the last chapter, St Peter had been
told that he was to be henceforth a fisher of men ;
and when multitudes, both of Jews and Gentiles,
were gathered into the Church in Jerusalem he
must have thought of this as answering to the Sign.

The miracle of the stater in the fish's mouth
also requires notice. It is not wrought to obtain
the coin, but to keep before Peter's mind that
he as well as his Master were the children and not
the servants or tributaries of God.

From St Peter's answering without hesitation
that his master would pay the didrachm, it is
clear that there was no difficulty about producing
the small sum. He does not speak to our Lord on
the matter, but our Lord, directly he enters the
house, asks him, " What thinkest thou, Simon ?
the kings of the earth, from whom do they receive
toll or tribute ? from their sons, or from strangers1?"

This miracle, as we said in the last chapter, is one
of instruction. The payment according to the re-
ceived view was the half-shekel that every Israelite
had to pay for providing victims for the Temple
service. It gave the idea of a tribute to God which
stood in the way of the conception of pertect son-
ship. It implied that Israelites alone had part or
lot in the worship of the living God. Our Lord
J Matth. xvii. 25.

134 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

would have St Peter regard God as the Father of
mankind and not only as the Lord and ruler of
Israel. The whole point of the lesson lies in the
words " then are the children free." These words
would be stamped on St Peter's mind by the
finding the stater in the fish's mouth ; and they
would recur to him and bring their proper lesson
with them when the right moment came. The
circumstance is not in itself necessarily mira-
culous, but it was rendered so in this case by our
Lord's foreseeing that the coin would be found
in the first fish that came.

T/ie Temptation on the Mount.

Next comes a scene in which the Spirit of the
World is represented as pointing out all the glories
of the empire of the inhabited earth, and offering it
to our Lord on the strange condition that He
should fall down and worship him. This repre-
sents, in plain and very forcible imagery, a spiritual
temptation to which those who have laboured to
regenerate mankind have fallen victims over and
over again. Those who have most nearly attained
universal conquest, Mahomet, Zengis, Timour, and
tnany great political leaders as well, have begun
with a genuine wish to alleviate the ills of man-
kind, of whom eventually they became a scourge.

I believe that what our Lord sets before us
here is the temptation to aim at visible and com-
paratively immediate success, and to bring about

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 135

our ideal by using the arts of worldly policy ; which
were to be supported in the case before us by
superhuman power.

We can conceive a Tempter, such as the Satan
of Paradise Regained, saying as he does,

"Great acts require great means of enterprise,"

and urging worldly counsels such as these : — "You
seek to set up a perfect kingdom upon earth, to
minimise evil by wise laws, and to make men love
God and serve God out of love. You want success
and you want it soon, in order that in your lifetime
you may see your plans matured. For this, first of
all, you must have at your back not merely disciples
who shall listen and meditate, but men who can ad-
vance a cause. The uppermost feeling of the people
among whom you have come is the desire to be free
from Rome. They have drawn from the Scriptures
a notion that a Messiah will soon come and restore
the kingdom to Israel. With this view, be it right
or wrong, you must fall in. You carry with you
powers like those wielded by the prophets of old.
Proclaim yourself such a Messiah as men expect.
Strike to the ground the Roman eagles that are
sent against you. Offer to all who fall on your side
a paradise of palpable enjoyments such as they
can understand. Shew yourself invulnerable, and
be everywhere foremost in the fight. Your super-
human power will balance the enormous might of
Rome. In order to win the empire of the world you

136 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

must employ policy as well as arms. You must ex-
cite enthusiasm. You must fascinate crowds by elo-
quence and lead them to serve your purpose when
they think that you are serving theirs. When you
have secured the empire, you can inaugurate a
golden reign and call on men to bless your Father
who sent you to their aid."

If suggestions such as these had been made
to our Lord by such a Tempter as Milton imagines,
we can see from the reply in our narrative how
they would have been met. This kingdom, our
Lord would say, so gained might indeed be mine
but assuredly it will not be God's ; and my business
is not to work for myself but for Him. It was this
utter absence of self, in our Lord, which men could
not comprehend ; their common standards could
not measure Him — they are bewildered by this,
and all but the higher sort are put out of touch
with Him.

The picture which our Lord leaves us of His
struggle with the evil suggestions of His insidious
foe teaches us many lessons, but the clearest of
all are these — If we fight the world with its own
weapons we soon put our hands out for using any
others than those. If we seek what the world
has to give we soon fall down and worship it,
without having the least intention of doing any-
thing of the kind. But besides giving a lesson
for after ages, our Lord here indicates a particular
resolve which shaped His action upon earth. It

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 137

was this, — He would not employ His superhuman
powers to force men to obey, or even to resist
the violence which might be offered Him. He
would not use them to assist in setting up the
outward fabric of a Kingdom of God : and then,
going a little further, He determines not to set up
by His own hand any outward fabric of such a
Kingdom at all. He was not to be an aspirant for
worldly distinction — He was not to be the leader of
a cause — He was not to be the founder of a school
of philosophy or of any external form of religion
at all. He came to do a Work, The Central Work
of the History of mankind. He declared God, and
declared Himself to be united to God, and that He
would be with men for ever until the end of the
world. But all that has to do with organisation,
outward customs, effective sanctions, or the con-
densing of doctrines into the formulae of creeds,
belongs to the human side of religion, and men
of different climes and ages must shape such
matters for themselves. He came, as I have said,
only to kindle the fire and to set a new force
moving in the world. This Law, — that neither
force nor worldly policy should be used to carry
out the Work of God, — governs all our Lord's acts.
It need hardly be said that there is no miracle
of our Lord's recounted in the canonical Scriptures
in which violence is either done or repelled. In
the apocryphal Gospels we find endless legends
of the retribution which our Lord brought on

138 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

those who injured Him, especially in His boyish
years.

Neither do we ever find that our Lord so dis-
plays His signs or shapes His conduct, as to win
from the crowd material support for the work
He is carrying on. It was never more important
for Him to win over the enthusiasm of the
people than when He taught in Jerusalem in the
week of the Passover : but no public miracle at all
is then performed. It must have seemed strange to
the disciples that He did not confound Pilate on his
judgment seat, or Herod on his throne, but we see
that the whole meaning of His coming would have
been lost if He had.. The disciples however are not
left at that time without some indication that His
Divine power remained unimpaired — the withering
of the fig-tree, and the foretelling to Peter that he
should deny Him thrice, shewed them that Jesus
was still the Lord. When the Lord in the hands
of His enemies turned and looked upon Peter, how
striking must have been the contrast between the
Kingdoms of the earth and of God !

There is one occasion where our Lord is urged
to act in violation of this principle. The sons of
Zebedee ask whether they may not call down fire
from Heaven on those who would not receive them.
"But He turned and rebuked them1."

Again, if He had come down from the cross
when challenged to do so, this principle would have

1 Luke ix. 55.

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 139

been broken through. Those who said " He saved
others, Himself He cannot save1/' uttered a truth
deeper than they dreamed of: it was of the very
essence of His mission that He should not use His
powers for Himself.

In connexion with this it may be noted that
when St Peter is delivered from the prison2, and
St Paul and Silas at Philippi, these deliverances are
represented, not as being worked by St Peter or
St Paul, but as being worked for them by the
Divine power, without any doing of theirs.

The Temptation on the Pinnacle of the Temple.

When the temptation to employ open force
was repelled, a more insidious one came in its
stead. It was to use moral compulsion, and, by
the public display of a resistless manifestation, to
make doubt and opposition disappear.

Our Lord, as I believe, clothes this suggestion
in imagery suited to His hearers : He represents
Himself as borne to the pinnacle of the Temple
and bidden to cast Himself down. Of this pinnacle
an account is given by Dr Edersheim : he con-
siders it to have overlooked the Court of the Priests.
The following extracts are from his account : —

" In the next temptation Jesus stands on the
watch-post which the white-robed priest has just
quitted. In the Priests' Court below Him the
morning sacrifice has been offered Now let Him

1 Mark xv. 31. 2 Acts xii. 7, 8. Acts xvi. 26.

140 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

descend, Heaven-borne, into the mid^t of priests
and people. What shouts of acclamation would
greet His appearance ! What homage of worship
would be His1 !"

This pinnacle, supposing my view to be correct,
would offer a fitting scene for the story of this
trial, not only as being a giddy height, but be-
cause also the spot was a public one, and a crowd
of spectators would witness the display. If our
Lord had only been tempted to assure Himself of
His power by a miracle of adventurous rashness,
any precipice would have served as well. The
essential force of the temptation lay in the sug-
gestion to prostrate men's minds, and to subjugate
their wills, by performing before their eyes an
appalling act, the superhuman nature of which
could not possibly be gainsaid.

When we leave the external imagery, and come
to the gist of the lesson, we find in it the truth
which we have had before us over and over again2.
A man's belief is not his belief and will not be
effective for moulding his life unless his mind and
his will have some part in the acceptance of it ; and
if his own endeavours were to be on a sudden
superseded by Divine action, this would be incon-
sistent with that studious culture of man's dis-
tinctive freedom which runs through the conduct
of the world. If will and reason are to be dumb-

1 The Lije and Times of Jesus the Messiah. Dr. Edersheim, i. p. 304.
8 See pp. 23, 24, and pp. 57, 58.

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 14!

founded by the interference of absolute power,
why should men possess them or care to put them
to use ? As a fact, God suggests but does not compel,
and our Lord's signs agree herewith. They em-
phasise His lessons, and witness for God to those
who have eyes for Him — but men can reject the
lesson, signs and all if they please.

Let us imagine the form the Tempter's arguments
might take in the mouth of one like Milton's Satan :
"You wish," he might suggest, "men to believe that
your power comes from on high. Leave them no
room for doubt. People about you look for a
Sign from Heaven, such as Joshua worked in
Ajalon, and Isaiah displayed in the days of Heze-
kiah. Beelzebub, they think, may work Signs on
earth, but Heaven, they own, is God's domain, and
what is written in the skies carries God's hand and
seal. Shew men these Signs for which they ask,
and display your wonders so as to strike men the
most. Cures and works of mercy, witnessed by
a few score people, create but little stir. Shew
something that all Judea, or at least Jerusalem, can
behold at once; — great emotions take strongest
hold among men in a mass: display a comet or
darken the sun; or, to begin with, stand on the
pinnacle of the Temple — there is a tradition that
there the Messiah should appear1 — and in the
presence of all the crowd hurl yourself into the
Priests' Court below."

1 Dr Edersheim.

142 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

To meet these thoughts suggested by the
Tempter, there would rise in our Lord's mind a
crowd of arguments : some of these I have already
ventured to imagine. If our Lord had displayed a
Sign of overwhelming effect, and bidden men deny
it if they could, He would have paralysed intel-
lectual growth in mankind. Men had been gifted
with faculties fitting them to explore and to judge
of spiritual things : if these were curtailed of room
for exercise, they would languish like limbs disused.
Should He bar investigation in one-half of reason's
realm ? Should He so appal mankind, as to enforce
an involuntary acceptance of His claims ? Would
not this be putting fresh fetters on those whom He
was come on earth to set free ?

Some miracles of a stupendous character are
worked by our Lord, no doubt: such are the
Transfiguration and the raising of Jairus' daughter.
But, marvellous as these two manifestations were,
they were not worked for the mere wonder's sake ;
men were not brought together to see them. The
wondrousness is an inevitable accompaniment of
the declaration of God's Kingdom and the dis-
closing of His ways, but it is not the prime motive
of the act. There is no display, no appearance
of effort. Expectation is not awakened or the
imagination aroused by the announcement of a
coming prodigy. Neither were these great works
wrought to win proselytes : the few who witness
them are already convinced of their Master's Divine

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 143

power; it is not so much a fuller assurance that they
derive from them, as a deeper insight into the ways
of God. To the three apostles who already best
discerned God's ways, God's power is in these
manifestations more fully displayed ; no others
behold it. Here as everywhere, it is to those who
have that more is given.

This same Law governs the appearances of the
risen Lord. He does not stand forth in triumph
and confound disbelief. He had only to shew
Himself in the temple and His enemies would have
lain at His feet. But men were not to be convinced
against their will : all our accounts agree that it
was to His apostles only that our Lord appeared.
St Peter says to Cornelius and his friends :

" Him God raised up the third day, and gave him
to be made manifest, not to all the people, but unto
witnesses that were chosen before of God, even to us, who
did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead1."

This limitation is very carefully maintained.
Our Lord never appears in His own form, when
there is any chance of His being beheld by others
than disciples. In the garden, at the tomb, and on
the way to Emmaus, He shews Himself to disciples
in a strange shape and is only made known to them
for a moment : He was not to be seen and re-
cognised by any ordinary passer by. His resur-
rection was not to be a subject of popular rumour

1 Acls x. 40, 41.

144 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

or one for the wonderment of the crowd. Some
might say, with the man in the parable", " Nay, but
if one go to them from the dead1, they will repent,"
but our Lord is averse to sensational impressions :
men had had the option of believing or not, and
they had made their choice. When however the
apostles are together in their upper chamber and
the doors are shut, He appears in His accustomed
form, with the print of the nails upon His hands
and feet, for there was no need then for disguise.

The principle that room is to be left for man's
will to act in determining his creed is observed not
only in all the New Testament but throughout the
spiritual history of mankind. Towards the close of
the third chapter I have remarked on the analogy
between an overwhelming manifestation, such as a
Sign from Heaven, and a rigorous demonstration
that Christ's revelation is of God. Men have at
times cried out both for one and the other ; but if
what they demand had been given them, the higher
knowledge would have been discontinuous, with un-
certainty on one side of a line and absolute certainty
on the other. There would have been rigid dykes,
as of granite, crossing the field of spiritual thought,
which would have baulked our progress.

The Laws which I have stated concerning
Signs are steadily observed throughout the ca-
nonical Scriptures, although the writers of the
books knew nothing of any such Laws. The
1 Luke xvi. 30.

THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS. 14$

Apocryphal Gospels on the other hand violate
these Laws at every turn. This opens out almost
a new line of argument on internal evidence. Is
not the coincidence strange, supposing that the
writers allowed play to their fancies, that all the
four Evangelists should have uniformly refrained
from introducing any miracle worked merely foi
miracles' sake ; or any one which served to minister
to the bodily wants of the worker ; or which was
employed either to enforce submission or to punish
hostility ? Is it not also strange that neither in
the Gospels nor the Acts have we any instance of
any public display of power such as should awe the
crowds into belief against their wills ?

In this chapter I have considered the series of
Temptations, with reference to their bearing on
the miracles. I have tried to shew that they
supply insight into our Lord's way of solving the
problem of introducing the infinite element with-
out causing the finite to disappear. But this is
only a student view ; and the lesson which the
church has always drawn from them is of infinitely
greater practical worth. The heads of this lesson
are: that the great prizes of life presented them-
selves to Jesus as they do to us; that they
glittered in His eyes as they do in ours ; that they
offered themselves to His grasp as they sometimes
do to ours, and were deliberately renounced by
Him as hollow, compared with the blessing of
knowing and doing the will of God. Without this
L. IO

146 THE LAWS OF THE WORKING OF SIGNS.

record, could we have conceived our Lord as being
" Man of the substance of His mother born in the
world " ? Might we not have looked on Jesus
Christ as only a manifestation of Deity, clad in
outer human guise, but without human affections ;
visible indeed to men's eyes, but destitute of a pulse
which beats in unison with theirs ? This error would
have lodged Christianity in mens' heads instead
of in their hearts and would have destroyed its
universality and force ; and this error, the narrative
of the Temptation — whether we regard it as apo-
logue or fact — is alike effectual to dispel.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE TEMPTATION TO THE MINISTRY IN
GALILEE.

Outset of the Work.

WE now come in sight of that part of our
Lord's work which is the special subject of this
book. We have been shewn something of what
passed in His mind during the days in the desert ;
but we are not told what He intended to accomplish
or by what practical steps He would proceed. We
need not suppose that He came forth from the
desert with His plan of action completely prepared.
He may not have settled where He should lay the
scene of His work or whom He should take for
His helpers. All this would grow clear to Him as
time went on. But though He may have been
waiting for the guidance of inner voice and out-
ward circumstance as to the way of executing His
charge, yet that He had God's work to do and
meant to do it is written unmistakeably in His air.

We are shown Him in St John's Gospel on His
way to Galilee. A glimpse is given us across His
path, and we see Him pass along with the assured
tread of one whose part is taken and who knows

IO — 2

148 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

whither His steps lead. On one point touching
the form of His work He is already clear. He is
not to come as a practical reformer or as a claimant
of power; in these characters He would need active
human aid, and the Spirit of the World would
enter in : but though He is given functions beyond
teaching, yet, in order to wear a garb familiar to the
people, He will be in their eyes nothing more, at
first, than "a teacher come from God1;" His fol-
lowers are to be purely disciples and not adherents
of any other kind. His concern was not with
political or social forms of order, — these must be
different in different times and different lands. His
province was to waken into activity the capacity
for knowing God which was practically dormant
in the mass of mankind. Before laying down
any plan or organising any society, He passes
some months in exploring, so to say, the tempers,
and minds and capacities of the different classes
of persons in Jerusalem and Galilee. He is in
search of the fittest receptacles for the word. He
looks into the hearts of the disciples of John, and of
those who like Nicodemus were "scribes instructed
into the kingdom of heaven." He turns His eye
upon Samaritans and peasants of Galilee ; and
finally, as we know, decides to choose the quiet Lake
shore for the cradle of the Faith. The peasants
and fishers whose ways He knew — unsentimental,
serviceable men — were taken as witnesses for the

1 John iii. a.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 149

new revelation : they offered the new flasks wanted
for the new wine.

A man who sets about regenerating society
commonly begins by remodelling institutions ; he
trusts to good institutions to make men good : our
Lord, as a Teacher, begins at the other end ; He
goes straight to the men themselves and tries to
make them better ; better men would bring about
better ways of ordering their outward lives ; but
each generation must do this for itself. The success
of His enterprise did not rest on its immediate
acceptance ; and so, He did not aim at drawing
numbers round Him or at gaining influential
proselytes or at consolidating a school or a sect.
Christ's work was to go on for ever, and mankind
would be redeemed equally, whether many followers
or few attended Him while on earth.

It may be asked "Did our Lord from the first
see all that lay before Him ? " The conclusion from
the facts of the history must be that, unless when it
were specially summoned, His divine prescience re-
mained in abeyance, and that He, as the Son of
Man, was subject to those uncertainties as to the
future which attend ordinary human action. He
could not have woriceu together with men, as He
did with the Apostles, if He had differed so essen-
tially from them as to know perfectly every day
what was going to happen on the next : he could
not have experienced surprise; and surprise our
Lord certainly shews at the dulness of the disciples

I5O THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

in catching His meaning : " He marvelled" too at
the unbelief of some districts. On occasion we
know that He could search men's hearts ; but they
did not lie bare to His view. Neither can we
suppose that, when He charged men not to publish
their cures, He knew that He would be disobeyed ;
or that He chose Judas for an Apostle knowing
that he would betray Him. The general drift of
the purport of His coming, and His insight into
it, grew clearer and clearer the nearer He came to
the end ; but we have no warrant for supposing
that the details of all that would happen on the
way lay before Him from the first.

He draws His disciples to Him at first with a
cheerful hope: but towards the close of His career
He has the air of one moving under a load ; and
once He gives utterance to what lies at His heart.
The words in which He does this throw a light on
the question of His purpose and His plan ; they are
spoken apparently to St Peter —

" I came to cast fire upon the earth ; and what will
I, if it is already kindled? But I have a baptism to be
baptized with ; and how am I straitened till it be accom-
plished!1"

It needed one sent from God to kindle this fire,
and to bring home to men the truth that His Spirit
worked within them to will and to do ; but when
the kindling was once effected, the rest might be
left to human effort. Men could feed the flame

1 Luke xii. 49, 50.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. I$I

and men could fan it; and so, following the law we
have traced in operation so often, to men the
flame was left, for them to feed and fan. "This
being done," our Lord might say, " this for which
I came, — why do I linger here ? what more do
I want ?" and yet He might add "My whole work
is not done: the crowning act remains. Men
will never understand my love at all unless I die
for them." Until He was baptised with this
baptism of suffering, He was like one straitened
on every side by an imperious task which claims
his every thought.

Our Lord's movements from the Temptation
on to the Ministry in Galilee are made known to
us by the Gospel of St John. Jesus appears on
the banks of the Jordan, where John was still
baptising his disciples ; He mixes with the throng;
the Baptist points Him out to two young men,
one of whom, Andrew, brings his brother to visit
Him ; the other was probably the Evangelist him-
self. Afterwards our Lord Himself finds Philip,
and Philip finds Nathanael, and the little party
travel on foot to Cana of Galilee. No writer, who
did not confine himself to facts about which he
was certain, would have given so homely a story of
the beginning of so mighty a matter.

The Gospel of St John is manifestly written by
one who is in the position of a disciple ; he sees
everything from the disciple's point of view : what
the disciples thought of things that happened

152 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

seems to be always uppermost in his mind. He
is not a writer composing a continuous biography
of our Lord, but a disciple drawing lessons
from particular scenes of his Master's life ; and
he no more thinks of considering why our Lord
took the course He did, than he would consider
why the seasons change. An historian might have
looked for reasons why our Lord did not appear in
public life in Jerusalem ; but John does not look
on the matter with an historian's eye.

I will here summarise the occasions on which
the disciples are mentioned, in the period of the
history embraced in this chapter. We first hear
of them in the account of the wedding at Cana.
The Evangelist relates that " He manifested forth
His glory, and His disciples believed on Him1"
Next we find the disciples spoken of, as if they
stood in a kind of family relation to Him. " He went
down to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His
brethren, and His disciples*" When we come to the
account of the cleansing of the Temple, it is point-
ed out how that action struck the disciples. They
talked it over among themselves ; they recalled
the verse in the Psalms, " The zeal of Thine house
shall eat me up8," and thought they saw a Messia-
nic prophecy fulfilled : we are told too that after
our Lord's death they recalled His words about
building the Temple in three days. We hear
also that they were numerous: "many believed

1 John ii. n. a John ii. 12. a John ii. 17.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 153

on His name, beholding the signs which He did1."
Next comes a fact of great importance ; it is that,
though our Lord did not baptise adherents, yet that
His disciples did so, and that finally more resorted
to them than to the Baptist2. A few disciples at-
tended our Lord in the journey through Samaria,
and to them His first recorded discourse as a
teacher is addressed : there is no further mention
of them during the period embraced in this chapter.
Such is the summary of the matter bearing on my
subject ; I proceed to discuss points of interest that
arise out of it.

The advent of our Lord differed from that of
other enlighteners of mankind in one very striking
way. He had, in the Baptist, a special forerunner,
who gave out, on all occasions, that the final cause
of his own preaching was to prepare the way for
one greater than himself. Events of national
history, themselves part of -that wide-spreading
"Preparatio Evangelica" which, to my mind, under-
lies the history of the world, had raised a ferment
in the minds of the inhabitants of Palestine. To
this movement the Baptist gave a particular turn.
He brought men to desire that the world should
become better, and taught them that they must
begin by becoming better themselves. Without
this preparation, the germs of truth which our
Lord scattered would more largely have failed to
quicken: the Baptist had broken up the soil tp

1 John ii. 33. a John iii. 22, iv. ?.

154 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

receive the seed; his preaching put the people
in an attitude of expectancy, and an expectant
condition is a receptive one. The Old Testa-
ment prophecies had worked to this same end ;
they had made expectancy congenial to the
nation's mind. The Israelites were like spectators
waiting to see a great king come with a procession :
the sight of a forerunner sets the crowd astir, and
such a forerunner John was, I have observed
before, that in carry ing out His own work our Lord
is careful to use preparation. The disciples are
sent "to every place where He Himself would
come." Men were not to be repelled from the new
movement by reason of its being strange to them.
What this preparation did for the villages of
Galilee the Baptist did on a grander scale for
all Judaea.

We get but a glimpse of the nature of the
relation between John and his disciples, and need
only notice it briefly. Young men did not, like
those who sat at the feet of a Rabbi, resort to him
for definite instruction : the disciples of John did
not look to be taught interpretations of the Law or
of the Prophets, but they looked for a rule of life
for themselves and a brighter future for their
country or their race— they were ill-satisfied with
the present and eagerly turned to one who re-
presented both in aspect and in utterance the pro-
phets of old. There was one feature in John's
ministry, so distinctive that he drew his appellation

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

155

from it. — He caused his disciples to be baptised.
The doctrines implied in the rite do not now con-
cern me ; to some it symbolised the cleansing from
sin, to others the rising into a new life; but the
practical effect of it was to make those who received
it feel that they had, in a way, pledged their al-
legiance to John by receiving baptism at his hands :
they had assumed a badge, and were bound by
ties of personal loyalty to their master and to
one another1.

But John's disciples were not separated off from
the outside mass by baptism alone. To the mind of
his countrymen a religion was not a religion at all,
unless it included a regimen, unless it parcelled out
their days, according to hours of prayer and times
of fasting. With such a distinctive rule John pro-
vided his followers. He taught them to pray*, he
accustomed them to voluntary fasts3; and on some
points of ceremonial, such as purification, he may
have had tenets of his own4.

We will now trace the steps by which our Lord
gathers disciples round Him. It is possible that
even before our Lord left Galilee He had been
the centre of a group of young men who looked
up to Him, and the Galileans among John's dis-

1 "I thank God that I baptized none of you save Crispus and
Gaius ; lest any man should say that ye were baptized into my
name." i Cor. i. 14, 15. This, with the context, illustrates
the notion of a personal tie established by baptism. St Paul is
combating the charge of establishing a sect of his own.

2 Luke xi. i. 3 Luke v. 33. 4 John iii. 25.

156 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

ciples might therefore have heard of Him. It falls
in also with this supposition, that our Lord seems
to have been already acquainted with Philip of
Bethsaida, and to have purposely sought him out.
We read — " He findeth Philip, and saith unto him,
Follow me1." Philip hastens to Nathanael2, who
came from Cana in Galilee, and tells him that the
Messiah has been found in the person of "Jesus
the son of Joseph, the man from Nazareth V The
words in italics may imply " of whom we have all
heard;" for Cana was not more than six miles
from Nazareth, and Bethsaida was in the same
district. The Baptist, we know, regarded Him,
when He came to be baptised, as his equal or
superior in the favour of God.

Five of the Apostles — John, Andrew, Peter,
Philip and Nathanael — were drawn to our Lord in
the few days spent at Bethabara on His return
from the desert ; and probably all these went
back with Him to Galilee. Among these five we
find traces of a lasting tie. This is worth noting,
because such a tie would naturally arise from
comradeship in early years, and of this comrade-
ship St John's Gospel speaks. These five had gone
together from Galilee, in the zeal of their young
days, to listen to the strange preacher in the
desert of Judaea; they had lived together, faring
alike, and baring their hearts each to the other in

1 Juhn i. 43. 2 John i. 45 ; xxi. a.

3 rof O.TTO Safrapfr. John i. 46.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 157

the confidence of youth. We can understand that
this would bind men fast together, and that St John
writing his Gospel at the end of his life, with pos-
sibly St Andrew at his side, should have been
mindful of all the circumstances in which these
old friends took part, and have gladly taken
occasion to mention their names1.

Accordingly, we find mention made in the Gospel,
without positive occasion, of these Apostles by name.
We did not need to know that it was Andrew who
said "There is a lad here who hath five barley-loaves
and two small fishes2." The Synoptists3 all relate
the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, but
Andrew is named by St John alone : Philip, an-
other of this little company, is close by ; he is ad-
dressed by our Lord, and Andrew interposes. We
find Philip and Andrew together at a later time.

1 A fragment of a very ancient account of the Canon of the
N. Test, has been preserved by Muratori. I will quote the transla-
tion of it from Professor Westcott's work. (Prof. Westcott,
Gospel of St John, p. xxxv.) "The fourth Gospel [was written
by] John, one of the disciples (i.e. Apostles). When his fellow-
disciples and bishops urgently pressed (cohortantibus) him, he said,
'Fast with me [from] to-day, for three days, and let us tell one
another any revelation which may be made to us, either for or
against [the plan of writing] (quid cuigue fuerit revelatum alter-
utrumy. On the same night it was revealed to Andrew, one
of the Apostles, that John should relate all in his own name, and
that all should review [his writing]." If we accept this authority,
John and Andrew were together in their age as they had been in
their youth. Philip also was at Hierapolis not very far off.

2 John vi. 8.

3 i.e. the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

158 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

When the Greeks who came up and worshipped
at the feast wished to see Jesus they applied to
Philip1; then we have

" Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: Andrew cometh,
and Philip, and they tell Jesus."

St John here seems almost to go out of his way
to speak of Andrew.

Philip also, who scarcely appears in the Synop-
tical Gospels, is mentioned six times by St John;
and he is found in company, now with Andrew,
now with Nathanael, as if the ties of old com-
panionship still held. The particulars we have of
Philip are instructive. Our Lord, as we have seen,
"found him," which I take to mean, not that He
merely lighted upon him, but that He sought
him. He thought him, therefore, a suitable com-
panion for His coming journey to Jerusalem for the
Passover. A point of fitness may have been that he
knew Greek : his Greek name would not by itself
go far to prove this ; but, taking it along with
the fact that when the Greeks come up to worship
in Jerusalem they address themselves to Philip,
it seems likely that he knew their language. Our
Lord at the Passover would meet many Israel-
ites who talked Greek more readily than Aramaic,
and a Greek-speaking follower would be of service

1 John xii. w. 20 — 22.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 159

to Him. Again when Philip says, "Lord, shew us
the Father and it sufficeth us1," our Lord replies,
Have I been so long with you and you have not
known me ? The words " so long " are particularly
applicable to Philip, as he had been called a year
before the twelve were formed into a body, and
may have remained in constant attendance on our
Lord when the other disciples quitted Him after
the return through Samaria.

With Nathanael also there is much interest
connected. He, in the last chapter of St John's
Gospel, is called Nathanael of Cana of Galilee, and
is named among others who are Apostles. He is
identified, on good grounds, with the Bartholomew
of the Synoptical Gospels2. We mark in Nathanael
an aptitude for discerning spiritual greatness ; but,
with all this, he held stoutly to old prejudices in
which he had been born and bred ; and when Philip
comes to him with his tidings, he breaks out with :
" Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth ?"
There is no reason to suppose that Nazareth was
held generally in bad estimation. Natives of Jeru-
salem would look down on all villages in Galilee
without distinction, but Nathanael belonged not to
Jerusalem but to Cana. Cana and Nazareth were
a few miles apart, each being the chief town in
its own district; and the local jealousy and ten-

1 John xiv. 9.

8 Bartholomew = son of Tolmai, so that Nathanael son of Tolmai
or (as Dr Edersheim writes it) of Temalgon, would be the full name.

l6o THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

dency to mutual disparagement between neighbours,
which is not unknown among ourselves, and was
rife in those times, will account for Nathanael's
words1.

It was of no ill augury for his holding fast the
Faith when he had found it, that he clung to the
old traditionary feeling of his native town. He
was not blinded by it; he is ready to "go and see/'
Here our Lord exercises His singular gift of intro-
spection, " Behold," says He, " an Israelite indeed,
in whom there is no guile."

"Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou
me ? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before Philip
called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw
thee. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, thou art the Son
of God ; thou art King of Israel8."

Probably Nathanael recalled what had passed in
his mind when he had been under the fig-tree.
Perhaps some mystery of existence had then

1 Tacitus speaking of Lugdunum and Vienna on opposite sides
of the Rhone, tells us that they regarded each other with the
animosity which "serves as a link between those whom only a river
separates" ("unde aemulatio et invidia et uno amne discretis
connexum odium"). Tac. Hist. I. c. 65.

St Matthew speaks of that "which was spoken by the prophets,
He shall be called a Nazarene." This prophecy, in the words given,
is not found in our canonical books. The Evangelist is supposed to
refer to Is. xi. i. The Hebrew word for a Branch, there used,
is Nalsar.

8 John i. 48, 49.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. l6l

weighed upon his soul, and on coming to Christ he
found "the thoughts of his heart revealed1."

In our Lord's reply to Nathanael we find His
first recorded utterance as a Preacher of the Word ;
here He first speaks of Himself as the Son of Man,
and here we have the first hint of the Law, "To
him who hath shall be given," a law which has been
several times before us and will be so again before
long. Nathanael had something already ; he was
enough in earnest to drop his prejudices; a slight
token had enabled him to see in our Lord "the Son
of God, the King of Israel : " he is told that he
shall see greater things than these. Jacob had
dreamed of old2 that there was a ladder between
earth and heaven, by which God's angels went and
came ; such a ladder Christ was, and he, the
Israelite in whom there was no guile, should see
"the angels of God ascending and descending upon
the Son of Man3."

So far I have followed the Gospel of St John.
The Synoptists afford corroborative matter to shew
that the little company, which had met at Beth-
abara, continued to hang together.

(i) In St Mark's4 list of the Apostles— the
names "and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew"
come together in the enumeration. If we were asked
for the names of a society of twelve men whom we
knew — they would occur by the twos and threes

1 Luke ii. 35. 2 Genesis xxviii. \i.

8 John i. 51. * Mark iii. 17—19-

U II

162 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

who were most together. St Peter, whom we may
regard here as St Mark's informant, gives the names
as they came to mind. He recalls journeys in the hill
country, when the disciples had walked in scattered
groups, three or four together. In one of these
little knots Andrew, Philip, and Bartholomew may
commonly have been found.

(2) From the way in which St Matthew's1 list
is given we may infer something of greater interest
still. St Matthew gives the names of the Apostles
in pairs: Simon and Andrew, James and John,
Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew —
and so on. Immediately after the list of names we
have the sending forth of the Apostles to the cities
of Israel. I believe that the Apostles went on this
mission in the pairs which are above-named. Why
else should the names be coupled together ? The
Evangelist had in his eye the party as they had
stood listening to their Master's words, with their
staves in their hands, ready to start. He recollects
their separating — two going one way, and two
another, — and therefore, two by two, he puts them
down in his list2. It is curious that though
St Matthew couples the names, yet he does not say,

1 Matth. x. 2—6.

2 If a party of young men were in the habit of separating for
excursions and going two by two, and one of the party were after-
wards asked for a list of the company ; it would help his memory to
recall them, pair by pair. The Evangelist is going to tell us of our
Lord's directions to the twelve about their mission. It then strikes
him that he must record their names.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 163

as St Mark and St Luke do, that the Apostles
were sent two and two together. The coupling in
St Matthew is a kind of coincidence with that
express direction which is preserved by St Mark
and St Luke.

Not only, then, is there probable evidence to
shew that, out of the little body of the earliest
disciples, three clung together ; but also that two
of them — Philip and Bartholomew — formed one of
the pairs that went forth declaring to the villages
of Galilee that the Kingdom of God was at
hand. At all events the Synoptists testify to a
special intimacy between two disciples ; and cir-
cumstances, which are disclosed by St John alone,
shew how this intimacy naturally arose. Thus we
have, what is always worth noting, a corroboration
by the Synoptists of the narrative of the fourth
Evangelist.

To return to the history in the Gospel of St
John. Our Lord sets out on His return to Galilee,
and may have been Nathanael's guest at Cana for
the night preceding the wedding. It does not fall
within my scope to say more about the miracle than
has been said already. The statement important for
my purpose is, that our Lord manifested His glory,
"and His disciples believed on Him1." The fact
that a new teacher worked wonders and drew dis-
ciples round him made a stir in the district; and this
may throw light upon the passage which follows,
i Johnii. ii.

1 1 — 2

1 64 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

" After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his
mother, and his brethren, and his disciples : and there
they abode not many days V

This event leads to no consequences in the history.
It would only have been mentioned by one who,
having the sequence of occurrences in his head,
detailed them all. Still, there must have been
some motive for this removal of the whole family
to Capernaum. I will hazard a conjecture, which
if correct will help to explain the following
text which occurs later on :

"And after the two days he went forth from thence
into Galilee. For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet
hath no honour in his own country. So when he came
into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all
the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast : for they
also went unto the feast*."

Why does the Evangelist say that our Lord was
Himself an instance of the rejection of a prophet
in his own country, at the very time when he
is about to say that the Galileans did receive Him
because they had seen what He did at the feast ?
There must have been some previous occasion on
which He had not been received. I believe that
the last quoted passage, fully expressed, might run
thus : " He went forth from thence into Galilee but
not to Nazareth, for Jesus Himself testified that a
prophet hath no honour in his own country," and
therefore He passed by Nazareth and went on to

1 John ii. 12. * John iv. 43—45.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 165

Cana, a few miles further north. Now, at what time
could our Lord have experienced this ill reception? I
find no occasion on which such disparagement of His
claims can have been shewn, excepting in the short
interval between the miracle at Cana and this with-
drawal of the whole family to Capernaum. I would
therefore conjecture that on leaving Cana, after the
miracle, our Lord had returned with His mother to
Nazareth, and that the inhabitants had then in some
way shown ill-will1. He probably brought with
Him some disciples belonging to Cana — a place
of which they were jealous — hailing Him as Rabbi,
and proclaiming Him their Master. The people of
Nazareth resented this assumption of superiority on
the part of a townsman whom they had known from
His birth. The whole family are involved in the
unpopularity, and remove to Capernaum, to wait
the time for going up to the Passover.

Though St John makes no mention, in its
proper place, of the animosity of the people of
Nazareth, yet the recollection of it remains in his
mind ; so that, when he says that our Lord went
into Galilee on His return from Samaria, this seems
to him noticeable, as though it were strange He
should go where He had been ill received before ;
and he tells us why He is well received on this
occasion ; namely, because some had brought back
word of His vigorous action in cleansing the

1 The tone of His discourse delivered there, after His visit to
Jerusalem, falls in with this view.

1 66 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

Temple. Our Lord does not go to Nazareth, but
again makes His stay at Cana.

To return to this short stay at Capernaum. The
point I am most concerned with is, that it is here
that the disciples are first mentioned as attached to
our Lord in His movements ; they form, as it were,
part of His family. If our Lord had already met
with opposition, as I have conjectured, this would
have helped to bind the little company closer to-
gether. We hear of no preaching or working of
Signs during the short stay at Capernaum. We
are not positively told that the disciples went with
our Lord to Jerusalem1; but I imagine that the five
of whom we have read went up to the Passover,
though some may have returned to Galilee soon
after the feast2.

The narrative of the cleansing of the Temple
shews how burning was our Lord's indignation
at practices that degraded men's notions of God.

1 It must be recollected that there is no mention in St John's
Gospel of any disciple by name, after the first chapter, until we come
to the sixth.

2 It may be asked, How were the disciples maintained during
several weeks at Jerusalem ? Though not of the poorest class they
could not have lived long without labour. John may have been
spared because James remained to help his father in his work.
But if Peter and Andrew had both stayed at Jerusalem through
all the early summer, it is hard to see how they, and Peter's wife,
could have been supported. I should conjecture therefore that if
Peter went to Jerusalem to the first passover, he only made a brief
stay. There were, at this time, apparently no contributions such cs
we hear of afterwards (Luke viii. 3).

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. l6/

Personal attacks He bore with meekness, "when
He was reviled He reviled not again, when He
suffered He threatened not1;" but He gives free
vent to a godly wrath when He finds men driving a
traffic in holy things.

A personal characteristic of our Lord, shewn
again and again, comes for the first time before us
here: He carried authority in His air, an authority
that needed no assertion, but to which men bowed.
The owners of the oxen yield without resistance
to the determination He shews. It is only the
Hierarchy who ask, " What sign shewest thou unto
us, seeing that thou doest these things2?" I need
not say that on demand He will work no Sign at
all : this is His invariable rule.

St John says nothing of the nature of the
miracles wrought by our Lord at this time; we only
hear that they induced people " to believe in His
name8." They may have been chiefly miracles of in-
trospection, like the recognition of Peter, the seeing
of Nathanael under the fig-tree, and the divining of
His mother's meaning when she said " they have
no wine;" for St John assiduously keeps before his
hearers this insight of our Lord into men's minds.
In particular he says, in reference to the disciples
who gathered round Him in Judaea,

" But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that
he knew all men, and because he needed not that any one
should bear witness concerning man : for he himself
knew what was in man4."
1 i Peter ii. 23. a John ii. 16. * John ii. 23. * John ii. 24, 25.

168 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

When our Lord drove out the money-changers
and those who sold doves, people thronged to Him
in Jerusalem, thinking that the leader whom they
sought had come. But these were not disciples
after His own heart, not such as should receive the
kingdom of God as little children. These were
men who had both notions and a purpose of their
own ; men who would follow Him as long as He
went their way ; and who, when He did not, would
"go back and walk no more with Him1." The
relation of our Lord to these early Judaean dis-
ciples was very different from that in which He
stood, either to the five who had gone with Him
from Bethabara to Cana and Capernaum, or to
those who afterwards thronged to His preaching
of the Kingdom of Heaven. To these Judaean dis-
ciple^ our Lord as far as we know delivers no
lessons and issues no directions ; we do not hear
that they were especially chosen for witnesses of
the Signs in Jerusalem, or that they formed an
organised body in any way. It seems rather as if a
body of men ranged themselves round our Lord
and, from their admiration for Him, took the name
of His disciples, but did not hold themselves to be
under orders, and came and went as they pleased.

Our Lord had not yet begun His real Ministry ;
He was probing the capacities and natures both of
individual men and of different classes in the com-
munity, with a view to testing their fitness for
taking part in His great work.
1 John vi. 66.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 169

Something inclined Him, we may suppose, to
take Galilee for the cradle of the new movement ;
and the circumstance that those who first adhered
were all Galilaeans pointed along the same way.
It would appear to be a method of Divine guidance,
to speak by a whisper within, and, at the same time,
so to order circumstances without, that one should
fall in with the other : sometimes this coincidence
will be perceived and will strike the beholder with
a kind of awe, and sometimes it will operate on
him without his being aware.

There was much that made Galilee suitable: its
position was at once central and retired, and its in-
habitants were, according to Josephus, sturdy and
independent, and, of course, free from the pedantry
of Rabbinical schools. Jerusalem however claimed
a trial from our Lord. He desired to know what was
passing there in the minds of those who were seek-
ing truth. It was possible that a cradle for the infant
church might be found among the followers of the
Baptist, or among Scribes like Nicodemus. Our
Lord gauges the fitness of both these bodies of
men. We know what conclusion settled itself in
His mind during those early days : He must not
put new wine into old bottles. The enlightened
party among those in authority were more after
the type of Erasmus than of Luther, they lacked
force : they had been trained to pick their way
through difficulties of interpretation,but not to grasp
great principles, still less to act; and though they
divined that there was a truth dawning from afar,

I/O THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

yet their feeling for it was not so much a passion
as a taste.

After the discourse with Nicodemus the Evan-
gelist returns to narration, and tells us of a visit
of our Lord and His disciples to the district
where the Baptist was carrying on his work. It
may have been that he meant to represent our
Lord as turning from Nicodemus to John's dis-
ciples ; as if, when He found the former unequal
to the need, He would try how the latter might
serve. The words are

" After these things came Jesus and his disciples into
the land of Judaea ; and there he tarried with them, and
baptized. And John also was baptizing in -^Enon near
to Salim, because there was much water there : and they
came, and were baptized1/'

It is not said that our Lord actually went to the
spot where John was; but the narrative favours
the view that the two companies were not far from
one another. We are told that followers were
drawn in large numbers to our Lord and that
His disciples baptised them. This adoption of the
rite which, though not unknown before, had been
brought into special prominence by the Baptist,
excited jealousy in John's disciples —

"And they came unto John, and said to him,
Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom
thou hast borne witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and
all men come to him*."

1 John iii. i«, 23. 9 John iii. 26.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. IJl

One reason of the anxiety of the disciples to
baptise may possibly have been this ; they saw how
that outward rite supplied John's disciples with a
badge that marked them out and made one body
of them; they were all bound together to the
same master by having received baptism at his
hands, — bound together not merely by holding the
same opinions and honouring the same man, but
by something that had been done, by a work
wrought upon them. Some might interpret this
" outward and visible sign " in one way and some in
another, but all could see the value of such a sign
or symbol for giving coherence and permanency to
their new community.

In the fourth chapter we find that the Pharisees
at Jerusalem, — they who constituted the religious
world of the place, — had come to the knowledge
that the resort to Jesus was greater than that to
St John—

"When therefore the Lord knew how that the
Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptiz-
ing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself
baptized not, but his disciples), he left Judaea and
departed again into Galilee1."

I make out St John's meaning to be, that our
Lord quitted Judaea because He found Himself
thrust into apparent rivalry with John the Baptist.
The Judaean disciples wanted a sect of their own;
and the Pharisees regarded our Lord's following as

1 John iv. i, 2.

1/2 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

an offshoot from the movement of John, an offshoot
which was likely to out-top the parent tree.

It seems to me that our Lord was taking a
survey of the different religious sections in Judaea
and examining their fitness to furnish helpers for
His work. Scholars who like Nicodemus were
quick to ask " How can these things be ?" were not
of the right order for setting a great movement
afoot. If men were fully possessed with the
momentous nature of God's spiritual working in
the world, the idea of this as a fact would take up
all their minds leaving no room for the question of
mode. If Nicodemus had been capable of seeing
how sublime was the future presented to him, he
would never have expected to understand how
it could come to pass. Next our Lord tried the
disciples of John ; these may have been too full of
the spirit of partizanship, and too much taken up
with questions of purifying and the like, to be fit
foster parents for the new Faith. Whatsoever were
the cause, in neither of these classes did our Lord
find a cradle for the faith. He required men
plastic and receptive, capable of devoted self-
surrender and possessed of self-transforming and
expanding powers. These did not grow freely in
the social climate of Judaea ; our Lord's thoughts
then, we may suppose, went back to His own
people and His own country, and He preached
the Kingdom first in Galilee.

Our Lord's leaving Judaea was precipitated by

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 173

the rivalry which was threatening between His
adherents and those of John ; more especially as
that rivalry was taking the form of a competition in
point of numbers. For the spirit which this would
engender was to our Lord abhorrent in the extreme.
When sect strives with sect, and they would decide
the contest for superiority by counting heads, they
are both in a way to fall down and worship the
Spirit of the world.

Our Lord was not founding or setting up a form
of religion to which He personally would convert
mankind ; but He and His work were part of the
subject-matter of all religion — the relations of God
to man. The apostles are never encouraged to exult
in the number of their converts. Even when they
were sent through the cities, on what we might
regard as a missionary errand, they are not directed
to win men over by strong entreaty — they are not
then bidden, as men afterwards were by St Paul,
to "be instant in season and out of season1;" they
are only to proclaim the Kingdom of God : those
who have ears to hear will hear, and the rest will
go their way.

Any competition with John the Baptist was
above all to be shunned. Our Lord and the Baptist
were bound together by early ties. Jesus had sought
and received Baptism at his hand, and we always
see a delicate and unswerving fidelity in His be-
haviour towards him. It might be that He was

1 a Tim. iv. a.

174 TIIE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

to increase and John was to decrease, but it should
not be by any action of His that that change of
relative position should be brought about. The
Gospel itself, then, discloses grounds for our Lord's
sudden departure into Galilee. Thus early, among
the hearers of our Lord and the Baptist, appeared
an insidious tendency to form parties, a tendency
which broke out disastrously in later times; when
some said, " I am of Paul " and others " I am
of ApollosV

There is no valid reason for supposing that our
Lord left Judaea from fear of persecution. The
Pharisees may have been in commotion when they
heard that Jesus baptised more disciples than
John ; and there may have been some stir in sacer-
dotal circles at Jerusalem, but there is no appear-
ance of violence having been threatened. Neither
do I connect our Lord's journey with the captivity
of the Baptist. I believe that John was not thrown
into prison till three or four months after this
journey through Samaria ; but supposing that the
imprisonment had already taken place and it had
seemed likely that Herod's jealousy of John would
extend to Jesus, our Lord would not have left
Judaea, which was not under Herod's jurisdiction,
and have gone into Galilee which was so.

At any rate our Lord quits Judaea and the
Judaean disciples, or all but a few of them, and
travels back to Galilee with a little company who
1 i Cor. i. ia.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 175

were bound to Him, and who tended Him, it
would seem, with affectionate solicitude1.

It does not come into my plan to discuss the
discourses of our Lord except so far as they bear
on the training of the apostles, and so I pass by the
discourse with the woman of Samaria, as I have
done that with Nicodemus. I believe that only
three or four disciples attended our Lord on His
journey : if they had been numerous, they would
not all have left Him, wearied and alone at the
fountain. But in visiting a strange town in Samaria,
it might be unwise to enter with a smaller party
than three or four ; so that if the disciples numbered
no more than this, we can account for our Lord
being left by Himself.

This journey through Samaria has an important
bearing on my subject. Here, for the first time, we
have a conversation of our Lord with His disciples ;
and, what is more, we get a glimpse of an office
in store for them, of a work that is to give a
meaning to their lives. The disciples of the Baptist
had been learners and listeners only; but our Lord's
disciples were not to be mere passive recipients of
teaching. They were to be taught by doing as well
as by hearing ; they were to take part with Him in
the great work that was to be wrought in the world.
They were not servants — " for the servant knoweth

1 John iv. 31. They press Him to take bodily support about
which they thought Him careless. This must be an eye-witness's
account.

176 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

not what his lord doeth1/' but they were friends
joining in the common cause. We may wonder
why no earlier converse of our Lord with His dis-
ciples is preserved. Possibly, before this, there were
in the company some of those to whom He " did
not commit Himself2." While these were present,
our Lord may have maintained a reserve, and said
nothing bearing on His work which it was important
for the Evangelist to record. But, when our Lord set
out through the semi-hostile country of Samaria in
the midst of the early summer heat, those only fol-
lowed who were in earnest, and on whom He could
rely.

I pass on at once to that address to the disciples
to which I have alluded. Our Lord had been
cheered by the Samaritan woman's openness to the
truth. On leaving the well He comes on a scene,
than which few are more gladdening — a great ex-
panse of corn growing luxuriantly, swaying with
the wind and glistening in the sun. We mark that
He was always keenly alive to external impression,
and in all He saw espied matter that fitted what
He taught. Our Lord is struck by the sight, He
sees in it something that answers to His thoughts,
and which seems to convey a promise which re-
joices His soul — not for Himself but for His
disciples. The discourse is as follows :

"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then
cometh the harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your
1 John xv. 15. 2 John ii. 24.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 177

eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white already
unto harvest. He that reapeth receiveth wages, and
gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that he that soweth
and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For herein is
the saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I
sent you to reap that whereon ye have not laboured : others
have laboured, and ye are entered into their labour V

The work before the disciples is only to reap:
others had ploughed and sown. Prophets and
teachers, and also rulers and judges, all who had
helped to bring the Israelites into the condition of
being ripe for better things — these past teachers of
men, as well as all the impersonal workings of
the unseen hand which had smoothed the way —
all these answered to the ploughers and sowers of
the crop which the apostles were now to reap. This
" Praeparatio Evangelica," so often before us, had
been the combined result of many sorts of action,
and into the fruits of this labour the disciples
were now to enter. They, along with all those who
had sowed and tended, should one day rejoice to-
gether, when the grain was garnered in heaven, and
when those accounted worthy of the Resurrection
to Eternal Life should enter on their reward.

Gleams of gladness in our Lord's career come
rarely, and His joy is always for others' sake. It is
not for Himself, not even for the cause that He re-
joices— that cause would surely triumph in its own
time — but His joy is, that He beholds a successful

1 John iv. 35 — 38. See Chronological Appendix.
L. 12

178 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

and glorious career opening before His fellow-
labourers, the few friends at His side. On the re-
turn of the seventy recorded by St Luke, this same
joy for His disciples' sake is especially spoken of.

