That Sweet Storj
of Old
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THAT SWEET STORY OF OLD
M ^RGARET E. SANGSTER'S
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FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
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That Sweet Story of Old
A Life of Christ
for the Young
By
MARGARET E. SANGSTER
New York Chicago Toronto
Fleming H. Revell Company
London and Edinburgh
Copyright, 1904, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
New York : 1 58 Fifth Avenue
Chicago : 63 Washington Street
Toronto : 27 Richmond Street, W
London : 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh : 30 St. Mary Street
To
Margaret Elizabeth
my
grandchild and
namesakey
I dedicate this book
Foreword
SEYEEAL years ago, a friend suggested
that I should write for children and
young people, a book that might lead
them to study for themselves, lovingly and
earnestly, the story of our Saviour's life among
men, as it is given us by the four evangelists.
At first I hesitated to attempt the task, but as
the days and weeks slipped by the desire to
undertake it, grew more and more insistent,
until the thought floated before me, like a
beautiful vision that might in time become a
dream fulfilled. I began as I cherished the
hope of helping others, to read and reread the
sweet story of old, until with the disciples I
walked on holy ground.
Familiar as are the incidents of our Lord's
ministry, part indeed of the warp and woof of
memory, they have revealed Him to me with
a vividness hitherto unfelt. To study this
strangely beautiful, this unflawed life, has
been to enter into a new abiding with the
Master, to have a new sense of His personality
as a force in the world.
In the compass of this little volume it has
not been possible to introduce every event in
7
8 Foreword
the story of Jesus, nor to repeat all His words.
For these I would have my young friends go
to the New Testament. My thought is that
in this book they may find a companion to
that, a book that may sometimes occupy them
in the silent time as well as allure them at
other times, and always be as a light flashed
on the road that leads home. This book is
purposely written with great simplicity so that
mothers and children may read it together.
Yet it is not limited to little children. Its
message is to the older young people still in
training for life and its activities.
Never was any life on earth so rich and
full, as the life of our Master. Never was any
one so busy and so beset and surrounded by
those who sought help. Never was a life so
constant in its outpouring of kindness as was
that of Jesus, who went about doing good.
Doing good in the superlative, and without
stint, overflowing in blessings. Truly this was
the Son of God.
As I have studied anew the amazing life of
Jesus on earth, I have received impressions of
its many-sidedness. He was gentle, submissive
and meek. He was also valiant, commanding,
and kingly. No manlier character than that
of the Nazarene is found in all history, and
none so compassionate to the weak, forgiving
to the penitent.
Foreword 9
As the little Son of Mary, as the Boy in the
Temple, as the Guest at the Wedding Feast,
as the Healer of the Sick, as the Friend of
Lazarus and Martha and Mary, as the match-
less Teacher, as the Lover of Little Children,
as the Lamb that was Slain, as the Kisen Re-
deemer, Jesus Christ appeals to every one.
Most of all He appeals to the young, saying,
" Come unto Me I " As of old He bade men
" Follow Him " and they followed, so may the
youth of this and other lands, hear His voice
and forsake other leaders, and follow Him.
In this century as in each preceding century,
the Man Christ Jesus, the Son of God, claims
every heart and life.
May we each hear His call and obey. Still
He is saying " Suffer the little children to come
unto Me, and forbid them not for of such is
the Kingdom of Heaven," and still He is
putting the emphasis of His approval, not on
the proud and the lofty, but on the meek and
the lowly, on those who keep the heart of the
child to life's latest earthly day.
To the children at home, and in school, to
the young people in the League and Endeavor
circles, and to all who love our Lord Jesus
Christ, I commit this book, directing them to
"That Sweet Story of Old."
Margaret E. Sangster.
Contents
I.
The Star in the East
II.
The Song in the Air .
III.
Of the Flight into Egypt .
IV.
The Child and the Rabbis .
V.
Two Young Men
VI.
The Temptation
VII.
Beside the Sea .
VIII.
Jesus as a Wedding Guest .
IX.
The Sermon on the Mount
X.
A Day in Jesus' Life .
XI.
The Lad with the Loaves .
XII.
The Raising of the Ruler's Daughter
XIII.
When Jesus Walked on the Sea
, ,
XIV.
Jesus and the Sabbath Day
. .
XV.
Jesus Transfigured
. ,
XVI.
Suffer the Little Children to Come
Unto Me
XVII.
Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By
XVIII.
By the Well of Samaria
XIX.
Jesus at the Feast
XX.
Jesus and Prayer
13
22
31
40
49
57
65
72
79
88
97
103
109
114
123
133
140
H7
»53
161
II
12
Contents
XXI.
Jesus and Pardon for Sin .
167
XXII.
Lord, if Thou Hadst Been Here
175
XXIII.
The Sisters of Bethany .
182
XXIV.
Hosanna to the Son of David .
188
XXV.
Some Parables of Jesus
198
XXVI.
The Last Supper
207
XXVII.
Gethsemane ....
216
XXVIII.
In the House of the High Priest
220
XXIX.
Before Pilate's Judgment Seat .
226
XXX.
Jesus on the Cross .
. 232
XXXI.
The Lord is Risen
. 238
XXXII.
A Wayside Walk
245
XXXIII.
Lovest Thou Me ? .
. 252
XXXIV.
Our Lord's Last Words .
. 258
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Beholding the Star Title
The Angel Said, " Fear Not." 24
The Child in the Temple 44
Behold the Lamb of God 67
Jesus at Cana of Galilee 73
He Touched Her Hand and the Fever Left Her. 93
Damsel, I Say unto Thee, Arise 106
They Saw No Man, but Jesus Only 130
Suffer the Little Ones 133
By the Well of Samaria 149
Him that Cometh unto Me I Will in No Wise
Cast Out 167
Jesus in the Home at Bethany 182
Jesus's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem 188
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane 217
Christ Before Pilate's Judgment Seat 228
Jesus Saith unto Her, Mary 243
That Sweet Story of Old
THE STAR IN THE EAST
Three kings, whom tradition has called
Caspar, Melohior and Balthazar, in the wonder-
ful days of the long ago, set out on a weary
journey to a distant land. There was a great
deal of mystery about why they went, and
how long they might stay, and when they
might return. Friends and acquaintances
thought it odd and foolish that people should
leave homes where they were well off and
comfortable, and set out on an expedition, no-
body knew where, to encounter unknown dan-
gers, very likely to be met by bands of robbers,
or to fall sick and perish by the way. Gray-
haired men shook their heads. No good could
come, they said, of so strange and rash a quest.
The old mothers, moving softly to and fro
about the tents, in the shadow, shook their
heads too, and the little children cried. All
that the courtiers and the gray-beards, and the
mothers, and the young wives, and the chil-
»3
14 That Sweet Story of Old
dren, and the villagers said, moved the three
kings, who also were very wise men, with
learning at their fingers' ends, not a single bit.
They heard the babel of voices, they felt the
tug of friendly hands, they saw the tears in
loving eyes. But they went straight on, mak-
ing ready to go, if need were, to the other side
of the world. They could not stay.
They had seen, flaming bright and golden,
in the evening sky a star with a glory like that
of the sun. Where the star shone, the whole
field of the sky was radiant. It was as if a
sheaf of common stars had merged their beams
and made one splendid orb, magnificent and
sublime, a star that had lit its torch at the altar
fires of heaven. These men had no books with
printed pages like our own, but they knew how
to read the leaves of God's great book of na-
ture, and for them, plainly discerned there were
signs in mist and rain, in dew and cloud, in
moon, and sun, and stars. They even heard
mystic voices speaking to them in the night
season, and often, as they walked in the pas-
ture lands and counted the flocks, or lingered
in the hollows among the hills when the sun
went down, they knew that the Maker of
earth and heaven called them by name. So
they could not stay.
They had seen the wonderful star ! But not
only this ! As they gazed, each from his sepa-
The Star in the East 15
rate place of watching, each had seen the star,
like a pointing finger move in its course, and
each had heard as plainly as if words had been
spoken in their ears, the command of God, to
follow the star.
All over the world, at the time this splendid
star suddenly swept into view in the sky, there
were those who expected some great thing to
happen. Rome, from her seven hills, had
made herself the world's haughty mistress.
Her imperial eagles had been carried every-
where by her intrepid soldiers, and her arms
had been universally victorious. The world
was Rome's world, ruled by Roman soldiers
and statesmen, and from princes to paupers,
people of all lands and tongues, paid tribute to
Rome.
Other great empires had held sway, and
then lost their power. The kingdoms of
Assyria and Babylonia were now mere memo-
ries. Greece, that had been immensely strong,
that under Alexander the Great, had ruled the
nations, was still beautiful, and held a certain
lustre of elegance and culture, had its schools
and sages and students, but Greece was no
longer dominant. The sceptre had passed
««Ka,Y fjTom Judah, as the prophets had foretold
Hiat it would, because the house of Israel and
the house of Judah, had turned away from the
God of their fathers. Corruption and idolatry
l6 That Sweet Story of Old
had stolen in where once had been pure wor-
ship and reverent obedience, and a Roman
governor now ruled and lived in pomp and
grandeur, where the Hebrew kings had once
reigned on the throne of David.
Probably the stern rule of the Romans bore
less heavily on the nomadic kings and chief-
tains of the Eastern lands, than on any other
people then living. They had flocks and
herds. They were not occupied with trade,
nor were their sons anxious for a place in the
fighting legions. They were thoughtful,
simple, brooding men, far away from the rush
and hurry of the great world.
News came to them seldom and slowly.
The Romans were building broad roads, and
spanning wide rivers with great bridges, but
there were no roads over the desert, and the
Roman posts brought no tidings to the black
tents, where the sheik encamped with his fam-
ily about him, living in the independence of
the patriarchs, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and
Job had done in an elder time.
Somehow, by what means we cannot tell,
the thought had penetrated through the des-
ert silence and remoteness that a mighty per-
sonage was about to be born. How much they
knew of what Moses and Isaiah and Ezekiel
and Malachi had prophesied, we cannot tell.
But a Prince was coming 1
The Star in the East 17
They saw His Star in the East.
Great flocks were spread over great spaces.
The three kings did not live next door to one
another, nor meet at a crossroads post-office in
the twilight, nor hold town meetings at inter-
vals to talk things over. There were no towns
then, nor town-meetings, no crowded streets
in the wilderness. Yet they knew one an-
other by name and sight, and were wont to
salute with grave courtesy when they some-
times met.
Each, obedient to the promptings of the
heavenly vision, made the leisurely haste of
the desert to follow the star. Provisions were
packed for a long journey. The camels were
found and made ready. Eetainers, servants,
perhaps a son or two, joyfully prepared to set
forth, when the master gave the word. And
thus, starting from three separate points of
the compass, the three caravans came to-
gether, and the three wise men following the
star in the East, went onward to find the
Prince of whose coming the star was a token.
Many days they journeyed through the great
barren deserts, resting sometimes in the noon-
tide heat under the shadow of a friendly rock,
or lingering now and then in an oasis of palms
springing green beside a water-course. Often
they broke camp in the early dawn, travelling
in the cool of the day. The camels swung like
i8 That Sweet Story of Old
mighty ships, rocking from side to side, some
sumptuously caparisoned for the comfort and
state of their riders, and some laden with
freight, food, rugs, the furniture of the tents,
and still others bearing the rich gifts that were
to be laid at the feet of the Prince when they
should reach His palace gates.
After awhile, the three wise men, kings
and chieftains, accustomed to exercising
authority, rode often near together, the oldest
in the van, the others following him, and often,
when they ate or rested, they talked earnestly
of the object of their journey. The Star, still
serenely bright, and flaming like a golden
torch, shed its kindly beams upon them. And
they were content to fare onward, so long as
they saw the Star.
"Where would it lead them ? They ques-
tioned reverently, these desert men, guileless
as little children, in the completeness of their
trust. Perhaps through crowds of alien
peoples ; perhaps through vast cities ; perhaps
into an enemy's country. No matter. They
had no fear, they rode on, with high hearts,
and faces looking straightforward ; men with
the courage of the lion, and the innocence of
the dove. The Star was leading them. It
would lead them to the palace of the Prince,
to the place glorious with His presence.
" Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem
The Star in the East 19
of Judea in the days of Herod the king, be-
hold, there came wise men from the East to
Jerusalem,
" Saying, 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.
"When Herod the king had heard these
things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem
with him.
" And when he had gathered all the chief
priests and scribes of the people together, he
demanded of them where Christ should be
born.
" And they said unto him. In Bethlehem of
Judea : for thus it is written by the prophet,
" And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
art not the least among the princes of Judah :
for out of thee shall come a Governor, that
shall rule my people Israel.
" Then Herod, when he had privily called the
wise men, inquired of them diligently what
time the star appeared.
" And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said.
Go and search diligently for the young child ;
and when ye have found Him, bring me word
again, that I may come and worship Him also.
" When they had heard the king, they de-
parted; and lo, the star, which they saw in
the East, went before them, till it came and
stood over where the young child was.
20 That Sweet Story of Old
" When they saw the star, they rejoiced with
exceeding great joy.
" And when they were come into the house,
they saw the young child with Mary His mother,
and fell down, and worshipped Him ; and when
they had opened their treasures, they pre-
sented unto Him gifts ; gold, and frankincense,
and myrrh.
"And being warned of God in a dream that
they should not return to Herod, they de-
parted into their own country another way."
It was no palace in which the wise men
found the One they sought, but a place so
lowly that they might well have hesitated be-
fore they crossed its door-sill. They did not
hesitate, for the star stood still at last, its
heavenly radiance flooding the spot where the
Child of Heaven lay in the arms of His mother.
They knelt and prostrated themselves to the
earth in homage, and owned the little Babe as
their sovereign. Never were kings more kingly
than this royal three. And then, from their
store of treasures, carried so far, guarded so
carefully, they brought gold, to symbolize the
offering of whatever toil can buy, and frank-
incense, to show the perfume of prayer and
praise, and myrrh, the emblem of sorrow.
Gold and frankincense and myrrh, all costly,
all laid at the little feet that had not yet
trodden one step of the earthly path.
The Star in the East 21
So that the wicked Herod should not entrap
them as he craftily designed, they returned to
their own country another way. Not Star-led
now, yet safe from harm, with God watching
over and guiding them home.
"There came three kings, ere break of day,
All on Epiphanie;
Their gifts they bare both rich and rare,
All, all. Lord Christ for Thee:
Gold, frankincense, and myrrh are there,
Where is the King ? O where ? O where ?
O where is the King ? O where ?
"The star shone brightly overhead,
The air was calm and still,
O'er Bethlehem fields its rays were shed,
The dew lay on the hill:
We see no throne, no palace fair,
Where is the King ? O where ? O where ?
O where is the King ? O where ?
"An old man knelt at a manger low,
A Babe lay in the stall;
The starlight played on the Infant brow,
Deep silence lay o'er all;
A maiden bent o'er the Babe in prayer: —
There is the King ? O there ! O there !
O there is the King ! O there ! "
II
THE SONG IN THE AIR
" And there were in that same country
shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch
over their flocks by night. And the glory of
the Lord shone round about them, and they
were sore afraid. And the angel said unto
them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all peo-
ple. For unto you is born this day, in the
city of David, a Saviour which is Christ the
Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye
shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes and lying in a manger.
" And suddenly, there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God
and saying. Glory to God in the highest, on
earth peace, good will towards men."
Do you love a mountain-land, a land where
when you waken in the morning the hills are
violet and rose colour in the rising sun, where
at evening they fall asleep before your eyes,
all wrapped in crimson and gold ? "Well said
the poet-king of old, " I will lift up mine eyes
unto the hills whence cometh my help."
The Song in the Air 23
Judea was a mountain land. Crags steep
enough for the goats to climb, broad plateaus
where the vines flourished, slopes covered with
cedars, valleys, where the grass was like
velvet, green pastures and still waters were in
that lovely land to which our Saviour came,
the little Child of Heaven.
One midnight when everybody was fast
asleep except mothers awake because they had
to watch by sick beds, and sentries pacing up
and down before city walls, and shepherds,
listening for the footfall of the prowling wolf,
creeping, padding along that he might pounce
upon a stray lamb of the flock, there was a
sudden surprise in the hills where grazed and
slept the Temple sheep. The finest flock in
Palestine was the flock reserved for the use of
the Temple, and the rough, shaggy looking
shepherds who guarded it were the finest men
of their class. Theirs was no easy life, out in
all weather, daring all wind and storm, and
ever on the alert against thief and wild
beast.
Perhaps they were drowsy, perhaps one
or another had told a story to beguile the
tedium of the chill night. One may have
been wondering about his little maid at home
who had kissed him when he left for his long
vigil, and would gleefully run to meet him
when he came back. Fathers never forget
24 That Sweet Story of Old
their little maids when they are away at work.
Fathers' hearts are always true. Another
shepherd may have been hoping that his big
boy at home was looking out for his mother
and the little ones when father was off on the
hiUs.
These simple shepherd folk were very poor.
Their homes had few comforts, and none of
the luxuries that we commonly have in this
day, but they had love just as we have, and
they did their duty day by day as we ought
to do. You may think how you would feel if
some morning or night a great white angel,
all blazing with light, should suddenly appear
in your house, or stop you on the way to
school, or walk beside you on the road. The
shepherds were just as amazed as you would
be, and I am sure they looked very much
frightened and huddled close together just as
their sheep did when some peril came near.
But the angel's words were kind, and his
countenance was friendly. " Fear not ! " The
gentle voice was sweet as the sound of softest
music, the smile was as tender as a father's,
and the shepherds forgot their terror.
" Fear not, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to all people."
In an instant, the angel was not alone.
Forth through a rift in the sky came a great
host of bright beings, cherubim and seraphim,
THE ANGEL SAID, "FEAR NOT"
The Song in the Air 25
angels in shining raiment, angels with golden
harps, singing, in notes such as mortals had
never heard :
" Glory to God in the Highest !
On earth peace,
Good will towards men ! ' '
Fancy the thrilling sound of that melody.
It seems strange that Jerusalem not far away,
could sleep through that wonderful Hallelujah
chorus, but it was not meant for the rich and
proud and great : it was God's message to the
poor and simple-hearted, through them, His
message to the whole world.
Presently the music ceased. The angels
melted away from sight, going back to heaven.
Those shepherds would never be afraid to go
there themselves, or afraid of death, after
they had heard the angels sing, and seen the
host of heavenly visitors, slip so quietly home
to their own place, before their eyes. And
if ever after that, they said a last good-bye to
a little child, or a friend, they could say it with
a smile, for they knew, that a little way off,
only a bit beyond their sight, the dear one
was with the angels.
Day was breaking, and they girded up their
loins, and took their shepherd's staves in their
hands, and, as the sun rose high over the hills,
they made haste to reach Bethlehem, and find
26 That Sweet Story of Old
the child, of whose birth they had heard the
angels sing.
They too, with the wise men, earth's great-
est and earth's lowliest children, met around
the feet of the Infant Jesus.
The hill roads were crowded that day, and
when they reached Bethlehem, the shepherds
may have been puzzled to know just where to
go, and how to reach the One they sought.
Their coming was not noticed by Herod. They
had no retinue, nor cavalcade, they brought no
costly gifts. The whole country was filled at
the time with a moving populace, for a decree
had gone forth from the Emperor Augustus at
Rome, that all the world should be taxed, and
scattered families returned to their native
towns and hamlets, that their genealogy might
be traced, an accurate account of the royal
revenues made, and an accurate list made
by the census takers, of all who must pay
tribute.
Among the thousands who in obedience to
the Emperor's edict had repaired to their
native town, how were the shepherds to dis-
cover the parents of the Child they were seek-
ing ? How know this Child from any other
new-born babe ? I have only one explanation.
As the wise men were led by the Star, I think
the shepherds were guided by an angel. They
may have seen the Star, but they would
The Song in the Air 27
not notice it, as they might had they not had
that glimpse of an opened heaven.
I can imagine the shepherds going home,
after that visit to the stable, where the world's
Redeemer was born, and being very silent and
thoughtful.
" What have you seen, father, that you keep
gazing up at the blue sky ? " the little daughter
might ask. " Where have you lingered, that
you come home so late ? " the wife would say.
But the man could not yet talk about the
strange music, and the kneeling in the early
dawn to look into the face of an hou]> old
babe.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a young
girl, of the house and lineage of David. Cen-
turies before the Lord came hither, it was
predicted that He should be born of a virgin,
and that Bethlehem would be the place of His
birth.
When Mary, spent and weary with her long,
long journey from Nazareth, reached Beth-
lehem, the night was falling fast, and her
husband, Joseph, tried hard to find a safe
shelter for her where she might rest. In vain
he tried. There was no room in the inn. But
there was a stable, clean and sweet with the
breath of kine, and the fragrance of hay, and
here the tired traveller made her bed. Here,
in the dim stable, lighted by a rude and flar-
28 That Sweet Story of Old
ing lamp, she first saw the sweet face of her
first-born Son.
Before our Lord was born, an angel had
come to His mother and had announced to her
what sort of Child she should bear, and had
then said, '' His name shall be called Jesus."
Jesus means Saviour. So, you see, every step
in Christ's progress was marked for Him in
heaven, even His very name sent down before
Him from the skies.
It might have been expected that when God
sent His only Son here to save sinners and
bless the world, He would have had Him come
into a splendid house, with the state and mag-
nificence that belong to royal homes. A queen
one would think, might have cradled Him in
her arms, while long trains of humble serv-
ants waited to care for Him, and do His
mother's bidding.
Not so, do we read the sweet story of old.
The little King, Immanuel God with us, was
the child of poverty. No palace for Jesus,
only a stable. His mother was not a queen,
only a little maiden from an obscure country
home. No trains of servants stood mute and
anxious, that they might wait on her in her
hour of need. Even the inn could not give
her a bed. She and her Child were in the
stable, and the Babe slept in the manger,
when the Star, its mission accomplished, faded
The Song in the Air 29
into the sunlight and was seen no more, and
the angels finished their song, in worlds be-
yond our own.
So, dear reader, wherever you are, you are
Christ's child. He is your Brother. No one
so poor as He. No one so lowly-born. You
need not ever be afraid to go to Jesus, the lit-
tle Son of Mary, who was born in a stable
and laid in a manger.
The Christ-child unto the stable came
'Twixt the midnight and the morn,
His mother laid Him softly down
By the beasts of hoof and horn.
The friendly kine a-near Him stood
In the frost of the early day,
And, little brother of all the poor,
He slept in the fragrant hay.
The Christ-child slept in the stable dim,
And over Him flamed the star
That was golden bright with the light of heaven
Where God and the angels are.
Then, journeying far, came king and priest,
With a wealth of spices sweet,
And, little brother of all the rich,
They knelt to kiss His feet.
In a mother's arms, the Christ-child lay.
When the winter storm was wild.
And into her happy brooding face
Her baby looked and smiled.
Of David's line, yet peasant born,
And Son of God most high ;
The seraphs sang His glorias
And the star lit up the sky.
30 That Sweet Story of Old
A gift of gifts that tender Child
Brought hither for you and me ;
From the leaven of greed, the clutch of hate,
By love to be ransomed free.
And once a year, in the long, long year,
For a whole and happy day,
To share again the heart of the Child
Wherever the children play.
O little brother of every man !
Obscure, or high, or great,
Thine is the alchemy of heaven
Wrought on our low estate.
We find Thee still in the stable dim,
But, for Thy cradle bed,
Oh, rest not now in the manger stall,
Take Thou our hearts instead.
in
OF THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT
While the mother and her little Son were
safely hidden by their very poverty, since no-
body thought of looking for the Child of
promise in the stable where the cattle of the
inn were sheltered, a very sad thing took
place. Herod, the King of the Jews, was one
of the most wicked tyrants who ever lived.
He belonged to a wicked family. Few fam-
ilies have ever had so black a page in history
as the page of the Herodian dynasty.
They stopped at nothing, the people of the
Herod name; they carried out their bad de-
signs at any cost. Such people never have
an easy mind. They are always afraid that
something is going to happen to them, that
some bolt of vengeance is about to fall on their
heads. Herod had heard vague rumours that
about this time, the world's great deliverer
would be born. This might mean to him that
his throne should be taken away, and punish-
ment be visited on him for all his sins. He
must search for this heir of the ages, and strike
a quick and effective blow. So reasoned
Herod.
31
32 That Sweet Story of Old
" Where are those philosophers who came
from the East a few days ago, seeking in my
dominions for the Child who was born to be
King of the Jews ? "
I can hear Herod asking this question of his
spies, and of his body-guard, men who cringed
at his frown, and were swift to obey his com-
mands.
"They were to return and conduct me to
the place when they had found their divinity.
I told them that I wanted to worship Him too.
Who has seen them? By what road have
they travelled, that they did not come hither
to take leave of me ? "
The monarch was very angry. His counte-
nance grew purple with rage. He clenched his
fists, and his voice was like the furious growl
of a maddened tiger. There was tiger blood
in the veins of this infamous wretch, on whose
shoulders was the crimson robe of a royal
house.
In vain he tried to find out the abiding-place
of the wise men from the East. Their wisdom
had led them away from his palace, and they
were already many leagues distant, their
camels with mighty strides, hasting homeward
over desert and plain.
"Well," said Herod, at last, "the little
Prince, if prince He be shall not escape me.
I will kill all the children from two years old
Of the Flight Into Egypt 33
and under, in all the coasts and regions round
about, and among them surely there will be
slain the one these Eastern dreamers came to
worship."
When one thinks of it even now, one's heart
aches to imagine the bitter sorrow that fell on
Bethlehem in that terrible day. Was there a
babe in any home, dimpled, sweet, rosy, a babe
toddling about on its little feet, or cradled in
its mother's arms, it was doomed. A soldier
with a sharp sword would stalk over the
threshold, and before the mother could snatch
her darling up, or as it lay in her lap, with one
thrust of the blade, the babe was murdered.
Most cruel and abhorred of all men, was that
vile Herod of Judea who made war on infancy
that he might slay the Christ.
His schemes were defeated for though there
was lamentation and weeping, a wail piercing
to heaven from all that land, Mary and her
little Son were not there. Warned by an
angel, they had gone down into Egypt, there
to stay until this storm should blow over.
Joseph, Mary, and the Babe, found refuge in
the land, where many centuries before, the
Israelites had been kept in harsh bondage.
Egypt was the land where Joseph had been
held a slave, after his sale to Midianitish trad-
ers by his perfidious brothers. There he had
become the prime minister of Pharaoh, and
34 That Sweet Story of Old
the greatest and most honoured citizen in the
country. In a time of famine his brothers
had sought food for their families from Egypt,
not knowing that the ruler of the land was
the one they had sold away into slavery. He
was able to save them and their households,
and to bring his old father, Jacob, and his lit-
tle brother, Benjamin, into Egypt where they
lived in peace and plenty for many years. As
time passed the Egyptians were not kind to
the Hebrews, but oppressed them in a cruel
and rigorous servitude after strange kings
" who knew not Joseph," had come into power.
And then, by a series of extraordinary deeds,
Moses set the people free, and led them over
the Red Sea which opened before them, so
that the green waves piling high on either
hand like emerald walls, they passed through
the flood on foot, as over a beaten floor. On
through the wilderness then, to Canaan.
ISTow, hundreds of years have gone, and the
wilderness track is taken once more, by a little
party of quiet travellers, as the Child of Mary
is borne down into Egypt.
A prophet of the olden days had said, " Out
of Egypt have I called my Son," and every
word of prophecy, in the story of Jesus our
Saviour, was literally fulfilled.
As Jewish artisans often sojourned in Egypt,
practicing their trades, or Jewish merchants
Of the Flight Into Egypt 35
went there to sell their wares, it was not an
uncommon thing for strangers such as these
to stay awhile in Egypt. The young mother
felt safe there, watching over her lovely Child,
and Joseph, her grave and gentle-mannered
husband, tenderly cared for them both, till
word came that Herod was dead. "With joy
and gladness the little home was then given
up, the home in the land of the stranger, and,
breaking camp, the three returned to Judea.
Before the flight into Egypt, there had been
a very beautiful scene in the Temple at Jeru-
salem. When Jesus was eight days old, He
was circumcised, as the Jewish custom required.
A little later His parents carried Him to Jeru-
salem, to present Him to the Lord before the
altar of sacrifice. Rich people brought a lamb
without blemish as their offering, but the poor
brought only a pair of turtle-doves, and these
were the offering of Mary.
As she stood there, a peasant-woman, in the
dress and veil that Syrian women wore, some-
thing unusual happened. Shall we read about
it in the words of St. Luke ?
" And, behold, there was a man in Jerusa-
lem, whose name was Simeon ; and the same
man was just and devout, waiting for the con-
solation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was
upon him.
" And it was revealed to him by the Holy
36 That Sweet Story of Old
Ghost, that he should not see death, before he
had seen the Lord's Christ.
" And he came by the Spirit into the temple :
and when the parents brought in the child
Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the
law,
"Then took he Him up in his arms, and
blessed God, and said,
" Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart
in peace, according to Thy word :
" For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,
which Thou hast prepared before the face of
all people ;
" A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the
glory of Thy people Israel,
" And Joseph and His mother marvelled at
those things which were spoken of Him.
" And Simeon blessed them, and said unto
Mary His mother. Behold, this child is set for
the fall and rising again of many in Israel ;
and for a sign which shall be spoken against ;
" (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine
own heart also), that the thoughts of many
hearts may be revealed.
" And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the
daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser:
she was of a great age, and had lived with an
husband seven years from her virginity ;
" And she was a widow of about fourscore
and four years, which departed not from the
Of the Flight Into Egypt 37
temple, but served God with fastings and
prayers night and day.
"And she coming in that instant gave
thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of
Him to all them that looked for redemption in
Jerusalem."
Jesus was born into the world a little He-
brew Child, and as a Hebrew Child He was very
strictly brought up and taught the law of God.
The children of Israel were early taught the
observances of their faith, were trained regu-
larly to attend the synagogue, and to commit
to their memories such parts of the Scripture
as they then had. This was the sort of train-
ing our dear Lord had, and as a result, we are
told, that " the ChUd grew and waxed strong
in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of
God was upon Him."
