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tihvavy of t:he trheolojical Seminary

PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY

PRESENTED BY

Dr. ?. L. Patton

THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

PRINTED BY MURRAY AND GIBB,
FOR

T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH.

LONDON, .
DUBLIN, .
NEW YORK,

HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.
JOHN ROBERTSON AND CO.
C. SCRIBNER AND CO.

THE

IVia.-; 17 1914

//'^

TRAINING OF THE TWELVE;

OR,

PASSAGES OUT OF THE GOSPELS

EXHIBITING THE TWELVE DISCIPLES OF JESUS UNDER
DISCIPLINE FOR THE APOSTLESHIP.

BY THE

REV. ALEXANDER BALMAIN BRUCE,

BROUGHTY FERRY.

EDINBURGH:
T. & T. CLAEK, 38, GEORGE STREET

1871.

avv TG) ''I'qaov rjaav.

PREFACE.

THE subject of this book has occupied my thoughts more
or less since the commencement of my ministry, twelve
years ago. Turning up a manuscript volume of jottings for
the pulpit in my possession, I find its title-page is as follows :
" Brief notes of sermons on Christ's intercourse with the
twelve disciples, preached in Cardross, begun September
1861." These notes were the rude beginnings of this work;
yet not the rudest, for in the previous year I had made the
same passages from the Gospels the subjects of lessons in a
catechumens' class. I was led to transfer these lessons from
the class to the pulpit in the following way. During an
autumnal holiday, spent in the country -quarters of dear
friends, to whom I have many reasons to be grateful, I was
in such a distempered condition of body, that all thought
and feeling were dead, and I dreaded the prospect of return-
ing to pastoral duty, being sensible of mental vacuity. At
length my perplexities shaped themselves into a prayer that
I might be led into green pastures, as the old ones were all
nibbled bare. Shortly after my thoughts reverted to the
lessons given to the catechumens' class, and I at once re-
solved to make these the subject of a course of lectures.

The studies on which I entered in pursuance of this
resolution, proved to be green pastures to myself at least.
After the course was finished, the subject still lingered in
my mind, and I felt constrained by an absorbing interest
to extend the jottings I had made ; not without an idea

VI PKEFACE.

that the theme was one capable of being made interesting
and instructive to a wider public. Years passed, and I con-
tinued to cherish the day-dream, with an increasing sense of
the importance of a subject which had been generally over-
looked, but also with a deepening sense of the imperfections
of my endeavour. Yet, while dreaming, I was not idle ; for
much of what now appears has been written several times.
The wine has been frequently emptied from vessel to vessel,
losing in the process the pungency which, when new, made
it somewhat unpalatable, and gaining, I trust, some measure
of purity and mellowness.

Perhaps it might have been well had I delayed still longer
before publishing these essays. But it was the voice of the
stern prophet Death that brought me to decision. In the
close of last year the Preacher came, and cried in commanding
tone. Whatsoever thy hand fiudeth to do, do it with all thy
might. In one brief fortnight I followed to the grave three
beloved relatives : my aged godly father, my son, and my
brother's wife. When all the mournful duties of that sad
season were over, I felt impelled to proceed at once with the
publication of this work, and forthwith set myself to prepare
it for the press ; thankful to find escape from sorrow in hard
work, and obtaining the requisite leisure in consequence of
the fever which carried off my child making me for a time
as a leper, separated from the congregation of the Lord,

Though the work now given to the public does not profess
to be an exhaustive abstract treatise on any theological topic,
it is hoped that it contains some useful materials on several
important themes. Among the subjects to which the contents
relate, may be specified the personal characteristics of the
disciples, Christian ethics, apologetics, the doctrine of Chris-
tian experience, and the doctrine of the atonement. On
this last topic I have given, in several chapters, as occasion
offered, the results of much thought and laborious reading.
Like the disciples, I have been slow to learn the meaning

PKEFACE. Vli

of Christ's death; and if any one think I have sometliing
to learn yet, I am not carefid to deny it : for I am very
sensible, in connection with that great glorious theme, of
the truth of Paul's sayings, " Now we see through a glass,
iv alvl'yfiaTt" and " now I know in part."

Eeaders may discern in the following pages, here and there,
evidence that the materials have done duty in the pulpit
before passing through the press. The form of thought some- ■
times presupposes an audience, and I have constantly endea-
voured to lay the subject under discussion alongside the age
in Avhich we live. I do not think these will be deemed grave
faults. As regards the former, the public is but a larger
audience ; and as to the latter, all thoughtful men know that
the great need of the present time is to make a new start
in Christian belief and practice ; and they would not thank
any one for writing a book on Christianity as taught by Jesus
Christ to His disciples, without applying it as a plumb-line
to the Christianity of the nineteenth century, to see how far
it is off the perpendicular.

I pray God, that what has been to me a labour of love,
and a source of much pleasure and profit, may be in some
small measure useful to fellow-Christians, and serviceable to
the faith.

A. B. B.

Brouguty Fekjiy, April 1871.

TABLE OF PASSAGES FEOM THE GOSPELS,
DISCUSSED IN THIS WOEK.

Matthew.

PAGE

PAGB

PAGE

viii. 10-21,

. 157

xviii. 28-30,

. 262

iv. 18-22,

viii. 27-30,

. 164

xviii. 31-34,

. 282

v.-vii., .

viii. 31-38,

. 173

xix. 11-28,

. 273

viii. 16, 17, .

ix. 2-29,

. 191

xix. 29-48,

. 328

ix. 9-13,

ix. 33-37,

. 200

xx.-xxi.,

. 328

ix. 14-17,

ix. 38-41,

. 200

xxii. 17-20,

. 359

X. 1-4, .

ix. 42-50,

. 231

xxii. 21-23,

. 380

X. 5-42, .

X. 1-27, .

. 251

xxii. 31, 32,

. 476

xii. 1-14,

X. 28-30,

. 262

xxii. 35-38,

. 471

xiii. 1-52,

X. 31, .

. 272

xxii. 39-46,

. 469

xiv. 13-21, .

120

X. 32-45,

. 282

xxii. 54-62,

. 469

xiv. 22-33, .

128

xi.-xiii.,

. 329

xxiv. 11-22,

. 493

XV. 1-20,

xiv. 3-9,

, 300

xxiv. 36-42,

. 493

xvi. 1-12,

157

xiv. 17-21,

. 371

xxiv. 25-32,

. 502

xvi. 13-20, .

164

xiv. 22-25,

. 359

xxiv. 44-46,

. 502

xvi. 21-28, .

173

xiv. 29-31,

. 393

xxiv. 47-53,

. 536

xvii. 1-13, .

191

xiv. 32-38,

. 469

xvii. 24-27, .

223

xiv. 50-52,

. 469

John

xviii. 1-14,

200

xiv. 67-72,

469, 489

i. 29-51,

. 1

xviii. 15-20, .

209

xvi. 11-13,

. 493

iv..

. 248

xviii. 21-35, .

217

xvi. 14, .

. 502

V. 1-18, .

. 88

xix. 1-26,

251

xvi. 15, .

. 536

vi..

. 121

xix. 27-29, .

262

X. 39-42,

. 251

xix. 30, .

272

LUKl

xii. 1-8, .

. 300

XX. 1-16,

272

i. 1-4, .

. 41

xii. 20-33,

, 320

XX. 17-28, .

282

V. 1-11, .

. 11

xiii. 1-11,

. 342

xxi.-xxv..

329

V. 27-32,

. 20

xiii. 12-20,

. 351

xxvi. 6-13, .

300

V. 33-39,

. 69

xiii. 21-30,

. 371

xxvi. 20-25, .

371

vi. 1-11,

. 88

xiii. 31-35,

. 382

xxvi. 26-29, .

359

vi. 12-16,

. 30

xiii. 36-38,

. 392

xxvi. 33-35, .

393

vi. 17-49,

. 41

xiv. 1-4,

. 385

xxvi. 36-41, .

. 469

vii. 36-50,

•. 28

xiv. 5-7,

. 394

xxvi. 55, 56, .

469

viii. 4-15,

. 40

xiv. 8-14,

. 401

xxvi. 69-75, . 469

, 489

ix. 1-11,

. 99

xiv. 15-21,

. 388

xxviii. 16, 17,

493

ix. 12-17,

. 120

xiv. 22-31,

. 408

xxviii. 18-20, .

536

ix. 18-22,

. 164

XV. 1-17,

. 415

ix. 23-27,

. 173

XV. 18-27,

. 429

Mark.

ix. 28-42,

. 191

xvi. 1-4,

. 434

i. 16-20,

ix. 46-48,

. 200

xvi. 5-15,

. 437

ii. 15-17,

ix. 49, 50,

. 231

xvi. 16-33,

. 442

ii. 18-22,

ix. 51-56,

. 241

xvii. ,

. 455

ii. 23-28,

X. 17-20,

. 107

xviii. 15-18,

469, 485

iii. 1-6, .

X. 23, 24,

. 41

xix. 25-27,

. 485

iii. 13-19,

xi. 1-13,

. 51

XX. 20-23,

. 502

iii. 20, 21,

xi. 37-41,

. 79

XX. 24-29,

493, 511

iv. 1-34,

xii. 41-48,

. 340

xxi. 15-17,

. 519

vi. 7-13,

xiii. 10-17,

. 88

xxi. 19-22,

. 528

vi. 30-32,

107

xiv. 1-6,

. 68

vi. 33-44,

120

XV.,

. 27

Acts

vi. 45-52,

128

xviii. 1-8,

. 51

i. 1-8, .

. 536

vii. 1-23,

xviii. 15-27,

. 251

i. 12-14,

. 542

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

BEGINNINGS, .....

CHAPTER II.

FISHERS OF MEN, ....

CHAPTER III.

MATTHEW THE PUBLICAN,

CHAPTER IV.

THE TWELVE, .....

CHAPTER V.

HEARING AND SEEING, ....

CHAPTER VI.

TEACH US TO PRAT, . . • •

CHAPTER VII.

LESSONS IN HOLT LIVING,

SEC. I. FASTING, . . . •

II. RITUAL ABLUTIONS,
III, SABBATH OBSERVANCE,

PAGB
1

69
69
79

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM,
SEC. I. THE MISSION,

II. THE INSTRUCTIONS,

PAGB

109

CHAPTER IX

A CRISIS,

SEC. I. THE MIRACLE,
II. THE STORM,

III. THE SERMON,

IV. THE SIFTING,

120
120
128
137
146

CHAPTER X.

THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES,

157

CHAPTER XI.

CITERENT OPINION AND ETERNAL TRUTH,

164

CHAPTER XII.

THE CROSS, ......

SEC. I. FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF CHRIST's DEATH,
II. CROSS-BEARING THE LAW OF DISCIPLESHIP,

173
173
181

THE TRANSFIGURATION, .

CHAPTER XIII.

191

CHAPTER XIV.

DISCOURSE ON HUMILITY, ...... 200

SEC. I. AS THIS LITTLE CHILD, ..... 200

II. CHURCH DISCIPLINE, . ' . . . , 209

III. FORGIVING INJURIES, . ' . . . . 217

IV. THE TEMPLE TAX : AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE SERMON, . 223
V. THE INTERDICTED EXORCIST : ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION, . 231

CONTENTS. * xi

CHAPTEE XV.

PAGE

THE SONS OF THUNDER, OR FIRE FROM HEAVEN, . . . 241

CHAPTER XVI.

IN PER^A, ........ 251

SEC. I. COUNSELS OF PERFECTION, ..... 251

II. THE REWARDS OF SELF-SACRIFICE, . . , 262

III. THE FIRST LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST, . . , 272

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE AGAIN, ...... 282

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE ANOINTING IN BETHANY, ...... 300

CHAPTER XIX.

SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS, ...... 320

CHAPTER XX.

0 JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM ! . . . . . .329

CHAPTER XXI.

THE MASTER SERVING, ....... 342

SEC. I. THE WASHING, . . ' • . . . 342

II. THE EXPLANATION, ..... 351

CHAPTER XXII.

IN MEMOBIAM, .....

CHAPTER XXIII.

JUDAS ISCARIOT, ....

359

371

XU CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXIV.

PAGE

THE DYING PARENT AND HIS LITTLE ONES, .... 382

SEC. I. WORDS OF COMFORT AND COUNSEL TO THE SORROWING

CHILDREN, ...... 382

II. THE children's QUESTIONS, AND THE ADIEU, . . 392

CHAPTER XXV.

DYING CHARGE TO THE APOSTLES, . . . . .415

SEC. I. THE VINE AND ITS BRANCHES, .... 415

II. APOSTOLIC TRIBULATIONS AND ENCOURAGEMENTS, . 429
III. THE LITTLE WHILE, AND THE END OF THE DISCOURSE, . 442

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE INTERCESSORY PRAYER, ...... 455

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE SHEEP SCATTERED, ....... 469

SEC. I. "ALL THE DISCIPLES FORSOOK HIM, AND FLED," . . 469

II. SIFTED AS WHEAT, ..... 476

III. PETER AND JOHN, ...... 485

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE SHEPHERD RESTORED, ...... 493

SEC. I. TOO GOOD NEWS TO BE TRUE, .... 493

II. THE EYES OF THE UNDERSTANDING OPENED, . . 602

III. THE DOUBT OF THOMAS, ..... 511

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE UNDER-SHEPHERDS ADMONISHED, ..... 519

SEC. I. PASTORAL DUTY, ...... 519

II. PASTOR PASTORUM, ..... 528

CHAPTER XXX.

POWER FROM ON HIGH, . . . . . . . 536

CHAPTER XXXI.

542

THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

CHAPTEE I.

BEGINNINGS.
John i. 29-51.

THE section of the gospel history above indicated, possesses
the interest peculiar to the beginnings of all things that
have grown to greatness. Here are exhibited to our view the
infant church in its cradle, the petty sources of the Eiver of
Life, the earliest blossoms of Christian faith, the humble origin
of the mighty empire of the Lord Jesus Christ.

All beginnings are more or less obscure in appearance,
but none were ever more obscure than those of Christianity.
What an insignificant event in the history of the church, not
to say of the world, this first meeting of Jesus of Nazareth
with five humble men, Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael, and
another unnamed ! It actually seems almost too trivial to
find a place even in the evangehc narrative. For we have
here to do not with any formal solemn call to the great office
of the apostleship, or even with the commencement of an un-
interrupted discipleship, but at the utmost with the begin-
nings of an acquaintance with and of faith in Jesus, on the
part of certain individuals who subsequently became constant
attendants on His person, and ultimately apostles of His
religion. Accordingly we find no mention made in the three
first Gospels of the events here recorded.

Far from being surprised at the silence of the synoptical
evangelists, one is rather tempted to wonder how it came to
pass that John, the author of the fourth Gospel, after the
lapse of so many years, thought it worth while to relate inci-

2 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

dents so minute, especially in such close proximity to the
sublime sentences with which his Gospel begins. But we are
kept from such incredulous wonder by the reflection, that
facts objectively insignificant, may be very important to the
feelings of those whom they personally concern. What if
John was himself one of the five who on the present occasion
became acquainted with Jesus ? That would make a wide
difference between him and the other evangelists, who could
know of the incidents here related, if they knew of them at
all, only at second hand. In the case supposed, it would not
be surprising that to his latest hour John remembered with
emotion the first time he saw the Incarnate Word, and deemed
the minutest memorials of that time unspeakably precious.
Eirst meetings are sacred as well as last ones, especially such
as are followed by a momentous history, and accompanied, as
is apt to be the case, with omens prophetic of the future.^
Such omens were not wanting in connection with the first
meeting between Jesus and the five disciples. Did not the
Baptist then first give to Jesus the name " Lamb of God," so
exactly descriptive of His earthly mission and destiny ? Was
not Nathanael's doubting question, " Can any good thing come
out of Nazareth ? " an ominous indication of a conflict with
unbelief awaiting the Messiah ? And what a happy omen of
an opening era of wonders to be wrought by divine grace and
power was contained in the promise of Jesus to the pious,
though at first doubting, Israelite : " Henceforth ye shall see
heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending
upon the Son of man !"

That John, the writer of the fourth Gospel, reaUy was the
fifth unnamed disciple, may be regarded as certain. It is liis
way throughout his Gospel, when alluding to himself, to use a
periphrasis, or to leave, as here, a blank where his name should
be. One of the two disciples who heard the Baptist call Jesus
the Lamb of God was the evangelist himself ; Andrew, Simon
Peter's brother, being the other.^

The impressions produced on our minds by these little
anecdotes of the infancy of the gospel must be feeble, indeed,
as compared with the emotions awakened by the memory of
1 Omina principiis inesse solent. — Ovid. Fast, i, 178. ^ Ver. 41.

BEGINNINGS. 3

them in the breast of the aged apostle by whom they are
recorded. It would not, however, be creditable either to our
intelligence or to our piety if we could peruse this page of
the evangelic history unmoved, as if it were utterly devoid of
interest. We should address ourselves to the study of the
simple story with somewhat of the feeling with which men
make pilgrimages to sacred places ; for indeed the ground is
holy.

The scene of the occurrences in which we are concerned
was in the region of Persea, on the banks of the Jordan, at the
lower part of its course. The persons who make their appear-
ance on the scene were all natives of Galilee, and their pre-
sence here is due to the fame of the remarkable man whose
office it was to be the forerunner of the Christ. John, sur-
named the Baptist, who had spent his youth in the desert as
a hermit, living on locusts and wild honey, and clad in a
garment of camel's hair, had come forth from his retreat and
appeared among men as a prophet of God. The burden of
his prophecy was, " Eepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand." In a short time many were attracted from all
quarters to see and hear him. Of those who flocked to his
preaching, the greater number went as they came ; but not
a few were deeply impressed, and, confessing their sins, under-
went the rite of baptism in the waters of the Jordan. Of
those who were baptized, a select nimiber formed themselves
into a circle of disciples around the person of the Baptist,
among whom were at least two, and most probably the whole,
of the five men mentioned by the evangelist. Previous con-
verse with the Baptist had awakened in these disciples a
desire to see Jesus, and prepared them for believing in Him.
In his communications to the people around him, John made
frequent allusions to One who should come after himself He
spoke of this coming One in language fitted to awaken great
expectations. He called himself, with reference to the coming
One, a mere voice in the wilderness, crying, " Premre ye the
way of the Lord." At another time he said, " iHbaptize with
water ; but there standeth one among you whom ye know not :
He it is who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose
shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose." This great One

4 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

was none other than the Messiah, the Son of God, the King
of Israel.

Such discourses were likely to result, and by the man of
God who uttered them they were intended to result, in the
disciples of the Baptist leaving him and going over to Jesus.
And we see here the process of transition actually commenc-
ing. We do not affirm that the persons here named finally
quitted the Baptist's company at this time, to become hence-
forth regular followers of Jesus. But an acquaintance now
begins which will end in that. The bride is introduced to
the Bridegroom, and the marriage will come in due season ;
not to the chagrin but to the joy of the Bridegroom's friend.^

How easily and artlessly does the mystic bride, as repre-
sented by these five disciples, become acquainted with her
heavenly Bridegroom ! The account of their meeting is
idyllic in its simplicity, and would only be spoiled by a com-
mentary. There is no need of formal introduction : they all
introduce each other. Even John and Andrew were not for-
mally introduced to Jesus by the Baptist ; they rather intro-
duced themselves. The exclamation of the desert prophet on
seeing Jesus, " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world !" repeated next day in an abbreviated
form, was the involuntary utterance of one absorbed in his
own thoughts, rather than the deliberate speech of one who
was directing his disciples to leave himself and go over to
Him of whom he spake. The two disciples, on the other
hand, in going away after the personage whose presence had
been so impressively announced, were not obeying an order
given by their old master, but were simply following the
dictates of feelings which had been awakened in their breasts
by all they had heard liim say of Jesus, both on the present
and on former occasions. They needed no injunction to seek
the acquaintance of one in whom they felt so keenly inte-
rested : all they needed was to know that this was He. They
were as anxious to see the Messianic King as the world is to
see the face of a secular prince.

It is natural that we should scan the evangelic narrative
for indications of character with reference to those who, in

1 John iii. 29.

BEGINNINGS. 5

the way so quaintly described, for the first time met Jesus.
Little is said of the iive disciples, but there is enough to show
that they were all pious men. What they found in their new
friend indicates what they wanted to find. They evidently
belonged to the select band who waited for the consolation of
Israel, and anxiously looked for Him who should fulfil God's
promises and realize the hopes of all devout souls. Besides
this general indication of character supplied in their common
confession of faith, a few facts are stated respecting these
first behevers in Jesus tending to make us a little better
acquainted with them. Two of them certainly, all of them
probably, had been disciples of the Baptist. This fact is
decisive as to their moral earnestness. From such a quarter
none but spiritually earnest men were likely to come. For
if the followers of John were at all like himself, they were
men who hungered and thirsted after real righteousness, being
sick of the righteousnesses tlien in vogue ; they said Amen in
their hearts to the preacher's withering exposure of the hollow-
ness of current religious profession and of the worthlessness
of fashionable good works, and sighed for a sanctity other
than that of pharisaic superstition and ostentation ; their con-
sciences acknowledged the truth of the prophetic oracle, " We
are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags ; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities
like the wind have taken us away;" and they prayed fer-
vently for the reviving of true religion, for the coming of the
divine kingdom, for the advent of the Messianic King with
fan in His hand to separate chaff from wheat, and to put
right all things which were wrong. Such, without doubt,
were the sentiments of those who had the honour to be the
first disciples of Christ.

Simon, best known of all the twelve under the name of
Peter, is introduced to us here, through the prophetic insight
of Jesus, on the good side of his character as the man of rock.
When this disciple was brought by his brother Andrew into
the presence of his future Master, Jesus, we are told, " beheld
him and said. Thou art Simon the son of Jona : thou shalt
be called Cephas " — Cephas meaning in Syriac, as the evan-
gelist explains, the same which Petros signifies in Greek.

b THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

The penetrating glance of Christ discerned in this disciple
latent capacities of faith and devotion, the rudiments of ulti-
mate strength and power.

What manner of man Philip was, the evangelist does not
directly tell us, but merely whence he came. From the
present passage, and from other notices in the Gospels, the
conclusion has been drawn, that he was characteristically de-
liberate, slow in arriving at decision ; and for proof of this
view, reference has been made to the " phlegmatic circumstan-
tiality " ^ with which he described to Nathanael the person of
Him with whom he had just become acquainted.^ But these
words of Philip, and all that we elsewhere read of him, rather
suggest to us the idea of the earnest inquirer after truth, who
has thoroughly searched the Scriptures and made himself
acquainted with the Messiah of promise and prophecy, and
to whom the knowledge of God is the summum honum. In
the solicitude manifested by this disciple to win his friend
Nathanael over to the same faith we recognise that generous
sympathetic spirit, characteristic of earnest inquirers, which
afterwards revealed itself in him when he became the bearer
of the request of devout Greeks for permission to see Jesus.^

The notices concerning Nathanael, Philip's acquaintance,
are more detailed and more interesting than in the case of
any other of the five ; and it is not a little surprising that
we should be told so much in this place about one, concerning
whom we otherwise know almost nothing. It is even not
quite certain that he belonged to the circle of the twelve,
though the probability is, that he is to be identified with the
Bartholomew of the synoptical catalogues, — his full name in
that case being Nathanael the son of Tolmai. It is strongly
in favour of this supposition, that the name Bartholomew
comes immediately after Philip in the lists of the apostles.*
Be this as it may, we know on the best authority that !N"a-
thanael was a man of great moral excellence. No sooner had
Jesus seen him than He exclaimed, " Behold an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile ! " The words suggest the

1 Luthardt, Das Johan. Evang. i. 102. ^ Ver. 45. ' John xii. 22.

^ Ewald lays stress on this in proof of the identity of the two, Geschichte
Christus, p. 327. In Acts i. 13 Thomas comes between Philip and Bartholomew.

BEGINNINGS. 7

idea of one whose heart was pure ; in whom was no doiible-
mindedness, impure motive, pride, or unholy passion : a man
of gentle meditative spirit, in whose mind heaven lay reflected
like the blue sky in a still lake on a calm summer day. He
was a man much addicted to habits of devotion : he had
been engaged in spiritual exercises under cover of a fig-tree
just before he met with Jesus. So we are justified in con-
cluding, from the deep impression made on his mind by the
words of Jesus, " Before that Philip called thee, when thou
wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee." Nathanael appears to
have understood these words as meaning, " I saw into thy
heart, and knew how thou wast occupied, and therefore I
pronounced thee an Israelite indeed." He accepted the
statement made to hun by Jesus as an evidence of preter-
natural knowledge, and therefore he forthwith made the
confession, " Eabbi ! Thou art the Son of God ; Thou art the
King of Israel," — the King of that sacred commonwealth
whereof you say I am a citizen.

It is remarkable that this man, so highly endowed with the
moral dispositions necessary for seeing God, should have been
the only one of all the five disciples who manifested any hesi-
tancy about receiving Jesus as the Christ. When Philip told
him that he had found the Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth, he
asked incredulously, " Can there any good thing come out of
Nazareth ?" One hardly expects svich prejudice in one so meek
and amiable ; and yet, on reflection, we perceive it to be quite
characteristic. Nathanael's prejudice against Nazareth sprung
not from pride, as in the case of the people of Judsea who de-
spised the Galileans in general, but from humility. He was a
Galilean himself, and as much an object of Jewish contempt
as were the Nazarenes. His inward thought was, " Surely the
Messiah can never come from among a poor despised people
such as we are — from Nazareth or any other Galilean town or
village ! " ^ He timidly allowed his mind to be biassed by a
current opinion originating in feelings with which he had no

^ Stanley thinks Nathanael meant to single out Nazareth from the rest of
Galilee as of specially bad notoriety. In that case the argument would be
a fortiori: Can any good come out of Galilee, and specially from Nazareth,
infamous even there ? — Sinai and Palestine, p. 366.

8 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

sympathy ;' a fault common to men whose piety, though pure
and sincere, defers too much to human authority, and who
thus become the slaves of sentiments utterly unworthy of
them.

The case of ISTathanael simply reminds us of a fact with
which everyday experience tends to make us familiar; viz.
that good-hearted, pious men are liable to unjust, ungenerous,
illiberal prejudices as well as persons of less pure character,
insomuch that even the most amiable and saintly may not be
regarded as oracles without serious risk. And the suspicious
utterance of this disciple stands recorded at the very beginning
of the gospel as a warning to all Israelites indeed, which
history has proved to be much needed, and, alas ! too little
heeded. It says to such, " Beware that ye be not too confident
in your judgments of others. When with assurance, impa-
tience, or even indignation, ye ask, in reference to any parti-
cular church, sect, party, or individual, ' Can any good thing
come from such a quarter ? ' remember that a similar question
was asked concerning the place whence Jesus Christ came.
' Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares.' "

While Nathanael was not free from prejudices, he showed his
guilelessness in being willing to have them removed. He came
and saw. This openness to conviction is the mark of moral
integrity. The guileless man dogmatizes not, but investi-
gates, and therefore always comes right in the end. The man
of bad, dishonest heart, on the contrary, does not come and
see. Deeming it his interest to remain in his present mind,
he studiously avoids looking at aught which does not tend to
confirm his foregone conclusions. He may, indeed, 2^'>'ofcss a
desire for inquiry, like certain Israelites of whom we read in
this same Gospel, of another stamp than Nathanael, but sharing
with him the prejudice against Galilee. " Search and look,"
said these Israelites not without guile, in reply to the ingenuous
question of the honest but timid Nicodemus : " Doth our law
judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth ? "
" Search and look," said they, appealing to observation and
inviting inquiry ; but they added : " For out of Galilee ariseth
no prophet," — a dictum which at once prohibited inquiry in

BEGINNINGS. V

effect, and intimated that it was unnecessary. " Search and
look ; but we tell you beforehand you cannot arrive at any
other conclusion than ours ; nay, we w^arn you you had better
not."i

Such were the characters of the men who first believed in
Jesus. Wliat, we next ask, was the amount and value of their
belief? On first view the faith of the five disciples, leaving
out of account the brief hesitation of Nathanael, seems unnatu-
rally sudden and mature. They believe in Jesus on a moment's
notice, and they express their faith in terms which seem
appropriate only to advanced Christian intelligence. In the
present section of John's Gospel we find Jesus called not
merely the Christ, the Messiah, the King of Israel, but the
Son of God and the Lamb of God, — names expressive of the
cardinal doctrines of Christianity, the Incarnation and the
Atonement.

The haste and maturity which seem to characterize the faith
of the five disciples are only superficial appearances. As to
the former : these men believed that Messiah was to come
some time ; and they wished much it might be then, for they
felt He was greatly needed. They were men who waited for
the consolation of Israel, and they were prepared at any
moment to witness the advent of the Comforter. Then the
Baptist had told them that the Christ was come, and that He
was to be found in the person of Him whom he had baptized,
and whose baptism had been accompanied with such remarkable
signs from heaven ; and what the Baptist said they implicitly
believed. Finally, the impression produced on their minds
by the bearing of Jesus when they met, tended to confirm
John's testimony, being altogether worthy of the Christ.

The appearance of maturity in the faith of the five brethren
is equally superficial. As to the name Lamb of God, it was
given to Jesus by John, not by them. It was, so to speak,
the baptismal name which the preacher of repentance had
learned by reflection, or by special revelation, to give to the
Christ. What the name signified he but dimly comprehended,
the very repetition of it showing him to be but a learner
striving to get up his lesson ; and we know that what John
1 John vii. 45-52.

10 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

understood only in part, the men whom he introduced to the
acquaintance of Jesus, now and for long after, understood not
at all.

The title Son of God was given to Jesus by one of the five
disciples as well as by the Baptist; a title which even the apostles
in after years found sufficient to express their mature belief
respecting the Person of their Lord. But it does not follow
that the name was used by them at the beginning with the
same fulness of meaning as at the end. It was a name which
could be used in a sense coming far short of that which it is
capable of conveying, and which it did convey in apostolic
preaching, — merely as one of the Old Testament titles of
Messiah, a synonym for Christ. It was doubtless in this
rudimentary sense that Nathanael applied the designation to
Him, whom he also called the King of Israel.

The faith of these brethren was, therefore, just such as we
should expect in beginners. In substance it amounted to this,
that they recognised in Jesus the Divine Prophet, King, Son
of Old Testament prophecy ; and its value lay not in its
maturity or accuracy, but in this, that however imperfect, it
brought them into contact and close fellowship with Him, in
whose company they were to see greater things than when
they first believed, one truth after another assuming its place
in the firmament of their minds, like the stars appearing in
the evening sky as daylight fades away.

CHAPTEE 11.

FISHERS OF MEN.
Matt. iv. 18-22 ; Maek i. 16-20 ; Luke v. 1-11.

THE twelve arrived at their final intimate relation to
Jesus only by degrees : three stages in the history of
their fellowship with Him being distinguishable. In the first
stage they were simply believers in Him as the Christ, and
His occasional companions at convenient, particularly festive,
occasions. Of this earliest stage in the intercourse of the
disciples with their Master, we have some memorials in the
four first chapters of John's Gospel, wdiich tell how some of
them first became acquainted with Jesus, and represent them
as accompanying Him at a marriage in Cana,^ at a passover
in Jerusalem,^ on a visit to the scene of the Baptist's ministry,^
and on the return journey through Samaria from the south to
Galilee.'

In the second stage, fellowship with Christ assumed the
form of an uninterrupted attendance on His person, involving
entire, or at least habitual abandonment of secular occupa-
tions.^ The present narratives bring under our view certain of
the disciples entering on this second stage of discipleship.
Of the four persons here named, we recognise three, Peter,
Andrew, and John, as old acquaintances, who have already
passed through the first stage of discipleship. One of them,
James the brother of John, we meet with for the first time ;
a fact which suggests the remark, that in some cases the first
and second stages may have been blended together, — pro-

1 Jolm ii. 1. 2 joi^Q ji 13^ jy^ 22. ^ JqI^^ ^[i 22.

* John iv. 1-27, 31, 43-45.

^ Entire in Matthew's case, of course ; in the case of the iishers, not neces-
sarily so.

1 2 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

fessions of faitli in Jesus as the Christ being immediately
followed by the renunciation of secular callings, for the purpose
of joining His company. Such cases, however, were probably
exceptional and few.

The twelve entered on the last and highest stage of dis-
cipleship when they were chosen by their Master from the
mass of His followers, and formed into a select band, to be
trained for the great work of the apostleship. This important
event probably did not take place till all the members of the
apostolic circle had been for some time about the person of
Jesus.

From the evangelic records it appears that Jesus began at
a very early period of His ministry to gather round Him a
company of disciples, with a view to the preparation of an
agency for carrying on the work of the divine kingdom.
The two pairs of brothers received their call at the commence-
ment of the first Galilean ministry, in which the first act was
the selection of Capernaum by the sea-side as the centre of
operations and ordinary place of abode. And when we think
what they were called unto, we see that the call could not
come too soon. The twelve were to be Christ's witnesses in
the world after He Himself had left it ; it was to be their
pecuKar duty to give to the world a faithful record of their
Master's words and deeds, a just image of His character, a
true reflection of His spirit. This service obviously could be
rendered only by persons who had been, as nearly as possible,
eye-witnesses and servants of the Incarnate Word from the
beginning. While, therefore, except in the cases of Peter,
James, John, Andrew, and Matthew, we have no particulars
in the Gospels respecting the calls of those who afterwards'
became apostles, we must assume that they all occurred in the
first year of the Saviour's public ministry.

That these calls were given with conscious reference to an
ulterior end, even the apostleship, appears from the remark-
able terms in which the earliest of them was expressed.
" Follow me," said Jesus to the fishermen of Bethsaida, " and
I will make you fishers of men." These words (whose origi-
nality stamps them as a genuine saying of Jesus) show that the
great Founder of the faith desired not only to have disciples.

FISHEES OF MEN, 13

but to have about Him men wbom He migbt train to make
disciples of others : to cast the net of divine truth into the
sea of the world, and to land on the shores of the divine
kingdom a great multitude of believing souls. Both from
His words and from His actions we can see that He attached
supreme importance to that part of His work which consisted
in training the twelve. In the intercessory prayer/ e.g., He
speaks of the training He had given these men as if it had
been the principal part of His own earthly ministry. Such,
in one sense, it really was. The careful, painstaking educa-
tion of the disciples secured that the Teacher's influence on
the world should be permanent ; that His kingdom should be
founded on the rock of deep and indestructible convictions in
the minds of the few, not on the shifting sands of superficial
evanescent unpressions on the minds of the many. Eegard-
ing that kingdom, as our Lord Himself has taught us in one
of His parables to do,^ as a thing introduced into the world
like a seed cast into the ground and left to grow according to
natural laws, we may say that, but for the twelve, the doc-
trine, the works, and the image of Jesus might have perished
from human remembrance, nothing remaining but a vague
mythical tradition, of no historical value, and of little practical
influence.

Those on whom so much depended, it plainly behoved to
possess very extraordinary qualifications. The mirrors must
be finely polished that are designed to reflect the image of
Christ ! The apostles of the Christian religion must be men
of rare spiritual endowment. It is a catholic religion, intended
for all nations ; therefore its apostles must be free from Jewish
narrowness, and have sympathies wide as the world. It is a
spiritual religion, destined ere long to antiquate Jewish cere-
monialism ; therefore its apostles must be emancipated in
conscience from the yoke of ordinances. It is a religion, once
more, which is to proclaim the Cross, previously an instrument
of cruelty and badge of infamy, as the hope of the world's
redemption, and the symbol of all that is noble and heroic in
conduct ; therefore its heralds must be superior to all conven-
tional notions of human and divine dignity, capable of glory-
1 John xvii. 6. " Mark iv, 26.

14 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

ing in tlie cross of Christ, and willing to bear a cross them-
selves. The apostolic character, in short, must combine free-
dom of conscience, enlargement of heart, enlightenment of
mind, and all in the superlative degree.

The humble fishermen of Galilee had much to learn before
they could satisfy these high requirements ; so much, that the
time of their apprenticeship for their apostoHc work, even
reckoning it from the very commencement of Christ's ministry,
seems all too short. They were indeed godly men, who had
already shown the sincerity of their piety by forsaking all for
their Master's sake. But at the time of their call they were
exceedingly ignorant, narrow-minded, superstitious, full of
Jewish prejudices, misconceptions, and animosities. They had
much to unlearn of what was bad, as well as much to learn
of what was good, and they were slow both to learn and to
unlearn. Old beliefs already in possession of their minds
made the communication of new religious ideas a difficult
task. Men of good honest heart, the soil of their spiritual
nature was fitted to produce an abundant harvest ; but it was
stiff, and needed much laborious tillage before it would yield
its fruit. Then, once more, they were poor men, of humble
birth, low station, mean occupations, who had never felt the
stimulating influence of a liberal education, or of social inter-
course with persons of cultivated minds.

We shall meet with abundant evidence of the crude spiritual
condition of the twelve, even long after the period when they
were called to follow Jesus, as we proceed with the studies
on which we have entered. Meantime we may discover signi-
ficant indications of the religious immaturity of at least one
of the disciples, — Simon, son of Jonas, — in Luke's account of
the incidents connected with his call. Pressed by the multi-
tude who had assembled on the shore of the lake to hear Him
preach, Jesus, we read, entered into a ship (one of two lying
near at hand), which happened to be Simon's, and requesting
him to thrust out a little from the land, sat down, and taught
the people from the vessel. Having finished speaking, Jesus
said unto the owner of the boat, " Launch out into the deep,
and let down your nets for a draught." Their previous efforts
to catch fish had been unsuccessful ; but Simon and liis brother

FISHEKS OF MEN. 15

did as Jesus directed, and were rewarded by an extraordinary-
take, which appeared to them and their fishing companions,
James and John, nothing short of miraculous. Simon, the
most impressible and the most demonstrative of the four, gave
utterance to his feelings of astonishment by characteristic
words and gestures. He fell down at Jesus' knees, saying,
" Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord ! "

This exclamation opens a window into the inner man of
him who uttered it, through which we can see his spiritual
state. We observe in Peter at this time that mixture of good
and evil, of grace and nature, which so frequently reappears
in his character in the subsequent history. Among the good
elements discernible are reverential awe in presence of Divine
Power, a prompt calling to mind of sin betraying tenderness
of conscience, and an unfeigned seK-humiliation on account of
unmerited favour. Valuable features of character these ; but
they did not exist in Peter without alloy. Along with them
were associated superstitious dread of the supernatural, and a
slavish fear of God. The presence of the former element is
implied in the reassuring exhortation addressed to the disciple
by Jesus, " Fear not ; from henceforth thou shalt catch men."
Slavish fear of God is even more manifest in his own words,
" Depart from me, 0 Lord." Powerfully impressed with the
superhuman knowledge revealed in connection with the great
draught of fishes, he regards Jesus for the moment as a super-
natural being, and as such dreads Him as one whom it is not
safe to be near, especially for a poor sinful mortal like liim-
self. This state of mind shows how utterly unfit Peter is, as
yet, to be an apostle of a gospel which magnifies the grace of
God even to the chief of sinners. His piety, sufficiently
strong and decided, is not of a Christian type ; it is legal, one
might almost say pagan, in spirit.