" In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit,
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise
and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes :
yea, Father ; for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight. All
things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and
no one knoweth who the Son is, save the Father; and
who the Father is, save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son willeth to reveal him*"

It would seem that such happiness as our Lord
found on earth came from marking the affectionate
fidelity of the Apostles and their growth in favour
with God. " Ye are they," says He to them, " who
have continued with me in my temptations2" and He
speaks of the "joy in heaven" and again of the "joy
in the presence of the angels of God," " over one
sinner that repenteth3 ;" every one who turned
to Him with a single heart brought Him glad-
ness. This joyousness, we may believe, spread
a gleam over the life of our Lord and of His
disciples, until when near the end the shadow
came. The disciples were always slow to under-
stand His hints of coming sorrow ; they could not
conceive that the spiritual triumph was to be
emphasised by being contrasted with bodily

1 Luke x. 21, 22. a Luke xxii. 28. * Luke xv. 10.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 179

suffering; and He had no more the heart to
break the whole sad truth to them, than He had
to waken the sleepers at Gethsemane. Circum-
stances would teach the apostles all the truth in
time, but even His plain words on the last journey1
do not seem to have been taken literally.

For reasons given in the chronological appendix
I place the return of our Lord through Samaria
early in May A.D. 28.

Between the return through Samaria and the
journey up to 'the feast of the Jews8/ some months
have to be accounted for. St John relates but a
single incident, the cure of the nobleman's son at
Capernaum, as belonging to this time ; but I would
also place here the preaching in the synagogues in
Galilee mentioned by St Luke. His words are —

" And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into
Galilee : and a fame went out concerning him through
all the region round about. And he taught in their
synagogues, being glorified of all8."

This is parallel with St John's statement, before
discussed, "The Galilaeans received Him, having
seen all the things that He did at Jerusalem at the
feast4."

I also refer to this period the preaching in the
synagogue at Nazareth. The tone of this discourse
as I have already observed (pp. 164, 165) tallies
with the notion before advanced of a previous ill

1 Mark x. 33, 34. 2 John v. I. * Luke iv. 14, 15. 4 John iv. 45.

12 — 2

ISO THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

reception of our Lord at Nazareth. There is no
mention of our Lord's mother or 'brethren, they
had left Nazareth (John ii. 12) and we do not hear
of their return. At other places in Galilee, our Lord
had been received with enthusiasm, but at Naza-
reth petty jealousies prevailed. He does not, in
this sermon, speak like one returning with renown
to a warm welcome in his own town. He has an
air of expecting opposition, as if He had met with
it before. He condemns the narrow localising
spirit of His hearers, and goes so far as to impugn
the exclusive claim of the people of Israel to be
the recipients of the favour of God.

It is to be remarked that no mention is made
of disciples being in attendance upon our Lord,
from the time of His reaching Galilee by way of
Samaria to that of His presenting Himself to the
four Apostles by the Lake shore — that is, as I take
it, from May to October A.D. 281. The little com-
pany that came through Samaria probably broke up
on reaching Galilee. They had their bread to earn
and for the most part went back to their callings;
while our Lord during the summer of A.D. 28 was
preaching in various synagogues, and went, almost

1 If a body of disciples had accompanied our Lord to Nazareth,
they would probably have offered some opposition to the Nazarenes.
The absence of all mention of disciples in St Luke, chap. iv. gives
reason for supposing that the visit to Nazareth here recorded Is
not the same with that related in St Matthew and St Mark; for the
disciples were then present. See Mark vi. i — 6, Matth. xiii. 53.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. l8l

unattended, to Jerusalem. The absence of His
followers would account for the scantiness of our
information as to this period.

I suppose that the feast spoken of in St
John's Gospel (chap. v. i), took place early in the
autumn of the same year A.D. 28. It was, I conceive,
about the close of this feast that the Baptist was
thrown into prison ; upon this, our Lord returned
into Galilee, and His official ministry began1.

We cannot suppose Him to have been quite
alone at this feast at Jerusalem, because some one
must have been there to report what took place. I
do not think that John was with our Lord at the
feast, because, if he had been so, he could only
have been absent from Him a few days before our
Lord rejoined him on the Lake shore, and the
incidents of this call give the impression that the
separation had been of much greater length. I
incline to think that our Lord was attended by
Philip, who alone, at that time, had received the

1 I incline to the old view which identified this feast with the
feast of Tabernacles; the time suits well with my chronological
scheme. This was "the feast" of the Jews, it caused great stir. Now
Josephus tells us, that Herod put John in prison because men
came to him in crowds. This was more likely to happen when
men were set free from their work by the holiday than at other
times. It is true that in ch. vii. 2, John calls the feast of tabernacles
by name. But he is there writing his own account, while here he
is only recasting, as I believe, what he has received from an eye-
witness. This may account for the difference of expression. Some
MSS. but not the weightiest, read "the feast," in John v. i. If
this were received it would go far to settle the point.

1 82 THE OUTSET OF THE- WORK.

order "Follow Me1." If John drew some of his
information from Philip, this will help to account
for his frequent mention of him8.

It was on our Lord's visit to this feast that He
first incurred the active enmity of the Scribes. It
followed from His miracle at the pool of Bethesda,
which took place on the Sabbath day. Since the
cure was wrought by a word there was no breach
of the law; but "the Jews" (by which word St
John indicates the hierarchy) were shocked that
He should tell the man to carry his bed on the
Sabbath day.

" The man went away, and told the Jews that it was
Jesus which had made him whole. And for this cause
did the Jews persecute Jesus, because he did these things
on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, My Father
worketh even until now, and I work. For this cause
therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because
he not only brake the sabbath, but also called God his
own Father, making himself equal with God3."

The hostility of the Scribes, we see, is very
deadly. The Pharisees are often scandalised at
infractions of their sabbath notions, but they
do not seek our Lord's death as the Scribes do.
The latter were probably Sadducees, tinged with

1 John i. 43.

2 The historical part of John Chap. 5, vv. i— 18 has the air of an
account condensed from materials furnished by another. We are
told that Philip was bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia. He may there-
fore have kept up communication with John at Ephesus.

3 John v. 15 — 18.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 183

western philosophy, and they were actuated by
other motives beside zeal for the Law.

For one thing, they were in reality made un-
easy by our Lord's assertion that a living God was
working among them and close by. Ministers of
state who have possessed themselves of sovereign
power are startled and infuriated if their nominal
monarch personally asserts his power : and, some-
thing in the same way, a priesthood occupied in
promulgating ecclesiastical laws and carrying on
the externals of worship were frightened at the
announcement that God, instead of leaving matters
for them to manage, had Himself come to reign
and rule upon the earth.

But what was more effective than even spiritual
awe was their personal alarm. The dread which one
of their body afterwards expressed — " The Romans
will come and take away both our place and our
nation1 " — was always over their heads. They were
a sacerdotal oligarchy trembling for their existence.
The people hated the Romans, and the Scribes were
bound to stand well with both : an outbreak might
bring to an end whatever ecclesiastical indepen-
dence they still possessed. The priesthood saw
something in our Lord which might lead the people
to take Him and make Him a king.

The reply, " My Father worketh hitherto and I
work*," is characteristic of our Lord's way. He
does not meet the charge by contesting the inter-

1 John xi. 48. 2 John v. 1 7.

1 84 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

pretation of the Law. He ignores .all quibbles of
legality and goes to the root of the matter. It is
by the working of God that the world is maintained.
His Father worketh hitherto, on Sabbath days and
all, and He, the Son, follows in His Father's ways.
The same test of Sonship — that the child takes
after the Father — is applied in the Sermon on the
mount1.

I must notice another verse of this discourse,

" I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me
not : if another shall come in his own name, him ye will
receive2. "

Our Lord here lays bare the reason why so
few would follow Him. He touches the very centre
of the matter. To kindle enthusiasm among a
mass of men, you must have a person or a name.
A cause is best embodied in an actual claimant
standing before men's eyes ; but failing this they
will often rally to a name that they know. Our
Lord used only His Father's name ; this did not
move their human sympathies for "The Father"
had no personality for them. It was reserved for
the Apostles to draw men over to the Faith, and
they were given the advantage which Jesus was
content to forego. They could put forward a
personal claimant for the loyalty of men : they
had Christ's story to tell and Christ's name for a
watchword and they won men for the kingdom of

1 Matth. v. 45. a John v. 43.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 185

God by gaining their homage for the Son of
Man.

The temporary separation of the Apostles from
our Lord during the summer of A.D. 28 may
have answered higher ends than merely enabling
them to earn their livelihood. It gave them time
to think over the events of the last six months.

It is a feature of our Lord's way in His course
of teaching, not to suffer one set of ideas or in-
fluences to be disturbed before they have had time
to take root After a period of stress, or when new
impressions had been stamped on the minds of
his disciples, He provides for them an interval of
calm. When the disciples return exulting from
their mission through the cities, He says, "Come
ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a
while." When crowds thronged them and courted
them for access to their Master, He carried them
away, that the impressions He wanted to preserve
might not be effaced in the turmoil. It may have
been in pursuance of this treatment that, after the
resurrection, they were sent for a time into Galilee,
there to wait and to watch.

All teachers know that the time of rest that
follows a period in which new matter hau been taken
into the mind is precious for good mental growth :
conceptions then become more clear and complete,
and effect a sure lodgement in the mind : but this,
like many processes in education, helps to widen
the distance between the weak and the strong.
For it is only with the more thoughtful that this

1 86 THE OUTSET OF THE WORK.

half unconscious brain-process goes on ; the active
minded mature their acquirements during rest,
while the unthinking let them fade away. It
argued well, in consequence, for Peter and Andrew
and John, that Christ's influence had lost nothing
through (as I believe) weeks of separation, but that
as soon as they were called they sprang to their
feet at once, — " they straightway left the nets and
followed Him1."

Reverence for great men whom we have known,
and the power of appreciating them, grow during
absence. We may have been living so familiarly
with one far above the common standard, that we
may almost lose thought of his greatness; the
little matters of common life, which come before us
every day, take more than their share of notice; and,
as regards these, great men and smaller ones must
be much alike. But when we are away from our
guide, our recollections turn to what is distinctive
of him — to the points in which he contrasts with
everyday men : what he had in common with such
disappears, and our mental portrait preserves what
is characteristic, and gives us the individual more
forcibly than our nearer view had done. We often
first become aware-of the true proportions of great-
ness, when we look back on it from a little way
off. Out of a range of mountains, all, when seen
from the valley, appearing much of a height, one is
found to vastly out-top the rest when we mount
the opposite hill-side.

1 Matth. iv. «o.

THE OUTSET OF THE WORK. 187

We may suppose that some process like this
was going on in the minds of Peter and Andrew
and James and John during that summer spent in
their fishers' work by the Sea of Galilee. Our
Lord's image would, all the more, be kept alive in
their minds because when they chanced to meet
their talk would be of Him ; and their Master's
form would seem to rise before them when they sat
beside one another, with their boats drawn up on
the beach. We need not suppose that they saw into
their Master's plans, far less into His nature; we do
not know that they had heard from Him about the
Kingdom of Heaven which the Baptist had told
them was at hand; but the foundation for Faith
was being laid in a capacity for intense personal
devotion. First they learnt to love the Master
whom they saw by their side ; next, by thinking of
Him while He was away, they learned how much
they loved Him, and became aware that their
affection for Him had in it something different
from the common affections they knew. Shortly,
as we shall presently see, a sense of shelter and of
fostering protection mingled with this love, and
grew into a trust, first in the Master who was with
them, and afterwards in the Lord in Heaven. It
is hardly too much to say that the germ of the
new quality, which was to order the world afresh,
was planted in men's hearts by the side of the Sea
of Galilee in that summer of A.D. 28, and that
then Faith — Faith as our Lord speaks of it —
dawned upon the world.

CHAPTER VII.
THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

IT was, as I believe, soon after that " feast of
the Jews" lately mentioned (pp. 180 and 181 note),
that the news of the apprehension of the Baptist
by Herod reached our Lord at Jerusalem. At
once He enters on His own Great Work1 and

1 I place this advent of our Lord into Galilee at the end of
September A.D. 28, but the evidence is insufficient for a positive
opinion. My reasons for supposing that John was not imprisoned till
after this feast are as follows. The Synoptists say that after John's
imprisonment our Lord came into Galilee preaching the Kingdom.
Now when He returned through Samaria He did not begin to
preach the Kingdom, and therefore the advent of Mark i. 14 re-
fers to some other occasion ; I believe to a subsequent one. In St
John's Gospel chaps, iv. and v. we hear nothing of "the Kingdom"
and no disciples are mentioned as attending our Lord. I think
therefore that the events related in these chapters occurred before
the advent into Galilee ; this is one argument for placing this visit
to the feast, where I do. Moreover it is hard to find another place
for it. The Synoptical narrative is fairly continuous from the
advent (Mark i. 14) up to the journey to the Feast of Tabernacles,
and there is in it no mention either of a visit to Jerusalem, which
must have occupied several days, or of our Lord's quitting His
disciples. All proceeds consistently if we suppose, as I have
done, that John was put in prison at the time of this feast or

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 189

goes straight into Galilee, preaching on the way that
the Kingdom of God is come. The reasons for
His holding back, came to an end together with
the liberty of John. We lose now the guidance of
St John, and we pass to the more continuous
transcript of events which the Synoptists give.

Up to this time of His advent into Galilee our
Lord was in part, as I have said, exploring the con-
dition and the tempers of the people in quest of
the fittest cradle for the Faith. It may possibly
have been that our Lord in His visit to Jerusalem
was giving the Holy City a last trial ; but I see
no ground to suppose that our Lord ever seriously
contemplated any course different from that which
He actually took. In any case, this outbreak of

soon after. But there is one difficulty about this. Our Lord says
of the Baptist John v. 35, " He was the lamp that burneth and
shineth, and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light."
The use of the imperfect tense is supposed to show that John was
in prison when this was said, but surely if it is to be pressed
rigorously it would mean that he was dead: for he received his
disciples in prison and could give counsel and direction to those
without. He did not cease to shine for them. I take these
words to mean that he was no longer a light to the Priests and
Levites. They had gone to him when he was preaching in the
wilderness of Judaea, Matth. iii. 5, and afterwards they had sent
to him in Bethany beyond Jordan : he was now in the territory
of Herod, and there he was out of sight, and with the Priests and
Levites he was out of mind. They could not make him a partisan
or an ally and they had given him up. If John was in prison
at this time, his imprisonment must have been a recent event,
and we should expect our Lord to allude to it when He speaks
of him.

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

hostility on the part of the scribes settled the matter:
for the kind of mental growth which our Lord
wished to bring about in the disciples could not
go on in the midst of party warfare.

Young men on the watch for attack are not
in a state for fertilizing "seed thoughts" or for
turning over hard matters in their minds, and care
for the state of the recipient characterizes the
teaching of Christ. Men are to take heed how they
hear, as well as what they hear, and are to reach full
growth and shape, not from outward moulding but
by living process from within. Our Lord's eye is
never off His pupils, and yet visible direction hardly
ever appears; He sways them by an insensible touch.
A great truth is brought to light by an incident of
wonder, a pregnant word is let drop, a hard parable
is delivered now and then ; but between whiles the
disciples are left to dwell on their own thoughts,
as their fishing boat sails along, or as they follow
their Master among the northern hills. Our Lord
is ever bent on making men thoughtful and on
calling out in each the inner life which is proper
to the man, and for this, tranquillity, or at least
frequent opportunity for quiet communing with
their own thoughts, was absolutely required.

The antagonism at Jerusalem might have
stopped short of violence and yet the wrangling
spirit of the place might have had a very evil effect
on the disciples. It was above all essential that
they should have a single hearted love of truth ;

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. IQI

and this can hardly grow up when party is ranged
against party and each tries to set the views and
statements of the other in the most damaging light,
and to dispose his own propositions in polemical
order with a strategic view. As soon therefore as
the hostility of the scribes was displayed, it became
clear that the schooling of the Apostles must be
brought about elsewhere than in Judaea. But apart
from this, Jerusalem was, for other reasons easy to
perceive, ill-suited for the purpose. It was too
Academical ; the place was full of Rabbis, round
whose feet a circle of pupils sat. Each school
adopted its master's dicta with theundiscriminating
loyalty of youth ; and the scholars of other
teachers, by steadily taking it for granted that
Jesus of Nazareth was a teacher like the Rabbis
they knew, would have half persuaded His followers
that there was something in common between Him
and the Doctors who expounded the Law.

The Rabbis gave their scholars something to
show for their lessons — expositions of the Law
and systematic doctrine — and their pupils would
have said to the disciples, "Our master gives us
this or that; what does your master give you?" This
would have set them looking for what was in-
tentionally withheld. Our Lord did not fill them
with opinions or directions to be remembered, but
He made them what He wanted them to be.

To understand how wisely things were ordered,
we must give a glance to what would have been

192 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

the result of the most obvious and apparently
" the most natural " course. Our Lord's brethren
recommended that He should go and show Him-
self and teach at Jerusalem. I have shown the ill
effects this would have had on the training of the
disciples; I will now say a word on the way in
which it would have affected the Church. If
Jerusalem had been the seat of teaching, the dis-
ciples there, instead of numbering "a hundred and
twenty," would have been a large body. Possibly
they might have offered armed resistance to the
apprehension of our Lord ; and the whole moral of
the action would have been lost if they had. But
passing this by, if a large body of disciples dwelling
at Jerusalem had claimed our Lord as peculiarly
their own, the universality of His work would have
been obscured. The Church at Jerusalem might
have dwelt more on His being their particular
Founder and Bishop than on His being the Re-
deemer of the World.

Again, How would it have been with the
authority of the Twelve ? Those who had sat at
His feet and listened, just as the Apostles had
done, might have hesitated when He was gone to
acknowledge the Twelve as the founders of the
Church; for the Church, they would have said,
began with themselves. More than this, practical
evils would have come about; for these original
disciples, regarding themselves as the depositaries
of tradition, would have recalled every practice of

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 193

their Lord, — for instance the way in which He had
given thanks at meat, or ordered service in prayer,
as well as His practice as to the Sabbath and
fasting, — these would have been passed down as
Divinely sanctioned, and the externals of religion
would have been stereotyped as thoroughly as
though they had been a new Ceremonial Law,
like that from which He desired to release man-
kind. Moreover the body of believers who had
personally known our Lord, would have constituted
a kind of ecclesiastical aristocracy ; and distinctions
— respect of persons — would have been introduced
from the first. What actually happened was far
more consistent with the general tenour of Christ's
plan so far as we can make it out. The few original
disciples at Jerusalem were lost in the crowd who
were added to the Church after the day of Pentecost,
and the Apostles ruled with unquestioned authority
from the first.

Galilee we have seen, as a retired spot with an
honest-hearted people, was admirably fitted for the
scene of the ministry ; but yet it could not be " that
a prophet should perish out of Jerusalem," and it
was imperative that there the end should come.
The Holy City was also fitted, in a very peculiar
manner, to be the centre from which the new move-
ment was to radiate forth. The Lord's death,
the Supreme Event in the history of mankind, was
not to take place in a corner. The circumstances
of it could not be too notorious or too widely
L. 13

194 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

vouched. It was to be made known in East and
West to the Hebrew, the Greek, the Roman and to
all mankind. Now Jerusalem, both geographically,
and as the point to which the Jews of the dispersion
bent watchful eyes from many lands, was wondrously
adapted to be a centre of diffusion. It was in a
very remarkable way a "city set upon a hill." It
stood accessible to three continents, at the centre
of gravity of the known world, and it was on the
watershed of two civilizations : the Aryan and
Semitic races and languages and the different
modes of thinking which go along with the lan-
guages were brought together there.

Moreover, owing to the dispersion of the Jews
and their custom of visiting Jerusalem at the great
feasts when they possibly could, " devout men
from every nation under Heaven" were drawn
together there from time to time, and a common
interest in what concerned "Israel" was spread
over the globe. The agency of these festivals con-
nected Jerusalem, as by electric threads, with every
great city in the inhabited world, and the Israelites
who were settled in every large town of the empire
afterwards provided nests for the new Faith.

The Apostles, as was natural, after the Resur-
rection went back to Galilee. It can only have been
owing to directions they must have received, that
they all returned to Jerusalem for the Ascension.
Our Lord then enjoined them to remain and from
thence to propagate the Faith. This injunction

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 195

explains their abandonment of their homes and
callings, which is hard to account for otherwise.

I now proceed with the history. During this
chapter I shall for the most part follow St Mark,
who relates the events nearly in the order in which
I believe they happened. After a brief notice of
John and of the temptation he proceeds thus :

" Now after that John was delivered up, Jesus came
into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying,
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at
hand : repent ye, and believe in the gospel1."

The Evangelist does not say that our Lord came
from Judaea, but He could have come from nowhere
else. It would seem that our Lord on arriving in
Galilee went at once to the Lake shore and called
the two pair of fisher brethren to His side.

" And passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw
Simon and Andrew brother of Simon casting a net in the
sea : for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them,
Come ye after me, and I will make you to become
fishers of men. And straightway they left the nets,
and followed him. And going on a little farther, he
saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who
also were in the boat mending the nets. And straight-
way he called them : and they left their father Zebedee
in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him2."

This passage would offer an opening for criti-
cism, if it were not for the light thrown on it by St

1 Mark i. i-j, 15. 2 Mark i. 16—20.

13-2

196 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

John's Gospel, by help of which an apparent
difficulty is turned into a coincidence.

If we did not possess the Gospel of St John, the
story of the call of the Apostles would stand thus,
It would appear that our Lord came down to the
Sea of Galilee, and said to two fishermen — whom,
for all we should know to the contrary, He had
never seen before, — " Come ye after me, and I
will make you to become fishers of men." These
would seem startling words to hear from a stranger,
but the brothers, without asking further, and with-
out one consulting the other, at once left their
work and followed our Lord.

This would be unlikely, but not passing belief ;
men are mastered in a moment, by personal in-
fluence, now and then ; but still the preponderance
of probabilities is against the truth of the story.
The Evangelist however goes on to relate that
our Lord passes on along the Lake side, and
within a few hundred yards comes upon another
pair of brothers, also fishermen ; he addresses them
nearly in the same terms and they also leave their
nets and follow Him. Now this repetition, the
critic would say, savours in itself of the Eastern
legend. But, what is far more than this, the com-
bination of the two improbabilities produces an
improbability of a far higher order *.

1 For instance, if the separate probability of each of two events
is 1*5-, that of the joint event is ^ x r^ or rj^, or there are ninety-
nine chances to one against it.

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 197

The information gained from the Gospel of St
John clears the difficulty away. We may learn
from this, how a word or two of fresh information
might, in like manner, clear away other discrep-
ancies which are stumbling-blocks to learners now.

There we find, that these fisher brethren were
old disciples of our Lord. It is consistent with the
Gospel to suppose that during the summer they had
been at their work, nursing the memory of their
Master all the time. They now hear that He has
come preaching the Kingdom of God in their own
land. They are waiting for Him and expecting His
call. The two pair of brethren stood in the same
relation to Him, consequently they were treated in
the same way, and the result was naturally the same.
This unhesitating compliance on the part of the bre-
thren, which seems so strange, points to a previous
acquaintance with our Lord ; of this acquaintance
St John's Gospel speaks, and so St Mark strength-
ens St John just as St John does St Mark.

In the Gospels of St Matthew and St Mark,
which we suppose to be both based on a primitive
document, the story is told without the slightest
idea of obviating objection or mistrust. The writers
never appear to contemplate readers to whom the
fact that Simon and the rest had, before this, been
associated with our Lord should be unknown. They
took it for granted that this was too notorious
to call for mention.

But we have another Evangelist, St Luke, a
more practised writer, whose design was to present

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

his account in a coherent form. He did not possess
the Gospel of St John and possibly did not know the
particulars of the earlier call of Simon and Andrew
and John. It may well have been that he was
himself somewhat startled at the abruptness of our
Lord's call to the Apostles, and at their unhesitating
compliance with it, as related in the primitive docu-
ment, and felt that it required to be accounted for :
consequently, having the account of the miraculous
draught of fishes among the materials he speaks
of — an account not contained in the Gospels of
St Matthew and St Mark — he finds in this Sign an
explanation of the prompt adherence of the pairs
of brethren, and he combines the two events.

We should gather from him that the Apostles
were struck by the miraculous draught of fishes,
and that the Lord thereupon invited them to follow
and become " fishers of men," but I think it most
likely that the call took place as St Matthew and
St Mark relate. The circumstantial minuteness of
the details in these two Gospels, and the natural-
ness of the picture — two brothers are engaged in
casting, and the other pair in mending their nets —
convinces me that this relation comes originally
from one who saw for himself. This draught of
fishes may have taken place some days after the
call of the brethren. For we need not suppose,
that, before the Twelve were chosen, those who
were called abandoned the craft by which they
lived, although they probably resorted to their
Master day by day.

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 199

The early miracles were mostly wrought in the
sight of the multitude ; they seem meant to show
that the Kingdom of God was come ; but this
miracle of the draught of fishes was performed
when few but disciples were by. It was a miracle
of instruction, it lent great impressiveness to great
lessons ; it emphasized in a way never to be for-
gotten the call to become "fishers of men," and
it gave good augury of success. The thought ot
this draught must have come back to Peter at
many a juncture in his life, a notable one being
the morrow of the Feast of Pentecost, when " there
were added unto them in that day about 3000 souls1."

The Apostles may have learned another lesson
from this miracle. All night they had toiled and
taken nothing, yet they had not given up in despair
but had worked on hard ; the morning brought
success beyond all hope. Men, waiting long for the
yield of their labour, have found encouragement
in calling this to mind. Simon, though thinking
there is little hope of taking fish, nevertheless obeys
at once. He frankly tells his Master his view of
a matter about which he might be supposed to
know best, and leaves Him to judge, but he does
immediately as his Master bids. Our Lord does
not promise him success ; He only tells him to try
once more ; and thereupon without a word, wearied
and out of heart as he may be supposed to have
been by a night of bootless labour, he does what

1 Acts ii. .} i .

20O THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

he is told. It is enough for Simon to know that his
Master wishes him to " Put out into the deep and
let down his nets for a draught1." His cheerful
compliance shews a happy disposition and a loyal
nature; for if there had been a grain of peevishness
or selfishness in him, it would have been likely to
be uppermost then.

In the last chapter, we saw our Lord exploring
the characters of classes of men. His eye is now
turned on individuals ; He is peering down into His
disciples' hearts, taking them unawares, when their
every day selves lie uppermost, putting them, by
chance as it were, through some little exercise which
shall reveal some tendency or some hidden quality ;
and to our Lord this incident brought the secret
heart of Simon into the light of day.

It shewed that he was altogether free from that
kind of stubbornness which is born of self-regard,
and that he did not attach a sanctity to an opinion
or a resolve, merely because it was his. He learnt
from this miracle that it was best to trust to Christ.
He might say to himself, " I never felt more con-
vinced that we should take nothing by letting
down the nets, than I did on that morning on the
lake, but I let them down and found I was wrong."
A memorable act is not done with, educationally,
when it is over. The recollection of it is an atten-
dant monitor always pointing the same way ; and
so this miracle may have done much towards ac-

1 Luke v. 4.

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 2OI

customing Peter to look to the Lord's prompting,
and to be ready at His word to give up that about
which he felt most sure. It may well have helped
him to that openness of mind, which stood the
Church in good stead, years after at Joppa, when
the envoys of Cornelius were knocking at Peter's
door.

This miracle has been called a miracle of
coincidence, meaning that the marvel lay in the
passing of the shoal 'at the moment when the net
was cast ; it might not be a miracle at all, because
the chances against its being a natural phenomenon,
though enormous, are not absolutely infinite. It is
not one which would appal ordinary beholders :
the boatmen, we may suppose, thought chiefly of
securing the fish. Our Lord is now testing the
capacity of men for discerning God, and He therefore
performs miracles of a less striking order first;
these impress those only who have their eyes open
for the manifestation of what is spiritual; and those
who are found to possess this " vision and faculty
Divine" are afterwards shewn "greater things than
these."

Simon had no doubt seen our Lord work
cures, but this mastery of our Lord over the
creation comes more home to him than His
power over disease, and his feelings break forth.
It is characteristic of him, that what is in him must
come out at once ; whether it be an objection that
occurs to him, or a motion of indignation or of

2O2 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

elation, or of the panic to which. Orientals are
subject — out it must come; this is the point in
which the identity of his character is most visibly
preserved in all our narratives. Here he is mas-
tered by the emotions of the moment and must
give them outward show ; and along with his gush
of feeling comes the sense of his unworthiness, the
impression of his being wholly unequal to the
duty and position thrust upon him; an impres-
sion not uncommon with men in such junctures;
though biographies abundantly show that those
who feel it most very often acquit themselves
admirably when the trial comes. Touched by this,
Simon throws himself at his Master's feet and
says, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O
Lord1."

We go back now to the course of the narrative
in St Mark's Gospel, and there we find that the
first thing which struck the hearers of our Lord
was the authority with which He spoke.

"And they were astonished at his teaching: for he
taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes8."

We saw in the last chapter, that men bowed to
the authority in the air of our Lord when He purged
the Temple of Jerusalem : this authority now
passed into His words, and it swayed the hearts
of men. It is the special instinct of a crowd that
it quickly discerns those whom it must hear, and

1 Luke v. 6. 2 Mark i. 22.

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 2OJ

this multitude saw that our Lord had something
to tell them and that, not of tradition, but out of
His own very self. Here was a genuine authority
coming of nature or of God, by the side of which
the stated legal authority of the officiating scribes
paled away out of sight.

In what ways was it, we may ask, that this
authority of Christ shone out now, and took such
hold of men ? First of all, I would answer, He
brought to the birth, within men, thoughts which
were lying in embryo in their own hearts. This,
which was also Socrates' way, I have spoken of
in the Introductory Chapter and once or twice
since. Our Lord wakened within men the per-
ception of truths which they seemed to have once
known and forgotten ; especially that God was the
Father, not only of Israel as a nation, but of every
particular man in it. The common people had been
told by the learned that they were not worth God's
notice, and when Christ asserted the dignity of each
individual soul they said to themselves " we always
thought it must be so ; and so it is." The beatitudes
in like manner commended themselves to men's
hearts ; they felt that if there was a God in the
world, it ought to be as our Lord said it was.

Secondly, our Lord not only told men that they
were the children of God, that they should strive
after their Father's likeness, and that they might
approach nearer and nearer to being perfect as He
is perfect : but, what was more than this, in every

2O4 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

word He spake, — whether of teaching, or reproof,
or expostulation, or in His passing words to those
who received His mercies — He treated them as
God's children. Man, as man, has in His eyes a
right to respect. Anger we find with our Lord often,
as also surprise at slowness of heart, indignation at
hypocrisy and at the Rabbinical evasions of the
Law; but never in our Lord's words or looks do we
find personal disdain. Towards no human being
does He shew contempt. The scribe would have
trodden the rabble out of existence ; but there is
no such thing as rabble in our Lord's eyes. The
master, in the parable, asks concerning the tree,
which is unproductively exhausting the soil, why
cumbers it the ground ; but it is not to be rooted
up, till all has been tried. There it stands, and mere
existence gives it claims, for all that exists is the
Father's. This notion, that every thing belonged
to God, and was therefore to be reverently re-
garded, lay very deep in the hearts of the children
of Israel, even the poorest in Galilee ; and when the
Lord brought it to light, men listened to Him with
breathless respect.

Thirdly. If a scribe spoke to the people, he
bethought himself of topics within their compre-
hension : he had a double self; one he showed to
them and one he kept for his equals : he was afraid
of talking over his hearers' heads, so he took them
on the side of what he supposed they might un-
derstand, of their interests, for example, and spoke

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 20$

of the advantages of good repute, or, at the highest,
of the blessings which God brought on His servants
in this life and hereafter, and of the ill fate which
awaited offenders. All this implied, "We who speak
to you, of course, have for ourselves higher principles
and purer motives than those we have named, but
these are quite good enough for you." Now there
is nothing that men, young or old, so surely detect,
as whether a man serves them with the same
thoughts that he gives to himself and his friends.

The people, moreover, are always grateful for
being supposed capable of higher sentiments than
mere hope of gain and fear of loss, and for
the appreciation shewn in taking them on higher
ground; they seldom fail the speaker who boldly
addresses their consciences ; they are eager to
justify his trust in them : " He has treated us as
men," they say, "and men he shall find we are."
Above all they feel the compliment of being
not flattered, but supposed reasonable enough to
hear the truth about themselves and shewn their
failings ; and we feel sure that men went away
from the Sermon on the Mount confident of
Christ's respect and regard for them, without His
telling them of it in so many words. He talks to
them quite naturally of their Father who is also
His Father, just as men speak of any common tie :
and this took hold of their hearts.

Fourthly. We find in the earlier portions of the
Sermon on the Mount, which best represent this

206 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

preaching to the multitude1, that our Lord assumes
a certain positive authority, by putting His own
commands in contrast with the written Law.

It had probably been given out by our Lord's
opponents that He had come to destroy the Law,
and our Lord in this Sermon declares that He is
not come to destroy but to fulfil.

We shall see the point most clearly, if we
understand the word " fulfil," to mean, " carry out
into its full completeness." For our Lord does not
destroy the Law but he supersedes it by bringing
God's ways to light, and merging in this light the
previous partial revelations, of which the Mosaic
Law was one. A mathematician supersedes the
practical rules which the pupil at first employs for
solving particular cases of a problem, by giving a
complete and general solution of the whole subject.
This may illustrate the way in which our Lord
merges the particular case of human conduct in
a wider rule embracing human dispositions, and
which regards, not only what men do, but also
what they are, and what they will become.

To take another point. Slavery to the letter
of a written Law hampered moral and spiritual
growth ; it led men to regard authority as the sole
test of truth ; it tended to prevent their thinking for

1 By comparing the Sermon on the Mount with the parallel
passages in St Luke we find that much of it must have been spoken
after the call of the Apostles: this applies particularly to the latter
half of the discourse.

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 2O;

themselves as our Lord desired them to do. No
word of our Lord countenances the idea of verbal
inspiration. He treats the provisions of the Levitical
Law as subject to criticism, He never attributes
them to God, but either to Moses or those of old
time, and after quoting them in His sermon and else-
where He commonly adds, "But / say unto you"
and then delivers His own precept — embracing
that of Moses no doubt — but so widely over-
stepping it, that it would seem to the people
to amount to a repeal. A teaching which claimed
authority coordinate with that of Moses might well
startle the multitude by its contrast with that of
the scribes.

It may be asked — " Why, if our Lord desired
to free men's minds, did He not declare how far
and in what sense their sacred books contained the
word of God." We answer, " He would have
caused utter bewilderment if He had entered on
such a matter at all." The truth may be gathered
by observing His practice. He never states abstract
principles, but He acts as He deems fit and leaves
us to infer His views by marking what He does.
He never contests the rules about the Sabbath, but
He observes them only in His own way. He does
not tell the Jews that their Law is not traced by
the finger of God, but He amends and criticizes
its provisions as though they were of man.

Let us suppose, for a moment — not of course
that He had cried down the Law like one who

208 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

exulted in finding a flaw — but that He had at-
tempted to put into men's heads Views about it
which their minds had not yet shaped themselves
to receive; that He had told them, for instance,
that laws must be fitted to human needs, and that
as these needs vary, laws must vary too, and
cannot be the subject of an ordinance unchanging
and Divine. Could He, by such explanations, have
given His auditors any true view of Divine rule?
Would not the Galileans have cried out, "That
if the tables of the Law were not graven by God's
finger they were nothing at all ? " Nothing, in our
Lord's wisdom, strikes me more than His modera-
tion with regard to error. What seems false to one
man's mind may be true to that of another. When
men, as soon as they spy out an error, cry, "Root it
up," our Lord seems to answer, " Along with the
tares some wheat needs must go." Men are complex
beings ; and much that is best in them is so inter-
twined with habits and association that we cannot
sweep away long-standing notions and outward
symbols and ceremonies without destroying also
what is of the essence. Take away from an
Italian woman her belief in the Virgin, or from a
Scotch peasant that in the sacred obligation of the
Sabbath, and a great deal of what is best in them
will go too.

Our Lord's way of proceeding is always positive,
never merely negative. He leaves the Law, but He
sows seed which will grow up and displace the spirit

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 209

of blind subservience to it : just as some particular
species in the herbage of a land is often ousted
when a more robust one is brought in. The
Apostles had, up to the end, many wrong notions,
and we may wonder why our Lord did not set
them right ; but it would have shaken the whole
fabric of their belief if He had so done ; and the
sure teaching of circumstances would, as He knew,
dissipate the errors in time.

So far we have dealt chiefly with the matter of
our Lord's teaching of the multitudes, but something
must be said about its form. One striking point
in our Lord's practice in contrast with that of the
scribes, is this. He cites no authorities, all comes
from Himself; there is hardly a text of Scripture
in the fifth chapter of St Matthew, except those
which are quoted in order to be extended or gain-
said. The scribes depended on their learning, they
overwhelmed men with quotations, they laid text
by text, and built up their conclusions upon an
array of authorities. Now a preacher, or a teacher
of any kind, is sure to lose hold of his audience
when he goes away from himself and gives other
people's opinions instead of his own. They look to
him for guidance ; and when he says, " This is one
man's view and that is another's," and not, " This is
mine" then they turn from the trumpet of uncertain
sound. The multitude suppose that in all questions
there is a right and a wrong — just as there is a right
and a wrong answer to a sum — and they do not
L. I4

2IO fHE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

want to know what one authority says or the other,
but what they are to accept.

Again, rightly to apprehend the form of this dis-
course, we must bear in mind that it is not a written
collection of precepts, — though St Matthew may
have appended some delivered at a later time — and
that still less is it a Code of Laws. It is an oral
address to a crowd of villagers gathered on the top
of the fell. We mark in it the natural rhetoric of
earnest speech : the first necessity is always to win
men to listen, and thus the speaker at the opening
strikes His most impressive chords.

Words of blessing fell on the ears of those who
were used only to hear of their shortcomings and to
be treated as outcasts; and when their attention was
caught by the unusual sound and they listened to
hear who it was who were blessed, they found it
was not the strong and the wealthy and the high
spirited — those whom they regarded as having the
good things of existence while they themselves had
the bad — but the blessed are the poor in spirit,
and this Kingdom of Heaven, newly proclaimed,
belonged to them. The attention caught by the
opening is kept alive by the unexpected nature of
the matter.

Again, our Lord is at pains so to put what He
says that it may not be taken for a fresh body of
injunctions added to the Law; for the people were
already, as He said, overburdened with such in-
junctions. He puts therefore what He has to say

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 211

into such strong forms, and, by way of example, takes
such extreme cases, that it is plain that He is illus-
trating a principle and not laying down a literal rule.

We have

" Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a tooth : but I say unto you, Resist not
him that is evil: but whosoever smiteth thee on thy
right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man
would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let him
have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee
to go one mile, go with him twain1."

He Himself, before the High Priest, does not
submit to wrong, without asking in remonstrance
" Why smitest thou me ? " and the most literal
minded of our Lord's hearers would not have felt
bound to offer his cloke to one who had stolen his
coat. The language shews by its very strength
that it is figurative.

Indeed, a code of Law can hardly be delivered
in an address to a multitude. If it is to meet all
cases it must be complex, and to the hearer
wearisome. If our Lord had delivered a treatise
telling men what they were to do in the ordinary
occasions of life, the precepts must have been so
encumbered by qualifications that all impressive-
ness would have been lost. If to the saying
"Give to him that asketh of thee" our Lord had
appended all the obvious exceptions — such as the
cases in which what is asked for would be hurtful —

1 Matt. v. 38—41.

14—2

212 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

the whole force of the passage wo.uld have been
frittered away. As long as a preacher delivers
broad truths, put forcibly, his audience are ready to
hear; but as soon as he begins to qualify his
statements and to make exceptions, his hold over
his hearers is gone, and they think he is unsaying
what he said.

Our Lord wished to leave seed thoughts lying in
men's minds. He knew that His words would have
to be carried in men's memories for a long while
before being written down. They must therefore
be clad in the form in which they would last
longest and be easiest to carry. He therefore
embodied what He wished to have remembered in
terse sayings, illustrated by cases which are familiar
but extreme. The hearer could carry these sen-
tences away, and would ponder on them all the
more, because in their literal sense they are startling
and impracticable as rules of conduct. I can con-
ceive no style better fitted for the purpose which I
believe to have been dominant with our Lord, than
that employed in the Sermon on the Mount.

It seems to me to be part of the strange adapta-
tion of circumstances to the needs of the Faith,
that what was most vital and most universal was
uttered in the Hebrew tongue. This was the
language of the comparative infancy of the world ;
and there is in the genius of it much — especially
its ready lending itself to the form of balanced
sentences — which takes hold of the hearts of un-

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 213

tutored men. Such men store their wisdom in
saws and proverbs ; and in like manner the wisdom
of the Hebrew is dropped in separate pearls,
which can easily be treasured up. When the time
came for touching cultured minds, and connected
argument was required, Greek forms of thought
and speech were needed. Saul was then converted ;
and Greek became the language of the Word.

Nothing in our Lord's ministry impresses me
more than the extraordinary sobriety of the whole
movement. We hear nothing of religious transport
or ecstatic devotion. People listen in awe to our
Lord's preaching as to a communication made from
above. They never dare to applaud. He is too
much above them for that. Many have since come
crying "Lord, Lord," in different accents, at dif-
ferent times ; we have heard of " revivals " among
great multitudes, carried headlong by wild excite-
ment, and of religious delirium reaching to the
borders of mania. All this is in the strongest
contrast with the ways of teaching of our Lord.

True human freedom was with Him a sacred
thing ; what man was made for was that he might
be a free spiritual being ; and a man is not free
when he is fascinated by fervid oratory and be-
comes the blind tool of another, or when he is
intoxicated by religious fanaticism and is no longer
master of his own mind. Any agencies, therefore,
which would impair the health and freedom of a
man's will Christ refused to employ. They be-

214 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

longed to that Spirit of the World whose alliance
He had refused. One cause of this sobriety of the
great movement may be found in the elevation
and tone of authority which has just been spoken
of as characterizing our Lord. He seemed to
move in a plane parallel indeed to that of men,
but a little above it. For a speaker to kindle
men's passions he must be possessed by the notions
and feelings of the time : he and his hearers must
have common objects of desire, or a common
jealousy of those who possess what they themselves
want, they must therefore wear the stamp of a pass-
ing and particular phase of mankind. Now it was
the distinctive peculiarity of our Lord's Personality
that it belongs not more to one time or class than
to another. The Son of Man represents Humanity
in the abstract, and no party has ever been able
to claim Him as their own.

In the course of the winter of A.D. 28 — 29, Levi,
in the vernacular of Galilee called also Matthew, a
toll-taker on the borders of the lake, is summoned
to follow our Lord. He justified our Lord's choice
in a signal manner, for "he forsook all, and rose up
and followed Him."

There must have been in this man " a soul of
goodness " of rare efficacy in resisting influences to
ill. His position must have offered temptation to
exaction. This was corrupting, but the steady and
persistent effect of feeling himself despised must
have been more so even than this. He was hated

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 21 5

not only as the tax-gatherer, but also as having
accepted the service of the foreign oppressors of
the land. However justly the publican might
have striven to act, it would be taken for granted
that he was endeavouring to fleece those who came
into his hands ; and a man soon becomes what
people about him will have it that he is.

Now and then, however, in all positions, we come
across natures which run counter to the influences
around them, or which by a happy chemistry de-
compose the evil and turn its elements to good.
Everything in the publican's calling fostered the
love of gain; and to be able to save enough to give
it up and live down ill report was his only hope.
But Matthew breaks with his means of subsistence
totally and at once. At one word of our Lord he
throws all away without a moment's thought, and
joins the little band of followers which was being
drawn into closer attendance on our Lord. This
man surely had " salt in himself."

St Matthew has left us his Gospel. We learn
from this which way his thoughts lean, and we see
that he was not of that type of mind most com-
monly associated with the idea of the Apostle of a
new creed. He was probably not very young and
his views were formed and fixed : his national
sympathy was intense. God was to him, first of all,
the God of Israel, and he regarded our Lord as the
Messiah, after the type which Jewish hopes and
fancies had fashioned for themselves. In all that

2l6 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

occurred he saw the reproduction- of what was
narrated in the old books ; and the burden " Now
this was done that the Scripture might be ful-
filled " runs through all his writings.

Here then, some might say, we have a man
chosen as a witness and promulgator of a faith which
is to be universal, yet this man's sympathies flow
only along one narrow channel, and he is wedded
to old ways of reading the mind of God. He was
however a guileless, God-fearing, high-hearted man ;
and it could not but strengthen the cause to have
among the Apostles one who could enter into the
minds of those who looked for the consolation of
Israel in the old Hebrew way. The first function
of the Apostles, — one on which I shall soon speak
pretty fully — was that they were to bear witness of
Christ. This was set forth in that which, so to say,
was their charter of incorporation. "Ye shall be
my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea
and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the
earth1." Now the more varied the characters of
the witnesses the stronger would be the case when
they agreed.

Our Lord, then, will have, among His immediate
followers, minds of every sort. He does not pick
out those only who are most after His own heart,
nor does he mould men into one fashion, so that
they should think on all points alike. We cannot
have freedom among human beings without diver-

1 Acts ip 8f

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 217

sity. St Matthew, we perhaps say, had old world
views ; but it may have been just because of these,
that he was the most fit Apostle for the Eastern
world. There would be crowds of men whom he
would understand and who would understand him,
but whose minds would have been closed to the utter-
ances of Paul. The vineyard to which Christ called
his labourers was the whole world ; it contained vines
of every stock growing on every soil. It was well
then, that there should be labourers bred in various
schools of husbandry, and that each should work
in the fashion in which he felt he could do it best.

Another point to be noted about the call of
St Matthew is this : The choice of a publican was
a practical proof to the other disciples, as it is to
the Church for ever, that Christ is in no way a re-
specter of persons. The two pairs of brethren who
followed our Lord may have been startled at the call
of Matthew, for they no doubt looked on publicans
as their countrymen did ; and this act of our Lord's
taught them, more forcibly than any words could
have done, that with Him outward circumstance
went for nothing and the inward man was all in all.
In this call of Matthew the spirit of universality
which belongs to the Christian Church is folded up
like the embryo in the seed. Our Lord makes no
comment on this call ; nor do we hear of any
murmurs from the disciples, who had by this time
learned that our Lord was wiser than they, as.
Peter had found when he let down the net,

218 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

Shortly before the call of St Matthew a miracle
occurred, the cure of the sick of the palsy, when our
Lord's renown was at its height — a miracle at the
performance of which " there were Pharisees and
doctors of the law sitting by, which were come
out of every village of Galilee and Judaea and
Jerusalem V The presence of these strangers bears
on what follows.

Hitherto we have read of no contest or conflict
in Capernaum ; but these Pharisees conceived
misgivings about the movement they had come
to see. This hostility was very different from
that of the Sadducees in Jerusalem, who, regarding
the movement as an insane delusion likely to
bring things about their ears, set themselves re-
morselessly to root it out But the Pharisees
do not seem at first to have borne our Lord
any personal hatred, but only to have been un-
easy about the new teaching which went too far
for them, and did not follow the course which they
had expected.

The Pharisees, nevertheless, were now on the
watch for occasion to find fault. This is not an
occupation which brings out the amiable side of
men's natures ; and they became still more soured
by finding nothing on which to hang a charge ; so
that at last they even leagued with the Herodians,
their natural opponents, against our Lord. The
most popular of all accusations, and one for which

1 Luke v. 17.

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 219

it was easy to find ground, was a breach of the
traditionary rules for keeping the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was an inestimable Law. It was
maintained by Divine sanction at a time when a
Law could not be upheld by any other means : it
debarred men from " doing what they would with
their own " on one day out of seven, so far as re-
garded the labour of themselves or of their children,
their servants, their ox or their ass. It secured for
the race this portion of time against the greed of
gain : but all this was done for men, although
the Jews had come to look on it as something
done by men for God, and in so doing they made
God a taskmaster like the gods of the pagans.
Moreover the Sabbath kept alive in each Israelite
his self-respect as one of God's people ; however
sordid his calling, he put away every seventh day
his squalor and his toil and resumed the dignity of
Abraham's son. The Sabbath question was the
chosen battle-ground of those who reduced all
virtues to that literal unquestioning obedience to
authoritative records, which was so damaging to
moral and spiritual life. Men thought that God's
favour was won or His wrath incurred in virtue of
acts — such as the keeping within or the over-
stepping the limit of the journey allowed on the
Sabbath-day — which in themselves had no moral
significance at all.

Here again we see how our Lord deals with views
falling short of the truth. The moral creed of His

22O THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

countrymen was imperfect ; it unduly exalted and
obtruded formal duties, but it was all that they
had ; their whole life and that of their nation was
moulded by it ; instincts fostered by it had become
hereditary, and to break it ruthlessly down would
have been to lay waste men's souls.

In the instance before us our Lord introduces a
freer practice; and trusts to this to give birth in
time to more intelligent notions about the Sabbath
day.

One passage in the history I purposely passed
by. I thought that I might have to write of it
at such a length as to break the continuity of
the narrative, and I therefore kept it for the close
of the chapter. The passage in question, which
I subjoin, immediately follows the account of the
entertainment of our Lord in Matthew's house.

"Then come to him the disciples of John, saying,
Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples
fast not ? And Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the
bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with
them ? but the days will come, when the bridegroom
shall be taken away from them, and then will they fast.
And no man putteth a piece of undressed cloth upon an
old garment ; for that which should fill it up taketh from
the garment, and a worse rent is made. Neither do men
put new wine into old wine-skins : else the skins burst,
and the wine is spilled, and the skins perish : but they put
new wine into fresh wine-skins, and both are preserved1."

1 Matth. ix. 14—17. I here adopt St Matthew's version in pre-
ference to that of St Mark ii. 16 — 11. St Matthew was not likely to

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 221

ThePhariseespractised fasting on the second and
fifth days of the week : the same practice was prob-
ably followed by the disciples of John ; and if we
suppose that Matthew made this feast on one of the
fasting days, this would bring the contrast between
the ways of John and of Jesus more sharply out

Before examining the charge and the reply, a
word must be said on the absence of all distinctive
religious observances in the practice of our Lord
and His disciples.

The Baptist, we know, enjoined stated fasts and
taught his people to pray, and above all enforced
the initiatory rite from which he drew his name.
At a later period our Lord's disciples beg to be
taught to pray, "as John also taught his disciples1."

In those days people looked to a religion to
order the externals of a man's life ; hours of prayer
portioned out his day; and so, even the disciples
appear to have felt that with them there was some-
thing lacking, and that they were at a disadvantage
compared with John's disciples because they were
not, through conformity to a special rule, formed
into a body and marked with a badge.

forget any circumstance of his call, least of all the words then used by
our Lord; and the quotation "I will have mercy and not sacrifice"
which he alone relates, is exactly in our Lord's manner. The
passage printed above differs also from St Mark's version in this, that
in the latter the disciples of the Pharisees put the question together
with John's disciples. Some disciples of John may have belonged
to the Pharisees as their icligious party.
1 Luke xi. I.

222 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES.

It is easy to find reasons why our Lord should
have avoided doing what John did. If He had en-
joined any system of religious observance, this would
have limited the spread of His Kingdom, and have
laid on observances in general more stress than He
desired. One Law or one ritual would not suit
all nations, or all times ; for forms must vary with
men's modes of life, and if our Lord had intro-
duced a form of worship He would have parti-
cularised that which, of its very essence, was meant
to be universal. John came as a prophet and
forerunner, and he set on foot a sect, which was
held together and long kept alive by usages of
its own ; but the very observances which gave it
vitality as a sect prevented its ever becoming
anything more than a sect. Our Lord is not found-
ing a sect at all ; He is not a missionary making
converts. He comes on earth to proclaim that God
loves men, and to open a way by which men should
"come to the Father." He leaves behind Him
men suited to direct a religious movement, but He
organises none himself. Whether He drew many
round Him or few, His great work for the world
would equally be completed on the Cross. He
never baptised, never instituted rites, laws or fasts,
or stated services of prayer; it is not till He leaves
the earth that He enjoins the sacraments of His
Church. It was to be left to men to put all into
shape, for the outer form belongs to man; and, if He
had Himself adopted any particular practice in

tHE PREACHING tO THE MULTITUDES. 223

any of the matters above named, men might
imagine that this was binding for evermore and
had a virtue in itself.