The years went on, and Jesus was the de-
light of His mother's soul. Think of it. He
was a sinless Child. The dearest and best
children we have ever seen, are sometimes
willful and perverse, fly into a rage, or shed
tears from angry temper. Which of us does
not remember with shame times when we were
unkind or cowardly or perhaps deceitful, or
vain, when we thought too highly of ourselves
and looked down on some one else ? Which
of us has not been lazy and inclined to shirk
a task, or disobedient and in heart a rebel
38 That Sweet Story of Old
against father, mother or teacher ? Alas, the
garment of our soul has many a spot and stain.
"We compare it with the whiteness of our
Saviour's robes, and our garment looks dark,
more like wind-blown and dust-dimmed snow,
than like snow new fallen from the skies. But
it was not so with Jesus. He was the sinless
Child, pure in heart, pure in speech, and pure
in deed. No other child ever lived through
childhood's years, without once committing a
single sin.
The old painters who loved to depict the
Virgin and her Child, found a favourite sub-
ject in the Temple scene where the aged
Simeon and the aged Anna were moved to so
much ecstasy at the sight of this little One.
Infants were daily presented to Jehovah in
the Temple. There must have been some-
thing in the face of Jesus, far sweeter, far
purer, than any look in any other childish face.
I sometimes ask myself,
f
" Do I love the Lord or no,
Am I His or am I not ? "
And then, I try to think of Him, as He lay in
Mary's arms, the Holy Child, the Child of
Bethlehem. I am sure I would never have
turned away from the loveliness and majesty
of the sinless Child. And then, with the chil-
dren I like to repeat.
Of the Flight Into Egypt 39
" Gentle Jesus, meek and mild
Look upon a little child,
Pity my simplicity.
Suffer me to come to Thee.
" Fain I would to Thee be brought ; —
Gracious God, forbid it not,
In the kingdom of Thy grace
Grant a little child a place."
IV
THE CHILD AND THE RABBIS
You know, do you not, that the passover,
the greatest feast of the Jews, was kept in
memory of the time when they escaped from
Egypt and the bondage in which they were
held by Pharaoh. After Pharaoh had again
and again hardened his heart and refused to
let the Israelites leave his house of bondage,
God, who had visited the Egyptians with suc-
cessive dreadful plagues, sent a destroying
angel who entered every door in Egypt. In
a single night, this angel of death, swept
across the doomed land, and from the halls of
the king, to the hovel of the meanest churl,
he snatched away the first-born child. In
every home, a child lay in the sleep that
knows no waking. But the Lord had directed
the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb to Him, and
to touch their door-posts with the blood of the
slain lamb, and the angel entered no home,
where the sacred sign of the blood was seen
on the door. Darkness and death and despair
in the homes of the Egyptians. Life and light
and hope like a kindling glow, in the homes
of the Hebrews. The latter were dressed as
40
The Child and the Rabbis 41
for a journey ; and on their tables was a simple
meal ; the flesh of the lamb, and un-
leavened bread, the bread that can be baked
in haste, and as they ate, they listened for the
command to go with their young and their old,
their flocks and their herds, their wives and
their little ones, out of the land of Egypt and
out of the house of bondage.
By God's command in all their later history
the Jews kept the Feast of the Passover.
Once a year with simple rites, each household
eating the feast by itself, the great event of
the national deliverance was commemorated.
Read the seventy-eighth psalm, which be-
gins, " Give ear, O my people to my law, in-
cline your ears to the words of my mouth. I
will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter
dark sayings of old, which we have heard and
known, and our fathers have told us. We will
not hide them from our children, showing to
the generation to come, the praises of the
Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful
works that He hath done." This psalm and the
group of psalms nearest it, are lofty hymns of
praise to Jehovah, who had brought the
nation out of its troubles and set it in a large
place. You could not spend Sunday after-
noons better than in marking passages in the
psalms, and in the portions of the Old Testa-
ment which tell how God redeemed His people
42 That Sweet Story of Old
with a mighty hand. In the book of Acts of
the Apostles you will find Stephen, in his de-
fense before the High Priest and the San-
hedrim, wonderfully narrating this same grand
story.
It was the Jewish custom, once every year,
to keep the great Passover Feast at Jerusalem.
In a period when books as we have them were
unknown, and parchment rolls carefully
written out by scribes and priests were costly
and rare, never owned by individuals, but only
by cities and communities, guarded under lock
and key, and read to the congregation at
stated intervals, the national history was
handed down by word of mouth from father to
son. Pilgrimages across country to the great
Temple at Jerusalem, undertaken by tribes and
clans, at considerable effort, expense and in-
convenience, helped to fix the patriotic thought
and crystallize it into something that could
never wear out.
When Jesus was twelve years old. His
parents went to Jerusalem to keep the Passover,
and for the first time, took Him with them.
At twelve or thirteen, a Jewish boy was sup-
posed to begin sharing the religious duties of
manhood. He had been taught everything
that Joseph knew of the law and the prophets,
and Mary may have sometimes told Him that
more was expected of Him than of other chil-
The Child and the Rabbis 43
dren, that He was, in a sense, different from
theirs, His Father's Son. Whether or not this
was so, the boy went eagerly up to the great
passover. His heart filled with gladness. His
face radiant. In the company of His kindred,
He may not always have kept closely at His
mother's side. Cousins, nephews and near re-
lations were often spoken of as brothers and
sisters in those days.
When the passover was finished, and
the company were slowly faring home
again, Jesus was missed by Joseph and
Mary.
" And when they had fulfilled the days, as
they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind
in Jerusalem ; and Joseph and His mother
knew not of it. But they, supposing Him to
have been in the company, went a day's jour-
ney ; and they sought Him among their kins-
folk and acquaintance.
" And when they found Him not, they turned
back to Jerusalem, seeking Him. And it came
to pass, that after three days they found Him
in the temple, sitting in the midst of the
doctors, both hearing them, and asking them
questions.
" And all that heard Him were astonished at
His understanding and answers. And when
they saw Him, they were amazed: and His
mother said unto Him, Son, why hast Thou
44 That Sweet Story of Old
thus dealt with us ? behold, Thy father and I
have sought Thee sorrowing.
" And He said unto them, How is it that ye
sought Me ? wist ye not that I must be about
My Father's business ? And they understood
not the sayings which He spake unto them.
" And He went down with them, and came
to Nazareth, and was subject unto them : but
His mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
" And Jesus increased in wisdom and stat-
ure, and in favour with God and man."
When one is intensely interested in any pur-
suit, time jaies by like a dream. Jesus, for-
gotten or overlooked by His elders, had drifted
past the crowd, into some room of the Temple,
where the learned doctors, men of grave
and reverend aspect, were discussing matters
of weighty importance. Fancy a child of
twelve, standing on the edge of a group of
ministers who to-day might be talking about
the wonderful deeds and words of God. Hol-
man Hunt's picture shows us a circle of seven
venerable men, their keen dark eyes fastened
on a slender lad standing in their midst, " both
hearing them and asking them questions."
Children sometimes ask questions that are hard
to answer. I think Jesus wanted to learn all
He could about what the passover meant, why
it was kept, what these old men knew of the
nation's history. His whole being was awake.
The Child and the Rabbis 45
Out of the hush of His country home at Naza-
reth, He had stepped into the throbbing life of
a town at flood-tide. He had seen the knife
of the priest smiting the lamb on the altar.
He had recited the responses in the great
assembly. He had lifted His voice in the
grand Hallelujah chorus. His mother would
not be at His side, for she would be with the
women who worshipped apart, but He would,
with other lads, stand among the men, and for
the first time. He felt, though He did not un-
derstand it, that He would soon be a man.
When Mary, flushed and reproachful, re-
claimed her lost child in the temple, He could
not at once come back to earthly things. He
had not noticed the lapse of time ; perhaps He
had not broken bread since His mother had
left Him. To her natural inquiry why He had
given His parents this anxiety. He made a
reply, already quoted, perplexing enough and
strange when coming from childish lips.
"Wist ye not that I must be about My
Father's business ? "
It was for them the parting of the ways.
Their child had heard the first boom of the
waves that were to bear Him far, far out of
their sight. He spoke without a thought of
disrespect, as one who announced a fact.
They knew that a claim higher than theirs
had been laid upon the child.
46 That Sweet Story of Old
Silently they turned away, and meekly He
accompanied them to the home in Nazareth.
The Kabbis looked at one another, strange
thoughts in their hearts. No doubt some of
them wondered what God meant to do through
this amazing Boy, so unlike other boys, so
full already of heavenly insight and wisdom.
Here drops the curtain for many years. All
that we are told is " that Jesus increased in
wisdom and stature and in favour with God and
man."
Jesus went to Nazareth with His parents
and was subject to them, that is. He obeyed
them in everything, and was a dutiful and lov-
ing son in the home. Joseph was a carpenter,
and in the shop where he worked with plane
and saw, I am sure that he had the help and
companionship of the Youth, who was not yet
ready to go out into the world, and work
among men. I can imagine Him, with His
sweet serious face, and His steady deft hand,
managing tools as dexterously as later He
managed men. The shavings fell on the floor,
yellow and fragrant; there were people then
who had in their houses, chairs, boxes and tables,
and the Tokes for their cattle, and made by
Him, who had left heaven to tarry among
working people here below. Surely every
working man should love Jesus Christ, who,
in the quiet years in Nazareth, did many a full
The Child and the Rabbis 47
day's work in the shop, and at night slept as
working men do, the deep sleep of the weary.
If in the time to come, you are ever tempted
by pride, to look down on those whose hands are
hardened with toil, say to yourself, " The Lord
of Glory did not think it beneath His dig-
nity to do day's labour in the shop of a car-
penter. He exemplified in His own life the
truthof the proverb "before honour is humility."
To Bethlehem a Child there came,
Oh, ages long ago,
The angels brought from heaven His name
That fully we might know
The errand of the Christ-Child here,
To bring us joy and mirth,
To bless with peace, or far or near,
The warring, weary earth.
The angels sang for very bliss
Across the silent skies ;
Was ever message glad as this
Here sent from Paradise ?
At rapture of that kindling word,
The morning stars again,
As erst, to melody were stirred,
And tuned their sweet refrain.
Adown the dewy mountain slope
The simple shepherds fared,
Their hearts were full of wistful hope ;
That hope the world hath shared.
With staff and crook and girded limb.
They left the flock and fold,
And found tbeir eager way to Him
By ancient Beers foretold.
48 That Sweet Story of Old
They found Him where the lowing kine
Stood in the stable dim ;
A mother, sweet as yonrs or mine,
In soft arms cradled Him.
Wise men by trackless deserts led,
Star-guided found Him too.
And lowly bowed each kingly head ;
The King of kings they knew.
So came the Child to Bethlehem !
So comes He still to men.
And we may bring Him gold and gain,
And worship Him as then
They did, whose gifts were spice and myrrh ;
Ours be the service meet
For every humble worshipper
To kneel and kiss His feet.
V
TWO YOUNG MEN
Forth from the desert, from its silence and
its vastness, came John the Baptist. Did you
ever see a meteor flash across the sky at night ?
John the Baptist was like that, a sudden
great light breaking on the darkness. The
times were full of evil. Men had forgotten
God. Vices from idolatrous nations had crept
in among the chosen people. The heathen had
profaned the very borders of the temple. In
greed to make money, people were will-
ing to be hypocrites and cheats. It was an hour
when Satan reigned, and Jehovah was insulted.
Once before in the history of the Hebrews,
a man had come forth from the desert, with
words of warning and rebuke. The Jews re-
vered the memory of Elijah the Tishbite, a
prophet who wore rough clothing, and feared
no man, not even the King. John the Baptist
was very much like Elijah. He appeared
suddenly. He was dressed in camel's hair,
with a leathern girdle about his loins. He
was satisfied with the desert's simple fare, for
his meat was " locusts and wild honey."
He described himself as " the voice of one
49
50 That Sweet Story of Old
crying in the wilderness," his message being,
"Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; make His
paths straight." John was the kinsman of
Jesus, his mother Elizabeth being Mary's
cousin. His father and mother had waited
long in childlessness and were old, when this
son was given them. Like Isaac, who was born
when his parents were old, and like Samuel
who came in answer to prayer, John was from
birth specially endowed with gifts and graces.
He was a child of the covenant, and among
the great men of the world, few may take a
higher place than John the Baptist. As you
read history you will find that he belongs on
the roll of fame, with the great prophets and
reformers, with Elijah, Isaiah, and Malachi,
with Savonarola and Martin Luther and John
Huss, and Oliver Cromwell and John Knox.
A few years after his first magnificent stride on
the stage, and his first splendid success, he died
in prison, by the sword of Herod's executioner,
a martyr to the truth he had preached. And
then, Jesus Himself said of him, " Among men
born of women there hath not arisen a greater
than John the Baptist."
In ancient times, when a king was about to
visit any part of his realm, it was customary to
send a herald before him, that proper prepara-
tion to receive the royal guest might be made.
John came to be the herald or forerunner of
Two Young Men 51
Jesus. During the quiet years at Nazareth,
Jesus had toiled in the carpenter's shop, and no
doubt had spent many an hour at evening in the
fields communing with His Father in heaven.
The years thus passed by Jesus, had, by John
the Baptist, been spent in contemplation. As
a child, in the house of a priest, he had been
made familiar with the hallowed rites of the
temple, and had grown up in an atmosphere of
prayer and piety. Life to him had been a seri-
ous thing, and he had never longed for ease, or
been moved by worldly ambition. "When the
right moment came, he stepped out of ob-
scurity, a commanding and conspicuous figure,
with a gift of oratory, a scorn and contempt
of sin, and a voice like a trumpet. He stood
by the bank of the Jordan and cried to the
crowds who trooped to hear him, " Kepent ye.
Bring forth fruits meet for repentance."
The world always pauses in its mad career
to listen to the man with convictions. Not
John's rough dress, nor his leonine face and
wild hair, nor yet the compelling music of his
voice, drew to him the hearts of men, and
made them like wax in his hands. His per-
sonality was tremendous because he was tre-
mendously in earnest. If you want to move
people you must mean what you say. He
meant what he said, believed it through and
through. When he talked to the Pharisees
52 That Sweet Story of Old
who were rather given to self-conceit, though
good people on the whole, and to the Saddu-
cees who were skeptical and refused to believe
God's word, to the Roman soldiers who min-
gled freely in the throngs about him, and to
the publicans, whom everybody distrusted, he
hit in every case, straight from the shoulder.
He was like the surgeon who is not contented
to graze the edge of a wound, but cuts to the
core, and extracts the evil at its root.
The publicans, as a class, were shameless
robbers. They ground the poor to earth and
pillaged the rich, and in consequence they
were hated by both rich and poor. Nobody
thought a publican could possibly have any
good in him. John found a way to reach
these men, and told them that repentance for
them must mean being just and honourable,
and exacting no more than the law allowed.
The soldiers were often dreaded in the com-
munity, for they were apt to brawl and bluster,
and were given to trampling on the rights of
others. "Do violence to no man," said the
bold reformer whom the Roman uniform did
not daunt.
Good preaching was this of the young man
from the desert. Those who heard it were
quick to respond. They confessed their sins,
and asked to be baptized. A motley crowd
was that about the Jordan river, flowing be-
Two Young Men 53
tween its steep banks and rippling in the
breeze, little ships with white sails floating in
the distance, and on the water's edge, the
rough prophet with the inspired face, baptiz-
ing Jew and Koman, and all who truly re-
pented.
One day as John was baptizing, down to the
water's edge, came a man young like himself.
There was nothing eccentric in His dress or
exclusive in His bearing. He wore the ordi-
nary garb of the Jew, and was accompanied
by no one. Yet the crowd parted before Him,
they knew not why, and He presently stood
at the preacher's side, they two alone, the oth-
ers at a little distance, as if they were specta-
tors, near enough to hear remarkable words,
yet themselves making no comment.
Those nearest thought they saw tears in the
eyes of John, and for a moment wondered if
he were going to kneel. But he remained
standing.
" I have need," he said, " to be baptized of
Thee, and comest Thou to me ? "
" Suffer it to be so now," said the man, who
bowed His head to the baptism of the cool
Jordan waves. " Suffer it to be so now, for
thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness."
" I indeed baptize you with water unto re-
pentance," John had cried in tones that rang
across the distance and were heard on the
54 That Sweet Story of Old
farthest verge of the throng, "but He that
Cometh after me is mightier than I, whose
shoe's latchet I am not able to bear. He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
After the baptism of Jesus, " He came up
out of the water, and lo ! a voice from heaven
was heard saying, This is My beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased."
What wonder that when Jesus preached,
and all men flocked to hear His words. He
preached a higher message than that of John.
" Kepent ye," said Jesus, " for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand."
We are nearer heaven than we dream. We
do not know it, but the land unseen is very
close to ours, and there are those in heaven
who watch what is going on here, with eyes
of the tenderest love. To you and me God
may speak, as He did, to Jesus through the
opened sky, saying that He is well pleased.
Sometimes He comes so near that we do indeed
know His presence and hear His voice. But
we cannot expect this gladness, unless, as Jesus
did, we live, wholly given up in every thought
and pulse of being, to do the Father's will.
" And this is the record of John, when the
Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem
to ask him. Who art thou ? And he confessed
and denied not; but confessed, I am not the
Christ.
Two Young Men 55
"And they asked him, What then? Art
thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art
thou that prophet ? And he answered, No.
" Then said they unto him, Who art thou ?
that we may give an answer to them that
sent us. What say est thou of thyself ?
" He said, I am the voice of one crying in the
wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord,
as said the prophet Esaias.
"And they which were sent were of the
Pharisees.
" And they asked him, and said unto him.
Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not
that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet ?
"John answered them saying, I baptize
with water: but there standeth one among
you, whom ye know not ; He it is, who com-
ing after me is preferred before me, whose
shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.
"These things were done in Bethabara be-
yond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
" The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto
him, and saith. Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world. This
is He of whom I said. After me cometh a man
which is preferred before me ; for He was be-
fore me. And I knew Him not : but that He
should be made manifest to Israel, therefore
am I come baptizing with water.
" And John bare record, saying, I saw the
56 That Sweet Story of Old
Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and
it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not :
but He that sent me to baptize with water, the
same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see
the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him,
the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy
Ghost. And I saw and bare record that this
is the Son of God.
" Again the next day after John stood, and
two of his disciples ; and looking upon Jesus
as He walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of
God!
"And the two disciples heard him speak,
and they followed Jesus."
Behold the Lamb of God ! None who heard
that phrase misunderstood its meaning. The
smoke of the sacrifice never ceased on the
temple-altars, and forever were lambs without
blemish brought to be offered. Behold the
Lamb of God. So let us behold this Lamb,
slain for us, and say,
"Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee
O Lamb of God, I come !
" Just as I am and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot
O Lamb of God, I come."
VI
THE TEMPTATION
In my girlhood there were few books writ-
ten for the young, and so, as a reading child,
I read grown up people's books. A child
who loves to read will find great pleasure
in books, although they may be a little beyond
her comprehension. Among the books I de-
voured and read over and over until I knew
it almost by heart was Bunyan's " Pilgrim's
Progress."
One of my favourite chapters described a
terrible fight that Christian had with a foul
fiend named Apollyon. This monster was
hideous to behold with scales like a fish, wings
like a dragon, and feet like a bear. In our
copy of the book there was a print showing
him in all his panoply of frightful ugliness,
fire and smoke issuing from his body, and his
mouth like the mouth of a lion. This creature,
the great adversary of mankind in person,
came roaring out on the pilgrim who stood his
ground defiantly. He could not run away, for
he had no armour for his back. The Wicked
One approached with anger and disdain, and
57
58 That Sweet Story of Old
the conflict was long and awful, poor Christian
being grievously wounded before it was ended,
and once being thrown quite to the ground.
Nimbly springing up, he called out, " Kejoice
not over me, mine enemy, though I fall, I
shall rise again." Soon after this Apollyon
spread his black dragon wings and flew away,
and Christian went on Jais journey vic-
torious.
We cannot understand it, but the devil,
strange as it seems, dared to confront the
Lord of Christians. Christ was to undergo
every trial that could ever befall His follow-
ers. But He was not to be wounded or thrown
down.
" Christ leads us through no darker room
Than He went through before."
Eeturning from Jordan full of the Holy
Ghost, the voice from heaven still sounding in
His ears, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the
wilderness. He must be alone for awhile be-
fore He could be ready to meet great multi-
tudes and perform great works.
He was there in the wilderness forty days,
during which time He tasted no food. After-
wards He hungered. Into the wilderness fast-
ness, ventured a black- winged angel, bold and
daring, whose errand was to tempt Jesus and
try if possible to sully His purity and lead
The Temptation 59
Him into sin. The devil was skillful in black
arts, smooth-tongued and polite, and very per-
severing. He returned again and again to the
combat though always foiled. Not till he had
ended all the temptation did he depart from
Jesus for a time.
Why was the Sinless One, at the very outset
of His ministry, confronted by the Prince of
the powers of evil ? Apollyon probably came
in shining armour, dark, yet impressive, not as
the foul fiend darting at poor tired Christian.
He would not bring his dragon wings or his
scaly coat of mail to the desert place where he
subtly tried to tempt the Son of God. Yet,
he was the same old devil who first assailed
Eve in Eden, and whom, if you have read the
" Pilgrim's Progress " you remember as attack-
ing Christian and hotly disputing his way, try-
ing to put an end to him. At the time of our
dear Lord's coming, the devil and his angels
were very active in the world and very busy
indeed in Palestine. Jesus was to vanquish
demons and send them out of the poor people
they were destroying. First, He must Himself
have a hand-to-hand conflict with the Arch-
deceiver and most deadly adversary, and come
off from the strife, a conqueror.
You must notice, that Jesus being full of the
Holy Ghost, was led by the Spirit to go apart
from the multitude and have a period of se-
6o That Sweet Story of Old
elusion and quiet, before beginning His public
work.
When we are most exalted, we, who are sin-
ful and erring human beings, when we are
most uplifted to a high and lofty plane, are in
most danger of reaction. The pendulum
swings from great joy to deep melancholy.
The one who was on the crest of the wave
yesterday may be in the trough of the sea to-
morrow.
Jesus was not as we are, erring and imper-
fect, but He was a man, " in all points tempted
as we are, yet without sin." He came to be
our Saviour, so He had to know our dangers
and our temptations too. The devil is always
coming after us, and trying to undermine us
by his snares, but there is no need that he
should overcome us. Kesist the devil and he
will flee from you. Make a brave stand up
jBght against the devil, and he will leave you
and seek for easier prey. The devil is a coward.
The devil takes a mean advantage of people
when they are tired and hungry. Jesus had
been fasting for days. In His mood of spir-
itual elevation He had no desire for food and
drink, but as that passed. He became spent
and famished.
This was the Wicked One's opportunity.
" If Thou be the Son of God, command this
stone that it be made bread."
The Temptation 6l
Jesus answered him saying, that " It is writ-
ten, man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word of God."
You see, what a good thing it is to know
one's Bible. Jesus knew His Bible. If you
know what God has said, you always have a
weapon. The Bible is a sword that is mighty
in battle.
Observe that the devil tried to persuade
Jesus to use miraculous power for a doubly
selfish end. To prove to him that He was the
Son of God, and to relieve His own urgent
want. Christ never once wrought a miracle
for His individual need or comfort, or for any-
thing connected with self. Notice this too, that
Jesus never wrought a miracle in direct oppo-
sition to the laws of nature. Dead stones
cannot be made into living bread. Jesus some-
times hastened law, but He never violated it.
The wily Wicked One, now tried another
tack. He took Jesus up into a high mountain
and showed Him all the kingdoms of the
world in a moment of time and said, "Tou
shall have all this, all of it, the power and the
glory, it is within my power to promise it.
Fall down and worship me^ and not a prince
or a king but shall fall down and worship you.
Think of it ! Such an easy condition ! Such
a dazzling reward ! "
But, though in this strange world of ours,
62 That Sweet Story of Old
men have sold theu* souls to the devil, and en-
joyed a brief season of power, wealth andglory,
only to go to unquenchable fire hereafter,
Jesus was not a man to be thus tempted. His
purity was unsullied by such a wish as this
which the devil tried to lure Him with. He
was a young man of Galilee, unknown, poor,
and the lure held out to Him was that He should
deliver His people from the yoke of the Ro-
man, restore their ancient glory, and Himself
sit on the throne of the Imperial Caesars.
Not for one second did this temptation at-
tract Jesus, He said in cold clear accents, that
might well have warned His adversary, " It is
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God
and Him only shalt thou serve. Get thee be-
hind Me, Satan."
One would suppose that this defiance might
have sent the devil flying away in dismay, but
no, he tried again. He next tried to make
Jesus cast Himself down, through sheer
abysses of space, from a pinnacle of the
temple, expecting that God would deliver
Him. Note that Jesus never puts a premium
on mere fool-hardiness. Calmly He answered,
It is said, " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God." And now the devil took his leave.
From that time, he interfered directly no more
with Jesus of Nazareth,
Though the great Wicked One did not at-
The Temptation 63
tempt any more duels, so to speak, with the
Son of God, he was His implacable foe so long
as Jesus lived on the earth. His wiles were
the inspiration of bad men, he was at every
point prompting the envy and malice and
hatred of those who did not love the meek and
lowly Nazarene. Again and again did Jesus
put the devil to flight when the people whom
Jesus cared for were assaulted by him. The
demons cried, " I know Thee, who Thou art,
the Holy One of God," and they could not
stand before the word of command that Jesus
spoke.
From His triumphant strife with Satan,
Jesus came again into the world of men, and
soon He began to gather followers around
Him. From this time He lived where every-
body could see and hear Him, a life in the pub-
lic eye, such as few men have ever lived.
Jesus was thirty years old, when His work
among men began. It was to continue three
years. The first step in the drama was
taken. He went to His old home, but not
to work any more at Joseph's bench, for
He must be about His Heavenly Father's
business. So He went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day, opened the Book, and began
to read. His first teaching being among His
kindred and neighbours, among the children
who had grown up with Him, and the old folk
64 That Sweet Story of Old
who remembered Him as a Child. He was to
preach all over Galilee, through its hills and
vales, and beside the sea. " Eepent ye," was
His message, " for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand."
VII
BESIDE THE SEA
" Mastek, where dwellest Thou ? "
The question fell wistfully from the lips of
a young man, who had been one of John's
disciples. Disciple means scholar. To have
sat at the feet of John the Baptist and learned
of him, was to be ready to advance to a
higher grade. John's disciple might easily
become Christ's follower.
" Come and see," said Jesus. So this man
and another accepted the invitation. They
came and saw where He dwelt, and that night
they abode with Him. It was about the
tenth hour, four o'clock in the afternoon.
" One of the two which heard John speak,
and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's
brother.
" He first findeth his own brother Simon, and
saith unto him, We have found the Messias,
which is, being interpreted, the Christ.
"And he brought him to Jesus. And when
Jesus beheld him. He said, Thou art Simon
the son of Jonas : thou shalt be called Cephas,
which is by interpretation, A stone.
65
66 That Sweet Story of Old
" And the day following Jesus would go
forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and
saith unto him, Follow Me.
" Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of
Andrew and Peter.
" Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto
him. We have found Him, of whom Moses in
the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of
Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
" And Nathanael said unto him, Can there
any good thing come out of Nazareth ?
Philip saith unto him. Come and see.
" Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and
saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in
whom there is no guile !
" Nathanael saith unto Him, Whence know-
est thou me ? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, when
thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee.
"Nathanael answered and saith unto Him,
Kabbi, Thou art the Son of God ; Thou art the
King of Israel.
" Jesus answered and said unto him, Because
I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree,
believest thou ? thou shalt see greater things
than these.
" And He saith unto him, Yerily, verily, I say
unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open,
and the angels of God ascending and descend-
ing upon the Son of man."
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Beside the Sea 67
In another place we are told how Peter and
James and John, fishermen of Galilee, left
their nets at the Saviour's call. "Follow
Me ! " He said, and they heard and obeyed.
They did not cease to be fishermen. Often
after they became the servants and friends of
Christ, they went out on the lake in their
little boats and toiled till they had a catch
that they might bring to land. There are
beautiful pictures of the Master and the
fisherfolk all through the gospels. But their
chief business was not fishing, nor earning
money, nor doing anything whatever, except
serving the Master. That came first from the
day they heard Him speak. Jesus called
Andrew, Peter, John, James, Nathanael Mat-
thew, Zaccheus each by name, and thencefor-
ward they were not their own, but His. He
calls you and me by our names as He called
them. Are we ready to be His disciples ?
As soon in that day, as any one knew the
beautiful secret of Jesus' love, he went and
told somebody else. It was the sort of thing
that was too good to keep. Jesus, so loving,
so winning, so wonderful, asked a man to be
His friend. The man did not hesitate a
minute. He left all, and followed Jesus, and
he begged his brothers, and cousins, and ac-
quaintances to come too.
There are other instances in history of this
68 That Sweet Story of Old
singular influence exercised by a winning per-
sonality. When the great Napoleon came
back from his exile at Elba, he stepped on the
soil of France almost alone, but the news of
his return soon spread like wild-fire ; his old
soldiers rallied about him, and in a day or two
he was again the leader of an army. Courage
and daring and magnetism have ever won the
hearts of men. But Jesus had no story be-
hind Him, no record to waken enthusiasm.
He was absolutely new, and so to speak, ap-
peared out of space, as had His own Star in
the East. He walked along the beach, and
the fishermen mending their nets, or coming
in to shore, their boats laden with shining
spoil, or perhaps returning empty-handed and
sorrowful, felt the magic of His gaze. He
glanced at them and their hearts leaped up to
answer His look. Long after these days, there
was a young man who hated Jesus, and tried
with all his might to hurt His cause, and kill
His disciples. The young man was hurrying on
the highroad with a troop of people, bent on the
massacre of those who served the Christ. Sud-
denly, at midday there shone a light from
heaven, and out of that light, straight into the
young man's eyes, looked the eyes of Jesus.
