Stories from the New Testament, for children

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NEW TESTAMENT
for CHILDREN: By

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

STORIES FROM THE NEW
TESTAMENT FOR CHILDREN

The Teaching of Jesus

Stories from tfje
jgeto Cesitament

FOR CHILDREN

BY

ELSA BARKER

AUTHOR OF "THE SON OF MARY BETHEL," AND " THE FROZEN GRAIL
AND OTHER POEMS "

NEW YORK

DUFFIELD & COMPANY

1911

COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY
DUFFIELD & COMPANY

ZEffbOk

CI.A297714

TO

MY LITTLE FRIEND

PAUL EUGENE LLOYD

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I.— The Baby in the Stable

II.— The Shepherds on the Hills .
III.— The Wise Men and the Star .
IV.— Over the Hills to Egypt .
V.— The Little Teacher in the Temple
VI.— The Voice Crying in the Wilderness
VII.— Alone for Forty Days .
VIII.— The Marriage at Cana
IX.— Rejected By His Neighbours
X.— The Favourite City of Jesus .
XI.— The Sermon on the Mount .
XII.— Stilling the Storm .
XIII.— The Little Daughter of Jairus
XIV.— The Messengers ....
XV.— The Angel of the Pool .
XVI.— John the Baptist ....
XVII.— A Day of Miracles .
XVIII. —The Shining Form
XIX.— The Women Friends of Jesus
XX.— The Enemies in Jerusalem
XXL— The Raising of Lazarus .
XXII. —Jesus and the Little Children
vii

PAGE

1
15

53
71
83
91
103
113
127
141
147
153
159
165
179
187
195
203
211

viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XXIII.— Jesus and the Rich Young Man ... 235

XXIV.— The Mother of James and John . . 241

XXV.— Two Men of Jericho 247

XXVI.— The Alabaster Box 261

XXVII.— The Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem . 271

XXVIII.— The Cleansing of the Temple ... 285

XXIX.— The Master and the Questioners . . 295

XXX.— On the Mount of Olives .... 309

XXXI.— Judas Iscariot 321

XXXII.— The Last Supper 335

XXXIII.— The Garden of Gethsemane .... 351

XXXIV.— In the Hands of His Enemies ... 361

XXXV.— The Death of Jesus 381

XXXVI.— The Resurrection 397

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Teaching of Jesus Frontispiece r

FACING PAGE

In Egypt 36

Jesus Healing Blind Bartimaeus 252

Bearing the Cross 382

Stories from the New Testament
for Children

CHAPTER I

THE BABY IN THE STABLE

A long time ago, on the other side of the world, there
lived a beautiful young girl whose name was Mary. She
had no brothers or sisters to play with, and her parents
were quite old when she was born. They were called
simply Joachim and Anna, for in those days people did
not have surnames as we have now. Long afterward
Anna was called a great saint, and millions of men and
women still honour her name — just because she was the
mother of the girl Mary, whose life was so beautiful that
even now, after nearly two thousand years, she is loved
by the whole world. Her pictures are in half the Chris-
tian churches ; and to this day many persons, when they
pray to God, ask Him to answer their prayers and to give
them what they want, "for Mary's sake."

But when she was a young girl no one dreamed of all
the strange and sad and wonderful things that were going
to happen to her in after years. She was much like the
other girls in that far-away country, except perhaps tht.t
she was lovelier to look at, more serious and thoughtful,
and kinder than the others were to poor people and to the
old.

1

2 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

If you close your eyes, perhaps you can see her in
imagination, in her little red dress with a blue cape
round her shoulders, going to the village well with a
brown earthen jar to draw water for her mother to use in
their little home. For in those days each family did not
have a well of their own, or draw their water from a
faucet in the house, as we do ; but they had a large public
well, or fountain, where all the women went for water.
Sometimes, when they were not too busy, the girls and
women would stand a long time together at the well, and
tell each other all the happenings of the day and the gos-
sip of the neighbouring villages. They had no news-
papers then, and the people had to learn from one another
what was going on here and there.

And the little Mary used to help her mother with the
spinning and the weaving, for they made all their own
clothes, and usually the cloth of which the clothes were
made. We may be sure, from what we learn of her in
after life, that no girl in the village could weave a
smoother cloth than hers, or sew a straighter seam. So
she lived, quietly and happily like any other girl, until
she had grown to be as tall as her mother, and was a
young woman and no longer a little girl.

Now these people who lived in Judaea and Galilee
were Jews, a very ancient race whose long history you
can read in the Old Testament of the Bible; and for
thousands of years they had suffered a great deal from
the people of other nations, who had made wars against
them, and had taken away many things which really
belonged to the Jews, and had made them pay taxes for
the support of foreign governments and kings. And the
hearts of the Jews were sad, for they knew how many
ages their forefathers had been free and independent ; and
they did not like being ruled by foreign kings, whose

THE BABY IN THE STABLE 3

fathers had been wild people of the woods. The Jews
were very proud of their ancient race, and they treasured
their old books and histories which told the stories of their
ancestors, Abraham and Moses, King David and King
Solomon, and Elijah the great prophet.

Mary had learned from her father and mother, and
from the other old men and women who often came in
the evenings to sit in the house of Joachim and Anna, all
the stories of her ancient race : proud stories of the times
gone by when they were free; sad stories of the present
time when they were ruled by the Romans, whose em-
peror lived in the great far-away city of Rome, in the land
which is now called Italy. And she also heard from the
old people how the great prophets, the wise men of the
days gone by, had said that after a long time, when
the Jews should be sadder and more enslaved than they
had ever been before, God Himself, whom they called
Jehovah, would come down to the earth and be born
as a man, a Jew, and deliver the people. And the
deliverer who was to come, the man who would be God
Himself, they called the Messiah- — which means the
Christ.

All her life Mary had heard the old people talk about
the Christ who was to come and make the Jewish people
once more free. When she was alone she thought of it a
great deal. And when she grew to be a young woman, as
tall as her mother, she used to talk about it with her
young friends ; and they said among themselves that surely
the happiest woman in all the world would be she who
should become the mother of the future Christ. For
then, as now, it was considered a beautiful and sacred
thing to be a mother; and to be the mother of the Christ
would be the most wonderful thing that could come to
any woman.

4 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Sometimes, in the evening, she would go out and
stand in the little path before her father's house, under
the sky, and look up at the glittering stars, the very-
same stars which you see now when the nights are clear;
for though the nations of the earth may rise and pass
away, the stars have always been and always will be.
They are eternal, like God; and, like Him, they seem to
watch the people on the earth. And the stillness of the
stars seemed to tell Mary and the other dwellers in Judaea
and Galilee, as it tells us, to be patient when things go
wrong, and to wait until God is ready to help us set them
right. But when Mary was looking at the stars she used
to think, more than at any other time, about the Christ
who was to come, and about her who should be his mother.
And sometimes she asked God that the time of his com-
ing might be soon. But she never dared to ask God
more than that.

Now there lived, not far from the home of Mary and
her parents, a man named Joseph. He was a good man,
some years older than Mary, and he was a carpenter.
In those days and among the Jews of Galilee, people
were not ashamed to work with their hands. They
thought it honourable, as it really is now; and the car-
penter was often the most respected man in the village.
It was so with Joseph. And when he told the parents of
Mary that he wished to marry their daughter, they were
glad ; for they knew that he would give her a good home
and work hard for her, and that with him she would
never lack the wool from which to weave the close red
gown she liked so much to wear, and the full blue cape
that kept her warm when the wind from the sea behind
the hills blew cold over Galilee.

But as Mary was still very young, her mother, the
good Anna who afterward was called a saint, thought it

THE BABY IN THE STABLE 5

better to wait yet a few months before giving her daugh-
ter in marriage to Joseph the carpenter.

Now when Mary realised that she would soon be mar-
ried, she began to spin and weave more busily than be-
fore; and often, in the quiet afternoons, as she sat with
her distaff in her hand, her thoughts went back to the
stories she had heard about the Messiah, the Christ who
would be born among the Jews, to make them good and
to set them free. And as she mused thus alone at her
peaceful work, she thought more and more about the
happy woman, perhaps even then living somewhere in
Galilee, a maiden like herself, who would, in the time
which God should choose, become the mother of the
Christ.

And one moonlight night in spring, after she had gone
to bed, she lay awake a long time, looking at the rays
of blue-grey moonlight which filtered into her chamber
through the one small window at her head. In those days
the people of Galilee did not sleep on beds of wood or
iron, as we do, but on mats, which they spread out each
night upon the floor. As Mary lay there, she thought
about the Christ who was to come. And her heart was so
full of love for the Jewish people, her friends who suffered
so much and still must suffer more, that her eyes filled
with tears, and she saw the rays of blue-grey moonlight
through a veil of water. And she asked God, more fer-
vently than she had ever asked before, that He would
send the Christ soon, very soon, to save the Jewish
people.

Suddenly her heart seemed to stand still, for there —
in the centre of the little room and close beside her bed
— she saw a great angel, one of those that watch forever
near the throne of God, and sometimes come to earth to
do God's errands, when He wants to speak with men in

6 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

words which they can understand. The angel was all
glittering white from head to feet, and behind his shoul-
ders were great white wings, now folded and at rest, as
he stood there in the middle of Mary's room, in the flood
of blue-grey moonlight. And the angel's face was more
beautiful than any face that Mary had ever seen before;
it was whiter and lovelier than the lilies that blossomed
beside the lake in Galilee. And the angel's eyes were
deep, deep blue, like the sky after a rain, when the
clouds are chased away and the sun comes out, and
heaven and earth seem to be smiling at each other. And
the angel smiled at Mary now.

But though the angel was so beautiful and seemed so
kind, Mary was just a little afraid; for she had never be-
fore seen an angel, and she did not know of any one who
had. She had read in the Bible how God's angels some-
times came to earth to talk with wise old men ; but she
was only a young girl — and so she was afraid.

Then the angel, still smiling, moved nearer to Mary,
as she lay there on her little mat ; he came so near that a
fold of his white robe touched her hand, which was on
the edge of the coverlet. And Mary was no more afraid,
for she knew that the angel loved her; and though he was
so tall and shining, she felt as if she had known him all
her life.

The angel spoke to Mary, and what he said was more
wonderful than any words that man or angel ever spoke
before; for he told Mary that God had chosen her to be
the mother of the Christ who was to come. He said that
in a few short months she would hold him in her arms, a
little baby, her own baby.

And the angel told Mary that God was pleased with
her, and that she should name her baby Jesus ; that he
should be called God's son, and that there should never

THE BABY IN THE STABLE 7

be an end to the kingdom which he would establish on
the earth.

When Mary had prayed to God that He would send
Christ soon to the world, she had never dared to pray for
this ! She was so happy and so full of wonder at the
message which the angel brought, that she forgot to
thank him for bringing it. She could only whisper her
gladness and her willingness to do anything God wanted;
and she looked at the angel, and looked, and looked.
She knew she was not dreaming, that she was wide awake.
And she knew that the angel was real ; though as he stood
there in the blue-grey moonlight, his form, instead of
casting a shadow behind him on the floor, cast a circle of
radiance all around. He seemed to shine with his own
light.

Then, after a little while, though she was still looking
at the place where he had stood, she could not see him
any longer. The angel had vanished. She did not even
see him raise his broad white wings before he flew away.
A moment before he had been there beside her, and now
he was not there. But the whole room was filled with a
delicious perfume, like the scent from a garden full of
roses when the wind blows. Mary was so happy that she
could not go to sleep all night; and when the grey dawn
came in through the window, she was still lying there
with her eyes wide open, looking at the spot where the
mysterious visitor had stood.

The next day she could not spin or weave. When she
took the earthen jar to the village well for water, the
other girls who were there asked Mary what had happened
to her, because she looked so beautiful and her eyes were
shining so. But she did not tell them what had hap-
pened.

Now Mary had a cousin named Elizabeth, whom she

8 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

much loved. Elizabeth was older than Mary; she was
married, and lived with her husband in a village not far
from Jerusalem. For many days Mary had not been able
to think of anything but the great message which the angel
had brought to her; and though she could not speak
about it to the girls in Galilee, she wanted to tell her
cousin Elizabeth that God had chosen her to be the mother
of the Christ who was going to be born. It happened
that some people she knew were going to Jerusalem about
that time, and Mary went along with them. There were
no railroads in those days, and they walked over the hills
and through the valleys, stopping to rest at night in a
tent which they carried with them on the back of a gen-
tle, large-eyed mule.

When Mary reached her cousin's house, Elizabeth was
very glad to see her. The two sat down together, hand
in hand, and when Mary had told her cousin the wonder-
ful news, Elizabeth said, "Blessed art thou among
women" !

And Elizabeth told Mary how happy she was that the
future mother of her Lord had come to visit her; and
now, she said, all the great things which the prophets
had foretold for the Jews would really happen.

Mary answered that she loved God, and wanted to be
worthy of the gift which He was going to send her. It
was because her heart was so full of inexpressible things
that she spoke so simply.

She made her cousin a long visit, of about three
months; and during all that time the two talked much
together about the Christ who was coming to Mary as a
little baby, and whose name should be called Jesus. And
Mary told Elizabethan about Joseph, the carpenter, whom
she was going to marry after she went home to Galilee.
And when the visit was over, and another party of Mary's

THE BABY IN THE STABLE 9

friends came to take her back to her home, Elizabeth
kissed her on both cheeks and told her, for perhaps the
hundredth time, that she was blessed among women.

Soon after Mary reached home she was married to
Joseph the carpenter, and went to live in his house.
Joseph knew how the angel had come down from heaven
to tell Mary about the Christ who was going to be born,
for one night in a dream an angel had also come to him
and had told him the whole wonderful story. And he
was very kind and tender with Mary, who was now his
wife. When she was sad, he cheered her with long
stories about the kings and prophets of the olden time;
for Mary was still quite young, and she enjoyed hearing
stories now almost as well as when she was a child.
During the warm summer evenings she and Joseph used
to wander hand in hand through the fields around the lit-
tle village of Nazareth, which was their home ; and when
the quiet stars came out in the sky, Joseph would tell
Mary other stories, which he had learned from the
Koman people who lived in Judaea, stories about the
strange gods of the Romans that were named after the
stars, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury. But though Mary
loved the stars, she always enjoyed the Jewish stories
best; for in so many of them there was some hint about
the Christ who was to come.

When the winter came on, and the wind blew cold
over the hills, and the wool of the sheep grew thick and
long to shelter them from the storms, the people in Naza-
reth heard news which troubled them much. Caesar
Augustus, Emperor of the Romans, who now ruled the
country, sent out an order that all the Jews should be
taxed; that is, that the people who had already been
obliged to pay so much money to the Romans, would
have to pay still more this year. And the Roman rulers

10 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

ordered that every man among the Jews should go at a
certain time to the town where he was born, in order that
the tax-collectors might know just where each family be-
longed, and take what is called a census. So Joseph,
who had been born in Bethlehem, a city of Judaea about
seventy miles south of Nazareth, was obliged to go there
and pay his tax. And though Mary was sad at the
thought of taking such a long journey in the cold of win-
ter, she went with her husband.

One morning in December they set out from Nazareth
together. As Joseph had only one donkey, he placed Mary
on its back, wrapped in her warm blue cape, and himself
walked beside her the whole of the long way. There were
many hills to climb, and the back of the donkey was not
a comfortable seat; but Mary did not complain, for she
knew that Joseph always felt very sad when she was not
happy, because he loved her so much. So she made be-
lieve to enjoy the long ride over the rough roads and up
and down the hills; though sometimes she was so tired
that she nearly fell off the back of the donkey. She
pointed out to her husband all the pretty places along the
way, the orchards of apricot- trees, the green Aleppo pines
that grow even to this day in Judaea, and here and there,
standing solitary and august upon a hill top, a giant
cedar of Lebanon.

When they reached Bethlehem, Mary was really tired.
But when they went to the inn, the only hotel in the little
city, they found that every room was full. There was a
great crowd of travellers there, who had come, like them-
selves, to pay their taxes to the Romans. There was not
a square foot of space for them in the whole house.

But the innkeeper, who was a kind man, felt sorry for
Mary ; and he told Joseph that, if they wanted to, they
could sleep that night in the stable. So they went out

THE BABY IN THE STABLE 11

there into the cold stable, among the cows, the oxen, and
the sheep. Mary had always before had a comfortable
place to sleep, even though her people were poor; and
when she saw the stable of the inn where they would have
to stay that night, she was so discouraged that she would
have cried — if she had not known that her tears would
make Joseph so sad. So she smiled at him, and said
that the stable was really quite homelike. They had a
lantern, which they had brought to light them on the
way, and Joseph hung it up on a wooden peg against the
wall. It did not give much light; but it was better than
nothing. And there were so many cows and oxen in the
stable that their warm breath took away the chill of the
bare place.

Joseph unstrapped their blankets from the back of the
donkey, on which Mary had ridden; he spread a lot of
straw on the floor of the stable to make a bed for her, and
placed the blankets on the straw. Then he blew out the
lantern, and they lay down to rest. After a while every-
thing grew very still. There was no sound in all the
place except the regular breathing of the sleeping oxen
and the cows, and now and then a little clicking noise
when the hoof of an ox fell against the floor, as he moved
in his sleep. There was a sweet smell of hay in the sta-
ble, and here and there, through a chink in the stone
walls, a ray of starlight filtered in. But Mary did not
fall asleep.

It was twelve o'clock, the very middle of the night,
when the wonderful thing happened. The baby, the Christ
whose name was to be called Jesus, suddenly came to
them — right there in the stable.

Perhaps an angel brought him, perhaps the same
angel who had told Mary he was coming — I do not know.
Anyway, Mary found him there beside her. He was

12 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

little, and warm, and sweet. Now every mother thinks
her baby is the most wonderful thing in the world; but
we can understand why Mary knew that hers was.
When she first felt his breath against her face, she was so
happy that it seemed to her that she would fly right away
to God, with the baby in her arms. She forgot that she
was lying on the floor of a cold stable, among the cattle;
she forgot everything except her baby.

Joseph took down the lantern from the peg in the
wall, he lighted it, and brought it to Mary. In the pale,
glimmering light the baby's face shone like a star, and
it seemed to Mary that all round him was a radiance far
brighter than the light of the lantern. Before she looked
at him, when she had felt his warm little body against
her, she had only known that he was her own baby; but
when she saw his face she realised all that the angel had
told her, all that the old prophets had said about him —
that this little baby was really God Himself, who had
come down to the world to make the people good.

And now that Mary had seen the baby's face, though
she was even happier than she had been a moment before,
she no longer wanted to fly away to God with the baby in
her arms. For with the coming of the little Jesus, who
was God, and who loved the world so much, there came
to her also a great love for the world — for all the world
and everybody in it. She felt as if she could take them
all in her arms, the rich and the poor, the good people
and the bad people, the old ones and the little children.
She had never dreamed that she could love them so much ;
but how could she help it — she who was now the mother
oi Jesus?

Beside the bed where Mary lay there was a little low
manger, a sort of box which was filled with hay for cows
to eat. And Mary wrapped the little Jesus in swaddling

THE BABY IN THE STABLE 13

clothes — long strips of cloth that poor people in those
days always used in which to wrap their new-born babies
— and she laid him beside her in the manger. And there,
among the cows and oxen, who came to sniff at him with
their soft warm noses, the baby went to sleep.

And once again it grew still in the stable, and the
cows and oxen drew long breaths of drowsy content, and
through the chinks in the stone wall the rays of starlight
filtered in and seemed to lie in pools of silver on the
floor. And the little Jesus slept sweetly in the manger
beside his mother.

CHAPTER II

THE SHEPHERDS ON THE HILLS

On the night when the little Jesus was born in the
stable at Bethlehem of Judaea, there were three shepherds
who tended their flocks of sheep on the hills beyond the
city. They were plain, simple men, with rough clothing
and rough voices; but their hearts were warm and gentle.
They loved the sheep, and from having watched the sheep
so long as they grazed peacefully upon the hills, the shep-
herds had themselves become almost as quiet and slow-
moving as the flocks they guarded.

Usually, when the sun went down in the evening, and
the shades of night settled over the hills, and the sheep,
weary with grazing, laid themselves down to sleep, the
shepherds spread their blankets on the ground and went
to rest beside the flocks. For in the morning, when the
sun rose, the sheep would be awake and moving; and the
shepherds also must be up and alert with the first coming
of the daylight, that the flocks might not wander away
from them and be lost.

But on the night when Jesus was born, though the
shepherds had laid themselves down at the usual time,
they could not sleep. They were restless, and moved
from side to side. Then they lay a long time with their
eyes wide open, looking at a very brilliant star in the
sky, which had moved up slowly from the east until it
seemed to stand right over Bethlehem. And they won-
dered what the star meant; for in the lands of the Far
15

16 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

East the stars mean much to the people, and they believe
that they can read in the moving planets what is going to
happen on the earth.

In the middle of that night the shepherds, being
unable to sleep, got up and built a little fire of sticks and
brushwood, for it was cold. They had shivered in their
blankets, lying there on the ground. But as they gathered
round the brushwood fire, and held out their hands to the
blazing warmth, they felt as comfortable and happy and
wide-awake as they had ever felt in the middle of the day.
And sitting round the fire, they told each other stories
from the ancient histories of the Jewish people; for shep-
herds are like children in their hearts, and they love
stories.

At the close of a long narrative which one of them
had been telling the others, they noticed that the hills
and fields all round them were shining with a brilliant
light. They would have thought the sun was going to
rise, if they had not seen a few minutes before the stars
of midnight ; for the shepherds could tell, from the places
in the sky where the constellations stood, what hour of
the night it was. When the shepherds saw the brilliant
light, they could not imagine what it meant. They
thought something terrible was going to happen, and they
were afraid.

Suddenly they saw a great angel standing before them.
His face and garments were all shining. He was so near
them that the hem of his robe lay right in the blazing
brushwood — but it did not catch fire! When the shep-
herds saw the angel they were still more afraid. They
jumped up from the ground; they huddled together,
holding each other by the arms, and their teeth chattered
so that they could not speak. One of them, in leaping
to his feet, had kicked over a drinking-cup ; and as it

THE SHEPHERDS ON THE HILLS 17

clattered against the stones the sound seemed to them
like the rattle of thunder — which shows how frightened
they really were.

Then the angel spoke. He told them not to be
afraid; that he brought them tidings of great joy, which
should be for all the people in the world. For this
night, the angel said, there had been born in the city of
David a Saviour for the Jews, who should be called
Christ the Lord. The city of David was a name which
the Jews had for Bethlehem; and when the angel said
that, the shepherds knew that he meant the little city
right beside them, whose buildings they could see in the
starlight.

And the angel told the shepherds that when they
found a new-born baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and
lying in a manger, they would know it was the little
Christ, whom God had sent to save the world. The
swaddling clothes and the manger should be to them a
sign, the angel said.

Then suddenly there appeared with the angel who was
talking to the shepherds, a great company of other
angels. Some of them looked like men, only they had
shining garments and two broad wings behind their
shoulders ; these were the angels who sometimes walk on
earth and do God's errands with men. Others were just
winged heads, with faces like those of children, and no
bodies at all; these were the cherubim, who sing always
round the throne of God, and rejoice when little children
are born upon the earth. Others had wonderful, rapt
faces, and six long wings, which as they rested there in
the air before the shepherds were folded round their
bodies like a garment; these were the seraphim, who love
God all the time and think of Him so much that they
cannot sing, but are always silent.

18 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

The angels were so many that they filled the whole
eastern sky, right up to the place where the big star
shone overhead. And as they rested there in the heavens,
the shepherds heard them praising their Creator, and
singing:

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good- will toward men. ' '

Then quickly, at a signal from the first angel who
stood nearest the shepherds, with the edge of his long
garment trailing in the brushwood fire, the whole host of
angelic beings rose right up into the sky, up and up,
until they disappeared. And the shepherds were left
standing alone in the field, beside the dying fire; and the
sheep, which had been awakened by the singing of the
angels, were huddled together on a little knoll, with their
small eyes wide and shining, as if they also understood
that something strange had happened to the world.

Now when the angels were gone away, the shepherds
said to each other :

"Let us go down into the city of Bethlehem, now,
this very hour, and see for ourselves this marvel which
the Lord has sent His angels to tell us about. Let us
look for the child who has been born, the child who shall
be wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger;
for when we find a baby like that, we shall know he is
the little Christ."

The shepherds left the sheep alone in the field and
started for the city. They had never before left their
flocks unguarded; but then, nothing like thib had ever
happened before — either to them or to any other shepherds.
They trusted that God, who had sent the angel, would
watch the sheep for them while they were away.

When they reached the city of Bethlehem they went
straight to the inn. Being themselves shepherds, it was

THE SHEPHERDS ON THE HILLS 19

natural that they should go first to the stable where the
sheep and other cattle were. Of course they did not know
that Joseph and Mary were inside; but they thought that
the man who tended the sheep and the cows of the inn-
keeper might be sleeping there.

They found a big door, made of boards, on one side
of the stable. It was not fastened on the inside, and they
opened it very slowly and carefully, so as not to awaken
too suddenly the man whom they thought might be sleep-
ing there. They left the door wide open; and as the
three shepherds stood in the doorway, that brilliant star
which they had seen shone right into the stable.

In the light from the star they saw, over on the oppo-
site side, the little low manger in which you will remem-
ber that Mary the mother had placed the new-born Jesus.
The shepherds could see from the door that something
was lying in the manger; but they could not make out
exactly what it was, so they moved forward. After a few
steps they came to the place where Joseph and Mary
were lying in their blankets on the straw-littered floor.
They had both awakened.

Then the shepherds told Joseph and Mary that they
were looking for a baby; that an angel had come to them
out in the fields and told them that one had been born in
Bethlehem that night. They had come to find it.

Now all mothers delight in showing their babies; for
it seems to them that every one must love the tiny crea-
tures. So Mary put out her hand toward the manger
where the little Jesus was lying, and told the men that
they might come and look at him. The brilliant star
which shone into the stable made it almost as light as
day.

The three men leaned eagerly forward. They were
tall and strong and brawny, and wore rough coats made

20 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

of sheepskin with the wool outside. One of them had a
drinking-cup slung over his shoulder by a leather strap,
and the two others had the leather pouches in which
shepherds used to carry nuts and dates and other food,
slung over their shoulders in the same way. They all
had long, rough beards; their faces were tanned from
years of exposure to the sun and wind; but their eyes
were very soft and tender as they looked down at the
little Jesus lying there in the manger, wrapped in swad-
dling clothes — just as the angel had said they would
find him.

Now the shepherds had been so astonished at the
appearance of the angels in the field, a little while before,
that they were ready to accept any other wonderful thing
which might happen. So they were not surprised to see
a bright light all round the head of the little Jesus. And
they bowed themselves down before the baby, as before a
sacred thing.

While they were standing there by the manger, with
their heads bowed, the baby awoke. Perhaps the light
from the star shone in his face too brightly. As the little
Jesus opened his eyes, the shepherds caught their breath ;
for the eyes were not those of a little baby — they were
clear and full of intelligence. No one had ever before
looked at the three shepherds in the same way as this
new-born child looked at them. Though the eyes were so
gentle and full of love, they seemed to see everything that
was in the hearts of the men — all their hidden thoughts.
And the men began to be very sorry for all the wrong
things they had ever done in their lives, and they told
themselves that never again would they do anything that
could make the little Jesus sorry if he knew about it.

The shepherds did not stay in the stable very long,
for it was still nighttime, and they thought the little

THE SHEPHERDS ON THE HILLS 21

Jesus and his mother ought to sleep. Though they
wanted to stay, they were afraid it might be selfish of
them to keep the Holy Family awake any longer. So,
after a long last look at the baby, they said good-by and
went out, closing the door of the stable behind them.

Then the shepherds went a little distance away and
sat down on a big flat rock, the three of them, and talked
it all over. They reminded each other of the sayings of
the ancient prophets, that some day a Saviour should be
born among the Jews. They were happy, and just a
little proud, that they had been the very first strangers
to see the little baby who was going to do such great
things when he grew up. They recounted their ages, and
wondered if they would live long enough to see him when
he should be a man. As God had been so kind as to send
His angel to them with the first news, perhaps He would
let them live to see still greater things — if they were
good, and took faithful care of the sheep, and did not get
angry about trifles.

As the three shepherds sat there on the big flat rock,
the sun came up behind the hills. It seemed to them
that the little city of Bethlehem had never looked so
pretty, not even in the summertime, as it looked that
winter morning after Jesus was born. Would Jesus
'make the whole world beautiful to everybody, they won-
dered, when he should grow to be a man?

When the sun was up, and people began to move
about in the city, the shepherds left the rock where
they had been sitting and went around among the houses,
telling everybody they met about the beautiful baby that
had been born the night before in the stable of the inn.
And they told their friends that the little Jesus was really
the Christ who had come to save the Jews, for had not
the angel said so? Now some of the people were much

22 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

pleased to hear the glad news ; but most of the men and
women whom the shepherds told about the angel did not
believe a word of it — they said the three men had been
dreaming. But the shepherds knew that they had not
been dreaming.

CHAPTER III

THE WISE MEN AND THE STAE

A little while before Jesus was born in the stable at
Bethlehem, there were three wise men who lived in one of
the strange countries lying east of the land of the Jews.
These wise men of the East in olden times were called
Magi. They knew many things which ordinary people
did not know, for they had given their whole lives to
study. They could sometimes tell, just by looking at
a man, what was going to happen to him by and by.
They knew many things about herbs and medicines, and
why one herb made a man well while another made him
sick or killed him. They knew the meaning of dreams.
And, most wonderful of all, they understood the stars,
which in those days were believed to have a strong
influence upon the people of the earth. These Magi
could tell, by the constellation which was rising in the
east at the time when a child was born, what sort of man
he would be, and what he would look like. And if there
was any star right overhead at the moment of a child's
birth, they could tell, from their knowledge of that star,
what business or profession the child would follow when
he grew to be a man, and whether he would be lucky or
unlucky.

Many people in the Far East, in Babylonia and

Assyria and Persia, had not been taught to pray to God

as we do; they believed that what was written in the stars

would have to happen anyway. So they had a great re-

23

24 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

spect for their wise men who claimed to understand such
things. What their ancient prophets had been to the
Jewish people, these wise men were to the people of the
East; and whenever they said that anything was true,
nobody dared to dispute them.

One night in the early winter of the year when Christ
was born, the three wise men, in their own far country,
were together on the flat roof of a palace, where they had
come to study the stars. As they stood there side by
side on the roof they looked very tall and strange, in
their long robes embroidered with symbols : the Signs of
the Zodiac, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, and so on; and other
signs which meant the planets — Saturn, Jupiter, Mars,
the sun, the moon, Venus and Mercury. Any one who
should dress like that in these days would be considered
very queer ; but in the olden times the wise men robed
themselves in strange garments, that every one who saw
them might know how wise they were; for the Magi knew
the meaning of these marks on their clothes, and others
did not.

As the three Magi stood there on the flat roof of the
palace, they saw something which surprised them much.
In the eastern sky, right before them, was a big star
which they had never seen before. Now you will remem-
ber that the shepherds, who tended their flocks on the
hills near Bethlehem, had seen this same star and won-
dered what it meant. The Magi also wondered. But
they were not afraid, as the shepherds had been. For
the wise men of the East believed that when a brilliant
star, like that, appeared suddenly in the sky, it meant
that some great man was going to be born.

Now the Magi were indeed very wise; and one of the
strange things they knew was which Sign of the Zodiac
was supposed to rule the various countries of the earth.

THE WISE MEN AND THE STAR 25

And because they had seen the star in the East in that
part of the heavens which ruled the land of Judsea, ac-
cording to their reckoning, they decided that a great man
was going to be born right away in the country of the
Jews.

So, after taking a good look at the star, and counsel-
ling together, they went down the stairway which led
from the roof to the lower rooms of the palace, and began
to get ready for the long journey to Judsea.

It seemed to them that the appearance of so bright a
star must mean the birth of a great king; so they deter-
mined to go straight to the palace of King Herod at Jeru-
salem. Even the Magi, the wisest of men, never thought
of looking for a baby king in a stable. They supposed
that a son had been born to King Herod, of course. Now
in those days it was the custom for men who came to
visit new-born princes, to bring them handsome presents ;
so the three wise men, who were almost kings themselves
so high was their position, took each a rich casket and
rilled it with beautiful gifts for the little King of the
Jews, as they called him. Then they put in their travel-
ling sacks such other things as they would want on the
journey, including books and scrolls covered with queer
marks, which stood for the planets and the Signs of the
Zodiac; for they expected to figure out in that strange
way all the great things which were to happen to the lit-
tle king when he grew up.

Then they called for their camels, the tall, grotesque
animals which the people of the Far East often use instead
of horses, because the camels can go so far without get-
ting tired, and need so little to eat and drink by the way.
The three camels were ordered to kneel down; the sacks
containing the presents for the baby, the scrolls and other
things, were fastened to their sides ; then each of the Magi

26 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

took his seat on the top of the big hump in the middle of
his camel's back; at a signal the camels rose clumsily to
their feet, wailing and grumbling in camel language, and
the wise men were on their way.

They had not even waited for daylight, for the stars
made the way quite plain, and they were in a great hurry
to reach the far-off palace of King Herod. They would
have made an interesting picture, had there been any one
to see them, the three men in their long garments, mounted
high on the backs of the tall camels, which swayed grace-
fully from side to side as they padded on. Can we not
see them in imagination, rising slowly up and over the
ridge of a hill, outlined against the grey morning sky?

They had many adventures and terrible hardships by
the way; for in those days there were few roads, and
those very bad, and there was always danger from robbers.
When at last they reached Jerusalem, King Herod was
very glad to see them ; for the kings of that time all had
a great respect for wise men — which is not always so in
our day.

But when the Magi said : ' ' Where is he that is born
King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the East
and are come to worship him, ' ' Herod was much trou-
bled. No little son had been born to him in his palace;
and if one had been born somewhere else — one whose
coming the star foretold — it needs must be some child of
another family, who would take the throne away from
Herod. No wonder he was distressed.

So the King called together all the old priests, and
the scribes who kept the sacred books and told the people
what they meant, and the King asked them where the
prophets had said that the Christ should be born. King
Herod had also seen the star in the East; and though he
ought to have been glad, he was not glad at all. He did

THE WISE MEN AND THE STAR 27

not want anybody but himself to be King of the Jews —
not even the promised Messiah.

When Herod asked the assembled priests and scribes
where the old books declared that Christ should be born,
with one accord they answered : " In Bethlehem of Judsea. ' '

Then the King sent for the three Magi, who had come
from the East on their camels, led by the star. He pre-
tended to be very glad that Christ was born at last, and
he told the wise men to go to Bethlehem and search for
the young child, and when they had found him, to come
back to Jerusalem and let him know, that he also might
go and worship the infant Christ. But Herod really
meant to kill the little Jesus, and not to worship him.

The three wise men again mounted their camels, tak-
ing with them the presents they had brought, and started
for Bethlehem. It was night when they came to the city
where the little Jesus was, and the great star shone in the
sky.

They went first to the inn, and asked the people there
if they knew anything about a child who had been born.
Of course the people in the inn were much interested in
the little Jesus out in the stable, because of the strange
story which the shepherds had told about the angels
which had appeared to them in the field on the night of
his birth, singing : ' ' Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good-will toward men." They told the
wise men all they had heard. And the Magi went to the
stable, with the presents for the baby in beautiful rich
boxes which they carried in their hands.

Now when the Magi left their own far country, they
had only supposed, from the star in the East, that a
powerful king was to be born in Judaea; but when they
had learned from King Herod and the priests in Jeru-
salem that the great Messiah of the Jews was expected to

28 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

be born in Bethlehem, they were more than ever anxious
to see the wonderful little baby. Had they not been so
wise, they would have been surprised to learn that the
Christ had been born in a stable; but they remembered
that King David, who wrote the most beautiful songs in
all the world, had been only a shepherd boy when he was
young.

As the three Magi went along the path to the stable, a
little black dog came out and barked at them; and all
the people of the inn looked after them with great curios-
ity, for they had never before seen any one who wore gar-
ments like those of the Magi, covered with such marks
and symbols. Even the High Priest at Jerusalem, when
dressed for a great ceremony, was a less imposing figure.
The wise men from the East created a sensation in the
little town of Bethlehem.

Joseph was standing in the door of the stable looking
up at the stars when the three Magi came down the path.
His heart was very full of love that night, and he had
been wondering why God had chosen him to take care of
the little Jesus and to be a father to him. Was he good
enough and wise enough — he, only a simple carpenter of
Nazareth? When he saw the wise men, Joseph caught
his breath, for he had never beheld anything so splendid.
He wondered who the visitors could be.

He invited them to enter, just as if the stable had
been a beautiful house; and the three wise men came in,
among the cows, the oxen, and the sheep. The one lan-
tern did not give much light, but the stars were bril-
liant that night, and the middle of the stable seemed
almost as bright as in the daytime, though in the corners
were dark shadows, from which the eyes of the cows
shone out.

When the Magi saw the mother and the baby Jesus,

THE WISE MEN AND THE STAR 29

they fell down on their knees before them, saying strange
words in their own foreign language, which neither Joseph
nor Mary could understand; but they supposed that the
men were saying prayers.

Mary looked very pretty, as she sat there with the
baby in her arms. Around her shoulders was the bright
blue cape ; her dark hair lay in little curls all round her
face, her eyes were bright with happiness, and on her
face was that sweet mother-look which little children love
to see — and older people as well. The wise men thought
they had never seen any woman who looked so much like
a queen.

The eyes of the baby Jesus were wide open, though it
was so late at night. He seemed to understand why these
strangers had come to visit him. And, little as he was,
it seemed to all of them that he smiled, when the Magi
held out to him the gifts which they had brought — gold,
frankincense, and myrrh. For the Magi, who were so
wise and who knew the. meanings of things, gave the little
Jesus gold to mean that he was a king. They gave him
frankincense to mean that he was holy, for frankincense
was the sweet gum which the priests burned in the temples
before the altar, and which gave out so sweet a smell.
And they gave him myrrh, a resin found on certain trees
and shrubs in Arabia and Abyssinia and which was used
for medicine, to mean that, though he was Christ himself
and came from God, he was nevertheless a human being,
and would have to suffer much while he stayed upon the
earth, and that some time he would have to die.

The reason why we give each other Christmas presents
now is because the Magi gave those presents to the little
Jesus, and our Christmas is the anniversary of his birth.

Joseph and Mary did not have any rich food to offer
their noble guests, so they gave them each a cup of cool,

30 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

sweet milk, fresh from one of the cows. And the Magi
thought they had never drunk anything so delicious in
all their lives. Then the four men, the Magi and Joseph,
sat down on the straw beside Mary and the little Jesus.
Though the wise men had murmured their worship of
Christ in the strange tongue of their own far country, yet
they knew the language of Joseph and Mary very well ;
and they sat with them a long time, telling stories of
Persia, Arabia, and Abyssinia, and other distant lands.
And they explained to Joseph and Mary the meanings of
the strange marks which were embroidered on their gar-
ments, the symbols which stood for the sun, the moon,
the planets, and the Signs of the Zodiac. And the Magi
also told the meaning of other figures which were em-
broidered on the breast of their robes, marks which they
had themselves learned in Egypt, the far southern land of
the river Nile, the Pyramids and the Sphinx.

When Mary said to the wise men that Egypt must be
a wonderful country, and that she would like to go there
some time, they answered that perhaps she would have her
wish — very soon. It did not seem probable to Mary, who
had never in all her life been more than seventy miles
away from home ; but she knew that these men were wise,
and if they said that she might go to Egypt some day —
why, she was ready to believe it. So many things had
happened to her in the last year, that almost anything
seemed possible for the future.

Before they went away, the Magi learned from Joseph
and Mary the exact time when the little Jesus was born,
for they meant to figure out, by their knowledge of the
stars, what was going to happen to him in after life.
Then they said good-by, bowed themselves once again be-
fore the baby Christ, and walked with slow and stately
steps out of the stable. They found the three camels

THE WISE MEN AND THE STAR 31

lying down in the yard, peacefully resting. Each man
climbed on the top of his camel's big hump; they gave
the sharp, peculiar cry which in camel language means
"get up," the camels rose clumsily to their feet, com-
plaining as usual, and in a few minutes the three mysteri-
ous figures disappeared down the long stony road which
led to Jerusalem.

But after going a little way, they turned sharply
toward the East, and went over the mountains which
separate Bethlehem from the wilderness of Judsea. For
the night before they had been warned by God in a dream
that they were not to return to the palace of King Herod
at Jerusalem, as the King had asked them, to give him
news of the baby Christ. God told the wise men in the
dream that Herod was plotting to kill the little Jesus, so
that he might never become the King of the Jews, as the
old prophets had foretold.

They rode straight on for the rest of the night and all
the next day; then they pitched their tent and sat them-
selves down around the camp-fire to figure out together,
from their knowledge of the stars, what was going to hap-
pen to the little Jesus when he grew up. They were
smiling when they began their work; but as the minutes
went by, their faces became very grave and sad. For
they saw that the beautiful child whom they had left in
the stable at Bethlehem was going to have much trouble.
But they also saw that he would become the most famous
being in the world, and the best, and that for ages after
his death millions of people would call themselves his
friends and followers.

The next morning the three wise men mounted their
camels again, and rode on toward that mysterious land of
the East from whence they had come. And they were
never seen in Judsea any more.

CHAPTER IV

OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT

After the three wise men had ridden away on their
camels, leaving Joseph, Mary, and the little Jesus in the
stable at Bethlehem, the Holy Family went to sleep; for
the hour was late, and they were weary with much talk-
ing. In his sleep that night Joseph had a dream.

It seemed that an angel of God came and stood beside
him, and pointing to Mary and the little Jesus, the angel
told Joseph to take the young child and his mother and
flee into Egypt — that strange land which the Magi had
told them about the evening before. And the angel also
said to Joseph in the dream, that he should stay in Egypt
until God sent him word to come away; because King
Herod wanted to kill the little Jesus, and it was not safe
for them in Judaea.

When Joseph awoke in the morning he was much
troubled about his dream. He knew that he would have
to do what God said, because God had trusted him with
the care of the wonderful baby and his mother. But the
land of Egypt was very far away, it was then winter, and
Joseph was a poor man. He wondered how they would
be able to get food in that strange, far-off country, even
if they should succeed in reaching there at all. He sup-
posed that the people in Egypt spoke a different language
to theirs. The wise men had told him about the great
Pyramids down there, which were made of solid stone,
and were so high that a man standing at the bottom and

34 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

looking up their sloping sides, felt himself no larger
than a fly. Joseph was a good carpenter, perhaps the
best in Galilee; but would the people of Egypt be willing
to pay him for the kind of work that he could do? He
knew, of course, that the people of Egypt did not live in
Pyramids. Perhaps they did not even build them any
more; for the Magi had said that the great Pyramids
were very, very old.

But, even more than he dreaded the strange life in
Egypt, Joseph dreaded the journey there. He did not
even know exactly how far it was; but surely it must be
four or five hundred miles ; and they had only the one
donkey, on which Mary had ridden down to Bethlehem
from their home in Galilee. Joseph supposed that he
himself would have to walk the whole of the long way to
Egypt. And how would they get milk on the way? Per-
haps he had better buy a goat, and take it along with
them. He supposed that he could buy one in Bethlehem,
and wondered how much it would cost.

He went outside the stable in the grey morning light,
and sitting down on a flat stone he counted over his
money. It was not very much. And it never occurred
to him that he could use any of the gold which the Magi
had brought to Jesus. No journey that we could possi-
bly imagine, in these days of railroads and great steam-
ships, would seem so hard an undertaking as that winter
journey from Bethlehem to Egypt which the angel had
commanded them to take.

When Joseph went back into the stable, Mary the
mother was awake. She smiled at him cheerfully, and
pointing to the little Jesus, who was lying asleep in the
manger beside her, she whispered :

' ' How beautiful he is ! "

Joseph bent over and kissed the sleeping child, then

OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 35

he sat down on the straw beside Mary and told her about
his dream. He had supposed she would be terribly dis-
tressed. He had even been afraid that she would cry,
though he had never seen her shed a tear before, no mat-
ter what happened. But she was still very young, and
he knew how much she loved the hills and fields of peace-
ful Galilee, which was their home.

How great was his surprise when Mary, instead of
saying she was sorry, just clapped her hands with joy,
and said:

"Now we shall see that wonderful country which the
Magi told us about last night. Don't you remember
how, when I said I wou4d like to go there, one of them
answered that perhaps I would have my wish — very
soon?"

Joseph did remember. And Mary was so cheerful
that he soon forgot how troubled he had been. When he
asked her if she was not afraid that something would
happen to the little Jesus along the way, she smiled and
said:

"God will take care of him."

Joseph could not say no to this ; and as soon as they
had had their breakfast, he went out into the little streets
of Bethlehem to look for a goat to furnish them with milk
on the way to Egypt. He found a good one, which a
man was willing to sell him for very little money; and he
soon came back to Mary in the stable, leading the goat by
a string. If the baby Jesus had been a little older, he
would have found the goat a charming playfellow; but he
was still too small to play. The goat, however, went
right over to the manger where the little Jesus was, and
lay down beside him. This pleased the mother very
much, for it seemed to her that even animals knew by
instinct how lovely her baby was.

36 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

They started for Egypt in the night-time, and did not
tell anybody where they were going; for they knew that
King Herod would be furious when he learned that they
had left Bethlehem. And they were afraid he might send
somebody after them, if he knew where they were going,
and kill the little Jesus on the way.

By the pale light of the stars they came out of the
stable, closing the door softly after them. Joseph
strapped their blankets on the back of the donkey, to
make a soft cushion for Mary. He lifted her onto the
donkey's back, and put the little Jesus in her arms.
Then they started, Joseph walking beside the donkey.
He did not have to lead the goat now, for the animal had
taken such a fancy to the little Jesus that she would have
followed him anywhere. You know this was a nanny-
goat — the kind that give delicious milk.

When they reached the hill beyond the town, they
stopped and turned for one last look at the dear little city
of Bethlehem, where their baby had been born, and where
so many other things had happened to them. They did
not know if they would ever see it again.

We are told that they went across the hilly country of
Judsea to the city of Joppa, and from thence along the
coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Joseph was probably
afraid that they would lose their way if they did not fol-
low the seacoast, which curves around toward Egypt.
Perhaps, if you look at the map of Syria in your geog-
raphy, you can see the way they went.

We are told that sometimes, when they came to a
point where two roads met, and they did not know which
road to take, the angel which had come to Joseph in the
dream appeared suddenly before them, pointing out the
right way.

We are also told that one day, when they had gone

In Egypt

OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 37

into a thick forest, all the trees bowed their heads to the
little Jesus — all except the aspen-tree, which stood up
very stiff and proud, and would not bend its head. Then
God said some strong words to the proud aspen-tree;
and the tree was so frightened that it began to tremble,
so that its leaves could be seen quivering all over it.
And that, according to the old story, is the reason why
the leaves of the aspen-tree (which is a kind of poplar)
are always quivering even to this day.

Now at that time there were in Judsea many bands of
robbers, wild men who lived by stealing things; and
Joseph and Mary were afraid that some night when they
were asleep, a company of these bold robbers would try to
steal their donkey and their nanny-goat. So on those
nights — and there were many of them — when they were
not near any village, but had to sleep under the open
sky, in the fields, they always made the donkey and the
nanny-goat lie down close beside them. This the little
goat liked very much, and she would nestle her cold nose
against Mary's arm, near the head of the sleeping Jesus.
They were so kind to the little goat that she considered
herself quite like one of the family. And when, some
days, they had to travel a long way and over rough roads,
the nanny-goat did not lag behind a bit; but just trotted
right along beside them, as if she understood that Egypt
was still a long way off, and that they had to hurry.

Of course there was always the greater danger that
robbers might fall upon them and kill them, and carry
away the gold which the Magi had given to the little
Jesus ; but they could not believe that God would let that
happen.

One night, when they were lying out under the stars,
Mary had a strange dream. It seemed to her, in the
dream, that they were still travelling on, just as they had

38 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

been all through the day; and that in the air all round
them, and among the leaves of the trees beside the road,
were hundreds of children's faces — little frightened faces,
with wide eyes and quivering lips. When Mary awoke it
was still night. She was so troubled by the dream that
she awoke her husband, and told him all about it. They
wondered what it meant; for in those days people had
great faith in dreams, and always thought that they
meant something.

This one had a very deep meaning, as you will see.
For when the three Magi did not return to King Herod at
Jerusalem, as he had told them to, Herod was enraged.
He thought the wise men mocked at him. So he sent
out his soldiers, with orders to kill all the little children
in Bethlehem and the places round about — all the little
children who were less than two years old; for he thought
by that wicked order to make sure of killing Jesus. As
you know, Jesus and his family were now far away from
Bethlehem, and out of the reach of Herod; but all the
mothers of young children in that country were broken-
hearted. The old stories tell us that hundreds of little
ones were destroyed, that not one was spared who was
less than two years old. And that was the meaning of
Mary's strange dream — the meaning of the mass of little
frightened faces she had seen, in the air all round her and
among the leaves of the trees beside the road.

The Holy Family went on and on, day after day.
Several weeks had passed since they left Bethlehem; for
the donkey did not go very fast, and it was a long, long
way. After a time they left the seacoast and travelled in-
land, for they wanted to go to that part of Egypt where
the Sphinx and the great Pyramids were. They had to
cross rivers and go around lakes; and sometimes they
were obliged to walk for a day or two along the bank of a

OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 39

stream, before they could find a place shallow enough for
them to cross, or find a boatman who would row them
over to the western side.

As they went farther south it grew slowly warmer and
warmer, and they began to see more palm-trees and fewer
pines. Sometimes there were no trees or hills at all, just
level stretches of grey sand, in which the donkey sank
half way to his knees as he walked slowly on, with Mary
and the little Jesus on his back.

It was well on in the month of February when they
came to the broad desert east of the Nile. Here a real
grief met them ; for they found they would be obliged to
have camels to carry them the rest of the way. The
faithful donkey had to be left behind. The little nanny-
goat was so tired from the long journey that she gave
hardly any milk, and they had not the heart to make her
follow them any farther. They found a man with kind
eyes who gave them two camels, in exchange for the don-
key, the nanny-goat, and a little gold. This man also
taught them how to guide the camels ; and Joseph, who
was now very weary from having walked so far, was glad
of a chance to ride.

Now a camel is so tall that he has to lie down in order
to let any one get on his back. The first time Mary got
on the back of her camel, she was half-f rightened ; and
when the great animal rose clumsily to his feet, she
thought he was going to pitch her over his head. Mary
was not frightened for herself; but she had the little Jesus
in her arms, and she was always afraid he might be
hurt. It was not the camel's fault that he was so clumsy
in getting on to his feet ; for he did not know how to get
up in any other way. With his long legs and queer,
humped body, he did the best he could.

Mary had not the heart to bid good-by to the faithful

40 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

donkey and the little nanny-goat; she just motioned to
the kind-eyed man to take them away out of her sight.
She could not speak to the man, because she did not
know his language; but the man of the desert also loved
animals, and he understood her.

They did not get far that day. If you have never rid-
den on the back of a camel, you do not know how hard it
is at first. The steady, rocking motion makes some per-
sons feel quite sick. Before they stopped for the night,
Mary was so tired that she would have wished herself
back in Bethlehem — if it had not been for the danger
which there threatened the little Jesus, from the hatred of
Herod, the wicked King.

Perhaps, if the camels had not been over the road be-
fore, and found their own way by instinct across the
desert to the river Nile, Joseph and Mary would never
have reached there. If it had not been for the position
of the sun, which always rises in the east and sets in the
west, no matter where we are, they would sometimes
have seemed quite turned round. After a few days they
grew fond of their clumsy camels, and they also became
accustomed to the rocking motion of the camels' backs.

These strange animals seemed to smell fresh water a
long way off; and no matter how grey and lifeless the
desert looked ahead of the travellers, sooner or later their
long-legged companions would bring them to a place
where there was cool, pure water and a grove of palm-
trees. Some persons may believe that camels are stupid
creatures and could not find their way like that; but per-
haps the angel which had appeared to Joseph in the dream
and told him to take Mary and the little Jesus down to
this far land, guided the camels also. I do not know.

One day they came to a place so strange that Mary-
thought she must be dreaming. They found themselves

OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 41

on the edge of a forest, with great trees — many of them a
hundred feet in length and three feet thick, some lying on
the ground, some leaning against each other. The trees
were brown and black and shining; but what surprised
Joseph and Mary so much, was to see that all these trees
were made of stone. Travellers in Egypt go to this place
now, and call it the petrified forest; but Joseph and Mary
had never heard of it before. Surely Egypt was a strange
land!

They got down from the camels' backs and came and
touched the trees with their hands, to make sure that
they had seen aright. Yes, these trees Were solid stone.
They knew that the great stone Pyramids and the Sphinx
had been made by human hands ; but here was something
which they thought was quite as wonderful, and made by
God Himself. Mary wished that the little Jesus were big
enough to see and understand what a strange place he
was in!

They once more climbed on the camels' backs, and
in a little while they found themselves on the top of a
range of hills. The camels stopped of their own accord,
and Joseph and Mary caught their breath in surprise and
admiration; for there, spread out before them, was the
valley of the river Nile. They were facing the west,
where the sun was just going down in a blaze of red and
gold. At the foot of the hill whereon they rested was a
little city; beyond it flowed the broad blue waters of the
river Nile, quiet, majestic, bearing on its bosom many
little boats with three-cornered sails, which made them
look like birds, flying over the water. And, farther west,
beyond the river, on the edge of the immeasurable desert,
they saw the great three-cornered Pyramids, grey, vast,
mysterious, their tops now reddened and gilded by the
rays of the setting sun.

42 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Resting there on the backs of their camels, on the top
of that ridge of hills, with the river Nile and the Pyra-
mids before them, Joseph and Mary knew that their long
and toilsome journey was at an end. They realised that
God had brought them safely to the far-off land where He
had told them to go; and they thanked Him for His care
and guidance. They thanked Him also that He had
made the world so beautiful and so large, and that He was
now letting them see the most wonderful part of it — the
land of Egypt, where the Jewish Joseph, son of Jacob,
had been sold into bondage thousands of years ago; the
river Nile, beside whose waters, in a thicket of bulrushes,
the cradle of the Jewish baby Moses had been hidden,
to save him from the wrath of the King of Egypt.
As Mary thought of the little Moses and of how he had
been saved, she hugged the little Jesus still closer to her
breast, and prayed that God would guard him also forever
from the wrath of the King of the Jews — even as He had
guarded Moses from that other King.

The land of Egypt was a land of great interest for the
young Jewish woman, Mary. All her life she had heard
stories of this country, and now she was really here! She
wondered if Moses himself had not sometimes stood on
the top of this very hill, and looked down upon the waters
of the Nile and the great Pyramids, thousands of years
ago. She was not quite sure whether the Pyramids had
been built before the time of Moses, or afterward; for in her
short life she had not had time to learn everything — though
God had found her wise enough to be the mother of Jesus.

Joseph and Mary rested there on their camels, looking
down at the valley of the Nile, while the sunset sky
turned slowly from red to gold, from gold to white, and
the twilight shadows drew near. Then they hurried
down to the little city by the edge of the river.

OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 43

They found a small temple, in a grove of sycamore-
trees, and there they rested that first night. If you
should ever go to Egypt and should visit Old Cairo, the
guides will show you a little church, very ancient, where
the Holy Family are said to have lived during the first
few weeks of their sojourn in the land of Egypt. The
church itself was not built then; but the crypt — that is,
the part below the surface of the ground — is very, very
old; and it is interesting to stand in that crypt, and to
realise that perhaps the baby voice of Jesus once echoed
along those old stone vaults, as our voices echo now.

Her first few days in Egypt were days of wonder for
Mary. Everything was so different to Galilee, where she
had lived all her life before. The Egyptians were an
interesting people, with their dark faces and brilliant
black eyes ; and Mary soon learned that they also, like the
Jews, were ruled over by the Romans. The poor people
lived in huts made of mud, which had been baked in the
sun. Around these huts were always groups of little
brown Egyptian children, some of them with hardly any
clothes, others in scanty garments of red and yellow and
pink.

She never tired of looking at the broad blue river, the
fields of vivid green clover, the brilliant poppy fields, and
the tall palm-trees — which looked like long-handled feather
dusters as they waved against the sky. At the twilight
hour she loved to watch the herdsmen driving home their
flocks and herds of cattle to the little village; but, best of
all, she loved to listen to the songs of the boatmen on the
Nile. They were not like any songs she had ever heard
before; they seemed to be the voice of the homesickness
of all the ages.

The Egyptians worshipped the river Nile. They
thought it was a god, and prayed to it, as they did also

44 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

to the sun, which was another of their gods. This seemed
strange to Joseph and Mary, who had always prayed to
Jehovah, and they could not understand how the Egyp-
tians felt about such things. Their dark-skinned neigh-
bours also believed that a goddess, whom they called
Hathor, dwelt in the sycamore-tree. Now the temple
where Joseph and Mary and the little Jesus lived was sur-
rounded by sycamore-trees; they were very beautiful, with
their mottled bark of pale green and violet-grey; but it
seemed foolish — even wicked — to worship them. And
strangest of all to this Jewish family was the adoration
which the Egyptians gave to certain animals, cows^ croco-
diles, and even cats and beetles. They did not worship
all these animals, but special ones which they kept in
the temples.

Then, too, the Egyptians did not bury their dead
friends, but made them into mummies. These mummies
were just dried dead bodies, preserved in some peculiar
way unknown to us. The faces were often covered with
gold, and the bodies were wound round and round and
round with cloths. For the Egyptians believed that the
souls of the dead would some time come back to the earth
and want their bodies again. They put these mummies
in tombs made of stone, often cut into the solid rock ; and
with the mummies they placed a quantity of little things
which they thought their friends might need in heaven —
dishes, jewelry, and other ornaments — and even little
images of men, made of glazed blue earthenware, which
they believed would come to life in heaven and act as
servants to the people who were dead. Do you wonder
that the Egyptians, with these queer beliefs and customs,
seemed very strange indeed to Joseph and Mary?

But the great event of their sojourn in Egypt was
their visit to the great Pyramids and the Sphinx, across

OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 45

the river Nile. From their first day in Egypt they had
wanted to go there. Mary was always thinking of what
the three Magi, the wise men from the East, had told her
about the Pyramids and the Sphinx, that wonderful night
when they had come to see the baby Jesus, in his manger
at Bethlehem. She wished that ^the Magi, in their far-
away home, could know that she was here in Egypt now;
for though they were so wise, and seemed so rich and
powerful, Mary knew that they loved the little Jesus, and
that made her feel that they were her own friends.

One afternoon, when the sky seemed bluer than ever,
the sun brighter, and the wonderful air of Egypt more
life-giving and pure, the Holy Family started for the
Pyramids, Joseph carrying the little Jesus in his arms.
They found an Egyptian boatman who was willing to take
them across the river, in one of those boats with three-
cornered sails which had seemed to them like birds flying
over the water, that first day when they had rested on
their camels at the top of the hill and had gazed down at
the Nile. As the boat went skimming over the broad
waters, Mary thought of the Jordan, the little river of
Galilee, her home. It seemed very small to her in com-
parison with this great stream; as small as the little
tombs of Galilee compared with the great Pyramids yon-
der, which you know are also tombs — built ages ago to
contain the mummies of ancient kings of Egypt.

In those days there were no guides to show people
around the Pyramids, as there are now. Silent and alone
they stood, amid the wastes of the grey desert, their
solitude disturbed only now and then by a passing camel
train, or by the whistling wind with its burden of whirl-
ing sand.

The Holy Family had landed a little to the north of
the Pyramids. The Egyptian boatman did not follow

46 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

them, but waited with his little craft beside the river.
By motions they had made him understand what they
wanted. The Pyramids are at some distance from the
Nile, and Joseph and Mary had to walk. As they went
slowly over the shifting sand toward the greatest of the
Pyramids, it seemed to grow larger and larger. The
Magi had told them in Bethlehem that one hundred thou-
sand men had worked for twenty years to build this giant
mass of stone; but as they came gradually nearer, it
seemed to them impossible that human hands could ever
have built it. Each of its four sides is nearly an eighth
of a mile long, eight hundred and twenty feet, and the
sides slope upward toward the pointed top. Joseph and
Mary stood at the bottom and looked up. It made them
dizzy.

"Oh, that the little Jesus were large enough to see and
understand ! ' ' said Mary to her husband.

It seemed to her that the baby in Joseph's arms smiled
up at the Pyramid — though he was really too young to
smile. But mothers love to imagine such things.

They walked round to the other side of the great Pyra-
mid, and stood looking toward the other two, which lie in
a straight line to the southwest. They still wondered if
Moses had been here; but they had not been able to ask
the Egyptians, because they could not yet speak their
language.

And now, after nearly two thousand years, the de-
scendants of those Egyptian people love and follow Jesus
— that same Jesus who was too little even to smile at their
Pyramids, the first time he saw them.

Mary and Joseph wandered around until they came to
the Sphinx, the great stone monster sixty-six feet high,
with the head of a man and the body of a lion, which lies
there on the desert sand, facing the east and the Nile.

OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 47

Mary climbed up between the stone paws of the monster,
and sat down there with the little Jesus in her arms.
She also looked far away, like the Sphinx, toward the
east and the river Nile. She thought of the thousands
of years which had passed slowly, one by one, since first
the Sphinx had stood upon these sands. She thought of
the millions of men who had been born and who had died
in that long time, each joying in the sunshine, each
doing the little work which God allotted him, then going
back to the silence from which he came. And then she
thought of the baby in her arms, her little Jesus whom
the angel had told her was the great Messiah of the Jews,
whose coming the prophets had foretold. What would he
do when he should be a man? Though she knew that he
was God's own son, and that he would transform the
world when he grew up, he was now just her own little
baby. It was hard for her to realise how great he was,
though it was natural for her to think him the most won-
derful creature ever born.