We come now to our Lord's plain and practical
answer to the particular questions of the Pharisees
which have led to these remarks. Fasting comes by
nature when a man is sad, and it is in consequence
the natural token of sadness : when a man is very
sad, for the loss of relations or the like, he loses all
inclination for food. But every outward sign that
can be displayed at will is liable to abuse, and so
men sometimes fasted when they were not really
sad, but when it was decorous to appear so. More-
over a kind of merit came to be attached to fasting
as betokening sorrow for transgressions; and at
last it came to be regarded as a sort of self-punish-
ment which it was thought the Almighty would
accept in lieu of inflicting punishment Himself.
Our Lord does not decry stated fasts or any other
Jewish practices, they had their uses and they
would last their times ; only He points men to the
underlying truth which was at the bottom of the
ordinance.

When our Lord spoke, the children of the
bridechamber the companions of the bridegroom's
youth, were still with Him, but He and they would
soon have to part. Sorrow must needs come upon
them for the following reason, if for no other, that
man's education cannot be perfect without it. Then
indeed would they fast, not because it was enjoined,

224 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES,

not of any stated precept, but because they were
bereaved of their Lord.

Our Lord now turns to a metaphor, it was a
familiar one. The lesson it seems to carry is this :
our Lord will not meddle with the old form of things,
He will not patch up the old tenement in order that
the new spirit may make shift to dwell in it.
Change with Him is never mechanical, always
organic ; it comes, not by alteration in construction,
but always purely of growth. He is propagating
spiritual truth in the souls of men ; the time is
not yet ripe for rites and ordinances and hours of
worship. But the days would come when the truth
would need a garb — it would have to struggle
amongst human institutions, and it must then have
outer expression just as other institutions have.
This expression men must give, and Christ was
careful that, when the time came for this to be
done, the right men should be in their place to
doit.

He takes a second metaphor to set forth the
second part of His work : He will have new flasks
for the new wine. This new doctrine was not
committed either to the disciples of John or even to
scribes enlightened about the kingdom of heaven,
but to those who, having no preconceptions, re-
ceived it as children do their parents' words. This
new wine would go on working and would want room
to expand. Peter we know expanded with it ; but
men whose rninds had stiffened into shape under

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 22$

existing systems were like old flasks of skin, so
harsh and dry that they would sooner crack than
stretch; they were neither plastic nor elastic, and
our Lord wanted vessels that should be both the
one and the other. These new flasks were now
soon to be chosen ; and when this was done the
work would enter on a new phase.

Up to the time of the call of the Apostles, our
Lord's most conspicuous concern is for the multi-
tudes. After that call, the Apostles occupy the
foreground, and the whole manner of teaching is
rather suddenly changed. It is no longer adapted
to a congregation of peasants ; parables take the
place of plain speech, and instead of everything
being done for the learner as before, much is left
to be done by him for himself. We mark another
change also in the manner. Hitherto there has been
no haste, all has proceeded in the most leisurely way;
but soon danger will begin to threaten and time to
press, and act to follow act in close succession.

Following the subject of my book, I have been
careful to mark how our Lord from the very first
had an eye for characters of the sort He wanted
and how He shaped them, with an unseen hand;
but I must not have it supposed, because we see
little lasting outcome from the preaching to the
multitude, that therefore it was unimportant com-
pared with the training of the Apostles. We must
not suppose that Christ taught and healed chiefly
that the Apostles might listen and learn.

L, 15

226 THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES

We can discern two kinds of good wrought by
our Lord. In preaching to the multitude he was,
then and there, bringing God's light into the souls
of men. In choosing and fashioning the disciples,
He was providing for the future of His Church.
The work which the Apostles should set on foot
would spread over the earth and affect all future
times, while our Lord could Himself touch but a
single generation in a single spot. Those, however,
who heard Him, carried to their homes a memory
to last their lives ; among them His Personality
survived. If, afterwards, troubled questions arose
about Him they would put them by, feeling that
they had drunk at the source before the stream
had got sullied on its way.

When our Lord came into villages where He
was known, people crowded to him from all sides,
and the new delight of communion with God — the
assurance that the whisper which told them that
God cared for them was a true voice — beamed from
the hearers' faces and gladdened the Master's soul.

It was during this active ministry of our Lord,
that the choice of the Apostles was made and the
foundations of their education were laid. The
differences in their minds and characters would be
brought into prominence by the greater intensity
of the lives they afterwards led ; new capacities
would peep out among those who, beholding the
intense earnestness of our Lord, learned to be in
earnest themselves. No defined line was as yet

THE PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDES. 22/

drawn between the multitude and the disciples.
Those who were of the multitude one day, and
chose to follow, might count as disciples on the
morrow. Our Lord never wholly loses sight either
of the multitude or of the disciples; but, while
the former were His first care in the period em-
braced in this chapter, the disciples, and especially
the apostles, will be so in that which will come
before us in the next *.

1 St Mark distinguishes between these two objects of our Lord's
care, the multitude and the disciples. When our Lord after His
journey to the North is passing through Galilee we read that "He
passed through Galilee, and would not that any man should know
it, for he taught His disciples" Mark ix. 31. And soon after,
when he is beyond Jordan, we have "and multitudes came to-
gether unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them
again." Mark x. i.

TP— 3

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

IN treating of the calling of the Apostles, we
encounter the questions, "What led our Lord to
surround Himself with a constituted body of this
kind ?" and, " In virtue of what qualities were its
members chosen ?" I am led to conclude that our
Lord presaged that which actually came about,
and provided for future needs which he foresaw ;
so precisely do the measures he takes meet what
subsequent occasions required. The choice of the
agents, moreover, is singularly happy with respect
to the extraordinary part which was put into their
hands ; and it must be noted that this part was one
which Jesus alone, and, if He had only been what
some of His biographers represent, not even He
could have contemplated: while for the parts, which,
from the obvious prospects of the case it was likely
they would have to play, they were not calculated
at all. The apostles were not suited to advance a
social or a political cause or to spread doctrinal
views ; but they were specially fitted, as I shall
shew, to gain credence for facts which they could
declare had passed before their eyes.

Before choosing the Apostles our Lord spent
the night alone on the mountain in prayer; on one

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 22Q

other occasion only did He do the same1. If we
regard only the duties expressly laid upon the
Twelve at their call2, and the immediate services
expected from them, our Lord's concern about
them may seem more intense than the circum-
stances explain. But if we regard them as the
heirs of His work, as those by whom the fire kindled
by Him on earth was to be kept alive and spread,
then our Lord's keen anxiety about them is ac-
counted for. He looked to an early death, and
when this death came it would depend on their
constancy to carry the cause through the moment
of dismay; and it would depend on the trust they
commanded among men, whether it should be
believed or not, that He had risen in triumph from
the dead.

If we should find that the Apostles were, as a
body, specially qualified to fulfil particular functions,
and that these very functions it fell afterwards to
them to discharge ; then, surely, it is not unreason-
able to suppose that our Lord, in choosing the
Twelve, was guided by His foreknowledge of the
situation in which they would be placed, and of
the particular kind of work which they would be
wanted to perform.

It will be shewn that the Apostles were qualified

1 viz. after the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand.
Matth. xiv. 23.

2 viz., "that they might be with him and that he might send
them forth to preach and to have authority to cast out devils."
Mark iii. 14, 15.

230 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

to be trustworthy witnesses of fact/ If the course
of events had been such that there had been no fact
to witness, this capacity of theirs would have found
no sphere ; it would have been provided and never
employed ; but, as it was, the transcendent Fact
that Christ died and rose again took place before
their eyes.

The knowledge of this Fact was to be the
most precious possession of the human race. How
then was it to be preserved and transmitted ? A
fact only subsists for a future time in the relation
of witnesses. So the greatest care is taken to pro-
vide for this Fact witnesses who would command
belief. Some hearers will soonest trust one kind of
witness and some another; witnesses therefore of
different kinds are provided, that every man might
be likely to find one in whom he could confide:
but all these witnesses have this in common — they
are all convinced of the reality of what they relate,
and are not men to be easily carried away by their
fancy or their feelings. If the religion had depended
on the promulgating of theological doctrines which
needed subtle expositors, then the Apostles would
not have been the right men for the work ; but
being founded as it was upon the facts of Christ's
life and death, what was wanted was, that credible
witnesses should be present when these facts oc-
curred and should remain to tell the tale. This
want was supplied with a completeness which
to my mind testifies of design.

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 231

To proceed with the history. During this
winter of A.D. 28 — 29, our Lord, keeping Caper-
naum for his place of abode, made excursions to
the neighbouring towns, preaching as he went, and
shewing by His miraculous cures that the Divine
power was working through His hands.

After the call of the fishermen on the Lake-
side, He was constantly accompanied by His
disciples, and from that time forth the education of
His followers was always in His mind. This
education went on like the quiet processes of nature;
the subjects of it never felt that they were being
educated at all, but those who were of the right
natures slowly changed in the direction of what
He would have them be. He did not make them
all copies after one pattern. That which was
native to the man, and which marked him off from
all other men, was lovingly preserved. He in-
tensified in each man his proper life, which grew
with all the greater vigour through being let to
follow its own bent. As yet we hear of no lessons
given to the disciples by themselves, they only shared
what was said to the crowd : this may have been
as much as they could then receive, and possibly
their greatest profit came from what was not given
in the way of lessons at all, from words dropt in
daily intercourse and from watching their master's
doings in the thousand little occurrences of their
wayfaring daily life.

It is worth noting that during all this time of

232 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

their earliest spiritual education all .was prosperity.
From the autumn, in which, as I believe, our Lord
called the fisher brethren, to the springtime which
we have now reached in the narrative, His renown
had steadily grown. Wherever He went, men
were grateful for His coming, and drew close
to hear ; all seemed eager to press into the king-
dom of Heaven, and to clutch at it as at treasure
trove1. First from the neighbouring towns, then
from Judaea and Samaria, and, at the time when
this chapter opens, even from Idumea and Tyre
and Sidon, men came to listen to one who was
said to have the words of Eternal life.

Those who took their early impressions of
Christ's service from those days, would retain a
glowing recollection of it all their lives long. Their
minds would be strung to hopeful confidence.
When persecution came they would regard it as
something permitted by their Master for reasons
into which they did not inquire : the allegiance of
mankind belonged, they would say, to their Master
of right ; He might for a moment waive his claim,
but He could always resume it when He chose.

Our Lord sets a high value on the personal
trust and devotion of his disciples, both for its own
sake and because it was the bud which was to

1 /Sicurral apTT(i£ov<ru> aur^v, Matth. xi. it. "&pTrayfM especially
with such verbs as riyelvdai etc. is employed to denote 'a highly
prized possession, an unexpected gain'." Bishop Lightfoot's Philip-
plans, p. in. Compare Ps. cxix. i6a. "I am as glad of thy
word as one that fmdeth great spoils. "

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 233

blossom into the new and transforming quality of
Faith : this was forwarded in its early growth by
the sunshine of success. The general who would
win the young soldier's heart must lead him to
glory in his first campaign ; he will cling to him
through all disasters after his heart is won.

I take up the narrative at the beginning of the
third chapter of St Mark's Gospel.

" And the Pharisees went out, and straightway with
the Herodians took counsel against him, how they might
destroy him. And Jesus with his disciples withdrew to
the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed:
and from Judsea1."

The Evangelists seldom speak of our Lord's
motives, but here the collocation indicates that it
was this confederacy of Pharisees and Herodians
which caused our Lord to leave Capernaum.
The Herodians were more formidable than the
Pharisees. The latter would only set the law in
motion, but the former did not scruple to employ
violence; and the Macedonian guards of the
Tetrarch were at Tiberias within call. Our Lord
never, until His time was come, exposed Himself
unnecessarily to danger ; and at this particular
moment His freedom and safety were of vital
importance. All that He had done would, humanly
speaking, be lost or have to be done over again if

He were cast into prison or slain : the pressure of

•

1 Mark iii. 6, 7.

234 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

this danger may have hastened the.appointment of
the Twelve. The body of disciples following our
Lord had as yet no corporate life of its own ; it
was only held together by gravitation to Him and
would fall to pieces if He were taken away ; at this
juncture then, there was no time to be lost in giving
the body organic life. As soon as the Twelve re-
ceived their commission this body became pos-
sessed of a vital centre, and the continuous existence
of the Church was secured, even though its Master
should be removed from earth.

This plot of the Pharisees was probably known
but to few — people when they take counsel together
do not publish their design on the house-tops —
and the absence of excitement among the crowd
favours the view that the danger of the prophet of
Nazareth was not suspected by them. Whatever
may have been His motive, our Lord left Caper-
naum, together with His followers, and took, it
seems, the road along the sea shore towards the
north.

Some words of our Lord, belonging probably
to this place, are recorded by St Matthew.

" But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved
with compassion for them, because they were distressed
and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd. Then
saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous,
but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord
of the harvest, that he send forth labourers into his

harvest1."

1 Matth. ix. 36 — 38.

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 235

St Matthew probably found in this need of
labourers a sufficient reason for the call of the
Apostles. More hands were wanted for ministering
to the multitude, and it was desirable that some
should be set apart for the work. But our Lord's
great earnestness in the matter points, as I have
just said1, to something more than this, as though
this calling of the Twelve was of vital concern for
the great work that was being done for the world.

It would only have bewildered the disciples if
our Lord had explained to them the meaning and
motive of the commissioning of the Twelve. They
could not be told that Christ's Kingdom on earth
was being vested in the Twelve as an undying body
in order that it might not be shattered by His death.
They could not yet be told of the coming Resur-
rection, or that they were being trained to bear
witness of Christ's spiritual presence with His own.
Our Lord's talk with His disciples was primarily
suited to their wants and to their minds, and
not to those of the people of after times : we
must not therefore expect to find in it answers to
the questions we want to put. But we have one
advantage which the disciples had not; they, as
actors in the drama, were taken up with their parts
for the moment, while we contemplate it as specta-
tors from beginning to end ; and even if we cannot
quite follow the action, yet we can make out enough
of sequence to see that this action forms a whole :

236 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

we mark the drift of the earlier incidents when we
see the goal for which all was making, and our
Lord's purposes are sometimes made more apparent
by the course of His acts than by His words.

Without pretending to enter into our Lord's
mind, we cannot help imagining the considerations
which the situation must have inspired. The
danger to the cause from allowing it to hang upon
a single life was becoming more pressing day by day.
Though our Lord in passing through the country,
had kindled men's hearts as He went along, yet
He had left no working agency behind. There was
no rallying point, no minister, no constituted body
in any district or town. It may be asked, " Why
did not our Lord do as St Paul did ?" Why did
He not " ordain elders in every city," and establish
His religion territorially step by step, just as an
advancing army occupies the ground it has won ?
This is part of the wider question, " Why did not
our Lord found a Church Himself?" to which an
answer has been given before. His business was to
"kindle the fire" and only to kindle it. What
has been said of ritual (p. 222) applies to Church
government as well. Church polities, like forms of
secular government, were to be formed by men of
each age for themselves ; and to lay down a system,
for which a Divine authority would inevitably
be claimed, would bar all human intervention in
matters ecclesiastical, and hamper men's minds in
ways that I have glanced at before. If a system

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 237

of Christian communities had been spread over
Galilee by our Lord as it was spread over Asia
Minor by St Paul, the forms of ecclesiastical
government so sanctioned, and all that related to
outer worship would have been regarded as a part
of revealed truth. A visible Church framed by our
Lord would have afforded a model, from any line
in the construction of which it would have been a
heresy to swerve. Men would not only have con-
secrated the principles of its polity but they would
have seized on the visible constitution and points
of practice and have battled for these to the death.
We should have had an institution, Divinely author-
ised, and which therefore could not in the smallest
particular be changed, imposed on races inheriting
different temperaments, and one ecclesiastical rule
would have been fixed for all time.

In all matters of procedure the one question
asked would have been, " What was the practice of
the Lord?" Church polity would have depended
wholly on conclusions drawn from antiquarian
study and, what would have been worse than all,
people having outgrown the institutions regarded
as Divine would have lulled their consciences by
being studiously regardful of the form after the
meaning had disappeared, and they would have
stretched the formulae to make them fit the times.
In doing this they would have played fast and
loose with their honesty of mind. Moreover it
seems to me an incongruity that the Redeemer of

238 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

the World should also be the founder of a local
Church; the disproportion is so vast between the
two terms.

A way was perfected in that night of prayer
upon the hills, whereby an organic life was im-
parted to the little community without setting up
a Church, from the pattern of which no deviation
could be allowed. The Twelve formed a centre
round which the disciples might cluster, and this
rudiment of organisation was enough for the time.
Christ gave only such a germ of external polity as
the immediate need required. The commissioning
of the Twelve imposed no particular form of rule ;
but it taught the lesson that organisation and order
and the distribution of duty were essential in things
spiritual as well as in things temporal, and that
it was well for the children of light to be as
"wise in their generation" as the children of the
world.

When a danger or perplexity offers itself to
men, they seek counsel one of another, but our
Lord takes counsel of the Father alone, there is
with Him no hesitancy, no balancing of this course
against that. In this case, when the morning comes
His resolve is distinct, and it is forthwith carried
out. The constitution and proper functions of the
body that He should create, as well as the persons
who were to be the first members, all were de-
termined on.

We read:

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 239

"He went out into the mountain to pray; and he
continued all night in prayer to God1;"

again, we have

" He goeth up into the mountain, and calleth unto
him whom he himself would : and they went unto him.
And he appointed twelve, that they might be with him,
and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have
authority to cast out devils1."

This is all we are told of the planting of that
germ, of which the upgrowth is the Church of
Christ. The organisation thus introduced was just
enough to make of the disciples one body. Hence-
forth they could speak of themselves as " we ;" but
as yet, they were only pupils, chosen to be about
their master's person, intrusted with special powers
for the good of those among whom they ministered,
but with no authority over the rest of the disciples.

The hour to which our Lord had looked forward,
the time "when the bridegroom should be taken
away," arrived at last, and our Lord's timely
measures in finding the right men and training
them in the right way proved of signal service
then. When the critical moment came the men
proper for the work were found upon the spot.
When our Lord at Gethsemane, declining all super-
human aid, resigned Himself into His captors'
hands, consternation and bewilderment for a
moment overcame the Twelve — "they all left Him,

1 Luke vi. 12. 2 Mark iii. 13,

240 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

and fled2." The recollection of this moment's failure
may have been of service to them" in after days ;
it may have made them more lenient to the lapses
of others, and, like the " thorn in the flesh " given
to St Paul, might prevent their being "exalted
overmuch." The situation in which the Apostles
found themselves called out the qualities desired.
As soon as their Master had suffered there came
upon them the sense of responsibility, and they
rose to the circumstances as men with depth of
character do. The cause did not die down even for
a moment, it was kept alive in that upper chamber
where the eleven met To them, from the first, the
other disciples looked for direction, and to them
they brought their news. The women never doubted
about where they were to go with the news that
the sepulchre was empty, and late in the Resur-
rection Day the disciples from Emmaus proceeded
straight to the upper chamber, knowing that the
eleven would be there.

Hardly had the two who returned from Emmaus
told their tale, when

" He himself stood in the midst of them, and saith
unto them, Peace be unto you*."

The eleven had taken the helm quietly, as a
matter of course, when the ship seemed to be
disabled. They had been faithful in a little and
straightway they are called unto much, they are

1 Mark xiv. 50. 8 Luke xxiv. 36.

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 24!

chosen for witnesses of the Supreme Event in the
history of Man, of the Resurrection of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ.

It is this character of witnesses which distin-
guishes the Apostles from all other depositaries of
a Master's cause. This was the charge that governed
the disposition of their lives. Other men might
organise churches and set forth the teaching of
the Lord, but in the character of appointed wit-
nesses of the Resurrection they stood alone. Before
the Resurrection they are told

"And ye also bear witness, because ye have been
with me from the beginning1,"

and afterwards it is as witnesses that they are
singled out by our Lord, "And ye shall be my
witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and
Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the
earthV In this distinctive light too they regard
themselves. When a successor to Judas has to be
appointed, St Peter says, "of these must one
become a witness with us of his resurrection3" and
Peter and all the Apostles say, before the Sanhedrin,
"We are witnesses of these things." Peter again,
speaking to the brethren from Joppa calls the
Apostles "witnesses chosen before of God4."

I find in the Twelve a special fitness for the
particular work which it fell to them to perform.

1 John xv. 27. 2 Acts i. 8. 3 Acts i. 22.

4 Acts x. 41. For other instances see Luke xxiv. 48;
Actsii. 32 ; iii. 15; xiii. 31.

L. 16

242 tHE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

They brought to the attestation of the Resurrection
the concurring evidence of eleven eyewitnesses,
simple, truthloving, matter-of-fact men, of different
types of mind.

The unanimity of the eleven, both as to their
testimony and as to their adoption of a particular
course of conduct has been less dwelt on by
Apologists than I should have expected. If one or
two could have been gained over by the Scribes to
dissent from the account of the rest, the moral force
of the evidence would have been lost. The chances
against the agreement of the entire body in an
illusion or a misrepresentation are enormous. But
an event so transcendent as to wipe out of the
minds of the witnesses everything else — " all trivial,
fond records" would efface small subjective dif-
ferences by the overwhelming force of the objective
impression ; and the occurrence of such an event
would account for that perfect agreement in action
among men who had not uniformly agreed before,
which is among the many striking phenomena
which the book of the Acts of the Apostles dis-
closes to our own view.

The chosen witnesses have exactly the qualities
which a judge would point out to a jury, as grounds
for giving particular weight to their evidence on
questions of fact coming within their view. I must
say something more on this point.

Nothing carries more weight with a jury than
the impression that the witness has an intense

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 243

belief in the truth of what he says. Such an im-
pression the Apostles conveyed ; the possibility
that they should themselves doubt in the slightest
about any fact to which they speak never occurs to
their mind ; all through the Acts and the Epistles
the atmosphere is one of certainty, settled and
serene. The Apostles had not been always so
assured ; we find them in the Gospels impatient for
clearer statements and more decisive signs : " Now
speakest thou plainly and speakest no parable" they
regard as high praise. But after the Resurrection
all this is changed, they are then quite certain of
the fact that Christ is Divine, and they have given
up trying to understand the ways and forms
in which the Divine power might show itself.
They had probably, once thought, like Naaman,
that it must operate something after the fashion
which absolute power uses upon earth. They have
got past this when we meet with them in the Acts.
I have spoken of the difference of character
among the Apostles for this reason. That eleven
men, and a particular eleven, should all have agreed
in an account of what they said they had seen,
when by so doing they gained none of the objects
of human desire, is hard to explain unless we
suppose that they were convinced of the truth of
their report. If, however, these men had but one
mind among them, either because one or two
master spirits controlled the rest, or because they
had been so carefully drilled into uniformity that

1 6— 2

244 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

they could not help judging alike^then the value
of this unanimity would disappear, for the eleven
would become, virtually, only one or two. Now
that the Apostles were men of independent minds
is clear from what we hear of their disputings by
the way, and from the offence taken at James and
John when they ask for seats on the right and left at
their Master's side; and, indeed, the Gospel por-
traiture of all the Apostles leaves on us the impres-
sion that they were of different types of character
and had personalities that were strongly marked.

Certainly St Peter had a turn of mind which
was specially his own. He arrived at steadfast
conviction not by reasoning from step to step — this
was a mental process rarely practised by Galilean
fishers — but by inward intuition, after his own
strong Hebrew sort. When an impulse seized on
him it must have its way, and when his heart was
full of a matter he must pour it out.

Of Matthew what I said (p. 215) may stand
in place of a notice here. His Gospel shews us
from what side he looked on the work then
being set afoot.

James and John the "Sons of Thunder" may
be set down as representing energy and vehemence.
They were not likely to follow a lead, or to fall in
with a fantasy started by anyone else. Our notices
of Thomas and Philip and Bartholomew, remind
us of sketches, in which a few spirited pen-strokes
present a figure which we can fancy we have seen.

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 245

Though Thomas so loved our Lord that he was the
first to propose to go with Him to Jerusalem that
" they might die with Him1," yet he will not take
it on hearsay that Christ is risen. He knew how
dearly the disciples longed to have their Master
back, and he mistrusted their report because he
feared that their impression might come of their
strong desire. His doubts however like those of
Nathanael, are those of an investigator, not of an
assailant; like him he is "without guile" and is
glad to accept the offer " Come and see." Of
Philip I have often spoken. His words, " Shew
us the Father and it sufficeth us" lay his mind
bare before us.

These three men last named were all inclined
to be incredulous, they were matter of fact persons,
looking without rather than within, and such are
the most trustworthy witnesses to external fact. Of
one Apostle, Simon, it is true we learn that he
had been a "zealot," that is, that he had once
belonged to a band of men fired with fanatical
devotion. But, when we hear of him, he had caught
sight of a different kind of Divine Kingdom from
any that he had thought of bringing about, and he
was by degrees learning that "the wrath of man
worketh not the righteousness of God2." Not one
of these men had sufficient imagination — sufficient
creative faculty — to embody his longings, even
if he had such, in a vision so unexampled as that

1 John xi. 16. 3 James i. 20.

246 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

we have. That some of the eleven should have
had one illusive fancy and some another would not
have been improbable, but that all should have
had the same would have been inordinately so.
As a matter of fact the portraiture of the risen
Lord given in our different memoirs is a conception
singularly consistent, and one which the writers
could not have drawn except from concurring
traditions or personal knowledge of the facts.

There was one Apostle who did not witness the
resurrection — Judas Iscariot. With all that has
been written about him, the problems of his call
and of the purpose of his treason remain unsolved.
If, as many suppose, Judas came from some place
in Judaea, Kerioth by name, he was, among the
Apostles, the only one who was not a Galilaean.
It is possible that he may have been one of those
who attached themselves to our Lord at Jerusalem
before His active ministry began. Our Lord did
not " trust Himself1" with these as a body but one
or two may have gone with Him through Samaria
into Galilee. Judas may have been of a mind less
simply receptive than the rest of the twelve.
Perhaps he had aims for Israel, perhaps also for
himself, the patriotic element may sometimes have
been uppermost and sometimes the selfish one, and
perhaps he wanted to hasten the Divine scheme
and help it forward in His own way.

His presence among the disciples shews that

1 John ii. 24.

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 247

our Lord did not confine his choice to those who
were of one type, and that a man who had in him
great possibilities, attracted his sympathy, although
these possibilities might be turned to evil, and the
things meant for his good might become an
occasion of falling.

But while each individual of the Apostolic body
had a specific character of his own, yet beneath this
lay a generic condition common to them all. They
all belonged to the lower middle class, living by
labour but above want ; they were able to read and
write and some could probably talk Greek with
the neighbouring Hellenists in the country to the
north. The Apostles were plain and homely in
their minds and in their talk. In what they heard
they saw little beyond the meaning that lay on the
surface of the words. This literal mindedness does
not belong to one Apostle or two, but characterizes
them all, and it appears in St John's Gospel as
frequently as in the other three. The Evangelists
relate these displays of simplicity without ever
dreaming that they throw thereby any disparage-
ment on the Apostles : such they expected them
to be, and such they note that they were.

When men have the wants of the day full in
view every morning of their lives, and must supply
these wants by the labour of their hands, their
thoughts naturally take a practical turn. Now this
we note as a signal trait in the behaviour of the
Apostles and it is exactly what would characterize

248 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

men brought up as they had been* They always
look first to what under the circumstances has to
be done ; like seafaring men, they aie prompt in
resource. When the five thousand stay till night-
fall on the mountain side far from any place where
food could be got, the thought of the Apostles is,
" How are they to be fed ? " They take it on them
to advise that the crowd be sent away while there
was still daylight enough for them to reach the
villages. In the little daily business of common
life they act as if matters of service fell within their
own sphere and on them they had a right to speak.
I have already spoken of their pressing our Lord to
take food on the journey through Samaria. Again,
when the three Apostles are with our Lord on the
Mount of Transfiguration, Peter evidently supposes
that they have entered a new and heavenly country
where they are to stay, and his first thought is to
be of service. People, he supposes, will want a-
biding places in the new country as well as in the
old land they had left, so he proposes to build huts
as if they had been camping in the hills. An
Alpine guide would have spoken much in the same
way. These little distinctive characteristics are
carefully preserved, and the instinctive thought of
the attendant Apostles for their Master in their
little acts of personal service is true to nature in a
rare and delicate way.

Such men are good witnesses for they have eyes
for everything. I contend then, first that the

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 249

Apostles were singularly adapted for affording the
testimony required, and next, that, if men were
especially picked out on account of their qualifica-
tions as witnesses, then our Lord must have had in
view some great event for which witnesses were
required. In the selection of these plain men to
found the church we light upon the first hint of
the distinctive feature of the Christian revelation
mentioned above, viz. that it was to be centred,
not in notions but in a stupendous Fact (p. 230).

When the gospel had to be preached to Greeks
who sought after a methodical system, and the
need came for doctrine, the work was given to
St Paul. But twelve St Pauls as witnesses to fact
would not have carried as much weight as the
Apostles did , for though the most truthful of men,
yet the world of his own thoughts was nearly as
present to him as the world without, and it was
not always perfectly clear when he was speaking
of one and when of the other. The minds of the
Apostles, on the other hand, were quite limpid ;
they received all "as little children," registering
truly what came from without, and declaring it
just as their five senses set it before them.

I have said (/. c.) that the Apostles were not the
men whom the Founder of a policy or a school
would have chosen to win men over to his views.
Our Lord does not choose his successors for their
power of attracting crowds. He does not teach
them to argue or to preach. They prevailed by

2 SO THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

what they were and what they did, more than by
what they said. They had not the art of kindling
enthusiasm and leading captive the minds of men.
They do not possess the magic which masters the
will. Their success comes of what they had to
say, not of the way in which they said it. They
were indeed to be the promulgators of the religion
which was to grow up around the person of Christ,
they were to "teach all nations1," but they are not
to dominate men and bear them down by impetuous
oratory. This is too near akin to delusion and
tyranny for teachers of the freemen whom "the truth
makes free." Nor were they to rate their success
by the multitude of those they baptized. The truths
revealed in Christ's life and death were given to
the world to be part of its possessions through all
time, and whether they were generally accepted a
little sooner or a little later was of small account.

It may be remarked here what a small part in the
Divine economy, the gift of eloquence plays. Moses
had no utterance, the speech of Paul was contempt-
ible, and the Apostles can, indeed, say what needs
saying, but have not the gift, so infinitely valued by
the Greek, of leading men captive by persuasive
words.

But though to have been witnesses of the

Resurrection was the great glory of the Apostles,

yet they were something more than witnesses; they

were also the first guardians and propagators of

1 Matt, xxviii. 19.

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 2$ I

the Faith that transformed the world. They were
the depositories of the leaven which gradually set
up its working through the minds of men.

For this other function of their office they were
also singularly qualified in various external ways.

The social position of the Apostles was ad-
vantageous for the promulgating of a Faith which
was to become universal. They belonged to the
stratum in which the Centre of Gravity of Humanity
lay. The small land owners and handicraftsmen in
Galilee were in contact with people in different
stations of life ; they could talk with the rich and
they could feel with the poor; they were on the
border land between the learned and the ignorant,
and had just enough knowledge to be able to get
more when they wanted it. There was one truth,
essential and vital to a Faith which was to exalt
and dignify all mankind, which in the class from
which the Apostles came was found growing with
especial vigour as on its native soil. This truth
was the surpassing value of a man as man, — the
sanctity which clothes a human being who is made
in the image of God. The sense of this truth is
much keener among the poor than among the rich;
it is the poor who are most scandalised if a human
being is treated like a brute. The rich have wealth,
dignities and the like, on which their thoughts rest
with satisfaction. But when the poor man takes
account of his condition he finds but one item on
the credit side, and he makes the most of it : it is

252 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

that "He too is a Man." The. upper class in
Palestine had little mind for anything wider than
a philosophical or political sect, and they treated
the poor as if they had no souls. Christianity there-
fore could not have made its cradle with them, and
the lowest class had little intelligence and no power
of combination and would have been at once
trodden under foot. Unless the Church had taken
root in the lower middle class, it could hardly have
spread as it did. That its earliest promulgators
belonged to this class I will not suppose to have
been a matter of mere chance.

To proceed with the course of events. Our Lord
having called to Him "whom He Himself would"
and chosen the twelve, assigns to them their name.
They are "Apostles," men sent forth to preach.
But it was not till the risen Christ appeared to the
eleven in that upper chamber and said, " Peace be
unto you ; as my Father hath sent me even so send
I you," that they saw all that was meant by this
name; viz. that Christ was the Apostle of His
Father and that they were the Apostles of Christ.

Our Lord on coming down with the Twelve
from the mountain found a great gathering of
people waiting for Him on a spot of level ground.

St Luke's account is this.

"And he came down with them, and stood on a
level place, and a great multitude of his disciples, and a
great number of the people from all Judaea and Jerusalem,
and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 253

him, and to be healed of their diseases ; and they that
were troubled with unclean spirits were healed. And all
the multitude sought to touch him : for power came forth
from him, and healed them all1."

The address to the newly chosen Apostles which
follows this passage in St Luke's gospel has been
incorporated by St Matthew with the Sermon on
the Mount. The portions belonging to it may
there be recognised by the absence both of allusions
to the Law and of the opposed phrases, " It was said
to those of old time " and " But I say unto you,"
phrases which point the contrast which forms the
main theme of the earlier address.

The multitudes who awaited our Lord " in the
level place " were made up of Apostles, disciples,
and people "who came to hear him and be
healed." In some passages of this discourse our
Lord had the disciples, and in others the rest of
the people, particularly in view.

It was to the disciples that He turned when
He began to speak.

"And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said,
Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God2."

The four beatitudes are, to my mind, expressly
addressed to those who are about to take service
on Christ's side. It was only to a disciple that our
Lord could say that He would be hated, and cut

1 Luke vi. 17 — 19.
a Luke vi. 20.

254 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

off and vilified "for the son of man's sake," and
it was only disciples, and disciples too who were
active in spreading the word, who could be brought
into comparison with prophets either true or false.
The interpretation also of these beatitudes de-
pends on the fact that our Lord is speaking to the
disciples. Blessing did not belong to the poor as
an appanage of their poverty but because they
were His disciples and theirs was the Kingdom of
God ; it was easier for the poor than the rich to
enter this Kingdom, and then their earthly poverty
brought out by contrast the greatness of their
spiritual wealth. There is this difference between
the lessons taught here and those delivered in the
Sermon on the Mount; here all is personal while
there it is general. Here, our Lord is speaking
to His disciples and says, " for yours is the King-
dom of Heaven," and "ye shall be filled." In the
Sermon on the Mount the corresponding pronouns
are theirs and they.

A special lesson is conveyed to the Twelve in
the last of these beatitudes.

" Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when
they shall separate you from their company, and re-
proach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the
Son of man's sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap for
joy : for behold, your reward is great in heaven : for in
the same manner did their fathers unto the prophets1."

Although the enthusiastic reception of their

1 Luke vi. 22, 23.

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 255

Master must have cheered the Apostles and set
them forward in good heart, yet they were not to
think that they were called to share in a triumph
that was already won. They were not to be over-
elated by this passing favour of men. .The danger
was, lest they should be too sanguine and be
carried away by the fascination of popular goodwill.
Well might they be lifted up. Their Master had
just entrusted them with superhuman powers, and
multitudes had come from miles around and had
waited for them all night at the foot of the hills.
So, in the midst of the flush of success, our Lord
tells them that the criterion of their being true
soldiers of God is their winning, not the world's
praise but its hate. There is in the world an
enmity to God as God. There are many who will
readily enough acknowledge a Deity so long as He
is not real and actual and is not brought too near ;
they find in the abstract idea a serviceable support
for their social institutions; but from the notion
of a living God close by them they shrink in
dismay, and along with their terror goes hate.

Parallel with these beatitudes run the denuncia-
tions of woe.

" But woe unto you that are rich ! for ye have received
your consolation. Woe unto you, ye that are full now !
for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you, ye that laugh
now ! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you,
when all men shall speak well of you ! for in the same
manner did their fathers to the false prophets1."
1 Luke vi. 24 — 26.

256 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

These denunciations are not found in the Sermon
on the Mount. That discourse was addressed to
people mostly of the same class and in the same
posture of mind. When our Lord first spoke to
the crowds on the hillside people had not begun to
take sides ; but, at the period of the history now
before us, they had already clustered into parties ;
some had declared for the word and some against
it, while many remained indifferent or in doubt, and
to these several parties our Lord speaks in turn.

I think that when our Lord began to utter
" Woe," he turned to the men of station and sub-
stance in whom curiosity was mixed with con-
siderations of prudence. They are not denounced
for being rich any more than the poor are blessed
for being poor; but their calamity is this, that in
riches they find enough consolation to prevent
their striving heartily after anything better. They
do not "hunger and thirst after righteousness,"
they do not "seek a country ;" they do not steadily
seek anything ; but, if they feel for a moment
uneasy, they clutch their possessions and say, "At
any rate I have thus much comfort secure here."
This it was which made it next to impossible for
them to enter the kingdom of God, and our Lord
cries unto them, " Woe."

In the last denunciation our Lord comes back
to the disciples again. The ills that men's hatred
brought with it were patent enough, but men's
favour was an insidious snare; for it might lead

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 257

them unawares to love "the praise of men more
than the praise of God.'* The more kindly the
young preacher is received, the more distressing
it is to him to incur dislike; and consequently
the greater is the temptation to soften down Christ's
sternness and to meet the world halfway. Our
Lord warns his new helpers by the example of
those who in old times had prophesied smooth
things, and had gone the way of the world while
the world had made believe it was going theirs.

The beatitudes and warnings of woe form the
prelude, and when this was over our Lord may be
supposed to have lifted up his eyes from those who
stood nearest — probably the Apostles and most
notable persons — and to have addressed the whole
multitude; for, His words, "But I say unto you
which hear1," I take to imply, "all you which hear."
The twelve verses which follow form a sermon of
general application of which " Love your enemies "
is taken as the text.

On this sermon being ended we read

" And he spake also a parable unto them, Can the
blind guide the blind? shall they not both fall into a
pit? The disciple is not above his master: but every
one when he is perfected shall be as his master8."

This parable is addressed to the newly ap-
pointed Twelve. It bears on the temptations of
young teachers. They are in danger of being elated

vi. 27. 8 Luke vi. 39, 40.

258 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

at finding themselves teachers when they had so
lately been learners ; they might lean to correction,
and might incline to be over busy in giving
directions and in finding fault; they might per-
suade themselves too that they thought only of
the learners' good, when in reality there was, mixed
with this, a good spice of the love of exercising
superiority. They are told that if they are to act
as guides they must see their own way first ; the
light within them must not be darkness.

The last verse of the last quotation, refers, not
to Christ and His disciples — there is no suggestion
that these should reach His perfection — but to the
disciples and their scholars. The especial point of
the verse is the responsibility laid upon the teacher,
by the pupils taking him as their ideal. The
pupils of the disciples would copy the disciples
themselves, and they could not excel their pattern.
The learner could not be above his master, what
is cast in a mould cannot be better shaped than
the mould itself; but the perfected work that is
turned out exactly represents the mould. The
disciples therefore must watch against every defect,
for their pupils would copy them faults and all.

The text has another application besides this,
the pupil when perfected would stand on a level
with his master ; the latter had no indefeasible
superiority. When they had lighted the lamps of
others the light of the rest would be as bright as
their own. If they were to glory it should be, not

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 259

in their superiority to their pupils, but in their pupils
having become as good as themselves. They were
not to be like those teachers who keep back from
their prentices some special secret of their art.

Next comes the verse, "For there is no good
tree that bringeth forth corrupt fruit1." This
applies both to those who teach and to those who
learn. If the master's scholars mostly turn out ill
it may be inferred that he is a bad master ; and if
the master be self-seeking at bottom, whatever
disguise he may put on, the evil will come to light :
selfishness always generates counter-selfishness, and
false pretension detected in one case may lead a
young man into general mistrust.

In another view of the verse, the behaviour of
the man is the fruit and his nature is the tree.
This fruit is not without value in itself, but is of
more value still as an evidence of the condition of
the tree. This falls in with the constant burden of
Christ's teaching, "God looks to what you are as
well as to what you do, and part of the importance
of what you do comes from its shewing what you
are, or from its helping by way of practice to con-
firm you in your ways whether good or bad."

In the last four verses of the address our Lord
again speaks to the whole company of hearers.
He takes one of His familiar topics, viz., that
good is not only to be admired, it must also be
done. This is expressed by the illustration of the

1 Luke vi. 43, also Matth. vii. 17 where the converse is added.

1 7— 2

260 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

house on the rock and that on the earth. Many
who followed Him counted themselves His dis-
ciples because they carried away his commands
in their heads and talked about them. He tells
them that they can only get firm hold of them by
putting them into practice. There were many
hearers who would put our Lord's precepts away
somewhere in their memory, and be satisfied with
possessing right and beautiful thoughts without
carrying them into practice, keeping them like
curios in a drawer. These were like men building
on the earth, who do only just what the moment
requires. But the habit formed by steady obedience
effects a structural change in the man's own mind.
This is a lasting possession — it has taken time
and pains to acquire, but it is storm proof like the
house upon the rock.

When speaking of the Sermon on the Mount, I
touched on the form in which our Lord delivers
what He says. The remarks there made apply to
the discourse before us and, in addition, it may be
said, that this address is admirably adapted to be
carried away by the hearers as a whole. It is
strongly marked by its characteristic style, so that
an addition or alteration by another hand would
strike even an unpractised ear, as not having the
true ring. There are four beatitudes and four
denunciations, corresponding each to each; this
numerical symmetry assists recollection. Then
comes the sermon, made up of sayings so short and

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES 26 1

terse that the most unlettered may carry the whole
away; and finally all ends with a parable, which
is so well suited to the popular mind that it is now
perhaps the best known of all pieces of Bible
imagery. Those who like may trace in this a
certain prevision, a designed fashioning of the garb
of the word to suit it for that oral transmission on
which, at one period, its preservation would depend.
When our Lord had finished His discourse He
returned to Capernaum.

" And he cometh into a house. And the multitude
cometh together again, so that they could not so much
as eat bread. And when his friends heard it, they went
out to -lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside
himself."

There were occasions in our Lord's life in which
the Divine nature seemed to glow through the
human receptacle. It was so when He came
down from the Mount of Transfiguration, so too,
when he went forward, apart from the rest, at the
outset of His final journey to Jerusalem ; and so I
believe it was when He came back to Capernaum
bringing with Him the Twelve whom He had
chosen to form the nucleus of His everlasting
Church. Something in His air seems to have
amazed His friends, " they said he is beside himself."

The Scribes, marking the temper of the crowd,
thought it wise to drop their schemes of violence,
but they set afoot the notion that He was possessed

1 Mark iii. 20, 11.

262 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

by the Prince of the Devils and ruled the spirits of
evil in his name. Our Lord made no long stay at
Capernaum, but took the Twelve with Him on a
journey to the cities in Galilee that they might
see how He preached and taught, and, what was
more, that they might learn to put complete trust
in His wise guidance and sheltering love. This
was the first practical lesson they collectively
received.

It was in the interval between the calling of the
Twelve and the despatching of them, two and two,
on their missions, or possibly while they were gone,
that the messengers sent by the Baptist came up
with our Lord and His party.

As the next chapter will be taken up with the
lessons belonging to this mission of the Twelve,
I shall deal with this incident in this chapter, al-
though, chronologically, it might fall in the next.
It is related by St Matthew as follows :

" Now when John heard in the prison the works of
the Christ, he sent by his disciples, and said unto him,
Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another? And
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go your way and
tell John the things which ye do hear and see : the blind
receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up,
and the poor have good tidings preached to them. And
blessed is he, whosoever shall find none occasion of
stumbling in me1."

1 Matt. xi. 2—6. See also Luke vii. 18—23.

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 263

The question asked by the Baptist shews us his
condition of mind. A voice in his heart had told
the Baptist that he was born to be the forerunner
of one mightier than himself, and the sign at the
Baptism had shewn him who that Person was.
He had recognised in Him "the Lamb of God who
was to take away the sins of the world," the Son in
whom the Father was well pleased. This conveys
the impression that John regarded our Lord as the
Jewish Messiah, but the Baptist's notions about the
Messiah may have been vague, like those which
the people and even the Scribes entertained ; al-
though he was a prophet and more than a prophet,
he would not know more than other people, except
on matters directly revealed to him. The Divine
light is indeed a " lantern to a man's path," but it
is a lantern that throws its light only in the direction
in which he who carries it has to go. I believe
that John sent to our Lord because he was be-
wildered by what he heard. That the Messiah
should preach and heal was agreeable to what he
had expected : but, "Was this to be all?" Was He
going to restore the kingdom Himself, or was
another to come and take up that portion of the
work ?

Our Lord, it would appear, wished to give John
as nearly as might be the same advantages as His
disciples had. The emissaries are accordingly made
witnesses of the Signs. They are told to relate what
they saw and He adds the significant words, "And

264 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

blessed is he whosoever shall find none occasion of
stumbling in me1." Our Lord could not say that
He was the Messiah without letting loose all the
divers erroneous imaginations which hovered round
the name. Our Lord, after His fashion, gives the
Baptist a suggestive hint, leaving it to him whether
he should follow out the clue rightly or not. As soon
as John's messengers, who for a while had witnessed
the works that He did, had turned back home, our
Lord addressed himself to the company who were
with him, people, disciples and all, and spoke to
them of John. This discourse contained lessons of
tolerance which helped to widen the disciples' minds,
and I shall therefore discuss it at some length. It
has a bearing extending beyond those to whom
it was addressed.

I shall take St Luke's version of this discourse
because in that of St Matthew it is, I think, mixed
with matter spoken on other occasions.

It is our Lord's way to point the drift of a
whole discourse by a pregnant sentence at the end,
in which the expositor finds the key to the whole.
Such a saying we have here, in the closing words,

"And wisdom is2 justified of all her children8."

The meaning of the passage turns on the sense
given to the word "justified." It is employed, near
the beginning of the discourse, in the same sense
which it has here at the end, and this helps us to

1 Luke vii. 23. 2 Marginal rendering, was. 3 Luke vii. 35.

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 265

understand its particular meaning in this place. I
refer to the passage :

"And all the people when they heard, and the
publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism
of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected
for themselves the counsel of God, being not baptized of
him1."

The word "justified" is used in this passage in
the sense it has when we say " my son has justified
all my outlay," or " the event justified all my pre-
cautions."

The publicans by accepting the baptism of
John shewed that God's good offices in their behalf
were not thrown away, that they had not been re-
garded with excessive hopefulness or a too in-
dulgent eye ; but the Scribes and Pharisees frustrat-
ed God's good purpose in their behalf. So far as
they were concerned his measures were of no effect.
They would have none of them. The fact was, that,
though they talked about God, they were in fact God-
blind, and when asked to follow His teachers they
found special reasons for declining in each particular
case. John renewed an ideal which had passed out
of sight; he appeared in the ascetic garb of the
prophets of old ; his strict life and his outspoken
words disturbed their consciences and they put him
aside by the readiest of expedients, they declared
that he was mad. Then came our Lord declaring
Himself the Son of Man, living as other men did,

1 Luke vii. 29, 30.

266 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

and consecrating thereby the ordinary course and
usages of human life. In His case also the Scribes
had an objection to make. A messenger from God,
they thought, would come upon the earth in a
different way from other men, and all his doings
would be of an exceptional kind : whereas Christ
lived to all appearance just as they did themselves.
In the same way that courtiers surround a prince
by a wall of etiquette in order to elevate him and
hold him apart from the people, so would the
Scribes have encompassed God's messenger with
hallowed observances. They were not likely to
understand that the closer Jesus kept to the
ordinary and universal ways of men which were
of natural growth, the more He was at home in
the Kingdom of His Father who had made the
world and ordered the ways of men.

Christ goes to the root of both these objections.
He takes an image drawn from what was always
under their eyes. He supposes a crowd of children
playing in the market place, while others are sitting
somewhat sullenly by. They play at a wedding,
and they pretend to pipe and dance, but those
who sit by will not stir; and then they change to
a funeral, and imitate the wailing of the relatives
and of the train of hired mourners, but those whom
they wish to gain for playmates will not have this
either; they do not want to play at all. The people
would learn from this image as much as was within
their comprehension. They could see that when

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 267

the Pharisees objected on opposite grounds to two
courses, their aversion was really not to either
course but to that to which both courses tended.
But the last verse, "wisdom is justified of all her
children," goes beyond what the people would see
at the time; and, indeed, as St Matthew in his
version omits the important word all, it looks as
if he had himself missed the full sense.

The text conveys a lesson of ample tolerance
which even in these days, all minds are not stretched
wide enough to receive. The point is this. God
has children of more types than one, and all these, in
their own different ways, justify God's thought for
them by taking advantage of His help. The ways
of Jesus and the ways of John differ widely, but
men may reach God coming round by either way.
Some may gain access to the Kingdom through
John and others by Jesus ; but all who are God's
will get there by some way or other. If the Scribes
and Pharisees were winnowed away by this trial
it was because the germs of a Divine nature
within them had been suffered to perish. They
were God's children no longer, and God's ways
for His children would not succeed with them.

That wisdom is justified of all her children, is a
truth carrying to different generations the precise
lesson of tolerance it needs. It was not long before
the Apostles themselves had occasion to call this
very lesson to mind. An exclusive spirit, and the
desire to have their privileges all to themselves led

268 THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES.

them to forbid a man who followed not with them
to cast out devils in their Master's name. They
are very gently set right. Our Lord is never hard
upon errors arising from mistaken notions; he
gently checks them at the time and takes early
occasion, by a parable, or some lesson of circum-
stance, to suggest the proper counter view.

But though the Apostles might profit by this
apophthegm, yet it was aimed directly at the Scribes
who held that in all questions there must be one
right view, all others being wrong; so that toleration
of anything that deviated from the accepted view,
implied indifference to truth. But it is only "truth
absolute" which is one and exclusive and this,
in spiritual matters, can only be attained by an
unmistakeable dictum of revelation. In a geo-
metrical investigation, we have an infallible logic
dealing with definite notions ; we therefore get one
precise result, and all that differ from this are
worthless. But in matters spiritual an element of
infinity must be present ; notions enter which can-
not be defined ; men may use the same words in
stating their views, but whether these words convey
the same conceptions to them all, no one can
possibly say. In things spiritual, therefore, no one
answer completely excludes all other answers
because we never get a perfect solution at all ; we
only get approximations. In like manner there
are insoluble problems in Mathematical Physics to
which we can only get answers approximately

THE CHOOSING OF THE APOSTLES. 269

correct. These being points in a circle round the
unattainable centre may be infinite in number.

These hard sayings shew that Christ, when he
spoke, looked beyond his hearers into infinite space
and saw there " other sheep who were not of this
fold1." He must also have felt sure that these
words of His would be preserved for after times ;
for certainly, it was not merely for Galilean hearers
that our Lord uttered pregnant words like those I
have just discussed2. The candle was not lighted
to be put in a cupboard. The hard sayings of our
Lord as well as many of His passing words, which
called forth no notice at the time, are to me part
of the witness, everywhere peeping out, of our
Lord's prospective view in what He said and did.
He must have had in view persons or bodies of
men, who would find, some in one of these utterances
and some in another, what answered to a want or a
question rising in their hearts; and, as a fact, men
have in every age lighted on words of our Lord
which seemed to be a revelation directed to their
own case, the key to the special riddle which vexed
their souls. There are herbs and simples growing
on the earth, which men for ages have passed care-
lessly by, but some new form of malady has one
day appeared, and in the disregarded plant has the
needful help been found.

1 John x. 16. 2 p. 265.

CHAPTER IX.

THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES. THE
MISSION TO THE CITIES.