The truth of the statement just made may be rendered more
apparent by a contrast supplied in another incident from the
history .of Peter, which occurred towards the close of his dis-
ciple-life. It was another fishing scene on the same waters,
very like, and also very unlike, that here recorded by Luke.
On that occasion Peter and his brethren, by direction of a
stranger dimly descried on the shore in the grey morning,

16 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

caught, as now, a great multitude of fishes. The unusually-
large draught, taken after a whole night's toil to no purpose,
reminded John of what had happened years before, at that
ever-memorable period when he and his brethren were called
to be fishers of men, and suggested to him the thought that
the stranger on the shore must be the risen Jesus. The
beloved disciple communicated his discovery to his friend.
And mark the difference between Peter's behaviour then and
now. He shrinks not this time in fear from the presence of
the Lord. He has very good reason to do so ; for the con-
fession, " I am a sinful man," would now in his mouth be no
pious commonplace, but the feeble inadequate acknowledg-
ment of heinous guilt recently contracted. Yet he has no
thought of avoiding or fleeing from Him whom he has per-
sonally and grievously injured. On the contrary, it is recorded,
that " when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt
his fisher's coat unto him, and did cast himself into the sea;"^
his intent being to swim to the land and embrace his beloved
Master. That plunge into the waters reveals a piety now well
purged of superstition, and a faith in pardoning grace victo-
rious over guilty fear. Peter now dreads neither divine power
nor divine holiness. He can witness a miracle with sobriety
and composure, knowing, from long experience, that the wonder-
working power of Jesus was ever exercised in intimate alliance
with wisdom and love, as a beneficent agent employed to pro-
mote the temporal and s]Diritual well-being of men. And
while conscious of being a grievous offender, he fully expects
to receive a gracious reception from his injured Master, because
he has ever found Him one who overcame evil with good, and
forgave not once or seven times, but seventy times seven. He
has thus in both respects made a great advance since the time
he exclaimed in superstitious terror, " Depart from me, for
I am a sinful man, 0 Lord ! "

With all their imperfections, which were both numerous
and great, these humble fishermen of Galilee had, at the very-
outset of their career, one grand distinguishing virtue, which,
though it may coexist with many defects, is the certain fore-
runner of ultimate high attainment. They were animated by

^ John xxi. 1-7.

FISHERS OF MEN. l7

a devotion to Jesus and to the divine kingdom which made
them capable of any sacrifice. Believing Him who bade them
follow Him to be the Christ, come to set up God's kingdom
on earth, they " straightway" left their nets and joined His
company, to be thenceforth His constant companions in all
His wanderings. The act was acknowledged by Jesus Him-
seK to be meritorious ; and we cannot, without injustice, seek
to disparage it, by ascribing it to idleness, discontent, or ambi-
tion as its motive. The Gospel narrative shows that the four
brethren were not idle, but hard-working, industrious men,
Neither were they discontented, if for no other reason than that
they had no cause for discontent. The family of James and
John at least seems to have been in circumstances of comfort ;
for Mark relates that, when called by Jesus, they left their
father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went
after Him. But ambition, had it no place among their mo-
tives ? Well, we must admit that the twelve, and specially
James and John, were by no means free from ambitious pas-
sions, as we shall see hereafter. But to whatever extent am-
bition may have influenced their conduct at a later period, it
was not the motive which determined them to leave their nets.
Ambition needs a temptation : it does not join a cause which
is obscure and struggling, and whose success is doubtful ; it
strikes in when success is assured, and when the movement
it patronizes is on the eve of its glorification. The cause of
Jesus had not got to that stage yet.

One charge only can be brought against those men, and it
can be brought with truth, and without doing their memory
any harm. They were enthusiasts : their hearts were fired, and,
as an unbelieving world might say, their heads were turned,
by a dream about a divine kingdom to be set up in Israel,
with Jesus of Nazareth for its king. That dream possessed
them and imperiously ruled over their minds, and shaped their
destinies, compelling them, like Abraham, to leave their kin-
dred and their country, and go forth on what might well
appear beforehand to be a fool's errand. Well for the world
that they were possessed by the idea of the Kingdom ! For it
was no fool's errand on which they went forth, leaving their
nets behind. The kingdom they sought turned out to be as

18 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

real as the land of Canaan, though not such altogether as they
had imagined. The fishermen of Galilee did become fishers
of men on a most extensive scale, and, by the help of God,
gathered many souls into the church of such as should be
saved. In a sense they are casting their nets into the sea of
the world still, and, by their testimony to Jesus in Gospel
and Epistle, are bringing multitudes to become disciples of
Him among whose first followers they had the happiness to
be numbered.

The four, the twelve, forsook all and followed their Master.
Did the " all" in any case include wife and children ? It did
in at least one instance — that of Peter ; for the Gospels tell
how Peter's mother-in-law was healed of a fever by the mira-
culous power of Christ.^ From a passage in Paul's first epistle
to the Corinthian church, it appears that Peter was not the
only one among the apostles who was married.^ Prom the
same passage we further learn, that forsaking of wives for
Christ's sake did not mean literal desertion. Peter the apostle
led his wife about with him, and Peter the disciple may some-
times have done the same. The likelihood is that the married
disciples, like married soldiers, took their wives with them or
left them at home, as circumstances might require or admit.
Women, even married women, did sometimes follow Jesus ;
and the wife of Simon, or of any other married disciple, may
occasionally have been among the number. At an advanced
period in the history, we find the mother of James and John
in Christ's company far from home ; and where mothers were,
wives, if they wished, might also be. The infant church, in
its original nomadic or itinerant state, seems to have been a
motley band of pilgrims, in which aU sorts of people as to
sex, social position, and moral character were united, the bond
of union being ardent attachment to the person of Jesus.

This church itinerant was not a regularly organized society,
of which it was necessary to be a constant member in order
to true discipleship. Except in the case of the twelve, fol-
lowing Jesus from place to place was optional, not compulsory ;
and in most cases it was probably also only occasional. It was
the natural consequence of faith, when the object of faith, the
J Matt. viii. 14 ; Mark i. 29-31 ; Luke iv. 38, 39. ^ j Cor. Lx. 5.

FISHEES OF MEN. 19

centre of the circle, was Himself in motion. Believers would
naturally desire to see as many of Christ's works and hear as
many of His words as possible. When the object of faith left
the earth, and His presence became spiritual, all occasion for
such nomadic discipleship was done away. To be present
with Him thereafter, men needed only to forsake their sins.

CHAPTER III.

MATTHEW THE PUBLICAN.
Matt. ix. 9-13 ; Mark ii. 15-17 ; Ltjke v. 27-32.

THE call of Matthew signally illustrates a very prominent
feature in the public action of Jesus, viz. His utter
disregard of the maxims of worldly wisdom. A publican
disciple, much more a publican apostle, could not fail to be a
stumblingblock to Jewish prejudice, and therefore to be, for
the time at least, a source of weakness rather than, of strength.
Yet, while perfectly aware of this fact, Jesus invited to the
intimate fellowship of disciplehood one who had pursued the
occupation of a tax-gatherer, and at a later period selected
him to be one of the twelve. His procedure in this case is all
the more remarkable when contrasted with the manner in
which He treated others having outward advantages to recom-
mend them to favourable notice, and who showed their readi-
ness to follow by volunteering to become disciples ; of whom
we have a sample in the scribe that came and said, " Master,
I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest."^ This man,
whose social position and professional attainments seemed to
point him out as a very desirable acquisition, the " Master"
deliberately scared away by a gloomy picture of His own desti-
tute condition, saying " 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 eye of Jesus was single as well as omniscient : He
looked on the heart, and had respect solely to spiritual fitness.
He had no faith in any discipleship based on misapprehen-
sions and by-ends ; and, on the other hand, He had no fear of
1 Matt. viii. 18-20,

MATTHEW THE PUBLICAN. 21

the drawbacks arising out of the external connections or past
history of true believers, but was entirely indifferent to men's
antecedents. Confident in the power of truth, He chose the
base things of the world in preference to things held in esteem,
assured that they would conquer at the last. Aware that
both He and His disciples would be despised and rejected of
men for a season. He went calmly on His way, choosing for
His companions and agents " whom He would," undisturbed
by the gainsaying of His generation — like one who knew that
His work concerned all nations and all time.

The publican disciple bears two names in the Gospel history.
In the first Gospel, from his own hand, he is called Matthew,
while in the second and third Gospels he is called Levi. That
the same person is intended, may, we think, be regarded as
a matter of certainty.^ It is hardly conceivable that two
publicans should have been called to be disciples at the same
place and time, and with all accompanying circumstances, and
these so remarkable, precisely similar. We need not be sur-
prised that the identity has not been notified, as the fact of the
two names belonging to one individual would be so familiar
to the first readers of the Gospels as to make such a piece of
information superfluous.

It is probable that Levi was the name of this disciple before
the time of liis call, and that Matthew was his name as a dis-
ciple,— the new name thus becoming a symbol and memorial
of the more important change in heart and life. Similar em-
blematic changes of name were of frequent occurrence in the
beginning of the gospel. Simon son of Jonas was trans-
formed into Peter, Saul of Tarsus became Paul, and Joses
the Cypriot got from the apostles the beautiful Christian
name of Barnabas (son of consolation or prophecy), — by his
philanthropy, and magnanimity, and spiritual wisdom, well de-
served.

Matthew seems to have been employed as a collector of
revenue at the time when he was called, in the town of Caper-
naum, wliich Jesus had adopted as His place of abode. For it

^ Ewald (Christus, pp. 364, 397) denies the identity, and asserts that Levi was
not one of the twelve ; yet he admits the far less certain identity of Nathanael
and Bartholomew.

22 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

was while Jesus was at home " in His own city/' ^ as Caper-
naum came to be called, that the palsied man was brought to
Him to be healed ; and from all the evangelists^ we learn that
it was on liis way out from the house where that miracle was
wrought that He saw Matthew, and spoke to him the word,
" Follow me." The inference to be drawn from these facts is
plain, and it is also important, as helping to explain' the ap-
parent abruptness of the call, and the promptitude with which
it was responded to. Jesus and His new disciple being fellow-
townsmen, had opportunities of seeing each other before.

The time of Matthew's call cannot be precisely determined,
but there is good reason for placing it before the Sermon on
the Mount, of which Matthew's Gospel contains the most com-
plete report. The fact just stated is of itself strong evidence
in favour of this chronological arrangement, for so full an
account of the sermon was not likely to emanate from one
who did not hear it. An examination of the third Gospel con-
verts probability into certainty. Luke prefixes to his abbre-
viated account of the sermon a notice of the constitution of
the apostolic society, and represents Jesus as proceeding " with
them"^ — the twelve, whose names he has just given — to the
scene where the sermon was delivered. Of course the act of
constitution must have been preceded by the separate acts of
calKng, and by Matthew's call in particular, which accord-
ingly is related by the third evangelist in an earlier part of
his Gospel.* It is true the position of the call in Luke's
narrative in itself proves nothing, as Matthew relates his own
call after the sermon; and as, moreover, neither one nor
other systematically adheres to the chronological principle of
arrangement in the construction of his story. We base our
conclusion on the assumption, that when any of the evan-
gelists professes to give the order of sequence, his statement
may be relied on ; and on the observations, that Luke does
manifestly commit himself to a chronological datum in making
the ordination of the twelve antecedent to the preaching of
the Sermon on the Mount, and that Matthew's arrangement

1 Matt. ix. 1.

2 Matt. ix. 9 ; Mark ii. 13 ; Luke v. 27.

3 Luke vi. 13-17. * Luke v. 27.

MATTHEW THE PUBLICAN. 23

in the early part of Ms Gospel is as manifestly imchrono-
logical, his matter being massed on a topical principle, — ch.
v.-vii. showing Jesus as a great teacher ; ch. viii. and ix. as a
worker of miracles ; and ch. x. as a master, choosing, instruct-
ing, and sending forth on an evangelistic mission the twelve
disciples.

Passing from these subordinate points to the call itself, we
observe that the narratives of the event are very brief and
fragmentary. There is no intimation of any previous acquaint-
ance, such as might prepare Matthew to comply with the
invitation addressed to him by Jesus. It is not to be inferred,
however, that no such acquaintance existed, as we can see
from the case of the four fishermen, whose call is narrated
with equal abruptness in the synoptical Gospels, while we
know from John's Gospel that three of them at least were pre-
viously acquainted with Jesus. The truth is, that, in regard
to both calls, the evangelists concerned themselves only about
the crisis, passing over in silence all preparatory stages, and
not deeming it necessary to inform intelligent readers that, of
course, neither the pubHcan nor any other disciple blindly
followed one of whom he knew nothing, merely because asked
or commanded to follow. The fact already ascertained, that
Matthew, while a publican, resided in Capernaum, makes it
absolutely certain that he knew of Jesus before he was called.
No man could live in that town in those days without hearing
of "mighty works" done in and around it. Heaven had been
opened right above Capernaum, in view of all, and the angels
had been thronging down upon the Son of man. Lepers were
cleansed and demoniacs dispossessed ; blind men received their
sight, and palsied men the use of their limbs ; one woman was
cured of a chronic malady, and another, daughter of a distin-
guished citizen — Jairus, ruler of the synagogue — was brought
back to life from the dead. These things were done publicly,
made a great noise, and were much remarked on. The evan-
gelists relate how the people " were all amazed, insomuch that
they questioned among themselves, saying, Wliat thing is
this ? what new doctrine is this ? for with authority com-
mandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him ;"^

1 Mark i. 27.

24 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

how they glorified God, saying, " We never saw it on this
fashion,"^ or, " We have seen strange things to-day."^ Matthew
himself concludes his account of the raising of Jairus' daughter
with the remark : " The fame hereof went abroad into all that
land."^

We do not affirm that all these miracles were wrought be-
fore the time of the publican's call, but some of them certainly
were. Comparing one Gospel with another, to determine the
historical sequence,* we conclude that the greatest of all these
mighty works, the last mentioned, though narrated by Matthew
after his call, really occurred before it. Think, then, what a
powerful effect that marvellous deed would have in preparing
the tax-gatherer for recognising, in the solemnly uttered word,
" Follow me," the command of One who was Lord both of the
dead and of the living, and for yielding to His bidding, prompt,
unhesitating obedience !

In crediting Matthew with some previous knowledge of
Christ, we make his conversion to discipleship appear rea-
sonable without diminishing its moral value. It was not a
matter of course that he should become a follower of Jesus
merely because he had heard of, or even seen. His wonderful
works. Miracles of themselves could make no man a be-
liever, otherwise all the people of Capernaum should have
believed. How different was the actual fact, we learn from
the complaints afterwards made by Jesus concerning those
towns along the shores of the Lake of Gennesareth, wherein
most of His mighty works were done, and of Capernaum in
particular. Of this city He said bitterly : " Thou Capernaum,
which art exalted unto heaven, slialt be brought down to hell ;
for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had
been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day."^
Christ's complaint against the inhabitants of these favoured
cities was that they did not rcfpcnt. They wondered suffi-
ciently at His miracles, and talked abundantly of them, and
ran after Him to see more works of the same kind, and enjoy
anew the sensation of amazement ; but after a while they

i Mark ii. 12. 2 \^^^q y_ 26. ^ jj^tt. ix. 26. •

■* See Ebrard, Gospel History, on the subject of sequence.
5 Matt. xi. 23.

MATTHEW THE PUBLICAN. 25

relapsed into their old stupidity and listlessness, and remained
morally as they had been before He came among them.

It was not so with the collector of customs. He not merely
wondered and talked, but he " repented." Whether he had
more to repent of than his neighbours we cannot tell. It is
true that he belonged to a class of men who, seen through the
coloured medium of popular prejudice, were all bad alike, and
many of whom were really guilty of fraud and extortion ;
but he may have been an exception. His farewell feast shows
that he possessed means, but we must not take for granted
that they were dishonestly earned. This only we may safely
say, that if the publican disciple had been covetous, the spirit
of greed was now exorcised ; if he had ever been guilty of
oppressing the poor, he was now sick of such work. He had
grown weary of collecting revenue from a reluctant population,
and was glad to follow One who had come to take burdens off
instead of laying them on, to remit debts instead of exacting
them with rigour. And so it came to pass that the voice of
Jesus acted on his heart like a spell : " He left all, rose up,
and followed Him."

This great decision, according to the account of all the evan-
gelists, was followed shortly after by a feast in Matthew's
house at which Jesus was present.^ From Luke we learn that
this entertainment had all the character of a great occasion,
and that it was given in honour of Jesus. The honour, how-
ever, was such as few would value, for the other guests were
peculiar. " There was a great company of pubhcans, and of
others that sat down with them;"^ and among the "others"
were some who either were or were esteemed in a superlative
degree " sinners." ^

This feast was, as we judge, not less rich in moral signifi-
cance than in the viands set on the board. For the host him-
self it was, without doubt, a jubilee feast commemorative of
his emancipation from drudgery and uncongenial society and
sin, or, at all events, temptation to sin, and of his entrance on
the free, blessed life of fellowship with Jesus. It was a kind

1 Matthew says modestly, " iu the house," ix. 10.

2 Luke V. 29.

3 Matt. ix. 10.

26 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

of poem, saying for Matthew what Doddridge's familiar lines
say for many another, perhaps not so well :

' ' Oil liappy day, that fixed my choice

On Thee, my Saviour and my God !
Well may this glowing heart rejoice,

And tell its raptures all abroad !
'Tis done ; the great transaction's done :

I am my Lord's, and He is mine ;
He drew me, and I followed on,

Glad to confess the voice divine. "

The feast was also, as abeady said, an act of homage to
Jesus. Matthew made his splendid feast in honour of his
new master, as Mary of Bethany shed her precious ointment.
It is the way of those to whom much grace is shown and
given, to manifest their grateful love in deeds bearing the
stamp of what the Greek philosopher called magnificence, and
churls call extravagance ; and whoever might blame such acts
of devotion, Jesus always accepted them with pleasure.

The ex-publican's feast seems further to have had the cha-
racter of a farewell entertainment to his fellow-publicans. He
and they were to go different ways henceforth, and, Christian-
like, he would part with his old comrades in peace.

Once more : we can believe that Matthew meant his feast to
be the means of introducing his friends and neighbours to the
acquaintance of Jesus, seeking with the characteristic zeal of
a young disciple to induce others to take the step which he
had resolved on himself, or at least hoping that some sinners
present might be drawn from evil ways into the paths of
righteousness. And who can tell but it was at this very fes-
tive gathering, or on some similar occasion, that the gracious
impressions were produced whose final outcome was that affect-
ing display of gratitude unutterable at that other feast in
Simon's house, to which neither publicans nor sinners were
admitted ?

Matthew's feast was thus, looked at from within, a very
joyous, innocent, and even edifying one. But, alas, looked at
from without, like stained windows, it wore a different aspect :
it was, indeed, nothing short of scandalous. Certain Pharisees
observed the company assemble or disperse, noted their cha-
racter, and made, after their wont, sinister reflections. Oppor-

MATTHEW THE PUBLICAN. 27

trinity offering itself, they asked the disciples of Jesus the
at once complimentary and censorious question : " Why eateth
your master with publicans and sinners ?" The interrogants
were for the most part local members of the pharisaic sect,
for Luke calls them " their scribes and Pharisees,"^ which
implies that Capernaum was important enough to be honoured
with the presence of men representing that religious party.
It is by no means unlikely, however, that among the un-
friendly spectators were some Pharisees all the way from
Jerusalem, the seat of ecclesiastical government, already on
the track of the Prophet of Nazareth, watching His doings, as
they watched those of the Baptist before Him. The news of
Christ's wondrous works soon spread over all the land, and
attracted spectators from all quarters — from Decapohs, Jeru-
salem, Judsea, and PeraBa, as well as Galilee f and we may be
sure that the scribes and Pharisees of the holy city were not
the last to go and see, for we must own they performed the
duty of religious espionage with exemplary diligence.

The presence of ill-affected men belonging to the pharisaic
order was a standing feature in Christ's public ministry. But
it never disconcerted Him. He went calmly on His way doing
His work ; and when His conduct was called in question, He
was ever ready with a conclusive answer. Among the most
striking of His answers or apologies to them who examined
Him, were those in which He vindicated Himself for mixing
with publicans and sinners. They are three in number,
spoken on as many occasions : the first in connection with
Matthew's feast ; the second in the house of Simon the Phari-
see f and the third on an occasion not minutely defined, when
certain scribes and Pharisees brought against Hiin the grave
charge, " This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them."^
These apologies for loving the unloved and the morally un-
lovely are full of truth and grace, and poetry and pathos, and
not without a touch of quiet, quaint satire directed against
the sanctimonious fault-finders. The first may be distin-
guished as the profcssio7ial argument, and is to this effect :
" I frequent the haunts of sinners because I am a physician,

1 Luke V. 30. ^ ji^tt. iv. 25.

3 Luke vii. 36. ^ Luke xv.

28 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE,

and they are sick and need healing. Where should a phy-
sician be but among his patients ? where oftenest, but among
those most grievously afflicted ? " The second argument may
be described as the political, its drift being this : " It is good
policy to be the friend of sinners who have much to be for-
given ; for when they are restored to the paths of virtue and
piety, how great is their love ! See that penitent woman,
weeping for sorrow and also for joy, and bathing her Saviour's
feet with her tears. Those tears are refreshing to my heart,
as a spring of water in the arid desert of pharisaic frigidity
and formalism." The third argument may be denominated
the argument from natural instinct, and runs thus : " I receive
sinners, and eat with them, and seek by these means their
moral restoration, for the same reason which moves the shep-
herd to go after a lost sheep, leaving his unstrayed flock in
the wilderness, viz. because it is natural to seek the lost,
and to have more joy in finding things lost than in possessing
things which never have been lost. Men who understand not
this feeling are solitary in the universe ; for angels in heaven,
fathers, housewives, shepherds, all who have human hearts on
earth, understand it well, and act on it every day."

In aU these reasonings Jesus argued with His accusers on
their own premises, accepting their estimate of themselves, and
of the class with whom they deemed it discreditable to asso-
ciate, as righteous and sinful respectively. But He took care, at
the same time, to let it appear that His judgment concerning
the two parties did not coincide with that of His interrogators.
This He did on the occasion of Matthew's feast, by bidding
them go study the text, " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice ;"
meaning by the quotation to insinuate, that wliile very re-
ligious, the Pharisees were also very inhuman, full of pride,
prejudice, harshness, and hatred ; and to proclaim the truth,
that this character was in God's sight far more detestable than
that of those who were addicted to the coarse vices of the
multitude, not to speak of those who were " sinners" mainly
in the pharisaic imagination, and within inverted commas.

Our Lord's last words to the persons who called His con-
duct in question at this time were not merely apologetic, but
judicial. " I came not," He said, " to call the righteous, but

MATTHEW THE PUBLICAN. 29

intimating a purpose to let the self-rigliteous alone,
and to call to repentance and to the joys of the kingdom those
who were not too self-satisfied to care for the benefits offered,
and to whom the gospel feast would be a real entertainment.
And He kept His word ; and so the last became first, and the
first last : the " publicans and sinners " got into the kingdom,
and the " righteous " were shut out.

' i"; f/.tTdvoiav seems to he genuine only in Luke, and the words express only
a part of Christ's meaning.

CHAPTEE IV.

THE TWELVE.
Matt. x. 1-4 ; Mark hi. 13-19 ; Luke vi. 12-16 ; Acts i. 13.

THE selection by Jesus of the twelve from the band of
disciples who had gradually gathered around His person,
is an important landmark in the Gospel history. It divides
the ministry of our Lord into two portions, nearly equal
probably as to duration, but unequal as to the extent and
importance of the work done in each respectively. In the
earlier period Jesus laboured single-handed ; His miraculous
deeds were confined for the most part to a limited area ; and
His teaching was in the main of an elementary character.
But by the time when the twelve were chosen, the work of
the gospel had assumed such dimensions as to require organi-
zation and division of labour ; and the teaching of Jesus was
beginning to be of a deeper and more elaborate nature, and
His gracious activities were taking an ever-widening range.

It is probable that the selection of a limited number to be
His close and constant companions had become a necessity to
Christ, in consequence of His very success in gaining disciples.
His followers, we imagine, had grown so numerous as to be
an incumbrance and an impediment to His movements, espe-
cially in the long journeys which mark tlie later period of
His ministry. It was impossible that all who believed could
continue henceforth to follow Him, in the literal sense,
whithersoever He might go : the greater number could now
only be occasional followers. But it was His wish that certain
selected men should be with Hun at all times and in all
places, — His travelling companions in aU His wanderings,
witnessing all His work, and ministering to His daily needs.
And so, in the quaint words of Mark, " Jesus calleth unto

THE TWELVE. 31

Him whom He would, and tliey came unto Him, And He
made twelve, that they should be with Him." ^

These twelve, however, as we know, were to be something
more than travelling companions or menial servants of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They were to be, in the meantime,
students of Christian doctrine, and occasional fellow-labourers
in the work of the kingdom, and eventually Christ's chosen
trained agents for propagating the faith after He HimseK had
left the earth. From the time of their being chosen, indeed,
the twelve entered on a regular apprenticeship for the great
office of the apostleship, in the course of whicli they were to
learn, in the privacy of an intimate daily fellowship with their
Master, what they should be, do, believe, and teach, as His
witnesses and ambassadors to the world. Henceforth the
training of these men was to be a constant and prominent
part of Christ's personal work. He was to make it His
business to tell them in darkness what they should afterwards
speak in the daylight, and to whisper in their ear what in
after years they should preach upon the house-tops.^

The time when this election was made, though not abso-
lutely determined, is fixed relatively to certain leading events
in the Gospel history. John speaks of the twelve as an orga-
nized company at the period of the feeding of the five thousand,
and of the discourse on the bread of Kfe in the synagogue of
Capernaum, delivered shortly after that miracle. From this
fact we learn that the twelve were chosen at least one year
before the crucifixion ; for the miracle of the feeding took place,
according to the fourth evangelist, shortly before a passover
season.^ From the words spoken by Jesus to the men whom
He had chosen, in justification of His seeming doubt of their
fidelity after the multitude had deserted Him, " Have not I
chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devH ?" we guess that
the choice was then not quite a recent event. The twelve
had been long enough together to give the false disciple oppor-
tunity to show his real character.

Turning now to the synoptical evangelists, we find them
fixing the position of the election with reference to two other
most important events. Matthew speaks for the first time of
1 Mark iii. 13. 2 jyi^tt. x. 27. 3 joi^ yi. 4.

32 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE,

the twelve as a distinct body, in connection with tlieir mission
in Galilee. He does not, however, say that they were chosen
immediately before, and with direct reference to, that mission.
He speaks rather as if the apostolic fraternity had been pre-
viously in existence, his words being, " Wlien He had called
unto Him His twelve disciples." Luke, on the other hand, gives
a formal record of the election, as a preface- to his account of
the Sermon on the Mount, so speaking as to create the im-
pression that the one event immediately preceded the otlier.^
Finally, Mark's narrative confirms the view suggested by
these observations on Matthew and Luke, viz, that the twelve
were called just before the Sermon on the Mount was delivered,
and some considerable time before they were sent forth on
their preaching and healing mission. There we read : " Jesus
goeth up into the mountain (to opo^),^ and calleth unto Him
whom He would," — the ascent referred to evidently being
that which Jesus made just before preaching His great dis-
course. Mark continues : " And He ordained twelve, that they
should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to
preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out
devils." Here allusion is made to an intention on Christ's
part to send forth His disciples on a mission, but the intention
is not represented as immediately realized. Nor can it be
said that immediate realization is implied, though not ex-
pressed ; for the evangelist gives an account of the mission as
actually carried out several chapters further on in his Gospel,
commencing with the words, " And He calleth unto Him the
twelve, and began to send them forth." ^

It may be regarded, then, as ascertained, that the calling of
the twelve was a prelude to the preaching of the great sermon
on the kingdom, in the founding of which they were after-
wards to take so distinguished a part. At what precise period
in the ministry of our Lord the sermon itseK is to be placed,
we cannot so confidently determine. Our opinion, however, is,

^ Luke vi. 13 compared with 17, where note that Luke represents the name
"apostle" as originating with Christ: "whom also He named apostles"
(ver. 13).

^ This expression is used by all the Synoptics, It seems to signify a mountain
district rather than a particular hill.

3 Mark vi. 7.

THE T-\\TELVE. 33

that the Sermon on the Mount was delivered towards the close
of Christ's first lengthened ministry in Galilee, during the
time which intervened between the two visits to Jerusalem
on festive occasions, mentioned in the second and fifth chap-
ters of John's Gospel.^

The numher of the apostolic company is significant, and
was doubtless a matter of choice, not less than was the com-
position of the selected band. A larger number of eligible
men could easily have been found in a circle of disciples,
which afterwards supplied not fewer than seventy auxiliaries
for evangelistic work; and a smaller number might have
served all the present or prospective purposes of the apostle-
ship. The number twelve was recommended by obvious sym-
bolic reasons. It happily expressed in figures what Jesus
claimed to be, and what He had come to do, and thus fur-
nished a support to the faith and a stimulus to the devotion
of His followers. It significantly hinted that Jesus was the
divine Messianic King of Israel, come to set up the Idngdom
whose advent was foretold by prophets in glowing language,
suggested by the palmy days of Israel's history, when the
theocratic community existed in its integrity, and all the
tribes of the chosen nation were united under the royal house
of David. That the number twelve was designed to bear
such a mystic meaning, we know from Christ's own words to
the apostles on a later occasion, when, describing to them the
rewards awaiting them in the kingdom for past services and
sacrifices, He said, "Verily I say unto you, that ye which
have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man
shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." ^

It is possible that the apostles were only too well aware
of the mystic significance of their number, and found in it
an encouragement for the fond delusive hope, that the coming
kingdom should be not only a spiritual realization of the pro-
mises, but a literal restoration of Israel to political integrity
and independence. The risk of such misapprehension was
one of the drawbacks connected with the particular number

' So Ebrard, Gosp. Hist. Ewald places the election after the feast of John v.
2 Matt. xix. 28.

34 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

twelve ; but it was not deemed by Jesus a sufficient reason
for fixing on another. His method of procedure in this, as in
all things, was to abide by that which in itself was true and
right, and then to correct misapprehensions as they arose.

From the number of the apostolic band, we pass now to
the persons composing it. Seven of the twelve — the first
seven in the catalogues of Mark and Luke, assuming the
identity of Bartholomew and Nathanael — are persons already
known to us. AVith two of the remaining five — the first and
the last — we shall become well acquainted as we proceed in
the history. Thomas called Didymus, or the Twin, will come
before us as a man of warm heart but melancholy tempera-
ment, ready to die with his Lord, but slow to believe in His
resurrection. Judas Iscariot is known to all the world as the
Traitor. He apj)ears for the first time, in these catalogues of
the apostles, with the infamous title branded on his brow,
" Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him." The presence of
a man capable of treachery among the elect disciples is a
mystery which we shall not now attempt to penetrate. We
merely make this historical remark about Judas here, that he
seems to have been the only one among the twelve who was
not a Galilean. He is surnamed, from his native place appa-
rently, the man of Kerioth ; and from the book of Joshua
we learn that there was a town of that name in the southern
border of the tribe of Judah.^

The three names which remain are exceedingly obscure.
On grounds familiar to Bible scholars, it has often been
attempted to identify James of Alphseus with James the
brother or kinsman of the Lord. The next on the lists of
Matthew and Mark has been supposed by many to have been
a brother of this James, and therefore another brother of
Jesus. This opinion is based on the fact, that in place of
the Lebba3us or Thaddeeus of the two first Gospels, we find in
Luke's catalogues the name Judas " of James." The ellipsis
in this designation has been filled up with the word brother,

^ Josh. XV. 24. See Renan, Vie de Jesus, p. 153. Ewald (Christus, p. 398)
tliinks Kerioth is Kartah, in the tribe of Zebulun (Josh. xxi. 34). If Judas was
a Jiukean, he may have become a disciple at the time of Christ's visit to the
Jordan, mentioned in John iii. 22.

THE TWELVE. 35

and it is assumed that the James alluded to is James the son
of Alpha3us. However tempting these results may be, we
must decline to regard them as ascertained, and content our-
selves with stating that among the twelve was a second James,
besides the brother of John and son of Zebedee, and also a
second Judas, who appears again as an interlocutor in the
farewell conversation between Jesus and His disciples on the
night before His crucifixion, carefully distinguished by the
evangelist from the traitor by the parenthetical remark " not
Iscariot." ^ This Judas, being the same with Lebbaeus Thad-
dseus, has been called the three-named disciple.^

The disciple whom we have reserved to the last place, like
the one who stands at the head of all the lists, was a Simon.
This second Simon is as obscure as the first is celebrated, for
he is nowhere mentioned in the Gospel history, except in the
catalogues ; yet, little known as he is, the epithet attached to
his name conveys a piece of curious and interesting informa-
tion. He is called the Kananite (not Canaanite), which is a
political, not a geographical designation, as appears from the
Greek word substituted in the place of this Hebrew one by
Luke, who calls the disciple we now speak of Simon Zelotes ;
that is, in English, Simon the Zealot. This epithet Zelotes
connects Simon unmistakeably with the famous party which
rose in rebellion under Judas in the days of the taxing,^ some
twenty years before Christ's ministry began, when Judsea and
Samaria were brought under the direct government of Eome,
and a census of the population was taken with a view to sub-
sequent taxation. How singular a phenomenon is tliis ex-
zealot among the disciples of Jesus ! No two men could differ
more widely in their spirit, ends, and means, than Judas of
Galilee and Jesus of Nazareth. The one was a political mal-
content ; the other would have the conquered bow to the
yoke, and give to Caesar Caesar's due. The former aimed at
restoring the kingdom to Israel, adopting for his watchword,

1 John xiv. 22.

2 Ewald {Christus, p. 399) thinks Lebbceus and Judas different persons, and
supposes that the former had died in Christ's lifetime, and that Judas had been
chosen in his place.

3 Acts V. 37.

36 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

" We have no Lord or Master but God ; " the latter aimed at
founding a kingdom not national, Tout universal, not " of this
world," but purely spiritual. The means employed by the
two actors were as diverse as their ends. One had recourse
to the carnal weapons of war, the sword and the dagger ; the
other relied solely on the gentle but omnipotent force of truth.

What led Simon to leave Judas for Jesus we know not ;
but he made a happy exchange for himself, as the party he
forsook were destined in after years to bring ruin on them-
selves and on their country by their fanatical, reckless, and
unavailing patriotism. Though the insurrection of Judas was
crushed, the fire of discontent still smouldered in the breasts
of his adherents ; and at length it burst out into the blaze of
a new rebellion, which brought on a death-struggle with the
gigantic power of Eome, and ended in the destruction of the
Jewish capital, and the dispersion of the Jewish people.

The choice of this disciple to be an apostle supplies another
illustration of Christ's disregard of prudential wisdom. An
ex-zealot was not a safe man to make an apostle of, for he
might be the means of rendering Jesus and His followers
objects of political suspicion. But the Author of our faith
was willing to take the risk. He expected to gain many dis-
ciples from the dangerous classes as well as from the despised,
and He would have them, too, represented among the twelve.

It gives one a pleasant surprise to think of Simon the
zealot and Matthew the publican, men coming from so op-
posite quarters, meeting together in close fellowship in the
little band of twelve. In the persons of these two disciples
extremes meet- — the tax-gatherer and the tax-hater : the un-
patriotic Jew, wlio degraded himself by becoming a servant of
the alien ruler ; and the Jewish patriot, who chafed under the
foreign yoke, and sighed for emancipation. This union of
opposites was not accidental, but was designed by Jesus as a
prophecy of the future. He wished the twelve to be the
church in miniature or germ ; and therefore He chose them so
as to intimate that, as among them distinctions of publican and
zealot were unknown, so in the church of the future there should
be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, bond
nor free, but only Christ, — aU to each, and in each of the all.

THE TWELVE. 37

These were the names of the twelve as given in the cata-
logues. As to the order in which they are arranged, on closely
inspecting the lists, we observe that they contain three groups
of four, in each of which the same names are always found,
though the order of arrangement varies. The first group
includes those best known, the second the next best, and the
third those least known of all, or, in the case of the traitor,
known only too well. Peter, the most prominent character
among the twelve, stands at the head of all the lists, and
Judas Iscariot at the foot, carefully designated, as already
observed, the traitor. The apostolic roll, taking the order
given in Matthew, and borrowing characteristic epithets from
the Gospel history at large, is as follows : —

EIKST GROUP.

Simon Peter, .... The man of rock.

Andrew, Peter's brother.

James and ) (Sons of Zebedee, and sons of

John, ) i thunder.

SECOND GROUP.

Philip, The earnest inquirer.

Bartholomew, or Nathanael, . . The guileless Israelite.

Thomas, The melancholy.

Matthew, The pubhcan (so called by

himself only).

THIRD GROUP.

James (the son) of Alphseus, . . (James the Less ? Mark xv. 40. )
Lebbseus, Thaddseus, Judas of James, The three -named disciple.

Simon, The Zealot.

Judas, the man of Kerioth, . . The traitor.

Such were the men whom Jesus chose to be with Him
while He was on this earth, and to carry on His work after
He left it. Such were the men whom the church celebrates
as the "glorious company of the apostles." The praise is
merited ; but the glory of the twelve was not of tliis world.
In a worldly point of view they were a very insignificant
company indeed, — a band of poor illiterate Galilean provin-
cials, utterly devoid of social consequence, not likely to be
chosen by one having supreme regard to prudential considera-

38 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

tions. Why did Jesus choose such men ? Was He guided
by feelings of antagonism to those possessing social advantages,
or of partiality for men of His own class ? No ; His choice
was made in true wisdom. If He chose Galileans mainly, it
was not from provincial prejudice against those of the south ;
if, as some think, He chose two or even four^ of His own
kindred, it was not from nepotism ; if He chose rude, unlearned,
humble men, it was not because He was animated by any
petty jealousy of knowledge, culture, or good birth. If any
rabbi, rich man, or ruler had been willing to yield himself
unreservedly to the service of the kingdom, no objection
would have been taken to him on account of his acquirements,
possessions, or titles. The case of Saul of Tarsus, the pupil of
Gamahel, proves the truth of this statement. Even Gamaliel
himself would not have been objected to, could he have stooped
to become a disciple of the unlearned Nazarene. But, alas !
neither he nor any of his order would condescend so far, and
therefore the despised One did not get an opportunity of
showing His willingness to accept as disciples and choose for
apostles such as they were.

The truth is, that Jesus was obliged to be content with
fishermen, and publicans, and quondam zealots, for apostles.
They were the best that could be had. Those who deemed
themselves better were too proud to become disciples, and
thereby they excluded themselves from what all the world
now sees to be the high honour of being the chosen princes of
the kingdom. The civil and religious aristocracy boasted of
their unbelief.^ The citizens of Jerusalem did feel for a
moment interested in the zealous youth who had purged the
temple with a whip of small cords ; but their faith was super-
ficial, and their attitude patronizing, and therefore Jesus did
not commit Himself unto them, because He knew what was
in them.^ A few of good position were sincere sympathizers,
but they were not so decided in their attachment as to be
eligible for apostles. Nicodemus was barely able to speak
a timid apologetic word in Christ's behalf, and Joseph of

^ Matthew or Levi, being a son of Alphseus, lias been supposed to be a brother
of James, and Simon the Zealot to be the Simon mentioned in Matt. xiii. 55.
2 John vii. 48. 3 joim ij, 23-25.

THE TWELVE. 39

Arimathea was a disciple " secretly," for fear of the Jews.
These were hardly the persons to send forth as missionaries of
the cross — men so fettered by social ties and party connec-
tions, and so enslaved by the fear of man. The apostles of
Christianity must be made of sterner stuff.

And so Jesus was obliged to fall back on the rustic, but
simple, sincere, and energetic men of Galilee. And He was
quite content with His choice, and devoutly thanked His
Father for giving Him even such as they. Learning, rank,
wealth, refinement, freely given up to His service. He would
not have despised ; but He preferred devoted men who had
none of these advantages, to undevoted men who had them
all. And with good reason ; for it mattered little, excej)t in
the eyes of contemporary prejudice, what the social position '
or even the previous history of the twelve had been, provided
they were spiritually qualified for the work to which they
were called. What tells ultimately is, not what is with-
out a man, but what is within. John Bunyan was a man of
low birth, low occupation, and, up till his conversion, of low
habits ; but he was by nature a man of genius, and by grace
a man of God, and he would have made — lie was, in fact — a
most effective apostle.