The Jewish man and woman remained beside the
Sphinx until the grey desert was all wrapt in the greyer
shadows of the night. One by one they saw the little stars
come out twinkling in the sky. And then, after a while,
the great round silvery moon rose over the eastern hills
beyond the Nile river, and all the desert world was
touched with magic. The Pyramids, which had been grey
a little while before, were now deep blue in the moonlight.

Joseph and Mary walked a short way to the south, and
turning, looked back at the Sphinx, lying there long and
motionless upon the sand. In some strange way they
could not understand, the moonlight seemed to bring the
Sphinx to life, and over the face of the stone monster a
faint smile seemed to flicker. The sight made Mary's
heart beat fast, and she clung to the arm of Joseph. The

48 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

little Jesus, who had been asleep, moved in her arms, as
if he also felt that something unusual was happening.
Mary asked herself if the Sphinx was smiling with glad-
ness because the Christ had come. Of course this strange
appearance was only the effect of the moonlight; but in
those days the imagination of men and women was more
vivid than now. When they saw anything unusual, they
took it as a sign from God.

After a time they turned their backs upon the great
stone forms of the desert, and walked down to the river,
where the Egyptian boatman who had brought them over
still waited for them upon the shore. As they drew
nearer they heard him singing to himself and to the Nile
— perhaps the very song which the boatmen used to sing
thousands of years ago, when the Pyramids were being
built; for things change slowly in the land of Egypt, and
yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow seem to be all one hour
in the life of God.

Sitting quietly in the little boat, under its three-cor-
nered sail, they flew lightly back over the water, which
rippled and glimmered in the moonlight. They seemed
to be sailing straight toward the heart of the moon, which
made a path of silver across the water before them. Of
all the beautiful hours of Mary's life, this hour upon the
moonlight bosom of the Nile seemed to her most beauti-
ful— except for that one hour, in the stable at Bethlehem,
when the little Jesus had come to her and she had first
looked into his face. She was so happy that she thought
she would like to sail right on and on forever, along that
silvery pathway, toward the heart of the moon.

But in a few minutes they reached the other shore.
And the Egyptian boatman, when they offered him a
piece of silver for taking them across the river, shook his
head, and would not accept it. He pointed toward the

OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 49

little Jesus, as if he meant that they should keep the sil-
ver for him.

They went back to the temple where they lived, and
that night Mary had a dream. She dreamed that the
baby Jesus was grown to be a man, tall and strong and
beautiful, and that she was walking over the desert sands
with him, toward the great Pyramids on the other side of
the Nile. And she dreamed that, as they passed the
Sphinx, the monster bent its head and kissed with its
stony lips the hand of her son, Jesus the Christ. It
seemed so real that when she awoke and found herself in
the little temple, with the baby Jesus on her arm, she
could hardly realise for a moment that it had been all a
dream. But the Jews believed that dreams always came
true, in spirit if not in fact; and Mary knew then that
some time, in the far-away future, the people of Egypt
would love and follow Jesus.

For several years Joseph and Mary continued to live
in the city on the bank of the river Nile. They did not
live in the temple all this time, but had a little house
of their own, which Joseph built himself. As the long
months passed slowly by, they came to understand the
language of the Egyptian people around them ; and the
good Joseph found much work to do, and was able to
support his family in comfort, without touching the gold
which the three wise men from the East had given to the
little Jesus, in the stable at Bethlehem.

Mary learned from the Egyptian women how to weave
the mats of rushes on which the people slept, and how to
make many other useful and beautiful things. And the
Holy Family were content with their life in Egypt; they
were not homesick for Galilee, and were willing to stay
here just as long as God wanted them to stay. You re-
member that the angel had told Joseph in the dream

50 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

that God would send him word when it was time to re-
turn home.

And the dear baby Jesus grew and thrived in the
Egyptian sunshine. He was now no longer wrapped in
swaddling clothes, but had little dresses, white and
pretty, which his mother embroidered with her own
hands. In a few months he was able to stand on his feet,
and then to take a few steps, guided by his mother, who
would never leave him out of her sight — so much she
loved him.

She had been charmed by the cooing and crooning of
his babyhood; but the hour when his little lips first
formed the name of Mother, was a wonderful hour for
Mary. When Joseph came home that evening from
his day's work, she ran to him to tell the joyous news
that the baby Jesus had really called her Mother ! Joseph
was almost as happy as she that night, and they sat a
long time beside the bed of the sleeping child, hand in
hand, talking over their plans for teaching him all the
beautiful stories of the Jews, and many other things —
when he should be older.

A few days later the little Jesus spoke the name of
God, for he had heard his parents speak that name so
often. Mary wondered if it was wrong of her to be so
happy that he had said the name of Mother even before
that of God? For, however great he was, was he not first
of all her own baby? And she felt that God would for-
give her.

When Jesus was a little older he began to play with
the Egyptian children, and so he learned to speak their
language also. Though he was the smallest of all the
little ones who used to play around the door of Joseph
and Mary, yet he always led in the games, and all the
dark-skinned children followed him and did just what he

OVER THE HILLS TO EGYPT 51

wished. The Egyptian mothers were not jealous that he
was more beautiful than their children; for they loved
him, too.

Now Jesus had a little kitten to play with ; and Mary
was much troubled one day when the Egyptian women,
who, as I have told you, worshipped animals, declared to
her that the kitten was a god, and wanted to take it away
for worship in the temple. But she would not let them,
because the little Jesus loved it so much. Already, as
Mary told Joseph, Jesus was teaching the Egyptians not
to worship animals — but to love them and be kind to
them.

One day, when he was still a small child, they took
him in a boat across the river Nile, to see the Pyramids
and the Sphinx. Mary told him that he must remember
these things all his life. But she did not tell him about
her dream, that the Sphinx had bent and kissed his hand
— for he was still too young to understand.

One night after they had been living in Egypt a long
time, the angel which had appeared to Joseph in the
dream in Bethlehem years before, and had told him to
bring Mary and the infant Jesus down to Egypt — the same
angel appeared to Joseph again, in another dream, and
said that the time had now come for them to return to
the Jewish land.

Jesus was now old enough to understand where they
were going, and he was delighted at the thought of the
journey. He called together all his little Egyptian play-
mates, and told them that he was going far away and
might never see them again. We may be sure they
cried, these little dark-skinned children, at the thought of
losing the wonderful boy. Perhaps he cried a little, too
— for the tears of his friends meant much to Jesus, always.
That is one reason why we love him.

52 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

But at last they mounted the camels again, the young
Jesus riding in front of his mother, and started back over
the hills and through the petrified forest and across the
desert toward Judaea.

CHAPTER V

THE LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE

Joseph and Mary, with the young Jesus, had ridden out
of Egypt on their camels ; but when, after long weeks of
travelling, they came to the borders of their own country,
they sold the great, long-legged, humpbacked animals,
and bought a donkey. Camels are called "the ships of
the desert' ' ; and had our travellers taken theirs all the
way to Nazareth, their home, they might not have been
able to sell them to anybody.

The donkey which they bought was large and strong,
and Joseph placed Mary the mother and the little boy
upon its back. They were still a long way from Naza-
reth; but Joseph intended to walk. Though the good
carpenter was now beginning to grow old, and his black
hair and beard were thickly sprinkled with grey, he was
still vigourous, and a walk of only a hundred miles did
not seem long to him.

As they came into Judaea, and began to meet with
Jews along the way, it seemed so good to them to hear
their own familiar language once again ! They had not
realised in Egypt that they were homesick; but now,
when they heard the dear old Jewish language after all
those years, they could have laughed for joy. They
hailed the first company of Jews they met, and asked for
news of home. They wanted to know everything which
had happened since they left the stable at Bethlehem
years before; and the first thing they learned was that
53

54 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Herod, the wicked King who had wanted to kill the little
Jesus, was now dead. This was just what the angel had
told Joseph in Egypt, when it had appeared to him in
the dream, and said that it was time for them to go
home. It is always good, when an angel has told you
something, to have it verified by the lips of ordinary
men. Of course you had confidence in the angel — but
this gives you confidence in yourself.

When they parted from that pleasant and talkative
company of Jews, our wanderers felt as if they were
already nearly home. They could almost smell the flow-
ery lanes of Galilee; and as Mary rode slowly along on
the back of the leisurely donkey, she told the young Jesus
about the home to which they were going. He asked a
thousand questions, as children will: were there Pyra-
mids in Nazareth? was there a Sphinx? did the people
worship cats and cows in the temples ? and did they make
their dead friends into mummies, as in Egypt? To all
these questions Mary answered that Nazareth was a very
different place to Egypt; that there were no Pyramids, no
Sphinxes there; that the people worshipped only the one
God, Jehovah ; and that they would think it wicked to
make dead friends into mummies.

From all this we see that the young Jesus, though he
was the son of God and the promised Messiah of the
Jews, was at that time only a dear child, with all a
child's thoughts and wonderings about strange places.
And this is one reason the more why we love him so
much; because, if he had not been human as well as
divine, he could not have become the teacher of the
world. Joseph and Mary could learn things from an
angel, so transparent that .he did not even cast a shadow
behind him ; but the great mass of people love Jesus most
because he was also a man — who had once been a child,

LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 55

and had asked questions of his mother, the same as other
children.

When at last they came to the green road which
led into their own village of Nazareth, they stood still
and gazed about them. Everything was the same — and
yet it did not seem the same. It seemed to them that
the hills were not so high, that the streams were less
wide; and every dear familiar thing looked smaller than
of old. This was because they had stayed so long in the
splendid land of Egypt, where everything was large, and
even the horizon seemed vaster than in other places. For
a moment Mary felt disappointed with Nazareth, the
home to which she had looked forward with so much
longing; and then the old love of it came back to her
stronger than ever. You may not understand this now;
but when you are grown up, and have been away on some
long journey to a great and splendid land, and at last
come back to your own home and find it smaller than you
had thought — then perhaps you will think of Mary, the
mother of Jesus, and understand her feelings when she
came back to Nazareth.

The reason why I am telling you these stories, is be-
cause I want you to feel well acquainted with Joseph and
Mary and the young Jesus ; because I want you to love
them, as if they were your intimate friends — not far-off
people that you only read about in books.

They went straight to the house which still belonged
to Joseph, and they found that nothing had been changed
there during all the years they had been away. The
large flat stone, with one corner broken off, which served
as a doorstep, was still in its old place. The dusty-green
olive-tree still stood beside the house ; and as the family
came up the path, a cloud of pigeons alighted at their
feet, cooing. One of them, tamer than the others, rested

56 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

for a moment on the shoulder of the little Jesus, as if
welcoming him to Galilee.

That n-ight all their old friends and neighbours came
to see them. The return of the Holy Family from Egypt
was a great event in Nazareth, and every one wanted to
learn about the strange country where they had lived so
long. The young Jesus sat up with the others until a late
hour. Was he not now a large, strong boy of seven
years? He told these old friends of his parents how the
Egyptian women, who worshipped animals, had wanted
to take his own pet kitten and make a god of it. The
kitten, now a cat, he had been obliged to leave in Egypt ;
for cats love places more than people, and will not follow
any master — not even a seven-year-old Jesus.

His mother was surprised to hear him tell these men
ind women, whom he had never seen before, all about the
land of Egypt. Sometimes, in speaking of an object, by
mistake he used the Egyptian word for it instead of the
Jewish word; for he had spoken the Egyptian language
with his little dark-skinned playmates since he could
speak at all. It seemed strange to the simple dwellers in
Nazareth that a little Jewish boy of seven should be able
to speak a foreign tongue. Of course they did not know
that this boy was the promised Messiah of the Jews, and
Mary did not dare to tell them. She wanted him to have
a happy childhood, just like other children.

And when the friends and neighbours, saying good-
by at a late hour, told Mary that her boy was the most
wonderful child they had ever seen, she was just as
pleased as if she had not known it all along. She even
tried to think of some little fault of his, that these other
mothers might not be jealous for their own children; but
she could not think of the tiniest fault — because he had
none.

LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 57

Jesus continued to live happily with his parents in
the house at Nazareth. Part of the house was Joseph's
carpenter shop, and the boy used to play there. He loved
the fresh smell of the sawdust and the shavings ; he loved
to hear his father's plane go whistling over the long
planks, as he planed them into smoothness; he loved to
watch him cutting out the wooden ploughs, with which
the people of Galilee turned up the earth before the plant-
ing time. And Jesus used to help his father in many
little ways. Sometimes he held a board for him, which
did not really need to be held at all ; sometimes he gath-
ered up all the shavings and put them in a neat pile in
the corner; sometimes he would tie a bunch of wild-
flowers to the handle of his father's plane — that their
sweet perfume might make it easier for him to work.
The good Joseph always thanked the boy for these atten-
tions, and when the bouquet of wildflowers, tied to his
plane, was so large as to be in his way, he would put the
flowers in a bowl of water — to keep them fresh, as he told
the little Jesus.

But of all the flowers of Galilee the boy loved best the
lilies. And now, after nearly two thousand years, when
we see great white lilies in a church, we like to think that
they are placed there because Jesus cared for them so
much. Can you not see him now in imagination, a little
boy beside some quiet pond in Galilee, gathering an
armful of these lovely flowers to carry home to his
mother?

It seemed to Mary that he grew more beautiful every
day. Sometimes when she looked at him she trembled
with that nameless fear which mothers feel — lest some
unkind wind should blow upon him too roughly; lest
some unlucky star, like those which the three wise men
from the East believed in, should stay too long in the

58 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

heavens above his head. And at night, after he had gone
to sleep, she used to watch over him a long time, thinking
of those words from the Song of Solomon : ' ' My beloved is
white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. . . .
As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my
beloved among the sons."

Like all children, Jesus loved stories; and he would
sit for hours at the feet of his mother while she told him
stories from the Jewish Bible, the Old Testament, as
we call it. We must remember that in those days there
was no New Testament; the New Testament was written
by the friends and followers of Jesus long years after-
ward, to tell the world about his life.

Of all the old stories, perhaps Jesus liked best those
about David, the shepherd boy who became King of
Israel. He loved to hear his mother tell how David
played the harp to cheer King Saul, when he was heavy-
hearted.

All boys like stories about giants, and Mary used to
tell Jesus about the terrible Philistine giant, Goliath, of
whom all the Jews were afraid in the time of King Saul;
for Goliath was nearly twice as tall as any of the other
men, and was all dressed in brass from head to feet, so
that only his face could be seen. She used to tell him
how the young David, who was small and slender, said to
King Saul that he would go out alone and fight the giant ;
and when King Saul was astonished that a mere boy
should dare to do what the strongest men were fearful to
attempt, David reminded him how he had killed a lion
and a bear which had come to steal the sheep he tended ;
and David said that the God who had saved him from
the lion and the bear would save him also from this
giant. And Mary told Jesus how David, clad in his
shepherd's dress, went out to fight the giant, who was

LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 59

dressed all in brass, taking only for weapons five little
stones from the brook ; how Goliath, enraged that a mere
stripling had come out to fight him, drew near to David ;
how David, as he ran forward, drew a stone from his
shepherd's bag and threw it at the forehead of the giant,
knocking him senseless; how he then ran to the fallen
giant, and drawing Goliath's own sword from its scab-
bard, cut off the giant's head.

We may be sure, from what we know of Jesus in his
after life, that he asked his mother why David did not go
and play his harp to the giant Goliath, as he had played
it to the melancholy Saul, and make the giant love him
as Saul did.

Mary told Jesus many other stories of the Jews, and
in all of them there was much about fighting and killing,
and very little about loving one another. She told him
the stories just as they had been told to her; but the little
Jesus always wanted to know why people did the things
they did. He wanted to understand their hearts, as
God must understand them; and always, when a man
in one of these old stories had done a wicked thing, the
boy was sure that it was because the wicked man had
known no better, and because nobody had ever loved him
enough.

These loving thoughts, so familiar to us who have
learned them from the teachings of Jesus, were new
thoughts at that time, nineteen hundred years ago, when
Jesus was a little boy. He was the first of all the Jews
who had ever looked at things in just that way; the first
who had believed that love was stronger than an army of
soldiers, and that the surest way to make a bad man good
was to be kind to him. These ideas were new even to
Mary, the gentle Jewish mother; and she was always won-
dering at the questions Jesus asked her. She used some-

60 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

times to tell her husband that the little boy really taught
her more than she taught him.

After a few more years Jesus learned to help his father
in other ways than by tying wildflowers to his plane, and
gathering all his shavings into neat piles in the corner.
He learned to work with Joseph in the shop, and when
he was ten years old he could plane a board to satin
smoothness, and could paint a chest as neatly as his
father. Whatever the young Jesus undertook to do, he
always did it better than any of the other boys of Naza-
reth could have done; but he did not like to show his
work to these young friends, for fear they would feel
sorry and ashamed that it was so much superior to theirs.
For Jesus the pleasure was in doing a thing, and not in
boasting about it.

By the time he was twelve years old he knew all the
Old Testament stories which Joseph and Mary knew, and
could repeat them as well as his parents could. But
always, in telling these familiar histories, he used to give
the reasons why people acted as they did — the reasons he
had himself discovered by thinking so much about the
hearts of others. He knew why God did not let Moses go
into the Promised Land, but only let him view it from
afar, after those forty years of wandering in the wilder-
ness. He knew why the old King who wrote the Book of
Ecclesiastes had such a bitter and disappointed view of
life. He knew all the feelings of the little boy Samuel,
son of Hannah, who served in the temple with the old
priest Eli, that time when the Lord called him in the
night, and when he had afterward to tell his old friend
and teacher Eli how God was wroth with Eli's house be-
cause of the wickedness of his sons. The Jews had lis-
tened to this story all their lives ; but none of them before
had ever thought to wonder what were the feelings of the

LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 61

little Samuel. Yet Jesus could have told them this, and
many other unknown things besides, before he was even
twelve years old.

Now the year after he was twelve he set out for Jeru-
salem, with his father and mother and many of their
friends and neighbours, to celebrate the feast of the
Passover. The boy had never been to Jerusalem before,
though his parents were in the habit of going every year;
but he was now so large that Joseph and Mary thought
he was quite able to walk the whole of the long distance,
some sixty miles. For the mother had to ride on the one
donkey which Joseph owned.

It was a charming journey for the boy, over the
hills and through the valleys. The season was the
springtime, when the earth is everywhere at her loveliest ;
the little brooks babbled beside the road, the birds sang
in the trees, and there were flowers on every side. We
are told that the road which they took was the very one
which now goes through Ginsea and Shechem, passing
near the old sanctuaries of Shiloh and Bethel. The way
was so long that they had to pass several nights on the
road, camping in the fields.

One sympathetic writer, whose great book you will
read, perhaps, some day, says of the last halting-place,
where they camped the night before coming to Jerusalem t
"It is a melancholy and yet charming spot. The valley
is narrow and sombre, while a dark stream issues from
the rocks full of tombs, which form the banks of the
stream. It is, I believe, 'the valley of tears,' or of drop-
ping waters, which is sung of as one of the stations on
the way in the delightful eighty- fourth Psalm. ' '

We can imagine the twelve-year-old Jesus, going away
alone and walking under the stars, charmed with the
beauty of this spot, and thinking of the splendours of

62 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

the city of Jerusalem which he would see on the morrow
— the Holy City with its great Temple, where would be
gathered thousands of his fellow-countrymen, to celebrate
the feast of the Passover.

Perhaps I had better tell you what the Passover
means, and why the Jews always made a feast on that
memorable day. A long time before, in the days when
Moses and many other Jews were in the land of Egypt,
God was wroth with the Egyptians because of their
evil doings and their hardness of heart, and because they
would not let the Jews go away, as they desired. And
He had sent many plagues upon the Egyptians — to
remind them that He was God, the All-powerful One, the
Creator of the world, and the friend of the Jews. God
had turned all the rivers and pools of Egypt into blood,
so that the fishes died and the people had no water to
drink. He had sent the plague of frogs over all the land
of Egypt, so that from every stream these slimy reptiles
came up and troubled the people. He had sent grievous
swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh, King of
Egypt, and into his servants' houses, and into all the
country, and the land was corrupted by reason of the
swarms of flies. He had sent a plague upon all the cat-
tle of the Egyptians so that they died ; but the cattle of
the Jews did not die. He had sent the plague of boils,
so that all the Egyptians were covered with sores. He
had sent the plague of hail and thunder, so that every
one in the fields was killed, and trees and shrubs were
broken, and fire ran along the ground. He had sent the
plague of locusts, so that the land was covered wifch them
and the air was full of them, and the people could not
even see the earth, and the locusts ate all the green
things which the hail had spared. And still Pharaoh,
King of Egypt, would not let the Jews go away.

LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 63

Then God told Moses that He would send a plague
upon Egypt which should kill the first-born of every fam-
ily, from that of Pharaoh the King to the lowest of his
servants, and that a great cry should go up from the land
of Egypt, such as never had been heard before and never
would be heard again.

And God told Moses that on the tenth day of the
month every family of the Jews should take a lamb with-
out blemish, a male of the first year; that they should
feed and keep the lamb until the fourteenth day of the
month, and should kill it in the evening of that day; that
they should take the blood of the lamb and strike it on the
two side posts and on the upper doorpost of their houses ;
that they should eat the flesh of the lamb that night,
roasted with fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs
they should eat it, and that whatever remained of the meat
in the morning should be burned with fire. God said that
they should eat this feast with their loins girded, their
shoes upon their feet, and their staff in their hand ; that
they should eat it in haste — for it was the Lord'spassover.

For God told Moses that He would pass through the
land of Egypt that night and smite all the first-born of
the Egyptians, from King Pharaoh downward; but that
when He saw the blood upon the doorposts of the Jews,
He would pass over those houses and leave their first-
born alive; and that day should be unto the Jews a mem-
orial, which they should keep generation after generation
as an ordinance forever.

And God did that night as He had said. He went
through the land of Egypt and smote all the first-born of
the Egyptians, from the first-born of Pharaoh, who sat
upon the throne, to those of the captives that were in the
dungeons, so that there was not a house where there was
not one dead.

64 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

And then Pharaoh let the Jews go away, as they de-
sired; for he saw that God was God, the Creator of the
world and the friend of the Jews. And from that time
to this, the Jews all over the world have kept that day as
the Passover, and have celebrated it in the way which
God commanded.

It was to keep this memorable feast that Joseph
and Mary, with the young Jesus, went up to Jerusalem
in the spring of the year after he was twelve years
old.

When the boy awoke on the last morning of their
journey, and realised that that very day he would see the
city of Jerusalem, with its Temple and its splendid
courts, he trembled with anticipation. Young as he was,
he loved God with an intense devotion; and, among the
Jews, the great Temple at Jerusalem was called "the
House of God." Jesus felt as if he were really coming
into the presence of his Heavenly Father, the Creator of
the Universe. He wondered why the older people around
him could seem so indifferent; and when he heard two
men talking together about the barley crops in Galilee
that year, he was amazed at them. How could they think
about such things, when they were within a few hours'
journey of the House of God !

It was a lovely morning, clear and sunshiny, with a
soft breeze from the west. The country just north of
Jerusalem is not beautiful; but Jesus, who was usually so
sensitive to Nature, was hardly conscious of the barren-
ness of the region through which they passed. His
thoughts were on the Temple.

When they came to the outer porches of the Temple,
with their rows of pillars and their marble pavements,
the boy was so happy that he thrilled all over, for he felt
that he was coming home to God. And when he heard

LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 65

the music of the harps, the viols and the dulcimers, he
thought the angels of heaven were singing to him. In
entering this place he forgot the Pyramids of Egypt, for-
got the Sphinx and all the other wonders of the far-away
land where he had dwelt so long; he thought only of the
Jews, his own people, and of the God of the Jews — his
Father.

When he saw the great brazen gates of the Temple, so
heavy that it took twenty porters to open and close them,
they seemed to him to be the gates of heaven. In after
years he knew, and taught the people, that the gate of
heaven is only in the heart and not in any earthly temple,
and that each man must open it for himself; but we
must remember that he was now only a boy, twelve years
of age, with a sublime imagination. And though he was
the son of God, whom God had sent to the Jews as their
Messiah, he had to grow up, like any other boy, and
gradually learn for himself all that he was afterward to
teach the world.

Can we imagine what the feelings of the young Jesus
were, when he heard the musicians of the Temple singing
the verses of those sweet Psalms which predict the com-
ing of the Christ?

" Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee.

" Ash of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy
possession.

" I will make thy name to be remembered in all gener-
ations; therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and
ever.

" Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon
stretch out her hands unto God.

' ' i" will praise the name of God with a song, and will
magnify him with thanksgiving.

66 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

" He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass:
as shotoers that water the earth.

" His name shall endure forever ; his name shall be con-
tinued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him:
all nations shall call him blessed.

' ' The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the taber-
nacles of the righteous.

" The stone ivhich the builders refused is become the
head stone of the corner."

Did he realise, a boy twelve years of age, standing
there in the court of the Temple, that he was himself the
one whose coming had been predicted in these old Psalms
which had been sung for generation after generation by
the sad and persecuted Jews? Did he really know already
that he was the Messiah? I cannot tell you, and no one
else in all the world can tell you. A poet has said that
the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts ; but who
shall 'dare to say just when the knowledge that he was the
Christ was given to the young Jesus?

And was it not strange that among all these Jews
gathered there in Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover,
to eat the lamb without blemish, as God had commanded
them in the time of Moses, no one (except Mary and
Joseph) knew that the young boy with the beautiful
shining face and the deep eyes, who stood so quietly
among them, was the One whom they believed that they
were waiting for? If any one had told them, they would
not have accepted it.

The young Jesus could not see all of the Temple
at Jerusalem, because there were places where only the
priests were considered pure enough to go. There was
the Holy Place, where stood the altar of incense, with the
table of shrewbread on one side and the golden candle-
stick on the other. And there was the Holy of Holies,

LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 67

the innermost place which was entered only once a year,
on the Day of Atonement, and where stood the Ark of
the Covenant, the greatest treasure of the Jews and their
most sacred thing. The Ark of the Covenant was a chest
made of acacia wood, covered with gold; and over the lid
of it, which was called "the mercy seat," two cherubim
(or angels) extended their wings. In the Ark were kept
the two tablets of stone on which were written the Ten
Commandments, which God had delivered to Moses on
Mount Sinai, thousands of years before. And between
the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies there was a thick
veil, too sacred for any one to touch except the High
Priest. It was called the Veil of the Temple.

It seems strange to us that Jesus could not enter this
place. But the Jews were very rigid in the observance of
their ancient laws, and the High Priest had great author-
ity at Jerusalem. He would have been shocked had a
young boy asked him to be allowed to enter the Holy of
Holies and to look upon the Ark of the Covenant. But
we maybe sure that Jesus thought much about this sacred
place where he could not go. And he must have longed
intensely to raise the Veil of the Temple which hid the
Ark of the Covenant from his sight.

The time of their sojourn in Jerusalem went swiftly
by, and the great day of the feast of the Passover came
and went. Then all the Jews who lived in other cities
made ready to go home again; and on another bright
spring day, like the one on which they had entered Jeru-
salem, they all started for their homes. And Joseph and
Mary started with them.

It was not until after they had gone a whole day's
journey from Jerusalem that Joseph and Mary discovered
that Jesus was not with the company of Nazarenes.
Though they had not seen him all day long, they had

68 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

supposed he was a little way behind, with some of their
friends and neighbours. But when they came to the
place where they were to camp that first night, and dis-
covered that Jesus was nowhere to be seen, the father and
mother were terribly alarmed. Their little boy, their
precious Jesus, whom God had intrusted to them, was
lost! We can imagine the distress of Mary and Joseph.
How could God ever forgive them, they thought, if any-
thing were to happen to the child?

They did not even stop to rest, but started back toward
Jerusalem, travelling all night by the light of the stars.
They did not know that they were tired, so anxious were
they and so frightened. As she rode slowly back toward
the Holy City, on the weary, stumbling donkey, Mary's
eyes were blinded with tears. She must have wondered
why the angel did not appear to her now and tell her
where Jesus was; but if she called upon the angel, he did
not answer.

When, finally, they reached Jerusalem, they went from
house to house among the people they knew, asking
everybody if they had seen the child. But no one had
seen him. They must even have appealed to the Roman
guards ; but the Romans in Jerusalem did not love the
Jews whom they helped their Emperor to oppress, and the
loss of one Jewish child was not a matter of any impor-
tance to them.

Poor Mary! This was the first real suffering that she
had known in her life; and when Joseph tried to comfort
her, he could not think of any words to say, for he was
almost as unhappy as she. They remembered how King
Herod, twelve years before, had conspired against the
young child's life; but the old Herod was dead now, and
the King who ruled in his stead must long ago have for-
gotten the story about the wise men from the East, who

LITTLE TEACHER IN THE TEMPLE 69

had come to Jerusalem with tidings of a wonderful child
whose birth had been revealed to them by a star. But
where could Jesus be?

At last, after three days of such anxiety as only
mothers of lost children know, Mary and Joseph found
Jesus. They found him in the great Temple itself,
among the priests and the learned doctors.

It seems that Jesus had not been satisfied with what
he had seen and learned at Jerusalem during the days be-
fore the feast of the Passover. A thousand questions
arose in his tyoung mind, to which he could find no an-
swers. Why was only the High Priest allowed to lift the
veil before the Holy of Holies? What was the meaning
of the golden candlestick which stood beside the altar of
incense? Why did it have seven branches? What made
the High Priest so holy that he could stand in the pres-
ence of the Ark of the Covenant? What really were the
prophesies about the coming Messiah? Where did the
old books say that he would be born? At Bethlehem?
Why, he had been born at Bethlehem! What was the
meaning of that verse in one of the Psalms he had heard
sung: "The stone which the builders refused is become
the head stone of the corner?" Did it mean that the
Jews, the builders of the nation, would refuse to accept
the Christ when he should come?

When Joseph and Mary at last found Jesus, sitting in
the Temple among the priests and the doctors, he was
hearing them and asking them questions. His face shone
with a light which his mother had never seen there, beau-
tiful as he had always been. His eyes were more
brilliant, and there was about him a look of power that
was new and bewildering to her.

' ' My son, ' ' she said, ' ' why hast thou thus dealt with us ?
Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. ' '

70 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

And Jesus answered her, very gently: "How is it that
ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my
Father's business?"

But his mother did not understand all that was hid-
den in the boy's words, for she did not know of the ques-
tions which had been puzzling him for many days. And
she did not know all that had been revealed to him by
the answers of the priests and the doctors concerning the
prophesies of the Messiah.

Jesus went quietly home with his parents to Nazareth,
as if nothing unusual had happened; and he was gentler
and more obedient than ever, and no one could tell
exactly what was passing in his mind. The mother won-
dered if he knew already the great destiny that was in
store for him when he should be a man?

CHAPTER VI

THE VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS

Imagine, now, that some eighteen years have passed
since the young Jesus was found by his parents in the
Temple at Jerusalem, talking with the priests and doc-
tors. Jesus is now a man; but it is not about Jesus that
I am going to tell you in the beginning of this story. I
will tell you about John the Baptist.

You remember how, in the very first of these stories,
when Mary had learned from the annunciation angel that
she was chosen by God to be the mother of the future
Christ, she made a journey to the south to visit her
cousin Elizabeth, who lived not far from Jerusalem.

Soon after this visit, a son had been born to Mary's
cousin Elizabeth, and they had called his name John.
Now John was a few months older than Jesus, and he
was a cousin of his. But, as their homes were far apart,
they had not seen much of each other. Of course they
had met sometimes in Jerusalem, at the annual feast of
the Passover, and each must have made the other an
occasional visit; but their lives had been separate. The
two boys had been very different, and the two men were
equally different. Jesus was all gentleness and love and
sympathy; John was stern and cold and solitary. Jesus
loved to wander among the pleasant hills and the blos-
soming valleys of Galilee; while the favourite walking
place of the solitary John was the stony and arid desert
of Judsea, in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem.
71

72 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

I tell you again, so that you may not forget it, that
some eighteen years had passed since our last story.
There was another emperor in Rome, another Roman
governor in Judsea.

About this time, the people of Jerusalem heard much
of a strange man, tall and gaunt, who used to wander
alone in the wilderness of Judaea, and farther east along
the Jordan river. He was dressed in a single and scanty
garment of camel's hair, a leather strap was around his
waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. His
long black hair hung loose and matted over his shoulders,
his eyes were stern and wild; and often, in the solitary
night, some lonely person walking under the stars would
hear a voice crying in the wilderness : ' ' Repent ye, for the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. "

At other times the tall gaunt man would appear in
the streets of Jerusalem, when they were crowded with
people, still crying in the same loud voice : ' ' Repent ye,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." As you have
probably supposed, this strange man was John, the cousin
of Jesus.

Now John had been alone so much in the wilderness,
that the Word of God had been revealed to him there,
and he had come to understand that the time was ripe for
the Messiah of the Jews to appear upon the earth. There
is always a strange power in desert places; and if a man
like John, desiring intensely to do God's will, goes out
alone into the desert and passes many days and nights,
sometimes — only sometimes — God can make known to
him there things hidden from the world of other men.

As we know, for many hundreds of years the Jews had
been looking for their Messiah; but John was the first to
tell them that the Messiah was indeed come, already.
The old prophets had written that God said to his son,

VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS 73

the Messiah, who was then unborn: "Behold, I send my
messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way
before thee." And John, who had read these words so
many times in the Scriptures, knew now that he was
himself the messenger whom God had sent to tell the
people that the Christ had come. Can we wonder that,
knowing this, he was indifferent to such things as clothes
and food; that the one garment of camel's hair, girt
about the waist with a leather strap, should seem quite
good enough for him ; and that locusts and wild honey
should be all the food he wanted? When a man's heart
is full of a great idea, as John's was, sometimes he forgets
to eat.

Many people, seeing and hearing John, who was so
different to themselves, believed that he was the old Jew-
ish prophet Elias — risen from the dead. We must
remember that the Jews were very unhappy under the
Roman rule, and that they believed that God would some
time raise the old prophet from his grave to help them.
As they were now more oppressed by the Romans than
ever before, why, they wondered, should not God raise
Elias now? And it was this idea which, more than any
other, made them follow John and listen to him, when
he said: "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at
hand."

When men asked John what they should do to
repent and be forgiven of their sins, he answered that
every man who had two coats should give one of them to
his neighbour who had none; and that every man who
had meat to eat should give some of it to other men who
were hungry. When the publicans, who were the tax col-
lectors, asked what they should do to be forgiven by God,
John told them to take no more money from their neigh-
bours in taxes than what the Roman governor forced them

74 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

to take. When the soldiers asked what they should do,
he answered that they must not harm any man. And
then he would always add : ' ' Prepare ye the way of the
Lord, make his paths straight." For ever in the mind
of John was the idea that the Lord Christ was somewhere
in the world already, and that he should see him soon.

John himself believed so firmly that he was sent to pre-
pare the way of the Christ, that hundreds of other persons
believed it, too; and great numbers of them came out to
him, on the banks of the Jordan river and the Dead Sea,
and confessed their sins. And when John saw that the
people were honestly sorry for all the wicked things
which they had done, he baptised them in the river Jor-
dan, and told them to live a new life. It was because of
this that they called him John the Baptist, the baptism
in the river being to them a sign that God believed in
their repentance and would forgive them.

But when others who were not honest, such as the
Pharisees and the Sadducees, came to his baptism, John
answered them with great severity, telling them that every
tree which did not bring forth good fruit should be cut
down and cast into the fire. He meant by this to com-
pare them to trees which bore no fruit; for the Pharisees
and Sadducees, while they talked a great deal about their
religion, did not seem to think that kindness to others
had anything to do with it.

There are many like them at the present day. For if
a man really loves God, he will want to do good to his
fellow beings ; and if a man has only bad things to say of
his neighbours, it is hard to believe that he loves God.
Even a child who really loves God will sometimes give
one of his toys to a poor child who has nothing to play
with. When we give things to the poor we lend them to
God.

VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS 75

Only a few months before that time, no one had ever
heard of John, except a few of his friends and neighbours ;
but now he was one of the most famous men in Judaea —
all because of his preaching and baptism. And he had
many disciples, that is to say, he had many friends who
believed in him, and who followed him everywhere, living
as he did in the wilderness and eating very little food.

Seeing him so surrounded with disciples, some men
even wondered if John himself were not the Messiah who
was to come; but John always denied this. He said:

"I indeed baptise you with water ; but one mightier
than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not wor-
thy to unloose : he will baptise you with the Holy Ghost
and with fire. ' '

When John said that, men began to understand what
he really meant : that Christ had come already, and that
he was somewhere at that moment among the Jewish
people. And they wondered who it could be. Was it
anybody they knew? Was it anybody in Jerusalem?
What would the Messiah do, if he were really come?
Would he free them from the Roman rule? Would he
make himself King of the Jews, and sit upon the throne
of Herod? Would he perform miracles?

No one dreamed that the Messiah could be the young
Jesus of Nazareth, who sometimes came down to Jeru-
salem to attend the feasts. In fact, few men had even
heard of Jesus at that time.

And now we will leave John for a little while, preach-
ing to the people in the wilderness of Judaea and baptising
them in the river Jordan. We will leave John and go up
to Nazareth in Galilee, where Jesus lived.

I have told you much about Jesus when he was a little
boy; but you must think of him now as a man, about
thirty years old, tall and strong and beautiful, with a

76 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

look of love in his eyes such as no one had ever seen
before, and a voice so kind and gentle that every one
loved to listen to it. Joseph the carpenter, who had been
such a good father and husband, was now dead, and
Mary and Jesus lived alone in the little house at Naza-
reth, surrounded by their friends and neighbours. It is
often true that when we have lived near a person all our
lives, we do not know how beautiful and good that person
really is ; and the neighbours of Jesus had no idea that he
was the greatest man in the world. They had seen him
for years, working in the carpenter shop of Joseph; or
walking quietly through the narrow and stony streets,
followed by the children; or coming down alone from the
hills beyond the town where he loved to roam in the early
morning or the late evening. They had grown accus-
tomed to asking his advice and help when they were in
any trouble; but it had always been as a friend and
neighbour that they appealed to him — never as the Mes-
siah of the Jews.

And when Jesus first began to speak to other men
about God and their duties to Him and to one another,
the people in his own town did not specially care to hear
him. So he went to the little villages round about,
where the men and women listened gladly when he spoke
to them about God. For he was very gentle, and it
seemed to them that he must have some beautiful secret
hidden in his heart, because his eyes were so loving and
he smiled so sweetly upon all the world. Sometimes,
when he did not know that any one was looking at him,
a wonderful light would suddenly come into his face, and
they who saw it knew that he was thinking of God.

Already a few men had begun to follow Jesus about
from place to place, as other men followed John the Bap-
tist. They loved to hear the beautiful things he said,

VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS 77

and, most of all, they loved to be near him, because they
were so happy in his presence. But even these friends,
who were already his disciples, though they did not
realise it — even these did not know yet that he was the
Messiah. So far, he had never told them that he was
different to other men ; but it was because they felt, some-
how, that he teas different, that they followed him.

About this time the people in the little towns of Gali-
lee, in the north, began to hear much of the strange man
whose voice was always crying in the wilderness of
Judaea, "Kepent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at
hand. ' ' When Jesus heard about John and his preaching
and baptism, he knew that the time had come for him to
announce that he was the Christ. For had not the old
prophets said, as being the words of God to the Messiah
when he should come : ' ' Behold, I will send my messen-
ger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before
thee. " And John had now prepared his way.

But, as we can imagine, it was hard for Jesus to tell
these friends, who loved him for himself as a man, that
he was after all something very much greater than a mere
man. He knew that they had to be told ; but, with all
his wisdom, he did not know how to tell them. So, as
he understood now that John the Baptist was the messen-
ger whom God had chosen to send before his face, to pre-
pare the way before him, he felt that it would be better if
John the Baptist should announce to the world that Jesus
was the Messiah.

So he asked his friends to come with him down to
Judaea, where John was preaching and baptising beside
the Jordan. He did not know in just what way the
announcement of his Messiahship would come; but he
felt that God would bring it about in the one best way,
whatever that might be.

78 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

There was one young friend with him, John, the son
of Zebedee, to whom it would have been easy for Jesus to
tell anything. For the young John was very gentle and
beautiful, and he loved Jesus much.

You must always remember, in reading the stories
which follow, that the young John, son of Zebedee, was a
different person to John the Baptist. As Jesus had these
two friends who were both named John, it is necessary to
keep them distinct from each other in your mind.

Now when Jesus, with his friends, came down to the
place where John the Baptist was preaching and baptis-
ing by the river Jordan, there was a large company
assembled; for many had come out from Jerusalem and
the smaller cities round about. John had probably seen
Jesus in the crowd, for in his sermon that day he said :

"There standeth one among you whom ye know not;
he it is, who coming after me is preferred before me,
whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose." And
everybody wondered who John meant.

After the sermon, one by one the people went down to
the place where John was standing in the water, and asked
him to baptise them. There were old people and young
people, men, women, and even children, who confessed
their sins and asked for the rite of baptism. The multi-
tudes in all the country round had been thoroughly
aroused by the preaching of this strange man, John, so
tall and dark and fiery looking, robed in his garment of
camel's hair and with his long black locks hanging on
his shoulders. They did not understand him; but they
felt that he knew something which they did not know,
and many of them were sincerely sorry for their sins, and
hoped with all their hearts that the promised Messiah had
really come.

We can picture the scene: the shore of the river

VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS 79

crowded with men and women, dressed in their strange
Oriental garments of many colours, so different to those
we wear; the bright sun shining down upon them all,
showing here and there a fresh, young, earnest face,
alight with enthusiasm ; here and there also an old, keen,
crafty face, darkened with unbelief — for not every one
who came out to hear John and to see the baptism really
had faith in him; and down at the foot of the crowded
shore, the blue river, glittering in the sunshine; and out
there in the water the tall form of the preacher, John.

Jesus was standing there in the crowd, a little way
back from the river. He had noticed how, when John
said that there was one standing among them whom they
knew not, whose shoe's latchet he was not worthy to
unloose, many had started and looked from one to an-
other, searching with their eyes for the person whom John
meant. Then Jesus had seen them go down one by one
to be baptised. He had seen his own friends also go
down to John in the river, and when they came up, their
eyes were shining with the light of faith in God.

The heart of Jesus was very full ; for he knew that the
time of his long waiting was now over. The years when
he had lived so peacefully in his little home at Nazareth,
with the gentle Mary his mother, working in the carpen-
ter shop and dreaming his beautiful dreams, were of the
past. Before this hour, he had seemed to belong to him-
self and to his mother; after this hour, he would belong
wholly to God and to the world. He had now to go down
into the water of the Jordan, like all the others, to be
baptised of John; but he knew that when he came up out
of the water, he would come up as the announced Mes-
siah of the Jews.

As he stood there on the shore, his mind went back
over all the things which I have told you in these stories

80 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

about his early life. He thought of his birth in the sta-
ble at Bethlehem; for his mother had told him about the
sweet-breathed cows that had come to sniff at him, a little
baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a man-
ger, and about the three wise men from the East, who
had ridden into Bethlehem on their camels, bringing him
gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh — led on by the
star. He thought of the enmity of King Herod, now
dead, which had driven his parents to Egypt with him,
when he was a newborn baby. He thought of those long
years in Egypt, from the time when he could first remem-
ber anything until the day they started on the long journey
back to the land of the Jews, after the death of Herod.
He thought of his first visit to Jerusalem, at the time of
the Passover when he was twelve years old, of the strange
questions which had then arisen in his mind, of his talks
with the priests and the doctors, and of how the knowl-
edge had first come to him that he himself was the long-
promised Christ. And he thought of all the years that
had passed since then, years of study and labour, which
had prepared him for his great work of teaching the
people about God. And now, at last, that work was to
begin. ,

Jesus waited until all the other people who desired it
had been baptised, then, without looking behind him or
thinking any more about the past, he went down into the
water beside John, and asked for the baptism.

John was surprised. Why, he wondered, should
Jesus want to be baptised? Baptism was for sinners, he
thought, surely not for the Christ who had come to save
sinners. And, besides, John did not feel that he was
good enough to baptise Jesus. He wanted Jesus to bap-
tise him, instead; but Jesus said no.

As you will learn, perhaps, when you are older, the

VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS 81

man who is really great is nearly always humble in his
heart. Though Jesus knew that he was the Son of God,
he was not willing to let John take the second place there,
before the people whom he had baptised. Of all the
beautiful acts in the life of Jesus, we can hardly think of
one which shows a tenderer consideration for the natural
human feelings of another. You may have to think
about this before you will understand it fully; for it has
puzzled many wise and good men, including the disciples
who were with Jesus at that time. A smaller man than
Jesus would have been pleased to push John aside and
take his place here before the multitude of people; but
Jesus was too great for that.

And then, perhaps, he felt that in being baptised by
the noble John, he would receive at John's hands the
dedication of God for the great work he had to do. He
may have felt that he would be stronger after the blessing
of John, even as a father sometimes feels stronger and
better able to do his hard work in the world, if his little
son or daughter lays a loving hand upon his face in the
morning before the day's work begins.

So John baptised Jesus. We feel that the hands of
John must have trembled as he laid them in blessing upon
the head of the Messiah — so much greater than himself.

And then something very strange and beautiful hap-
pened. The Bible says that as Jesus came up out of the
water, the heavens opened above him, and the Spirit of
God, which we call the Holy Spirit, came down in the
form of a dove, and rested upon the head of Jesus, as he
stood there on the shore of the river. And he heard the
voice of God, his Father, speaking from heaven, and
saying to him :

"Thou art my beloved son, in whom I am well

82 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

When he heard these words Jesus wanted to be alone,
that he might think quietly of the work he had to do, in
teaching his fellowmen about God's love. So, leaving
his friends there by the Jordan river, he went away by
himself into the wilderness of Judaea. It was very still
and solitary there, and he began to think of what it
meant to be the Son of God.

CHAPTER VII

ALONE FOR FORTY DAYS

Have you ever been alone for half a day — absolutely
alone? If so, perhaps you were lonely, perhaps you were
afraid. Perhaps, too, you thought you would be glad to
see any one — no matter whom — so long as they would
talk to you, or even sit quietly on the other side of the
room. You may have felt, though you could not have
expressed the feeling, that there was something present
with you — something invisible — which could see you,
but which you could not see.

If you can remember such a time, you will be better
able to understand the story of Jesus in the wilderness,
where he remained alone for forty clays. The wilderness
of Judsea is a very barren and rocky place, and in the
time of Jesus there were wild animals there. It was in
this wilderness where John the Baptist had wandered,
when God made him understand that the Messiah of the
Jews had come into the world. It was to this same bar-
ren waste that Jesus went, to be alone with his own
thoughts and with his Father in heaven. For he who
really dares to be alone may learn many things in soli-
tude; he may get acquainted with himself, and feel,
though he may not see, God.

After Jesus had been baptised by John in the river

Jordan, and the Spirit of God had descended upon him

in the form of a dove, and the voice of God had spoken

from the heavens, saying, "Thou art my beloved son, in

83

84 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

whom I am well pleased, ' ' Jesus had heard John telling
the people who pressed around them that he, Jesus of
Nazareth, was the Messiah, who had come to save the
Jews.

And Jesus, who had thought about God and the work
he had to do for Him these many years, felt suddenly
that he had not thought about God quite enough to be
able to speak of Him just as he wished to speak. So he
left John and his other friends, and all the people who
pressed around him asking questions, and went away
alone to the wilderness. He did not take any food with
him, and there was no food in the wilderness — except,
perhaps, such locusts and wild honey as John the Baptist
had lived on; but Jesus did not want food now. He
wanted God. And he found Him in the wilderness.

The Bible does not tell us what he did there during
the first days; but can we not imagine? Can we not see
him by day walking over the stony ground, his beautiful
head bent in thought, his eyes fixed on the future? Can
we not see him at night, under the stars, lying upon the
hard rock, praying that God would show him what to do
for the world, which needed all the love he had to give
it? Perhaps, when you have heard the preachers talk
about Christ, you have not had a very clear idea of what
and who he was. He may have seemed to you very
shadowy and far away, and not at all like human beings.
It is to make you understand how real and near he was —
and is — that I am telling you these stories.

When Jesus was in the wilderness he was thinking
about all the people in the world, he was loving all the
souls in the universe, born and unborn, and that means
our souls, too. He was studying what he could do for
us, and trying to learn from God how he could do it
best.

ALONE FOR FORTY DAYS 85

It was sometimes cold at night in the wilderness of
Judaea; but Jesus was not thinking about his comfort.

When you are hungry for half an hour, remember that
he was hungry for forty days. When you are alone for a
little while, and impatient that some one does not come
and amuse you, think of him — alone for forty days, and
glad to be alone, because he had so much to think about.
When a man, or even a little child, goes away alone to
think about God — God is always with him.

From something which happened afterward, and
which I will tell you about presently, we know that Jesus
must have come to realise there in the wilderness what he
had not fully realised before — not only how much he was
like other men, but how different he was to them. The
great souls of the world are modest; they are not always
thinking of how great they are, but rather of how great
and beautiful and dear other people are. You have read
about Jesus as a little boy, and you have read about him
as a man, in his home in Nazareth and at Jerusalem; you
know how kind and gentle he was, and how much he
loved the simple life of the workers in Galilee — poor
people who lived by the labour of their hands. His fos-
ter-father, the good Joseph, had been only a carpenter,
and Jesus himself had worked at that humble trade. He
had seen the great monuments of Egypt as a little boy,
and later he had seen the palace of the King at Jeru-
salem, and the palace of the Roman governor. There was
a> great difference between the little carpenter shop in
Nazareth and the palace of the Herods at Jerusalem ; and
yet Jesus, whose home was in the carpenter's shop, had
now to announce himself as some one very much more
important than those who dwelt in the King's palace.
In our democratic times it may not be easy to imagine
how strange this seemed in those days.

86 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

In our time, should a poor young carpenter say that
he was greater than the King of England, or greater than
the President of the United States, the people of those
countries would merely think him crazy. But in the
time of Jesus, for a young carpenter in Judaea to say that
he was the Messiah, meant more in the eyes of the Jews
than it would mean in our day if a young man should
declare himself king of the world. For was not the Mes-
siah, in whose future coming the Jews believed, to be
greater than all the kings of the world put together?

We have always taken as a matter of course that
Jesus, knowing himself to be the Christ, should tell the
world so when the time came; but it was not so simple
as we may have supposed. We do not wonder that he
wanted a little time alone to think, there in the wilder-
ness of Judaea.

It must even have been difficult for him, brought up
like any other young man, to realise himself that he was
the great One whom the nation waited for. What should
he do? How should he teach mankind? Of course he
knew that God would show him how ; but his very human
questioning of himself makes him seem all the greater
and all the nearer to us. For, if he had not been also a
man, he could not have taught us about God.

Now we are told that during the forty days that Jesus
was in the wilderness, the devil was there also sometimes,
tempting him. You must often have heard of the devil;
but have you any idea what the devil is? The story
books picture him shaped somewhat like a man, but with
horns and hoofs and a long tail ; and they tell us that he
is the spirit of evil. But what does the spirit of evil
mean? It is not nearly so hard to understand as you
have supposed, if you will begin by realising that the
devil is the opposite of God. Everything that God is, the

ALONE FOR FORTY DAYS 87

devil is not. God is loving, and the devil is not. God
created the world, and the devil, being His opposite,
seeks to destroy it. God is true; that is why the devil,
being the opposite of truth, is called the father of lies.
God affirms, He says that beauty and goodness are ; but
the devil denies everything beautiful and good. If a child
says that his mother loves him, that thought comes from
God; but if he denies his mother's love, that thought is
of the devil.

Now in the time of Jesus — and long afterward even to
our own day — people believed that when a man was very
good indeed, the devil was always watching for an oppor-
tunity to come and tempt him. They believed that the
devil chose an hour when the man was weak, either from
illness or grief, and least able to combat the devil's
denial of everything good and beautiful. And then the
devil would come with doubts and sneers — for sneers and
doubts are always of the devil. I hope you will remem-
ber this, when you are men and women.

We are told that Jesus had not eaten anything for
many days, and that he was very hungry. It was then
that the devil appeared to him in the wilderness, and
said:

"If thou be the son of God, command that these
stones be made bread. ' '

This was the same as saying that if Jesus could not
make bread out of stones, he was not the son of God; for
the devil always reasons well. It was, of course, just at
the time when Jesus had come to realise what it meant to
be the son of God, when he was ready to go back to the
multitude of people and tell them that he was really the
Messiah, that the devil (of doubt) appeared and posed
that simple suggestion : " If thou be the son of God, com-
mand that these stones be made bread."

88 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

But Jesus, though he was hungry, did not try to turn
the stones into bread. He merely said to himself, and
to the devil :

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. ' '

Of course the devil hoped that Jesus would try to turn
the stones into bread, that he would fail in doing so, and
that his faith in himself would thus be weakened. For
the devil can often make a strong man weak by making
the strong man doubt his own strength. What the devil
was trying to do, was to make Jesus doubt that he was
really the son of God. In other words, and that you may
better understand, the devil dared Jesus to try to turn
stones into bread.

When he found that Jesus could not be tempted in
this way, the devil took him up into a high mountain,
from which he could see the Temple at Jerusalem, the
palace of the Herods and that of the Roman governor;
and he could also see, in his imagination, all the other
powerful kingdoms of the world. Now, as the devil had
failed in trying to make Jesus doubt himself, he thought
he might succeed in another way — by making him ambi-
tious of worldly glory. If Jesus had wanted to be king
of the world, and to live in palaces, of course he could
not have fulfilled his mission as the Son of God, who had
to live with the common people, to share their poverty
and to love them. If Jesus had not been the Christ, but
a mere man, strong in his faith in himself, the devil
might have succeeded this time ; for we may suppose that
Jesus, who has changed the world by his religion, might
have made himself a king if he had wanted to. It
required greater power to do what Jesus did than to make
oneself an emperor, like Csesar or Alexander. There have
been many emperors, but there has been only one Jesus.

ALONE FOR FORTY DAYS 89

The devil, as he pointed to the Temple and the
palaces, said to Jesus :

"All this power will I give thee, and the glory of
them : for that is delivered unto me ; and to whomsoever I
will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all
shall be thine. ' '

But Jesus did not want worldly glory, and he said :

"Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou
serve."

Then the devil, having twice failed, tried still another
way. He went down to Jerusalem, the Holy City, with
Jesus, and led him up to a pinnacle of the Temple, high
above the stone court — so high that if any one had fallen
from that pinnacle, he would have been crushed and
killed. And the devil, pretending to accept the fact that
Jesus was the Christ, suggested a quick and simple way
for him to prove his Messiahship to all the world. He
said, pointing to the stone court below :

"If thou be the son of God, cast thyself down from
hence : for it is written, he shall give his angels charge
over thee, to keep thee ; and in their hands they shall bear
thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a
stone. ' '

We can imagine Jesus standing there high above the
city, on a pinnacle of that great Temple which had been
built to celebrate the glory of God, his Father. Perhaps,
as he looked down, he saw men walking far below in the
courts, and looking small by reason of the distance —
quiet and solemn Jews going about the business of the
Temple, unaware that the Messiah had come to the world
and that he stood there above them. Perhaps, for a mo-
ment, Jesus may have wondered if, should he step off the
edge of the pinnacle, God's angels would not really bear

90 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

him up. In the exaltation of his new-found power, his
consciousness of being the Son of God, the thought may-
well have come to him.

If such a thing could have been; if those doubting
Jews had seen him come down through the air, like an
angel, and alight beside them unharmed, surely they
would then have believed in him.

But Jesus remembered that God rules the world by
laws, and that those laws are never broken, not even by
God Himself; that even so-called miracles are but pro-
founder applications of those same laws. He realised
that the thought that angels might possibly bear him up,
was only another and more crafty temptation of the
devil. So he answered the spirit of evil:

"It is said, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

Then, seeing that Jesus had grown stronger with every
temptation he had resisted, and knowing that it is only
in hours of weakness that doubt and denial can triumph
over faith, the devil sneaked away and left Jesus alone.

The Messiah came down from the pinnacle of the
Temple and went to rejoin his friends. They had
thought of nothing but him during his forty days in the
wilderness alone, away from them. When they saw him
coming, he looked to them like an angel. There was a
wonderful light in his face, and power seemed to radiate
from him.

Now in all the stories that I have told you before,
Jesus has been merely getting ready for his life's work.
But in the stories that are to come you will learn how this
same Jesus, who had been a baby in the manger at Beth-
lehem, and a little boy in far-away Egypt among the
Pyramids, and a dreamy-eyed youth walking over the
hills of Galilee, became the greatest man in all the world,
and did greater things than any other man had ever done.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MARRIAGE AT CANA

One of the first things Jesus did after coming out of
the wilderness was to go to a wedding. But before he
went to Cana, where the marriage was celebrated, he had
chosen several of his disciples — those friends who were to
follow him as long as he lived, and who were to be near
him all the time, except when he sent them away to
preach his faith in other towns.

When you have heard about the disciples of Jesus,
you may have wondered how he came to have them, and
why they followed him. If you can realise how beautiful
Jesus was and how kind, you will understand why these
friends of his were glad to leave everything else in order
to be near him. Did you ever know a person, perhaps a
teacher of yours, who was so lovely to you that you
wanted to have him always in your sight, so lovely that
you thought of him all the time when he was away, and
counted the hours until you should see him again? I
can remember having such a teacher, when I was a little
child; and had my beautiful teacher asked me to follow
her to the end of the world, I would have been very
happy.

The disciples of Jesus, though they were grown men,
had the hearts of children; and you know that Jesus was
a very great teacher, the greatest teacher in the world.
Even before he spent those forty days alone in the wilder-
ness, he had taught his friends much about God; but
91

92 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

when he came out of the wilderness he had much more to
teach them ; and he was also gentler and more loving even
than he had been before, though he had always been gen-
tle and full of love.

In those days many persons really wanted to learn
about God ; they had more time than we have, for they
did not hurry so from one thing to another. And when
the friends of Jesus had learned from John the Baptist
that the Messiah was really come — the promised Messiah
they had heard about all their lives, and especially when
they learned that Jesus was that Messiah, they were wild
with joy. They thought of nothing else but him. They
treasured every word he spoke, and they could never look
at him long enough. If he asked them to do some little
thing for him, they were happy; for they felt that he con-
ferred a great favour upon them by letting them serve
him. If you have ever loved any one with all your heart,
you will know how they felt.

I told you in one of the earlier stories about the young
John (not John the Baptist, but the other one) , and how
Jesus loved him so much that he could have told him
anything. This young man was very gentle and affec-
tionate, with large soft eyes, and a great faith in his
teacher. In after years he wrote a beautiful story about
Jesus. Now John and his elder brother James were two
of those who went with Jesus to the wedding feast at
Cana.

And there were several other disciples who went. The
young John tells us, in his story, that the disciple An-
drew, who was one of those who went to Cana, had been
a disciple of John the Baptist, the man clothed in the
garment of camel's hair girt about the waist with a leather
strap, the man whose voice had cried in the wilderness,
1 ' Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. ' '

THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 93

Andrew was standing one day with his teacher, John
the Baptist, and another disciple, when they saw Jesus
going by. We can imagine that Jesus did not look like
anybody else in the world; and that no matter where he
went, everybody turned to gaze after him. He drew the
hearts of men as a magnet draws needles. Perhaps, if
you have ever seen a magnet, you will better understand
the attractive power of Jesus. Now when John the Bap-
tist saw the Master walking by, he said to Andrew and
the other disciple:

"Behold, the Lamb of God."

The two disciples knew that he meant the Messiah, and
they followed after Jesus. To them, the very idea of see-
ing the Messiah was so wonderful that they did not dare
to speak to him at first; they just followed quietly.

When Jesus noticed that they were there behind him,
he turned his face to them and asked them what they
sought.

They called him ' ' Master, " as we would say ' ' Teacher, ' '
and asked him where he lived.

Then Jesus took them with him to the house where he
was staying, and he talked to them about God all the rest
of the day. He told them that God was really the
Father, as well as the Creator, of all the men in the world,
and of all the women and the little children; and that
God loved everybody so much that He yearned all the
time to have His children love Him, too. He told them
that in the heart of every one, at the very centre of them,
there was a little spot where God could come and live, if
they would only let Him ; and that when God lived there
in the heart of a man, or a woman, or a little child, they
were so happy that no one who did not have God living
in his heart could even imagine how they felt. They
might be so poor they did not have enough to eat; they

94 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

might have to work all day long like a slave ; they might
be sick and in pain all the time; and yet, if they had let
God come and live in their hearts, they did not mind
hunger, or toil, or pain, because they just felt God there
in the centre of them, loving them and telling them of
His love. Their hearts seemed always to be full, not
only of God, but full of love for all the world, for those
who were their friends and those who were their enemies
— just the same ; for, knowing that everybody was really a
child of God, too, whether they themselves knew it or
not, these people who had God in their hearts felt that
all other people were their brothers and sisters.

And Andrew and the other disciple, as they listened
to Jesus, as they saw his lovely smile, and felt the love
for all the world which radiated from Mm, were conscious
of a strange swelling in their hearts, such a feeling as
they had never had before, and they knew then that God
was knocking at the door of their hearts. And they
opened their hearts wide and took God in. For though
God is as great as the whole universe of stars and worlds
and suns, He can make Himself as small as the heart of
even a little child. And whenever a little child asks God
to come and live in his heart, God always comes. And
then the child can nevermore be cross with any one,
because God cannot be happy in the heart of any person
who does not love all the world just as He does.

And Jesus asked Andrew and the other disciples to go
north with him into Galilee, and he told them that he
would take them with him to the marriage feast at Cana,
where they should see something wonderful, which would
make them understand that one who really felt himself to
be the Son of God had great power, and could do whatever
strange thing God wanted him to do.

And Andrew was so happy at having found the Mes-

THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 95

siah, and so happy at having opened his heart for God to
come and live inside him, that he thought of his brother,
Simon Peter, and wanted him to be just as happy as he
was. So he went and found his brother and brought him
to Jesus, and Jesus told Simon Peter everything which he
had told Andrew; and Simon Peter opened his heart to
God also, and became a disciple of Jesus.

Next day they started north into Galilee, walking
along the beautiful country roads and over the green
hills. And Jesus talked with them on the way, telling
them all the time something new about God.