One blinding, blazing moment, they looked,
those reproachful, compassionate, masterful
eyes. "Lord what wilt Thou have me to
Beside the Sea 69
do ? " instantly cried the vanquished foe, from
that hour a loyal friend, a friend and servant
of the Lord to the last breath of life.
As Jesus looked at men and spoke to them,
they did not resist His call or deny His claim.
"Follow Me," He said to the fishermen,
" and I will make you fishers of men." That
meant that they should have higher work,
worthier work, work farther reaching.
The characters of these men who became
the first known among the followers of Jesus,
were different. Peter was a lovable man,
warm-hearted, zealous and impulsive. He was
married, and in his home his wife's mother,
honoured and cherished as the mother-in-law
has always been in the East, lay sick of a
fever at the very time Christ summoned Peter
to other service than fishing. The Master
entered the home, stood by the couch, laid a
cool hand on the hot brow, spoke a gentle
word and lo ! the fever left the sufferer. She
was all at once well, and rose and ministered
to the household. Ho wonder that they
brought other sick people to Jesus, begging
Him to heal them.
John and James were brothers, sons of
Zebedee, a well-to-do owner of boats and a
person of some consequence. Their mother
was a woman of more than ordinary thought-
fulness, and a loving mother. She was a
yo That Sweet Story of Old
woman who had ambition for her sons and
longed to see them in honourable places.
These two brothers became very intimate
with Jesus Christ. John indeed was His very
closest earthly friend. James in a day, yet to
dawn, was to be the first in the band nearest
Jesus on earth, to lay down his life and win a
martyr's crown.
Nathanael, a quiet meditative personage,
was disposed to question whether anything
good could come out of Nazareth ? Just as
there are parts of New York and Chicago and
London and Paris, that have not a good
reputation, just as some little towns and
hamlets are thought to be dangerous and the
haunts of evil men, so Nazareth was the scoff
of other towns, and Nathanael would not be-
lieve that the hope of the ages could come
from it. But when Jesus spoke to Nathanael,
his doubts were soon as morning mists
scattered by the sun.
" When thou wert under the fig-tree, I saw
thee," said Jesus.
" Nathanael answered and said unto Him,
Eabbi, Thou art the Son of God ; Thou art the
King of Israel.
" Jesus answered and said unto him. Because
I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree,
believest thou ? thou shalt see greater things
than these.
Beside the Sea 71
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye
shall see heaven open, and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of
man."
The despised Nazarene, you may see made
from the outset a claim that no mere mortal
man ever made. He was the Son of Man,
but it was as God's Son, that He drew men
to Him. Men of all sorts and conditions,
learned, ignorant, glad, sorrowful, they came
to Him at His call.
" In the beauty of the lilies Christ was bom across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me."
Though all sorts and conditions of men
freely yielded to Jesus when He bade them
come, young men seemed to flock to Him,
rather than old. He was a young man, and
young people belonged to Him, and could not
stay away. As when He was here below, so
now that He is in heaven, wearing the crowns
of all worlds. He specially and earnestly calls
the young. He is calling you. Do not let
Him call in vain.
VIII
JESUS AS A WEDDING GUEST
I HAVE never forgotten the impression
made on my childish mind by the first wedding
I ever saw. The bride in her beautiful gown,
the groom looking so proud and pleased, the
circle of spectators, the minister, the music,
the solemn ceremony, the flowers, the happy
confusion of congratulations, the cake cut by
the bride's hand, the merry going away of the
newly married pair, are all as vividly present
before me, as if that wedding of long ago, had
taken place yesterday. A wedding is an oc-
casion of rejoicing, a function to which hope
and gayety belong of right. In every age and
in all circumstances, weddings are associated
with the gladness of the thing that begins, the
thing to which the past contributes and which
the future must serve. We adore a bride and
our interest in weddings never wanes, witness
the crowds of strangers who gather merely to
watch the coming and going of a bridal pro-
cession.
Oriental marriages are differently arranged
and conducted from ours, but the underlying
principle and motive are the same. The bride
72
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Jesus as a Wedding Guest 73
accompanied by her maidens and her people
leaves her father's house, and the bridegroom
with his retinue comes to meet her. The
coronation of the function is a feast, to which
all kindred, friends and acquaintances are in-
vited, and this feast is a real merrymaking.
There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there, and both
Jesus and His disciples were invited to the
marriage. A family friend no doubt, and
probably intimate, the mother of Jesus was
one of the honoured guests, and her presence
was regarded as a pleasure. Jesus was asked,
and Jesus accepted the invitation. He did not
absent Himself from the ordinary or the
extraordinary affairs of life. He went freely
out and in among men, as freely going to the
house of feasting, as He went pityingly to the
house of mourning. Some people think of the
Lord as a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with
grief and only as that. He was a many-sided
Man, a Man of quick-springing sympathy with
joy as well as with sadness.
I think of my Master as wearing a face so
bright that when He came into any house,
that house grew light and bright. I cannot
think of Him as ever bringing gloom. The
wet-blanket kind of Christian with the long
face and perpetual frown has not caught the
spirit of the Master. It must have made one
74 That Sweet Story of Old
glad only to be in the same room with
Jesus.
Well, the wedding bells rang cheerily and
the wedding went gaily onward, until an inci-
dent occurred that disturbed the host. Is any-
thing more embarrassing than to find that one's
provision for an entertainment has proved
insuflS.cient ? The wine of the country, the ex-
pressed juice of the grape, was the usual drink
on a festive occasion. The host had not
calculated rightly. There was not enough.
No doubt the wife of the host told Mary.
What were they to do ? Could she suggest
anything ? Rachel's or Rebecca's or Hannah's
marriage to be ruined by this lack, the house
thus stigmatized, it was most vexatious. The
good people were sadly troubled.
Mary spoke a word to her son. "They
have no wine," she said. I don't know what
she thought He would do, but it is evident
that she rested confidently and without a fear
on His power and His ability to do something.
She said calmly to the servants. Do whatever
He tells you, " Whatsoever He saith unto you,
do it." It was as if she had authority in the
house. It was certainly said and done as if
she had serenest faith in Jesus, that this thing,
a little thing in one way, a great thing in
another, would be set right by His hand.
"Fill the water-pots with water," said the
Jesus as a Wedding Guest 75
wedding guest, who could work a miracle if
He chose.
They filled them up to the brim.
" Draw out now and bear to the governor of
the feast."
And they bare it.
And when the governor of the feast tasted
this water, that was not now water, but ruby
wine, he found it of a vintage, a flavour, a rare
sweetness surpassing any he had ever tasted
before.
" Some men," he said to the host, " set out
the best wine first ; but thou hast kept the
good wine until now,"
Jesus was willing to use His great power of
working miracles, that He might make people
happy.
Jesus did not keep aloof from places where
folk had a good time. You hear people ask,
" May I go here or there, may I do this or the
other, if I am a Christian ? " Why yes, as a
Christian, you may go anywhere, if Jesus would
go, there, or do anything that Jesus would
approve of your doing, if He were here on
the earth to-day. A Christian need not be a
hermit or a recluse. Jesus mingled with
society in Nazareth. He went to lend addi-
tional grace to a wedding in Cana of Gali-
lee. Go to any right place, freely, dear girl,
dear boy, if Jesus will go too.
76 That Sweet Story of Old
There is another thought, prompted by this
story of Jesus and His kindness at the wedding.
It is be on the watch always to do what Jesus
bids you in the commonplace scenes of life, in
the schoolroom, in college, in your mother's
house, in your father's office, wherever you are.
Whatsoever He saith to you^ do it. Heed the
whatsoever. Kever mind how it may seem to
you. Hear and obey. If the servants had
refused to fill the water-pots with water,
when Jesus told them to do so, the wedding
feast would have continued to want wine.
You must do your share. Jesus will do His.
Heed the whatsoever. Especially in the little
things !
Is there not a beautiful meaning in this
miracle, one that we find, as we find the per-
fume of the rose, when we bend close to its
fragrant cup ? We may so use our com.
monest things that they may be changed
to rarest things, so hold in our hand life's
chalice of water, that it may give back to us a
glow and sparkle beyond our utmost hopes.
Never need we fear any failure of provision
or entertainment if Jesus be a guest or a com-
panion on the road.
" "Wherever He may guide me
No want shall turn me back,
My Shepherd is beside me,
Aud nothing can I lack."
Jesus as a Wedding Guest 77
It is a pleasant glimpse we have here of the
home life of our dear Lord. Mary, His mother,
was to have deep anguish in coming days.
But, as no other mother ever had, she had joy
in her beloved Son. Many days of deepest
happiness were hers with her Child of Heaven,
the little Child who never did wrong, never
hurt her feelings, never dimmed her home sun-
shine. Mothers are happy when children are
good and Jesus was always good. When He
grew to manhood. He still made His mother
happy.
Probably Jesus was never ill. We find
nowhere in the story of His life any word that
can lead us to suppose that He ever had the
slightest taint of disease in His perfect body^
the fitting house for His perfect soul. Other
mothers watch by their children's bed of pain
and fever, and are agonized by their chil-
dren's moans. Jesus had a childhood immune
from every malady. He had the abounding joy
of health. In His manhood He could endure
more fatigue than most men, and though
sometimes weary, He was never once laid aside
by sickness. So His mother knew the delight
of having her Son always full of vigour and
athletic strength as He grew into youth.
Then followed the long and quiet years of
peace and purity and of loving companionship,
when from twelve to thirty years of age Jesus
78 That Sweet Story of Old
was in Mary's home, satisfying every desire of
her heart, the best Son mother ever had. We
can see how she trusted Him from the swiftness
with which she turned to Him at the wedding,
when they wanted wine, and the dignity of her
demeanour to the servants in that command,
" Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it."
We have this record of the single wedding
feast at which our Saviour wrought a miracle.
But I have not a doubt that He went often to
such gatherings, and that at any social company
in ISTazareth where His family went. He went
too. He was not too busy to go where His
mother wished His company, nor was He
ashamed to be seen at her side.
IX
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
On a green rounding hilltop, with jfields
stretching away beyond it, bright with lilies
in bloom, Jesus sat, and His disciples gathered
around Him. They had begun to call Him
Master, and they listened eagerly when He
taught them. What a pleasure it must have
been to be in the Master's company and belong
to His school ! How easy to learn the lessons
that fell from His lips !
Yes, we think this, yet the lessons were
not very easy for some of those learners, nor
are they very easy for us. Human nature is the
same in every age and under every sky.
Beyond the closely clinging inner circle of
friends, the Master saw a great crowd of faces,
the faces of a multitude. His words were so
fascinating, and His fame had gone so fast and
far across that land, that people wanted to see
and wanted to hear and could not stay away
from Him.
And He opened His mouth and taught them
saying,
" Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
79
8o That Sweet Story of Old
" Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall
be comforted.
" 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 peacemakers : for they
shall be called the children of God.
" Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' 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 verses are called "The Beatitudes,"
the texts that begin with " Blessed."
You know in this world we are always prais-
ing the haughty and arrogant people who re-
fuse to let themselves be imposed or trampled
on. "We are very apt to consider meek and
humble people as rather contemptible. Not so
with Jesus. His praise was given to the poor
The Sermon on the Mount 8l
in spirit, and to the meek. He set a very high
valuation on what we call the passive virtues.
The Bible specially exalts humility from first
to last, and we are warned against being self-
conceited. The meek shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they that mourn. Why? For
they shall be comforted. To be comforted
by the loving hand of Jesus, will make us for-
get our sorrow. Weeping may endure for a
night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Here is a " blessed " we may enjoy, if we
will. They who hunger and thirst after
righteousness shall be filled. When a man has
been very long without food, he understands
what hunger means. When he has travelled in.
the hot sun without a drink of water, he knows
what thirst is. That kind of insistent hunger
and thirst for righteousness, shall be satisfied.
Men sometimes hunger and thirst for
power and preferment, for a throne. Alex-
ander, Julius Csesar, and Napoleon thus felt
the spur of a devouring ambition.
In ancient days, there was a lad who was
the heir to a kingdom. The choice was given
him. Here is the story.
" In that night did God appear unto Solomon,
and said unto him, Ask what I shall give thee.
"And Solomon said unto God, Thou hast
shewed great mercy unto David my father, and
hast made me to reign in his stead.
82 That Sweet Story of Old
" Now, O Lord God, let Thy promise unto
David my father, be established: for Thou
hast made me king over a people like the dust
of the earth in multitude.
" Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that
I may go out and come in before this people :
for who can judge this Thy people, that is so
great ?
" And God said unto Solomon, Because this
was in thine heart, and thou hast not asked
riches, wealth or honour, nor the life of thine
enemies, neither hast thou asked long life ;
but thou hast asked wisdom and knowledge
for thyself, that thou may est judge My people,
over whom I have made thee king :
"Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto
thee ; and I will give thee riches, and honour,
such as none of the kings have had that have
been before thee, neither shall there any after
thee have the like."
Can we not imitate Solomon, and choose
the course which will bring us the Master's
benediction ?
Of all the beatitudes the one I like best is this :
" Blessed are the poor in heart : for they
shall see God."
Never let us kneel in prayer without asking
that our hearts may be pure. John G. Whit-
tier, writing a poem for a child who had been
named for him, said,
The Sermon on the Mount 83
" I pray the prayer of Plato old,
Grod make thee beautiful within.
And let thine eyes the good behold
In everything save sin."
David the sweet singer of Israel said, " Wash
me and I shall be whiter than snow." The
thing we should ask for is to keep the soul
free from evil thoughts, to keep its weapons
from rust, to be pure in heart.
In the introduction to " The Boy's Froissart "
Sidney Lanier writes :
" As you read of the fair knights and the
foul knights, — for Froissart tells of both, — it
cannot but occur to you that somehow it seems
harder to be a good knight nowadays than it
was then. This is because we have so many
more ways of fighting now than in King Ed-
ward the Third's time. A good deal of what
is really combat nowadays is not called com-
bat. Many struggles, instead of taking the
form of sword and armour will present them-
selves to you after a few years in the follow-
ing shapes : the strict payment of debts ; the
utmost delicacy of national honour ; the great-
est openness of party discussion, and the most
respectful courtesy towards political oppo-
nents ; the purity of the ballot-box ; the sacred
and liberal guaranty of all rights to all citi-
zens ; the holiness of marriage ; the lofty con-
tempt for what is small, knowing and gossipy ;
84 That Sweet Story of Old
and the like. Nevertheless the same qualities
which made a manful fighter then make one
now. To speak the very truth ; to perform a
promise to the uttermost ; to reverence all
women ; to maintain right and honesty ; to
help the weak; to treat high and low with
courtesy ; to be constant to one love ; to be
fair to a bitter foe ; to despise luxury ; to pre-
serve simplicity, modesty, and gentleness in
heart and bearing ; this was in the oath of the
young knight who took the stroke upon him
in the fourteenth century, and this is still the
way to win love and glory in the nineteenth."
Yes, and in the twentieth, and in all time to
come.
There is another beatitude that is not very
popular I'm afraid ; it is, " Blessed are the
peacemakers."
In this world of wars and tumults, the
peacemakers are often discounted. But the
Lord looks on them with loving favour. They
are His children. When you can reconcile
two persons who are at enmity, you may
claim this reward and this honour.
The sermon on the mount is not very short,
but I would learn it by heart, if I were you.
I committed it to memory in my childhood,
and its beautiful phrases are part of my
treasures.
"Ye have heard that it hath been said.
The Sermon on the Mount 85
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 de-
spitefuUy 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 send-
eth rain on the just and on the unjust.
" For 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 pub-
licans so ?
" Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect."
In the course of this address our Lord
taught His disciples the prayer we all daily
repeat. His prayer, beginning " Our Father,
who art in Heaven." He told us that we
ought not to worry. Even young people, like
you do worry many times when they should
carry their burdens to the dear Lord and leave
them with Him.
" No man can serve two masters : 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.
86 That Sweet Story of Old
" 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 Solo-
mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one
of these.
" Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of
the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is
cast into the oven, shall He not much more
clothe you, O ye of little faith ?
" Therefore, take no thought saying. What
shall we eat ? 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 righteousness ; and all these things shall
be added unto you.
The Sermon on the Mount 87
" Take therefore no thought for the morrow ;
for the morrow shall take thought for the
things of itself. SuflB.cient unto the day is the
evil thereof."
Consider the lilies, how they grow, tall, and
straight and sweet and pure and brave. Cast
every burden on the Lord.
Jesus also encouraged us to pray without a
single doubt of God's readiness to answer.
" 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 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 ser-
pent?
" 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 ?
" Therefore all things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to
them ; for this is the law and the prophets."
Dear friends, as often as we read the Gos-
pel, we may see Jesus on the mountain-top, in
that green pulpit out of doors, and hear the
wonderful words that fell from His lips.
A DAY IN JESUS' LIFE
Among the people whom Jesus met every
day there were many who were ill and suffer-
ing. Some were aflB^icted by evil spirits.
Terrible demons had moved into their bodies
as we move into a house, and had kept house
therein. You may imagine what an awful
thing it was to have a wicked spirit encamped
in the soul. It made the person what we now
call insane, and the demon on the rampage in
the poor torn body would make the lips utter
bad and vile words, oaths and curses, would
make the arm strike cruel blows, or would
drive the victim into fits of foaming fury.
"When our Lord was here in the world, the
demon-hosts were very busy, for they feared
that their hour of dominion would soon be
over.
Not only this form of terrible distress was
common, but another dreadful disease, one
that doctors could not cure, raged in the East.
This disease still exists, and is still a plague
that all men shiver and shudder at in extreme
horror. It is called leprosy. It is incurable
as of old.
88
A Day in Jesus' Life 89
You know that in the Old Testament there
is a beautiful story of a little captive maid of
the Hebrews, who became a war-prize of
Naaman, a great captain of the Syrians. The
little maid waited on Naaman's wife, and very
sorry she was when she found out that her
master was a leper. She ventured to tell her
mistress about the prophet in Israel who could
cure people of leprosy, and Naaman, in des-
peration, went to the prophet, obeyed his di-
rections, and was cured.
Leprosy was never cured except by super-
natural means. Supernatural is that which is
above and beyond nature. In the old days, a
prophet's word and a prophet's command to
dip into the waters of Jordan, drove the fear-
ful disease away. In Jesus' day. He did no
more wonderful miracle, than again and again
to heal the leprosy.
A leper might live a great many years, and
all the years he would be very slowly dying,
now a foot dropping off, and now a hand.
The malady was contagious, and lepers were
not allowed to live among healthy men and
women, but had to stay off by themselves, in
places where other lepers lived. They stood
afar off by the wayside, with cloths over their
poor faces, and in their hands they held boxes
attached to long poles, in which kind people
dropped pence, carefully avoiding so much as
90 That Sweet Story of Old
a touch of the boxes. The leper was obliged
to cry in a loud voice Unclean ! Unclean ! so
that no one would approach him.
Poor, unsightly, hopeless, pain-racked victims
of a most unhappy fate, the lepers were types
of those who suffer from the venomous poison
of sin, and the leprosy was a type of sin itself.
Sin is as a rust eating into the very fabric
and stuff of the soul. Only One, by Divine
power, could heal the leprosy, and only One
can conquer the power of sin.
Deaf and dumb people there were and blind
people, many of the latter, in Judea when
Jesus was there, lame people too, and those
who suffered from burning and wasting fevers.
Jesus went everywhere, casting out devils,
opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the
ears of the deaf, restoring to the crippled their
power to walk, and making the fevered suffer-
ers well.
As Jesus came down from the mountain after
preaching the beautiful sermon, He was met
by a poor leper, who worshipped Him, saying,
"Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me
clean."
Jesus was not afraid to touch the leper. He
put forth His hand and laid it very softly an
instant on the bowed head, or the beseeching
hands, then He said, gently, but with the con-
fidence of a king, " I will, be thou clean."
A Day in Jesus' Life 91
And in an instant, swiftly, strangely, the vile
malady departed. Immediately the man was
aware that he was well, clean, like other men
once more. Jesus had made him whole.
Jesus told the man to go to the temple, and
make his thank-offering there, and commanded
him not to speak of what had happened.
Jesus sought no worldly fame, as earthly heal-
ers do.
Proceeding on His way, our Lord entered
Capernaum, a village perched on crags steep
enough for the sport of goats who leaped from
cliff to cliff. The streets of Capernaum were
like a rocky stairway, and the roofs of one
street might almost compose a pavement for
the street above.
As Jesus with His little band of followers
stepped into this rock-bound place, a fortress
then occupied by Eoman soldiers, there met
Him, deeply bending, a stately man in uniform.
This was no Jew. A Roman centurion, a
man governing with absolute authority his
company of a hundred disciplined soldiers, had
beard of Jesus. And he came to ask that
Jesus would in great compassion heal, not a
child, nor a father or brother, but a servant
who was ill with the palsy and grievously
tormented. The centurion must have had a
kind heart for he loved this slave of his and
sought the Master's help for him.
92 That Sweet Story of Old
" And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and
heal him.
" The centurion answered and said, Lord, I
am not worthy that Thou shouldest 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 goeth ; and to another, Come, and he
Cometh ; and to my servant. Do this, and he
doeth it.
" When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, and
said to them that followed, Yerily I say unto
you, I have not found so great faith, no not
in Israel.
" And I sa}'' 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 : there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.
" And Jesus said unto the centurion. Go thy
way ; and as thou hast believed, so be it done
unto thee. And his servant was healed in the
self -same hour."
The Koman centurion and his poor servant
knew the power of Christ, and Christ owned
the faith of the one and relieved the need of
the other.
K
m
H
Q
Q
Pi
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o
A Day in Jesus' Life 93
Now the evening shadows lengthened.
Peter said, " Master, you have done nothing
this whole long day but make sick people well.
Come into my house now, and rest awhile."
But when they reached his home, no doubt
one of comfort, for Peter was a thriving
fisherman, and had his own house as a place in
which he could entertain his friends, they
found sickness there. Peter's wife's mother
lay sick of a fever. In an Oriental home, the
oldest woman was and is the woman most
honoured and considered.
" Ah, but the dear mother is ill," I can hear
the daughter saying, " and oh ! my husband,
why have you brought a guest hither
now ? "
" Peace, woman," the husband would say,
" the guest I bring is not like other guests.
Take Him into the chamber where the mother
lies."
" And He touched her hand and the fever
left her, and she arose and ministered to them."
She became at once the gracious hostess and
kind house-mother. No matter that we have
looked at this beautiful picture before. We
may look at it often.
Night fell, and the narrow street was
thronged with a crowd of people, bringing
their sick to be healed, " that it might be ful-
filled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet.
94 That Sweet Story of Old
saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare
our sicknesses."
It is even so yet.
" The healing of His seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain,
We touch Him in life's throng and press
And we are whole again."
At last Jesus felt that He must move a little
way off from the great swarming multitude,
and He told Peter and the rest to get ready a
boat so that they might cross to the other side
of the sea. A scribe, a man of learning and
intelligence, came to Him then, saying,
"Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever
Thou goest ! "
And Jesus made the touching answer, the
answer of a poor and homeless man, "The
foxes have holes and the birds of the air have
nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to
lay His head."
The poorest of us, has a home. Jesus was
among men as homeless as any wanderer who
has no roof under which he may claim a
shelter. He had cut loose from the little home
in Nazareth where Joseph and Mary abode,
and started out on His great world work, but
He was a prince without a palace, a man who
owned no foot of ground, nor had gold in any
purse, nor grain in storehouse or barn. Jesus
A Day in Jesus' Life 95
was as poor as the poorest tramp who has no
abiding-place, yet He was as rich as heaven
itself, and at many a moment angels stooped
to wait on Him.
"And another of His disciples said unto
Him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my
father.
" But Jesus said unto him. Follow Me : and
let the dead bury their dead."
This little scene rather puzzled me when I
was a child, but the meaning is simple. Let the
dead hury their dead is a form of saying, " Life
and present duty come first. You say you want
to follow Me, but your father is old and he
needs you now, and you can't come with Me
while he lives." The answer is that you will
better care for the loved one, if you do right
now and follow Jesus in the way.
A great many of us make one or another
excuse, rather than drop everything and begin
the Christian life without an instant's delay.
"We are only half in earnest, and Jesus knows
it.
" Act, act in the living present.
Let the dead past bury its dead. "
Take this as the rule for the Christian
life.
" And when He had entered into a ship, His
disciples followed Him.
96 That Sweet Story of Old
" And behold, there arose a great tempest in
the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered
with the waves : but He was asleep.
" And His disciples came to Him, and awoke
Him, saying, Lord save us : we perish.
" And He saith unto them, Why are ye fear-
ful, O ye of little faith ? Then He arose and
rebuked the winds and the sea ; and there was
a great calm.
" But the men marvelled, saying. What man-
ner of man is this, that even the winds and the
sea obey Him ! "
So ended one day in the life of Jesus, a busy
day, a day when Nature itself in its winds and
waves, owned His power and grew silent at
His voice. Was there ever a day of greater
absorption, a day of less opportunity for re-
pose in any human life ?
XI
THE LAD WITH THE LOAVES
That word Tnultitude so often repeated con-
veys to my mind an idea of crowds surging
upon crowds, as when in summer, one stands on
the shore and watches the breakers rolling in.
"Wave upon wave they come, and far out on
the ocean you look and lo ! another wave is
rushing in upon the land, and back of that
another rises, and behind that another, the
white horses of the sea. So was it with the
multitudes who followed Christ.
" Come ye apart to a desert place, and rest
awhile," Jesus said to His disciples. A desert
or lonely place might be a green or flowery
meadow ; it did not always mean a barren
waste, but it did mean a spot of retirement, out
of the noise and clamour of the streets, and
away from the bustle of the markets and the
homes of men.
Young people sometimes do not realize it, but
every life must have its silent hours or it will
not grow. In the morning and the evening of
each day we have urgent need of a little while
with Jesus. How thoughtful and kind of the
Master to go with His disciples when they
97
98 That Sweet Story of Old
were tired, not to send them away from
Him.
There was always a boat ready when it
pleased Jesus to wish for one, and with the
sail spread, it would carry Him and His friends
swiftly across the blue waters of Galilee, to the
pleasant place they sought. Around the curv-
ing shores they floated, and drew to the land.
But what was this ? What meant the crowds
waiting to welcome them when they stepped
on the beach, and the crowds as far as the eye
could see ? What had happened that men,
women and children, by twos, by threes, by
dozens, were patiently awaiting them, or com-
ing into view, having plodded on foot around
the lake ?
The desert place could be no retreat that
day. For the multitude wanted to be near the
Master. Here was Hannah, whose fever He
had rebuked. Here were Nathan and Lemuel,
to whom He had given sight. Here was
some one who could hear after long deafness.
Others too, Joseph, Salome, Kachel, Joshua,
men and women unnamed in record, but present
in the crowd, each with a personal reason to get
close to the wonderful Teacher, each, with those
who were in some need of help, each longing
for more of the wisdom and comfort His
words gave, had patiently walked the miles
around the lake, and found the place, and were
The Lad With the Loaves 99
here to receive whatever blessing the Lord
would bestow.
Some people would have been vexed to dis-
cover that they could not secure rest and
repose when they so desired it. Some would
have been angry at the persistency of the mul-
titude. Not so, Jesus. When He saw the
procession coming from every town and vil-
lage till the crowd was like a cloud of locusts,
He was filled with compassion. They seemed
to Him as sheep that had no shepherd.
I have had the realization of the crowds,
densely gathering towards one centre, and
massing there, in a great city on some occasion
when there was a vast ceremonial, or a func-
tion in honour of a visiting potentate from
abroad. Sometimes on the East Side of New
York, on a Sabbath afternoon, the moving
throngs of people, drifting through the streets
between the tall houses, have made me think
of those crowds, that multitude, near the Sea
of Galilee, in the days when our Lord was on
earth.
He was sorry for them, sorry for the weary,
footsore, dusty, hungry men, for the crying
children, for the mothers who sank down ex-
hausted.
The disciples were sorry too. " These fool-
ish people," they said, " have brought no food
with them. The day is far spent, the night is
loo That Sweet Story of Old
at hand. Send them away, Lord, that they
may buy themselves bread."
" They need not depart," said Jesus.
The disciples could not believe their ears.
The next words nearly paralyzed them.
"They need not depart," was amazing
enough, but when Jesus calmly said, " Give ye
them to eat," they exclaimed with surprise !
How should the twelve feed an army?
They had no provision except a very slender
one for themselves ; surely they could not re-
lieve the hunger of even a few on the edge of
the crowd. Nevertheless, Jesus spoke with
the serenity of royalty, "Give ye them to
eat."
It happened that there was a lad there, an
eager-eyed bright little fellow, who had
brought with him more than he required for
himself, five loaves and two little fishes. For
loaves, substitute biscuits, these loaves were
tiny, not large, and think of little fishes, like
smoked herrings or sardines.
" Make the people sit down," said Jesus.
They sat down, in orderly waiting compan-
ies on the green grass. And the day was far
spent. The sun was going down. The shad-
ows were long on the velvet slopes. There
was supper to be served by the sea, abundant,
excellent, a feast, all out of five little loaves
and two little fishes.
The Lad With the Loaves loi
Jesus looked up to heaven and blessed and
brake, and gave to His disciples, and they gave
to the multitude. Never again, if ever you
have done so, begin the simplest meal without
a word of thanks to God and a word of prayer
for His blessing. Jesus said grace before
meat. He brake, and brake, and still in His
hands, the loaves were multiplied, so that the
supply was more and more. As Jesus broke
the bread, there was bread enough and to
spare, the very fragments of that supper by
the sea, filling twelve baskets, one apiece for
the twelve who carried to the multitude what
the Master divided.
Precious forever is the memory of the lad
with the loaves.