But it may be objected that all the twelve were by no
means gifted like Bunyan ; some of them, if one may judge
from the obscurity which envelopes their names, and the
silence of history regarding them, having been undistinguished
either by high endowment or by a great career, and in fact,
to speak plainly, all but useless. As this objection virtually
impugns the wisdom of Christ's choice, it is necessary to
examine how far it is according to truth. We submit the
following considerations with this view : —

1. That some of the apostles were comparatively obscure,
inferior men, cannot be denied ; but even the obscurest of
them may have been most useful as witnesses for Him with
whom they had companied from the beginning. It does not
take a great man to make a good witness, and to be witnesses
of Christian facts was the main business of the apostles.
That even the humblest of them rendered important service
in that capacity we need not doubt, though nothing is said of

40 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

them in the apostoKc annals. It was not to be expected that
a history so fragmentary and so brief as that given by Luke
should mention any but the principal actors, especially when
we reflect how few of the characters that appear on the stage
at any particular crisis in human affairs are prominently
noticed even in histories which go elaborately into detail.
The purpose of history is served by recording the words and
deeds of the representative men, and many are allowed to
drop into oblivion who did nobly in their day. The less dis-
tinguished members of the apostolic band are entitled to the
benefit of this reflection.

2. Three eminent men, or even two (Peter and John), out
of twelve, is a good proportion ; there being few societies in
which superior excellence bears such a high ratio to respect-
able mediocrity. Perhaps the number of pillars was as great
as was desirable. Par from regretting that all were not Peters
and Johns, it is rather a matter to be thankful for, that there
were diversities of gifts among the first preachers of the
gospel. As a general rule, it is not good when all are leaders.
Little men are needed as well as great men ; for human
nature is one-sided, and little men have their peculiar virtues
and gifts, and can do some things better than their more
celebrated brethren.

3. We must remember how little we know concerning any
of the apostles. It is the fashion of biographers in our day,
writing for a morbidly or idly curious public, to enter into
the minutest particulars of outward event or personal pecu-
liarity regarding their heroes. Of this fond idolatrous minute-
ness there is no trace in the evangelic histories. The writers
of the Gospels were not afflicted with the biographic mania.
Moreover, the apostles were not their theme. Christ was
their hero ; and their sole desire was to tell what they knew
of Him. They gazed stedfastly at the Sun of righteousness,
and in His effulgence they lost sight of the attendant stars.
Whether they were stars of the first magnitude, or of the
second, or of the third, made little difference.

CHAPTEE V.

HEARING AND SEEING.

Luke i. 1-4 ; Matt. xiii. 16, 17 ; Luke x. 23, 24 ; Matt, v.-vii. ; Luke
VI. 17-49 ; Matt. xiii. 1-52 et parall. ; Matt. viii. 16, 17; Makk iv.
33, 34.

IN" the training of the twelve for the work of the apostle-
ship, hearing and seeing the words and works of Christ
necessarily occupied an important place. Eye and ear witness-
ing of the facts of an unparalleled life was an indispensable
preparation for future witness-bearing. The apostles could
secure credence for their wondrous tale only by being able to
preface it with the protestation : " That which we have seen
and heard, declare we unto you." None would believe their
report, save those who, at the very least, were satisfied that it
emanated from men who had been with Jesus. Hence the
tliird evangelist, liimseK not an apostle, but only a companion
of apostles, presents His Gospel with all confidence to liis friend
Theophilus as a genuine history, and no mere collection of
fables, because its contents were attested by men who " from
the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word."

In the early period of their discipleship, hearing and seeing
seem to have been the main occupation of the twelve. They
were then like cliildren born into a new world, whose first
and by no means least important course of lessons consists in
the use of their senses in observing the wonderful objects by
which they are surrounded.

The things which the twelve saw and heard were wonder-
ful enough. The great Actor in the stupendous drama was
careful to impress on His followers the magnitude of their
privilege. " Blessed," said He to them on one occasion, " are
the eyes which see the things that ye see : for I tell you,

42 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

that many prophets and kings have desired to see those
things which ye see, and have not seen them ; and to hear
those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." ^ Yet
certain generations of Israel had seen very remarkable things :
one had seen the wonders of the Exodus, and the sub-
limities connected with the lawgiving at Sinai ; another, the
miracles wrought by Elijah and Elisha ; and successive gene-
rations had been privileged to listen to the not less wonderful
oracles of God, spoken by David, Solomon, Isaiah, and the
rest of the prophets. But the things witnessed by the twelve
eclipsed the wonders of all bygone ages ; for a greater than
Moses, or Elijah, or David, or Solomon, or Isaiah, was here,
and the promise to ISTathanael was being fulfilled. Heaven
had been opened, and the angels of God — the spirits of wisdom,
and power, and love — were ascending and descending on the
Son of man.

We mean here to make a rapid survey of the mirahilia
which it was the peculiar privilege of the twelve to see and
hear, more or less during the whole period of their disciple-
ship, and specially just after their election. These may be
comprehended under two heads : the Doctrine of the Kingdom ;
and the Philanthropic Work of the Kingdom.

1. Before the ministry of Jesus commenced, His fore-
runner had appeared in the wilderness of Judsea, preaching,
and saying, " Eepent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand ; " and some time after their election, the twelve dis-
ciples were sent forth among the towns and villages of Galilee
to repeat the Baptist's message. But Jesus Himself did some-
thing more than proclaim the advent of the kingdom. He
expounded the nature of the divine kingdom, described the
character of its citizens, and discriminated between genuine
and spurious members of the holy commonwealth. This He
did partly in what is familiarly called the Sermon on the
Mount, preached shortly after the election of the apostles ;
and partly in certain parables uttered about the same period.^

» Luke X. 23, 24.

'^ That the election of the twelve preceded the utterance of the parables is
plain from Mark iv. 10, " They that were about Ilim loith the twelve asked of
Him the parable."

HEARING AND SEEING. 43

In the great discourse delivered on the mountain-top, the
qualifications for citizenship in the kingdom of heaven were
set forth, first positively, and then comparatively. The posi-
tive truth was summed up in seven golden sentences called
the Beatitudes, in which the felicity of the kingdom was
represented as altogether independent of the outward con-
ditions with which worldly happiness is associated. The
blessed, according to the preacher, were the poor, the mourn-
ful, the hungerers after righteousness, the meek, the merciful,
the pure in heart, the peaceable, the sufferers for righteousness'
sake. Such were blessed themselves, and a source of bless-
ing to the human race : the salt of the earth, the light of the
world raised above others in spirit and character, to draw
them upwards, and lead them to glorify God.

Next, with more detail, Jesus exhibited the righteousness
of the kingdom, and of its true citizens, in contrast to that
which prevailed. " Except your righteousness," He went on to
say with solemn emphasis, " shall exceed the righteousness of
the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of heaven ;" and then He illustrated and enforced
the general proposition by a detailed description of the
counterfeit in its moral and religious aspects : in its mode of
interpreting the moral law, and its manner of performing the
duties of piety, such as prayer, alms, and fasting. In the one
aspect He characterized pharisaic righteousness as superficial
and technical ; in the other as ostentatious, self-complacent,
and censorious. In contrast thereto. He described the ethics
of the kingdom as a pure stream of life, having charity for its
fountainhead ; a morality of the heart, not merely of outward
conduct ; a morality also broad and catholic, o'erleaping aU.
arbitrary barriers erected by legal pedantry and natural
selfishness. The religion of the kingdom He set forth as
humble, retiring, devoted in singleness of heart to God and
things supernal ; having faith in God as a benignant gracious
Father for its root, and contentment, cheerfulness, and freedom
from secular cares for its fruits ; and, finally, as reserved in
its bearing towards the profane, yet averse to severity in
judging, yea, to judging at all, leaving men to be judged
by God.

44 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

The discourse, of whicli we have given a hasty outline,
made a powerful impression on the audience. " The people,"
we read, " were astonished at His doctrine ; for He taught them
as one having authority (the authority of wisdom and truth),
and not as the scribes," who had merely the authority of
ofiice. It is not probable that either the multitude or the
twelve understood the sermon ; for it was both deep and lofty,
and their minds were preoccupied with very different ideas
of the coming kingdom. Yet the drift of all that had been
said was clear and simple. The kingdom whereof Jesus was
both King and Lawgiver was not to be a kingdom of this
world : it was not to be here or there in space, but within
the heart of man ; it was not to be the monopoly of any class
or nation, but open to all possessed of the requisite spiritual
endowments.

The weighty truths thus taught first in the didactic form
of an ethical discourse, Jesus sought at other times to popu-
larize by means of ])arablcs. In the course of His ministry
He uttered many parabolic sayings, the parable being with
Him a favourite form of instruction. Of the thirty parables
preserved in the Gospels, the larger number were of an oc-
casional character, and are best understood when viewed in
connection with the circumstances which called them forth.
But there is a special group of eight whicli appear to have
been spoken about the same time, and to have been designed
to serve one object, viz. to exhibit in simple pictures the out-
standing features of the kingdom of heaven in its nature and
progress, and in its relations to diverse classes of men. One
of these, the parable of the sower, shows the different reception
given to the word of the kingdom by various classes of hearers,
and the varied issues in their life. Two — the parables of the
tares and of the net cast into the sea — describe the mixture of
good and evil that should exist in the kingdom till the end,
when the grand final separation would take place. Another
pair of short parables — those of the treasure hid in a field
and of the precious pearl — set forth the incomparable import-
ance of the kingdom, and of citizenship therein. Other two
— the grain of mustard seed, and the leaven hid in three
measures of meal — explain how the kingdom advances from

HEAKING AND SEEING. 45

small beginnings to a great ending. An eighth parable, found
in Mark's Gospel only, teaches that growth in the divine
kingdom proceeds by stages, analogous to the blade, the ear,
and the full corn in the ear, in the growth of grain.^

These parables, or the greater number of them, were spoken
in the hearing of a miscellaneous audience ; and from a reply
of Jesus to a question put by the disciples, it might appear
that they were intended mainly for the ignorant populace.
The question was, "Why speakest Thou unto them in parables?"
and the reply, " Because it is given unto you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not
given ;" which seems to imply, that in the case of the twelve,
such elementary views of truth — such cliildren's sermons, so
to speak— might be dispensed with. Jesus meant no more,
however, than that for them the parables were not so important
as for common hearers, being only one of several means of
grace through which they were to become eventually scribes
instructed in the kingdom, acquainted with all its mysteries,
and able, like a wise householder, to bring out of their
treasures things new and old ;^ while for the multitude the
parables were indispensable, as affording their only chance of
getting a little glimpse into the mysteries of the kingdom.

That the twelve were not above parables yet, appears from
the fact that they asked and received explanations of them in
private from their Master : of all, probably, though the inter-
pretations of two only, the parables of the sower and the tares,
are preserved in the Gospels.^ They were still only children :
the parables were pretty pictures to them, but of what they
could not tell. Even after they had received private exposi-
tions of their meaning, they were probably not much wiser
than before, though they professed to be satisfied.* Their
profession was doubtless sincere : they spake as they felt ;
but they spake as children, they understood as children, they
thought as children, and they had much to learn yet of these
divine mysteries.

When the children had grown to spiritual manhood, and
fully understood these mysteries, they highly valued the hap-
piness they had enjoyed in former years, in being privileged
1 Mark iv. 26. ^ ]y[att. xiii. 52. ^ jyxark iv, 34. * Matt, xiii. 51.

46 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

to hear the parables of Jesus. We have an interesting me-
morial of the deep impression produced on their minds by
these simple pictures of the kingdom, in the reflection with
which the first evangelist closes his account of Christ's para-
bolic teaching. " All these things," he remarks, " spake Jesus
unto the multitude in parables, . . . that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my
mouth in parables, I will utter things which have been kept
secret from the foundation of the world." ^ The quotation
(from the seventy-eighth Psalm) significantly diverges both
from the Hebrew original and from the Septuagint version.^
Matthew has consciously adapted the words, so as to express
the absolute originality of the teaching in which he found
their fulfilment. "While the Psalmist uttered dark sayings
from the ancient times of Israel's history, Jesus in the parables
had spoken things that had been hidden from the creation.
Nor was this an exaggeration on the part of the evangelist.
Even the use of the parable as a vehicle of instruction was
all but new, and the truths expressed in the parables were
altogether new. They were indeed the eternal verities of the
divine kingdom, but till the days of Jesus they had remained
unannounced. Earthly things had always been fit to emblem
forth heavenly things ; but, till the great Teacher appeared,
no one had ever thought of linking them together, so that the
one should become a mirror of the other, revealing the deep
things of God to the common eye : even as no one before
Isaac Newton had tliought of connecting the fall of an apple
with the revolution of the heavenly bodies, though apples had
fallen to the ground from the creation of the world.

2. The things which the disciples had the happiness to see
were, if possible, still more marvellous than those which they
heard in Christ's company. They were eye-witnesses of the
events which Jesus bade the messengers of John report to
their master in prison as unquestionable evidence that He was
the Christ who should come.^ In their presence, as spectators,

' Matt. xiii. 34, 35.

^ ipiv%ofjt,ai xiKjitiiJt,f/.iva cc'tto xarafioXiis xofff^ou (Matt.) J DTp"''ilO DiTTl HV^SK

(Hebrew) ; ^fty^oficci •xpofikrif^ccra, kt' ipx^'ii (Sept.).
3 Matt. xi. 2.

HEARING AND SEEING. 47

blind men received their sight, lame men walked, lepers were
cleansed, the deaf recovered hearing, dead persons were raised
to life again. The performance of such wonderful works was
for a time Christ's daily occupation. He went about in Galilee
and other districts, " doing good, and healing all that were
oppressed of the devil." ^ The " miracles," recorded in detail
in the Gospels, give no idea whatever of the extent to which
these wondrous operations were carried on. The leper cleansed
on the descent from the mountain, when the great sermon was
preached, the palsied servant of the Eoman centurion re-
stored to health and strength, Peter's mother-in-law cured of
a fever, the demoniac dispossessed in the synagogue of Caper-
naum, the widow's son brought back to life while he was
being carried out to burial, — these, and the like, are but a few
samples selected out of an innumerable multitude of deeds
not less remarkable, whether regarded as mere miracles or as
acts of kindness. The truth of this statement appears from
paragi'aphs of frequent recurrence in the Gospels, which relate
not individual miracles, but an indefinite number of them
taken en masse. Of such paragraphs take as an example the
following, cursorily rehearsing the works done by Jesus at the
close of a busy day : " And at even, when the sun did set,
they brought unto Him all that were diseased, and them that
were possessed with devils ; and all the city was gathered
together at the door. And He healed many that were sick
of divers diseases, and cast out many devils."^ This was what
happened on a single Sabbath evening in Capernaum, shortly
after the Sermon on the Mount was preached ; and such
scenes appear to have been common at this time : for we read
a little further on in the same Gospel, that " Jesus spake unto
His disciples, that a small ship should wait on Him because
of the multitude, lest they should throng Him ; for He had
healed many ; insomuch that they pressed upon Him for to
touch Him, as many as had plagues."^ And yet again Mark
tells how " they went into an house, and the multitude
Cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat
bread."'

The inference suggested by such passages as to the vast

1 Acts xi. 38. 2 Mark i. 32-34, ^ jyjark iii. 9. * Mark iii. 19, 20.

48 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

extent of Christ's labours among the suffering, is borne out by
the impressions these made on the minds both of friends and
foes. The ill-affected were so struck by what they saw, that
they found it necessary to get up a theory to account for the
mighty influence exerted by Jesus in curing physical, and
especially psychical maladies. " This fellow," they said, " doth
not cast out devils but by Beelzebub the prince of devils." It
was a lame theory, as Jesus showed ; but it was at least conclu-
sive evidence that devils were cast out, and in great numbers.

The thoughts of the well-affected concerning the works of
Jesus were various, but all which have been recorded involve
a testimony to His vast activity and extraordinary zeal. Some,
apparently relatives, deemed Him mad, fancying that enthu-
siasm had disturbed His mind, and compassionately sought to
save Him from doing Himself harm, through excessive solici-
tude to do good to others.-^ The sentiments of the people who
received benefit were more devout. " They marvelled, and
glorified God, which had given such power unto men ; " ^ and
they were naturally not inclined to criticise an " enthusiasm
of humanity" whereof they were themselves the objects.

The contemporaneous impressions of the twelve concerning
their Master's deeds are not recorded ; but of their subsequent
reflections as apostles we have an interesting sample in the
observations appended by the first evangelist to his account
of the transactions of that Sabbath evening in Capernaum
already alluded to. The devout Matthew, according to his
custom, saw in these wondrous works Old Testament Scripture
fulfilled ; and the passage whose fulfilment he found therein
was that touching oracle of Isaiah, " Surely He hath borne
our giiefs and carried our sorrows ; " which, departing from
the Septuagint, he made apt to his purpose by rendering,
" Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."^ The
Greek translators interpreted the text as referring to men's
spiritual maladies — their sins ;* but Matthew deemed it neither
a misapplication nor a degradation of the words to find in them
a prophecy of Messiah's deep sympathy with such as suffered
from any disease, whether spiritual or mental, or merely

1 Mark iii. 21. 2 Matt. ix. 8.

^ JVlatt. viii. 17. * euro; rk; aficcpria; r.fieHv (pifli.

HEARING AND SEEING. 49

physical. He knew not how better to express the intense
compassion of his Lord towards all sufferers, than by repre-
senting Him in prophetic language as taking their sicknesses
on Himself E"or did he wrong the prophet's thought by this
application of it. He but laid the foundation of an a fortiori
inference to a still more intense sympathy on the Saviour's
part with the spiritually diseased. For surely He who so
cared for men's bodies, would care yet more for their souls.
Surely it might safely be anticipated, that He who was so con-
spicuous as a healer of bodily disease, would become yet more
famous as a Saviour from sin.

The works wliich the twelve were privileged to see were
verily worth seeing, and altogether worthy of the Messianic
King. They served to demonstrate that the King and the
kingdom were not only coming, but come ; for what could
more certainly betoken their presence, than mercy dropping
like the " gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath ? "
John, indeed, seems to have thought otherwise, when he sent
to inquire at Jesus if He were the Christ who was to come.
He desiderated, we imagine, a work of judgment on the im-
penitent as a more reliable proof of Messiah's advent than
these miracles of mercy. The prophetic infirmity of queru-
lousness and the prison air had got the better of his judgment
and his heart, and he was in the truculent humour of Jonah,
who was displeased with God, not because He was too stern,
but rather because He was too gracious, too ready to forgive.

The least in the kingdom of heaven is incapable now of
being offended with these works of our Lord on account of their
mercifulness. The offence in our day lies in a different
direction. Men stumble at the miraculousness of the things
seen by the disciples and recorded by the evangelists. Mercy,
say they, is God-like, but miracles are impossible ; and they
think they do well to be sceptical. Yet ought they not
rather to say : Mercy is God-like, therefore such works as
those wrought by Jesus were matters of course ? So they
appeared to the writers of the Gospels. What they wondered
at was not the supernaturalness of Christ's healing operations,
but the unfathomable depth of divine compassion which they
revealed. There is no trace of the love of the marvellous

50 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

either in the Gospels or in the Epistles. The disciples may-
have experienced such a feeling when the era of wonders first
burst on their astonished view ; but they had lost it entirely
by the tinie the New Testament books began to be written.^
They had seen too many miracles while with Jesus, to be
excited about them. Their sense of wonder had been dead-
ened by being sated. But though they ceased to marvel at
the power of their Lord, they never ceased to wonder at
His grace. The love of Christ remained for them throughout
life a thing passing knowledge ; and the longer they lived,
the more cordially did they acknowledge the truth of their
Master's words : " Blessed are the eyes which see the things
that ye see."

^ Isaac Taylor, in The Restoration of Belief, founds on ttis fact an argument
for the reality of miracles, contending that the calm, matter-of-fact tone in which
miracles are spoken of in the Epistles, can be accounted for only by their being
a gi'eat outstanding fact of that age {vide pp. 128-211).

CHAPTER VI.

TEACH US TO PEAY.
Matt. vi. 5-13 ; Luke xr. 1-13 ; Lukbxviii. 1-5.

IT would have been matter for surprise, if, among the mani-
fold subjects on which Jesus gave instruction to His
disciples, prayer had not occupied a prominent place. Prayer
is a necessity of spiritual life, and all who earnestly try to
pray soon feel the need of teaching how to do it. And what
theme more likely to engag'e the thoughts of a Master who
was Himself emphatically a man of prayer, spending occa-
sionally whole nights in prayerful communion with His
heavenly Father ? ^

We find, accordingly, that prayer was a subject on which
Jesus often spoke in the hearing of His disciples. In the
Sermon on the Mount, for example, he devoted a paragraph to
that topic, in which He cautioned His hearers against pharisaic
ostentation and heathenish repetition, and recited a form of
devotion as a model of simplicity, comprehensiveness, and
brevity.^ At other times He directed attention to the neces-
sity, in order to acceptable and prevailing prayer, of persever-
ance,^ concord,* strong faith,^ and large expectation.^

The passage cited from the eleventh chapter of Luke's
Gospel gives an account of what may be regarded as the most
complete and comprehensive of all the lessons comnmnicated
by Jesus to His disciples on the important subject to which it
relates. The circumstances in which this lesson was given are
interesting. The lesson on prayer was itself an answer to
prayer. A disciple, in all probability one of the twelve,^ after

^ Mark i. 35 ; Luke vi. 12 ; Matt. xiv. 23. 2 jyjg^tt^ vj_ 5.13,

3 Luke xi. 1-13, xviii. 1-5. * Matt, xviii. 19. » Matt. xxi. 22.

6 John xvi. 23, 24.

7 The twelve are not named ; but the lesson must, from its nature, have been
given to a close circle of disciples.

52 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE,

hearing Jesus pray, made the request : " Lord, teach us to
pray, as John also taught his disciples." The request and its
occasion taken together convey to us incidentally two pieces
of information. From the latter we learn that Jesus, besides
praying much alone, also prayed in company with His dis-
ciples ; practising family prayer as the head of a household,
as well as secret prayer in personal fellowship with God His
Father. From the former we learn that the social prayers
of Jesus were most impressive. Disciples hearing them
were made painfully conscious of their own incapacity, and
after the Amen were ready instinctively to proffer the re-
quest, " Lord, teach us to pray," as if ashamed any more to
attempt the exercise in their own feeble, vague, stammering
words.

Wlien this lesson was given we know not, for Luke intro-
duces his narrative of it in the most indefinite manner, with-
out noting either time or place. The reference to John, in
the past tense, might seem to indicate a date subsequent to
his death ; but the mode of expression would be sufficiently
explained by the supposition that the disciple who made the
request had previously been a disciple of the Baptist.^ Nor
can any certain inference be drawn from the contents of the
lesson. It is a lesson which might have been given to the
twelve at any time during their disciplehood, so far as their
spiritual necessities were concerned. It is a lesson for chil-
dren, for spiritual minors, for Christians in the crude stage of
the divine life, afflicted with confusion of mind, dumbness,
dejection, unable to pray for want of clear thought, apt words,
and above all, of faith, that knows how to wait in hope ; and it
meets the wants of such by suggesting topics, supplying forms
of language, and furnishing their weak faith with the props
of cogent arguments for perseverance. Now such was the
state of the twelve during all the time they were with Jesus ;
till He ascended to heaven, and power descended from
heaven on them, bringing with it a loosed tongue and an
enlarged heart. During the whole period of their disciple-
ship they needed prompting in prayer, such as a mother gives

1 The request in that case might be paraphrased : " Lord, teach (Thou also) us
to pray, as John taught us when we were his disciples."

TEACH US TO PEAY. 53

her child, and exhortations to perseverance in the habit of
praying, even as do the humblest followers of Christ. Far
from being exempt from such infirmities, the twelve may even
have experienced them in a superlative degree. The heights
correspond to the depths in religious experience. Men who
are destined to be apostles must, as disciples, know more than
most of the chaotic, speechless condition, and of the great,
irksome, but most salutary business of waiting on God for
light, and truth, and gi^ace, earnestly desired but long with-
held.

It was well for the church that her first ministers needed
this lesson on prayer ; for the time comes in the case of most,
if not all, who are spiritually earnest, when its teaching is
very seasonable. In the spring of the divine life, the beauti-
ful blossom time of piety. Christians may be able to pray
with fluency and fervour, unembarrassed by want of words,
thoughts, and feelings of a sort. But that happy stage soon
passes, and is succeeded by one in which prayer often be-
comes a helpless struggle, an inarticulate groan, a silent, dis-
tressed, despondent waiting on God, on the part of men who
are tempted to doubt whether God be indeed the hearer of
prayer, whether prayer be not altogether idle and useless. The
three wants contemplated and provided for in this lesson — the
want of ideas, of words, and of faith — are as common as they
are grievous. How long it takes most to fill even the simple
petitions of the Lord's prayer with definite meanings ! the
second petition, e.g., " Thy kingdom come," which can be pre-
sented with perfect intelligence only by such as have formed
for themselves a clear conception of the ideal spiritual re-
public or commonwealth. How difficult, and therefore how
rare, to find out acceptable words for precious thoughts slowly
reached ! How many, who have never got anything on which
their hearts were set without needing to ask for it often, and
to wait for it long (no uncommon experience), have been
tempted by the delay to give up asking in despair ! And no
wonder ; for delay is hard to bear in all cases, especially in
connection with spiritual blessings, which are in fact, and are
by Christ here assumed to be, the principal object of a Chris-
tian man's desires. Devout souls would not be utterly con-

54 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

founded by delay, or even refusal, in connection witli mer^
temporal goods ; for they know that such things as health,
wealth, wife, children, home, position, are not unconditionally
good, and that it may be well sometimes not to obtain them,
or not easily and too soon. But it is most confounding to
desire with all one's heart the Holy Ghost, and yet seem to
be denied the priceless boon ; to pray for light, and to get
instead deeper darkness ; for faith, and to be tormented with
doubts which shake cherished convictions to their foundations ;
for sanctity, and to have the mud of corruption stirred up by
temptation from the bottom of the well of eternal life in the
heart. Yet all this, as every experienced Christian knows,
is part of the discipline through which scholars in Christ's
school have to pass ere the desire of their heart be fulfilled.^

The lesson on prayer taught by Christ, in answer to request,
consists of two parts, in one of which thoughts and words are
put into the mouths of immature disciples, while the other
provides aids to faith in God as the answerer of prayer.
There is first a form of prayer, and then an argument enforc-
ing perseverance in prayer.

The form of prayer commonly called the Lord's prayer,
which appears in the Sermon on the Mount as a sample of
the right kind of prayer, is given here as a summary of the
general heads under which all special petitions may be com-
prehended. We may call this form the alphabet of all possible
prayer. It embraces the elements of all spiritual desire,
summed up in a few choice sentences, for the benefit of those
who may not be able to bring their struggling aspirations to
birth in articulate language. It contains in all six petitions,
of which three — the first three, as was meet — refer to God's
glory, and the remaining three to man's good. We are taught to
pray, first for the advent of the divine kingdom, in the form
of universal reverence for the divine name, and universal
obedience to the divine will ; and then, in the second, place,
for daily bread, pardon, and protection from evil for ourselves.

* Eeaders may be reminded here of tlie -well-known liymu of Newton,
beginning :

" I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace."

TEACH US TO PRAY. 55

The whole is addressed to God as Father, and is supposed to
proceed from such as realize their fellowship one with another
as members of a divine family, and therefore say, " Our
Father." The prayer does not end, as our prayers now com-
monly do, with the formula, " for Christ's sake ; " nor could
it, consistently with the supposition that it proceeded from
Jesus. No prayer given by Him for the present use of His
disciples, before His death, could have such an ending, because
the plea it contains Avas not intelligible to them previous to
that event. The twelve did not yet know what Christ's sake
(sache) meant, nor would they till after their Lord had ascended,
and the Spirit had descended, and revealed to them the true
meaning of the facts of Christ's earthly history. Hence we
find Jesus, on the eve of His passion, telling His disciples
that up to that time they had asked nothing in His name,
and representing the use of His name as a plea to be
heard, as one of the privileges awaiting them in the future.
" Hitherto," He said, " have ye asked nothing in my name ;
ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulL"^ And
in another part of His discourse : " Whatsoever ye shall ask
in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified
in the Son." ^

To what extent the disciples afterwards made use of this
beautifully simple yet profoundly significant form, we do not
know ; but it may be assumed that they were in the habit of
repeating it, as the disciples of the Baptist might repeat the
forms taught them by their master. There is, however, no
reason to think that the " Lord's prayer," though of permanent
value as a part of Christ's teaching, was designed to be a
stereotyped binding method of addressing the Father in heaven.
It was meant to be an aid to inexperienced disciples, not a
rule imposed upon apostles.^ Even after they had attained to
spiritual maturity, the twelve might use this form if they
pleased, and possibly they did occasionally use it ; but Jesus
expected that, by the time they came to be teachers in the

1 Jolin xvi. 24. ^ John xiv. 13.

3 Jeremy Taylor, in his Apology for Authorized and Set Forms of Liturgy,
makes no distinction between disciples and apostles. When the distinction is
attended to, much of his argument falls to the ground. Vid. §§ 86-112.

56 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

church, they should have outgrown the need of it as an aid
to devotion. Filled with the Spirit, enlarged in heart, mature
in spiritual understanding, they should then be able to pray
as their Lord had prayed when He was with them ; and
while the six petitions of the model prayer would still enter
into all their supplications at the throne of grace, they would
do so only as the alphabet of a language enters into the most
extended and eloquent utterances of a speaker, who never
thinks of the letters of which the words he utters are
composed.

In maintaining the provisional, pro teinipore character of
the Lord's prayer, so far as the twelve were concerned, we lay
no stress on the fact already adverted to, that it does not
end with the phrase, " for Christ's sake." That defect could
easily be supplied afterwards mentally or orally, and therefore
was no valid reason for disuse. The same remark applies to
our use of the prayer in question. To allow this form to
fall into desuetude merely because the customary concluding
plea is wanting, is as foolish on one side as the frequent
repetition of it is on the other. The Lord's prayer is neither
a piece of Deism unworthy of a Christian, nor a magic charm
like the " Paternoster" of Eoman Catholic devotion. The most
advanced believer will often find relief and rest to his spirit in
falling back on its simple, sublime sentences, while mentally
realizing the manifold particulars which each of them includes ;
and he is but a tyro in the art of praying, and in the divine
life generally, whose devotions consist exclusively, or even
mainly, in repeating the words which Jesus put into the
mouths of immature disciples.

Tlie view now advocated regarding the purpose of the Lord's
prayer is in harmony with the spirit of Christ's whole teaching.
Liturgical forms and religious methodism in general were much
more congenial to the strict ascetic school of the Baptist than
to the free school of Jesus. Our Lord evidently attached
little importance to forms of prayer, any more than to fixed
periodic fasts, else He would not have waited till He was
asked for a form, but would have made systematic provision
for the wants of His followers, even as the Baptist did, by, so
to speak, compiling a book of devotion or composing a liturgy.

TEACH US TO PRAY. 57

It is evident even from the present instructions on the subject
of praying, that Jesus considered the form He supplied of quite
subordinate importance : a mere temporary remedy for a minor
evil, the want of utterance, till the greater evil, the want of
faith, should be cured ; for the larger portion of the lesson is
devoted to the purpose of supplying an antidote to unbelief.

From the design of the Lord's prayer as now explained, we
jmay determine the proper place and use of all fixed forms of
devotion. Liturgical forms are for private rather than for
public use ; for those who are in the dumb, arid stage of the
spiritual life, rather than for those who have attained the power
and utterance of spiritual maturity. To the private use of
such forms by persons who desire to pray, yet cannot do it,
no reasonable objection can be taken. Advantage justifies use.
The less experienced Christian may ask the more experienced
to teach him to pray ; and the more experienced may reply,
" After this manner pray ye." If we may read and repeat the
sacred songs of Christian poets to find expression for emotions
which are common to us and them, but which we cannot, like
them, adequately express, why may we not read and repeat
the prayer of the saints for a similar purpose ? The superficial,
who have not earnestness and sincerity enough to know what
it is to stammer, may despise such aids as suited only for
children ; and those who are yet in the first flush of religious
fervour may turn away from written forms as cold and dead,
however classical. Well, let all do without such aids who
can; only the time may come, even for the fervent, when,
forsaken of emotion, deficient in experience, discouraged by
failure, disappointed in ardent youthful hopes, tormented by
speculative doubts concerning the utility and the reasonable-
ness of prayer coming over the soul like chill east winds in
the winter of its religious liistory, they may be very glad to
read over forms of devotion which, by their simplicity and
dignity, serve to inspire a sense of reality, and to produce a
soothing, sedative effect on their diseased, restless spirits. For
aU in such a plight, we plead that they shaU not be required
to remain prayerless, because they cannot for the time pray
without book.

When we pass from the closet to the church, the case is

58 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE,

altered. There we should find pastors capable of doing, each
one for his fellow- worshippers, what Christ did for His dis-
ciples, and of praying with the freedom and force to which
the disciples themselves afterwards attained. It may be
asserted, indeed, that this, though the desirable, is not the
actual state of matters. A recent writer, in advocating the
introduction of written forms of prayer into the Presbyterian
Church, says : " I feel persuaded that a verbatim report of all
the public prayers uttered in Scotland any one Sunday in the
year would settle the question for ever in the mind of every
person who was capable of forming a rational judgment on
such a matter." ^ It is to be hoped that this is an exaggerated
view of existing ministerial in-capacity ; but even granting its
accuracy, it is a question whether the remedy proposed would
not be worse than the evil, and the gain in propriety more
than counterbalanced by a loss in the more important quality'
of fervour. This much we may say, even if not disposed to
take up high ground of principle in opposition to liturgical
forms, but rather to concur in the moderate sentiments of
Eichard Baxter, when "he says : " I cannot be of their opinion
who think God will not accept him that prayeth by the
common Prayer-book, and that such forms are a self-invented
worship which God rejecteth ; nor yet can I be of their mind
that say the like of extemporary prayers." ^ In Baxter's time
religious controversy ran very high, and opposed views were
stated in extreme form. The Churchman derided the extem-
pore effusions of the Puritan ; the Puritan went so far in his
opposition to liturgical prayer, as even to maintain that the
Lord's prayer itself should never be repeated. Baxter, not
being a partisan, but a lover of truth, sympathized with neither
party, but regarded the question at issue as one of policy
rather than of principle, to be settled not by abstract reasoning,
but by a calm consideration of what on the whole was most
conducive to edification ; in which point of view his judgment
and his practice were both on the side of extempore prayer.

Looking at the question, with Baxter, as one of policy, we
are fuUy persuaded that the existing practice of Presbyterian

1 The Reform of the Church of Scotland, by Robert Lee, D.D., p. 76.

2 Baxter's Life, from his own origimil MS. , lib. i. part i. § 21 3.

TEACH US TO PRAY. 59

and other churches can be justified on such good grounds as
should make them contented, to say the least, with their own
way, and indisposed to imitate those whose way is different
in this matter. The ministers of religion, like the apostles,
ought to be able to dispense with liturgical forms ; and the
best way to secure that they shall possess such ability, is to
throw them on their own resources, and on God, and so convert
the ideal into a requirement applicable to all, making no pro-
vision for exceptions. The full benefit of a system cannot be
reached unless it is rigidly enforced ; and while such enforce-
ment may involve occasional disadvantages, the relaxation of
the rule would produce far greater damage to the church.
Allowance made for timidity, inexperience, or extraordinary
incapacity, would be abused by the indolent and the careless ;
and many would remain permanently in a state similar to
that of the disciples, who, if compelled to stir up the gift of
God which is in them, or to seek earnestly gifts and graces
not possessed, might ere long attain to apostolic freedom and
power !

The same remarks might be applied to preaching. In indi-
vidual instances, congregations might benefit by the preacher
being allowed to use foreign materials of instruction ; but
under such a permission, how many would content themselves
with reading sermons out of books, or from manuscripts pur-
chased at so much per dozen, who, under a system aiming at
turnincf to the utmost account individual talent, and therefore
requiring all teachers of truth to give their hearers the benefit
of their own thoughts, would through practice attain to a fair
measure of preaching power.

On the whole, therefore, the Presbyterian Clmrch has every
reason to be satisfied with its existing system of public
worship. The aim and effect of the liturgical system is to
make the mass of worshippers as independent as possible of
the individual minister ; the aim and effect of our system is
to make individual ministers as valuable as possible to the
worshippers, for their instruction and edification. The one
system may secure a uniform solemnity and decency ; but the
other system tends to secure the more important qualities of
fervour, energy, and life ; and we believe, whatever fastidious

60 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

critics may allege, it does in tlie main secure them. At lowest,
the non-liturgical method secures that the worship of the
church shall be a true reflection of her life, and therefore,
however beggarly, at least sincere. Men who preach their
own sermons, and pray their own prayers, are more likely to
preach and pray as they believe and live, than those who
merely read compositions provided to their hand.

The second part of this lesson on prayer is intended to
convey the same moral as that which is prefixed to the parable
of the unjust judge, — " that men ought always to pray, and
not to faint." The supposed cause of fainting is also the
same, even delay on the part of God in answering our
prayers. This is not, indeed, made so obvious in the earlier
lesson as in the later. The parable of the ungenerous
neighbour is not adapted to convey the idea of long delay ;
for the favour asked, if granted at all, must be granted in a
very few minutes. But the lapse of time between the pre-
senting and the granting of our requests is implied and
presupposed as a matter of course. It is by delay that God
seems to say to us what the ungenerous neighbour said to his
friend, and that we are tempted to think that we pray to no
purpose.

Both the parables spoken by Christ to inculcate perseverance
in prayer seek to effect their purpose by showing the power
of importunity in the most unpromising circumstances. The
characters appealed to are both bad — one is ungenerous, and
the other unjust ; and from neither is anything to be gained,
except by working on his selfishness. And the point of the
parable in either case is, that importunity has a power of
annoyance, which enables it to gain its object.

It is important again to observe what is supposed to be the
leading subject of prayer in connection with the argument
now to be considered. The thing upon wliich Christ assumes
His disciples to have set their hearts is personal sanctification.^
This appears from the concluding sentence of the discourse :
" How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask Him !" Jesus takes for granted that

1 The supposed subject of prayer in Luke xviii. is the general interest of the
divine kingdom on the earth.

TEACH US TO PRAY. 61

the persons to whom He addresses Himself here seek first the
kingdom of God and His rigliteousness. Therefore, thougli He
inserted a petition for daily bread in the form of prayer, He
drops that object out of view in the latter part of His dis-
course ; both because it is by hypothesis not the chief object
of desire, and also because, for all who truly give God's
kingdom the first place in their regards, food and raiment are
thrown into the bargain.

To such as do not desire the Holy Spirit above all things,
Jesus has nothing to say. He does not encourage them to
hope that they shall receive anything of the Lord ; least of
all, the righteousness of the kingdom, personal sanctification.
He regards the prayers of a double-minded man, who has two
chief ends in view, as a hollow mockery : — mere words, which
never reach Heaven's ear.

The supposed cause of fainting being delay, and the sup-
posed object of desire being the Holy Spirit, the spiritual
situation contemplated in the argument is definitely deter-
mined. The Teacher's aim is to succour and encourage those
who feel that the work of grace goes slowly on within them,
and wonder why it does so, and sadly sigh because it does so.
Such we conceive to have been the state of the twelve when
this lesson was given them. They had been made painfully
conscious of incapacity to perform aright their devotional
duties, and they took that incapacity to be an index of their
general spiritual condition, and were much depressed in con-
sequence.