That day he met Philip, a friend of Peter and An-
drew, and called him also to be one of his disciples.
And while Jesus and the others waited in one place,
Philip went away by himself and found another friend of
his, Nathanael, coming from under a fig-tree.

When Philip met Nathanael, he told him that they
had found the Messiah, of whom Moses and the prophets
had written long ago, that his name was Jesus, and that
he came from Nazareth. And Nathanael answered :

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

Among the Jews there was an idea that Nazareth was
a very poor place. You know that in almost every region
there is some little town, or village, which the people of
other towns all laugh at, for some reason or other. And
often the people who live in these unpopular towns, when
any one asks them where they came from, answer with
just a shade of hesitation, as if they felt beforehand that
they were somehow in disgrace on account of the place
where they live. Perhaps God sent Jesus to live in Naza-
reth for that very reason, to prove that it is really a
man's heart, and not the town of his birth, that makes
him superior or inferior to others. And Jesus was born
poor, to teach the world not to despise poverty. And

96 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Jesus worked with his hands, as a carpenter, that men
might feel that manual labour was honourable.

So, when Nathanael said to Philip, "Can there any-
good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip answered,
1 ' Come and see. ' '

For no one, by merely talking about Jesus, could
make another understand how lovely he was. It would be
like trying to describe a rose to a person who had never
seen or smelled one.

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, he said to him :

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

And when Nathanael asked Jesus how he knew him so
well, never having seen him before, Jesus answered:

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

We do not know what Nathanael had been doing
under the fig-tree; but it was probably something im-
portant to him, because he was so impressed by the fact
that Jesus could know of a thing which had happened out
of his sight. Nathanael told Jesus then that he was in-
deed the Son of God, the King of Israel. But Jesus
wanted men to believe in him for better reasons than be-
cause he could tell what they were doing when they were
away from him, and he answered Nathanael:

"Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-
tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than
these."

And in a little while Nathanael did see greater things
— at the marriage feast at Cana.

Among the Jews of the olden time a wedding was
always a scene of great rejoicing — even more so than with
us, perhaps; and all the friends and neighbours of the
young couple came together to eat and drink, and to wish
the bride and bridegroom long life and happiness. In

THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 97

our country the marriage feast is given at the house of the
bride, or that of her friends ; but among the Jews of the
olden time, the ceremony of marriage was performed at
the bride's house, and the feast was given after dark at
the home of the bridegroom.

Jesus came up through Galilee to the little town of
Cana, with his new disciples, to attend the marriage of a
friend. Now Mary, his mother, knew that he was com-
ing, and she went to the wedding thinking more about
her son than about the bride. She had not seen him
since he went down to Jerusalem, about two months be-
fore. When he left her in Nazareth, he had been just her
big son; but now she knew that John the Baptist had
told people that he was the Messiah. She had also heard,
from friends of Jesus who had been in Jerusalem with
him, that he had gone into the wilderness of Judsea; and
she was full of wonder as to what he had done there.
Had he been cold? Had he been hungry? For a mother
is always a mother, and thinks of her child's comfort,
even though she be the mother of Christ. A neighbour
who had seen Jesus a few days before in a little town to
the south, had told Mary that Jesus now had disciples
with him, who called him Master and seemed almost to
worship him. Mary had listened with glistening eyes,
with her heart full of love and a strange excitement she
had never known before.

You must remember that she was no longer the young
girl Mary, whom you read of in our earlier stories. She
was now about fifty years old, there were white threads
in her soft hair, and around her eyes the little lines
which come with the passing years. She did not wear
any longer the pretty red dress which she had worn in her
youth, but a more sober garment. Though she was not
so pretty and rosy as she had been some thirty years be-

98 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

fore, she was still very beautiful; for her face was full of
love and gentleness, and love and gentleness are often
more attractive than pink cheeks and pretty dimples.

When Mary saw Jesus at last, coming down the road
with his disciples, and when he greeted her and told his
new friends who she was, Mary was so happy that she
could hardly say a word; she just looked at him, and
looked, and looked. She thought of the three Magi who
had come to the stable in Bethlehem when he was a new-
born baby, and she wished that those wise men could see
Jesus now. They had called him the King of the Jews,
and surely he looked like a king this day, though he
wore the same simple garments he had worn before. But
his face was shining.

They all went together to the house of the bride, where
the marriage ceremony was to be performed. It was late
in the afternoon of a beautiful day. The bride and
bridegroom stood under a canopy, they both wore crowns,
and the bride wore a white veil. The Jewish elder, who
performed the ceremony of marriage, stood with the bride
and bridegroom under the canopy; he had a cup in his
hand, which was called the cup of blessing, and he first
asked God to bless the company assembled.

Then he gave a cup of wine to the bride and bride-
groom, who drank of it, and promised to be faithful to
each other. When the bridegroom had drank the last of
the wine, according to the ancient custom of the Jews, he
dashed the cup to the floor and crushed it under his heel.
This strange act was intended to remind them that per-
fect happiness was impossible, so long as Jerusalem, the
Holy City, was ruled over by strangers. The marriage
agreement was then read aloud, and all the people present
drank together — which sealed the fact that they were wit-
nesses of the marriage agreement. Then all the friends

THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 99

of the bride and bridegroom — and among them Jesus, his
mother and the new disciples — walked round the canopy
where stood the married pair, showering them with rice
and chanting the Psalms of David. At the end of the
ceremony the elder asked God to bless the couple with
the seven blessings of the Jews, he drank himself of the
benedictory cup, and passed it round to the assembled
friends.

We can imagine with what sweetness Jesus went
through this beautiful ceremony, for his being the Son of
God and the Messiah did not separate him from other
people; instead, it drew him nearer to them. We feel
sure that the bride at Cana was happy all her life, just
because Jesus was at her wedding, and because he walked
around her with the others chanting Psalms. Perhaps
some time, when you go yourself to a wedding, you will
think of this one in the little village of Galilee, and re-
member that Jesus walked around the bride and bride-
groom, blessing them with his love.

But the strange event of the day happened later in the
evening at the house of the bridegroom, where Jesus and
the other friends and neighbours went to eat the marriage
feast. For nearly two thousand years, people all over
the world have talked of the thing which happened
at the bridegroom's house, and have wondered what it
meant.

It was now quite dark, and all the happy company
prepared to take the bride to her new home. As they
went out of doors, every one carried a lamp, according to
the custom at Jewish weddings, and in a few minutes the
long dark road was glittering with little lights, which
moved hither and thither. To those who came last, the
procession ahead looked like a long and wavering line of
fireflies. Jesus was there with the others, carrying his

100 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

lamp; and the new disciples walked beside him, with
their lamps, too. We may like to think that the lamp of
Jesus was brighter than those of the others ; but perhaps
it was just the same. One of the beautiful things he
taught was that all men were sons of God.

When they reached the bridegroom's house, they
found a great feast spread for them. There were delicate
meats and luscious fruits and cakes, and the pleasant
wine of the country which was not so strong as our wine.
The bride and bridegroom took their places at the head
of the table, and the feast began, with merry laughter
and talk.

We can see Jesus sitting there with the others, rather
quiet and thoughtful, not wishing to draw attention to
himself and his great mission on this evening when all
thoughts were turned toward the new-made bride. If by
his power he could serve them, or add to their happiness,
that would please him well; but he would not talk even
about God this evening, when every one else wanted to
talk about the bride and bridegroom. Some one has said
— and the saying is so true that I will repeat it here —
that Jesus was the first perfect gentleman which the world
ever knew, meaning by that that he was the first man, in
those rougher ancient times, who always acted with deli-
cate consideration for the feelings of others, which is
really what it means to be a gentleman. And here we
see the Messiah, the great man for whom the Jews had
waited generation after generation, making himself one
of a pleasant company ; and a little later in the evening,
when he performed a miracle which the world has talked
about ever since, it was not done to call attention to him-
self, but to give pleasure to others.

The guests at this wedding-party drank much of the
pleasant and almost harmless wine of the country; and

THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 101

after a time, it was discovered that the wine was all con-
sumed— that there was no more.

Mary, the mother, came and whispered to Jesus that
the guests had need of wine. We do not know what was
in her mind; but she must have known that Jesus, being
the Messiah, could do many wonderful things, and there
may have been at the back of her thoughts a hope that he
would take the opportunity to prove his power before this
large company. At first Jesus seems to have hesitated,
for he said to his mother :

' ' Mine hour is not yet come. ' '

But Mary felt that he would do something, because
she knew how much he loved to make others happy; so
she said to the servants of the house that whatever Jesus
asked them to do, they should do it. Jesus was thought-
ful for a moment, as if he were weighing his mother's
unspoken suggestion that he should perform a miracle.

Now there were standing not far from the table six
large waterpots of stone. Jesus arose from the place
where he was sitting, and said to the servants of the
house, ' ' Fill the waterpots with water. ' ' And they filled
them to the brim.

The Bible does not tell us just what Jesus did as he
stood there beside the waterpots; but he may have whis-
pered words of power, reminding himself that he was the
Messiah, the Son of God, with control over all the ele-
ments of the earth. He may have spoken to the water, as
if it could understand him, and could change itself at his
command.

After a moment he turned again to the servants of the
house, and told them to draw out the fluid that was in
the waterpots and to take it to the governor of the feast.
And the servants did as Jesus told them. And the ruler
of the feast did not know what Jesus had done to the

102 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

water ; but the servants knew. And when the ruler of the
feast tasted the liquid taken from the waterpots he tasted
delicious wine — far better than any he had ever drunk
before.

And he called out to the bridegroom, reminding him
that in the beginning of a feast the host usually served
the best wine, reserving the wine which was not quite so
good for a later hour, when the guests had been satisfied
with drinking. "But," said he to the bridegroom, "you
have reserved the best wine until now. ' '

We are not told that Jesus said anything to the assem-
bled guests about the miracle he had performed. Prob-
ably he sat in silence, watching them drink the wine
which he had made out of pure water, knowing that by
and by, when the feast was over, the servants who had
seen him turn the water into wine would tell their mas-
ter, and that he would tell the others, and that gradually
the story would spread — to the glory of God, who could
perform such miracles through His Son.

If we ask ourselves how Jesus could turn water into
wine, it may have been because of the added power which
he had gained by resisting the temptations of the devil in
the wilderness. For a man, or even a child, grows strong
with every temptation which he overcomes and puts be-
hind him.

But the new disciples of Jesus had seen what he had
done, and they now believed more firmly than ever that
he was the Messiah whose coming had been foretold.
And they were eager to see him do other things ; for the
miracle which Jesus performed at the marriage feast at
Cana was only the first of a long series of miracles, which
I will tell you about in the stories that are to come.

CHAPTEE IX

REJECTED BY HIS NEIGHBOURS

After the marriage feast at Cana, where Jesus had
turned the water into wine, and after he had been with
his disciples to a few of the other little villages of Gali-
lee, preaching the love of God and the brotherhood of
men, Jesus began to feel a strong desire to see Nazareth
again, the town where he had been brought up. Some-
times, when he was sitting quietly alone, a picture of the
little stony streets of Nazareth would come so vividly be-
fore his mind that it seemed almost as if he were really
there. He began to dream of the carpenter shop, where
he had worked with Joseph, his good foster-father. He
thought of the high hill beyond the town, where the
breeze always blew, summer and winter, and from which
he could see the beautiful outline of Mount Carmel to the
west, and looking east, and north, and south, the sharp
or curving forms of other hills and mountains.

And he thought of his neighbours in Nazareth, the
boys and girls with whom he had played as a child, but
who were now grown men and women with children of
their own. He wanted them to be glad that their old
friend was the Messiah who had come to save the Jews ;
he wanted to tell them how to open their hearts to God,
so that He would come and dwell inside their breasts, and
make them so happy and so loving that every day would
seem a holiday and every living creature would be their
brother or sister. He had made his new friends feel
103

104 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

these things, and now he longed to make his old friends
feel the same.

So, one pleasant day in the summer of the year, Jesus
found himself again in the old house in Nazareth, with
his disciples. How glad his mother must have been to
see him come home, and what a long and loving talk they
must have had the first evening, after the friends who
came with Jesus had gone to rest, and the mother and son
were alone in the old garden, under the starlit sky. They
had so many things to talk about. I think she must
have told him again about the wise men from the East
who had followed the star to Bethlehem to find him as a
little baby, now thirty years ago. They must have talked
about his childhood in Egypt and the strange ways of
that far land. But, most of all, they talked about his
future, of the great work which he was going to do for
Israel and for all the world. Of course it seemed to Mary
that now the Messiah was really come, all the Jews would
welcome him with gladness. Had they not been looking
for him thousands of years?

Jesus had learned, especially in Jerusalem before he
came north to Galilee, that not all the Jews believed that
he was the Messiah. Already he had had some trouble
with men of his race, who were astonished that he should
dare to say he was the Christ. For it is very hard for
some persons to believe that a man whom they know, a
man they can see and talk with, a man who eats and
drinks like themselves, is different to or better than they
are. They can understand that Moses was a great man;
they can believe that Elijah was a prophet; but when a
man of their own time says that he knows something
which they do not know, and especially when he says
that they do something which they should not do, these
dull and unimaginative people always want to throw

REJECTED BY HIS NEIGHBOURS 105

discredit on him. And it was so with many of the Jews
in regard to Jesus.

So he told his mother now that she must not expect
that every one would love her son as his disciples loved
him. He reminded her of what the old prophets had
said, that the Messiah, when he came, would be a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief.

It was hard for Mary to understand. How could they
help loving him, she thought, when God had sent him to
the world to save them?

But though Jesus loved the people of Nazareth with
all his soul, and would gladly have suffered a hundred
deaths to give them the happiness of feeling God inside
their hearts, he did not know, for sure, that they would
accept either God or him. He hoped so — but he did not
know.

After she went to rest, Mary the mother must have
lain awake a long time, thinking about her beloved son
and all that he had said to her that night. She wished
that her husband Joseph were alive, to comfort her if
anything went wrong. Though he had been dead a long
time, she could almost feel his presence in the room with
her. She remembered how gentle his hands had been as
he had lifted her and the baby Jesus onto the back of the
donkey, the starlit night when they had started for Egypt,
thirty years before. It was so hard to realise that he was
dead! She wanted to talk to him about Jesus. She
could talk with others about her wonderful son; but no
one understood as Joseph would have understood, had he
been living.

The next day was the Sabbath. The house was so
very small that the disciples may have been obliged to
sleep in the old carpenter shop; and we can see Jesus
going out to them in the early morning, to pray with

106 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

them, and from their love to gather strength for whatever
the day might bring forth. Hard tasks are always easier
when those we love stand by and help us with their faith.
But, on the other hand, Jesus may have feared that some
of his new disciples would be discouraged if the people of
Nazareth did not love him and accept him as the Mes-
siah; and if he went out in the early dawn and prayed
with them, it was to strengthen their faith — not his own.

I have told you about the young man John, with the
tender eyes and the gentle voice, the disciple who loved
Jesus so much. Can you not see him, with the morning
sunlight on his fresh young face, as he stood there with
Jesus and the other men, praying that God would reveal
Himself that day to the dwellers in Nazareth?

When the hour came for the Sabbath service in the
synagogue, Jesus, Mary, and the five or six disciples who
were there, walked along the narrow streets to the small
bare building which the Jews of Nazareth used as a place
of worship. You know that a synagogue is a Jewish
church; but the synagogue of Nazareth was not like the
splendid churches which you may have seen in cities. It
was more like some little Methodist chapel in the country
districts of England or America, with a few hard benches
for the worshippers to sit on, and a reading stand, or pul-
pit, where the speaker of the day read from the old
Scriptures and tried to explain 'them. There was no
regular preacher.

The news had already gone abroad in Nazareth that
Jesus, son of Mary, had come back to the town; that he
was followed by disciples who called him the Messiah;
that he was said to have turned water into wine at Cana,
and that he had cured many people of their sicknesses by
laying his hands upon them. Old men in Nazareth who
had known Jesus as a little boy, shook their heads sadly

REJECTED BY HIS NEIGHBOURS 107

and pointed to their foreheads, as much as to say that he
must be crazy. Young men who had been brought up
with Jesus and who had known him all their lives, de-
clared that what he claimed was quite impossible — had
they not seen him every day for years, and how could he
be the Messiah? The son of Joseph and Mary! How
absurd !

We may be sure that every man, woman, and child in
Nazareth who was able to walk to the synagogue, was
there that Sabbath morning. It was generally the custom
in the little Jewish towns for the schoolmaster to read the
Scriptures in the synagogue on the Sabbath, for the syna-
gogue was also the schoolhouse. This schoolmaster was
one of the "elders," or "rulers of the synagogue," who
had special seats of honour reserved for them, and who
took themselves very seriously. The most sacred parts of
the service were read by a man called the delegate. This
was not always the same person; and on that Sabbath
morning when Jesus, with his mother and his disciples,
went to the little synagogue in Nazareth, the chief shep-
herd, as they called the chief elder, must have asked
Jesus to act as delegate for the day. You will remember
that Jesus had been brought up in this town, that he had
been in the habit for many years of going to this syna-
gogue on the Sabbath, and that he may often in the past
have acted as chief reader, or delegate. You should also
remember that he probably knew every man, woman, and
child who was in the synagogue that morning.

Now none of them had seen him since the day, a few
months before, when he had left Galilee to go down to
Jerusalem to hear the preaching of John the Baptist, who
had first proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah. And
they were full of curiosity as to what he would say and
do. The Jews were a very jealous people; and the elders

108 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

of Nazareth were resentful that a man of their own town,
whom they had always regarded as one of themselves and
no better than they were, should have become so famous
in other towns. If the young people of Nazareth were
full of unbelief in Jesus, the elders of Nazareth were full
of jealousy and envy and spite. What blasphemy, they
said to themselves, for this young man to claim that he
was the Messiah! And when the chief elder gave Jesus
the Book and asked him to read, we may be sure that he
looked at Jesus very hard, as much as to say that he was
giving him an opportunity to do his worst.

Mary, the gentle mother, must have trembled as she
sat on her bench with the other women of the congrega-
tion. The night before she had been full of joy; but
when she saw her son among these hard and skeptical old
men, she was filled with anxiety. Why could they not
see how beautiful he was! She may have wondered if she
should have told her neighbours long ago about the visit
of the angel, who had announced that her son was to be
the Christ. She may have almost blamed herself for
her own delicacy and fineness. But the next moment she
must have realised that she had done quite right; for if
she had told these same old men years before that her son
was the one whom God had sent to save Israel, they
would have been just as full of unbelief; and Jesus, in-
stead of having had a youth of happiness and quiet,
would have been tormented all the time.

Mary saw Jesus go into the pulpit with the Holy Book
in his hands. He stood there for a moment, silent and
calm. It seemed to her that he had never looked so tall.
From where she sat she could see the backs of the elders
on the front benches ; some of them were turned sidewise,
so that she saw the wrinkles at the corners of their sharp
eyes, and the stern or sneering look of their old mouths,

REJECTED BY HIS NEIGHBOURS 109

half hidden in their grey beards. Then her glance went
back to the face of Jesus, as he stood there before them
so tall and so calm. She saw him open the Book, the
Scripture which the chief elder had given him ; he seemed
to be looking for some special passage. Then in his
strong, sweet voice he began to read from the prophet
Esaias, and this is what he read :

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

Then he closed the Book, and silently handing it to
the chief elder, he sat down. The eyes of every one in
the synagogue were fixed upon his face. No one moved
even a finger, and the room was utterly still — so still that
Mary could hear the rustling of the wind among the
leaves of a tree outside the window. Then she heard
Jesus say, in a voice sweeter and stronger than before :

"This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."

Then he began to talk to them, explaining the Scrip-
ture which he had read. For the words of the prophet
Esaias had been about the Messiah who was to come, who
should preach the gospel to the poor, and comfort the
broken-hearted, and free the captives, and restore sight
to the blind, and do many other great things. When
Jesus had said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in
your ears, ' ' everybody in the synagogue understood what
he meant, that lie was the fulfilment of this prophesy;
that he, whom they had known all their lives, was the
one whom the great prophet Esaias had referred to, cen-
turies ago. And though they had felt that he might say
something like this, they were nevertheless astonished;

110 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

and they looked at him as if he were quite strange to
them, as if they had never seen him before.

Then he went on to tell them what he wanted to do ;
how he hoped not only to help the Jews in their troubles,
but to teach them how to open their hearts to God, that
He might come and dwell in their hearts, and fill them
with love for every living creature. The same beautiful
things which he had told his new disciples, and which
had made them follow him, Jesus told to these old neigh-
bours of his, gathered there in the synagogue at Nazareth.

As he stopped speaking for a moment, he heard sev-
eral old Jews say to the men who were next them on the
benches :

"Is not this Joseph's son? Is not this the carpenter,
the son of Mary? Where did he learn these things?
What new wisdom is this which is given to him? How
could he do the things which people say he has done?"

When Jesus heard them murmuring together, he said
— still in the same sweet voice and with a patient smile —
that they would probably repeat to him the old saying,
"Physician, heal thyself;" that they would probably ask
him why he could not do in Nazareth, his own country,
the same things which he had done in other towns and
cities. Then he repeated to them another old saying:

"A prophet is not without honour, but in his own
country, and among his own kin, and in his own house."

Then Jesus, knowing that they would recognise a
reference to the prophets, reminded them that there were
many widows in Israel in the days of Elias, when there
was no rain for three years and six months and everybody
was starving; but that the prophet Elias was sent only to
one of them, a widow who lived in a city of Sidon. And
he reminded them also that there were many lepers in
Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and that none

REJECTED BY HIS NEIGHBOURS 111

of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian. By this
he meant them to understand that, though there were
many inhabitants of Nazareth, and many elders in the
synagogue, God had selected Jesus only to show forth His
glory.

Now when the elders and other men of Nazareth heard
this, they were very angry. And they rose up in their
seats, and began talking all at once and threatening
Jesus, who stood there quietly in the midst of them, with
a sad smile on his face. For these old friends and neigh-
bours were dear to him, even though they were so hard
and bitter and unbelieving.

Mary the mother must have been frightened when she
saw the men surrounding Jesus and threatening him; but
she did not dare to say a word. There was a dreadful
uproar in the synagogue, everybody was moving forward,
trying to get to Jesus ; and no one would have listened to
the mother, even if she had tried to soothe them. Through
the hubbub of many voices she heard the chief elder tell
Jesus that he must leave Nazareth right away, that they
would not have him there any longer; and all the other
voices shouted yes.

Then these angry and noisy men made Jesus go out of
the synagogue, and his disciples and the other people fol-
lowed. Jesus did not try to stay, or even to dispute with
them; for it was a part of his teaching that those who
loved God should always meet violence with gentleness.
When he asked them where they wanted him to go, they
pointed to the brow of the hill whereon the city was
built. And Jesus went that way peacefully, his disciples
and the people of Nazareth still following.

When they reached the brow of the hill, which was
high and rocky, these elders and other men of Nazareth
tried to throw Jesus down headlong that he might be

112 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

killed — so angry were they that a man whom they had
known as a child should dare to say he was the Son of
God.

But Jesus passed quietly through the crowd with his
disciples, and escaped the wrath of the men of Nazareth.
For while he would not raise his hand against them, he
did not mean to let himself be killed; because he had
only begun the work which he had to do for God and for
the Jews. Jesus must have been very sad that morning,
as he passed along the road toward Capernaum, a little
city near the Sea of Galilee, where he was to do many
wonderful works.

The eyes of the mother were full of tears as she went
back to her lonely home. She had expected so much
from this visit of Jesus to Nazareth, and it had turned
out so badly. She knew now that she could not live any
longer among those cold and unbelieving people who had
tried to kill her son, so she prepared to follow him to
Capernaum. It is always hard for a woman of Mary's
age to leave the house where her son has grown to man-
hood ; but she felt that wherever Jesus was, there would
her home be in the future.

As she was moving sadly about the house, a shadow
fell across the doorway. Looking up, she saw the bright
face of the young John, the disciple who loved Jesus so
much. The Master had sent him back to fetch his mother
to Capernaum.

CHAPTER X

THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS

For each one of us there is some place where we work
better than in other places, some city where we make
friends more easily and where we find a truer happiness
than anywhere else in the world. For Jesus that con-
genial spot was the little city of Capernaum, near the sea
of Galilee. This was the home of Peter and Andrew, of
James and John, and it was here that Jesus worked some
of his greatest miracles. In the quiet house of Peter the
Master was happy, and the dwellers in Capernaum, simple
and kind-hearted beings, understood and loved him bet-
ter than the people of any other place.

It was to Capernaum that he came after the unhappy
experience in his home-town of Nazareth, where the men
who had known him as a child refused to accept him as
the Messiah of the Jews, or even as a prophet. Though
the Master had been sad at Nazareth, as he drew near to
the charming city by the lake the weight fell from his
heart, and the power in him which had been slowly devel-
oping for many years blazed forth. He walked along the
green road with his friends as a conqueror going to meet
his destiny.

On the next Sabbath day he went into the synagogue
at Capernaum, as he had done at Nazareth, and taught
the people his beautiful new doctrine of a loving Father
in heaven, of the kingdom of God which was some day to
be manifest in the world, and of the true brotherhood of
113

114 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

men — because they are all equally the children of the
Father. Nothing like this had ever been heard before in
the synagogue at Capernaum. The Jews spoke often of
the wrath and jealousy of God, but seldom of His love;
and the scribes who taught the people were merely men
learned in the Hebrew scriptures, whose hearts were gen-
erally as dry and lifeless as the parchment on which they
copied the chapters of the Law.

The fame of Jesus had gone before him to Capernaum,
and on that Sabbath day the synagogue was crowded with
men and women, all desirous to see this young prophet
whose friends proclaimed him as the Messiah. There
was, of course, some incredulity; but most of the people
in Capernaum were glad to listen to Jesus, whether he
were really the Messiah or not. And after they had heard
him speak, even the most skeptical were deeply impressed
with his sincerity and power. The world assumes a new
and different colour when seen through the eyes of one
who believes in the beauty of the world. And Jesus did
not repeat old things in a dull way, like the scribes ; on
the contrary, he said new things, boldly and on his own
authority.

There was in the synagogue that day an unfortunate
man who, according to the saying of the Jews, was pos-
sessed by an unclean spirit — that is to say, he was in-
sane, and said and did revolting things. In those days,
when a man had lost his reason it was generally believed
that he was possessed by a devil, and the crazy things he
did were attributed to the malice of this demon.

When Jesus had finished his sermon, this insane man
— or the devil that was in him — cried out:

"Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou
Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I
know thee who thou art, thou Holy One of God. ' '

THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 115

For the devils who possessed men were supposed to be
afraid of prophets and of holy beings and of angels, and
of all that was good and pure.

Jesus looked at the madman steadily, and in a voice
of authority he said to the devil that was in him :

"Hold thy peace, and come out of him."

The unfortunate man fell on the floor of the synagogue
in convulsions, and those who stood by said that the
devil tore him, for he cried with a loud voice, moaning
and shrieking as if he were indeed tormented by some
invisible force. Jesus regarded him calmly, without
saying another word ; but the look of power was still in
his eyes. Most of the Jews who were present gazed at
Jesus, instead of at the possessed man on the floor, for
they had never seen any one look as the Master did at
that moment. His eyes were aflame, though he was so
quiet, and the full strength of his will was directed
toward the spirit of evil which had made this man, his
brother and the child of God, more beastly than the ani-
mals of the field. For man, the highest of earthly beings,
can become the lowest, when the soul in him loses its con-
trol of the body which should be its servant.

Gradually the convulsions ceased, the harsh voice was
stilled, and the man who was no longer possessed by a
devil, picked himself up from the floor. His countenance
was changed, the leer had left his face, his whole person
was transformed. To those who had known and pitied
and avoided him for years, he seemed suddenly to have
become another person. His bent back was straightened,
and the eyes which had been almost too terrible to gaze
into, were now quiet and wide and pure. The man was
cured.

This was the first miracle which Jesus performed in
Capernaum, and the men and women who beheld it were

116 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

amazed. They questioned each other, saying among
themselves :

"What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for
with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits,
and they obey him. "

When the people left the synagogue they talked of
nothing but Jesus and the miracle he had wrought. What
manner of man was he? they asked each other. If he
were not the Messiah, as his friends claimed, what could
he be? Certainly, they said, no ordinary person could
drive out a devil as he had done.

And his doctrine! They were still thrilling with the
idea of a Father in Heaven who loved them and desired
them to love one another. Could loving the Father give
to other men such power as Jesus had? Would he remain
long with them? Would he cure others, as he had cured
the madman? They thought of this person and that who
was afflicted with disease, and the new feeling of brother-
hood which was already stirring in their hearts made them
desire that all men who suffered should be brought to the
Master. It is thus even to this day with those who have
found Jesus — they want to share him with others.

When he left the synagogue Jesus went to the house of
Peter, followed by those disciples whom he had already
chosen. This home became the favourite resting-place of
the Master. In the house of Peter, surrounded by the
family of that good man — his wife, his wife's mother and
his young children — Jesus was to spend perhaps the hap-
piest hours of his life. For peace is always happiness,
even with so exalted a being as the Master from Nazareth.

When they reached the house that Sabbath day, they
found that the mother-in-law of Peter was sick with a
fever. This good old woman, who was ever happiest
when she was serving others, could do nothing now but

THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 117

lie upon her bed of pain. She could not eat, she could
not sleep; but tossed restlessly from side to side. Her
daughter feared that she would die,

Peter told Jesus that his wife's mother was ill. Al-
ready, after only a few weeks in his company, the sturdy
fisherman of Capernaum believed that his Master could
do anything he willed to do.

Jesus entered the bedchamber of the sick woman. Her
face was flushed with fever, her tangled grey hair lay over
the pillow, and her brilliant, feverish eyes were fixed upon
the Master. In her delirium she thought he was an angel,
as he stood there before her in white garments, his face
illuminated by the rays of sunlight which came through
the open window. Never, perhaps, had Jesus so much
desired to heal any one as he desired to heal this faithful
creature.

He came and stood beside her bed, he took her by the
hand, and in the same way that he had commanded the
demon to leave the man in the synagogue, so he now com-
manded the fever to leave the woman. It is hard to un-
derstand a power like that of Jesus ; but after a few mo-
ments the throbbing in her temples ceased, the unnatural
brilliancy of her eyes was softened, and her hand which
had lain hard and hot in that of Jesus became relaxed
and cool. The fever was gone ; and obedient to his will
as a little child, she waited for him to tell her what to
do.

Still holding her hand, Jesus lifted her up. She
stood upon her feet, softly smiling at her daughter and
son-in-law, who had witnessed this extraordinary scene.
Nothing that the Master did could really surprise Peter,
but his face was aflame with joy. What a privilege was
his, he felt, to be the chosen companion of a man who
could say to the sick and the afflicted, "Arise," and

118 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

they arose ! We may be sure that Peter embraced the
good old mother of his wife, and that his honest eyes
were wet with tears of happiness. The disciple, who had
left his family to follow Jesus, now knew that never in
the future would his long absences be blamed. For the
sake of a Master who could do them service like this, the
women of his household might well be willing to endure
a little loneliness — even to take upon themselves for a
time all the cares of the home.

The mother who had been cured now went about the
work of the house as if nothing unusual had happened,
and she ministered to Jesus and his disciples, preparing
their food and serving it to them.

And Peter's children — young boys and girls alert
with the vivid interests of youth ! We can picture them
in imagination, grouped about their father's Master, gaz-
ing at him with wide-open, curious eyes, and asking him
questions about Nazareth and Jerusalem, as well as about
the kingdom of heaven. We can believe that they hung
upon his arms, or even about his neck; for children are
never afraid of those who are truly great, and Jesus loved
the little ones.

Through the long and happy afternoon the Master re-
mained quietly in the house with his friends, and when
the evening came and the sun had set, they brought to
him all the people of Capernaum who were sick, and those
who were believed to be possessed by devils, like the man
in the synagogue — so many that all the inhabitants of the
city were gathered together at the door of Peter, and could
not come into the house because there was not room for
them.

And Jesus healed those who were sick with various
diseases, and he cast out the devils from those who were
insane, for there were many such in Galilee. And more

THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 119

and more the people wondered at him, asking each other
how such things could be.

Among those who came to seek the help of Jesus was
a certain centurion, a Roman officer, who had command
of a hundred soldiers. This man, unlike most of the
Roman officers, was much liked by the Jews, because he
himself loved their nation. He had even built them a
synagogue, as an evidence of his friendship. Now the
centurion had a sick servant that was dear to him, and
having heard of the cures which Jesus had performed in
Capernaum, he came to him and said :

"Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy,
grievously tormented. ' '

He did not suggest that Jesus should do anything.
He merely stated the facts of the case, leaving everything
to him. The Master said :

"I will go and heal thy servant." Now this cen-
turion was different to most of the Romans in Palestine.
He did not feel, merely because he belonged to the ruling
race, that all Jews, even the most exalted, were inferior
to himself. On the contrary, he was wise and subtle
enough to know that no Roman, not even the Emperor,
was really the equal of this Jew, this Jesus of Nazareth,
whose words were like winged flames, and whose deeds
were already the main subject of conversation in Gali-
lee. And when the Master offered to go to the cen-
turion's house, which was some distance away, and to
heal his sick servant, the man was conscience-stricken
at the thought of giving Jesus so much trouble. And he
said:

' ' Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under
my roof ; but speak the word only, and my servant shall
be healed. For I am a man under authority, having
soldiers under me : and I say to this man, Go, and he

120 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my
servant, Do this, and he doeth it. ' '

When Jesus heard this, he marvelled. It was the
same as if the man had said that the Nazarene, being
Master over the powers of Nature as the centurion himself
was master over his soldiers, could command the disease
of palsy to depart from the afflicted servant, even at a
distance, and it would depart — like a soldier sent away by
his commander. Jesus said to those who followed him :

"Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great
faith, no, not in Israel.

"And I say unto you, That many shall come from
the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But
the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer
darkness. ' '

For Jesus, who had been sent as the Messiah of the
Jews, would become instead the Saviour of the Gentiles —
if the Jews rejected him and his message. And he now
said to the centurion :

' ' Go thy way ; and as thou hast believed, so be it done
unto thee. ' '

The centurion went away and returned to his own
house, and when he entered in at the door he saw his serv-
ant standing before him — completely cured. The promise
of Jesus had been fulfilled. The great faith of the cen-
turion had received its due reward. It is always thus
with those whose faith is perfect.

At this time Jesus had not yet chosen all of his twelve
disciples. One by one, and two by two, he selected them
from among the men he met. The essential qualities he
looked for in those who were to be his companions and
helpers, were simplicity of faith, a loving heart, and
strength of character.

THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 121

The names of the twelve apostles were: Peter and
Andrew, James and John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas,
Matthew the publican, James the son of Alphseus (some-
times called James the lesser, to distinguish him from
James the brother of John), Thaddaeus, Simon the Ca-
naanite, and Judas Iscariot. We suppose that the reason
why Jesus chose twelve apostles instead of some other num-
ber, was because this number was that of the twelve an-
cient Tribes of Israel.

There are charming stories told of how he called this
man and that from his ordinary occupation, and bade
them follow him.

Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, who were among
the first of his disciples, he had seen one day fishing in
the sea of Galilee. Jesus was walking on the shore, and
when he saw the two brothers casting their net into the
sea, he said to them :

' ' Come ye after me, and I will make you to become
fishers of men."

And straightway they had left their nets and followed
him.

That same day he had called James and John, the
sons of Zebedee. These two were also fishermen, as was
their father, and as Jesus had walked along the shore of
the lake with Peter and Andrew, he had seen James and
John in their ship, mending their net. And when Jesus
told them to follow him and be his disciples, they had
left their father in the ship with the hired servants, and
had followed him.

It was also in Capernaum that Jesus called Matthew
the publican. In Palestine a publican was a tax-collector,
not, as in England, the keeper of a public-house. As the
taxes demanded by the Romans were severe, and their
collection was sometimes made with difficulty, these offi-

122 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

cials were hated by the Jews, who classed them with sin-
ners and outcasts.

Jesus, who had none of this prejudice, in passing
along the road with his disciples saw Matthew sitting at
the receipt of customs. The man's face was honest, his
eyes clear and intelligent, for it was he to whom we owe
the best record we have of the actual sayings of Jesus.
With that swift intuition which never failed him, the
Master recognised in this publican one of those souls which
could be used for the service of God, and he said to him :

"Follow me."

Matthew needed no second bidding. He had seen
Jesus before and had heard him speak, and the stories
which were told of the Nazarene had fired the imagination
of the tax-collector. He, too, would learn of the king-
dom of heaven, and would experience for himself that
love of God and of his fellowmen which made the faces of
Jesus and his intimate followers shine with such a soft
and radiant light. And he rose up from the place where
he was sitting and followed Jesus, leaving everything
behind him.

And Matthew made a great feast in his house, in
honour of Jesus ; and when the Master and his disciples
sat down at the table, there was a great company of pub-
licans and others who sat down with them.

But the scribes and Pharisees, who in Capernaum as
elsewhere were always complaining about the democratic
ways of Jesus, now murmured against the disciples, say-
ing to them :

' ' Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sin-
ners?"

"They that are whole need not a physician," replied
Jesus; "but they that are sick. I am not come to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 123

The scribes and Pharisees, who had come into the
house of Matthew out of curiosity, now looked at the table,
laden with meat and fruit and pleasant drinks. They were
astonished, having an idea that prophets and religious
teachers should despise all pleasure, especially that of
wholesome food. And they said to Jesus :

"Why do the disciples of John the Baptist fast often,
and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Phari-
sees; while thine eat and drink?"

Jesus looked around at the pleasant company of his
disciples, and smiled. They were so happy to be with
him! And he said to the complaining Pharisees and
scribes :

' ' Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast,
while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will
come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from
them, and then shall they fast in those days."

The disciples who heard these words caught their
breath. Could it be, they asked themselves, that Jesus
would ever be taken away from them? Though they had
only been with him so short a time, it seemed to them
now that they could not live without him. For he gave
to their lives a vivid meaning and a purpose — and they
loved him so! But the time was not come when Jesus
wished them to dwell upon the final tragedy of his mis-
sion; he wanted them to be happy now, and the smile he
gave them restored their peace of mind.

More and more the people of Capernaum gathered
about Jesus, and men began to come from other cities to
see him and to hear him talk and to be healed by him.
He could not be alone now, even in the home of Peter,
and one morning he arose very early, a long time before
daylight, and went away into a solitary place and there
prayed to his Father in heaven. The world was wrapped

124 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

in that great stillness which precedes the dawn, while the
birds are yet asleep, and the stars still twinkle in the dark
sky. It was so sweet to Jesus — this being alone with
God. Though to his friends he was the Master, the
greatest one of earth with power before undreamed of,
when he came to his Father in heaven he was like a little
child.

He prayed alone there a long time, in the stillness of
the night, until the stars paled, and the dark sky became
a pearly grey, and the waking birds twittered in the trees,
and in the east a rosy glow crept slowly upward from the
still unrisen sun.

When the dawn was fully come, the disciples of Jesus,
who had been seeking for him, found him alone in that
solitary place with his face upraised to the sky and to
the Father. And they said to him :

' ' Master, all men seek for thee. ' '

The spirit of Jesus came back from communion with
heaven to the work which lay before him on the earth.
And he said to his disciples :

"Come, let us go into the next town, that I may preach
there also ; for therefore came I forth. ' '

Followed by his friends, he left the solitary place and
prepared to journey into other cities. As he came out
upon the road where the multitude was, one of the scribes
— a man very different to the others, one who loved and
obeyed the ancient law as well as copied it — came up to
him and said:

' ' Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. ' '

Jesus answered:

' ' The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have
nests ; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. ' '

For he wanted those who followed him to follow for
love's sake only, without hope of earthly reward. His was

THE FAVOURITE CITY OF JESUS 125

a mission of poverty and homelessness, a pilgrimage in
quest of the kingdom of God. The Bible does not tell us
whether or not the scribe followed the Master, but we
believe he did.

So the little band of comrades left Capernaum, the
city near the lake which Jesus loved, and went into other
towns, that the Master might tell the dwellers in those
towns his beautiful story of a God who was their Father,
and of that coming time when all men should be brothers
in the kingdom of heaven.

CHAPTEK XI

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

It was oil a mountain not far from Capernaum that
Jesus preached his most famous sermon.

Wherever he went now he was surrounded by crowds
of people, for his charm and sweetness drew men after
him whether they willed to follow him or not. Though
they could not have told, perhaps, what attracted them so
powerfully to this young teacher with the shining eyes, it
was really the love that was in his heart for all beings
which stirred a responsive love in other hearts. It is
always so — even with lesser men.

His twelve disciples now went with him everywhere.
They surrounded him with an aureole of faith. The solid
strength of Peter, the quiet goodness of James, the perfect
comprehension of John for all the teachings of his Master,
and the devotion of the nine others, were for Jesus an
abiding help ; while he was to them the living realisation
of God's love for the world.

With his disciples Jesus went upon the mountain, and
the multitude of people followed him. It was a perfect
day; the air was pure and the sky a cloudless blue. Most
days in Galilee are perfect days. The peaceful wandering
life which the Master enjoyed with his friends, sleeping
often under the open sky, could not have been lived in a
harsher climate.

Jesus stood upon the mountain, and the people grouped
themselves below him. He had taken his place on a rock,
127

128 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

a little above the nearest of his listeners; and as he stood
there, tall and slender in white garments, his head was
outlined against the vivid blue of the sky. To the mul-
titude gazing up at him, he seemed a being from another
world. They were accustomed to the dry teaching of the
scribes, untouched by ardour or imagination; but the ex-
pression of a new and living faith fell from the lips of
Jesus, and they listened intently. Slowly he spoke, that
the meaning of every word he uttered might come home
to them. He said :

' ' Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the king-
dom of heaven.

' ' Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be com-
forted.

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness : for they shall be filled.

' ' Blessed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy.

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
God.

' ' Blessed are the peace-makers : for they shall be called
the children of God.

' ' Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteous-
ness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against
you falsely, for my sake.

"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your
reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. ' '

These beautiful verses are now called the Beatitudes.
We read them in a book, and even in cold black and white
they seem to be alive; so we can imagine the feeling of
those who heard them for the first time, heard them

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 129

spoken in the clear and thrilling voice of Jesus himself,
standing there on that mountain, his eyes aflame with
thought, his form outlined against the brilliant blue of
the Galilean sky.

When Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart,"
nearly every one in that vast multitude was filled with a
desire to be again as a little child — simple and pure in
heart. And for the moment they were so, because the
personal influence of the Master was upon them, lifting
them out of their ordinary selves and filling them with
his own spirit.

The scribes had never told them that they were blessed
when men reviled and persecuted them because of their
faith in God. Of course — now they came to think of it
— the great prophets whom they honoured and whose say-
ings were always on their lips, had been so persecuted in
their lifetime. The words, "but things were different in
those days ! ' ' which we so often hear from men and women
who would make excuses for their own failure to follow
the teaching of Jesus, had often been heard in Galilee
with regard to the ancient prophets. For the Jews did
not try to live like the prophets, any more than people in
our day really try to live like Jesus, and they sometimes
had the same half-guilty feelings which we have, and for
the same reason.

Jesus told them that they (the Jews) were the salt of
the earth; but if salt had lost its savour, he asked them,
wherewith should it be salted? For the Jews at that time
had lost their savour — the true faith and enthusiasm which
had carried their ancestors through forty years of wander-
ing with Moses in the wilderness, and had brought them
at last into the Promised Land.

Jesus said to them :

1 ' Let your light so shine before men, that they may

130 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in
heaven. ' '

The Jews of the olden days had worshipped God as
the great Jehovah, but they had not known that He was
also a loving Father. It was Jesus who gave that supreme
idea to the world ; and when this multitude of people who
had followed him to the mountain heard him talk about
their Father in heaven, their hearts swelled within them.
They wondered why they had never known before that
they were the beloved children of the Creator.

Jesus did not wish any of his listeners to think, be-
cause the faith he taught them was so much more loving
than the religion which they had known before, that he
sought to do away with Judaism. On the contrary, he
said to them :

' ' Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the
prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law, till all be fulfilled.

"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least
commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called
the least in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever shall
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven. 'For I say unto you, That except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven."

As they looked at Jesus, standing there against the
blue sky, they thought how different he was to the
scribes and Pharisees. And he wanted them to be more
righteous than their harsh old teachers ! Well, they would
attempt to be. They, too, would try to love and under-
stand the Father in heaven. If it was his love for the

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 131

Father which made Jesus so much more beautiful than
other men, they wanted also to feel that love, that they
might be like him. It seemed to them that they had
already entered upon a new and keener life. They drew
long breaths of the pure mountain air, tingling with joy
from head to feet.

Jesus went on to explain to them certain points of the
old law, making them understand that the interpretation
of the scribes and Pharisees was insufficient. He said :

' ' Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time,
Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in
danger of the judgment :

' ' But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with
his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judg-
ment : and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall
be in danger of the council : but whosoever shall say, Thou
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. ' '

The harsh Jews were always calling each other fools,
and almost every day they were angry with somebody —
with or without cause ; yet they brought gifts to the altar
in accordance with the law, as if by many burnt offerings
they could buy their peace with God. Jesus now said to
them:

' ' If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remem-
berest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave
there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy
gift."

Surely this was a new interpretation of the law — this
counsel of brotherly tolerance ! And how easy it seemed
at the moment, while Jesus stood there before them ! As
they listened to the Master's words, old Jews smiled at
each other, when yesterday they would have frowned or
looked askance. The whole of that great multitude was

132 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

like one being, united by one overmastering idea — the
idea of brotherhood. And how happy they were ! They
had never before realised what true happiness was. Their
eyes shone.

Jesus now explained other points in the old law, and
every rule he touched upon he illuminated. Among
other things, he told them :

' ' Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an
eye, and a tooth for a tooth :

"But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but
whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to
him the other also.

' ' And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take
away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

"And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go
with him twain.

' ' Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that
would borrow of thee turn thou not away. ' '

The listeners gasped. ' ' An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth," had always seemed to them a just law; but
now they realised how hateful it was. If all other men
were their brothers, as Jesus said, and if their enemies
were the children of God the same as they were, of course
they must forgive each other. Gradually it dawned upon
the minds of those Jews that if they could follow the
advice of Jesus, "Resist not evil," by that very passive
endurance they would make evil against themselves im-
possible on the part of their f ellowmen ; that non-resist-
ance was the most powerful of all resistance.

As Jesus paused a moment to let this new idea sink
deep into the minds of his listeners, some of them gave
little joyful cries of comprehension. And Jesus smiled
down upon them, feeling that they were coming very near
to the kingdom of heaven. And now he added :

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 133

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt
love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray
for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

' ' That ye may be the children of your Father which
is in heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on
the unjust. ' '

Again those little cries of joyful comprehension fol-
lowed the words of Jesus. They had not before understood
that the gifts of Nature, bestowed on good and evil men
alike, were God's way of saying that all beings were His
children. Even an earthly father did not discriminate
too much between an erring son and one that was obedi-
ent; and when Jesus reminded them now that God did
not so discriminate, in sending his blessings of sunshine
and of rain, it made God seem to be in very truth their
Father. Jesus said:

"If ye love them which love you, what reward have
ye? Do not even the publicans the same?

"And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye
more than others? Do not even the publicans so?

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is
in heaven is perfect. ' '

The Jews were in the habit of giving alms to the poor,
but they often gave in an ostentatious way, looking
around to see if their neighbours observed how generous
they were. Jesus now advised them :

' ' Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to
be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your
Father which is in heaven.

"Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound
a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the syna-

134 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

gogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of
men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

"But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand
know what thy right hand doeth :

' ' That thine alms may be in secret : and thy Father
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. ' '

Then the Master spoke to them about prayer. With
the Jews prayer was a form, almost a social obligation.
If a man was not known to pray, he lost caste among
his neighbours. This idea of prayer was revolting to
Jesus, who lived in constant communion with his Father
in heaven.

"When thou prayest," he said, "thou shalt not be as
the hypocrites are : for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may
be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their
reward.

' ' But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father
which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly.

"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the
heathen do : for they think that they shall be heard for
their much speaking.

' ' Be not ye therefore like unto them : for your Father
knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him. ' '

Then, standing there upon the mountain and looking
down at the upraised, earnest faces of those men and
women, the Master taught them the Lord's Prayer, which
generation after generation of Christians have repeated
daily for nearly two thousand years, that prayer which is
the most beautiful supplication ever formed in words, in-
cluding in its brief lines all that man needs to say to
God in giving himself utterly to Him :

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 135

' ' Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed ~be thy
name.

1 ' Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as
it is in heaven.

1 ' Give us this day our daily bread.

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

uA?id lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory, for ever. Amen."

When, in a Christian church, we hear a great congre-
gation repeat the Lord's Prayer as with one voice, we
think of that first time when it was spoken upon the
mountain, under the blue sky of Galilee, by the Master
himself.

"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
The difference between this supplication and the old
Jewish rule, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,"
is the difference between Christianity and Judaism. For,
as Jesus said that day :

"If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you :

' ' But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses."

And he told them also that when they fasted they
should not be of a sad countenance, like those hypocrites
who disfigure their faces, that they might appear unto
men to fast; but that they should rather anoint their heads
and wash their faces, that men should not know they were
fasting, but that only God should know. For God, who
saw in secret, would reward them openly. And Jesus
said:

' ' Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where
moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break
through and steal:

136 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

' ' But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do
not break through nor steal :

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also."

"No man can serve two masters," Jesus said, "for
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he
will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot
serve God and mammon.

' ' Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your
life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for
your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more
than meat, and the body than raiment?

' ' Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither
do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly
Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than
they?

' ' Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit
unto his stature?

"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither
do they spin:

' ' And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

' ' Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field,
which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall
he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith?

"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we
eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be
clothed?

" (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for
your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all
these things.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 137

righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto
you.

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the
morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Suffi-
cient unto the day is the evil thereof. ' '

This teaching was very sweet to the Galileans, for
their lives were simple and their wants were few; but there
were also upon the mountain that day certain men from
Judaea, where Nature was less kind than in the north ; and
though these men were charmed with the teaching of Jesus,
his advice to take no thought for the morrow seemed to
them a trifle visionary — even as it seems to some in our
own day whose worldly wisdom is greater than their
faith.

The Jews were very severe in their judgment one of
another, and many of them performed good actions not
to be seen of God, but to be seen of men. Jesus said to
them now:

"Judge not, that ye be not judged.

' ' For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged :
and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to
you again. ' '

Here and there a man in the multitude glanced un-
easily at his neighbour, suddenly conscience-smitten for
having judged him unkindly. How had he dared to
fancy that his neighbour's motives were less pure than his
own?

Then Jesus talked to them about their relations with
God, and how they should ask the Father in heaven for
blessings, with perfect faith that they would receive them.
He said:

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall
find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you :

"For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that

138 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be
opened.

"Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask
bread, will he give him a stone?

"Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children, how much more shall your Father
which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask
him?"

Then, having spoken of their relations with God, Jesus
now spoke again of their relations with their fellowmen.
And he gave them the Golden Kule, which Christians
since that day have held up before themselves as the high-
est ideal of life:

"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do
to you, do ye even so to them. "

How simple and how beautiful it sounds, and yet
how few there are of us who follow it !

Jesus was always fond of using figures of speech and
of talking in symbols. This gave to his teachings a great
charm, and made his words easy to remember.

"Enter ye in at the strait gate," he said; "for wide
is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruc-
tion, and many there be which go in thereat :

"Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way,
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. ' '

Many other things Jesus taught them that day upon
the mountain, so that it seemed to some of his listeners
that they had learned enough to guide their ways a whole
life long — yet they desired ever to hear more and more.
At the end of his sermon he said :

' ' Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth
them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his
house upon a rock :

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 139

"And the rain descended, and the floods came, and
beat upon that house ; and it fell not : for it was founded
upon a rock.

"And every one that heareth these sayings of mine,
and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man,
which built his house upon the sand :

"And the rain descended, and the floods came, and
the winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell :
and great was the fall of it. ' '

When Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were
astonished at the doctrine he had preached. Though
based upon the old Jewish faith, it was all new and
wonderful to them. A God who was a loving Father!
"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors!"
' ' Judge not, that ye be not judged ! " " Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you ! " It seemed to the people that these sayings had
power to change the world.

And they were equally astonished at the way of the
Master's teaching, for he spoke as one having authority,
and not as the scribes. The scribes repeated old sayings
in a dull and lifeless way; while the words of Jesus were
like flames, illuminating everything they touched.

As long as they lived, these people remembered him
as he had looked that day on the mountain, standing
upon a rock, tall and slender in white garments, his head
outlined against the vivid blue of the Galilean sky.

CHAPTER XII

STILLING THE STORM

Jesus came down with his disciples to the lake of
Gennesaret. It was late in the day, the sun was gone,
the rolling waters were a deep, deep blue, dark clouds
moved swiftly across the heavens, there was a chill in the
air and the wind was rising.

"Let us pass over unto the other side," said Jesus to
his friends, for he wanted to bring his message of a lov-
ing Father to those who dwelt on the eastern shore.

The lake of Gennesaret is six miles wide, and they
found a boat for the crossing, a boat with oars and a sail.
Even as they launched it, a little wave slapped over the
side, wetting the hands of those who were by the rail.

"There is going to be a storm," they said. But the
Master had expressed a wish to cross the lake, and no
one dreamed of suggesting that they wait until the storm
had passed.

And other smaller boats set out with theirs, for in
the multitude that followed Jesus there were some so
enthusiastic that they would have gone after him had he
started out to cross the unknown sea, instead of the
little lake of Gennesaret when a tempest was brewing
among the hills beyond. Had they not heard him preach
the Sermon on the Mount?

The boat of the Master and his twelve disciples had
gone only a little way from the shore when a terrific gust
of wind nearly whipped the sail from the mast; but Jesus
141

142 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

paid no attention to the raging of the elements. He had
been preaching and healing all that day, and he was
weary. He went and laid himself down in the stern of
the boat, and placing his head upon a cushion which was
there, he fell into a deep and untroubled sleep. His dis-
ciples gazed at him through the gathering darkness. It
seemed so strange to them that he should fall asleep at
such a time — like a child upon the bosom of its mother.
Would he sleep like that all the way? they wondered — or
would the boat be able to go all the way? It seemed im-
possible, if the wind and the waters continued their mad
struggle.

Wave after wave washed over the side. The mast
rocked and groaned, and they were obliged to lower the
sail. Four of the men took to the oars, and one of them
tried to bail out the water which filled the bottom ; but for
every bucketful which he threw over the side, two bucket-
fuls poured in. The rain began to fall in whirling sheets,
and the force of the wind itself was like a wall of water
against which the oars were powerless to make headway.
At last they gave up rowing, in despair, and resigned
themselves to the will of the tempest. The wind was not
blowing them across the lake, neither back to the shore
they had left, but southward, and they knew not where
they were.

The day was quite gone, and darkness covered the
waters; but now and then a vivid flash of lightning showed
them the waves, which were dashing wild and high, and
in those brief flashes they also saw the faces of one an-
other. Pallid they sat, with set lips and haggard eyes.
And still Jesus slept in the stern of the boat.

At last a wave greater than any that had come be-
fore washed over the edge, and even Peter cried out in
terror. No, they would not wait any longer. Surely

STILLING THE STORM 143

the Master would wish to be awakened ! And they cried
to him :

"Master, Master, awake! Carest thou not that we
perish?"

Jesus arose to his feet, standing in the water which
partly filled the boat. His garments, even the cushion
upon which he had lain, were soaked. But he uttered no
exclamation, and to the frightened disciples it seemed as
if he were still unaware of the danger which menaced
them.

Then he raised his voice, and speaking to the wind
and the waves he commanded them to be still. His tones
were clear and ringing, yet there was in them a thrill of
love, as if the tempest he rebuked were a living and way-
ward being which knew not the harm it wrought.

"Peace, be still!"

As he spoke a vivid flash of lightning illumined the
sea, and by its light the disciples saw the face of the
Master. All their lives they remembered him as he had
looked at that moment. It seemed to them that they had
seen the face of God Himself.

"Peace, be still!"

Was the wind veering? They no longer felt it in their
faces. The waves ceased to wash over the edge of the
boat, which now rode the water steadily. The shrieking
of the tempest died to a gentle whisper, the rain ceased
to fall. In a briefer time than they had taken to arouse
the Master, the storm was stilled, and there was a great
calm. So quiet it was that they could hear the tinkle of
a sheep-bell on the far-away shore.

The disciples were silent and amazed. All their fear
had left them, and the calm which had descended upon
the lake possessed their own souls, too. Jesus went back
to his place in the stern of the boat, and sat down. For

144 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

a little time he said nothing, and they knew not what to
say. Then he spoke:

•'Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no
faith?"

They could not answer him, but they said to one an-
other :

"What manner of man is this, that even the wind and
the sea obey him?"

Again they took up the oars, and rowed steadily toward
the other shore. There was no beacon light to guide
them, and the night was still dark; but now they knew
that they would reach the goal — wherever it might be.
Why had they been afraid? Was it indeed true, they
wondered, that they were of little faith? How peacefully
Jesus had slept! And had they not awakened him, and
had he not stilled the storm, they felt that somehow all
would have been well. For he was the Son of God, and
how could he be drowned, or die in any other way, until
his work on earth was finished? Though they could not
see his face, yet they could feel his eyes upon them in the
darkness, and they knew that the eyes were full of com-
prehending love. They might be fearful, they might be
lacking in faith, but the Master could never despise them.
They would try still harder to be worthy of his love, being
certain of his sympathy and forgiveness when they failed.
That is not the way of the world's incentives; but Jesus
had said that his kingdom was not of this world.

In a little while even the clouds which hid the sky
seemed to melt and pass away, and the stars shone out
clear and tranquil above their heads. When the growing
light enabled them to see the face of Jesus, it wore the
look they had imagined in the darkness — soft and patient,
with a great love in the eyes.

And when, after long rowing, they drew near to the

STILLING THE STORM 145

farther shore, they heard some one singing on the hills
beyond. The voice came to them out of the mystery of
the distance, as if some unknown soul were calling its
love to the Master and to them. They never learned whose
was the voice which had sung that night, on the farther
shore of the lake; but often in the future, when for a
moment they doubted the heart of humanity, a swift
memory came to them of the tones of that unseen singer,
and they remembered that out of the storm comes the calm,
and out of the mystery of the distance the singing soul of
the world.

CHAPTER XIII

THE LITTLE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS

There lived in Capernaum a ruler of the synagogue
named Jairus, who had a little daughter that he dearly-
loved. The child was twelve years old and she was beau-
tiful, with long, curling golden locks and soft dark eyes.
It seemed to the father and mother that never since the
beginning of the world, had there been born a child so
wonderful as theirs. Yet, though they loved her so, they
had not spoiled her with unwise indulgence; for she was
gentle and obedient, and seemed to have no desire save to
make her parents happy all day long.

But the girl was slender and frail, and the one anxiety
of the father and mother was lest some cold wind should
blow upon her too roughly, or the hot sun of summer shine
too fiercely upon her little head. If any harm should
come to her, they told each other, they would feel that
they themselves had lived too long upon the earth. There
is nothing which gives so pure a happiness as love ; but
they who love one being too intensely live always with
their door wide open to fear.

The things we greatly dread always come to us sooner
or later, and the summer when the little girl was twelve
years old she sickened of a fever and lay tossing and
helpless on her bed. The father and mother knew not
what to do; they could only gaze at each other and at
their child with wide, despairing eyes. The best physi-
cians of the city came and looked at her and went away
147

148 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

again, leaving remedies behind them — but no hope. And
Jairus, who had already learned from Jesus about the
Father in heaven, prayed all day and all night long, even
promising the half of his possessions to the poor if God
would spare him this one treasure. But she grew steadily
worse.

"If Jesus of Nazareth were only here!" said Jairus
every hour. But the Master had gone over to the other
side of the lake, and no one knew just when he would
return.

At last the news came to Jairus that one of his neigh-
bours had seen Simon Peter in Capernaum. The heart of
the stricken father leaped with hope, for wherever one saw
Peter, it was certain that Jesus was not far away. Leav-
ing his little daughter in the care of her weary mother,
the ruler of the synagogue went out to look for the
Master.

He found him in one of the streets of the city, sur-
rounded as usual by a multitude of people. Making his
way with difficulty through the crowd, Jairus threw him-
self at the feet of Jesus, crying:

"My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray
thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be
healed ; and she shall live. ' '

Jesus remembered the daughter of Jairus, for he loved
all children, and knew by name many of the little ones of
Capernaum. He turned his face at once toward the
father's house. But he could only go slowly, so great
was the throng of people which crowded forward seeking
to have speech with him ; for when the news had come
that Jesus of Nazareth had returned from the country of
the Gadarenes, the whole city had flocked forth to meet
him.

Now it often happens that when a man sets out to do

THE LITTLE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS 149

one good action, he does another unconsciously by the
way, and it was so with Jesus that morning. In the
crowd that pressed about him there was a poor woman
who had been sick for twelve years with a seemingly in-
curable malady. She had suffered much from many
physicians, and had spent all the money that she had in
trying to be cured; but she had grown steadily worse
instead of better, and it seemed to her now that she had
but a nicker of life in her worn and wasted body.

When she learned that Jesus was in Capernaum, she
had summoned all the strength that she had left, and had
gone out to find him, saying to herself :

"If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. "

Coming behind him in the crowd, she reached out her
hands and touched the hem of his garment. In her heart
there was a great faith, and as soon as she had touched
him she felt in her body that the terrible disease had left
her.

Jesus had not seen her; but he suddenly felt that the
virtue of healing had gone out from him, and turning
about in the press of people, he asked :

1 ' Who touched my clothes ? ' '

His disciples, who were beside him, pointed to the
hundreds around, and said:

' ' Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest
thou, Who touched me?"

But Jesus wished to know whom he had cured, for he
dearly loved all those who had been healed by him. In
giving them of his own strength and health he made them
forever a part of himself.

And the woman, fearing and trembling, and knowing
what was done in her, came forward and fell down at the
feet of the Master, telling him all the truth. He said to
her:

150 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

"Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made
thee whole. ' '

Then, rejoicing, she went back to her own house. And
from that day forward, as long as she lived, she talked to
her friends about Jesus of Nazareth, trying to give them
also the great faith which had made her whole.