THE point we have now reached in the history
is marked by a signal change as well in the form of
our Lord's teaching as in the outer tenour of His
life. His discourses are no longer a string of
positive precepts, but they consist largely of
parables, commonly closing with a moral put into a
striking, not to say a paradoxical, form. His way
of life is altered also, it is no longer that of a resident
of Capernaum, but that of a wayfarer undertaking
considerable journeys, accompanied by the Twelve
who had left all to follow Him. Outward circum-
stances, such as danger from the side of Herod,
may have had influence in bringing this latter
change about, but all things fell together to further
the kind of education desired for the Twelve.
This change from a stationary life to a wandering
one was conducive to the growth of certain qualities
valuable for the founders of a Church. These

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 2/1

qualities we find conspicuously displayed by the
Apostles in the Acts, and we may ask whether
they had not acquired them in this course of
practical education, and also whether our Lord did
not frame this course with a view to its educational
effects, and the fitting of the Apostles for their
work. Was it of pure accident that all this came
about ?

We can also, although with less positiveness,
draw some inferences from the courses which our
Lord avoided taking as well as from those which He
took. When we are disposed to wonder why our
Lord did not take some particular step, it is a
good plan to consider what would have come
about if He had done so. We shall often find
that the proposed course would have had an ulti-
mate effect, very different from that immediate and
obvious one which had at first occurred to us. So,
by examining the educational consequences which
would have resulted from certain courses that were
not taken we shall, I think, learn something about
what to avoid in education ourselves. Although
the education of the Apostles is a purpose ever in
our Lord's view, yet it is only now and then that
we are plainly told that something was said or
done for the Apostles' sakes. This silence as to
the effect which is aimed at is, in education, often
a necessity. If a pupil is told by his master that
he is put through certain studies, not that he
may learn the subject, but that he may perfect

2/2 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

himself in certain mental motions and improve his
capacities, he is apt to be macfe self-conscious
and coxcombical or else, feeling satisfied that his
mind and capacities are very well as they are, he
gives small attention to what he is told.

From- the very first we have seen indications
that our Lord was divining the natures of men,
selecting them with a forecast to their coming
work, and fitting them to receive and promulgate
His revelation of God. But this inner purpose,
which, until the Twelve are called, has lain under-
ground, now crops out on the surface and forces
itself into view; and we feel bound to ask of
every subsequent incident in the sacred History,
"How was the Apostles' character influenced by
this?"

I have spoken of the " Schooling of the Apostles"
for want of a better phrase, but the mental changes
wrought in the disciples by their Master's company
constitute a very different sort of schooling from
what commonly goes by the name. They receive
no doctrinal instruction in dogmatic form, they
obtain nothing which they can display, they are
shewn no new system for dealing with the problems
of life, nor are they given fresh views about the
Messiah. Those who come asking "What they
are to do?" are always told that they already
know, or should know, this very well of them-
selves. Among the great Teachers of the world
there is hardly one, whose chosen pupils have

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES.

received so few tenets in a formulated shape as
those of Christ; and yet the Apostles at the time
of the Ascension have undergone a transformation,
compared with what they were when our Lord first
found them, greater than was ever wrought in men
in the same time before.

One special function was assigned to the
Apostles which sets them apart from all other
men. In them was engendered a new quality
belonging to spiritual life; they were the trustees
of mankind for a new capacity; they were the
depositaries of the faculty for realising "the as-
surance of things hoped for, the proving of things
not seen V In them Faith, which elsewhere existed
only in the germ, was brought to perfection and
bore fruit, and scattered seed. Their progress in
this quality proceeds by certain steps ; these are
roughly indicated in the first chapter of this book
(pp. 8, 9), but I will name them here again.

First of all, the men who were chosen for the
work had a more than usual power of savouring
the things of God. They are brought under the
influence of One whom they regard as the Messiah
but about whom something of mystery hangs.
They conceive for him a passionate loyalty, and
an affection, of which that inspired by the highest
human natures will only serve to give a bare idea;
they are with him day by day ; they look on his
Signs and Wonders, but it seems to them so

i Heb. xi. r.
L. 18

2/4 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

natural that a Man like Him should work wonders,
that they scarcely marvel at them. Inward evil,
selfish thoughts and all, disappear when He is
by. Again, they are educated to feel that in His
company they are safe against outward dangers.
This growing confidence1 was tried and found
wanting when they were with their Master on the
Lake and the storm arose ; the lesson had to be
studied a little longer. As soon as it was fully
learned they were advanced another stage; the
Apostles, in the great practical lesson which is the
leading matter of this chapter, were taught that
Christ's power reached beyond His presence, that
it could even be delegated to them, and that His
shelter could be spread over them, though He
might be far away. They are sent forth without
purse and scrip that they may the better feel that
they are in Christ's hand and need give no thought
to petty daily cares. The same lesson is afterwards
given to the Seventy disciples. The Crucifixion
brought about an education of a very different
kind, that of affliction and trial ; but the Apostles
do not, at once, wholly lose their Master, He is
withdrawn from them by degrees. After the Resur-
rection though He no longer lives on the earth
a common life with men, yet His disciples feel
that He is not absolutely gone ; He seems to be
still close by, and they may at any moment see
His loved and honoured form and hear the words

1 Mark iv. 35—40.

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 275

"Peace be unto you." The stranger who joins
them on the road may prove to be He ; they
may catch sight of the Lord's features as He
vanishes away. Then comes the last stage of
separation when He is completely lost to eye and
ear, and Spiritual Communion only is maintained.
Most carefully and by wisely ordered degrees had
they been brought to apprehend this Spiritual
Communion, and they were actuated by the inner
sense of His presence during all the rest of their
lives. This it was, this realization of our Lord's
words " Lo, I am always with you unto the end of
the world," which rendered — and still is rendering
— the Christian Church a body living and organic,
and not a mere exponent or depository of doctrines,
and of traditions about the Lord.

Christ is the Divine core of the true life of
Humanity, and He, when one set of views are
outgrown, may whisper to the "company of God's
faithful people," and there may be disclosed to
them another aspect of that truth absolute which
men in the body cannot completely discern or
receive.

Soon after the call of the Apostles the fixed
residence of our Lord at Capernaum was broken
up. Very little consideration will be wanted to
see that it was serviceable, with a view to the
education of the Apostles, that it should be so.

Up to this time the fisher brethren had gone on
working for their livelihood more or less, but now

1 8— 2

2?6 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

their Master saw that He should be but a short time
with them and He would have them all to Himself.
Of labour, both bodily and mental, the Apostles
should indeed have enough, but so long as they
were with their Master — so long as the bride-
groom was with them — all this labour must tend
to the single object unto which they were to con-
secrate their lives. We can readily see that so
long as Christ was on earth it was their one duty
to follow and to hear; they should be engrossed
by the sole duty of attending Him and were not
to be distracted by sordid cares or by having to
labour for their daily bread. They were to learn
that the work to which they were called was of a
sublime order, and that the business of common
life was as nothing by its side. After this time the
Apostolic party were supported from their own
savings or from the contributions of their friends,
or of others interested in the "words of eternal
life." The following passage belongs to this time :

"And it came to pass soon afterwards, that he went
about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing
the good tidings of the kingdom of God, and with him
the twelve, and certain women which had been healed of
evil spirits and infirmities, Mary that was called Magda-
lene, from whom seven devils had gone out, and Joanna
the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and
many others, which ministered unto them of their
substance1."

* Luke viii. i — 3.

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 277

But as soon as they ceased to labour for their
daily bread, they were kept continuously and
actively engaged in their Master's service ; for they
were not to be exposed to the dangers attend-
ing the lack of settled occupation. Thus we find
that as soon as they ceased to earn their livelihood
they were occupied incessantly, journeying in
attendance on our Lord. This matter may be
approached at either of its two ends. 'It may
have been our Lord's first care that the Apostles
should be freed from secular labour, and the
journeys may have been secondary to this purpose;
or the journeyings may have been of primary
importance, and the Twelve would then necessarily
abandon their callings, and have to be supported
out of some common fund. In both cases the
educational effect was the same.

If the Twelve after being freed from earning
their livelihood had remained in Capernaum, there
must have been some part of the day when they
were not in actual attendance on their Master;
they would have to meet the reproach of idleness,
and they might lose some self-respect by feeling
that they were eating others' bread; of, in their
spare time they might fall into those polemical
discussions from which our Lord safeguards them
with especial care.

All these evils were obviated by the course
which was actually taken. Our Lord left his
fixed home at Capernaum, and He and the Twelve

278 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

adopted a wandering life. These journeys taken
in company supplied a need which in all edu-
cation is a foremost one, that of discipline. They
were given duties to perform. When men travel
together, faring hardly on rough mountain ways,
bound to start together and to keep up each
with the rest, whether disposed to do so or not,
they soon come to set inclination on one side
and to -learn what obligation means. There is
no kind of companionship which binds men in
a closer and heartier fellowship than this journey-
ing together. Thus the Schooling of the Twelve
went on, without their guessing it, as they went
with their Master, sometimes on foot over the
hills, sometimes rowing the boat on the Lake,
sometimes providing for His reception in the cities,
or marshalling hearers to listen to the word ; and
sometimes, when multitudes had to be fed, ar-
ranging them, plot by plot, so that they might
be reached by those who distributed the food1.

This work afforded the very training required.
Nothing is more remarkable in the Apostles than
their unbroken mental health. The histories of
religious communities are full of instances of
ecstacies and hysterical delusions; but never do
we find among our Lord's followers anything ap-
proaching to a spiritual craze. Such crazes are
commonly the growth of solitude, and no Apostle

1 Mark vi. 39, 40.

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES, 279

while the new ideas are working in him is suffered
to be long alone. This health of theirs came in
great measure from their being constantly employed
about matters of which their hearts were full. The
training of the Apostles fulfils all the conditions
for sound spiritual health; the Twelve lead lives
of out-door labour, with constant change of scene,
with varied interests, with occupations to engage
their minds ; some had the provisioning to see to1,
some the contributions, some were sent on in
advance to secure lodging2, and some wrought
works of healing in their Master's name. All this
was conducive to their becoming self helpful, fertile
in practical resource, as well as earnestly devoted
to their Master, confident both of His power and
of that delegated to themselves. Their way of life
brought them also into acquaintance with the
various dispositions and ways of men : all of this
was essential for their work.

At the same time this regular occupation,
though sufficient to prevent any evil spirit finding
in them a corner "empty, swept and garnished,"
yet was not absorbing or exhausting, it left their
minds and wills free play; they could fall into
groups as they chose, they could talk freely on
the way, they could debate on the meaning of a
parable, or on the nature and time of coming of
the Kingdom of Heaven.

1 Possibly Philip had this charge, see page 306.

2 Luke ix. 51, 52.

280 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

After, what seems to have beeira short mission
journey, with the Twelve, into the villages of Gen-
nesareth, which served to initiate them into their
new life and to teach them confidence in their
Master, our Lord came back to the Lake coast
where a great crowd assembled, whom He ad-
dressed from a boat upon the Lake near the
shore.

The crowd that gathered there heard a teaching
new to the world both in matter and in form ; men
who had listened to the Sermon on the Mount
might scarcely believe that the speaker was the
same; hitherto the lessons to the multitude had
placed before them truths of life, moral and spiri-
tual, put in such a way as to require no effort of
the learner to be fully understood ; the right or
wrong about some matter, with which they had
daily to deal, had been set before them in a light
in which they had never seen it before. But what
they heard now was not apopthegm, not precept,
but, on the face of it, only a simple tale. "This"
they would say " is all well, but how is it like the
Kingdom of God?" Whether much more might
not be learnt, even from these plain lessons, by
turning them over a second time in the mind, was
a question which only a few asked, and of these
few the greater part were probably already among
the disciples of Jesus. They were no longer given
instruction in a condition ready for use, but only
material from which they should extract it for them-

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 281

selves ; and to do this they must both use their wits
and have hearts alive to God. I shall speak, further
on, of the principle on which our Lord acted in
withdrawing from the mass the opportunities they
had had before. He states it himself, in words
I have many times cited, *'to those who have
shall be given"; words which we have not done
with yet, but which it would draw me from my
point to discuss now.

It was apparently for the sake of the Apostles
that this form of teaching is introduced. One of
the services it rendered is obvious, it set the
hearers thinking. A new form of intellectual
exercise was laid before the listeners, something
was proposed which they had to solve for them-
selves ; they are given the solution in two cases,
and they are provided with other examples on
which they are to try their own skill. Beside the
stimulus thus given to intellectual activity by
the new kind of teaching, it kept before the
eyes of the students those lofty conceptions of
Divine agency in the world which preachers of
the Kingdom of Heaven would require. Personal
trust in our Lord's words, cooperating with some
intuition of their own, had made them feel sure
that God's Kingdom had come. Now they were
told that they might know something of its ways ;
they are set to ponder on them, but the direction
their thoughts are to follow is marked out ; they
are not left to rove hither and thither in their own

282 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

imaginations, they are not suffered to pass dis-
jointedly from notion to notion as in a dream;
the puzzle of the parable arrests their attention,
and the thread which the circumstance of it supplies
serves as a clue confining their thoughts to move
along a certain path. Here again, as we have
observed so often, a selective action comes in, for
it is the more active intellects that are most drawn
towards a puzzle. They find in it something that
their minds may work upon and this is what they
seek ; while the sluggish desire nothing of the kind,
but turn aside from anything they cannot at once
understand.

Again, if the Apostles solved a parable for
themselves and thereby arrived at a new aspect of
some Divine truth, this fresh knowledge would be
much more their own, and have a far greater effect
in forming their minds, than if the solution had
come from their Master. A problem solved by the
pupil himself does him more good than a dozen of
which he reads the solutions in a book. The parable
suggested certain parallels between things outward
and things spiritual in the world, and, without con-
ceiving anything so abstract as an analogy between
these two orders of things, the Twelve may have
caught a glimpse of the truth, that a workmanship
betokening the same hand runs through all pro-
vinces of the universe.

When the disciples had thus been filled with
new thoughts and new ideas, our Lord withdrew

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 283

them from turmoil that the ideas might germinate
undisturbed, we read

"And on that day, when even was come, he saith
unto them, Let us go over unto the other side1."

An incident in this little voyage served as a
test of the condition of that Faith, the growth
of which in the Apostles' hearts was being, I
believe, watched anxiously by our Lord.

"And there ariseth a great storm of wind, and the
.waves beat into the boat, insomuch that the boat was
now filling. And he himself was in the stern, asleep on
the cushion : and they awake him, and say unto him,
Master, carest thou not that we perish ? And he awoke,
and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be
still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great
calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye fearful ? have
ye not yet faith8."

This yet is emphatic. This was a miracle of
instruction, and it served also as a test of how far
the Apostles were fit for the high lesson in store
for them, that namely of trusting in the Lord's
protection when they were out of His sight. Their
behaviour shewed that they had not as yet fully
mastered the easier one of trusting in Him when
He was by.

First let us notice a trait of nature in the recital
which shews the hand of an eye-witness. The

i Mark iv. 35.

3 Mark iv. 37 — 40.

284 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

words "Master, carest thou not that we perish"
exactly express the irritation of alarm, which turns
against those who remain undisturbed. No fabri-
cator would in those days have hit on this trait;
and a compiler from tradition, unless he had felt
constrained by his authority, might have preferred
to pass it by.

It is not quite clear from the account whether
the disciples hoped for superhuman help from our
Lord or not. The works of His which had most
gained notice had been cures, and that He should
have power over the winds and waves had probably
never entered their minds. Still, it is obvious, that
they turned to their Master in peril, as a child does
to its parent, expecting at least to find Him solici-
tous about them. If our Lord had asked them, as
soon as the wind rose, "Shall you, if a storm should
come, feel safe because I am with you?" they would
have answered, and answered truly, that they would.
But their Oriental disposition to panic lay deeper
in them than their newly born confidence in their
Master, and the sudden emergency brought the
depths to the surface. Their trust, we may be
sure, advanced after that night both in intensity
and breadth.

The miracle in the country of the Gadarenes,
into which our Lord went, brings out one point
which belongs to my subject1. This miracle I

1 In "Trench on the Miracles" this miracle and the question of
the demoniacs in the New Testament are thoroughly discussed. I

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 285

regard as a practical illustration of the lesson of
the parable of the Tares, inasmuch as both one
and the other bear on the great puzzle of God's
tolerance of evil in the world. While the parable
and interpretation are yet fresh in the minds of the
Apostles, the case of this Demoniac comes before
them. It may have struck them — as it must often
have struck ourselves — how often after having learnt
something one day we come, unaccountably, on an
instance or illustration of it on the next. The
circumstance was this, an evil agency was, so to
say, taken prisoner by our Lord; should it be
deprived of existence, or at any rate of activity at
once ? Men generally would answer "Yes." They
would regard it as something that had escaped
God's eye and which God's servants ought to
destroy whenever they could. This is not Christ's
view. Evil is not regarded by him as an over-
sight of God. God has allowed it to exist in the
world, and so it has probably some function to
perform. It is not to be extirpated with ruthless
hand. The tares are to grow until the harvest. On
the same principle our Lord will not send the Spirit
into the pit. He is the Son of Man, and men he
has come to deliver; of the man therefore this
evil agency must loosen his hold; but, saving this,
he may pursue the vocation he was following when
Christ crossed the Lake. Our Lord rescues the

purposely confine myself to what bears on the education of the
Apostles. See also above Chap. 2, p. 48.

286 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

man, because to do good unto men He was sent,
but for property he is not concerned. If the
Demon must be about some evil, but will be
content with turning to the swine, to the swine he
is at liberty to go ; he is not sent to them, but
neither is he interdicted. The plague on men is, as
was observed above, turned into a murrain among
swine1. The destruction of the swine was the
act of the Divine government only in the same
sense that the losses by the cattle plague are so
now. As we go on we read :

" And they began to beseech him to depart from their
borders2."

It would be hard upon this people to say that
they counted the deliverance of their brother a
less matter than the loss of their swine; they
were terror-stricken at the display of superhuman
power, and they wished to be rid of their cause
of fear.

In the above verse we find the first instance of
indifference or aversion among those to whom our
Lord went.

The schooling of the Apostles leads them
steadily on ; step by step they advance into the
rougher ground of actual life, and one such step is
noted here.

It was well, as I have said, that a glow of
success should at starting rest upon their path,

1 See above, p. 49. 2 Ivlark v. 17.

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 287

but they could never grow into hardy wayfarers if
all the ways were smooth and all the weather
bright; there were in them many qualities, good
and hard, which could only take their proper lustre
by rubbing against what was rough. So they were
early taught to expect opposition, and they saw in
what spirit it was dealt with by our Lord. Men,
thinking only of the contest, are apt to lose sight
of the matter in debate, and make it a point
of honour not to give way. They are often
made obstinate by being opposed. Our Lord
counts the fact that opposition exists to be
material in the case and allows it its weight. Here
the people pray Him to go and He goes. He
could do them no good by staying against
their will. He returns at once to the western
side of the Lake, and soon after his arrival we
read of the raising of Jairus' daughter. With the
miracle itself I have nothing to do ; I am concerned
with the choosing of Peter, James and John, to
witness the miracle1, but this is an instance of
the principle which will form the subject of the
next chapter and will there be discussed.

After this, according to my view of the chrono-
logy, our Lord paid a second visit to Nazareth
accompanied by His disciples. He may have
supposed that the news of His doings would have
turned His townspeople towards Him ; but the old
impression is still strong among them. A man

1 Mark v. 37.

288 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

from God, they thought, must come they knew
not whence, whereas Jesus and His brothers they
had known all their lives ; and although it seems
that His mother and brethren had gone to live at
Capernaum1, His sisters were still among them in
Nazareth. We may gather from these two events
that the faith of the disciples had by this time
grown strong enough to encounter opposition
without harm. A strong conviction is confirmed
by attack ; it takes up a firm position on its bases
of support; while a stripling faith bends and
quivers at every gust of disbelief.

It was soon after this rejection at Nazareth,
and possibly from the neighbourhood of that place,
that our Lord sent forth the Twelve on their mission
journey, giving them the very remarkable injunc-
tion, which I print below. St Luke tells us of
another mission of seventy disciples ; how long a
time elapsed between the two missions, or whether
the Apostles were among the seventy, we do not
know ; inasmuch as the circumstances of the two
journeys, and the directions given are very similar,
and the educational purport of the two is alike, I
shall print both the narratives here, and consider
the two events together. St Mark's account is as
follows :

"And he called unto him the twelve, and began to
send them forth by two and two; and he gave them

1 Compare Mark iii. 32 and Mark vi. 3.

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 289

authority over the unclean spirits ; and he charged them
that they should take nothing for their journey, save a
staff only ; no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse ;
but to go shod with sandals : and, said he, put not on two
coats. And he said unto them, Wheresoever ye enter
into a house, there abide till ye depart thence. And
whatsoever place shall not receive you, and they hear
you not, as ye go forth thence, shake off the dust that is
under your feet for a testimony unto them. And they
went out, and preached that men should repent. And
they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many
that were sick, and healed them1."

St Luke gives this account of the sending of
the seventy.

" Now after these things the Lord appointed seventy
others, and sent them two and two before his face into
every city and place, whither he himself was about to
come. And he said unto them, The harvest is plenteous,
but the labourers are few : pray ye therefore the Lord of
the harvest, that he send forth labourers into his harvest.
Go your ways : behold, I send you forth as lambs in the
midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no wallet, no shoes :
and salute no man on the way. And into whatsoever
house ye shall enter, first say, Peace be to this house.
And if a son of peace be there, your peace shall rest
upon him : but if not, it shall turn to you again. And
in that same house remain, eating and drinking such
things as they give : for the labourer is worthy of his hire.
Go not from house to house. And into whatsoever city

1 Mark vi. 7—13.

2QO THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

ye enter, and they receive you, eat sucji things as are set
before you : and heal the sick that are therein, and say
unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
But into whatsoever city ye shall enter, and they receive
you not, go out into the streets thereof and say, Even the
dust from your city, that cleaveth to our feet, we do wipe
off against you : howbeit know this, that the kingdom of
God is come nigh1."

In the account of St Matthew we find some
small differences. The discourses delivered on the
two occasions are perhaps combined2.

It so rarely happens that practical directions as
to conduct or behaviour are given to the Apostles
by our Lord, that we may be convinced that
there is strong reason for His so doing in this case.
A lesson of great moment was to be taught by this
mission ; much depended on the spirit in which it
was carried out. This spirit would be affected by
the external circumstances, and these are therefore
so ordered as to give the greatest possible impres-
siveness to the lesson in view.

These missions have another singularity. Our
Lord, contrary to His usual practice, explains the
part they bore in the education of His followers.
In a few words spoken to the Twelve, as He was
leaving the chamber on the way to Gethsemane,
He throws abundant light on the whole purport of
these journeys.

The words are these :

1 Luke x. i— ii. a Matth. x. 5 — 15.

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 291

"And he said unto them, When I sent you forth
without purse, and wallet, and shoes, lacked ye any-
thing? And they said, Nothing. And he said unto
them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and
likewise a wallet : and he that hath none, let him sell his
cloke, and buy a sword. For I say unto you, that this
which is written must be fulfilled in me, And he was
reckoned with transgressors : for that which concerneth
me hath fulfilment. And they said, Lord, behold, here
are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough1."

From this it is seen that all these provisions
and directions had a definite purpose, tending to
give certain strong impressions to the Twelve, one
of the most important being that the Twelve
might trust themselves to Christ's guardianship
even when He was not by.

They were sent without purse and scrip and
shoes, and they found that those among whom they
came would not suffer them to lack anything: all
went smoothly as they proceeded with their work
in the Lord's name. They were to be kept free
from sordid anxieties and harassing bodily wants,
in order that their minds might be open to higher
lessons ; and that they might gain the habit of
trusting — not indeed that Christ would send them
on every occasion just what they desired — but that
He would not suffer them to be tried beyond their
strength. Possibly, on that journey all their needs
were supplied so easily, that it may hardly have

1 Luke xxii. 35 — 38.

19—2

292 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

struck them as strange that they never had felt the
lack of anything they required. They may never
have thought that what seemed to come by accident
was really the Lord's doing and part of His plan,
until He Himself recalled this mission to their
minds.

Our Lord goes on to teach them that these
journeys of theirs to the cities, compared to the
missions awaiting them in the actual life on which
they so soon would enter, were only what the mimic
fight on a day of review is to the conflict of real
war; or what the exercise of a swimmer in a school,
within reach of his instructor's help, is to the
crossing a river for his life. In the exercise ground
one lesson, or one set of motions is taught at a
time; but when the faculty acquired is brought into
actual practice all a man's capacities and endow-
ments are wanted to work together at once. So,
in Christ's schooling also, one thing is taught at a
time. Two leading qualities only, viz. trustfulness
in Christ's spiritual oversight and a helpful self-
reliance, were cultivated and tested by this pre-
paratory mission; but in the actual work itself
which awaited the Twelve, every gift of nature or
fortune, and every faculty of their being would
have to be brought into play and turned to the
best account.

They went on their way through the cities
without purse or wallet, and they found then that
no money or provision was needed ; but in the

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 293

real work awaiting them, in the open world, they
must take thought beforehand for all their needs ;
and those who have worldly means are to use
them in God's service just as they must do their
talents or their strength. They are to be wise as
serpents as well as simple as doves. Prudence and
a good judgment are entrusted gifts whose true
worth is most apparent when they are turned to
the service of God. It is not only piety for which
God has a care ; He claims for his service all en-
dowments of fortune and body and mind ; station
and wealth, health and skill of hand, judgment,
utterance, and clearness of thought — all these are
held on trust for Him. The Apostles had been
sent on the mission without any provision, in order
that they might learn this one particular lesson—
what it was to abandon themselves to the guardian-
ship of Christ. In the real work now lying close
before them, He bids them use the same fore-
thought and the same practical good sense in
all that relates to God's service as in what relates
to their own. They went to the cities without
arms, and they were unmolested on their way;
but now they are told to provide weapons of
self-defence, even though they should sell their
garments to buy them. It is not the arms them-
selves that are the gist of the matter, but they stand
for a symbol of that personal courage which would
have to play no small part in the work of the
Christian Church.

294 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

Again these words of our Lord throw a stream
of light upon what was His object in the plan He
pursued ; they shew that the training of the Apostles
v/as carried on continually and systematically from
the first, and was among the things always upper-
most in His mind. When the Twelve set out on
this first mission journey it seemed to them a
passing act in the regular course of ministerial
duty, but after a year had gone by, it is brought
back to their minds by our Lord ; and they learn
the significance of that which they had almost
suffered to pass out of mind. It is cited, not
with regard to what it effected directly — not for
the good it did to those who were taught — but
for the qualities it fostered in the preachers them-
selves.

That these preachers rendered service to those
to whom they were sent there can be no doubt, but
the notice of our Lord calls attention, not to this,
but to the lesson which the Apostles learned. There
are some points in these directions which it is hard
to explain if we suppose them given solely with
the practical view of furthering the Apostles' work,
as Christ's forerunners in making known to the
people the advent of the Kingdom of God. We do
not, on such an hypothesis, see why they should
have gone without food or raiment or have saluted
no man on the way; they would have made no
fewer converts if they had taken purse and scrip
and wished "God speed" to those they met. They

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 295

might, indeed, have done the same good, but they
would not have got the same good. We shall see
presently how these instructions were calculated
to make them feel that they were God's servants,
dignified by their duty, and withdrawn by their
special overmastering vocation from the ordinary
intercourse of man with man.

The effects of this journey were twofold. There
was an outside good to be done by the workers in
the world, and an inside good to be done within
themselves. This last was brought about by the
mental processes and motions they went through
in doing the outside good to which only they
gave their thoughts at the time. They sup-
posed that they were sent on this mission because
their Master wished the Kingdom of God to be
preached in the cities, and they regarded the
particular injunctions, — if they thought about them
at all, — as the set rules of garb and procedure for
preachers of the Kingdom. It never occurred to
them that by all this they were being made to grow
inwardly in the way that Christ desired. They
could not be told unto what end they were being
educated, for self- consciousness would have spoiled
all. They would have got no inner good, if they
had not believed they were doing outer good, and
good no doubt they did. Moreover they never
thought about themselves at all. Christ's disciples
are always led away from doing so. They are,
with sedulous care, kept so occupied in body and

296 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

mind that at last self is lost sight of, and they
become absorbed in their love for their Master,
and in the glory of feeling that they have a share
in His work.

Along with the lesson of confidence in their
Master's care, there went another, not less pro-
minently insisted upon, that of the dignity of the
work they were being consecrated to do. They
were to go in Christ's name, preaching the
Kingdom He had declared, and affirming its
presence by such Signs as He had Himself shewn.
This dignity belonged, not personally to them-
selves, but to the Lord whom they represented;
they felt secure, just as the Ambassador of a
power feels Sacrosanct because he represents the
Majesty of his State.

They were to be possessed with the sense of
the greatness of the charge laid on them, and all
their being was to be concentrated in this. Their
eyes are never to be off their goal ; hence the
minute precautions against distraction.

The directions for their equipment will be seen
to further the growth of the impressions desired.

They are to go two together; this is a rule
always observed. Our Lord sent "messengers
before his face1 into a village of the Samaritans
to make ready for him;" it is not said that they
were two in number, but as James and John are

1 Luke ix. 52.

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 297

loud in their indignation, it is not improbable that
they were the messengers. Two disciples are sent
to find the colt before our Lord's entrance to Jeru-
salem1, and Peter and John together are sent to
make ready the Passover3. Afterwards, in all the
Apostolic journeys the Church followed the practice.
In these mission journeys of the newly chosen
Apostles we see how well it suited the objects in
view that they should go in pairs. If three or
more had gone together the sacred character of
their journey might more easily have dropped
out of sight. Conversation on indifferent points
would have been more likely to arise and dissen-
sion might have ensued ; two might have differed
in opinion and each have tried to gain over the
third. They could hardly have remained so ab-
sorbed in their purpose, as when they went two
together, full of the one matter in their hearts and
rarely interchanging a word.

Neither would it have been well for them to
go one by one. A man by himself has many
dangers. He may grow downcast, and a depressed
condition is not favourable to the growth of Faith;
or he may harp upon one idea, and having no one
with him to criticise it and reduce it to its right
proportion, it may overshadow his whole mind and
degenerate into a craze. The solitary missionary
might find danger also in success. If the cures he

J Luke xix. 19. 3 Luke xxii. 8.

298 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

wrought excited admiration, he might be inclined
to take some of the glory to himself: or he might
be tempted to go beyond his commission to
preach the Kingdom, and try to establish some
notions of his own about Jesus as the Christ.
The presence of his colleague would recall him to
his true position and remind him that he was not
about his own work but his Master's. If one of
the pair were inclined to take too much on him-
self, or to allow the people to exaggerate his
own part in the wonder wrought, he would be sure
to find a silent monitor in his colleague's eye.
When two men go together not only does each
represent to the other the purpose with which he
is sent, but also each supports the other. When
one is inclined to despond the other feels forced
to take a hopeful tone and this does good to
both.

The Apostles were to salute no man by the
way ; they were not to join in any trivial wayside
talk. This served to impress upon them the
solemn nature of their work ; all their thoughts
were to be centred in that, it was to supply the
master purpose of their lives. They had God's
work to do and God's message to give, and there
should be no room in their hearts for any thing
but this. This severed them for the time from the
rest of the world. They were to go, side by side,
with their staves in their hands, not looking this
way or that, but having the fixed gaze and stead-

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 299

fast air of men who are marching determinedly to
their goal.

When they come to the city where they will
stay they are not to plead for hospitality ; they
have not come of themselves or for themselves —
they are God's messengers; they are to go to
the house which they think fittest, and, if denied,
they are to shake off the dust from their feet
and go elsewhere, and, when admitted, there they
are to abide as of right. There is to be no shifting
of quarters; disturbance and unsettlement is studi-
ously avoided, as in all other proceedings of our
Lord. Many among the householders of a village
might strive to have a share in entertaining the
prophets of God ; and the passing of these from
house to house would bring into play little worldly
jealousies and call off the attention of the missionary
from his single object. Where they are admitted,
they are told, " there abide and thence depart."

The Apostles are given minute directions as to
outfit and demeanour but very little as to what
they were to say. They were not to be mere
mouthpieces, they were teachers as well, and were
left to teach in their own way. To use respon-
sibility was the highest part of the lesson they
had to learn, and if they had been tied down too
precisely this responsibility would have been lost.
We have no record of their preaching on this
journey — they are sent to proclaim one truth and
one only "That the Kingdom of God was come."

3OO THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

This truth they might enforce in any way they
chose — they might preach to many or few, in
houses or synagogues or on the mountain side —
and if any disbelieved that God's Kingdom was
come, they were to assure their hearers that it
was none the less about them on every side, because
they did not choose to believe it was there1. On
their return, they relate what they had taught2.

There is another point. They are not directed
even to name our Lord ; He would not suffer them
to proclaim Jesus of Nazareth, for He had not
"come in his own name8." This law is most
steadily observed ; the seventy say on their return,
that the devils were subject to them through our
Lord's name, but though they may have used His
name when they wrought cures, they do not seem
to have declared that the expected Messiah had
come ; they kept to what they were told to do.
The wonder is that no one on this mission should
have announced Jesus as the Messiah : they could
not have been warned against doing so, because to
warn them specially would have been to suggest
the notion of that which was to be avoided. A
similar circumstance may have been one cause of
the fervent thanks which our Lord renders to His
Father on the return of the seventy4.

How long this journey of the Apostles lasted
we do not know; the exigencies of harmonists have

1 Luke x. 9 — n. a Mark vi. 30.

s John v. 43. * Luke x. ai.

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 301

led some of them to reduce it to a day or two, but
I should suppose it to have occupied at least a
week. Neither do we know in what districts the
journeys took place ; but that the Twelve started
from the neighbourhood of Nazareth in the spring
of A.D. 29, and the seventy from the Northern
border of Judaea or from Peraea in the follow-
ing autumn, is a plausible guess. The words,
" Go not into the way of the Gentiles," &c. which
St Matthew puts at the head of our Lord's direc-
tions, I think refer to the mission of the seventy.
In Peraea they were close to Gentile countries and
Samaria lay in the way to parts of Galilee and
Judaea. They are told not to abide in any Samari-
tan city or set foot at all in a Gentile land ; our
Lord is first sent to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. All went well on both occasions. On the
return of the seventy our Lord saw in this success
of His disciples in their ministration, an augury
of the establishment of His Church. Men, it was
plain, could be trusted for the great work in view;
and in this success of the disciples in setting it
afoot our Lord seemed to behold the Power of
Evil falling from the sky. Our Lord pours out
His soul on this occasion in thankfulness to His
Father.

"In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit,
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and
understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea,

3O2 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

Father; for so it was well-pleasing jn thy sight. All
things have been delivered unto me of my Father : and
no one knoweth who the Son is, save the Father ; and
who the Father is, save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son willeth to reveal him1.1'

This thankfulness of our Lord assures us of one
point; these seventy must have been exposed to
the possibility of failure. Our Lord's joy is that
of one delivered from a great anxiety. This
instance bears out the view that our Lord's know-
ledge of the immediate future was, partly at least, in
abeyance during His stay on earth. Indeed, if He
had been free from all feeling of uncertainty, His
life could not have been truly human. The course
of daily events depending on the will of others
did not in general lie spread out to His view.

Another illustration of this occurs on the return
of the Twelve ; our Lord goes to the desert seeking
quiet, but in this He is disappointed, for He finds
Himself attended by five thousand people.

St Mark tells us

"And the apostles gather themselves together unto
Jesus ; and they told him all things, whatsoever they had
done, and whatsoever they had taught. And he saith
unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place,
and rest a while. For there were many coming and
going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And
they went away in the boat to a desert place apart9."

This rule of our Lord to give the Apostles rest

1 Luke x. a i, 11. 3 Mark vi. 30— 33.

THE MISSION- TO THE CITIES. 303

and leisure after a period of mental strain, or when
much food for reflection had been taken in, is
almost invariable. Our Lord's intention is, in
this case, frustrated by the zeal of the multitude,
who running together from the villages, go round
the head of the Lake and meet Him on the shore
near the northern end. St John speaking of this
matter says :

" Now the passover, the feast of the Jews, was at
hand. Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that
a great multitude cometh unto him, saith unto Philip,
Whence are we to buy bread, that these may eat l ? "

We see that St John attributed this great
concourse of people to its being the time of the
Passover. Now the road from Damascus to Jeru-
salem went past the north end of the Lake, and
it has been supposed that the great caravan of
Syrian Jews was passing on its way to the feast,
and that to this the "great company" belonged.
St Matthew, St Mark and St Luke, however, all
imply that the multitude came from the neigh-
bouring cities, and St John says that they "fol-
lowed Him (i.e. from the villages of Gennesaret)
because they beheld the Signs;" and St Mark tells
us that the people "saw them going and many
knew them." The crowd therefore could not have
been strangers from Damascus. St John, however,
would not have here mentioned the Passover, if

1 John vi. 4, 5.

304 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

there had not been some connexion between it
and the presence of the crowd. The connexion,
I believe to have been this. He means to account
for the crowd by saying, "It was feast time, no
work was being done, and large bodies of men
were therefore at leisure to follow." Some think
that the Evangelist may have seen in this miracu-
lous meal a substitute for the Paschal feast, which
our Lord and his followers can hardly have kept
according to due form.

In this miracle, I am particularly concerned1.
In speaking of it in an earlier Chapter I observed
that our Lord's rule of abstaining from using His
miraculous power to provide for the physical wants
of His followers or Himself, holds in this case,
inasmuch as our Lord's party had enough for them-
selves; this proceeds on the supposition that the
loaves and fishes belonged to the Apostles, although
if they had had the money, and bought what would
just have sufficed for themselves, the law would
have held good.

It may be asked, " Had the Apostles the loaves
with them or did they buy them of the lad ? "

As a matter of explanation, I think it more
consistent with the narrative of the other Evan-
gelists to suppose that the lad mentioned by
Andrew2 was carrying provisions belonging to the
party, than that he had brought them for sale and
that the disciples bought them.

1 See p. 22. a John vi. 9.

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES.

305

St Matthew, St Mark and St Luke speak as
though the loaves and fishes belonged to the
Apostolic company, while St John says " There is
a lad here who has &c." The supposition that the
lad was employed to carry the provisions does not,
it is said, agree with the received notions of the
poverty of the Apostles. We find, however, that
they had the use of various boats, and St Mark
speaks of "hired servants" in Zebedee's boat1.
I suppose that one of these servants, not being
wanted while the boat was ashore, was employed
to carry the sack of provisions for the party. It
supports my view that the two common articles
of diet should both be brought by the same
lad, in just such quantity as to suffice for our
Lord's company. The words " How many loaves
have ye ? Go and see " shew, that our Lord
supposed them to have brought a supply 2 ; more-
over the quantity of provisions was nearly the
same and they were of the same kind, as those
which the Twelve had with them on the subsequent
occasion of the feeding of the four thousand3. It
is unlike the East, as we now know it, that there
should have been no bargaining, and that one lad
should have seen the opportunity of selling his
commodities and followed from one of the villages,
and that no other should have done so.

Whether the provisions belonged to the dis-

1 Mark i. 20. a Mark vi. 38.

3 Mark viii. 5 — 7.

20

306 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

ciples or were1 purchased at the tinje, the wants of
our Lord's own party, as I have just said, could
have been supplied without miraculous inter-
vention ; and the rule, answering to the refusal to
turn Stones into Loaves, would hold. These rules,
or Laws as I have called them, treated of in
Chapter V. are not formally imposed by our Lord
on Himself, or alluded to in express terms.
They are uniformities observed in his conduct,
which harmonise with the course taken in the
Temptations. We need not suppose that He said
to Himself " I will always adhere to this rule or
that," but He observed the rule because to follow
it best forwarded in each case the end in view.
Our Lord's company are never in straits for food,
but our Lord once implies that if they had been
so His power might always be trusted as a means
of supply2. He would not have adhered to His
practice narrowly, when it would have weakened
the lesson of Trust. Philip may have been charged
with the care of provisioning the party, just as
Judas Iscariot carried the purse; this conjecture
would account for our Lord turning to him with
the question, "Whence are we to buy bread3?"

What our Lord said on this occasion to the
multitude we do not know ; we are told only that

1 That the disciples habitually carried loaves with them on their
journey is clear from Mark viii. 14.

* Mark viii. 16, 17. * John vi. 5.

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 307

" He began to teach them many things1/' and in
listening they lost all count of time, so that when
our Lord had finished, it was too late for them to
go and buy bread. After the meal He perceived
that they "were about to come and take him by
force to make him king54." The people must have
just heard of the execution of John ; they may
have been exasperated against Herod and thought
they had found in our Lord one who would treat
the Romans like Sennacherib's host. We hear of
no outbreak of enthusiasm, no clamorous demon-
stration of fervour; they were perhaps too much
possessed by reverential awe for that, at any rate
their orderliness is very remarkable.

No malice on the part of the scribes could have
been so fatal to what our Lord had in view, as this
giving of a political turn to the movement which
He was setting afoot. The erroneous impression
would spread fast and become ineradicable, so that
the work of saving the world might have to be
begun over again in another way. He hurried the
disciples on board that they might not catch the-
contagion of this idea.

"And straightway he constrained his disciples to
enter into the boat, and to go before him unto the other
side to Bethsaida, while he himself sendeth the multi-
tude away. And after he had taken leave of them, he-
departed into the mountain to pray 3."

1 Mark vi. 34. 2 John vi. 15.

8 Mark vi. 45, 46.

20 — 2

308 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES.

Solitary prayer on our Lord's part commonly
betokens some important step in his course of
proceeding. Here it precedes His leaving Galilee;
possibly this political manifestation made it ad-
visable; at any rate, very shortly after this, He
goes to the borders of Tyre and Sidon and sees
little more of Galilee during his life.

On the passage of the Apostles back to the
western shore, occurred the miracle of the Lord
walking on the sea.

"And when even was come, the boat was in the
midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. And seeing
them distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary
unto them, about the fourth watch of the night he cometh
unto them, walking on the sea; and he would have
passed by them : but they, when they saw him walking
on the sea, supposed that it was an apparition, and cried
out : for they all saw him, and were troubled. But he
straightway spake with them, and saith unto them, Be
of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. And he went up
unto them into the boat ; and the wind ceased : and they
were sore amazed in themselves; for they understood
not concerning the loaves, but their heart was hard-
ened1."

This miracle is one mainly of instruction, it is
a step in that ascending course, whereby the
Apostles were led to the conception of the crown-
ing truth that Christ was "ever with them unto the

1 Mark vi. 47 — 5«.

THE MISSION TO THE CITIES. 309

end of the world." The experience of the journey
taught that they " lacked nothing " when on duty
for Christ ; they were now to obtain assurance that
in moments of danger He was at hand to protect.
It is worth notice that they were doing their
utmost for themselves, "toiling in rowing," when
Christ comes to their help. In like manner the
miraculous draught of fishes was not given to
men who had lightly accepted disappointment, but
to those who had toiled all night1. I know of no
Gospel instance of Divine assistance granted to
men sitting with folded hands, and leaving Provi-
dence to do all. From this miracle they would
learn a truth which was much more fully taught
after the Resurrection, viz. that their Master was
ever by them, and might assume a body not
subject to the forces affecting matter, and become
apparent at any time.

These lessons would be graven on the Apostles'
memory, and would come upon them from time to
time in after life. They would naturally look back
to the days when they went forth on their first
mission, full of hope and not without exultation ;
and when they recalled how all had gone well
with them, how the devils had been subject to
them and how all their needs had been provided
for as it were by chance, it would come home
to them that matters may be Divinely guided
without the finger of God being suftered to
1 See pp. 199, 200.

310 THE SCHOOLING OF THE APOSTLES,

appear. Many a time they may have cheered
one another saying " Christ provided for us when
we went forth with only our staves in our hands.
He will not desert us now;" and many a time also
in sore days of distress, the Apostles may have
reminded one another that they were doing their
very utmost — not sitting still and praying for help
when the sea ran high — at the time when their
Master appeared and said :

" Be of good cheer : it is I ; be not afraid1.1'

1 Mark vi. 50.

CHAPTER X.

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.
The Teaching by Parables.

WE have, on our way to this point, while
tracing the course of Christ's Schooling of the
Apostles every now and then caught sight of the
working of the principle, "to whomsoever hath,
shall be given."

This apopthegm is recorded to have been three
times spoken ; first, as has been just mentioned,
when our Lord gave to His disciples His reasons
for teaching in parables, and again as the moral at
the end of the parables of the talents and of the
pounds. We draw from it that our Lord was
about to exercise selection and deal with different
hearers in different ways. Up to this time He had
put His lessons into terse sayings, like pearls
strung on a string ; a hearer could easily carry a
single one away, he had only to listen and learn.
For a multitude who came and went like the

312 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

shifting atoms of a cloud, this was- the most that
could be done. But among those who now listened
to the parables at Capernaum were apostles, dis-
ciples, and listeners variously disposed, and they
received a lesson from which different hearers drew
profit in very different degrees.

The time now began to draw in sight when
the most momentous duties that ever fell to men,
would be laid on the Twelve, and to them our
Lord now turned with an interest which daily
grew more intent. The Apostles were not mere
recipients as the crowd had been. They were not
mere passive hearers receiving and storing wise
sayings. What they heard was meant to set their
minds at work, and the good they got from it
depended on themselves.

In the crowd on the Lake shore which stood
listening to our Lord as He spoke from the boat,
there were characters of all sorts disposed towards
Jesus in every variety of way. There were many
followers and some foes, while perhaps nearly half
were neither the one nor the other, but merely the
loiterers who throng every eastern town: these
would go where others went, glad of anything
which broke the sameness of the day. They had
come to listen — after their way of listening, taking
no heed how they heard — many a time before, and
no good had come of it, though the teaching was
so plain that he who ran might read; with all
their opportunities they had got nothing, and so

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 313

from them was taken "what they seemed to
have," that is to say, these very opportunities them-
selves. They now heard only what appeared to
be the story of an every-day event, and they
wondered what good it could do to them. Thus,
this mode of teaching sorted out its auditory by
a self-acting mechanism. It threw off the light,
while it attracted earnest and enquiring minds
who, never doubting of a deep meaning in all our
Lord said, asked themselves and one another what
this meaning could be.

The aphorism " that to him who had, more was
given " was, as applied to material wealth, in some
form or other probably familiar to the shrewd
men of the time, just as the saying, that " nothing
succeeds like success " is among ourselves now.
But what was startling was, that this principle
should be adopted by Christ and laid down as
one of those upon which God's government is
carried on. For this inequality in human con-
ditions, and the tendency to rise faster the higher
one gets and to sink faster the lower one falls,
was a thing that was commonly regarded as a
defect in the world's arrangement, due to some
inherent perversity in matter or in man.

People's minds, in those days, were possessed
by the notion that God must have intended to
make things fair and equal for all, but that ine-
quality had slipt into the world in the making,
when God's eye was off it for a moment : soon,

314 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

however, the Messiah would come and set this
right among other things. Hence it startled our
Lord's hearers to find this defect, as they deemed
it, in the order of the world brought forward by
Him, and not only not explained away as they
would have expected, but set forth as among
the Laws according to which the Spiritual Order
of the world was carried on. From the promi-
nence given to this statement in the narrative of
the three earlier gospels we see what a deep
impression it made.

Our Lord applies this aphorism, solely, to the
advantages and opportunities which men should
have for learning the ways of God. But the
analogy between this principle and some observed
principles of economic and organic science is very
striking and interesting, to say no more ; while in
education the working of this rule is abundantly
obvious in every school. That the world is ordered
on a basis not of equality but of inequality, is a
patent fact ; and lately it has been shewn that it
is of inequality that all progress comes. One
little superiority, due to what seems an accidental
variation, gives an advantage for gaining a greater
superiority and so on. Uniformity, indeed, implies
stagnation. If all men had just the same powers
and minds and characters, would not such a world
stagnate from its insupportable dulness and the
want of stimulus for the faculties of men ? If, at
every step, it grew harder to get farther on, then

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 315

no one could go very far. A bullet fired into a
tree, which hardens from the bark to the core, is
brought to a standstill very soon. Such a state
of things would preclude exalted eminence; medio-
crity would reign supreme and the onward march
of mankind would be checked.

Our Lord, as a fact, asserts not only that
inequalities widen, but also that they are pur-
posely so widened. As the explorer advances, he
is brought into more open ground and is better
recompensed for his toil. Spiritual progress was
to be brought about after the plan upon which all
other human progress proceeds. It was to origi-
nate in individuals, who should push forward,
seize upon posts in the foreground and hold
them till the rest came up : it is not the way
of Humanity to advance in line along the whole
front. All progress comes of individual excellence
and the world is so ordered as to favour the
growth of one beginning to out-top the rest. It
is an aid in this direction, that in education
advance becomes commonly easier, and always
more pleasurable as we proceed. Education
moreover sorts out men. A hundred boys, near
of an age, thrown together in a school seem at
first nearly on a par ; but an aristocracy develops
itself wonderfully soon, both in the school and out
of doors, and every half year the distinctions
between boy and boy grow wider and become
more strongly marked. However conscientiously

316 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

the teachers may distribute their pains, the abler
boy gets more attention, because he asks more
intelligent questions and, seeing his interest in his
work, the teacher's thoughts in spare moments
revert to him. The same holds of spiritual life,
for when a man attains a sense of communion
with God he becomes conscious of an inward joy,
which illuminates his life, and this helps him on.
Nothing is more striking in the Acts than the
"exceeding great joy" which with the Apostles
was the habitual state.

A very material point as to the bearing of
this principle is brought out in the two parables
in which it occurs. What is spoken of as that
which a man hath, is not what has been given
him or what he has inherited, but only what
he has acquired for himself. It is not so much the
possession of the pounds or the talents which is
the ground of reward, as the assiduity, energy
and intelligence, by which they have been earned.

I will consider the pair of parables1 just men-
tioned, before the discourse in which the saying first
occurs, although they stand later in the history,
because they shew most clearly what Christ's
meaning was. In both parables we remark the
following points.

(i) The rewards are proportioned, not to the
amount oi the original arbitrary gifts, which, I
suppose, stand for natural advantages, but to

1 Matth. xxv. 14—30; Luke xix. 11—27.

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 317

what has been obtained by turning these gifts to
account.

(2) What the servants are recompensed for is
administrative efficiency. This shews that our
Lord had in view some active service in God's
cause and not internal self-improvement alone.

(3) The rewards are not such that the servants
can use them for their own gratification, they are
not given money for their own use, but they are
promoted to wider governments. He who has
made five talents is given the rule of a larger
province. And the servants are not so promoted
merely for their own sake, the general welfare
of the ruler's domain is the paramount object,
and in order to promote this those who have
proved themselves the ablest are given the amplest
charge.

In the parable of the talents, the "man going
into a far country" entrusts to his servants sums
varying in amount, "to each according to his
several abilities." With these they are to carry on
business on his behalf during his absence. One of
them, he who was of the lowest capacity, received
only one talent — with him I am not now concerned;
but the rest double the capital which had been
put into their hands and all of these, those who have
made two talents as well as those who have made
five receive the same reward. To each is said
" Well done, thou good and faithful servant : thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee

318 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

over many things : enter thou into .the joy of thy
Lord." Here the rewards are not in proportion to
the original gifts, which were as five and two, but
are in proportion to the rate of profit, which was
in both cases the same. All have shewn the same
diligence and all are recompensed alike.

The same principle appears in the parable of
the pounds. The like sum, one pound, is entrusted
to each servant ; and the difference in the returns,
one making ten pounds and the other five, is
wholly due to the difference of judgment or
diligence in using the money. The reward is
exactly proportional to the amount which each
servant has earned.

The greater charge is given to him who had
made ten pounds — not purely as a reward, but
because he has shewn himself twice as well adapted
to govern the ten cities as the servant who had
only made five pounds.

A few words in the parable of the pounds
shew how well our Lord knew what the prevalent
notion about equality was. The notion I mean
that God must have intended men to share all
advantages alike. When the pound is taken from
him who has left it unused and given to him who
has turned his own pound into ten, the bystanders
in the parable, who, we may suppose, represent
common current opinion, are surprised, not at the
pound being taken away, but at its being so be-
stowed as to augment the inequality. They would

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 319

have looked to see it go to him who had made
five pounds, so as to bring the conditions of the
two servants more nearly to a par. They say,
"Lord, he hath ten pounds," implying "Why give
more to him who has so much already?" Men
are jealous of God's prodigality in reward, although
such reward may not diminish what they obtain
themselves. The master in this parable makes no
reply to the bystanders, and our Lord concludes
the parable with the moral,

" I say unto you, thai unto every one that hath shall
be given ; but from him that hath not, even that which
he hath shall be taken away from him1."