The argument by which Jesus sought to inspire His dis-
couraged disciples with hope and confidence as to the ultimate
fulfilment of their desires, is characterized by boldness, geni-
ality, wisdom, and logical force. Its boldness is evinced in
the choice of illustrations. Jesus has such confidence in the
goodness of His cause, that He states the case as disadvan-
tageously for Himself as possible, by selecting for illustration
not good samples of men, but persons rather below than above
the ordinary standard of human virtue. A man who, on
being applied to at any hour of the night by a neighbour for
help in a real emergency, such as that supposed in the parable,
or in a case of sudden sickness, should put him off with such

62 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

an answer as this, " Trouble me not, the door is now shut,
and my children are with me in bed : I cannot rise and give
thee," would justly incur the contempt of his acquaintances,
and become a byword among them for all that is ungenerous
and heartless. The same readiness to take an extreme case
is observable in the second argument, drawn from the conduct
of fathers towards their children. " If a son shall ask bread
of any of you" — so it begins. Jesus does not care what
father may be selected ; He is willing to take any one they
please ; He will take the very worst as readily as the best ;
nay, more readily, for the argument turns not on the good-
ness of the parent, but rather on his want of goodness, as it
aims to show that no special goodness is required to keep
all parents from doing what would be an outrage on natural
affection, and revolting to the feelings of all mankind.

The genial, kindly character of the argument is manifest,
from the insight and sympathy displayed therein. Jesus
divines what hard thoughts men think of God under the
burden of unfulfilled desire ; how they doubt His goodness,
and deem Him indifferent, heartless, unjust. He shows His
intimate knowledge of their secret imaginations by the cases He
puts ; for the unkind friend and unnatural father, and we may
add, the unjust judge, are pictures not indeed of what God is,
or of what He would have us believe God to be, but certainly
of what even pious men sometimes think Him to be.^ And
He can not only divine, but sympathize. He does not, like
Job's friends, find fault with those who harbour doubting and
apparently profane thoughts, nor chide them for impatience,
distrust, and despondency. He deals with them as men
compassed with infirmity, and needing sympathy, counsel, and
help. And in supplying these. He comes down to their level
of feeling, and tries to show that, even if things were as they
seem, there is no cause for despair. He argues from their
own thoughts of God, that they should still hope in Him.
" Suppose," He says in effect, " God to be what you fancy, indif-
ferent and heartless, still pray on : see, in the case I put, what
perseverance can effect. Ask as the man who wanted loaves
asked, and ye also shall receive from Him who seems at present
1 See tlie book of Job. fassim, and Ps. Ixxiii., Ixxvii., etc.

TEACH US TO PEAY. 63

deaf to your petitions. Appearances, I grant, may be very
unfavourable, but they cannot be more so in your case than
in that of the petitioner in the parable ; and yet you observe
how he fared, through not being too easily disheartened."

Jesus succours the tempted in this argument with such deep
fellow-feeling as among other men is attainable only by those
who have themselves experienced temptation. Can He, too,
have been tempted like as we are with doubts concerning the
hearing of His prayers ? Yes ; here, as in so many other
respects, He was like unto His brethren. He had to live by
faith as other men, and He knew what it was to wait ; and in
the days of His flesh, when He was passing through His cur-
riculum of temptation and suffering, He prayed as one whose
patience was sorely tried, even with strong crying and tears.

Jesus displays His wisdom in dealing with the doubts of
His disciples, by avoiding all elaborate explanations of the
causes or reasons of delay in the answering of prayer, and
using only arguments adapted to the capacity of persons weak
in faith and in spiritual understanding. He does not attempt
to show why sanctification is a slow, tedious work, not a
momentary act : why the Spirit is given gradually and in
limited measure, not at once and without measure. He
simply urges His hearers to persevere in seeking the Holy
Spirit, assuring them, in spite of trying delay, their desires
will be fulfilled in the end. He teaches them no philosophy
of waiting on God, but only tells them that they shall not
wait in vain.

This method the Teacher followed not from necessity, but
from choice. For though no attempt was made at explaining
divine delays in providence and grace, it was not because ex-
planation was impossible. There were many things which
Christ might have said to His disciples at this time, if they
could have borne them ; some of which they afterwards said
themselves, when the Spirit of Truth had come, and guided
them into all truth, and made them acquainted with the secret
of God's way. He might have pointed out to them, e.g., that
the delays of which they complained were according to the
analogy of nature, in which gradual growth is the universal
law ; that time was needed for the production of the ripe

64 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

fruits of tlie Spirit, just in the same way as for tlie production
of the ripe fruits of the field or of the orchard ; that it was
not to be wondered at if the spiritual fruits were peculiarly
slow in ripening, as it was a law of growth, that the higher the
product in the scale of being, the slower the process by which
it is produced. ;^ that a momentary sanctification, though not
impossible, would be as much a miracle in the sense of a
departure from law, as was the immediate transformation of
water into wine at the marriage in Cana ; that if instantaneous
sanctification were the rule instead of the rare exception, the
kingdom of grace would become too like the imaginary worlds
of children's dreams, in which trees, fruits, and palaces spring
into being full-grown, ripe, and furnished, in a moment as by
enchantment, and too unlike the real actual world with which
men are conversant, in which delay, growth, and fixed law are
invariable characteristics.

Jesus might further have sought to reconcile His disciples
to delay by descanting on the virtue of patience. Much
could be said on that topic. It could be shown that a
character cannot be perfect in which the virtue of patience has
no place, and that the gradual method of sanctification is best
adapted for its development, as affording abundant scope for
its exercise. It might be pointed out how much the ultimate
enjoyment of any good thing is enhanced by its having to
be waited for ; how in proportion to the trial is the triumph
of faith ; how, in the quaint words of one who was taught
wisdom in this matter by his own experience, and by the times
in which he lived, " It is fit we see and feel the shaping and
sewing of every piece of the wedding garment, and the framing
and moulding and fitting of the crown of glory for the head
of the citizen of heaven ;" how " the repeated sense and
frequent experience of grace in the ups and downs in the way,
the falls and risings again of the traveller, the revolutions and
changes of the spiritual condition, the new moon, the darkened
moon, the full moon in the Spirit's ebbing and flowing, raiseth
in the heart of saints on their way to the country a sweet
smell of the fairest rose and lily of Sharon ;" how, " as

' This idea is well worked out in a sermon by H. W. Beecher on " Waiting
for the Lord." Sermons, vol. i.

TEACH US TO PRAY. 65

travellers at night talk of tlieir foul ways, and of the praises
of their guide, and battle being ended, soldiers number their
wounds, extol the valour, skill, and courage of their leader
and captain," so " it is meet that the glorified soldiers may take
loads of experience of free grace to heaven with them, and
there speak of their way and their country, and the praises of
Him that hath redeemed them out of all nations, tongues, and
languages." ^

Such considerations, however just, would have been wasted
on men in the spiritual condition of the disciples. Children
have no sympathy with growth in any world, whether of
nature or of grace. Nothing pleases them but that an acorn
should become an oak at once, and that immediately after
the blossom should come the ripe fruit. Then it is idle to
speak of the uses of patience to the inexperienced ; for the
moral value of the discipline of trial cannot be appreciated
till the trial is past. Therefore, as before stated, Jesus
abstained entirely from reflections of the kind suggested, and
adopted a simple, popular style of reasoning, which even a
child could understand.

The reasoning of Jesus, while very simple, is very cogent
and conclusive. The first argument — that contained in the
parable of the ungenerous neighbour — is fitted to inspire hope
in God even in the darkest hour, when He appears indiffe-
rent to our cry, or positively unwilling to help ; and so to
induce us to persevere in asking. " As the man who wanted
the loaves knocked on louder and louder, with an impor-
tunity that knew no shame ^ and would take no refusal, and
thereby gained his object, the selfish friend being glad at last
to get up and serve him out of sheer regard to his own com-
fort, it being simply impossible to sleep with such a noise ;
so (such is the drift of the argument), so continue thou knock-
ing at the door of heaven, and thou shalt obtain thy desire if
it were only to be rid of thee. See in this parable what a
power importunity has, even at a most unpromising time —
midnight — and with a most unpromising person, who prefers
his own comfort to a neighbour's good : ask, therefore, persist-

1 Samuel Rutherford, Trial and Triumijh of Faith, Sermon xviii.
^ The Greek word is coiaihiav = shamelessness.

66 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

ently, and it shall be given unto you also ; seek, and ye shall
find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

At one point, indeed, this most pathetic and sympathetic
argument seems to be weak. The petitioner in the parable
had the selfish friend in his power, by being able to annoy
him and keep him from sleeping. Now the tried desponding
disciple whom Jesus would comfort may rejoin : " What
power have I to annoy God, who dwelleth on high, far be-
yond my reach, in imperturbable felicity ? ' Oh that I knew
where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat !
But, behold, I go forward, but He is not there ; and backward,
but I cannot perceive Him : on the left hand, where He doth
work, but I cannot behold Him : He hideth Himself on the
right hand, that I cannot see Him.' "

The objection is one which can hardly fail to occur to the
subtle spirit of despondency, and it must be admitted that it
is not frivolous. There is really a failure of the analogy at
this point. We can annoy a man, like the ungenerous neigh-
bour in bed, or the unjust judge, but we cannot annoy God.
The parable does not suggest the true explanation of divine
delay, or of the ultimate success of importunity. It merely
proves, by a homely instance, that delay, apparent refusal,
from whatever cause it may arise, is not necessarily final, and
therefore can be no good reason for giving up asking.

This is a real if not a great service rendered. But the
doubting disciple, besides discovering with characteristic acute-
ness what the parable fails to prove, may not be able to ex-
tract any comfort from what it does prove. What is he to
do then ? Fall back on the strong asseveration with which
Jesus follows up the parable : " And / say unto you." Here,
0 doubter, thou hast an oracular dictum from One who can
speak with authority ; One who has been in the bosom of the
eternal God, and has come forth to reveal His inmost heart to
men groping in the darkness of nature after Him, if haply they
might find Him. When He addresses us in such emphatic,
solemn terms as these, " I say unto you. Ask, and it shall be
given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be
opened unto you," we may take the matter on His word, at
least pv tempore. Even philosophers who doubt the reason-

TEACH US TO PEAY. 67

ableness of prayer, because of the constancy of nature's laws and
the unchangeableness of divine purposes, might, without com-
promising their dignity, take Christ's word for it that prayer
is not vain, until they arrive at greater certainty on the
subject than they can at present pretend to. They may, if
they choose, despise the parable as childish, or as conveying
crude anthropopathic ideas of the Divine Being, but they can-
not despise the deliberate declarations of One whom even they
regard as the wisest and best of men.

The second argument employed by Jesus to urge persever-
ance in prayer is of the nature of a reductio ad dbsurdum,
ending with a conclusion a fortiori. " If," it is reasoned,
" God refused to hear His children's prayers, or, worse still, if
He mocked them by giving them something bearing a super-
ficial resemblance to the things asked, only to cause bitter
disappointment when the deception was discovered, then were
He not only as bad as, but far worse than, even the most
depraved of mankind. For, take fathers at random, wliich of
them, if a son were to ask bread, would give him a stone ? or
if he asked a fish, would give him a serpent ? or if he asked
an egg, would offer him a scorpion ? The very supposition is
monstrous. Human nature is largely vitiated by moral evil :
there is, in particular, an evil spirit of selfishness in the heart
which comes into conflict with the generous affections, and leads
men ofttimes to do base and unnatural things. But men taken
at the average are not diabolic ; and nothing short of a diabolic
spirit of mischief could prompt a father to mock a cliild's
misery, or deliberately to give him things fraught with deadly
harm. If, then, earthly parents, though evil in many of their
dispositions, give good, and, so far as they know, only good
gifts to their children, and would shrink with horror from any
other mode of treatment, is it to be credited that the Divine
Being, that Providence, can do what only devils would think
of doing ? On the contrary, what is only barely possible for
man, is for God altogether impossible ; and what all but
monsters of iniquity will not fail to do, God wiU do much
more. He will most surely give good gifts, and only good
gifts, to His asking children ; most especially will He give
His best gift, which His true children desire above all things.

68 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

even the Holy Spirit, the enlightener and the sanctifier.
Therefore again I say unto you : Ask, and ye shall receive ;
seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened."

Yet it is implied in the very fact that Christ puts such
cases as a stone given for bread, a serpent for a fish, or a
scorpion for an egg, that God seems at least sometimes so to
treat His children. The time came when the twelve thought
they had been so treated in reference to the very subject
in which they were most deeply interested, after their own
personal sanctification, viz. the restoration of the kingdom to
Israel. But their experience illustrates the general truth, that
when the Hearer of prayer seems to deal unnaturally with His
servants, it is because they have made a mistake about the
nature of good, and have not known what they asked. They
have asked for a stone, thinking it bread, and hence the true
bread seems a stone ; for a shadow, thinking it a substance,
and hence the substance seems a shadow. The kingdom for
which the twelve prayed was a shadow, hence their dis-
appointment and despair when Jesus was put to death : the
egg of hope, which their fond imagination had been hatching,
brought forth the scorpion of the cross, and they fancied that
God had mocked and deceived them. But they lived to see
that God was true and good, and that they had deceived
themselves, and that all which Christ had told them had been
fulfilled. And all who wait on God ultimately make a simi-
lar discovery, and unite in testifying that " the Lord is good
unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him."

For these reasons should all men pray, and not faint.
Prayer is rational, even if the Divine Being were like men in
the average, not indisposed to do good, when self-interest does not
stand in the way, — the creed of heathenism. It is still more
manifestly rational if, as Christ taught and Christians believe,
God be better than the best of men — the one supremely good
Being — the Father in heaven. Only in either of two cases
would prayer really be irrational : if God were no living being
at all, — the creed of atheists, with whom Christ holds no argu-
ment; or if He were a being capable of doing things from
which even bad men would start back in horror, i.e. a being of
diabolic nature, — the creed, it is to be hoped, of no human being.

CHAPTEE VII.

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING.

Section i. — Fasting.

Matt. ix. 14-17 ; Mark ii. 16-22 ; Luke v. 33-39.

WE have learnt in the last chapter how Jesus taught His
disciples to pray, and we are now to learn in the
present chapter how He taught them to live.

Christ's ratio vivendi was characteristically simple ; its
main features being a disregard of minute mechanical rules,
and a habit of falling back in all things on the great principles
of morality and piety.

The practical carrying out of this rule of life led to con-
siderable divergence from prevailing custom. In three re-
spects especially, according to the Gospel records, were our
Lord and His disciples chargeable, and actually charged, with
the offence of nonconformity. They departed from existing
practice in the matters of fasting, ceremonial purifications as
prescribed by the elders, and Sabbath sanctification. The
first they neglected for the most part, the second altogether ;
the third they did not neglect, but their mode of observing
the weekly rest was in spirit totally, and in detail widely,
diverse from that which was in vogue.

These divergences from established custom are historically
interesting, as the small beginnings of a great moral and reli-
gious revolution. For in teaching His disciples these new
habits, Jesus was inaugurating a process of spiritual emanci-
pation which was to issue in the complete deliverance of the
apostles, and through them of the Christian church, from the
burdensome yoke of Mosaic ordinances, and from the still
more galling bondage of a "vain conversation received by
tradition from the fathers."

70 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

The divergences in question have much biographical in-
terest also in connection with the religious experience of the
twelve. For it is a solemn crisis in any man's life when he
first departs in the most minute particulars from the religious
opinions and practices of his age. The first steps in the pro-
cess of change are generally the most difficult, the most
perilous, and the most decisive. In these respects, learning
spiritual freedom is like learning to swim. Every expert in
the aquatic art remembers the troubles he experienced in
connection with his first attempts : how hard he found it to
make arms and legs keep stroke ; how he floundered and
plunged ; how fearful he was, lest he should go beyond his
depth and sink to the bottom. At these early fears he may
now smile, yet were they not altogether groundless ; for the
tyro does run some risk of drowning, though the bathing-
place be but a small pool or dam built by schoolboys on a
burn flowing through an inland dell, remote from broad rivers
and the great sea.

It is weU both for young swimmers and for apprentices in
religious freedom, that they make their first essays in the
company of an experienced friend, who can rescue them should
they be in danger. Such a friend the twelve had in Clirist,
whose presence was not only a safeguard against all inward
spiritual risks, but a shield from all assaults which might
come upon them from without. Such assaults were to be
expected. Nonconformity invariably gives offence to many,
and exposes the offending party to interrogation at least, and
often to something more serious. Custom is a god to the
, multitude, and no one can withhold homage from the idol
with impunity. The twelve accordingly did in fact incur the
usual penalties connected with singularity. Their conduct
was called in question, and censured, in every instance of
departure from use and wont. Had they been left to them-
selves, they would have made a poor defence of the actions
impugned ; for they did not understand the principles on
which the new practice was based, but simply did as they
were directed. But in Jesus they had a friend who did
understand those principles, and who was ever ready to assign
good reasons for aU He did Himself, and for all He taught

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : FASTING. 71

His followers to do. The reasons with which He defended
the twelve against the upholders of prevailing usage were
specially good and telling ; and they constitute, taken to-
gether, an apology for nonconformity not less remarkable than
that which He made for graciously receiving publicans and
sinners, consisting, like it, of three lines of defence, corre-
sponding to the charges which had to be met. That apology
we propose to consider in the present chapter under three
divisions, in the first of which we take up the subject of
fasting.

From Matthew's account we learn that the conduct of
Christ's disciples in neglecting fasting was animadverted on
by the disciples of John the Baptist. " Then," we read,
" came to Him the disciples of John" — those, that is, who hap-
pened to be in the neighbourhood — " saying, Why do we and
the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not ? " ^ From
this question we learn incidentally, that in the matter of fast-
ing the school of the Baptist and the sect of the Pharisees
were agreed in their general practice. It was a case of ex-
tremes meeting ; for no two religious parties could be more
remote in some respects than the two just named. But the
difference lay rather in the motives than in the external acts
of their religious life. Both did the same tilings — fasted,
practised ceremonial ablutions, made many prayers — only they
did them with a different mind. John and his disciples per-
formed their religious duties in simplicity, godly sincerity,
and moral earnestness ; the Pharisees, as a class, did all
their works ostentatiously, hypocritically, and as matters of
mechanical routine.

Prom the same question we further learn that the disciples
of John, as well as the Pharisees, were very zealous in the
practice of fasting. They fasted oft, mucli (irvKva, Luke ;
TToWa, Matthew). This statement we otherwise know to be
strictly true of such Pharisees as made great pretensions to
piety. Besides the annual fast on the great day of atone-
ment appointed by the law of Moses, and the four fasts which
had become customary in the time of the prophet Zechariah,

^ Matt. ix. 1 4. From Mark and Luke it might be inferred that some Phari-
sees were joint-interrogators ; but it is not asserted, neither is it likely.

72 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months of the Jewish
year, the stricter sort of Jews fasted twice every week, viz.
on Mondays and Thursdays.^ This bi-weekly fast is alluded
to in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican.^ It is not
to be assumed, of course, that the practice of the Baptist's
disciples coincided in this respect with that of the strictest
sect of the pharisaic party. Their system of fasting may have
been organized on an independent plan, involving different
arrangements as to times and occasions. The one fact known,
which rests on the certain basis of their own testimony, is
that, like the Pharisees, John's disciples fasted often, if not
on precisely the same days and for the same reasons.

It does not clearly appear what feelings prompted the
question put by John's disciples to Jesus. It is not impos-
sible that party spirit was at work, for rivahy and jealousy
were not unknown even in the environment of the fore-
runner.^ In that case, the reference to pharisaic practice
might be explained by a desire to overwhelm the disciples of
Jesus by numbers, and put them, as it were, in a hopeless
minority on the question. It is more likely, however, that
the uppermost feeling in the mind of the interrogators was
one of surprise, that in respect of fasting they should approach
nearer to a sect whose adherents were stigmatized by their
own master as a " generation of vipers," than to the followers
of One for whom that master cherished and expressed the
deepest veneration. In that case, the o])ject of the question
was to obtain information and instruction. It accords with
this view that the query was addressed to Jesus. Had dis-
putation been aimed at, the questioners would have applied
to the disciples.

If John's followers came seeking instruction, they were not
disappointed. Jesus made a reply to their question, remark-
able at once for originality, point, and pathos, setting forth in
lively parabolic style the great principles by which the con-
duct of His disciples could be vindicated, and by which He
desired the conduct of all who bore His name to be regulated.
Would that the church thoroughly understood and habitually

' See Buxtorf, de Synagoga Judaica, c. xxx. ; also Zocli. viii. 19.
* Luke xviii. 12. ^ John iii. 26.

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : FASTING. 73

acted on the deep truths to which her Lord at this time gave
utterance !

Of this reply it is to be observed, in the first place, that it is
of a purely defensive character. Jesus does not blame John's
disciples for fasting, but contents Himself with defending His
own disciples for abstaining from fasting. He does not feel
called on to disparage the one party in order to justify the
other, but takes up the position of one who virtually says :
" To fast may be right for you, 0 ye followers of John ; not
to fast is equally right for my followers." How grateful to
Christ's feelings it must have been, that He could assume this
tolerant attitude on a question in which the name of John
was mixed up ! For He had a deep respect for the forerunner
and his work, and ever spake of him in most generous terms
of appreciation ; now calling him a burning and a shining
lamp,^ and at another time declaring him not only a prophet,
but something more.^ And we may remark in passing, that John
reciprocated these kindly feelings, and had no sympathy with
the petty jealousies in which his disciples sometimes indulged.
The two great ones, both of them censured for different rea-
sons by their degenerate contemporaries, ever spoke of each
other to their disciples and to the public in terms of affec-
tionate respect ; the lesser light magnanimously confessing his
inferiority, the greater magnifying the worth of His humble fel-
low-servant. What a refreshing contrast have we here to the
mean passions of envy, prejudice, and detraction so prevalent
in other quarters, under whose malign influence men, of whom
better things might have been expected, spoke of John as a
madman, and of Jesus as immoral and profane ! ^

Passing from the manner to the matter of the reply, we
notice that, for the purpose of vindicating His disciples, Jesus
availed Himself of a metaphor suggested by certain memor-
able words uttered concerning Himself at an earlier period
by the master of those who now examined Him. To certain
disciples who complained that men were leaving him and
going to Jesus, John had said in effect : " Jesus is the Bride-
groom, I am but the Bridegroom's friend ; therefore it is right
that men should leave me and join Jesus." ^ Jesus now takes

^ John V. 35. 2 Matt. xi. 7-15. 3 Matt. xi. 16, 19. * Jolin iii. 29.

74 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

up the Baptist's words, and turns them to account for the
purpose of defending the way of life pursued by His disciples.
His reply, freely paraphrased, is to this effect : " I am the
Bridegroom, as your master said ; it is right that the children
of the bride-chamber come to me ; and it is also right that,
when they have come, they should adapt their mode of life to
their altered circumstances. Therefore they do well not to
fast, for fasting is the expression of sadness, and how should
they be sad in my company ? As well might men be sad at
a marriage festival. The days will come when the children
of the bride-chamber shall be sad, for the Bridegroom will not
always be with them ; and at the dark hour of His departure
it will be natural and seasonable for them to fast, for then
they shall be in a fasting mood — weeping, lamenting, sorrow-
ful, and disconsolate."

The principle underlying this graphic representation is, that
fasting should not be a matter of fixed mechanical rule, but
should have reference to the state of mind ; or more definitely,
that men should fast when they are sad, or in a state of mind
akin to sadness — absorbed, preoccupied — as at some great
solemn crisis in the life of an individual or a community,
such as that in the history of Peter, when he was exercised
on the great question of the admission of the Gentiles to
the church, or such as that in the history of the Christian
community at Antioch, when they were about to ordain the
first missionaries to the heathen world. Christ's doctrine,
clearly and distinctly indicated here, is that fasting in any
other circumstances is forced, unnatural, unreal ; a thing
which'men may be made to do as a matter of form, but which
they do not with their heart and soul. " Can ye make the
children of the bride-chamber fast while the bridegroom is with
them ? " ^ He asked, virtually asserting that it was impossible.

By this rule the disciples of our Lord were justified, and
yet John's were not condemned. It was natural for them to
fast, for they were mournful, melancholy, unsatisfied. They
had not found Him who was the Desire of all nations, the
Hope of the future, the Bridegroom of the soul. They only
knew that all was wrong ; and in their querulous, despairing

' Luke V. 34 : f/,ri ^iraa-h . . . ^oinirai vrifTivnt.

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : FASTING. 75

mood^ tliey took pleasure in fasting, and wearing coarse
raiment, and frequenting lonely, desolate regions, living as
hermits, a joractical protest against an ungodly age. Men in
such a mood could not do otherwise than fast ; though whether
they did well to continue in that mood after the Bridegroom
had come, and had been announced to them as such by their
own master, is another matter. Their grief was wilful, idle,
causeless, when He had appeared who was to take away the
sin of the world.

Jesus had yet more to say in reply to the questions ad-
dressed to Him. Things new and unusual need manifold
apology, and therefore to the beautiful similitude of the
children of the bride-chamber He added two other equally
suggestive parables : those, viz., of the neiv 2^<^ic^^ on the old
garment, and the new wine in old hottlcs. The design of these
parables is much the same with that of the first part of
His reply, viz. to enforce the Imu of congruity in relation
to fasting and similar matters ; that is, to show that in all
voluntary religious service, where we are free to regulate our
own conduct, the outward act should be made to correspond
with the inward condition of mind, and that no attempt
should be made to force particular acts or habits on men with-
out reference to that correspondence. " In natural things,"
Jesus would say, " we observe this law of congruity. No
man putteth a piece of unfulled cloth ^ on an old garment.
Neither do men put new wine into old skins, and that not
merely out of regard to propriety, but to avoid bad conse-
quences. For if the rule of congruity be neglected, the patched
garment will be torn by the contraction of the new cloth" ;^ and
the old skin bottles will burst under the fermenting force of
the new liquor, and the wine will be spilled and lost."

The old cloth and old bottles in these metaphors represent
old ascetic fashions in relifrion ; the new cloth and the new

^ Matt. ix. 16, paKOVS a,yva.(pov.

2 Luke V. 36 gives the thought a different turn. The cloth is merely new
(xa/vov), and two objections to patching are hinted at. First, good cloth is
wasted in patching, which would have been better employed in making a
new garment. Second, the patchwork is unseemly and unsatisfactory. The
old and the new don't agree {oh irviJ.(puvu).

76 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

wine represent the new jojrful life in Christ, not possessed
by those who tenaciously adhered to the old fashions. The
parables were applied primarily to Christ's own age, but they
admit of application to all transition epochs ; indeed, they find
new niustration in almost every generation.

The force of these homely parables as arguments in vindi-
cation of departure from current usage in matters of religion,
may be evaded in either of two ways. First, their relevancy
may be denied ; i.e. it may be denied that religious beliefs are
of such a nature as to demand congenial modes of expression,
with penalties if the demand is not complied with. This
position is usually assumed virtually or openly by the patrons
of use and wont. Conservative minds have for the most part
a very inadequate conception of the vital force of belief.
Their own belief, their spiritual life altogether, is often a feeble
thing, and they imagine tameness or pliancy must be an attri-
bute of other men's faith also. Nothing but dire experience
will conviuce them that they are mistaken; and when the
proof comes in the shape of an irrepressible revolutionary
outburst, they are stupefied with amazement. Such men learn
nothing from the history of previous generations ; for they
persist in thinking that their own case will be an exception.
Hence the vis inertice of established custom evermore insists
on adherence to what is old, till the new wine proves its
power by producing an explosion needlessly wasteful, by which
both wine and bottles often perish, and energies which might
have quietly ^vrought out a beneficent reformation are perverted
into blind powers of indiscriminate destruction.

Or, in the second place, the relevancy of these metaphors
being admitted in general terms, it may be denied that a new
wine (to borrow the form of expression from the second, more
suggestive metaphor) has come into existence. This was vir-
tually the attitude assumed by the Pharisees towards Christ.
" What have you brought," they asked Him iu effect, " to
your disciples, that they cannot live as others do, but must
needs invent new religious habits for themselves ? This new
life of which you boast is either a vain pretence, or an illegi-
timate, spurious tiling, not worthy of toleration, and the waste
of which would be no matter for resret." Similar was the

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : FASTING. V7

attitude assumed towards Luther by the opponents of the Ee-
formation. They said to him in effect : " If this new revelation
of yours, that sinners are justified by faith alone, w^ere ttue, we
admit that it would involve very considerable modification in
religious opinion, and many alterations in religious practice.
But we deny the truth of your doctrine, we regard the peace
and comfort you find in it as a hallucination ; and therefore we
insist that you return to the time-honoured faith, and then you
will have no difficulty in acquiescing in the long-established
practice." The same thing happens to a greater or less extent
every generation ; for new wine is always in course of being
produced by the eternal vine of truth, demanding in some
particulars of belief and practice new bottles for its preserva-
tion, and receiving for answer an order to be content with
the old ones.

Without going the length of denunciation or direct attempt
at suppression, those who stand by the old often oppose the
new by the milder method of disparagement. They eulogize
the venerable past, and contrast it with the present, to the
disadvantage of the latter. " The old wine," say they, " is
vastly superior to the new wine : how meUow, mild, fragrant,
wholesome, the one ! how harsh and fiery the other !" Those
who say so are not the worst of men : they are often the best ;
the men of taste and feeling, the gentle, the reverent, and the
good, who are themselves excellent samples of the old vintage.
Their opposition forms by far the most formidable obstacle to
the public recognition and toleration of what is new in religious
life ; for it naturally creates a strong prejudice against any
cause when the saintly disapprove of it.

Observe, then, how Christ answers the honest admirers of
the old wine. He concedes the point ; He admits that their
preference is natural. " No man," Luke represents Him as
saying, in the conclusion of His reply to the disciples of the
Baptist, " no man also, having drunk old wine, straightway
desireth the new ; for he saith. The old is better." This strik-
ing sentiment exhibits rare candour in stating the case of
opponents, and not less rare modesty and tact in stating the
case of friends. It is as if Jesus had said : " I do not wonder
that you love the old wine of Jewish piety, fruit of a very

78 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

ancient vintage ; or even that you dote upon the very bottles
which contain it, covered over with the dust and cobwebs of
ages. But what then ? Do men object to the existence of
new wine, or refuse to have it in their possession, because
the old is superior in flavour ? No ; they drink the old, but
they carefully preserve the new, knowing that the old will get
exhausted, and that the new, however harsh, will mend with
age, and may ultimately be superior even in flavour to that
which is in present use. Even so should you deal with the
new wine of my kingdom. You may not straightway desire
it, because it is strange and novel ; but surely you might act
more wisely with it than merely to spurn it, or spill and
destroy it !"

Oh that patrons of old ways understood Christ's wisdom,
and that patrons of new ways sympathized with His charity !
A celebrated historian has remarked : " It must make a man
wretched, if, when on the threshold of old age, he looks on the
rising generation with uneasiness, and does not rather rejoice
in beholding it ; and yet this is very common with old men,
Fabius would rather have seen Hannibal unconquered, than
see his own fame obscured by Scipio."^ There are always too
many Fabii in the world, who are annoyed because things will
not remain stationary, and because new ways and new men
are ever rising up to take the place of the old.

How rare, on the other hand, is Christ's charity among the
advocates of progress ! Those who affect freedom despise the
stricter sort as fanatics and bigots, and drive on changes with-
out regard to their scruples, and without any appreciation of
the excellent qualities of the " old wine." When will young
men and old men, liberals and conservatives, broad Christians
and narrow, learn to bear with one another ; yea, to recognise
each in the other the necessary complement of his own one-
sidedness ?

* Niebulir, Lectures on Roman History, vol. ii. pp. 77, 78.

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : KITUAL ABLUTIONS. 79

Section ii. — Ritual Ablutions.-
Matt. xv. 1-20 ; Mark vii. 1-23 ; Luke xi. 37-41.

The happy free society of Jesus, which kept bridal high-tide
when others fasted, was in this further respect singular in its
manners, that its members took their meals unconcerned about
existing usages of purification. They ate bread with " defiled,
that is to say, with unwashen hands." Such was their custom,
it may be assumed, from the beginning, though the practice
does not appear to have become the subject of animadversion
till an advanced period in the ministry of our Lord,^ at least
in a way that gave rise to incidents worthy of notice in the
Gospel records. Even at the marriage in Cana, where were
set six water-pots of stone for the purposes of purifying,
Christ and His disciples are to be conceived as distinguished
from the other guests by a certain inattention to ritual ablu-
tions. This we infer from the reasons by which the neglect
was defended when it was impugned, which virtually take up
the position, that the practice condemned was not only lawful,
but incumbent, — a positive duty in the actual circumstances
of Jewish society, and therefore, of course, a duty wliich could
at no time be neglected by those who desired to please God
rather than men. But indeed it needs no proof that one of
such grave earnest spirit as Jesus could never have paid any
regard to the trifling regulations about washing before eating,
invented by the " elders."

These regulations were no trifles in the eyes of the Phari-
sees ; and therefore we are not surprised to learn, that the
indifference with which they were treated by Jesus and the
twelve provoked the censure of that zealous sect of religionists
on at least two occasions, both adverted to in the Gospel nar-
ratives. On one of these occasions, certain Pharisees and
scribes, who had followed Christ from Jerusalem to the north,
seeing some of His disciples eat without previously going
through the customary ceremonial ablutions, came to Him, and
asked, " Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradi-
^ During tlie last stay in Galilee, within six months of the crucifixion.

80 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

tions of the elders, but eat bread with imwashen hands ?"^
In the other instance, Jesus Himself was the direct object of
censure. " A certain Pharisee," Luke relates, " besought Jesus
to dine with him ; and He went in, and sat (directly) down
to meat : and when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that He
had not first washed before dinner." ^ Whether the host ex-
pressed his surprise by words or by looks only, is not stated ;
but it was observed by his guest, and was made an occasion
for exposing the vices of the pharisaic character. " 'Now"
said the accused, in holy zeal for true purity, " now do ye
Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but
your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools,
did not He that made that which is without, make that which
is within also ? But rather give alms of such things as ye
have ; and, behold, all things are clean unto you." ^ That is to
say, the offending guest charged His scandalized host, and the
sect he belonged to, with sacrificing inward to outward purity ;
and at the same time taught the important truth, that to the
pure all things are pure, and showed the way by which inward
real purity was to be reached, viz. by the practice of that sadly
neglected virtue, humanity or charity.

The Lord's reply in the other encounter with pharisaic
adversaries on the subject of washings was similar in its prin-
ciple, but different in form. He told the zealots for purifica-
tions, without periphrasis, that they were guilty of the grave
offence of sacrificing the commandments of God to the com-
mandments of men, — to these' pet traditions of the elders.
The statement was no libel, but a simple melancholy fact,
though its truth does not quite lie on the surface. This we
hope to show in the following remarks ; but before we proceed
to that task, we must force ourselves, however reluctantly, to
acquire a little better acquaintance with the miserable seni-
lities, whose neglect once seemed so heinous a sin to persons
deeming themselves holy.

The aim of the rabbinical prescriptions respecting washings
was not physical cleanliness, but something thought to be far
higher and more sacred. Their object was to secure, not

1 Mark vii. 1, 2, 5. 2 Luke xi. 37.

' Luke xi. 39-41. Vide, for a similar passage, Matt, xxiii. 25, 26.

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : RITUAL ABLUTIONS. 81

physical, but ceremonial purity ; that is, to cleanse the person
from such impurity as might be contracted by contact with a
Gentile, or with a Jew in a ceremonially unclean state, or with
an unclean animal, or with a dead body or any part thereof.
To the regulations in the law of Moses respecting such un-
cleanness, the rabbis added a vast number of additional rules
on their own responsibility, in a self-willed zeal for the scru-
pulous observance of the Mosaic precepts. They issued their
commandments, as the Church of Rome has issued hers, under
the pretext that they were necessary as means towards the
great end of fulfilling strictly the commandments of God.

The burdens laid on men's shoulders by the scribes on this
plausible ground were, by all accounts, indeed most grievous.
Not content with purifications prescribed in the law for un-
cleanness actually contracted, they made provision for merely
possible cases. If a man did not remain at home all day, but
went out to market, he must wash his hands on his return,
because it was possible that he might have touched some person
or thing ceremonially unclean. Great care, it appears, had
also to be taken that the water used in the process of ablution
was itself perfectly pure ; and it was necessary even to apply
the water in a particular manner to the hands, in order to secure
the desired result. Without travelling beyond the sacred
record, we find, in the items of information supplied by Mark
respecting prevailing Jewish customs of purification, enough
to show to what ridiculous lengths this momentous business
of washing was carried. " Many other things," remarks he
quaintly, and not without a touch of quiet satire, " there be
which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups and
pots, brazen vessels, and of tables." ^ All things, in short, used
in connection with food — in cooking it, or in placing it on the
table — had to be washed, not merely as people might wash
them now to remove actual impurity, but to deliver them from
the more serious uncleanness which they might possibly have
contracted since last used, by touching some person or thing
not technically clean. A kind and measure of purity, in fact,
were aimed at incompatible with life in this world. The
very air of heaven was not clean enough for the doting patrons

' Mark vii. 4.
F

82 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

of patristic traditions ; for, not to speak of other more real
sources of contamination, the breeze, in blowing over Gentile
lands to the sacred land of Jewry, had contracted defilement
which made it unfit to pass into ritualistic lungs till it had
been sifted by a respirator possessing the magic power to
cleanse it from its pollution.

The extravagant fanatical zeal of the Jews in these matters
is illustrated in the Talmud by stories which, although belong-
ing to a later age, may be regarded as a faithful reflection of
the spirit which animated the Pharisees in the time of our
Lord. Of these stories the following is a sample : " Eabbi
Akiba was thrown by the Christians into prison, and Eabbi
Joshua brought him every day as much water as sufficed both
for washing and for drinking. But on one occasion it hap-
pened that the keeper of the prison got the water to take in,
and spilled the half of it. Akiba saw that there was too little
water, but nevertheless said. Give me the water for my hands.
His brother rabbi replied, My master, you have not enough for
drinking. But Akiba replied. He who eats with unwashed
hands perpetrates a crime that ought to be punished with death.
Better for me to die of thirst, than to transgress the traditions
of my ancestors." ^ Eabbi Akiba would rather break the sixth
commandment, and be guilty of self-mm-der, than depart from
the least punctilio of a fantastic ceremonialism ; illustrating
the truth of the declaration made by Christ in His reply to
the Pharisees, which we now proceed to consider.

It was not to be expected that, in defending His disciples
from the frivolous charge of neglecting the washing of hands,
Jesus would show much respect for their accusers. Accord-
ingly, we observe a marked difference between the tone of His
reply in the present case, and that of His answer to John's
disciples. Towards them the attitude assumed was respect-
fully defensive and apologetic ; towards the present interro-
gants the attitude assumed is offensive and denunciatory. To
John's disciples Jesus said, " Pasting is right for you ; not to
fast is equally right for my disciples." To the Pharisees He

^ Buxtorf, De Syn. Jiul. pp. 236-7. This author qiiotes the following saying
of another rabbi : Qui illotis manibus panem comedit, idem est ac si scorto
accubaret (p. 236).

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : EITUAL ABLUTIONS. 8 3

replies by a retort which at once condemns their conduct, and
justifies the behaviour which tliey challenged. " "Why/' asked
they, " do thy disciples transgress the traditions of the elders ? "
" Why," asked He in answer, " do ye also transgress the com-
mandments of God by your traditions?" as if to say: "It
becomes not you to judge ; you, who see the imaginary mote
in the eye of a brother, have a beam in your own."

This spirited answer was something more than a mere
retort or et tu quoque argument. Under an interrogative form
it enunciated a great principle, viz. that the scrupulous observ-
ance of human traditions in matters of practice leads by a sure
path to a corresponding negligence and unscrupulousness in
reference to the eternal laws of God. Hence Clnist's defence
of His disciples was in substance this : " I and my followers
despise and neglect those customs, because we desii'e to keep
the moral law. Those washings, indeed, may not seem seriously
to conflict with the great matters of the law, but to be at
worst only trifling and contemptible. But the case is not so.
To treat trifles as serious matters, as matters of conscience,
which ye do, is degrading and demoralizing. No man can do
that without being or becoming a moral imbecile, or a hypo-
crite : either one who is incapable of discerning between what
is vital and what not in morals ; or one who finds his interest
in getting trifles, such as washing of hands, or paying tithe of
herbs, to be accepted as the important matters, and the truly
great things of the law — justice, mercy, and faith — quietly
pushed aside as if they were of nO' moment whatever."