And forever precious is the lesson of that
hour. "We may be in straits, we may not see
a step before us, but if we love and trust Jesus,
He will safely bring us through, and feed us by
the way. Not to assuage His own hunger
would Christ command bread to be made from
a stone, nor did He change the pebbles on the
strand into food. He took the bread human
hands had made, and human hands had
brought, and of it He made a rich and suffi-
cient entertainment for a multitude. Five
thousand men, besides women and children,
were fed in that twilight hour, from five little
loaves.
102 That Sweet Story of Old
"They need not depart, Give ye them to
eat." Jesus still tells us this, when the crowds
are near us, and their hunger is for something
more needful than material food. If we begin
with the little we have, His love will surely
make it enough.
XII
THE RAISING OF THE RULER'S DAUGHTER
Many a time in those beautiful years, Jesus
raised the sick from their beds of pain.
Sometimes friends brought those who were
too ill to walk, carrying them for miles and
miles over the dusty highway. Jesus would
look with His pitying eyes on the man who
was lying there, pallid and gaunt and helpless,
and would say, " Take up thy bed, and walk.
Son, thy sins are forgiven thee."
It used to be a great puzzle to me how a man
could take up his bed, for I had when a child, the
familiar bedstead, of carved wood or wrought
metal in my mind, and the ponderous springs
and the mattress, and the blankets and quilts
and pillows before my thought. But I learned
after awhile that an Eastern bed was a very sim-
ple affair, a mere rug, that could be rolled up and
carried away by any able-bodied person. One
word from the lips of Jesus made the weakest
man as strong as he had ever been in his whole
life. Part of the strength too, came from the
blessedness of knowing that his sin was for-
given.
103
104 That Sweet Story of Old
To a man who knew that he had wandered
far away from God and purity, who had lost
the approval of conscience, and fallen into a
habit of doing wrong and yielding to his own
will, it must have been a joyful surprise, to
hear that his sins were forgiven.
I have no doubt that whenever Jesus looked
straight at such a man, a desire for pardon
awoke in the man's soul, and there came to him
an awakening, a vision of his own wretched
state.
In the Kevelation, our Lord spoke from the
skies to a character that has always been very
common in the world.
"Because thou sayest I am rich and in-
creased with goods, and have need of nothing,
and knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable and poor and blind and naked."
Put the emphasis on the two words, Icnowest
not. "When our Lord gazed on any one of the
suffering men who came to Him for healing,
the man Icnew his sinfulness, and knew his
whole past unrolled before those eyes that read
the soul like an open page. His whole nature
cried out for pardon, and pardon was granted,
and then followed health and peace.
Once in a great crowd, when everybody was
pushing and pressing, and there was not room
to stir, a poor woman edged through the midst
of it, and just laid one timid finger on the
The Raising of the Ruler's Daughter 105
hem of Christ's garment. She did not ask to
be made well, though she had long been very
ill, and was very much discouraged. Doctors
had done her no good, and she had spent all
her money in trying various cures.
Nobody dreamed that Jesus could raise the
dead. But a father's love rose to that height
of faith, and leaped to a certainty that Jesus
might break the frozen sleep of death.
" Be not afraid," said the Master to His men ;
" Only believe."
The crowd was left behind. Jesus went to
the man's house, he happened to be a ruler,
taking the three disciples who were His most
intimate friends, Peter, James and John. Ac-
cording to Eastern custom, when they reached
the house, they heard the voices of those who
mourned, a wild, wailing noise, that sounded
far down the street.
Jesus hushed this wild clamour with a gentle
word.
"Why do you weep and make this ado?
The damsel is not dead, but only asleep."
At this, the people laughed in derision. But
Jesus put every one out, except the father and
the mother of the little maid, and with them
and the three disciples. He entered the room,
and went to the couch, where the silent figure
lay.
Perhaps you can fancy how she looked, her
io6 That Sweet Story of Old
dark eyes shut, the long lashes lying on the
death-white cheeks, the dark hair parted from
the white brow, the little hands clasped.
Jesus advanced and stood beside her. He
took one little cold hand in His own. He
spoke and the room was hushed in its awe and
suspense. The mother knelt, her tears flowing
quietly. The father's eyes were fixed on the
Man who held the dominion over life and
death, in His majestic hands.
" Daughter, I say unto thee. Arise." Then
an amazing thing took place.
The child, about twelve years old she was,
opened her eyes and smiled into the kind face
that looked upon her. Her cold hands grew
warm, a flush crept into her cheeks, she smiled
at her father and mother. She stepped from
her bed, perfectly well.
About this time, people began to whisper to
each other, asking what mystery was here, that
a young man who had made chairs and tables
in a carpenter's shop in Nazareth, whose father
and mother and sisters and brothers they
knew, should be doing such wonderful works,
and speaking such wonderful words.
When the Sabbath came, and as His custom
was, Jesus entered the synagogue, and taught,
they did not heed the message, for they were
criticising the messenger. God's own Son
from heaven could not bless human hearts that
DAMSEL, I SAY UNTO THEE, ARISE
The Raising of the Ruler's Daughter 107
barred their door, and refused to listen when
He spoke. So, their unbelief drove Him
away. He came unto His own and His own
received Him not.
They were offended at Him, and met His
gentle teaching with scoffing, forgetful and un-
grateful that they were, for among them must
have been those whose sick He had healed, and
those whose hunger He had fed beside the sea.
So He left them and went away saying,
" A prophet is not without honour, but in
his own country, and among his own kin and
in his own house."
Jesus could do no more mighty works in
Capernaum, for the unbelief of the people
prevented Him from exercising His power.
Jesus is still prevented by us, in the same
way. He says, " Behold, I stand at the door
and knock. If any man open the door, I will
come in and sup with him and he with Me."
But He never forces Himself, into a barred
heart's door, against the heart's will. He
knocks. We must open.
Do not let us, dear reader, act like those fool-
ish people of Capernaum. Jesus can do wonder-
ful things for you and me, if we will let Him in.
" If Jesus came to earth again,
And walked and talked in field and street,
Who would not lay his human pain,
Low at those heavenly feet ? "
lo8 That Sweet Story of Old
Ah ! dear ones, He is here, now, and we
may go to Him with every thought and every
care.
XIII
WHEN JESUS WALKED ON THE SEA
Our Lord often sent His disciples away
from Him, and retired into a mountain apart
to pray.
Sometimes He spent whole nights on the
hills in prayer.
We think of prayer as asking for what we
want, either for ourselves or others. This is
one kind of prayer and it is very needful for
us, but it is not the only kind nor the highest
kind. There is a sort of prayer that is com-
munion with God, that leads one to think so
much about God, that one feels very near and
close to Him. Jesus communed with God. I
do not see how He could have endured all the
sadness and the pain of living among wicked
people, and the giving out of His vital power
to make people strong and well as He did, un-
less He daily received fresh strength from His
Father in Heaven.
The disciples learned to know the look in
His face, when He left them and went away
to talk with God. They did not intrude on
those hallowed hours when Jesus withdrew to
some hillside sanctuary and remained there
109
no That Sweet Story of Old
for hours to pray to God and commune with
heaven.
One day He had tarried long in the deep
green forest, and night had fallen and yet He
had not returned. At last He came down to
the shore. Away off in the middle of the Sea
of Galilee, He saw a fishing-boat. The dis-
ciples were in it and they were rowing heavily
against wind and tide, and making little head-
way. The Sea of Galilee, mountain-rimmed
as it was, had its fits of fury, when the gales
tossed it, and the waves were capped with
foam. Out there on the sea, the disciples had
no fear, for they were hardy men, used to the
moods of their sea, but they longed to get to
the shore, for they thought the Master would
be there, waiting for them.
Shall we read the story as Matthew tells
it?
"And straightway Jesus constrained His
disciples to get into a ship, and to go before
Him unto the other side, while He sent the
multitude away.
"And when He had sent the multitude
away. He went up into a mountain apart to
pray : and when the evening was come. He
was there alone.
" But the ship was now in the midst of the
sea, tossed with waves : for the wind was con-
trary.
When Jesus Walked on the Sea 1 1 1
" And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus
went unto them, walking on the sea.
" And when the disciples saw Him walking
on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a
spirit ; and they cried out for fear.
" But straightway Jesus spake unto them,
saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not
afraid.
" And Peter answered Him and said. Lord,
if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the
water,
"And He said. Come. And when Peter
was come down out of the ship he walked on
the water, to go to Jesus.
" But when he saw the wind boisterous, he
was afraid ; and beginning to sink, he cried,
saying. Lord, save me.
"And immediately Jesus stretched forth
His hand, and caught him, and said unto him,
O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou
doubt ?
*' And when they were come into the ship,
the wind ceased.
" Then they that were in the ship came and
worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth Thou art
the Son of God."
The fourth watch of the night would be to-
wards morning, just the time when tired peo-
ple are most tired, and fainting people most
faint. I imagine how those storm-tossed
1 1 2 That Sweet Story of Old -
mariners felt when they saw that kingly
figure walking the billows as one might tread
upon a smooth floor. They were much
alarmed, and supposed it was a spirit that
came gliding over the waters. But Jesus
spoke. They could not fear when they heard
Him say, " Do not be afraid. It is I."
A child is never afraid if it hear in the dark-
ness its father's voice. A friend has no terror
when a friend hails him on a gloomy road.
" It is T," said the Master. Then in that
fishing-boat there was joy touched with won-
der.
" Lord," cried Peter the impetuous, " if it be
Thou, let me come to Thee on the water."
Had not Jesus said, " Be of good cheer. It
is I. Be not afraid."
Peter could have led a forlorn hope or
stormed a garrison at those words, they put
such courage into him. He waited only a sec-
ond and Jesus said, " Come ! "
Peter sprang over the boat's side into the
boiling depths, and bravely started, walking
on the water, to go to Jesus. And if he had
kept his gaze on Jesus, and had not looked on
the plunging waves, nor listened to the whist-
ling of the wind, he would have walked on
victoriously. But presently Peter lost sight
of that splendid figure, walking so calmly to-
wards the ship, lost sight of all but himself, a
When Jesus Walked on the Sea 113
mere waif and atom, tossing hither and yon-
der on the waves, and he was afraid.
Once we are afraid, we begin to sink. It
does not make much difference where we are,
or what we are doing, fear makes us craven.
The faint-hearted fly before the enemy. The
man who is afraid, as Peter was, because he
does not see Jesus, is sure to sink.
But Peter did the best thing to be done.
He called in a loud voice, not to the people in
the boat, but to the Master on the sea, " Lord,
save me ! I perish ! "
The cry was heard and answered. Jesus
stretched forth His hand, caught Peter, and
said, reproachfully, "Oh, thou of little faith,
wherefore didst thou doubt ? "
The wind ceased when they were in the ship,
and the ship's crew worshipped Jesus, saying,
" Of a truth Thou are the Son of God ! "
Morning dawned in a flood of glory as they
stood in the land of Gennesaret, and for Jesus
it was another busy day. Hundreds sought
Him for healing, hundreds tried just to touch
the hem of His garment, and He turned not
one away.
XIV
JESUS AND THE SABBATH DAY
One of the things Jesus did on the Sab-
bath day was to go to church. The church
He attended was called a synagogue, or a place
of meeting, and we read that He often went
into the pulpit, took the book of the law from
the hands of the minister, and explained it
Himself. I am full of awe when I think
that there have been people in the world who
have sat in a church on the Lord's day, and
heard the Lord tell in His own clear and beau-
tiful way what the Heavenly Father wanted
them to know and to do.
Yet, though to-day you and I may not see
His face, nor touch His hands, nor hasten with
reverent faith to follow Him out over the Gali-
lee roads, and through the lilied fields, we need
never enter a church without meeting Him
there. He is present in reality in every place
where Christians gather to pray and to praise.
Jesus did not think it right to profane the
Sabbath day. He kept it holy. God's rest-
day was very precious to our Master. He gave
it the old sweet name, hallowed and fragrant,
114
Jesus and the Sabbath Day 115
the name given it in the garden of Eden when
the Lord rested after creating the world.
I like the name Sabbath for the Lord's day
very much better than I like Sunday. The
latter with Monday and Wednesday and Satur-
day, has a heathen origin, and the Sun's day,
the Moon's day, "Woden's day, Saturn's day,
all recall some ancient and picturesque myth-
ology. But the Sabbath is the Scripture name,
and it conveys to me a thought of silence and
of melody, of grasses waving softly, of children
studying the Bible, of homes hushed and peace-
ful. Henry Ward Beecher used to say that
the Sabbath looked different from other days,
that it had a cattle-on-a-thousand-hills look all
its own.
Jesus did not hesitate to perform works of
loving kindness on the Sabbath. When He
was here the good people of the period had
grown very formal in their piety, and they
attached too much importance to mere outside
ceremonies. So, when Jesus and His disciples
were walking through a field of corn, one Sab-
bath morning, and the disciples being hungry,
plucked the ears of corn and ate them, the
strict observers of the law, known as Pharisees,
were ready to find fault. They had long been
trying to find fault with Jesus, but in that pure
life and that loving speech of His, they could
not pick a single flaw. But they pounced on
Ii6 That Sweet Story of Old
the poor disciples crying, "Why do ye that
which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath ? "
" And Jesus answering them said, Have ye
not read so much as this, what David did, when
himself was an hungered, and they which were
with him ;
" How he went into the house of God, and
did take and eat the shrewbread, and gave also
to them that were with him ; which it is not
lawful to eat but for the priests alone ?
" And He said unto them, that the Son of
man is Lord also of the Sabbath."
The synagogue was very full that day. The
men sat together, chanting the psalms and re-
sponses: the women were by themselves, as
they are now in a Jewish worshipping as-
sembly. Never had the young Teacher been
more kingly, never had His voice been sweeter,
nor His presence more full of power. Yet
those who were gathered there, knew that
Jesus had worked in the carpenter's shop, and
that His brothers and sisters were plain men
and women, like anybody else, none of them
with heaven's light on their faces, as this Man
had.
" In the shop at Nazareth
Pungent cedar haunts the breath ;
'Tis a low Eastern room,
Windowless, touched with gloom.
Workman's bench, and simple tools
Jesus and the Sabbath Day 117
Line the walls. Chests and stools,
Yoke of ox and shaft of plow
Finished by the Carpenter
Lie about the pavement now.
" In the room the craftsman stands
Stands and reaches out His bands.
Let the shadows veil His face
If you must, and dimly trace
His workman's tunic, girt with bauda
At His waist. But His hands,
Let the light play on them
Marks of toil lay on them.
Paint with passion and with care
Every old scar showing there,
Where a tool slipped and hurt,
Show each callous ; be alert
For each deep line of toil.
Show the soil
Of the pitch, and the strength
Grip of helve gives at length.
" When night comes and I turn
From my shop where I earn
Daily bread, let me see
Those hard hands ; know that He
Shared my lot, every bit ;
Was a man, every whit. ' '
The Man who taught those people in the
synagogue was a working man, a man who
had eaten the coarse fare of the poor, and
known the hard lot of those who toil all their
days. The hands that held the book of the
law before the hushed assembly had held axe
and saw and plane. Since then, those hands
li8 That Sweet Story of Old
had taken other toil and grown soft, had been
laid on many a hot cheek and fevered brow.
The other day they had broken five little
loaves, piece by piece, and fed five thousand
men. Those feet, in the peasant's sandals,
had trodden mile upon mile, and always on
errands of mercy. The other night they had
walked on the sea as on a floor.
The fame of Jesus had gone far, and it had
begun to arouse evil passions, envy, jealousy,
spite, malice, in the breasts of men who would
never be famous. Learned men, some of
them, scribes, who knew what illiterate men,
who had never gone to school knew nothing
of : Pharisees, good men, pious men, but alas !
proud of their goodness and puffed up over
their piety. These men hated and suspected
Jesus, hated Him without a cause. Beside
His spotless purity they knew their garments
were stained, and resented the knowledge.
They began to watch and furtively they
cast glances at the Teacher, and at one
another. They hoped He would soon do
something which would give them the handle
against Him that they sought.
In the synagogue that day there was a man
who had a withered hand.
Jesus saw that man. The scribes and
Pharisees saw him too. They watched like
wolves scenting their prey, hoping that Jesus
Jesus and the Sabbath Day 119
would heal the poor man but not because
they pitied him. Jesus knew their thoughts.
Their hearts were an open book in His sight.
He reads all hearts now as then. Evermore
we may look up to Jesus, and say, " Thou
God, seest me ! "
To the man with the withered hand Jesus
spoke,
" Stretch forth thine hand ! "
The man obeyed. And as he obeyed health
poured into the helpless arm, it was instantly
restored, paralyzed no longer, useless no longer :
it was a right hand with the right hand's
might and skill and strength as of old: a
whole hand, like its fellow.
" Is it lawful," said Jesus, looking round at
the scowling Pharisees, " to do good or to do
evil on the Sabbath day, to save life or to
destroy it ? " And they could not answer.
Our Lord kept holy the Sabbath. So
should we keep it holy. On the Sabbath He
worshipped His Father in the great congrega-
tion. So should we. On the Sabbath He
studied God's Word, all of the Bible He had.
We have a larger Bible than Christ had. On
the Sabbath we should study it reverently.
Jesus healed the sick on the Sabbath. We
may visit them then.
Another instance is given of our Lord's
kindness in healing a woman who had been a
120 That Sweet Story of Old
sufferer for eighteen years, from a dreadful
infirmity which bent her nearly double. She
crept about, bowed down by her great pain
and weakness.
One Sabbath day she was sitting in the
synagogue. I suppose she had gone there
without the least expectation that a great
blessing was coming to her that day. Eight-
een long years had so burdened her in soul
and body that she had forgotten to hope, and
forgotten how it felt to be well. She was in
a good place.
Jesus saw her. He called her to Him.
Feebly she approached, hardly daring to lift
her eyes to that benignant face. He said,
""Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity."
"And He laid His hands on her and im-
mediately she was made straight, and glorified
God."
Here too, one would have looked for great
rejoicing from all around. On the contrary,
the ruler of the synagogue was most dis-
pleased. He exclaimed with indignation,
" There are six days when men ought to work.
In them therefore come and be healed and not
on the Sabbath day."
But our Lord saw that the man was not
sincere, that he was a hypocrite. Hypocrite
means play-actor, a person assuming a part
that is not genuine.
Jesus and the Sabbath Day 121
"The Lord answered him and said, Thou
hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the
Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall,
and lead him away to watering ?
" And ought not this woman, being a
daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath
bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed
from this bond on the Sabbath day ?
"And when He had said these things, all
His adversaries were ashamed : and all the
people rejoiced for all the glorious things that
were done by Him."
You must have seen how very tenderly
Christ regarded those who endured physical
pain. If ever you are ill, you may be sure that
He will come in and stay with jt'ou, and comfort
you, and that He will guide the physician and
nurse who are caring for you in sickness. So
whether you recover and go about your duties
again, or instead, go home to the land where
nobody is ever ill, all will be right. In
heathen lands, the missionary physician does
the sort of work our dear Lord did in minister-
ing to the many who are sick. Some of our
missionaries treat, as the Lord did when here,
great crowds of helpless patients, attending to
thousands of sufferers in a single year, to hun-
dreds of thousands in a lifetime.
One would indeed have thought that every
heart in those assemblies would have leaped
122 That Sweet Story of Old
for joy when some poor cripple stood restored
by the word of Jesus, a man able to do a man's
work, where he had been dependent on
charity ; a woman again useful in her family.
Alas ! hatred makes blind eyes and deaf ears
and hard hearts. They were not glad. They
were sorry. Human nature is very deceitful.
Jealousy is cruel as the grave.
About this time, the first faint muttering
was heard of that tempest of furious wrath
that fell upon the Master, farther on in His
earthly life.
The common people clustered around Him
and gladly heard His words. But the scribes
and Pharisees, and the priests who were a
class by themselves, began now to hold aloof
from Christ, to lay plans to entrap Him.
Calmly He walked among them, aware of
the evil in their hearts, never afraid of them,
doing good to the multitudes, and at night
communing with His Father.
XV
JESUS TRANSFIGURED
If you should ever visit the Holy Land, you
would fix your eyes upon Mount Hermon,
standing to-day as in the days when the
Master was on earth, as a lofty throne among
encircling peaks. No mountain in the world
has upon it the seal of such glory, as once, on
a summer day, crowned Mount Hermon.
Jesus had been talking very earnestly with
His disciples. As usual He had performed
miracles of healing. For the second time, He
had fed the multitude from a small provision,
dividing seven loaves among four thousand
people, as at first He had divided five loaves
among five thousand. Again upon the eyes of
the blind He had laid His gentle hands, and
the blind man, looking up saw the trees and
fields and people as others did whose sight
had never failed. Coming out with His dis-
ciples, through the towns of Cesarea-Philippi,
He asked them what report they heard of
Him from the people they met. They an-
swered, " Some think that you are John the
Baptist, others Elijah returned to the world,
and still others look upon you as one of the
123
124 That Sweet Story of Old
old prophets come back." Then He said,
" But tell Me what you think ; you who are
with Me all the time, walking about, living
with Me, hearing My words, whom do you
think that I am ? "
Peter, who was always the first to speak,
said instantly, " Thou art the Christ."
At this time Jesus began to teach His
disciples something that was very hard for
them to learn. As a father about to go away
on a journey would give his children directions
concerning his absence, trying to fit them for
the new responsibilities that must be theirs, so
Jesus now began to explain to the disciples
that His mission to the world could not be
accomplished until He had suffered many
things at the hands of wicked men, and had
been rejected by the elders and the chief
priests and scribes. He told them too, in
plain words that He would be put to death,
and that after three days He would rise again
from the dead. Over and over, as teachers
impress lessons on the minds of little children,
Jesus told His disciples these things about
Himself.
Everything that had been predicted of Jesus
ages before He came to the world, was soon to
be fulfilled. Isaiah, the prophet, had said of Him,
" Who hath believed our report ? and to
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?
Jesus Transfigured 125
"For He shall grow up before Him as a
tender plant, and as a root out of a dry
ground : He hath no form nor comeliness : and
when we shall see Him, there is no beauty
that we should desire Him.
" He is despised and rejected of men : a man
of sorrows, and acquainted with grief : and we
hid as it were our faces from Him : He was
despised, and we esteemed Him not.
"Surely He hath borne our griefs, and
carried our sorrows : yet we did esteem Him
stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
" But He was wounded for our trans-
gressions. He was bruised for our iniquities :
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him ;
an'd with His stripes we are healed.
" All we like sheep have gone astray ; we
have turned every one to his own way ; and
the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of
us all.
"He was oppressed, and He was afflicted,
yet He opened not His mouth : He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep be-
fore her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not
His mouth.
" He was taken from prison and from judg-
ment : and who shall declare His generation ?
for He was cut off out of the land of the living ;
for the transgression of my people was He
stricken.
126 That Sweet Story of Old
" And He made His grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in His death ; because He
had done no violence, neither was there any
deceit in His mouth."
The disciples were incredulous, for they
simply could not understand what Jesus meant,
and Peter took it upon himself to remonstrate
with the Master, telling Him that He ought
not to speak of the future in this way. But
the Lord looked reproachfully at these friends
who did not accept His words, and sternly
rebuked Peter.
Then calling together the people and His
disciples. He said to them,
" Whosoever will come after Me, let him
deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.
" For whosoever shall save his life shall lose
it ; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake
and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
" For what shall it profit a man, if he gain
the whole world, and lose his own soul ?
" Or what shall a man give in exchange for
his soul ?
" Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of
Me and of My words in this adulterous and
sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of
Man be ashamed, when He cometh in the
glory of His Father with the holy angels."
These words of Jesus mean to us just as
much as they did to those who first heard
Jesus Transfigured 127
them. If we would follow Christ we must
deny ourselves, and be ready to take up our
cross and walk in the narrow path that He
marks out. Some of us like to wear a golden
cross, some of us have in our rooms the emblem
of the cross, garlanded with flowers. But the
real cross we carry for Jesus is not one we dis-
play. It is a cross of daily self-denial, of do-
ing things we do not like to do, of bearing
with people who are unkind, of overcoming
our cowardice, and of showing forth Christ's
love in a world that does not love Him.
It is sometimes a cross for a young girl or a
lad to stand up before a congregation and be-
come a member of the church. I have often
heard young people say that they can be
Christ's without doing this, yet this is the
simplest way in which they can let others
around them know that they belong to Jesus,
and are His disciples.
It is quite worth while for every one of us
to ask ourselves, " What shall it profit us if we
gain the whole world and lose our own soul ? "
It was six days after this little sermon that
Jesus, looking up to Mount Hermon, asked
Peter, James and John, the three who were
nearest to Him in friendly intimacy, to climb
its steeps with Him. They went up into this
high mountain apart by themselves, the Master
leading the way, the three disciples following.
128 That Sweet Story of Old
There the most wonderful incident that had
ever taken place in human history was wit-
nessed by these three fishermen of Galilee.
Their Master standing before them, put on the
majesty that He wears to-day as He sits at the
right hand of God. His raiment became
white and shining, dazzling as the snow when
the sun falls on it ; whiter than any whiteness
ever seen on earth.
As the three disciples gazed spellbound, they
saw that their Master was not alone. Stand-
ing beside Him on the mountain's brow were
the two greatest prophets of the Old Testa-
ment, the two whom Israel most revered,
Moses the great lawgiver, and Elijah the great
reformer of the ancient days.
You remember that when Moses died, he
breathed his last breath in sight of the prom-
ised land, into which he did not enter, with
only the Lord Himself to smooth the dying
pillow.
"On Nebo's lonely mountain,
On this side Jordan's wave,
In a vale of the land of Moab
There lies a lonely grave.
And no man dug that sepulchre ;
And no man saw it e'er.
For the angels of God upturned the sod,
And laid the dead man there. ' '
Elijah had been caught up to heaven in a
Jesus Transfigured 129
chariot of fire in the sight of Elisha, his pupil
and friend, on whom his mantle had fallen.
These two men for many ages had been living
in heaven, and to-day they returned for a brief
space to the earth they had left, that they
might talk with Jesus about what He was do-
ing here in the world, and what He meant to
do before He left it and came back to them in
heaven. The scene is very comforting to us
when we think how our dear ones pass out of
our sight into the eternal home. They go as
they might go into another room with only a
door between us and them, a door that God's
finger could easily open if He chose to set it
ajar. They talked with Jesus, these two, who
had come from heaven, and He talked with
them, while a little way off the three disciples
in dumb amazement stood and looked on at
the strange meeting.
Saint Paul speaks of the whole family in
heaven and on earth, and here on Hermon is
an illustration for us of a family meeting;
some from that world, some stiU in this, all on
the same mountain-top.
Again Peter was the one first to speak, and
he exclaimed, addressing Jesus, " Master, it is
good for us to be here, so let us make three
tents ; one for Thee, one for Moses, and one
for Elijah." No one seems to have paid atten-
tion to this request of his, which must have
130 That Sweet Story of Old
sounded very much as a child's comment
thrown into the conversation of older people.
Even as Peter spoke there came a cloud from
heaven which wrapped itself around the mys-
tic three, shuttiDg them from the sight of the
trio of disciples, and out of the cloud came a
clear voice saying, " This is My beloved Son ;
hear Him." The cloud lifted, the disciples
looked round about, but no one was there any
more except Jesus with themselves. As they
went down the mountain. He told them that
this event had been witnessed by them, but
that they were not to speak of it to others,
but to remember it until the Son of Man
should have risen from the dead.
It often happens in our experience that when
we are on some mountain-top of great gladness,
we suddenly plunge from it into a depth of
deep grief. There are people who foolishly
distrust a very bright day, or a prosperous
gale, so sure are they that its opposite in wind
or storm is marching quickly to meet them.
This time when the disciples still in the exal-
tation they had felt on Hermon, stepped down
its lower levels to the plain at its foot, the
Master in the midst, they found a great con-
fused multitude there, many of whom ran
with joy to Jesus when they saw Him. In
the midst of this multitude was a poor youth,
torn by a wicked demon, and the father had
THEY SAW NO MAN, BUT JESUS ONLY
Jesus Transfigured 131
brought him to Christ's disciples who had
been trying to cast out the vile spirit. But
they had not been able to do so. The poor
father said to the Lord, " If Thou canst do
anything, have compassion on us, and help
us."
Jesus said, " If thou canst believe, all things
are possible to him that believeth." At once
the father cried out with tears, " Lord, I be-
lieve; help Thou mine unbelief." At this
Jesus charged the evil spirit to come out of
the boy, and with one last struggle, the spirit
did so, leaving the lad lying on the ground as
if dead. Jesus lifted him up, and he arose
and went home with his father.
From this time our Lord constantly repeated
in the ears of the disciples, the tale of the fu-
ture. Over and over again He said, " The Son
of Man is delivered into the hands of men, and
they shall kill Him, and after that He is killed,
He shall rise the third day."
One feels surprised that in the face of such
teaching as this, Jesus coming back to Caper-
naum should ask His disciples what subject
they had been discussing by the way, and
they should have to tell Him, that they were
trying to settle which of them should be the
greatest in His kingdom. I think He must
have sighed when He said to them, " If any
man desire to be first, the same shall be last
132 That Sweet Story of Old
of all, and servant of all." Then He took a
child and set him in the midst of them, and
lifting the little one in His arms said, " Who-
soever shall receive one such child in My
Name, receiveth Me."
This was Christ's beautiful lesson of humility
and love.
At another time our Master gave His friends
a still more striking object lesson in humility.
In eastern lands where men wear sandals,
they must bathe their feet to free them from
the dust of the road when they enter a house.
A servant's office is frequentlj'' this, to wash
the feet of his master and his master's guests.
On one occasion, Jesus took a basin of water,
and a towel, and washed the feet of His dis-
ciples. Peter remonstrated, but Jesus said,
" If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in Me."
Then He said, " If I, your Lord and Master
have stooped to this lowly service, and have
washed your feet, ought you to be proud and
haughty, ought you to refuse to do anything
that love may bid you do for one another ? "
Jesus always set the crown on humility.
SUFFER THE LITTLE ONES TO COME UNTO ME
XVI
SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME
UNTO ME
Our Lord was, you may be sure, never one
of those cross looking people who frighten
children away. Children came to Him with
confidence, and mothers were anxious to have
their little ones receive His blessing.