The pounds in this parable, be it observed, are
not bestowed on the servants as absolute gifts, they
represent money held on trust, and this is the case
not only with the original pound, but with the
profit as well. The Lord (St Luke xix. 23)
evidently regards all the produce as his own. The
ten pounds have never been given over to the
servant who gained them, so as to be absolutely
his. Neither is the forfeited pound bestowed on
him as a free gift, it is only an addition to the ten
pounds of profit, which formed a fresh amount
of capital in the hands of the most diligent of
the servants to be used in his new employ.
All this agrees with the view which I have

1 Luke xix. 16.

320 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

taken, that the question in the parable is not
one merely of reward and amercement but of
putting the greatest opportunities into the best
hands. In like manner our Lord looks to a
practical end and adopts practical means. The
paramount object that He has in view is the
effective carrying forward of God's work; and
those who shall prove most efficient are to receive
as their reward, — not anything they can sit down
to and enjoy, — but a wider sphere of activity, an
extended range of opportunities, and of duties
answering thereunto.

This remark of the bystanders, so casual in its
form and so weighty in its substance, exemplifies
our Lord's way of dealing with erroneous ideas.
A hint is dropped, attention is called to what
many had taken for granted, and there the matter
is left. It might be many days before the world
would find the seed thus cast upon the waters, but
found, some day or other, it would be. When there
is question of practical evil our Lord is plain and
positive enough. The Pharisees are upbraided
sharply, for making the Law of no effect by their
traditions, and the Sadducees are told that in
denying the resurrection "they do greatly err."
But as regards the enigmas of life He only drops
hints, which men may take or not.

I now come to the discourse, which I had put
aside for a moment that the parables might be
discussed.

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 321

As soon as our Lord had ended the parable of
the Sower

"The disciples came, and said unto him, Why
speakest thou unto them in parables1?"

Observe the words unto them. It is not about
themselves that they ask, but the crowd. They
were desirous to see our Lord's influence increase,
and were perhaps anxious that new proselytes
should swell their number, and so they were puzzled
at this new form of teaching, which seemed calcu-
lated to repel converts. "In order to win men
over," they would say to themselves, "it would
surely be best to speak in the plainest and most
direct way."

The fullest version of the reply is that given by
St Mark.

"And he said unto them, Unto you is given the
mystery of the kingdom of God : but unto them that are
without, all things are done in parables: that seeing they
may see, and not perceive ; and hearing they may hear,
and not understand ; lest haply they should turn again,
and it should be forgiven them8.'*

This is followed by the interpretation of the
parable of the Sower. And then comes a discourse
explaining for what purposes the teaching by

1 Matth. xiii. to.

* Mark iv. 1 1, la. See also Isaiah vi. 10.

L. 21

322 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

parables was employed, which thcows a strong
light both on this matter and on education in its
highest sense. Here the principle comes to the
front, that it is not so much what is done upon the
man, or for the man, as what is done by the man
himself, that transforms him into a higher creature.
" Unto you," says our Lord, turning to the disciples
and the Twelve, "is given the mystery of the
kingdom of God." The mystery was given not to
save their thinking but to set them thinking on a
right track. What bore on the practical conduct
of life had been preached to all, but the glimpse
of the underlying spiritual order was vouchsafed to
few : all must learn to tell time from a clock, but
all need not know how it works. It is not the
application of the parable which is here the diffi-
culty— that is told the hearers at once — but it lies
in the original differences between men, how far
these come of men's own selves, how far of heredity,
and how far men are answerable for their own dis-
positions ; here we come on great difficulties which
beset all creeds alike. In the parable of the Tares
we are confronted with the origin of moral ill ; the
Apostles are to contemplate these mysteries, and
they are given a way of looking at them which
will serve for the practical purposes of life, but
they are by no means led to believe that they can
see to the bottom of them.

The second passage brings out a positive use of
parables. They are not primarily meant to hide

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 323

truth but to show it. The matter is only for a
moment put out of sight, in order that men may
search after it, prize it when found, and, bringing to
it eyes sharpened by keen search, may discern all
particulars more truly and well. The sifting of
the auditory of which I have spoken above was
only a secondary and subordinate use of the
parable ; its primary one was this ; it enshrined an
abstract truth in such a portable concrete form
that it was made accessible to men ; it put it into
a shape, familiar to Orientals, a shape to which the
Eastern tongue lent itself with ease, and which
fitted readily into the minds of men ; they could
carry the story about with them, and they would
in so doing learn its lesson by degrees.

There was also another point ; the meaning of
these new utterances gave men some pains to find,
and when they had found it, they delighted in it as
something they had conquered for themselves. Our
Lord lets men into this secret of all learning.
Did they suffer those words of His which "were
Spirit and which were Life" to fecundate their
hearts," turning them over in their minds again
and again ? The words " with what measure ye
mete1 " have no bearing on outward dealings here ;
what they mean is, " In proportion to the pains
and attention which you bestow in searching out
all that my words contain, so will the profit be.
If you bestow thought freely, and time as well,

1 Mark iv. 24.

21 — 2

324 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

freely will God requite the same — something will
you then have, and more shall be given you."
To him who had been faithful over a few things a
wider range of duties, and that alone, would be
given as reward.

I note a connection between the introduction of
the new form of teaching and the course of events.
When our Lord began to teach in parables "His
departure which he was about to accomplish at
Jerusalem1" was shaping itself more and more
definitely in His mind. Time was getting short,
and so He now spake for those only who had ears
to hear. The nature of this departure was too
shocking to Jewish notions and too inexplicable to
be declared in plain terms to the mass. We know
that even the Twelve were bewildered with the
hints that our Lord drops about the end, and we
can easily see how ill-suited such declarations would
have been for the people at large.

Again, we can understand that as the end in
all its awfulness came more and more distinctly
into view, our Lord should confine His teaching
very much to those to whom was committed the
mystery of the Kingdom of God ; and, inas-
much as the Twelve differed in spiritual capacity
among themselves and higher duties were to be
laid on some than on others, within that body
a further selection had to be made. Peter and
James and John form an inner circle, they are

1 Luke ix. 31.

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 325

chosen as witnesses of the things that were not
to be proclaimed until the Son of Man should
come1. It is worth noting that in St John's Gospel
we find no trace of the preeminence of these
three ; this falls in with the hypothesis of the
author being the Apostle John, who carefully
avoids mention of himself.

This choosing of the Three Apostles who should
be preferred before the rest touches my purpose
closely in another way; it was no insignificant
part of the Schooling of the Twelve. They would
learn from it that Christ gave what charge He
would to whom He would ; that in God's service it
is honour enough to be employed at all ; and that
no man is to be discouraged because he sees al-
lotted to another what appears to be a higher sphere
of work than his own. We all know how heavily
jealousy among subordinates who administer affairs-
clogs the wheels of the state, and it was of the
highest importance that this vice should be eradi-
cated, with a view to the practical business of the
Church.

So the great lesson taught to the Apostles —
and in the end it was taught more completely
than ever men were taught it before — was self
abnegation. They came at last not to think
about themselves at all. This unselfishness is
never preached to them, because it cannot be

1 Three it would seem is the number adopted for witness?* jusf
as two is that for missionaries on their way.

326 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

taught by preaching. If a man has'self-surrender
pressed incessantly upon him, this keeps the idea
of self ever before his view. Christ does not cry
down self, but he puts it out of a man's sight by
giving him something better to care for, something
which shall take full and rightful possession of his
soul. The Apostles, without ever having any con-
sciousness of sacrificing self, were brought into a
habit of self sacrifice by merging all thoughts for
themselves in devotion to a Master and a cause,
and in thinking what they could do to serve it
themselves.

Have not most of us known cases of men, seem-
ingly immersed in amusements and frivolities, who
would gladly have flung these to the winds, if only
we could have found them something which would
fill their hearts. If such people are selfish, it is
not because they really care very much for them-
selves; but because self seems a little more real
and a little more under their own control than
anything else. They have found unreality in many
things ; perhaps when they have attempted to do
good they have been thrown back by ridicule or
discouragement, and are thereby brought to feel
at a loss for an interest in life; and in this case
an evil one, who is always by, has seemed to
whisper, "Do good to thyself and the world will
speak well of thee." If now, at the right moment,
you could shew these men a real good, they would
be glad enoug'h to throw aside the self which they

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 327

have been only trying to persuade themselves that
they cared for, and would seize upon anything
which appeared to answer to the secret hope,
asleep, but still alive in their hearts.

It is a good test of the nature of the devotion
above spoken of to be able to endure the pre-
ference of others to ourselves. If the Apostles
generally had resented the preeminence of the
three, it would have shewn that they had not
realised "what spirit they were of." We see
from St Luke xxii. 24 that they had not quite
overcome all personal feeling, but we hear at this
time no word of murmur, though they ventured
pretty freely to murmur when they were displeased :
from this I gather that, little by little they were
losing personal ambition and merging themselves
in their Master's cause. Thus this selection of the
Three out of the body carried with it a lesson in
the postponement of self.

This reserving of special attention for those only
who shewed promise is, as I said just now, con-
nected with the appearance on the horizon of the
End at Jerusalem. "Times and seasons" the Father
"had put in His own power," and it may not
have been till a year before the Passion that our
Lord had known how short a time was left for
Him on earth. Before He had preached unto
all alike, now, his time and pains were reserved
for the hopeful few. Something of this same
reservation of teaching for those likely to profit

328 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

by it, was seen when the Apostles were sent out
two and two. They were only to be a few days
away, consequently they were to waste no time
over cases that were hopeless; when one city
would not receive them they were to go to another.

Resumption of the Narrative.

I left the narrative at the point where the
vessel with the -Apostles, whom our Lord had
joined upon the sea, had just reached the shores
of the country of Gennesaret. The multitude
sought Him on His arrival bringing their sick to
be healed. Our Lord's words addressed to them
suit the occasion so exactly, that we may be sure
they belong to this place. The discourse1 is pre-
served only by St John. It was probably begun
upon the shore and was afterwards continued by
our Lord in the synagogue.

This discourse is very ably treated by Mr
Sanday2, and the doctrinal matters of which it treats
do not fall within my sphere. It is the character
of St John's versions of our Lord's discourses that
we find it hard to trace in them the progress of
thought. One or two points usually form the
burden ; in this case these points are " I am the
bread of life" and "I will raise him up at the last

1 John vi. 25—65.

2 W. Sanday, "Authorship and Historical character of the Fourth
Gospel"

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 329

day." This mannerism suits with the supposition
that St John's Gospel was written by a very old
man ; for this recurrence to the dominant topic is
a marked peculiarity of the utterances of old age.
St John had probably preached on these discourses
over and over again, and he set them down in the
Gospel in the form in which they were most
familiar to him, with, possibly, something of the
amplification required to adapt them to homiletic
use.

This speech is pitched in so high a spiritual
key that it was not all who had ears to hear it : it
notably effected the purpose of separating the chaff
from the wheat. What the people expected of the
Messiah, and what they looked for in the future
life may be gathered from the gospels or from
Jewish books1 ; our Lord's words gave no promise
of His fulfilling these hopes of theirs, and so we
read —

"Upon this many of his disciples went back, and
walked no more with him*."

Another cause of offence arose at this time.

1 Speaking of the beliefs of the Rabbis as to the days of the
Messiah, Dr Edersheim, quoting from the Rabbis, says : " In that vast
new Jerusalem (not in heaven but in the literal Palestine) the windows
and gates were to be of precious stones, the walls of silver, gold,
and gems, while all kinds of jewels would be strewed about, of

which every Israelite was at liberty to take The land would

spontaneously produce the best dresses and the finest cakes." "Jesus
the Messiah," Book v. p. 438.

* John vi. 66.

330 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

The Pharisees and certain of the Scribes who
had come from Jerusalem had seen that some of
his disciples ate their bread with defiled, " that is
unwashed hands." These persons had not come
from Jerusalem at this time — Passover time — with-
out serious intentions, and these we may be sure
were not friendly to our Lord. They fasten on
this point of washing before meals, a process not
enjoined by Moses but resting on a "tradition of
the elders." The stress however laid on it by the
Rabbis was excessively great1, and the provisions
with regard to it were so minute and troublesome
that only those classes who possessed leisure could
possibly observe them. Here we come upon a self-
righteous exclusiveness ; but what was worse than
all was the low idea of God involved in the notion
that He gave or withdrew his favour according as
men were or were not punctilious about trivial
acts.

Our Lord turns the attack against His assailants,
" Full well," said He, "do you reject the command-
ment of God that ye may keep your traditions."
He shews how by a Rabbinical fiction they evaded
the natural duty of maintaining their parents in
their age.

" And he called to him the multitude again, and said
unto them, Hear me all of you, and understand : there
is nothing from without the man, that going into him can

1 Cf. John iii. 35.

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 331

defile him : but the things which proceed out of the man
are those that defile the man1."

It is to be noted that here our Lord turns to
the multitude. He calls — not only disciples and
not only scribes, but every one — to listen to this
vindication of the ways of God. These are our
Lord's last words to the people of Capernaum,
and the discourse in the synagogue is nearly His
last utterance in a place of worship. He would
not leave them without a denunciation of that
stress upon outward observances, which pre-
vented spiritual religion from growing in their
souls. His words are wide, I believe intentionally
so, and sweep away those ordinances about meats
clean and unclean, which, as sanitary measures, had
done good, no doubt, in their time, but which now
led one man to think that because he did not eat
what another did, he stood religiously on a higher
level than his brother. For spiritual religion to
become possible, men must be freed from the
idea that God's favour depended on what they
eat or drank.

This notion however was, by heredity, part
and parcel of the mental constitution of every
Jew. The disciples regard this statement of our
Lord as so bold that it cannot be intended to be
taken literally, they call it "the parable." We
can understand, they would say, this about eating

1 Mark vii. 14, 15.

332 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

with unclean hands, but the Master's words would
go to do away with all distinction of meats, and
this surely He cannot intend. No explanation does
our Lord give ; He restates in the plainest terms
what was matter of offence. He expresses wonder
that the disciples should be startled at His words
— there was that in store which would offend them
more —

" Many therefore of his disciples, when they heard
this, said, This is a hard saying ; who can hear it ? But
Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at
this, said unto them, Doth this cause you to stumble?
What then if ye should behold the Son of man ascending
where he was before ? It is the spirit that quickeneth ;
the flesh profiteth nothing : the words that I have spoken
unto you are spirit, and are life1."

As far as affection and loyalty went our Lord
carried them with Him. But their minds had not
kept pace with their hearts, habit was their master
still. That many who had counted themselves
disciples should have taken offence at this bold
assertion, " whatsoever from without goeth into the
man it cannot defile him," is easily conceived. It
did away with a ready source of self congratulation.
If a Jew's conscience pricked him, he turned for
comfort to the thought that he had never eaten
anything unclean.

So many fell away that our Lord's company

1 John vi. 60 — 63.

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 333

was reduced to a handful. He had expected, a'nd
probably intended, to thin it considerably, but
the withdrawals among the disciples appear to
have surprised Him, He says to the Apostles,
" Will ye also go away ? " Puzzled by our Lord's
declarations no doubt they were, but of one thing
they were sure : having known Christ they could
follow no one else but Him. The mountain
journey clenched their devotion and their faith.

" And from thence he arose, and went away into the
borders of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered into a
house, and would have no man know it : and he could
not be hid1."

Now at last does our Lord find for the
Apostles the rest which He had desired to give
them before. It is not a missionary journey, He
does not preach to the people ; and the miracles
which He performs are no longer illustrations
of God's Kingdom, but works of beneficence
wrung from Him by the sight of suffering. The
cures are wrought as privately as is possible.
The Syro-Phcenician woman obtains what she
desires by her exceptional openness to Divine
impression : when He entered into a house " and
would have no man know it," she sought Him out.
The man who was deaf and had an impediment in
his speech, is taken " aside from the multitude pri-
vately," and our Lord charged the witnesses " that

1 Mark vii. 24.

334 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

they should tell no man1." So again with the blind
man at Bethsaida (probably Bethsaida Julias at
the head of the lake)2 " He took hold of the blind
man by the hand and brought him out of the
village," and at the end " He sent him away to his
home, saying, Do not even enter into the village8."

Our Lord appears to have returned southwards
along the valley and down the eastern side of the
Lake, where the miracle of the feeding of the four
thousand took place.

This country on the east of the Sea of Galilee,
contained a mixed population, of which only the
smaller part were of Israelite descent. The four
thousand had followed day after day seeking cures;
but there was no fear of these men trying to make
Jesus a King, for there was little nationalist feeling
on that side the sea. Our Lord might therefore
exert His beneficence without imprudence. It
seems strange that the disciples should not have
thought of the feeding of the five thousand ; but
they may have thought that it was out of the
question that a miracle should be wrought for
people who were mostly heathen ; or it may have
been one of those not uncommon cases in which
a man has seen his mistake and supposes that he
can never make it again, and yet when circum-

1 Mark vii. 33 — 36.

2 Bethsaida means Fishertown; many places were so named.
Dr Edersheim.

* Mark viii. 23 — 26.

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN, 335

stances arise, similar except for some slight vari-
ation, he does exactly what he did before.

When the four thousand were sent away,
our Lord takes boat and crosses the lake to
Magada in "the parts of Dalmanutha." Of this
region we know nothing except that it must have
been on the western side of the lake. Here our
Lord agiin finds himself among the haunts of
men, and, since wherever there was a town popu-
lation Pharisees were to be found, these "came
forth, and began to question with him, seeking of
him a Sign from heaven, tempting him1."

Perhaps they had heard of the feeding of the
four thousand and wanted to put Him to what they
considered a conclusive test. "Could He shew a Sign
in Heaven ? " This iterated cry shewed the poor-
ness of the soil, they had nothing else to utter but
a demand for credentials. If our Lord had worked
a " Sign in Heaven " they would have examined it
to find a flaw, and even if they had been driven to
admit that it was valid, no change whatever would
have ensued in the men themselves. Chronic evil
requires, not a passing shock but a long continued
reparative process for its cure. So, here, to those
who have not nothing is given, indeed nothing
could be given to any purpose, and they soon lose
even what they had, viz. our Lord's presence, for
He leaves them and goes elsewhere.

On the way across the Lake, while this circum-

1 Mark viii. it.

336 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

stance is still in His mind, our Lord warns the
Apostles against this Pharisaic spirit, the leaven of
the Pharisees, which would kill all that is spiritual
in religion by reducing every thing to matter of
dry proof and dead authority. On the mistake of
the disciples, " It is because we have no bread," I
have already spoken (p. 7), it is to me a proof of the
genuineness of the story. Who would have intro-
duced it, and who has not met scores of people
who would have clung to the literal sense of the
words just as the Apostles did ?

Our Lord and the band of apostles travel along
the upper valley of the Jordan to the neighbour-
hood of Caesarea Philippi. Most if not all of the
outer disciples had by this time fallen away, and
the opportunity for giving His higher inmost
teaching had come.

Never yet, except to the woman of Samaria,
had Our Lord spoken of Himself as the Messiah.
The notions of the Jews about the Messiah varied
greatly, but the notion of an era of material
physical enjoyment was dominant in all, and this
had the demoralising effect of leading men to
regard sensuous well being as the supreme good.
If our Lord had proclaimed Himself the Messiah,
crowds would have rallied to his side, hoping to
have found one who would give them what they
desired. This would have been fatal to all spiritual
growth. Our Lord's reticence about the Messiah
and also about His own nature, is very significant :

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 337

I think it means that truth absolute about heavenly
things is not within the reach of man.

What follows, is so important, that it must be
given in the words of St Matthew whose narrative
is the most full.

"Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men
say that the Son of man is ? And they said, Some say
John the Baptist; some, Elijah: and others, Jeremiah,
or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But who
say ye that I am ? And Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou,
Simon Bar-Jonah : for flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I
also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades
shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and what-
soever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Then charged he the disciples that they should tell no
man that he was the Christ1."

The doctrinal and ecclesiastical bearings of this
passage are beyond my scope, they have been
fully treated over and over again ; but one point
belongs to my special province — Peter's knowledge
had not come from anything he had been told.
Our Lord had not breathed it to him, but it had

1 Matth. xvi. 13 — 20.
L. 22

338 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

grown up in him as great truths fcave grown up
in prophetic souls by the prompting of God.
This is the true inspiration of God ; He whispers
thoughts into the hearts of men, some nurse them
and bring them to maturity, with others they take
no hold. Blessed are those with whom they rest.
Our Lord had said in the synagogue at Caper-
naum

" No man can come to me, except the Father which
sent me draw him : and I will raise him up in the last
day1."

Peter had been drawn towards Him in this
way.

Another point is to be noted. Henceforth the
Apostles had a secret— they were to "tell no man
that he was Jesus the Christ."

So long as the belief in our Lord as the
Messiah was only a surmise, growing in Peter's
mind more and more into positive shape, he was
not lifted up by it ; but now he had become, as he
thought, a species of chief minister, and he looked
to the declaration of an earthly kingdom ; so that
when, immediately after the promise of power,
our Lord speaks of sufferings and death, Peter
replies, "These things be far from thee." He
never doubts but that our Lord would use His
powers in self-defence. He looks on His words
only as evil boding, and it strikes him that it is

1 John vi. 44.

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 339

impolitic to utter them, because they will confuse
and dishearten both the disciples and the Twelve.

This remonstrance of Peter's drew from our
Lord the first stern words which an Apostle had
received from His lips, and very stern they were.

"But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind
me, Satan : thou art a stumblingblock unto me : for
thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of
men1."

It will help us to understand what moved our
Lord so deeply if we go back to the Temptations.
St Luke ends his account of the Temptations
thus,

"And when the devil had completed every temp-
tation, he departed from him for a season3."

The words " for a season " imply that Tempta-
tions recurred from time to time, and that our
Lord, now and again, heard inward voices harping
on the old themes, one of the most persistent
being that which said "Employ supernatural might
to bring your Kingdom about." Peter now spoke
in the same strain. Could it be that even His
" own familiar friend " had gone over to the foe.

The following discourse sounds a new note.
Now for the first time our Lord speaks of the
sufferings that awaited his followers.

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man

1 Matth. xvi. 23. * Luke iv. 13.

22—2

34O TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up
his cross, and follow me. For whosoever would save his
life shall lose it : and whosoever shall lose his life for my
sake shall find it1."

The Apostles understood this probably as
applying to the hardships and vicissitudes of the
campaign which would result in the restoration of
the Kingdom to Israel ; for they looked for such a
restoration up to the last (see St Luke xxiv. 21).
This notion might have been removed no doubt ;
but what could have been put in its place ? the idea
of a Kingdom over men's consciences, could not be
implanted in men by words or in a short time. It
could come about only by long experience in
seeing and sharing suffering and toil, and by turn-
ing again and again to the abiding recollections of
the Cross. Notions mischievously erroneous would
have sprouted up in the Apostles' minds from any
thing they could have been told in a few words.

One promise however made at this time must
have seemed to them to afford just what they
wanted.

"And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
There be some here of them that stand by, which shall in
no wise taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God
come with power8."

I understand this verse in a way with which
not every body will agree.

1 Matth. xvi. i.\, 35. * Mark ix. i.

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 341

I take it as referring entirely to the Transfigura-
tion, and I consider that the strong expression
"shall in no wise taste of death" means that the
witnesses should see what is spoken of during their
actual earthly lives. Many might be blessed enough
to behold this after death ; but what was to dis-
tinguish the chosen witnesses from other men was
this, that while in the body they should see the
Kingdom of God come with power. This boon is
given, not to those who needed assurance, but to
those who possessed it most ; it seems given only
to those to whom it is superfluous. The Law of
the working of Signs (see pp. 142, 143) is rigorously
observed. The vision on the Mount of Trans-
figuration coerced no one into belief.

During those six days we may suppose that
the Apostles were busy in their minds, they would
wonder who these "some" were to be, and why,
supposing that the Kingdom of God came with the
kind of power they looked for — a legion of angels
for instance — why they should not all see it at
once. Of the Transfiguration itself and the lessons
it contains, the superseding of the teaching of the
Law and the Prophets by the revelation of the
incarnate Word, I have spoken fully in Chap. iv.
(p. 94). We shall see as we go farther on, that our
Lord is careful that there shall be nothing so rigid
in His teaching as to prevent its being applicable
to all races and conditions of men. It was no
longer Moses, and no longer the prophets embodied

342 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

in the person of Elijah, to whom men were to
listen now. Hitherto all had rested on authority
— on the letter of written Law. In the place of
this were given words which "were Spirit and
which were life." Henceforth for their knowledge
of God they were to turn to Christ. He manifests
God unto the world, both in His own Personality
depicted in the Gospels and by Spiritual Com-
munion, whispering unto the end of the world to
those who are ready to hear.

One point that was gained by this manifestation
may be noted here. Supposing that the foes of
Jesus had dispatched Him at the Feast of Taber-
nacles, still something would have- been already
accomplished, something secured for the world.
There would have been three witnesses — men not
given to visions or dreaming — who could declare
that a voice from Heaven had sounded in their
ears, and that while Moses and Elias were standing
by, a voice from Heaven had declared that they
were superseded as the Divine teachers of men by
Jesus of Nazareth, of whom it declared, " This is
my beloved Son, HEAR HIM."

As soon as these words are uttered, all that is
wondrous disappears. The Apostles find them-
selves with their Master on the mountain top, and
all is as it was before He had begun to pray. If
there had been but one witness he would have
found it hard to convince men that he had seen
all this with his waking eyes; but there were three

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 343

Apostles to say "we were together and awake
when we saw it." Is it likely that three men
should have fallen asleep together and have waked
at the same moment, having all dreamed the same
dream ?

The supposition, however, of a vision affords a
means of escape from accepting the narration. This
exemplifies the Law that in every revelation de-
livered to men not already convinced, room is left
for them to disbelieve if they like, because assent to
proof which is irrefragable is not moral belief at all.
There were people who would have said of this
Transfiguration "we would rather believe that you
all three slept and dreamed the same dream than
that your story is true." And some ground is left
for such men to stand upon, though we who believe
may think them straitened for room. With the
three Apostles themselves, the conviction that their
Master was Divine, already formed part of their
being, it could hardly be strengthened ; acceptance
was not forced on them for they already accepted
all. What they beheld did not act upon them as
additional proof, but as a glimpse of another
world, a revelation of new modes of existence —
something to give shape to that message of eternal
life which is henceforth the ground theme of our
Lord's teaching.

It may seem surprising that this revelation of
their Master's glory should cause so little disturb-
ance in the Apostles' minds, or in their freedom

344 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

of intercourse with the Lord. If one, whom we our-
selves held in honour changed his mortal guise in
the way described, not only would the shock upset
our judgment but never after could we approach
our friend in the old familiar way; he would belong
to another order and have his true existence in
another plane. We read, it is true, that the
-Apostles were for a moment " sore afraid," but this
was superficial fear due to the spectacle, to impres-
sion on the outward sense. St Peter, who is per-
suaded that they have been removed to a strange
arid blessed country, quickly regains self-possession.
Following his instincts as a worker with his hands,
he bethinks himself at once, as was said in Chapter
VIII. (p. 248), of what is to be done. When our
Lord and the three take their way down the moun-
tain we find again the old confident relation of
Master and disciple existing among them, it was so
deep-rooted that all were sure that nothing could
disturb that. Their Master's spiritual exaltation
did not put a gulf between Him and them, because
they were so faf one with Him that they were in a
measure uplifted together; what was His, was
also in part their own ; whether in earth or heaven,
or wherever their Master's Kingdom should be,
they felt sure they must be by His side. They
could not be estranged from Him by awe of a
newly discovered dignity, for they had been sure
of His possessing this before, and only wondered
that it had not come more patently to light

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 345

Thus the complete love of the three which
transfused their being into Christ and rendered the
idea of separation inconceivable, made it possible
for them to receive that as a blessing which if
given to others might have proved a bewilderment.
They already possessed something which made
them capable of receiving more.

Our Lord makes no comment on the manifesta-
tion witnessed by the three beyond charging them
"that they should tell no man what things they
had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the
dead1." What they had beheld contained a varied
store of lessons, and men in the after times of the
world would draw out one or another according to
the turn taken by their thoughts. The Apostles,
at the moment, only understood a small part
of what this revelation conveyed. No exposi-
tion given in words could have brought to the
comprehension of the three a perception of the
whole bearing of what they had seen, but they
would live into more of its meaning in time. If
our Lord had discoursed on this manifestation,
and represented its purport in this view or in that,
men might have supposed that He meant His
account to be exhaustive, and that the fact con-
tained no lessons beyond those which He Himself
set forth. Here we come I think upon a possible
reason why our Lord is sparing of exposition
regarding the facts of revelation. He could not

1 Mark ix. 9.

340 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

briefly point out every truth that a -fact embodied,
and if in an exposition, which was seemingly full,
He should pass any lessons by, these it might be
supposed He intended to exclude ; in this way
His reticence preserves for us the many-sidedness
of Divine truth and engages men to ponder on it
for themselves.

For the Apostles to have been allowed to
spread abroad the story of the solemn scene upon
the Mount would have been damaging to the work
both for the world and themselves. The old cry
might again have been raised to take Jesus and
make Him a king ; or the people might have been
seized with a fever of curiosity, and the scribes
would have grown all the more bitter in their
hatred from its being leavened with awe. The ill
effect on the Apostles of becoming authorised to
promulgate such momentous tidings is easy enough
to perceive. When people run about to dissemin-
ate some scrap of news which they alone possess
the result is usually not beneficial either to char-
acter or to mind. From this temptation the
Apostles were guarded. What they have seen
and heard is not matter which they may use to
magnify their importance or excite envy — it is a
sacred trust. This signal manifestation besides
being a light to help to the understanding of what
Christ meant by eternal life, was to furnish them
with a reserve of certitude. The three might
never need to draw on it for themselves, but it

TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN. 347

would be of no slight avail with Jewish converts
to be able to assure them that Christ had visibly
appeared in Glory and that God had directed
men henceforth to listen, not to the Law or the
Prophets, not to Moses or Elijah, but to Him.

It is significant that this is to be kept secret
not only until our Lord's death but until His
Resurrection. The three were not allowed to use
it to comfort and reassure the rest as soon as their
Master had suffered on the cross. The nine were
to go through this trial unaided, eight stood the
test, and held together in Jerusalem. When the
Resurrection came, the Apostles " were glad when
they saw the Lord," and then in the delight and
exultation of that moment the three may have
poured forth the secret they had in store.

The Apostles were not surprised at being told
that they were to tell no man ; they had received
the same charge when they had seen Jairus'
daughter raised to life; but they were greatly
puzzled by the words "till the Son of man were
risen from the dead." They believed probably in
a Resurrection, but that was to be ages hence,
whereas this rising of Christ from the dead must
take place in their own lifetime, because after it
had happened they were to be free to speak of the
Vision on the Mount. They asked each other what
this rising could be, and perhaps some fancied that
our Lord would permanently assume the glorified
existence of which He had given them a glimpse.

348 TO THOSE WHO HAVE, IS GIVEN.

Then came the question of Elijah. Our Lord
turns the allusion to the prophets towards His
coming rejection. Men had ill-treated the prophets ;
they will set at nought the Son of man too.
" Even so shall the Son of man also suffer of
them1." This news is broken to the disciples gently
and little by little, but they never believe that it
is literally true. Their cause must, they were
sure, succeed in the end, Christ would not have
engaged them in failure. What leader ever pro-
phesied his own discomfiture and death? Our
Lord first broke this truth to Peter at Caesaraea
Philippi, then to the three, and again, as we shall
see presently, to all the Twelve on their way to
Capernaum ; thus the stream of communication
broadens out.

We learn from St Luke8 that it was not till the
next day that our Lord " came down from the hill
and much people met him," so that in the night,
and in the long day's walk down to the in-
habited country, the Apostles had ample time for
quietly thinking over all that had taken place.
Our Lord is always careful to leave time for one
impression to fix itself, before another takes its
place.

1 Matthew xvii. 12. a Luke ix. 37.

CHAPTER XL

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

THE spot at which our Lord had left the
disciples when He went up to the Mount of the
Transfiguration must have been well peopled and
provided with synagogues, for our Lord on His
return finds a "great multitude about them and
scribes questioning with them." The people were
greatly amazed either at His sudden appearance
or at something uplifted in His air. The Scribes
were holding an altercation with the disciples,
possibly exulting over the failure of these to cure
the child, and our Lord, addressing the Scribes
who were, it would seem, the assailing party, asks

"What question ye with them? And one of the
multitude answered him, Master, I brought unto thee
my son, which hath a dumb spirit; and wheresoever it
taketh him, it dasheth him down : and he foameth, and
grindeth his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy
disciples that they should cast it out ; and they were not
able. And he answereth them and saith, O faithless

350 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

generation, how long shall I be with ^ou? how long
shall I bear with you ? bring him unto me. And they
brought him unto him : and when he saw him, straight-
way the spirit tare him grievously ; and he fell on the
ground, and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father,
How long time is it since this hath come unto him?
And he said, From a child. And oft-times it hath cast
him both into the fire and into the waters, to destroy
him : but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on
us, and help us. And Jesus said unto him, If thou
canst ! All things are possible to him that believeth.
Straightway the father of the child cried out, and said, I
believe ; help thou mine unbelief. And when Jesus saw
that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the
unclean spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf
spirit, I command thee, come out of him, and enter no
more into him. And having cried out, and torn him
much, he came out : and the child became as one dead ;
insomuch that the more part said, He is dead. But
Jesus took him by the hand, and raised him up ; and he
arose. And when he was come into the house, his
disciples asked him privately, saying, We could not cast it
out. And he said unto them, This kind can come out
by nothing, save by prayer1."

Our Lord's question to the father is just what a
physician would ask, " How long is it since this
hath come to him8 ? " It may have been that the
longer the standing of the complaint the greater
would be the effort required for the cure; for

1 Mark ix. 1 7 —29.

2 See page 95.

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM. 351

that in working these cures some physical strain
on the nervous energy was incurred may be inferred
from our Lord's feeling that " virtue was gone out
of Him," when the woman touched the hem of His
garment in the press round the house of Jairus1.

This force depended on spiritual life, and
if this were lowered in the disciples by their
Master's absence, or by any little rivalry or
thought of personal display in the cure, we can
understand that in this difficult case — for our Lord
distinctly recognises its exceptional difficulty — they
should fail of success. The words " faithless and
perverse generation " may apply to all those whom
he finds wrangling, more or less the disciples were
faithless, and the Scribes perverse. He came from
a region of serene peace and heavenly communion,
and the contrast of that with what He finds as
soon as he comes to the resort of men, draws
from Him these stern words. From the disciples'
surprise that they could not cast the devil out, it
may be inferred that they had succeeded in what
they regarded as similar cases before. The narra-
tive proceeds thus

"And they went forth from thence, and passed through
Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it2."

Our Lord now lays aside for a time His setting
forth of God's Kingdom to the people at large, and

1 Mark v. 30. 3 Mark ix. 30.

352 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

devotes Himself entirely to preparing the Apostles
for what was to come. He now breaks to all the
Twelve the news of what His end on earth would
be. He speaks in the plainest terms but they do
not understand : their own preconception firmly
holds its ground. Some perhaps thought that this
death spoken of would be like a temporary trance,
from which their Master would rise to a life in the
body such as He had led before.

Our Lord, we may be sure, did not suppose
that they would understand, nor was He careful
that they should do so, if He had been He would
have asked them questions and commented on
their replies. If the whole sad truth had been
unfolded, they would have had no heart for daily
work ; the cloud in the future would have overcast
their souls. Thus it is that our Lord does not
dwell upon the end. He says nothing of its
meaning, He utters no word of doctrine, but He
states the facts in the barest form. His intention
in doing this is made known to us in words spoken
long afterwards:

"But these things have I spoken unto you, that
when their hour is come, ye may remember them, how
that I told you. And these things I said not unto you
from the beginning, because I was with you1."

It was not His object that they should know
beforehand what was coming, but that when

1 John xvi. 4.

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM. 353

circumstances furnished the key, they should
understand that all was taking place in the way
He had foreseen : neither should they be made to
grieve while the bridegroom was with them.

When the Crucifixion came, it would be some
support to the disciples to mark that it was a
fulfilment of their Master's words. They would
get a larger view of God's plans by marking
that what came about was part of a purpose
worked steadily out, on lines long before laid
down.

Whatever our Lord's words might mean, no
doubt about the final restoration of the Kingdom to
Israel entered the Apostles' heads. Come what
might this was to them a certainty, and the notion
of a Kingdom over the hearts and consciences of
men, without the sanctions or appurtenances of
royal sway, was one which neither they nor any
others of those times could conceive; it had to
appear, indeed, as a fact, before it could be enter-
tained as an idea.

The Apostles were ready enough to admit that
vicissitudes of fortune might befall them and their
Master on their way, but that their cause must
finally triumph was a conviction which formed
part of themselves. They made light of the
conflicts and dangers which beset the road, for
they saw behind all these an empire settled for
evermore and stretching over the world. This
material view brought with it at the time the ills

i. 23

354 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

that cling to error. It made them think of what
they should themselves receive. Their care for
self, which had passed almost out of sight while
they devotedly followed their Master over the
mountains or the Lake, swelled out greatly now.
Our Lord, so tolerant of merely speculative error,
is made anxious by the symptoms of rivalry
displayed. Mistaken opinions, or illusions, due to
the traditions in which they had been reared,
events already impending would dispel ; but self-
regard among the founders of the Church would
be fatal to the work.

" And they came to Capernaum : and when he was in
the house he asked them, What were ye reasoning in the
way1?"

We get here a glimpse of the Apostolic com-
pany taking their road along the path which had
been chosen as being unfrequented2. We may
picture them journeying on, with our Lord a little
in front, with them but not quite of them — for
always He is essentially alone — close enough to
hear a medley of voices and to catch the tones
which indicated contest, but not near enough to
distinguish words — and after Him the Apostles
following in knots of two or three which now and
then came together into one group. Our Lord is
not quick to interrupt ; He is singularly sparing
of interposing the Master's hand, He does not

J Mark ix. 33. s Mark ix. 30.

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM. 355

turn on them and chide. The Apostles would
not have grown to what they did if they had been
checked at every turn.

The dispute has died away, their journey is
over and they are together in the house at Caper-
naum which they had left some months before,
when our Lord asks the question in the text just
quoted shewing that He knew their hearts, and
they held their peace. Our Lord sat down and
called the Twelve; from this they might be sure
that He had something of moment to say.

St Mark gives his words thus,

"If any man would be first, he shall be last of all,
and minister of all !."

This evangelist's way of putting what was said
makes it look like a penal provision against
seeking the mastery ; as if he who was convicted
of aiming at the highest place was to be put down
to the bottom of the scale. But St Luke's version
points to a view more consistent with Our Lord's
usual way. He makes our Lord say, " for he that
is least among you all, the same is great2." Christian
greatness is born of willingness to lay the lowliest
duties on yourself, and the way to be first is to be
ready to remain last

Our Lord goes to the root of this matter
of greatness. He makes them put it to them-
selves what they meant by being greater one

1 Mark ix. 35. * Luke ix. 48.

23—2

356 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

than another. He recalls them- from what is
worldly and ephemeral, from gradations of pre-
cedence and authority, to what constitutes the real
greatness of a spiritual being, his favour in God's
sight.

St Matthew's account of this discourse is the
most full, and if we take out of it the denunciations
of offence, and suppose them put subsequently as
St Mark gives them, it makes it easier to follow
the connexion of thought.

"In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus, saying,
Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And
he called to him a little child, and set him in the midst
of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye
turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise
enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore
shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall
receive one such little child in my name receiveth me :
but whoso shall cause one of these little ones which
believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a
great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and
that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea. Woe
unto the world because of occasions of stumbling ! for it
must needs be that the occasions come ; but woe to that
man through whom the occasion cometh 1

********

See that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for
I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always
behold the face of my Father which is in heaven V
1 Matt, xviii. i — 1 1.

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM. 357

A child does not feel that he is humbling him-
self by helping even in the lowliest matters in his
parents' work ; rather is he elated at being found to
be of use. The Apostles could take a lesson by
.children in this particular ; and in order to learn this
lesson, they could hardly do better than try to win
children to them, not counting them lightly because
they were children, but feeling a reverence for
childhood, because Christ claimed children as His
own, and, what was more, declared that in heaven
their angels always beheld His Father's face.

This gentleness of our Lord in rebuking, has an
effect which gentleness often has, it awakens com-
punctions in those to whom it is shewn. A child,
who by severity is set on its defence or drawn
into falsehood, is often melted into full con-
fession by being loved and trusted more than it
deserves. While our Lord was speaking of offences,
St John had been asking himself whether he had
ever put back any who were pressing toward
Christ • in their own way, whether he had ever
chilled a nascent faith ; his conscience is not clear
and he must come out with what troubles him.
They had seen one casting out devils in their
Master's name1 and the evil spirit of exclusiveness

1 This incident shews that the Apostles even while journeying
along with our Lord were sometimes out of His sight and acted
independently. Perhaps they were in some degree dispersed when
they halted for the night. This forbidding cannot have taken place
while our Lord was in the Mount because John was there with Him.

358 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

had come over them. Their Master they thought
was wholly theirs, and no one who did not become
altogether one of themselves was to have any part
in Him ; there is a touch of truth to nature in this
which makes us sure that what we read took place.
Our Lord's reply is again gentle ; to be hard on a
fault that was confessed would have dried up that
confidence which flowed so freely. They were to
take the large view, they are told "He that is not
against us is for us." Man is a weak being and
where there is good, however partial, there is hope.
Spirits, on the contrary, we may suppose are either
good or evil and do not change their nature; so
when speaking of them, not of mankind, in the
reply to the charge that He cast out devils by
Beelzebub, we find the opposite statement.

"He that is not with me is against me; and he that
gathereth not with me scattereth1."

It is commonly supposed that it was at this
visit to Capernaum that the half shekel was de-
manded of Peter, which was provided by the stater
found in the fish's mouth ; of this miracle I have
spoken already, but I may have occasion to recur
to it again.

We find in St Matthew's Gospel2 a lesson de-
livered at this time by our Lord on the forgiveness
of offences. St Peter, — characteristically ready
to bring out what is in his heart — is willing to

1 Matthew xii. 30. 8 xviii. 21, 22.

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM. 359

accept the duty of forgiveness ; but he cannot get
rid of the notion in which he has been trained, that
all conduct must be ordered by definite rule. He
would forgive his brother as he was told to do, but
he must know how many times he was to do so.
He could bring himself to acts of forgiveness,
but he did not yet feel that it was more blessed
to forgive than to resent. A parable is spoken
expressly for him, it is that of the king who made
the reckoning with his servants. Later on, when
he had himself needed and received forgiveness
for denying his Master, a new light in this direction
streamed in, no doubt, upon his soul.

This discourse of our Lord precedes His setting
out for Jerusalem to the feast of Tabernacles, and
may be supposed to contain his parting directions
to the body of disciples left behind at Capernaum.
Nothing would be so disastrous as the breaking
out of rivalry among them ; His injunctions there-
fore, like those which He gave to the Apostles at
the last, are to the effect that they should forgive
and love one another.

At the end of the 9th Chapter in St Mark, we
have a hard passage which has suffered from
interpolation1 ; this I believe to have been the close
of the lesson given to the Twelve in the house at
Capernaum, when our Lord called them round
Him and sat down.

1 Compare the Revised Version with that of 1611.

360 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

"For every one shall be salted with fire. Salt is
good : but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will
ye season it ? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace
one with another1."

When our Lord says "every one shall be salted
with fire" I believe that He is thinking of that
fire which He had come to send upon the earth ;
that new sense of communion with God, which
Christ awakened in the consciences of men and
which has been a mighty transforming agency in
the world.

The Apostles who were to be instinct with
this Spirit were the salt of the world. This
Spirit should be to them what salt is to that
which it seasons and preserves ; but if the pre-
serving principle, embodied in the Apostles, and
which was to emanate from them should itself
prove corrupt, then where could help be found ?
If they, the chosen ones, became selfish, if they
wrangled about who should be greatest ; then the
fire which our Lord had come to send upon earth
was clearly not burning in them, and whence
could it be kindled afresh. So our Lord parts
from the body of disciples, going with a few on
His way to the feast, and His last injunction is
that they should have salt in themselves and be
at peace one with another.

At this point, the end of the ninth chapter, we

1 Mark ix. 49, 50.

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM. 361

lose the guidance of the Gospel of St Mark. All
that the writer gives for the events of half a year,
lies in this verse :

"And he arose from thence, and cometh into the
borders of Judaea and beyond Jordan : and multitudes
come together unto him again ; and, as he was wont, he
taught them again1."

It would seem as if it was the Galilaean ministry
that he had set himself to relate, and that when
our Lord passed into Judaea and Peraea he — being
perhaps no longer a constant eye witness and not
willing to speak from hearsay — broke off his tale.
The narrative is supplied here by St John (Chap,
vii.) and also by St Luke who, in a section of the
Gospel which has driven formal Harmonists to
despair (Chaps, ix. 50 to xviii. 15), preserves matter
of the greatest value belonging apparently to this
time.

St Luke speaks of a journey to Jerusalem, and
of our Lord's coming to a village of the Samaritans
on the way2. This journey is identified with that
to the feast of Tabernacles (St John vii. 10) which
must be the same as that spoken of above by
St Mark. It is doubtful whether our Lord saw
Capernaum again before His death, but He may
have done so just before the final journey to
Jerusalem.

A word or two must be said about St John's

1 Mark x. I. a Luke ix. 51, 52.

362 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

account of the circumstances iftider which our
Lord set out : his account is this.

"Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles,
was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him,
Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also
may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man
doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be
known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest
thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not
believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My
time is not yet come; but your time is alway ready.
The world cannot hate you ; but me it hateth, because I
testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the
feast : I go not up yet unto this feast ; because my time
is not yet fulfilled. And having said these things unto
them, he abode still in Galilee. But when his brethren
were gone up unto the feast, then went he also up, not
publicly, but as it were in secret1."

This disbelief was not, in our Lord's brethren,
grounded on an opposition of will like that of the
scribes. It came from the " slowness of heart " of
men who had not imagination for things Divine.
What came before their eyes was never doubted
by them ; they did not explain His miracles away
as His enemies did, only they did not see what the
possession of this power implied. After the Ascen-
sion they are found among the believers2. Like
the rest of the people at Nazareth they admired
"the wisdom given unto this man" and "the

1 John vii. a — 10. a Acts i. 14, "with his brethren."

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM. 363

mighty works wrought by His hands1," but they
could not imagine that one who had grown up
along with them had a nature of a different order
from theirs. Our Lord never upbraids them ; they
worked their work and He His. They were blame-
less commonplace men, wondering at their brother's
powers and also that, with all His wisdom, He
should fail in the practical sense necessary for
turning His superiority to account. What was the
good of these wonders being wrought if nobody
knew of them ? That He must aim at notoriety
seemed to them too much a matter of course to
need saying ; and now when the great feast to
which all Israel gathered was at hand, it was
inexplicable that He should not join the company
that travelled from Galilee, and thus enter Jeru-
salem with a following at his back.

The voice which, at the Temptation, had whis-
pered, " Use your superhuman power to lend
material aid to your designs," spoke in His brothers'
advice as it had done by Peter. They were not
unconcerned for His safety, if they had foreseen
danger they would have kept Him away from the
Feast (St Mark iii. 21), but they either underrated
the hostility of His foes or assumed that He would
protect Himself by His superhuman power; for
that, possessing miraculous powers as they knew
He did, He should hesitate, on an emergency, to
exert them in self-defence was to them an idea too

1 Mark vi. i.

364 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

unreasonable to be entertained. The deep truth
unconsciously uttered by His foes, " He saved
others, Himself He cannot save/' was one which
their minds were not constructed to contain. Our
Lord foresaw that a public entry into Jerusalem
would lead to commotion, and, as afterwards
happened, might bring about His death. A man's
life, if he have a great matter in hand, is the more
precious to him until this be done : so it was with
our Lord. Until He had finished what was given
Him to accomplish, He took such precautions for
personal safety as a prudent man would. To have
made light of danger, trusting to baffle it by super-
human means, would have spoiled the lesson and
the moral of His life.

When the brethren spoke of His "going up
to Jerusalem," they thought of the journey in
public as much as of the feast itself. Half Galilee
would be upon the road, men would mix and
converse freely on the way, and Jesus, they
thought, would, by travelling thus, come in contact
with a number of zealous men and increase His
following largely. But herein lay one of the
dangers which made our Lord shun this course.
The people, proud of the great prophet from their
own district, might have revived the project of
making Him a King, and by a turbulent entry to
Jerusalem have alarmed the Romans as well as
the scribes. Again, the turmoil of this journey
would have disturbed those processes of growth in

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM. 365

the Apostles' mind over which our Lord held
watch ; the feast of Tabernacles was, above all, a
festival of joyousness, and the journey to it was
made an occasion of pleasure and social union.
For the Apostles to have joined the crowd would
have been unfavourable for the germination of the
solemn thoughts of which our Lord had dropped
the seed on His way from the Mount to Caper-
naum. By going up privately in the middle of
the Feast these dangers were avoided. There
was no public arrival, no welcome. The Romans
would know and care nothing about a new preacher
who appeared in the Temple, and the priests, in
face of the diversity of opinion about Jesus of
Nazareth, would hesitate to lay hands upon Him.
For the Apostles too, the journey through an un-
friendly country would give plenty of occasion for
turning over in their minds the strange words they
had heard about the sufferings of the Christ, and
the injunctions to "have salt in themselves."

What gives this journey its great interest to me,
with my particular purpose in view, is the refusal of
hospitality to our Lord by the Samaritan villages,
and the enquiry of James and John, whether they
should not call down fire from heaven; where-
in the " Sons of Thunder " justify their name.

"And it came to pass, when the days were well-nigh
come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his
face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his
face : and they went, and entered into a village of the

366 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not
receive him, because his face was as though he were going
to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw
this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we bid fire to come
down from heaven, and consume them ? But he turned,
and rebuked them. And they went to another village1.*'

" Some ancient authorities/' as we read in the
margin of our Revised Version, " add, and said, Ye
know not what manner of spirit ye are of"

This is so exactly after our Lord's manner,
not only in the quality but in the quantity of
rebuke, that I have no doubt but that it is a
genuine saying of Christ preserved by tradition
whether it were originally in St Luke's Gospel or
not. It is like our Lord to drop a word indicating
error and leave the real correction to grow up in
the learner's mind as though it was supplied by
himself. He rarely dilates on what is blame-
worthy and never recurs to a failing that has been
noticed at the time.

James and John, we must recollect, had just
witnessed the Transfiguration, this helps to explain
their mood of mind. They dwelt upon the re-
collection of this all the more because it was a
secret possession of the three. The contrast of
their Master's inherent greatness and the humili-
ation to which He was subjected moved their
indignation. The Lord of heaven was refused
hospitality by a village in Samaria, and this not

1 Luke ix. 51 — 56.

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM. 367

out of niggardliness — that would have moved the
Apostles less — but from an old animosity about
where men should worship. They, no doubt, re-
garded their "jealousy for the Lord God " as
something commendable, and were surprised at
our Lord's rebuking them and telling them that
they knew not what Spirit they were of. The fact
was, that our Lord detected in this fierce proposal
a further growth of that tendency to spiritual arro-
gance which had been indicated by their forbidding
the man who followed not with them, and this
seems to cause our Lord concern. He treats it as
a spiritual affection which it would require care to
remove. He does not inveigh against it, but His
parables and the drift of His teaching militate
against the propensity to exercise "Lordship" over
men.

Our Lord subsequently takes occasion to exalt
the blessing of forgiveness and to teach that over-
much must not be expected or demanded from men.
He gives the parables of the Prodigal Son and of
the unjust Steward, of which last I shall speak in
the next chapter. Peter saw that when our Lord
said, "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord
when He cometh shall find watching," He had His
eye upon the future rulers of His community.