The whole history of religion proves the truth of these
views. A ceremony and tradition ridden time Ls infallibly a
morally corrupt time. Hypocrites ostensibly zealots, secretly
atheists ; profligates taking out their revenge in licentiousness
for having been compelled, by tyrannous custom or intolerant
ecclesiastical authorities, to conform outwardly to practices
for which they have no respect ; priests of the type of the
sons of Eli, gluttonous, covetous, wanton : such are the black
omens of an age in which ceremonies are everything, and
godliness and virtue nothing. Eitualistic practices, artificial
duties of all kinds, whether originating with Jewish rabbis
or with doctors of the Christian church, are utterly to be

84 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

abjured. Eecommended by their zealous advocates, often sin-
cerely, as eminently fitted to promote the culture of morality
and piety, they ever prove, in the long run, fatal to both.
Well are they called in the Epistle to the Hebrews "dead
works." They are not only dead, but death-producing ; for,
like all dead things, they tend to putrefy, and to breed a
spiritual pestilence which sweeps thousands of souls into per-
dition. If they have any life at all, it is life feeding on
death, the life of fungi growing on dead trees ; if they have
any beauty, it is the beauty of decay, of autumnal leaves sere
and yellow, when the sap is descending down to the earth,
and the woods are about to pass into their winter state of
nakedness and desolation. Eitualism at its best is but the
shortlived after-summer of the spiritual year : very fascinat-
ing it may be ; but when it cometh, be sure winter is at the
doors. " We all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away."

Having brought a grave counter-charge against the Phari-
sees, that of sacrificing morality to ceremonies, the command-
ments of God to the traditions of men, Jesus proceeded forth-
with to substantiate it by a striking example and a Scripture
quotation. The example selected was the evasion of the
duties arising out of the fifth commandment, under pretence
of a previous religious obligation. God said, " Honour thy
father and mother," and attached to a breach of the com-
mandment the penalty of death. The Jewish scribes said,
" Call a, thing Corhan, and you will be exempt from all obliga-
tion to give it away, even for the purpose of assisting needy
parents." The word Corban in the Mosaic law signifies a gift
or offering to God, of any kind, bloody or bloodless, presented
on any occasion, as in the fulfilment of a vow.^ In rabbinical
dialect, it signified a thing devoted to sacred purposes, and
therefore not available for private or secular use. The tra-
ditional doctrine on the subject of Corban was mischievous
in two ways. It encouraged men to make religion an excuse
for neglecting morality, and it opened a wide door to knavery
and hypocrisy. It taught that a man might not only by a
vow deny himself the use of things lawful, but that he might,

^ Num. vi. 14.

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : EITUAL ABLUTIONS. 8 5

by devoting a thing to God, relieve himself of all obligation
to give to others what, but for the vow, it would have been
his duty to give them. Then, according to the pernicious
system of the rabbis, ,it was not necessary really to give the
thing to God, in order to be free of obligation to give it to
man. It was enough to call it Corban. Only pronounce
that magic word over anything, and forthwith it was sealed
over to God, and sacred from the use of others at least, if not
from your own use. Thus seK- willed zeal for the honour of
God led to the dishonouring of God, by taking His name in
vain ; and practices which at best were chargeable with setting
the first table of the law over against the second, proved
eventually to be destructive of both tables. They made the
whole law of God of none effect by their traditions. The
disannulling of the fifth commandment was but a sample of
the mischief the zealots for the commandments of men had
wrought ; as is implied in Christ's concluding words, " Many
such like tilings do ye." ^

The Scripture quotation ^ made by our Lord in replying to
the Pharisees was not less apt than the example was illus-
trative as pointing out their characteristic vices, hypocrisy
and superstition. They were near to God with theh^ mouth,
they honoured Him with their lips, but they were far from
Him in their hearts. Their religion was all on the outside.
They scrupulously washed their hands and their cups, but
they took no care to cleanse their polluted souls. Then, in
the second place, their fear of God was taught by the precept
of men. Human prescriptions and traditions were their
guide in religion, which they followed blindly, heedless how
far these commandments of men might lead them from the
paths of righteousness and true godliness.

The prophetic word quoted by Jesus was quick, powerful,
sharp, searching, and conclusive. JSTothing more was needed
to confound the Pharisees, and nothing more was said to them
at this time. The sacred oracle was the fitting conclusion .of
an unanswerable argument against the patrons of tradition.
But Jesus had compassion on the poor multitude who were
being misled to their ruin by their blind spiritual guides, and

1 Mark vii. 13. 2 isa. xxix. 13.

86 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVK

therefore He took the opportunity of addressing a word to
those Avho stood around on the subject of dispute. What
He had to say to them, He expressed in the terse, pointed
form of a proverb : " Hear and understand : not that which
goeth into the mouth defileth a man ; but that which cometh
out of the mouth, this defileth a man." This was a riddle to
be solved, a secret of wisdom to be searched out, a lesson in
religion to be conned. Its meaning, though probably under-
stood by few at the moment, was very plain. It was simply
this : " Pay most attention to the cleansing of the heart, not,
like the Pharisees, to the cleansing of the hands. When the
heart is pure, all is pure ; when the heart is impure, all out-
ward purification is vain. The defilement to be dreaded is
not that from meat ceremonially unclean, but that which
springs from a carnal mind, the defilement of evil thoughts,
evil passions, evil habits."

This passing word to the bystanders became the subject of
a subsequent conversation between Jesus and His disciples,
in which He took occasion to justify HimseK for uttering it,
and explained to them its meaning. The Pharisees had heard
the remark, and were naturally offended by it, as tending to
weaken their authority over the popular conscience. The
twelve observed their displeasure, perhaps they overheard
their comments ; and fearing evil consequences, they came
and informed their Master, probably with a tone which im-
plied a secret regret that the speaker had not been less out-
spoken. Be that as it may, Jesus gave them to understand
that it was not a case for forbearance, compromise, or timid,
time-serving, prudential policy ; the ritualistic tendency being
an evil plant which must be uprooted, no matter with what
offence to its patrons. He pled, in defence of His plainness
of speech. His concern for the souls of the ignorant people
whose guides the Pharisees claimed to be. " Let them alone,
what would follow ? Why, the blind leadere and the blindly
led would fall together into the ditch. Therefore if the
leaders be so hopelessly wedded to their errors that they
cannot be turned from them, let us at least try to save their
comparatively ignorant victims,"

The explanation of the proverbial word spoken to the

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : EITUAL ABLUTIONS. 8 7

people, Jesus gave to His disciples by request of Peter.^ It
needs no detailed comment. It is rudely plain and particidar,
because addressed to rudely ignorant hearers. It says over
again, in tlie strongest possible language, that to eat with un-
washen hands defileth not a man, because nothing entering
the mouth can come near the soul ; that the defilement to be
dreaded, the only defilement worth spealdng of, is that of an
evil, unrenewed heart, out of which proceed thoughts, w^ords,
and acts which are offences against the holy, pure law of
God.

We conclude this section with a remark of a general kind.
We observe that our Lord is here silent concerning the cere-
monial law of Moses (to which the traditions of the elders
were a supplement), and speaks only of the commandments
of God, i.e. the precepts of the decalogue. The fact is sig-
nificant, as showing in what direction He had come to
destroy, and in what to fulfil. Ceremonialism was to be
abolished, and the eternal laws of morality were to become
all in all. Men's consciences were to be delivered from the
burden of outward positive ordinances, that they might be free
to serve the living God, by keeping His ten words, or the one
royal law of love. And it is the duty of the church to stand
fast in the liberty Christ designed and purchased for her.
She should be jealous of all human traditions, out of holy zeal
for the divine will ; shunning superstition on the one side, and
the licentious freedom of godless libertinism on the other.
Christ's true followers wish to be free, but not to do as they
like ; rather to do what God requires of them. So minded,
they reject unceremoniously all human authority in religion,
thereby separating themselves from the devotees to tradition ;
and at the same time, as God's servants, they reverence His
word and His law, thereby putting a wide gulf between them
and the lawless and disobedient, who side with movements of
religious reform, not in order to get something better in the
place of what is rejected, but to get rid of all moral restraint
in matters human or divine.

1 Matt XT. 17-20 ; Mark vii. 18-23.

88 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Section hi. — Sabbath Observance.

Matt. xii. 1-14 ; Mark ii. 23-iii. 1-6 ; Luke vi. 1-11, xiii, 10-16,
XIV. 1-6 ; John v. 1-18, ix. 13-17.

In no part of their conduct were Jesus and His disciples
more frequently found fault with than in respect to their
mode of observing the Sabbath. Six distinct instances of
offence given or taken on this score are recorded in the Gospel
history ; in five of which Jesus Himself was the offender,
while in the remaining instance His disciples were at least
the ostensible objects of censure.

The offences of Jesus were all of one sort : His crime was,
that on the Sabbath-day He wrought works of healing on the
persons of men afflicted respectively with palsy, a withered
hand, blindness, dropsy, and on the body of a poor woman
" bowed together " by an infirmity of eighteen years' standing.
The offence of the disciples, on the other hand, was that,
while walking along a way which lay through a corn-field,
they stepped aside and plucked some ears of grain for the
purpose of satisfying their hunger. This was not theft, for it
was permitted by the law of Moses ;^ but nevertheless it was,
in the judgment of the Pharisees, Sabbath-breaking. It was
contrary to the command, " Thou shalt not work ;" for to
pluck some ears was reaping on a small scale, and to rub
them was a species of threshing !

These offences, deemed so grave when committed, seem
very small at this distance. All the transgressions of the
Sabbath law charged against Jesus were works of mercy ; and
the one transgression of the disciples was for them a work of
necessity, and the toleration of it was for others a duty of
mercy, so that in condemning them the Pharisees had forgotten
that divine word : " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." It
is, indeed, hard for us now to conceive how any one could be
serious in regarding such actions as breaches of the Sabbath,
especially the harmless act of the twelve. There is a slight
show of plausibility in the objection taken by the ruler of the
synagogue to miraculous cures wrought on the seventh day :

1 Dcut. xxiii. 24, 25.

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : SABBATH OBSERVANCE. 8 9

" There are six days on which nien ought to work ; in them
therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath-day."^
The remark was specially plausible with reference to the case
which had provoked the ire of the dignitary of the synagogue.
A woman who had been a sufferer for eighteen years might
surely bear her trouble one day more, and come and be healed
on the morrow ! But on what pretence could the disciples
be blamed as Sabbath-breakers, for helping themselves to a
few ears of corn ? To call such an act working was too
ridiculous. Men who found a Sabbatic offence here must have
been very anxious to catch the disciples of Jesus in a fault.

On the outlook for faults we have no doubt the Pharisees
were ; and yet we must admit that, in condemning the act
referred to, they were acting faithfully in accordance with
their theoretical views and habitual tendencies. Their judg-
ment on the conduct of the twelve was in keeping with their
traditions concerning washings, and their tithing of mint and
other garden herbs, and their straining of gnats out of their
wine-cup. Their habit, in all things, was to degrade God's
law by framing inmmaerable petty rules for its better observ-
ance, which, instead of securing that end, only made the law
appear base and contemptible. In no case was this miserable
micrology carried greater lengths than in connection with the
fourth commandment. With a most perverse ingenuity, the
most insignificant actions were brought within the scope of
the prohibition against labour. Even in the case put by our
Lord, that of an animal fallen into a pit, it was deemed lawful
to lift it out — so at least those learned in rabbinical lore tell
us — only when to leave it there till Sabbath was past would
involve risk to life. When delay was not dangerous, the rule
was to give the beast food sufl&cient for the day ; and if there
was water in the bottom of the pit, to place straw and bolsters
below it, that it might not be drowned.^

Yet, with all their strictness in abstaining from everything

1 Luke xiii. 14.

2 Biixtorf, De Syn. Jud. pp. 352-6. The same author states that it was a
breach of the law to let a cock wear a piece of ribbon round its leg on Sabbath ;
it was making it bear something. It was also forbidden to walk through a
stream on stilts, because, though the stilts appear to bear you, you really carry
the stilts. These were probably later refinements.

90 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

bearing the faintest resemblance to work, the Jews were
curiously lax in another direction. While scruj^ulously ob-
serving the law which prohibited the cooking of food on
Sabbath/ they did not make the holy day by any means a
day of fasting. On the contrary, they considered it their duty
to make the Sabbath a day of feasting and good cheer.^ In
fact, it was at a Sabbath feast, given by a chief man among
the Pharisees, that one of the Sabbath miracles was wrought,
for which Jesus was put upon His defence.^ At this feast
were numerous guests, Jesus Himself being one, — invited, it is
to be feared, with no friendly feelings, but rather in the hope
of finding something against Him concerning the Sabbatic law.
" It came to pass," we read in Luke, " as He (Jesus) went into
the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the
Sabbath-day, that they watched Him." They set a trap, and
hoped to catch in it Him whom they hated without cause ;
and they got for their pains such searching, humbling table-
talk as they had probably never heard before.* This habit of
feasting, in the days of Augustine, had grown to a great
abuse, as appears from the description he gives of the mode
in which contemporary Jews celebrated their weekly holiday.
" To-day," he writes, " is the Sabbath, which the Jews at the
present time keep in loose luxurious ease, for they occupy
their leisure in frivolity ; and whereas God commanded a
Sabbath, they spend it in those things which God forbids.
Our rest is from evil works, theirs is from good works, for it is
better to plough than to dance. They rest from good work,
they rest not from idle work."^

From the folly and pedantry of scribes and Pharisees we
gladly turn to the wisdom of Jesus, as revealed in the ani-
mated, deep, and yet sublimely simple replies made by Him
to the various charges of Sabbath-breaking brought against
Himself and His disciples. Before considering these replies
in detail, we premise one general remark concerning them all.
In none of these apologies or defences does Jesus call in ques-

1 Ex. xvi. 23.

2 They appealed, in justification of this practice, to Neh. viii. 10.
^ Luke xiv. 1. * Luke xiv. 7-24.

^ Enarratio in Psalmum xci. (xcii.) 2.

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : SABBATH OBSERVANCE. 9 1

tion the obligation of the Sabbath law. On that point He had
no quarrel with His accusers. His argument in this instance
is entirely different from the line of defence adopted in refer-
ence to fasting and purifications. In regard to fasting, the
position He took up was : Fasting is a voluntary matter, and
men may fast or not as they are disposed. In regard to puri-
fication His position was : Ceremonial ablutions at best are of
secondary moment, being mere types of inward purity ; and as
practised now, lead inevitably to the utter ignoring of spiritual
purity, and therefore must be neglected by all who are con-
cerned for the great interests of morality. But in reference
to the alleged breaches of the Sabbath, the position Jesus took
up was this : These acts which you condemn are not trans-
gressions of the law, rightly apprehended, in its spirit and
principle. The importance of the law was conceded, but the
pharisaic interpretation of its meaning was rejected. An
appeal was made from their pedantic code of regulations about
Sabbath observance to the grand design and principle of the
law ; and the right was asserted to examine aU rules in the
light of the principle, and to reject or disregard those in
which the principle had either been mistakenly applied, or, as
was for the most part the case with the Pharisees, lost sight
of altogether.

The key to all Christ's teaching on the Sabbath, therefore,
lies in His conception of the original design of that divine
institution. This conception we find expressed with epigram-
matic point and conciseness, in contrast to the pharisaic idea
of the Sabbath, in words uttered by Jesus on the occasion
when He was defending His disciples. " The Sabbath," said
He, "was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."
In other words, His doctrine was tliis : The Sabbath was
meant to be a hoon to man, not a burden ; it was not a day
taken from man by God in an exacting spirit, but a day given
by God in mercy to man — God's holiday to His subjects ; aU
legislation enforcing its observance having for its end to en-
sure that aU should really get the benefit of the boon — that no
man should rob himself, and still less his feUow-creatures, of
the gracious boon. "^

This difference between Christ's mode of conceiving of the

92 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Sabbath, and the pharisaic, involves of necessity a correspond-
ing difference in the spirit and the details of its observance.
Take Christ's view, and your principle becomes : That is the
best way of observing the Sabbath which is most conducive
to man's physical and spiritual well-being, — in other words,
which is best for his body and for his soul ; and in the light
of this principle, you will keep the holy day in a spirit of
intelligent joy and thankfulness to God the Creator for His
gracious consideration towards His creatures. Take the phari-
saic view, and your principle of observance becomes : He
best keeps the Sabbath who goes greatest lengths in mere
abstinence from anything that can be construed into labour,
irrespective of the effect of this abstinence either on his own
well-being or on that of others. In short, we land in the silly,
senseless minuteness of a rabbinical legislation, which sees
in such an act as that of the disciples plucking and rubbing
the ears of corn, or that of the healed man who carried his
bed home on his shoulders,^ or that of one who should walk
a greater distance than two thousand cubits or three-fourths
of a mile'"^ on a Sabbath, a heinous offence against the fourth
commandment and its Author.

A Sabbath observance regulated by the principle that the
institution was made for man's good, obviously involves two
great general uses : rest for the body, and worship as the
solace of the spiiit. We should rest from servile labour on
the divinely given holiday, and we should lift up our hearts
in devout thought to Him who made all things at the first ;
who " worketh hitherto," preserving the creation in being and
well-being, and whose tender compassion towards sinful men
is great, passing knowledge. These things are both necessary
to man's true good, and therefore must enter as essential
elements of a worthy Sabbath observance.

But, on the other hand, the Sabbath being made for man,
the two general requirements of rest and worship may not be

1 John V. 10.

2 This was the limit of a Sabbath -day journey according to the scribes. It
was fixed by the distance between the wall of a Levitical city and the out-
side boundary of its suburb. See Num. x.xxv. 5 ; and Buxtorf, De Syn. Jud.
c. xvi.

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : SABBATH OBSERVANCE. 9 3

SO pressed that they shall become hostile to man's well-being,
and in effect seK-destructive, or mutually destructive. The
rule, " Thou shalt rest," must not be so applied as to exclude
all action and all work ; for absolute inaction is not rest, and
entire abstinence from work of every description would often-
times be detrimental both to private and to public well-being.
Eoom must be left for acts of " necessity and mercy ;" and
too peremptory as well as too minute legislation as to what
are and what are not acts of either description must be avoided,
as these may vary for different persons, times, and circum-
stances ; and men may honestly differ in opinion in such
details who are perfectly loyal to the great broad principles of
Sabbath sanctification. In like manner, the rule, " Thou shalt
worship," must not be so enforced as to make religious duties
irksome and burdensome — a mere mechanical, legal service ;
or so as to involve the sacrifice of the other great practical end
of the Sabbath, viz. rest to the animal nature of man. Nor
may men dictate to each other as to the means of worship any
more than as to the amount ; for one may find helps to devotion
in means which to another would prove a hindrance and a
distraction.

It was only in regard to cessation from work that pharisaic
legislation and practice anent Sabbath observance were carried
to superstitious and vexatious excess. The Sabbatic mania
was a monomania ; those affected thereby being mad simply
on one point, the stringent enforcement of rest. Hence the
peculiar character of all the charges brought against Christ
and His disciples, and also of His replies. The offences com-
mitted were all works deemed unlawful ; and the defences all
went to show that the works done were not contrary to law,
when the law was interpreted in the light of the principle
that the Sabbath was made for man. They were works of
necessity or of mercy, and therefore lawful on the Sabbath-
day.

Jesus drew His proofs of this position from three sources :
Scripture history, the every-day practice of the Pharisees
themselves, and the providence of God. In defence of His
disciples, He referred to the case of David eating the shew-
bread when he fled to the house of God from the court of

94 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVK

King Saul/ and to the constant practice of the priests in doing
work for the service of the temple on Sabbath-days, such as
offering double burnt-offerings, and removing the stale shew-
bread from the holy place, and replacing it by hot loaves.
David's case proved the general principle that necessity has
no law ; hunger justifying his act, as it should also have
justified the act of the disciples even in pharisaic eyes. The
practice of the priests showed that work merely as work is not
contrary to the law of the Sabbath, some works being not only
lawful, but incumbent on that day.

The argument drawn by Jesus from common practice was
well fitted to silence captious critics, and to suggest the prin-
ciple by which His own conduct could be defended. It was
to this effect : " You would lift an ox or an ass out of a pit
on Sabbath, would you not ? Wliy ? To save life ? Why
then should not I heal a sick person for the same reason ? Or
is a beast's life of more importance than that of a human
being ? Or again : would you scruple to loose your ox or
your ass from the stall on the day of rest, and lead him away
to watering ?^ If not, why object to me when on the Sabbath-
day I release a poor human victim from a bondage of eighteen
years' duration, that she may draw water out of the wells of
salvation ?" The argument is irresistible, the conclusion in-
evitable : that it is lawful, dutiful, most seasonable, to do well
on the Sabbath-day. How blind they must have been to
whom so obvious a proposition needed to be proved ! how
oblivious of the fact that love is the foundation and fulfilment
of all law, and that therefore no particular precept could ever
be meant to suspend the operation of that divine principle !

The argument from providence used by Jesus on another
occasion ^ was designed to serve the same purpose with the
others, viz. to show the lawfulness of certain kinds of work
on the day of rest. " My Father worketh hitherto," said He
to His accusers, " and I work." The Son claimed the right
to work because and as the Father worked, on all days of the

^ 1 Sam. xxi. 6. This occurred on SalAtatli, for tlie old sliew-bread was re-
placed by new on that day (hot loaves baked on Sabbath). But this is not the
point insisted on by Christ.

2 Luke xiii. 14, 15. ^ John v. 17.

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : SABBATH OBSERVANCE. 95

week The Father worked incessantly for beneficent, con-
servative ends, most holily, wisely, and powerfully preserving
and governing all His creatures and all their actions ; keeping
the planets in their orbits ; causing the sun to rise and shine,
and the winds to circulate in their courses, and the tides to
ebb and flow on the seventh day as on all the other six. So
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, claimed the right to work, and
did work : saving, restoring, healing ; as far as might be
bringing fallen nature back to its pristine state, when God the
Creator pronounced all things good, and rested, satisfied with
the world He had brought into being. Such works of bene-
ficence, by the doctrine of Christ, may always be done on the
Sabbath-day : works of humanity, like those of the physician,
or of the teacher of neglected children, or of the philanthropist
going his rounds among the poor and needy, or of the Christian
minister preaching the gospel of peace, and many others, of
which men filled with love will readily bethink themselves,
but whereof too many, in the coldness of their heart, do not
so much as dream. Against such works there is no law, save
that of churlish, ungenial, pharisaic custom.

One other saying our Lord uttered on the present subject,
which carries great weight for Christians, though it can have
had no apologetic value in the opinion of the Pharisees, but
must rather have appeared an aggravation of the offence it
was meant to excuse. We refer to the word, " The Son of
man is Lord even of the Sabbath-day," uttered by Jesus on the
occasion when He defended His disciples against the charge
of Sabbath-breaking. This statement, remarkable, like the
claim made at the same time to be greater than the temple,
as an assertion of superhuman dignity on the j)art of the meek
and lowly One, was not meant as a pretension to the right to
break the law of rest without cause, or to abrogate it alto-
gether. This is evident from Mark's account,^ where the words
come in as an inference from the proposition that the Sabbath
was made for man ; which could not logically be made the
foundation for a repeal of the statute, seeing it is the most
powerful argument for the perpetuity of the weekly rest. Had
the Sabbath been a mere burdensome restriction imposed on
1 Mark ii. 27, 28.

96 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

men, we should have expected its abrogation from Him who
came to redeem men from all sorts of bondage. But was the
Sabbath made for man — for man's good ? Then should we
expect Christ's function to be not that of a repealer, but that
of a universal philanthropic legislator, making what had pre-
viously been the peculiar privilege of Israel a common bless-
ing to all mankind. For the Father sent His Son into the
world to deliver men indeed from the yoke of ordinances, but
not to cancel any of His gifts, which are all " without repent-
ance," and once given can never be withdrawn.

What, then, does the lordship of Christ over the Sabbath
signify ? Simply this : that an institution which is of the
nature of a boon to man, properly falls under the control of
Him who is the King of grace, and the administrator of
divine mercy. He is the best judge how such an institution
should be observed ; and He has a right to see that it shall
not be perverted from a boon into a burden, and so put in
antagonism to the royal imperial law of love. The Son of
man hath authority to cancel all regulations tending in this
direction emanating from men, and even all bye-laws of the
Mosaic code savouring of legal rigour, and tending to veil the
beneficent design of the fourth commandment of the deca-
logue.^ He may, in the exercise of His mediatorial preroga-
tive, give the old institution a new name, alter the day of its
celebration, so as to invest it with distinctively Christian asso-
ciations congenial to the hearts of believers, and make it in all

^ The position of the Sabbath in the decalogue (where nothing is placed which
was of merely Jewish concern, and which was not of fundamental importance)
is a presumption of perpetuity for every candid mind. The much disputed
question of the ethical nature of the Sabbath law is not of so great moment as
has been imagined. Moral or not, the weekly rest is to all men, and at all
times, of vital importance ; therefore practically, if not philosophically, of
ethical value. The fourth commandment certainly differs from the others in this
respect, that it is not written on the natural conscience. The utmost length
reason could go, would be to determine that rest is needful. "Whether rest
should be periodical or at irregular intervals, on the seventh day or on the tenth,
as in revolutionary France, with its mania for the decimal system, the light of
nature could not teach. But the decalogue settles that point, and settles it for
ever, for all who believe in the divine origin of the Mosaic legislation. The
fourth commandment is a revelation for all time of God's mind on the univer-
sally important question of the proper relation between labour and rest.

LESSONS IN HOLY LIVING : SABBATH OBSERVANCE. 9 7

the details of its observance subservient to the great ends of
His incarnation.

To such effect did the Son of man claim to be Lord of the
Sabbath-day ; and His claim, so understood, was acknowledged
by the church, when, following the traces of apostolic usage, she
changed the weekly rest from the seventh day to the first,^
that it might commemorate the joyful event of the resurrec-
tion of the Saviour, which lay nearer the heart of a believer
than the old event of the creation, and called the first day by
His name, Dies Dominicus, the Lord's day. That claim all
Christians acknowledge who, looking at the day in the light of
God's original design, and of Christ's teaching, example, and
work, so observe it as to keep the golden mean between the two
extremes of pharisaic rigour and of Sadducaic laxity ; recog-
nising on the one hand the beneficent ends served by the insti-
tution, and doing their utmost to secure that these ends shall
be fully realized ; and, on the other hand, avoiding the petty
scrupulosity of a cheerless legalism, which causes many, espe-
cially among the young, to stumble at the law, as a statute
of unreasonable arbitrary restriction ; avoiding also the bad
pharisaic habit of indulging in over-confident judgments on
difficult points of detail, and on the conduct of those who in
such points do not think and act as they do themselves.

We must not close this chapter, in which we have been

^ How this change was brought about we do not well know. Probably it was
accomplished by degrees, and without full consciousness of the transition which
was being made, or of its import. From the beginning believers seem to have
met for worship on the first day of the week ; but there is no evidence that
they rested entirely from work on that day. In many cases they could not have
done so if they wished, e.g. in the case of slaves of heathen masters. Hence,
probably, we may account for the church in Troas meeting in the evening, and
worshipping till midnight. The likelihood is, that the first Christians rested
on the seventh day as Jews, and as Christians worshipped on the morning or
evening of the first day, before or after their daily toil. In course of time, as
Jewish believers became more weaned from Judaism, and Gentile worshippers
multiplied, so as to have a preponderating influence on the customs of the
church, the seventh-day rest would disappear, and the first-day rest, the Lord's
day, would take its place. To prevent misapprehension, it is necessary to explain
that the seventh day continued to be observed as a fast-day or a festival, with
religious services, long after it had ceased to be regarded as a day on which men
ought entirely to rest from labour. Vid. on this, Bingham, Origines Ecclesiasticce,
B. XX. c. iii.

98 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE,

studying the lessons in holy living given by our Lord to His
disciples, without adding a reflection applicable to all the three.
By these lessons the twelve were taught a virtue very neces-
sary for the apostles of a religion in many respects new : the
power to bear isolation and its consequences. When Peter
and John appeared before the Sanhedrim, the rulers marvelled
at their boldness, till they recognised in them companions of
Jesus the Nazarene. They seem to have imagined that His
followers were fit for anything requiring audacity. They were
right. The apostles had strong nerves, and were not easily
daunted ; and the lessons which we have been considering help
us to understand whence they got their rare moral courage.
They had been accustomed for years to stand alone, and to
disregard the fashion of the world ; till at length they could do
what was right, heedless of human criticism, without effort,
almost without thought.

CHAPTER VIII

FIEST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM.

Section i. — The Mission.

Matt. x. ; Mark vi. 7-13, 30-32 ; Luke ix. 1-11.

THE twelve are now to come before us as active agents in
advancing the kingdom of God. Having been for
some time in Christ's company, witnessing His miraculous
works, hearing His doctrine concerning the kingdom, and
learning how to pray and how to live, they are at length sent
forth to evangelize the towns and villages of their native
province, and to heal the sick in their Master's name, and by
His power. This mission of the disciples as evangelists or
miniature apostles was partly, without doubt, an educational
experiment for their own benefit ; but its direct design was to
meet the spiritual necessities of the people, whose neglected
condition lay heavy on Christ's heart. The compassionate
Son of man, in the course of His wanderings, had observed
how the masses of the population were, like a shepherdless
flock of sheep, scattered and torn ;^ and it was His desire that
all should know that a good Shepherd had come to care for
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The multitudes were
ready enough to welcome the good news ; the difiiculty was
to meet the pressing demand of the hour. The harvest, the
grain ready for reaping, was plenteous, but the labourers
were few.^

In connection with this mission, these things call for special
notice : The sphere assigned for the work, the nature of the
work, the instructions for carrying it on, the results of the

1 \(rxvXfji,ivoi, Matt. ix. 36, the reading preferred by critics = flayed, harassed.
The idea suggested is that of sheep whose fleeces are torn by thorns.

2 Matt. ix. 37.

100 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

mission, and the return of the missionaries. These points we
shall consider in their order, except that, for convenience, we
shall reserve Christ's instructions to His disciples for the last
place, and give them a section to themselves.

1. The sphere of the mission, as described in general terms,
was the whole land of Israel. " Go," said Jesus to the twelve,
" to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ;" and further on, in
Matthew's narrative. He speaks to them as if the plan of the
mission involved a visit to all the cities of Israel.^ Prac-
tically, however, the operations of the disciples seem to have
been restricted to their native province of Galilee ; and even
within its narrow limits to have been carried on rather among
the villages and hamlets, than in considerable towns or cities
like Tiberias. The former of these statements is supported
by the fact that the doings of the disciples attracted the
attention of Herod the tetrarch of Galilee,^ which implies
that they took place in his neighbourhood ; ^ while the latter
is proved by the words of the third evangelist in giving a
summary account of the mission : " They departed and went
through the villages (towns, Eng. Ver.), preaching the gospel,
and healing everywhere." *

While the apprentice missionaries were permitted by their
instructions to go to any of the lost sheep of Israel, to all if
practicable, they were expressly forbidden to extend their
labours beyond these limits. They were not to go into the
way of the Gentiles, nor enter into any city or town of the
Samaritans.^ This prohibition arose in part out of the general
plan which Christ had formed for founding the kingdom of
God on the earth. His idtimate aim was the conquest of the
world ; but in order to that. He deemed it necessary first to
secure a strong base of operations in the Holy Land and
among the chosen people. Therefore He ever regarded Him-
self personally as a Messenger of God to the Jewish nation,
seriously giving that as a reason why He should not work
among the heathen,^ and departing occasionally from the rule
only in order to supply in His own ministry prophetic intima-

1 Matt. X. 6, 23. " Mark vi. 14 ; Luke ix. 7.

3 Herod resided at Tiberias. ■* Luke ix. 6 — jcara, to,; KUfio-i.

» Matt. X. 5. * Matt. xv. 24.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM : THE MISSION. 101

tions of an approaching time, when Jew and Samaritan and
Gentile should be united on equal terms in one divine
commonwealth.^

But the principal reason of the prohibition lay in the
present spiritual condition of the disciples themselves. The
time would come when Jesus might say to His chosen ones,
" Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature ; " ^ but that time was not yet. The twelve, at the
period of their first trial mission, were not fit to preach the
gospel, or to do good works, either among Samaritans or Gen-
tiles. Their hearts were too narrow, their prejudices too
strong ; there was too much of the Jew, too little of the
Christian, in their character. For the catholic work of the
apostleship they needed a new divine illumination, and a
copious baptism with the benignant spirit of love. Suppose
these raw evangelists had gone into a Samaritan village, what
would have happened ? In all probability they would have
been drawn into disputes on the religious differences^between
Samaritans and Jews, in which of course they would have
lost their temper ; so that, instead of seeking the salvation of
the people among whom they had come, they would rather be
in a mood to call dowm fii^e from heaven to consume them, as
they actually proposed to do at a subsequent period.^

2. The work entrusted to the twelve was in one depart-
ment very extensive, and in the other very limited. They
were endowed with unlimited powers of healing, but their
commission was very restricted so far as preaching was con-
cerned. In regard to the former their instructions were :
" Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out
devils : freely ye have received, freely give ; " in regard to
the latter : " As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven
is at hand." * The commission in the one case seems too wide,
in the other too narrow ; but in both the wisdom of Jesus is
apparent to a deeper consideration. In so far as miraculous
works were concerned there was no need for restriction, unless
it were to avoid the risk of producing elation and vanity in
those who wielded such wonderful power ; a risk which was
certainly not imaginary, but which could be remedied when it

> Jolin iv. 7-24. ^ ;^iark xvi. 15. ^ j^^^ i^. 54. " Matt. x. 7, 8.

102 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

assumed tangible form. All the miracles wrought by the
twelve were really wrought by Jesus Himself, their sole
function consisting in making a believing use of His name.
This seems to have been perfectly understood by all ; for the
works done by the apostles did not lead the people of Galilee
to wonder who they were, but only who and what He was in
whose name all these things were done.-^ Therefore, it being
Christ's will that such miracles should be %vrought through
the instrumentality of His disciples, it was just as easy for
them to do the greatest works as to do the smaller ; if, indeed,
there be any sense in speaking of degrees of difficulty in con-
nection with miracles, which is more than doubtful.

As regards the preacliing, on the other hand, there was not
only reason, but necessity, for restriction. The disciples could
do no more than proclaim the fact that the kingdom was at
hand, and bid men everywhere repent, by way of a prepara-
tion for its advent. This was really all they knew them-
selves. They did not as yet understand, in the least degree,
the doctrine of the cross ; they did not even know the nature
of the kingdom. They had, indeed, heard their Master dis-
course profoundly thereon, but they had not comprehended
His words. Their ideas respecting the coming kingdom were
nearly as crude and carnal as were those of other Jews, who
looked for the restoration of Israel's political independence
and temporal prosperity as in the glorious days of old. In
one point only were they in advance of current notions.
They had learned from John and from Jesus that repentance
was necessary in order to citizenship in this kingdom. In all
other respects they and their hearers were pretty much on a
level.

Far from wondering that the preaching programme of the
disciples was so limited, we are rather tempted to wonder
how Christ could trust them to open their mouths at all, even
on the one topic of the kingdom. Was there not a danger
that men with such crude ideas might foster delusive hopes,
and give rise to political excitement ? Nay, may we not dis-
cover actual traces of such excitement in the notice taken of
their movements at Herod's court, and in the proposal of the
^ Mark vi. 14, " His name was spread abroad " (^avspov \yiviro).

FIEST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM : THE MISSION. 103

multitude not long after, to take Jesus by force to make Him
a king ?^

Doubtless there was danger in tbis direction ; and there-
fore, while He could not, to avoid it, leave the poor perishing
people uncared for, Jesus took all possible precautions to
obviate mischief as far as might be, by in effect proliibiting
His messengers from entering into detail on the subject of
the kingdom, and by putting a sound form of words into
their mouths. They were instructed to announce the king-
dom as a kingdom of heaven; a thing which some might
deem a lovely vision, but which all Avorldly men would guess
to be quite another thing from what they desired. A king-
dom of heaven ! Wliat was that to them ? What they y
wanted was a kingdom of earth, in which they might live
peaceably and happily under just government, and, above all,
with plenty to eat and drink. A kingdom of heaven ! That ^
was only for such as had no earthly hope ; a refuge from
despair, a melancholy consolation in absence of any better
comfort. Even so, ye worldhngs ! Only for such as ye deem
miserable was the message meant. To the poor the kingdom
was to be preached. To the labouring and heavy laden was
the invitation " Come to me " addressed, and the promise of
rest made ; of rest from ambition and discontent, and schem-
ing, carking care, in the blessed hope of the supernal and the
eternal.

3. The impression produced by the labours of the twelve
seems to have been very considerable. The fame of their
doings, as already remarked, reached the ears of Herod, and
great crowds appear to have accompanied them as they moved
from place to place. On their return, e.g. from the mission to
rejoin the company of their Master, they were thronged by
an eager, admiring multitude who had witnessed or expe-
rienced the benefits of their work ; so that it was neces-
sary for them to withdraw into a desert place in order to
obtain a quiet interval of rest. "There were many," the
second evangelist informs us, " coming and going, and they
had no time so much as to eat. And they departed unto a
desert place by ship privately."^ Even in the desert solitudes
' Jolin vi. 15. 2 Mark vi. 31, 32.

104 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee they failed to
secure the desired privacy. " The people saw them departing,
and ran afoot thither (round the end of the sea) out of all
cities, and outwent them, and came together unto Him."^

In quality, the results of the mission appear to have been
much less satisfactory than in their extent. The religious im-
pressions produced seem to have been in a great measure super-
ficial and evanescent. There were many blossoms, so to speak,
on the apple tree in the spring-tide of this Galilean revival ;
but only a comparatively small number of them set in fruit,
while of these a still smaller number ever reached the stage
of ripe fruit. This we learn from what took place shortly
after, in connection with Christ's discourse on the bread of
life in the synagogue of Capernaum. Then the same men
who, after the miraculous feeding in the desert, would have
made Christ a king, deserted Him in a body, scandalized by
His mysterious doctrine ; and those who did this were, for the
most part, just the men who had listened to the twelve while
they preached repentance.^

Such an issue to a benevolent undertaking must have been
deeply disappointing to the heart of Jesus. Yet it is remark-
able that the comparative abortiveness of the first evangelistic
movement did not prevent Him from repeating the experi-
ment some time after on a still more extensive scale. " After
these things," writes the third evangelist, " the Lord appointed
other seventy also, and sent them two and two before His
face, into every city and place whither He Himself would
come." ^ The motive of this second mission was the same as
in the case of the first, as were also the instructions to the
missionaries. Jesus still felt deep compassion for the perish-
ing multitude, and, hoping against hope, made a new attempt
to save the lost sheep. He would have all men called at
least to the fellowship of the kingdom, even though few
should be chosen to it. And when the immediate results
were promising He was gratified, albeit knowing, from past
experience as well as by divine insight, that the faith and
repentance of many were only too likely to be evanescent

^ Mark vi. 33. ^ Compare Mark vi. 30-35 with John vi. 22-25.