One day when Jesus was walking with His
disciples, a group of women surrounded Him,
some with babes in their arms, others with
small children tugging at their skirts and tod-
dling beside them on the road. I can see the
dark-eyed, sweet-faced little ones, and the
eager, wistful mothers, pressing closely about
the Nazarene.
The disciples thought this incursion of
women and children on the time and attention
of their Master, a piece of great folly, and
they spoke sternly to the mothers, saying,
" Take these children away. We have no time
to spend on you or them." Jesus did not say
this. He rebuked His disciples, and said,
" Suffer the little children to come unto Me,
and forbid them not, for of such is the king-
133
134 That Sweet Story of Old
dom of heaven ! " And into His own kind
arms, He took the little ones and blessed them.
" I think -when I read that sweet story of old
When Jesus was here among men,
How He called little children like lambs to His fold,
I should like to have been with Him then.
" I wish that His hands had been placed on my head,
That His arms had been thrown around me,
And that I might have heard His kind voice when He said,
Let the little ones come unto Me."
" Yerily, I say unto you," said Jesus, " Who-
soever shall not receive the kingdom of heaven
as a little child shall in no wise enter therein."
What are the characteristics which Jesus
loved in children, and why did He say that
they were nearer the kingdom of heaven than
older people who have lost the child-heart?
For one thing, little children are trustful.
They believe what their parents and teachers
say, and their little minds drink in knowledge,
as the flower-cups catch the dew and rain.
They are obedient. Their part in life is not
to give orders, but to do as they are told.
The sweetest and dearest little children are
those Avho love to obey in school and at home.
Children have nothing to worry about. They
have daily bread, and daily duties and plenty
of time to play and clothes to wear. In the
morning they begin a beautiful new day. At
Suffer the Little Children 135
night they are tucked up safe in bed and the
day ends with a mother's kiss. They say,
" Now I wake and see the light
'Tis God who kept me through the night,
To Him I lift my voice and pray
That He would keep me through the day,"
and in the evening this is their little prayer,
' ' Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my aoul to take."
They early learn the prayer our Lord taught
His disciples,
"Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy Will be done in earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil
For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
Forever, Amen."
Our blessed Lord might have come to this
earth of ours as a Prince with a vast retinue,
as a General leading an army, as a Statesman
to whom all bowed down. But instead, He
put great honour on childhood when He came
as an Infant, helpless as any other little one in
136 That Sweet Story of Old
a mother's arms. All through His early-
years, He was a loving and obedient Child, a
pattern for all children in the wide world
until time shall be no more.
Children are pleased with little things.
Grown up people may be dissatisfied and
captious because their plans go wrong, but
children live in a beautiful land where grains
of yellow sand are better than golden coins,
and flowers in a daisied meadow are worth
more than the treasures men most prize.
Blessed beyond all others are the men and
women who keep to the end of life the sweet
and trustful spirit of childhood.
Jesus once said to His disciples, " The king-
dom of heaven is within you." I think we
do not understand this fully until life has
taught us some of its lessons. But let me ex-
plain to young people that they have only to
remember certain days when they were out of
tune with every one, and certain other days
when their aim was to make every one happy,
to know precisely what our Saviour meant.
Let us believe that we have the kingdom of
heaven within us, and say daily with the chil-
dren,
" Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so."
The consciousness of belonging to Jesus
brings heaven into every heart.
Suffer the Little Children 137
To go a step farther. Suppose that day by-
day we stop at intervals, and send a prayer up
to the Lord for heavenly calm amid agitations.
You and I might say, " What would Jesus do
if He were here ? "What would He wish me
to do, to be ? " Younger or older, let us be as
children in His service.
Jesus is still extending His arms to encircle
you. He still says, " Suffer the little children
to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of
such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
And still the most blessed of all people,
even if they have silver hair, are those who
have kept the child-heart in touch with Jesus,
through the years.
Here is another thought for you. Jesus
blessed each little child. He does not look at
you as if you were a stranger. He knows
who you are, and where you live, and what
your name is. When you have had a hard
time over your lessons, and have been dis-
couraged, it is worth while to tell Him.
When you have made a mistake, when you
have had a disappointment, tell Jesus. The
greatest wisdom in the world is to tell Jesus
everything.
Begin serving Him while you are a child,
and do not wait until you are grown up be-
fore you join Christ's Church. There is room
at His table for you. There is room in His
138 That Sweet Story of Old
heart for you. " Feed My lambs " He said to
Peter, and " feed My lambs " He says to His
servants now.
It is very comforting for us to remember
that Jesus showed His great tenderness to and
regard for childhood.
After He had been transfigured upon the
mount, and when He was facing day by da}''
the coming of the time when He should go to
Calvary, after He had blessed the children
and was going on His way, a young man
came running to Him and kneeling before Him
said, " Good Master, what shall I do that I
may inherit eternal life ? " Jesus said, " "Why
callest thou Me good ? There is but one good ;
that is God. Thou knowest the command-
ments." The young man said, " Master, all
these commandments have I observed from
my youth."
We are told that Jesus looking on him, loved
him. He looked into his heart, as He did into
all hearts, and there He saw that there was
one thing of which this young man was mak-
ing an idol, one thing that came between him
and eternal life. The young man was very
rich, and took great pride in his possessions
and estates.
Jesus said, "Although you have kept the
commandments and been just, and although
you have done what you thought was your
Suffer the Little Children 139
duty, there is one thing yet to do ; go and sell
what you have and give to the poor. Instead
of earthly treasures you shall have treasure in
heaven. Go take up the cross and follow Me."
But the young man did not want to do this,
and so he lost all chance of the kingdom, and
went back to the things of the world, and did
not follow Jesus in the way.
XVII
JESUS OF NAZARETH PASSETH BY
Jesus of Nazareth ! He was passing by a
little town called IS'ain one day, and there met
Him a very mournful procession. A few
friends walking beside a bier, on which lay the
body of a young man, the only son of his
mother, and she was a widow. Blinded with
tears, covered from head to foot by her thick
veil, the desolate mother tottered along the
path. If only she too could die and be laid in
the tomb beside her boy ! Heart-broken she
groped along.
The little procession, accompanied by the
mourners, weeping and wailing, emerged from
the city gate. But a kingly stranger arrested
its progress. " Halt ! " cried a voice that none
ever heard without heeding. They who
carried the bier stood still, and Jesus said to
him who lay upon it, " Young man, I say unto
thee, arise ! " Instantly the sleep of death was
broken. The man awakened into life, stepped
from the bier, and went home with his mother.
Jesus of IS'azareth was passing by. And a
woman, not of His people, a woman of an alien
140
Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By 141
race, came crying and entreating Him to cure
her daughter who was terribly afflicted. He
seemed, as it was not His wont, to hesitate, to
hold back, to refuse, but soon He listened to
her petition and granted her request, granted
it because of her persistence and her faith.
Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. The vil-
lages knew it, and the fringe of the cities, and
from each wayside hamlet men, women and
children hurried for a glimpse of Him. He
was talking with His disciples, and when He
smiled, it was as if the sun came out, and made
the whole day gladder.
By the roadside sat a blind man begging.
He heard the tramp of many feet, and the
murmur of many voices, and he asked of those
around him, " Who is this that is coming with
so much stir ? "
" It is Jesus the Nazarene," was the answer.
" Oh, hurry and take me to Him," cried Bar-
timeus, the son of Timeus. " Take me to
Him." But no one moved hand or foot.
There were hundreds of blind beggars in Pales-
tine. The Jericho road swarmed with them.
"Why should any one trouble ?
" Stop this outcry ! What do you mean by
making such a disturbance ? " exclaimed those
nearest the blind man, as he shouted and called,
" Let me get nearer, nearer the Kazarene ! "
Then louder yet he lifted his voice till it rang
142 That Sweet Story of Old
like a clarion over the mingled voices of the
multitude, imploring and beseeching,
" Jesus Thou Son of David, have mercy on
me ! Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy
on me ! "
And Jesus heard and stood still. He waved
away those closest to Him. He commanded
and the crowd divided on either side, as the
Ked Sea when the Hebrews went through it
dry shod. A narrow lane through the parted
throng was speedily made, and kind hands led
the blind beggar straight to the presence of the
King.
" Be of good cheer," they had said. " Take
comfort. Rise, He calleth thee."
The blind man left behind him his outer
cloak that would encumber him with its folds
and trip his feet, and in his tunic only, he stood
before Jesus.
"What wilt thou, that I should do unto
thee ? " asked the Master.
" Lord," said the blind man, " Lord, that I
might receive my sight ! "
Jesus said unto him, " Go thy way ; thy faith
hath made thee whole."
Once, Jesus of JSTazareth was passing by, and
a deputation of men came from John the Bap-
tist to speak with Him. The fiery prophet no
longer addressed repentant multitudes, for the
wicked Herod had shut him up in the strongly
Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By 143
guarded prison, where, later he was to die by
the sword. Dim glimpses, faint rumours pene-
trated that prison, and John's sturdy soul in its
day of depression half doubted whether indeed
the Man he had baptized in the Jordan was the
Christ of God.
" Art Thou He that should come, or look we
for another?" asked the disciples of John,
sent by John to bring him a report.
"Go your way," answered Jesus, "and tell
John what you have seen and heard. The
blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, the
lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, and to
the poor, the gospel is preached."
Again Jesus of ]N"azareth was passing by, and
He said to a man sitting at the receipt of cus-
toms, " Follow Me ! " The man was a publi-
can, a tax-gatherer, hated by every one, for
men of his class were extortioners and robbers,
but he rose up, left his old life, and followed
Jesus.
Again Jesus of Nazareth was passing by,
and a little man who could not see over the
heads of the crowd, climbed into a tree, to
have a better view.
" Zaccheus ! " said Jesus, looking up, " make
haste and come down from the tree, for to-day
I must abide at thy house."
"Wonderful deeds Jesus did, as He walked
over hill and dale with His friends. Once He
144 That Sweet Story of Old
gave sight to a man who was born blind. All
the man could say afterwards, when Christ's
enemies jeered, was, "Whereas I was blind,
now I see ! "
Sometimes I fancy there were men and
women who lived in lonesome places, a good
way from the travelled roads, to whom there
came echoes of what happened in Capernaum
and Samaria and Judea. I^ews would be
brought by a neighbour who went to Je-
rusalem to keep a feast, or by some venture-
some j'^outh who could not stay contented at
home, and went forth to buy or sell in a dis-
tant market.
In such secluded homes the mother and
daughter grinding at the mill, or baking a
cake upon the coals, would say to one another,
" Oh, that Jesus of Nazareth would pass by ! "
" If He should," the daughter would murmur
with a pathetic anxiety, " He would cure that
pain of yours, dear mother, and make you well
again."
" It is little matter about me, daughter," I
can hear the mother say, "but perhaps He
would give your father his sight again. Poor
father, he can distinguish objects no longer, he
dwells in the darkness. I hear that your Uncle
Simeon who has been blind for ten years, can
see as well as ever in his life since the Healer
Isdd those hands of magic on his poor blind eyes."
Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By 1 45
And now and then it happened that Jesus
forsook the beaten paths and walked through
the untrodden byways, and when He did so,
the timid folk who shunned crowds, made
crowds of their own to hear His voice and look
into His face. For that was a day marked
with a white stone, when Jesus of Nazareth
passed by.
Jesus of Nazareth passed by a fig-tree that
ought to have had fruit, but instead had noth-
ing to show but leaves. A tree of fair prom-
ises, but few performances. " No man eat
fruit of thee henceforward forever ! " said
Jesus, and went on. When on the morrow
the disciples passed the tree, it was a dead
tree, withered from the roots. That fig-tree is
an object lesson for us. A tree is known by
its fruits. If we have no fruit to show for
Christ, and only empty vows that we easily
break belong to our record, we too may wither
away. The law of growth is the law of life.
The law of growth is the law of fruit-bearing.
The wind in the olives is crisp to-day,
The white caps ruffle the tossing wave.
And the feet of the Shepherd who came to save
Are treading the dust of the world's highway.
He is seeking the lamb that has wandered far,
He is climbing the hills that are rough and cold.
He is seeking the lost in wood and wold,
And calling it back beneath sun and star.
146 That Sweet Story of Old
Have you heard them cry that He's coming near ?
Then hasten out and be swift to greet
And kneel before Him and kLss His feet,
For 'tis heaven's ovrn love that has brought Him here.
Friend, would you walk on the Jesus' road ?
Then hearken, for there you must walk with Him,
He may come at noon, or in twilight dim,
Let Him rest in your heart, as His own abode.
XVIII
BY THE WELL OF SAMARIA
"Wells and springs and rivers and foun-
tains play a very important part in the Eastern
lands. The women come to draw water in
India and Syria to-day, as they did in the
time of our Lord, and as in the time of Abra-
ham. Often there are meetings for friendly
talks at the well, where the neighbours linger
in the cool of the evening, or in the early
morning.
A well was a jealously guarded and cher-
ished piece of property in the history of
Israel, for a pastoral people could not get on
without water for their cattle, and the herbage
grew green and rank only where there was re-
freshing moisture in the earth. In the Old
Testament allusions to wells are frequent, and
a father once gave certain springs to his
daughter as a wedding-present, a present
greatly prized, as a house and lot, or a dia-
mond tiara, or ancestral heirlooms might be
with us. When Abraham sent his servant,
Eliezer of Damascus, to seek a bride for Isaac,
it was at a well that the stately messenger had
his introduction to the beautiful Rebekah.
U7
148 That Sweet Story of Old
In the first Psalm we are told that the right-
eous man shall be like a tree planted by the
rivers of water, and in the twenty -third Psalm,
we read of green pastures and still waters.
The plash of cool waves and the ripple of
flowing streams, make melody for us all
through the dear old Book.
There came a day when Jesus, having been
in Judea, determined to go back to Galilee,
and to do this, He must needs go through
Samaria.
No swiftly gliding railway train from Jeru-
salem to Capernaum in the days of Christ.
No stage-coach had its route with relays of
swift horses. Travellers went on foot, or
rode on slowly plodding mules or donkeys ;
only the very rich jaunting about perhaps in
chariots that were lofty and notable for their
rarity. Our Lord made His pilgrimages
through the Holy Land, holy to us because it
was His land, on foot, wearing sandals as
other foot travellers did, and faring through
sun and dust and heat for many a weary mile.
We never read that Jesus was ill, and I do
not think He ever was. His body, as I have
said, was a perfect home for His sinless soul.
But sometimes He was tired.
He came to a city of Samaria which was
called Sychar, near that ancient parcel of
ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
BY THE WELL OF SAMARIA
By the Well of Samaria 149
Here was Jacob's well, a deep, exhaustless
well that had satisfied the thirst of man and
beast for generations. "Who did not love to
drink from Jacob's well ?
High noon had come.
A wayworn traveller, Jesus sat down to
rest by the well, and presently there came a
woman of Samaria to draw water.
An old feud, dating back to remote ages,
separated the Jews and the Samaritans.
They had no dealings with one another. The
Jews beheld the Samaritans with haughty
scorn. The Samaritans regarded the Jews
with aversion and distrust. A Jew seldom
addressed a Samaritan if he could help it, and
this fact gives point to a parable of Jesus, the
story of the good Samaritan, which we will
read before long.
" "Will you not give me a drink of water ? "
said the lonely stranger by the well, to the
woman who came from the city with her
pitcher in her hand. His disciples had left
Jesus to rest while they went away to buy
food.
The woman did not immediately grant the
stranger's very natural request, but answered
His question by another.
" How is it that thou, a Jew, askest drink
of me, a Samaritan ? "
In reply the man said an amazing thing.
150 That Sweet Story of Old
" If thou knewest the gift of God and who
it is that saith unto thee, Give Me to drink,
then wouldst thou have asked of Him, and He
would have given thee living water."
" Sir," said the woman, greatly astonished,
" Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the
well is deep. From whence hast Thou this
living water ? Our father Abraham gave us
this well. He drank thereof himself, and his
children and his cattle."
" He that drinketh of this water," said the
stranger by the well, "shall thirst again, but
whosoever shall drink of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst, but the water
that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water, springing up to everlasting life."
So they talked beside Jacob's well, the
woman who had her sinful past and her story
of trial and trouble behind her, and the Man,
in whose face shone a peace that was like
heaven's own light. They talked, and talked
eagerly, earnestly, and when the disciples re-
turned with the food, they found their Master
weary no longer, but so refreshed that they
thought that some one had ministered to Him
in His need. Refreshment had come to Him
in ministry to a sorrowful and sinful woman,
to her kinsmen and her friends.
For she had hastened homeward and brought
them back with her and had said, "Come.
By the Well of Samaria 151
Down by Jacob's well there is Somebody. I
can't tell you who He is for I don't know, but
He is a prophet, and He has told me everything
I ever did,"
Many of the Samaritans who heard Jesus
tell of the living water that day, believed in
Him and became His followers.
" I heard the voice of Jesus say,
' Behold I freely give
The living water ; thirsty one
Stoop down, and drink, and live.'
I came to Jesus and I drank
Of that life-giving stream.
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him."
These Samaritans, when they accepted the
words of Christ, accepted them wholly. They
said to the woman who had led them to the
well that sultry afternoon, " "We believe that
this is the Christ, the Saviour of the world."
Jesus left them and went northward, until
He arrived at Cana, where He had turned the
water into wine. Soon after He met a noble-
man of the country, in great distress and jour-
neying fast, hoping to find the great Healer,
for at home he had a son very near death.
" Sir," said this man, bowing low before the
Master, " Sir, I pray Thee come to my house,
and restore my son."
152 That Sweet Story of Old
" Go thy way," said the Master, " thy son
liveth."
News it seemed too good to be true, but it
was true. Our Lord went back to His own
country, and the nobleman returned to his
house. On the way there, a servant came run-
ning with the happy tidings that the lad was
well.
Beautiful stories these of One who once
walked and talked, ate and drank, rested and
toiled among men. True Son of Man ! True
Son of God ! For God so loved the world that
He sent into it His only Son that whosoever
believeth on Him should not perish, but should
have everlasting life.
The lovely thing about it was that people in
trouble never stopped a moment on the way to
Jesus. They went straight to Him. Nobody
was afraid of Him. Nobody sought Him in
vain.
Nobody need be afraid of Him now. No-
body now need seek Him in vain.
" For still to His footstool in prayer I may go,
And ask for a share in His love.
And if I thus earnestly seek Him below
I shall see Him and hear Him above."
XIX
JESUS AT THE FEAST
"When the yearly occasions came to sum-
mon the people of Israel to Jerusalem, Jesus
too, in His Manhood as in His Childhood, went
up to keep the Feast.
The spirit of the devout Hebrew had not
changed since David wrote, " I was glad when
they said unto me, Let us go into the house of
the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy
gates, O Jerusalem, whither the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of
Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the
Lord. Peace be within thy walls and pros-
perity within thy palaces."
When the Jews had been carried into cap-
tivity in Babylon, their hearts always turned
very wistfully towards Jerusalem. "By the
rivers of Babylon there we sat down : we
wept when we remembered Zion. How shall
we sing the Lord's song in a strange land ? "
Through all the centuries since Christ was
here on the earth, as in so many before He
came hither, the Jew has uttered this plaintive
cry. Driven like a leaf before the autumn
wind, chased from land to land, the people to
153
154 1'hat Sweet Story of Old
whom Jesus came, of whose race He was,
whom He loved as His very own, have been
exiles and sufferers through a long series of
years. I am sorry that Christians too often
forget the debt they owe the grand old Hebrew
people, forget too that our Saviour was born
in Judea, of the line of David, and that He
owned Abraham as His Father.
Jesus never neglected any religious duty that
belonged to Him as a Jew. So He went to
Jerusalem to keep the feasts, especially the
Feast of the Passover.
He would have said, " If I forget thee, O
Jerusalem, let My right hand forget her cun-
ning, if I do not remember thee, let My tongue
cleave to the roof of My mouth, if I prefer not
Jerusalem above My chief joy."
I can imagine our Saviour as He approached
the beautiful city, glorious as a dream of
heaven, enthroned among the mountains, ex-
claiming, " I will lift up Mine eyes unto the
hills from whence cometh My help," and
adding, " They that trust in the Lord shall be
as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but
abideth forever. As the mountains are round
about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about
His people from henceforth even forever."
Dazzling as a vision in snow white and
gleaming gold, the vast temple was the goal to
which the pilgrims turned their reverent eyes.
Jesus at the Feast 155
Again, on the Sabbath day, Jesus stood in
Jerusalem, and on the way to worship God, in
the solemn assembly. He passed a certain
pool, called Bethesda. It had five porches or
entrances, and was near the sheep market,
where were sold sheep and lambs for the sacri-
fices of the Temple service.
In the porches that led to the pool, lay at
all times a great number of impotent folk,
patiently waiting for an angel, who, tradition
said, at certain seasons, disturbed the pool.
"When the sluggish depths of that pool were
ruffled by the stooping to its waves of a shin-
ing angel from the sky, whoever first stepped
into the water was cured of his plague.
" And a certain man was there, which had
an infirmity thirty and eight years.
" When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he
had been now a long time in that case. He
saith unto him, "Wilt thou be made whole ?
" And the impotent man answered Him, Sir,
I have no man, when the water is troubled, to
put rae into the pool : but while I am coming,
another steppeth down before me.
"Jesus saith unto him, Kise, take up thy
bed, and walk.
" And immediately the man was made whole,
and took up his bed, and walked : and on the
same day was the Sabbath."
Again, the Jews were angry because on the
156 That Sweet Story of Old
Sabbath day the Lord of the Sabbath had
wrought a miracle of healing. He met their
reproaches calmly, but with a statement, even
more boldly uttered than before.
" My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."
Now it was, that openly and shamelessly
there were Jews who sought to kill the Christ.
They were full of malice and wickedness and
murder was in their hearts. But they could
not kill Jesus then.
His hour had not yet come. These Jews
swung to and fro like a pendulum in their
moods, one day wanting to take Jesus by force
and make Him a King, the next trying to en-
trap Him and find some good reason to put
Him to death.
About this time, the Lord addressing those
around Him said, " Your fathers did eat manna
in the wilderness and are dead. I am the bread
of Life. He that cometh to Me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on Me shall never
thirst."
Even those who were next of kin to Christ
turned away from Him when He spoke such
words as these. I am sure His mother listened
and believed, and that His friends, Peter and
James and John, had some faint glimmerings
of what He meant, but many were vexed, and
turned away because they were vexed.
They did not understand what Jesus would
Jesus at the Feast 157
convey when He said that He was the Bread
of Life. They were like children trying to
unravel a puzzle to which they had no clue.
As bread enters into our bodily lives and
gives us strength, so Christ entering into our
souls, gives us strength for every hour. He
is the Bread of Life.
Again, our dear Lord said some other won-
derful words.
"Yerily, verily, I say unto you, He that
entereth not by the door into the sheepfold,
but climbeth up some other way, the same is a
thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by
the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him
the porter openeth ; and the sheep hear his
voice : and he calleth his own sheep by name,
and leadeth them out.
" And when he putteth forth his own sheep,
he goeth before them, and the sheep follow
him : for they know his voice. A.nd a stranger
will they not follow, but will flee from him :
for they know not the voice of strangers.
"This parable spake Jesus unto them, but
they understood not what things they were
which He spake unto them.
" Then Jesus said unto them again, Yerily,
verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the
sheep. All that ever came before Me are
thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not
hear them.
158 That Sweet Story of Old
" I am the door : by Me if any man enter in,
he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and
find pasture.
" The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and
to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they
might have life, and that they might have it
more abundantly.
"I am the good shepherd: the good shep-
herd giveth his life for the sheep.
" But he that is an hireling, and not the
shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth
the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and
fleeth : and the wolf catcheth them, and scat-
tereth the sheep.
" The hireling fleeth, because he is an hire-
ling, and careth not for the sheep.
" I am the good shepherd, and know My
sheep, and am known of Mine.
" As the Father knoweth Me, even so know
I the Father : and I lay down My life for the
sheep.
" And other sheep I have, which are not of
this fold : them also I must bring, and they
shall hear My voice : and there shall be one
fold, and one shepherd.
" Therefore doth My Father love Me, be-
cause I lay down My life, that I might take it
again.
" No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it
down of Myself. I have power to lay it down,
Jesus at the Feast 159
and I have power to take it again. This com-
mandment have I received of My Father."
This passage ought to be committed to
memory by every one who loves Jesus Christ.
It is like a cluster of diamonds sparkling with
rarest lustre.
Are we indeed of those whom the Good
Shepherd claims as His very own ? Have we
heard Him call us by name ? Then we may
fear no foe, for,
" Our Shepherd is beside us
And nothing can we lack."
Here, distinctly, and in the plainest terms,
Jesus said that as the Good Shepherd, He
would lay down His life for the sheep. No
man should take it from Him. He would lay
it down of Himself. "I have power," He
said, " to lay it down, and to take it up again."
Here Jesus declared Himself the Son of
God. No mere man could do what He prom-
ised to do, lay down His life, and take it up
again. Reading this verse, well may we with
Faber exclaim.
" O Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord,
Forgive me if I say
For very love Thy sacred Name
A thousand times a day.
l6o That Sweet Story of Old
" For Thou to me art all in all,
My honour and my wealth,
My heart's desire, my body's strength,
My soul's eternal health."
XX
JESUS AND PRAYER
I AM sure that no one who studies the life
of our Lord can fail to notice how much time
He spent in prayer. You and I spend a little
while in the morning and evening, and we
may be hurried in the one end of the day, and
tired in the other, so that we do not give our
whole hearts and minds to what we are say-
ing. People may repeat prayers and think of
something else. Wandering thoughts insult
God, for when we come into His presence the
least we can do is to bring our full attention
vrith us. Jesus was often known to go alone
to pray, and He spent hours under the stars in
converse with His Father.
Jesus had no sin to confess, so in one par-
ticular His prayers were very different from
ours. He needed not to seek the pardon of
sin. We cannot pray without begging for-
giveness and acknowledging the wrong we
have done, and bewailing the right we have
left undone.
Jesus spoke directly to His Father as friend
to friend. We ask for Jesus' sake. Jesus
i6i
l62 That Sweet Story of Old
prayed continually for others, making prayers
of intercession. We too may do this.
Some things Jesus taught us about prayer.
He said it was asking. " Ask, and it shall be
given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it
shall be opened unto you."
There are those who do not take the trouble
to ask God for a blessing, who are too dull to
seek His gifts, and who never knock at
heaven's gate. They lead prayerless lives.
They are no better than the cattle feeding in
the pastures, not so good, for the " ox knoweth
its owner, and the ass its master's crib." It is
no wonder that the secrets of God's love are
hidden from such heedless souls, too indolent
to pray.
Jesus told us that we must persevere in
prayer. A man had gone to bed one night,
and shut and barred the house, and was
wrapped in slumber when there came a loud
knocking at his door. " Open, open," cried a
voice, " and lend me some bread, three loaves
if you have them. A friend of mine on a
journey has stopped with me, and I have no
food to set before him."
" Go somewhere else, won't you ? " calls the
drowsy man, hating to be disturbed. " I have
closed my house. It is bolted and barred.
My children are asleep. Go away. I cannot
rise and give you bread."
Jesus and Prayer 163
But the outsider is wide awake and refuses
to leave. And says Jesus, " because of his im-
portunity he receives what he wants." The
lesson for us is to be importunate in prayer.
" There is a place where spirits blend
And friend holds fellowship with friend.
Though sundered far by faith we meet
Around one common Mercy Seat. ' '
Jesus tells us when we pray, not to stand in
the street or on the corner or in the market,
but to enter into our closet and shut the door,
and pray to our Father who seeth in secret.
The Moslem prays audibly and conspicuously
wherever he happens to be when from the
mosque falls the call to prayer. The hypocrites
in Jesus' time prayed loudly to be heard and
seen of men. Heathen nations to-day have
praying-machines into which poor deluded
worshippers drop their meaningless prayers
written on scraps of paper.
Prayer should be the cry of faith from man's
soul to God's. The most earnest prayers are
made when one is in solitude.
" Two men," said Jesus, " went up into the
temple to pray." One, a Pharisee, recited be-
fore God the story of his virtues, how he kept
the commandments, how he gave tithes of his
possessions, how he fed the poor. The other,
a poor publican, stood afar off, and beating on
164 That Sweet Story of Old
his breast had only one petition, but it was sin-
cere. " God be merciful to me a sinner." "We
have the word of Jesus for the result of the
publican's prayer. God heard it, and sent
him comfort and peace. Before honour is
humility.
You want your father to let you go on a
journey, or take an advanced course in college,
or enter on some field of business. You take
the natural course of telling him your wishes
and asking him to gratify them, and that is
prayer. We may go to God in that same
simple way.
I heard the other day of a girl who had
drifted into a false position through over-
impulsiveness, and who was very much em-
barrassed and distressed. She came in tears to
a friend, saying, " "What shall I do ? " The
friend said, "Tell your father. He will set
the matter straight. That is one thing a
father is for, to rescue a child when she is in
a slough of despair and pull her out to firm
ground again."
If you and I have somehow lost our bearings,
and are astray in a far country, we may find our
way back by telling our Father. Pray with-
out ceasing, is a little text easily learned by
heart. Does somebody say that it is im-
possible to do this ? Not at all. One may be
in an atmosphere of praj^er, as the plant in the
Jesus and Prayer 165"
greenhouse is in an atmosphere warm with
sun and beaded with dew. "Whenever you
feel an inner impulse, tugging at your heart,
bidding you pray, then and there, if you are
like Jesus, you will send a thought of prayer
up to God. It will fly swifter than light or
lightning straight to His throne. No tele-
gram carries messages so surely as the wire,
unseen, and everlasting, that reaches from
every human soul directly to heaven.
" Hello, Central," when the telephone was
a novelty, said a little child, " Give me Heaven I
I want to say my prayers ! "
But you don't need " Central" to give you
heaven. You have only to send your prayer
from a heart that longs for help, and the
prayer will be answered.