"And Peter said, Lord, speakest thou this parable
unto us, or even unto all? And the Lord said, Who
then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall
set over his household, to give them their portion of food

368 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

in due season ? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord
when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say
unto you, that he will set him over all that he hath. But
if that servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth
his coming ; and shall begin to beat the men-servants
and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be
drunken ; the lord of that servant shall come in a day
when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth
not, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion
with the unfaithful1.''

There is a hint of possible priestly oppression
in the mention of the ill-treatment of inferiors by
those upper servants, who, forgetting that their
master might at any moment return, deal with the
possessions as their own.

I said a little while ago that in this matter the
" Sons of thunder" justified their name. If we had
not this passage, critics would wonder how such
a surname could have been chosen ; St John, it
is true, forbade the working of cures by one who
" followed not with them," still we regard him as
the Apostle of Love, and in the Gospels we hear
nothing of St James. This coincidence, though in
a small matter, is worth noting. This incident
preserved by St Luke shews that there was at the
bottom of the natures of these two, loving though
they were, a fund of impetuousness and wrath,
and that they could break out into a storm of
indignation, bearing out the name imposed. It

1 Luke xii. 41 — 46.

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM. 369

is worth mentioning that this falls in with what
we read in the Acts, viz. that when " Herod the
king put forth his hands to afflict certain of the
church" the first on whom he seized was " James
the brother of John1;" this shews that James was
a vehement, energetic character standing in the
front, who to the political authorities was a marked
man. For this was a political execution; if the
priests had dealt with him for blasphemy he
would have been stoned, not "slain with the
sword." Our Lord gathered round Him men of
very various temperaments ; it is not only one
type of man, but those of all types, the impetuous
as well as the gentle, for whom Christ finds place
in the realm of action.

On arriving at Jerusalem, Jesus " went up into
the Temple and taught3." His discourse is ad-
dressed to the crowd ; and as many visitors would
come from the cities of Asia, the tone of it is
necessarily very different from that of His sermons
in Galilee. It is even possible, as many of the
strangers had lost their Hebrew, that He spoke in
Greek8, this would account for the disuse of parables,
a form of speech which went with the Hebrew
tongue. During all His stay, in or near Jerusalem,
possibly of some weeks' duration, broken by Mission

1 Acts xii. a. 2 John vii. 14.

3 That our Lord spoke Greek when required is inferred from His
being understood by the Syro- Phoenician woman and by Pilate, who
probably knew no Hebrew, see John xviii. 33 — 38. See also
John vii. 35, Revised Version.

L. 24

370 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

journeys, we hear nothing of the disciples ; all our
Lord's discourses are with "the Jews," and in general
with "the Pharisees." (See St John, Chaps, vii. and
viii.) The Apostles, or at least some of them, may
have been absent on mission duties, for St Luke
places the sending out of the seventy near this time.
The question may be asked, where during this
time did our Lord reside ? During the feast Jeru-
salem was thronged with strangers, it was a time
when all were keeping holiday ; every family left
their house, and lived in a tent or booth decorated
with vine branches and flowers. Jerusalem at any
time, was not, as I have said in an earlier chapter1,
favoured by our Lord as a residence for His
disciples, and He is not likely to have suffered
them to stay there long during the turmoil of the
feast. At the beginning of the fragment concern-
ing the woman taken in adultery we find a line
which points to Bethany as the place where our
Lord sojourned. This document, which I regard
as genuinely historical, begins abruptly thus8.
" And they went every man unto his own house .
but Jesus went unto the mount of Olives." It
looks as if the writer was speaking of the breaking
up of a gathering, towards nightfall. Bethany was
just beyond the Mount of Olives, something
more than two miles to the east of Jerusalem. It
was there, St Luke tells us, that " A certain

1 Pa^je 191. 2 John vii. 53; viii. i.

FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM. 3/1

woman, Martha," received our Lord — but, as far as
appears, not any disciples — " into her house." This
was on some subsequent journey, but our Lord's
affection for Lazarus and his sisters may have
arisen, or at least have grown up, during the
weeks following this feast. Bethany would furnish
for such of the Apostles as were with our Lord
just the retreat desired.

At this point I shall cease to attempt to follow
the order of time. We can indeed trace our Lord's
movements in St John's Gospel, and we can find
in St Luke's account indications of journeys which
may be made fairly well to correspond with these
movements, but much uncertainty must attend the
assigning of particular events or parables to their
proper occasions.

St Luke in this part of his Gospel had lost, it
would seem, the guidance of the original memoir
which is supposed to have been the basis of
the rest, but he was in possession of much
valuable matter, a part of which was, very possibly,
in the form of detached documents, which he
does his best to arrange in order of time. We
can understand that parables, such as those of
Lazarus and the Prodigal Son, would be copied
and circulated and handed from preacher to
preacher, as would also incidents of particular
interest, or discourses of our Lord. This part of
St Luke's Gospel seems drawn from such sources
and the connecting matter is sparingly supplied.

2J.— 3

372 FROM THE MOUNT TO JERUSALEM.

Nothing, then, will be gained by endeavouring
to keep any longer to chronological order. Hence-
forth, therefore, I shall treat the points of interest
as separate topics and, passing over all that does
not immediately bear on the Schooling of the
Apostles, I shall take the matters connected with
it, about which I have something to say, and
discuss them one by one.

NOTE. — The passage from St Luke, xii. 41, &c. (quoted at
p. 367), contains the only mention of St Peter in all the Gospel
narrative, between the going up to the Feast of Tabernacles
(October) and the final journey to Jerusalem (April); although
occasions occur in this interval, such as that when Thomas says :
" Let us also go, that we may die with him " (St John xi. 16), when
we should have expected that Peter would not be silent. In St
John's Gospel he is not named between Chaps, i. and xiii. The
question arises, was Peter continuously in attendance on his Master
during this last winter; or was he, during part of it, learning to feed
his Master's sheep by holding together the disciples at Capernaum?
If when his Master was in Judaea, he only went backwards and
forwards to him, this would account for the omission of the history
of this half year in the Gospel of St Mark, for which Peter fur-
nished the materials, and also for the brief mention of the Tempta-
tion; for I suppose our Lord to have given the fuller history of
this to the disciples, when he was near the banks of the Jordan,
after the Feast of the Dedication (St John x. 40). See p. 119.
St Peter, who may not have been present, would probably limit his
narrative to what he had himself seen, or heard from his Master's
lips.

CHAPTER XII.

THE LATER LESSONS.

Different cases receive different treatment.
ST LUKE ix. 57 — 62.

"AND as they went in the way, a certain man said un-
to him, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And
Jesus said unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds
of the heaven have nests ; but the Son of man hath not
where to lay his head. And he said unto another,
Follow me. But lie said, Lord, suffer me first to go and
bury my father. But he said unto him, Leave the dead
to bury their own dead ; but go thou and publish abroad
the kingdom of God. And another also said, I will
follow thee, Lord ; but first suffer me to bid farewell to
them that are at my house. But Jesus said unto him,
No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking
back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

What caught attention and led to the collo-
cation of these two (and in St Luke three) instances
was the diversity of our Lord's treatment of cases
apparently similar. The disciples saw that our

374 THE LATER LESSONS.

Lord repelled one who was willing to follow him
at once, and imperatively summoned two others
who asked for delay. But though they might be
puzzled at this inconsistency, they felt sure that
there was a purpose and a meaning in it ; so they
transcribed these contrasting cases side by side,
to show that for different conditions of soul Christ
had different treatment ready. The second and
third1 of these colloquies probably took place at
a different time from the first. They seem to
have been held between our Lord and some of
the disciples who were summoned to go out on
the mission of the seventy, for St Luke inserts
this document in his history just before his account
of the mission. Thus St Matthew in his narrative
puts the passage where the first incident occurs,
while St Luke fixes its place by the second and
third.

This individualising in our Lord's treatment of
men struck the disciples as something new ; they
do not indeed point it out as a novel feature, for
they never remark upon our Lord's ways, but the
care of the Evangelists in preserving the most
striking instances of this diversity of treatment
shews that it caught their notice. To our Lord's
eye every human being had a moral and spiritual
physiognomy of his own. He saw at once, what
it was in each man which went to make him

1 The third is preserved only by Luke.

THE LATER LESSONS. 375

emphatically and distinctly his very self, and He
addressed Himself largely to this.

I will now consider the separate instances one
by one.

St Matthew, in the passage parallel to part of
this1, tells us that the first speaker was a scribe, and
it appears that he was, in some sort, also a disciple
of our Lord, for on coming to the next case St
Matthew speaks of" another of the disciples."

It was, I think, in Galilee, as St Matthew tells
us, that this profession of adhesion was made. At
the time he speaks of, popular feeling in our Lord's
favour was at its greatest height, and it was owing
to the thronging of the multitude to the Lake
shore near Capernaum that our Lord gave orders
to depart unto the other side. The circumstances
tally perfectly with the language of the passage,
for our Lord was then going into a wild country.
But where the passage stands in St Luke, our
Lord is travelling "as it were in secret" from a
village in Samaria to Jerusalem. In this journey,
rapidly made, he would not have been likely to
have fallen in with the scribe at all, and, as He
did not preach as He went, we cannot account for
the emotion which the scribe displays ; more-
over, it could hardly be said that at Jerusalem,
He would not have " where to lay His head."

What most particularizes the scribe is his
impulsiveness. We have here another example

1 Matthew viii. 19.

376 THE LATER LESSONS.

of that mistrust of emotional fervour which our
Lord uniformly shews. The woman who cried
" Blessed is the womb that bare thee1," the scribe
in the case before us, and St Peter, when he said,
" I am ready to go with thee both to prison and
to death2,'' all are answered by our Lord in the
same tone of repression8.

Sudden transports and ebullitions of feeling
like those just named, come mainly of tempera-
ment and of passing physical conditions which
subjugate the agent, and our Lord does not regard
them as betokening a character on which he can
depend.

It speaks well for the right feeling of this
scribe that he forbears to press his suit. He
divined, with the delicacy of a well bred Oriental,
that our Lord's reply, though apparently only
discouraging him from following for his own sake,
shewed that He held it best that he should stay
behind. He is satisfied that our Lord's judgment
will be right and he yields at once. A man with
less perception might have protested against the
imputation on his endurance, and have declared
that he would go with the Master though he
should have to lie on the bare earth.

1 Luke xi. 27.

2 Luke xxii. 33.

8 See also Luke xiv. 15. The exclamation, "Blessed is he
that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God" is met by the parable
of the Great Supper.

THE LATER LESSONS. 377

That, however genuine his devotion may have
been, it was best for the scribe to stay at home
is easy to understand; he had been used to an
indoors life and under hardships and exposure he
would have broken down ; besides, while being a
burden to the rest, he could, as a jaded man, have
gained little in moral or spiritual growth. He was
moreover, both as to culture and social caste, of a
different type from the rest, and his presence
would have made the party less homogeneous.
Another important consideration was this; by
remaining where he was, he might do that par-
ticular kind of good for which he was suited by
temper and condition better than by following our
Lord. The course which had taken hold of his
imagination may not have been that in which he
could do the best work. By remaining in Galilee
and mixing with other educated men, he, like
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, might help
to spread tolerance and leaven the mass.

The two cases which follow, no doubt, puzzled
the disciples much. Our Lord had so strenuously
enforced a man's duty to his parents, that they
would have expected these pleas for delay to be
admitted without a word. They are however very
positively rejected, and the refusal is put in so
impressive a form that I cannot but infer that our
Lord intended these colloquies to be recorded.

It has commonly been taken for granted, that
the father of the spokesman in the first of these

378 THE LATER LESSONS.

cases was lying dead when our Lord met him and
bade him follow; but Eastern usages almost pre-
clude this view, for the Jews buried within twenty-
four hours of the death, and for a son to be seen
in public while his father was lying dead would to
their minds have been highly indecent. Some
think that, the father being in extreme age, the
son asked to be allowed to stay with him till he
died ; what seems to me more likely is that the
completion of the ten days of strict mourning was
regarded as part of the obsequies, and that the
word " buried " applies to this. The father might
have been laid in the ground, but the ten days not
having expired, the funeral solemnities were not
considered over.

I think that our Lord meant in this case to
leave a lesson, and that the lesson was this. Family
ties and duties, blessed though they usually are,
must not be turned into idols or suffered to hamper
the "clear spirit" in its ascent to God. There is
such a thing as the tyranny of family just as there
is of social usage or public opinion, and from each
and all of these our Lord would set men free.
This kind of freedom would cost a struggle as
other kinds also would, and owing to divisions
caused by change of Faith even parents might be
set against children and children against parents
— a heavy price indeed, but one that vanishes
compared with the opening of eternal life to man-
kind. Supposing, as I do, that these disciples

THE LATER LESSONS. 379

were summoned by our Lord to go forth with the
seventy, I find in this inflexibility which our Lord
displays something quite of a piece with the order
to "salute no man by the way1," and to wipe off
the dust from their feet when not received ; all this
is consistent, when taken together, and viewed as
a lesson in the dignity of consecration to God and
the imperative character of the charge imposed.

It is important to observe that though these
disciples make excuse, and our Lord has usually
little tolerance for excuses, yet, instead of being
dismissed, these men are despatched to preach the
Kingdom of God. This shews that the defect in
them was not organic, and that it had not touched
the vital centres. Their malady was of a different
order from that of the guests invited to the great
supper who said, " I pray thee have me excused,"
for these latter made light of the invitation ; while,
if my view be correct, these two men were terri-
fied and overawed by being called to duties which
their imagination painted as beyond their powers.
They were sensitive and distrustful of self, with
highly strung nerves, and the suddenness of the
call to preach the Kingdom of God took away
their breath. They do not refuse, but they beg
for delay. If they had obtained such a postpone-
ment it would have been all the worse for them,
because they would have been working themselves
into a fever all the while. They are panic stricken

1 Luke x. 4 — n.

380 THE LATER LESSONS.

at the idea of going into strange districts pro-
claiming the Kingdom of God. They were quailing
under a nerve-storm and by devising excuses they
only gave it greater force ; every moment that
they lingered increased the hold of the morbid
impression : a foreign will must come to their help
and take the place of that which was failing. Such a
will acts most effectively in the form of an imperative
command, calling the patient to immediate positive
action. This treatment is followed here. These
two men, no doubt, followed as they were bidden.
They yielded to authority and herein they found
their cure; they, like the rest, set out with only
their staves in their hands and came back exulting
that the devils were subject to them through the
Lord's name. Thus each of the three personages
receives the proper specific for his case; Christ
divines the treatment that every particular diathesis
requires.

But the crowning case of all is yet to come.
It belongs to a later time than the above, and is
related more at length. It was soon after our
Lord had entered on his final public journey to
Jerusalem, teaching and discoursing as He went,
that a young man, " a certain ruler," in St Luke's
words, ran to Him and threw himself at His feet
St Mark's account is the most full of detail.

"And as he was going forth into the way, there ran
one to him, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good
Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ?

THE LATER LESSONS. 381

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good?
none is good save one, even God. Thou knowest the
commandments, Do not kill, Do not commit adultery,
Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud,
Honour thy father and mother. And he said unto
him, Master, all these things have I observed from my
youth. And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and
said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go, sell whatso-
ever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. But his
countenance fell at the saying, and he went away sorrow-
ful: for he was one that had great possessions1."

Behind the young man's question there lay this
view. He regarded eternal life as the reward of
certain good works and the punctilious observance
of what was divinely enjoined. Our Lord on the
other hand represents it, not as being granted or
withheld according to the record of performances,
but rather as coming " of congruity2 " along with
the fitness for it which has been acquired in the
whole education of a life. The man's works have
no doubt had very much to do with making him
what he is, but other influences have acted as
well.

Our Lord rejects the appellation "Good Master."
In these terms, scholars addressed the Rabbi at
whose feet they sat, they accepted his dicta, and
gave up all independent judgment of their own.

1 Mark x. 17 — 22.

2 Articles of Religion, XIII.

382 THE LATER LESSONS.

But our Lord, fostering and, in some sort, respecting
the individual principle in each man, would free
them from fetters of all kinds, those of the Rabbis
among the rest. Here He would say, " Why do
you run to a human master"(for as such only could
the mass regard our Lord) "to tell you what it is
right to do ? About this no authority can be abso-
lute but God, and His commandments you know."
These commandments the young ruler had kept,
indeed it was hardly possible that one in his position
could have done otherwise, but an empty place
was still left in his soul. Life he felt sure must
have a higher meaning and more satisfying occu-
pations than any he had yet found. Surely he
thought "The Master cannot mean to put me off
with telling me to keep the commandments;" and
he was right. He had known of no other guide to
virtuous life than rules of conduct, and so he had
come asking for a fresh set of such rules; but a new
light was breaking on his soul and what he really
wanted was for the clouds to be cleared away.
This young man had a noble soul and our Lord
" looking on him loved him." The scribe, spoken
of above, would do best by remaining where he
was ; but this young man would do best by
following. He was worth rescuing from the con-
ventionalities and littlenesses of his every day life
and lifting into communion with God. Had he
the force to wrench asunder the bonds, slender
singly but countless in number, which fastened

THE LATER LESSONS. 383

him down, and to give up, not merely soft living—
that he would abandon with joy — but the social
consideration and what went with it, personal
connections and all, which he would fling away
by doing as Christ bade ? This was the question.

Our Lord had not told the scribe to sell all
he had and give to the poor. He laid no such
rule on His disciples, but here it was these posses-
sions and, more than all, the position they con-
ferred that clogged the soul and prevented its
rise. The "giving to the poor" is not enjoined
merely as benevolence; in that virtue it was not
likely that this young man would fail, it is only
a means of disposing of the weight that drags
him down ; the magnitude of the sacrifice required
staggered the young ruler and he went sorrowful
away; but perhaps there was more hope of him
than if, at our Lord's word, lie had impulsively
surrendered all that he had. He may have been
one of those who afterwards sold their land or
houses "and brought the prices of the things
that were sold and laid them at the Apostles'
feet1." From this interview our Lord draws the
moral, " How hardly shall they that have riches
enter into the Kingdom of God ; " this is not a
denunciation of the rich but rather a commise-
ration of them, owing to the peculiar and insidious
temptations to which they are unceasingly exposed.

The Apostles are "astonished exceedingly*"

1 Acts iv. 35. a Mark x. 24.

384 THE LATER LESSONS.

at our Lord's seventy, they had perhaps been
pleased at the prospect of the accession to their
community of a man who was rich and high in
station and well spoken of on all sides. As soon
as they had heard him told to give up all and
follow, Peter, with a touch of almost infantine
nature which stamps the narrative as authentic,
looking to his own case says, "Lo we have left all
and have followed thee." This was no boast or
our Lord would not have answered as he does ;
it was rather an expression of relief at finding that
this special difficulty which beset the young ruler
no longer stood in their way. They had been
called to leave settled homes and they had done
so. Peter, we know, had a wife, and James and
John had a father and mother alive. Our Lord
seems to give them very positive comfort. Those
who had left home or family or lands for His sake
and the Gospel's should now, in this time, receive
the same a hundred fold1 as well as life hereafter.

We seem to find here a direct promise of
worldly benefit, which would be strangely out of
accord with the general tenour of Christ's words;
but then comes a clause, preserved only by St Mark,
which alters all the meaning. It contains but two
words " with persecutions." This appears to unsay
all that was said before ; for of what good, in the
way of enjoyment, are family and possessions "in

1 Mark x. 30.

THE LATER LESSONS. 38$

the midst of persecution " ? Our Lord, to my
thinking, in this passage has His eye on a certain
time to come ; the " brethren and sisters and
mothers and children" must mean the great
Christian family, and the " lands " are the posses-
sions of that community which, while the Church
was confined to Jerusalem, had all things common,
" When the multitude of them that believed were
of one heart and soul : and not one of them said
that aught of the things which he possessed was
his own1." In the exaltation of spirit in which
that community lived, persecution would seem only
a superficial ill, without which their happiness
would have been too ecstatic for permanent spiritual
health. Their condition as we know from the Acts
was replete with joy ; over and over again we are
reminded of the gladness which filled the souls of
the early converts. The reward promised, when
qualified by this phrase, might rightly be set before
the Apostles, for it was no reward at all except to
spiritually minded men. These two words, which
are omitted by St Luke, enable us to understand
— what seems a little strange — why this promise
is not accepted with joy and with eager questions
as to when this happy time should come; it
puzzled the hearers. Any rising exultation is
checked by the words, "with persecutions," and
the hearers are perhaps set wondering why Christ

1 Acts iv. 33.
L. 25

386 THE LATER LESSONS.

often drops difficulties into His speech, just when
He seems to be going to reveal what men particu-
larly want to know, and why, when holding out a
promise, He should dash the cup from their lips.

Parable of the unjust Steward.
ST LUKE xv., xvi.

More and more, as pur Lord's work draws near
the close, do we notice that His eye, somewhat
diverted from what is passing about Him, is
directed to a condition of things foreseen "being
yet far off." It is to provide for this that He
is ever taking thought and imparting lessons ; and
if no state of things had come about in which
these lessons might find a field of exercise, we
should be at a loss to understand what they meant
or why they were there. The explanation is found
in the early history of the Church of Christ. In
the parables and discourses of the later ministry
there is one image to which our Lord again and
again recurs. It is that of men labouring in a
Master's service, and most commonly in that of a
Master who is away from home and may at any
time come back. It may be that the Master is a
great King, in which case the labourers are his
ministers, and frequently there is mention made of
diversity of office and of some who exercised

THE LATER LESSONS. 387

authority over "men-servants and maid-servants."
In these cases we frequently find, either in the
parable itself or in the " hard saying " which com-
monly closes it, an allusion to some special danger
attaching to delegated power.

One such moral danger there is besetting those
entrusted with any charge, and above all with a
spiritual charge, which is very insidious, and more
easily corrected by a lesson given in a story than
by direct reproof; it is that of the severity and
rigour which comes of over-scrupulosity and over-
zeal. The trustee of a property will sometimes
feel morally or legally bound to exact the very
uttermost, and to use a hardness which he would
never think of shewing in his own affairs ; and by
habitually constraining himself to use hardness he
may become actually hard of nature himself.
When we come to matters spiritual and ecclesi-
astical all this is true in an intensified degree.

The more exalted the priest's notion of his
function and the more genuine his appreciation of
the Majesty of God, the more impossible it seems
to him to abate one iota of God's claims. Things
sacred, he has been taught to think, differ in kind
from things secular, and demand rules of manage-
ment of their own. He holds it unlawful to
make composition with offenders against God ;
he is the appointed upholder of the rights and
dignities of the Almighty and he dares not bate
a hair. Honestly awe-stricken at the tremendous

25-2

388 THE LATER LESSONS,

responsibility, he flies where he can to a written
Law, and, pointing to the letter, he takes refuge
in the sacerdotal "non possumus" as an answer
to every extenuating plea.

I believe that when our Lord delivered the
parable of the unjust Steward, He had in view this
particular evil which is all the more dangerous
because it wears the garb of "jealousy for the
Lord God."

If the Apostles, feeling that they formed the
personal staff of a King endowed with all power
from on high, had not been lifted up and shewn
some touch of imperious and exclusive spirit, they
must indeed have been more or less than men.
That symptoms of such a spirit had appeared and
caused our Lord concern may be gathered, not
only from the positive instances, such as, the for-
bidding one who followed not with them to cast
out devils in the Lord's name ; the demand to be
allowed to call down fire from heaven ; and the
rebuking of those who brought to Christ "their
babes that He might touch them;" but, even
more certainly, from the repeated animadversions,
in the later teaching of our Lord, on personal
ambition and the over-straining of authority.
Moderation, as to what may be expected from
human nature, though not enforced by positive
injunctions, is commended to us, after our Lord's
way, by a gentle influence everywhere present,
and by a current in the teaching setting steadily

THE LATER LESSONS. 389

towards the point in view. Our Lord had been
speaking to the people in a series of parables — the
lost sheep, the lost piece of silver, the Prodigal
Son, — all set in one key, all bearing on the " joy
in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repenteth1," and He then turned to the
disciples, with, as I believe, the same thought still
uppermost in His mind, and urges them as the
"pastors and masters" of the future, not, by
insisting on the utmost, to make reformation too
hard.

The parable of the unjust Steward was ad-
dressed, we are told, to the disciples, and as the
disciples had no worldly goods at all, it cannot be
the main drift of the parable, as has been sometimes
maintained, to inculcate Christian prudence in
the use of these. I find in this parable a closing
comment in a very terse form ; this leads me to
suspect that the key to the main purport lies
therein. The verse is this, " For the sons of this
world are for their own generation wiser than the
sons of the light2." The drift of the parable is,
indeed, to teach a kind of prudence, but not one in
which money is concerned. The administration of
property is only the vehicle in which the lesson is
conveyed. What I take to be inculcated here is
true Christian wisdom as to the exercise of autho-
rity— spiritual authority above all. The moral
that I discern is this ; that the Apostles and their

1 Luke xv. 10. 2 Luke x\i. 8.

390 THE LATER LESSONS.

successors may do more good by sheVing a little in-
dulgence— by conceding something to weak human
nature, not enforcing Jewish formalities, and not
insisting too inflexibly upon every point which
they think may touch the honour or the privileges
of Christ's Church — than by adhering to the strict-
est regard for observances, and imposing rules for
sanctity of thought and conduct with which only
a chosen few would be able to comply. How
many have been repelled from religion by the
rigour, which Priests or Puritans fancied themselves
under compulsion to employ, and how has this
fretful anxiety for discipline sometimes soured the
natures of those who had it in charge !

I proceed to a short examination of the
parable, of which I will quote the whole.

14 And he said also unto the disciples, There was a i
certain rich man, which had a steward ; and the same
was accused unto him that he was wasting his goods.
And he called him, and said unto him, What is this that 2
I hear of thee ? render the account of thy stewardship ;
for thou canst be no longer steward. And the steward 3
said within himself, What shall I do, seeing that my lord
taketh away the stewardship from me? I have not
strength to dig ; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved 4
what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship,
they may receive me into their houses. And calling to 5
him each one of his lord's debtors, he said to the first,
How much owest thou unto my lord ? And he said, A 6
hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take

THE LATER LESSONS. 391

thy bond, and sit down quickly and write fifty. Then 7
said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he
said, A hundred measures oi wheat. He saith unto him,
Take thy bond, arid write fourscore. And his lord com- 8
mended the unrighteous steward because he had done
wisely : for the sons of this world are for their own gene-
ration wiser than the sons of the light. And I say unto 9
you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon
of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they may
receive you into the eternal tabernacles. He that is 10
faithful in a very little is faithful also in much : and he
that is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in
much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the n
unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the
true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that 12
which is another's, who will give you that which is your
own1?"

I do not pretend to have made out for every
particular in the story of the parable a spiritual
parallel after my own view, indeed I think that in-
terpreters sometimes look for too complete a corre-
spondence. I can quite understand that a detail
might be introduced which should give life to the
story and so help to fix it in the hearers' minds,
which might have no analogue in the spiritual
interpretation at all. This parable is, as we are told,
addressed neither to the people nor to the scribes,
but to the disciples, and, as it must have been
delivered during our Lord's journeys in the north
of Juda:a or its neighbourhood when He was but

1 Luke xvi. i — 1 2.

392 THE LATER LESSONS.

slightly attended, it is probable .that when He
spoke it few beside the Apostles were by. One
peculiarity, which strengthens my impression that
it was uttered for the special benefit of the first
hearers of it, is, that it turns on a matter which
only those who were conversant with the customs
of that place and time could fully understand.
We know so little of the way in which estates
were managed in Palestine, that the relations be-
tween the steward and his Lord are imperfectly
conceived, and much of the difficulty of this
parable arises from this cause : in the other parables
the circumstances forming the shell of the story
belong to all countries and all times alike. If
now, as I have supposed, the primary use of this
parable was for those who first listened to it ; if it
were specially intended to teach the Twelve and
their immediate successors not to make too heavy
demands on their converts ; then it would matter
less, if the story should not be so clear for men of
later times.

What I regard as the point of the story is this,
that it is just as unwise to exact the utmost that
is due in moral and spiritual matters— casting off
every one who falls short in conduct or differs in
religious views — as it would be in worldly business
to stand out always for the utmost penny of
your rights. The honesty or dishonesty of the
steward is not the central point on which the moral
turns, it is his tact in remitting part of his claims

THE LATER LESSONS. 393

with a long-sighted view. I do not think that we
need now trouble ourselves with the question of
who it is that answers to the " rich man which had
a steward;" but that he does not represent Provi-
dence is clear from the eighth verse, which includes
him among the " sons of this world ; " for it is his
sense in commending the steward which draws
forth the moral, "The sons of this world are for
their own generation wiser than the sons of the
light" This rich man's verdict on his steward's
conduct may be taken to represent the view which
practically minded men, versed in affairs and
regarding matters little on their ethical side, would
take of the case in hand; in fact he stands for
the public opinion of his class.

Next comes the question, What was the business
position of the steward ? It agrees best both with
the circumstances before us and with such extrane-
ous information as we possess, to suppose that the
functionary, called here steward, managed abso-
lutely his master's property, and that he was paid
by a poundage on the net receipts, or by some
similar method, so that his interest and his master's
would, generally speaking, coincide. There is no
allegation against him of fraud or corrupt bargain-
ing, and indeed, his being in danger of beggary
shews that he is not supposed to have made himself
a purse. He is charged with having " wasted the
goods," but this may mean in the way of over leni-
ency with creditors or of unproductive outlay, not in

394 THE LATER LESSONS.

that of personal appropriation. He was clearly not
treated as though he were liable to criminal prose-
cution. It is of course meant to represent him as
a bad steward, and the word here construed unjust
sometimes means little more than bad, as will be
seen from Archbishop Trench's note, in the sense
of being ineffective and unsatisfactory to his em-
ployers.

Dr Edersheim observes as follows1 :
"It must be borne in mind that he is still
steward, and as such has full power of disposing of
his master's affairs. When, therefore, he sends for
one after another of his master's debtors, and tells
each to alter the sum in the bond, he does not
suggest to them forgery or fraud, but, in remitting
part of the debt, whether it had been incurred as
rent in kind or as the price of produce purchased,
he acts, although unrighteously, yet strictly within
his rights." His master praised his astuteness, he
had kept within the law and so long as this was
done the current code of morality was satisfied.
It is a point to be noted that no bargain is
made with the debtors, he trusts to their gratitude
to receive him into their houses.

A lesson prominent in the parable and which
is brought out in the application is, that as he had
made friends by his leniency in administering the
substance of the master so they, Christian pastors
and masters, should make to themselves friends out

1 "Life and times of Jesus the Messiah," p. 267.

THE LATER LESSONS. 395

of something which is called the " mammon of un-
righteousness " (about which we shall presently
enquire). These friends would, out of gratitude,
receive them into "the eternal tabernacles." For
these friends are to be in Heaven themselves, and
they must have got there — if we are to keep to the
story — not only through their pastor's teaching and
ministrations, but they must have partly owed
their salvation to the loving and merciful treatment
they had met with. An offender may be some-
times won over and completely changed for the
better by feeling that he has been treated more
kindly and leniently than he deserves. The parable
implies that these might not have reached heaven
if their guides had been more hard with them, if
they had exacted every religious duty, and had
been severe upon every failing. These men having
reached the eternal tabernacles welcomed into
them those who by lessening their burdens had
been the means of their getting there themselves.

We now come to the hard question, What is
meant by the words "the mammon of unright-
eousness" or "unrighteous mammon" — which are
identical ? I think they must mean the temporal
authority in regulating things outward which the
earliest rulers of the Church necessarily possessed.
The word translated " unrighteous " does not here
imply inherent badness, but that the seeming
wealth has only a value according to worldly judg-
ment and worldly measure, without intrinsic worth

396 THE LATER LESSONS.

in itself. This may corrupt its possessor as much
as worldly riches. I give, in a note, Archbishop
Trench's discussion of the Greek word1. Riches,
as riches, are never called unrighteous by our Lord.
I do not think, however, that wealth in its common
sense can be intended by the word "mammon"
here, for of " silver and gold " the Apostles would
have none. But though the Apostles had not
money, yet they had advantages for the use of
which they must answer ; they had, in authority
and position, what answered to wealth; they could
regulate the lives of the converts ; they could lay
hands on those chosen for the Ministry; they
could enforce or remit certain of the Laws of
Moses. This power dealt with things outward, —
contributions, observances, rules of discipline and
the like, — and so, if, as the authorities quoted seem
to shew, the word here translated unrighteous may
mean false, in the sense of unreal, as paste to
diamond, then this possession of theirs which gave
room for the exercise of clemency — this apparel
of dignity — might be so termed in contrast with

1 "The use of aSi/cos for 'false' runs through the whole
Septuagint. Thus, Deut. xix. 16, /td/arus adiKos, a false witness;
and ver. 18, tfiaprtp'riffev aSiKa, he hath witnessed falsely. See
Prov. vi. 19; xii. 17; Jer. v. 31, 'The prophets prophesy falsely'
(ct5i/ta), and many more examples might be adduced. So here the
' unrighteous ' mammon is the false mammon, that which will
betray the reliance which is placed on it (i Tim. vi. 17). Thus
iarpol adtKot (Job xiii. 4), 'physicians of no value.'" Trench,
" On the Parables," The unjust Steward.

THE LATER LESSONS. 397

inward spiritual riches, which form part of the
condition of the individual man.

Of such real wealth we presently hear. Soon
after this "the Apostles said unto our Lord, Increase
our faith1/' but this faith is not to be given from with-
out ; it cannot be transferred into them as though it
could be poured from one receptacle into another.
They are to fit themselves for it and grow into it in
the exercise of their work ; when attained it would
move mountains, it would be a wealth that no
man could take from them, something inalienably
bound up in their existence, comprising the blessing
of feeling God present in their souls. Here indeed
is a treasure compared to which not only silver
and gold, but power and authority and the right of
ordering of matters in the churches, would seem
trifling and unreal like glass beside the gem.

Again what is the "little" and the "much" of
verse 10 ? According to my view the " little"
answers to the externals of religious management,
and the " much " to the spiritual verity which
passes from soul to soul : those who are unfaithful
in matters of administration which are compara-
tively little, will find that this spreading laxity
will overgrow their whole nature and that they
will soon become unfaithful in that which is great*.

1 Luke xvii. 5.

8 It is clear that "unrighteous," in verse 10 means "superficial "
and "unreal," because it is contrasted with " true." The opposite
of atiiKos is here

398 THE LATER LESSONS.

If God's servants had not been faithful in ad-
ministering their rule, if they had not in God's
affairs used good sense and judgment, such as
men employ in their own business, if they had not
controlled their tempers, disregarded their personal
interest and suppressed that temptation to lord it
over others which goes with new-born power; —
if they had not, that is, been faithful in the use of
that wealth which is by comparison unreal, then,
not being faithful in the discharge of this dele-
gated trust, " that which is another's," who would
give them that " clear-eyed Faith," that sense that
God was abiding in their hearts, which would be
essentially their very " own."

Thus we reach what I take to be the close
of the parable ; for the verse about serving two
masters, which occurs also in the Sermon on the
Mount, does not, I think, belong to this parable,
but has only been attracted, so to say, into its place
by the occurrence in both passages of the rare
word " mammon/' which induced St Luke to put
the two together.

I need hardly say, how far from positive I
must be about the interpretation of a parable
which has caused such an infinitude of comment.

Our Lord refusing to judge.

If we regard the Gospels in the light of memoirs
of our Lord's actual life upon earth, it may seem

THE LATER LESSONS. 399

strange that so few occasions are noticed in which
we are shewn our Lord dealing with the business
of ordinary life. Whenever we do find Him forced
to take part in any secular proceeding, He is
uniformly careful to avoid such decisive action as
would establish an authoritative precedent in
regard to things which might be left to men to
manage. Some people are now disappointed at
His not having furnished a wholly new and perfect
scheme of human society. So far is He from
doing this, that He will not even put patches
upon that which He found existing. God had
supplied men with faculties to frame social institu-
tions for themselves, and these faculties Christ
would leave free to work. If He had interposed
to set the world right by absolute power, it might
have been asked, Why this had not been done
before? and, Whether it was owing to accident
that the world had been let to go wrong ?

Living among the people as our Lord did, He
must commonly have conformed to Jewish usages.
He could hardly have performed any act without
coming into contact with their ways. If the parti-
culars of every little occurrence in His private life
had been set down, perhaps we might have realised,
what we now hardly perceive, that in the Gospel
we are reading of Jewish life in Galilee two
thousand years ago. This absence of what is
called "local colour" is partly due to the omission
of small particulars. An outline can be more

4<DO THE LATER LESSONS.

general and more universal than a picture of
minute elaboration; and the portraiture of our
Lord would have lost much of its singular
character of belonging to every age as its own, if
the draughtsman's attention had been distracted
from what was characteristic, in order to present
every detail with equal care.

Now arises the question, How far did our Lord
Himself determine which among His doings and
sayings should be recorded and which not ? If
He had Himself left a record, every word would
have been regarded as inspired, and the Christian
church would have been ruled, not by an indwell-
ing Spirit, but by a book written once for all. It
could not have been ruled by both, — for men cannot
walk after the letter and after Faith at the same
time — and that wooden fixity which characterised
Rabbinical Judaism, would have affected Christ-
ianity as well. It pleased God that it should be
left to men to tell the tale, and so other men may
venture to use their judgment about it. But as
Christ passed on His course, He must Himself
have felt that this or that incident or discourse
ought to be handed down. How could He effect
this without miracle of any kind ? It seems to
me that He may have selected, as it were, matters
for preservation thus. When He desired an incident
to be known, " Wheresoever the Gospel shall be
preached throughout the whole world1/' He em-

1 Mark xiv. 9.

THE LATER LESSONS. 401

phasizes it, by some action or declaration, as
above, viz. by letting drop some vivid expression
which takes hold of the minds of men. Thus the
story of the denials of Peter is rendered indelible
by the words, " before the cock crow twice." The
hard saying or striking expression, sometimes
because it touched the quick of men's under-
standings, and sometimes because it puzzled them
to make it out, was thought of again and again,
and remained by them as part of themselves. The
incident which called the saying forth, or the
colloquy in which it occurred would have to be
recorded to explain the saying itself: a mass of
the matrix would go along with the precious
metal embedded in it. What it was not thought
needful to preserve, was not enriched with these
pregnant sayings and has not survived.

Hence I believe that the withdrawal from us
of those "many other things that Jesus did" was
not without design. The consequences of this may
be of service to us in many ways, but the only
one of which I shall speak is this. If every detail
of our Lord's acts had been set down, many more
of those matters of daily life, on which judgment
is now left open, would have been determined for
us by the recorded example of our Lord. Many
Christians would have felt bound to act as Christ
had done, even in those concerns of ordinary life
which might well be left to the individual; and
many inexorable necessities — many rigid lines for
u 26

402 THE LATER LESSONS.

which there was no occasion — would have traversed
the field of Christian action.

That our Lord should have thus placed a limit
on the particulars that should be recorded about
Him falls in with the views taken in this book,
viz. that He was anxious to preserve individual
freedom of action, and that He looked forward
with a general prescience to the course of events.

It is my opinion that our Lord foresaw, that, in
time to come, men of different races and under
different conditions would desire to fashion their
lives after His, and that therefore He purposely
freed the account of Himself that should come into
their hands from all that was immaterial, and par-
ticularly from all that was exclusively Jewish in
its garb ; but whether this were so or not, the fact
remains that no particular national institutions or
social usages are consecrated by our Lord's words
or practice. Supposing that our Lord knew
that posterity would regard His example as a
sacred rule, and that He wished men not to be
hampered in this way, but to retain free play of
thought and will, it is hard to devise for Him a
course more expedient for the end in view than
that which he actually took.

Several instances occur in the Gospels, of appeal
being made to our Lord about vexed matters
belonging to the life of that time. Such appeals
He always meets much in the same way. He
puts the matter aside, either by positively refusing

THE LATER LESSONS. 403

to judge or by giving the question an unexpected
turn.

The cases to which I shall refer are, (i) the
disputed inheritance, (2) the woman taken in
adultery, (3) the paying of the didrachma, (4) the
judgment on the tribute to Csesar.

i. It seems to have been during the ministry
in some city, either in Judaea or Peraea, when the
people were pressing on one another to get near
our Lord, that one of the multitude said to Him,
"Master bid my brother divide the inheritance
with me1."

This man was influenced by some notion that
he had been wronged, a notion which was very
likely born of cupidity. This greed he carried
always about him, it was uppermost in his mind,
and when he found the crowd listening to the
Preacher of righteousness, he thought that he
might turn the influence of this Preacher to account
for his own ends. If, by an ex parte statement he
could get Christ's judgment on his side, possibly
his brother would do His bidding. The Jewish
Law of inheritance was plain and courts of Law
were accessible, but perhaps his claim had been
disallowed; at any rate he thought it a cheaper
plan to get the great Preacher to interfere.

Our Lord repudiates in strong terms the notion
that He is a "judge or a divider," Judges and
dividers through many ages had been provided for

J Luke xii. \\.

404 THE LATER LESSONS.

regular duty in a regular way; but Christ's coming
was an act standing by itself in the History of the
race. It had nothing to do with the internal
concerns of this people or of that. Its influence was
worldwide. He was to kindle the new fire, to set
alight the spiritual passion in mankind. He notes
how, in the man who appeals to Him, every affection
had been absorbed and killed by his covetous-
ness. He turns to the multitude and inveighs
against this insidious vice, and delivers to them
the parable1 of the rich man who would pull down
his barns and build greater. There is no hidden
meaning lying behind this parable as there is in
those in which He set the Kingdom forth, it is only
an instructive story for the hearers to carry away.
Then, turning to the disciples, He puts the matter
in a higher light. His moral is ever this, that to
improve a man's well being, whether of a material
or a social kind, you must begin by making the
man himself as good as you can. Such material
well being as is needed for society will follow on the
moral and spiritual improvement of individual men.
" Seek ye first;1 says He, " the Kingdom of God
and His righteousness, and all these things shall
be added unto you*.

Let us suppose for a moment that our Lord
had listened to this man and reviewed his case
and left a judgment What would have been
the result? We should have had an isolated

1 Luke xii. 16 — 20. 2 Luke xii. 36. Matt. vi. 25.

TilE LATER LESSONS. 405

case of the Law of inheritance, on which an
irreversible decision had been pronounced. Every
code framed for Christian lands would have had
to accept and embody this. Endless comments on
this particular case would have been written,
endless guesses at the circumstances of it would
have been made, and every one who contested a
distribution would have endeavoured to shew that
this decision covered his claims. Moreover, when-
ever the Christian missionary came to a new
country, instead of holding a purely spiritual
position he would have brought with him a new
law of inheritance as part of the new religion, and
people could not have accepted his teaching with-
out changing usages to which they clung.

(2) Next comes the case of the woman taken
in adultery (see p. 370). In the criminal jurisdiction
of Moses the leading thought was to "put away
evil ; " but men had grown less cruel, and pity for the
offender and hope of his reformation were coming
into play. If the Lord had given judgment either
in one way or the other we should have been landed
in endless perplexity. The difficult questions of the
distinction between a sin and a crime, and whether
it is advisable for a state to enforce morality, would
have been complicated by a Divine decision in
a case of which the relation would not, unless
the account were fuller than the Gospel notices
usually are, contain all the particulars that are
material.

406 THE LATER LESSONS.

The two cases that remain refer* to polity rather
than to law.

(3) The "didrachma" were levied apparently
as a tax for the Temple service, enforced by custom,
if not by positive law. Those who collected it
ask Peter if our Lord does not pay this annual
sum, and Peter at once declares that He does.
But our Lord will not leave the matter so. The
money shall be paid, because to refuse the pay-
ment would waken ill feeling and give an impres-
sion altogether false ; but our Lord will not
sanction such a payment with His authority, with-
out protest and explanation. It might have been
made the ground of supporting many kinds of
religious impost if He had. He puts the question
in such a light that His practice can never be
quoted in support of any such demand.

(4) Those who came asking whether it was
lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, like those who
brought the woman taken in adultery, had a hostile
intent. They asked with a view only to entangle,
not with a desire to learn. Our Lord always
baffles those who address Him in this spirit. In
dealing with the question of the tribute, He avoids
each horn of the dilemma and teaches a grand
lesson to the people who heard. For they were to
render to God "the things that were God's," that
is to say, not a man's money, but the whole man
himself, for he is made in God's image and carries
the likeness of it in his personality, just as the

THE LATER LESSONS. 407

coin carries on its face the name and the impress
of Caesar. Thus, in these words, the whole man is
claimed as God's own by Christ.

If our Lord had either enforced or forbidden
these two payments, His authority, appealed to on
this side or that, would have further embittered
questions which are bitter enough of themselves.
Men have often pored over Scripture to extract
an authority for what they wanted to do, and the
case of the tribute money, notwithstanding our
Lord's answer, has been pressed into the service
of the upholders of imperial power.

Dr Bryce speaking of the Mediaeval Empire
says : —

"From the New Testament the authority and eternity
of Rome herself was established. Every passage was
seized on where submission to the powers that be is
enjoined, every instance cited where obedience had
actually been rendered to imperial officials, a special
emphasis being laid on the sanction which Christ Him-
self had given to Roman dominion by pacifying the
world through Augustus, by being born at the time of
the taxing, by paying tribute to Caesar, by saying to
Pilate, ' Thou couldest have no power at all against Me
except it were given thee from above.'"

In finishing this notice I must remark that there
is one social institution about which our Lord does
not shun to speak ; this is marriage. He upholds
the sanctity and inviolability of the marriage tie
more stringently than did the lewish Law. The

408 THE LATER LESSONS.

scribe who came "making trial" of our Lord is
confounded — not by being put off without an
answer — as usually happens in these cases, but by
the singular positiveness of the reply.

" And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his
wife, except for fornication, and shall marry another,
committeth adultery : and he that marrieth her when she
is put away committeth adultery1."

This exception is not inconsistent with the
principles governing our Lord's acts. Christ's
teaching was meant for all mankind, and Christi-
anity would have been less adapted for universal
use if it had been bound up with particular
institutions. But marriage is not a particular
institution, it is declared to be as universal as the
human race ; it goes down deeper than all divisions,
it belongs to the stock below the point where the
branches sprout. Thus Christ's recognition of the
sanctity of marriage does not hamper human
legislation, or prevent the growth of Humanity in
any manner consistent with its health.

Close by the side of this matter lies another on
which I must only say a word. It is one of the
Gesta Christi that He has put woman into her
right place. Slowly and quietly has this come
about, as a growth from seed turned up in the
soil, and not a construction upreared by men, —
as indeed, with the changes that are wrought by

1 Matthew xix. 9.

THE LATER LESSONS. 409

Christ is mostly the way. He says not a word
about the social condition of women or their
position in the eye of the Law ; He puts forward
no grievances, He asserts no claim. To have done
either one or the other in His day would have been
to bring about a violent upheaval, which would
have destroyed all chance of the germination of
the seed. Nowhere do men cling to old usages
with more tenacity than in the matter of relations
between sex and sex. These variations of usage
may rest upon solid grounds, and it would have
stood in the way of the adaptability of what He
left to the needs of all races and all times, if by
one rigid ordinance He had enforced uniformity,
even in the justest way. But though our Lord
says little about the right place of women yet
He treats them as though that proper place were
already theirs ; for parts are given them in His
great world-drama consistent with those they take
in the common life of family and home1.

One word that our Lord drops has too impor-
tant a bearing on this point to be passed by.
Frequently as our Lord alludes to eternal life,
it is rarely that anything as to the modes of this

1 On the conversation of our Lord at Sychar with the woman
of Samaria, Dr Edersheim says : " That Jesus should converse with
a woman was so contrary to all Jewish notions of a Rabbi that they
wondered." The disciples "marvelled that he was speaking with
a woman," John iv. 27; and in a note Dr Edersheim has:
"Readers know how thoroughly opposed to Jewish notions was
any needless converse with a woman."

410 THE LATER LESSONS.

life can be gathered from His speech, but in the
one passage in which He does touch on this
directly, He implies that distinction of sex ceases
with the life upon earth.

" But they that are accounted worthy to attain to that
world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither
marry, nor are given in marriage : for neither can they
die any more : for they are equal unto the angels ; and
are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection V

There is to be no marrying or giving in mar-
riage in the Kingdom of God. All will there be
as the angels of heaven. There can be no such
thing as a male or female soul. Some may be
educated for eternal life in the frame of man and
others in that of woman, but when out of the
body all distinction comes to an end, and both one
and the other, if deemed worthy of the resurrec-
tion to life, assume the nature of angels of God.
When this comes home to a people and they see
that the distinction of male and female is one of
a day, while the angelic existence, in which no
distinction shall remain, is an everlasting one, then
whatever remains that seems degrading in the
condition of woman will be in the way to dis-
appear.

I will end this by stating the truth which I
have had it in view to bring out.

Supposing that Christ, lest He should hamper

1 Luke sx. 35, 35.

THE LATER LESSONS. 4! I

free human growth, was unwilling to tie down
posterity to particular rules touching the affairs of
life, and that He also foresaw that in time men
would take His behaviour as a model for their
own ; then the course He actually took, in refusing
to sanction by His example this or that course of
proceeding in matters coming within man's cogni-
zance, was admirably suited to His end, and met
perfectly the circumstances of the case.

Our Lord's action prospective.

But if our Lord's behaviour in secular matters
is often hard to explain, unless we suppose Him to
have had a glimpse of what has actually come to
pass, much more is this the case in what concerns
the building of His Church. We know from His
own words that He saw His end to be near at
hand. We know how He loved the Apostles and
we know how His heart was set on His great work ;
so that it is inexplicable that He should have left
the Apostles without directions for their personal
conduct, and as to the practical shape they were to
give to the work in view. All is explained, if they
were merely being exposed to a few hours of trial,
and if our Lord meant to commission them with
definite duties and give the necessary directions,
when He rose again. Apart from any miraculous

412 THE LATER LESSONS.

foreknowledge, our Lord could foresee that His
end was near, and that persecution awaited those
who for more than two years had formed the
chief visible interest of His life. Would He have
left them at Jerusalem perfectly at a loss, would
He have left them in the position of a boat's crew
in the open sea, whose captain has died without
giving them their course ? If He had not felt
certain of being soon again by their side, then
indeed we should, with the author of "Ecce
Homo," have felt constrained to confess "that
there was no historical character whose motives,
objects and feelings remained so incomprehen-
sible to us."

After the Resurrection, the forms needful for a
religious community are delivered to the Apostles.
They are given a rite, marking admission to the
body, and sacramental words serving as a symbol
and the nucleus of a creed. They are to go and
baptize all nations in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Moreover
they are told what they are, for the moment, to do.
They are to remain at Jerusalem, till they be
endowed with power from on high. Christ opens
to them the Scriptures and possibly left some
instruction as to the earliest form of His Church
which, agreeably to His unfailing method, He
does not communicate to aftertimes. He will not
stereotype the outward garb which he would have
adapt itself to the changing wants of men.

THE LATER LESSONS. 413

Christ's intimations of the future wear the
appearance of being given, less to communicate
fore-knowledge than that when the event came
to pass the hearers might feel that Christ had
"told them before1:" if He had thought good He
would have made the lessons plainer. It may
have helped to sustain the Apostles during the
terrible hours when their Master lay in the grave,
to turn to these words of forecast and from them
to gather that all was being carried forward towards
a purpose preordained of God. It is true that
our Lord had told the Apostles again and again
what the end was to be, but they could not believe
that He would permit His enemies to prevail, and
our Lord hardly seems to expect that they would
take His words as literal truth. If, during the last
days, they had really believed that He was about
to perish on the cross, they would have been
paralysed with anguish and dismay, and the last
lessons would have fallen on the ears of men who
were prostrated and stunned.

That our Lord's action was suited to what did
actually happen, and not to what was likely to
happen after the judgment of men, appears also
in another way.