Jairus still stood beside Jesus, who was coming to
heal his little daughter. But even as the Master had
spoken to the woman, there came certain friends from the
house of the ruler of the synagogue, and they said to
Jairus :

' ' Thy daughter is dead ; trouble not the Master. ' '

With the shock of his grief the face of Jairus became
pallid as death itself. He would have fallen to the
ground, but Jesus quickly took him by the hand, saying:

' ' Be not afraid, only believe. ' '

The hope of a great love needs but little to feed upon,
and the eyes of Jairus lost their despairing look. What
did the Master mean? What could he do, if the child
were already dead? Silently, stumbling as he walked,
the poor man followed Jesus to the little house where all
his hopes lay stricken.

The master permitted no one to go with them but Peter
and James and John. Had it been possible he would
have performed all his cures in secret, for already the very
fame he had achieved by means of them was hampering
his work. In the country of the Gadarenes, because of
his miracles, the frightened people had asked him to go
away.

As they drew near to the home of Jairus, they heard
the sound of the minstrels who had come to make sad
music in the house of death. And coming nearer still,
they heard the wailing of women, above the hoarser
voices of men. Jesus, standing on the threshold of the

THE LITTLE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS 151

house, looked in upon the mourning company. And he
said:

"Why make ye this ado, and weep? The damsel is
not dead, but sleepeth. ' '

And they laughed him to scorn, for some there are
always who can deride the words of wisdom, even in the
presence of death.

But Jesus made all the people go out of the house, the
minstrels and the relatives and the neighbours; for he
did not wish to be hampered by the disbelief of others in
the work he had to do. When those who had been bewail-
ing the maiden's death were all outside the house, Jesus
closed the door softly after them ; then he took Peter and
James and John, and the father and mother of the child,
and passed with them into the chamber where she lay.
The faith of his own disciples and the love of the parents
were sources of equal power.

The dead girl lay as if she were indeed asleep. It
seemed impossible that anything so fragile and so fair
could have suffered the great change which strong men
dread. Her little hands were folded upon her breast, and
some one had laid between them a white lily, of the kind
which Jesus loved and had himself so often gathered
when a child. Her golden curls lay over the white pil-
low, the long dark lashes of her closed eyes cast faint
shadows upon her pallid cheeks. But what made the
watchers catch their breath, was not the innocent beauty
of the dead child, but the peculiar smile upon her face.
It was a smile of mystery and strangeness, as if some
lovely secret unknown to the wisest of the living had
been revealed to her in the realm of death.

But as they looked from the face of the child to the
face of Jesus, the parents and the three disciples saw on
his lips the same smile. Whatever the secret was which

152 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

wrapped the dead girl in its mystery, that secret was
shared by the Master. Only for a moment he stood there
looking down at her and smiling, for the grief of the
parents was heavy on his heart.

Then he bent and took her by the hand, and as his
fingers closed over hers they closed also over the stem of
the white lily, so that the Master and the child both held
it. The disciples could smell its strong fragrance. In a
voice low and tender, yet thrilling with intensity, Jesus
said:

' ' Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. ' '

And the spirit of the child came back again to the
form it had quitted but a little while before. Her dark
lashes fluttered, her brown eyes opened wide, and obedi-
ent to the Master's voice as she had always been to the
voice of her mother, she arose and stood before them, still
holding the white lily in her hand.

The parents were too happy to say anything. They
only clasped their child with loving arms, while the tears
rolled down their faces.

Jesus told them to give the damsel something to eat,
and the mother hurried to obey him. The necessity of
ministering to the child thus saved her from the dan-
gerous effect of too much joy, after her hopeless grief.

And Jesus told the father and mother, and also his
three friends, that they should not proclaim the miracle
he had wrought. ' ' Tell no man, ' ' he said.

Then, leaving the family of Jairus alone with their
happiness, the Master beckoned to his disciples and went
back to the waiting multitude.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MESSENGERS

Now for several months the disciples had been con-
stantly with Jesus. They had listened to his beautiful
talks about the Father in heaven, the kingdom of God
that was coming to the world, and the love which men
should have for one another. And almost every day dur-
ing those months they had seen him heal the sick and
cast out devils from the insane, and do all other kinds of
good works. But now the Master wanted his twelve
trusted friends to do these things themselves, to preach
as he had preached, and to heal the sick and afflicted.
Heretofore they had received freely, now he wished them
to give freely to others of all that he had bestowed on
them. For Jesus knew that no man really possesses an
idea, or a faith — or possibly anything else — until he has
given it away.

We can easily believe that the disciples were appalled
at first by the new responsibility. To stand up before
strange people and preach ! To lay their hands upon the
sick and command them to be well! To speak with
authority of the Father in heaven and His kingdom!
They were simple men, these Galilean fishermen and the
others, they were not even deeply learned in the letter of
the Jewish scriptures ; and now the Master told them to
assume a position even above that of the scholarly
scribes. Would men listen to them — especially in the
towns where they were known?
153

154 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Jesus told them that wherever they went they were to
declare: " The.kingdom of heaven is at hand."

And he said that they should provide nothing for
themselves, save only a staff to help them along the hard
roads; that they should take neither gold nor silver, nor
even brass in their purses ; that they should wear but one
coat, and put sandals on their feet instead of shoes. For,
said Jesus, in regard to their penniless mission, "the
workman is worthy of his meat, ' ' and they were to ask
their food of the strangers to whom they brought the
message of Jesus.

He told them that whenever they came into any house,
they should salute it, saying, ' ' Peace be with you ; ' ' and
that, if the house was worthy, peace would indeed come
to it, but if the house was unworthy, the peace would
return to themselves. And if any house or city would
not receive them, they should in leaving shake the dust
of it from off their feet, as a witness against those who
had rejected the messengers of the Messiah.

"Behold," said Jesus, "I send you forth as sheep in
the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and
harmless as doves. ' '

And he warned them that harm would sometimes
come to them, that they would be arrested and brought
before governors and councils; but they were not to take
thought beforehand as to what they should say in their
own defense, for the words would be given them in the
hour when words were necessary. "It is not ye that
speak," said Jesus, "but the Spirit of your Father which
speaketh in you. ' '

The disciples trembled at the very thought of being
themselves the mouthpiece of God. It seemed an honour
too great for them. And though they knew that this mis-
sion was the proof of their worthiness to be called apostles,

THE MESSENGERS 155

yet they would have postponed it. For grown men are
often as timid as children when they enter upon some
great work. The very strength of their desire to succeed
makes them afraid.

"What I tell ye in darkness," said Jesus, "that speak
ye in light : and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye
upon the housetops. . . .

"Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men,
him will I confess also before my Father which is in
heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will
I also deny before* my Father which is in heaven. . . .

"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me : and he that loveth son or daughter more
than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not
his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me.

"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that
loseth his life for my sake shall find it. ' '

Always when Jesus spoke to his disciples like that
they felt themselves grow strong. So long as his eyes
were on them they were able to do anything, but how
would it be when they were far away from him? The
Master tried to make them understand and feel that while
they were on his mission, they were indeed himself ', a part
of him. And being a part of Jesus, they were also a part
of the Father — the chosen messengers of God. He said:

' ' He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that re-
ceiveth me receiveth him that sent me. . . .

"And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these
little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple,
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. ' '

Though the disciples told themselves that they were
working for love of Jesus and not for any personal reward,
yet this promise comforted them, as it has comforted so
many devoted souls since then. There are few sayings of

156 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Jesus better known than this one, and many a cup of
cold water, as well as more substantial things, has been
given to the little ones of earth in remembrance of it.
For the teacher who can embody his wisdom in sayings
which are easily remembered, has made it impossible for
the world of men ever to forget him or his teachings.

Jesus sent his disciples out two by two, instead of
singly, that they might strengthen and comfort each other
by daily talks about the Master they had left behind. And
also, when one of them stood up before strange multitudes
and spoke about Jesus and the Father in heaven, there
would be at least one person present who believed in him
and in his message. For the Master understood the heart
of man, and how it leans upon the sympathy of others.

And the disciples were successful in their preaching.
Hundreds listened to them almost everywhere they went
— for did they not speak of the Master? They told the
wonderful story of a Godmade man. Jesus could not
have spoken of himself as they spoke of him, and men
who had never seen the Master from Nazareth were thrilled
with a desire to know the extraordinary man who could
arouse such love in the hearts of his closest friends.
Every day now, in seven different places, was some one
telling about the Father in heaven and His love of the
world; for Jesus also continued to travel about and to
preach, taking with him as companions the new converts
and the women disciples, his mother, Mary Magdalene,
Salome the mother of James and John, and many others.

But what thrilled each of the twelve disciples most
was the first cure which he himself performed, his own
first miracle of healing. They learned by trying, as all
must learn, that they could lay their hands upon the sick
and bring them back to health. The first time that each
of them commanded disease to leave a sufferer, he was

THE MESSENGERS 157

obliged to forget himself entirely and to remember only
that he was the messenger of Jesus. Had he thought of
himself, he would have doubted his own power; but he
could not doubt the power of Jesus. And so the cures
were performed.

We must remember that, before they had met Jesus,
most of these men had been humble workers with their
hands, and that now, after only a few months, they had
become the famous teachers of a new and living religion.
If a child were suddenly to become a man as great and
powerful as the conqueror Napoleon, it would not seem
stranger to him than it seemed to these Galileans when,
in the quiet watches of the night, they bad time to think
of themselves and of the change which had been wrought
in them. But they could not become proud, because they
always remembered that in comparison with Jesus they
were as nothing, and that all the power they had they
owed to him alone.

Often, when some work that we have to do in the world
seems beyond our courage, we think of those devoted
fishermen, Peter and Andrew, James and John, standing
up before the scholarly scribes and members of the san-
hedrim, and teaching them. We could none of us find
anything to do so difficult as that must have been at first
for the disciples, because the learned ones among the
Jews were very arrogant, and disposed to wrangle even
with each other about minute points of the scriptures.
But it was easy to teach the common people, the ignorant
ones, those who were not contented with their lives; for
to them the announcement of the kingdom of heaven was
the promise of a time when they might receive all that
they had missed in this world. And to them also the
Father in heaven seemed nearer and sweeter than He
seemed to the more prosperous ones.

158 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

At last came the day when the disciples could return
to Jesus. The allotted time of their mission was at an
end, and from all parts of Galilee they came to the place
which the Master had appointed. During every hour of
their absence they had yearned to see Jesus, and now they
were to see him. Would he praise them because they
had done so much? Would he blame them because they
had not done more? Now that their work was over, each
man thought of little ways in which he might have bet-
tered his own.

One of them remembered a poor sick woman whom
he could have healed, had he not forgotten that she was
waiting for him, and was too shy to call attention to her-
self. Another recalled the question of a Pharisee which
he had answered thoughtlessly, perhaps giving a wrong
impression of the teaching of Jesus. A third was trou-
bled because he had neglected to speak at a certain place
where several of the scribes were present, having been
afraid of their superior smiles at his unscholarly lan-
guage. Every one of them had something with which to
reproach himself — for they were very humble in spirit,
these messengers of the Master.

But when the twelve men sat down to sup with Jesus
on the evening of their return, and told him all that they
had done, he declared that their labour had been good.
And he called them faithful servants of the Father.

The soft moon, which seems to shine more lovingly
over Galilee than over other parts of the world, shone in
through the little window of the chamber where they sat
at meat, a gentle breeze came from the lake where the
Master had stilled the storm, and the crickets chirped
merrily in the grass outside the door. And in the hearts
of the devoted messengers was the peace which passeth
understanding.

CHAPTER XV

THE ANGEL OF THE POOL

Jesus sometimes went up to Jerusalem to attend the
Jewish feasts, because on those occasions there were many
people gathered together from all parts of the country,
and he could preach to them. The great Temple at Jeru-
salem was the very centre of the Hebrew national life, as
the great city of London is now the centre of all things
English. But Jesus was never happy in Jerusalem as he
was in his own Galilee. The cold and formal religion
taught in the Temple repelled him. And the priests and
scribes and Pharisees already disliked the young Galilean
with the shining eyes, whom all the common people loved
so much; but at present they only scoffed at him, and
sought to throw discredit on his teaching.

They remembered a rumour which had been spread
abroad some months before, when John the Baptist had
declared that this young Nazarene was greater than himself,
even saying that Jesus was the Messiah. The priests and
scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem had no great respect
for John the Baptist — "the voice crying in the wilder-
ness." To them he was only a visionary; yet they did
not speak much against him, though he was so popular
with the people, because they did not consider him dan-
gerous to themselves. But this Jesus of Nazareth was
different. He worried them.

Now at Jerusalem there was a pool, called the pool of
Bethesda, and it was very famous among the Jews; for
159

160 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

they believed that sometimes an angel came down from
heaven and troubled the waters of the pool, and that who-
ever first stepped into it after the angel had troubled the
waters was made whole of any disease that he had. There
were five porches about the pool, in which sick people
waited for the sign of the angel; and when they saw the
movement of the waters they hurried down, each trying
to be the first to step in. Not every one who waited thus
had really seen the angel ; but they had seen the troubling
of the waters. A few there were who claimed to have
seen the heavenly visitor himself, and of course their
friends believed them, because they believed in the angel.

The first Sabbath after Jesus came up to Jerusalem
this time, he stood by the pool of Bethesda and gazed into
the waters which were now still and untroubled. He was
thinking of the work that he wished to do in the Holy
City, where, though the priests and Pharisees were cold
and skeptical, the common people believed in such celestial
beings as the angel of this pool. John the beloved dis-
ciple was with the Master, and it was he who afterward
told the world what happened there.

As Jesus raised his eyes from the waters, he saw an
old man lying on a kind of mattress-bed in one of the five
porches surrounding the pool. His face was wasted with
disease and lined with age; but in his eyes there was a
look of flaming eagerness, as he watched the unruffled
surface of the waters.

Jesus questioned him, and learned that he had been
sick and nearly helpless for thirty-eight years — a longer
time than the Master himself had lived upon the earth.

"Wilt thou be made whole?" Jesus asked, with his
radiant smile.

The unfortunate man seemed to gather a little strength
even from the nearness of the Master. Raising himself

THE ANGEL OF THE POOL 161

upon one thin elbow, he looked at Jesus intently, and
said:

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

"Bise," said Jesus, "take up thy bed, and walk."

The man did not seem even surprised, so perfect was
the Master's control of his will. Obediently as a child,
he arose to his feet, bent down and lifted his bed upon
his back, and walked — as easily as before the great in-
firmity had stricken him, thirty-eight years ago.

Turning to thank the stranger who had so miraculously
cured him, he was surprised to see that Jesus had disap-
peared, swallowed up by the crowd which was passing by
the place; for there were always crowds in Jerusalem at
the time of the great feasts.

The healed man sang with joy, when he fully realised
that he could walk. It was the happiest Sabbath day
which he had ever known, and the bed upon his back
seemed light as thistledown. But he had only gone a
short way when he was stopped by a company of Jews,
who regarded him with dark and scowling faces. He
wondered what was the trouble. But the Jews did not
give him time to question them: they said sternly:

"It is the Sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to
carry thy bed." The Jews had very rigid laws about
the Sabbath.

"He that made me whole," answered the man, "the
same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. ' '

But when the Jews demanded to know who had dared
to tell him to break the Sabbath in this way, he could not
enlighten them. He had no idea who was the stranger
that had cured him beside the pool of Bethesda. And
he wondered that these Jews should take no interest in

162 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

his cure, but only in the fact that he was carrying his
bed.

Later in the day Jesus found the man whom he had
healed, walking in the Temple. And he said to him :

"Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a
worse thing come upon thee. ' ' For Jesus knew that the
man's long infirmity had been caused by his own sins.

The Master was not yet so famous in Jerusalem as he
was in Galilee, but most of the people in the crowds
about the Temple knew him by sight. When the man
learned the name of the stranger who had cured him by
the pool of Bethesda, he told the Jews that it was Jesus
of Nazareth who had said to him, "Rise, take up thy bed,
and walk. ' '

Then the Jews began to persecute Jesus, and wanted
to kill him, because he had done these things on the Sab-
bath day. But the Master said to them :

"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."

This answer made the Jews angrier than ever. It was
bad enough, they told themselves, that this young carpen-
ter from Nazareth should come and preach in the courts
of the Temple, drawing the attention of all men to him-
self ; it was bad enough that he broke the Sabbath and
taught other men to break it; but now, by his answer to
them, he had said that God was Ms Father, thus making
himself equal with God. Such an idea was preposterous
to the Jews. Was not God the stern Judge of Israel?
How then could He be the Father of this amazing young
man from the north?

But Jesus answered them again, and said :

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do
nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do : for
what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son
likewise.

THE ANGEL OF THE POOL 163

' ' For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all
things that himself doeth; and he will shew him greater
works than these, that ye may marvel.

"For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quick-
eneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he
will. ...

' ' That all men should honour the Son, even as they
honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son
honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. . . .

1 ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming,
and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God : and they that hear shall live. . . .

"I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I
judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine
own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. ' '

Then Jesus reminded his astonished listeners that
John the Baptist had borne witness that he was truly the
Son of God. And he said of John :

"He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were
willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

"But I have greater witness than that of John: for the
works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same
works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath
sent me. . . .

' ' Search the scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have
eternal life : and they are they which testify of me. . . .

"Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me:
for he wrote of me. ' '

After these sayings, the Jews could no longer fail to
understand that Jesus claimed to be the long-promised
Messiah. In our day, it is almost impossible to realise
how great their excitement must have been. They did
not believe in him, but they saw that he believed in him-
self, and that he would make men follow him in greater

164 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

and greater numbers. They could not doubt the works
that he had done, for hundreds had testified of them, and
they had seen with their own eyes this day the cripple
who had lain so long beside the pool of Bethesda, walking
and carrying his bed upon his back.

No, they could not deny his works ; but they could chal-
lenge his motives. There could be no doubt, they said,
that he cast out devils by the aid of Beelzebub, the prince
of devils. This was the same as saying that Jesus had
sold himself to Satan, for the sake of worldly fame and
power.

But the Master said to them :

' ' If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against him-
self ; how then shall his kingdom stand? But if I cast
out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God
is come unto you. ' '

But the Jews of Jerusalem did not want the kingdom
of God, and they did not want Jesus. So, as the time
had not yet come when he felt that his Father in heaven
commanded him to preach the new doctrine of love in the
very stronghold of Judaism, the great Temple, he left the
arid region of Jerusalem and went back to his own beloved
Galilee, where the birds sang in the trees, and the brooks
rippled over the stones, and the hearts of men were sim-
ple and full of faith; where there was time for dreams,
and heaven seemed near to earth ; and where he and his
friends could live in daily communion with such celestial
beings as the angel which was wont at certain seasons
only to trouble the waters of the pool of Bethesda.

CHAPTEK XVI

JOHN THE BAPTI ST

You remember the voice which had cried in the wilder-
ness of Judaea, ' ' Kepent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. ' ' You remember the tall, gaunt man, with black
matted hair hanging upon his shoulders, who was clothed
in a single garment of camel's hair, girt about the waist
with a leather strap — the man who had first declared that
Jesus was the Messiah. You remember how John the
Baptist had seen the Spirit of God descend in the form of
a dove and alight upon the head of Jesus, as he came up
out of the river after his baptism, and how the voice of
God had said : ' ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased. ' '

Now after John had said to his former disciples, An-
drew and another, "Behold the Lamb of God!" when
Jesus had passed by, and after these disciples had left
John and followed Jesus, the gaunt Baptist went on
preaching as before, and saying: "Repent ye, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. ' ' Only now he said it
with even greater fervour, for he had seen the vision of
the dove, and had heard the voice of God proclaiming
Jesus, and he knew that he who should bring the king-
dom of heaven had already begun his work among men.

He preached so fervently against the many evil things

he saw about him, and especially against the abuses of

the rich and powerful, that Herod the Tetrarch caused

him to be arrested and cast into prison. He was shut up

165

166 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

in a fortress, in a place where Herod also had a palace,
so that the gorgeous halls where the Tetrarch and his
queen Herodias lived with their dissolute friends, and the
cold dungeon where the prophet from the desert pined in
solitude, were practically under one roof.

Herodias, the wife of the Tetrarch, was not a good
woman. She was the sister-in-law of her own husband,
whom she had married for ambition, because she wanted
to be a queen. This whole family of Herods had long
been disliked by the Jews. They were cruel and profli-
gate, and many of their actions outraged the stern Hebrew
sense of propriety. Especially were the Jews incensed by
this marriage between the Tetrarch and his brother's wife;
and Herod had divorced a former wife without just cause
in order to marry his sister-in-law.

Herodias had a young daughter, Salome, a beautiful
but unwholesome creature about sixteen or seventeen years
of age, who had inherited all the bad qualities of her
mother. Salome was not the daughter of the Tetrarch,
but of Philip, the former husband of the Queen; and,
young as she was, the Jews distrusted her. But Salome
could be very charming when she chose, which was always
when she had some object to gain, either for herself or for
her mother. For Herodias had taught the girl obedience
— which was perhaps her only virtue.

Of course John the Baptist knew the whole history of
this strange family, with their unlawful intermarriages,
for the first husband of Herodias had been her uncle ; and
it was as much because of John's public condemnation of
the Queen and her actions, as because of his general
preaching against the wickedness of those in power, that
Herod had cast him into prison.

Often, by day and by night, when the revellers in the
palace were silent for a moment, and the music of the

JOHN THE BAPTIST 167

lutes and viols ceased, or only whispered softly, the
Tetrarch and Herodias and Salome, and the officers and
courtiers and women in the palace, could hear the loud,
stern voice of the prophet John, calling from his dungeon,
' ' Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. ' '

Now Herod himself, though he had done many evil
actions, was at heart rather weak than wicked. There
was somewhere deep in him a fibre which responded to
the spirit of John ; though what might have been religion
in a stronger man, in the Tetrarch was hardly more than
superstition. He had at this time no intention of killing
the Baptist; he kept John shut up in the fortress so that
he should not cause disturbances among the people, and
especially that he should not say true things about the
Queen, Herodias, who had still a strong influence over
her weak husband.

Sometimes, when Herod was in a mood more serious
than usual, or when the gayeties of the court had wearied
him, he would send for John to be brought up from his
dungeon into the palace. And on these occasions the
Tetrarch would talk with the prophet, questioning him
about this kingdom of heaven which he said was near at
hand. ' ' The kingdom of heaven. ' ' The very words had
a strange fascination for the dissolute ruler. He had some
knowledge of the kingdoms of this world, but what could
this other kingdom really mean? The thought of it
troubled his sleep. He had strange dreams, in which
heaven and earth, angelic beings and the Queen Herodias,
and also the beautiful daughter of the Queen, Salome,
were strangely blent. And after one of these dreams he
always sent for the Baptist and questioned him still
further about his prophesies.

Was it really true, the Tetrarch wondered, that this
gaunt man, robed in his garment of camel's hair, was

168 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

the great prophet Elias, risen from the dead? Herod knew
that his worldly friends would laugh at him for giving so
much thought to the words of John, and sometimes he
laughed at himself. It was easy to make light of it all in
the day time, when the sun shone ; but in the night, when
he could not sleep, and tossed restlessly on his carven
couch, the thought of that flaming-eyed prophet in the
fortress would return to him. And sometimes, in the
darkest hour before the dawn, he would hear the voice of
John, crying from his dungeon:

' ' Repent ye ! Repent ye ! "

And the Tetrarch would turn over again on his downy
bed, vainly trying to sleep.

Sometimes the Queen Herodias would enter his room,
bearing a lamp in her hand, her long black hair stream-
ing over her shoulders, her face pale with anger. And
she would say to him :

"Why do you not kill that man? His ravings mad-
den me!"

Then she would remind Herod of the hard things
which John had said against herself, making it seem —
for she was wily — that her husband's lenient ways with
the prophet were an insult to herself.

But Herod always made excuses. What had John
really done that was deserving of death? If he should
kill him, he would make himself even more unpopular
with the people. Herodias was too sensitive to criticism
against herself. Would she not be patient for a little
while? Perhaps something could be arranged.

And the Queen would go away, down the corridor to
her own room, the lamp in her hand casting the long
shadow of her figure against the crimson walls. And she
would mutter to herself, "How weak this Tetrarch is!''
Somehow she would find the way to rid herself of John.

JOHN THE BAPTIST 169

Then she would think of her beautiful young daughter
Salome, and wonder if the girl could not help her mother
in this difficulty. What was the use of having children,
she thought, if they could not be made to serve the
interests of their parents?

As time went on, the Tetrarch became even more in-
dulgent to his famous prisoner, even permitting John's
disciples to visit him in the fortress. And one day the
Baptist, discouraged by his long imprisonment, and more
than ever desirous that the kingdom of heaven should
come to earth, asked his disciples what Jesus of Nazareth
was doing, and why he delayed so long in his mission of
transforming the world.

The disciples told John that Jesus was still going
about from place to place, preaching; but that, instead of
living a life of severity and abstinence and fasting, as
the Baptist had done so long, the Nazarene ate and drank
like other men, and went to marriage feasts, and that
there was joy among his disciples instead of sternness
and sorrow.

This news troubled John. He knew that Jesus had
had his sojourn in the wilderness; but had he afterward
gone back to the world of pleasures? John did not under-
stand. He could not really doubt Jesus, on whose head
he had seen the dove of the Spirit of God, and yet — he was
anxious. "Eating and drinking, and going to marriage
feasts!" To the dweller in the wilderness, who had eaten
locusts and wild honey and slept with his head upon a
rock, it seemed incredible. For to John, great as he
was, had not been given the sweet and loving human
quality which made Jesus rejoice in the innocent joy of
others. The mission of the Baptist had been to warn the
world, while the mission of the Nazarene was to make the
world of men love God and one another.

170 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

From his prison in the fortress of Herod, John sent
two of his disciples to Jesus, to ask of him :

"Art thou he that should come, or do we look for
another?"

And the messengers of the Baptist, themselves troub-
led by the trouble of their teacher, went to Capernaum
to seek out Jesus and to ask him the great question.

They found the Master surrounded by those who loved
him, among whom were many women. And the two
disciples of John delivered their message :

"John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art
thou he that should come, or look we for another?"

The query, coming from John, must have surprised
Jesus ; but he had the loving heart which could under-
stand all things. As the most convincing answer which
he could send to John would be the testimony of these
two witnesses as to his works, in that same hour he cured
many sick persons of their infirmities and plagues, and
cast the evil spirits out of those who were insane, and
to many that were blind he restored the sight which they
had lost. And the disciples of John were astonished
when they saw the wonders which Jesus could perform.

The Master said to them :

' ' Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen
and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the
lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to
the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he, who-
soever shall not be offended in me. ' '

The messengers of John went back to their teacher,,
convinced that Jesus was indeed the one they sought, and
that there was no need for them to look for another.

When they were gone, the Master began to speak to
the people about John. His heart was full of a greaii
love for the friend who had helped him in the beginning

JOHN THE BAPTIST 171

of his work, and he said to the multitude concerning the
Baptist :

"What went ye out into the wilderness for to see?
A reed shaken with the wind?

"But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in
soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously ap-
parelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts.

"And what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea,
I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.

' ' This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my
messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way
before thee.

' ' For I say unto you, Among those that are born of
women there is not a greater prophet than John the Bap-
tist : but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater
than he. "

The Bible does not tell us whether John in his dun-
geon ever knew of the beautiful words which Jesus had
spoken about him ; but rumour travels fast in the Orient,
and we hope that the heart of the imprisoned man was
comforted by the knowledge that the Master had never
doubted Mm — even for a moment. The time was soon
to come when John would need all the solace which the
love of Jesus could give him. For he who is in the
power of a weak and vacillating king, has to fear even
the worst and the youngest of that king's associates.

Herodias, the Queen, was plotting against the life of
John. She was a woman of strong will and of great
vanity, and the words of the Baptist in regard to her
marriage with her brother-in-law Herod still rankled in
her mind. She knew that the people believed John to be
the prophet Elias risen from the dead; but that meant
nothing to Herodias. Elias himself would have meant
nothing to her, had she met him walking in the gardens

172 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

of the palace. To Herodias the dead were dead, whether
they were prophets or slaves, and she wished that John
were among them. The opportunity to revenge herself
came sooner than she had dared to hope.

It was the birthday of Herod. The King had made a
great supper to his lords, his high captains, and the rich
men of Galilee. Wine flowed abundantly, and the best
musicians of the kingdom played sweet music for the
entertainment of the Tetrarch and his guests. Yet Herod
was not happy. He had had unpleasant dreams the night
before. Even the wine he had drunken could not chase
the memory of them from his mind. He thought of that
old King Belshazzar in the Bible, who, after a great feast
similar to this one, had seen the supernatural handwrit-
ing on the wall, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. " —
"God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Thou
art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. ' '
Though the loud talk and the laughter round the table
made it impossible to hear what any one was saying, yet
Herod could hear in imagination the voice of John from
his distant dungeon, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand." He began to wish that he had not
imprisoned the Baptist. He began to wish that he were
a better man — even that he had not married Herodias,
thus bringing down upon himself the anathemas of the
Jews.

Now whenever Herodias saw that her husband was
sad, she always wondered if he were regretting that he
had married her. Not that she loved him so much — but
she loved to be a queen. And this evening, when the
guests had left the banquet-hall and were all assembled in
the great throne-room of the palace, Herodias called her
young daughter Salome, and said to her :

"The King is sad. Dance for him now, that he may

JOHN THE BAPTIST 173

be pleased with you, and thus with me, and may perhaps
give me the thing which I most desire. ' '

And Salome, who was always wonderfully dressed,
and especially so on festive occasions such as this, came
into the throne-room where the King sat with his friends.
All eyes were fixed upon her, for she was very beautiful.
Her dark hair was bound with ropes of pearls, her slender
form was swathed in spangled draperies of soft rose-
colour, on her little feet were jewelled shoes, and her face
was like a newly opened flower.

When the King learned from Herodias that Salome
would dance for him, he was glad. Though his heart was
so melancholy, his eyes were hungry for beauty — the
beauty of motion, of light and colour. He had never seen
Salome dance, for her mother only brought her to Herod
when she had something to gain by it. The musicians
were commanded to play.

Gliding lightly across the marble floor, the girl began
to dance before the King. At first she moved slowly,
languorously, as if just awakened from sleep, her soft
arms waving above her head, her lithe form swaying
rhythmically to the music. She seemed to dream, and
those who watched her were also in a dream, an enchanted
reverie — for there was enchantment in Salome, the young
daughter of the Queen.

Then gradually, almost imperceptibly, the music
changed. It was faster. The dreams vanished from the
eyes of Salome, and from the minds of those who watched
her. She seemed to awake, to grow alert, to become in-
tensely interested in something which the others could
not see, but which they felt with her — so close was the
bond of sympathy between her and them. The men sat
forward in their chairs, watching. Now she stamped her
little jewelled feet upon the tessellated floor; then she

174 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

seemed to rise in the air like a bird, her fluttering arms
were like white wings, and the music of the lute-players
seemed to be the voice of her own soul, as her form rose
and fell and swayed with the melody.

The lords and captains who watched her held their
breath, while the King forgot his sadness in the joy of
the dance. He no longer thought of that old king,
Belshazzar, and the terrible handwriting on the wall ; he
thought only of the vision of beauty before him, which
seemed not to be of the earth, but of some mid-region
between the world and the sky — for no one would think
of Salome as having come from heaven.

At last, with a wild throbbing of the lutes, the little
dancer began to whirl round and round upon her toes;
faster and faster she flew, until those who watched her
were dizzy with the motion. She seemed to be a mad
thing of fire and glinting sparks of light — her rosy dra-
peries and her jewels being blended in one mass of moving
colour, whose beauty made the hearts of all to thrill.
Then, with a startled cry, she flew toward the King's
great chair of state, and with a charming little motion
like that of a tired and capricious child, she threw her-
self at the feet of Herod and hid her face in her rosy
veil.

Herodias had watched the face of the King. She had
seen it change from a mask of weariness to an illuminated
human countenance; and now, when Salome threw herself
at his feet with that pretty gesture of modest maiden-
hood, the expression of Herod's face became tender,
solicitous for the happiness of the girl, almost a child,
who had danced so wonderfully to please him. He bent
and raised her to her feet, and then he said :

"Salome, thou hast given me great pleasure, and
these my friends are charmed with thee. The sadness

JOHN THE BAPTIST 175

that was in my heart thou hast chased away, as the rising
sun disperses the shadows of the night. ' '

Herodias the Queen nodded her head with satisfac-
tion, and listened for the King's next words. They more
than met her expectation, for he said :

' ' Salome, ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will
give it thee. ' '

The maiden stood in silence for a moment, as if con-
sidering what surpassing gift she might demand of this
all-powerful man, who was the husband of her mother.

Seeing her hesitation, the King pledged himself anew,
calling upon all his friends to witness his oath, that he
would give her whatsoever she desired, even to the half of
his kingdom.

Then Salome ran to her mother, and whispered to her :
"What shall I ask?"

The face of Herodias was not beautiful to look upon
at that moment, though she was noted for her beauty.
The hardness of her heart was written on her countenance,
as she said in a low tone to her daughter :

"Ask for the head of John the Baptist.'1''

The King had not heard either the question or the
answer. As he watched the pretty creature talking with
her mother, he supposed that she was asking the advice of
Herodias as to what jewelled bauble would best become
her wild, dark beauty. He told himself that he would
even give her the great jewelled breastplate of the high
priest, should she demand it. But he was not prepared
for what she did demand.

Coming again before the throne of Herod, but stand-
ing erect now instead of kneeling, Salome said, in clear
and thrilling tones :

"I will that you give me, on a large tray, the head of
John the Baptist. ' '

176 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

The face of the King became suddenly scarlet, then
deadly pale. He shrank back in his carven chair of
state, more startled than he would have been had the
young creature clenched her little fist and struck him in
the face. When the first shock of her words had passed,
and he realised their meaning, he asked himself if she
had suddenly gone mad. Then he remembered the brief
whispered conversation between Salome and her mother,
and he understood. One terrible glance he cast at his
implacable queen, then he looked away from her. She
had become horrible to him.

He pleaded with Salome. What could she, a girl,
want of this bloody gift? She was young and fair, and
needed jewels to make her still fairer in the eyes of men.
He would give her diamonds beyond price, and great
rubies and emeralds. She should have, if she did not
care for precious stones, a little palace, all her own, with
slaves to wait upon her. She should have — yes, what
should she not have, if she would relinquish this one
thing?

But Salome did not weaken in her purpose, which was
the purpose of her mother. As she stood there before the
King, so slender and erect, she looked like Herodias ; and
the young lords, who a little while before had all desired
to marry her, no longer dreamed of marriage or of love.
They thought, instead, of blood and horror, of cruelty
and death, and of all unmentionable things. And the
strange young girl repeated, in a tone more thrilling than
before :

"I will that you give me, on a large tray, the head of
John the Baptist. ' '

Poor Herod! He had called his lords and captains to
witness his oath that he would give this dancing princess
whatsoever she desired, and he could not break his word.

JOHN THE BAPTIST 177

But he seemed suddenly to have become an old man, so
white and seamed with sorrow was his face. For he had
grown to respect — yes, almost to love the stern prisoner
in his dungeon, until what at first had seemed a threat
had lately come to seem a promise — ' ' The kingdom of
heaven is at hand. ' '

The King sent for his executioner, for he was a king,
with all his weakness, and he could rise to a terrible
occasion with all the fortitude of the line of Herods
which he represented. And he gave orders that John the
Baptist should be beheaded, and the bleeding head given
to this unmaidenly maiden, as she demanded, on a large
tray.

Then, staggering like a wounded man, the King arose
from his chair and left the hall of state, without casting
behind him even one glance at the face of his triumphant
queen.

Down in his dungeon the doomed prophet was stand-
ing alone, praying, when the executioner appeared. Per-
haps the sentence of death was not unwelcome to John.
He knew now that the one whose coming he had heralded
was indeed the Messiah, who should transform the world.
His own mission on earth was ended, and John did not
love the earth. He only loved God. And as he looked
in the eyes of the executioner, and saw the torchlight
glitter on the sharp edge of his axe, he knew that now
indeed, for him, the kingdom of heaven was very near
at hand.

CHAPTER XVII

A DAY OF MIEACLES

When the disciples of John the Baptist came and told
Jesus that their teacher was dead, the Master was very-
sad. He had loved John, as well as honoured him; and
now that the stern prophet was no longer among the liv-
ing, the earth seemed lonelier and sadder to Jesus. The
spiritual giants among men are few, and John had been
one of them.

In this hour of his grief it seemed impossible for
Jesus to teach the multitude and to comfort them. He
himself needed comfort. So he said to his disciples :

' ' Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and
rest awhile. ' '

The Master went with his disciples into a boat; but
the multitude, seeing him go away, ran after him along
the shore. From many cities and villages they had
come, so that when Jesus would have been alone to think
of his dead friend and to pray, he found himself sur-
rounded by several thousand people, each of whom wanted
something for himself, the solace of a word or a touch
from the Master, or the healing of infirmities. The heart
of Jesus was so sad that he was moved with sympathy for
all these men and women who had left their homes and
followed him on foot. If he could not himself find conso-
lation, he could at least bestow it on others. The people
seemed to him like sheep without a shepherd, roaming
the pastures of the world, seeking what they knew not.
179

180 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

And he taught them — forgetting his own sadness, as
one always does in trying to help others. All day he
talked to them about God, and how they should live their
lives with love for one another, telling them little para-
bles or stories to illustrate the meaning of what he said.
For Jesus understood the hearts of men, and he knew
that no one is ever so old or so weary that he cannot for-
get himself in listening to a story.

But when the evening came on, the disciples of Jesus
began to be puzzled in their minds as to how all these
people should be fed; for they had been following the
Master for three days, and they were now in a desert
place far from any village. While they were considering
the question, and trying to forget their own hunger, Jesus
said to the disciple Philip:

"Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?"

Philip answered him :

"Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient
for them, that every one of them may take a little."

Andrew, Peter's brother, said to the Master:

"There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves,
and two small fishes: but what are they among so
many?"

The little boy came and stood before Jesus, holding
out the basket in which were the fishes and the loaves.
His face was eager. He had been listening to the words
of the Master, and the stories had pleased him. But he
wanted to sell the provisions he had brought, for he was
very poor.

Jesus turned to his disciples and told them to buy the
five barley loaves and the fishes from the little boy, and
then to make all the people, men, women, and children, sit
down. Even John wondered what the Master was going
to do; but he obeyed him without question, mingling

A DAY OF MIRACLES 181

with the crowd and telling every one to sit down upon the
grass, which grew there in such abundance that the whole
shore seemed to be covered with a soft green carpet.

When they were all seated upon the ground, Jesus took
the five barley loaves and the two fishes, and he blessed
the food, giving thanks to God that out of His great
abundance He had given them this plentiful repast there
in the wilderness. Then Jesus began to break the loaves
and to divide the fishes, handing the food to his dis-
ciples and telling them to distribute it among the people.
So simply and so naturally he did this, so much as a
matter of course, that at first neither the disciples nor the
multitude realised what a marvel was taking place before
their eyes; for the whole five thousand, men, women, and
children, were eating heartily, as much as they desired,
both of the fishes and of the bread.

When the hunger of every one was satisfied, and the
disciples themselves had eaten, the Master said to them :

"Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing
be lost."

They gathered the fragments together, and filled twelve
baskets with what was left of the five barley loaves, after
all the five thousand had eaten their fill — a thousand
mouths to each loaf of bread. And the men who had
seen this miracle which Jesus did were amazed, and they
said one to another :

' ' This is of a truth that prophet which should come
into the world ! ' '

So excited were they that they would have taken him by
force then and there and made him their king; for even
yet they did not understand that the kingdom of Jesus
was a purely spiritual one, above and beyond the king-
doms of this world. To them power was power, and he
who could abundantly feed five thousand men, women,

182 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

and children from five loaves of bread and two small
fishes, could, they reasoned, do more for them than could
Herod, who cared principally to feed himself at their
expense. "King of the Jews," they now called Jesus,
who had only sought to show them the narrow path which
led to the kingdom of heaven.

When the Master heard the acclaiming cries of the
people, he desired more than ever to go away into some
quiet place where he could be alone and pray; and he
told his disciples to get into their boat and go before him
to the other side of the lake, while he sent the multitude
away.

Then Jesus went up into a mountain. At last he was
alone with his Father. He prayed and talked with God
until he seemed himself to be in heaven, far away from
all the troubles of the earth. He heard the singing of the
angels, his body seemed to melt and become one with
the elements — as light as air, as fluid as water. Had he
chosen, in that hour he could have ascended into heaven,
leaving the world behind. So light his body was, that
the wind which blew violently across the lake could have
lifted it like a feather. In coming so close to God in
prayer and love, all the grosser elements of his form had
become spiritualised. He was like the angels.

Down on the lake below his disciples laboured with the
oars. The night was dark. The wind blew with greater
and greater force, and in a direction contrary to where
they wished to go. Their boat was tossed by the waves ;
but they would not put back to the shore, because the
Master had told them to cross to the other side and there
await him. Kemembering the time when Jesus had
stilled the storm on this same lake, they no longer
thought of disobeying him.

A DAY OF MIRACLES 183

In the fourth watch of the night, looking across the
dark water, they saw the form of their Master coming
toward them, walking upon the waves. He seemed to
be made of light, and they cried out in terror :

"It is a spirit!"

They huddled together in the boat, clutching one
another's arms, and staring at that strange figure out there
on the water, which moved toward them as if indeed it
were a spirit and not a man. Then they heard the voice
of Jesus, speaking to them across the waves, and he said :

"Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid."

When they heard the familiar voice of the Master, all
their fear left them. And Peter, remembering the miracle
which he had seen in the afternoon, felt himself uplifted
on the wings of a great faith. He cried to Jesus :

' ' Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the
water. ' '

"Come," said Jesus, holding out his loving arms to
the disciple.

Still thrilling with his great faith, Peter stepped over
the edge of the boat and onto the surface of the lake as if
it had been a floor, and he also began to ivalk over the
water toward his Master. So long as his eyes were fixed
upon the shining form of Jesus, all was well with him;
but glancing down, he saw the boisterous waves which
were lashed by the wind, he grew dizzy, and a sudden
fear filled his heart. At that moment Peter began to sink
in the water, and he cried out:

"Lord, save me, save me!"

Jesus was instantly at his side. Putting out a loving
arm, he caught the trembling form of the disciple. Still
standing upon the water and holding Peter, the Master
said:

"0 thou of little faith! Wherefore didst thou doubt?"

184 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Then Jesus, with Peter, stepped over the edge of the
boat and joined the other disciples, who had looked on at
this still greater miracle with wide and wondering ej

Now that Peter was safe once more upon the solid
planks of the boat, he realised that if he had not been
afraid — if he had not let go of the great faith which had
exalted him for a moment, and had seemed to lift his
bod}r on broad wings of power, he might have walked
upon the water as far as he wished to go, even as Jesus
had. Peter felt that he had failed; but the eyes of Jesus
shone with thankfulness that his beloved friend had even
dared to go a little way toward him across the tossing
waves. For he who has the courage to attempt the seem-
ingly impossible, may some day, with a still greater
faith, accomplish it.

Now that Jesus was with them in the boat, the wind
d to blow, and without further trouble they rowed
across to the other side of the lake. It seemed to the dis-
ciples that Nature herself was the slave of Jesus, and
aided him in whatever he wished to do. And they knew
it was because their Master had conquered his own nature
and had made it the servant of the spirit within, which
was one with the Spirit of God.

The next day the multitude which had been fed by
Jesus in the desert place followed him again to the other
side of the lake. They had seen the twelve men set out
in their boat alone, and there had been no other boat
there ; but as Jesus was not now upon the mountain where
he had gone to pray, nor yet upon the shore, they had
themselves gone over to the other side, thinking that he
must be there. They did not know that the Master could
walk upon the water; and when they saw him, they said:

"Rabbi, when earnest thou hither?"

Jesus answered them and said:

A DAY OF MIRACLES 185

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not be-
cause ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the
loaves, and were filled."

For Jesus knew that they had wanted to make him a
king, in Herod's place, because he had fed them. And
he said:

"Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for
that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which
the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God
the Father sealed. ' '

Then, still remembering the miracle of the loaves,
they asked Jesus :

' ' What shall toe do, that we might work the works of
God?"

Even yet they did not understand that the miracle of
the loaves and fishes was of far less value than the mira-
cle of love which stood in man's form before them —
Jesus himself. And the Master answered:

"This is the work of God, that ye believe on him
whom he hath sent. ' '

Seeing that Jesus did not wish them to believe in him
because of the miracle by which they had been fed, but
for some other and deeper reason which they did not
comprehend, they now asked him :

"What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and
believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did
eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them
bread from heaven to eat. ' '

But Jesus shook his head, saying:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not
that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the
true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he
which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the
world. ' '

186 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Then they understood — some of them — that the true
heavenly food was neither loaves nor manna, but the love
of Jesus and of God. And they said, their eyes shining:

' ' Lord, evermore give us this bread. ' '

Jesus, holding out his hands to them as if he wished
to give himself utterly to every one of them forever, said :

' ' I am the bread of life : he that cometh to me shall
never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst."

And they felt — those among them who understood —
that they would never hunger or thirst again for anything
except the true bread of heaven, which was the love of
this beautiful being who stood there before them with
his arms extended, as if he gave himself utterly to them.
And they were very happy.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE SHINING FOEM

A few days after the disciples had seen Jesus walking
upon the water, he asked them :

"Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?"

Now the disciples, when absent from their Master,
had heard many discussions in regard to him. In that
far time, even as now, it was hard for most men to be-
lieve that a person whom they had themselves known
could be altogether great — as great as those personages
long dead whose names were recorded in history. Never-
theless, on account of the miracles of Jesus, there were
many who were ready to admit that he must be different
to others. And when Jesus asked his friends what men
said about him, they replied:

' ' Some say that thou art John the Baptist, risen from
the dead; some say that thou art the prophet Elias; some
say thou art Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets. ' '

In those days it was believed that men sometimes
lived upon the earth more than once, coming back from
the dead in a new body when they had some special work
to do which had been left unfinished in their former life.
Of course those persons who believed that Jesus was John
the Baptist were new acquaintances, who had not known
him during the life of John.

Jesus now asked his disciples :

"But whom say ye that I am?"
187

188 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

"Thou art the Christ," answered Peter, "the Son of
the living God. ' '

Jesus then told Peter that he was blessed among men;
that flesh and blood had not revealed this truth to him,
but the Father which was in heaven. Now the name of
Peter means "a stone," and Jesus, who was always fond
of playing upon the inner meaning of words, said to this
brave disciple who had had the courage to walk toward
him across the waters of the lake :

' ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
church; and the gates of hell, shall not prevail against
it. And 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 whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven."

Peter did not realise at that time the full importance
of what the Master said ; but he felt that Jesus was prom-
ising him some great thing in the future. "The keys
of the kingdom of heaven!" Did that mean that he
would lead men to God? The disciple hoped so. "Upon
this rock (Peter) I will build my church. " He knew
that it was because he had recognised Jesus as the Son of
God, because he had understood that the Master could
build the church of the future upon him as a foundation.
This idea was ever uppermost in his thoughts- — that Jesus
was one with God; and the reason why he could love the
Father so much was because Jesus was His son.

Had Jesus told Peter that for hundreds of years, all
over the world, painters then unborn would represent him
on innumerable canvasses, holding the keys of heaven in
his hand, it would have seemed incredible to the good
disciple; for he sought only the kingdom of heaven, and
did not dream of earthly glory — which always comes in
largest measure to those who labour for something else.

THE SHINING FORM 189

They were all surprised at the next words of the Mas-
ter; for he told them that they should not tell any man
that he was the Christ. They wondered why. , And we
also wonder, a little. Did he charge them to tell nobody,
knowing that men meditate more profoundly upon some
secret thing than upon something which they can tell to
every one? Perhaps. The very idea of secrecy has a
powerful fascination. Even children have their little inno-
cent secrets which they whisper to one another, and if
by chance an older person overhears them, the secret loses
all its charm, and they forthwith choose another. It is
because Jesus understood the child-heart which hides in
all grown men and women, that he has made the whole
world love him.

The disciples were now thinking intently upon Jesus
as the Christ, and of course they had read the prophesies
which foretold the manner of death which the Christ —
when he should come — must die. So Jesus began to
show to those friends that he must go into Jerusalem, and
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
For had not the prophets declared that the Christ must
suffer all these things?

The idea was shocking to Peter. He could not imag-
ine Jesus dying at all, especially a death of pain. The
eyes of the disciple were like wells of fire, so excited was
he ; and he took hold of the Master, as if he would forci-
bly keep him from such things, saying:

"Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto
thee."

But Jesus turned and rebuked Peter, telling him that
what he said savoured not of the things of God; but of
the things of men. For those who desire to follow the
will of God do not shrink from pain to themselves, if

190 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

their pain is necessary and a part of the great plan of
God; while ordinary men, who follow only their own
desires, would disarrange the whole universe to save
themselves a little suffering. And Jesus said to his
disciples :

"If any man will come after me, let him deny him-
self, and take up his eross, and follow me.

' ' For whosoever will save his life shall lose it : and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the
whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man
give in exchange for his soul?

' ' For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his
Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every
man according to his works."

The Master now wished his disciples to think of him
always as the Christ who had come into the world to save
men; and a few days afterward he revealed himself to
three of them in a new and wonderful light. He took
Peter and James and John with him onto a high moun-
tain, apart from the others and from the multitude. They
were utterly alone, Jesus and the three friends who under-
stood him best.

The air on the mountain was clear and pure. The
day was very still, hardly a leaf stirred on the trees, and
it seemed to the three disciples that they had left the
world behind and were with the Master in some heavenly
region, unknown to men. When they heard a little bird
singing afar off, they wondered if it was the voice of an
angel. It might have been, for they were in a very
exalted state, and men sometimes hear the voices of
angels.

The Master went away from them a little distance and

THE SHINING FORM 191

stood praying, with his eyes upraised to heaven. As he
prayed, a great change came over him; his face was
shining like the sun, and his garments were white and
glittering like the light when it falls upon snow. The
disciples rubbed their eyes, thinking that something was
the matter with their sight; but when they looked again,
Jesus was still standing there, his face radiant as the
sun, his garments glittering. And they now understood,
as they had never understood before, what it really meant
to be the Christ.

As they watched him, holding their breath, two other
forms appeared beside the Master, talking with him.
There was no one to tell Peter and James and John; yet
they knew that the two who stood with the shining Jesus
were Moses and Elias, the great Jewish prophets who had
been dead for thousands of years. The disciples could
hear their voices, which seemed to come from a long dis-
tance, though the forms were very near. They could not
understand all that was said between the three radiant
ones ; but they knew it was about the work which Jesus
had yet to do in the world, and that a part of that work
was to be his death in Jerusalem.

The three disciples seemed to be in a dream, as if
their bodies were locked in slumber, and it was their
spirits which stood here on the top of this mountain and
beheld such things as they had never thought of behold-
ing. But, after a while they knew that they were really
wide awake, and they still saw the forms of the two
prophets in communion with Jesus.

And then — Moses and Elias were no longer there, but
Jesus only. The world was utterly still. The little bird
no longer sang in the distance ; the very leaves upon the
trees hung motionless, as if waiting for something yet to
happen.

192 STORIES FROM TEE NEW TESTAMENT

And Peter, who was beside himself with wonder and
hardly knew what he did, said to Jesus:

' ' Lord, it is good for us to be here : if thou wilt, let
us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one
for Moses, and one for Elias."

A tabernacle was the movable tent of worship which
the Jews had carried with them in the wilderness ; it was
considered very holy, and the building of a tabernacle
was in itself an act of devotion. That was why it occurred
to Peter to build tabernacles at this place, this mountain
of transfiguration, where they had been privileged to see
the glory of their Master and of the two great prophets.

But even as Peter spoke, a bright cloud came down
from heaven, covering the top of the mountain where
they were, and the disciples were frightened as they felt
themselves in the midst of the cloud. And then they
heard a voice out of the cloud, which said:

'''.This is my beloved Son: hear him."

The three men were so terrified that they fell upon
their faces on the ground; for though they loved C4od,
and thought of Him as their Father because He was' the
Father of Jesus, yet to hear Him speak thus out of a
bright cloud in which they were themselves enveloped,
gave them a feeling of mystery and awfulness that took
away all their strength.

But Jesus came and touched them, and said:

"Arise, and be not afraid."

At the sound of that gentle voice all fear left the
three disciples, and they raised their faces to the Master
who was now standing alone before them, looking as he
always looked, save that there was still a little of the
heavenly glory around his head and form.

Peter no longer thought of building tabernacles ; they
were themselves tabernacles for the love and worship of

THE SHINING FORM 193

Jesus; and even Moses and Elias, as they now realised,
were beings of an order far below his.

As they came down again from the mountain of trans-
figuration to the level plain below, where the nine other
disciples awaited them, Jesus said to Peter and James
and John that they should not tell any one of the vision
they had had, until the Son of man should be risen again
from the dead.

But the three disciples treasured the memory of it in
their hearts. And often, in the silence of the night,
when they were just on the edge of dreamland, they would
see against the darkness of their closed eyelids that
shining form of Jesus, as they had seen it on the moun-
tain. And whenever the vision thus came to them, a
great peace filled their hearts ; for they knew that their
beloved Master, who was so pure and high and near to
God, loved them with a perfect love, and that he had
chosen them out of all the world of men to be near him
and to minister to him. Is it any wonder they could not
realise that he was going to die?

CHAPTEE XIX

THE WOMEN FRIENDS OF JESUS

Jesus was always happy in the houses of his friends ;
and in the little town of Bethany, on the hill beyond
Jerusalem, was a home that he dearly loved to visit.
There dwelt Martha and Mary, two sisters, who with their
brother Lazarus believed in the kingdom of heaven.
Whenever Jesus came to Jerusalem he sought this house,
as a haven of peace beyond the turmoil of the city of
cold priests and wrangling Pharisees.

Here his disciples came also, and were welcomed. No
matter how great was the crowd that followed Jesus, in
the home of Martha there was always a cup of milk or a
bit of bread at least for those who were hungry; because
the elder sister in this household was one of those good
women who give to the world the service of their hands.
She was always busy, moving about the house from morn-
ing until night, preparing food and clearing away the dis-
order which others had made. So willing was her service,
that her family and friends had come to take it as a mat-
ter of course, and they were sometimes thoughtless,
giving Martha unnecessary labour.

Jesus had come up to Jerusalem for one of the great
feasts and had found shelter in the house at Bethany.
There was always a turmoil in the Holy City at the time
of the feasts, because the crowd was very great, and often
a score of persons would be lodged in a single room, liv-
195

196 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

ing, as one writer says, "in that huddled state in which
Orientals delight." But in the house at Bethany there
was peace and quiet, even if there was not solitude; and
when Jesus wanted solitude he sought the mountain-
tops.

The women who followed the Master, Mary his mother,
Salome the mother of James and John, Joanna the wife of
one of Herod's stewards, Mary Magdalene, and the others,
were always glad when Jesus went to Bethany. For they
were made welcome in the house of Martha and Mary,
to whom all the other women who loved Jesus were as
sisters.

And they were never jealous, one of another; for the
love they gave to the Master was like the love one gives to
God, which is always sweetest when shared with many.
It was because Jesus never seemed to think of himself,
that his friends could love him so unselfishly. To him
the childlike innocence of their affection was a foretaste
of the kingdom of heaven, where all would be as the
angels.

As Jesus seemed to dwell alwaj^s in a sphere of purity
above the selfish troubles of the earth, those who loved
him tried to live also in the same sphere, where the
things of the world did not matter, but only the things of
the spirit — love, charity, kindness, mutual service, and
peaceful communion. Jesus, in preaching the kingdom
of heaven, carried it with him wherever he went. It
seemed to his friends that they had only to listen intently
at any time to hear the voices of the angels — whenever he
was near them.

There was one of the women disciples for whom this
simple life was peculiarly sweet, and that was Mary
Magdalene. She had been a beautiful woman full of
errors before she found the Master. It was said that he

THE WOMEN FRIENDS OF JESUS 197

had cast out of her the seven devils of as many sins, and
we can believe that she had been very unhappy; for those
who sin much are never really happy, however gay they
may appear to be.

One day, in the midst of her life of false excitement,
Mary had seen Jesus, and from that moment everything
was changed for her. Perhaps she was already a little
weary of her thoughtless companions, who cared for
nothing but their own amusement. When she first
looked into the pure and quiet eyes of Jesus, everything
she had known became suddenly horrible to her.

How peaceful he was! What happiness was in the
smile which he gave to his companions, who followed his
every movement with eyes of adoring love! Mary had
known the richest and most powerful men in Judasa; but
the power she recognised in Jesus was something quite
different. It seemed' to take her. soul in a. grasp as .light
as the touch of a roseleaf, and draw it gently, but irresist-
ibly, away from everything she had known in the past.
The power of Jesus was irresistible, because it was the
power of perfect love, which is stronger than the strength
of many armies.

As Mary stood there gazing at the Master, he began to
teach his friends who were assembled round him. He
spoke of the Father in heaven, whose love yearns always
toward His children, whether they are good or bad,
whether they are near to Him or far away. Whenever
Jesus spoke of his Father, there was a tone in his voice
which thrilled the hearts of men and women, and it
thrilled the heart of the listening Mary Magdalene.

Any one who knew Mary would have supposed that she
was hopelessly far away from the Father who yearned
toward His children. But as she listened to Jesus, she
seemed to draw nearer and nearer to God. . For the time

198 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

she forgot herself entirely, even forgot her sins which
were so many; she thought of nothing but the heaven of
perfect love which Jesus revealed to her. She became
again as a little child, listening wide-eyed to a tale of
wonder.

But when the Master stopped speaking, and the mur-
mur of other and less gentle voices began all round her,
the spell was broken for Mary. She had been for a time
in the kingdom of heaven, with Jesus, and the shock of
coming back to her own self was almost too terrible to
bear. The memory of her sins rushed over her. She
was in despair. She wanted to die. She could not
endure herself, after being with the Father.

Weeping, she fell at the feet of Jesus, her face hidden
in the folds of her veil. The disciples were surprised.
They wondered what the Master would say to her, for she
was well known for her sins. Would he tell her that she
was not good enough even to hope for the kingdom of
heaven?

But when Jesus saw the woman at his feet, and heard
her sobs, a great pity filled his heart. He had seen her
face a little while before, as she had listened spellbound
to his words, and it had been like the face of an angel.
And now — the dust of the road was not more humble than
she.

Bending his head and looking down at her with eyes
full of pitying love, he said gently :

"My sister, arise, and sin no more."

The words were more than an invitation — they were a
command which she could not have disobeyed. "Arise,
and sin no more." She arose and stood before him, her
tear-stained eyes upraised to his in the very adoration of
gratitude. She realised that from that moment it would
never be possible for her to sin any more. For she had

THE WOMEN FRIENDS OF JESUS 199

had a vision of the kingdom of heaven, and the great
teacher, Jesus, had not even reproached her for her wicked-
ness, but had called her "sister" ! Is it any wonder that
the seven devils of her sins went out of her — never to re-
turn?

From that hour she became one of the most devoted
of the Master's followers. And in after days, when she
had been dead a long, long time, and the Church of Jesus
wanted to do honour to the great names of those who had
served him, the name of Mary Magdalene was placed high
on the list of the saints. For one who has been very bad
can also become very good.

When Jesus went to Bethany, to the house of Martha,
Mary Magdalene could always go with him; for Martha
welcomed the other women who loved Jesus. Among the
friends of the Master, no one was ever reproached for the
sins of the past which had been forgiven. When they
became his followers, they began a new life. It was like
being born again. And Mary Magdalene, who had been
so great a sinner, was now as kindly treated as the pure
mother of Jesus.

One day in the house at Bethany the women were sit-
ting at the feet of the Master, listening to his words.
Martha was not with them, for she was busy, as usual,
about the house, cooking and cleaning and setting things
to rights. Martha often did unnecessary labour, and the
cleanest house was never quite clean enough to satisfy
her.

Now Martha's younger sister, who was also called
Mary, was always at the feet of Jesus whenever he was in
Bethany. She could never hear enough of his talk, which
made her so happy that she forgot all about the duties of
the household. For Mary was a dreamer, and for her

200 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

the things of the spirit were everything and the things
of the body nothing. She would not have cared had
there been no dinner that day. And she did not remem-
ber that Martha was obliged [to prepare a meal, and for a
large number of persons, as the disciples of Jesus were
all there.

The words of the Master were so beautiful that it is
really no wonder Mary forgot that men had also to eat.
The Bible does not state exactly what Jesus was telling
them that day; but let us take any of his sayings which
come into our minds, and imagine the group of devoted
women, with the dreamy-eyed Mary among them, sitting
at his feet and listening:

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.

' ' Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am
meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your
souls.

' ' For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ' '

"Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall
agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask,
it shall be done for them of my Father which is in
heaven.

' ' For where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst of them. "

"Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not,
they spin not ; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

"If then God so clothe the grass, which is to-day in
the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much
more will he clothe you, 0 ye of little faith?

THE WOMEN FRIENDS OF JESUS 201

"And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall
drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.

' ' For all these things do the nations of the world seek
after : and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these
things.

"But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all
these things shall be added unto you. ' '

Into this peaceful company came the good sister Mar-
tha, her eyes troubled, her face a little flushed from
hurrying. She looked at Jesus as he sat there talking,
surrounded by the wistful-eyed women who hung upon
his words. Martha was not thinking at that moment of
the kingdom of heaven, but of the large number of foods
which she expected to spread on the table before her
guests a little later in the day. She looked at Mary her
sister, who was so absorbed that she had not even heard
her come into the room. And there was a complaining
tone in Martha's voice as she said to Jesus:

' ' Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me
to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me."