^ Luke X. 1.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM : THE MISSION. 105

as the early dew. When the seventy returned from their
mission, and reported their great success, He hailed it as an
omen of the downfall of Satan's kingdom ; and, rejoicing in
spirit, gave thanks to the Supreme Euler in heaven and earth,
His Fatlier, that while the things of the kingdom were hid
from the wise and the prudent, the people of intelligence
and discretion, they were by His grace revealed unto babes —
the rude, the poor, the ignorant.^

The reference in the thanksgiving prayer of Jesus to the
"wise and prudent" suggests the thought that these evan-
gelistic efforts were regarded with disfavour by the refined,
fastidious classes of Jewish religious society. This is in itself
probable. There are always men in the church, intelligent,
wise, and even good, to whom popular 'religious movements
are distasteful. The noise, the excitement, the extravagances,
the delusions, the misdirection of zeal, the rudeness of the
agents, the instability of the converts, — all these things offend
them. The same class of minds would have taken offence
at the evangelistic work of the twelve and the seventy, for
undoubtedly it was accompanied with the same drawbacks.
The agents were ignorant ; they had few ideas in their heads ;
they understood little of divine truth ; their sole qualification
was, that they were earnest and could preach repentance well.
Doubtless, also, there was plenty of noise and excitement
among the multitudes who heard them preach ; and we cer-
tainly know that their zeal was both ill-informed and short-
lived. These things, in fact, are standing features of aU popular
movements. Jonathan Edwards, speaking with reference to
the " revival " of religion which took place in America in his
day, says truly : " A great deal of noise and tumult, con-
fusion and uproar, darkness mixed with light, and evil with
good, is always to be expected in the beginning of something
very glorious in the state of things in human society or the
church of God. After nature has long been shut up in a
cold, dead state, when the sun returns in the spring, there is,
together with the increase of the Kght and heat of the sun,
very tempestuous weather before all is settled, calm, and
serene, and all nature rejoices in its bloom and beauty."
1 Luke X. 17-21. ^ Thoughts on the Revival, Part i. sec. iii.

106 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

IsTone of the " wise and prudent" knew half so well as Jesus
what evil would be mixed with the good in the work of the
kingdom. But He was not so easily offended as they. The
Friend of sinners was ever like Himself. He sympathized
with the multitude, and could not, like the Pharisees, con-
tentedly resign them to a permanent condition of ignorance
and depravity. He rejoiced greatly over even one lost sheep
restored ; and He was, one might say, overjoyed, when not
one, but a whole flock, even hegan to return to the fold. It
pleased Him to see men repenting even for a season, and
pressing into the kingdom even rudely and violently : for
His love was strong ; and where strong love is, even wisdom
and refinement will not be fastidious.

Before passing from this topic, let us observe that there is
another class of Christians, quite distinct from the wise and
prudent, in whose eyes such evangelistic labours as those of
the twelve stand in no need of vindication. Their tendency,
on the contrary, is to regard such labours as the whole work
of the kingdom. Eevival of religion among the neglected
masses is for them the sum of all good-doing. Of the more
still, less observable work of instruction going on in the
church they take no account. Where there is no obvious
excitement, the church in their view is dead, and her ministry
inefficient. Such need to be reminded that there were two
religious movements going on in the days of the Lord Jesus.
One consisted in rousing the mass out of the stupor of in-
difference ; the other consisted in the careful, exact training
of men already in earnest, in the principles and truths of the
divine kingdom. Of the one movement the disciples, that
is, both the twelve and the seventy, were the agents ; of the
other movement they were the subjects. And the latter
movement, though less noticeable, and much more limited in
extent, was by far more important than the former; for it
was destined to bring forth fruit that would remain : to teU
not merely on the present time, but on the whole history of
the world. The deep truths which the great Teacher was
now quietly and imobservedly, as in the dark, instilling into
the minds of a select band, the recipients of His confidential
teaching would speak in the broad daylight ere long ; and the

FIEST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM : THE MISSION. 107

sound of their voice would not stop till it had gone through
all the earth. It would have been a poor outlook for the king-
dom of heaven if Christ had neglected this work, and given
Himself up entirely to vague evangelism among the masses.

4. When the twelve had finished their mission, they re-
turned and told their Master all that they had done and
taught. Of their report, or of His remarks thereon, no de-
tails are recorded. Such details we do find, however, in
connection with the later mission of the seventy. " The
seventy," we read, " returned again with joy, saying, Lord,
even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name." ^
The same evangelist from whom these words are quoted in-
forms us that, after congratulating the disciples on their
success, and expressing His own satisfaction with the facts
reported, Jesus spoke to them the warning word : " Notwith-
standing in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto
you ; but rather rejoice because your names are written in
Heaven." ^ It was a timely caution against elation and vanity.

It is very probable that a similar word of caution was ad-
dressed to the twelve also after their return. Such a word
would certainly not have been unseasonable in their case.
They had been engaged in the same exciting work, they had
wielded the same miraculous powers, they had been equally
successful, they were equally immature in character, and
therefore it was equally difficult for them to bear success. It
is most probable, therefore, that when Jesus said to them on
their return, " Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place,
and rest awhile," ^ He was not caring for their bodies alone,
but was prudently seeking to provide repose for their heated
minds as well as for their jaded frames.

The admonition to the seventy is a word in season to all
who are very zealous in the work of evangelism, especially
such as are crude in knowledge and grace. It hints at the
possibility of their own spiritual health being injured by their
very zeal in seeking the salvation of others. This may happen
in many ways. Success may make them vain, and they may
begin to sacrifice unto their own net. They may fall under
the dominion of the devil, through their very joy that he is
1 Luke X. 17. ^ Luke x. 20. ^ Mark vi. 31.

108 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

subject unto them. They may despise those who have been
less successful, or denounce them as deficient in zeal. The
eminent divine already quoted gives a lamentable account of
the pride, presumption, arrogance, conceit, and censoriousness
which characterized many of the more active promoters of
religious revival in his day.^ Once more, they may fall into
carnal security respecting their own spiritual state, deeming it
impossible that anything can go wrong with those who are so
devoted, and whom God has so greatly owned. A dangerous
mistake ; for, observe, Judas took part in this Galilean mission,
and, for aught we know to the contrary, was as successful as
his feUow-disciples in casting out devils. Graceless men may
for a season be employed as agents in promoting the work of
grace in the hearts of others. Usefulness does not necessarily
imply goodness, according to the teaching of Christ Himself.
" Many," He declares in the Sermon on the Mount, " will say
unto me on that day. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy
name done many wonderful works ?" And mark the answer
which He says He will give such. It is not : I call in ques-
tion the correctness of your statement ; that is tacitly ad-
mitted. It is : "I never knew you ; depart from me, ye that
work iniquity." ^

These solemn words suggest the need of watchfulness and
seK-examination ; but they are not designed to discourage or
discountenance zeal. We must not interpret them as if they
meant : " Never mind doing good, only be good ;" or, " Care
not for the salvation of others : look to your own salvation."
Jesus Christ did not teach a listless or a selfish religion. He
inculcated on His disciples a large-hearted generous concern
for the spiritual well-being of men. To foster such a spirit
He sent the twelve on this trial mission, even when they were
comparatively unfitted for the work, and notwithstanding the
risk of spiritual harm to whicli it exposed them. At all hazards
He would have His apostles be filled with enthusiasm for the
advancement of the kingdom ; only taking due care, when the

^ Thoughts on Revival, Part iv.

^ Matt. vii. 22. See, for views similar to those above stated, Edwards' Thoughts
on Revival, Part ii. sec. ii.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM : THE INSTRUCTIONS. 109

vices to whicli young enthusiasts are liable began to appear,
to check them by a warning word and a timely retreat into
soKtude.

Section ii. — The Imtrudions.

The instructions given by Jesus to the twelve in sending
them forth on their first mission are obviously divisible into
two parts. The first, shorter part, common to the narratives
of all the three first evangelists, relates to the present ; the
second and much the longer part, peculiar to Matthew's nar-
rative, relates mainly to the distant future. In the former,
Christ tells His disciples what to do now, in their apprentice
apostleship ; in the latter, what they must do and endure
when they have become apostles on the great scale, preaching
the gospel, not to Jews only, but to all nations.

It has been doubted whether the discourse included in the
second part of the apostolic or missionary instructions, as given
by Mattliew, was really uttered by Jesus on this occasion.
Stress has been laid by those who take the negative view of
this question, on the facts that the first evangelist alone gives
the discourse in connection with the trial mission, and that
the larger portion of its contents are given by the other evan-
gelists in other connections. Eeference has also been made,
in support of this view, to the statement made by Jesus to His
disciples, in His farewell address to them before the cruci-
fixion, that He had not till then spoken to tliem of coming
persecutions, and for this reason, that while He was with them
it was unnecessary.^ Finally, it has been deemed unlikely
that Jesus would frighten His inexperienced disciples, by
alluding to dangers not imminent at the time of their mission
in Galilee.

These doubts, though plausible, vanish on deeper conside-
ration. It was natural that Jesus should signalize the first
missionary enterprise of the twelve chosen men by some such
discourse as Matthew records, setting forth the duties, perils,
encouragements, and rewards of the apostolic vocation. It
was His way, on solemn occasions, to speak as a prophet, who

^ John xvi. 4.

110 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

in the present saw the future, and from small beginnings
looked forward to great iiltimate issues. And this Galilean
mission, though humble and limited compared with the great
undertaking of after years, was really a solemn event. It was
the beginning of that vast work for which the twelve had been
chosen, which embraced the world in its scope, and aimed at
setting up on the earth the kingdom of God. If the Sermon
on the Mount was appropriately delivered on the occasion when
the apostolic company was formed, this discourse on the apos-
tolic vocation was not less appropriate when the members of
that company first put their hands to the work unto which they
had been called.

Even the allusions to distant dangers contained in that dis-
course appear on reflection natural aud seasonable, and calcu-
lated to reassure rather than to frighten the disciples. It must
be remembered that the execution of the Baptist had recently
occurred, and that the twelve were about to commence their
missionary labours within the dominions of the tyrant by whose
command the barbarous murder had been committed. Doubt-
less these humble men who were to take up and repeat the
Baptist's message, " Eepent," ran no present risk of his fate ;
but it was natural that they should fear, and it was also natural
that their Master should think of their future, when such fears
would be anything but imaginary ; and on both accounts it
was seasonable to say to them in effect : Dangers are coming,
but fear not.

Such, in substance, is the burthen of the second part of
Christ's instructions to the twelve. Of the first part, on the
other hand, the burthen is. Care not. These two words. Care
not. Fear not, are the soul and marrow of all that was said by
way of prelude to the first missionary enterprise, and we may
add, to all which might follow. For here Jesus speaks to aU
ao'cs and to all times, telling the church in what spirit all her
missionary enterprises must be undertaken and carried on, that
they may have His blessing.

1. The duty of entering on their mission without careful-
ness, relying on Providence for the necessaries of life, was
incidcated on the twelve by their Master in very strong and
lively terms. They were instructed to procure nothing for the

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM : THE INSTEUCTIONS. Ill

journey, but just to go as they were. They must provide
neither gold nor silver, nor even so much as brass coin in their
purses, no scrip or wallet to carry food, no change of raiment ;
not even sandals for their feet, or a staff for their hands. If
they had the last-mentioned articles, good and well ; if not,
they could do without them. They might go on their errand
of love barefooted, and without the aid even of a staff to help
them on their weary way, having their feet shod only with
the preparation of the gospel of peace, and leaning their
weight upon God's words of promise, " As thy days, so shall
thy strength be." ^

In these directions for the way, it is the spirit, and not
the mere letter, which is of intrinsic and permanent value.
The truth of this statement is evident from the very varia-
tions of the evangelists in reporting Christ's words. One, for
example (Mark), makes Him say to His disciples in effect :
" If you have a staff in your hand, and sandals on your feet,
and one coat on your back, let that suffice." Another (Matthew)
represents Jesus as saying : " Provide nothing for this journey,
neither coat, shoes, nor staff." ^ In spirit the two versions
come to the same thing ; but if we insist on the letter of the
injunctions with legal strictness, there is an obvious contradic-
tion between them. What Jesus meant to say, in whatever
form of language He expressed Himself, was this : Go at once,
and go as you are, and trouble not yourselves about food or
raiment, or any bodily want ; trust in God for these.

So understood, the words of our Lord are of permanent
validity, and to be kept in mind by all who would serve Him
in His kingdom. And though the circumstances of the church
have greatly altered since these words were first spoken, they
have not been lost sight of Many a minister and missionary
has obeyed those instructions almost in their letter, and many
more have kept them in their sj^irit. Nay, has not every poor
student fulfilled these injunctions, who has gone forth from the
humble roof of his parents to be trained for the ministry of
the gospel, without money in his pocket either to buy food or

^ Deut. xxxiii. 25.

2 The first evangelist may be reconciled with the second, by laying stress on
the word "provide" {jjt,h KTwrxrh). See ALford, in loco.

112 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

to pay fees, only with simple faith and youthful hope in his
heart ; knowing as little how he is to find his way to the pas-
toral office as Abraham knew how to find his way to the pro-
mised land when he left his native abode, but, with Abraham,
trusting that He who said to him, " Leave thy father's house,"
will be his guide, his shield, and his provider ? And if those
who thus started on their career do at length arrive at a wealthy
place, in which their wants are abundantly supplied, what is
that but an endorsement by Providence of the law enunciated
by the Master : " The workman is worthy of his meat ? " ^

The directions given to the twelve, with respect to tem-
poralities, in connection with their first mission, were meant
to be an education for their future work. On entering on the
duties of the apostolate, they should have to live literally by
faith, and Jesus mercifully sought to inure them to the habit
while He was with them on earth. Therefore, in sending them
out to preach in Galilee, He said to them in effect : " Go and
learn to seek the kingdom of God with a single heart, uncon-
cerned about food or raiment ; for till ye can do that ye are
not fit to be my apostles." They had indeed been learning
to do that ever since they began to follow Him ; for those
who belonged to His company literally lived from day to day,
taking no thought for the morrow. But there was a difference
between their past state and that on which they were about
to enter. Hitherto Jesus had been with them ; now they
were to be left for a season to themselves. Hitherto they
had been like young children in a family under the care of
their parents, or like young birds in a nest sheltered by their
mother's wing, and needing only to open their mouths wide in
order to get them fiUed. Now they were to become like boys
leaving their father's house to serve an apprenticeship, or like
fledglings leaving the warm nest in which they were nursed,
to exercise their wings and seek food for themselves.

While requiring His disciples to walk by faith, Jesus gave
their faith something to rest on, by encouraging them to hope
that what they provided not for themselves God would pro-
vide for them through the instrumentality of His people. " Into
whatsoever city or town ye shaU enter, inquire who in it is

1 Matt. X. 10.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM : THE INSTRUCTIONS. 113

worthy, and there abide till ye go thence."^ He took for
granted, we observe, tliat there would always be found at every
place at least one good man with a warm heart, who would
welcome the messengers of the kingdom to his house and table
for the pure love of God and of the truth. Surely no unrea-
sonable assumption. It were a wretched hamlet, not to say
town, that had not a single worthy person in it. Even wicked
Sodom had a Lot within its walls who could entertain ansels
unawares.

To ensure good treatment for His servants in all ages wher-
ever the gospel might be preached, Jesus made it known that
He put a high premium on all acts of kindness done towards
them. This advertisement we find at the close of the address
delivered to the twelve at this time : " He that receiveth you,"
He said to them, " receiveth me ; and he that receiveth me,
receiveth Him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in
the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward ; and
he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous
man, shall receive a righteous man's reward." And then,
with increased pathos and solemnity. He added : " Wliosoever
shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold
water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you,
he shall in no wise lose his reward."^ How easy to go forth
into Galilee, yea, into all the world, serving such a sympathetic
Master on such terms !

But while thus encouraging the young evangelists, Jesus
did not allow them to go away with the idea that all things
would be pleasant in their experience. He gave them to
understand that they should be ill received as well as kindly
received. They should meet with churls who would refuse
them hospitality, and with stupid, careless people who would
reject their message ; but even in such cases. He assured them,
they should not be without consolation. If their ]3eaceful
salutation were not reciprocated, they should at aU events get
the benefit of their own spirit of good-will : their peace would
return to themselves. If their words were not welcomed by
any to whom they preached, they should at least be free from
blame ; they might shake off the dust from their feet, and say :
1 Matt. X. 11. 2 j^iatt. X. 40-42.

114 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

" Your blood be upon your o^n heads, we are clean ; we leave
you to your doom, and go elsewhere."^ Solemn words, not to
be uttered, as they are too apt to be, especially by young and
inexperienced disciples, in pride, impatience, or anger, but
humbly, calmly, deliberately, as a part of God's message to men.
When uttered in any other spirit, it is a sign that the preacher
has been as much to blame as the hearer for the rejection of his
message. Few have any right to utter such words at all ; for it
requires rare preaching, indeed, to make the fault of unbeliev-
ing hearers so great, that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom
and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for them. But
such preaching has been. Christ's own preaching was such, and
hence the fearful doom He pronounced on those who rejected
His words. Such also the preaching of the apostles was to be ;
and therefore, to uphold their authority, Jesus solemnly de-
clared that the penalty for despising their word would be not
less than for neglecting His own.^

2. The remaining instructions, referring to the future rather
than to the present, while much more copious, do not call for
lengthened explanation. The burthen of them all, as we have
said, is " Fear not." This exhortation, like the refrain of a
sono-, is repeated again and again in the course of the address.'^
From that fact, the twelve might have inferred that their future
lot was to be of a kind fitted to inspire fear. But Jesus did
not leave them to learn this by inference ; He told them of it
XDlainly. " Behold," He said, with the whole history of the
church in His view, " Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the
midst of wolves." Then He went on to explain in detail, and
with appalling vividness, the various forms of danger which
awaited the messengers of truth ; how they should be delivered
up to councils, scourged in synagogues, brought before gover-
nors and kings (like Felix, and Festus, and Herod), and hated
of all for His name's sake."* He explained to them, at the
same time, that this strange treatment was inevitable in the
nature of things, being the necessary consequence of divine
truth acting in the world like a chemical solvent, and sepa-
rating men into parties, according to the spirit which ruled

'• Matt. X. 13, 14. - Matt. x. 15.

3 Matt. X. 26, 28, 31. * Matt, x. 16, 17, 18.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM : THE INSTRUCTIONS. 115

in them. The truth would divide even members of the same
family, and make them bitterly hostile to each other ;^ and how-
ever deplorable the result might be, it was one for which there
was no remedy. Offences must come : " Think not," He said
to His disciples, horrified at the dark picture, and perhaps
secretly hoping that their Master had painted it in too sombre
colours, " Think not that I am come to send peace on earth :
I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set
a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against
her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."^

Amid such dangers, two virtues are specially needful :
caution and fidelity ; the one, that God's servants may not be
cut off prematurely or unnecessarily, the other, that while they
live, they may really do God's work, and fight for the truth.
In such times Christ's disciples must not fear, but be brave
and true ; and yet, while fearless, they must not be foolhardy.
These qualities it is not easy to combine ; for conscientious
men are apt to be rash, and prudent men are apt to be unfaith-
ful. Yet the combination is not impossible, else it would not
be required, as it is in this discourse. For it was just the im-
portance of cultivating the apparently incompatible virtues of
caution and fidelity that Jesus meant to teach by the remark-
able proverb-precept : " Be wise as serpents, harmless as
doves." ^ The serpent is the emblem of cunning, the dove of
simplicity. ISTo creatures can be more unlike ; yet Jesus re-
quires of His disciples to be at once serpents in cautiousness,
and doves in simplicity of aim and purity of heart. Happy
they who can be both ; but if we cannot, let us at least be
doves. The dove must come before the serpent in our esteem,
and in the development of our character. This order is ob-
servable in the history of all true disciples. They begin with
spotless sincerity ; and after being betrayed by a generous
enthusiasm into some acts of rashness, they learn betimes the
serpent's virtues. If we invert the order, as too many do, and
begin by being prudent and judicious to admiration, the effect
win be, that the higher virtue will not only be postponed,
but sacrificed. The dove wiU be devoured by the serpent :

1 Matt. X. 21. 2 Matt. x. 34-36. ^ Matt. x. 16.

116 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

the cause of tnith. and righteousness will he betrayed out of a
base regard to self-preservation and worldly advantage.

On hearing a general maxim of morals announced, one
naturally wishes to know how it applies to particular cases.
Christ met this wish in connection with the deep, pregnant
maxim, " Be wise as serpents, harmless as doves," by giving
examples of its application. The first case supposed is that
of the messengers of truth being brought up before civil or
ecclesiastical tribunals to answer for themselves. Here the
dictate of wisdom is, " Beware of men." ^ " Do not be so
simple as to imagine all men good, honest, fair, tolerant. Pte-
member there are wolves in the world : — men full of malice,
falsehood, and unscrupulousness, capable of inventing the most
atrocious charges against you, and of supporting them by the.
most unblushing mendacity. Keep out of their clutches if
you can ; and when you fall into their hands, expect neither
candour, justice, nor generosity." But how are such men to
be answered ? Must craft be met with craft, lies with lies ?
No : here is the place for the simplicity of the dove. Cunning
and craft boot not at such an hour ; safety lies in trusting to
Heaven's guidance, and telling the truth. " When they deliver
you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak ; for it
shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak ;
for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father
which speaketh in you."^ The counsel given to the apostles
has been justified by experience. What a noble book the
speeches uttered by confessors of the truth under the inspira-
tion of the Divine Spirit, collected together, would make !

Jesus next puts the case of the heralds of His gospel being
exposed to popular persecutions, and shows the bearing of the
maxim upon it likewise. Such persecutions, as distinct from
judicial proceedings, were common in apostolic experience ;
and they are a matter of course in all critical eras. The igno-
rant, superstitious populace, filled with prejudice and passion,
and instigated by designing men, play the part of obstructives
to the cause of truth, mobbing, mocking, and assaulting the
messeno-ers of God. How, then, are the subjects of this ill-
treatment to act ? On the one hand, they are to show the
1 Matt. X. 17. ^ Matt. x. 19, 20.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM : THE INSTRUCTIONS. 117

wisdom of the serpent, by avoiding tlie storm of popular iU-
will when it arises ; and on the other hand, they are to exhi-
bit the simplicity of the dove, by giving the utmost publicity
to their message, though conscious of the risk they run. "When
they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another ;" ^ yet,
undaunted by clamour, calumny, and violence, "what I tell
you in darkness, that speak ye in light ; what ye hear in the
ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops." ^

To each of these injunctions a reason is annexed. Flight
is justified by the remark, " Verily I say unto you, ye shall
not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be
come."^ The coming alluded to is the destruction of Jerusalem,
and the dispersion of the Jewish nation ; and the meaning is,
that the apostles would barely have time, before the catastrophe
came, to go over all the land, warning the people to save
themselves from the doom of an untoward generation, so that
they could not weU afford to tarry in any locality after its
inhabitants had heard and rejected the message. The souls
of all were alike precious ; and if one city did not receive
the word, perhaps another would.^

The reason annexed to the injunction to give the utmost
publicity to the truth, in spite of all possible dangers, is : " The
disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his
lord." ^ That is to say : To be evil entreated by the ignorant
and violent multitude is hard to bear, but not harder for you
than for me, who already, as ye know, have had experience
of popular malice at Nazareth, and am destined, as ye know
not, to have yet more bitter experience of it at Jerusalem.
Therefore see that ye hide not your light under a bushel, to
escape the rage of wolfish men.

The disciples are supposed, lastly, to be in peril not merely
of trial, mocking, and violence, but even of their life, and are
instructed how to act in that extremity. Here also the maxim,
" Wise as serpents, harmless as doves," comes into play in both
its parts. In this case the wisdom of the serpent lies in

1 Matt. X. 23. 2 ]viatt. x. 27. ^ Matt. x. 23.

* Paul and Barnabas acted on this principle at Antiocli of Pisidia. Acts
xiii. 46.

6 Matt. X. 24, 25.

118 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

knowing what to fear. Jesus reminds His disciples that there
are two kinds of deaths, one caused by the sword, the other
by unfaithfuhiess to duty ; and tells them in effect, that while
both are evils to be avoided, if possible, yet if a choice must
be made, the latter death is most to be dreaded. " Fear not,"
He said, " them which kill the body, but are not able to kill
the soul ; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell," — the tempter, that is, who, when one is in
danger, whispers : Save thyself at any sacrifice of principle or
conscience.^

The simplicity of the dove in presence of the extreme peril
consists in child-like trust in the watchful providence of the
Father in heaven. Such trust Jesus exhorted His disciples
to cherish in charmingly simple and pathetic language. He
told them that God cared even for sparrows, and reminded
them that, however insignificant they might seem to them-
selves, they were at least of more value than many sparrows,
not to say than two, whose money value was just one farthing.
If God neglected not even a pair of sparrows, but provided
for them a place in His world where they might build their
nest and safely bring forth their young, would He not care
for them as they went forth two and two preaching the doc-
trine of the kingdom ? Yea ! He would ; the very hairs of
their head were numbered. Therefore they might go forth
without fear, trusting their lives to His care ; remembering
also that, at worst, death was no great evil, seeing that for the
faithful was reserved a crown of life, and, for those who con-
fessed the Son of man, the honour of being confessed by Him
in turn before His Father in heaven.^

Such were the instructions of the Lord Jesus to the twelve
when He sent them forth to preach and to heal. Eare, unex-
ampled discourse, strange to the ears of us moderns, who can
hardly imagine such stern requirements being seriously made,
not to say exactly complied with. Eeader ! hast thou ever
looked up at Mont Blanc from Courmayeur, Chamounix,

1 Matt. X. 28. It has been much disputed who is referred to here — God or
Satan. It may be either : God as Judge ; Satan as tempter. We prefer the
latter.

« Matt. X. 32, 33.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELISM : THE INSTRUCTIONS. 119

or St. Gervais ? Such is our attitude towards this first mis-
sionary sermon. It is a mountain at which we gaze in
wonder from a position far below, hardly dreaming of climb-
ing to its summit. Some, however, have made the arduous
ascent ; and among these the first place of honour must be
assigned to the Twelve Apostles.

CHAPTEE IX.

A CRISIS.

Section i. — The Miracle.

John vi. 1-15 ; Matt. xiv. 13-21 ; Mark vi. 33-44 ; Luke ix. 11-17.

THE sixth chapter of John's Gospel is full of marvels.
It tells of a great miracle, a great enthusiasm, a great
storm, a great sermon, a great apostasy, and a great trial of
faith and fidelity endured by the twelve. It contains, indeed,
the history of an important crisis in the ministry of Jesus
and the religious experience of His disciples, — a crisis in many
respects foreshadowing the great final one, which happened
little more than a year afterwards,^ when a more famous
miracle still was followed by a greater popularity, to be suc-
ceeded in turn by a more complete desertion, and to end
in the crucifixion, by which the riddle of the Capernaum dis-
course was solved, and its prophecy fulfilled.

The facts recorded by John in this chapter of his Gospel
may all be comprehended under these four heads : the miracle
in the wilderness, the storm on the lake, the sermon in the
synagogue, and the subsequent sifting of Christ's disciples.
These, in their order, we propose to consider in four distinct
sections.

The scene of the miracle was on the eastern shore of the
Galilean Sea. Luke fixes the precise locality, in the neigh-
bourhood of a city called Bethsaida.' This, of course, could
not be the Bethsaida on the western shore, the city of Andrew
and Peter. But there was, it appears, another city of the
same name at the north-eastern extremity of the lake, called,

^ John vi. 4 : " The passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh."
* Liike ix. 10.

A CRISIS: THE MIRACLE, 121

by way of distinction, Betlasaicia Julias.^ The site of this
city, we are informed by an eye-witness, "is discernible on
the lower slope of the hill which overhangs the rich plain at
the mouth of the Jordan" (that is, at the place where the
waters of the Upper Jordan join the Sea of Galilee), " The
' desert place,' " the same author goes on to say, by way of
proving the suitableness of the locality to be the scene of this
miracle, " was either the green table-land which hes half-way
up the hill immediately above Bethsaida, or else in the parts
of the plain not cultivated by the hand of man would be
found the ' much green grass,' still fresh in the spring of the
year when this event occurred, before it had faded away in
the summer sun : the tall grass which, broken down by the
feet of the thousands then gathered together, would make, as
it were, ' couches ' for them to recline upon." ^

To this place Jesus and the twelve had retired after the
return of the latter from their mission, seeking rest and

Qj privacy. But what they sought they did not find. Their
movements were observed, and the people flocked along the
shore toward the place whither they had sailed, running all
the way, as if fearful that they might escape, and so arriving
at the landing-place before them.^ The multitude which
thus gathered around Jesus was very great. All the evange-
lists agree in stating it at five thousand ; and as the arrange-
ment of the people at the miraculous repast in groups of
hundreds and fifties ^ made it easy to ascertain their number,

(3 we must accept this statement not as a rough estimate, but
as an exact calculation.

Such an immense assemblage testifies to the presence of a
great excitement among the populations living by the shore of
the Sea of Galilee. A fervid enthusiasm, a hero-worship whereof
Jesus was the object, was at work in their minds. Jesus was
the idol of the hour : they could not endure His absence ; they
could not see enough of His work, nor hear enough of His
O teaching. The infection seems to have spread as far south as

^ Rebuilt by Philip tlie tetrarch, and referred to by Joseplius.

2 Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 382. The "desert place" is spoken of in
Luke ix. 10, the "much green grass" in Mark vi. 39 and John vi. 10 combined.

3 Mark vi. 33, * Mark vi. 40,

122 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Tiberias ; for John relates that boats came from that city " to
the place where they did eat bread." ^ Those who were in these
boats came too late to witness the miracle and share in the
feast, but this does not prove that their errand was not the
same as that of the rest ; for, owing to their greater distance
from the scene, the news would be longer in reaching them,
and it would take them longer to go thither.

The great miracle wrought in the neighbourhood of Beth-
saida Julias consisted in the feeding of this vast assemblage
of human beings with the utterly inadequate means of " five
barley loaves and two small fishes." ^ It was truly a stupen-
dous transaction, of which we can form no conception ; but no
event in the Gospel history is more satisfactorily attested. All
the evangelists relate the miracle with much minuteness, with
little even apparent discrepancy, and with such graphic detail
as none but eye-witnesses could have supplied. Even John,
who records so few of Christ's miracles, describes this one
with as careful a hand as any of his brother evangelists, albeit
introducing it into his narrative merely as a preface to the
sermon on the Bread of Life found in his Gospel only.

This wonderful work, so unexceptionably attested, seems
open to exception on another ground. It appears to be a
miracle without a sufficient reason. It cannot be said to have
been urgently called for by the necessities of the multitude.
Doubtless they were hungry, and had brought no victuals with
them to supply their bodily wants. But the miracle was
wrought on the afternoon of the day on which they left their
homes, and most of them might have returned within a few
hours. It would, indeed, have been somewhat hard to have
undertaken such a journey at the end of the day without
food ; but the hardship, even if necessary, was far within the
limits of human endurance. But it was not necessary ; for
food could have been got on the way, without going far, in the
neighbouring towns and villages, so that to disperse them as
they were would have involved no considerable inconvenience.
This is evident from the terms in which the disciples made
the suggestion that the multitude should be sent away. We
read : " When the day began to wear away, then came the

J Jolin vi. 23. 2 joim yj, 9.

A CRISIS : THE MIRACLE, 123

twelve, and said unto Him, Send the multitude away, that
they may go into the towns and country round about, and
lodge and get victuals." ^

In these respects there is an obvious difference between the
first miraculous feeding, and the second, which occurred at a
somewhat later period at the south-eastern extremity of the
lake. On that occasion, the people who had assembled around
Jesus had been three days in the wilderness without aught to
eat, and there were no facilities for procuring food, so that
the miracle was demanded by considerations of humanity.^
Accordingly we find that compassion is assigned as the motive
for that miracle : " Jesus called His disciples unto Him, and
saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because
they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to
eat ; and if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they
will faint by the way : for divers of them came from far." ^

If our object were merely to get rid of the difficulty of
assigning a sufficient motive for the great miracle of feeding,
we might content ourselves with saying that Jesus did not
need any very urgent occasion to induce Him to use His power
for the benefit of others. For His own benefit He would not
use it in case even of extreme need, not even after a fast of
forty days. But when the well-leing (not to say the heing) of
others was concerned. He dispensed miraculous blessings with
a liberal hand. He did not ask Himself: Is this a grave
enough occasion for the use of divine power ? Is this man ill
enough to justify a miraculous interference with the laws of
nature, by healing him ? Are these people here assembled
hungry enough to be fed, like their fathers in the wilderness,
with bread from heaven ?

But we do not insist on this, because we believe that some-
thing else and higher was aimed at in this miracle than to
satisfy physical appetite. It was a symbolic, didactic, critical r\
miracle. It was meant to teach, and also to test ; to supply J
a text for the subsequent sermon, and a touchstone to try
the character of those who had followed Jesus with such
enthusiasm. The miraculous feast in the wilderness was
meant to say to the multitude just what our sacramental feast
1 Luke ix. 12, 2 j^jark viii. 3, 4. ^ Mark viii, 1-3. '

124 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

>-. says to us : " I, Jesus tlie Son of God Incarnate, am the
bread of life. Wliat this bread is to your bodies, I myself am
to your souls." And the communicants in that feast were to
be tested by the way in which they regarded the transaction.
The spiritual would see in it a sign of Christ's divine dignity,
and a seal of His saving grace ; the carnal would rest simply
in the outward fact that they had eaten of the loaves and were
filled, and would take occasion from what had happened to
indulge in high hopes of temporal felicity under the benign
reign of the Prophet and King who had made His appearance
among them.

The miracle in the desert was in this view not merely an
act of mercy, but an act of judgment. Jesus mercifully fed the
hungry multitude in order that He might sift it, and separate
/''^ the true from the spurious disciples. There was a much more
urgent demand for such a sifting, than for food to satisfy merely
physical cravings. If those thousands were all genuine dis-
ciples, it was well ; but if not — if the greater number were
following Christ under misapprehension — the sooner that
became apparent the better. To allow so large a mixed
multitude to follow Himself any longer without sifting, would
have been on Christ's j)art to encourage false hopes, and to
give rise to serious misapprehensions as to the nature of His
kingdom and His earthly mission. And no better method of
separating the chaff from the wheat in that large company of
professed disciples could have been devised, than first to work
a miracle which would bring to the surface the latent car-
nality of the greater number, and then to preach a sermon
which could not fail to be offensive to the carnal mind.

That Jesus freely chose, for a reason of His own, the
miraculous method of meeting the difficulty that had arisen,
appears to be not obscurely hinted at in the Gospel narratives.
Consider, for example, in this connection, John's note of
time, " The passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh." Is this
a merely chronological statement ? We think not. What
further purpose, then, is it intended to serve ? To exj)lain
how so great a crowd came to be gathered around Jesus ? —
Such an explanation was not required, for the true cause
of the great gathering was the enthusiasm which had been

A CRISIS : THE MIRACLE. 125

awakened among the people by the preaching and healing
work of Jesus and the twelve. The evangelist refers to the
approaching passover, it would seem, not to explain the move-
ment of the people, but rather to explain the acts and words of
his Lord about to be related. " The passover was nigh, and" —
so may we bring out John's meaning — " Jesus was thinking of
it, though He went not up to the feast that season. He thought
of the paschal lamb, and how He, the true Paschal Lamb,
would ere long be slain for the life of the world ; and He gave
expression to the deep thoughts of His heart in the symbolic
miracle I am about to relate, and in the mystic discourse which
followed." ^

The view we advocate respecting the motive of the miracle
in the wilderness seems borne out also by the tone adopted by
Jesus in the conversation which took place between Himself
and the twelve as to how the wants of the multitude might be
supplied. In the course of that conversation, of which frag-
ments have been preserved by the different evangelists, two
suggestions were made by the disciples. One was to dismiss
the multitude that they might procure supplies for themselves ;
the other, that they (the disciples) should go to the nearest
town (say Bethsaida Julias, probably not far off) and pur-
chase as much bread as they could get for two hundred denarii,
which would suffice to alleviate hunger at least, if not to satisfy
appetite.^ Both these proposals were feasible, otherwise they
would not have been made ; for the twelve had not spoken
thoughtlessly, but after consideration, as appears from the fact
that one of their number, Andrew, had already ascertained how
much provision could be got on the spot. The question how
the multitude could be provided for had evidently been exer-
cising the minds of the disciples, and the two proposals were
the result of their deliberations. Now, what we wish to point
out is, that Jesus does not appear to have given any serious
heed to these proposals. He listened to them, not displeased
to see the generous concern of His disciples for the hungry

^ For tlie view of John vi. 4 above given, see Lutliardt, Das Johan. Evan-
gelium, i. 80, ii. 41.

® Mark vi. 37 ; John vi. 7. A denarius (Eng. ver. a penny) seems to have been
a day's wages (Matt. xx. 9), and was about the eighth part of an ounce of silver.

126 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

people, yet witli the air of one who meant from the first to
pursue a different line of action from any they might suggest.
He behaved like a general in a council of war whose own
mind is made up, but who is not unwilling to hear what his
subordinates will say. This is no mere inference of ours,
for John actually explains that such was the manner in which
our Lord acted on the occasion. After relating that Jesus
addressed to Philip the question, Whence shall we buy bread,
that these may eat ? he adds the parenthetical remark, " This
He said to prove him, for He Himself knew what He would
do."'

Such, then, was the design of the miracle : what now was
its result ? It raised the swelling tide of enthusiasm to its
full height, and induced the multitude to form a foolish and
dangerous purpose — even to crown the wonder-working Jesus,
and make Him their king instead of the licentious despot
Herod, They said, " This is of a truth that Prophet that
should come into the world ;" and they were on the point
of coming and taking Jesus by force to make Him a king,
insomuch that it was necessary that He should make His
escape from them, and depart into a mountain Himself alone."
Such are the express statements of the fourth Gospel, and
what is there stated is obscurely implied in the narratives of
Matthew and Mark. They tell how, after the miracle in the
desert, Jesus straightvMy constrained His disciples to get into
a ship and to go to the other side.^ Why such haste, and why
such urgency ? Doubtless it was late, and there was no time
to lose, if they wished to get home to Capernaum that night.
But why go home at all, when the people, or at least a part of
them, were to pass the night in the wilderness ? Should they
not rather have remained with them, to keep them in heart
and take a charge of them ? Nay, was it dutiful in disciples
to leave their Master alone in such a situation ? Doubtless
the reluctance of the twelve to depart sprang from their ask-
ing themselves these very questions ; and, as a feeling having
such an origin was most becoming, the constraint put on them

' John vi. 6.

2 John vi. 14, 15. The prophet meant was one like Moses (Deut. xviii. 15).

3 Matt. xiv. 22 ; Mark vi. 45.

A CRISIS : THE MIRACLE. 127

presupposes tlie existence of unusual circumstances, such as
those recorded by John. In other words, the most natural ex-
planation of the fact recorded by the synoptical evangelists is,
that Jesus wished to extricate both Himself and His disciples
p^Tom. the foolish enthusiasm of the multitude, and for that
purpose arranged that they should sail away in the dusk across
the lake, while He retired into the solitude of the mountains.^
What a melancholy result of a hopeful movement have we
here ! The kingdom has been proclaimed, and the good news
has been extensively welcomed. Jesus, the Messianic King, is
become the object of most ardent devotion to an enthusiastic
population. But, alas ! their ideas of the kingdom are radically
mistaken. Acted out, they would mean rebellion and ultimate
ruin. Therefore it is necessary that Jesus should save Himself
from His own friends, and hide Himself from His own followers.
How certainly do Satan's tares get sown among God's wheat !
How easily does enthusiasm run into folly and mischief !