The Apostles, both in themselves and in virtue
of their training, were exactly adapted to the part
which came into their hands, but they were by no
means of the sort which the leader either of a

1 Matth. xxiv. 25.

414 THE LATER LESSONS.

political or a religious movement would have
picked out to carry it forward when He should
die. They were not men to fascinate crowds and
lead them whither they would, they were not men
to discover that aspect of a dogma which should
commend itself to the understandings of their
hearers. They had no skill in policy, no experi-
ence in government or in organising bodies of men ;
their strength lay not in their talent but their truth.
If they had possessed brilliant capacity, and all or
any of the qualities named above, the danger of
disunion or of there being as many different
followings as there were Apostles (see I Cor. i. 12)
would have been thereby increased. We read in
History or Philosophy of great men who have left
empires or systems for their chosen successors to
maintain. Did such successors keep free from
dissension and disruption in the way that those
did whom Jesus chose and trained ? Did any
such body answer its purpose as the Apostles did ?
The training of the Apostles fitted them ad-
mirably, as has been said above, for witnesses who
should carry credit with the world; it brought
them, by the road of personal devotion to a
visible Master, unto Faith in an unseen God; it
endowed them with wonderful endurance, it taught
them the patience whereby they might "win their
souls1;" it educated their intuitions to discern

1 Lukexxi. 19.

THE LATER LESSONS. 415

God's ways and recognise God's whisper in the
voice which spake at their hearts. But they were
destitute of eloquence and of many of the gifts
with which the founder of a sect would have been
careful to see that those were furnished who were
to take His place ; and this omission only becomes
intelligible when we find that the deficiencies are
supplied by Christ's presence with them, and by
the Spirit from on high.

What was most important of all was, that no
act or word of Christ's should seem to shut out
from their share in Him any section of mankind.
Agreeably with this, He never proclaims Himself
the Jewish Messiah. No Greek or Roman would
have listened for a moment to one who declared
Himself the especial prophet of the Jews. Though
of the " house and family of David1," He will accept
no advantage on this score. He repudiates for
the Redeemer of the world the title of "Son of
David2," which from its nature was based on
legitimacy and must rest on the veracity of genea-
logical rolls. The Apostles were to divine the
nature of His Personality by long and close inter-
course3 with Him, more than by canvassing claims
or interpreting texts. When His disciples ask to be
taught to pray, "as John also taught his disciples4,"
He gives them a prayer very unlike what John

1 Luke ii. 4.

* Matth. xxii. 42, 43. Mark xli. 35—37. Luke xx. 41.

8 See John xiv. 9. 4 Luke xi. i.

416 THE LATER LESSONS.

would have given, for it contains not a word of
that petition for blessing upon Israel, which, in any
prayer that an Israelite offered, contained, to his
mind, the gist of the whole. This prayer too was
offered, not to the "Lord God of Israel" or the
"God of their Fathers," — as Jewish prayers1 were ;
there was not a word in it, echoing their boast
that God was peculiarly their own —but every
human being is emboldened by it to turn to God
as his Father in Heaven. In all this, however, our
Lord never loosens the bonds of Israelite life. He
proceeds always in a positive and not a negative
way; without removing the Kingdom of Israel
from view, He lets it dissolve, as it were, into the
Kingdom of God.

There is another point brought out in this later
ministry ; Christ does not look forward to ultimate
visible success in the way of making converts.
No hope is held out of the whole world being
eventually won over to allegiance — of a spiritual
conquest, any more than of a material one —
" Howbeit," says He — and who would have said
this but Christ ? — " when the Son of man cometh
shall he find Faith upon the earth?" No other
than Christ ever dared to tell his followers, not
only that their Master would be put to death,
and they themselves ill used, but also that it was
very doubtful whether their cause, as far as visible
appearances went, would finally prevail.

With Christ indeed as with God, there is no

1 See Edersheim, vol. I. p. 440.

THE LATER LESSONS. 417

speaking of such a thing as either failure or
success at all ; He moves steadily onward toward
the development of the Design of the World. But
this men do not easily perceive ; adversaries of the
Faith are apt to say "If this religion were of God,
the world would have been compelled to accept
it." But of what good could such acceptance have
been ? Christianity is not a project of God, which
it gratifies Him for men to be made to fall in with.
Christ views His word as a winnowing fan sorting
out those who are God's, that they may be brought
to that knowledge of Him in which eternal life
resides. At some epochs of the world's history,
the yield will be rich and at others poor; and
although Christ may come at a moment when the
wheat is almost lost in the abundance of the chaff ;
nevertheless the grain of earlier harvests will have
been sifted out and garnered in heaven, and
Christ's work will have accomplished its end.
But besides sifting out those who could be
educated to eternal life, it is by Christ's words
and work that the world has been preserved such
that Holiness can grow in it ; without this it
might have perished of evil. Wickedness might
have so got the Mastery that the world could not
have served its purpose as an exercise ground for
man's capacity for reaching the knowledge of God.
The whole scheme of Christ's action is made
complete by the promise, " I am with you always
until the end of the world." Not only is it in
virtue of this truth that the Church is a living

L. 27

418 THE LATER LESSONS.

organism, and not merely a body dispensing
doctrines or following directions which have been
received once for all, but I also see the fulfilment
of this promise in the alacrity and vigour which
characterised the Apostles' work. They must have
felt that they were something more than a society
of men held together by love for a lost Leader;
and I cannot explain how the eleven held together,
and subordinated every personal care to their
Master's glory; — I cannot account for this personal
transformation of them, everyone, — except by sup-
posing them animated by the feeling that Christ
was among them still.

It is far more in harmony with our Lord's
ways for Him to put the Apostles, by His spiritual
monitions, into the way of organising their Society
for themselves, than that He should peremptorily
lay down a formal plan to which they must
adhere. What Christ left undone, was what it
would be good for man to endeavour to do for
himself: but if Christ had not been by to
whisper, men might never have set themselves
to the work at all. The energy and persistent
determination of the Apostles could hardly have
been maintained without a sense of Christ's abiding
presence ; and that they had eye and ear open for
discerning this I count to have come, partly of
God's free gift, partly of their ingrained nature,
but in far greater degree to have been the outcome
of the gentle and almost imperceptible Schooling
of Christ.

THE LATER LESSONS. 419

Christ washing the Apostles' feet.

ST JOHN xm. i — 14.

"Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus
knowing that his hour was come that he should depart
out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own
which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
And during supper, the devil having already put into the
heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into
his hands, and that he came forth from God, and goeth
unto God, riseth from supper, and layeth aside his
garments; and he took a towel, and girded himself.
Then he poureth water into the bason, and began to
wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel
wherewith he was girded. So he cometh to Simon
Peter. He saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my
feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do
thou knowest not now ; but thou shalt understand here-
after. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my
feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast
no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord,
not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
Jesus saith to him, He that is bathed needeth not save
to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are
clean, but not all. For he knew him that should betray
him j therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.

27—2

420

THE LATER LESSONS.

So when he had washed tjheir feet, and taken his
garments, and sat down again, he said unto them, Know
ye what I have done to you ? Ye call me, Master, and,
Lord : and ye say well ; for so I am. If I then, the Lord
and the Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to
wash one another's feet1."

More than once I have characterised certain of
"the things which Jesus did2" as "acted parables."
The cursing of the fig-tree, which is the type of the
class, shews what is meant by the term. The
washing of the Apostles' feet is another of these
parables of action. These acted parables are
usually furnished by incidents lying a little out of
the main drift of the action; as though Christ,
struck by some plant or berry in which virtue lay,
should have stepped to the way-side to gather it
and preserve it for use.

The drift of the practical lesson of which we
read above, I take to be this. There are men,
right in heart towards God, who are beset with
infirmities which lead them astray. The more
alive their conscience is, the more they are dis-
tressed by their lapses into ill. This distress
may grow morbid, and lead to ruin and despair.
Christ in this symbolic action, anticipatory of His
Supreme Work, brings healing for such men's woes.
He does not merely remit the penalty of sin, He
actually "puts the sin away8." He is like a
physician who can assure the patient that the

1 John xiii. 1-14. 2 John xxi. 25. * 2 Sam. xii. 13.

THE LATER LESSONS. 421

canker he thought was malignant is only skin-deep,
and can be removed at once. The parable speaks
of a man who is "bathed," and whose body is
therefore clean, but who by travelling along the
dusty road has got his feet sullied on the way;
he has only to wash them, to become " clean every
whit." So a man, righteous and godfearing at
bottom, may be taken off his guard and carried
away by the stream, or he may contract moral
and spiritual ill from a physical irritation akin to
bodily ailment; these are the evils contracted
on " life's common way." These kinds of spiritual
ill answer to the dust on the feet, they can be
wiped off; they have not seriously damaged the
soul.

This was a cheering lesson, and it was made to
bear on the duty of mutual restoration. They were
to wash one another's feet. It is not the way of
the world to do this. If, in a body aiming at
holiness of life, one of the society should go wrong,
it might seem the readiest way of upholding the
society's good name to thrust out the offending
member at once; but Christians are not to deal
with one another thus. It is just* when a man
goes wrong that he most wants his brethren's
support. Who else is there to stand by him ? So
if a disciple does amiss, the rest are told to wash
his feet as Christ had washed theirs — not making
out that he was clean— fully allowing that he
was sullied, but telling him that the soil would

422 THE LATER LESSONS.

wash off; telling him that they had not given him
up as being bad to the core, and that they were
sure that his Father in Heaven had not cast him
off. So doing they might lift him back into self-
respect.

It is in St John's Gospel only that this account
is found, and it is not hard to understand why the
writers of the earlier narratives should have passed
it by. They looked for historical matter that was
linked on with what came before and after, or else,
they took for their material pregnant sayings along
with the events out of which they sprang. They may
have omitted this incident, because of this washing
nothing seemed to come. They did not perceive
how significant our Lord's remark on it was. The
writers were just coming to the account of the
Lord's Supper, their minds were taken up with
that, and they went straight forward to this crown-
ing act. They probably saw in our Lord's words
nothing more than an injunction to lay upon
themselves the lowliest duties in serving each
other. But the words, " What I do thou knowest
not now, but thou shalt understand hereafter"
rested in St John's ear. They implied that behind
this washing of the Apostles' feet there lay some-
thing more than appeared. What could this be?
He turned the matter over and over again in his
mind, and a sparkle of the truth was, perhaps,
struck out which served to make him careful to
set the matter down precisely as it took place,

THE LATER LESSONS. 423

for men to look into when they should have a
better light.

Without entering into the controverted question
as to whether the Last Supper was the Passover
or not1, I adopt Dr Edersheim's view that the
contention for precedence arose as they were taking
places at the table. St Luke tells us, " there arose
a contention among them which of them is ac-
counted to be greatest2." St John omits the
account of the contention and St Luke that of the
feetwashing, but the two fit together admirably
well. Our Lord, by this action of His, gently gives
the Apostles the lesson which they had shewn
themselves to need. The scene evidently rises
before the writer as he takes up his pen, and
every movement of our Lord is followed and set
down, from His quitting His seat to His wiping
the Apostles' feet with the towel which He had
wrapped round His waist.

The narrative goes on, "So he cometh to
Simon Peter." Peter's individuality is strong and
marked in its character. Not only is he demon-
strative but he is quick to receive impressions and
new emotion soon displaces the old. His Master's

1 Dr Edersheim, who takes the view that this is the Paschal
meal, says that it was usual for the head of the company to wash
the hands of the guests. The washing of the feet would therefore
only be an extension of a common practice and would excite no
great attention. "Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah," vol. II.
pp. 495—498.

xxii. 24, 30.

2 Luke

424 THE LATER LESSONS.

dignity was dear to him, and when he thought
this infringed, every other sentiment was lost in
his indignation. He says, "Thou shalt never wash
my feet." But as soon as he is told that unless
his Master wash him, " he has no part with Him/'
he is transported to the opposite extreme, and
begs our Lord to wash — not his feet only — but
his hands and head as well.

Throughout the Gospel history we discern our
Lord's care to keep men in a fit condition to serve
God by active work. All that would impair their
efficiency is to be shunned. Now, to repine and
brood over some past error cuts the sinews of
action ; from this the Apostles therefore are always
diverted, and they are to be watchful to prevent
others from sinking into dejection and folding their
hands in despair. A man who is hopeless has no
heart for work, but when he is so far encouraged
as to be able to exert himself his despondency
soon disappears. Thus, by their washing one
another's feet, the efficiency of their Society in all
ways would be notably increased.

The Apostles seem to have rightly learned the
lesson which Christ here inculcates. St Mark had
turned back in his first mission journey, but he is
afterwards spoken of with affection and found of
great service ; and St Paul's words, with which I
shall close this notice, are quite in the spirit of this
acted parable.

" Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any tres-

THE LATER LESSONS* 425

pass, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit
of meekness ; looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of
Christ1.'1

Use of Signs in the later Ministry.

Ever since the time when after the feeding
of the five thousand, the people wanted to take
Him and make Him a King, our Lord has been
chary ot working Signs and Wonders ; and such as
are wrought are no longer used for demonstration ;
Signs are now hardly if at all employed to attract
attention and waken interest. They had already
done in this way all the good they were likely to
effect, and if they had been employed longer, some
of those bye-effects, which potent agencies are
almost sure to produce along with that which is
intended, might have come into operation with
injurious results.

Between the journey to the feast of Tabernacles
and the week of the Passion, three only of the
leading miracles are recorded ; they are the giving
of sight to one born blind in Jerusalem, the raising
of Lazarus, and the opening of the eyes of the blind
near Jericho. This last, of which I shall first speak,
occurred on that final journey of our Lord to Jeru-

* Galatians vi. i, v.

426

THE LATER LESSONS.

salem during which He seems to have resumed for
a moment His earliest function, that of witness of
the Kingdom of God to the people at large. We
seem to see, once again, the same Jesus who lived
at Capernaum and taught the people by the Lake
side.

Whether our Lord, on His way to this last
Passover, set out Himself from Galilee or joined
on the road the great company travelling from the
north is left uncertain, but we find our Lord
among a throng of visitants to the feast, who are
proud of having the Great Prophet of Nazareth
among them ; and men come to Him — some with
real troubles of soul like the young ruler — and
others, like the Pharisees, either curious to obtain
His decision on some vexed question, or malici-
ously setting Him in a dilemna between the
contravention of Moses* Law, and the retaining
of a burden which men were loth to bear. One
small event, preserved to us in the account of this
journey, gives us the clearest glimpse of our Lord's
air and general demeanour that we ever obtain.
There was, about Him, that indefinable something
which wins children's confidence at sight. The
little ones, who swarmed in the hamlets of the
Jordan valley, were drawn to Him by something in
His look, and — after long gazing out of their dark
eastern eyes, in childhood's own intent way — they
made out that they would be safe with Him, and
stole to His side.

THE LATER LESSONS. 427

The miracle of healing, worked on the way,
that of the cure of the blind men in Jericho, is
nearly after the old sort As Jesus nears the end,
He reverts to the ways with which His revelation
began. Our Lord was touched no doubt by the
affliction of these men and their urgent cry, and
this was a miracle of beneficence, but He takes
no pains now to withdraw the act from public
view, He does not call them "aside from the
multitude1," and heal them in private as He had
done on His way back from the coasts of Tyre
and Sidon some months before. This miracle
stirred the hearts of many beholders, and this
emotion of theirs may have played no small part
in the great drama to which this journey was the
prelude ; for the company that came with our
Lord from Galilee formed the staple of that great
concourse which shouted

" Blessed is the kingdom that cometh, the kingdom of
our father David : Hosanna in the highest8,"

and this shout of the people not only roused in the
priests that terror which " sits hard by hate," but
gave them the very thing they wanted — grounds
for calling upon Pilate to prove himself Caesar's
friend.

It is not likely that any of our Lord's doings
were without an ordered purpose, and that thiscessa-

1 Mark vii. 33. See p. 333.
a Mark xi. 10.

428 THE LATER LESSONS.

tion of Signs certainly was not so, is apparent from
our Lord's words spoken probably soon after the
performance of the first of those miracles men-
tioned above. The words are these.

" And when the multitudes were gathering together
unto him, he began to say, This generation is an evil
generation : it seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no
sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah1."

On this text as given by St Matthew I have
already commented ; it is only the coincidence of
the time when it was spoken with the gradual
withdrawal of visible Signs that I have to notice
now. Our Lord looks to sowing the germs of
spiritual Faith. This would not grow up either
from the curiosity of those who sought for Signs,
or the stupefaction of those who gazed in wonder-
ment Henceforth it is " the word of eternal life "
which lays hold of men. The questions asked in
the deepest earnest turn now upon this2. The
revelation of it did not come by express state-
ments or descriptions, but rather it grew up in
men through their consorting with Christ. They
could not believe that He would perish, and He
told them that because He lived they should live
also*. Christ, speaking just before the end, rests
His expectation of bringing about the knowledge
of God, not on His works but on His Personality.
His reply to the words "Shew us the Father/' is

1 Luke xi. -29. See p. 104. 2 Luke xiii. 23 ; xviii. 19.

8 John xiv. 19.

THE LATER LESSONS. 429

not, Have I not done mighty works before your
eyes? but, "Have I been so long time with you
and dost thou not know me, Philip ? "

I now pass to the raising of Lazarus. It is not
within my scope to discuss the nature of the
miracle, I have to do with it only in its relation to
that Law of the working of Signs, which is suggested
in the Temptation of the Pinnacle of the Temple.
No Sign is given to men whose belief is in the
formative stage, in order to force it on; but to
those whose belief is already assured a conclusive
miracle may be shown, because it does not now con-
strain judgment but only confirms it. If the miracle
had been at once published wherever the gospel
was preached, and if it had been supported by
testimony which no one could dispute, this would
have been an exception to the rule so often
marked in our Lord's conduct. This miracle is
in its nature appalling and conclusive, and it could
not be attributed to Beelzebub ; but a loop-hole in
point of evidence is left for those indisposed to
believe, for it rests on the unsupported testimony of
St John. The raising of Lazarus was not, we may
conclude, recorded in the Apostolic memoir which
some suppose to have been the basis of the Synoptic
Gospels. I have said in the last chapter that I
think it possible that the entire body of Apostles
were not continuously about the person of our
Lord during the six months between the Feast of
Tabernacles and the last journey. When Thomas

430 THE LATER LESSONS.

said, speaking of the proposed visit to Jerusalem
at the time of Lazarus' death, " Let us also go
that we may die with Him1/' I can hardly suppose
that Peter can have been by and have held his
peace. Supposing then that the writers of this
memoir, among whom Peter must have held a
foremost place, confined themselves as much as
possible to what they knew from personal know-
ledge, they would have abstained from introducing
a matter so wondrous as that of the raising of
Lazarus, which they had not witnessed them-
selves. In whatever way this silence is to be
explained, the silence itself accords with the
above-noted Law.

Passing on to the events of the Passion week,
we may be struck by the absence of all public
and notable Signs at a time when, if ever, they
seemed of vital importance for the cause. A signal
miracle wrought before the crowd in the Temple
would have rallied the people to the side of our
Lord in such numbers and with such vehement
support, that none of His foes would have dared to
lift a hand. For even if the priesthood should
have persisted in persuading themselves that our
Lord's power did not come from God, yet, they
would not have dared to move, if the popular
feeling had been strong, lest they should provoke
a riot and the Roman authorities should intervene.

But the people were themselves disappointed

1 John xi. 16, see p. 372.

THE LATER LESSONS. 431

by our Lord's working no Sign or Wonder, during
these last days of teaching in the Temple. Some
looked for the restoration of Israel, and were
impatient at the continued delay, while the lower
part of the populace had set their hearts on
seeing a prodigy, and none came. It may be true
that, among the crowd who had shouted "Hosanna,"
the lead had been taken by the caravan of pilgrims
from Galilee, but still, at the time of the triumphal
entry, the feeling of the people of Jerusalem went
the same way ; this had cooled down to indiffer-
ence when our Lord left the Temple for the last
time; and disappointment had turned into con-
temptuous chagrin when our Lord, after yielding
passively to the Temple guard, stood before Pilate
apparently as powerless as they would have been
themselves.

To Christians of to-day it seems of the essence
of Christ's sacrifice that He should have submitted
of His own free will to .indignity and torment,
when, by raising a finger or uttering a word, He
might have shivered the power both of the priest-
hood and of Rome. His behaviour in this point is
therefore exactly what we expect. But this truth,
inconceivable for the people, had hardly dawned
as yet on the Apostles' minds. The multitude
would be told and would, in general, believe that
the miracles of Jesus, which all had heard of and
some had seen, must have been unreal or the work
of Beelzebub ; while those who had leaned towards

432 THE LATER LESSONS.

Him would conclude that, if He had ever been
endowed with Divine power, it had left Him now,
or He would certainly have used it for defence.

But the Apostles were not left without fresh
assurance, given to them alone. Although of Signs,
notable and public, during this period there were
none, still two Signs of a special character there
were, which exactly met the requirements of the
case ; they created no stir, they were not observed
by the people, but they served to keep alive in the
Apostles' hearts the certainty that God was with
their Master still. One was the withering of the
fig-tree, the other the foretelling that Peter would
deny his Lord ; of the first of these miracles I
have spoken fully before1.

This latter miracle is connected with our Lord's '
strange faculty of seeing what was passing in men's
hearts, and of tracing what the outcome of it
would be. When men felt that Christ knew their
hearts, they were getting near the idea of His
spiritual presence with them ; so that all this leads
up to the crowning point of Christ's education, the
rendering the Apostles sensitive to every breath of
the Spirit, capable, amid a din of inward voices
calling them diverse ways, of discerning with sure
ear the tones of God.

This miracle and this event contain a lesson on
forgiven error, intended for all time. Here, as before
observed, we have an instance of Christ's way of
1 pp. 95. 96, 97-

THE LATER LESSONS. 433

ensuring that what He desired to preserve should
be handed down. This event is stamped with
life-like particulars which ensure its currency and
its becoming familiar in the mouths of men.

The words "the cock shall not crow twice"
give to the incident a reality which vitalises the
story and preserves it for ever. Contrast the tale
such as we have it, with what it would have been
if our Lord had only said, "You will deny me
before I die."

As to the miracle itself a few words must be
said. It brings out the identity of the idiosyn-
crasy of St Peter, who is given up to the impulse
of the moment.

The Peter who denied and then wept bitterly,
is the same man, psychologically, as he who begged
his Master to call him to come upon the sea, and
whose faith failed. This liability to panic clung
to him ; years after, we find him at Antioch going
along with Paul in freeing the converts from
Jewish obligations ; but, as soon as " certain came
from James1," he was alarmed at his temerity and
separated himself, " fearing them that were of the
circumcision." (See also pp. 423, 424.) Neither
by our Lord or any of the brethren is this failing
of Peter's ever touched upon again.

This is exactly a case of what was noted at
page 421. Christ washes from off Peter's feet the
soil contracted on the way, and he becomes clean

1 Galatians ii. u- 14.
U 2S

434 THE LATER LESSONS.

every whit. The evil was only skin deep and had
not tainted the blood. For this denial was, I am
sure, not due to any base fear. Peter had drawn
and struck for his Master, and was naturally
bewildered at finding that his Master would neither
suffer His disciples to fight nor call the legions of
angels to His help. In their utter confusion of
mind the Apostles fled, but Peter and John fol-
lowed a little way off. This they would not have
done if they had been in actual terror of being
punished themselves. But there was no real
ground for any such fear ; no attempt is made to
apprehend any follower of our Lord. To have
tried to do so would have increased that danger
of riot, which the rulers shunned. What Peter
did fear was forcible separation from Christ.
He was afraid that, if proved to be a follower of
Jesus, he would be turned out of the judgment
hall of Caiaphas. He would have said or done
almost anything to avoid that. It was, as we
have seen, part of his nature to be mastered by
the feeling that was uppermost He clung to his
Master's side with the instinctive fidelity of a
Highland henchman to his chief. Thrice he
might have gone away, but this he will on no
account do. After being noticed he on each occa-
sion moves away and returns, only shifting his
position ; he goes into the vestibule, and finally
tries to mix with the crowd round the fire,
whence, out of the half-darkness which saved him
from recognition, he could still sec his Master.

THE LATER LESSONS. 435

But "his speech bewrayeth" him; he is noticed
again as he had been before, and for the third
time he denies. Whereupon the cock crows, and
turning towards the arcade at the end of the
court where the trial was going on, he meets our
Lord's eyes fixed upon him. Then, for the first
time, it strikes him that he has done wrong. It
never occurred to Peter that in saying " I know not
the man," he was being disloyal to the Master he
loved. He wanted to keep sight of his Master,
and did not feel bound to speak the truth to a foe.
No words are needed to shew him his fault. One
look of our Lord settles the matter; it awakens the
higher sense of truth, which had gone to sleep when
the old instinct of the Oriental peasant, the habit
of confronting authority with a flat denial, became
dominant in Peter's breast. When the company
of Apostles was scattered on their Master's appre-
hension, the strength they had drawn from asso-
ciation with Jesus vanished at once ; and then
Peter dropped from the moral level of a disciple
of Christ into the Galilean fisherman he had been
before. He had been used to regard officials of
Herod, or any ruling power, as his natural enemies,
to whom he was not bound to speak the truth,
and to this, his old self, he came back now.

But though Peter's heart may have acquitted
him of cowardly forsaking his Master, — though he
knew that he would, if need were, have gone with
him to prison and to death, — yet he felt that this

28—3

THE LATER LESSONS.

denial was, in words — though only in words — a
falling away from perfect loyalty; it made clear
to him, as it may have been meant to do, the
weakness of his character in the way of yielding
to impulse, and awakened floods of self reproach.
He went out and wept bitterly; but no trace
appears afterwards of a loss of self respect, or of
his feeling it possible that he could be in disgrace
with his Master; in fact his part in his Master
becomes all the greater, owing to his having
needed that He should wash his feet.

These two miracles of instruction then, the
prediction of Peter's denials and the withering of
the fig tree, were an assurance to the disciples
that our Lord still retained His superhuman
power, and that whether He should drink of the
cup or put it away, up to the last, rested entirely
with Him. These powers of His could not be dis-
played to the people without hindrance to the ac-
complishment of that Baptism with which He " had
to be baptised ; " even the working of miracles of
healing might so have moved the crowd that they
would have risen in His defence1. The Apostles,
however, were to be rendered sure that these powers
remained what they had ever been and that they
were, for them, in operation still ; so that they might
never doubt but that, amid all the apparent defeat,
it was with the voluntary sufferer on the Cross that
the real Victory — the moral Victory lay.

1 See Preface.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

WHEN contemplating the Passion and the
Resurrection of Christ, we have little attention to
spare for the subordinate personages in the scene.
The effects of these manifestations, in working
changes in the hearts and minds of the witnesses,
are put out of sight by the brilliancy and intrinsic
grandeur of the manifestations themselves, and by
the momentous character of their direct conse-
quences, universally affecting mankind. But the
transformation in temper, in views, and in habits
of mind which converted the Apostles of the
Gospels into the Apostles of the Acts — a trans-
formation to me otherwise inexplicable — was
consummated and clenched by the hours of
hard trial and bitter anguish of that Sabbath
day, when there was nothing to be done but to
mourn and to wonder; as well as by the burst
of gladness when the Risen Lord appeared to
the eleven. Throughout all the Post- Resurrection

438 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

interval, during which the Apostles felt that He
was close " by and might at any time appear —
indeed that any stranger accosting them might
turn out to be He — the changes which had been
wrought were taking lasting hold.

The data for the history of that Passover season
of A.D. 30 must have been furnished by the
Apostles, yet we find in it scarcely any mention
of themselves; all personal thought was driven
from their minds; the narrators, like ourselves,
had eyes for the Saviour alone.

From the hour of cockcrow on the Thursday
night to the time when it " began to dawn toward
the first day of the week " all that we hear of the
Apostles, and that comes out incidentally, is that
John stood at the foot of the Cross. There is not
a word to explain their flight at Gethsemane, they
do not tell us, that they stood in the crowd or
followed to Golgotha; neither have we, what for
my purpose would be invaluable, any word of how
they passed that Sabbath day of enforced inaction,
which — in accordance with our Lord's way of let-
ting intervals of quiet alternate with times of stress
and strain — followed on the violent perturbation
and intense dismay of the Crucifixion.

The Apostles could not be perfected for the
part that awaited them, unless they encountered
some great desolation of soul. Acute suffering,
which searches the innermost nature, works after
the law which has become so trite to my readers,

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 439

it gives to those who have. There are some who
under its pangs learn that they possess a kind of
strength of which they did not know, and find
that when some, seemingly more robust, break
down in trouble, resource and tenacity are still
left in them. This kind of strength the Apostles
possessed ; they stood the test of being apparently
forsaken and were the better for it Each indi-
vidual after the trial felt surer that he could rely
on himself than he had been before, and each then
knew for certain that he could rely on the rest

They might, as soon as the Sabbath was over,
have taken their northward journey, going every
man to his own; and, as they did not feel 3afe
where they were — for they had to close their doors
for fear of the Jews — and must have been griev-
ously bewildered, this is what some out of the
eleven at any rate might have been expected to
do. It is the steadfastness of the whole number
that is so surprising.

The trial to which the Apostles were subjected,
during those six and thirty hours, was excessively
severe. They were left as sheep without a shep-
herd, with no rallying point, no organised rule ;
and not only were they in the deepest anguish,
owing to their personal affection for their Master,
but the lodestar of their lives, the hope of the
Restoration of the Kingdom to Israel, seemed
suddenly and totally withdrawn.

The Jewish notion of a Messiah, who would

440 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

inaugurate a golden age of national glory and
material enjoyment, was so engrained in the
Israelite nature that only facts could drive it out.
Our Lord never argues against it; if He beheld,
in the course of coming events, a fact approaching,
which would do more to dispel error than all the
arguments in the world, this would explain His
silence on these points. The awakening would not
be without dangers. It is a perilous moment for a
man, when the one dream, the one exalted hope,
that has lifted him above selfish considerations is
rudely dispelled ; and God, whom he had thought
to serve, seems to disregard him altogether.

Then self and the world say, "We told you so;
now give yourself to us ? Our votaries will be
found to have taken the right road after all."
Of all the temptations that assailed the Apostles
this was perhaps the direst ; but their loyalty
to their Master, born of nearly two years' daily
fellowship, held fast. Even if He were gone they
could be true to His memory still, and that was
something left.

One lesson, which the Apostles could hardly
help learning, would arise, in this way, out of the
discomfiture of their hopes. They might ask
themselves, on what this confident expectation of
theirs, of a Messianic kingdom, rested by way of
grounds. They would have to own that Christ
had never spoken of it, but, indeed, had often given
hints of what had really come to pass— hints which

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 441

they had always quickly brushed aside. They
had believed in this material Kingdom because
everybody around them had done so. They had
not formed any notion about it of their own selves ;
no movement of their own minds had gone towards
forming the belief. They had imbibed it and
that was all. Hence finding themselves deceived
by trusting to a popular belief, there may have
arisen in them a healthy mistrust of positiveness
about the ways of God. Again, their disappoint-
ment might put them in a better direction for
finding their way. " Some hope," they might say,
"assuredly Christ did hold out to us," and the
search after this hope might lead them to recollect
that latterly they had heard little from Him of the
Kingdom, and much of the future Life ; He had
told them that because He lived they should live
also ; and the conception of a Kingdom, not of
this world, might arise in their minds, and take
the place of that of the expected Supremacy of
Israel, which was dissolving out of sight.

Another effect of their affliction was that it
drew them closer together. When a family, is
orphaned by a heavy blow, what they first feel
may be helplessness, but soon follows the feeling
that they must cling together and be true to one
another, and each in his degree supply the help
that is lost. Soon the elder brothers, if there is
good in them, learn what duty is, and this new
responsibility draws capacity out Now the

443 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

Apostles stood in the position of elder brethren
to all the family of Christ's disciples.

It is a striking feature of the change worked in
the Apostles, that, after the Resurrection,all thoughts
of self disappeared. The Apostles, as the History
shews us, had been originally no less prone to
wrangle as to "which should be greatest'* than
the average of men. We find in the Gospel the
self-regard that we might naturally expect : some-
times it is of a healthy sort, as when Peter says,
"We have left all and followed thee;" and some-
times it is unhealthy, like that soreness on points
of precedence, which we mark even just before
the Last Supper ; but in the Acts we find among
the Apostles no trace of self-regard at all. The
history in our hands will account for this change
satisfactorily enough ; for these men were called to
a Work, so transcending all human interests, so
absolute, that, it would leave no room for any
personal thought in their souls. They were to be
fellow-workers with the living God. What could
be the worth of the difference between this office
or dignity in God's service and that, compared with
being counted worthy to take a conscious part in
God's service at all ? Some powerful impression must
have been employed to bring about such a moral
change as this ; and what could better account for
such an impression, than to have witnessed Christ
upon the Cross ? How could they, the servants, cavil
about social consideration or dignity, when their

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 443

Master had spurned all dignity and cast away all
that common men hold dear, and that too, when
by speaking a word, all that earth could bestow
might have been His. Lastly, the sense that
Christ was present with them and knew their
hearts, was made so real and effectual by the
Post-Resurrection intercourse, that it afterwards
dominated their lives. This feeling would still
the disposition to rivalry, if any such lingered in
their hearts ; for, being convinced that their Master
knew what went on in them, they would know
that He grieved over anything that was wrong,
as He had done when He was by their side ; and
they would shrink from causing Him pain.

The story of the Apostles is unique in History
in another way. No one of them endeavoured to
draw a following about himself, or to claim succes-
sion to the Master's place. Little differences of
view and little disagreements as to the course to be
followed now and then there were ; if, indeed, our
records did not speak of such we should suspect that
something was kept back. We have cases enough
of causes passed on to a company of successors
from the dying leaders' hands, but in no instance,
that I recollect, have these successors remained
united as the Apostles did (p. 414). Monarchs
have sometimes left empires in trust to their
generals, whose quarrels have finally torn them to
bits. Philosophers have leic their systems or their
discoveries to their favourite pupils, who, taking

444 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

hold of them by different ends, have set up new
philosophies of their own. Kingly dynasties aod
political parties have bequeathed causes claiming
to be sanctioned by Divine right, or to embody
immutable principles, and the inheritors have so
fallen out over points of policy, that the broad
principle, broken up into branching channels, has
lost its momentum and disappeared in the sands.

I pass on to the lessons which our History of
the Resurrection conveys. The different narra-
tives relate our Lord's appearances, with differing
circumstances of persons and place. Herein I find
that loophole for disbelief which may be discovered
in every miraculous manifestation of our Lord. If
the fact of our Lord's Resurrection had been so
attested that no sane person could doubt of the
fact ; if He had appeared in public, and appalled
Pilate on his judgment seat or Herod on his
throne, then — strange as it may appear — by the
very fact of the historical certainty being thus
established, the moral significance of the Resur-
rection would be impaired, for the acceptance of
it would be independent of that which I have so
often said is essential to religious belief, the con-
currence of the free human will.

Although, as to the occasions and circum-
stances of the appearances, we find in the different
accounts rather more than their customary diver-
sity ; yet in the nature of the appearances the
agreement is so singular, and the conception

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 445

involved is so unexampled, that it is impossible for
different writers to have lighted at the same time
on the idea, and I can find no explanation for the
phenomena, except by supposing that the picture
was taken from life. The appearances themselves,
as we should expect from their nature, leave on
the mental retina an impression indelible and
distinct; but the traditions about when and how
they occurred, undergo variation as they pass from
mouth to mouth.

The character of our Lord's appearances, in
all the Gospels, is alike. Most commonly He is
not recognised at first, and does not appear in His
own form, when other than disciples are by ; only
to those, who had already mastered the words of
eternal life, was it given to see Him Risen from the
dead. He comes men know not how, when they
are sitting with fastened doors He appears in the
midst ; He goes they know not where, and the
disciples who beforetime were so full of curi-
osity, do not venture to ask whither He goes or
where He abides. But, what bears most of all
on my subject, is the mode in which our Lord
assuages that dread of a disembodied spirit, which
would have paralysed the Apostles' minds. This
terror, reasonable or not, certainly existed, and
Christ always deals with the fact He finds.

There were lessons still to be taught and for
the right learning of them it was needful that the
old confidence between Master and learners should

446 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

still subsist Could the disciples have listened to
the Lord, as their old Master, receiving his direc-
tion to go back to Jerusalem and tarry there till
they were "endued with power;" — could they
have rested gladly on the assurance that He would
appear and help them in any need that came, if
they had regarded Him as a spectre belonging to
another world ?

In order to calm their instinctive terror of a spirit,
and be again in some degree what He had been
on the Lake shore of Galilee, it was necessary for
our Lord to assure the Apostles that He had a
body even as they. The deep doctrinal signifi-
cance of this lies beyond the limited purpose of
my book, but the point which is within my range —
the effect on the Apostles themselves of the con-
viction of our Lord's existence in the body — is
important and full of instruction. It was essential
that confidence should be restored, and the course
actually adopted did restore it in a wonderful way.
Men thought that a spirit might be seen and
heard but only a body could be felt. Our Lord
therefore at once appeals to touch — He eats and
drinks before them. He tells them that He has
flesh and bones. He suffers them to " handle Him
and see." To this corporal presence as a crowning
fact St John recurs, saying " That which we beheld
and our hands handled1;" and St Peter says

1 i John i. i.

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 447

" Him God raised up the third day, and gave him to
be, made manifest, not to all the people, but unto wit-
nesses that were chosen before of God, even to us, who did
eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead V

Our Lord would not Himself establish a visible
Church. I have amply set out, p. 236, the diffi-
culties that would have ensued if He had so done ;
but it was essential that the Apostles should receive
some indication — though only so much as was
essential to the lines upon which they were to
build ; and this being a matter of human cognisance
was to be given by Christ in His human guise. A
phantom, or a voice from Heaven, would have
seemed an agency of a different order from the
intervention of the Son of Man.

Here I will stop for a moment, to consider
these narratives of the Resurrection under a purely
literary point of view. These accounts present us
with the same general aspect of the risen Lord,
and they remain true to the primary conception in
unnoticeable points of detail such as no one would
have introduced out of purposed imitation. In-
asmuch as we cannot suppose that the same won-
drous creation of fancy presented itself to different
writers at the same time, we are driven to suppose,
either that the accounts relate actual facts, as
Christians generally believe; or else that they
were imagined by one person who disseminated
the story. But who this writer can have been

1 Acts x. 40, 41.

448 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

is not only a mystery but a mystery em-
bodying almost a miracle, for here we have a
genius compared with whom — in point of dealing
naturally with the supernatural — Shakespeare is
thrown into the shade ; and further this genius, we
must suppose, never invented or wrote anything
else in that particular line in which he so won-
drously surpassed the rest of mankind. The
Orientals delighted in tales. Did they suffer the
greatest imaginative genius of the world to live
and die unknown ?

There was nothing in Literature to furnish
a hint for the portraiture of the risen Lord ; the
idea of the Resurrection body must have been due
to one man's imagination and have been presented
with extraordinary literary skill at a time when
imaginative narration was wholly unknown. The
writers of the age in which the Gospels appeared
could set down events and record colloquies, and
depict living personalities with truth and force;
but they were no more capable of conceiving a
character, of making him act, and putting into his
mouth words which should seem to be his own ;
or of imagining a new supernatural phenomenon,
and keeping their account always true to itself;
than they were of conceiving the vibrations of an
elastic medium. That this phenomenon also, ex-
actly met the requirements of a most singular
condition of things adds greatly to the wonder, but
in another way.

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 449

If the Christian records had been thrown aside
and forgotten, while the world, passing on its way,
reached a mental culture such as we now possess ;
and then, in some exploration, the Gospels had
been brought to light : would they not have been
regarded by the critics of that day as wholly
anomalous, and as refusing to fit in with any
theory of the growth and progress of the literary
faculty in mankind ? The surprise caused by the
discovery would have been like that of excavators
at Mycenae, if they had found a watch in the
treasury of Agamemnon. This aspect of the
matter belongs to the realm of critical literature
rather than to mine, and I only note it for a
hint. The literary aspect of the History of the
Resurrection has yet to be written ; it would be
curious to see it treated from the point of view
of one, who, shut out from a knowledge of the
religious history of mankind, lighted on it as a
mere literary treasure.

There is one point on which I cannot forbear
to touch. Our Lord never mentions His perse-
cutors, He never touches on the past. The
apparition of a legend usually either reveals a
burning secret, or embodies resentment for the
past; frequently it personifies hatred or foretells
destruction, and its fateful whispers make the
blood of enemies run cold. But in all the utter-
ances of the Risen Lord not a word is said
of the coming destruction of Jerusalem, not a
L. 29

450 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

syllable is breathed of the treason of Judas, or
of the persistent malice of the scribes. There is
an ineffable grandeur — so unconscious that we
may fail to mark it — in the utter oblivion that
is passed on the foes who had beset the path of
the Son of Man. He no more resents the ills
that men had wrought Him on His way through
life, than the traveller, who has reached his home,
resents the insect plague of the desert or the
tempests he has met with at sea. The past is lost
to sight, and our Lord displays but one thought
and one interest, and that is for the disciples and
their work. He has now done with the rest of the
world and He belongs wholly to them. He is
lifted above all human contention into that serene
atmosphere, which we feel ourselves to be breath-
ing, when, reading the story, we seem to find
ourselves in the presence of the Risen Lord.

I will now quote St Paul's account of the
chief occasions when our Lord appeared ; but I
can only discuss one or two points of the History.

"And that he appeared to Cephas; then to the
twelve; then he appeared to above five hundred brethren
at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but
some are fallen asleep; then he appeared to James;
then to all the apostles; and last of all, as unto one born
out of due time, he appeared to me also1."

I take the view, that within a few days of the
1 i Cor. xv. $, 6, 7, 8,

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 451

Resurrection, the Apostles, by our Lord's command,
returned to Galilee. If the Resurrection had been
immediately followed by a time of agitation — one
of persecution for instance — so that the Apostles
could not have let their minds dwell on what had
happened, the lessons of that period would have
been soon effaced ; but our Lord, as we have seen,
is ever careful to provide seasonable opportunity
for reflection, and it was not likely that He would
suffer it to be wanting now.

The Apostles in Galilee, engaging again in
their old callings, would have leisure to review,
not only the last few days, but the whole of the
two eventful years since they had been called
from their work to follow Christ. It was probably
here in Galilee that the Apostles received a com-
mand to return to Jerusalem ; for we cannot
account for the presence there of all the eleven,
at the time of the Ascension, together with the
mother and brethren of our Lord, except by
special direction of our Lord. They would not,
without some injunction, have remained at Jeru-
salem after the Resurrection1, neither would they
have gone up thither for Pentecost, having been
so lately at the Passover. Whether the appear-
ance to the " five hundred brethren at once2 " be,
as I think it was, identical with that on the
mountain in Galilee recorded in St Matthew's
Gospel, c. xxviii., v. 16, is a matter of discussion.

1 See Chronol. Append., May A.D. 30. a i Cor. xv. 6.

29 — 2

452 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

But where else, except in Galilee could five hundred
disciples have been got together? It could not
have been at Jerusalem, at the Ascension, because
the brethren there only numbered one hundred
and twenty souls1. St Matthew, it is true, only
speaks of the eleven disciples as going "into
Galilee unto the mountain," but others must
have been present because we are told that
"some doubted," and the eleven would not have
doubted. This admission shews that when the
writer drew up his account, he felt no eagerness
to strengthen the evidence for the Resurrection;
and that He had no fear of its being disbelieved
by those for whom he wrote. The eagerness that
St Matthew does shew is to find instances of the
fulfilment of Scripture, not to support his state-
ments of fact. It seems to me likely, that, in Galilee,
among His earliest followers, our Lord should
have appeared more publicly than He did else-
where ; here only could He find a body of believers
who should serve as witnesses, and, inasmuch as
among these five hundred, there must have been
men in different states of belief, it falls in with
our Lord's way, so often noted, that He should
appear in a form, not indisputably recognisable at
once and by all, but with His aspect so changed,
by some glorification perhaps, that those who were
half-hearted in their belief might remain in doubt
or disbelief if they chose ; while the faithful and
1 Acts i. 15.

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 453

loving would be in no uncertainty about their
Master's lineaments and voice.

The appearance "to James" which is related
by St Paul alone, is important, and calls for special
notice.

There are three persons called ''James" in the
sacred books, and there may be a question which
of these it is of whom St Paul speaks. I am of
opinion that it is James the brother of our Lord.
The Corinthians, to whom St Paul is writing,
would hardly know of any other ; he was the head
of the church at Jerusalem and when Paul speaks
of "James" simply, as in Galatians ii. 9, 12, he
means always the brother of the Lord. "James,
the son of Zebedee," Acts xii. 2, is designated
"the brother of John" for distinction's sake, and
of James the son of Alphaeus we never hear.
Every disciple however in the Church at Corinth
had heard of James, the " pillar " of the Church at
Jerusalem1.

Nothing is heard of our Lord's brethren during
the week of the Passion ; possibly, they were not
in Jerusalem, but, from the Acts, as has been just
said, we find that they were present there at the
time of the Ascension.

" These all with one accord continued steadfastly in

1 I would point out that in the passage from i Cor. xv. quoted
p. 450, we have " then to the Twelve" and later, " then to all the
Apostles." May not St Paul have meant the latter term to be a
wider one than the former, and, possibly, to include James?

454 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus,
and with his brethren." Acts i. 14.

This adhesion of the brethren falls in with the
supposition that our Lord appeared to His brother
James after the Resurrection in Galilee. It was
natural that James and the younger brethren
should have found difficulty in comprehending
that their elder brother, who had played among
them as a child was of a nature essentially different
from their own; and that this exceptional hindrance
to belief should be counterpoised by an exceptional,
but not absolutely decisive, revelation is what we
might expect. It is not inconsistent with our
Lord's treatment of doubt ; for the difficulty arose
out of circumstances and not from adverse will.
Of James, our Lord may have felt sure ; and Joses
and Jude and Simon1, no one of whom could have
been much over thirty years of age, while one or
two of them must have been quite young men,
may have been brought to full discipleship by
what they heard from James.

From what St Paul says, "Am I not an
Apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord2?" it
seems likely that to have beheld the Risen Lord
was held to be a condition of the status of an
Apostle. St Paul must have meant " seen the Risen
Jesus," for to have cast eyes on the bodily presence
of Jesus, as He journeyed and taught, would have
been a distinction shared with thousands.

1 Mark vi. 3. 2 i Cor. ix. i.

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 455

Without some recognition of James by our Lord,
such as is related by St Paul, it is hard to account
for his being placed at the head of the Church.
We hear of no election or form of appointment,
but we find him in this position about ten years
after this time. It would have been at variance
with our Lord's repeated injunctions to the Apostles
not to seek authority one over the other, if the
primacy had been made a matter of contest1.

Organisation and graduation of authority grew
up in the Church, not after any plan settled and
declared, but as the need of it arose. It agreed in
this respect with the history of those human insti-
tutions that have proved the most enduring. In
this, as in all matters, our Lord, wherever it was
possible, left His followers free; not but what,
when these same followers turned to their Master
and prayed for guidance, as in the election of
Matthias, they found in their hearts an answer
positive and plain.

St Peter, in the earliest days of the Church, stands
forth as the foremost personage ; but this influence
rests on personal qualities and not on any formal
appointment. He, as I have said (pp. 248, 344),
was the man of action, the person who in every
juncture addressed himself at once to the question,

1 "Clement of Alexandria says that Peter, James and John
after our Lord's ascension were not ambitious of dignity, honoured
though they had been by the preference of their Master, but chjase
James the Just as Bishop of Jerusalem." Dr Salmon, " Introduction
to the New Testament," p. 565.

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

"What is to be done?" It was Peter, who took
immediate steps to fill up the vacancy which the
apostacy of Judas had left. He was the speaker
on the day of Pentecost, and he it was who in the
case of Ananias sternly repressed falsehood unto
God. But the impetuosity of Peter, and his dispo-
sition to give himself up completely to the impres-
sion of the moment, though it served well to carry
forward a great movement at its outset, may have
made him ill adapted for the ruler of an infant
Church, in which discordant elements had to be
welded into one ; while the well-poised judgment
of James the Just1 and his practical sense fitted
him particularly for this kind of rule. That this
admirable selection, this putting of each in his
right place, should have come about without
dispute; and that those who had "borne the burden
and heat of the day" should have admitted to
equality — or something more — in outward dignity,
one who was "of the eleventh hour," bears out
what I have said of the phenomenal subordination
of self displayed by the Apostles. It shews that
outward dignity and authority — that which I have
taken to be the "false mammon" of the parable
— was as nothing in their eyes compared to the
true riches, the priceless feeling that their work
great or small, as men might count it, was all
done for God and all accepted by God.

1 "This James whom the ancients... surnamed the Just."
Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 6, ii. c. i.

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 457

The Ascension.

What was said of the Resurrection we may say
of the Ascension too. The changes it brought
about in the position and characters of those few
"men of Galilee" who stood "gazing up into
heaven," seem small matters compared with the
immensity of its import for the Human Race.
But, that our Lord did not leave out of sight the
effect on the Apostles of the change in their
condition which His departure would cause, is
clear from words spoken to the Twelve, which are
preserved to us by St John, and on which there is
something to say.

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient
for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Com-
forter will not come unto you ; but if I go, I will send
him unto you1."

This, saying the Apostles may have found
hard to comprehend ; for it must have seemed to
them impossible that it could ever be for their
good for their Master to leave them ; and, why the
Comforter should not come, while they all continued
together, would by no means be clear to their
minds. Neither here nor elsewhere does our Lord
explain to the Apostles either the reason of His
regimen or the way in which it was to work. He

1 John xvi. 7, 8.

458 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

tells them simply the fact, without a word as to
how or why. He never leads them to examine into
the modus operandi of His treatment, He would
have awakened — what He carefully avoids — self-
consciousness, if He had so done. That they
could not learn, at the same time, from Him in
the body and also from the Comforter in their own
souls, arose, not from any "determinate counsel
of God," but because the mind cannot perform
two operations at once. It rested on the positive
psychological fact that we cannot walk by Sight
and by Faith at the same time ; that we cannot
turn one ear to an earthly monitor, and keep the
other open to the whispers of a spiritual guide.
The posture of our minds when we are hanging
on the lips of a living Master, is different from
that in which we set ourselves to listen for the
Comforting Voice from within. The Apostles
would not have learned to hearken to the prompt-
ings of the Spirit so long as they could turn to
Christ by their side ; and it was therefore " expe-
dient for them " that Christ should go away. They
would not otherwise have reached full communion
with the Spirit on high.

Instances in the Acts shew us in what way the
Spirit acted in the hearts of believers. Sometimes,
when human judgment and inclination seemed to
agree, an unaccountable inward reluctance to follow
their dictates was nevertheless felt — a repugnance,
not resting on a new argument, but simply saying

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 459

"No." When men experienced such feelings,
some might overbear them by will ; but Paul
and Silas recognised in them the voice of the
Spirit. For we hear that they "went through
the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been
forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the word in
Asia ; and when they were come over against
Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia ; and the
Spirit of Jesus suffered them not1."

Again Christ's Church was to be everlasting
and universal, and this it could only become by
changing outward and visible for inward spiritual
rule. So long as the Lord was in bodily presence
among them, the disciples naturally looked only
to Him. Where He was, there and there only to
their minds was His Kingdom and His Church.
For His sway to become universal it was essential
that He should go away, for it is only Spiritual
influence that can be everywhere at once. The
fire had to be set alight at a particular spot and at
a particular time, but it was then to be left to
spread over the earth and to go on burning,
seemingly all of itself.

All through the Gospel we mark how men
cling to the Letter, and how Christ, with tender
hand extricates the Spirit from it and tells His
hearers, that it is this which gives the Letter its
worth. A law such as that of Moses has its place

1 Acts xvi. 6—8.

460 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

in the Schooling of a race at a certain epoch of
national life ; but a code or a creed that cannot be
expanded must at last be outgrown. If however a
Divine and living Spirit be enshrined in a Church,
it may direct its development, and transform the
outward tenement as inward need requires.