The Holy Spirit teaches us what we ought
to pray for, and how we ought to pray. No
Christian child or man asks anything of God,
without saying, " Thy will be done."
Jesus set us this example too. "Not My
will," He said to His Father, " but Thine be
done."
In the Christian Endeavour parting song
there is a thought I hold very dear.
" God be with yon till we meet again,
Keep love's banner floating o'er yon, ,
Daily manna still provide you,
God be with you till we meet again."
1 66 That Sweet Story of Old
A traveller in the desert, the width of the
world between him and his loved ones, wrote
home that on a Sabbath morning, in the midst
of the great silence, he suddenly heard the
church-bells chiming in the New England
valley, and the sound of the choir singing.
Somehow to his soul's ear these happy notes
were borne, he could not tell how, but he felt
that as he prayed and sang a hymn, he was
joining in the worship at home.
Thus we meet at Jesus' feet whenever we
pray, our petitions going up to God, with those
of dear ones still on earth, but, it may be, out
of our sight for awhile. This is a pleasant
phase of the Christian life. We may be
divided by time and space, but we are near one
another in the dear Lord's care.
HIM THAT COMETH UNTO ME I WILL IN NO WISE
CAST OUT
XXI
JESUS AND PARDONED SIN
One of the complaints frequently made by
the Pharisees and scribes, was that Jesus drew
around Him people whose lives were sinful.
There was in our Saviour, an endless pity for
those who did wrong, and He was always
ready to forgive them, and win them to par-
don and peace. No one needs to be told that
those who willfully commit sin never have
peace of mind or joy in their hearts. They
never know what is before them. They are
misfits everywhere. Sin itself is like a black
blur over the sunshine of the universe. One
cannot be happy in sin.
The publicans and sinners, people who had
strayed far from the path of right, were never
afraid to come to Jesus. A sweet attractive-
ness for them was in His benignant face. Let
us look at some of His teachings, thinking of
Jesus as the Friend who pardons sin.
Being a guest in the house of a chief Phari-
see who was not treating Him with the friend-
liness and honour required by good manners
in a host, Jesus uttered this parable. He
167
i68 That Sweet Story of Old
knew that the Pharisee did not love Him, and
had invited Him from some unworthy motive.
" "When thou makest a dinner or a supper,
call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy
rich neighbours ; lest they also bid thee again,
and a recompense be made thee.
"But when thou makest a feast, call the
poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind; and
thou shalt be blessed ; for they cannot recom-
pense thee ; for thou shalt be recompensed at
the resurrection of the just."
One of those who sat at the table with Jesus
said, " Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the
Kingdom of God." In the midst of those
proud Pharisees Jesus sat, an object lesson in
His own Person, of the beauty of humility.
When He left this home. He was followed
by very many persons to whom He spoke
words of cheer and comfort. It was at this
time, in reply to the murmuring of the Phari-
sees, because He received sinners, and ate with
them, — that He said, " What man of you, hav-
ing an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them,
doth not leave the ninety and nine in the
wilderness, and go after that which is lost, un-
til he find it ?
" And when he hath found it, he layeth it
on his shoulders rejoicing. And wheii he
Cometh home, he calleth together his friends
and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice
Jesus and Pardoned Sin 169
with me; for I have found my sheep which
was lost.
" I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be
in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more
than over ninety and nine just persons, which
need no repentance."
In the Highlands of Scotland, where the
mists suddenly fall upon the mountains, like a
shrouding veil, a traveller once stopped at the
door of a little house, nestling in the shadow
of a great hill. Night had fallen, and the
traveller had lost his way. The candle in the
window dimly shining through the darkness,
had guided him to the door, and he knocked
and was admitted. He found the family in
great trouble, for the man of the house had
not come home, but was away somewhere on
the mountain paths, looking for a lost lamb.
Toward morning, tired but joyful, the shep-
herd came home with the little lost lamb safely
tucked within his plaid. He had not minded
the cold, nor the darkness, as he had looked
for the little creature that had wandered
away.
Our Saviour told us that just this sort of joy
there is in heaven over one wandering child
who finds the way back, and as the lost one
cannot find the way back himself, the Shep-
herd goes to seek for it. Don't you like Bonar's
hymn,
170 That Sweet Story of Old
" I was a wandering sheep,
I did not love the fold ;
I did not love my Shepherd's voice,
I would not be controlled.
I was a wayward child,
I did not love my home,
I did not love my Father's voice,
I loved afar to roam.
" The Shepherd songht His sheep,
The Father sought His child,
They followed me o'er vale and hill,
O'er deserts waste and wild :
They found me nigh to death,
Famished and faint, and lone ;
They bound me with the bands of love ;
They saved the wandering one."
Jesus gave a further illustration of the
readiness of the Lord to pardon a repentant
sinner, by telling of a woman who had ten
pieces of silver and had lost one. She would
not be contented until she had found her lost
coin. She would light a candle and sweep
the house, and look in every nook and corner
until she found her treasure. Often in those
days, a woman's whole dowry was contained
in the few pieces of silver which she wore as
a necklace. If one of these was missing it
was a very serious matter to her, and those
around Jesus would understand at once with
what thoroughness and diligence she would
search until she recovered her property.
Again Jesus said, " I say unto you, there is
Jesus and Pardoned Sin 171
joy in the presence of the angels of God over
one sinner that repenteth." Not the joy only
of the angels, but the joy of the Lord Him-
self, before whom the angels bow. Such
search as the woman might make for her coin,
the Lord would make for His precious one.
After this, still talking to a company, com-
posed partly of Pharisees who were watch-
ful and suspicious, and partly of those who are
called in the narrative publicans and sinners,
people who made no pretensions to be better
than they were, and many of whom were
numbered with those who led doubtful lives,
Jesus told the incomparably beautiful story,
of the Prodigal Son.
" A certain man had two sons : And the
younger of them said to his father. Father
give me the portion of goods that falleth to
me. And he divided unto them his liv-
ing.
" And not many days after the younger son
gathered all together, and took his journey
into a far country, and there wasted his
substance with riotous living. And when he
had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in
that land ; and he began to be in want.
"And he went and joined himself to a
citizen of that country ; and he sent him into
the fields to feed swine.
"And he would fain have filled his belly
172 That Sweet Story of Old
with the husks that the swine did eat ; and no
man gave unto him.
" And when he came to himself, he said,
How many hired servants of my father's have
bread enough and to spare, and I perish with
hunger.
" I will arise and go to my father, and will
say unto him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and before thee, and am no more
worthy to be called thy son ; make me as one
of thy hired servants.
" And he arose and came to his father. But
when he was yet a great way off, his father
saw him, and had compassion on him, and ran,
and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
" And the son said unto him, Father, I have
sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and
am no more worthy to be called thy son.
" But the father said to his servants. Bring
forth the best robe, and put it on him ; and
put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet ;
And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it ;
and let us eat, and be merry : For this my
son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost
and is found. And they began to be merry.
"Now his elder son was in the field: and
as he came and drew nigh to the house, he
heard music and dancing. And he called one
of the servants, and asked what these things
meant.
Jesus and Pardoned Sin 173
"And he said unto him, Thy brother is
come, and thy father hath killed the fatted
calf, because he hath received him safe and
sound.
" And he was angry, and would not go in :
therefore came his father out, and intreated
him.
" And he answering said to his father, Lo,
these many years do I serve thee, neither
transgressed I at any time thy commandment :
and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I
might make merry with my friends : But as
soon as this thy son was come, which hath de-
voured thy living with harlots, thou hast
killed for him the fatted calf.
"And he said unto him. Son, thou art ever
with me, and all that I have is thine. It was
meet that we should make merry, and be glad ;
for this thy brother was dead, and is alive
again ; and was lost, and is found."
This story is sometimes explained as mean-
ing that the elder son was a type of the Jew,
and the younger, of the Gentile. But I do not
think for us it needs any explanation beyond
this, that the Father is always ready to re-
ceive and welcome the child who has gone
astray no matter how far, if only the child
will come home, confess sin, and show a will-
ingness to begin over again.
There is no limit to the forgiveness of Jesus,
174 That Sweet Story of Old
who is ready to forgive the sinner to the
uttermost.
One of the disciples once questioned Jesus
about earthly forgiveness, saying, " Lord, if my
brother sin against me, how oft shall I forgive
him: till seven times?" And the Lord an-
swered him, " Not till seven times, but until
seventy times seven : " showing that we must
forgive those who have offended us, not once
or twice, but over and over again.
' ' How many sheep are straying,
Lost from the Saviour's fold !
Upon the lonely mountain
They shiver with the cold ;
Within the tangled thickets,
Where poison vines do creep.
And over rocky ledges
Wander the poor lost sheep.
O come, let us go and find them,
In the paths of death they roam ;
At the close of the day, 'twill be sweet to say, —
* I have brought some lost one home.'
" O who will go to find them ?
Who, for the Saviour's sake.
Will search, with tireless patience.
Through briar and through brake ?
Unheeding thirst or hunger.
Who still, from day to day,
Will seek as for a treasure,
The sheep that go astray ?
O come, let us go and find them,
In the paths of death they roam ;
At the close of the day, 'twill be sweet to say, —
' I have brought some lost one home.' "
XXII
LORD IF THOU HADST BEEN HERE
Jesus and His disciples were lingering in
Galilee when there came to Him a message
that a friend named Lazarus was very ill.
The home of Lazarus was in Bethany, a little
village not far from Jerusalem. Here in the
family of Lazarus who lived with his sisters,
Martha and Mary, Jesus was often received as
an honoured guest. The message sent by the
sisters to Jesus, was very tender and touching,
" Lord, behold he whom Thou lovest is sick."
We are told that Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus, yet when He heard that
Lazarus was sick, He did not then go to him,
but stayed for two days in the place where He
was. After which. He said to His disciples,
" Let us go into Judea again." The disciples
thought this an unwise proceeding. They
said, " Master, the Jews are very unfriendly.
Of late they have sought to stone Thee. And
goest Thou thither again ? "
The answer which Jesus gave is one that we
may all give when there is a duty or danger
before us, or work that must be done. " Are
there not twelve hours in the day? If any
175
176 That Sweet Story of Old
man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, be-
cause he seeth the light of this world." " Our
friend Lazarus sleepeth," He said, " but I go
that I may awake him out of sleep."
The disciples thought that sleep was a good
sign in illness, and they said, "Lord, if he
sleep he shall do well." But Jesus was speak-
ing of His friend's death, calling it sleep.
In the Eoman Catacombs, over the graves
of the early Christians, little children, young
maidens and people grown old, the legend is
found again and again, " Our brother sleeps,"
" Our sister sleeps."
Heathen religions regard death as the end
of all. Christ's religion speaks of death as
slumber from which one wakens in the morning.
Jesus seeing that they did not understand,
said plainly, " Lazarus is dead, and I am glad
for your sakes that I was not there, to the in-
tent that you may believe ; nevertheless let us
go unto him."
Among the disciples there was one of whom
we shall hear something interesting at a later
period. His name was Thomas.
Seeing that Jesus desired to go to Jerusalem
Thomas said to the other disciples, "Let us
also go, that we may die with Him."
They all felt that the shades were gathering
around their Master, although they did not
comprehend that this was what He expected,
Lord if Thou Hadst Been Here 177
was indeed the reason of His being in the
world. But Thomas gave his pledge of love
and loyalty when, anticipating the martyrdom
of Jesus, he wished to share it.
By the time Jesus reached Bethany, Lazarus
had been lying four days in the grave. Friends
of the family were sitting in the desolate house
trying to comfort the desolate sisters. Some-
body running in, said, " Jesus of Nazareth is
coming with His disciples." Immediately
Martha left the company of friends and went
out to meet the Lord, and Mary sat still where
she was. The temperament of these two sis-
ters was different, one being quick and ener-
getic and impatient if obliged to be quiet, while
the other was gentle and tranquil, and not very
apt to take what we call the initiative in any-
thing that was to be done. It was like Martha
to go forth to meet Jesus, and like Mary to
wait in the house until He came. When
Martha met Him, her first words were those
of tender reproach. " Lord, if Thou hadst
been here, our brother had not died." Thus
she gave a proof of faith which has never been
surpassed. She went on to say, " I know that
even now whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God,
God will give it Thee."
Jesus said to her, "Thy brother shall rise
again."
"Yes," replied Martha, "I know that he
178 That Sweet Story of Old
shall rise again in the resurrection at the last
day."
Then it was that Jesus said the words which
have been the consolation and strength of
Christians through the ages ; said them first to
a woman, mourning for her dead. " I am the
resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in
Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall
never die. Believest thou this ? "
Instantly came the response from Martha,
" Yes, Lord, I believe that Thou art the Christ
the Son of God, which should come into the
world."
Turning from Jesus, Martha went back to
the house and quietly called Mary, saying,
" The Master is come, and calleth for thee."
Mary arose quietly, and in her turn went to
Jesus. She too, sank down at His feet saying,
" Lord, if Thou hadst been here my brother
had not died." The mourning company who
had been in the house had followed Mary, sup-
posing that she had gone to her brother's tomb
to weep. They all stood there a company of
grieving people surrounding Jesus.
Presently He said, " "Where have ye laid him ? "
" Lord, come and see," said the sisters.
" Jesus wept.
" Then said the Jews, behold how He loved
him.
Lord if Thou Hadst Been Here 179
"And some of them said, Could not this
Jesus, who opened the eyes of the blind, have
caused that even Lazarus should not have
died?
" Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself
Cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a
stone lay upon it.
"Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Mar-
tha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto
Him, Lord, he hath been dead four days.
" Jesus saith unto her. Said I not unto thee,
that, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see
the glory of God ?
" Then they took away the stone from the
place where the dead was laid. And Jesus
lifted up His eyes, and said, 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. And when He had thus spoken.
He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come
forth.
" And he that was dead came forth, bound
hand and foot in grave-clothes : and his face
was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith
unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
" Then many of the Jews which came to
Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus
did, believed on Him."
l8o That Sweet Story of Old
In this most beautiful story there are one or
two features which never fail to touch our
hearts. The little verse, " Jesus wept " is only
two words long, but what a comfort to think,
that just as we pour out our grief in tears, so
Jesus loving His friends, wept with them in
their hour of sore distress.
"We notice too, that Jesus took for granted
that His Father in heaven had heard Him in
the prayer that He made before Lazarus came
forth from the tomb. When He awakened
Lazarus, it was with the command of a King.
No wonder that those who saw this strange
sight at once believed on Jesus.
The only ones who were disturbed and very
indignant at this miracle were those bitter ene-
mies of our Lord, the chief priests and Phari-
sees who were jealous of the power of Jesus,
and of His increasing influence. They gath-
ered themselves into a council and said, " This
thing has gone far enough. "We must stop it.
This man from Nazareth performs so many
miracles that there is no knowing where He
will end. If we let Him alone, before very
long every one will believe on Him, and the
Romans shall come and take away both our
place and nation."
Whoever said this knew that he was speak-
ing falsely with the intention to stir up a
feeling against Jesus, for the Romans even
Lord if Thou Hadst Been Here 18 1
then, had taken possession of Judea, and the
nation paid tribute to Kome, although the
Roman policy did not interfere with the re-
ligion of any people whom they conquered.
Caiaphas, the high priest, boldly put forth
the idea that it would be well that Jesus be
put to death. " Ye know nothing at all, nor
consider that it is expedient for us, that one
man should die for the people, and that the
whole nation perish not.
" And this spake he not of himself : but being
high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus
should die for that nation. And not for that
nation only, but that also he should gather to-
gether in one the children of God that were
scattered abroad.
" Then from that day forth they took coun-
sel together for to put Him to death.
" And Jesus therefore walked no more openly
among the Jews ; but went thence into a
country near to the wilderness, into a city
called Ephraim, and there continued with His
disciples."
All these wonderful things that we have
been learning about our Lord took place in
three little years. We have now reached the
third and last year of Christ's public ministry,
and we are coming to the hour, when for the
last time. He should go up to Jerusalem and
keep the Passover.
XXIII
THE SISTERS OF BETHANY
Jesus was on the footing of a dear family
friend in the home of Lazarus and his two sis-
ters. He came there when tired that He
might rest, and He was so sure of His welcome
that He never needed to send word beforehand.
There was room for Jesus in that Bethany-
home, and He could never find them unpre-
pared to receive Him.
Soon after the raising of Lazarus there was
a joyous gathering of friends and kindred to
celebrate his restoration to life. They were
invited to a supper and great pains were taken
to make the supper worthy of the occasion.
It was a feast, and the Guest of honour was
the Master who had called back Lazarus from
the dead. Never was a feast so bright and
glad.
Our Lord saw plainly just before Him the
darkness of the cross. Yet His presence cast
no shadow on this home festival. Jesus knew
how to put His personal grief and care in the
background that He might make others happy.
I have heard of Christians so morose and
melancholy that people shunned them. They
182
The Sisters of Bethany 183
are not like Christ. He walked through the
world with cheerful courage.
" I don't want to go to heaven when I die,"
said a little fellow. "Kot if grandpapa'll be
there! He'll keep on calling out Hush!
Hush ! "
When Jesus went to a dinner or a supper,
He laid no spell of gloom on those who sat at
the table. They were only more happy than
they had ever been before.
As I have already said, the sisters of Bethany
were not very much alike. Jesus does not ask
His friends to be a uniform pattern, like candles
run into the same mould. He wants you to be
yourself, and me to be myself. He never chides
the daisy for not being a tulip, or asks the lily to
turn into a rose. He loved both sisters in the
Bethany home though one was of the bustling
and peremptory order of women, and the other
was silent and thoughtful in contrast.
Martha, the elder sister, was the lady of the
house, the mistress and caretaker. She has
long been considered a type of the practical
woman, the woman of affairs, the woman who
knows how to manage servants, and entertain
company, and spread the table with delicate
abundance. In Martha's house, let it stand
where it may, everything is tidy. Dust does
not lurk in corners, nor do cobwebs hang from
the wall. Martha keeps her closets in order,
184 That Sweet Story of Old
and exacts scrupulous attention to system
from all beneath her roof.
People sometimes speak a little slightingly
of Martha of Bethany, because Jesus once
tenderly reproved her, saying, "Martha,
Martha, thou art careful and troubled about
many things." Just as many a housekeeper
that we know is cumbered or borne down by
service. Martha was at times over-particular,
over-anxious, and over-wearied, so that some
of life's best things passed her by, while she
was occupied with second-best things. But
she was, nevertheless, a good and gracious
woman, and a loyal friend of the Master, His
devoted hostess and conscientious supporter.
Mary, the sister of Martha, was of a differ-
ent type. She was dreamy and imaginative,
what we call a mystic. It did not matter to
her whether the bread was baked on the coals
to the right tint of brown, nor whether the
meal was ground at the moment it was
wanted. Her pleasure was to sit at Jesus'
feet, and listen while He talked, drinking in
His words of wisdom, and forgetting the
whole world in the bliss of loving Him.
" Her eyes were homes of silent prayer."
"Mary," said the Lord, "has chosen that
good part that shall not be taken away from
her."
We find it hard to understand but the real
The Sisters of Bethany 185
things are generally the things we cannot see.
The real things are pity and love and truth
and generosity ; they outlast the chairs and
tables, the works of men's hands. The things
that are seen are temporal, the things that are
not seen are eternal.
Mary's whole fortune was invested in one
treasure. Men have invested a fortune before
now in a pearl or a diamond, a rare cup, a
cameo, a picture; some precious thing they
coveted.
Mary had a jar of fragrant ointment, costly
and rare. It was her one possession, most
valuable, most beautiful.
Jesus was sitting at meat when she broke
this jar of fragrance, and poured it on the
Master's head. There were churlish look-
ers-on who murmured at Mary's extravagance.
"Why break it?" they said. "Why not
scatter a few drops of the perfume ? " " Why
spend it all in an instant ? "
Their wrath growing bolder they vented it
in the hearing of the Lord Himself.
" It might have been sold," they said, " and
the price of it given to the poor."
Jesus heard them and smiled.
" The poor ye have always with you," He
said, " but Me ye have not always. This
woman hath come beforehand to anoint My
body for its burial. Wheresoever in the
l86 That Sweet Story of Old
world this story shall be told, it shall be a
memorial of her."
" Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air
have nests, but the Son of Man hath not
where to lay His head."
Yet when these friends at Bethany came
out to greet Him, they gave Him of their best.
Our Master knew the pleasantness there is in
being a guest where friendship is unstinted.
There is a profound truth in that sentence
of Jesus, about the poor who are always with
us, and the constant commonplace occasions
when we may do them good, and the other
unusual occasion when we may do some big
and splendid deed for Him. We never know
when we may have it in our power to
break our alabaster box that Jesus may be
honoured.
Perhaps among those who are reading this
page, there is a girl who is laid aside from the
activity of life. She cannot do much for her
King. One such girl I think of, who tripping
down the village street one day, stumbled and
fell. She has not walked since, though years
have passed. Patient, winsome, cheery, but
chained to a chair and a couch, she sits beside
her bit of a window, and looks out on the
country road. For each passer she has a
smile. Girls run in on their way from school
to chat with her, and tell her their little trials
The Sisters of Bethany 187
or triumphs. Hard-working matrons slip into
the house in the gloaming that they may rest
in the room where this young girl sits, suffer-
ing but never complaining.
Little things please her. A flower gives her
exquisite delight. A poem cut from a news-
paper stirs the song in her heart. In her cease-
less gentleness and quiet loveliness, this young
girl who is a shut-in, breaks day by day her
alabaster box, as Mary did, that her Master
may be glorified.
As Martha did, as Mary did, in that Bethany
home, shall not we ceaselessly serve Jesus,
and try to entertain Him in the Bethany of
our hearts ?
XXIV
HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID
The thought of the coming kingdom
pressed continually upon the minds of the dis-
ciples. We see this as we find that again and
again they returned to that question in their
talks with Jesus. Peter said one day, " Be-
hold we have forsaken all, and followed Thee.
"What shall we have therefore ? " Jesus held
out no promise of worldly reward, but told
him that when the Son of Man should sit on
the throne of His glory in Heaven, they should
find their reward then, and that every one
who had forsaken houses, or brethren, or
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or chil-
dren, or lands, for the Name of Jesus, should
receive a hundredfold, and inherit everlasting
life.
The mother of Zebedee's children, with a
mother's love for her sons, one day asked of
Jesus a certain thing. " "What wilt thou ? " He
graciously said. She answered, " Grant that
these my two sons may sit the one on Thy
right hand and the other on Thy left in Thy
Kingdom."
Jesus looked at her sorrowfully. Her sons
Hosanna to the Son of David 189
were James and John who so often accom-
panied the Lord on His journeys to and fro,
and who shared so much of His confidence.
He said unto them, " Ye know not what ye
ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I
shall drink of, and to be baptized with the
baptism that I am baptized with ? They said
to Him, We are able.
Jesus said to them, " Ye shall drink indeed
of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with: but to sit on My
right hand, and on My left, is not Mine to
give, but it shall be given to them for whom
it is prepared of My Father in heaven."
Naturally the other apostles were very in-
dignant at the ambition of the two brothers,
but Jesus took that occasion to give them all
a lesson in humility. He said, " Whosoever
will be chief among you, let him be your serv-
ant,
" Even as the Son of Man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give
His life a ransom for many."
In the lives of James and John the prophecy
of Jesus was fulfilled, for James was the first
to lose his life for Christ's sake among the
twelve apostles, all of whom except John died
by a violent death, witnessing with their blood,
the love they had for the Lord. John lived to
be a very old man, and tradition says, that
190 That Sweet Story of Old
when he grew too infirm to preach, he would
be carried to church and there extending his
hands over all the congregation would say,
" Little children, love one another." He it was
to whom was given the revelation of heaven,
which closes the New Testament.
Going down the Jericho road, a great crowd
of people followed Jesus, and there were those
in the crowd on whom He had compassion,
and on whom He wrought miracles of healing.
"When they drew nigh to Jericho and had
reached Bethphage near the Mount of Olives,
Jesus said to 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.
" All this was done, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
" Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy
King Cometh unto thee, meek and sitting upon
an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
"And the disciples went, and did as Jesus
commanded them, and brought the ass and
the colt, and put on them their clothes, and
they set Him thereon.
" And a very great multitude spread their
Hosanna to the Son of David igi
garments in the way; others cut down
branches from the trees, and strewed them in
the way.
" And the multitudes that went before, and
that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the
Son of David ; Blessed is He that cometh in
the name of the Lord : Hosanna in the
highest."
This is what we call Jesus' Triumphal Entry
into Jerusalem. This is the one time when He
came into the city riding as a prince might
ride, escorted by enthusiastic crowds of people
and by children, calling, " Hosanna to the Son
of David ! " In that great city filled with
strangers from every quarter of the globe,
there was stir and agitation, and people called
out, " Who is this ? " and others said, " This is
Jesus the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee ! "
We shall find that the crowd was not dif-
ferent in its caprice, from every other crowd,
for only a little later the same voices that
called " Hosanna," were calling " Crucify
Him," around the same Nazarene.
About this time, Jesus entered the temple,
and there found that a great many people were
making it a market-place, filling its several
courts with the clamour of trade, and buying
and selling and making money within sound
of the stately ritual of Hebrew worship.
Jesus was moved with resentment when He
192 That Sweet Story of Old
saw His Father's House thus profaned. And
He cast out those who sold and bought in the
temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-
changers, and with a whip of braided cords
drove the people out of the place, saying, " It
is written, My house shall be called the house
of prayer, but ye have made it a den of
thieves."
The chief priests and scribes were very
angry both that Jesus had cleansed the
Temple, where no doubt they had made per-
quisites of their own, and that the children
should have followed Him, saying, " Hosanna
to the Son of David."
Turning to Him, they said, "Have you
heard what these say ? " And Jesus answered,
" Yes, have you never read. Out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected
praise ? "
The chief priests asked Him by whose
authority He did the wonderful things, and
who gave Him authority ?
He said, " I also will ask you a question :
The baptism of John, whence was it ? from
heaven, or of men ? "
" And they reasoned with themselves. If we
say from heaven, He will say unto us, "Why
did ye not then believe him ?
" But if we shall say. Of men ; we fear the
people : for all hold John as a prophet.
Hosanna to the Son of David 193
" They answered Jesus, and said, We can-
not tell. And He said unto them, Neither tell
I you by what authority I do these things."
It was Christ's custom to teach by parables,
and at this time He spoke a number of these in
the hearing of the chief priests. One of the
most remarkable was that of a certain house-
holder who planted a vineyard, hedged it
round about, digged a wine-press in it, built a
tower, let it out to husbandmen, and went
into a far country.
"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 inheri-
tance.
" And they caught him, and cast him out of
the vineyard, and slew him.
" And when the lord therefore of the vine-
yard Cometh, what will he do unto those
husbandmen ?
194 That Sweet Story of Old
"They say unto Him, He will miserably
destroy those wicked men, and will let out his
vineyard unto other husbandmen, who shall
render him the fruits in their season.
" Jesus saith unto 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."
"When the chief priests heard the parable,
they knew that the Saviour spoke of them.
That it was the Jewish nation that had been
the vineyard planted by the Lord ; that the
prophets who had been sent to it successively,
the prophets and preachers and teachers were
the messengers who had been ill treated, and
that now in the last days when One had come
who came with authority as if from God Him-
self, they were rejecting Him.
These men were not dull-witted, but they
were filled with hate and contempt.
They did not yet dare to take Christ's life
because they still feared the people. They
were calmly and secretly stirring up public
opinion, so that it might be at the right time,
ripe to be used against Jesus.
Still another parable He spoke, comparing
Hosanna to the Son of David 195
the Kingdom of Heaven to a certain king who
made a marriage for his son.
" And he sent forth his servants to call them
that were bidden to the wedding : and they
would not come.
" Again, he sent forth other servants, say-
ing, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I
have prepared my dinner : 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 mer-
chandise.
"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 these 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 high-
ways, and gathered together all as many as
they found, both bad and good : and the wed-
ding was furnished with guests."
Now comes the sad part, the part with the
heartache.
196 That Sweet Story of Old
" And when the king came in to see the
guests, he saw there a man who had not on a
wedding garment :
" And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest
thou in hither, not having a wedding garment ?
and he was speechless.
" 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."
Again the Pharisees made the application
to themselves, and again they were angry.
They tried after this, to entrap Jesus in a very
cunning way, so that they might get the
Koman Government to arrest Him for trea-
son. They sent certain people to Him, say-
ing, " Is it lawful to give tribute to Cassar or
not?"
Jesus reading their hearts said, " "Why
tempt ye Me, ye hypocrites ? Show Me the
tribute money."
And when they brought to Him the Eoman
coin in which tribute was paid, He said,
" Whose is this image and superscription ? "
They answered, " Caesar's."
Then said He unto them, " Eender unto
CaBsar the things that are Caesar's, and unto
God, the things that are God's."
A lawyer next came tempting Him, asking,
Hosanna to the Son of David 197
" Master, which is the great commandment in
the law ? "
Jesus said unto him, " 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."
From that day, they durst ask Him no
more questions.
XXV
SOME PARABLES OF JESUS
A PARABLE is a story of which the kernel
is a great truth. Jesus was fond of teaching
by the method of a story. The listeners were
like ourselves. We never grow weary from
our earliest days of stories that are told by the
fireside, on the ferry-boat, in the train, or in
the pulpit.
"When I was a child my father, just before
bedtime, would tell me in the dancing fire-
light, stories from the Bible, stories of
Joseph and Samuel and David and Daniel, and
of the Child of Bethlehem. Sometimes he
chose Old Testament, sometimes New Testa-
ment scenes, and often he related the parables
of Christ. And before good-night was said,
he would sing his favourite hymn that comes
back to me over the years.
*' Oh, how happy are they
Who the Saviour obey,
And have laid tip their treasure above!
Oh, what tongue can express
The sweet comfort and blias
Of a soul in its earliest love."