Jesus looked at her troubled eyes and her flushed face.
He who had fed a multitude of five thousand men with
five loaves of bread and two small fishes, did not feel that
so much labour was necessary to prepare a simple meal
for a score of persons. A little bread, a little meat or
none at all, would have been enough for Jesus and for his
friends. And he said to the anxious woman:

' ' Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about
many things :

' ' But one thing is needful : and Mary hath chosen that
good part, which shall not be taken away from her. ' '

Then Jesus went on talking to his enchanted listeners.
And we can easily believe that the restless, troubled look
left Martha's eyes; that she forgot for the moment how

202 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

many mouths she had to feed that night, and stood also
listening to the words of Jesus, while a dreamy smile stole
over her face, as she mused on the Father who knew that
they had need of sustenance for the body, and would send
it in abundance to those who sought the one thing need-
ful— the love and knowledge of Him.

CHAPTER XX

THE ENEMIES IN JERUSALEM

As Jesus grew more and more famous, the priests and
Pharisees and other Jews in Jerusalem were troubled more
and more by the reports they heard concerning his teach-
ing and his miracles. Whenever he came into the Tem-
ple a great crowd gathered round him, and no one paid
any attention to the priests when Jesus was near; for the
priests never said anything new or interesting, while
every time Jesus opened his lips he not only made the
people think, but he thrilled their hearts, which the
priests left cold and untouched. So the Jews in Jeru-
salem wanted to kill Jesus.

Though the Master knew that his life was in danger,
he went up to the feast of Tabernacles ; but he went a
little late, after all the others had gone to Jerusalem.
He felt that the time was not yet come when the predic-
tions of his death at the hands of the Jews should be ful-
filled. He had yet other work to do before he left the
world and returned to God who had sent him.

When he did not come to the feast with the others,
the Jews wondered where he could be. They wanted him
to come, that they might kill him if possible. And
there was much murmuring among the people at the feast
concerning Jesus; for some said, "He is a good man,"
while others said, "Nay, but he deceiveth the people."
The friends of the Master were even afraid to speak
203

204 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

openly of him, because his enemies were so powerful in
Jerusalem.

About the middle of the feast Jesus appeared suddenly-
one day in the Temple. Those who loved him trembled
with joy when they saw his face; but those who hated
him trembled with anger. Quietly, as if the Temple were
as safe a place for him as his own Galilee, Jesus began to
teach the people, who gathered round him in such num-
bers that the priests and Pharisees could hardly make a
passage for themselves through the crowd. This gave
them an excuse for standing and listening also, which
they would have been too proud to do had there been
only a few persons round the Master.

He spoke with even more than his usual eloquence
and charm, so that the Jews marvelled at his discourse,
saying: "How knoweth this man so much, having never
learned?" Because the scribes and Pharisees and priests
could not understand how there could be any knowledge
outside of the books which they themselves had studied
with so much labour.

Jesus answered them :

"My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me" —
meaning God.

For Jesus never sought to exalt himself as a man; he
desired only to teach the world about his Father and the
kingdom of heaven which was based upon love.

The common people of Jerusalem were surprised to see
Jesus there; they wondered that he dared to come, because
the Pharisees now hated him so. And they said to one
another :

"Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? But, lo, he
speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do
the rulers of the synagogue know indeed that this is the
very Christ?"

THE ENEMIES IN JERUSALEM 205

Now there was a belief among some of the Jews that
when the Christ should appear, no one would know about
his birth or parentage; that it would seem as if he had
come down from heaven suddenly to the world. Of
course this was a foolish idea; but it tends to show how
hard it is for people to believe that any person whose
family they know can be altogether a great man. The
well-known fact that Jesus came from Nazareth made him
seem quite ordinary to the Jews, and some of them now
said:

' ' We know this man whence he is : but when Christ
cometh, no man knoweth whence he is."

Jesus answered, saying that they knew both him and
whence he came; but Him that had sent him, they knew
not.

The Jews were very angry at these words of the Mas-
ter, which implied that they knew not God. And the
Pharisees and chief priests sent officers to arrest Jesus,
but instead the officers only stood by and listened to
him. They listened also to the people, who said :

' ' When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than
these which this man hath done?"

Jesus wanted men to believe on him because of the
truth of what he taught; but most men believed on him
because of his miracles ; for those who could not recognise
the truth could recognise a miracle — like the multitude
that had followed the Master to Capernaum because of
the loaves and fishes with which he had fed them in the
wilderness. Human nature changes little with the pass-
ing of the centuries, and most persons in our own time
would be like the old Jews, should Jesus again appear in
the world — which he has promised to do, some day. But
perhaps, when he comes again, he will not work miracles.

On the last day of the feast of Tabernacles, the great

206 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

day, Jesus again came to the Temple, and he cried to the
assembled multitude :

"If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and
drink."

It was this figurative language of Jesus which charmed
his friends and enraged his enemies. He meant that if
any man thirsted for the love and knowledge of God,
he should come unto him and drink of that knowledge
and that love. For it was always the love which men
and women felt in the Master which made him irresistible.
They were not wise enough to judge of the truth of his
doctrine; but they could feel that he loved them, and that
made them happy. It was just this that he wanted them
to feel about God. And when they heard the invitation
to come to him and drink, some of them said :

"Of a truth, this is the Prophet. This is the
Christ."

But others retorted :

"Shall Christ come out of Galilee?"

And there was a disagreement among the people about
Jesus ; for some who wanted to believe on him could not
bring themselves to do so, because he had come from a
poor and despised quarter of the country.

When the chief priests and the Pharisees saw the
Master still preaching in the Temple, and when they saw
the very officers whom they had sent to arrest him, stand-
ing and listening to his words, they said angrily to the
officers :

"Why have ye not taken him?"

The eyes of the officers were shining with their enthu-
siasm for Jesus, who had touched their hearts with his
love, and they said to the priests and Pharisees :

"Never man spake like this man!"

"Are ye also deceived?" cried the Pharisees, now

THE ENEMIES IN JERUSALEM 207

angrier than ever. ' ' Have any of the rulers of the syna-
gogue or any of the Pharisees believed on him?" And
they told the officers that these common people who fol-
lowed Jesus, these common people who knew not the law,
were cursed.

"Now there was among the rulers of the synagogue
one man who loved Jesus. This was Nicodemus, who
had visited the Master by night because he feared his
fellow Jews. Nicodemus now tried to pacify the Phari-
sees, saying:

"Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him,
and know what he doeth?"

"Art thou also of Galilee?" sneered the Pharisees,
looking scornfully at Nicodemus, as if he had disgraced
himself by even attempting to defend this Nazarene.
And they added: "Search the Scriptures, and look: for
out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. ' '

Then, raising their chins in the air, and swinging
their long garments in such a way as to attract as much
attention as possible as they moved through the streets,
the haughty and self-righteous Pharisees went to their
own homes.

Nicodemus also went to his house; but he walked
slowly and haltingly, his head bent in troubled thought.
Why was he not braver? he wondered. He knew that his
associates would put him out of the synagogue if he
openly proclaimed his belief in Jesus, and yet he longed
to proclaim it. What was the value of his respected
position in Jerusalem, if he were a slave to the opinions
of others? That was not to be free! He envied the
humble Nazarenes who followed Jesus from city to city,
for they, having nothing to lose, could gain everything.
A disciple of the Master! The very words made Nico-
demus thrill from head to feet.

208 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Had he known at that time just when and why he
would finally put aside his fear and stand boldly with
the friends of Jesus, Nicodemus would have been even
sadder than he was. But the future was hidden from
him.

The following day Jesus again went into the Temple,
and all the people came to him, and he sat down and
taught them. As he was teaching, the scribes and Phari-
sees, who were always plotting to entangle him in his
talk, brought to him a certain woman who had done a
forbidden thing, and they set her in the midst of the
crowd before Jesus. Then, interrupting his discourse,
they named the sin which the woman had committed,
and said:

"Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such
should be stoned: but what sayest thou?"

For they knew that Jesus was always full of pity for
wrongdoers ; and if, by reason of his pity they could get
him to say something against the law of Moses, they
would have an excuse for killing him.

John, the beloved disciple, was with Jesus at this
time, and he tells us that the Master stooped down and
wrote with his finger on the ground, as if he had not
heard them. For he was indignant that these hypocriti-
cal Pharisees, who were themselves much worse than the
woman who stood trembling with shame and fear before
them — indignant that these rulers in the synagogue should
dare to make an unfortunate woman the means whereby
they sought to entangle the Christ. John does not tell us
what Jesus wrote on the ground, and it is possible that it
was nothing of importance, that he merely wrote to con-
centrate his own attention and to calm himself.

But the Pharisees persisted in their accusation of the
woman, and asked Jesus again what should be done with

THE ENEMIES IN JERUSALEM 209

her. At length the Master raised himself, and turning
to them with a look which penetrated to their shifty and
hypocritical souls, he said quietly:

" He that is ivithout sin among you, let him first cast
a stone at her. ' '

No master of irony ever uttered anything which for
brevity and depth of meaning can be compared with that
simple sentence, spoken so quietly by Jesus, as he sat
there looking at the Pharisees. Then he turned away
from them, and stooping down once more, continued to
write with his finger on the ground.

The Pharisees felt themselves growing red in the face.
Their foreheads burned and their palms tingled, for their
conscience convicted them, and they knew that they were
far worse sinners than the woman they had wished to
stone. They were ashamed even to look at each other.
Casting one quick and humiliated glance at the back of
Jesus, as he stooped there writing on the ground, they
turned one after another and went away, beginning with
the eldest even unto the last.

When Jesus raised himself he saw no one but the
woman standing before him. She stood clutching her
breast, her head bent with shame, her eyes fixed on the
ground. And the Master said, gently :

"Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no
man condemned thee?"

"No man, Lord," she answered, in a voice so low
that one who stood by could hardly hear it.

"Neither do I condemn thee," said Jesus. "Go, and
sin no more."

The woman went away.

And the Pharisees, when they had had time to recover
themselves a little from the shame of the Master's reproof,
vowed each secretly (for this was a time when they did

210 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

not counsel together) that Jesus should not live much
longer upon the earth.

Twice after that they took up stones to throw at him,
but each time he passed quietly away from them, going
about his business of healing the sick, and restoring
sight to the blind, and preaching the love of all creatures.
And more and more the people followed him.

CHAPTEE XXI

THE RAISING OP LAZARUS

You remember the two sisters, Martha the industrious
housekeeper and Mary the dreamer, who lived in the lit-
tle town of Bethany, not far from Jerusalem. You remem-
ber how Jesus had gently reproved Martha, when she
complained to him because Mary listened so much to his
beautiful talk about God that she forgot to do her share
of the housework.

Now Mary and Martha had a brother named Lazarus,
whom Jesus loved very much. Lazarus was a man of
some importance in the little town of Bethany, and he
had many friends in Jerusalem. He was of a gentle and
dreamy spirit, like his sister Mary; and he also loved to
listen to Jesus when he talked about God and about the
kingdom of heaven, where they would be like the angels,
caring only for the love of God and the love of one another.

When Jesus was far away from Bethany, travelling
about the country with his disciples, the brother and sis-
ter, Lazarus and Mary, used to talk about him all day
long; and sometimes, for many days together, Lazarus
was so exalted with his thoughts of the kingdom of
heaven that he did not care to eat the food prepared for
him by his other sister, the faithful Martha. For Jesus had
said that in heaven they would be like the angels, and
Lazarus was sure that angels did not eat or drink.

Martha, as you will remember, was always troubled
about many things, and she was especially troubled when
211

212 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

her brother would not eat. She also desired to enter the
kingdom of heaven, with the other friends of Jesus; but
she could not see why men should want to stop eating
and drinking while they were still on earth. She was
always telling Lazarus that he would make himself sick
with his fasting and his sitting-up of nights to pray
alone or with his sister Mary.

And at last Lazarus did really become sick, so sick
that he could not leave his bed, and did not even feel
well enough to pray with the gentle Mary when she came
and sat beside him, holding his hand and trying to cheer
him with talk about Jesus. He wanted only to lie still,
with his large, hollow eyes fixed on the patch of blue sky
which could be seen through the little window at the foot
of his bed.

Martha was now thoroughly alarmed about her brother,
and human nature being much the same in those far days
as now, she could not refrain from saying all the time, "I
told you so! I told you so!"

Each time she turned away from the bed of Lazarus,
with the nice hot broth which he could not drink; each
time she looked at him lying there so still, gazing at the
little patch of blue sky through the window, Martha's
face grew more and more troubled, and little lines of
anxiety would come between her straight black eyebrows.

Mary was troubled also, and she was grieved at Mar-
tha, who made her feel that she was as much to blame as
Lazarus for the sickness which had come upon him. If
Mary had not encouraged Lazarus in too much dreaming
and too much praying, Martha said, he would not have
refused for weeks to eat his proper food, and he would
not now be lying sick unto death. And Mary's eyes were
full of tears, not only with anxiety for her brother, but
with grief at her sister's reproaches.

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 213

' l Oh, if Jesus would only come ! ' ' she said to herself
all day long. At last, toward the evening of the second
day, she said it aloud to Martha, "Oh, if Jesus would
only come!" And Martha said, "Yes, we need him."

Then the two sisters asked a neighbour of theirs to go
and find Jesus, whom they knew to be preaching with his
disciples in Pereea, and to give Jesus this message:
' ' Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. ' '

Now when the messenger, the neighbour of Mary and
Martha, found Jesus and gave him the message of the
sisters, Jesus did not seem to be distressed; though, as
every one knew, he deeply loved Lazarus and Mary and
Martha. And his disciples wondered that he should not
be troubled.

Jesus, seeing the questions in their eyes, told them
that the sickness of Lazarus was not unto death, but for
the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby. The disciples did not understand his words.
They could not see how the sickness of any man, least of
all that of a faithful creature like Lazarus of Bethany,
could bring glory unto God or to the Son of God.

Jesus stayed two days longer in the place where he
was then preaching, and he healed there many sick per-
sons. His disciples, while they wondered that he did not
want to go to Bethany to cure Lazarus, were really glad
that he did not; for they remembered how the Jews in
Judsea had wanted to stone the Master the last time he
had been in their country, and Bethany, the home of
Lazarus, was in Judaea.

But at the end of the two days, Jesus said to his dis-
ciples :

' ' Let us go into Judsea again. ' '

"Master," they answered, "the Jews of late sought to
stone thee; and goest thou thither again?"

214 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Jesus replied: "Are there not twelve hours in the day?
If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because
he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in
the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in
him."

John, the beloved disciple, was the only one who
understood this saying and remembered it. But none of
them understood the next thing which Jesus said :

' ' Our friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but I go, that I may
awake him out of sleep. ' '

The disciples answered, "Lord, if he sleep, he shall
do well," meaning that if he slept he would recover.

Then Jesus, seeing that they did not understand him,
told them plainly : ' ' Lazarus is dead. ' '

The disciples were no longer astonished when the
Master told them of something which was happening or
had happened far away ; for they had now come to believe
that he knew all things. And when Jesus said that Laza-
rus was dead, they knew that it must be so. One of the
disciples said that he was sorry that the Master had not
been there to save Lazarus from death, as he had saved so
many others ; but Jesus answered :

"I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the
intent ye may believe; nevertheless, let us go unto him."

And still they did not understand all that Jesus
meant. But Thomas, the disciple whom they called
' ' doubting Thomas, ' ' because he did not believe things so
readily as the others, said to his fellow disciples :

"Let us also go, that we may die with him. "

For these men who followed Jesus were much troubled
by the enmity which some of the Jews in Judaea had
shown to their Master; and Thomas especially, who
always looked on the dark side, believed that Jesus would
be killed if he went to Bethany where the dead Lazarus

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 215

was, and that all his disciples would be killed with
him. If Thomas had lived in our day he would have
been called a pessimist; for a pessimist is a man who,
when he looks at a rosebush in the sunshine, sees only
the shadow cast by the rosebush, and not the sun which
causes the shadow, nor the blossoms on the bush.

As they journeyed southward into Judaea, the dis-
ciples noticed that Jesus was more sad than usual; and
they questioned among themselves whether he was de-
pressed because of the death of Lazarus, or because he
was afraid the Jews would kill him. But it was really
neither of these things. He was meditating the most
important miracle which he had ever performed, for he
meant to bring Lazarus to life again.

When they were still some distance from Bethany,
they learned from a man whom they met on the road that
Lazarus was not only dead, as Jesus had declared, but
that he had been lying in the grave four days. Jesus
knew that Mary and Martha were broken-hearted at their
brother's death, and that they could not understand why
he had not come to them when they had sent him word
that Lazarus was sick.

At the home of Mary and Martha was a company of
their friends, from Jerusalem and elsewhere, who were
trying to comfort the grieving sisters ; and some of these
friends declared that Jesus should have come before, if
he intended to come at all. But the gentle Mary, though
her eyes were full of tears, reproved them for criticising
anything which Jesus did or did not do ; for, as she told
them, even his neglect was more loving than the kindness
of every one else in the world.

Martha, when she learned that Jesus was coming,
went out to meet him; but Mary sat still in the house,
for she would not hasten, by even a few moments, the

216 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

time that Jesus himself had chosen to comfort her. Yet
as the minutes passed by her heart beat fast, for she
wanted to see Jesus more than she wanted anything else
in the world just then. Was there deep in her soul a
secret hope that Jesus might do for the dead Lazarus
what he had done for the little daughter of Jairus? I do
not know ; but Mary had great faith, and to her loving
heart the will of Jesus was like the will of God. Had
she heard him promise to create a man out of a handful
of dust, as Adam is said to have been created by God in
the beginning of the world, she would have watched to see
the dust take form and breath and colour.

When Martha, who had gone out to meet Jesus, saw
him in the distance surrounded, as usual, by many peo-
ple, the tears of gladness sprang to her eyes. She could
not pray so much as Mary, nor in such lovely words ; for
her prayers took the form of useful actions for others,
which may be, after all, the kind of prayer that God likes
best. But Martha loved Jesus with her whole heart; and
though she could not imagine so well as Mary could what
she would be willing to do for love of him, when the time
for action came she could do just as much. And when
she met Jesus coming toward Bethany, she went up to
him and said, in her quiet, determined way :

' ' Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not
died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt
ask of God, God will give it thee. ' '

"Thy brother shall rise again," said Jesus, with a
loving smile.

' ' I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at
the last day," replied Martha. Her eyes were anxious
and full of questions; for she, too, like Mary, remem-
bered hearing about the daughter of Jairus, who had been
dead, yet lived.

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 217

Jesus, as if following her thought, said gently:

"I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : and who-
soever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Be-
lievest thou this?"

"Yes, Lord," said Martha; "I believe that thou art
the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the
world. ' '

Seeing that there were many other persons pressing
around Jesus and wishing speech with him, Martha
turned away and walked back toward her own house.
Personal grief is very important to the one who grieves,
and it might naturally seem to Martha that Jesus should
put aside all these other persons and come straight to her
house to comfort her; yet she had learned from him, in
other days, to consider the desires of others as well as her
own desires. In the crowd that pressed around Jesus
there on the outskirts of the town, demanding speech
with him, there might, thought Martha, be somebody
whose need was greater than her own.

On the way back to her house she thought of what
Jesus had said to her: "I am the resurrection and the
life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live." Surely, she reasoned, in saying those
words to her just then, he had meant that she should
understand them in more than the figurative sense. He
had meant more than that resurrection at the last day,
in the kingdom of heaven, which Lazarus had dreamed
about so much. Her heart was full of hope.

When she reached her house she found Mary, her sis-
ter, sitting with the friends who had come to comfort
them concerning the death of their brother. She went
and whispered to Mary secretly :

"The Master is come, and calleth for thee."

218 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

As soon as Mary heard this she ran out of the house,
and the two sisters hurried back together to the place
where Jesus was. Mary was so happy because Jesus had
asked for her. Perhaps he had even thought of her a
few times during the weeks when he had been preaching
in the villages of the north. That Jesus should think of
her sometimes, when he was away, meant more to Mary
than it would have meant to her to be seated upon the
throne of Herod, the King. For great love is always
humble, and thankful for little things.

Now the Master was not yet come into the town, but
was still in that place where Martha had met him. When
Mary first caught sight of him in the distance, her eyes
filled with tears. Her grief for Lazarus burst forth
afresh, now that Jesus was here to share it with her and
to comfort her.

The Jews, their friends and neighbours, who had been
with Mary in the house and had tried to console her,
when they saw her rise up hastily and go out, supposed
that she had gone to the grave of Lazarus, to weep for
him. And they also rose up and followed her and Mar-
tha along the road.

When Mary came to the place where Jesus was, she
fell down at his feet, weeping, and she said to him the
very words which Martha had said to him before :

"Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not
died."

When Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the Jews who had
followed her weeping also, he groaned in the spirit and
was troubled. For a moment he could have wished that
he had come down here sooner, when they first sent for
him, and had saved them all this grief. For though he
knew that what he meant to do would be better in the
end, and would bring more glory to the name of God ;

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 219

yet the heart of Jesus was so tender that the sight of
others' suffering was almost unendurable to him always.
That is one of the reasons why the world has loved him
so much for nearly two thousand years.

Jesus asked the sisters where they had laid Lazarus,
and they answered :

' ' Lord, come and see. ' '

Jesus wept.

And the Jews who had followed Mary and Martha,
when they saw the tears of Jesus, said: "Behold, how
much he loved him ! ' '

But some of the Jews said among themselves, as they
walked behind Jesus and the two sisters to the tomb of
Lazarus :

' ' Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the
blind, have caused that even this man should not have
died?"

Jesus, who always knew what was passing in the
minds of others, must have felt that they were blaming
him for having left his friend to die alone, instead of
coming to save him. And the tears which Jesus shed
were not only for the sufferings of Mary and Martha and
Lazarus himself, but also for the unbelieving people who
could not understand the power of God unless they saw
some miracle performed before their eyes.

Still groaning in spirit and weeping for the grief of
all mankind, and for mankind's lack of faith, Jesus
came to the grave of Lazarus. It was a cave in the rock,
like so many of the tombs of Judsea, and a large stone
was laid upon it, closing the mouth of the cave.

As Jesus stood looking at that stone, which shut the
body of his dead friend away from the daylight, all the
Jews stood round, weeping and groaning. The sound of
their lamentations was terrible to Jesus.

220 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

"Take ye away the stone," he said.

Martha reminded Jesus that her brother was four days
dead, and that by this time his body had begun to decom-
pose. But Jesus answered her :

' ' Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldst believe,
thou shouldst see the glory of God?"

Mary and Martha clung close together, for now they
really understood that Jesus would do some wonderful
work. Before this they had hoped it, but they had not
been sure. They questioned each other with their eyes ;
and the Jews, their friends and neighbours, stopped
weeping and lamenting, as if they also understood that
some great thing was about to take place.

Then the Jews, obeying the command of Jesus, took
away the stone which hid the mouth of the tomb. Their
faces were very serious, and each man and woman looked
intently at the Master, who stood there before the mouth
of the tomb, in the attitude of prayer. They saw Jesus
lift up his eyes to heaven, and they heard him say:

' ' Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And
I knew that thou hearest me always : but because of the
people which stand by I said it, that they may believe
that thou hast sent me. ' '

They who stood by saw that the face of Jesus was
shining with a bright light, as if the spirit within had
made his features transparent. And they held their
breath, trembling, feeling the power which went out from
him. Suddenly they heard Jesus cry with a loud voice :

' ' Lazarus, come forth ! ' '

The hands of the sisters Mary and Martha were clasped
so tightly that the nails cut into the tender flesh ; but
they did not feel pain, so excited were they. They hardly
breathed. Their ears, made keen with expectation, caught
a faint rustling, like that of shaken linen, from the

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 221

inside of the tomb ; and then they heard another sound,
like a sandalled foot moving over a stone floor. Then
— and they wondered afterward why they had not fainted
at the sound — they heard a low and muffled cough which
came from the inside of the grave.

A moment later — was that really their brother, stand-
ing there in the mouth of the tomb, bound hand and foot
with graveclothes, and with a linen napkin round his
chin? His eyes were wide and staring, his face deadly
pale, and his arms underneath the binding graveclothes
moved slightly, as if he struggled to be free.

"Loose him, and let him go," said Jesus; and the
Jews rushed forward to unwind the cloths. Their hands
trembled so that they could hardly do the work, and
Lazarus himself was obliged with one free hand to help
unloose the other.

When at last he stood quite free, he looked around
him in bewilderment. He had seen already the face of
Jesus, so white and calm and full of power; and now he
saw the faces of his sisters, still red and swollen from
weeping. Mary and Martha were so frightened that they
did not dare to go to their brother, until Jesus should bid
them.

Lazarus, turning his head, surveyed the open door of
the tomb where he had lain for four days. Then he
understood and moaned a little, for the warm blood
coursing once more through his stiffened veins caused
him a sharp, stinging pain in every part of his body.
And the labour of breathing was like the lifting of a
great weight with every heaving motion of his stiffened
chest.

But Jesus, with a pitying smile, laid his hands upon
him, and suddenly the pain all went away. Lazarus
breathed freely again, as those breathe who have never

222 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

been dead, and the blood in his veins thrilled him with
pleasure instead of pain. Those who watched him, hold-
ing their breath, saw a wan smile flutter across his face,
into which the warm blood had come again, restoring to
it the colour and freshness of life.

Only his eyes were different to what they had been
before; for one who has been dead knows many things
which he would not care to tell to those who have never
felt the chilling embrace of the tomb. What was it
Lazarus had seen on the other side of the door of death?
We do not know; we shall never know, till we pass
through that door ourselves, some day.

As he walked slowly home to the little house in
Bethany with Jesus and his sisters, Lazarus did not
speak many words, and Mary and Martha could not
speak, either. There are some things which words, with
all their subtle meanings, can never hope to express. But
the eyes of Mary and Martha turned constantly to the
calm face of Jesus, who walked so quietly beside them.
The disciples of Jesus had, at his request, made all the
friends and neighbours — the Jews who had been with
them at the tomb and who had seen the raising of Laza-
rus— keep back from this reunited family and the great
teacher who had reunited them. The four walked quite
alone along the road ; and the people who lived beside the
way, looking from the doorways of their houses at the
slowly moving group, could not believe their eyes; they
thought that the man in white garments, who was with
Jesus and the two women, must be some stranger in the
town, who looked and walked like the dead man Lazarus.

Behind them, at the still open door of the tomb, the
Jews were talking and gesticulating together, and ques-
tioning the disciples who remained with them. Had
Lazarus really been dead? If not, how could he have

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 223

lain four days in the airless rock-chamber of the tomb,
and ever breathed again? Who was this man, this Jesus
of Nazareth, who could perform such wonders? Was he
really, as his disciples claimed, the one and only Messiah
of the Jews, whom the ages had waited for? The Messiah,
when he should come, would surely do such things as this
man did. Yes, he must really be the Christ. So the
Jews talked and questioned together, not only there
beside the open and musty-smelling entrance to the tomb,
but later when they went down into Jerusalem. And
there was great excitement in Jerusalem and in Bethany,
and in all the other towns round about, as the news
quickly spread from mouth to mouth, and from home to
home. And now many in Jerusalem believed in Jesus,
that he was the Son of God, where only a few had be-
lieved before.

And some of those who had witnessed the miracle
went to the Pharisees in Jerusalem, telling them that
Jesus had brought a dead man to life at Bethany, and
that more people than ever were following him and be-
lieving on him.

Now these Pharisees were very self-righteous, and
very proud of their knowledge of the old Jewish law.
Jesus himself called them hypocrites; and as Jesus was
inclined to give all men the benefit of every doubt, we
may believe that the Pharisees were really hypocritical.
They had so long been accustomed to having men come to
them to ask what was right and what was wrong, that
they were jealous at the growing crowds that followed
Jesus, the crowds of men who now asked Jesus what was
right and wrong instead of asking the Pharisees.

It was the same jealous spirit which had led Cain, the
son of Adam, to slay his brother Abel, as you have read
in the Old Testament. It was the same jealousy which

224 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

had made King Herod want to destroy the infant Jesus,
because the Magi had called him ' ' King of the Jews, ' '
after his birth had been revealed to them by the Star in
the East. The spirit of jealousy is the most evil spirit
in the world ; it even makes little children hate each other
sometimes, because one of them has something which the
other wants. Those who wish to be like Jesus should
destroy this spirit in their hearts ; and whenever they feel
jealous of any person, they should remember that in the
heart of that person is a little place where God delights
to dwell. For when we realise that God dwells in another,
and looks out at us through his eyes, we cannot possibly
hate him or be jealous of him.

But the hypocritical Pharisees did not really love
God; they only liked to talk about Him, because it made
them seem important in the eyes of others. So, every
time they heard that Jesus had done something which
they could not do; every time they heard a man praise
Jesus and declare that he was the Son of God, the jealous
hatred which they had for him grew stronger and stronger,
until they wished that he might be killed.

They pretended to think that Jesus was of no impor-
tance. They pretended to think this because they wanted
to think it; but in their hearts they knew it was not so,
and that only made them hate him all the more. They
even tried to forget that he existed; but in the night-time,
when all the world was still, and the old Pharisees lay
upon their backs in bed, the thought of Jesus came to
trouble them. They simply could not put him out of
their minds. In the daytime it was not so hard for
them, because they had many things to do. They could
walk up and down the streets, making parade of their
piety, and they could argue, argue, argue, with any one
who had the time for argument, upon the everlasting ques-

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 225

tions of the subtle differences between tweedledum and
tweedledee.

We are told by a great French scholar, whose books
you will read perhaps when you are older, that the man-
ners of the Pharisees were often ridiculous and excited the
smiles of even those who believed in them. They had
many nicknames among the people, because of their pecul-
iar ways. They were called "bandy-legged Pharisees,"
because they dragged their feet in walking, in the attempt
to appear very stately and dignified. They were called
"bloody-browed Pharisees," because they walked with
their eyes shut so as not to look at the pretty women,
and thus knocked their heads so often against the walls
that their foreheads were always bloody. Yes, in the day-
time they could keep from worrying about Jesus, even
when they were talking against him.

But in the quiet night it was different. They would
lie in bed upon their old backs, as I have told you, and
in the vexation of their thinking about Jesus, they would
pluck the hairs from their long beards and cast them
from them, as if by so doing they cast away the thoughts
of Jesus which burned and burned in their minds until
their heads ached with the pressure of their thinking.

But when they learned that Jesus had raised Lazarus
from the dead; when they heard, whichever way they
turned, the constant talk about this miracle which had
been performed almost at their very doors, they could not
endure any longer their jealousy and their anger. And
they sought out the chief priests, who were attached to
the great Temple, and the Pharisees held a council with
the chief priests as to what could be done in order to rid
themselves of Jesus.

"What shall we do?" they asked each other, with
anxious eyes, "for this man works many miracles. If

226 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him : and
the Romans shall come and take away both our place and
nation. ' '

For always, among the Jews of that time, there was
the fear and hatred of the Romans who ruled over them.
And the priests and Pharisees now feared that if the peo-
ple more and more came to believe on Jesus, the Romans
would try to do away with the old Jewish religion alto-
gether. If such a change took place, the priests would
lose all their authority, and the Pharisees would find no
one to listen to them when they argued, argued, argued
about the letter of the law.

Now the Jews of that time changed their high priest
every year or two, for political reasons, and the high
priest for that year was named Caiaphas. He was the
son-in-law of a former high priest, Annas; he was a Sad-
ducee of the most unbelieving type ; and though Caiaphas
had a very good opinion of himself, he would have been
surprised had any one told him that his fame would last
forever. He would have been still more surprised could
he have known the reason why people would talk about
him in the centuries to come. For though these priests
and Pharisees hated Jesus, and gave so much thought to
him, they did not realise how very important he was.
They did not realise that for thousands of years the world
would be interested in every smallest action of his life;
and that their own names would be hated for all these
ages, just because they were the enemies of Jesus.

When the priests and Pharisees had talked together a
long time, about the raising of Lazarus and all the excite-
ment it had produced, they agreed among themselves that
the love which Jesus inspired in the people was a menace
to their own place and authority. Then Caiaphas the
high priest arose in his seat, and looking round upon the

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS 227

circle of sharp and discontented faces before him, he
spoke these momentous words :

' ' Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expe-
dient for us, that one man should die for the people, and
that the whole nation perish not. ' '

Then, gathering his robe about him, Caiaphas stalked
out of the room, leaving his fellow-counsellors to think
about his words. The priests and Pharisees who were left
sitting there looked at each other questioningly, for every
man knew what Caiaphas meant: that they must kill
Jesus in order to save themselves.

Now the time of the Jewish Passover was near, and
the priests asked one another :

"What think ye, that he will not come to the feast?"

And they nodded their heads, that he would probably
come; and their sharp eyes grew sharper, and they pulled
viciously at their long beards as they walked to and fro,
meditating how they could kill Jesus. And they gave
orders to their servants that if any man knew where Jesus
was, he should tell the high priests, that they might take
him.

Jesus, who always knew what was passing in the
minds of others, knew now that the priests and Pharisees
were plotting to kill him ; and he went away from Bethany
with his disciples, leaving Lazarus and Mary and Martha
behind. He went into a place called Ephraim, near to
the wilderness of Judaea where John the Baptist had so
often walked crying, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand." And Jesus stayed there with his
disciples, healing those who were sick, and telling people
about the love of God.

But his disciples noticed now that his eyes were often
very sad, and that he did not like to hear them talk about

228 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Lazarus, and of how he had been raised from the tomb.
For Jesus knew that the bringing of his dead friend to
life, while it had brought much glory to the name of
God and to the Son of God, would cause him serious
trouble in the end.

CHAPTER XXII

JESUS AND THE LITTLE CHILDREN

Of all the beautiful stories which the Gospels tell us
about Jesus, there is none lovelier than the one which tells
how he blessed the little children in Judaea, not long be-
fore his death. Jesus loved all the little children in the
world. He liked to look in their pure faces, fresh and
rosy as the petals of a flower. It seemed to him that from
their little eyes God looked upon the world and looked at
him, and their voices were sweet music in his ears. He
never found them tiresome, with their prattle and their
questions ; for how can a child learn things except by ask-
ing those who are older than he is?

In one of the villages near to the wilderness, where he
had been teaching the people, and healing many who were
afflicted with disease or grief, among those whom he had
cured were several men and women who had little children.
And these fathers and mothers said to themselves and to
one another:

"As the Master has such power, and as he comes from
God, and as he only passes through our city, and we may
never see his face again, let us ask him to lay his hands
upon our children and to bless them, that they may live
and thrive, and grow to be good men and women. ' '

And the fathers and mothers also said :

"How beautiful is the face of Jesus when he prays!
If, when his face is thus illuminated, and the Holy Spirit,
hovering invisible in the air above his head, listens for

230 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

his words — if at such a time he should lay his hands upon
our children, surely the Holy Spirit would descend on
them. They might see visions, too, which they would
remember all their lives. ' '

So the fathers and mothers, having bathed their chil-
dren and combed their waving hair, put on them their
best linen garments. They told the little ones that they
must be very good and quiet, and that perhaps the won-
derful man Jesus, whom they had seen at a distance in the
marketplace, would touch them with his hands. And the
children were so much excited at the very thought of be-
ing touched by the wonderful man with the shining face,
that they trembled all over, and their little voices shook
as they promised to be good. The fathers and mothers
gave each little child a flower which it might lay at the
feet of the wonderful man, but must not put into his
hands, which should be left free to bless them; then they
led the children out into the sunshine and toward the
square of the city, where Jesus sat with his disciples un-
der a spreading tree.

Those who love deeply and purely are not afraid of
seeming bold, because their desires are unselfish. And
the parents of the children, in leading their little ones to
Jesus, did not even ask themselves if they were taking
liberties with a great man. With their children they
went right up to him, where he sat under the big tree,
and they said:

' ' Master, will you not lay your hands upon our chil-
dren, that God may bless them for your sake?"

But the disciples of Jesus, good men though they were,
and men who loved Jesus deeply, were sometimes a little
too conscious of their position as the most intimate friends
of the Master. They sometimes felt that it was for them
to protect Jesus from the too near approach of those who

JESUS AND THE LITTLE CHILDREN 231

needed him, not realising that they themselves were only-
great because of their love for Jesus and because of his
love for them. And now, when the disciples saw the
fathers and mothers, with the group of little children
crowding round the Master, they rushed forward and would
have thrust them back from Jesus, sitting there so beauti-
ful and benign under the tree.

But Jesus arose from his seat, and reproved his dis-
ciples. We do not know all that he said to them, because
the disciples who told the story only admitted that the
Master reproved them; but, knowing him as we do, and
knowing his love for the whole world, we may be sure that
he reminded them that the Son of God was sent to all
men, and to all women, and especially to all little chil-
dren. And then he said :

' ' Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid
them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I
say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom
of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

"Take heed 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. ' '

And Jesus sat down again under the tree, and called
the little children to him. They were not afraid of him
because he was so great; but when he smiled at them, they
climbed into his lap, they hung about his neck, they
clung to his knees, they laid their little heads against his
sleeve, rubbing it softly with their cheeks. Some of them
prattled to him, asking him childish questions, though
their parents had told them that they must be quiet.
And he answered all the questions, as if the little children
had been great philosophers, and as if the questions which
they asked had been of value to the nations.

Then, when they had grown quiet with content, Jesus

232 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

laid his hands upon the head of each little child, one after
another, and raising his eyes to heaven, he asked his
Father — who lived in heaven, and who also lived in the
heart of every one in the world who would let Him live
there — to bless the little children.

And the parents, standing a little way apart and look-
ing on at the lovely scene, felt something surging in their
own hearts which they had never felt before, as if the God
who wanted to dwell within them were mutely calling at-
tention to His presence. And their eyes filled with happy
tears, so that the Master sitting there under the tree with
the children in his arms seemed to be seen through a veil.
But they who see Christ through the veil of their own
loving tears, see him more plainly than when their eyes
are clear.

When Jesus had blessed the children, and his eyes and
his thoughts came back from heaven to regard the world
around him, he gently placed upon their feet the little
ones who nestled in his lap ; then he himself arose and led
them to their parents. With a smile of parting for all,
he beckoned to his disciples, and passed out from among
the people into a little house near by, where one lay sick
whom he desired to heal.

And the fathers and mothers of the children walked
slowly home with their little ones. Their hearts were so
full of love, that they could not talk together, and the
families separated in silence, each going to their own
house.

The children never forgot the happenings of that day.
Even the smallest of them, a little daughter, who could
hardly lisp the name of Mother, remembered vividly her
whole life long the beautiful man with the loving smile
who had laid his hands upon her little head, and in whose
strong arms she had nestled as a baby. And when she

JESUS AND THE LITTLE CHILDREN 233

had grown to be a woman, she told her own children all
about it; and when her children were grown to be men and
women themselves, and had other little children of their
own, she told her grandchildren how Jesus of Nazareth,
the great Messiah of the Jews, had blessed her fifty years
before. And whenever her grandchildren were naughty,
as all little ones sometimes are, she had only to whisper
the words of Jesus to make them good again :

1 ' Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid
them not : for of such is the kingdom of God. ' '

CHAPTER XXIII

JESUS AND THE RICH YOUNG MAN

As even children may observe, if they look closely at
their life and at the life about them, when anything hap-
pens which makes them very happy, it is generally fol-
lowed by something which makes them unhappy; and a
day of calmness and simplicity is likely to be followed by
a day when things are puzzling. This seems to be a law
of life, which no one can escape ; and it was often illus-
trated in the history of Jesus.

After those lovely moments with the simple little chil-
dren whose parents had brought them for his blessing, the
next person who came to Jesus was a rich young man
whose life was anything but simple.

When the Master and his disciples had gone out of the
village in which he had blessed the children, and as they
were walking slowly along the country lane which was bor-
dered with the green leaves and the blossoms of early
spring, a young man in a rich red dress came running
after Jesus, and knelt at his feet in the dusty road. As
the Master bent his head and looked at the eager-faced
young man, kneeling there in the dust before him, the
young man said:

"Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may
have eternal life?"

And Jesus answered him :

"Why callest thou me good? There is none good but
235

236 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

one, and that is God. But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments."

"Which?" asked the rich young man; for he had been
brought up among the Pharisees, and he knew well the
ten commandments of the Jews. Jesus answered, nam-
ing a few of them :

"Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt
not speak falsely of thy neighbour, Honour thy father and
thy mother. ' '

' ' All these commandments have I kept from my youth
up," said the young man. "What lack I yet?"

And Jesus, looking down at him, seeing his eager face
and his eyes aflame with aspiration, felt a great love for
the young man surge up in his heart. He knew that the
young man was one of the Pharisees, that he was a ruler
with much power; and neither the rulers nor the Pharisees
had generally been willing to listen to the teaching of the
Master. But the eyes of this young man were clear and
honest, they looked straight into the eye of Jesus; and
though he was a ruler, he did not hesitate in his fine robe
to kneel there in the dust. Why, with this faith and en-
thusiasm, should he not really follow the Christ, leaving
behind him the worldly things which he had loved in the
past? At that moment it seemed possible to Jesus. And
he put out his hand and raised the young man to his
feet.

For a moment they stood there, face to face, and eye
to eye, the Messiah in his white garments and the young
ruler in his embroidered robe. And the two, so different
in external things, felt one with each other in heart. The
flame of feeling which we call sympathy was burning be-
tween them ; and Jesus said, very gently, laying his hand
upon the arm of the young ruler :

' ' If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast,

JESUS AND THE RICH YOUNG MAN 237

and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven : and come and follow me. ' '

Over the eyes of the young man there came a shadow
of sadness; for he was very rich, and Jesus had told him
to give away all that he had. He thought of his palaces,
of his gold and jewels; but, most of all, he thought of his
friends who would ridicule and blame him if he should
do as the Master said. A man who would have no fear of
poverty or hardship, is often afraid of the laughter of his
friends. And the eyes of the young ruler fell before the
steady eyes of Jesus, which seemed to be looking down
into his soul. Then, without another word, he turned
sadly away from the one whom he had called Master, and
with slow step and head bent low in thought, he walked
back along the road toward the city — back to his palace
and his riches.

Jesus watched him for a few moments, and his eyes
were sad and thoughtful. Then, turning to the disciples
who were with him, he said :

"Verily, I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly
enter into the kingdom of heaven. ' '

His disciples looked at him with wonder, for before
they met Jesus, they had always been taught to respect
rich men for the sake of their riches. The Master, seeing
the puzzled look in their eyes, said to them :

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
God."

And the disciples, who had been puzzled before, were
now amazed, and they said to Jesus :

"Who then can be saved?"

Jesus saw that they were deeply troubled in their
minds by what he had just said; and he added, very
gently:

238 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

' ' The things which are impossible with men, are pos-
sible with God. "

Then honest Peter, looking after the brilliant red-robed
figure of the young ruler as it disappeared in the distance,
and looking from that to the plain and dusty garments of
himself and his fellow disciples, said to the Master, with
just a little touch of conscious virtue :

"Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee.
What shall we have therefore?"

And Jesus answered him, saying:

' ' There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands,
for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an
hundredfold, now in this time, houses, and brethren, and
sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with 'per-
secutions ; and in the world to come eternal life. But
many that are first shall be last, and the last first. ' '

And the disciples, feeling reproved for having prided
themselves upon the fact that they were faithful to Jesus,
when every beautiful thing in their lives had been given
them freely by him, walked slowly down the road after
the Master. And each man asked himself in his heart,
what were the little things which he had sacrificed in
comparison with what Jesus had given him? Would he
not rather walk with Jesus, cold and hungry and home-
less along the roads, than to have all the riches of the
world without him? For the disciples really loved their
Master, though he was far too great for them to under-
stand. And when they thought of the rich young ruler,
in his embroidered red gown, and of the sadness of his
eyes as he turned away from Jesus, they thanked God that
they themselves were poor, and shabby, and that no pal-
aces raised their carven walls between them and the
Master whom they worshipped.

JESUS AND THE RICH YOUNG MAN 239

Jesus, feeling the sadness of their hearts, turned and
looked at them with his great loving eyes. Then he
smiled, and they could not feel sad any longer. And he
began to tell them lovely things about the kingdom of
heaven, where they would be as the angels, standing with
him in the presence of God. And the breeze blew softly
through the trees, and the little river sang beside the
road, and the birds twittered in the branches, and the
great golden sun sank slowly to his home in the western
sky, leaving a blaze of crimson and orange clouds behind
him. And Jesus and his friends walked on together
toward the sunset.

Back in the city they had left, the rich young ruler
sat alone in a splendid room in his palace, brooding.
He wished that he were a poor man, even a beggar, that
he might follow Jesus. He looked about him at the gor-
geous fabrics upon the floor and on the walls. Why
could he not exchange them for the green grass by the
wayside, and the freedom of a wandering disciple of the
Master? The ceiling of his palace room was made of
precious marbles, which glittered in the lamplight. Why
could he not be lying with those other men out under the
stars, which glittered far more brilliantly? He did not
want to be a ruler. He wanted to be a disciple. But, as
Jesus had said: "It is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God. ' '

Late in the night, a servant of the young ruler passed
his door, and seeing his lamp alight, looked in. His
master was still sitting there, with his chin in his hands,
and his eyes fixed on vacancy. Far off somewhere in the
darkness, a dog was howling. And the servant stole
softly out, leaving his master alone. Then the servant

240 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

went to the bare closet which served him for a chamber,
and lying down upon the hard board which was his bed,
he dreamed beautiful dreams of Jesus and the kingdom
of heaven. For what the young ruler had not dared to
be, his servant was already.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE MOTHER OF JAMES AND JOHN

Among those who followed Jesus were many women,
though they did not follow him everywhere, nor at all
times. I have told you how his own mother loved to go
with him from city to city, hearing him preach and see-
ing him heal the sick, who everywhere crowded round
him. I have told you of Mary Magdalene, the beautiful
woman who in the past had not been good, but who now
was perhaps better than any of the other women, except
the mother of Jesus. I have told you of the sisters, Mary
and Martha, whose brother, Lazarus, Jesus had raised from
the tomb. And now I will tell you about Salome, the
wife of Zebedee the fisherman, and the mother of the dis-
ciples James and John.

Salome also loved Jesus much. In one way she cared
more for him than for her own sons ; but in another way
she did not, for the love of a mother is unlike any other
love on earth. She adored Jesus as her Master, and the
Master of her sons ; but she loved James and John in the
same way she had loved them when they were little babies
— her little babies. They seemed to her more wonderful
than any other men in the world, excepting Jesus ; and to
her, as to so many others, Jesus seemed something more
than a man. At any moment had she seen Jesus rise up
into the clouds, like the angel which she felt him in her
heart to be, Salome would not have been surprised.

John, as you know, was quite young, but James was
241

242 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

older, and the mother of these two men was almost an old
woman. Her black hair was thickly streaked with grey,
and though her face was strong and even handsome, as
the faces of old women often are, it was marked with
many lines which the passing years had left there. But
the eyes of Salome were as bright as the eyes of a young
woman, for she had a strong will and a high courage.
Once, when her sons were babies, she had attacked a wild
animal which had come toward her children as if to harm
them. Where her love was concerned, Salome knew no
fear. Some of the women who followed Jesus were so
timid that they were almost afraid to speak to him until
he spoke to them ; but Salome was not like that. It was
because she loved the Master that it never occurred to her
to be afraid of him, as some of the others were who loved
him just as much. Love expresses itself differently in
different persons.

Salome and several of the other women had joined
Jesus and the men disciples as they came down toward
Jericho that spring, a little while before the annual feast
of the Passover at Jerusalem.

It had been a little time since Salome had seen Jesus
or her two sons; and it seemed to her now that Peter,
whom Jesus had called "the foundation stone of his
church," was becoming more important than her sons,
James and John, in the little wandering community of
disciples. And the heart of Salome was troubled. She
liked Peter, she liked his honest face and his blunt ways,
and she knew how much he had done to forward the re-
ligion of Jesus ; and yet — Salome was a mother, and she
was just a little jealous.

John had whispered to her several times that he was
more dearly beloved by Jesus than any of the other dis-
ciples ; but Jesus himself had never told Salome so. In-

THE MOTHER OF JAMES AND JOHN 243

deed, it seemed to be his purpose that all his friends
should feel absolutely equal, and that no one of them
should exalt himself above the others. He wanted them
to love each other, and to forget themselves. Salome liked
all the disciples, except perhaps Judas Iscariot, and she
only disliked him because John said that he was not hon-
est, that often, when he wanted something for himself, he
took the coins from the moneybag which Jesus had given
him to carry. Salome did not really care whether Judas
took silver or not; but she cared very much when Peter
seemed to be given the first place, which she thought be-
longed to her own big sons.

One day the Master had been telling his friends about
the kingdom of heaven, where he and his disciples should
sit on thrones and judge the tribes of Israel. When he
had finished talking, Salome came up to him and asked
if she could speak to him alone. Jesus was so great that
he never tried to make himself seem distant or unap-
proachable, and he now went with Salome a little to one
side, away from the others, that she might say to him
whatever was in her mind.

Her two sons, James and John, seeing their mother
and the Master together, came also and stood with them.
And Salome fell down on her knees before Jesus, worship-
ping him, and asked if he would give her something which
she much desired.

Jesus always loved to make others happy, but he was
far too wise to promise anything beforehand, so he asked
Salome :

"What wilt thou?"

And Salome said, pointing to James and John :

' ' Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on
thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy king-
dom. ' '

244 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Jesus looked at her for a moment in silence, then he
answered :

' ' Ye know not what ye ask. ' '

Turning to the two young men, who stood eager and
expectant before him, he asked them :

"Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of,
and to be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised
with?"

By the cup that he should drink of, Jesus probably
meant the cup of sorrow, and by the baptism that he was
baptised with — his own blood.

' ' We are able, ' ' answered James and John, for they
did not understand the tremendous claim they made.

"Ye shall drink indeed of my cup," replied Jesus,
"and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised
with : but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not
mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is
prepared of my Father. ' '

Salome and her sons had not noticed, so intent were
they on their question and its answer, that the ten other
men had come up behind them and had heard all they had
said. And Peter and Andrew and Philip and the others
were filled with indignation at James and John. How
dared they ask the Master to sit on his right and left hand
in the kingdom of heaven? It seemed to them presump-
tion, deserving some grave punishment. But Jesus smiled
gently, that they might know he was not seriously dis-
pleased with these, his children, even when they were
presumptuous; and calling all the disciples to him, he
tried to make them understand a little better what it
meant to be a disciple. He said :

"Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise
dominion over them, and they that are great, exercise
authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you:

THE MOTHER OF JAMES AND JOHN 245

but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your
minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him
be your servant : even as the Son of man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a
ransom for many. ' '

James and John would have felt ashamed if it had not
been for the sweetness of Jesus, as he taught them a better
way to be great than by exalting themselves. And they
remembered that their Master, though he was the Messiah,
had never demanded honours for himself. They had seen
him perform the lowest services for those who were sick
or afflicted; they had seen him eat with publicans and
sinners, whom the self-righteous Pharisees would not even
look at ; they had seen him sleep at night with his beauti-
ful and sacred head pillowed in the dust of the road. And
in one place some months before, when the people, aroused
to enthusiasm by his miracles, had wanted to make him a
king, he had passed quietly away from them and had gone
back to the open fields and to his homelessness And the
truth came to James and John with unforgettable force,
that it was better to serve mankind as Jesus served it,
than to sit upon his right and left hand in the kingdom
of heaven.

Their eyes filled with tears as they looked at their
Master, and they wondered how it was that he could turn
every unpleasant thing into something beautiful. For
their fellow disciples, who had been angry with them a
moment before, now looked at them with gentleness and
brotherly love; and one of them, seeing the string of
James's shoe unloosed, stooped down and tied it for him.

And Salome, the mother, began to wonder what she
could do to help the others. And that night, when she
served their simple wayside supper to the men, she gave
the largest pieces of meat and the thickest slices of bread

246 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

to Judas and to Peter, giving to her own dear sons the
fragments which were left. And when, turning from
her service, she saw the large and loving eyes of Jesus
fixed upon her face, she knew that he understood her; and
she came to see that for a mother to exalt her sons at the
expense of others, merely because they are hers and be-
cause she loves them, is but another and more subtle form
of selfishness, for which there is no place in the kingdom
of heaven.

CHAPTER XXV

TWO MEN OF JERICHO

Jesus came down toward Jericho on his last journey to
Jerusalem. He had already told his twelve disciples that
they were going to the Passover, in order that all the
things written by the old prophets concerning the Son of
man should be accomplished ; that he should be delivered
unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, who should
condemn him to death, and should deliver him to the
Gentiles, and that they should scourge him, and spit upon
him, and kill him, and that on the third day he should
rise again.

The disciples had not fully understood what he meant ;
but one of them, Judas Iscariot, had been much distressed
by these words of the Master. Judas had himself been
ill-treated in the past, before he knew Jesus, and the
thought that he was going to have more trouble made him
frown and mutter to himself. All the way up to Jericho
he was silent and preoccupied. He wondered how the
others could smile and talk as if nothing had happened.
To him the prediction of Jesus that they were going to
meet with persecution was a more important happening
than the healing of the sick, the lame and the blind.
Judas felt that he had had enough of trouble in the past.
He wanted the kingdom of heaven to appear in the form of
earthly glory, as so many others do at the present time.

The roads along which they travelled that day were no
longer the blossoming lanes of Galilee, but the stony ways
247

248 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

to the north of Jerusalem — the road to Jericho. The city
of Jericho itself was rather a pleasant place, with its
gardens of spices ; it was at the junction of several routes,
and there were always strangers there. As the Master
and his friends approached the city they were joined by
many people. Some of them had seen Jesus before in
other places, and really believed that he was the Messiah
whom God had sent to save the Jews. Others, and by
far the greater number, followed him out of curiosity.
For the fame of Jesus had now spread all over Syria, and
wherever he went he was followed by crowds. Some, who
were weary of the world, wanted to hear about the king-
dom of heaven; others wanted to be healed of their dis-
eases; others, still, wanted the coppers which Judas carried
in the moneybag and which the Master always shared
with those who had no food.

It seemed to the disciples that the face of Jesus was
very sad that day. He had been walking alone, before
them, and he had walked with his head bent as if in
troubled thought. For Jesus understood what the disciples
did not seem to grasp, that the priests and Pharisees
were already plotting his death. Yet, notwithstanding
this knowledge, he intended to go down to Jerusalem for
the feast of the Passover. He might have escaped his
enemies by going back again into Galilee, but he would
not go back; for it seemed to him that God had told him
to go forward, that the prophesies must be fulfilled to the
letter. The old prophets had declared, as Jesus had told
his disciples, that the Messiah, when he came, should be
betrayed by the Jews, and mocked, and scourged, and
killed. It was strange that none of the disciples, except
Judas, had seemed to understand. So Jesus walked sadly
at the head of his little company of followers, as they
came down to Jericho.

TWO MEN OF JERICHO 249

Sitting on the ground by the roadside, his back
against a stone wall and his ragged garment trailing in
the dust, was a blind man named Bartimseus, and he was
begging of the passers-by. His unwashed hand, long,
thin and clawlike, was extended; his sightless eyes were
rolled upward in his head; and whenever he heard a step
approaching, he began his shrill, quavering, monotonous
appeal :

' ' Kind friend, a penny, only a penny, for I am blind. ' '

Bartimseus had been sitting there in one spot for a
long time, ever since the early morning. Some hours
before he had been cold, and his teeth had chattered as
he reiterated his one cry, at the sound of every footstep :
" Kind friend, a penny, only a penny, for I am blind. ' '
But now the noonday sun shone warm against the wall,
and blind Bartirnaeus no longer shivered. His voice had
lost something of its quaver, though it was still shrill,
as he repeated, over and over again, "Kind friend, a
penny,, only a penny, for I am blind. ' '

He was just beginning to wonder when the little son
of a kind neighbour, who always led him to his place by
the wall each morning and led him back to his wretched
hovel at night, would come and bring him his noonday
bite of bread and meat. Bartimseus was hungry, but the
pennies in his pouch were few. He had heard many people
pass that morning, he had reminded every passer-by that
he was blind; but the heart of the world seemed hard
that day, and each man kept his pennies for himself.
Why did not the good little boy come to bring him his
dinner? Had he forgotten him? But who should trouble
himself to remember a blind beggar?

Bartimseus was not bitter, for he had a loving heart
under his rags; and years ago, before he lost his sight,
he had had a little son of his own whom he had worked for

250 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

with his hands. But the little son was dead, and every
one else who had loved Bartimseus was dead; and as no
one would give a blind man work to do, Bartimseus had
finally laid aside his pride and sat down in the dust by
the wayside to beg. Not every one who holds out an un-
washed hand and asks the passers-by for pennies, has
come to that sad state through laziness.

"If I could only see ! ' ' moaned Bartimseus to himself.
" If I could only see the sun which now warms me with
its heat! If I could see the face of the kind little boy who
seems to have forgotten me this day! But perhaps he is
playing somewhere with other children, bless his heart!
And I am not yet so very hungry, after all."

In the distance Bartimseus heard the sound of many
footsteps and the babble of many voices. What could it
be, he wondered? Some passing caravan of traders,
maybe, who would fill his hand with pennies, so that he
could pay the mother of the little boy for the bread and
meat, and for the bite of hot cake which she gave him
every night. The noise of the approaching multitude
drew nearer and nearer; but there were so many voices
on the air that no one noticed the quavering tones of the
blind beggar.

Suddenly he heard, through the sound of many foot-
falls, a light pattering step which he recognised. It was
his friend, the little boy. He felt the child's soft hands
upon his own, stretched out as usual for alms ; but there
was nothing in those hands. The boy had forgotten the
bread and meat!

"What is it?" cried Bartimseus, clutching fehe child.
' ' Who is passing? Tell me quick ! ' '

"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by," said the sweet voice
of the child. "My mother told me he was coming."

The heart of blind Bartimseus leaped beneath his

TWO MEN OF JERICHO 251

rags. He had heard of Jesus of Nazareth, and how he
had raised the dead from their graves and had given sight
to the blind. And in a loud voice he cried :

"Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me!"

"Be silent," cried the men who went before Jesus,
"be silent, beggar, and do not trouble the Master."

But Bartimseus would not be silent. He cried again
and again, each time louder than before :

"Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me! Son
of David, have mercy on me ! "

It seemed to Bartimseus at that moment that if Jesus
of Nazareth could only hear his voice above the noise of
the multitude, if he could only call loudly enough to make
him hear, that the marvellous man of whom so many
stories were told would restore the sight to his blinded
eyes. His heart beat violently. There was a sound as of
waters in his ears. His old clawlike hands clutched
the hands of the little boy until the child winced. Jesus
of Nazareth — who gave sight to the blind !

And Jesus, as he passed by, heard the voice of some
one calling on him for mercy. And he forgot the trouble
that was waiting for him in Jerusalem. How could he
think of himself, when some one cried for mercy? There
was in the voice he heard a tone of conviction, of faith.
Surely the man who called like that believed on him.

Then the Master, coming nearer, saw the blind man by
the wayside, his ragged garment trailing in the dust, his
thin hands groping in the air, his sightless eyes wide open
now in the sunshine. And a great pity filled the heart
of Jesus. He wanted to do all the good he could in the
little time that was left to him. He told one of the dis-
ciples to bring the blind man to him.

"Be of good comfort, ' ' said the disciple to Bartimseus,
"hecalleth thee."

252 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Then those who watched saw a sight which they never
iorgot. They saw the face of a beggar, old, seamed with
wrinkles and unclean, with sightless eyes, become sud-
denly beautiful. A flame blazed behind that wrinkled
countenance — the flame of faith. Casting aside his tat-
tered, dust-stained cloak, blind Bartimaeus staggered to
his feet, stretching out his hands, as if groping to find the
way. The disciple would have led him to the Master;
but the little boy, the beggar's friend, slipped quickly
between them.

"I always lead Bartimaeus," said the child, and it
was he who led the blind beggar to Jesus.

"What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?" asked
Jesus, when Bartimaeus stood before him.

"That I may receive my sight," the blind man an-
swered, and his tones thrilled the heart of Jesus.

"Receive thy sight!" said the Master. The power in
his voice was indescribable. It was a command, which
no believing soul could resist. It reminded the disciples
of that other time when he had said, "Lazarus, come
forth."

And the spirit of the blind man, which came from
God and which recognised the call of Jesus, even as
Lazarus had recognised it — the spirit of the blind man
stirred behind his eyes. Suddenly the darkness in which
he had lived so long changed to a glimmering twilight,
the blackness became greyness. Then the greyness was
shot across with streaks of rosy-white, which changed
and moved and circled before him. And in the moving
brightness he saw a face. At first he thought it was the
face of God ; then, looking closer, he realised that it was
the face of a man — a man who stood before him. Moving
his eyes, he saw other faces and forms, and behind the
forms were trees, and the sky — yes, and the brilliant sun!

:*"

•••

f 1

H.Mo

Jesus Healing Blind Bartimaeus

TWO MEN OF JERICHO 253

The blind man, unable to endure so much light after
his long darkness, covered his eyes with his hands,
crying :

"I see! I see!"

And Jesus said:

' ' Thy faith hath made thee whole. ' '

Then the blind man, taking his hands away from his
dazzled eyes, opened them again slowly, carefully, until
he saw once more the face which he had seen first — the
face of Jesus of Nazareth, which he had called to him out
of the darkness wherein he dwelt. He was so absorbed
in looking at that face that he forgot all else, until he
heard a little wistful voice :

"Bartimseus, Bartimseus, will you not look at me V '

Turning toward the voice, he saw the face of a little
boy, sweet and tender, with wide eyes raised to his. And
Bartimseus wondered if he had died suddenly and gone
to heaven; for the face of the little boy was like the face
of his own child, dead twenty years before.

"Follow me," said the loving voice of Jesus, as he
moved on toward the city of Jericho.

And Bartimseus, who had been blind so long and
who now saw, took in his hand the hand of the little child,
and the two walked slowly after Jesus. But every few
steps the old man turned and looked down at the face of
the boy. And whenever he looked down, he smiled.

How lovely the world was ! The trees wore the tender
green of spring, and many of them were in blossom. The
sky was a pure blue, and here and there soft, fleecy clouds
moved slowly across the heavens. It seemed to Bartimaeus
that the world was far more beautiful than when he was
young. In those days he had taken the beauty of the
world as a matter of course ; but now, after his long blind-
ness, it came to him as a revelation. He wondered that

254 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

he had never noticed in the old days how graceful were
the branches of the palm-trees as they waved in the
breeze.