Christ came to set men spiritually free; but,
strange to say, men are slow to take this freedom
up. Among some African races, a man set free
from a master at once goes and sells himself to
another, he cannot be troubled with managing for
himself. This is like the way in which men
liberated from one absolute and infallible authority
have so often handed themselves over to another.
They must have something or somebody to take
their beliefs and consciences in charge. Fancying
that they are to be saved by holding proper
opinions — for by belief they often mean no more
than taking up and maintaining opinion — they
come, asking, "What are we to believe?" just as
the Scribe asked, " What am I to do ? " Christ's
answer to him practically was, that he possessed
already grounds enough to frame for himself a rule
of conduct such as he required. Might He not
answer the others nearly in the same strain ?

Belief, in Christ's sense of the word, is not the
acceptance of a theory, it is something that will
actuate the man's whole being, and which requires
the concurrence of an emancipated will. Now this
emancipation brings with it a responsibility — a call

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 461

to mental effort — which a large proportion of
mankind steadfastly abhor.

Thus the Israelitish party in St Paul's time and
after, hugged the chains of the Jewish Law ; then,
after turbulent ages of fierce doctrinal dissension,
when combative spirits found in polemics the strife
which their temperaments required, the Churches
of Greece and of Rome took charge of the con-
sciences of men. A revolt at length took place
against the external authority of the Church, but
there was no more religious freedom under the
new regimes than under the old. Confessions of
Faith came into vogue, and men tried to tie down
after ages to the ways in which the controversialists
of the sixteenth century had, with much giving
and taking, agreed to regard the insoluble problems
of existence. The Bible was now often held up,
not to reveal God's will and ways, but to yield
texts for weapons in disputes. Christ's care to
guard against a bondage unto written matter is
apparent in the whole form of His teaching ; and
especially in His leaving no writings of His own,
and no directly accredited record of His life ; but
the craving of men after an unerring touchstone of
truth has wrapped them again in bonds like those
from which Christ would have set them free ; and
the Canonical books have been invested with a cha-
racter of literal inspiration, not unlike what would
have attached to writings of our Lord Himself.

The verses of John, Chap. xvi. 9, 10 which

462 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

follow that of which I have been, speaking, while
leading us to the profoundest Theology, bear on
the change from a visible teacher to a spiritual
one, and so far they come within my scope. I
have only to do with them so far as they illustrate
this change. The reason given for the intervention
of the Spirit is, that Christ, in the body, will no
longer bring home to the world the sense of sin
and of righteousness and of judgement.

"And he, when he is come, will convict the world
in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judge-
ment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of
righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold
me no more ; of judgement, because the prince of this
world has been judged." John xvi. 8 — n.

I should place the emphasis on the pronouns —
He and I. The Spirit is to take the place of the
departed Lord. So long as Christ was in the world
He Himself brought home to the men who believed
on Him the sense of sin ; He presented the ideal
of righteousness, and He enforced the conviction
that moral evil brought doom and destruction upon
men. Henceforth the witness to all this would no
longer be Christ in the body, whose contact with
the world was necessarily limited to one point, but
the Holy Spirit, which could speak to the hearts of
all mankind at once. It would lead me too far from
my province if I enlarged on the topic of Judg-
ment ; and I turn to another matter.

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 463

It may be asked, Why did this Post-Resur-
rection state last as long as it did and not
longer ? God's reasons we leave aside, but this we
can say, Christ never hurries forward processes in
the Apostles' mind, and these processes, in this case,
needed all the time allowed ; also, since a state of
watchfulness involves a nerve-strain, it agrees with
Christ's carefulness for the body that this condition
should not last too long. The durations of the
different stages of our Lord's teaching — that while
He was in the flesh, and that while He wore the
body of the Resurrection — seem to me just as
wisely ordered for the end in view, as are the
other circumstances of the case.

Christ's way of teaching is the very opposite of
that which would make the learner a mere reflection
of his Master. In the Mission to the cities and in
the ministrations of their every-day life, Christ
had left the Apostles to act very much for them-
selves, He had kept their self-helpfulness alive in
various ways ; we find them bold to question, and
not slow to murmur, and both questions and
murmurs are readily tolerated by our Lord. But,
even with all these precautions, if they had re-
mained too long in attendance on Him, we can
imagine that they would have got confirmed in the
habit of looking constantly to their Master and of,
at once, carrying to Him every difficulty without
considering it themselves, and they would thus have
lost capacity both to think and to act. They might

464 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

also have fallen into habits of mind which, service-
able so long as they were subordinates, would
stand in their way when they had to take the lead.
They might have become faithful to execute, but
helpless to plan. When subordinates, or young
people, are too long deprived of opportunity for
judging and acting for themselves, their minds are
apt to become passive and purely receptive ; they
become slow to start a notion or suggest an ex-
pedient ; ideas of theirs, they fancy, are not wanted,
and so they soon cease to have ideas at all.

Our Lord guarded against this by restricting
the period of the Apostles' pupilage. As soon as
the ground plan of their characters was marked
out, He left them to rear the superstructure for
themselves. He was so tender in preserving every
line of individuality that He would not shackle
freedom of growth in His disciples, even by pro-
longing His own companionship and instruction
beyond the proper time.

But, if the period of our Lord's stay on earth in
the body, served its educational purpose all the
better from being no longer than it was ; so did that
also of the forty days after the Resurrection (sup-
posing that we accept the traditional chronology)
for the opposite reason, from its being extended so
long. Four days would have served as well as
forty for the manifestation of the Risen Lord, for
the conclusive witness to His Divine nature, and
for ratifying the hope of immortality in the bosoms

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 465

of mankind ; within this time He could have given
His final charge to the infant Church, and have
set it on its way. A higher work however remained
which could not be perfected all at once. The
Apostles were now to receive the crowning lesson
of the course. They were about to pass out of
the training ground into the real arena of danger
and of toil. They were to be gradually fitted to
exercise authority, and to feel trust in the presence
with them of a Spiritual Guide.

It took time for their faculties to grow into
shape and adapt themselves to the change. Christ
always brings His scholars on by gradual progress ;
He moulds them as nature moulds organic forms ;
there are with Him no sharp or sudden turns,
no jerks in the movements, but all proceeds
along one even curve. If the forty days of this
transitional condition had not intervened, but the
Apostles had been suddenly transformed from
disciples into the rulers of a community; if, more
than this, they had found themselves all at once
exalted into the accredited ministers of the Al-
mighty in the most express and patent of His
dispensations, what human beings could have stood
the strain ? Gradually, during those forty days,
they got used to possessing authority. It was not
formally conferred ; but the other disciples took
it for granted that they were to look to them for
direction or advice. In this season also, the Apostles
acquired a habit of watchfulness over themselves,
L. 30

466 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

knowing that Christ was looking into their hearts,
and might at any moment appear by their side.

The framing of a society in which Christ's
word should be the outer Law and Christ's spiritual
presence be the sustaining life, was to be the work
of men, because it was to be adapted to human
needs. It does not derogate from man's free agency,
that he should own and follow the promptings of
God, for to do this is part of his proper nature ;
these promptings are not an alien influence, but
belong to his own self as he was intended to be.

With the descent of the Holy Spirit at the end
of the forty days, the outward visible training of
the Apostles, which it has been my business to
trace, was brought to an end ; and the guidance of
God's Spirit, working in men to will and to do of
His good pleasure, came in its place1.

The fire which Christ had come into man's world
to kindle, was now alight, and the special need for
Christ's presence on earth did not longer exist.
What was it, we may ask, that He left behind ?
The chief visible outcome of His work was the little
band of Apostles ; but the mightiest of His influences
were imponderable and unseen. Our Lord's so-
journ on earth had changed the world in which
He had dwelt, so that all subsequent History reads
differently from that which goes before. By what
means was this change wrought ? Christ left no
new code of regulations for men to live by. He

1 Philippians ii. 13.

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 467

introduced no changes into Human Society or into
any of the forms of Government which He found
upon earth. If men might not be left to frame
such things for themselves, what had freedom and
faculties been given to them for ? What Christ did
leave, was infinitely more than a reorganisation of
Society or a scheme for the reformation of men.
On that day of Pentecost a new faculty — that of
communing with God's Spirit — came to the birth.
And a new force — that of living religion — sprang
into existence as a fresh agent in the affairs of the
world — a force which Emperors and sacerdotal
castes and schools of philosophers had soon to
reckon with.

This fire has now and then burned low, but at
such times some "circumstance" has often come
about, which, answering to some expression of our
Lord — perhaps one which seemed till then obscure
— has opened out a vista in the minds of men.
People say, " Now we see what that hard saying
meant," or "Christ must have had this in view when
He spoke." Or else — what has sometimes hap-
pened— an idea has sprung up in men's hearts,
seemingly everywhere at once, and Christ's words
have caught a fuller meaning, read by the light of
this.

So far we have traced the steps by which the
Apostles were taught Faith in the unseen. First
by confidence in a Master at their side, next by
the assurance that, though unseen, He was close

30—2

468 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

by, and could, if needed, appear and help as of old ;
and now, lastly, when seeing Him no more, there
comes in their hearts an assurance that He is with
them to the end of the world.

When I say that the Apostles were taught
Faith, I use the word taught in a different sense
from that which it has when applied to the
subjects of knowledge. I mean that through wise
moral treatment, a quality existing only as a
rudiment was so developed as to fit the disciples
for communion with God ; and not only did they
in this sense learn Faith, but — what also need
learning, more than we suppose — Love and Hope
as well.

I spoke casually just now of the joy which,
as appears by the Book of Acts, illumined the
Apostles' lives. This came greatly of Love; not
merely from the affection of the brethren for each
other, but from a general Lovingness, a capacity
for Love, which, on coming into action, made
them look differently on all they saw. This, like
their Faith, had grown up from their being in
their Master's company. They felt how He loved
them; and if ever one among them was disposed
to think lightly or unkindly of a brother disciple,
he might recollect how dear that brother — faults
and all — was to Christ; and then he could hardly
help feeling that if his Master bore with him he
might do so too. They marked also Christ's bene-
ficence, His eagerness to render kindness, His

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 469

readiness to use His wondrous power for the
good of those who had no claim upon Him, His
gentleness in rebuke, His never recurring to a
bygone fault. And this sense of being beloved,
this living in an atmosphere of affection, generated
in them the capacity for Loving, just as the Home
Love that is round a child, not only awakens in it
affection to those who shew affection towards it,
but teaches it what Love is; and engenders in it
a great outcome of Lovingness which it strews
broadcast, and bestows, not on persons only, but
on animals, and even on inanimate things.

We have had sight of the Apostles at a time
when this Love was only half fledged among them,
and did not understand itself. It was yet in this
state in St Peter when he asked : How often he
must forgive the brother who sinned against him1.
Love with him was then only unfolding in his
mind, it was still a thing of bounds and mea-
sures ; later on he learnt — and his Master's sacrifice
crowned the lesson — that it is in essence infinite.
By the time when the Apostles had to stand
alone and labour for their charge, they had learnt
what Love was. From that came the unity and
harmony of which I have spoken above. A common
interest or even common devotion to a cause would
not have gone deep enough down to have quenched
all rivalries. Even if paramount interests had put

1 Matth. xviii. 21.

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

self out of sight for a while, it would still have been
there, ready to reappear when opportunity came.
Impatience would have come out now and then.
It is Love only which brings others as close to a
man as his own self. This lesson of Love was
perfected, for the Apostles, by their witnessing
Christ's death upon the cross — a death not for
friends, not for those under His protection, but for
men "while they were yet sinners1." They saw, too,
that when He rose from the dead in absolute might
Divine, He breathed not a word shewing that He
remembered His wrongs, but quietly put the past
away. All this filled the Apostles' hearts with
Lovingness; they could not have gone on with
their work, with so little return to shew, unless
they had loved the brethren and the converts.
The joy which we note in the Apostles, resting
like a halo upon them, comes of their feeling sure
that God loves them, and of their loving all God's
creatures in return. It was this Love that fascinated
their hearers; when the words of Paul, notwith-
standing that his speech — so they said — was con-
temptible, went to the hearts of Greeks and Bar-
barians, as we know they did, what he touched
them by was this magic of Love.

A word about the nature of that Hope which
nestled in the Apostles' hearts must end my book.
If their Master doubted, whether, when He should
come at the last, " He should find Faith upon the

1 Romans v. 8*

THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 471

earth;" what, it may be asked, could this Hope of
the Apostles have been ? Now, that these words
of Christ were not spoken in despondency is clear
enough for many reasons, but this one reason,
that they caused no despondency to the hearer*
would, to my mind, be sufficient of itself.

What this saying tells us is., that we are not
to look for Christ's Kingdom in the shape of a
perfected community existing at the last upon the
earth. Science and observation seem to point in
the same way. Men are never so selfish and so
regardless of others as when they are pushing for
place in a crowd. Now this globe can only yield
food for a time, it must be exhausted of its stores,
and even, it would seem, of its reproductive powers,
at last ; and a half-regenerated humanity would
be apt to degenerate back again when they were
struggling for standing room and for bread.

To take another point; though science has
not settled the future of this planet of ours, yet
opinion leans greatly towards our system's having
an end. But, if we accept Christ's teaching, Man
need not come to an end together with the fabric
of the world. The earth is only the spot upon
which he is reared and put to proof. Those who
come out of the trial we believe to be removed,
perhaps after an interval, to another kind of life
elsewhere ; so that, though this outer fabric of the
world may perish, Man, we may believe, will
survive, not in a material but in "a spiritual

4/2 THE LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION.

body1" whose nature of course we- cannot know.
Thus the Human episode in the great Epic of
Existence, may, as far as life upon this planet
goes, come to an end, but the Humanity for which
the Christian labours and for which Christ died,
will exist for ever; for the Spirits of just men
made perfect will have been garnered from age to
age into abodes prepared for them from the first.
And though Christ, in His wisdom, be sparing of
utterances about that which is winnowed away,
yet there are not wanting analogies justifying
hope.

The education of human souls to fitness for
everlasting spiritual life, is of all God's purposes
the one which we can most continuously discern.
No reign of peace and bliss upon this earth could
be of indefinite continuance ; a perfected Humanity
could only endure for a time. Consequently, if we
limit our Love to a Humanity visibly existing
on the earth, we give up our hearts to some-
thing which must necessarily come to an end : if
we make a Deity of this we shall serve but a
temporary God. But — although the earth should
be calcined to powder, or fly off into regions of
space where the temperature is fatal to life — still
that Humanity which has the Son of Man for its
central and presiding figure may abide with Him
for ever, in some of the many mansions of His
Father's House.

1 i Cor. xv. 44.

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX.

IT will be of service to readers to have a sum-
mary of the actions and movements of our Lord, in the
order in which they are treated of in the Text. Few of
the dates can be fixed with any certitude and it remains
a matter of opinion in what order many of the events
occurred. The only dates which can be historically
determined are those of the death of Herod, and of
the beginning (A.D. 25) and end (A.D. 36) of the Gover-
norship of Pilate ; with these latter I am not now con-
cerned. When St Luke names the fifteenth year of
Tiberius (A.D. 28, A.U.C. 781 beginning on August 19),
it is not quite certain whether he means to fix the
time when John began to preach, or when Jesus was
baptised, or when John was cast into prison. The
grounds for fixing the dates of our Lord's birth, His
appearance in public, and the duration of His Ministry
are given in Tischendorfs "Synopsis Evangelica." I
assume, as sufficiently admitted for my working hypo-
thesis, (i) that our Lord was born early in the year
B.C. 4, A.U.C. 750, in which, shortly before the passover,
as we learn from Josephus, Herod the Great died ; and
also (2) that the Baptism of our Lord took place in the
very beginning of A.D. 28.

474 CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX.

I propose to exhibit the order of events, taken month
by month, as I suppose them to have occurred. In the
greater number of cases I am supported by the authority
of Dr Edersheim in his work on the " Life and Times
of Jesus the Messiah," and also frequently by Bishop
Ellicott, from the Notes to whose Historical Lectures
on the Life of our Lord, delivered 1860, I have
obtained much help in forming this Appendix.

A.D. 28. January. A.U.C. 781.

I place the Baptism of our Lord near the close of
the month. This was immediately followed by His with-
drawal into the wilderness.

A.D. 28. February.

The whole of this month I suppose to have been
passed by our Lord in the wilderness.

A.D. 28. March.

About the loth or i2th of March our Lord appears
" in Bethany (or Bethabarah) beyond Jordan where John
was baptizing." John i. 28.

On the next day, John, Simon and Andrew come to
our Lord, and on that which follows our Lord " findeth
Philip," and "Philip findeth Nathanael." John i.

43> 45-

Indications in the Gospels of the season of the year
in which the events happened are so rare that we catch
even at slight matters — one such occurs here — Nathanael
is seen " sitting under the fig tree," John i. 48 ; and as

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX. 475

he would hardly have done so if the tree had been bare,
it is probable that at this time the fig tree was already
In leaf. It might have been so by March loth ; for the
climate of the Jordan valley, in the deep cleft of the
limestone rocks, far beneath the level of the Mediter-
ranean and three thousand feet lower than the hills of
Judaea, was almost tropical ; and fig trees, which on the
high ground about Jerusalem were not in leaf till April,
would be at least a month earlier at this "Peraean
Bethany," as the place is called by Bishop Ellicott

I suppose our Lord to have left "the place where
John was baptizing" not later than March loth and to
have been present at the marriage at Cana on or near
the 1 4th. The Passover in this year fell on the 301)1 of
March, and, assuming that our Lord reached Jerusalem
on the 28th March, a fortnight has to be accounted for.
I have explained, p. 165, what I suppose to have hap-
pened in the meanwhile, viz. that our Lord returned with
His family to Nazareth, which was 4 miles from Cana,
and that, owing to the displeasure shewn by the inhabi-
tants, either at His pretensions or at His having performed
His first miracle at another place, He and His mother,
His brethren and His disciples removed to Capernaum
— "there they abode not many days," John ii. 12. Our
Lord then went to Jerusalem, and His family, though not
mentioned, may have gone there also. Whether they
ever settled again at Nazareth is uncertain. They were at
Capernaum in March, A.D. 29, Mark iii. 21, 32. Observe
that the sisters of our Lord are not named : they
remained at Nazareth, where they were probably married.
We read, " Are not His sisters here with us ? " (implying
that the brothers were not so), Mark vi. 3.

476 CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX.

A.D. 28. April.

Our Lord during this month was with His disciples
at Jerusalem ; the events are related in St John, Chap,
ii. 13 to Chap. iii. 21.

A.D. 28. May.

Henceforth the Chronology depends greatly on the
time at which we suppose our Lord's journey through
Samaria to have taken place. I place it in May A.D. 28,
but many authorities put it in the December of that year.
We read,

" After these things came Jesus and his disciples into
the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and
baptized. And John also was baptizing in ^Enon near
to Salim, because there was much water there : and they
came, and were baptized." — John iii. 22, 23.

This choice of ^Enon on account of there being "much
water there" points to water having already become some-
what scarce elsewhere. There are in the North-eastern
part of Judaea only a few springs which never fail. These
are much valued, and one such spring at least was found
at JEnon; its site is doubtful (see Bishop Westcott,
"St John's Gospel"). If, as some have supposed, it
was late in the Autumn when our Lord made this
journey, water would be abundant enough in many
places, as the streams become full in November. I
speak of this because it bears out my view that our
Lord's journey through Samaria took place in the May
and not in the December of A.D. 28.

In the latter half of the former month, I suppose
that our Lord left Judaea and passed, with only a few
disciples, through Samaria into Galilee (see pp. 171,
i74, 176, 179)-

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX. 477

The verse—

"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then
cometh the harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your
eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white already
unto harvest," John iv. 35,
is important in determining the dates.

Some regard the above saying as having been spoken
soon after seed time ; and think that the first sentence
refers to the state of the corn at that moment, when
it would have been just coming up, it being then four
months from harvest : this would agree with the view
that the journey was taken at the end of December1,
and that the " whiteness to harvest " referred metaphori-
cally to the harvest of conversions the Apostles were to
reap. Others, among whom is Dr Edersheim, regard
the country as being at the time of speaking white
(that is bright) with harvest, and consider the words to
have been spoken in May and to bear a literal sense.
This latter view seems to me to agree best with the
incidents of the journey, many of which — our Lord's
weariness, His resting at the fountain2 and His asking for

1 The harvest in Palestine ripens at different times in different
localities; but as a general rule the barley-harvest may be con-
sidered as taking place from the middle to the close of April, and
the wheat -harvest about a fortnight later ; see Robinson, Palestine,
Vol. I. p. 431 (ed. 2), and compare Stanley, Palestine ', p. 240, note
(ed. 2). Note taken from Bishop Ellicott's Historical Lectures on
the " Life of our Lord," page 106.

3 John iv. 6. The marginal rendering of the Revised Version is
"Jesus... sat as he was by the well." The words in italics answer
to " thus," 00TW5. This means that He did not call for His cloke
and wrap it round Him, as in winter He would have done. This
is clearly eye-witness narration.

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX.

drink — wear, to my mind, an aspect of summer ; more-
over, the words " Say ye not " apply better to a maxim
of husbandry lying in the minds of the people, than
to such an indisputable fact as the time of year when
they were spoken. It would have seemed more natural
to say "Are we not four months now from harvest?"
It was a fact which was in every husbandman's mouth,
that the interval between seed time (December), and
barley harvest (April) was four months, and our Lord's
meaning is, " The husbandman has to wait four months
for his harvest, you begin at once to reap ; law-givers
and prophets and agencies unseen have sown for you."

A.D. 28. June.

Our Lord arrives at Cana in Galilee. A "certain
nobleman " comes to Him from Capernaum ; our Lord
heals his son, John iv. 46. The words " whatsoever we
have heard done at Capernaum," Luke iv. 23, refer I
think to this, if so, they help to fix the date of the
Preaching at Nazareth related in St Luke's Gospel,
chap. iv. 1 6 — 30. For additional reasons for placing the
Sermon in the synagogue at Nazareth at this time
instead of after John's imprisonment, see above, pp. 164,
165, 179, and also Dr Edersheim, "Life and Times of
Jesus," vol. i. p. 430.

It should be noted that we hear nothing of our Lord's
mother and brethren. If they had been in Nazareth,
they would probably have interposed as they subse-
quently did at Capernaum where we find them living,
Mark iii. 31.

The few disciples who came with our Lord through

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX. 479

Samaria probably went to their homes when He reached
Galilee, for St John does not speak of them afterwards.

This account of the Preaching at Nazareth is peculiar
to St Luke, I conceive it to have come into his hands
as an isolated piece of information, which he fits into
the history to the best of his judgment. The events at
Capernaum, which in the Gospel of St Luke (iv. 31 — 44)
are related immediately after this sermon, took place
after our Lord had come preaching the Kingdom (see
Mark i. 21 — 39). In the Sermon at Nazareth there is
no mention of the "Kingdom of God," nor do the
disciples seem to have been in attendance. This favours
the view that the public Ministry in Galilee had not yet
begun.

A.D. 28. July, August.

I believe our Lord to have spent this summer preach-
ing in the synagogues, not only of Galilee but also of
Judaea. With regard to the verse (Luke iv. 44), "and
he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee," we
have in the margin of the Revised Version "very many
ancient authorities read Judcea" We can understand
Judaea being altered into Galilee, to suit the mention
of Capernaum, but it is not easy to comprehend a
change from Galilee into Judaea (see also Acts x. 37).
It agrees with my view of our Lord's course that He
should at this time have been exploring the tempers of
the people both in Judaea and in Galilee ; and I believe
the summer of A.D. 28 to have been passed in this work.
The Lord may have gone about unattended or nearly so,
He had as yet bidden no one to follow except Philip
(John i. 43). The i$th year of Tiberius began in this

480 CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX.

August, but possibly St Luke might speak of the whole
year, from Jan. ist, by this name.

A.D. 28. September.

The feast of John v. which, both by Bishop Westcott
and Dr Edersheim, is spoken of as "the unknown feast,"
I believe to have taken place in this month. I am
inclined to identify it with the feast of Tabernacles, see
p. 181. It was, as I think, in this month that John was
imprisoned by Herod Antipas, who may have feared
that the great influence of the prophet would be especi-
ally dangerous when the country would be thronged
with visitors to the great feast. The Feast of Taber-
nacles in A.U.C. 781 began on Sept. 18, and lasted till
Sept. 29. Josephus, "Antiquities of the Jews," Bk. xviii.
Chap, v, Whiston's translation, gives the following
account : " Now, when [many] others came in crowds
about him, for they were greatly moved [or pleased] by
hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great
influence John had over the people might put it into
his power and inclination to raise rebellion (for they
seemed to do any thing he should advise), 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. Accordingly he was sent a
prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus,
the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to
death." The Gospel account is not at variance with
this, for if John denounced Herod's intentions with
regard to Herodias as a violation of Law, this would

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX. 481

be likely to increase the disaffection of the people.
When the news reaches our Lord (probably in Judaea)
He goes at once into Galilee (Matth. iv. 12, 13; Mark
i. 14; Acts x. 37) and His public preaching of the
Kingdom of God begins.

A.D. 28. October •, November, December.

Early in October our Lord comes to the sea of
Galilee and calls Simon and Andrew and James and
John. Matth. iv. T8; Mark i. 16 — 19; Luke v. 4.

Following this, comes His residence at Capernaum,
and the events of Mark i. 14 — 45, and Mark ii.

A.D. 29. January, Febmary. A.U.C. 782.

The events of Mark iii. may be placed here.

The call of the Twelve (Mark iii. 13, 14; Luke vi. 13)
probably took place early in February. Neither St
Matthew nor St John gives an express account of the
calling, but both refer to it, "And he called unto him
his twelve disciples," Matt. x. i ; and, "Jesus said
therefore unto the Twelve," John vi. 67. I suppose it
to have been near the end of the month when the two
disciples sent by John the Baptist came to Christ.
Matth. xi. 2 ; Luke vii. 18.

A.D. 29. March.

In this month I should place the following events in
the order given below :

(1) The teaching by parables. Matth. xiii. 3;

Mark iv. i ; Luke viii. 4.

(2) The visit to the country of the Gerasenes (or

Gadarenes). Matth, viii. 28 ; Mark v. i ;
Luke viii. 26,

i- 31

482 CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX.

(3) The raising of Jairus' daughter, Matth. ix. 18;

Mark v. 21 — 41 ; Luke viii. 41.

(4) The second visit to Nazareth. "And he

went out from thence; and he cometh
into his own country; and his disciples
follow him;" Mark vi. i, also Matth. xiii. 54.
This mention of " disciples" is one of
many circumstances which distinguish this
visit to Nazareth from that of Luke iv. 15.

(5) The sending out of the twelve two by two.

Matth. x. i ; Mark vi. 7 : Luke ix. i.

(6) Execution of John the Baptist. Tischendorf

is inclined to think that Herod was cele-
brating not his birthday but his accession,
which took place on the death of Herod
the Great about ten days before the Pass-
over, which in A.U.C. 750 fell on April 2.
This conjecture is doubtful. Matth. xiv. 2 ;
Mark vi. 21 ; Luke iii. 19.

A.D. 29. April.

The order of events in this month I take to have
been, approximately, as follows :

(1) Herod's misgiving that John had risen from the
dead. Matth. xiv. 2 ; Mark vi. 16.

(2) Our Lord, on the return of the twelve, crosses
the lake. Matth. xiv. 13; Mark vi. 32 ; Luke ix. 10.

(3) The Passover was now at hand, John vi. 4,
Feeding of the five thousand, Matth. xiv. 15 ; Mark vi.
35 ; Luke ix. 12 ; John vi. 5. The walking on the sea,
Matth. xiv. 25; Mark vi. 48; John vi. 19.

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX. 483

The day of the passover A.D. 29 was the i8th of
April. What is mentioned by St Mark, viz. that the
multitude sat down on "the green grass," agrees with
this indication of the season. It was only during a
short time in spring, and then only in a few places,
that green grass was found in Palestine. This im-
pressed itself on the narrator, and is an indication of
eye-witness work; it is what critics call "autoptic."
There is no mention of green grass in the feeding of
the 4000 which was in the late summer. This miracle
was followed by the return to Capernaum (Discourse on
the bread of life, John, chap, vi.) and the controversy
with the Pharisees on traditions, Matth. xv. i, 20;
Mark vii. i — 23.

A.D. 29. May, June, July, August.

(1) Journey to the borders of Tyre and Sidon,
Matth. xv. 21 ; Mark vii. 24.

(2) Return from thence.

" And again he went out from the borders of Tyre,
and came through Sidon unto the sea of Galilee and
through the midst of the borders of Decapolis " (on the
east of the sea of Galilee), Matth. xv. 29 ; Mark vii. 31.

(3) There the feeding of the four thousand takes
place (see under April). Matth. xv. 32 ; Mark viii. i.

(4) Our Lord crosses the lake " into the borders of
Magadan," Matth. xv. 39 ; or " into the parts of Dalman-
utha," Mark viii. 10, this was on the western coast.
He then proceeds to the north of the lake ; there He
heals the blind man at Bethsaida Julias.

(5) "And Jesus went forth, and his disciples intc
the villages of Caesarea Philippi," Mark xiii. 33. Con«

31—2

4^4

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX.

fession of Peter, Matth. xvi. 13 ; Mark viii. 29 ; Luke
ix. 20.

(6) The Transfiguration ; Matth. xvii. i ; Mark ix. 2 ;
Luke ix. 28.

(7) Return of our Lord with Peter, James and John
from the Mount, to the place where He had left the
disciples. Mark ix. 9.

A.D. 29. September.

"They went forth from thence and passed through
Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it,"
Mark ix. 30, "and they came to Capernaum," Mark

ix.33-

The miracle of the stater in the fish's mouth (Matth.

xvii. 24) is usually placed at this point of the narrative.
We have no other account than that given in St Mat-
thew's Gospel, where it seems to be related as happening
at this time. But the evidence as to chronology is not
conclusive. This stater or half-shekel was the payment
for the Temple service, and we know that this was levied
in March. That the demand should be made in Sep-
tember is explained by saying that our Lord's absence
since April might have prevented the collection of the
tax. It is however possible that this event may have
taken place in March, A.D. 30, see below.

Our Lord, leaving Capernaum, made the journey
through Samaria to Jerusalem, John vii. 3, Luke ix. 51,
56, arriving there about the i8th of September, which
in this year was the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles.
The sending out of the Seventy took place soon after-
wards, Luke x. i.

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX. 485

A.D. 29. October.

Our Lord takes up His residence in Judaea, possibly
at Bethany, see p. 370. Incident of woman taken in
adultery, John viii. i. Our Lord in the house of Martha,
Luke x. 38 — 40.

November.

Our Lord probably passed this month in Judaea.
Many of the events of Luke, chapters xi., xii., xiii.
may have occurred at this time, but we must not
conclude for certain from St Luke's account that the
events of these chapters all fell together in one short
period. Some of them are related by St Matthew in a
different connexion ; it seems impossible to place them
in order.

A.D. 29. December.

The Feast of dedication (encaenia), John x. 22, fell
in this year on the 2oth of December, and lasted eight
days. At the end of our Lord's discourse at this feast,
St John says "They sought again to take him : and he
went forth out of their hand. And he went away again
beyond Jordan into the place where John was at first
baptizing, and there he abode." John x. 39, 40.

A.D. 30. January. A.U.C. 783.

Our Lord may have remained at the place just
mentioned, "the Peraean Bethany " (see A.D. 28, March),
during this month, having probably only a few followers
with Him.

"And many came unto him; and they said, John

486 CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX.

indeed did no sign: but all things whatsoever John
spake of this man were true." John x. 41.

The people contrast Him with John. This agrees with
what is said of the place, viz. that John had baptized
there ; the people recollected him. The teaching of our
Lord in Peraea, of which we have an account only in
Luke, chaps, xv., xvi., was probably given about this
time.

A.D. 30. February.

Early in this month our Lord leaves Peraea, where
He had been travelling about, being warned by the
Pharisees —

" And he went on his way through cities and villages,
teaching, and journeying on unto Jerusalem." Luke
xiil 22.

" In that very hour there came certain Pharisees, say-
ing to him, Get thee out, and go hence : for Herod
would fain kill thee." St Luke xiii. 31.

A.D. 30. March.

While on this progress the news of the sickness of
Lazarus reaches our Lord. He seems then to have
been little more than a day's journey from Jerusalem,
but outside the limits of Judaea :

"The sisters therefore sent unto him, saying, Lord,
behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. But when Jesus
heard it, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but
for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be
glorified thereby1." John xi. 3, 4.

1 This glorifying consisted not in its gaining Him glory in the
common sense but in its being an event leading Him to the Cross,
to the fullest abandonment to His Father's will. This is the true
glory. Compare John xii. 28, xxi. 19.

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX. 487

"When therefore he heard that he was sick, he
abode at that time two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he saith to the disciples, Let us go into
Judaea again." John xi. 6, 7.

After the raising of Lazarus, the chief priests and
Pharisees "from that day forth took counsel that they
might put him (Jesus) to death : Jesus therefore walked
no more openly among the Jews, but departed thence
into the country near to the wilderness, into a city
called Ephraim ; and there he tarried with the disciples."
John xi. 53, 54.

From Ephraim, the position of which is uncertain,
(Dr Edersheim, as I understand him, thinks it may have
been near the north end of the sea of Galilee, in
Decapolis,) our Lord passes through "the midst of
Samaria and Galilee" — St Luke xvii. n.

This would seem, from the order in which the places
are named, to refer to the journey on the way north to
Ephraim, but no certain conclusion can be drawn.
Towards the end of the month, our Lord joins the
company of people on their way from Galilee to
Jerusalem, passing by Jericho. The incidents of the
journey and the important discourses on the way are
related in Mark, chap, x., and in the parallel passages
of Matthew and Luke.

The question arises, Where did our Lord join this
company? I incline to think that after a short stay
at Capernaum, He went with the Galilean company up
to the Passover. During the stay at Ephraim, the
disciples would have had leisure to turn over in their
minds what they had seen and heard; especially the
raising of Lazarus, and the words to Martha on eternal

488 CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX.

life, the plainest our Lord ever spoke 5 John xi. 25.
It is our Lord's way, as I have often pointed out, to leave
intervals for reflection. On the way south (supposing
that Ephraim was to the north), with His small company
of disciples, He may have made a short stop at Caper-
naum, where, according to my view (see p. 372), St Peter
may have partly resided since the feast of Tabernacles,
joining from time to time the disciples in attendance on
our Lord. Jesus would, on this supposition, be in
St Peter's house in the month of March when the
officers, in due course, called for the Temple contri-
bution, and in this way we avoid the hypothesis of a
payment overdue (see under Sept A.D. 29). It may
be noted that the officers make no question about
Peter's paying the half-shekel ; he was a regular resident
and their claim was undoubted, but our Lord had been
long absent and was only passing through the place, so
that in His case the payment was less obligatory. This
is one view of the matter, but I am inclined to think
from the form of the collector's question, " Your Master,
does not He pay?" (Matth. xvii. 24) that they half
expected an objection on higher grounds. The internal
evidence, that is to say the tone of doctrine, which
appears in the words, "Then are the children free,"
favours the adopting the later period, inasmuch as it
reminds us of the later discourses in chaps, xv., xvi.,
xvii. of John.

A.D. 30. April

Our Lord may have made His entry into Jerusalem
on Sunday, April 2. He returned that night to Bethany

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX. 489

after looking "round about upon all things." Mark
xi. ii.

Monday, April 3. Cursing of fig tree on the way
to Jerusalem (see March, A.D. 28), Matth. xxi. 19; Mark
xi. 13. Cleansing of Temple, Matth. xxi. 12; Mark
xi. 15 ; Luke xix. 45. Return to Bethany, Mark xi. 19.
Either on this day or the next, the Greeks seek Jesus,
John xii. 20.

Tuesday, April 4. Tree is found withered. Parables
delivered in Temple. Controversies with Pharisees,
Herodians and Sadducees. Our Lord takes leave of the
Temple; Mark xi. 20 and chaps, xii., xiii. and parallel
passages in Matthew and Luke.

Wednesday, April 5. Treason of Judas.

Thursday, April 6. Last Supper. Our Lord's appre-
hension.

Friday, April 7. The Crucifixion.

Sunday, April 9. The Resurrection.

I should place the journey of the Apostles to Galilee
in the subsequent week. This change would do the
Apostles good in many ways. It would relieve the
strain on their minds, and was medicine for the shock
they had received. For our Lord's care for the physical
and mental health of His followers, see text, p. 302, on
the words, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert
place and rest a while."

During this stay in Galilee, there took place the
appearance of our Lord on the mountain, which I take
to be that named, i Cor. xv. 6 (see text, last chapter),
and at this time I also place the important interview
of our Lord with James, our Lord's brother, i Cor. xv.
1 7, and probably with the rest of His brethren, see below.

4QO CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX.

A.D. 30. May.

The appearance at the sea of Tiberias (but see
Mr Sanday on the " Authorship of the Fourth Gospel,"
chap, xvii.) may have taken place in this month, as also
the return of the Apostles from Galilee to Jerusalem
with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and the
brethren of our Lord. The latter, possibly, had not been
in Jerusalem at the Crucifixion, but had at last learned,
perhaps through James, the fulness of their brother's
greatness. The Apostles as well as the relations of our
Lord must have been enjoined to return to Jerusalem,
or they would not without exception have gone thither.
The Feast of Pentecost was not a sufficiently imperative
call to account for their presence. This injunction must
have been given in Galilee. If we had only St Luke's
account, we should suppose that the Apostles never left
Jerusalem; but this would in itself be unlikely and is
contradicted by the other Evangelists. The day given
for the Ascension by Wieseler, " Chronologic des Apos-
tolischen Zeitalters," 1848, is May 18.

The Ascension was followed by the choice of
Matthias.

The day of Pentecost, as fixed by Wieseler, was
May 27, A.D. 30.

INDEX OF TEXTS.

GENESIS.

JEREMIAH.

S. MATTHEW

PAGE

PAGE

PAGE

Hi. 18, 19 44

vi. 31

396

XVI. 22

126

xxviii. 12 161

23

329

S. MATTHEW

24, 25

34°

DEUTERONOMY.

iii. 5

189

xvii. 12

348

xviii. 15 94

iv. i

117

25

133

xix. 1 6 396

i — ii

114

xviii. i — ii

356

18 396

20

1 86

21

469

vi. 25

404

21, 22

358

II SAMUEL.

vii. 17

259

xix. 6

408

xii. 13 420

viii. 19

375

xxii. 42, 43

415

ix. 14—17

220

xxiv. 24

75

JOB.

36-38

234

25

413

xiii. 4 396

X. 2— 6

162

xxv. 14 — 30

316

5—15

290

xxviii. 1 6

451

PSALMS.

xi. 2 — 6

262

19

250

cxix. 162 232

12

232

xxviii. 20

69

21

106

PROVERBS.

xii. 28

83

S. MARK.

vi. 19 396

3°

358

i. 12, 13

114

xii. 17 396

46

1 80

14

1 88

xiii. 10

321

14, 15 83,

195

ISAIAH.

xiv. 17

22

1 6 — 20

195

vi. 10 321

23

229

20

305

xi. i 160

xvi. 13 — 20

327

22

202

492

INDEX OF TEXTS.

S. MARK.

S. MARK.

• S. LUKE.

PAGE

PAGE

PAGE

ii. 16-22

220

vii- 33—36

334

iv. 14, 15

179

in. 5

19

viii. 5 — 7

305

v. 4

200

6,7

233

ii

335

8

2O2

i3» 14

a 39

14

306

'7

218

14, 15

229

16, 17

306

33

155

17—19

161

23—25

90

vi. 12

239

2O, 21

261

23 — 26

334

17—19

253

26

126

ix, i

340

20

253

32

288

2—8

94

22, 23

254

IV. II

30

7

94

23

79

II, 11

321

9

345

24 — 26

255

24

323

17—29

350

27

257

35

283

3° 35'»

354

39.40

257

35—40

274

31

227

43

259

37—40

283

33

354

vii. 1 8 — 23

266

V. I

48

35

355

20

107

17

286

40—50

360

21—23

1 08

'9

84

x. i 227,

361

23

264

30

351

17 — 22

381

29.30

265

37

287

24

383

35

264

vi. 1-6

1 80

30

384

viii. i — 3

276

2

362

xi. 10

427

3

1 66

3 28*

5.454

12 — 14

96

26

48

7—13

289

2O 22

96

ix. 27

93

30—32

302

oi) o/

4J5

31

324

30

300

xiii. 22

75

37

348

34

307

xiv. 9

400

5', 52

279

38

305

50

240

51—56

366

39,40

278

xv. 31

139

52

296

45,46

307

xvi. 20

84

48

355

47—52

308

55

138

50

310

S. LUKE.

X. I — II

290

vii. 14, 15

33'

ii. 4

415

4— ii

379

24

333

35 52,

161

9— ii

300

33

427

iv. 1—13

"5

ii 68

.83

33—35

Qi

13

339

13

106

INDEX OF TEXTS.

493

S. LUKE.

S. LUKE.

S. JOHN.

PAGE

PAGE

PAGE

x. 18

126

xxiv. 36

240

v. 43 184,

300

21

300

48

341

vi- 4, 5

303

21, 22 178,

302

5

306

22

73

S. JOHN.

8

'57

Xi. I 155, 221,

4J5

»• 3^, 33

109

9

304

20

83

43 '56,

182

J5 *3>

307

27

376

45

156

25—65

328

29

428

46

156

44

338

xii. 14

403

48,49

160

60—63

33«

1 6 — 20

404

161

66 1 68,

3*9

36

404

ii. ii 152,

163

vii. 2

181

41

372

12 152, 164,

1 80

2 — IO

363

41—46

368

16

167

14

369

49, 50

150

17

152

35

369

xiii. 23

428

23 153,

167

53

370

xiv. 15

376

24 176,

246

viii. i

370

xv. 10 178,

389

24,25

167

ix. 1-3

46

xvi. i — 12

39 »

iii. 2

148

x. 16

269

8

389

22

153

40 119,

37*

3°

144

22, 23

170

xi. 16 245, 372,

430

31

63

25 155,

330

^ 48

183

xvii. 5

397

26

170

xii. 20 — 22

158

xviii. 8

27

IV. I, 2

171

xiii. i — 14

420

'9

428

2

153

xiv. 4 — ii

IOI

xix. ii — 27

316

27

409

6

73

26

3i9

31

175

9 159»

415

29

297

35—38

177

ii

IO2

xx. 35

68

43—45

164

19

428

35, 36

4ro

45

179

xv. 15

176

4l

4x5

47

105

23, 24

1 06

xxi. 19

414

48 76,

104

27

241

xxii. 8

297

v. i 179'

181

xvi. 4

35*

24—3°

423

15—18

182

7,8

457

28

178

17

183

8— ii

462

33

376

26

89

ia

69

35-38

291

35

189

xvii. 3

68

494

INDEX OF TEXTS.

S. JOHN.

ACTS.

PAGE

PAGE

xvii. 6

68

xvi. 6—8 459

xxi. a

156

xviii. 21 100

*5

420

ROMANS.

ACTS.

v. 8 470

i. 8 216.

241

i CORINTHIANS.

14 362,

453

i. 12 174

15

452

14—15 155

22

241

ix. i 454

ii. 32

241

xiv. 24 71

4'

199

xv. 5—8 450

Hi. 15
iv. 32
35

241

385
383

6 45i
44 471

x. 40, 41 143,

447

GALATIANS.

34. 35

95

1. 13 97

4^

241

ii. 9— 12 453

xil

'39

11—14 433

2 369,

453

iv. 6 68, 72

xiii. 31

241

vi. i, a 425

PHILIPPIANS.

PAGE
ii. 13 466

1 TIMOTHY.

vi. 17 396

2 TIMOTHY.

iv. 2 173

13 119

HEBREWS.
xi. i ( 273

JAMES.
i. 20 245

i PETER.
ii. a3 167

i JOHN.
i. i 446

GENERAL INDEX.

Address to newly chosen Apostles,
253—261

Advent of our Lord into Galilee,
1 88, 189

Andrew, 157

Animosity of people of Nazareth,
when first shewn, 165

Apologue, 125, 126

Apostles (The), named in pairs
by Matthew, reason suggested,
162 ; must have been directed
to return to Jerusalem for the
Ascension, 194, 451; not fit
men to promulgate Theological
doctrines, 230; general charac-
teristics of the, 247 ; not men
whom the Founder of a policy
would have chosen, 249; the
chosen three, 325, 327; the
crowning lesson of, 465; steps
by which they learnt Faith in
an unseen presence, 467; taught
Love, 468 j taught Hope, 470

Ascension, 457; expedient that
Christ should go away, 457;
Holy Spirit swaying human
action, 459

Astonishment produced by our

Lord's teaching, 202
Authority manifested by Christ,

167, 203 — 206

Baptist (The) and his disciples,
153 — 155; competition with,
shunned by our Lord, 173

Baptist's (The) messengers, their
arrival, 262; their questio i and
their answer, 268

Bartholomew, 159, see Nathanael

Bethany in Persea (Bethabara), 119,
161, 168, 189 note

Bethany in Judaea, when did our
Lord first resort thither? 370

Bethsaida Julias, 334

Brethren of our Lord, 362, 453

Christ leaves disciples independent ,
5 ; with them after the Re-
surrection, 9, 274; influence of
His Personality, 16, 17; did
He from the first see all that
lay before Him? 140; explores
the tempers of different classes

GENERAL INDEX.

of men, 148 ; His return from
the wilderness, 151; calls to
him certain disciples, 151; at
Cana and Capernaum, 152;
leaves time for impressions to fix
themselves, 185; arrives at the
Lake of Galilee and calls the
brethren, 195 — 198; His way
of proceeding positive, 208;
enjoins no system of religious
observance, 222; why did He
not found a church Himself?
236; lays stress on what men
are, as well as on what they do,
259 ; ceases to have a stationary
abode, 270; educational effects
of the change of place, 275
— 279; journey to borders of
Tyre and Sidon, 333 ; at Caesa-
rea Philippi, 336—338 (see
Transfiguration) ; returns to Ca-
pernaum after the Transfigura-
tion, 354 ; sets out for the feast of
Tabernacles, 359 — 362; refusing
to judge, 399; upholds sanctity
of marriage, 409; disclaims for
the Messiah the title of Son
of David, 415; does not look
to visibly converting the world,
416 ; the washing the disciples'
feet, an acted parable, 419;
always endeavours to set men
free, 460; calls the conscience
into play, 467; His Kingdom
not upon earth, 471
Christian revelation centred in a
Fact, 230

Demoniac in country of Gadarenes,

285

Didrachma, paying of, 406
Disciples not in attendance at first

visit to Nazareth, 180; doubtful

if present at feast, John v., 181 ;

early Judaean, 188
Dives and Lazarus, parable of, 62

Ecce Homo, quoted, p. 412.
Edersheim, Dr, life and times of

Jesus the Messiah, quoted, 139,

140, 329, 334, 394 ; on our

Lord's conversing with the

woman at Sychar, 409
Eloquence, its small part in the

Divine economy, 250
Erskine of Linlathen, quotation,

40
Evil, existence of, 29; functions

of, in the world, 43 — 51

Family, description of a, re-
strained from knowing evil, 30
-36

Feast of the Jews, John v. i, 181
Five (The) first called, John, An-
drew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael,
156

Form of Christ's Teaching, 209
Free Will, 29; implies liberty to
go wrong, 41

Galilseans receive our Lord, 179
Galilee, why suited for cradle of

movement, 169
Gospel of St John, surely written

by a disciple, 1 = 1, 157

GENERAL INDEX.

497

Gospels, advantages of narrative
form, 13, 461

Herodians, 233

Inheritance, The disputed, 403

James, our Lord's brother, 452 —

454

James and John, the sons of thun-
der, 365, 368

Jerusalem, not a favourable spot
for the schooling of the apostles,
190; not desirable that the
Christian community should
originate there, 192

Judas Iscariot, 246

Laws of our Lord's conduct —
sense in which term is used, 2,
18—20, 306

Lazarus, raising of, 429

Levi (see also Matthew), 214

Levitical Law, 207

Mammon of unrighteousness, 395

—397

Matthew, 214 — 216; his call a
proof that Christ was no re-
specter of persons, 217

Messiah, what the people expected
him to be, 329

Milton, 'Paradise Regained,' 124

Miracle of feeding of the 5000,
304; of Christ walking on sea,
308 ; of feeding of the 4000, 305

Miracles, standing, not to be ex-
pected, 65; use of, 75; Laws

of, 112; as works of bene-
ficence, 333

Miraculous draught of fishes, 198,
202

Mission (The) to the cities, 8, 288;
referred to by our Lord, 291
— 293; effects of these mission
journeys, 295 ; directions given,
295—300

Mission of Seventy, 289, 301 — 302

Moses, 207

Nathanael, 159, 161
Natural Selection, 26, 314
Nazareth, preaching in synagogues

at, 79 ; second visit of Christ to,

287
Negative characteristics of Christ's

teaching, TO
Nicodemus, 148, 169, 172

Parables, 312 ; that of the talents,
317; that of the pounds, 318;
intended not to hide truth but
to show it, 323; of the unjust
steward, 388 and preface

Passover, 2nd, at time of feeding
of the 5000, 303 ; see Teaching

Peter, with our Lord at the Pass-
over, A.D. 28, probably returned
to Galilee, 166; how far in
attendance before call, 1 66 ; his
giving himself up on a sudden,
to one impression, 244; was he
in constant attendance during
the winter, A.D. 29, 30? 372
note ; his practical character,
248, 455 J denials of, 433

32

498

GENERAL INDEX.

Pharisees, their hostility and that
of the Sadducees contrasted, 218

Philip, 158, 306

Preparatio Evangelica, 153 — 194

Preparation, noted in our Lord's
ways, 80, 94

Prospective action of our Lord,
411

Receiving a hundred fold " with
persecutions," 381

Resurrection, grandeur in the con-
ception of the Risen Christ,
450; appearance of Christ to
500 brethren at once, 451;
appearance to James, 453 ;
literary aspect of the history
of, 449 ; duration of post Resur-
rection period, 464

Revelation, 52 — 73 ; "should be
written in the skies," this de-
mand considered, 59

Ruler, the young, 38 1

Sabbath, its value, 219 ; our Lord's
practice in relation to, 220

Samaria, ist journey through, 175

Sanday, Mr, authorship and his-
torical character of the fourth
Gospel, references, 105, 328

Satan, 120, 125

Seed thoughts, 212 ; see Sermon
on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount, not a Code
of Laws, 210, 21 1 ; contains
seed thoughts % 2 1 2

Sex ceases with life upon earth,
410

Signs and Wonders: their laws,
21 ; distinguished, 75; functions
of, to attract hearers, 77 ; for
selection, 79; for preparation,
80; for setting forth the king-
dom, 82 ; for general teaching,
84; they shew that God does
not respect persons, 87 ; they
do not wholly supersede the
processes of nature, 88, 89;
practical lessons furnished by
them to disciples, 91; Laws of,
recapitulated, 112

Signs, sparingly displayed after
the Feast of Tabernacles, 425;
absence of public and notable
signs during the Passion week.

430

Silas, 139

Simon the Zealot, 245
Spiritual order, how far analogous

to natural selection, 314, 315
Storm on sea of Galilee, 283
Successors inheriting a cause, 414,

443

Suffer me first to bury my father,

377

Synoptists, term explained, 157
note

Tabernacles, Feast of, 181
Teaching in parables, 12, 280 —

282, 321
Teaching of Christ, its form, 209 ;

that for the multitudes and that

for the disciples, 225
Temptation, to turn stones into

loaves, 1 2 7 — 1 35 ; on the Mount,

GENERAL INDEX.

499

134 — 139; on the pinnacle of
Temple, 139 — 141

Temptations in the wilderness,
form of the narrative, 1 1 3 — 117;
where communicated to disciples,
119; whether literal history,
119

Transfiguration, 93, 341—348

Trench, Archbishop, on demo-
niacs, 284 ; on the miracles, 396

Tribute to Caesar, 406

Twelve, the, their call, 239 ; their
fitness for the work which fell

to them, 239; their character as
witnesses, 241 — 243

Universality of Christ's Kingdom,
10, 415

Wisdom justified of all her child-
ren, 264 — 269

Withering of fig-tree, 95, 432

Witnessing to Christ the first
function of the Apostles, 216,
241

Woman taken in adultery, 405

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