The result of the miracle did not take Jesus by surprise.
It was what He expected ; nay, in a sense, it was what He
aimed at. It was time that the thoughts of many hearts
should be revealed ; and the certainty that the miracle would
help to reveal them was one reason at least for its being
worked. Jesus furnished for the people a table in the wilder-
ness, and gave them of the corn of heaven, and sent them
meat to the full,^ that He might prove them and know what
was in their heart,^- — whether they loved Him for His own
sake, or only for the sake of expected worldly advantage. O
That many followed Him from by-ends He knew beforehand,
but He desired to bring the fact home to their own consciences. (J
The miracle put that in His power, and enabled Him to say,
without fear of contradiction, " Ye seek me, not because ye saw
the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were
filled."* It was a searching word which might well put all His
professed followers, not only then, but now, on self-examining
thoughts, and lead each man to ask himseK, Why do I profess
Christianity ? Is it from sincere faith in Jesus Christ as the
Son of God and Saviour of the world, or from tlioughtless

1 John vi. 15, 16. 2 ps_ ixxiii. 19, 24, 25.

3 Deut. viii. 2. « John vi. 26.

128 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

(^ compliance with custom, from a regard to reputation, or from
considerations of worldly advantage ? That many are " Chris-
tians," now as then, from by-ends is certain. Who they are,

/*) no man may attempt to declare ; but the Lord knows.

Section ii. — Hie Storm.

Matt, xiv, 24-33 ; Mark vi. 45-52 ; John vi. 16-21,

" In perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea," wrote
Paul, describing the varied hardships encountered by himseK
in the prosecution of his great work as the apostle of the
Gentiles. Such perils meet together in this crisis in the life
of Jesus. He has just saved Himself from the dangerous
enthusiasm manifested by the thoughtless multitude after the
miraculous repast in the desert ; and now, a few hours later,
a still greater disaster threatens to befall Him. His twelve
chosen disciples, whom He had hurriedly sent off in a boat,
that they might not encourage the people in their foolish
project, have been overtaken in a storm while He is alone
on the mountain praying, and are in imminent danger of
being drowned. His contrivance for escaping one evil has
involved Him in a worse ; and it seems as if, by a combina-
tion of mischances. He were to be suddenly deprived of all
His followers, both true and false, at once, and left utterly
alone, as in the last great crisis. The Messianic King watch-
ing on those heights, like a general on the day of battle, is
indeed hard pressed, and the battle is going against Him.
But the Captain of salvation is equal to the emergency ; and
however sorely perplexed He may be for a season. He will be
victorious in the end.

The Sea of Galilee, though but a small sheet of water,
some thirteen miles long by six broad, is liable to be visited
by sharp, sudden squalls, probably due to its situation. It
lies in a deep hollow of volcanic origin, bounded on either
side by steep ranges of hills rising above the water-level from
one to two thousand feet. The difference of temperature at
the top and bottom of these hills is very considerable. Up

ACEISIS: THE STORM. 129

on the table-lands above, the air is cool and bracing ; down at
the margin of the lake, which lies seven hundred feet below
the level of the ocean, the climate is tropical. The storms
caused by this inequality of temperature are tropical in vio-
lence. They come sweeping down the ravines upon the
water ; and in a moment the lake, calm as glass before,
becomes from end to end white with foam, whilst the waves
rise into the air in columns of spray. -^

Two such storms of wind were encountered by the twelve
after they had become disciples, probably within the same
year ; the one with which we are concerned at present, and an
earlier one on the occasion of a visit to Gadara.^ Both hap-
pened by night, and both were exceedingly violent. In the
first storm, we are told, the ship was covered with the waves,
and filled almost to sinking, so that the disciples feared they
should perish. The second storm was equally violent, and
was of much longer duration. It caught the twelve ap-
parently when they were half-way across, and after the grey
of dusk had deepened into the darkness of night. From that
time the wind blew with unabated force till day-break, in the
fourth watch, between the hours of three and six in the
morning. Some idea of the fury of the blast may be gathered
from the fact recorded, that even then they were still little
more than haK-way over the sea. They had rowed in all only
a distance of twenty- five or thirty furlongs ;^ the whole distance
in a slanting direction, from the eastern to the western shore,
being probably about fifty. During all those weary hours
they had done little more, pulling with all their might, than
hold their own against wind and waves.

All this while what was Jesus doing ? In the first storm
He had been with His disciples in the ship, sweetly sleeping
after the fatigues of the day, " rocked in cradle of the impe-
rious surge." This time He was absent, and not sleeping ;
but away up among the mountains alone, watching unto
prayer. For He, too, had His own struggle on that tempes-
tuous night ; not with the howling winds, but with sorrowful'

^ Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 380.

2 Matt. viii. 23 ; Mark iv. 35 ; Luke viii. 22.

^ John yi. 19.

130 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

thouglits. That night He, as it were, rehearsed the agony in
Gethsemane, and with earnest prayer and absorbing meditation
studied the passion sermon which He preached on the morrow.
So engrossed was His mind with His own sad thoughts, that
the poor disciples were for a season as if forgotten ; till at
length, at early dawn, looking seawards,^ He saw them toiling
in rowing against the contrary wind, and without a moment's
further delay made haste to their rescue.

This storm on the Sea of Galilee, besides being important
as a historical fact, possesses also the significance of an
emblem. When we consider the time at which it occurred,
it is impossible not to connect it in our thoughts with the un-
toward events of the next day. For the literal storm on the
water was succeeded by a spiritual storm on the land, equally
sudden and violent, and not less perilous to the souls of the
twelve than the other had been to their bodies. The bark
containing the precious freight of Christ's true discipleship
was then overtaken by a sudden gust of unpopularity, coming
down on it like a squall on a highland loch, and all but up-
setting it. The fickle crowd that but the day before would
have made Jesus their king, turned away abruptly from Him in
disappointment and disgust ; and it was not without an effort,
as we shall see,^ that the twelve maintained their stedfastness.
They had to pull hard against wind and waves, that they might
not be carried headlong to ruin by the tornado of apostasy.

There can be little doubt that the two storms — on the lake
and on the shore — coming so close one on the other, would
become associated in the memory of the apostles ; and that
the literal storm would be stereotyped in their minds as an
expressive emblem of the spiritual one, and of all similar trials
of faith. The incidents of that fearful night — the watching,
the wet, the toil without result, the fatigue, the terror and
despair — would abide indelibly in their recollection, the sym-
bolic representation of all the perils and tribulations through
which believers must pass on their way to the kingdom of
heaven ; and especially of those that come upon them while
they are yet immature in the faith.

The storm on the lake is an apt emblem of the inward

^ Mark vi. 48. ^ See fSectiou iv. of the present chapter.

' A CEISIS : THE STORM. 131

trials of immature disciples in three respects particularly.
First, because it took place by night. A storm is a serious
thing at any time, but darkness adds greatly to the danger,
and still more to the terror. Imagination becomes active, and
adds visionary to real evils. Horrid spectres rise to view, and
the very deliverer, as he approaches, seems to a disordered
fancy but the spirit of the storm coming to destroy.

Storms at sea may happen at all hours of the day, but trials
of faith happen always in the night. The task appointed to
the tried soul is to wait patiently through the darkness for
the dawn. Were there no darkness, there could be no trial.
In the light we walk not by faith, but by sight, without diffi-
culty. Had the twelve understood Christ's discourse in
Capernaum, the apostasy of the multitude would have been
less of a temptation. But they did not understand it : they
were in the dark as to its meaning as much as the others, and
hence the solicitude of their Master lest they too might forsake
Him. So with all whose faith is being tried. They fear the
Lord, and walk in darkness, and have no light ; or at least
want light in the. quarter whence the trial comes. And as
they walk in the dark, they are liable, like the disciples, to
see ghosts, and be tormented with imaginary fears. Every
bush seems a thief or a robber ; and ghastly bugbears, hideous
hobgoblins, " do greatly them affear," as they walk forlorn
through the valley of the shadow of death. Blasphemous
thoughts of God, despairing thoughts of themselves, infest their
minds. Conscience charges them with horrible offences, and
the intellect is preternaturally acute in interpreting Scripture
in the manner most unfavourable to their prospects of salvation;
yea, it may be, in suggesting doubts whether there be such a
thing as salvation, whether religion be not a dream, and re-
velation a delusion. What a blessed deliverance when the
day dawns, and the shadows flee away ! How pleasant to
look back on such passages of one's life, and remember God
from the land of Jordan, and the Sea of Galilee, when the
waves and billows went over us !

A second point in the symbolism of the storm is the absence
of Jesus. In the first storm encountered by the twelve, Jesus
was present, though asleep ; but in the second He was not

132 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

with them at all, sleeping or waking. Now, in like manner,
the absence of the Lord to feeling at least is one painful
feature of inward trials. Christ is not in the ship while the
storm rages by night, and we toil on in rowing unaided, as we
think, by His grace, uncheered by His spiritual presence. It
was so even with the twelve next day on the shore. Their
Master, though present to their eyes, had vanished out of sight
to their understanding. While they clung to Him as one who
had the words of eternal life, they had not the comfort of
comprehending His meaning. They were faithful to Him in
sjnte of the incomprehensibility of His doctrine.

When Jesus is missed. He is apt to be reflected on. Dis-
ciples are prone to ask (the twelve, no doubt, did ask), How
can He leave us in such a plight ? nay, why did He allow us
to get into it ? Why did He push our boat off into the sea,
and not let us remain with Him on shore, as we wished ?
Such questions always admit of satisfactory answer. There
were good reasons for the arrangement by which the disciples
were required to sail away alone ; and there are equally good
reasons for all analogous experiences in the spiritual life. It
is good for believers that Christ should go away for a season,
and that they should know what it is to battle with temptation,
as it were, single-handed. This, however, they never see till
the trial is past ; and hence complaints, doubting questions,
severe reflections, are almost invariably indulged in at a season
of desertion. However much the Divine Master may intend
the good of His disciples at such times, He must be content to
do without their confidence, and to bear patiently their mis-
understandings and hard thoughts. And He is content : He
does what is right, and trusts to the future for His justification,
when the children shall have become grown men, capable of
appreciating the discipline to which they have been subjected.

The third respect in which the storm has symbolic signifi-
cance, is the arrestment of all progress while it lasted. The
disciples, with all their efforts, made no headway : the utmost
they effected was to hold their own ; their toil but helped
them to stand still in midst of the sea. In like manner,
there is an absence of all sensible progress in the 'divine life
in seasons of spiritual trial. The tempest-tossed seem to

A CRISIS: THE STORM. 133

remain throughout just where they were : that at best, for
often there is back-going.^

This standing still is very discouraging. No one loves to
labour hard, and all in vain. But the tried must beware of
being too much discouraged, and remember that if they do
stand still at such a season, their labour is not in vain. It is
a great thing to hold your own then. Surely it was better
far to stick fast in the midst of the sea, than to be driven back
on the rocky shore ! If the disciples did not get nearer the
port whither they were bound while the storm lasted, they at
all events escaped shipwreck and drowning : a matter surely
to be thankful for !

It is a pious commonplace, that there is no standing still
in the divine life, and that if one is not going forward he is
going baclvward. This saying may hold good in fair weather,
but it does not apply in a time of storm. Then to stand
still is all one can do ; nor is that at such a season a small
thing, but everything. Is it a small thing to weather the
tempest — to keep off the rocks, the sands, and the breakers ?
Vex not the soul of him who is abeady vexed enough by the
buffeting winds, by retailing wise saws about progress and
backsliding, indiscriminately applied. Play not the part of a
Job's friend, telling the tried one he is not getting any nearer
the haven with aU. his efforts (which he knows too well him-
self), and drawing hence unfavourable inferences respecting his
spiritual state. Eather remind him that the great thing for
him at present is to endure, to be immoveable, to hold fast his
moral integrity and his profession of faith, and to keep off the
dangerous coast of immorality and infidelity ; and for his en-
couragement assure him, that if he will but persevere pulling a
little longer at the oar, however weary his arm, God will come
and calm the wind, when, insj)ired with new life and vigour,
he shall move with great speed, and forthwith reach the land.

The storm on the lake, besides being an apt emblem of the
trial of faith, was for the twelve an important lesson in faith,
helping to prepare them for the future which awaited them.
The temporary absence of their Master was a preparation for
His perpetual absence. The miraculous interposition of Jesus

^ John vi. 66.

134 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

at the crisis of their peril was fitted to impress on their minds
the conviction, that even after He had ascended He would still
be with them in the hour of danger. From the ultimate happy
issue of a plan which threatened for a time to miscarry, they
might further learn to cherish a calm confidence in the govern-
ment of their exalted Lord, even in midst of most untoward
events. As we remarked before, they probably concluded,
when the storm came on, that Jesus had made a mistake in
ordering them to sail away across the lake while He remained
behind to dismiss the multitude. The event, however, rebuked
this hasty judgment, all ending happily. Their experience in
this instance was fitted to teach a lesson for life : not rashly
to infer mismanagement or neglect on Christ's part from tem-
porary mishaps, but to have firm faith in His wise and loving
care for His cause and people, and to anticipate a happy issue
out of all perplexities ; yea, to glory in tribulation, because of
the great deliverance which would surely follow.

The disciples were far enough from possessing such strong
faith at the time of the storm. They had no expectation that
Jesus would come to their rescue ; for when He did come, they
thought He was a spirit flitting over the water, and cried out
in an agony of superstitious terror. Here also we note, in
passing, a curious correspondence between the incidents of this
crisis and those connected with the final one. The disciples
had then as little expectation of seeing their Lord return from
the dead as they had now of seeing Him come to them over
the sea ; and therefore His reappearance at first frightened
rather than comforted them. " They were terrified and
affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit." ^ Good,
unlooked for in either case, was turned into evil ; and what
to faith would have been a source of intense joy, became,
through unbelief, only a new cause of alarm.

The fact of His not being expected seems to have imposed
on Jesus the necessity of using artifice in His manner of ap-
proaching His storm-tossed disciples. Mark relates that " He
would have passed by them," ^ affecting strangeness, as we
understand it, out of delicate consideration for their weakness.
He knew what He would be taken for when first observed ;
1 Luke xxiv. 37. * Mai-k vi. 48.

A CEISIS : THE STORM. 135

and therefore He wished to attract their attention at a safe
distance, fearing lest, by appearing among them at once. He
might drive them distracted. He found it needful to be as
cautious in announcing His advent to save, as men are wont
to be in communicating evil tidings : first appearing, as the
spectre, as far away as He could be seen ; then revealing Him-
self by His familiar voice uttering the words of comfort, " It
is I ; be not afraid ; " and so obtaining at length a willing
reception into the ship.^

The effects which followed the admission of Jesus into the
vessel betrayed the twelve into a new manifestation of the
weakness of their faith. " The wind ceased : and they were
sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered." ^
They ought not to have wondered so greatly, after what had
happened once before on these same waters, and especially
after such a miracle as had been wrought in the wilderness on
the previous day. But the storm had blown all thoughts of
such things out of their mind, and driven them utterly stupid.
" They reflected not on the loaves (nor on the rebuking of the
winds), for their heart was hardened." ^

But the most interesting revelation of the mental state of
the disciples at the time when Jesus came to their relief, is
to be found in the episode concerning Peter related in Matthew's
Gospel. When that disciple understood that the supposed
spectre was his beloved Master, he cried, " Lord, if it be Thou,
bid me come unto Thee on the water ; "^ and on receiving per-
mission, he forthwith stepped out of the ship into the sea.
This was not faith, but simple rashness. It was the rebound
of an impetuous, headlong nature, from one extreme of utter
despair, to the opposite extreme of extravagant, reckless joy.
What in the other disciples took the tame form of a willing-
ness to receive Jesus into the ship after they were satisfied it
was He who walked on the waters,^ took, in the case of Peter,
the form of a romantic, adventm"ous wish to go out to Jesus
where He was, to welcome Him back among them again. The
proposal was altogether like the man : generous, enthusiastic,
and well-meant, but inconsiderate.

1 John vi. 21. 2 jjark vi. 51. ' Mark vi. 52.

* Matt. xiv. 28. * John vi. 21.

136 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Such a proposal, of course, could not meet witli Christ's
approval, and yet He did not negative it. He rather thought
good to humour the impulsive disciple so far, by inviting him
to come, and then to allow him, while in the water, to feel
his own weakness. Thus would He teach him a little self-
knowledge, and, if possible, save him from the effects of his
rash, seK-confident temper. But Peter was not to be made
wise by one lesson, nor even by several. He would go on
blundering and erring, in spite of rebuke and warning, till at
length he fell into grievous sin, denying the Master whom he
loved so well. The denial at the final crisis was just what
might be looked for from one who so behaved at the minor
crisis preceding it. The man who said, " Bid me come to
Thee," was just the man to say, " Lord, I am ready to go with
Thee both into prison and to death." He who was so cou-
rageous on deck, and so timid amid the waves, was the one of
all the disciples most likely to talk boldly when danger was
not at hand, and then play the coward when the hour of trial
actually arrived. The scene on the lake was but a foreshadow-
ing or rehearsal of Peter's fall.

And yet that scene showed something more than the weak-
ness of that disciple's faith. It showed also what is possible
to those who believe. If the tendency of weak faith be to
sink, the triumph of strong faith is to walk on the waves,
glorying in tribulation, and counting it all joy when exposed
to divers temptations. It is the privilege of those who are
weak in faith, and the duty of all, mindful of human frailty, to
pray, " Lead us not into temptation." But when storms come
not of their inviting, and when their ship is upset in midst of
the sea, then may Christians trust to the promise, " When thou
passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; " and if only
they have faith, they shall be enabled to tread the rolling
billows as if walking on firm land.

"He bids me come ; His voice I know,
And boldly on the waters go,

And brave the tempest's shock.
O'er rude temptations now I bound ;
The billows yield a solid ground.

The wave is firm as rock."

A CRISIS : THE SERMON. 137

Section hi. — Tlie Sermon.

John vi. 32-58.

The task now before us is to study that memorable address
delivered by Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum on the
bread of life, which gave so great offence at the time, and
which has ever since been a stone of stumbling, a subject of
controversy, and a cause of division in the visible church,
and, so far as one can judge from present appearances, will
be to the world's end. On a question so vexed as that which
relates to the meaning of this discourse, one might well shrink
from entering. But the very confusion which prevails here
points it out as our plain duty to disregard the din of con-
flicting interpretations, and, humbly praying to be taught of
God, to search for and set forth Christ's own mind.

The sermon on the bread of life, however strangely it
sounds, was appropriate both in matter and manner to the
circumstances in which it was delivered. It was natural and
seasonable that Jesus should speak to the people of the meat
that endureth unto everlasting life after miraculously provid-
ing perishable food to supply their physical wants. It was
even natural and seasonable that He should speak of this
high topic in the startling, apparently gross, harsh style which
He adopted on the occasion. The form of thought suited the
situation. Passover time was approaching, when the paschal
lamb was slain and eaten ; and if Jesus desired to say in
effect, without saying it in so many words, " I am the true
Paschal Lamb," what more suitable form of language could
He employ than this : " The bread that I will give is my
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world ? " The style
was also adapted to the peculiar complexion of the speaker's
feelings at the moment. Jesus was in a sad, austere mood
of mind when He preached this sermon. The foolish enthu-
siasm of the multitude had saddened Him. Their wish to
force a crown on His head made Him think of His cross ; for
He knew that this idolatrous devotion to a political Messiah
meant death sooner or later to one who decHned such carnal
homage. He spoke, therefore, in the synagogue of Caper-

138 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

naum with Calvary in view, setting Himself forth as the life
of the world in terms applicable to a sacrificial victim, whose
blood is shed, and whose flesh is eaten by those presenting
the offering ; not mincing His words, but saying everything
in the strongest and intensest manner possible.

The theme of this memorable address was very naturally
introduced by the preceding conversation between Jesus and
the people who came from the other side of the lake, hoping
to find Him at Capernaum, His usual place of abode.^ To their
warm inquiries as to how He came thither. He replied by a
chiUing observation concerning the true motive of their zeal,
and an exhortation to set their hearts on a higher food than
that which perisheth.^ Understanding the exhortation as a
counsel to cultivate piety, the persons to whom it was ad-
dressed inquired what they should do that they might work
the works of God, i.e. please God.^ Jesus replied by declar-
ing that the great testing work of the hour was to receive
Himself as one whom God had sent.^ This led to a demand
on their part for evidence in support of this high claim to be
the divinely missioned Messiah. The miracle just wrought
on the other side of the lake was great, but not great enough,
they thought, to justify such lofty pretensions. In ancient
times a whole nation had been fed for many years by bread
brought down from heaven by Moses. What was the recent
miracle compared to that ? He must show a sign on a far
grander scale, if He wished them to believe that a greater
than Moses was here.^ Jesus took up the challenge, and
boldly declared that the manna, wonderful as it was, was not
the true heavenly bread. There was another bread, of which
the manna was but the type : like it, coming down from
heaven ; ^ but unlike it, giving life not to a nation, but to a
world, and not life merely for a few short years, but life for
eternity. This announcement, like the sunilar one concerning
the wonderful water of life, made to the woman of Samaria,

' John vi. 24. Luthardt very properly points out that the fact of the people
expecting to find Jesus in Capernaum implies such a residence there as the
synoptical Gospels inform us of. Das Joh. Evang. ii. 60.

2 Vers. 26, 27. ^ yg^. 28. * Ver. 29.

^ Vers. 30, 31. Moses is not named, but he is in their thoughts.

^ 0 Kurajiitiyuv, ver. 33, refers to ciproi, not the speaker directly.

ACEISIS: THE SERMON. 139

provoked desire in the hearts of the hearers, and they ex-
claimed, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." Then said
Jesus unto them, " I am the bread of life : he that cometh
unto me shall never hunger ; and he that believeth on me
shall never thirst." ^

In these words Jesus briefly enunciated the doctrine of the
true bread, which He expounded and inculcated in His memor-
able Capernaum discourse. The doctrine, as stated, sets forth
what the true bread is, what it does, and how it is appropriated.

1. The true bread is He who here speaks of it — Jesus
Christ. "I am the bread." The assertion implies, on the
speaker's part, a claim to have descended from heaven; for
such a descent is one of the properties by which the true
bread is defined.^ Accordingly we find Jesus, in the sequel
of His discourse, expressly asserting that He had come down
from heaven.^ This declaration, understood in a supernatural
sense, was the first thing in His discourse with which His
hearers found fault. " The Jews then murmured at Him,
because He said, I am the bread which came down from
heaven. And they said. Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know ? how is it then that he
saith, I came down from heaven?"* It was natural they
should murmur, if they did not know or believe that there
was anything out of course in the way in which Jesus came
into the world. For such language as He here employs
could not be used without blasphemy by a mere man born
after the fashion of other men. It is language proper only
in the mouth of a Divine Being who, for a purpose, hath
assumed human nature.

In setting Himself forth, therefore, as the bread which
came down from heaven, Jesus virtually taught the doctrine
of the incarnation. The solemn assertion, " I am the bread
of life," is equivalent in import to that made by the evan-
gelist respecting Him who spoke these words : " The Word
became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth."

It is, however, not merely as incarnate that the Son of God
is the bread of eternal life. Bread must be broken in order

1 John vi. 32-35. = Ver. 33. ' Vers. 38, 51, 58, 62.

* Vers. 41, 42. = John i. 14.

140 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

to be eaten. The Incarnate One must die as a sacrificial
victim, that men may truly feed upon Him. The Word become
flesh, and crucified in the flesh, is the life of the world. This
special truth Jesus went on to declare, after having stated
the general truth, that the heavenly bread was to be found
in HimseK. " The bread," said He, " that I will give is my
flesh, (which 1 will give) for the life of the world." ^ The
language here becomes modified to suit the new turn of
thought. " I am " passes into " I will give," and " bread " is
transformed into " flesh."

Jesus evidently refers here to His death. His hearers did
not so understand Him ; but we can have no doubt on the
matter. The verb "give," suggesting a sacrificial act, and
the future tense both point that way. In words dark and
mysterious before the event, clear as day after it, the speaker
declares the great truth, that His death is to be the life of
men ; that His broken body and shed blood are to be as meat
and drink to a perishing world, conferring on all who shall
partake of them the gift of immortality. How He is to die,
and why His death shall possess such virtue, He doth not
here explain. The Capernaum discourse makes no mention of
the cross ; it contains no theory of atonement, it speaks not
of satisfaction, substitution, vicarious suffering : the time is
not come for such details ; it simply asserts in broad, strong
terms, that the flesh and blood of the incarnate Son of God,
severed as in death, are the source of eternal life.

This mention by Jesus of His flesh as the bread from
heaven gave rise to a new outburst of murmuring among His
hearers. " They strove among themselves, saying. How can
this man give us his flesh to eat ? " ^ Jesus had not yet
said that His flesh must be eaten, but they took for granted
that such was His meaning. They were right ; and accord-
ingly He went on to say, with the greatest solemnity and
emphasis, that they must even eat His flesh and drink His
blood. Unless they did that, they should have no life in

^ John vi. 51. The words in the original, represented by those within
brackets, are of doubtful authority ; but the sense is the same whether they be
erased or retained. The first luffu contains the idea.

2 John vi. 52.

ACEISIS: THE SERMON. 141

them ; if they did that, they should have life in all its ful-
ness— life eternal both in body and in soul. For His flesh
was the true food, and His blood was the true drink. They
who partook of these would share in His own Kfe. He
should dwell in them, incorporated with their very being ;
and they should dwell in Him as the ground of their being.
They should live as secure against death by Him, as He
lived from everlasting to everlasting by the Father. " This,
therefore," said the speaker, reverting in conclusion to the
proposition with which He started, " this (even my flesh) is
that bread which came down from heaven ; not as your
fathers did eat manna, and are dead : he that eateth of this
bread shall live for ever." ^

A third expression of disapprobation ensuing, led Jesus to
put the copestone on His high doctrine of the bread of life,
by making a concluding declaration, which must have ap-
peared at the time the most mysterious and unintelligible of
all : that the bread which descended from heaven must ascend
up thither again, in order to be to the full extent the bread of
everlasting life. Doth this offend you ? asked He at His
hearers : this which I have just said about your eating my
flesh and blood ; what will ye say " if ye shall see the Son of
man ascend up where He was before ? " ^ The question was
in effect an aflirmation, and it was also a prophetic hint,
that only after He had left the world would He become on
an extensive scale and conspicuously a source of life to men ;
because then the manna of grace would begin to descend not
only on the wilderness of Israel, but on all the barren places
of the earth ; and the truth in Him, the doctrine of His life,
death, and resurrection, would become meat indeed and drink
indeed unto a multitude, not of murmuring hearers, but of
devout, enlightened, thankful behevers ; and no one worJd
need any longer to ask for a sign, when he could find in
the Christian church, continuing stedfastly in the apostles'
doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking bread and in prayers,

^ John vi. 53-58. In ver. 55 the reading vibrates between aXti^S; and aXnSns.
Ver. 57, §/« riv •^aripa, means literally "on account of," but "by" gives the
practical sense. So with "hi ifi's.

2 John vi. 61, 62,

142 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

the best evidence that He had spoken truth who said, " I am
the bread of life."

2. This, then, is the heavenly bread : even the God-man
incarnate, crucified, and glorified. Let us now consider more
attentively the marvellous virtue of this bread. It is the
bread of life. It is the office of all bread to sustain life, but
it is the peculiarity of this divine bread to give eternal life.
" He that cometh to me," said the speaker, " shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."^
With reference to this life-giving power, He called the bread
of which He spake " living bread," and meat indeed, and de-
clared that he who ate thereof should not die, but should
live for ever.^

In commending this miraculous bread to His hearers, Jesus,
we observe, laid special stress on its power to give eternal life
even to the body of man. Four times over He declared in
express terms, that all who partook of this bread of life should
be raised again at the last day.^ The prominence thus given
to the resurrection of the body is due in part to the fact,
that throughout His discourse Jesus was drawing a contrast
between the manna which fed the Israelites in the desert, and
the true bread of which it was the type. The contrast was
most striking just at this point. The manna was merely a
substitute for ordinary food ; it had no power to ward off
death : the generation which had been so miraculously sup-
ported passed away from the earth, like all other generations
of mankind. Therefore, argued Jesus, it could not be the true
bread from heaven ; for the true bread must be capable of
destroying death, and endowing the recipients with the power
of an endless existence. A man who eats thereof must not
die; or dying, must rise again. " Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.'"*

But the prominence given to the resurrection of the body
is due mainly to its intrinsic importance. For if the dead
rise not, then is our faith vain ; and the bread of life degene-
rates into a mere quack nostrum, pretending to virtues which

1 John vi. 35. 2 John yi. 51, 55, 50.

3 John vi. 39, 40, 44, 54. * John vi. 49, 50.

ACEISIS: THE SERMON. 143

it does not possess. True, it may still give spiritual life to
those who eat thereof, but what is that without the hope of a
life hereafter ? Not much, according to Paul, who says, " If
in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men
most miserable." ^ Many, indeed, in our day do not concur
in the apostle's judgment. They think that the doctrine of
the life everlasting may be left out of the creed, without loss,
nay, even with positive advantage, to the Christian faith. The
life of a Christian seems to them so much nobler when aU
thought of future reward or punishment is dismissed from the
mind. How grand, to pass through the wilderness of this
world feeding on the manna supplied in the high, pure teach-
ing of Jesus, without caring whether there be a land of
Canaan on the other side of Jordan ! Very sublime indeed !
but why, in that case, come into the wilderness at all ? why
not remain in Egypt, feeding on more substantial and pala-
table viands ? The children of Israel would not have left
the house of bondage unless they had hoped to reach the pro-
mised land. An immortal hope is equally necessary to the
Christian. He must believe in a world to come, in order to
live above the present evil world. If Christ cannot redeem
the body from the power of the grave, then it is in vain that
He promises to redeem us from guilt and sin. The bread of
life is unworthy of the name, unless it hath power to cope
with physical as well as with moral corruption.

Hence the prominence given by Jesus in this discourse to
the resurrection of the body. He knew that here lay the
crucial experiment by which the value and virtue of the bread
He offered to His hearers must be tested. " You call this
bread the bread of life, in contrast to the manna of ancient
times : — do you mean to say that, like the tree of life in the
garden of Eden, it will confer on those who eat thereof the gift
of a blessed immortality ? " " Yes, I do," replied the Preacher
in effect to this imaginary question : " this bread I offer you
will not merely quicken the soul to a higher, purer life ; it will
even revivify your bodies, and make the corruptible put on
incorruption, and the mortal put on immortality."

3. And how, then, is this wondrous bread to be appro-
1 1 Cor. XV. 19.

144 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE,

priated, that one may experience its vitalizing influences ?
Bread of course is eaten, but what does eating in this case
mean ? It means, in one word, faith. " He that cometJi to me
shall never hunger, and he that hdieveth in me shall never
thirst." ^ Eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood, and we
may add, drinking the water of which He spake to the woman
by the well, all signify believing in Him as He is offered to men
in the gospel : the Son of God manifested in the flesh, cruci-
fied, raised from the dead, ascended into glory ; the Prophet,
the Priest, the King, and the Mediator between God and man.
Throughout the Capernaum discourse, eating and believing are
used interchangeably as equivalents. Thus, in one sentence,
we find Jesus saying, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
helieveth on me hath everlasting life : I am that bread of
life ;"^ and shortly after remarking, " I am the living bread
which came down from heaven : if any man eat of this bread,
he shall live for ever."^ If any further argument were neces-
sary to justify the identifying of eating with believing, it
might be found in the instruction given by the Preacher to His
hearers before He began to speak of the bread of life : " This
is the work of God, that ye beheve on Him whom He hath
sent."* That sentence furnishes the key to the interpretation
of the whole subsequent discourse. " Believe," said Jesus,
with reference to the foregoing inquiry, Wliat shall we do, that
we might work the works of God ? — " Believe, and thou hast
done God's work." " Beheve," we may understand Him as
saying with reference to an inquiry, How shall we eat this
bread of life ? — " Believe, and thou hast eaten."

Believe, and thou hast eaten : such was the formula in
which Augustine expressed his view of Christ's meaning in the
/^'^'^Capernaum discourse.® The saying is not only terse, but true,
in our judgment ; but it has not been accepted by all inter-
preters. Many hold that eating and faith are something
distinct, and would express the relation between them thus :
Believe, and thou slialt eat. Even Calvin objected to the
Augustinian formula. Distinguishing his own views from
those held by the followers of Zwingle, he says : " To them to

I John vi. 35. ^ Vers. 47, 48. » Vcr. 51. * Ver. 29.

^ Crede et manducasti.

A CEISIS : THE SERMON. 145

eat is simply to believe. I say that Christ's flesh is eaten
in believing, because it is made oui-s by faith, and that that
eating is the fruit and effect of faith. Or more clearly : To
them eating is faith, to me it seems rather to follow from
faith."!

The distinction taken by Calvin between eating and believ-
ing seems to have been verbal rather than real. With many
other theologians, however, it is far otherwise. All upholders
of the magical doctrines of transubstantiation and consubstan-
tiation contend for the literal interpretation of the Capernaum
discourse even in its strongest statements. Eating Christ's
flesh and drinking His blood are, for such, acts of the mouth,
accompanied perhaps with acts of faith, but not merely acts of
faith. It is assumed for the most part as a matter of course,
that the discourse recorded in the sixth chapter of John's
Gospel has reference to the sacrament of the Supper, and that
only on the hypothesis of such a reference can the peculiar
plu-aseology of the discourse be explained. Christ spoke then
of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, so we are given
to understand, because He had in His mind that mystic rite
ere long to be instituted, in which bread and wine should not
merely represent, but become, the constituent elements of His
crucified body.

While the sermon on the bread of life continues to be
mixed up with sacramentarian controversies, agreement in its
interpretation is altogether hopeless. Meantime, till a better
day dawn on the divided and distracted church, every man
must endeavour to be fully persuaded in his own mind. Three
things are clear to our mind. First, it is incorrect to say
that the sermon delivered in Capernaum synagogue refers to
the sacrament of the Supper. The true state of the case is,
that both refer to a third thing, viz. the death of Christ, and
both declare, in different ways, the same thing concerning it.
The sermon says in symbolic words what the Supper says in
a symbolic act : that Christ crucified is the life of men, the
world's hope of salvation. The sermon says more than this,
for it speaks of Christ's ascension as well as of His death ;
but it says this for one thing.

^ Calv. Institutio iv. xvii, 5.
K

146 THE TRAINING OF THE TWEL^^E.

A second point on whicli we are clear is, that it is quite
unnecessary to assume a mental reference by anticipation to
the Holy Supper, in order to account for the peculiarity of
Christ's language in this famous discourse. As we saw at the
beginning, the whole discourse rose naturally out of the pre-
sent situation. The mention by the people of the manna
naturally led Jesus to speak of the bread of life ; and from
the bread He passed on as naturally to speak of the flesh and
the blood, because He could not really be bread until He had
become flesh and blood dissevered, i.e. until He had endured
death. All that we find here might have been said, in fact,
although the sacrament of the Supper had never existed.

The third truth which shines clear as a star to our eye is, —
that through faith alone we may attain all the blessings of
salvation. Sacraments are very useful, but they are not neces-
sary. If it had pleased Christ not to institute them, we could
have got to heaven notwithstanding. Because He has insti-
tuted them, it is our duty to celebrate them, and we may
expect benefit from their celebration. But the benefit we
receive is simply an aid to faith, and nothing which cannot
be received by faith. Christians eat the flesh and drink the
blood of the Son of man at all times, not merely at com-
munion times, simply by believing in Him. They eat His
flesh and drink His blood at His table in the same sense as
at other times ; only perchance in a livelier manner, their
hearts being stirred up to devotion by remembrance of His
dying love, and their faith aided by seeing, handling, and
tasting the bread and the wine.

Section rv. — Tlic Sifting.

John vi. 66-71.

The sermon on the bread of life produced decisive effects.
It converted popular enthusiasm for Jesus into disgust ; like a
fan, it separated true from false disciples ; and like a winnow-
ing breeze, it blew the chaff away, leaving a small residuum
of wheat behind. " From that time many of His disciples
went back, and walked no more with Him."

A CKISIS : THE SIFTING. 147

This result did not take Jesus by surprise. He expected
it ; in a sense He wished it, though He was deeply grieved by
it. For while His large, loving human heart yearned for the
salvation of all, and desired that all should come and get life,
He wanted none to come to Him under misapprehension, or to
follow Him from by-ends. He sought disciples God-given,^
God-drawn,^ God-taught,^ knowing that such alone would con-
tinue in His word.* He was aware that in the large mass of
people who had recently follow^ed Him were many disciples of
quite another description ; and He w^as not unwilling that the
mixed multitude should be sifted. Therefore He preached
that mystic discourse, fitted to be a savour of life or of death
according to the sj)iritual state of the hearer. Therefore, also,
when offence was taken at the doctrine taught. He plainly
declared the true cause,^ and expressed His assurance that
only those whom His Father taught and drew would or could
really come unto Him.^ These things He said not with a
view to irritate, but He deemed it right to say them though
they should give rise to irritation ; reckoning that true
believers would take all in good part, and that those who
took umbrage would thereby reveal their true character.

The apostatizing disciples doubtless thought themselves fully
justified in withdrawing from the society of Jesus. They turned
their back on Him, we fancy, in most virtuous indignation,
saying in their hearts, nay, probably saying aloud to one an-
other : " Who ever heard the like of that ? how absurd ! how
revolting ! The man who can speak thus is either a fool, or is
trying to make fools of his hearers." And yet the hardness
of His doctrine was not the real reason which led so many
to forsake Him ; it was simply the pretext, the most plausible
and respectable reason that they could assign for conduct
springing from other motives. The grand offence of Jesus
was this : He was not the man they had taken Him for ; He
was not going to be at their service to promote the ends they
C /had in view. Whatever He meant by the bread of life, or
by eating His flesh, it was plain that He was not going to
be a bread-king, making it His business to furnish supplies

1 John vi. 37. ^ joim vi. 44. ^ JoJ^q yj. 45.

* John viii. 31. » John vi. 36, 37. ^ John vi. 44.

148 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

for their physical appetites, ushering in a golden age of idle-
ness and plenty. That ascertained, it was all over with Him
so far as they were concerned : He might offer His heavenly
food to whom He pleased ; they wanted none of it.

Deeply affected by the melancholy sight of so many human
beings deliberately preferring material good to eternal life,
Jesus turned to the twelve, and said, " Will ye also go away ?"
or more exactly, " You do not wish to go away too, do you ?"^
The question may be understood as a virtual expression of
confidence in the persons to whom it was addressed, and as an
appeal to them for sympathy at a discouraging crisis. And
yet, while a negative answer was expected to the question, it
was not expected as a matter of course. Jesus was not with-
out solicitude concerning the fidelity even of the twelve. He
interrogated them, as conscious that they were placed in try-
ing circumstances, and that if they did not actually forsake
Him now, as at the great final crisis, they were at least
tempted to be offended in Him.

A little reflection suffices to satisfy us that the twelve were
indeed placed in a position at this time calculated to try
their faith most severely. For one thing, the mere fact of
their Master being deserted wholesale by the crowd of quon-
/\ dam admirers and followers, involved for the chosen band
a temptation to apostasy. How mighty is the power of
sympathy ! how ready are we all to foUow the multitude,
regardless of the way they are going ! and how much moral
courage it requires to stand alone ! How difi&cult to witness
the spectacle of thousands, or even hundreds, going off in
sullen disaffection, without feehng an impulse to imitate their
bad example ! how hard to keep oneself from being carried
along with the powerful tide of adverse jjojoular opinion !
Especially hard it must have been for the twelve to resist the
tendency to apostatize, if, as is more than probable, they
sympathized with the project entertained by the multitude
when their enthusiasm for Jesus was at full-tide. If it would
have gratified them to have seen their beloved Master made
king by popular acclamation, how their spirits must have

^ John vi. 67. The particle /u.v implies that a negative answer is looked for.
See Winer, Neutest. Grammatik, § 57 ; Moulton's Translation, p. 641.

A CKISIS : THE SIFTING. 149

sunk when the bubble burst, and the would-be subjects of the
Messianic Prince were dispersed like an idle mob, and the
kingdom which had seemed so near vanished like a cloud-
land !