In the city of Jericho, the news had gone forth that
Jesus of Nazareth was coming, and there was great excite-
ment among the people. Crowds filled the streets, all
looking in the direction from which Jesus was said to be
approaching. As men stood together, they told each other
stories they had heard about this man, whom so many
persons believed to be the Messiah the Jews were waiting
for; how a blazing star had appeared in the East before
his birth; how he had turned water into wine at the
marriage in Cana of Galilee ; how for the last two years
he had been travelling around the country working miracles
and healing the sick and afflicted. But, oftener than any
other story, men told of how he had raised Lazarus from
the dead, in Bethany near Jerusalem, only a little while
before.

Among the men who lived in Jericho was a rich tax-
collector, or publican, named Zacchseus. All the Jews of
the city disliked him, as they always disliked those who
gathered the taxes for the Romans. The word publican
in Syria meant a tax-collector, and so unpopular were
these officials, that the phrase "publicans and sinners'"
was in common use among the Pharisees and Sadducees.
A self-respecting Jew would not eat in the house of a
publican, and when he met one in the street, he would
hardly speak to him.

Now this publican, Zacchaeus, was a man of very short
stature ; and when he saw the crowd which came down the
street before Jesus, and when he looked at the other crowds
gathered along the way, he realised that he himself would
not be able to see the Master at all, because he was so
short. So he ran on ahead of the people, and climbed up

TWO MEN OF JERICHO 255

into a sycamore-tree, that he might look down and see
Jesus when he passed by.

When Jesus came along the road, preceded and followed
by a great multitude, some instinct made him lift his
eyes to the sycamore-tree in which sat Zacchseus. The
little man was curled up on one of the lower boughs, he
was leaning forward, one hand was clutching a branch on
either side of him, and his homely face was alight with
interest. Surely, thought Jesus, this man must earnestly
desire to see him! He remembered the enthusiasm of
blind Bartirneeus a little while before, the faith which had
made him whole. Perhaps this man also had great faith.

Jesus knew how the Jews despised the publican, not-
withstanding his riches; but the Master always judged
people for what they really were in their hearts, not for
what somebody else might think they were. And as he
passed beneath the sycamore-tree into which the publican
had climbed, Jesus called to him :

"Zacchseus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I
must abide at thy house. ' '

Zacchseus was so surprised that he nearly fell out of
the tree. Would the Messiah of the Jews eat in the house
of a publican who was hated by the Jews? But there was
no time for him to consider the question, for the Master
was there below, demanding hospitality. And Zacchseus
clambered down out of the tree as fast as he could. He
scratched his hands a little in his haste, but he was too
excited to notice such a trifle as that, and in another
moment he was out of the tree and on the ground.

Jesus looked down at the little man, standing there
before him in the road. The homely face of Zacchseus
looked almost handsome, as he expressed his joy that
Jesus of Nazareth would eat with him. And the Master
wondered how the Jews could despise this good man, even

256 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

though he was obliged to serve the Romans and to take
their taxes. For Jesus felt the great loving heart which
beat under the publican's coat.

When the Jews in the crowd saw Zacchseus walking
beside Jesus, and when they saw that the Master was going
to the publican's house, they were amazed. And they
murmured among themselves :

' ' He is gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner ! ' '

They forgot the things which Jesus had said on simi-
lar occasions: "I am not come to call the righteous, but
sinners." And, "They that be whole, need not a physi-
cian." And, "What man of you, having a hundred
sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety-
and-nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is
lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he
layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing. ' ' For Jesus meant
by all these sayings that it was the very sinners whom the
Pharisees despised, that he specially loved to bring to the
knowledge of the kingdom of heaven. He ate with publi-
cans and gathered sinners about him that he might make
them good. And so the Pharisees, who did not care to
make other people good, but only wanted to seem good
themselves, were shocked.

Zacchseus was so delighted at the idea of entertaining
the Master at his house, that he called all his servants to-
gether and gave orders that a great feast should be pre-
pared, not only for Jesus and his disciples and friends,
but for everybody else in the crowd of his followers who
was hungry. And the crowd, as we know, included Barti-
mseus who had been the blind beggar, but who now saw
more clearly than others who had not been blind.

So Bartimseus did not need, after all, the bread and
meat which the little boy had forgotten to bring to him
for his dinner. For both he and the child could eat at

TWO MEN OF JERICHO 257

the house of the rich Zacchaeus, who loved all the world
that day because he loved the Master. And you will al-
ways find that that is one of the surest proofs of loving
Jesus.

When the feast was begun, and Zacchaeus the publican
eat at his own table with Jesus beside him, and the disci-
ples and friends were all around, he was so happy that he
wanted to make a public demonstration of his faith in the
Master and in the truths which he taught. And the little
man stood up before them all, and said:

"Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I will give to the
poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false
accusation, I will restore him fourfold. ' '

The heart of Jesus was touched by this declaration of
Zacchaeus, and he said to his disciples and friends, and
to all the others who listened :

' ' This day is salvation come to this house, f orsomuch
as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is
come to seek and to save that which was lost. ' '

The disciples greeted Zacchaeus as a brother and as a
true follower of Jesus. And Bartimaeus, who had been
blind, watched the company from the doorway; for the
room in which Jesus sat was not large enough to hold
every one, and some of them had to eat outside. And
Bartimseus rejoiced, because the rich Zacchaeus, whose
voice he well knew, though of course he had not seen him
before, had never passed the wall where he sat and begged,
without putting money into his outstretched hand. Now
that Bartimaeus could see, perhaps Zacchaeus would give
him work to do and pay him wages, so that he need no
longer be a beggar by the wayside.

As we know, Jesus was fond of teaching by parables,
that is, by telling stories with a hidden moral. And that
day at the feast given by Zacchaeus he told the parable of

258 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

the talents. They were coming toward Jerusalem now,
and Jesus knew that his work — and his life — were nearing
an end. He wanted to impress upon his friends that,
when he was gone, they should each make good use of the
treasure of faith and love which he had given them. He
wanted them to increase their faith by use, and not hide
it away. He wanted them to feel, when he was gone, that
he was not gone forever; but that he should return and
demand of them an accounting of their services for him
and for God. So he told them the parable of the talents,
and there was a hidden meaning in every word of it.

Jesus said:

' ' For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling
into a far country, who called his own servants, and de-
livered unto them his goods.

"And unto one he gave five talents, to another two,
and to another one ; to every man according to his several
ability; and straightway took his journey.

' ' Then he that had received the five talents went and
traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
And likewise he that had received two, he also gained
other two. But he that had received one, went and digged
in the earth, and hid his lord's money.

"After a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh,
and reckoneth with them.

' ' And so he that had received five talents came and
brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst
unto me five talents : behold, I have gained beside them
five talents more.

"His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and
faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things,
I will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou into
the joy of thy lord.

' ' He also that had received two talents came and said,

TWO MEN OF JERICHO 259

Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents : behold, I have
gained two other talents beside them.

' ' His Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faith-
ful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I
will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou into the
joy of thy lord.

' ' Then he which had received the one talent came and
said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reap-
ing where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou
hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid
thy talent in the earth : lo, there thou hast that is thine.

"His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked
and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I
sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed. Thou
oughtest therefore to have put my money to the ex-
changers, and then at my coming I should have received
mine own with usury.

' ' Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto
him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that
hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but
from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that
which he hath.

' ' And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer dark-
ness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Each man who listened with understanding to the
parable of the talents, took the meaning home to himself.
Zacchseus the publican, who was rich, understood it to
mean that he must give an accounting to God for the use
which he made of his wealth.

To Bartimaeus, who had been blind, it meant that he
must make good use of the sight which Jesus had brought
back to his eyes.

And the twelve disciples, those who were nearest to
the Master, understood by this parable that they must

260 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

spread the knowledge of Christ and of the kingdom of
heaven; that they must teach to others every beautiful
thing which Jesus had taught to them; that they must
double the knowledge of God and His love in the world,
as the talents given to the faithful servants had been
doubled in their master's absence.

So great was the charm of Jesus as he told the story,
that every man present desired, above all other things, to
prove himself a faithful servant — even Judas Iscariot.

The dinner was now ended. The Master rising from
the table and calling his disciples, prepared to go on
toward Jerusalem.

To the two men of Jericho, Zacchseus and Bartimseus,
the passing of Jesus through their city had been the be-
ginning of a new life. And to-day we should probably
never think of the little Jewish town of Jericho, had it
not been for the eager and peculiar response of those two
men to the summons: "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."

CHAPTER XXVI

THE ALABASTER BOX

It was six days before the feast of the Passover, when
Jesus and his disciples and friends came up to Jerusalem
for the last time. But they did not go at once into the
great and unsympathetic city, where the priests and
Pharisees were even then stirring up anger against the
Master. They stopped first at the pretty little village of
Bethany, the home of Martha and Mary and Lazarus,
where Jesus some weeks before had raised his friend from
the tomb.

Bethany was only a short walk from Jerusalem. It
was on the summit of a hill, the slopes of which were
covered with olive-trees, and fig-trees, and palm-trees.
Jesus had always loved it, since first he found there the
delightful home of Lazarus and his sisters. And now
especially, as he and his friends drew slowly and some-
what wearily toward Jerusalem, the tranquil slopes of the
green hill looking toward Bethany seemed the way to a
haven of peace. Though it was so near to Jerusalem, the
centre of strife and discord, Jesus knew that at Bethany
he would find only harmony and love. And so he went
there.

The family at Bethany had been expecting him for
several days. Lazarus, even more than the others, was
anxious to see Jesus. Since he had been brought back
from the tomb into the light of the sun, many things had
happened to trouble the brother of Martha and Mary. He
261

262 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

had become altogether too famous for his peace of mind.
Whenever he descended the quiet hill, covered with olives
and figs and palms, and went into the busy city of Jeru-
salem, he was beset by all sorts of people who asked him
questions about the life beyond the tomb. Had he seen
God? Had he talked with Elias? Had he been asleep
in the bosom of Abraham when Jesus called him back to
earth? Lazarus did not know how to answer these ques-
tions. He did not think it was right to answer them at
all. He was not certain that Jesus would wish him to
answer them. And yet, some of those who questioned
him seemed honest in their desire for knowledge of that
unknown world where he had been.

But there were others whose questions did not seem to
be honest. These were the Pharisees, those rigid fol-
lowers of the letter of the Jewish law who cared not for
the spirit. Some of their queries filled Lazarus with
uneasiness of soul. Had he seen Satan, the prince of
devils? Was it not by the help of Satan that Jesus had
called him back from the grave? When the Pharisees,
with sidelong glances, asked these questions, Lazarus
would usually turn and walk away. In the beginning
he had answered simply, "No," but as the Pharisees
troubled him more and more, he tried to avoid them.
If Jesus would only come back to Bethany and tell him
what to say when people talked to him like that !

But there were other happenings which troubled Laz-
arus even more than the questions of the Pharisees.
Sometimes, when he walked alone upon the hill below
Bethany, he would see a suspicious-looking person fol-
lowing him. Once, in the dark, an unknown man had
nearly pushed him off a precipice; and several times he
had been accosted by insolent strangers who tried to
involve him in a quarrel.

THE ALABASTER BOX 263

What was the matter with all these people? Lazarus
wondered. Did they desire to kill him, to get him out
of the way? Were they trying to worry him until he
should become insane? In Syria at that time insane
men were believed to be possessed by devils. Lazarus
knew that if he should become insane from the persecu-
tions of these unknown persons, the enemies of Jesus
would say that he and Jesus both were possessed by
devils. He only now began to understand how strong,
and how unscrupulous, were the Master's enemies in
Jerusalem. Lazarus almost wished that Jesus had left
him in the grave.

He did not tell his sisters about the troubles he was
having, for he did not wish to worry them. But as the
time for the feast of the Passover drew near, Mary and
Martha seemed almost as anxious as Lazarus that Jesus
should come. They used to go out of the house a dozen
times a day and look down the road, to see if their great
friend was coming. They, too, were sometimes troubled
by neighbours, as well as strangers, who asked them
questions about their brother.

So, on the afternoon when they went out as usual to
look for Jesus, and really saw him coming along the road,
they shouted with joy. Then the three ran down the road
together to meet the Master. As he greeted them, they
saw a look on his face which they had never seen there
before — a look of unutterable sadness. They had seen
him weep when he stood before the grave of Lazarus, but
he had not looked like this. Had some trouble come to
him? they wondered. The disciples also seemed bur-
dened with anxiety.

Martha and Mary and Lazarus lived in the house of an
old relative of theirs named Simon. Simon had been a
leper before he knew Jesus, that is, he had had a very

264 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

loathsome disease which had made people afraid to come
near him; but no one was afraid of him any more.

When Simon and Martha saw that Jesus was sad, they
determined to cheer him with a pleasant supper. And to
this supper they invited not only his disciples and friends,
but many of their neighbours, and a few persons from
Jerusalem who had met the Master on the way and had
followed him to Bethany. The family at Bethany were
just a little proud of their friendship with so great a man
as Jesus. There is often that little touch of pride in
even the purest love.

Most of the labour of preparing the supper fell, as
usual, on the broad shoulders of Martha; for Mary wanted
to sit at the feet of Jesus and to hear him talk. She
wanted also to talk to that other Mary, who was called Mary
Magdalene because she came from the village of Magdala.
She, with several of the other women who were friends of
Jesus, had come up with him to Jerusalem for the feast of
the Passover. The house at Bethany was very full that
afternoon.

It was a large company that sat down to supper, and
the faithful Martha served them. At the table, besides
Jesus and his friends and disciples and the invited
guests, were Lazarus and Simon, the master of the house.

Even at the table, it was plain to those who loved
Jesus that he was very sad. He talked, as usual; he even
smiled. But when he told a lovely story about the king-
dom of heaven, it seemed to the two Marys who watched
him that he was wishing he might be there himself, and
away from the sadness of the world. They wondered
what hidden sorrow had come to him. They did not
know that the priests and Pharisees were at that very mo-
ment plotting to kill him — but Jesus knew.

Lazarus was so happy to see Jesus that he did not

THE ALABASTER BOX 265

even notice the sadness of the Master. He sat near him
at the table, and could hardly take his eyes from the face
he loved so much. He was glad now that Jesus had
brought him back to life, even though the Pharisees and
their hired servants had lately made that life a burden to
him by their persecutions. He had been afraid; but who
could be afraid when Jesus was with him? He did not
know — poor Lazarus ! — that those who desire to do evil
will do it, in spite of God and all His angels.

Lazarus was too much absorbed in the Master to notice
with what strange eyes all the neighbours present were
looking at himself. ' ' The man who had been dead and
buried for four days! And here he was, eating and
drinking, as if nothing had happened to him. Why, his
cheeks were even red ! " So thought these good friends
and neighbours of Lazarus, and they were so excited that
they could hardly eat Martha's good supper.

But, though they stared at Lazarus, they stared still
harder at Jesus. A man who could say to the dead,
' ' Arise, ' ' and they arose ! It is difficult for us, in our
cold and skeptical age, even to imagine the feelings of
these people about the Master. Among the nations of the
East there is more faith and more enthusiasm. That is
why all the great religions of the earth have come from
Asia. The men and women who were gathered there at
the house of Simon the leper were not afraid or ashamed
to show their feelings.

Among those who were happiest to be with Jesus that
evening was Mary Magdalene, the beautiful woman who
had been possessed by seven devils, but whom the Master
had saved and made good again. She could never do
enough for Jesus, either in love or service. Had he told
her to lie down and die, she would have done it gladly.
She would have done anything for him gladly — except to

266 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

go away from him. The Catholic Church has enrolled
the name of this woman among the great saints, because
she loved Jesus so much.

As Mary Magdalene watched the Master at table and
realised that he was sad, she was filled with a great desire
to do something to make him happy. But what could she
do? He seemed to want nothing for himself except love,
and that all these people gave him in abundance. But
Mary knew that Jesus enjoyed perfumes, as all Orientals
do. And you must never forget in reading and thinking
about Jesus that he was an Oriental — that is, a dweller in
the East. You will never understand him if you judge
him by the standards of the colder West. His heart was
on fire with love for all the world, and that is why the
world has worshipped him for nineteen hundred years.
The most loving and affectionate person you ever knew
would seem cold-hearted if compared with Jesus. It
takes a great love for the world to win an answering love
from the world for nineteen hundred years.

Mary Magdalene remembered that Jesus enjoyed per-
fumes. Perhaps the subtle influence of sweet odours
would make him forget his sadness. Now Mary was not
a poor woman, as were so many of the followers of Jesus.
She had beautiful jewels and much gold, and among her
possessions was an alabaster box filled with the very pre-
cious ointment of spikenard, a sweet and lasting per-
fume. Desiring to make Jesus happy, as well as to do
him some special honour before all these strangers, Mary
brought the alabaster box into the room where Jesus sat
at supper. Then she went and stood behind the Master,
and breaking the alabaster box, she poured all the pre-
cious ointment upon his head.

Immediately the whole room was filled with a de-
lightful fragrance. It seemed as if the winds from far-

THE ALABASTER BOX 267

away had blown across the flower-gardens of the world,
bringing their entrancing odours into this room.

And Jesus smiled. He who loved humanity so much
was always touched by the evidence of love in others, and
he read the purpose in Mary's heart. He knew that she
had brought the sweetest and most precious thing she had,
to make him forget his sadness. Even a little of this
ointment would have perfumed the room, but she had
lavished the whole upon his head. It was the way of
those who loved Jesus to give all to him, and not a little,
because he had given himself utterly to them and to the
world.

Then Mary, wishing to do even more for Jesus, took
some of the ointment in her hands, and kneeling beside
the Master, she anointed his feet with the ointment, and
wiped them with her long and beautiful hair. In those
days men took off their shoes before they sat at table,
and the feet of Jesus were bare. And as Mary, kneeling
there beside him, gently wiped his anointed feet with
her long hair, the tears streamed from her eyes. For she
had been a great sinner before the Master taught her a
purer way of living, and her repentance was deep and
never-ending. Each day she repented anew, and always
with tears. The world remembers Mary Magdalene as the
woman who weeps eternally for her sins, and in many
Roman Catholic churches there are altars erected to her,
where repentant women go to weep and to ask God to for-
give them for her sake.

As she knelt there at the feet of Jesus, wiping them
with her hair, it seemed to him that the fragrance of the
ointment of spikenard was the perfume of her love for
him and for God.

But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who was already
unfaithful to Jesus in his heart, could not see the beautv

268 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

in Mary's action. He thought only of the money value
of the ointment. In the beginning of Judas 's disciple-
ship, Jesus, knowing that he was not quite honest, had
given him their common purse to carry, as a proof of his
trust. But Judas had come to value more the purse and its
contents than he valued the delicate proof of confidence
in him which Jesus had made. And now, when he saw
Mary lavishing this precious perfume for love's sake, he
was angry. And he cried, before all the assembled com-
pany:

' ' Why was not this ointment sold for much money,
and given to the poor?" And he murmured against
Mary.

Strange to say, Judas, who now assumed to take such
an interest in the poor, was among all the disciples the
one who really cared least for them. He had even
objected, on certain occasions in the past, to opening the
purse which he carried, when he was asked to distribute
alms to those who were in need.

The Master looked at Judas, who sat there at the
table with an angry frown on his dark face. The glance
of Jesus was gentle, even pitiful ; for he understood the
faults of Judas better than any of the others understood
them — better even than John, who disliked him. For
Jesus was one of those rare beings who can love those who
are not lovable. He could see the reflection of God's
face even in a broken and distorting mirror.

And he now said to Judas :

"Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath
wrought a good work upon me. ' ' By this he probably
meant that the sweet odour of the ointment, with the sight
of Mary's devotion as she knelt beside him wiping his feet
with her long hair, had lightened the trouble which had
weighed upon his spirit. And he said:

THE ALABASTER BOX 269

"For ye have the poor with you always, and when-
ever ye will ye may do them good; but me ye have not
always.

' ' She hath done what she could : she is come aforetime
to anoint my body to the burying. ' ' For ever in the
thought of Jesus now was the knowledge that he was soon
to die.

He looked from the disciples to Mary, still kneeling
there at his feet, and a deep feeling for her devotion
surged up in his tender heart. He realised that the ages
to come would understand her and love her, for all that
she had suffered through repentance and through love for
her master. And he said to his disciples :

"Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall
be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she
hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. ' '

And Judas was ashamed, though he was still angry.
In some selfish and bitter hearts, to be made ashamed is
to be made treacherous, and it was so with Judas. For
the first time since he had walked with Jesus, he felt
resentment against him. Sometimes in the past the Mas-
ter had reproved him, but never publicly like this; for
never before had Judas so far lost his self-control.

He arose and stalked out of the room. As he passed
the seat of Jesus, he bruised his naked foot on a fragment
of the broken alabaster box which was lying on the floor.

Mary still knelt at the feet of the Master, wiping them
with her long hair. And the fragrance of the spikenard
filled the room, bringing to the hearts of all present a
keener realisation of their love for Jesus.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM

The next morning after the supper at Bethany, Jesus
told his disciples that the time was come for them to
enter Jerusalem, that the Son of man might be glorified.
Of course they had been often before in the Holy City,
but every one felt that this time was different. On that
Sunday morning of spring the heart of every man beat
high with excitement. They all thought that something
of tremendous importance was about to happen. Jesus
knew what was coming, but his disciples did not. To
them, it seemed that the kingdom of heaven was imme-
diately to appear. Knowing that Jesus was the Son of
God, they believed that he had only to declare himself with
special power, and that the whole world would be forced
to acknowledge him.

Even Judas, who had been angry the night before
when Jesus had reproved him for his harshness to Mary
Magdalene, after she broke the alabaster box of precious
ointment to anoint the head and feet of Jesus, even
Judas was full of enthusiasm this morning. At last, he
thought, the Master was going to declare himself, and
make everybody fall at his feet. He forgot, for the mo-
ment, all that Jesus had said about the enmity of the
priests and Pharisees. Judas had wondered a long time
what Jesus was waiting for. He still believed in the
Master, and, in his sullen and selfish way, he loved him.
He even forgot his anger of the night before in the ex-
271

272 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

citement of preparation for the short journey to Jeru-
salem.

They started. With Jesus were his twelve disciples,
his friends from Bethany, and many others. It was a
large company which came down the hill, with the Mas-
ter walking at their head. When they were near to the
village of Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus
stopped. He stood still a moment, thinking. Then he
said to two of his disciples :

' ' Go into the village over against you, and straightway
ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them,
and bring them unto me.

' ' And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say,
The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will
send them. ' '

The men went away, as Jesus had told them. But
they did not know of what he had been thinking, when
he stopped suddenly a moment before. For he had
remembered a verse from the ancient prophesies relating
to the Messiah, which said: "Tell ye the daughter of
Sion, Behold, the King cometh unto thee, meek, and
sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." It
had seemed to Jesus that this sudden memory was a com-
mand from God to fulfil the prophesies, in order that
men afterward might believe.

The two disciples went into the village of Bethphage.
And there they found, at a place where two roads met, a
mother donkey with a young colt — just as the Master had
said they would. And they loosed them, and started to
come away.

Then certain men who stood near asked them what
they were doing, and why they were taking the donkey
and the colt.

The men answered, as Jesus had commanded: "The

ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 273

Lord hath need of them. ' ' And the men made no further
objection.

Jesus, as he stood there, saw them coming: the two
men, the long-eared donkey with the soft and gentle eyes,
and running beside her the little colt, so young that it
was still rather unsteady on its thin legs.

Some of the disciples laid their cloaks across the
donkey, to make a seat of honour for the Master, and
Jesus sat upon the donkey's back. And as he started
slowly, the little colt following close behind, other disci-
ples spread their cloaks before him in the way, so that he
might ride into the city on a carpet made of the garments
of his followers.

And others of the men ran on before, and cut down
branches of the palm-trees, spreading them also in his
path, that the feet of his donkey might tread on green-
ness. It was a beautiful sight, a sight which had never
before been seen in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It
was a spontaneous demonstration of love and enthusiasm,
and as the disciples waved palm branches before their
Master, they cried with joyous voices :

"Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the highest. ' '

As they came a little nearer to the city, they were met
by other men they knew, Galileans from the north, from
Capernaum, and the other cities by the lake, men who
had loved Jesus for a long time, and who had come down
to Jerusalem this week for the feast of the Passover.
They had heard the night before that Jesus was in Beth-
any, and had come out to meet him, also waving green
branches and crying:

"Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest."

And as those who were with Jesus saw these others

274 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

coming, and heard their welcoming voices, they cried
themselves with redoubled fervour, so that from before
him and behind him, and from every side, came a chorus
of glad voices, all saying:

"Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the highest. ' '

And Jesus forgot the sadness which had oppressed
him the night before, and for many days before that.
He felt as if he were really coming into the kingdom of
God, with all his loved ones with him. He now thought
of Jerusalem as the Holy City — not as the stronghold of
priests and Pharisees. At that moment it was to him
the Jerusalem of the prophets, the city that all hearts
yearned toward, Jerusalem the golden.

But going a little farther on, still with his friends be-
fore and behind him crying Hosannas, Jesus turned a
bend of the road and came out upon the side of the
Mount of Olives. Here he saw spread out before him the
city of Jerusalem itself, the city of houses and of the
great Temple, with its splendid sweep of terraces and its
glittering metal-covered roof. This was the real Jeru-
salem of the priests and Pharisees, of wrangling scribes
and self-righteous doctors, the Jerusalem which cared
only for the letter of the Jewish law, and cared nothing
for the love which Jesus brought it. The Jerusalem of
his dreams was not this material city, but a city builded
in the heart — the new Jerusalem.

He remembered how as a boy he had come here with
his parents, making the long journey from Galilee on
foot, one of a happy company of fellow-pilgrims, neigh-
bours and friends, camping at night by the wayside.
He remembered how wonderful the Temple had seemed to
him then, at the age of twelve; how, on entering the sanc-
tuary, he had thought that he was going into God's own

ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 275

house. Alas! he had since learned that those who acted
as the guardians of the house of God had never heard the
voice which issued from between the cherubim in the
Holy of Holies.

And now, as he rested there upon the Mount of Olives,
and looked down at the cold and glittering Temple, he
wept over it, and the words which he was to utter at
another time were in his heart:

"0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how
often would I have gathered thy children together, even
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not. ' '

And still weeping, Jesus said to the city below him :

"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy
day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now
they are hid from thine eyes.

' ' For the days shall come unto thee, that thine ene-
mies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee
round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee
even with the ground, and thy children within thee ; and
they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; be-
cause thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. ' '

Many years were to pass before this prophesy was
verified; but it was verified. For in the time to come the
enemies of the Jews did all that Jesus said.

Having wept over the city, Jesus moved toward it,
with his disciples before and behind him rejoicing and
praising God with a loud voice for all the mighty works
which they had seen, and saying :

' ' Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the
Lord ; peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. ' '

And now, as they drew nearer to Jerusalem, many
Pharisees joined the multitude, and these were angry to

276 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

see the palm branches strewn before Jesus, as if he were
a king, and to hear the joyful shouts of his friends pro-
claiming him as the Messiah. And the Pharisees pushed
their way through the crowd until they came to the place
where Jesus rode slowly on the donkey, with the tender
little colt beside him. And they said angrily to Jesus :

' ' Rebuke thy disciples. ' '

But Jesus, knowing that the time was come for him
to declare himself in the unbelieving city, answered the
Pharisees :

"I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out. ' '

The Pharisees were nearly distracted. They said to
one another:

"Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the
world is gone after him ! ' '

And it seemed, as Jesus came into the city of Jeru-
salem, that the world had indeed gone after him, as the
Pharisees said; for the fame of his miracle in raising
Lazarus from the dead had grown until every man and
woman in the city desired to see the Nazarene who could
work such wonders. Even those who were not willing to
commit themselves by strewing palm branches in his
way, wanted at least to look upon him. And besides the
friends and Galileans who had come with him along the
Mount of Olives road, there were other Galileans and
friends who met him at the entrance of the city, so that
his progress toward the Temple was the progress of a
conqueror.

And the chief priests and Pharisees, looking on at his
triumph, wagged their old bearded heads, as much as to
say:

"Shout, fools, and strew palm branches! But no
man who says that he is the Messiah of the Jews shall

ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 277

live in our day. No man shall live who would destroy
our power, and place himself in the seat of Moses. ' '

And still the joyous disciples went on crying:

' ' Hosanna : Blessed is he that cometh in the name of
the Lord : Hosanna in the highest. ' '

Men who had never seen Jesus before, as they saw and
heard this strange procession, asked excitedly : ' ' Who is
this?"

And from every side came the answer:

"This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth in Galilee."

And the Pharisees could find no one to listen to them
that day, when they tried to expound the letter of the
Jewish law, saying the same old things which had been
uttered from generation to generation, and which had lost
their meaning from overuse. And with every moment, as
the crowd round Jesus grew larger, the Pharisees and
priests became angrier and more troubled. And several
of them now found courage to repeat what Caiaphas alone
had said a short time before :

"It is expedient for us that one man should die for
the people, and that the whole nation perish not. ' '

And they further reasoned as to how they could put
Lazarus out of the way; for it seemed to them that his
being with Jesus that day increased the crowd round the
Master from Galilee. And there were also with Jesus those
men from Bethany and Jerusalem who had witnessed the
raising of Lazarus, the men who had stood by the open
door of the tomb, who had heard the Master call with a
loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" and who had seen
the dead man walk out of the tomb into the sunlight,
with the look of bewilderment on his face. These men
were loud in their assertions of the truth of the miracle
which they had witnessed.

Jesus came up to the great Temple, which crowned

278 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

the city of Jerusalem. He saw the porches, with their
rows of pillars and marble pavements, familiar to him
since boyhood. He went through the court of the Gen-
tiles, beyond which only Jews could pass. He saw again
the great bronze gates, so heavy that it took twenty por-
ters to open and close them.

In this Temple was the Holy Place, where stood the
altar of incense, the tables of shewbread and the golden
candlesticks. You have read in a former story that in
the innermost part of the Temple was the Holy of Holies,
which was entered only once a year, where stood the Ark
of the Covenant, the most sacred of all things to the
Jews. You remember that this Ark was a chest of acacia
wood, covered with gold, and that over the lid of the
chest, which was called "the mercy seat," two angels
extended their wings ; that in the Ark were kept the two
tablets of stone on which were written the Ten Command-
ments which God had delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies there
was a veil, called the Veil of the Temple, too sacred for
any one to touch except the High Priest. You must
remember this veil because, during the week which was
to follow, something very remarkable was to happen to it,
something which should be told for generation after gen-
eration until the end of the world.

As Jesus stood there in the Temple, again he heard,
as in boyhood, the musicians singing the Psalms which
predict the coming of the Messiah :

"Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

"Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy
possession.

" I will make thy name to be remembered in all genera-
tions; therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.

ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 279

"Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon
stretch out her hands unto God.

"I will praise the name of God with a song, and will
magnify him tvith thanksgiving.

"He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass:
as shoivers that water the earth.

"His name shall endure forever: his name shall be
continued as long as the sun: and men shall he Messed in
him; all nations shall call him Messed.

"The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the taber-
nacle of the righteous.

"The stone which the builders refused is become the
head stone of the corner.'''1

Can we understand the feelings of Jesus as he stood
there in the great Temple at Jerusalem, listening to the
singing of the Psalms which predicted his own coming, he
knowing at the same time that the High Priest, who alone
was considered holy enough to touch the Veil of the Tem-
ple, was planning his death? Of all the dramatic stories
of the world, and they are many, there is none so dra-
matic as this; there is no other story in which the essen-
tial elements of tragedy are so blended with the elements
of pure beauty. There is no other story wherein the
hatred which is death, and the love which is life, stand
so close together.

Those solemn priests of the Temple, who claimed to
be near to God, were planning to kill Jesus; and he, who
loved all the world more intensely than a mother loves
her children, stood there in the Temple and listened to
the singing of the Psalms which predicted the coming of
the One whom the Temple itself would destroy.

And the disciples of Jesus? The Master had said that
the time was come when the Son of man should be

280 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

glorified, and his friends were expecting a sign to appear
in the heavens — a physical sign, which should announce
that the old law was passed away, and that the kingdom
of God was to begin. All the time they were in the Tem-
ple enclosure with Jesus they were looking for this sign.
Would it be a blazing light in the heavens, a star in the
daytime, a standing still of the sun? We must remem-
ber that in those days the science of astronomy was not
known as it is now, and we must also remember that the
disciples of Jesus were simple men, with much faith and
love, but little book learning. And though they had
been with the Master nearly all the time for two or three
years, they had not grasped the simple fact — so clear to
Jesus — that the kingdom of heaven was to be found in
the hearts of men, and not in the courts of the great
Temple.

As the hours went by that first day at Jerusalem, and
nothing happened except the healing of a few sick per-
sons, which they saw almost every day, the disciples be-
gan to wonder. Was not the Son of man to be glorified,
after all? They had seen Jesus perform so many mira-
cles ! They felt that the glorification of the Son of man
must be something different to anything they had known
before — something more extraordinary than the raising
of a dead man or the turning of water into wine.

Even the three men who had seen Jesus transfigured
on the mountain, where there was no one but themselves
to behold the sight, wanted something like that to hap-
pen in this unbelieving and cynical Jerusalem. They
were hurt at being called "foolish Galileans" by the
haughty Pharisees and scribes. In Jerusalem the visitors
'from Galilee were held in rather low esteem. They did
not speak their language exactly as it was spoken in
Judaea, for the Galileans had a characteristic dialect, cer-

ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 281

tain peculiarities of which may be likened to the dropping
of the h among the lower classes in London. Even their
enthusiasm in regard to the Temple was laughed at by
those who lived always in the Holy City.

Now, they thought, if Jesus would only perform some
great miracle, right there in the Temple, the haughty
dwellers in Jerusalem would be obliged to take back the
sneering things which they had said. The disciples remem-
bered that, on a former visit to the Holy City, Jesus had
declared : ' ' Destroy this temple, and I will rebuild it in
three days." They did not know that he referred to
the temple of his own body; that he meant that when his
body should be destroyed, he would arise from the dead
in three days. No, they were inclined to take all the
beautiful and figurative sayings of Jesus in a literal
sense. Jesus was a great poet, as well as a great prophet;
but there are always many persons, even true-hearted ones,
who do not understand poetry. Some of the most beau-
tiful poetry is not written in rhyme, and there is no
greater poetry in the world than many of the sayings of
Jesus. Every real poet knows this.

As the evening shadows drew down, the crowd around
the Temple grew smaller; in little groups, and one by
one, the people slipped away. And Jesus said to his
disciples that they would return to Bethany. He started,
and the disciples followed him in silence. After all the
triumph of his entry into the city, they thought, after the
palm branches strewed in his path, and the shouts of his
followers, ' ' Hosanna in the highest, ' ' he was going back
to Bethany without being glorified! Perhaps it would
happen on the morrow; perhaps he had some reason for
waiting; perhaps it would be better for him to be glori-
fied on the morrow, one day nearer to the great feast of
the Passover. So they told themselves and each other.

282 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

We should not be too much surprised because the dis-
ciples of Jesus often misunderstood him. Jesus has been
misunderstood by many noble souls for nearly two thou-
sand years. In the Middle Ages, and even in later times,
men have been tortured and burned at the stake by other
men who believed themselves to be followers of the Mas-
ter. It is hard for smaller men to understand a man so
great as Jesus. His sympathy was so deep that he even
found excuses for sinners; that is, he always tried to
understand why people did wrong, in order that he might
understand them, and know how to show them a better
way. It is always easier for us to blame others than it is
to understand them. Jesus even loved Judas, and num-
bered him among his twelve disciples; though he must
have known that Judas would betray him.

And as they walked slowly back to Bethany that even-
ing, after the day in Jerusalem, Jesus must have known
what was passing in the mind of Judas, how Judas was
thinking that if his Master was not going to be glorified,
in the brilliant way he had supposed, he might not really
be the Messiah, after all. For that thought was now in
the mind of the unhappy man from Kerioth.

Back to Bethany! How the beautiful, peaceful place
appealed to Jesus, after the noise and dust and wrangling
of Jerusalem! Here was the quiet home of Mary and
Martha, where there were no disputes. Here he could be
himself, the gentle leader of friends who loved him, as he
had been during those happy months when he had walked
the blossoming ways of Galilee. The sternness which he
was obliged to use with the hypocritical scribes and
Pharisees of Jerusalem.was not natural to Jesus. Wrang-
ling and argument were not natural to him. He wanted
to teach by love. Jesus never disputed about God. He
only asked his friends to love him and to believe in God.

ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 283

We can see the smile which lighted his face as he
caught sight of the house at Bethany through the green
trees. To-morrow he would have to go back to Jerusalem;
but to-night he could be with those who loved him. He
did not talk much that evening, but sat in silence with
his dear ones, smiling at them now and then, or laying
his hand upon the head of the gentle Mary as she sat at
his feet. And then he went to rest.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE

Monday morning, on the way back to Jerusalem, Jesus
did something which astonished his disciples. In the
past they had seen him bring dead things to life, but this
was the first time they had ever seen him destroy any-
thing.

As they walked toward the city, it was still early in
the morning, and Jesus was hungry. Seeing a fig-tree in
the distance bearing leaves, he went toward it, hoping to
find fruit; but when he came to the tree he found nothing
but leaves. Jesus wished to give his disciples a lesson
in the power of will, in the power of belief in one's own
ability to do the seemingly impossible, and he said to
the fig-tree:

' ' Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. ' '

That evening, when they passed the fig-tree again on
their return to Bethany, the disciples could hardly believe
their eyes ; for the tree, which had been green and covered
with leaves in the morning, was now yellow and shrivelled,
as if a scorching fire had touched it. And they expressed
their amazement to Jesus, saying:

' ' How soon is the fig-tree withered away ! ' '

And Jesus answered them, with the look of power
still on his face, the look with which he had withered the
unfruitful tree :

' ' Have faith in God.

' ' For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say
285

286 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast
into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall
believe that those things which he saith shall come to
pass ; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

' ' Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye de-
sire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye
shall have them."

Then the expression of his face softened, and a tender
light came into his eyes, as he continued:

"And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught
against any: that your Father also which is in heaven
may forgive you your trespasses.

"But if ye do not forgive, neither will your father
which is in heaven forgive your trespasses."

Jesus meant by these words that in order to command
the powers of Nature, by the strength of one's belief in
God and in oneself, as he had commanded those powers
in withering the fig-tree, it was necessary to put away all
personal feeling, all resentment against others. For per-
sonal resentment is weakness, and only the strong, who
are above personal weakness and resentment, can com-
mand the powers of Nature.

Now Jesus, in starting for Jerusalem that morning,
had determined to do a very important thing when he
should reach the Temple, a thing requiring great strength
of his will against the wills of a large number of other
persons. And perhaps his action in withering the barren
fig-tree, besides being a lesson for the disciples, was also
an exercise to strengthen and steady his own will.

For Jesus was determined to cleanse the Temple at
Jerusalem from some of the impure and wicked things
which he had seen there the day before.

The Jews were always talking about purity. Accord-
ing to the old law of Moses, a man who had touched any

THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE 287

dead animal or bird whose flesh he was not allowed to eat
— such as a camel, a pig, a cat, an eagle, an owl, a swan,
a mouse — should be considered unclean until the even-
ing, and could not come into the sanctuary. And should
any of those dead animals or fowls fall into an earthen
dish, the dish must be immediately broken. And if the
dead body of any of those animals or birds should touch
an oven, or a range for holding pots, it also should be
immediately broken. And, according to the law of
Moses, no man should ever eat without washing his
hands, no matter where he was or how hungry he was, or
whether there was any water near.

Now these laws, which were only a few among a great
many laws of the Jews regarding purity, were all good in
themselves; but the Jews carried the observance of them
to an extreme of fussiness which often seemed foolish to
Jesus. One day when the Master had eaten something
without washing his hands, and the Pharisees had re-
proved him, Jesus had answered that it was not that
which went into a man's mouth which made him unclean;
but that which came out of it — meaning the words which
the man spoke.

At another time the Pharisees had complained of Jesus
for curing a sick man on the Sabbath. Because the law
of Moses said that a man must not work on the Sabbath,
the Pharisees seemed to think that one should not do even
a kind action on that day. I have told you how these
men cared only for the letter of the law, and cared noth-
ing for its spirit. If a man obeyed the rules laid down
by Moses, even though he might have hatred in his heart
and all uncharitableness, still he could enter the sanctu-
ary. One reason why the Pharisees hated Jesus and
wanted to kill him, was because he thought that the love
and goodness in a man's heart were more important in

288 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

the sight of God than any external thing. Jesus liked
people to be clean, as we all do; but he also liked them
to be kind at the same time, and that was something
which did not interest the Pharisees.

Now when Jesus came to Jerusalem this last time, he
saw many things in and around the Temple which he did
not like. If you have read the Old Testament, you know
that the Jews made bloody sacrifices to God; that they
believed that by killing lambs and bullocks, and by smear-
ing their blood upon the altars in a certain way, a man
could please God. The old Mosaic law said, for example,
that if a man had committed a sin through ignorance, he
should bring a young bullock unto the tabernacle of the
Lord for a sin offering, and the following were some of
the bloody things which he should do :

"He shall bring the bullock unto the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord; and shall
lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the bul-
lock before the Lord.

"And the priest that is anointed shall take of the
bullock's blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of the con-
gregation :

"And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and
sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord, before
the veil of the sanctuary.

"And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the
horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which
is in the tabernacle of the congregation ; and shall pour all
the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the
burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation.

' ' And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock
for the sin offering; the fat that covereth the inwards,
and all the fat that is upon the inwards,

THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE 289

"And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them,
which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with
the kidneys, it shall he take away,

"As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice
of peace offerings : and the priest shall burn them upon
the altar of the burnt offering. ' '

It seemed to Jesus, as it seems to us, that all these
details about blood and fat and liver and kidneys, had
no direct connection with sin or the forgiveness of sin.

In that same book of laws, which is called Leviticus,
were other rules regarding the sacrifices to be offered for
sins of many kinds. The Jews washed out their sins
with the blood of lambs and goats. And always in their
minds was the fear of uncleanness to their bodies. Now
Jesus did not deny that all these rules for bodily cleanli-
ness were good ; but he wanted them to make their hearts
clean also. And he wanted them to keep clean the Tem-
ple at Jerusalem, which was called the House of God.

The Temple, which was the centre of Jewish life, had
come to be like a marketplace, and its courts were full of
men who bought and sold. This seemed to Jesus to be
sacrilege, the profanation of a holy place, and he determined
to make an end of it.

The morning on which he had withered the barren fig-
tree, Jesus came again to the Temple with his disciples.
During the week of the Passover, Jerusalem was full of
strangers. The merchants and peddlers who drove a
thriving business in the court of the Temple were already
there, calling out the things which they had for sale or
exchange. In one corner were men selling beasts for the
bloody sacrifices, in another corner were men selling
doves, in other places were the money-changers, talking
in loud voices; and here and there were groups of men,
Pharisees and others, still arguing and quarrelling over

290 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

unimportant points of the law. If one man said that a
verse of the scripture had a certain meaning, his neighbour
would declare that it meant quite another thing, and
then the two would argue and wrangle, and all the people
who stood by would wrangle, gesticulating with their arms
and shouting, until a person unaccustomed to their ways
would have thought that they were all on the point of
blows. And through this din of argument were constantly
heard the shouts of the vendors of beasts and doves, and
the shrill voices of the money-changers.

Into this noisy court came Jesus with his disciples.
He stood there for awhile in silence, listening and watch-
ing. To him the very thought of killing animals and
smearing their blood upon the altars of the Temple was
repugnant. As he stood there, with his brows sternly
knit, he thought of those words which Isaiah the prophet
had written:

"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices
unto me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings
of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in
the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When
ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at
your hand, to tread my courts?"

Surely, indeed, thought Jesus, God his Father was
full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed
beasts ! They smeared His house with blood ; they set up
shops within the sacred enclosure; they made of the very
sacrifices which they offered to Him a source of profit;
and instead of serving Him in humility and truth, they
wrangled, wrangled, wrangled about the sayings of the
prophets. Some even used the court of the Temple as a
short-cut, when they wanted to go somewhere on the other
side, carrying bundles and vessels of various sorts through
the Temple court, as if it had been a public square.

THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE 291

Even in their prayers, the Jews turned to see if other peo-
ple were looking at them and admiring their piety.

And the priests ! At Jerusalem the priests themselves
were cold and formal. They smiled superior smiles at
the pilgrims who came from afar, and who seemed really
to feel the sacredness of the Temple. To the priests, the
Temple and its ceremonies were a means of livelihood.
To Jesus, the worship of God meant also the love of one's
fellowmen; but what love for their fellowmen had those
priests, Pharisees, and scribes?

But perhaps there was nothing about the old Jewish
religion which troubled Jesus more than that constant
killing of gentle dumb animals as sacrifices to God.
Jesus loved animals. He knew that God could not be
pleased to have them killed, and to have their innocent
blood smeared upon the altars of His house.

Standing there that morning with his disciples, in the
midst of the uproar in the court of the Temple, Jesus
came fully to realise that between the pure religion which
he was sent by his Father to preach, and this old Jewish
religion of blood and formality, there could be no union,
no sympathy. Some of the scribes had already discussed
the possibility that the Messiah, when he came, would
bring a new law; but now that the Messiah was really
come, they would accept neither him nor his law.
And that new law — what was it? Simply this: "Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. ' ' The religion taught
by Jesus was so simple that even a child could compre-
hend it; and yet it seemed beyond the comprehension of
these learned priests and scribes.

We can see Jesus standing there in the noisy court of
the Temple, tall and quiet, with a look of determination
on his face. Heretofore he had taught by gentleness
alone; but the Jews could not understand gentleness. It

292 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

seemed to them to be but a form of weakness. Very-
well. He would teach them to-day in a language which
they could understand.

There was lying on the ground beside Jesus a whip
made of small cords, which had probably been used to
drive into the Temple enclosure the unoffending dumb
beasts which were to be sold for sacrifice. The disciples
saw Jesus stoop and pick up this whip. Then they saw
their Master, usually so quiet and gentle, go swiftly
toward that part of the court where stood those that sold
animals and those that sold doves. They saw him raise
the whip in his hand, the many-corded lash circled in
the air and then came down upon the back of the nearest
trader in beasts, who capered with pain. They saw him
raise the whip again, and again it came down upon the
back of a man who sold doves. Again and again he
raised the whip, and each time it descended upon some
one who was desecrating the holy place, while his clear,
strong voice rose above the noises of the court, saying :

"It is written, my house shall be called the house of
prayer; and ye have made it a den of thieves. "

And he drove them out of the Temple court before
the lash of his whip — all them that sold beasts and all
them that sold doves, while the disciples looked on with
admiration and the Jews looked on with astonishment.

Then Jesus came back into the court, and he went to
the tables of the money-changers, who a moment before
had been calling out their unholy trade, and he overthrew
their tables so that the coins rolled on the pavement; then
at the end of his whiplash he drove the money-changers
also out of the Temple, saying to them, as he had said to
the others :

"It is written, my house shall be called the house of
prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."

THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE 293

Then he stood at the entrance and drove back those
who came there with burdens on their shoulders or in
their hands, those who would have carried their vessels
of water through the court of the Temple as if it had
been a public square, merely to shorten their road.

There were children standing by, and when they saw
Jesus they raised their fresh young voices, saying, as
they had heard the disciples say :

"Hosanna to the son of David!"

When the chief priests and the scribes saw what the
Master had done, and when they heard the children cry-
ing, "Hosanna to the son of David," which was a phrase
they had for the expected Messiah, they were enraged;
and they said harshly to Jesus :

"Hearest thou what these say?"

They wanted Jesus to reprove the children for daring
to call him the Son of David. But the Master only looked
at them steadily and answered :

"Yea, have ye not read, Out of the mouths of babes
and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?"

And the priests and scribes did not know what to
respond. They had seen how the pilgrims from other
cities, the pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem for the
Passover and whom the haughty priests regarded as com-
mon people, looked at Jesus with love, and freely ex-
pressed their admiration of his action in driving the ven-
dors and money-changers out of the Temple. For many
of the pilgrims had also felt that the Temple in the Holy
City was not a proper place for buying and selling; but
they had not dared to say so until the Master set them an
example by his courage.

The priests wanted now more than ever to kill Jesus,
for they saw that if they left him undisturbed he would
gain a greater and greater influence over the people.

294 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

And if the pure religion of Jesus gained the people, what
would become of the priests with their fat livings and
their high position in Jerusalem?

The Master, passing again into the Temple, was sur-
rounded by many poor people and many lame and blind,
who called on him to help them. And as he healed these
of their infirmities, the children cried again and again
with their fresh, pure voices :

' ' Hosanna to the son of David ! Hosanna to the son
of David!"

The priests and scribes slunk away, for they could not
endure to hear the praises of the children, nor the thanks
of the lame and blind whom Jesus had healed. And the
Master was left alone with those who loved him, in the
Temple court which he had cleansed of impurity.

When the night shadows drew down, he returned
again to Bethany, on the hill beyond the city, where lived
Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and many others who now
believed on him.

CHAPTEE XXIX

THE MASTER AND THE QUESTIONERS

The next day after Jesus had purified the Templej
by casting out of it the money-changers and scourging
those who sold animals and doves there for the sacrifices,
he stayed in Jerusalem all day long with his disciples,
teaching the people and answering the questions of the
scribes and Pharisees. For though the Jews did not be-
lieve on him, they liked to ask him questions. Their
reasons for questioning him were mixed. They prided
themselves upon their subtlety in argument, they liked
the sound of their own voices, they hoped to entangle
him in his talk, and they had a great curiosity as to what
he would say. They had no real desire to learn from
him, because they were themselves too fond of teach-
ing.

But we must not despise the Jews as a race because
the Jews in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus were vain and
insincere. Jesus himself was a Jew — this we must never
forget; and the race from which he sprang was a great
race, with a long history and 'a sound morality. The
people who had followed Jesus in Galilee were Jews,
Mary and Martha were Jews, and so were the twelve dis-
ciples. But the priests and Pharisees of Jerusalem were
very different to the gentle and sympathetic people who
loved Jesus. It was against the evils of Judaism, not
against the Jewish people, that the Master preached.
295

296 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

That morning, as Jesus was teaching in the Temple,
the chief priests and elders came to him, and said:

"By what authority doest thou these things? and who
gave thee this authority?"

Jesus answered their question by asking another. He
said:

"I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I
in likewise will tell you by what authority I do these
things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from
heaven, or of men?"

The priests and elders counselled together, not know-
ing what answer to make; for, if they said that the bap-
tism of John was from heaven, Jesus would ask them why
then they had not believed John when he declared that
Jesus was the son of God. And if they answered that
the baptism of John was of men — that is, that it was not
inspired by God — the people would be angry with them,
because the people believed that John was a prophet.
The priests and elders were afraid of offending the people.
So, after counselling together, they answered the ques-
tion of Jesus by saying:

"We cannot tell."

"Neither tell I you by what authority I do these
things, ' ' replied Jesus.

Then he told them parables, stories with an inner
meaning, which could bring home to their minds the
things he wanted to say to them about their wickedness
and unbelief. Among these parables was the following,
which illustrated their refusal to accept him whom God
had sent. Jesus said:

"There was a certain householder, which planted a
vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a
winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to hus-
bandmen, and went into a far country :

MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 297

' ' And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent
his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive
the fruits of it.

"And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat
one, and killed another, and stoned another.

"Again, he sent other servants more than the first:
and they did unto them likewise.

"But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying,
They will reverence my son.

"But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said
among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him,
and let us seize on his inheritance.

"And they caught him, and cast him out of the vine-
yard, and slew him.

"When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh,
what will he do unto those husbandmen?"

And the priests and elders, not understanding at first
the hidden meaning in the parable, answered that the
householder would miserably destroy those wicked men,
and would let his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which
should render him the fruits in their season. Thus they
condemned themselves out of their own mouths, unwit-
tingly.

And Jesus said to them :

"Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which
the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the
corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in
our eyes?

' ' Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall
be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth
the fruits thereof.

"And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be
broken : but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him
to powder. ' '

298 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

When the priests and elders realised that Jesus meant
that they were the wicked husbandmen of the parable, they
were angrier than ever at him. They would have seized
him then and there, and would have killed him, had
they not been afraid of the multitude which stood listen-
ing to his words. For the common people took Jesus for
a great prophet, even many of those who did not under-
stand that he was really the Messiah.

And the Master, seeing the anger in the faces of the
priests and elders, told them another parable, which illus-
trated still further their blindness and unbelief. He
said:

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king,
which made a marriage for his son,

"And sent forth his servants to call them that were
bidden to the wedding : and they would not come.

"Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell
them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my din-
ner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things
are ready: come unto the marriage.

"But they made light of it, and went their ways, one
to his farm, another to his merchandise :

"And the remnant took his servants, and entreated
them spitefully, and slew them.

' ' But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth : and
he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers,
and burned up their city.

"Then said he to his servants, The wedding is ready,
but they which were bidden were not worthy.

"Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as
ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

"So those servants went out into the highways, and
gathered together all as many as they found, both bad
and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 299

"And when the king came in to see the guests, he
saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment :

"And he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in
hither not having a wedding garment? And he was

"Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand
and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer
darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

' ' For many are called, but few are chosen. ' '

By this parable Jesus meant that because the Jews had
refused to come into the kingdom of heaven, which he
symbolised by the wedding of the king's son, God would
call the Gentiles, the people of other nations, and would
give his kingdom to them.

And what did he mean by the one guest, who had not
on a wedding garment? Perhaps he meant one of his
own disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was already unfaithful
to the Master in his heart, and who would soon put his
unfaithfulness into action, to the point of utter betrayal.
Did Judas realise this, as he listened to the parable? I
cannot say.

But the priests and elders, being still further enraged
by this parable, again took counsel together as to how
they could entangle Jesus in his talk. Though the Mas-
ter never meddled with politics, if they could get him to
say something which might be construed as being against
the rule of the Komans, perhaps they could thus get him
into trouble with the Koman authorities, and procure his
death in that way. So they stood a little apart, and sent
spies of theirs to talk with Jesus — spies who should pre-
tend to be just men. And these spies said to him, with
a great show of respect:

' ' Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the
way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man : for

300 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

thou regardest not the person of man. Tell us therefore,
What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto
Csesar, or not?"

But Jesus saw their wickedness, how they were trying
to get him to say something against the Romans, and he
answered them :

"Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the
tribute money. ' '

They brought him a penny, which was stamped with
the image of Caesar. And Jesus said, pointing to the
head upon the penny:

"Whose is this image and superscription?"

They answered that it was Caesar's.

Then said Jesus, "Render therefore unto Caesar the
things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that
are God's."

When the spies heard his answer, and perceived how
much keener his mind was than their own, they marvelled
at him; and knowing that they could never succeed in
entangling him in that way, they left him, and went back
to their masters, the priests and elders.

After the spies went away, the Sadducees came to
Jesus and put their questions. The Sadducees were those
Jews who did not believe that there was any future for
the soul after the death of the body. As Jesus taught
the resurrection of the soul and the life in the hereafter,
the Sadducees sought by their questions to make the idea
of resurrection ridiculous. They said :

"Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no chil-
dren, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed
unto his brother.

"Now there were with us seven brethren: and the
first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having
no issue, left his wife unto his brother:

MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 301

"Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the
seventh.

"And last of all the woman died also.

' ' Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be
of the seven? for they all had her. "

Jesus answered them :

"Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power
of God.

"For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are
given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

"But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye
not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying :

"I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living. ' '

When the Sadducees heard this, they were astonished
at his teaching. The idea that heaven was a spiritual
place had never occurred to them. They went away,
wagging their heads. How could men be like the angels?
they wondered. Could Abraham and Isaac and Jacob be
really alive somewhere — when they were not on the earth?
The very idea was preposterous to the Sadducees, who
did not believe in the life after death.

When the Pharisees saw that Jesus had put the Sad-
ducees to silence, they came also with other questions.
The Pharisees, you will remember, were those Jews who
claimed to be very learned in the Jewish law, and who
laid great stress upon all the little rules of Moses. You
recall the nicknames, "bloody-browed Pharisees" and
"bandy-legged Pharisees," which the people called them,
because of their absurd and strutting ways in walking.
Of course, when the Pharisees came, in their turn, to
question Jesus, they asked him regarding the letter of the
scriptures; and one of them, a lawyer, said:

302 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

' ' Master, which is the greatest commandment of the
law?"

Jesus answered:

' ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is
the first and great commandment.

"And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.

"On these two commandments hang all the law and
the prophets."

"Well, Master," replied the lawyer, "thou hast said
the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other
but He : and to love Him with all the heart, and with all
the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the
strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more
than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. ' '

Jesus looked at the man, whose face was earnest and
thoughtful. Though he was a Pharisee of Jerusalem, it
was plain that he admired the Master from Nazareth and
felt the beauty of his teaching. In admitting that to
love God with all his strength and to love his neighbour
as himself was more than all burnt offerings put together,
he proved himself to be very different to the other Phari-
sees ; and Jesus said to him :

"Thou art not far from the kingdom of heaven."

After that none of them dared to ask Jesus any more
questions ; they merely listened to what he had to say.

In telling you about the teaching of Jesus in the Temple
that day, I am giving his exact words, instead of trying
to interpret them ; for the sayings of Jesus were more elo-
quent than any words of mine could be — more eloquent
than the words of any other man who ever lived and
whose words have been recorded. He now spoke to his
disciples and to the multitude, saying:

MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 303

"The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses's seat: All
therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe
and do ; but do not ye after their works : for they say, and
do not.

"For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be
borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they them-
selves will not move them with one of their fingers.

' ' But all their works they do for to be seen of men :
they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the bor-
ders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at
feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greet-
ings in the markets, and to be called of men, Eabbi,
Rabbi.

' ' But be not ye called Rabbi : for one is your Master,
even Christ; and all ye are brethren.

"And call no man your father upon the earth: for one
is your Father, which is in heaven.

' ' Neither be ye called masters : for one is your Mas-
ter, even Christ.

' ' But he that is greatest among you shall be your ser-
vant.

' ' And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased ;
and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. ' '

We can well imagine that the scribes and Pharisees
who listened must have writhed at words like these. We
can see them in imagination, pulling at their long beards,
their eyes shifting beneath the clear glance of Jesus, as
he read their hearts and showed them what they were.
No one before had ever dared to tell the Pharisees that
they were hypocrites, who only did their works to be seen
and praised of men. When Jesus said that he who
exalted himself should be abased, he predicted the abase-
ment of the self-exalted Pharisees, and they knew it.

When the Master needed a living illustration for his

304 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

teaching, something always happened to furnish him with
the illustration. As he was telling the scribes and Phari-
sees what they really were and were not, a poor woman, a
widow, came to the place where he was standing, which
was beside the treasury of the Temple. Jesus had seen
the rich people come up, one by one, and put their money
into the treasury; and these rich people were always
careful that the size and value of the coins which they
gave to God should be seen by those who stood by. But
when the poor widow came, in her worn garments and
with her face lean with hunger, she threw into the treas-
ury two mites, which made a farthing — about the value
of one-fourth of an English penny, or half an American
cent. The heart of Jesus throbbed with love and pity,
for he knew that the two mites which the widow had
cast into the treasury were all she had, and that she would
probably have no supper to eat that night. And he said
to his disciples :

"Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath
cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treas-
ury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she
of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her
living. ' '

Then Jesus turned again to the scribes and Pharisees
who stood by, and he said :

' ' But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites !
for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men : for
ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that
are entering to go in.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make
long prayer : therefore ye shall receive the greater damna-
tion. ' '

Then he took up some of their sayings and beliefs,

MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 305

and proved them to be utterly without sincerity. The
Jews had a rule that he who should swear by the Temple
to do something, or to pay some debt, was not held by
the oath; but that he who should swear by the gold in the
Temple, was held by that oath. And they had another
rule that to swear by the altar was nothing, but that a
man was responsible if he swore by the gift upon the
altar.

"Which is the greater," asked Jesus, "the gold, or
the Temple which sanctifieth the gold? . . . And which
is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the
gift?

"Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow
a camel. ' '

And much more also the Master said to them that after-
noon, convicting them of their hypocrisy. For Jesus
came not only to love the world, but to teach the world
a better way of living; and there are some who cannot
learn by honeyed words. He reminded them that they
were the descendants of those Jews who had killed the
prophets in the olden time ; and knowing that they wished
to kill him, as their fathers had killed the prophets, he
now said to them :

"Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers."

And the Pharisees huddled together and listened to
Jesus with blanched faces, for with his plain speaking
this day they had become more than ever afraid of him.
What would he not do, they wondered, if they allowed
him to live? Surely he would turn all the people against
them; he would make all men follow him and seek for
the kingdom of heaven, so that they would no longer care
to bring their sacrifices to the Temple, nor to pay their
money to the priests. Had not the prophets declared
that the Messiah when he came should bring a new law?

306 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

They remembered what Jesus himself had said, at another
time:

"No man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old gar-
ment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from
the garment, and the rent is made worse.

' ' Neither do men put new wine into old bottles : else
the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the
bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles,
and both are preserved. ' '

The priests and Pharisees knew that Jesus meant by
this that his religion would do away with the old Jewish
law. If so, it would also do away with the priests and
the Pharisees — would take away all their power. It was
because his teaching threatened to make things harder for
them, that the priests and Pharisees hated Jesus. What
cared they for the kingdom of heaven? But the tithes of
mint and anise and cummin had a meaning, to say noth-
ing of the gold of the treasury by which they swore. As
they stood there listening to Jesus, the nails of their
clenched hands must have cut into their palms. Only a
few more days, they said to themselves, should this Naza-
rene live to trouble their peace of mind.

As the Master was about to leave the Temple and to
return once more to the quiet Mount of Olives, he spoke
these words to the unbelieving city:

"0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how
often would I have gathered thy children together, even
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not!

' ' Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. ' '

Followed by his twelve disciples, he passed out of the
portal of the Temple, leaving the priests and the elders
and the scribes and the Pharisees behind him.