198
Some Parables of Jesus 199
Another hymn clamoured for by the house-
hold group was
" Begone unbelief, my Saviour is near,
And for my relief He will surely appear."
I cannot begin in this book to tell you again
the many parables that Jesus spoke in the ears
of the people : you will find them in the pages
of the New Testament. We will look only at
some that are interwoven for all with mem-
ories of childhood's hour of joy in childhood's
home of love.
There is the Parable of the Ten Yirgins.
Five were wise and five were foolish. All of
them were friends of a bride, and had been
invited to form part of her wedding proces-
sion. A bridesmaid always tries to behave so
that she can assist in making the bridal party
perfect. In the East manners and customs are
different from ours, and the bride in great
state and dignity, accompanied by a throng of
attendants, leaves her own home and goes
forth to meet the bridegroom.
The ten virgins were ready but the bride-
groom was delayed, and while they waited for
him, they all fell asleep, the wise and the
foolish alike. At midnight a cry rang through
the street. " Behold, the bridegroom cometh !
Behold, the bridegroom cometh ! Go ye out
to meet him."
200 That Sweet Story of Old
Hurriedly the virgins started from their
slumber. Hurriedly they trimmed their
lamps. The wise virgins had taken with them
a supply of oil, and they filled the cup in
which the wick burned, and went joyfully on-
ward to meet the bridegroom.
The foolish virgins had forgotten to take
oil and their lamps were empty. They
reached out their hands to the others, and
cried beseechingly, " Give us of your oil, for
our lamps are gone out."
"We cannot, we would if we could," ex-
claimed the wise virgins, " we have only
enough for our own lamps and none to spare.
If we divided our lamps would go out,
and there would be nobody to wait on the
bride."
So the wise virgins, holding aloft their
burning lamps, passed in with the bride and
the bridegroom to the marriage supper, and
the door was shut.
Stumbling along in the darkness, the foolish
virgins battered on that shut door, imploring
that they might be admitted. But the bride-
groom looking out, said, " Who may you be,
thus storming at my gate ? You cannot come
in. You are no friends of mine. I never
knew you."
Tennyson has some beautiful lines on these
foolish virgins. The little novice sings them
Some Parables of Jesus 201
to poor foolish Guinevere, who knows too well
their inner meaning of loss and pain.
"Late, late, so late! and dark the night and chill!
Late, late, so late! but we can enter still;
Too late, too late still, ye cannot enter now.
" No light had we: for that we do repent.
And learning this, the bridegroom will relent;
Too late, too late! Ye cannot enter now.
" No light; 80 late; and dark and chill the night!
O let us in that we may find the light!
Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now.
" Have we not heard the bridegroom is so sweet,
O let us in, though late, to kiss his feet!
No, no, too late! ye cannot enter now."
The explanation of this parable is, that
Christ is the Bridegroom, and His bride is the
Church. The wise and the foolish virgins all
appear to belong to the Church, but some of
them have no real love for the Lord in their
hearts. They have been contented to confess
Him, with no true loyalty to His Name. They
are the foolish virgins. They have hours and
hours in which they may retrieve their error,
go to the merchant and buy oil for their lamps.
They could have this oil for the mere asking,
for it would come from the same shop of
which Isaiah said, " Come ye who have no
money, buy wine and milk without money and
202 That Sweet Story of Old
without price." But light-hearted and friv-
olous, they cared nothing for the bride and
nothing for the bridegroom, till the very day
of grace was gone.
They had no ground for complaint when
they were excluded from the marriage-supper.
The guests were at the table, the feast was
prepared, but the bridegroom said, " Go away.
I never knew you^
The lesson of this parable is for us, as for
those who heard it first. Shall we belong to
the company of the foolish virgins, or with the
wise virgins, have our lamps trimmed and
burning, with plenty of oil, whenever we shall
hear Him coming ?
" God calling yet, and shall I never hearken?
But still earth's witcheries my spirit darken,
This passing life, these passing joys, all flying,
And still my soul in dreamy slumbers lying.
" God calling yet ! Loud at my door He's knocking,
And I, my heart, my ear, still firmer locking ;
He still is ready, willing to receive me,
Is waiting now, but ah ! He soon may leave me."
The parable of the talents is so plain and
simple that the youngest child can read its
meaning. A certain rich man, going from
home, left with his servants certain things to
be cared for. To one he gave five talents, to
another two, to another one. When after a
Some Parables of Jesus 203
long time he returned, he sent for his servants.
The one to whom the five talents had been
given, had so used them that he brought ten to
the original owner, and the owner was very
much pleased.
" Well done, good and faithful servant," he
said, " Thou has been faithful over a few
things, I will make thee ruler over many-
things. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord."
The man to whom two talents had been en-
trusted brought in his report : he had so used
them that he had gained four talents, doubling
their value.
His lord said unto him, " Well done, 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."
But the servant who had been given the
one talent, brought it back. He had not spent
it on himself, or run away with it to an unknown
land. He had simply folded it in a napkin,
buried it in the earth, and never bothered his
head about the matter. In excuse he avowed
that he knew his lord was strict and austere,
and that he was afraid he might lose the talent
if he tried in any way to use it.
The lord was very angry. "You wicked
and slothful servant," he said in an awe-inspir-
204 That Sweet Story of Old
ing voice, " knowing what you did of me, you
yet dared to let this talent gather rust, when
it could at least been put in the bank, where it
would have gained interest. Take from this
man the talent," he added, " and give it to him
that 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."
In this world of ours this last utterance of
the Lord is verified every day. Take the stu-
dent who works hard over languages and science
and mathematics. "Whatever he gains by dili-
gence, is presently multiplied. Honours
cluster on the head of one who has honours
already. Take the girl who plays with skill on
organ or piano. She doubles and trebles her
talent by use.
Take the great men of the ages, Washing-
ton, Lincoln, Grant, Lee, Gladstone ; they have
been men with five talents, and so have they
used them that God made their talents ten.
Illustrations of this truth are in every school-
room, every college, every history, every land.
Give, and it shall be given unto you, good
measure, pressed down and running over, but
— you must first have something to give. The
man with one talent atrophied his powers,
made them what your right hand would be if
Some Parables of Jesus 205"
you tied it at your side for six months and
never allowed it to hold a pen or a hoe or a
sword or a hammer.
Here are some words of Jesus, worth think-
ing of by you and me, for they show how the
present of our toiling and striving is to be
clasped and finished by the awards of a surely
coming future day.
" 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 kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world : For I was
an hungered, 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, say-
ing, Lord, When saw we Thee an hungered,
and fed Thee ? or thirsty, and gave Thee
drink ? When saw we Thee a stranger, and
took Thee in ? or naked, and clothed Thee ?
2o6 That Sweet Story of Old
Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and
came unto Thee ?
" And the King shall answer and say unto
them, Yerily, 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.
" Then shall He say unto them on the left
hand. Depart from Me, ye cursed, into ever-
lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels : For I was an hungered, and ye gave
Me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave Me
no drink : I was a stranger, and ye took Me
not in: naked and ye clothed Me not: sick
and in prison, and ye visited Me not.
"Then shall they also answer Him, say-
ing. Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, or
athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in
prison, and did not minister unto Thee ?
" Then shall He answer them, saying, Yerily
I say unto you. Inasmuch as ye did it not to
one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me.
" And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment: but the righteous into life
eternal."
XXYI
THE LAST SUPPER
Many a time had Jesus and His chosen dis-
ciples taken a meal together. The twelve
who had the great privilege of being in His
company and sharing His daily life, were as a
little family of which He was the head. They
had probably kept the Passover before this as
a group of friends might, but on this third
year of Christ's ministry, they felt as we do
when some great sorrow is hanging over our
home circle. For there was a feeling of change
in the air. The mutterings of the crowd were
growing fierce, like the growl of an angry beast,
or the rumble of distant thunder. That roar
of the mob, which none who have heard it
ever forget, was soon to blot out the remem-
bered music of the children's sweet hosannas.
Jesus was very calm in these days. His
countenance more heavenly in its peace than
ever before. "When the disciples asked the
Master where they should go to eat the Pass-
over He directed them to enter the city, and
told them they would meet a friend of His, who
would show them a large upper room where
they might be undisturbed. Jesus knew that
207
2o8 That Sweet Story of Old
He had friends who were ready to do Him a
service.
As the twelve sat around the table, reclining
on a couch as was the Eastern fashion, there
was one, dearer than the rest and more inti-
mate, who leaned on Jesus' breast. He was
the disciple whom Jesus loved, who was to
Him the greatest comfort along the sorrowful
way, and the greatest joy in the hours of in-
creasing darkness.
The last supper would not have been so
very sad if all had been loyal. Earth has no
tolerance for a traitor, and in that band of
twelve, there was one who had been per-
suaded by the wicked priests and scribes to
betray Jesus, and put Him into their hands,
won to this infamy by a promise of money.
Judas had the bag we are told, and was the
treasurer of the little band. His greed for
gain had obscured from his view the vision of
the Master's face, and the friendship of years
was as nothing to his sordid and miserly soul.
The meal was very simple, only the bread
and wine of the country, and as it progressed
Jesus told the disciples that one of them would
almost immediately betray Him, and surrender
Him to His foes. Imagine how Judas must
have felt. Dumb amazement and consterna-
tion at first fell on the group, but they rallied.
" Lord, is it I ? " mournfully asked one and
The Last Supper 209
another, and " Lord, who is it ? " asked the
one whose head was pillowed on Jesus' bosom.
He whose conscience convicted him of a
guilty purpose, crept out into the darkness.
He could not stay where those eyes of Jesus'
were piercing into his very soul,
Jesus had said over and over, so that the
words sound like the tolling of a great bell,
" Mine hour is not yet come ! "
Now He knew that His hour had come, the
hour for which He had entered this world.
To me it is one of the most terrible and
tragic features of the last supper that the
traitor ate of it before he went to finish his
treachery. He was just as bad then, as he
was later when he took the thirty pieces of
silver into his dishonoured hand. An evil
purpose in the heart is as shameful and as vile
as an evil action committed.
Jesus sat down with the twelve.
" And He said unto them, With desire I
have desired to eat this passover with you be-
fore I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not
any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in
the kingdom of God.
" And He took the cup, and gave thanks,
and said, Take this, and divide it among your-
selves : For I say unto you I will not drink of
the fruit of the vine, until the Kingdom of
God shall come.
210 That Sweet Story of Old
" And He took bread and gave thanks, and
brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is
My body which is given for you : this do in
remembrance of Me.
" Likewise also the cup after supper, saying,
This cup is the new testament in My blood,
which is shed for you."
Wherever in this world, in foreign lands or
at home, a little company of Christian people
sit down at the holy communion, which is one
of the great sacraments of the church, they
are eating and drinking in remembrance of
Jesus Christ.
"This do," He said, "till time shall end
In memory of your dying Friend."
" Many centuries have fled
Since our Saviour broke the bread.
And His sacred feast ordained
Ever by His Church retained,
Those His body vcho discern
Thus shall meet till His return."
Even little children who love Jesus have a
place at His table, and none should be shut
out from it who sincerely repent of sin, and
honestly intend to follow Jesus in the world.
There was one at the last supper who betrayed
his Lord. Another, who loved Him, was to
grieve the Master by a base and cowardly
denial of Him. One would not have expected
The Last Supper 211
this from Peter, the bold and impulsive and
ardent man, but Peter was over-confident in
himself, and not sufficiently confident in
Christ. "Though I should die with Thee,"
boastfully and sincerely exclaimed Peter, " I
will not deny Thee. Though all should deny
Thee, yet will not I."
Alas ! the Master knew Peter better than
Peter knew his own heart.
"I will lay down my life for Thy sake,"
said Peter.
" "Wilt thou lay down thy life for My
sake ? " Jesus surveyed him with a deep com-
passion. " Yerily, verily, I say unto thee, the
cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me
thrice."
The most loving words our Master ever
spoke, were spoken in this hour.
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye be-
lieve in God, believe also in Me. In My
Father's house are many mansions : if it were
not so, I would have told you. I go to pre-
pare a place for you.
" And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again, and receive you unto Myself,
that where I am, there ye may be also. And
whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
" Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know not
whither Thou goest ; and how can we know
the way ?
2 1 2 That Sweet Story of Old
" Jesus saith unto him, I 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.
" Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the
Father, and it sufficeth us.
" Jesus saith unto him. Have I been so long
time with you, and yet thou hast not known
Me, Philip ? he that hath seen Me hath seen
the Father ; and how sayest thou then, Shew
us the Father ?
" Believest thou not that I am in the
Father, and the Father in Me ? the words that
I speak unto you I speak not of Myself : but
the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the
works.
" Believe Me that I am in the Father, and
the Father in Me : or else believe Me for the
very works' sake.
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that be-
lieveth on Me, the works that I do shall he do
also ; and greater works than these shall he
do ; because I go unto My Father.
" And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name,
that will I do, that the Father may be glori-
fied in the Son.
" If ye shall ask anything in My name, I
will do it."
A little later, still talking to the listeners
The Last Supper 213
with divinest gentleness, and trying to prepare
them for the ordeal that was to try their
faith, Jesus said, " I am indeed going away
but the Comforter will come when I am gone."
" Peace I leave with you. My peace I give
unto you ; not as the world giveth, give I unto
you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid."
In the moonlight rising over the hills, they
then went forth, and Jesus led them towards
the slopes of Olivet. As they walked. He saw
the vines bending under their weight of purple
grapes, and He told them to look at the vines.
" I am the true vine, and My Father is the
husbandman," He said teaching them to the
very end in familiar parables.
" Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit
He taketh away : and every branch that bear-
eth fruit. He purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit.
"Now ye are clean through the word which
I have spoken unto you.
" Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in
Me.
" 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.
214 1'hat Sweet Story of Old
" If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth
as a branch, and is withered : the men gather
them, and cast them into the fire, and they are
burned.
" If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in
you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be
done unto you.
" Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear
much fruit : so shall ye be My disciples.
" As the Father hath loved Me, so have I
loved you : continue ye in My love.
"If ye keep My commandments, ye shall
abide in My love: even as I have kept My
Father's commandments, and abide in His
love.
" These things have I spoken unto you, that
My joy might remain in you, and that your
joy might be full.
"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.
" Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen
you, and ordained you, that ye should go and
The Last Supper 215
bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should
remain : that whatsoever ye shall ask of the
Father in My name, He may give it you.
" These things I command you, that ye love
one another."
One's heart beats fast and one's eyes grow
dim with tears, when one reads these sentences
spoken to the poor, frightened, wonder-stricken
disciples, on the edge of a great calamity, by
Him who was to endure the supreme grief and
pain, but whose only thought was to prepare
and strengthen those He was leaving. He
told them that in the world they would meet
hatred and persecution and trouble, but they
need not be afraid.
" Be of good cheer," He said, " I have over-
come the world."
Then Jesus made a prayer to His Father in
Heaven, a prayer that none could have made,
except the Man Christ Jesus, who was also the
Son of God.
When the prayer was ended, Jesus led them
over the brook Cedron to a place where there
was a garden.
XXVII
GETHSEMANE
The garden beyond the brook was a favour-
ite resort, to which Jesus had before this hour
gone when He wished to be alone.
All His disciples knew the spot. Judas
knew it too, and knew by some intuition that
here he would be likely to find Him.
Jesus left the larger part of the disciples
near the garden's entrance, but went into its
deeper shades with the three who had been
with Him when He raised the little maiden
from the dead, when He stood on Hermon's
top and was transfigured, and who had often
been His companions on long nights, when the
fishers' boats spread their sails and floated over
the sea of Galilee.
He asked them to watch while He withdrew
a little space, about a stone's cast, and knelt in
prayer.
Here, in the garden, in His final struggle
against the devil whom Jesus had routed in
the wilderness when His ministry began, in
His final wrestle against the powers of wick-
edness, Jesus tasted the full bitterness of the
cup He was to drink to the dregs.
216
JESUS IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
Gethsemane 217
His soul was exceeding sorrowful unto
death. He had said to His three friends, " Sit
here, while I go yonder to pray."
Wearied with the long day, they fell asleep.
No man witnessed the agony in Gethsemane.
But an angel came flying from heaven to
strengthen the Lord in that mortal anguish
when the drops of sweat that oozed from His
brow were great drops of blood falling to the
ground.
"Father, if it be Thy will," He pleaded,
" let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless not
My will, but Thine be done."
Since that scene in the garden, the word we
use when we think of any one in mortal pain
is Gethsemane. When any one reaches a
crisis that human language cannot paint, the
word Gethsemane is a picture that shows it in
its lurid colours, so that all understand.
" Could ye not watch with Me one hour,"
said the Lord to the disciples. Tender re-
proach was in the question, and they were
broken-hearted that they had slept.
"Never mind," He said. "The spirit in-
deed is willing but the flesh is weak. Yet
watch and pray, lest ye enter into tempta-
tion."
I said that Judas knew the garden under the
olives as well as the other disciples did. As
Jesus was leaving the place, there was sud-
2i8 That Sweet Story of Old
denlj a great uproar. The moon had set.
The midnight darkness was gathering thickly.
The crowd of ruffianly men from the chief
priests, led by Judas had with them lanterns
and torches and weapons. The}'' rushed for-
ward in boisterous haste as if to apprehend a
rioter, or an outlaw.
"Jesus therefore, knowing all things that
should come upon Him, went forth, and said
unto them, Whom seek ye ?
" They answered Him, Jesus of IS^azareth.
Jesus saith unto them, I am He. And Judas
also, which betrayed Him, stood with them.
" And as soon as He had said unto them, I am
He, they went backward, and fell to the ground.
" Then asked He them again, Whom seek
ye ? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
" Jesus answered, I have told you that I am
He : if therefore ye seek Me, let these go their
way. That the saying might be fulfilled
which He spake. Of them which Thou gavest
Me, I have lost none.
" Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it,
and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off
his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.
"Then Jesus said unto Peter, Put up thy
sword into the sheath ; the cup which My
Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it ?
" Then the band and the captain and the
officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound
Gethsemane 219
Him, and led Him away to Annas first ; for
He was the father-in-law to Caiaphas which
was the high priest that same year. Now
Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the
Jews, that it was expedient that one man
should die for the people."
This is the description of John. Matthew
tells us that Judas approaching Jesus, cried,
" Hail, Master," and kissed Him, thus putting
with his deceitful lips, the crowning touch
upon his infamy. Matthew tells us that Jesus
said, answering the traitor's kiss, " Friend,
wherefore art thou come ? " And when Peter
struck the servant of the high priest with his
sword, Jesus rebuked his zeal, saying, " Put
up thy sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot
now pray to My Father, and He shall pres-
ently send Me more than twelve legions of
angels ? "
Invisible hosts of angels, powerless to help
because they had not been commanded, must
have witnessed this singular scene, the angry
band of temple attendants, the slinking Judas,
the dismayed disciples, and in the midst, the
figure of Him, who for three and thirty years
had made Judea a holy land, and for three
years had gone about doing good.
" I was daily with you in the temple," He
said, " and you laid no hands on Me. But this
is your hour, and the power of darkness."
XXYIII
IN THE HOUSE OF THE HIGH PRIEST
The hottest flame of hatred in human ex-
perience is lighted by religious bigotry. As
we read history we find in every age the most
terrible crimes, and the most malignant pas-
sions excited and raging, where men make a
pretense of doing wrong because they think it
right. But the high priest of the Hebrews in
the day of the Lord's betrayal had not this
excuse. He knew and the men around Him
knew that they were pursuing an innocent
victim, with a causeless malice that would not
be satisfied until the victim was slain.
In the chill hour between midnight and
dawn, Jesus, unresisting, was dragged into the
house of the high priest. The crowd which
had seized Him was violent and bloodthirsty,
and it terrorized the disciples. We blush
when we read that they all forsook Him and
fled. Maybe we would have done the same.
But they did not quite all forsake Him, John,
the beloved disciple, was acquainted with the
high priest, and he went in with his Master,
and stood as near Him as he could in the great
hall where His first trial was to begin. And
In the House of the High Priest 221
John went to the door, and knowing the serv-
ant who acted as porter, persuaded him to let
Peter in also. If John and Peter for a single
instant joined the rout of the fleeing disciples,
they overcame their panic and soon hurried
back.
At one end of the hall, seated in a great
chair, you may observe the high priest in his
robes of office, an obsequious retinue surround-
ing him. In front of him stands the Nazarene
clad in the blue homespun garments of a Gali-
lean peasant. Only angry and contemptuous
faces are around Him now, except that a little
way off watching with eager love, stands John,
silent, grave, and fearless. Love had made him
a hero in that hour.
Around the fire at the other end of the hall
is a motley group. Kuffians who had dragged
Jesus from the garden through the deserted
streets, rub their hands with complacency.
Servants of the high priest are there, and
there too are clusters of haughty Pharisees
and smooth-tongued scribes and priests and
Levites are there too. Jesus is not unlike the
man who, going down from Jerusalem to
Jericho, fell among thieves, and being left
wounded and beaten, lay on the ground as if
dead. Priest and Levite passed that man by,
indifferent. Jesus is not yet wounded and
beaten. He stands, a dignified and impres-
222 That Sweet Story of Old
sive Man, superb in courage, of magnificent
strength, a lion attacked by curs. Priest and
Levite stare at Him with hostility. There is
no Good Samaritan to come to the rescue.
Not till the storm spends itself, and Jesus is
slain, will the priests and the Pharisees breathe
freely.
John sees it all.
Peter from the corner where he warms him-
self at the fire, sees it too. A wild clamour is
raging around the Master.
There is a seething undercurrent of bitter
and menacing talk by the fire, where the
menials congregate. Words, hard as hail-
stones are hurled at Jesus by these low people.
Peter hears them, and shrinks. He hopes that
nobody will notice him. And he hears as in
a dreadful dream, the tumult at the opposite
end of the room.
A maid servant, suddenly turning, takes
note of the cringing Galilean, and the self-
consciousness of his attitude seizes her atten-
tion.
" "Why, why," she exclaims, " what are you
doing here ? You were with Jesus. You are
one of His followers."
"No," said Peter, "you are mistaken. I
never knew Him."
But he loitered away from the fire, and into
the porch. He did not dare to stay in that
In the House of the High Priest 223
neighbourhood. Somebody else might accuse
him. Fear had conquered Peter, fear, abject,
unreasoning, and despotic. It is dreadful to
be frightened through and through.
Another maid in the porch, said as the first
had done, " Here is a man who belongs to the
prisoner. This fellow was with Jesus of Gali-
lee. I have seen him."
Peter denied with an oath that he had ever
known Jesus, " I do not know the Man," he
said.
Poor, craven coward! To fail so ignobly
when he might have endured so manfully 1
He edged his way a little farther from
Jesus, a little farther from those pitiless ac-
cusing maids.
Another voice cried with a taunting laugh,
" Surely thou also art one of them. It is useless
to deny it. Thy speech betrays thee."
In the rough Northern burr of the Galilean
fisherman, Peter as perhaps he had often done
before Jesus called him, began to curse and
swear, vehemently denying Christ.
Then, clear as a clarion, the dawn reddening
in the East, the cock crew. A new day had
begun.
Peter had denied his Lord three times.
From the crowd before the high priest, the
Lord turned and looked on Peter. That look,
so pit3'ing, so reproachful, went to Peter's
224 1^^^ Sweet Story of Old
heart. He tore himself away, rushed to some
lonesome corner and wept bitterly.
Meanwhile, false witnesses, of whom there
were plenty in the pay of the priests, fairly
tumbled over each other, in their desire to in-
criminate Jesus. But their evidence was so
contradictory and flimsy that the high priest,
mindful of the people who, gone mad for the
moment, yet loved Jesus, and mindful of the
Romans who governed the country, did not
dare to accept such testimony. They wanted
witnesses to say of Jesus things on which He
might be condemned to death.
Finally, one arose and said, "This fellow
said, I am able to destroy the temple of God,
and to build it in three days.
" And the high priest arose, and said unto
Him, I adjure Thee by the living God, that
Thou tell us whether Thou be the Christ, the
Son of God.
" And Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said :
nevertheless I say unto you. Hereafter ye
shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right
hand of power, and coming in the clouds of
heaven.
" Then the high priest rent his clothes, say-
ing, He hath spoken blasphemy. What think
ye ? They answered and said, He is guilty of
death."
From this moment the fury of demons pos-
In the House of the High Priest 225
sessed the minions of the high priest. The high
priest in horror rent his clothes, calling it blas-
phemy that the prisoner before him, should
tell him that He would yet sit on the right
hand of God. In real or feigned horror, the
high priest asked what fate Jesus deserved
and received the answer he wanted.
"He deserves to die. He is guilty. Put
Him to death."
They clamoured and shrieked and surged in
their passion close to Jesus. They left no
insult out of their treatment. Jesus stood
there, a rock in the midst of the storm, while
these wicked men spat in His face, struck Him,
buffeted Him, were ready to pull Him limb
from limb. It was as if all the devils Jesus
had ever cast out of suffering men, had entered
into this crew of cowards, and were wreaking
their spite on Jesus. All this indeed had been
going on, while Peter, terrified, had denied his
Lord, and it was at its height, when the Lord
turned, and looked at Peter.
You cannot help feeling how splendid and
royal is the bearing of Jesus, how manly and
brave, how valiant He is, while the crowd of
ingrates vent their futile hatred on Him.
Among them must have been some whom in
other days, He had helped, perhaps cured of
disease. But they forgot this in the insane
desire to kill the Prince of Life.
XXIX
BEFORE PILATE'S JUDGMENT SEAT
The very worst person in the world has,
somewhere in his nature, a side that can be
touched by goodness, and so it is not surprising
that Judas, seeing that the Master did not save
Himself from His enemies, repented of his
share in the transaction. Judas had yielded
to his besetting sin, a desire for money, but
with the blood-stained money in his hand,
there came to him a realization of the black-
ness of his deed. He went to the chief priests,
threw down the money, and said, "I have
sinned. I have betrayed the innocent. Take
back the price of my shame."
Hard and jeering faces confronted him.
The miserable man found no pity in them.
"What is that to us?" They turned from
him in scorn, and Judas went away and hanged
himself. Jesus had truly said of the man who
should betray Him, " It had been well for that
man had he never been born." Yet, I believe if
in that hour, Judas had gone to Jesus and con-
fessed his sin to Him, the Master would have
received and forgiven him in heavenly love.
Jew and Gentile were to unite in sacrificing
226
Before Pilate's Judgment Seat 227
the Lamb of God. The Jew looked down
upon all beyond the pale of Abraham's line,
and regarded the Romans and the Greeks and
the rest of the world-peoples as outside bar-
barians. Yet the Roman eagles flew over
Palestine, and a Roman governor ruled the
land. The Jewish priesthood had great power,
but when it was a question of condemning a
man to death, they had to stand aside. Only
Rome could do this.
From the hall of the high priest Jesus was
led, a captive strongly bound and guarded by
an armed posse, that He might be delivered
into the hands of Pontius Pilate, the Roman
ruler. By this time, although it was early,
the whole city was moved, and everywhere
one theme was the topic of conversation.
The wife of Pilate heard what was going on
and she sent her husband a message, urging
him to have nothing to do with the murder of
this just person. No woman, Jew or Gentile,
ever raised a hand or spoke a word against
Jesus of Nazareth. "Women did not cry " Cru-
cify Him," though they did cry " Hosanna in
the Highest ! "
Pilate surveyed the prisoner brought before
his judgment seat, with frank curiosity. He
had the vaguest notion why the Jews hated
this Man, and his first inquiry showed him
wide of the mark.
228 That Sweet Story of Old
" Art Thou the King of the Jews ? "
Jesus answered, " Thou sayest."
Son of David and Son of God, Jesus was in-
deed King of the Jews. The fact was the
occasion of their fiercest rage for they did
not want such a King as He to reign over
them.
The chief priests poured out their accusa-
tions before Pilate. Jesus made no reply,
though Pilate gave Him the opportunity to de-
fend Himself. But as a sheep before her
shearers is dumb. He opened not His mouth.
Thus was another prophecy fulfilled.
It was customary at this Passover season to
release some noted prisoner, and grant him a
pardon. Judge of the hatred of the Jews
■when Pilate having given them their choice,
they clamoured for the release of a notorious
criminal named Barabbas, and declared that
they wished the condemnation of Jesus.
" What shall I do with Jesus which is called
Christ ? " asked the Eoman. A mighty shout
went up, " Let Him be crucified ! "
" "Why," said the governor, " what evil hath
He done ? "
Their vehemence drowned his protest. " Let
Him be crucified ! "
Certain men in history are forever to be
pitied because they threw away a chance to
achieve an honoured place in the world's roll
Before Pilate's Judgment Seat 229
of heroes. Pilate is one of these. He was
afraid of this mob of Jews, afraid to peril his
popularity, afraid to resist this outbreak,
though he had an army at his back. He had
no heart in the killing of Jesus. To the end
of time, Pilate's name will be infamous be-
cause Pilate was weak when he should have
been strong.
" They gave Him vinegar to drink, mingled
with gall : and when He had tasted thereof,
He would not drink.
" And they crucified Him, and parted His
garments, casting lots : that it might be ful-
filled which was spoken by the prophet ; They
parted My garments among them, and upon
My vesture did they cast lots."
Little did the Jews comprehend the curse
they invoked in that hour. From the days
when Titus levelled the walls of Jerusalem
until our own day, the Hebrew has been a
target for persecution, exiled, separated, driven
out from one land, dispersed in another, tor-
mented and oppressed. Never yet has the
curse been removed. Christendom has not
been Christlike in its treatment of the Jew.
May a day dawn soon when the great love of
Jesus shall gather in these people of whose
race He was born, and when their eyes may
be opened that they may know Him as their
Messiah.
230 That Sweet Story of Old
Pilate sent messengers to the prison of Barab-
has, and set him free.
Before the last act in this drama, that noth-
ing might be omitted, which should drop an
added bitter in the Master's cup, Pilate sent
Jesus to Herod. This wicked prince was glad
when he saw Him, for he secretly hoped that
Jesus would work a miracle in his presence.