MASTER AND QUESTIONERS 307

As they stood outside, the disciples called the atten-
tion of Jesus to the great buildings, the pillared courts,
the glittering marbles ; for at that time the great Temple
at Jerusalem was quite new, and the outer portions were
not even finished. And one of the disciples said :

' ' Master, see what manner of stones and what build-
ings are here ! ' '

But Jesus did not look with admiring eyes at the
Temple. It did not seem to him any longer to be a place
where God was worshipped in spirit and in truth. Rather
it was a new and useless monument to a dead and cor-
rupted faith. And he said to his disciples :

"Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not
be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown
down. ' '

Then, turning his back upon the Temple, Jesus passed
out of the city and went toward the Mount of Olives, still
followed by his disciples.

CHAPTER XXX

ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES

During the last week of Jesus in Jerusalem, he usually
spent the night with his disciples upon the Mount of
Olives. This hill received its beautiful name from the
olive-trees which grew there in abundance. From its
green side one could look down upon the city of Jeru-
salem. After spending the early evening in Bethany with
his friends, Jesus would come out here with the twelve
men, and lying upon the ground, they would watch the
far-off glittering stars until they fell asleep. Sometimes
they would talk for a little while, the disciples asking
questions about God and the kingdom of heaven. Some-
times they would be silent, each man absorbed in his own
thoughts. This quiet retreat upon the Mount of Olives,
after the noisy day in Jerusalem, was for Jesus a sweet
refreshment, a going back to Nature for peace and poise.
God seemed near, out there among the olive-trees, under
the quiet stars ; and all the strife and wrangling of Jeru-
salem seemed far away.

The night following the day on which he had answered
the questions of the scribes and Pharisees in the great
Temple, the Master came out here, as usual, with his dis-
ciples. He walked a little distance away from the others
and sat down upon a great rock. How still everything
was, and how peaceful! Even the enmity of the Jews
in Jerusalem seemed here like an unreal dream. Here
only God seemed real — He and His love for this green
309

310 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

earth, which was only a place of trial for His children.
Jesus was almost happy, as he sat there alone that night,
under the sympathetic stars. He seemed to breathe the
atmosphere of eternity, and could consider without too
great sadness all the terrible things which he knew were
going to happen in the world.

But soon he heard footsteps coming near, and turning
his head, he saw in the starlight four of his disciples,
Peter, with Andrew his brother, and the brothers James
and John. They had left the other men back there some-
where among the shadows of the night, and had sought
the Master in secret, that they might learn from him the
truth about certain questions which were troubling their
minds.

They sat down at the feet of Jesus, around the base of
the rock, and began to ask him about his second coming,
and about the end of the present world. For Jesus had
told them that, though he was soon going to his Father
in heaven, he would return to the world some day and
would bring the kingdom of heaven with him. And the
four disciples now asked him when that time would be.

And Jesus answered them that, when he was gone,
they must take heed that no man deceived them. He
said that other men would come saying that they were the
Christ, and that many persons would be deceived, believ-
ing that these false prophets were the Son of man him-
self. He told them that before he should return to the
world there would be many wars, that nation would rise
against nation and kingdom against kingdom, that there
would be famine and pestilence and earthquakes — that all
these things would be only the beginning of sorrows.
But the end would not be yet.

And when the four men asked how it would be with
them, in this time of trial which was to come, the Master

ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 311

answered that his disciples, in that dark time, would be
delivered up to councils of men; that in the Jewish syna-
gogues they would be beaten; that they would be brought
before rulers and kings, who would question them con-
cerning Jesus and the gospel which they preached in his
name.

But, he told them, when those in authority should
turn to them for testimony of the Son of man, they should
not think beforehand of what they were going to say ; but
that they should trust in the living Christ, who would be
always with them in their hearts, and would give them
such wisdom in answering questions that all their ene-
mies should not be able to reason against them. Though
the answers came from their mouths, it would really be
the Holy Spirit which should speak through them.

The four disciples were filled with wonder at the idea
of the Holy Spirit using them for a mouthpiece, and
they naturally supposed that the kings and rulers would
consider them very highly in the days when such things
should be. But Jesus told them, instead, that they
should be delivered up to be afflicted, that men should
kill them, and that they should be hated of all nations
because they were the apostles of Christ. Yet, he as-
sured them, if they endured unto the end, they should
dwell with him in the kingdom of heaven.

And he told them that in that dark time brothers
should betray their brothers to death, that fathers should
betray their sons, that children should rise up against
their parents and cause them to be put to death, that many
false prophets would arise and would deceive the world ;
and that because of all this confusion and hatred,
wherein it would be difficult to know what was true from
what was false, the love of many of his own followers
would grow cold; but that they, like the disciples, who

312 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

should endure unto the end, would also be saved with
Christ in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus told them that this gospel of the kingdom of
heaven should be preached throughout all the world, to
all the nations of the earth, and that when this was ac-
complished the Christ would come again. But before
that blessed consummation, when all nations should know
the religion of Jesus, the dark time must first be passed
through.

The four disciples had still not a very clear under-
standing of what the dark time would be like, and they
wanted to know what would really happen in those
days.

Jesus told them that they should possess their souls
in patience; that when they saw Jerusalem compassed
with armies, they should know that the desolation thereof
was nigh. When they should see standing in the holy
place the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel
the prophet, them that were in Judsea should flee into
the mountains; he who was on the house-top should not
come down to take anything out of his house; neither
should the man who was in the field return to take his
clothes. Jesus said that they should pray that their
flight be not in winter, nor on the Sabbath day ; for there
should be great tribulation, such as had not been from
the beginning of the world unto that time, nor ever
should be again. Except those days should be shortened
by God, he said, no one would be saved alive; but that
for the sake of the elect of God, those days would be
shortened; for they were the days of vengeance, that all
the things which had been written might be fulfilled.

And Jesus told them further that in those dark days
there should be great wrath upon the people of Israel, that
many should fall by the sword, and many be led away

ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 313

captive unto other nations, and that Jerusalem should be
trodden down by the Gentiles.

Then he warned them again against the false prophets
who were to come, declaring that they were the Christ, and
showing signs and wonders to the people, so that by their
false works they should deceive even the elect of God.

Wherefore, Jesus told his disciples, if any one should
say to them jthat Christ was in the desert, they should
not go forth to seek him there; and if any one should say
that Christ was in the secret chambers, they should not
believe it; for, he told them, "as the lightning cometh
out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall
also the coming of the Son of man be. ' '

And the four disciples listened with bated breath and
with wide and troubled eyes. They now understood that
Jesus was really going away from them; but hoiv he was
going they did not know. Notwithstanding all that he
had told them regarding the coming death of the Son of
man through the enmity of the Jews, that he should be
scourged and killed as if he were a common malefactor,
they did not comprehend that he meant it in a literal
sense. To them it seemed, even yet, that their Master
would be caught up to heaven in a blaze of glory.

And now they asked him how, after he should have
left them and gone to the Father, and after the days of
tribulation also, they should know beforehand that the
Christ was coming soon, and be prepared for him.

And Jesus answered them that after the days of tribu-
lation there should be signs in the sun, and in the moon,
and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations,
with perplexity; that the sea and the waves of the sea
should roar, and that men's hearts should fail them for
fear, as they saw the things which had come upon the
earth and saw also the powers of heaven shaken. Then,

314 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

said Jesus, the Son of man would come in a cloud, with
power and great glory. When all these predicted things
had happened, the disciples should lift up their heads,
for then they would know that their redemption was near.
And the Christ, the Son of man, would send his angels
with a great sound of a trumpet, and the angels would
gather together the elect of Christ from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other.

As the four disciples heard this promise of the Master
to come again with power and glory, their eyes were
aflame with faith. In imagination they saw him appear
in the heavens; they saw the form of Jesus, which they
loved, suddenly shining in the sky above the troubled
earth; they heard the trumpet of the angels. The face of
John, especially, was illuminated with the fire of his
enthusiasm; for John loved Jesus with an intense love.
On him had been bestowed at birth the divine gift of
imagination; and long years afterward, when he came to
write his Eevelation, it is almost certain that his mind
went back to this hour upon the Mount of Olives, and to
the words which Jesus spoke there under the stars. The
vision which he had at this moment, as he listened to
the voice of Jesus predicting his second coming, made
possible that other and greater vision upon the Isle of
Patmos.

After a short silence, the Master again spoke to them.
When the fig-tree put forth its leaves, he said, they knew
that the summer was nigh ; so also, when they should see
the terrible things he had predicted for the days of deso-
lation, they would know that the kingdom of heaven was
near.

"Heaven and earth shall pass away," he said, "but
my words shall not pass away. ' '

Not even the angels of heaven, Jesus told them, knew

ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 315

when the hour of his coming would be ; but only God the
Father. For as in the days of Noah before the flood,
they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving
in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the
ark, and the great waters came and carried them all
away ; so should it be with the coming of the Son of man.

In that day, said Jesus, the angels of God should
gather the saved together from all the quarters of the
earth. Two men should be together in a field; the one
should be taken by the angels and the other left. Two
women should be grinding at a mill; the one should be
taken and the other left.

Jesus told his friends that they must be always watch-
ing for his coming. He said :

' ' For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey,
who left his house, and gave authority to his servants,
and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to
watch.

"Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master
of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the
cockcrowing, or in the morning : Lest coming suddenly he
find you sleeping. ' '

As the four disciples listened with shining eyes, they
told themselves that after Jesus should have left them and
returned to the Father, they would be ever on the watch,
lest the Christ should come back unawares and find them
sleeping.

To these men, the coming of the kingdom of heaven
was as real and certain as the coming of the springtime is
with us. As in the dead of winter, when the snows fall,
and the winds blow, and the cold pierces to our bones,
we think longingly of the springtime with its roses and
warmth and soft breezes ; so the disciples, in the sad and
selfish world which surrounded them, dreamed of the king-

316 STORIES FROM THE MEW TESTAMENT

dom of heaven, dreamed of the time when Jesus should
come again, as he had promised, and should take them to
a place where there would be no more sadness or selfishness
or pain or strife, where every man would love his neigh-
bour as himself, and all would be happy in the bosom of
Christ.

It is no wonder that such a faith, in the hearts of even
a few, had power to change the world; and though the
kingdom of heaven has not yet come to men, there are
still a few, here and there upon the earth, who dream as
the disciples dreamed, and who watch for the coming of
the Christ.

That his friends might ever watch without weariness,
Jesus told them another parable, that of the wise and
foolish virgins. As you will often hear this parable
referred to, I will tell it to you now, in the very words of
Jesus. He said:

' ' Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto
ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to
meet the bridegroom.

"And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

"They that were foolish took their lamps, and took
no oil with them :

"But the wise took oil in their vessels with their
lamps.

"While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered
and slept.

"And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the
bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

"Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their
lamps.

' ' And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your
oil ; for our lamps are gone out.

' ' But the wise answered, saying, Not so ; lest there be

ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 317

not enough for us and you : but go ye rather to them that
sell, and buy for yourselves.

"And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came;
and they that were ready went in with him to the mar-
riage : and the door was shut.

"Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord,
Lord, open to us.

"But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I
know you not.

"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor
the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. "

One reason why the teaching of Jesus had such a
charm for men, was because of the beautiful symbols
which he used in speaking of himself. To those who
loved him, he was the bridegroom of the parable of the
virgins, the one for whose coming all watched with
eagerness. He called himself the lamb of God, because
the people to whom he was talking were born of a race of
shepherds, who loved the sheep, and in whose minds the
very idea of a lamb suggested gentleness and love. When
he said, at another time, that he was the rose of Sharon
and the lily of the valley, the names of these familiar
flowers called up visions of beauty and sweetness. Not
only should they love him as their Master, but they
should love him as they loved the roses and the lilies,
whose fragrance could make them forget the sadness of
the world. If we knew nothing of the history of Jesus,
and had only his sayings to judge him by, we would still
pronounce him the supreme genius of the world. When
he said, ' ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest, ' ' he made it impossible
that the weary souls of earth should ever forget him.

If, in the years to come, you shall study the sayings

318 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

of all the greatest teachers of the world, of Manu, of
Buddha, of Confucius, of Lao-tsze, of Socrates, of Plato,
of Mahomet, and shall compare them with the simple
sayings of Jesus, you will still say, with me, that no
other man who ever lived could speak as Jesus spoke.

And he said that night to the four disciples who were
there with him on the Mount of Olives :

' ' When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and
all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the
throne of his glory:

' ' And before him shall be gathered all nations : and
he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats :

"And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but
the goats on the left.

"Then shall the King say unto them on his right
hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king-
dom prepared for you from the foundation of the world :

' ' For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat : I was
thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye
took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye
visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

"Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord,
when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty,
and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and
took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw
we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

' ' And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.''''

And he told them also that he would say to those on
the left hand, those who were unfit for the kingdom of
heaven, that inasmuch as they had not fed the hungry,
nor clothed the naked, nor visited the sick, nor minis-

ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES 319

tered to their brethren in prison, they had not done these
things for him.

Can we wonder, then, that those who try to follow Jesus
still feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, and visit the
sick, and minister to those in prison? For to love the
Christ is to love to do these things for him. And should
any one ever tell you that Christianity has been a failure
in the world, because the world is still cold and selfish,
because men still despise and hate and speak evil of their
fellowmen, instead of loving them, you can truthfully
answer that real Christianity, the Christianity of Jesus,
has never been practised except by a very few, from the
days of the apostles until now. Will it ever be practised
by the many? Perhaps. And if it ever should be, then
the kingdom of heaven, of which Jesus told his disciples
that night upon the Mount of Olives, will come to the
world, and men will dwell in the kingdom of heaven
though they still walk the earth.

CHAPTER XXXI

JUDAS ISCAEIOT

There are certain names which, whenever they are
spoken, remind the hearer of certain qualities. When
we hear the name of Alexander, for example, we think
immediately of war, of conquest, of empire. The name
of Plato suggests philosophy and high-thinking. We
can hardly hear the name of Nero without shuddering at
the ideas of cruelty which go with it. And the name of
the man I am going to tell you about in this story is one
of those which carry a definite meaning. But the name
of Judas, instead of summoning ideas of conquest and
high-thinking, calls up a very different thought — the
thought of treachery.

In reading about the ministry of Jesus, and about the
men who travelled with him as his disciples through
Galilee and Judaea, you have often read the name of
Judas Iscariot. You remember how, at the supper in
Bethany, the evening before the day on which the dis-
ciples strewed palm branches for their Master to ride over
at Bethphage near Jerusalem, Judas had been angry with
Mary Magdalene for breaking the alabaster box and
anointing the head and feet of Jesus with the precious
ointment of spikenard. You also remember having read
that John, the beloved disciple, did not trust Judas, but
declared that he was a thief who sometimes stole the
money from the purse which Jesus had given him to
carry. Yet these incidents, while unlovely in them-
321

322 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

selves, were as nothing in comparison with what Judas
was to do afterward.

During the last week in Jerusalem, many things had
happened to trouble Judas. He had believed that his
Master would be glorified immediately, that Jesus would
reveal himself in such a way that the scribes and Phari-
sees and all the other unbelieving Jews would be obliged
to worship him. He could not have told, for certain,
just what he expected — perhaps that a flaming cloud
would come down out of heaven, and that Jesus would be
snatched up to glory amid the plaudits of the multitude.
Judas loved plaudits. In Galilee he had delighted to be
one of the followers of Jesus, because the simple people in
Galilee hailed Jesus as a Master and did him honours ;
but Judas did not like the shrugs and sneers of the high
priests in Jerusalem. If the Master were really the
Messiah of the Jews, he reasoned, why should not the
high priests be aware of it? Why, Jesus could not even
enter the Holy of Holies — the inner place in the great
Temple! Only the high priest could go in there. Surely
something must be wrong! Could it be that Jesus was
not really the Messiah, after all?

There is no seed which grows so fast as the seed of
doubt. From the moment when Judas first doubted that
his Master was the Messiah, his treachery began. Some
persons may believe that Judas was altogether bad from
the beginning; but that is not possible, because Jesus
named him as a disciple. Jesus had love and pity for
the weak, the erring and the sinful; but he would not
have made the compact of discipleship with the devil, or
with a man who was altogether of the devil. No, there
was good as well as evil in the heart of Judas, and it was
the good which Jesus saw and had tried to foster.

When you are older, you may hear learned discussions

JUDAS ISCARIOT 323

upon the subject of free will; but there is no better illus-
tration of the doctrine of free will than Judas Iscariot.
Judas had every opportunity to be true, and he could de-
liberately be false to the Master, because his will was free.
He was not forced to this betrayal by necessity.

As Jesus himself taught that we should try to under-
stand the hearts of others in order that we may truly pity
them, it is for us to try to understand Judas. It may
not be easy, but we can at least try. If we look deep,
we shall probably find that it was selfishness, vanity and
jealousy that ruined Judas, as they have ruined so many
others before and since.

We know that Judas came from Kerioth, in the south,
that he was the only one of the disciples who was not a
Galilean. This alone made him feel different to the
others, a stranger and an alien. He wanted to be first
in the friendship of the Master, and he was not first. He
was not even second, or third. It is true that he carried
the purse; but money was never considered very highly
by Jesus. And Judas knew quite well why Jesus had
made him treasurer; it was because some of the others
had said that he was a thief.

John did not like Judas, and it was he who had
started the story that Judas was not honest. The man
from Kerioth had never forgiven this. Not only did he
have a grudge against John, but he was very jealous of
him. John was young and beautiful, and Judas was
neither beautiful nor young. John was the beloved dis-
ciple, the confidant of the Master, and Judas was — the
treasurer. It was he who was sent out to buy things ; it
was John who remained with Jesus, in intimate and lov-
ing converse with him.

Sometimes when Judas came back from one of his
errands in the markets, and saw John leaning on the

324 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

bosom of Jesus, his young and wistful face upraised to
the face of the Master, Judas could hardly control his
desire to snatch the young man away from his place
beside Jesus. What right, Judas would mutter to him-
self, had John to think that Jesus loved him best? The
Master had never said so. Then it seemed to Judas that
John's mother, Salome, was always pushing him forward.
Judas had no mother, and women did not like him very
well. They liked John. Even the mother of Jesus was
always turning to him with her soft and patient smile.
And Mary Magdalene! Judas could have struck John
sometimes when he saw Mary lean upon his arm.

All these grudges and exasperations Judas had borne
as patiently as he could, for he had loved the Master more
than he had ever loved any other being. Indeed, Jesus
was the only one who had ever seemed really to care for
him. When he had been called to be a disciple, it had
seemed to Judas that all his trials were over. He did
not know that discipleship was the beginning of trials,
that it was a test of character and strength — not a reward.
Jesus had called some of his friends the first time he saw
them, trusting to the future to prove their fitness. Their
reward was to come in the kingdom of heaven ; though it
seems to us that the privilege of being with Jesus was in
itself the supreme reward.

But now, when Judas began to doubt that his Master
was really going to be glorified, after all, he began also to
think of the trials which he himself had endured. Then,
too, it is more than probable that on that Wednesday
morning, after the beautiful talk in regard to the coming
of the kingdom of heaven which the four favourite dis-
ciples had had with Jesus upon the Mount of Olives, one
of the four — perhaps Andrew, perhaps Peter — had told
Judas some of the other things which the Master had

JUDAS ISCARIOT 325

said that night : how they were themselves to be perse-
cuted after Jesus should have returned to the Father; how
they would be beaten in the synagogues, and delivered up
to councils, and hated of all men on account of their rela-
tions with the Master. We can well imagine that these
predictions were terrible to Judas. To be beaten in the
synagogues! To be hated of all men! These were not
the prospects for which he had become a disciple.

Jesus must have known that Wednesday morning what
was passing in the mind of the man from Kerioth. We
can see his gentle eyes fixed intently upon the face of
Judas. How he must have pitied him! But not even
Jesus could choose for another — his own disciple — the
way in which he should walk.

As I have said before, there must have been in Judas
some good, or the Master would not have chosen him to
be one of his disciples. Perhaps it was the very inten-
sity of his nature which made his discipleship possible,
perhaps it was some poiver in him which Jesus hoped to
turn altogether in the right way; for power is power, and
can be used for good or evil, according to the will of the
possessor. This we must never forget. The fire which
warms our house may also burn our house, if it is not
carefully guarded. The electricity which gives us light
and moves our cars and carriages, is the same power
which, in the ungoverned lightning, can blast the giant
pine-tree or strike a man to death.

Judas left his friends that Wednesday morning in
Jerusalem, and wandered away by himself. Jesus was
preaching, as usual, in the court of the Temple, and the
crowd around him was so great that Judas felt that he
would not be missed. There was a terrible idea in his
mind, and he wanted to be alone to think about it. He
was already unfaithful to Jesus in his heart; and from

326 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

thought to action, in a man of hie violent temperament,
there is often but a step. That step, in the case of Judas,
proved to be the short distance which separated the court
of the Temple from the palace of Caiaphas, the high
priest.

Judas knew that in the palace of the high priest the
enemies of Jesus were conspiring against him. Did he
deliberately say to himself that he intended to betray his
Master? I cannot tell you, and neither can anyone else.
The thoughts and motives of the simplest man are often
obscure even to himself, and Judas was not simple.

Some men who have written about Judas have believed
that he betrayed Jesus to the high priests and helped
them to arrest him, in the hope that his Master would
thereby be obliged to manifest his divinity. If he
doubted that Jesus was the Messiah, and was not sure, he
may have wanted to put it to the test. But did he really
believe that the Master, when arrested and brought to
trial, would smite his enemies with the lightning of God?
Did he believe that if Jesus were really the Messiah he
would be glorified immediately after his arrest; that he
would be transfigured, as Peter and James and John had
seen him upon Mount Hermon? During the happy days
in Galilee, before the real troubles of Jesus began, Judas
may have believed that his Master was all-powerful ; but
it is extremely doubtful if he believed it any longer.

Judas went to the palace of the high priest and asked
to see Caiaphas. Notwithstanding the boldness of his
action, his heart beat very fast as he passed through the
wide doorway of the palace. The doorkeepers stared at
him, having already seen him with the Master from Naza-
reth. What did he want there, they wondered? When
Judas was left in an anteroom until his visit should be
announced to the high priest, the master of the palace,

JUDAS ISCARIOT 327

there was a great buzzing of tongues among the minions
of the priestly household. A disciple of Jesus of Naza-
reth ! The man who carried the money-bag and bought
supplies in the markets! We may be sure that the
servants made coarse jokes, and asked each other if the
treasurer of the Galilean prophet had come with his
money-bag to bribe the high priest. The servant boys
jeered covertly at him, and winked at each other.

As Judas waited in the anteroom of the high priest, it
is possible that the desire to run away came suddenly
over him. It was not yet too late. He could tell those
jeering boys that it was all a mistake, and walk swiftly
out of the palace. But he did not do it. He still sat
there and waited until Caiaphas should send for him.

In the council chamber of the palace the high priest
was with his father-in-law, Annas, and the other priests
and scribes and elders. At the very moment when a
servant came to announce that a disciple of the prophet
from Nazareth was below and wanted to see the high
priest, they were talking about Jesus. Caiaphas had
just repeated his former saying, to the effect that Jesus
and Judaism could not both continue to exist.

Old Annas, who had been high priest before Caiaphas,
and who still retained his influence over the councillors and
over his son-in-law, was the most powerful enemy of Jesus.
Like all the priests of Jerusalem, these two men were
of the Sadducees, the Jewish sect which did not believe in
the resurrection, and whose members therefore held even
more rigidly to the forms of their religion. Believing in
no future life, they wanted to get everything possible out
of this life. And it was a nice and fat and comfortable
position — that of high priest in Jerusalem.

Caiaphas was devoted to the Komans, and did every-
thing he could to please them — everything, that is,

328 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

which would not jeopardise his own position among the
Jews.

It is easy for one who has ever lived in an oriental
country, under the rule of a European empire, to picture
Caiaphas, the ambitious and scheming native leader, who
curries favour with his masters by adopting their vices,
and who only seeks to hold control over his own people
because it is by reason of that control that he is petted by
his rulers.

If the religion of Jesus should make headway among
the Jews, Caiaphas reasoned, the high priest himself
would lose influence with them; and if he lost influence
among his own people he would lose influence also with
the Romans, who made use of him for their own ends,
and, as he served those ends, piled honours on him — but
not otherwise.

Old Annas, on the contrary, hated Jesus for quite
another reason. He had retained more of his Jewish feel-
ing than had the present high priest ; he was less modern
(using the word in the sense in which it must have been
used about the year 30 a. d. ) and his hatred of Jesus was
intensely bigoted. It was the self-proclaimed Messiah
who aroused the wrath of Annas.

Let us take a little liberty of imagination, and try to
picture that council of priests and elders, all of them old
or middle-aged, sitting together in an inner room of the
palace and debating what they could do to get rid of
Jesus. Their faces were long and serious, their eyes
sharp, their foreheads wrinkled with frowns. How dared
this Nazarene, they snarled, disturb the peace of Jeru-
salem? What were the times coming to, when any self-
styled prophet could come into the Temple and preach a
new doctrine? Annas, the conservative old Jew, suggested
that it all came from permitting their sons to study

JUDAS ISCARIOT 329

Greek; but the more modern Caiaphas reminded him that
the people who followed Jesus knew nothing of the cult-
ure of the Greeks, and very little of the Jewish. Annas
believed that society was being destroyed by tolerating
new things. Caiaphas had no objection to new things
because they were new; but he objected to Jesus because
he was dangerous to law and order. And of course law
and order meant the law and order of Caiaphas. The
human heart has changed little from those far days until
now.

But however the councillors might disagree as to the
reasons why the people followed Jesus, they were of one
mind in their desire to get rid of him. And one after
another suggested plans by which they might take Jesus
and kill him. One of the scribes, a mere bookworm who
had no judgment where practical things were concerned,
suggested that they fall upon Jesus in the Temple and
carry him away; but the wiser and more subtle priests
pronounced this plan absurd, because the Nazarene was
too popular with the crowds. To do such a thing openly
would be to bring down upon their heads the wrath of the
multitude.

No, the more worldly among them reasoned, it would
be necessary to do whatever they had to do as quietly as
possible. Caiaphas, of course, was for having it done in
accordance with the Roman law. This would be easy, if
they could make it seem that Jesus was a blasphemer
against the Jewish religion, for the Romans gave the
Jews great freedom in matters of religion — in order that
they might control them the better in worldly matters.
That is always the way of wisdom and of least resistance
on the part of the rulers of oriental empires.

One plan after another was suggested and discarded,
as being too dangerous. The old priests thought Caiaphas

330 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

was too tolerant, Caiaphas thought the old priests were
too bigoted. Caiaphas did not really care whether Jesus
was a blasphemer or not ; but of course he did not say so
— he was far too wise for that. So long as the others,
and especially Annas, helped him to get rid of Jesus,
what did their motives matter to him?

It was finally agreed that they must not kill Jesus dur-
ing the feast of the Passover, which began two days hence,
on Friday night, lest there should be an uproar among the
people. No, they had better not wait until then, but act
quickly. In order to do that, it would be necessary to
know where Jesus spent his time when he was not in the
Temple. Of course, in those days there were no news-
papers to give details of the private actions and haunts
of noted men, and the gossip of an oriental city can never
be depended upon for accuracy. Indeed, a dozen differ-
ent men might say that the Nazarene was in a dozen dif-
ferent places at any given time. They would need to
have accurate information as to the whereabouts of Jesus
when he was away from the multitude. They all began
to discuss the question as to how they could best obtain
that information.

Then into this wrangling assembly (for the Jews
always wrangled, even in the palace of the high priest)
came a servant, timidly, apologetically, and whispered
something to Caiaphas. Every one else looked curiously at
the two. They saw Caiaphas start, they heard him ask the
servant to repeat what he had said, they saw the look of
astonishment deepen on the face of the high priest.
Then he nodded to the servant, who withdrew, and
Caiaphas turned to his fellow-councillors with the simple
statement :

"A disciple of Jesus of Nazareth who desires to see

JUDAS ISCARIOT 331

Bombshells had not been invented in those days, so I
will not liken the astonishment of the councillors to that
following the explosion of a bombshell. I will say,
instead, that if the Temple buildings had suddenly fallen,
these men would not have been more surprised. After a
moment of stupefied silence, they all began talking at
once.

A disciple of the Nazarene? What could the man
want? Had he come on behalf of his Master to seek
reconciliation with the priests? Impossible! The per-
son who suggested that could have little knowledge of
Jesus ! Which of the disciples was it? Oh, what differ-
ence did that make! On the contrary, it made much
difference. Were not all Galileans alike? But there was
one among the disciples of the Nazarene who was not a
Galilean. Oh, yes — the man from Kerioth! An ugly-
looking fellow, perhaps it was he. It surely could not be
the young and handsome one — for even in Jerusalem the
comeliness of John was a subject of comment. Well, they
would soon know. Where was the man, and why did he
not come in?

Finally the door was again opened, and Judas stood
on the threshold. Oh, yes, said some one, it was the man
from Kerioth ! The priests all looked at Judas as if he
were some strange kind of wild animal, dropped suddenly
down among them. And Judas, indeed, felt rather wild
as he stood there in the doorway of the council chamber,
before that company of learned men — for to the simple
Jews of the lower classes the high priests and scribes of
Jerusalem were prodigies of learning.

Caiaphas asked Judas to come in, and the door was
closed behind him. The betrayer of his Master was alone
with his Master's enemies.

The scene which took place in that room in the high

332 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

priest's palace was almost too terrible to describe. The
Christian world has shuddered at it ever since. There
was made there that Wednesday a deliberate compact
between the high priests and Judas, in which the latter
promised to do all that the priests desired. But before
he made that promise, he asked them how much money
they would give him.

This man whom Jesus had loved and called his disci-
ple, this man who had wandered with the master along
the pleasant ways of Galilee, who had eaten with him
from the same dish and drank from the same cup, who
had listened to his teaching and had sat at his feet, who
had seen him still the tempest on the lake of Gennesaret,
who had lain near him under the stars and had stood
beside him at the bedside of the dying, who had himself
preached the faith of Jesus, and had even cast out demons
and healed the sick, as all the other disciples had — this
man now sold his Master.

We are told that the high priests "covenanted with
him for thirty pieces of silver." It is likely that the
Jewish priests first offered him less than thirty silver
pieces, and that Judas stood out for a higher price. Was
not the service which he had to sell really worth more
money to the high priests? It was a unique service,
Judas must have argued, a service which no one else
would perform. He knew all the habits and all the
haunts of Jesus, and no one else whom the high priests
could buy had this intimate knowledge. Yes, at last they
agreed to give him thirty silver pieces. It seemed a
great deal of money to Judas, who had always been a poor
man. Perhaps he could have got more, if he had in-
sisted. Whatever his feelings were, we know that he
fulfilled his agreement.

But in order to fulfil his agreement and earn his

JUDAS ISCARIOT 333

thirty silver pieces, it was necessary for him to return to
Jesus and his fellow-disciples, that he might inform the
priests as to what they were doing. And Judas con-
curred in all the plans of his new associates, as he had
formerly concurred in all the plans of his Master. The
efficient treasurer became now the efficient spy.

After he left the high priest's palace, it is likely that'
he walked about alone for awhile, forming his plans. By
this time, the good angel of Judas, which Jesus had
recognised and had tried to help, must have spread its
white wings and flown away to heaven, leaving Judas to
the fate which he had deliberately chosen.

You have read, in Milton perhaps, about the fall of
the rebel angels. Here was the fall of a man who had
been a disciple, and who might have become a saint.
And his reward was to be thirty pieces of silver!

CHAPTER XXXII

THE LAST SUPPER

It was Thursday, the day following that on which
Judas had covenanted with the high priests to betray his
Master. The unhappy man was now again with Jesus
and the other disciples, trying to behave as if nothing
had happened. The night before, after leaving Jeru-
salem, he had gone out with them, as usual, to the
Mount of Olives, and had laid himself down to sleep in
company with the Master whom he had sold. As he had
looked up at the shining stars, perhaps he had counted
thirty of them, reminding himself of the thirty pieces of
silver which he would earn on the morrow. It is diffi-
cult to enter into the soul of a man like Judas, and to
understand his feelings now. We may be certain, though,
that when he laid himself down to sleep that Wednesday
night, he chose a spot as far as possible from Jesus and
from the faithful John and Peter.

On Thursday, the disciples asked Jesus where he
wished them to prepare a place that he might eat the
Passover. And Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to
them:

"Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man
bearing a pitcher of water : follow him.

' ' And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the good
man of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guest-
chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my dis-
ciples?

335

336 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

' ' And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished
and prepared: there make ready for us."

The two disciples went into the city, as Jesus had told
them, and there they met a man carrying a pitcher of
water; and they followed him. When the man went into a
house, the disciples went in also. Then, seeing the
owner of the house, they said to him exactly what Jesus
had told them:

"The Master saith, Where is the guest-chamber, where
I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?"

And the owner of the house led the two disciples up-
stairs, and showed them a large upper chamber furnished
with a long table and with divans. And the two disci-
ples prepared a supper there for their Master and his
followers.

And in the evening Jesus came with his disciples to
the house which the two had found by following the man
with the pitcher of water. And they made ready to eat.

In the East men take off their shoes before meals, and
often, when they have been walking a long way and their
feet are tired and dusty, they bathe them before sitting
down at the table. That Thursday evening, when Jesus
and the twelve disciples were assembled in that upper
room in the strange house in Jerusalem, Jesus laid aside
his outer garments, and taking a large towel, he girded
himself. The disciples wondered what he was going
to do.

Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash
the tired and dusty feet of his disciples, and to wipe
them on the towel with which he was girded.

Peter was astonished that the Master should do this
humble service for those so much inferior to himself ; and
when Jesus came to the place where Peter was sitting, the
disciple said to him in amazement:

THE LAST SUPPER 337

"Lord, dost thou wash my feet?"

Jesus knew how Peter felt, and loved him all the bet-
ter for it; but there was a profound meaning in what he
did, and he wanted Peter to understand. So he said to
him, very gently :

"What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt
know hereafter. ' '

But Peter still shrank from letting the Master serve
him. He said:

' ' Thou shalt never wash my feet ! ' '

"If I wash thee not," answered Jesus, "thou shalt
have no part in me. ' '

The Master had always taught them by parables and
symbols, and now Peter understood a part at least of
what Jesus meant, so he assented gladly, saying :

"Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my
head," meaning that he wished Jesus by his love to
purify him completely.

"He that is washed, " replied "Jesus, "needeth not
save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And ye
are clean — but not all. "

As he said this, he glanced along the line of his disci-
ples, for he knew already in his heart that one of them
was false to him. But the other disciples did not know.

When Jesus had finished washing the feet of the
twelve men (including Judas), he put on his garments
again, and sat down. Then he said to 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, your Lord and Master, have washed your
feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.

' ' For I have given you an example, that ye should do
as I have done to you.

338 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not
greater than his lord ; neither he that is sent greater than
he that sent him."

And the disciples looked lovingly at one another, each
man (save Judas) wondering how he himself could
humbly serve the others, and so follow the beautiful
example in humility which the Master had given them.
This incident, like everything else which happened that
evening, was indelibly stamped upon the memories of
the faithful ones. The Master had washed them and had
made them clean, they felt. In future they must wash
one another — that is, they must help one another to be
pure. And they must also be humble, doing the lowest
services for all those who were weary and dusty from
walking the highways of life.

When they were gathered round the table at supper,
and were eating together, the face of Jesus grew very sad,
so sad that the faithful disciples wondered what new
sorrow was in his heart. Finally he said:

"Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with
me shall betray me. ' '

The men looked at one another with sorrowful faces,
shocked and grieved at the words of Jesus. To the
eleven it seemed impossible that a disciple of the Master
should betray him. But the heart of Judas leaped into
his throat, though he controlled his agitation.

Then one after another the disciples began to question
Jesus, saying, "Is it I?" "Is it I?" And Judas also
asked, even as the others, "Master, is it I?"

Jesus answered gravely, "It is one of the twelve, that
dippeth with me in the dish." Then he added:

' ' The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him :
but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed !
Good were it for that man if he had never been born."

THE LAST SUPPER 339

As they sat there at supper, John, the beloved disci-
ple, was leaning upon the bosom of the Master, so that he
could speak to him without being heard by the others.
And Peter beckoned to John, that he should ask Jesus
which man it was of whom he had spoken — which of
them it was who should betray him.

And John, bringing his mouth close to the ear of
Jesus, whispered to him :

"Lord, who is it?"

"He it is," answered the Master in a low tone, "he it
is, to whom I shall give the sop, when I have dipped
it."

Then Jesus took a morsel of bread in his hand, and
dipped it in the dish, and when he had dipped it, he
gave the sop to Judas Iscariot.

John, in telling the story afterward, said that when
Jesus had given him the sop, the devil entered into
Judas. By this we suppose he meant that the man's face
darkened with anger, and that he gave some violent
expression to his feelings. For Judas had always been
envious of John, and when he saw him there on the
Master's breast, and when he saw the glance of mutual
understanding which passed between John and Jesus
after the sop had been given to him, the pent-up jealousy
in the heart of Judas must have burst all bounds. He had
now no longer a reason for concealing his perfidy, for it
had been discovered.

Jesus said to Judas :

' ' What thou doest, do quickly. ' '

Judas turned, and went immediately out of the sup-
per-room. No one but John knew what the Master had
meant in telling him to do quickly that which he had to
do. The others supposed that, as Judas still had the
money-bag, Jesus had told him to buy those things which

340 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

they had need of for the feast of the Passover, which fell
upon the morrow ; or that he should give something to the
poor. It was not until afterward that they knew.

When Judas had gone out, Jesus said to the others
that now the Son of man was glorified, and that God was
glorified in him. He meant that the betrayal by Judas
was a part of that glorification which Judas had so de-
sired to see, and which only began now that he was gone
to betray his Master to the high priests. Had Judas
heard those words, they would have seemed to him
ironical.

"Little children," said Jesus tenderly to the eleven
faithful ones, "yet a little while I am with you. Ye
shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go,
ye cannot come; so now I say to you.

1 ' A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love
one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one
another.

"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples,
if ye have love one to another. ' '

Simon Peter said to him:

"Lord, whither goest thou?"

"Whither I go," Jesus repeated, "thou canst not
follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterward."
Then he added :

' ' All ye shall be offended because of me this night : for
it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of
the flock shall be scattered abroad.

' ' But after I am risen again, I will go before you into
Galilee."

The honest face of Peter was shining with love for his
Master. He came close to him now, and said :

' ' Though all men shall be offended because of thee,
yet will I never be offended. ' '

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"Verily I say unto thee," replied Jesus, "that this
night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. ' '

Peter insisted that though he should die with the
Master, he would never deny him; and all the others said
the same. But no man knows what even an hour may bring
forth, and Peter and his friends could not have imagined
the trials they would pass through that night — before the
crowing of the cock in the morning.

It was on this last evening which Jesus spent with his
disciples that he established the sacrament which is
known as the Lord's Supper. Now that he was going
away from them, he wanted to leave with them some-
thing, some rite, which they should do in remembrance
of him — they feeling that he was actually with them in
the spirit while they were doing it.

So, while they were still seated round the table, he
took the bread in his hands, and gave thanks to God, and
blessed the bread; then he broke it into pieces, and gave
a morsel to each of the eleven men, saying as he did so:

"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you:
this do in remembrance of me. ' '

Then he took the cup of wine in his hands, and when
he had given thanks to God and blessed the wine, he
gave it to them to drink, one after another, saying:

"This cup is the new testament of my blood, which is
shed for you. ' '

No words could describe the beauty and tenderness of
Jesus as he gave to his disciples this first sacrament of
the Lord's Supper. They felt, as the morsel of bread
touched their lips and as they tasted the flavour of the
wine, that the Master's body and blood were really min-
gled with theirs, and that they were thus a part of him
forever.

Among those who have followed the religion of Jesus,

342 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

from that far day until now, this sacrament of the bread
and the wine has been taken. And those who have
received it, at the hands of the ministers of Christ, have
felt, as the eleven disciples felt that night, that they were
receiving the body and the blood of their Master, which
were thus mingled with theirs, and which made them one
with him. Behind this belief in the presence of Christ in
his sacraments there is a great mystery hidden.

When Jesus had given this sacrament to his disciples,
he said to them :

' ' I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine,
until that day when I shall drink it new with you in my
Father's kingdom. ' '

During all the time that these men had walked with
Jesus, they had never seen him so beautiful as he was
this evening — no, not even that night on Mount Hermon,
when three of them had beheld him transfigured and
shining with a supernatural light. After he had given
them the bread and the wine, it seemed to them that he
became — not less human and loving than before, but more
transcendently spiritual, more like the presence of God
Himself among them. His eyes were shining with a
tenderness that seemed beyond the tenderness of earth,
and there was a thrilling tone in his voice which made
their hearts almost stand still to listen.

Jesus told them not to let their hearts be troubled;
that in his Father's house were many mansions, and that
he went to prepare a place for them, that where he was,
there they might be also. And he said : ' ' Whither I go ye
know, and the way ye know. ' ' For he had told them so
many times that he was going to die, and to die by the
hands of his enemies, that it seemed to him they must
understand. But Thomas, who always wanted to have
everything explained to him, now said :

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"Lord, we know not whither thou goeet; and how can
we know the way?"

Jesus said to them :

"/ am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father but by me.

"If ye had known me, ye should have known my
Father also : and from henceforth ye know him, and have
seen him."

For Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that he
was God, that though he had walked upon the earth as a
man among men, he and God were one.

' ' Lord, ' ' said Philip now, ' ' shew us the Father, and
it sufficeth us. "

Then the Master asked Philip if he had been so long
with him, and yet he did not know him? He said that
whoever had seen him, had seen the Father; that the
words which he had spoken to them had not been spoken
of himself, but of the Father; and that the works which
he had performed were those of God Himself.

Jesus told them that whoever really believed in him
should do the same works which he had done — yes, they
should do even more than he had done, because he had
gone to his Father. By this Jesus meant that after he
had ascended into heaven, he could help them more than
he could on the earth — being nearer to God. This seemed
very strange and wonderful to the disciples, who listened
to their Master with shining eyes. And he told them
that if they should ask anything in his name, he would
do it for them. Then he added:

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

You will remember the new commandments which
Jesus had given to his disciples, that they should love
one another, and should love their neighbours as them-
selves.

344 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

These men were very sad at the thought that Jesus
was going to leave them, even though he was going to
his Father, whom they had learned to love for his sake.
But he said to them :

"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to
you. ' '

He said that in a little while the world would see
him no more; but that his disciples should see him, be-
cause he would really be living still. And because he
lived, they should live also.

Then he told them about the Comforter whom God
would send to them when he was gone; that this Com-
forter would be the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth which
the world cannot receive, because the world cannot see it
with its material eyes; but that the disciples could see
the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, for it
would dwell with them and be in them.

Jesus said that those who had his commandments and
kept them, really loved him, and that those who loved
him should be loved by his Father. Jesus himself would
love those that were faithful, and would manifest himself
to them. At that time the disciples did not fully un-
derstand in what form the Master would return to them ;
but his words lighted the flame of hope in their hearts,
that though he was going away, they should somewhere,
somehow, see him again — before the far-off coming of
the kingdom of heaven. Yet the faces of the disciples
were still sad, and Jesus said:

"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I
go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I."

It was hard for the eleven men who loved Jesus to
realise that even God the Father was greater than their
Master, though they could easily believe that God and Jesus
were one — because they loved Jesus so much. The idea

THE LAST SUPPER 345

of a God made flesh and dwelling among men, charmed
them as it has since charmed so many other beautiful
souls. Jesus had said that they could only know the
Father through him; and because he was so real and so
sympathetic and so dear to them, they now loved the
Father because the Father was one with the Son. They
had heard about Jehovah, the Jewish God, all their lives;
they had feared and reverenced Him, as the God who
spoke to Job out of the whirlwind; but until Jesus came
and told them that he was that God made flesh, they had
never really loved God. For reverence and fear are not
the same as love, and that is why Christianity has
triumphed over Judaism.

As they looked at the Master now, sitting there before
them so gentle and so sad, they tried to be glad that he
was going to his Father — because they felt that he wanted
so much to go. But they could not be glad, for it did
not seem as if they could live without him. Knowing
what was in their hearts, he began to teach them again,
using one of the beautiful symbols through which he
could teach them best. He said:

' ' I am the true vine, and my Father is the husband-
man.

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth
in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:
for without me ye can do nothing. ' '

The eyes of the faithful men were full of tears, so
keenly they felt the truth of what he said — that without
him they could do nothing.

"If ye abide in me," said Jesus, "and my words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be
done unto you. ' '

At that moment the disciples felt that the only thing
they wanted, the only thing they desired to ask of God,

346 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

was that Jesus should remain with them on earth — and
this they dared not ask. The eyes of every man were fixed
upon the face of their Master, so that the eleven seemed
to be one being. Jesus said again:

"This is my commandment, That ye love one another,
as I have loved you.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
down his life for his friends.

"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command
you.

' ' Henceforth I call you not servants ; for the servant
knoweth not what his lord doeth : but I have called you
friends ; for all things that I have heard of my Father I
have made known unto you."

The disciples must suddenly have asked themselves if
they really remembered all that Jesus had made known
to them — the things which he had heard of his Father.
He had taught them so much, and they were ignorant
men, and had probably written down but few of his say-
ings. But in the words which he spoke to them next, he
summed up his whole teaching:

"These things I command you, that ye love one an-
other. ' '

He had repeated this so often, that it might be im-
pressed upon their minds. Then he spoke to them again
about the future, and all they would have to endure for
his sake and the gospel's. He said:

' ' They shall put you out of the synagogues : yea, the
time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that
he doeth God service.

1 ' And these things will they do unto you, because they
have not known the Father, nor me. ' '

Though the lips of the disciples were silent, their
eyes pleaded:

THE LAST SUPPER 347

"Master, must you go away from us?"

" It is expedient for you that I go away, ' ' said Jesus :
4 ' for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto
you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. . . .

"A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again,
a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the
Father."

Some of the disciples were puzzled by these words, and
they asked each other what Jesus meant. They repeated
his words over to themselves, saying:

"What is this that he saith unto us, A little while?
We cannot tell what he saith. ' '

For not all the disciples understood the things which
Jesus had told them that night; but John understood.

Jesus knew what the puzzled ones wanted to ask him,
and he said, reading their thoughts:

"Do ye enquire among yourselves of what I said, A
little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little
while, and ye shall see me?

' ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep
and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be
sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned unto joy. . . .

' ' Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he
will give it to you.

' ' Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name : ask,
and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. . . .

' ' For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have
loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the
world : again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. ' '

And those who had been puzzled before now said to
Jesus :

"Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no
proverb. Now we are sure that thou knowest all things,

348 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

and needest not that any man should ask thee : by this we
believe that thou earnest forth from God. ' '

Jesus told them that the hour was come when they
should be scattered every man to his own, when they
should leave their Master alone ; but that he would not be
alone, because the Father was with him.

Then Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and prayed
that God would now glorify His Son, that the Son might
glorify Him. He said to God: "I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. "

And he prayed for his disciples whom he so much
loved, saying: "Holy Father, keep through thine own
name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be
one, as we are. . . . They are not of the world, even as I
am not of the world. ... As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which
shall believe on me through their word ; that they all may
be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us . . .

' ' Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given
me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my
glory, which thou hast given me : for thou lovest me before
the foundation of the world. ' '

And as the Master prayed thus, with his eyes upraised
to heaven, the disciples also felt their hearts going out to
the Father whom Jesus loved so much. He was to them
no longer the Jehovah who spake to Job out of the whirl-
wind; but He was indeed the loving Father of Jesus, and
through Jesus of themselves, and of all the world who
would accept Him as their Father. He was the One who
desired to dwell in their hearts, who looked out at them
from the eyes of all other men and women and little
children. Even those disciples who had been puzzled

THE LAST SUPPER 349

before were not puzzled any longer; for at last they under-
stood. Though a time of forgetfulness was to come to
them — and in a very little while — at this moment they
grasped the meaning of what Jesus meant when he said
' ' My Father. ' ' And as the Master prayed, they lifted their
eyes to heaven and prayed with him, wordlessly, follow-
ing his prayer with the assent of their souls.

This moment was the supreme moment of their lives.
They had never been so happy before — they would never
be so happy again. It seemed as if Jesus had caught
their spirits up in his hands and held them out to his
Father, as a parting gift from the world before he left it.

When the prayer was ended, and the eyes of Jesus
came back from heaven to the faces of his disciples, he
arose from his seat and beckoned them to follow him to
the Mount of Olives, where they usually spent the night.
In silence they passed out of the city of Jerusalem, and
across the brook Cedron, and into the Garden of Gethsem-
ane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

Jesus came into the Garden of Gethsemane with his
eleven disciples. It was a place which they all knew
well, for they had often been there with the Master.
Judas also knew the garden.

As they passed into the shadow of the olive-trees, the
peace which had shone in the Master's face during the
last supper vanished from him, and he was very sad. He
took Peter and James and John with him, and leaving
the other eight men behind, he said to them :

' ' Sit ye here, while I shall pray. ' '

Then with the three he went a little way off, and they
saw that he was heavy-hearted. His step had lost all its
lightness, and when he spoke to them, his voice seemed
to come from a long distance. He said:

' ' My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death : tarry ye
here, and watch with me. ' '

Then he went about a stone's throw away from the
men, and fell on his face on the ground. And he prayed
to God that if it were possible, the terrible things
which he foresaw for the next few hours might pass over
him, so that he would not be obliged to suffer them. For
Jesus knew that the time was now come when the Son of
man would have to endure all the sufferings which the
old prophets had foretold for him; that he would be be-
trayed, and buffeted, and spit upon, and killed by his
enemies.

351

352 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

' ' Abba, Father, ' ' he prayed, ' ' all things are possible
unto thee ; take away this cup from me : nevertheless not
what I will, but what thou wilt. "

He could not lie there long, he could not pray long,
for he was restless and tortured1 -in spirit. He felt ter-
ribly alone now, even when praying to the Father, and he
yearned for the companionship and comfort of his dearest
friends. Rising to his feet, he went back to the place
where he had left them — but Peter and James and John
were sound asleep ! He was astonished. How could they
sleep, knowing that this was his hour of anguish? Did
they not love him, after all? And he awoke them, saying
to Peter:

"Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch with
me one hour?"

The disciples were ashamed. They sat up and rubbed
their heavy eyes, staring at the Master, as he stood there
so tall and melancholy in the starlight. They were so
drowsy that his words made little impression on them at
the moment, though they remembered them afterward
with bitter sorrow. Jesus said:

"Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.
The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. ' '

Truly, indeed, was the spirit of Jesus ready to do all
that God demanded; but he was a man still, and he
shrank with human sensitiveness from the physical suffer-
ing that was in store for him. It is, perhaps, the human
suffering of Jesus which has most endeared him to man-
kind. Had he not suffered, they could not have realised
him as that intimate and human friend — the God made
flesh.

Leaving his three disciples to watch with him once
more, Jesus went back to the place where he had prayed.
And throwing himself again upon the ground, he turned

THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE 353

a second time to his Father in heaven — the God who had
given his beloved son a task so hard. And he prayed
again, as before, though with even greater intensity :

' ' 0 my Father, if this cup may not pass away from
me, except I drink it, thy will be done. ' '

During the centuries since that time, the men and
women who have tried to follow Jesus have repeated those
words when they were in trouble. Of all the sayings of
the Master, that is the hardest to repeat sincerely:
"Father, thy will be done." We say it in the Lord's
Prayer; but few have grasped its meaning, and fewer
still have really meant it when they spoke the words.
But Jesus could say it with sincerity and with full knowl-
edge of its import, even when it led him to the greatest
suffering of which the human being is capable — both of
the body and the mind.

When he had thus prayed again to his Father, repeat-
ing ' ' Thy will be done, ' ' he went back to the three men
whom he had left under the olive-trees. Surely this time
they would have watched with him and prayed.

But when he came to the place, instead of finding the
three in prayer, he saw them again extended upon the
ground — sound asleep. Whether or not their spirits
were ready, surely their flesh was weak.

When he awakened them a second time, they knew
not what to say to him. They had meant to watch and
to pray that God would keep them from temptation; but
the hour was late, and they were tired. Before they had
realised it, their heads had fallen upon their breasts, the
whispering of the wind through the trees had seemed a
lullaby, and they had sunk upon the ground in a deep
sleep. Whether or not they dreamed, we do not know;
but when they heard the voice of Jesus calling them
again, they sat up and gazed at him in shame and confu-

354 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

sion. Perhaps God permitted them to sleep, that Jesus
might learn that in the hour of sorrow there is no real
comforter except God. Every soul in deep trouble has to
learn that lesson.

Jesus left Peter and James and John, and went away
the third time. He was more sorrowful than ever, for
now he knew that he was utterly alone — save for the
Father. And he realised that every other soul, in its last
depth of pain, is also alone with God. The grief of all
the world rolled over him in a great flood, as he lay there
on the cold ground. He was going to die in order to
show the world where comfort might be found — but
would the world seek that comfort? If even his own dis-
ciples could not watch with him in this hour of his trial,
what hope was there for lesser men? He was now resigned
to death ; but one who loved humanity as Jesus loved it
could not be resigned to the pain of humanity.

What Jesus endured during that last prayer is too ter-
rible to write — almost too terrible to think. It is possible
that he suffered more in that hour alone than he suffered
the following day upon the cross. We are told that in
his agony he prayed more earnestly than before, and that
his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down
to the ground. Words cannot express such grief, nor can
the mind of a young person imagine it, nor his heart en-
dure it.

But when the anguish of Jesus was deepest, there
appeared to him an angel from heaven, giving him
strength. Was it the same angel that had come to Mary
the Virgin, in her little room that night so long ago, to
tell her that she had been chosen by God to be the mother
of the future Christ? Or was it the great angel Raphael,
who is said to be full of pity for the world? We do not
know. Men like to think of that angel hovering over

THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE 355

Jesus; and many of the world's great painters have tried
to picture him, wiping away the tears from the Master's
eyes, and soothing him with tender sympathy. Only an
angel could understand Jesus. The heavenly visitor did
not leave him until he had conquered his human shrink-
ing from a death of pain, and had risen above his grief
at the betrayal of Judas, and had left in the care of God
the woes of that humanity with which he had lived for
more than thirty years.

When Jesus arose from the ground the third time, he
was strong. The Messiah was ready for his glorification
by death, at the hands of those Jews whom he had sought
to bring to a knowledge of God. Perhaps, as he had lain
there on the ground before the appearance of the angel, he
had had a sudden and terrible vision of the future. Per-
haps he had seen the crimes which would be committed in
the name of that religion he had founded; how men
would misunderstand his teaching ; how they would turn
the living faith which he had tried to give them into the
formal dead letter of a creed almost as cold as that of the
Jews. But with the coming of the angel, and with the
heavenly strength the angel brought him, he could now
rise above everything — until death should give him
freedom.

When he came back the third time to his tired
friends, he no longer thought of himself at all; he only
thought with pity of their weakness, and of all they would
have to suffer during the coming hours, and ever thereafter
in memory. And he said to Peter and James and John :

"Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the
hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the
hands of sinners. ' '

But there was to be no sleep for the disciples that
night. After a moment, Jesus spoke again :

356 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

"Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at
hand."

Even with the words, they heard a sound of footsteps,
a murmur of voices, a clanking of weapons. Looking in
the direction from which the sounds came, they saw the
flickering lights of many lanterns, moving over the
ground in a wide, irregular semicircle, as if those who
bore them were searching for something.

The three disciples leaped to their feet, and the other
eight, who had been a short distance away, came running.
They had been awakened from sleep by the sound of the
approaching multitude.

As the crowd of men came closer, by the light of the
stars and of the lanterns, the disciples could see that
most of them were ruffians. They had swords and staves
in their hands, and they had come from the chief priests
and the scribes and the elders. But who was that at
their head — the man who seemed to be leading them?
The faithful disciples were amazed when they saw Judas
Iscariot. His face was terrible in the starlight, for there
was on it a strange expression — half triumph, half flicker-
ing shame. He turned away a moment, and those who
were nearest heard him say to the men behind him :

"Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him,
and lead him away safely. ' '

The crowd surrounded the place where Jesus stood
with his friends. It would have been impossible for
him to escape without violence, even had he wished to
escape.

In the uncertain light, the ruffians peered into one
face and another, not knowing which of the men was the
Master from Nazareth. But Judas went boldly up to
Jesus and kissed him, saying in a loud voice which could
be heard by the whole crowd :

THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE 357

"Master, Master!"

"Judas," said Jesus, "betrayest thou the Son of man
with a kiss?"

The look of mingled love and reproach in the Master's
eyes was more than the faithless disciple could bear. He
drew back, and hid himself behind his followers. At
that moment Jesus was very strong.

"Whom seek ye?" he said, turning to the men from
Jerusalem, who now pressed closer around him.

"Jesus of Nazareth," replied a dozen voices, hoarse
with excitement.

"I am he," said the Master, quietly.

To the disciples who stood by, it seemed that his
whole person expanded, that a strange power went out
from him; and John says that the men who were near
Jesus sank backward and fell upon the ground.

"Whom seek ye?" he asked, a second time.

"Jesus of Nazareth," they answered.

"I have told you that I am he," said Jesus. "If
therefore ye seek me, let these go their way. ' '

He made a motion toward his disciples, meaning that
the ruffians were to take him only, and let his friends go
free. But they did not want his friends — they only
wanted him. The disciples saw this, and when they
realised that the crowd meant violence to their Master,
they said to him :

"Lord, shall we smite with the sword?" For the men
from Galilee had two swords with them.

We do not know what answer Jesus made, if he made
any; for at that moment the rough men laid hands upon
him.

This was too much for Peter to endure. He drew his
sword and smote a servant of the high priest, named
Malchus, and cut off his right ear.

358 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Jesus placed his hand upon the servant's wound and
healed it. Then he said to Peter :

' ' Put up again thy sword into his place : for all they
that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

' ' Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father,
and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions
of angels?

"But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that
thus he must die."

Peter put away his sword, as the Master had com-
manded him.

Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the captains of
the Temple and the elders, who had also come with
Judas and the brutal crowd :

"Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and
with staves to take me? When I was daily with you in
the Temple, ye stretched forth no hand against me: but
this is your hour, and the power of darkness."

For reply, the ruffians bound Jesus, and took him.

When the disciples saw their Master thus, bound like
any malefactor and helpless in the hands of his enemies,
their courage vanished. It seemed to them that their
hearts were broken; but the more faithful of them did
not know that what they were yet to suffer would make
their present trouble seem as nothing. Casting a last
despairing glance at Jesus, they turned and fled, pushing
their way through the crowd which made no effort to
detain them. Where did they go? We do not know,
save for two of them, Peter and John, who followed after
their Master — but not too near.

As Jesus was hustled along toward Jerusalem in the
midst of this ruffianly multitude, there also followed
after him a certain young man dressed only in a linen
cloth, thrown hastily around his body, as if he had

THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE 359

arisen in the night and sought Jesus — perhaps to warn
him. We do not know the young man's name, but many-
have believed that it was Luke, the physician, who after-
ward was numbered among the apostles.

The ruffians, not knowing who the young man was or
what he wanted, laid hold upon him, catching in their
hands the linen cloth which was his only garment. But
he pulled himself away from them, leaving only the linen
cloth in their grasp, and fled away into the darkness of
the night. And the crowd, with Jesus in their midst,
hurried on toward Jerusalem.

Where Judas was now, we do not know. He had
done his work, he had won his reward of thirty pieces of
silver — the price of the Messiah of the Jews in the
priestly market of Jerusalem. The feelings of Judas at
this hour are almost unimaginable. Was he still follow-
ing behind the crowd, his treachery and disgrace hidden
among the shadows of the night? We know that he did
not meet any of the other disciples, or they would have
told us so% It is more likely that he plunged away alone
into the darkness, trying to elude even the glances of the
stars, which are very clear in the country of Palestine,
and which must have pierced his soul with their coldly
critical regard. Judging by what he did in the morning,
we may believe that he wandered about all night, sleep-
less, tortured, perhaps even praying to the God whom he
had outraged, that he would save Jesus from the cruelty of
the Jews.

CHAPTER XXXIV

IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES

When Peter and John saw Jesus in the hands of that
band of ruffians in the Garden of Gethsemane, they knew
not what to do. Why did he not manifest his power?
they asked each other. Why did he not call upon God
to free him? Surely the Father would come to the rescue
of the Son? All the other disciples had fled — John did
not even know where his brother James had gone.

They could see, in the distance ahead of them, the
nickering lights of the lanterns which the ruffians car-
ried ; they heard now and then a sharp voice which seemed
to give commands, and once or twice the strains of a
ribald song, for there were soldiers in the crowd. Where
were they going? What would they do to the Master?
Though Peter and John kept well behind, out of sight,
yet they were near enough to see and to follow the throng.
This was easy, for it was so late at night that the country
roads were quite deserted, and even when they entered the
city of Jerusalem they met almost no one.

As the crowd ahead made a sharp turn, John said to
Peter:

' ' Look, they are taking Jesus to the house of Annas ! ' '

You will remember that Annas was the old high

priest, the predecessor and father-in-law of Caiaphas ; and

though he was no longer in authority, yet his influence

among the Jews was even stronger than that of the pres-

361

362 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

ent high priest. John shuddered when he thought of his
Master at the mercy of that old bigot.

The two men saw Jesus taken into the house of Annas.
They waited in the street opposite, hiding in a doorway.
But they did not have to wait long, for after a few min-
utes the door of the house of Annas opened again, and
they saw Jesus pass out over the threshold, between two
of the high priest's servants. His hands were bound, as
if he had been a thief; and as the light from the lantern
hung over the doorway fell upon his face, the two disci-
ples clutched each other, with pity for their Master.
How white and sad he was ! They longed to throw them-
selves at his feet — but they dared not show their faces.
All the courage was gone out of them. They did not
even know what hour of the night it was, for the snatches
of troubled sleep which they had taken in the garden
while Jesus prayed had confused their minds. They
seemed to be walking in a nightmare where everything
was unreal, especially the white face of the Master.

They dared not even whisper to each other, for they
were too near the crowd. Their hearts beat so loud that
it seemed as if their enemies must hear them ; and when
the throng started down the street, they came so near to
the doorway in which Peter and John were hidden that
they nearly touched them in passing.

Following the crowd again, the two disciples came to
the palace of the high priest Caiaphas. There they saw
Jesus disappear into the palace, with those highest in
authority and with the servants of the high priests.

Now John was the only one of the disciples (except
Judas) who was known to the high priest and his house-
hold, and when he came to the palace of Caiaphas he
went in, after his Master, leaving Peter outside the door.
But he could not follow Jesus any farther than the main

IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 363

hall, for Jesus had been taken to the council-chamber,
and John was left with the officers and the servants of the
household.

Then he went out to the woman-servant who kept the
door, and asked if he might bring in his friend, and the
girl let Peter come in with John.

Peter was troubled by the way in which this damsel
looked at him. She was a very smart maid, being door-
keeper of the high priest, and she spoke in a supercilious
way of Jesus. Even the women-servants of the high
priest assumed an air of superiority over other mortals,
especially when their master was not present. Peter, a
simple Galilean, felt embarrassed in the presence of this
smartly attired domestic. Suddenly she turned to him,
saying:

"Art thou not one of this man's disciples?" Her
tone, when she spoke of Jesus as "this man," was offen-
sive in the extreme.

Now Peter was overwrought with anxiety for both his
Master and himself, and he did not know what was going
to happen next. He felt that at any moment he and
John might also be bound, like Jesus, and taken into that
terrible council-chamber.

So, when the maid-servant of the high priest, with her
superior tone, asked him if he were not also a disciple of
' ' this man, ' ' Peter answered :

' ' I am not. ' '

The other servants and officers who stood there in the
hall had made a fire of coals, for the night was cold.
And as they warmed themselves around the fire, Peter
came and stood with them, warming himself. The
servants all stared at him; and another maid, in appear-
ance much like the smart doorkeeper, now said to Peter:

"Art thou not also one of his disciples?"

364 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

"I am not," answered Peter, sullenly, a second time
denying his Master.

Then one of the men-servants of the high priest, a
kinsman of that Malchus whose ear Peter had cut off with
his sword in the Garden of Gethsemane, said to the
unhappy disciple:

"Did I not see thee in the garden with him?"

And another said : ' ' Surely thou art one of them, for
thy speech betray eth thee."

This made Peter angry, for he was very sensitive
about his Galilean accent, which had been much laughed
at in Jerusalem. And he began to curse and to swear,
saying:

" I know not the man.''''

Immediately the cock crowed, for it was nearly morn-
ing.

When Peter heard the crowing of the cock, he started
as if some one had struck him, for he remembered the
words which Jesus had said : ' ' Before the cock crow, thou
shalt deny me thrice. ' ' Leaving John and the servants
and officers still standing around the fire, he went out of
doors alone in the grey dawn and wept bitterly.

Peter had not meant to deny the Master ; he told him-
self now that he would gladly die for Jesus ; but the con-
temptuous tone of the pretty maid-servant as she had
said "this man," and the general air of cynical superior-
ity in the hall of the high priest's palace, and especially
that reference to his Galilean accent, had been too much
for Peter's loyalty. Not even the presence of John had
kept him from denying that he was a disciple of Jesus.
He wondered now what his fellow-disciple thought of
him!

The Bible does not tell us whether or not John came
out to Peter and comforted him ; but we like to think that

IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 365

he did. Peter never denied his momentary disloyalty.
In after years he frankly confessed it — confessed that he,
whom Jesus had called the foundation-stone of his
church, had, in the hour of temptation, forgotten his
Master's trust. For a moment, alone there in the grey
dawn, it must have seemed to Peter himself that he was
almost as false as Judas. It was a bitter hour for him.
When he realised what he had done, a terrible desire to
see Jesus rushed over him. He wondered what they were
doing to the Master in that council-room, whither he
could not go?

When Jesus had gone into the council-chamber, he
had found assembled there the priests and scribes and
elders, with Caiaphas. At last the time had come for
which the high priest had schemed and worked, and for
which he had also bribed Judas Iscariot for the sake of
the little help that he could give. The high priest now
had Jesus in his power.

You must understand that, although the Jews were
not rulers in their own land which was under the sway of
the Romans, in all matters of strictly religious import
the Romans did not interfere with the authority of the
high priests. To have done so would have provoked riots
and revolutions. This policy is still adopted by all
European empires in dealing with those oriental races
which are under their rule. The Jewish high priests had
not the legal right to carry out a sentence of death; but
if, in solemn council, they pronounced a man guilty of
blasphemy against the Jewish religion, which blasphemy
was punishable by death according to the Jewish law, the
Roman authorities would carry out the sentence.

Having failed to entangle Jesus with the Roman
authorities that time in the Temple, when they had ques-

366 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

tioned him as to whether it was lawful to give tribute to
Csesar, their only hope was to pronounce him guilty of
blasphemy against the Jewish faith, and then to hand him
over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, with a de-
mand that he be executed. To this end they were now
provided with false witnesses, who were ready to swear to
anything, no matter how absurd, which would cause Jesus
to be condemned for blasphemy.

Let us look into that council-chamber in the high
priest's palace — which the two disciples could not enter.

This Jewish council of priests, scribes, and elders was
called the sanhedrim. It was the Supreme Court of the
Jews. The members, who were many, satin a wide semi-
circle, with the high priest Caiaphas — president of the
sanhedrim — in the centre of the curve. Opposite Caia-
phas, at a little distance, stood the accused man Jesus,
bound and at the mercy of his questioners, all of whom
were determined to condemn him.

It was still some time before daylight, and the large
room was lighted by lamps. The face of every member
of the sanhedrim was set in rigid lines, while his eyes
blazed with determination to wreak vengeance at last upon
the daring Galilean who had called them hypocrites and
perverters of the law.

The high priest began by questioning Jesus in regard
to his doctrines and his disciples. What had he taught
the people? Caiaphas asked, and what secret doctrine
had he taught to his own friends?

"I spake openly to the world," Jesus answered; "I
ever taught in the synagogues, and in the temple, whither
the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.
Why askest thou me? Ask them which heard me, what
I have said unto them : behold they know what I said. ' '

Jesus had spoken gently; yet one of the officers of the

IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 367

Temple who stood by, struck him with the palm of his
hand, saying roughly:

"Answerest thou the high priest so?"

"If I have spoken evil," replied Jesus, with great
dignity, "bear witness of the evil; but if well, why
smitest thou me?"

It was then that they called the false witnesses ; but
though many testified against him, there was nothing in
what they said which could prove Jesus worthy of death,
even under the rigid Jewish law. But at last they found
two witnesses who declared :

"This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of
God, and to build it in three days."

The high priest arose in his seat, in the middle of the
semicircle. He looked very tall and powerful, and the
lamps cast a pale yellow light over his face, making him
look like a statue cut in ivory. The assembled elders and
scribes and priests gazed at Caiaphas with admiration,
as he stood there looking so tall and judicial.

"Answerest thou nothing?" said Caiaphas to Jesus,
when the witnesses had testified. "What is this, which
these witness against thee?"

But Jesus would not reply; because, as has been so
well said, a lie that is half the truth is ever the meanest
of lies, and when the Master had declared that he could
rebuild the temple of God in three days, he had referred
to the temple of his body — the dwelling-place of the Most
High.

When the high priest saw that Jesus would make no
answer to this insincere accusation, he said to him :

"I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us
whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. ' '

"Thou hast said," replied Jesus, looking Caiaphas
full in the face. "Nevertheless I say unto thee, Here-

368 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

after shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand
of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. ' '

When the high priest heard the answer of Jesus, he
rent his garment, which was a sign among the Jews when
something was too terrible to be endured. And he cried
to the assembled members of the sanhedrim :

' ' He hath spoken blasphemy ; what further need have
we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his blas-
phemy. ' '

It seems strange to us that the Jews, who had been
waiting so long for their Messiah, should declare that
Messiah guilty of blasphemy against the Jewish religion
when he implied that he was the Son of man, a name
they had for the Redeemer for whom they pretended — and
possibly believed — that they were waiting. But such was
the way of the Jewish hierarchy.

"What think ye?" cried the high priest now, looking
at the assembled company. And as with one voice these
cruel councillors answered:

"He is guilty of death. ' '

Then all their long-controlled malice was let loose.
Their anger and hatred of Jesus, which had made them
wretched for months whenever they had thought of him
and of his noble arraignment of their own hypocrisy, now
found a vent. Some of them even went up and spat in the
face of the Master, as he stood there alone and quiet and
dignified in the midst of his powerful enemies. Others
pushed him back and forth, and still others held a scarf
over his eyes, while their neighbours struck him with their
hands, saying mockingly:

' ' Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who was it that smote
thee?"

If they had done nothing worse to Jesus, the shame
of that scene in the council-chamber of the high priest,

IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 369

where the most dignified men of the nation did and per-
mitted such things, would be a blot upon the Jewish race
forever. But these insults and blows were but the com-
mencement of what the priests and scribes and elders in-
tended to do with Jesus, the gentle Master from Galilee,
whose new law was that men should love one another;
whose crime was that men loved him better than they
loved the high priests; whose blasphemy was that he
called himself the Son of man.

Having convicted him of that blasphemy, according
to their law, they prepared to conduct him to the Roman
governor, Pontius Pilate, whom they believed (for polit-
ical reasons) that they could mould to their cruel will.
The whole company of priests and scribes and elders, with
Jesus bound in their midst, left the palace of the high
priest, and sought the judgment hall of Pontius Pilate.
It was now day, and they exchanged the lamplight of the
council-chamber for the light of the morning sun in the
streets of Jerusalem.

It was at this time that a terrible thing happened.
As it was still too early in the morning to see Pontius
Pilate at the governor's hall of judgment, the priests and
elders must have stopped for a few minutes in the Temple,
leaving Jesus bound in the hands of the soldiers.

Judas Iscariot came to the Temple. He had been
wandering about all night, and now, with the coming of
the daylight, he returned to the scene of his treachery.
Judas had seen Jesus standing bound in the custody of
the soldiers, and he now learned that his former Master
had been condemned to death by the sanhedrim. The false
disciple was on the verge of madness. That sight of the
Master, alone with the insolent servants of those enemies
who had condemned him to death, was too much for the
faithless friend who had once loved him. For Judas had

370 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

seen other Roman executions in Judsea, and he knew what
was in store for Jesus.

Trembling in every limb, his face livid with grief and
terror at the part which he himself had played in this
tragedy, Judas sought out the chief priests and elders as
they waited there in the Temple. And he tried to return
to them the thirty pieces of silver, the price of his own
perfidy, saying in a voice hoarse with horror:

' ' I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent
blood."

But the rich priests hardly deigned to look at the pal-
try sum of money which had been the price of Judas 's
dishonour. They were too much absorbed in what they
had still to do at the hall of judgment, to give more than
a passing glance at this cheap tool which they had used
and thrown away. And when Judas declared his peni-
tence, they merely shrugged their shoulders, saying care-

' ' What is that to us? See thou to that. ' '
Then Judas, when he realised that they would not take
back the money, flung it down on the pavement of the
Temple ; and he went out again into the streets of Jerusa-
lem, which would be horrible to him forevermore.

The voice of Jesus rang in his ears, as he had heard it
the night before when he had kissed the Master: "Judas,
betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" He knew
that he would hear that voice until his death ; knew that he
would have before his eyes as long as he lived, the sad
and loving and reproachful eyes of Jesus, as he had seen
them the night before in the light of the lanterns, and as
he had seen them again this morning, when the Master
stood bound and condemned in the hands of the soldiers
who would soon lead him to his death. And the heart of
Judas broke.

IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 371

He could no longer endure his life. His only ques-
tion was — how he could quickest die. He found a rope,
and hurried with it to a lonely place that he knew just
outside the city. And there he hanged himself.

The false disciple had gone by his own act to the
judgment of the God whom he had outraged. This
terrible thing took place while Jesus was waiting to be
conducted to the hall of Pontius Pilate, so that the
treacherous disciple found death before his Master found
it. It was a da^ of death.

When Jesus with his enemies came to the Roman hall
of judgment, the Jews would not go in. To have done
so, would have made them unclean and unable to celebrate
the feast of the Passover — according to their law.

So Pontius Pilate, the governor, came outside the hall
and talked with the Jews in the open air. When he saw
Jesus bound, and standing before him, he was surprised
that a man with such a gentle and beautiful face should
be brought to him as a malefactor. And he said to the
priests, the scribes and the elders:

"What accusation bring ye against this man?"

"If he were not a malefactor," they answered, "we
would not have delivered him up unto thee. ' '

Then they began to accuse Jesus before the Roman
governor, saying:

' ' We found this fellow perverting the nation, and for-
bidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is
Christ a King. ' '

Pilate was annoyed at being called upon to mix him-
self in the affair. He had already heard of Jesus ; and if,
as was asserted, the young Master had by his teaching
weakened the hold of the Jewish law upon the people, so
much the better for the Roman authorities. For the Jew-

372 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

ish law, with its bigotry and minute distinctions, was a
never-ending source of perplexity to the Roman governor.
Pilate himself had failed in his attempt to understand
these people whom he had been sent to govern, and it
seemed to him that they were always trying to involve him
in needless trouble, and to entangle him in their tiresome
quarrels. So now, when they accused Jesus of seeking to
pervert the nation, and turned him over to Pilate to be
punished, the governor said to them, impatiently :

"Take ye him, and judge him according to your
law."

But Jesus had already been judged according to the
law of the sanhedrim, and had been pronounced a blas-
phemer worthy of death. And the priests and elders now
persisted in their demand that Pilate should take a hand
in the affair; for, as they said to him:

"It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. ' '

Pilate went back into the hall of judgment, and gave
orders that Jesus should be brought to him there. The
two were now face to face, the portly and overfed Roman
governor, weary of his duties in Jerusalem among a
people who hated him, and the slender young Galilean
prophet, with the refined and sweet face — so different to
the mass of his countrymen. The quiet manners of Jesus
made a deep impression upon Pilate, who was accustomed
to deal with the talkative and ever- wrangling Jews. He
looked at Jesus long and steadily, wondering what he
should do with him. Finally he said — being obliged to
say something:

"Art thou the King of the Jews?"

Jesus answered:

"Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell
it thee of me?"

Pilate was offended by this reply of Jesus, offended

IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 373

that a Jewish prophet should assume that he took suffi-
cient interest in the aspirations of this people to have an
idea of his own about one of them. And he said to
Jesus :

"Am I a Jew?" which was the same as saying, "What
do I know about your petty quarrels?" And he contin-
ued: "Thine own nation and the chief priests have de-
livered thee unto me: What hast thou done?"

"My kingdom is not of this world," said Jesus,
answering Pilate's first question as to whether he was the
King of the Jews. "If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight, that I should not be de-
livered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from
hence. ' '

"Art thou a king then?" asked Pilate. He was be-
coming more and more interested in this unusual prisoner,
who was charged with making himself out a king. Surely
he looked like one.

"Thou sayest that I am a king," replied Jesus. "To
this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every
one that is of the truth heareth my voice. ' '

"What is truth?" asked Pilate, with a touch of phil-
osophic pride. He was weary of the Greek philosophers
and their jargon, as he called it, and here was a Jew using
the same abstract terms, which to the skeptical Roman
had no meaning. Jesus now appeared to him as a harm-
less dreamer, and he was less inclined than ever to do
him harm. He went out again to the Jews, and said to
them:

"I find in him no fault at all. "

But the priests and scribes and elders were more fierce
than ever, for they saw that Pilate was not willing to lend
himself to their scheme. Without his consent they could

374 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

do nothing. And they now began to arraign Jesus more
severely, saying:

"He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all
Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. "

"Is the man a Galilean?" asked Pilate, eagerly. An
idea had occurred to him by which he might escape this
troublesome business.

"He is of Galilee," replied the Jews.

Then Pilate left them, and going back to Jesus in the
judgment hall, he gave orders that the prisoner should be
conducted to Herod, the Tetrarch of Galilee, who was in
Jerusalem at that time. When Pilate saw Jesus led
away, he breathed a sigh of relief. He did not know how
soon he should see him again.

Now Herod was very glad when he heard that Jesus
had been sent to him for judgment, for he had long de-
sired to see him. The rumours of the miracles performed
by the Galilean had appealed to his vivid imagination.
When Jesus was brought before Herod, the Tetrarch asked
him many questions touching his miraculous works and
his teaching. But Jesus would answer nothing; for he
knew that all this formality of questioning, all this send-
ing of him from one tribunal to another, was a mere
mockery. He had been condemned by the sanhedrim, the
members of which would manage, somehow, to have their
sentence of death carried out. And Jesus was already
very weary.

He longed for the death which was now certain, he
longed to be at rest in the bosom of the Father whom he
loved.

As Jesus stood there before Herod, the priests and
scribes who had followed him to the palace vehemently
accused him, charging him again with seeking to pervert
the nation, and with stirring up revolt against the pay-

IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 375

ment of tribute to Caesar. For the Jews now realised that
their only hope of getting Jesus killed was by making out
that he was a danger to the authorities.

But Herod refused to take them seriously. And he
did not take Jesus seriously, either. Was this gentle-faced
Galilean, who made no answer either to the questions of
the Tetrarch nor to the accusations of the priests, really
the man about whom so much noise had been made? It
seemed preposterous. If Jesus had brought a brazen ser-
pent to life, or had caused roses to spring out of the
marble pavement of the palace, it might have made some
impression upon this superstitious and degenerate de-
scendant of the Herods. But a man who merely stood in
silence before his accusers, a miracle-worker who did not
even try to unbind his own hands — what folly was this !
So thought the Tetrarch, to whose unsteady shoulder
Pontius Pilate had sought to shift his burden of judgment.

And Herod and his men of war mocked Jesus. And
arraying him in a gorgeous robe, befitting his title of
King of the Jews, the Tetrarch sent him back to Pilate.

When the Roman governor heard that Jesus was again
in the judgment hall, he knew not what to do. As he
was considering the matter, and had sat down again upon
the judgment seat, his wife sent a messenger to him,
saying:

1 ' Have thou nothing to do with that just man : for I
have suffered many things this day in a dream because of
him."

This message increased the anxiety of Pilate ; for, like
many men, he knew that women are sometimes gifted
with an intuition more true and subtle than the cold
judgment of their brothers.

There was only one expedient he could think of, and
he now determined to try it. It was the custom of the

376 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Roman authorities in Judaea, at the annual feast of the
Passover, to seek the good will of the Jews by releasing
some Jewish prisoner whom the Jews themselves should
select, as a kind of peace offering in honour of the sacred
season. He would offer to release Jesus. And going out
again to the assembled people, he said to them :

' ' Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that per-
verteth the people; and, behold, I, having examined him
before you, have found no fault in this man touching
those things whereof ye accuse him.

"No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him, and, lo,
nothing worthy of death is done unto him.

' ' I will therefore chastise him, and release him. Ye
have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the
Passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the
King of the Jews?"

But the priests and scribes and elders were not to be
baulked in this way. It seemed to them that Pilate
mocked at them, for they could not know that he was sick
at heart. And they protested violently at the suggestion,
crying:

' ' Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas. ' '

Now Barabbas was a Jew who had been cast into prison
by the Romans for causing a real sedition in the city,
which had resulted in murder. Barabbas was very popu-
lar among the Jews, who, like most subject races, were
nearly all seditious in their hearts, whatever concessions
to the power of their conquerors their judgment or their
fear might dictate. Pilate now sought to appease the
Jews by promising to release Barabbas in honour of the
Passover. Then he spoke again of Jesus ; but they only
cried, louder than before :

' ' Crucify him ! Crucify him ! ' '

"Why, what evil hath he done?" demanded Pilate,

IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 377

for the third time. ' ' I have found no cause of death in
him: I will therefore chastise him and let him go."

But again the terrible cry, ' ' Crucify him ! Crucify
him!" arose from a hundred throats. And looking down
from his high place above the crowd, the Roman governor
saw a tossing sea of upturned human faces — a sea whose
every little wave seemed to be a dark eye blazing with the
light of hatred.

The perplexity of Pilate increased. Jesus was falsely
charged with calling himself "King of the Jews"; and
for the Roman governor to show favour to one who bore
such a title in Caesar's dominions, might compromise him-
self. Already some of the acts of Pilate in Judsea had
been severely criticised in Rome.

Partly to gain time, we suppose, and in order to evade
if possible the demand of the Jews that the Galilean be
crucified, Pilate commanded that Jesus should be scourged,
and to that end he turned him over to the ruffianly sol-
diers under his command.

The scene that followed was revolting beyond descrip-
tion. The very thought of it has, for nearly nineteen hun-
dred years, aroused the wrath of the world against the
Jews who caused it, and against Pilate who permitted it.
The ribald Roman soldiers cruelly whipped Jesus. Then
they platted a crown of thorns and put the torturing
thing upon his head ; they dressed him in a purple robe,
and put a reed in his hand for a sceptre — to ridicule his
title of King of the Jews. And as the soldiers filed past
him, they struck him and spit upon him, crying mock-
ingly:

"Hail, King of the Jews! Hail, King of the Jews!"

Then Pilate again brought Jesus to the open-air tri-
bunal, before the Jews who were still assembled outside
the judgment-hall. He was dressed in the purple robe

378 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

and the crown of thorns, and on his pallid face were drops
of blood. Not a word he uttered now, and his look of re-
signed dignity in suffering only made the Jews more de-
termined that he should die.

"Behold the man!" cried Pontius Pilate, his voice
hoarse with emotion and with anger at these terrible
people whom he had been sent to govern, but who seemed
now to be governing him.

' ' Crucify him ! Crucify Mm /" The cry came from all
directions, for besides the priests and the scribes and the
elders, there were many others in that throng who had
resented the name of hypocrite which Jesus had bestowed
on them.

Pilate was now thoroughly excited. He cried to the
Jews below:

"Take ye him, and crucify him yourselves; for I find
no fault in him. ' '

The Jews answered, implacably :

' ' We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, be-
cause he made himself the Son of God. ' '

When Pilate heard those words he was more afraid
than ever. There was certainly something godlike about
this man, who had not even cried out under the lashes of
the soldiers, and who now stood in that crown of thorns
and that burlesque purple robe, as if he bore indeed the
royal title with which they mocked him. And Pilate
went back still another time into the judgment-hall, and
called Jesus to him.

"Whence art thou?" he asked, in desperation and
bewilderment.

But Jesus gave him no answer. His thoughts were
with his Father, and all this medley of faces and of voices,
of idle questions and of useless goings back and forth
from judgment-hall to street-tribunal, seemed like the

IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES 379

movements of figures in a dream. Only the lashes of the
soldiers had seemed real.

When Pilate saw that Jesus did not answer, he said
to him:

' ' Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that
I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release
thee?"

Pilate could not understand a man, in such a strait as
this man was in, who made no effort to save himself from
death.

"Thou couldst have no power at all against me,"
Jesus said, ' ' except it were given thee from above : there-
fore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. ' '

Then Pilate went out still another time to the Jews,
seeking yet for some means to save Jesus. But the Jews
would not even listen to him. They cried:

"If thou let this man go, thou art not Csesar's friend:
whoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. ' '

In the whole history of the world there were never words
spoken more contemptible than those. Their insincerity
was worthy of the source from which they came — the cor-
rupt and worldly Jewish priesthood, who hated Jesus be-
cause his power over the people threatened their own fat
privileges, and who now took advantage of the weakness
of Csesar's governor, whose rule they themselves loathed
and secretly execrated, making a weapon of their own
pretended loyalty to the Eomans, in order to compass the
death of a man who had never spoken one word against
Caesar.

The hatred and contempt with which the Christian
world has regarded the Jews as a race is wrong. It was
not the Jewish people who killed Jesus, it was the Jewish
priesthood. Yet, in the face of this scene of hypocrisy,
one can at least understand the Christian's prejudice

380 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

against the Jew. We should do all we can to overcome
that prejudice, because it is unfair ; the Jews of our day-
did not kill Jesus. Yet there may be a racial justice,
as well as an individual justice; and when contemplating
this scene — even through the mists of the ages — we invol-
untarily clench our hands with anger. To kill Jesus was
bad enough, but to kill him through a pretended loyalty
to Caesar was a climax of hypocrisy which stands with-
out rival in the history of earth's abominations.

The appeal to the hidden cowardice of the imperial
governor served its ruthless purpose. Pilate foresaw the
report that would be sent to Rome : that he had favoured
a Jew who sought to usurp the power of the Emperor.
The timid man was afraid of losing his office !

"Away with him! Crucify him! " still cried those
terrible voices from below. And when Pilate, in one last
effort, demanded:

"Shall I crucify your king? "

The chief priests answered :

' ' We have no king but Csesar. ' '

When Pilate saw that all further effort to save Jesus
was hopeless, and that he would be obliged to quell a riot
if he persisted, he called for a basin of water. Then he
washed his hands in the presence of the multitude, saying :

"I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see
ye to it. ' '

Then the priests and the scribes and the other Jews
answered :

"■His blood be upon us, and on our children.''''

And Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified.

CHAPTER XXXV

THE DEATH OF JESUS

I have now to tell you the saddest story ever told—
the story of the crucifixion of Jesus.

When Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, finally
yielded to the demands of the Jews that Jesus should be
put to death, he delivered the Master into the hands of
his brutal Roman soldiers, with orders to crucify him.
The death upon the cross was the most shameful of all
deaths, according to Roman ideas, and it was reserved
for slaves and highway robbers, and such other low-born
malefactors as were not considered even good enough to
die by the sword. That was why the high priests had
demanded this death for Jesus.

After beating him, and spitting upon him, and mock-
ing him as the pretended "King of the Jews," dressed
in a gorgeous robe and with a reed for a sceptre, the
Roman soldiers clothed the Master again in his own gar-
ments, and led him forth to be crucified.

It was a sombre day. Already, before the hour of
noon, dark clouds had gathered in the sky, shutting out
the light of the sun. It seemed to the few faithful ones
who watched from a distance, that Earth herself was in
mourning for what she was obliged to witness of the cruelty
of mankind.

The Roman authorities had in their prison that morn-
ing two thieves who wer-e condemned to crucifixion, and
it was in company with these outcasts of society that Jesus
381

382 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

was to die. The soldiers led them out together — Jesus
and the two thieves.

There had been prepared in the courtyard of the prison,
three rough crosses of wood, on which the prisoners were
to be executed, and each of them was commanded to bear
his own cross to Golgotha — the place selected for their
death.

The two thieves, strong and brutal men, had no diffi-
culty in carrying their heavy crosses upon their bent
backs ; but even from the start the soldiers saw that Jesus
was hardly strong enough for that grim burden. The
scourging he had already received had weakened him.
Nevertheless, they laid the cross upon him, as they had
laid the other two crosses upon the backs of the thieves.
The procession started, Jesus in front, and the two thieves
following behind.

They had gone only a little way, a few rods perhaps,
when Jesus stumbled and fell. The soldiers cursed. If
Jesus could not carry his cross, what were they to do?
The soldiers themselves would not carry it; that would
compromise their dignity as Romans — the ruling race.

When the Master staggered to his feet again, the four
soldiers looked at him — not with pity, but with the toler-
ant contempt of muscular men for one less physically
strong than themselves. They held a consultation.
Meanwhile the two thieves halted, their crosses still upon
their backs. Even they were glad of a moment's rest.

The soldiers saw a man walking toward them, one
Simon, a Cyrenean, who was coming into Jerusalem from
the country. They called out to him roughly:

': Simon! Come you and bear the cross of the King of
the Jews."

Casting one quick and pitying glance at the Master,
who stood still and pallid at the head of the terrible pro-

THE DEATH OF JESUS 383

cession, Simon came forward without a word of protest,
and lifting upon his strong shoulders the cross of Jesus,
he started for Golgotha. The Master walked slowly beside
Simon, while the noisy Roman soldiers brought up the
rear, keeping ever in their sight the two thieves.

The high priests, and the scribes, and the elders, grim
and triumphant now, wagging their heads with satisfac-
tion at the work they had accomplished, walked in front,
turning now and then to feast their eyes upon the pale
face of the man they hated. They would not have been
content that Jesus should merely die in agony, they wanted
to watch his death themselves. They yearned to behold
him nailed to the infamous cross — he who had dared to
say that he was the Messiah !

A throng of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of those
who had come up to the city for the feast of the Passover,
also followed. Some of them, especially those who had
known Jesus in the north, were shocked and grieved;
others were merely curious. There were in this crowd a
number of persons who had been healed of their infirmi-
ties by the Master, and these followed him wailing.

There were also many women in the throng, and they
cried and sobbed, calling to Jesus to save himself — for it
seemed to them that one who had done so much for others
could do something for himself. Some of these women,
in their grief and excitement, came so near to Jesus that
they almost touched him. The sight of their sorrow was
pitiful to the Master, and he turned to them and said, in
sad and moving tones :

"Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep
for yourselves, and for your children. ' '

And he told them that the days were coming in which
childless women would consider themselves blessed because
they had no little ones to suffer; that the people in those

384 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

times would call upon the mountains to fall on them, and
the hills to cover them, so terribly would they be perse-
cuted.

When the women heard this, they only wailed the
louder; and they beat their breasts, praying God to save
Jesus from the Roman soldiers, and to save Jerusalem
and the Jewish people from all their sorrows, which had
never seemed so heavy as at this hour. And with every
moment the sky grew darker, and a piercing wind blew
from the hills, and dark birds of evil omen flew across
the sky above their heads.

But there was one woman who followed Jesus at this
hour whose grief was voiceless — his mother. Mary uttered
no cry as she saw her son led forth to die. The wailing
of the other women she scarcely heard ; she did not see the
black clouds which shut out the sky, nor the dark birds
that flew overhead. She saw only the face of her son, as
he turned and gazed at her. In his eyes was a far-away
look, as if he were already with the Father whose messen-
ger he was upon the earth.

Since the hour when Mary had learned of her son's
arrest, her spirit had been with his. She had come up to
Jerusalem this last time, feeling that some terrible thing
would happen there. For she had read the prophecies,
and Jesus himself had prepared her for the trial that was
in store. She had known that k Jesus must die at the
hands of his enemies, as the prophets had foretold. But
only now, when the hour of his suffering was come, did
she realise all that it meant to be the mother of the Christ.
When the annunciation angel had appeared to her in her
little room so long ago, to tell her that she had been chosen
by God to bring the Messiah into the world, he had not
told her of this day.

The tender ministrations of Mary Magdalene and of

THE DEATH OF JESUS 385

Salome, the mother of James and John, could bring no
solace to her now. Even the thought of God's love could
not comfort her — when her beloved son, whom she had
gazed upon with wonder when he was a little baby, and
had fled with into Egypt, and had seen grow into the
splendid man whom thousands followed and worshipped,
was going to die the horrible death of the cross. There
are some griefs which words cannot describe, some scenes
that no one dares to picture ; and each heart must search in
its own deep places for a consciousness of what Mary felt.

But that other Mary, she of Magdala, who had been a
sinner, and who afterward became a saint, followed her
Master with tears and heartbroken cries. He had believed
in her when no one else in all the world had known that
she was good. He had freed her from the seven devils of
as many sins, and had placed her in the company of his
disciples, where all were pure and good, and where the
dream of the kingdom of heaven had driven away all de-
sire for the splendour of the kingdoms of this world. To
this Mary it seemed as if God Himself were to disappear
from the earth with the passing away of Jesus. He had
told her of the Comforter — the Holy Spirit — whom he
would send when he was gone, even as he had told his
men disciples ; but she did not think of that now. Mary
Magdalene had seen crucifixions in Jerusalem before, and
she could feel already in her own hands and feet the cruel
nails which soon would pierce the hands and feet of her
Master.

And Salome, who walked with the mother and with
Mary Magdalene, wept and beat her breast. She who had
asked Jesus to grant that her two sons might sit, the one
on his right hand, and the other on his left in the king-
dom of heaven, had now forgotten even those two loved
sons. She had seen the face of John in the distance, as

386 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

he, too, followed the Master to Golgotha; but Salome did
not even beckon to him. She thought of nothing but
Jesus, who had been so good to her.

They came to the place that was called Golgotha, which
means "a skull." It was a bare and desolate hill, out-
side Jerusalem, but near the walls of the city.

The Roman soldiers commanded a halt. The three
heavy crosses slipped from the shoulders of the two thieves
and Simon of Cyrene. The hour was come. The sol-
diers first lifted the crosses into place, and drove them
securely into the ground. They were low crosses, shaped
in the form of the letter T. When a man was to be cruci-
fied, he was lifted up and nailed to this instrument of tor-
ture, and as he hung there, his feet were raised only a
little way above the ground.

When the crosses were in place, the soldiers offered
to the three condemned men a highly intoxicating drink,
of vinegar and gall. This was intended to dull their
sensibilities, that they might not suffer more than was
necessary. The two thieves drank the vinegar and gall;
but when a soldier raised the cup to the lips of Jesus, he
would not drink of it. He preferred to die with his mind
clear, to go into the immediate presence of his Father
with soul and spirit free.

The Gospels do not tell us whether Jesus was nailed to
the cross before the two thieves, or after them. If he saw
them suffer first, it only made his martyrdom more terri-
ble, because of his great pity for mankind. We are told
only that the thieves were crucified, one on the right hand
of Jesus and the other on his left.

The four soldiers came to Jesus. They took away his
clothes. They lifted him upon the cross. They drove
sharp nails through his hands, and sharp nails through
his feet. His blood dripped down to the ground.

THE DEATH OF JESUS 387

Jesus did not cry out; but as the soldiers drove the
nails through his tender flesh, he raised his eyes to heaven
and uttered the most sublime words ever spoken :

' ' Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they
do."

For nearly nineteen hundred years those words have
rung in the ears of all those who have tried to live like
Jesus. They only can understand them who have been
betrayed and tortured, in body or in mind. We may not
be able to comprehend all that was in the heart of Jesus
as he uttered that prayer ; but we can remember it when
some one makes us suffer. And it may be that when any
one is cruel beyond our comprehension, as were those
soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross, it is always because,
as the Master said, they know not what they do. For if
they fully realised the cruelty of their action, they could
not do it. It seems to us that the spirit of revenge which
burns in lesser minds would be stricken powerless and
ashamed, if the injured one in his hour of anger could
call to mind that prayer : ' ' Father, forgive them ; for they
know not what they do. ' '

The mother and the other women knelt at the foot of
the cross. John also was there now. The groans of the
crucified thieves were terrible to hear. The sky grew
blacker and blacker, as if the clouds were anxious to shut
out all light from Jerusalem and those who dwelt therein.
The sobs of Mary Magdalene and of Salome were less piti-
ful than the silence of the mother, as she knelt there
watching her son.

But the Roman soldiers were not thinking of the
mother, nor even of the sufferings of the Master upon the
cross. They were thinking of the garments of Jesus,
which, according to the Roman custom, became the
property of the soldiers who crucified him. They divided

388 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

his smaller clothing into four lots, one for each soldier,
and then they took up his coat. John tells us that it was
a coat without seam, woven in one piece throughout. As
a garment, it could belong only to one of the four soldiers,
and they argued as to what they should do with it, each
man desiring it for himself. Then one of them said:
' ' Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it. "
The other soldiers agreed, and sitting on the ground
at the foot of the cross, they cast lots for the seamless coat
of the crucified Master. The soldier who won the garment
shouted in triumph, for greed could not even give place
to the conclusion of their terrible business, but must come
first.

When they had finished the division of his garments,
they put up on the cross above the head of Jesus a placard
which Pontius Pilate had written in three languages, in
Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek:

JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING
OF THE JEWS.

Then the soldiers sat down again not far from the
cross, and watched the Master. They laughed and joked
among themselves, telling stories to pass the time.

And the priests and scribes and elders, with other
Jews, walked to and fro before the cross, wagging their
heads at the Master and reviling him:

"Thou that destroyest the Temple, and buildest it in
three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come
down from the cross. ' '

The chief priests said :

"He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be

THE DEATH OF JESUS 389

the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross,
and we will believe him. "

And others said :

"He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he
will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God."

One of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus
cast the same in his teeth, even silencing his groans to
mock at the Master :

"If thou be Christ, save thyself and us."

But the other thief, stretching forward his head, and
looking across the form of Jesus to that of his fellow male-
factor, rebuked him, saying:

' ' Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the
due reward of our deeds : but this man hath done nothing
amiss."

Then, with a look which made his pain-distorted face
seem almost gentle, he turned to the Master who was
hanging beside him, and said:

"Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom."

Jesus answered:

"Verily I say unto thee, To-day thou shalt be with
me in paradise. ' '

The second thief did not even groan for a time ; his
mind was so absorbed that he hardly noticed the sting of
the flies which lit upon his mangled hands. "To-day
thou shalt be with me in paradise, ' ' he repeated to him-
self. Was it possible? He thought of all the sins he
had committed in his life, and was sincerely sorry for
them.

But there was one thing which troubled the Jews even
now, when the Master whom they hated was crucified be-
tween two thieves and was dying before their eyes. To

390 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

the triumph of evil there is always something lacking.
That trouble was the inscription which Pontius Pilate had
caused to be put up over the head of the Master : ' ' Jesus
of Nazareth the King of the Jews." The chief priests
went back into the city and sought the Koman governor,
where he waited in that judgment hall which had now be-
come more hateful to him than ever, because of the weight
that was on his conscience. And the chief priests said
to Pilate:

' ' Write not, The King of the Jews ; but that he said,
I am King of the Jews."

This made Pilate angry. Were they not content, these
terrible priests, when he had condemned and crucified an
innocent man to satisfy their malice and their bigotry,
but they must now come to him complaining of such a
petty thing as an inscription? And he answered them,
briefly and sharply:

"What I have written I have written."

And the chief priests, seeing that they could get noth-
ing more out of the Roman governor, reluctantly went
back to the scene of the crucifixion.

To the mother and those other faithful souls who
watched at the foot of the cross, the passing minutes
seemed, endless. Darker and darker grew the sky. Mary
Magdalene and Salome had wept until they could weep no
more. It seemed to John that he had already become an
old man, so tremulous was his whole body; yet he sup-
ported with his arm the weary form of the mother of Jesus.

The Master, looking down from the cross and seeing
his mother with John, said to her:

"Woman, behold thy son!"

Then, to the pale-faced disciple, he said :

' ' Behold thy mother ! ' '

The heart of John rushed forth in love for the stricken

THE DEATH OF JESUS 391

mother of the Master who so trusted him. Henceforth
she should be indeed as his own mother, and he as a son
to her. No more should she be homeless ; but he would
take her to his own house and care for her as long as she
should live.

Jesus had now passed three hours in the torture of the
cross. Though he had been nearly silent, he had suffered
even more than the groaning thieves. It seemed to him
that the Father in heaven had forgotten His son. And
in his agony he cried:

"Eli, Eli, lamasabachthani? — My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? "

This cry of her son was almost more than the mother
could endure, and the tears of Mary Magdalene flowed
afresh. The thought pierced their hearts that if he could
really feel that God had forsaken him, how terribly must
he suffer ! They gazed at his pale face in an agony of love
and pity.

But some of those who stood by, when they heard Jesus
cry out, said :

"This man calleth on Elias."

Straightway one of them ran and took a sponge, and
put it on a reed, and filled it with vinegar, and lifted it
to the lips of Jesus as he hung upon the cross, that his
thirst might be assuaged. For a burning thirst was one
of the horrors of crucifixion. But others who stood by
said to this kinder-hearted man :

' ' Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to comfort
him."

When Jesus had received the vinegar, he cried again
in a loud voice:

"It is finished."

Those who watched, saw his head fall forward, and
they knew that he was dead.

392 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

The sublime and fearless spirit of Jesus had gone to
rejoin the Father whom he worshipped. No longer would
the dark world be lighted by his presence as a man among
men; no longer would his smile and his voice bring hap-
piness to those who were sad, nor his gentle touch ease
the sufferings of those in bodily pain. The peaceful ways
of Galilee would not see him anymore, nor the selfish city
of Jerusalem be troubled by his lofty purity, which had
been a reproach to its base selfishness. His disciples could
no longer lean upon his breast, nor come to him for coun-
sel. The labour of his life was finished, and the sweet-
ness of it was now but a memory.

But the death of pain which he had chosen to die was
the final seal upon his immortality as an influence among
men. The crown of thorns upon his head would there-
after be a more royal emblem than the crowns of empire
or the laurel wreaths of genius. Alone and unrivalled in
the hearts of men, he would stand forever as marking the
loftiest height to which humanity had reached or ever
could reach. Forever the souls of men would turn to him
as the still living Christ, the invisible and never-sleeping
presence, whose love would be all-embracing, whose pity
could reach even to the forgiveness of his torturers, whose
understanding could embrace the highest and the lowest
among human beings. The hearts of kings and of beggars
would lean upon him, as his disciples had leaned; and
his name would become the greatest power upon the lips
of men, hushing into silence all thoughts and words un-
worthy, calling to activity all aspirations which lead men
toward the spiritual life — the life beyond the joys, of the
world and beyond the shadows of the tomb.

We are told in the Gospels that at the moment of the
death of Jesus, the veil of the great Temple at Jerusalem
was rent from the top to the bottom — though no hand

THE DEATH OF JESUS 393

touched it; that an earthquake shook the ground, and that
great rocks were rent.

When the soldiers who had killed Jesus felt the ground
shaken by the earthquake, they were frightened. And
they said to one another, with pallid faces :

"Truly this was a righteous man!"

And those others who had come out from Jerusalem to
see the crucifixion were appalled by the earthquake and
by the darkness which covered the land. Their hearts
quaked with fear, and they smote their breasts, and re-
turned into the city. Even those who had mocked Jesus
upon the cross were now silent, smitten dumb by a power
they could not comprehend. We may suppose that men
came running out to Golgotha from the city, to tell their
friends in frightened whispers that the Temple veil was
rent — though no hand had touched it.

After the earthquake a chill wind blew from the neigh-
bouring hills, and other men came running, to say that
they had seen the ghosts of the dead walking in Jerusalem.
It was an hour of cold and terror; and still that life-
less and silently accusing figure hung there upon the
cross.

As this was the evening of the great Jewish Passover,
the most sacred festival in the year, the Jews had besought
Pontius Pilate that their feast might not be troubled by
the presence of those men upon the crosses ; but that their
legs might be broken, their death hastened, and their
bodies taken away. And Pilate sent soldiers out from
the city to do this grim work.

When they came to the two thieves they broke their
legs, to hasten their death; but as Jesus seemed to be
dead already, they did not break his legs. Instead, one
of the soldiers took a spear and pierced the side of Jesus,
and when they saw that blood and water ran from the

394 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

wound, they knew that the Master was dead. As the old
prophets had foretold, not a bone of him was broken.

Now among the lesser disciples of Jesus, there was a
rich man, Joseph of Arimathsea, who awaited the kingdom
of heaven. When this man saw that Jesus was dead, he
went to Pontius Pilate and asked that the body might be
delivered to him. It was in accordance with the Roman
law that the body of an executed man should be given to
his friends, if they made that demand. Otherwise it was
buried in a dishonoured place, set apart for the interment
of dead felons.

During the life of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathsea had not
proclaimed his discii)leship, because he was afraid of the
Jews ; but when he saw the Master hanging there upon the
cross, his love triumphed over the desire for honours
among his own people, and he boldly sought the Roman
governor, not caring who should know.

When Pontius Pilate was told that Jesus was already
dead, at first he did not believe it. Men often lived for
days upon the cross — sometimes until they died of starva-
tion. Three hours seemed a short time. And Pilate
called the centurion, who was in charge of the soldiers
who had performed the execution, and demanded to know
if the Master from Nazareth were really dead. When the
centurion declared that it was true, Pilate gave permission
that Joseph of Arimathsea should remove the body.

Nicodemus, who at first had come to the Master by
night, was another highly placed friend of Jesus. When
he learned that Pilate had given the body to Joseph, he
brought a great quantity of myrrh and aloes for embalm-
ing. And Joseph, when he returned to Golgotha, carried
with him a clean linen sheet.

Tragedy brings out the hidden courage or the cow-
ardice of men. These two, Nicodemus and Joseph of

THE DEATH OF JESUS 395

Arimathsea, who had loved and served Jesus in secret, and
had often saddened his heart by their lack of bravery,
now when their courage and loyalty could do him no real
good, were both courageous and loyal. They stood a* the
foot of the cross, with John and Mary the mother, with
Salome and Mary Magdalene, and probably also a few of
the other disciples, and prepared to take down the body
of their Master.

The descent from the cross has been the subject of many
a masterpiece of painting, and words cannot picture it as
lines and colours can. These friends drew out the cruel
nails which had held the hands and feet of Jesus, and
taking his body gently in their arms, they laid it upon
the ground. One writer tells us that John hid the nails,
that the sight of them might not cause keener suffering
to the mother. Another writer says that as they removed
the nails and the bleeding hands of Jesus hung down, the
mother took them in her own, and kissed them yearningly.
In a picture by Rubens, the great Flemish painter, the
mother gently removes a thorn from the wounded brow of
her dead son. These little touches of human tenderness
move the heart to tears.

Poor mother! Be comforted now, for your son is not
suffering any more. His spirit has escaped from the
cruelty of the world, and that brief agony upon the cross
has bought for him an eternity of love which his mere
teachings, however beautiful, could never have stirred in
the slow hearts of men.

With tender hands, half hidden from their own sight
by falling tears, these friends wrapped the body of Jesus
in the linen sheet, with the sweet-smelling myrrh and
aloes. There was a garden near Golgotha, in which was
a tomb newly cut out of the rock, and to this resting-place
they bore the lifeless form of him whom they had loved.

396 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

The night was drawing on, it was near the hour of the
Passover, and they were obliged to work quickly.

When they had laid the body in the tomb, they rolled
a great stone to the mouth of it; then the men went sadly
away. But Mary Magdalene and one of the other women
remained, sitting over against the sepulchre.

As the twilight deepened into night, and as the few
travellers upon the road hurried toward Jerusalem, they
saw those two motionless figures, watching in silence at
the door of the tomb.

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE RESURRECTION

After Jesus had been laid in the sepulchre, the chief
priests and the Pharisees met together to congratulate
one another upon his death. Their hearts were lighter
than they had been for many months. So long as Jesus
lived, they had felt that their position and their influence
among the people were in constant danger; but now that
he was dead, and safely put away in the tomb, they could
breathe freely. Yet even now there was one thing which
made them anxious — for they were hard to satisfy, these
priests and Pharisees of Jerusalem, as Pontius Pilate had
already learned to his great cost. And the next morning
after the death of Jesus they sought the Roman governor
again, and said to him :

"Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he
was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Com-
mand therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the
third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him
away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead :
so the last error shall be worse than the first. ' '

Pilate had slept badly the previous night, and there
were dark circles around his eyes this morning. Though
he had not actually seen Jesus upon the cross, all the long
night his imagination had pictured him there, and a rest-
less conscience had made his luxurious bed seem like a
nest of thistles. His wife, too, had troubled him with
the narration of her strange dream, about which she had
397

398 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

sent a messenger to tell him the day before, while he sat
in the hall of judgment. So that now, when the priests
and Pharisees came to him with their unnecessary request,
Pilate answered them very briefly :

' ' Ye have a watch : go your way, make it as sure as ye
can. ' '

Thus armed with the authority of the governor, the
Jews left the council-chamber, and went again to the sep-
ulchre where Jesus had been laid. And they sealed the
stone which formed the door of the tomb, and set watch-
men to guard it day and night.

Then they went back to their homes, to enjoy the Sab-
bath, telling each other with a great wagging of heads that
the promised resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth had now
been made impossible.

The friends of Jesus spent that Sabbath in sadness and
in prayer. The world was very different for them, now
that Jesus was no more. They were bewildered. The
events of the last two days had left them exhausted in
body and in spirit. They had already learned of the
suicide of Judas Iscariot, which added another horror to
their burdened hearts; for though they now knew that
Judas was a traitor, yet he had been their companion for
a long time, and they could not think unmoved of his
tragic end.

The disciples had been widely scattered after the arrest
of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and only a few of
them had even seen the crucifixion; but on the Sabbath
day they had come together again, and had found tem-
porary shelter in the house of a sympathiser in Jerusalem.

They were still afraid for their own lives, because they
did not know how far the hatred of the Jews would carry
them. The priests, having caused the Master to be killed,
might now desire to do away with his disciples, that there

THE RESURRECTION 399

should be no one left upon the earth to carry on the work
of Jesus. As the men from Galilee huddled together in
that room in Jerusalem, they made fast the door, that no
one should come and take them unawares.

All that Sabbath day John had been obliged to answer
the questions of his fellow disciples, who had not been
with Jesus at the crucifixion, or had only seen it from a
distance.

But when they asked him what they should do in the
future, John could not tell them, for he was but little
wiser than they. Simon Peter was very silent, for he was
still bowed with shame for that scene in the hall of the
high priest's palace, when he had thrice denied his Mas-
ter. Others might forgive him, but he could not forgive
himself.

Mary Magdalene was heartbroken. She had watched
the night before at the sepulchre of Jesus, and yet she
could not rest this day. "The Master is dead! The
Master is dead!" kept ringing in her bewildered brain.
What was there left in life for her? she asked herself over
and over. Where could she go for comfort?

Early in the morning of the first day of the week, she
went back to the sepulchre of Jesus, taking with her one
of the other women. It seemed to her now that the tomb
of the Master was the only home she had in all the world,
and she wished that she herself were dead.

As Mary came near to the sepulchre, the earth shook
beneath her feet. She saw a great angel come down from
heaven and roll away the stone from the door of the sepul-
chre. His countenance was like the lightning, and his
garments were white as snow.

The watchmen whom the priests had left to guard the
tomb were terrified at the appearance of the angel. In
their fear they fell to the ground like dead men.

400 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

The angel said to Mary and her companion :

"Fear ye not: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which
was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.
Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly
and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and,
behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye
see him: lo, I have told you."

The two women looked into the tomb and saw that it
was empty — the body of Jesus was gone. Then they went
quickly away, their hearts full of fear and wonder. And
Mary ran back into the city and found John and Peter;
and she said to them, her eyes aflame with excite-
ment:

' ' They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre,
and we know not where they have laid him." For even
now she did not understand that he was really arisen from
the dead.

Then Peter and John started running for the tomb.
But John was younger and swifter of foot than his friend,
and he reached there first. Stooping down, he looked
into the tomb, and saw the linen garments lying on the
rock floor. But he did not go in.

When Peter came, he went into the sepulchre, and saw
the linen garments lying there, and the napkin, that had
been about the Master's head, not lying with the linen
clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

John also went into the tomb now ; and though he did
not know the scripture which prophesied that Jesus
should rise again from the dead, yet when he saw the
empty sepulchre and the discarded linen garments, he be-
lieved that Christ was risen.

Peter and John did not see the angel which had ap-
peared to Mary Magdalene, and when they had satisfied
themselves that the sepulchre was really empty, they went

THE RESURRECTION 401

back together into the city to the house where they were
staying.

But Mary Magdalene remained at the tomb, weeping.
She did not understand what had happened. She was
confused with fear, and hope, and sorrow. So long as
she had known that the form of the Master was in the
sepulchre, that melancholy spot had been the focus of all
her thoughts; but now that he was there no more, it
seemed to Mary that she herself had no longer an abiding
place upon the earth.

As she wept, she stooped down and looked into the
sepulchre, and there she saw two other angels, one sitting
at the head, and the other at the foot of the place where
Jesus had lain. Their faces were shining and beautiful,
and joy seemed to surround them. They said to Mary:

"Woman, why weepest thou? "

And Mary answered :

"Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know
not where they have laid him. "

When Mary had said this, she turned herself back,
away from the sepulchre, and there before her in the grey
dawnlight she saw the form of a man. And he said to
her:

"Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekestthou? "

Mary supposed this figure to be that of the gardener,
for the sepulchre was in a garden, and she answered him:

"Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where
thou hast laid him, and I will take him away."

'•'•Mary ! " said the thrilling voice of the Master.

And then she recognised him. Her heart leaped, and
she was filled with a joy so great that it hurt her.

"Kabboni, Master!" she cried, and throwing herself
upon the ground before him, she would have clasped and
kissed his feet. But he said gently:

402 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

"Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my
Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I as-
cend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God,
and your God. ' '

Then he vanished from her sight, but the joy of his
presence remained with Mary.

"He is risen! He is risen! " she cried over and over
in her happiness. The world was no longer a desolate
place, and the air seemed full of unseen angels. The
little birds that sang in the dawn were like the choristers
of heaven.

Mary ran back into the city. She went to the house
where the men disciples were, and told them that she had
seen the risen Jesus, that he had spoken to her, and she
repeated his words. But the disciples, though they be-
lieved in Mary, did not fully believe her story. They
thought that grief and sleeplessness had unhinged her
brain.

In the palace of the high priest there was excitement
and anxiety. The watchmen at the sepulchre, who had
been smitten senseless with terror at the appearance of the
angel, had hurried back into the city, and had sought the
chief priests, to whom they had told their story.

The priests immediately called a council of the elders,
to consider what should be done. They were all of one
mind that the soldiers of the watch must be bribed to say
that the disciples of Jesus had come by night, while they
slept, and had stolen away the body. And the priests
gave money to the soldiers of the watch, instructing them
carefully as to what they should tell the people, and
promising them that if the story came to the ears of Pon-
tius Pilate, the governor, the priests would themselves
persuade him that what the watchmen said was true.

So the soldiers took the money which the priests offered

THE RESURRECTION 403

them, and immediately went about the city telling every
one whom they met that the disciples of Jesus had come
to the sepulchre by night, and had stolen away the body
of the crucified man.

That night the disciples were assembled in their
room in Jerusalem. The doors were still fastened, for
fear of the Jews. Though they had not really believed
the story of Mary Magdalene that she had seen the risen
Christ that morning and that he had talked with her, yet
they had been much excited by her own belief in the truth
of what she said. Could it be possible? they asked them-
selves and one another. As the body of the Master was no
longer in the tomb, where was it? And where was he?
A strange restlessness possessed the disciples. The last
few days had been so full of terrible events, and the next
few days were so uncertain ! They knew not what an hour
might bring forth. They had heard of the rumours which
the soldiers of the watch had spread about the city — that
the disciples of Jesus had stolen his body from the tomb.
Would the high priests now seek to punish them for what
they had not done?

They sat bowed forward, staring into space. Not a
sound disturbed the stillness of the chamber. The one
lamp cast flickering shadows upon the wall.

Suddenly they felt the thrilling presence of something
invisible. Not a man had moved from his place, the
door was still securely fastened, and yet they felt that
something had entered the room. They looked up quickly,
their hearts pounding in their breasts.

Jesus stood there among them. His eyes shone with
a light that was not of this earth.

"Peace be unto you," he said.

The disciples were terrified, for they thought that they

404 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

saw a spirit. And they huddled together, staring at Jesus
with wide eyes of fear. But the Master said to them, in
his own calm voice:

"Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I
myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh
and bones, as ye see me have."

And he stretched out to them his pierced hands, and
showed them his torn feet, and his wounded side. And
while they yet believed not for joy at seeing him again,
and wondered how such a thing could really be, he said
to them :

"Have ye here any meat?"

And they gave him a piece of a boiled fish, and a piece
of honeycomb; and he took the food and ate before them.
Then they were less afraid, for it seemed to them now that
it was really the Master, and not his spirit which stood
there. And he said to them :

"These are the words which I spake unto you, while I
was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which
were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and
in the psalms, concerning me. ' '

Then by his power he opened their understanding,
and made them realise that all the terrible things which
they had witnessed and suffered had been a part of God's
plan regarding His Son, that the heart of the world might
be touched. And Jesus said:

"Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to
suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day : and that
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And
ye are witnesses of these things."

Then he told them that he sent the promise of his
Father unto them — the Comforter, the Holy Spirit — but

THE RESURRECTION 405

that they should tarry in Jerusalem a while longer, until
they should receive power from on high. And he said :

"Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even
so send I you. ' '

When he had spoken these words, he breathed on them,
one man after another, saying:

' ' Receive ye the Holy Ghost ! ' '

As they felt his breath, it seemed as if a new spirit
entered into them — a spirit of power and understanding.
They were changed in some mysterious way. They were
still themselves, and yet they seemed also to be a part of
him. Their eyes shone with a more brilliant light, for
they had indeed received the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said
to them :

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature.

"He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved;
but he that believeth not shall be damned.

"And these signs shall follow them that believe: In
my name shall they cast out devils ; they shall speak with
new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they
drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they shall
lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. ' '

Then Jesus moved toward the door of the chamber,
beckoning his disciples to follow. When he had first ap-
peared, it had seemed to them that they were dreaming;
but now they were keenly alert, and full of vivid life.
For had not Jesus breathed upon them the power of the
Holy Spirit? They felt strong enough to move the world.

The Master led them out of the city, talking sweetly
along the way. He did not lead them to Golgotha, nor
yet to the great Temple, but to Bethany, on the hill be-
yond the city — Bethany, the little town where he had been
so happy with his friends in the days that were no more.

406 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Of all the incidents recorded in the Gospels, there is none
more touching than this. Even in his new life, Jesus
had not forgotten the affections of the old.

As they looked at him in the soft starlight, he seemed
exactly the same as he had been before. And the disci-
ples marvelled.

When they reached Bethany, and stood again among
the olive-trees, Jesus lifted up his hands and blessed them
— and then he disappeared from their sight.

The quiet stars still shone overhead, the breeze blew
softly through the olive-trees, but the Master was no longer
there. They peered into the shadows of the night, but
saw nothing. Then with hearts athrill with hope, and
lips hushed with awe, they turned again toward Jerusalem
and entered into the city by the way they had come.

Thomas, that disciple who was always doubtful of
what he had not seen with his own eyes, was not with
the others that night. And when the disciples told him
afterward that they had seen the Lord, that Jesus had
eaten before them, had shown them his wounded hands
and feet and side, had breathed upon them with the Holy
Spirit, and had walked with them to Bethany, Thomas
did not believe. He said :

"Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails,
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust
my hand into his side, I will not believe. ' '

But eight days later Thomas himself saw Jesus. The
disciples, after the Master had breathed upon them with
the Holy Spirit, had ceased to be afraid of the Jews, and
they went about the city freely, even teaching in the
Temple. And one night when they were all assembled in
their chamber in Jerusalem, and Thomas with them,
Jesus came again and stood in the room, saying:

THE RESURRECTION 407

' ' Peace be unto you. ' '

Then said he to Thomas :

' ' Eeach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and
reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and,
be not faithless, but believing."

"My Lord and my God!" answered Thomas, for all
his doubts were flown away. He, too, had beheld the
risen Christ, and was now ready for his mission of apostle-
ship.

Jesus said to him :

"Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast be-
lieved : blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have
believed. ' '

Many other things Jesus did in the presence of his dis-
ciples during the forty days that he remained near them
in his risen body. After they had left Jerusalem, and
had gone back into the north, they saw him again in
Galilee, at the Lake of Tiberias.

Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John, and two
of the other disciples, had been fishing at night from a
boat on the lake, but they had caught nothing. And in
the morning Jesus stood upon the shore.

"My children," he said, "have ye any meat?"

They answered him, ' ' No. ' '

He told them to cast the fish-net from the right side
of the boat, and they should find fishes; and when they
had cast the net as Jesus told them, they were not able
to raise it out of the water for the multitude they had
caught.

The other disciples who were on the shore came to help
them, and when they had dragged the net ashore, they
counted one hundred and fifty-three great fishes — yet the
net was not broken.

408 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

And they found on the shore a fire of coals, and fish
was laid thereon and bread, and Jesus said to them :

' ' Come and dine. ' '

And he gave them bread and fish, and they all ate to-
gether there on the shore of the lake. The disciples were
filled with joy to see the Master again, and their hearts
were touched because he had helped them in one of the
little and material ways of life. There was never any
thing distant about Jesus. His intimacy with those who
loved him was the secret of his greatest power.

After they had eaten together, Jesus said to Simon
Peter:

"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than
these?"

"Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee," answered
Peter.

Jesus said to him:

"Feed my lambs."

And Jesus said to Peter a second time:

"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?"

"Yea, Lord," answered Peter again, "thou knowest
that I love thee. ' '

"Feed my sheep," replied Jesus.

Then he said to Peter a third time:

"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? "

Peter was grieved because Jesus had asked him three
times if he loved him. Did not the Master understand
his heart? And Peter said:

' ' Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I
love thee. ' '

With a radiant smile Jesus said to him again:

1 ' Feed my sheep. ' ' Then he added :

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast
young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou

THE RESURRECTION 409

wouldest: but when thou Bhalt be old, thou shalt stretch
forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry
thee whither thou wouldest not. ' '

By this Jesus meant Peter to understand by what death
he should die. And when the Master had spoken thus,
he said to Peter:

"Follow me."

Peter looked at John, who was near Jesus at that
moment, and he asked :

"Lord, and what shall this man do ? "

"If I will that he tarry till I come," replied Jesus,
"what is that to thee? Follow thou me. "

From that day the saying went abroad among the fol-
lowers of Jesus that John should not die until the second
coming of the Christ. But Jesus had not really said so.

During this talk with Peter, the Master had not re-
ferred by word or look to the disciple's denial of him that
terrible night in the hall of the high priest's palace. It
was Jesus who taught us to forgive our friends — even their
disloyalty.

The Master now said to the disciples who were as-
sembled there on the shore of the lake :

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the world. ' '

When he had spoken these words, and while they still
gazed at him, he was lifted up into heaven, and a cloud
received him out of their sight.

And from that hour, as long as they lived, the dis-
ciples went about the world, preaching the religion of

410 STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

Jesus. Almost everywhere they met with persecution,
and many of them died the death of martyrs ; but their
faith never faltered. It is owing to their labours, and to
the labours of Paul, who later became one of their number,
that the world was Christianised, and that millions on
millions of men and women came to love Jesus almost as
much as his disciples loved him.

For he was always to them the Living Christ, the friend
more intimate than father or mother, the invisible com-
panion ready at all times and seasons to come at the call
of those who needed his love. And so he has remained
until this day — the Living Christ.

THE END

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