He questioned Him in the hearing of his court,
but Jesus did not answer. So Herod and his
men at arms made sport of Jesus, put on Him
in mockery a scarlet robe, and sent Him back
to Pilate.
Barabbas was released. Jesus was cruelly
scourged, by order of the governor, and was
then given over to the soldiers to be crucified.
Bound and bleeding, a faded scarlet robe
thrown over His shoulders, the Eoman soldiery
mocked Jesus still further. On His head they
put a crown of sharp thorns. Smiting Him
on the head with a reed, they cried in derision,
" Hail King of the Jews ! "
Tired at last of this hideous mockery, they
took off the robe of royal scarlet and put on
the Sufferer, His peasant raiment. Then they
led Him to the place where malefactors of the
lowest class were executed, led Him away to
be crucified.
" Let Him be crucified ! " said Pilate. Long
after, John in Patmos saw in vision the Lion
Before Pilate's Judgment Seat 231
of the Tribe of Judah, and lo ! He was a Lamb
that had been slain. And ten thousand times
ten thousand sang, " Worthy the Lamb to re-
ceive power and wisdom and riches and
strength and honour and glory and blessing."
Jesus was condemned to die on the cross.
The death was shameful exceedingly. The
gallows in our day is not more dreaded for
its stigma than was the cross. No death was
so prolonged in its anguish, so intense in its
torture. But Jesus went willingly to the cross
that He might atone for the sins of the whole
world. It was sin that deserved to be cruci-
fied, and the Sinless therefore went to the
cross. And because of this sacrifice,
" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
Doth his successive journeys run,
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore
Till moons shall waz and wane no more."
XXX
JESUS ON THE CROSS
On Mount Calvary there were three crosses
on that day when our Lord was crucified.
That no ignominy might be left out, Jesus of
Nazareth was put to death between two
thieves.
The way to Calvary was steep, and Jesus
trod it bearing His cross. But soon His escort,
unwilling to go so slowly as they had to, with
the exhausted and stricken Sufferer, laid the
cross on a man named Simon, who was of
Cyrene, a bystander in the throng, and he
carried it after Jesus.
The women who beheld this pitiful sight
wept and wailed. To them, Jesus turned, and
said, "Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for
Me, but weep for yourselves and your children."
Nailed to the cruel cross, the great spikes
rending His hands and His feet, our Saviour
hung between heaven and earth. Down at the
foot of the cross were the vengeful chief
priests, and a rabble of Jews, hostile to the
last. The Roman soldiers were in another
group tossing dice that they might divide
among them the clothing of the victim. Long
232
Jesus on the Cross 233
ago it had been foretold that they should do
this. " They parted My garments among them^
and for My vesture did they cast lots."
A mournful company, composed of the dis-
ciples and a few women who had loved Jesus,
stood and watched Him die. Among the
women was Mary His mother. She who had
borne Him, who had cradled Him in her arms,
who had lulled Him on her breast, stood
broken-hearted there. From the cross, He
spoke to the disciple He loved best, " Son, be-
hold thy mother," and to His mother. He said,
" "Woman, behold thy son." So from that hour
John cared for Mary in his home, and was to
her a son in her old age.
You must not fancy that it was strange for
Jesus to address His mother, as "woman."
This was the ordinary salutation of the period
and conveyed only affection. That on the
cross He had a thought for her showed how
dearly He loved her who in the world was
nearest Him.
" Father, forgive them : for they know not
what they do," came from those pale lips as
Jesus hung upon the cross. He had only
pardon for His enemies, though they had only
hate for Him.
Pilate had written in three languages, He-
brew, Greek and Latin this legend, and had
placed it above the cross.
234 That Sweet Story of Old
" This is Jesus the King of the Jews."
The priests did not like to have this inscrip-
tion there, but Pilate refused to alter it.
When in mockery he put it there, he was irri-
tated that he had, as he knew he had, con-
demned an innocent man. In the years that
followed Pilate may have been haunted by
some words Jesus had said, when he had asked,
" Knowest Thou not that I have power to con-
demn Thee and power to release Thee ? " and
Jesus had answered, "Thou couldst have no
power against Me at all if it were not given
thee from above."
The taunting crowd at the foot of the cross
exclaimed, " Let Christ the King of Israel now
come down from the cross, and we will believe
on Him. He saved others. Himself He can-
not save."
Though they did not mean it, they spoke the
truth. If the world were to be saved, Jesus
could not save Himself in that hour. To the
uttermost the price of redemption had to be
paid.
They brought Him a sponge filled with vine-
gar to moisten His lips and relieve His thirst,
but He did not taste it.
Thick darkness, the gloom of midnight at
noon, settled over Calvary, over Jerusalem,
over Judea, and over lands far off, from twelve
o'clock until three. Out of this darkness broke
Jesus on the Cross 235
a piercing cry from the cross, " My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? "
Just once, the Son in that terrible hour of
conflict, knew what it means for a soul to lose
sight of the Father's face. Just once !
One of the malefactors dying on a cross be-
side Jesus, joined in the taunts of the crowd.
The other repenting of his wickedness, and be-
lieving said, " Lord, remember me when Thou
comest into Thy Kingdom."
And Jesus, performing His final work of
kindness to a mortal man, while here He
tarried on the earth, said to the penitent
thief,
" Yerily, I say unto thee, To-day thou shalt
be with Me in Paradise."
Deeper grew the darkness. Men could not
see one another so great was the gloom.
Suddenly an earthquake shook the city.
The veil of the Temple, the veil that divided
the Holy of Holies, where evermore brooded
the glory of the Lord above the ark of the
Covenant, was torn from top to bottom, as if
by invisible hands. The veil was needed no
longer for Jesus had now made every place a
Holy of Holies, where the little child or the
penitent sinner should kneel to Him.
"Father, into Thy hands I commit My
Spirit ! " came in royal tones from the victim
on the cross. Then, with a loud resonant
236 That Sweet Story of Old
voice, He called " It is finished ! " and yielded
up His soul.
The Koman centurion in command was
moved with amazement. He glorified God we
are told. In silence and sorrow the crowds
scattered and went home. But the Romans
had still something to do. They pierced the
side of Jesus with a spear.
So broken, so marred, so kingly still, the
body of Jesus was taken down from the cross.
Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counsel-
lor went boldly to Pilate and demanded the
body of Jesus, which he wrapped in a cloth of
fair white linen, and laid away in his new
tomb, a sepulchre in a garden. They rolled a
great stone to the door of the tomb, and a
guard of Roman soldiers was appointed to
watch before it, until the third day. For He
had said, that on the third day He would rise
again.
" There is a green hill far away,
Without a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.
' We may not know, we cannot tell
What pains He had to bear ;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.
Jesus on the Cross 237
*' He died that we might be forgiven ;
He died to make us good,
That we might go at last to heaven.
Saved by His precious blood.
"There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin ;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven, and let us in.
** O dearly, dearly has He loved,
And we must love Him too.
And trust in His redeeming blood,
And try Hia work to do."
XXXI
THE LORD IS RISEN
Two great festal days mark the Christian
year, Christmas and Easter. The first is in
honour of our Lord's coming into the world.
"Wherever there is a home, wherever there are
children, in every quarter of the globe, there is
joy that we are in the kingdom of the Child
who came to Bethlehem. The little Son of
Mary wins the hardest hearts. Old grudges
disappear, feuds are forgotten, love flows from
heart to heart at Christmas-tide.
When Christmas comes
In field and street, in mart and farm
The world takes on a lovelier charm.
Sweet-scented boughs of pine and fir,
Are brought like frankincense and myrrh,
To make our holy places meet
For hands that clasp and tones that greet,
While hearts, more worth than gold or gem
Go forth to find their Bethlehem
When Christmas comes.
Yet Christmas is less a day of victory than
Easter, for the sweet story that begins then, is
incomplete until it is crowned by the announce-
ment, " The Lord is risen." If Jesus Christ,
238
The Lord is Risen 239
having breathed His last on the cross, had
never come back to the world, in life, as He
promised, then the Star of Bethlehem might as
well have never flamed, the angels as well
never have sung " Glorj'^ in the Highest " in
the midnight sky, and the wise men from the
East, need not have taken their journey to find
the Babe in the manger. Easter sounds the
grandest strain in the Hallelujah Chorus that
angels and men sing together over the world's
redemption. "We might have wept over our
Crucified King, if He had never risen from
the dead, but we sound His praises now, be-
cause He lives and reigns forever and ever.
Friends in the bright spring morning, when
you carry your lilies to church that they may
be fragrant emblems of the resurrection,
Sing a song of Easter,
A song that means a prayer
Of want and love to One above
Who keeps the world in care.
A song for all on this green earth,
For loved ones passed away,
Sing clear and strong the joyful song,
The song of Easter Day.
Few households have never known the pang
that rends the heart when dear ones die. If
we gave up our loved ones with the feeling
that we should never see them again, our
grief could not pass away. We would have
240 That Sweet Story o{ Old
no comfort. But the little sister, the little
brother, the parent, the friend to whom you
said good-bye, whom you saw laid in the
grave, is not dead.
The dear ones who leave our home circle, go
home to be with Jesus, and are more alive
there with Him, than they were when here
with us.
" Ten thonaand times ten thousand,
In sparkling raiment white
The armies of the ransomed saints
Throng up the steeps of light.
'Tis finished, all is finished,
Their fight with death and sin.
Fling open wide the golden gates
And let the victors in."
They never would have reached Heaven
victorious, if Jesus had not first trodden the
path of death, and conquered death with
life.
When I was a child, I first knew what
death meant, when a little brother only eight
years old, fell asleep one summer day, to
awake in heaven. Just before the angel who
carries little children home, came over the
threshold and bore him away, one who was
sitting beside the dear little fellow, saw his
lips move in prayer. She stooped closer, and
she heard him say, " Dear Jesus go with me
through the dark, and keep Satan from
The Lord is Risen 241
troubling me." And Jesus heard that prayer.
Our living Jesus always hears our prayers.
We left our dear Lord lying at rest in the
new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Nico-
demus, who long before had sought Jesus in
the quiet hush of night, that he might be
taught the way of life, brought a hundred
pounds' weight of spices and myrrh to embalm
the body of his dear Friend and Master. The
women who loved Him brought their sweet
spices too. They meant to embalm the pre-
cious body, so that decay should not touch it.
This would be the very last thing they could
do to show their love.
But they had to wait until the Jewish Sab-
bath was past.
Our Sabbath, as you know, is kept on the
first day of the week, in memory of the Lord's
resurrection. Every Sabbath is a sort of
Easter Day, when we remind ourselves that He
that was dead, left the tomb, and ascended up
to His Father in heaven, appearing at inter-
vals to many disciples for a period of forty
days.
The disciples who came to the sepulchre,
very early in the morning on the first day of
the week, hurrying thither as fast as they
could, and wondering who would roll away
the stone for them, found it rolled away.
An angel at the very break of dawn had
242 That Sweet Story of Old
come straight from heaven to do this, and to
minister to the Lord. The Boman guard had
fallen down in terror, as with the sound of an
earthquake, the tomb was rent apart. The
angel of the Lord not only rolled away the
stone but sat upon it. I have always felt glad
that the women who loved Jesus were the
very first to hear the angel say, " Fear not, I
know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified.
He is not here. He is risen as He said.
Come see the place where the Lord lay."
The angels appeared in a different manner
to the different ones who came running to the
tomb. Peter and John were not far behind
the women who arrived first, and at the amaz-
ing news that the Lord was not there, but had
risen, John ran so fast that he reached the
tomb before Peter. A very sweet touch of
love was conveyed in the angel's earliest words
to the astonished women, " Tell His disciples,
and Peter, that He is not here, that He goeth
before you into Galilee."
As though the Lord would assure Peter that
He had forgiven him that base and cowardly
denial of Him in the hall of the high priest I
Mary Magdalene had the most beautiful ex-
perience of all. She was distressed, heart-
broken : she could not understand, though the
linen clothes lay there folded up and the tomb
was vacant, that her dear Lord was indeed
JESUS SAITH UNTO HER, MARY
The Lord is Risen 243
alive again. Over and over she murmured in
her despair,
" They have taken away my Lord, and I
know not where they have laid Him."
"Mary!"
A voice she knew called her by name. A
man whom she supposed to be the gardener
stood there, under the olives, in the morning
sunlight.
"Mary!"
Oh, the tenderness in that voice ! " I have
called thee by thy name. Thou art Mine,"
said the prophet of old. Jesus called her by
her name.
" Master 1 " she cried in a transport of de-
light, and would have kissed His feet, but He
restrained her.
" Touch Me not," He said, " I am not yet
ascended to My Father and your Father, to
My God and your God."
He would not allow Mary to touch Him, in
His new body which had risen from the dead,
but He did permit Thomas to do so ; Thomas
was the disciple who led the way when Jesus
took His last journey to Jerusalem saying,
" Let us also go, and die with Him."
"When the disciples told Thomas that Jesus
had risen he refused to believe the story. It
was to him an idle tale,
" The other disciples said to him, "We have
244 That Sweet Story of Old
seen the Lord. But he said unto them, 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."
Eight days passed away. Eight joyful days
to the disciples who knew that the Master had
kept His word and risen. Eight triumphant
days to those who recalled how He had said of
His life, " No man taketh it from Me. I have
power to lay it down and I have power to take
it again." Eight days of mourning and sad-
ness to the loving Thomas, who did not believe
what Jesus had said. Let us read this incident
as John relates it.
" And after eight days again His disciples
were within, and Thomas with them : then
came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in
the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
" Then said He to Thomas, Keach hither thy
finger, and behold My hands, and reach hither
thy hand, and thrust it into My side : and be
not faithless, but believing.
"And Thomas answered and said unto
Him, My Lord and my God.
"And Jesus saith unto Thomas, because
thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed : blessed
are they that have not seen, and yet have be-
lieved."
XXXII
A WAYSIDE WALK
One of the most interesting appearances of
our Saviour after His Kesurrection is that of
which "we are told by Luke, in the twenty-
fourth chapter of his Gospel. Jerusalem had
drawn together numbers of people to keep the
Passover. Katurally among them were some
faithful disciples of Christ whose hearts had
been almost broken as they stood around the
cross. Among those who were returning very
sorrowfully to their own homes, were two who
lived in a place called Emmaus, a little village
between seven and eight miles distant from
the Capital. One of these men was named
Cleopas, and the other is not named in the
story. They walked together, talking of all
the things which had lately happened,
their hearts so heavy that their voices some-
times shook with sobs. While they were thus
communing and reasoning together, a third
person drew near and joined himself to their
company. It was then after midday, and the
heat of the sun was somewhat tempered, but
the road seems to have been lonely and there
was no throng upon its silent stretches.
245
246 That Sweet Story of Old
There was nothing about the stranger that
drew their special attention when first He ac-
costed them. Their eyes were holden that
they should not know Him. To us the extra-
ordinary thing is that people who had ever
known Jesus, and had walked and talked with
Him while He was their Friend and Guide,
should not have recognized Him the instant
He drew near. Still some of us have the same
experience now. We are so preoccupied with
our own thoughts, our business, and the many
things this world brings to bear upon us, that
we let our best Friend pass us by unrecog-
nized. Do not let us blame the disciples too
much.
Jesus Himself drew near, but the two dis-
ciples had not the faintest notion that it was
He, even when He said, " What manner of
communications are these that ye have one to
another, as ye walk, and are sad ? "
One of them, the one called Cleopas, turned
in great astonishment and said, "Art thou
only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not
known the things which are come to pass there
in these days?" This was just the inquiry
that might have been expected, because the
whole city had been moved, and no one could
have been in Jerusalem without being aware
that a great and terrible event had taken
place.
A Wayside Walk 247
But Jesus answered, " What things ? "
" And they said unto Him, Concerning Jesus
of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in
deed and word before God and all the peo-
ple. And how the chief priests and rulers de-
livered Him to be condemned to death and
have crucified Him. But we trusted that it
had been He which would have redeemed
Israel : and beside all this, to-day is the third
day since those things were done. Yea, and
certain women also of our company made
us astonished, which were early at the
sepulchre: And when they found not the
body, they came, saying, that they had also
seen a vision of angels, which said that He was
alive. And certain of them which were with
us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so
as the women had said, but they saw Him
not."
Jesus listened to these words of theirs with
great tenderness and compassion, as we may
believe, yet surely wondering that it was so
hard for His disciples to accept what He had so
often told them. He spoke gravely and re-
proachfully, " O fools and slow of heart to be-
lieve all that the prophets have spoken :
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things,
and to enter into His glory ? "
Jesus had preached many wonderful sermons
during the years of His ministry before He
248 That Sweet Story of Old
gave Himself up to die upon the cross, but I
think no sermon of His could ever have been so
remarkable in its power, or so sublime, as this
which was addressed to two disciples as they
walked on the road from Jerusalem to their
village home. Surely no wayfarers ever had
such company as had these two men with
whom the risen Son of God walked as a fellow
pilgrim. He began with Moses, and ex-
plained to them from the different prophets,
the things that had been foretold about Him.
By and by they drew near Emmaus. The
first scattered houses were visible, people were
standing by the doors, women were going to the
well to draw water, little household fires were
sending up their curling smoke. They were
almost at home, and their Friend who had
joined them made as though He would have
gone further, but the two disciples could not
let Him go. They urged Him Avith loving con-
straint, saying, " Abide with us : for it is to-
wards evening, and the day is far spent."
Their very souls clung to this Man, who was
still to them a stranger.
How could they be separated from this dear
companionship ? They wanted Him still with
them, and longed to have Him tarry in their
house for at least one happy night. So He
went in and tarried with them. We may imag-
ine what a welcome He received under their
A Wayside Walk 249
roof, and how the women of the family has-
tened to prepare the evening meal, and when at
last it was ready, how the three men sat down
together, while perhaps in the background
women and children looked on, and Jesus sat at
meat with His disciples. He had often done
this before. He took bread, and blessed it,
and gave to them, and in that familiar act,
He'was revealed. Their eyes were opened, and
they knew Him. And then He vanished
out of their sight.
As Mary had been, and as Thomas, they
were now convinced. They said one to
another, " Did not our hearts burn within us
while He talked with us by the way, and while
He opened to us the Scriptures ? "
Forgetting that they were tired, and that
the}'^ had had a long journey, the)'^ made haste,
girded up their loins the same night, and walk-
ing with quick step and throbbing pulse, they
hurried back to Jerusalem, and there in an
upper room they found the eleven apostles and
a few other disciples who loved to be in their
company, and bursting in upon them, they
said,
" The Lord is risen Indeed."
While they were speaking, Jesus Himself
suddenly stood in the midst of the group, and
said, " Peace be unto you." Some of those to
whom He now appeared were frightened, sup-
250 That Sweet Story of Old
posing that they had seen a spirit. Not those
with whom He had just conversed, remember,
but the others to whom it was yet a new thing,
who could not comprehend the great mystery.
So much passed the bounds of human con-
ception, that they did not know how to be-
lieve in the Lord's Resurrection.
He said unto them, " "Why are ye troubled,
and why do these 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."
When He had thus spoken, He showed them
His hands and His feet. And while they yet
believed not for joy, and wondered. He gave
them a more and more convincing proof that
He was indeed the same Jesus they had known
before. He said again, " Have ye here any
meat?" And they gave Him a piece of
broiled fish, and of a honeycomb, and He
took it and did eat before them.
Again to these assembled disciples, Jesus
opened up the Word of Life, telling them that
all that had happened was according as it was
written, that Christ had to suffer, and to rise
from the dead the third day. And then with
a wonderful unfolding of the truth He said,
that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in His Name, among all nations, be-
ginning at Jerusalem. And they listened, but
A Wayside Walk 251
did not yet fully understand. They never did
wholly understand, until Jesus was out of
their sight.
He had to go away and stay away, before
these friends of His could really keep with as-
surance such an Easter day, as you and I keep,
when we rejoice that we have a risen Lord.
For to us, the Holy Ghost has come, as He
came to them.
XXXIII
LOVEST THOU ME?
It was not only when the evening shadows
had gathered that Jesus revealed Himself to
the bereaved and loved disciples. At least
once He came to them in the very earliest flush
of the dawn.
When death enters our earthly homes, it
makes a hush and an interruption for a little
while, but before very long we always find
that we must take up the burden of life, and
go on again. So it was with these men of
Galilee.
Jesus had called some of His most earnest
disciples from the fishing-boats on the lake,
and during all the time of His ministry they
pursued their calling when it was needful.
After He was gone from them they resumed
their old occupation, and it happened thus that
there were together the old comrades, Simon
Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John
the sons of Zebedee, and one or two others.
Simon who always was the leader, said to his
friends, " It is not worth while for us to loiter
about doing nothing, we may as well make
ourselves busy again as we used to. I go a
252
Lovest Thou Me? 253
fishing." The others said, " We will go with
thee."
They found a little boat, launched it into the
deep, and toiled through the night, but caught
no fish. Yery early in the morning, discour-
aged and weary, and dragging home their
empty nets, they came towards the shore.
There a familiar figure stood, and yet their
eyes were holden and they did not at once
know that it was the Master. Out over the
water rang His cheery voice, " Children, have
ye any meat ? "
They answered sorrowfully, " No." Defeat
is always sorrowful. Who can be glad over
empty nets ?
In tones of quiet command, Jesus said to
them then, " Cast the net on the right side of
the ship, and ye shall find."
Old fishermen though they were, they did
not hesitate an instant to obey this mandate,
but at once yielded to the stranger's wish;
they cast the net, and suddenly it was filled
with a multitude of fishes, so that it must tax
their strength to draw in the shining spoil.
The disciple whom Jesus loved, seeing this
miraculous draught of fishes, exclaimed to
Peter, " It is the Lord." Peter could not wait
for the little ship to get to land. Hurriedly
he girt around him his fisherman's coat, for it
had encumbered him, and he had thrown it
254 That Sweet Story of Old
off, and casting himself into the sea, he rushed
through the waves to throw himself at the
feet of Jesus. The other disciples followed in
their little boat, dragging the net with the fish.
And now we come to the most beautiful and
touching scene of all. As they stepped on the
shore, in the cold gray morning, there was a
fire of coals burning brightly, and a meal had
been prepared, fish was broiling on the coals,
and there was provision of bread. Who had
prepared this meal if not our Lord Himself,
in tender care for the tired children whom He
loved ?
In the olden days angels often ministered
to the needs of Christ's people, and, under
Christ's direction, an angel may have prepared
this breakfast by the Sea of Galilee. Yet it
is sweet to think that even as He fed the five
thousand, He now deigned to feed the few
weary men who had toiled all night. He said
to them, "Bring of the fish ye have now
caught." They drew the net to land, full of
great fishes, a hundred and fifty and three.
"Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.
And none of His disciples durst ask Him,
Who art Thou? knowing that it was the
Lord."
Jesus then gave them bread and fish, and
fed their hunger. The hands that brake this
bread were hands in which were the print of
Lovest Thou Me? 255
the nails ; the voice that blessed this food had
said, " It is finished," on the cross.
After this, and not until the meal was over,
the Lord turned to Peter.
This was now the third time that Simon
Peter and James and John had seen Jesus,
and talked with Him after He had risen from
the dead. Suddenly Jesus turned and said to
Peter, singling him by name, " Simon, son of
Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these ? He
saith unto Him, Yea Lord: Thou knowest
that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him. Feed
My lambs.
" He saith unto him again the second time,
Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou Me ? He
saith unto Him, Tea Lord : Thou knowest
that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed
My sheep.
" Jesus saith unto him the third time, Simon,
son of Jonas, Lovest thou Me ? And he said
unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things:
Thou knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith
unto him. Feed My sheep."
A little while ago Peter had denied his Lord
three times in quick succession, and therefore
three times as if in reminder, Jesus asked him
the intimate question, " Lovest thou Me ? "
and three times He gave to this disciple to
whom so much had been forgiven, the com-
mission to feed the flock that He loved.
256 That Sweet Story of Old
Throughout the life of Peter, to old age, he
indeed fed Christ's sheep, and took care of
Christ's lambs, until the day when he, too,
was crucified, witnessing with his blood his
loyalty to the Lord.
If you follow the life of Peter as it is shown
in the Acts of the Apostles, and then if you
read the beautiful letters that he wrote to the
churches, you will see how strong and fine
and fearless was the clinging of Peter to his
Master. He grew more spiritual as years
passed. It was Peter who said, " Though ye
be reproached for the name of Christ, happy
are ye." He advised the disciples to whom
he preached to cast all their care upon God,
who would care for them, telling them to be
sober and vigilant, because of their adversary
the devil, who as a roaring lion, walked about,
seeking whom he might devour, Peter's epis-
tles are practical hand-books of religion for the
twentieth century.
The story of Peter and of Christ's forgiving
love is a great encouragement to us, who are so
often tempted, and who may in our own way
deny our Lord in as cowardly a fashion as he
did with far less excuse. If ever we do this,
the way back is the way of penitence and
obedience, to our dear Saviour. Out of shame
and grief into His blessed love.
Soon after this, our Lord left the world and
Lovest Thou Me? 257
went back to His Father in heaven. When
He was ready to go, He led His disciples out
as far as Bethany, and there He lifted up His
hands and blessed them, and while He blessed
them, He was parted from them, and carried
beyond their sight.
To them as to us has been made good the
promise He divinely spoke,
" Peace I leave with you. My peace I give
unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I
unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid."
XXXIV
OUR LORD'S LAST WORDS
Before our Lord finally left the earth and
ascended to heaven, He said some last words
to those He loved. They treasured up these
words and passed them on. The words were
a command. During the earliest three cen-
turies of the Christian era, hundreds and thou-
sands and tens of thousands heard and obeyed
this command, following Jesus to prison and
to death, and preaching what He taught them
by example and by precept. For the last words
were spoken to the eleven apostles who had
witnessed His miracles, heard His sermons,
been with Him at the last supper, and beheld
Him again and again after His resurrection.
Obeying the command of the Lord the
eleven apostles went away into Galilee. There
they gathered in a secluded spot, a mountain
which Jesus had selected as the place where
He would leave them to begin their life with-
out His visible presence.
They were assembled in a group, with a
sense of waiting, knowing by this time that
Jesus was coming to them soon.
258
Our Lord's Last Words 259
Presently He again appeared, and when they
saw Him, they worshipped Him, though there
were some in whose hearts a little doubt yet
lingered.
Dear ones who read this page, stop here, and
look into your hearts. Look there before you
blame these apostles. Have you ever doubted
the power and grace and love of the Lord
Jesus? Is He real to you to-day? Is your
faith so strong that you believe every word
He says ? Is your love so true, that you hasten
to do what He tells you ?
When you love an earthly friend very dearly
you try to be like the friend. You think
about the friend, and sometimes you surprise
the friend by a gift, or a visit, or a letter, or a
bit of self-denial. If you love Jesus, you may
do all this for Him.
" II onr hearts were but more simple
We should take Him at His word.
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord."
"When Jesus met the apostles He said as He
approached them, I am sure with a majesty
that was felt, the majesty of a sovereign,
" All power is given unto Me in heaven and
on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
26o That Sweet Story of Old
teaching them to observe all things whatso-
ever I have commanded you. And lo ! I am
with you alway, even unto the end of the
world."
Thus saying, He went up to heaven, and sat
down on the right hand of God.
The apostles began at Jerusalem, and, after
they had received the Holy Ghost, for Jesus
had before this promised that when He had
gone, the Comforter would come, they ex-
tended their preaching beyond Judea into other
regions. Paul who was called by Jesus Him-
seK from the sky, to cease a career of perse-
cution, and preach the Saviour's gospel to the
Gentiles, carried the good news to Europe.
All the story of the early church as you read
it in the book of the Acts of the Apostles is a
story of heroic preaching and suffering for the
sake of a risen Redeemer.
The apostles were all missionaries. Every
Christian since Christ left the world is a mis-
sionary, or else he is not a Christian. Mission-
ary means one sent. Each of us who loves
Jesus Christ, is sent to proclaim His truth to
men. "We may do this in our own homes, in
crowded streets of great cities, in lonely vil-
lages, in ships on the sea, in islands of the
ocean, in lands afar, to people of every race,
colour, and condition. "When we cannot in
person go away as missionaries, we can give
Our Lord's Last Words 261
our money and our prayers to spread the
gospel.
" The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain ;
His blood-red banner streams afar ;
Who follows in His train ?
" Who best can drink His cnp of woe,
Triumphant over pain,
Who patient bears His cross below,
He follows in His train."
You who are in school and college now, may
live to see the day when idol worship shall
end, and the whole round world be girdled by
prayer and praise evening and morning to
Jesus Christ. The tapers that twinkle on the
Christmas tree, are lighted to-day in Africa, in
Asia, in Europe, in America. The Christmas
music ripples in the tide of melody on every
shore in the globe. The sweet story of old is
translated into all known tongues and dialects,
and children of every race may hear it at
their mother's knee.
The young men and women of far Eastern
lands are taking up the cross of Jesus, and
bearing it after Him in reverence and love.
Student volunteers are eager to go forth and
win the whole earth for the Master.
"What share is to be yours in this magnificent
campaign ? Are you giving Jesus Christ your
262 That Sweet Story of Old
best, in the happy day of youth and strength ?
Then indeed your life will be full and blessed,
and you will know what it means to have
Jesus always with you.
There are some who have not yet discovered
what it is to have Jesus for their Master and
Friend. So His last words mean nothing to
them. They are outside the circle in the
upper room, out in the cold and the storm.
Yet to them He says, most gently, " Be-
hold I stand at the door and knock. I am He
that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am
alive for evermore." Ah 1 why not open the
heart's door and let Jesus in.
Over and over let us repeat those last words
of Jesus, " Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature."
"Oh, Master when Thou callest
No voice may say Thee nay.
For blest are those that follow
Where Thou dost lead the way.
" They who go forth to serve Thee,
We too, who serve at home,
May watch and pray together
Until Thy Kingdom come.
" In Thee for aye united
Our song of hope we raise.
Till that blest shore is sighted
Where all shall turn to praise."
THE END
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