Another circumstance trying to the faith of the twelve, was
the strange, mysterious character of their Master's discourse in
the synagogue of Capernaum, That discourse contained hard,
repulsive, unintelligible sayings for them quite as much as for
the rest of the audience. Of this we can have no doubt,
when we consider the repugnance with which some time after-
ward they received the announcement that Jesus was destined
to be put to death.^ If they objected even to the fact of
His death, how could they understand its meaning, espe-
cially when both fact and meaning were spoken of in such a
veiled and mystic style as that which pervades the sermon
on the bread of life ? While, therefore, they believed that
their Master had the words of eternal life, and perceived that
His late discourse bore on that high theme, it may be regarded
as certain that the twelve did not understand the words
spoken any more than the multitude, however much they
might try to do so. They knew not what connection existed
between Christ's flesh and eternal life, how eating that flesh
could confer any benefit, or even what eating it might mean.
They had quite lost sight of the Speaker in His eagle flight
of thought ; and they must have looked on in distress as the
people melted away, painfully conscious that they could not
altogether blame them.

Yet, however greatly tempted to forsake their Master, the
twelve did abide faithfully by His side. They did come
safely through the spiritual storm. What was the secret of
their stedfastness ? what were the anchors that preserved them
from shipwreck ? These questions are of practical interest to
all who, like the apostles at this crisis, are tempted to apostasy
by evil example or by religious doubt ; by the fashion of the
world they live in, whether scientific or illiterate, refined or
rustic ; or by the deep things of God, whether these be the
mysteries of providence, the mysteries of revelation, or the
mysteries of religious experience : we may say, indeed, to all

1 Matt. xvi. 22.

150 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

genuine Christians, for what Christian has not been tempted
in one or other of these ways at some period in his history ?

Sufficient materials for answering these questions are sup-
plied in the words of Simon Peter's response to Jesus. As
spokesman for the whole company, that disciple promptly
said : " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of
eternal life. And we believe and know that Thou art that
Christ, the Son of the living God;"^ or, according to the
reading preferred by most critics, " that Thou art the Holy
One of God." '

Three anchors, we infer from these words, helped the twelve
to ride out the storm : Eeligious earnestness or sincerity ; a
clear perception of the alternatives before them ; and implicit
confidence in the character, and attachment to the person of
their Master.

1. The twelve, as a body, were sincere and thoroughly in
earnest in religion. Their supreme desire was to know " the
words of eternal life," and actually to gain possession of that
life. Their concern was not about the meat that perisheth,
but about the higher heavenly food of the soul, which Christ
had in vain exhorted the majority of His hearers to labour for.
As yet they knew not clearly wherein that food consisted, but
according to their light they sincerely prayed, " Lord, ever-
more give us this bread." Hence it was no disappointment
to them that Jesus declined to become a purveyor of mere
material food : they had never expected or wished Him to
do so ; they had joined His company with entirely different
expectations. A certain element of error might be mingled
with truth in their conceptions of His Mission, but the
gross carnal hopes of the multitude had no place in their
breasts. They became not disciples to better their worldly
circumstances, but to obtain a portion which the world could
neither give them nor take from them.

What we have now stated was true of all the twelve save
one ; and the crisis we are at present considering is memorable

1 Jolm vi. 68, 69.

2 See Alford, in loc. Tlie confession of Christ's holiness was appropriate, as
meeting an implied charge of having uttered language shocking to the moral
feelings.

A CRISIS : THE SIFTING. 151

for this, among other things, that it was the first occasion on
which Jesus gave a hint that there was a false disciple among
the men whom He had chosen. To justify Himself for ask-
ing a question which seemed to cast a doubt upon their
fidelity, he replied to Peter's protestation by the startling
remark : " Have not I chosen you the twelve, and one of you
is a devil ? "^ as if to say : " It is painful to me to have to
use this language of suspicion, but I have good cause : there
is one among you who has had thoughts of desertion, and who
is capable even of treachery." With what sadness of spirit
must He have made such an intimation at this crisis ! To be
forsaken by the fickle crowd of shallow, thoughtless followers
had been a small matter, could He have reckoned all the
members of the select band good men and true friends. But
to have an enemy in one's own house, a diaholus capable of
playing Satan's part in one's small circle of intimate com-
panions : — it was hard indeed !

But how could a man destined to be a traitor, and deserv-
ing to be stigmatized as a devil, manage to pass creditably
through the present crisis ? Does not the fact seem to imply
that, after all, it is possible to be stedfast without being single-
minded ? Not so ; the only legitimate inference is, that the
crisis was not searching enough to bring out the true character
of Judas. Wait till you see the end. A little religion wiU
carry a man through many trials, but there is an experimentum
crucis which nothing but sincerity can stand. If the mind be
double, or the heart divided, a time comes that compels men to
act according to the motives that are deepest and strongest in
them. This remark applies especially to creative, revolutionary,
or • transition epochs. In quiet times a hypocrite may pass
respectably through this world, and never be detected till he
get to the next, whither his sins follow him to judgment. But
in critical eras the sins of the double-minded find them out
in this life. True, even then some double-minded men can
stand more temptation than others, and are not to be bought
so cheaply as the common herd. But aU of them have their
price, and those who fall less easily than others fall in the end
most deeply and tragically.

1 John vi. 70.

152 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Of the character and fall of Judas we shall have another
opportunity to speak. Our present object is simply to point
out that from such as he Jesus did not expect constancy. By
referring to that disciple as He did, He intimated His convic-
tion that no one in whom the love of God and truth was not
the deepest principle of his being would continue faithful to
the end. In effect He inculcated the necessity, in order to
stedfastness in faith, of moral integTity, or godly sincerity.

2. The second anchor by which the disciples were kept
from shipwreck at this season was a clear perception of the
alternatives, " To whom shall we go ? " asked Peter, as one
who saw that, for men having in view the aim pursued by
himself and his brethren, there was no course open but to
remain where they were. He had gone over rapidly in his
mind all the possible alternatives, and this was the conclusion
at which he had arrived. " To whom shall we go — we who
seek eternal life ? John, our former master, is dead ; and
even were he alive, he would send us back to Thee. Or shall
we go to the scribes and Pharisees ? We have been too long
with Thee for that ; for Thou hast taught us the superficiahty,
the hypocrisy, the ostentatiousness, the essential ungodKness
of their religious system. Or shall we foUow the fickle multi-
tude there, and relapse into stupidity and indifference ? It is
not to be thought of. Or, finally, shall we go to the Sad-
ducees, the idolaters of the material and the temporal, who
say there is no resurrection, neither any angels or spirits ?
God forbid ! That were to renounce a hope dearer than life,
without which life to an earnest mind were a riddle, a contra-
diction, and an intolerable burden."

All tempted to apostatize will find it profitable in like
manner to realize the alternatives. Has any one, e.g., been
disappointed in his religious experience : all things turning
out so differently to what he had expected when he began his
spiritual career ; sanctification a slow, irksome process ; the
word of God, at first sweet in the mouth, turned to bitterness
in the inward parts ; the bright bloom of piety replaced by
green, unpalatable fruit, more like the work of Satan tlian of
the Holy Spirit ? 'Tis hard enough to bear, but consider if it
were not still harder to return to foUy ! Or take a case

A CMSIS : THE SIFTING. 153

analogous to that of the twelve, and fitted to illustrate their
position, — that of one tempted by dogmatic difficulties to re-
nounce Christianity. It wiU make such an one pause when he
understands that the alternatives open to him are to abide with
Christ, or to become an atheist, ignoring God and the world to
come ; that when he leaves Christ, he must go to school to
Hume, Voltaire, Comte, Strauss, Eenan, or some other of the
great masters of thoroughgoing unbelief. In the works of a
well-known German author is a dream, which portrays with
appalling vividness the consequences that would ensue through-
out the universe should the Creator cease to exist. The dream
was invented, so the gifted writer teUs us, for the purpose of
frightening those who discussed the being of God as coolly as
if the question respected the existence of the Kraken or the
unicorn, and also to check all atheistic thoughts which might
arise in his own bosom. " If ever," he says, " my heart should
be so unhappy and deadened as to have all those feelings
which affirm the being of a God destroyed, I would use this
dream to frighten myself, and so heal my heart, and restore
its lost feelings." ^ Such benefit as Eichter expected from
the perusal of his own dream, would any one, tempted to re-
nounce Christianity, derive from a clear perception that in
ceasing to be a Christian he must make up his mind to accept
a creed which acknowledges no God, no soul, no hereafter.

That these really are the alternatives before us, there can
be no doubt.^ We do not assert that a belief in a Deity, in
the existence of spirit, and in a future world, cannot be enter-
tained, except by those who hold the catholic faith concerning
Jesus. There is such a thing as Deism, which accepts the
moral teaching of Christianity, and its general doctrine about
God and the future life, yet rejects all the supernatural facts
and mysterious truths of our holy faith. We assert, never-
theless, that the ultimate terminus of unbelief in Christ as the
Son of God, born, crucified, and risen in the flesh, is atheism.
All paths of thought leading away from the catholic faith tend
thither as their goal, the intermediate stages occupied by Deists
and Socinians being merely temporary halting-places in a

1 Jean Paul Richter, Siebenhds, Kap. viii. Erstes Blumenstiick.

2 See Isaac Taylor's Restoration of Belief, p. 248.

154 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

mental pilgrimage towards the apostles' creed, or towards the
dismal creed of the secularists and the Positive philosophers.
Christianity pure and undiluted, and sheer atheism, are the two
great rival creeds presently contending for sovereignty over
the human mind, at least in the nominally Christian world ;
and sooner or later all intermediate parties must join one side
or the other. Logic, like a stern policeman, says to them,
" Move on." The argument used by the midway men, the
advocates of " Christianity independent of dogma," against the
catholic faith, may be used with equal power against them-
selves. They complain of the mysteriousness of our super-
natural dogmas and miraculous facts, and desiderate a rational
religion, unencumbered with supernaturalism and miracle. But
they forget that the very being of a God is a supernatural
dogma; and that the Socinian Christ, a Perfect Man, is a
supernatural or miraculous fact, more difficult to believe in
even than the Christ of the catholic faith, whose sinlessness is
explained by the presence of a divine nature, while the sinless-
ness of the Socinian Christ has neither an efficient nor a final
cause of existence.

Those who turn their backs on the eternal Son, must under-
stand, then, that they are on their way to a creed which denies
an eternal Father, and puts in His place an unconscious, im-
personal soul of nature, a dead central force, of which all the
forces in the universe are manifestations, or an unknown, un-
knowable Cause, remaining to be postulated after the series of
physical causes has been traced as far back as science can go ;
and which robs mortal man of the hope that the seed sown
in the churchyard shall one day be reaped in the harvest of
the resurrection. Many are unwilling to believe this. De-
ceived by the consciousness of their own spirituality, they
flatter themselves that Christianity is independent of the creed,
and would continue to exist though the latter were discarded.
But this is a hallucination. As well might you imagine that
daylight is independent of the sun, because the atmosphere
continues to be illuminated for a time after the sun has set.
Your so-called Christianity independent of dogmas is but the
evening twilight of faith, the light which lingers in the spi-
ritual atmosphere after the sun of truth has gone down. Por

A CRISIS : THE SIFTING. 155

a space it may seem as clear as the liglit of day, but ere long
it must fade into darkness.

3. The third anchor whereby the twelve were enabled to ride
out the storm, was confidence in the character of their Master.
They believed, yea, they knew, that He was the Holy One of
God. They had been with Jesus long enough to have come
to very decided conclusions respecting Him. They had seen
Him work many miracles ; they had heard Him discourse with
marvellous wisdom, in parable and sermon, on the divine king-
dom ; they had observed His wondrously tender, gracious con-
cern for the low and the lost ; they had been present at His
various encounters with Pharisees, and had noted His holy ab-
horrence of their falsehood, pride, vanity, and tyranny. All this
blessed fellowship had begotten a confidence in, and reverence
for, their beloved Master, too strong to be shaken by a single
address, containing some statements of an incomprehensible
character couched in questionable or even offensive language.
Their intellect might be perplexed, but their heart remained
true ; and hence, while others who knew not Jesus well went
off in disgust, they continued by His side, feeling that such a
friend and guide was not to be parted with for a trifle.

" We believe and know," said Peter. They believed because
they knew. Such implicit confidence as the twelve had in
Jesus is possible only through intimate knowledge ; for one
cannot thus trust a stranger. All, therefore, who desire to get
the benefit of this trust, must be willing to spend time and
take trouble to get into the heart of the Gospel story, and of
its great subject. The sure anchorage is not attainable by
a listless, random reading of the evangelic narratives, but by
a close, careful, prayerful study, pursued it may be for years.
Those who grudge the trouble are in imminent danger of the
fate which befell the ignorant multitude, being liable to be
thrown into panic by every new infidel book, or to be scan-
dalized by every strange utterance of the Object of faith.

Does any one ask : Is Jesus Christ worthy to be the subject
of such careful inquiry, or the object of such implicit con-
fidence as the twelve reposed in Him ? We shall leave the
prophets of unbelief to reply. Our modern Balaams all confess
that Jesus is well worth knowing and loving : that He is at

156 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

least the holiest of men, if not the absolutely Holy One.
They cannot curse Him, though logic and philosophy require
this service at their hands. They are constrained to bless
the man of Nazareth. They are spell-bound by the Star of
Bethlehem, as was the Eastern soothsayer by the star of Jacob,
and are forced to say in effect : " How shall I curse whom
God hath not cursed, or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath
not defied ? Behold, I have received commandment to bless ;
and He hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it." ^

Jesus Christ, who is thus supremely worth knowing, His
enemies themselves being judges, can even at this date be
intimately known. And intimate knowledge of Him, being
attainable, should be sought by all. It is a precious posses-
sion, Not to speak of its uses for eternity, or of the deep
well of joy that it causes to spring up in the heart of the
confirmed believer even in this life, think only of the aid it
affords in the day of trial, when the mind is clouded with
doubt, and the doctrines seem unintelligible and irrational,
and long-cherished convictions are rudely shaken ! Possess-
ing such knowledge of Christ as Peter and his bretliren had
by this time attained, a Christian in darkness is able to wait
for the dawn, and to eschew the mistake of those who kindle
fires of unbelief, superstition, and immorality in the night,
seeking in their short-lived glare a transient comfort, destined
to end in a deeper darkness. Knowing Christ as Peter knew
Him, one can take things on His word, even when they exceed
comprehension, and follow Him along untrodden, unexplored
paths. Those who do this have their reward. The storm-
tossed disciple at length reaches the harbour of a creed which
is no miserable compromise between infidelity and scriptural
Christianity, but embraces all the cardinal facts and truths of
the faith, as taught by Jesus in the Capernaum discourse, and
as afterwards taught by the men who passed safely through
the Capernaum crisis.

May God in His mercy guide all souls now out in the
tempestuous sea of doubt into that haven of rest !
1 Num. xxiii. 8, 20.

CHAPTEE X.

THE LEAVEN OF THE PHAEISEES AND SADDUCEES.
Matt. xvi. 1-12 ; Maek viii. 10-21.

THIS new collision between Jesus and His opponents took
place shortly after a second miracle of feeding similar
to that performed in the neighbom'hood of Bethsaida Julias.
What interval of time elapsed between the two miracles can-
not be ascertained ; ^ but it was long enough to admit of an
extended journey on the part of our Lord and His disciples to
the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, the scene of the pathetic meet-
ing with the Syrophenician woman, and round from thence
through the region of the ten cities, on the eastern border of
the Galilean Lake. It was long enough also to allow the cause
and the fame of Jesus to recover from the low state to which
they sank after the sifting sermon in the synagogue of Caper-
naum. The unpopular One had again become popular, so that
on arriving at the south-eastern shore of the lake He found
Himself attended by thousands, so intent on hearing Him
preach, and experiencing His heahng power, that they re-
mained with Him three days, almost, if not entirely, without
food, thus creating a necessity for the second miraculous
repast.

After the miracle on the south-eastern shore, Jesus, we
read, sent away the multitude ; and taking sliip, came into
the coasts of Magdala, on the western side of the sea.^ It
was on His arrival there that He encountered the party who
came seeking of Him a sign from heaven. These persons had

1 The chronological relation of the events recorded in Matt. xv. and xvi. to the
feast of tabernacles spoken of in John vii. is an important qirestion. It is one,
however, on which the learned difler, and certainty is unattainable.

2 Matt. XV. 39.

158 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

probably heard of the recent miracle, as of many others
wrought by Him ; but, unwilling to accept the conclusion to
which these wondrous works plainly led, they affected to
regard them as insufficient evidence of His Messiahship, and
demanded still more unequivocal proof before giving in their
adherence to His claim. " Show us a sign from heaven," said
they ; meaning thereby, something like the manna brought
down from heaven by Moses, or the fire called down by Elijah,
or the thunder and rain called down by Samuel ; ^ it being
assumed that such signs could be wrought only by the power
of God, whilst the signs on earth, such as Jesus supplied in
His miracles of healing, might be wrought by the power of
the devil ! ^ It was a demand of a sort often addressed to
Jesus in good faith or in bad ; ^ for the Jews sought after
such signs — miracles of a singular and startling character,
fitted to gratify a superstitious curiosity, and astonish a
wonder-loving mind — miracles that were merely signs, serving
no other purpose than to display divine power; like the rod
of Moses, converted into a serpent, and reconverted into its
original form.

These demands of the sign-seekers Jesus uniformly met
with a direct refusal. He would not condescend to work
miracles of any description merely as certificates of His own
Messiahship, or to furnish food for a superstitious appetite,
or materials of amusement to sceptics. He knew that such
as remained unbelievers in presence of His ordinary miracles,
which were not naked signs, but also works of beneficence,
could not be brought to faith by any means ; nay, that the
more evidence they got, the more hardened they should
become in imbelief. He regarded the very demand for these
signs as the indication of a fixed determination not to believe
in Him, even if, in order to rid themselves of the disagree-
able obligation, it should be necessary to put Him to death.
Therefore, in refusing the signs sought after. He was wont
to accompany the refusal with a word of rebuke or of sad
foreboding ; as when He said, at a very early period of His

^ See Alford. Stier refers to tlie apocryphal books to explain the nature of the
signs demanded.

2 Matt. xii. 24 et par. ^ John ii. 18, vi. 30 ; Matt. xii. 38.

THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. 159

ministry, on His first visit to Jerusalem, after His baptism :
" Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." ^

On the present occasion the soul of Jesus was much per-
turbed by the renewed demands of the sign-seekers. " He
sighed deeply in His spirit," knowing full well what these
demands meant, with respect both to those who made them
and to Himself; and He addressed the parties who came
tempting Him in excessively severe and bitter terms, — re-
proaching them with spiritual blindness, calling them a
wicked and adulterous generation, and ironically referring
them now, as He had once done before,^ to the sign of the
prophet Jonas. He told them, that while they knew the
weather signs, and understood what a red sky in the morning
or evening meant, they were blind to the manifest signs of
the times, which showed at once that the Sun of righteousness
had arisen, and that a dreadful storm of judgment was coming
on apostate Israel for her iniquity. He applied to them, and
the whole generation they represented, the epithet " wicked,"
to characterize their false-hearted, malevolent, and spiteful
behaviour towards Himself; and He employed the term
" adulterous," to describe them, in relation to God, as guilty of
breaking their marriage covenant, pretending great love and
zeal with their lip, but in their heart and life turning away
from the living God to idols — forms, ceremonies, signs. He
gave them the story of Jonah the prophet for a sign, in
mystic allusion to His death ; meaning to say, that one of the
most reliable evidences that He was God's servant indeed, was
just the fact that He was rejected, and ignominiously and bar-
barously treated by such as those to whom He spake : that
there could be no worse sign of a man than to be well re-
ceived by them — that he could be no true Christ who was so
received.

Having thus freely uttered His mind, Jesus left the sign-
seekers ; and entering into the ship in which He had just
crossed from the other side, departed again to the same eastern
shore, anxious to be rid of their unwelcome presence. On
arriving at the land. He made the encounter which had just
taken place the subject of instruction to the twelve. " Take

iJohnii. 19. ^M^tt. xii. 40.

160 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

heed," He said as they walked along the way, " and beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." The
word was spoken abruptly, as the utterance of one waking
out of a reverie. Jesus, we imagine, had been brooding over
what had occurred, while His disciples rowed Him across
the lake, sadly musing on prevailing unbelief, and the dark,
lowering weather-signs, portentous of evil to Him and to the
whole Jewish people. And now, recollecting the presence of
the disciples. He communicates His thoughts to them in the
form of a warning, and cautions them against the deadly influ-
ences of an evil time, as a parent might bid liis cliild beware
of a poisonous plant whose garish flowers attracted its eye.

In this warning, it will be observed, pharisaic and saddu-
caic tendencies are identified. Jesus speaks not of two leavens,
but of one common to both sects, as if they were two species
of one genus, two branches from one stem. And such indeed
they were. Superficially, the two parties were very diverse.
The one was excessively zealous, the other was " moderate "
in religion ; the one was strict, the other easy in morals ; the
one was exclusively and intensely Jewish in feeling, the other
was open to the influence of pagan civilisation. Each party
had a leaven peculiar to itself : that of the Pharisees being, as
Christ was wont to declare, hypocrisy;^ that of the Sadducees,
an engrossing interest in merely material and temporal con-
cerns, assuming in some a political form, as in the case of the
partisans of the Herod family, called in the Gospel Herodians,
in others wearing the guise of a philosophy which denied the
existence of spirit and the reality of the future life, and made
that denial an excuse for exclusive devotion to the interests of
time. But here, as elsewhere, extremes met. Phariseeism,
Sadduceeism, Herodianism, though distinguished by minor
differences, were radically one. The religionists, the philo-
sophers, the politicians, were all members of one great party,
which was inveterately hostile to the divine kingdom. All
alike were worldly-minded (of the Pharisees it is expressly
remarked that they were covetous ^) ; all were opposed to
Christ for fundamentally the same reason, viz. because He
was not of this world ; all united fraternally at this time
1 Luke xii. 1. ^ Luke xvi. 14.

THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. 161

in the attempt to vex Him by unbelieving, unreasonable
demands ; ^ and they all had a hand in His death at the
last.

It thus appears that, to be a Christian, it is not enough to
differ superficially from either Pharisees or Sadducees, but
that it is necessary to differ radically from both. A weighty
truth, not yet well understood : for it is fancied by many that
orthodoxy and right living consist in going to the opposite
extreme from any tendency whose evil influence is apparent.
To avoid pharisaic strictness and superstition, grown odious,
men run into sadducaic scepticism and licence ; or, frightened
by the excesses of infidelity and secularity, they seek salvation
in ritualism, infallible churches, and the revival of mediaeval
monkery. Thus the two tendencies continue ever propagating
each other on the principle of action and reaction ; one gene-
ration or school going all lengths in one direction, and another
making a jooint of being as unlike its predecessor or its neigh-
bour as possible, and both being equally far from the truth.

"What the common leaven of Phariseeism and Sadduceeism
was, Jesus did not deem it necessary to state. He had already
indicated its nature with sufficient plainness in His severe
reply to the sign-seekers. The radical vice of both sects was
just ungodliness : blindness, and deadness of heart to the
divine. They did not know the true and the good when they
saw it ; and when they knew it, they did not love it. All
around them were the evidences that the King and the
kingdom of grace were among them ; yet here were they
asking for arbitrary outward signs that He who spake as
never man spake, and worked wonders of mercy such as had
never before been witnessed, was no impostor, but a man wise
and good, a prophet, and the Son of God. Verily the natural
man, religious or irreligious, is blind and dead ! What these
seekers after a sign needed was not a new sign, but a new
heart ; not mere evidence, but a spirit willing to obey the
truth.

The spirit of unbelief which ruled in Jewish society Jesus
described as a leaven, with special reference to its diffusive-
ness ; and most fitly, for it passes from sire to son, from rich
1 In Mark (viii. 15) tlie " leaven of Herod" is mentioned.
L

162 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

to poor, from learned to unlearned, till a whole generation has
been vitiated by its malign influence. Such was the state of
things in Israel as it came under His eye. Spiritual blind-
ness and deadness, with the outward symptom of the inward
malady — a constant craving for evidence — met Him on every
side. The common people, the leaders of society, the religious,
the sceptics, the courtiers, and the rustics, were all blind, and
yet apparently most anxious to see ; ever renewing the demand,
" What sign showest thou, that we may see and believe thee ?
What dost thou work ? "

Vexed an hour ago by the sinister movements of foes, Jesus
next found new matter for annoyance in the stupidity of friends.
The disciples utterly, even ludicrously, misunderstood the
warning word addressed to them. In conversation by them-
selves, while their Master walked apart, they discussed the
question, what the strange words, so abruptly and earnestly
spoken, might mean ; and they came to the sapient conclusion
that they were intended to caution them against buying bread
from parties belonging to either of the offensive sects. It was
an absurd mistake, and yet, all things considered, it was not
so very unnatural : for, in the first place, as already remarked,
Jesus had introduced the subject very abruptly ; and, secondly,
some time had elapsed since the meeting with the seekers
of a sign, during which no allusion seems to have been made
to that matter. How were they to know that during all that
time their Master's thoughts had been occupied with what
took place on the western shore of the lake ? In any case,
such a supposition was not likely to occur to their mind ; for
the demand for a sign had not appeared to them an event of
much consequence, and it was probably forgotten as soon as
their backs were turned upon the men who made it. And then,
finally, it so happened that, just before Jesus began to speak,
they remembered that in the hurry of a sudden departure they
had forgotten to provide themselves with a stock of provisions
for the journey. That was what they were thinking about
when He began to say, " Take heed, and beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." The momentous cir-
cumstance that they had with them but one loaf was causing
them so much concern, that when they heard the caution

THE LEAVEN OF THE PHAEISEES AND SADDUCEES. 163

against a particular kind of leaven, they jumped at once to the
conclusion, " It is because we have no bread."

Yet the misunderstanding of the disciples, though simple
and natural in its origin, was blameworthy. They could not
have fallen into the mistake had the interest they took in
spiritual and temporal things respectively been proportional
to their relative importance. They had treated the incident
on the other side of the lake too lightly, and they had treated
their neglect to provide bread too gravely. They should
have taken more to heart the ominous demand for a sign,
and the solemn words spoken by their Master in reference
thereto ; and they should not have been troubled about the
want of loaves in the company of Him who had twice miracu-
lously fed the hungry multitude in the desert. Their thought-
lessness in one direction, and their over-thoughtfulness in
another, showed that food and raiment occupied a larger place
in their minds than the kingdom of God and its interests.
Had they possessed more faith and .more spirituality, they
would not have exposed themselves to the reproachful question
of their Master : " How is it that ye do not understand, that
I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees ? " ^

The misunderstanding thus gently yet faithfully rebuked,
serves to demonstrate how vain is all discourse concerning
divine things to men whose minds are preoccupied with earthly
cares. Such men have no ears for the lofty lessons of spiritual
wisdom ; they hear only words which convey not the ideas
they were designed to express, but suggest thoughts of the most
diverse nature. " Leaven" makes them think of loaves ; and
the mention of "synagogues, magistrates, and powers" brings
up to their recollection legal disputes with kinsfolk concerning
inheritances.' Verily, the cares of life are thorns which choke
the word, and render the hearer unfruitful.

1 Matt. xvi. 11. 2 Luke sii. 11-15.

CHAPTER XL .

CUERENT OPINION AND ETERNAL TRUTH,
Matt. xvi. 13-20 ; Mark viii. 27-30 ; Luke ix. 18-21.

FEOM the eastern shore of the lake Jesus directed His
course northwards along the banks of the Upper Jordan,
passing Bethsaida Julias, where, as Mark informs us, He re-
stored eyesight to a blind man. Pursuing his journey, He
arrived at length in the neighbourhood of a town of some
importance, beautifully situated near the springs of the Jordan,
at the southern base of Mount Hermon. This was Csesarea
Philippi, formerly called Paneas, from, the heathen god Pan,
who was worshipped by the Syrian Greeks in the limestone
cavern near by, in which Jordan's fountains bubble forth to
light. Its present name was given to it by Philip, tetrarch of
Trachonitis, in honour of Ca3sar Augustus ; his own name
being appended (Ccesarea Philijyjyi, or Philip's Ccesarea), to
distinguish it from the other town of the same name on the
Mediterranean coast. The town so named could boast of a
temple of white marble, built by Herod the Great to the first
Eoman Emperor, besides villas and palaces, built by Philip,
Herod's son, in whose territories it lay, and who, as we have
just stated, gave it its new name.

Away in that remote secluded region, Jesus occupied Him-
seK for a season in secret prayer, and in confidential con-
versations with His disciples on topics of deepest interest.
One of these conversations had reference to His own Person.
He introduced the subject by asking the twelve the question,
" Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am ? " Tliis
question He asked, not as one needing to be informed, still
less from any morbid sensitiveness, such as vain men feel

CUEEENT OPINION AND ETEENAL TEUTH. 165

respecting the opinions entertained of them by their fellow-
creatures. He desired of His disciples a recital of current
opinions, merely by way of preface to a profession of their
own faith in the eternal truth concerning Himself. He deemed
it good to draw forth from them such a profession at this time,
because He was about to make communications to them on
another subject, viz. His sufferings, which He knew would
sorely try their faith. He wished them to be fairly committed
to the doctrine of His Ifessiahship before proceeding to speak
in plain terms on the unwelcome theme of His death.

From the reply of the disciples, it appears that their Master
had been the subject of much talk among the people. This
is only what we should have expected. Jesus was a very
public and a very extraordinary person, and to be much talked
about is one of the inevitable penalties of prominence. The
merits and the claims of the Son of man were accordingly
freely and widely canvassed in those days, with gravity or
with levity, with prejudice or with candour, with decision or
with indecision, intelligently or ignorantly, as is the way of
men in all ages. As they mingled with the people, it was the
lot of the twelve to hear many opinions concerning their Lord
which never reached His ear : sometimes kind and favourable,
making them glad ; at other times unkind and unfavourable,
making them sad.

The opinions prevalent among the masses concerning Jesus —
for it was with reference to these that He interrogated His dis-
ciples ^ — seem to have been mainly favourable. All agreed in
regarding Him as a prophet of the highest rank, differing only
as to which of the great prophets of Israel He most nearly
resembled or personated. Some said He was John the Baptist
revived, others Elias, while others again identified Him with
one or other of the great prophets, as Jeremiah. These opinions
are explained in part by an expectation then commonly enter-
tained, that the advent of the Messiah would be preceded by
the return of one of the prophets by whom God had spoken
to the fathers, partly by the perception of real or supposed
resemblances between Jesus and this or that prophet ; His
tenderness reminding one hearer of the author of the Lamen-

^ Luke ix. 18, o'l ox>-<>'-

166 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

tations, His sternness in denouncing hypocrisy and tyranny
reminding another of the prophet of fire, while perhaps His
parabohc discourses led a third to think of Ezekiel or of Daniel.

When we reflect on the high veneration in which the ancient
prophets were held, we cannot fail to see that these diverse
opinions current among the Jewish people concerning Jesus
imply a very high sense of His greatness and excellence. To
us, who regard Him as the Sun, while the prophets were at
best but lamps of greater or less brightness, such comparisons
may weU seem not only inadequate, but dishonouring. Yet
we must not despise them, as the testimonies of open-minded
but imperfectly informed contemporaries to the worth of Him
whom we worship as the Lord. Taken separately, they show
that in the judgment of candid observers Jesus was a man of
surpassing greatness ; taken together, they show the many-
sidedness of His character, and its superiority to that of any
one of the prophets ; for He could not have reminded those
who witnessed His works, and heard Him preach, of all the
prophets in turn, unless He had comprehended them all in
His one person. The very diversity of opinion respecting
Him, therefore, showed that a greater than Elias, or Jeremiah,
or Ezekiel, or Daniel, had appeared.

These opinions, valuable still as testimonials to the excel-
lence of Christ, must be admitted further to be indicative, so
far, of good dispositions on the part of those who cherished
and expressed them. At a time when those who deemed
themselves in every respect immeasurably superior to the
multitude could find no better names for the Son of man than
Samaritan, devil, blasphemer, glutton and drunkard, companion
of publicans and sinners, it was something considerable to
believe that the calumniated One was a prophet as worthy
of honour as any of those whose sepulchres the professors of
piety carefully varnished, wliile depreciating, and even putting
to death, their living successors. The multitude who held this
opinion might come short of true discipleship ; but they were
at least far in advance of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who
came in tempting mood to ask a sign from heaven, and whom
no sign, whether in heaven or in earth, would conciliate or
convince.

CUEKENT OPINION AND ETERNAL TRUTH. 167

How, then, did Jesus receive the report of His disciples ?
"Was He satisfied with these favourable, and in the circum-
stances really gratifying, opinions current among the people ?
He was not. He was not content to be put on a level with
even the greatest of the prophets. He did not indeed express
any displeasure against those who assigned Him such a rank,
and He may even have been pleased to hear that public
opinion had advanced so far on the way to the true faith.
Nevertheless He declined to accept the position accorded.
The meek and lowly Son of man claimed to be something
more than a great prophet. Therefore He turned to His
chosen disciples, as to men from whom He expected a more
satisfactory statement of the truth, and pointedly asked what
they thought of Him. " But you — whom say ye that I
am ? "

In this case, as in many others, Simon son of Jonas an-
swered for the company. His prompt, definite, memorable
ref)ly to his Master's question was this : " Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God."

With this view of His person Jesus luas satisfied. He did
not charge Peter with extravagance, in going so far beyond
the opinion of the populace. On the contrary, He entirely
approved of what the ardent disciple had said, and expressed
His satisfaction in no cold or measured terms. Never, perhaps,
did He speak in more animated language, or with greater
appearance of deep emotion. He solemnly pronounced Peter
" blessed " on account of his faith ; He spake for the first time
of a church which should be founded, professing Peter's faith
as its creed ; He promised that disciple great power in that
church, as if grateful to him for being the first to put the
momentous truth into words, and for uttering it so boldly
amid prevailing unbelief, and crude, defective belief ; and He
expressed, in the strongest possible terms, His confidence that
the church yet to be founded would stand to all ages proof
against all the assaults of the powers of darkness.

Simon's confession, fairly interpreted, seems to contain these
two propositions, — that Jesus was the Messiah, and that He
was divine. " Thou art the Christ," said he in the first place,
with conscious reference to the reported opinions of the people,

168 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE,

— " Thou art the Christ/' and not merely a j^rophet come to
prepare Christ's way. Then he added : " the Son of God," to
explain what he understood by the term Christ. The Messiah
looked for by the Jews in general was merely a man, though
a very superior one, the ideal man endowed with extraordinary
gifts. The Christ of Peter's creed was more than man — a
superhuman, a divine being. This truth he sought to express
in the second part of his confession. He called Jesus Son of
God, with obvious reference to the name His Master had just
given Himself — Son of man. " Thou," he meant to say, " art
not only what Thou hast now called Thyself, and what, in
lowliness of mind, Thou art wont to call Thyself — the Son of
man ; Thou art also Son of God, partaking of the divine nature
not less really than of the human." Finally, he prefixed the
epithet " living " to the divine name, to express his conscious-
ness that he was making a very momentous declaration, and
to give that declaration a solemn, deliberate character. It
was as if he said : " I know it is no light matter to call any
one, even Thee, Son of God, of the One living eternal Jehovah.
But I shrink not from the assertion, however bold, startling,
or even blasphemous it may seem. I cannot by any other
expression do justice to all I know and feel concerning Thee,
or convey the impression left on my mind by what I have
witnessed during the time I have followed Thee as a disciple."
That the famous confession, uttered in the neighbourhood
of Cpesarea Philippi, really contains in gcrm^ the doctrine of
Christ's divinity, might be inferred from the simple fact that
Jesus was satisfied with it ; for He certainly claimed to be
Son of God in a sense predicable of no mere man. But when
we consider the peculiar terms in which He expressed Him-
self respecting Peter's faith, we are still further confirmed in
this conclusion. " Plesh and blood," said He to the disciple,
" hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in
heaven." These words evidently imply that the person ad-
dressed had said something very extraordinary ; something he
could not have learned from the traditional established beKef
of his generation respecting Messiah ; something new even for
himself and his fellow-disciples, if not in words, at least in
1 Of course all that was implied was not yet present to Peter's mind.

CUEEENT OPINION AND ETEENAL TEUTH. 169

meaning/ to •wliich he could not have attained by the unaided
effort of his own mind. The confession is virtually represented
as an inspiration, a revelation, a flash of light from heaven, —
the utterance not of the rude fisherman, but of the Divine
Spirit speaking, through his mouth, a truth hitherto hidden, and
yet but dimly comprehended by him to whom it hath been
revealed. All this agrees well with -the supposition that the
confession contains not merely an acknowledgment of the
Messiahship of Jesus in the ordinary sense, but a proclamation
of the true doctrine concerning Messiah's person — viz. that
He was a divine being manifest in the flesh.

The remaining portion of our Lord's address to Simon shows
that He assigned to the doctrine confessed by that disciple
the place of fundamental importance in the Christian faith.
The object of these remarkable statements ^ is not to assert
the supremacy of Peter, as Eomanists contend, but to declare
the supremely important nature of the truth he has confessed.
In spite of all difficulties of interpretation, this remains clear
and certain to us. Who or what the " rock " is, we deem
doubtful ; it may be Peter, or it may be his confession : it is
a point on which scholars equally sound in the faith, and
equally innocent of all sympathy with Popish dogmas, are
divided in opinion, and on which it would ill become us to
dogmatize. Of this only we are sure, that not Peter's person,
but Peter's faith, is the fundamental matter in Christ's mind.
When He says to that disciple, " Thou art Petros," He means,
" Thou art a man of rock, worthy of the name I gave thee by
anticipation the first time I met thee, because thou hast at
length got thy foot planted on the rock of the eternal truth."
He speaks of the church that is to be, for the first time, in
connection with Simon's confession, because that church is to
consist of men adopting that confession as their own, and
acknowledging Him to be the Christ, the Son of God.^ He
alludes to the keys of the kingdom of heaven in the same
connection, because none but those who homologate the doctrine

' The words, with exception of the epithet "living," are found in John i. 49.
2 Matt. xvi. 18, 19.

' This was the usual formula by which converts confessed their faith in the
apostolic age.

170 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

first solemnly enunciated by Simon shall be admitted within
its gates. He promises Peter the power of the keys, not
because it is to belong to him alone, or to him more than
others, but by way of honourable mention, in recompense for
the joy he has given his Lord by the superior energy and
decision of his faith. He is grateful to Peter, because he
has believed most emphatically that He came out from God -^
and He shows His gratitude by promising first to him indi-
vidually a power which He afterwards conferred on all His
chosen disciples.^ Finally, if it be true that Peter is here
called the rock on which the church shall be built, this is to
be understood in the same way as the promise of the keys.
Peter is called the foundation of the church only in the same
sense as aU the apostles are called the foundation by the
Apostle Paul,^ viz. as the first preachers of the true faith con-
cerning Jesus as the Christ and Son of God ; and if the man
who Jirst professed that faith be honoured by being called
individually the rock, that only shows that the faith, and not
the man, is after all the true foundation. That which makes
Simon a Fetros, a rock-like man, fit to bmld on, is the real
Pdra on which the Ecclesia is to be built.

After these remarks, we deem it superfluous to enter mi-
nutely into the question to what the term "rock" refers in the
sentence, " Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my
church." At the same time, we must say that it is by no
means so clear to us that the rock must be Peter, and can be
nothing else, as it is the fashion of modern commentators to
assert. To the rendering, " Thou art Petros, a man of rock ;
and on thee, as on a rock, I wHl build my church," it is pos-
sible, as already admitted, to assign an intelligible scriptural
meaning. But we confess our preference for the old Protestant
interpretation, according to which our Lord's words to His dis-
ciple should be thus paraphrased : " Thou, Simon Barjonas, art
Petros, a man of rock, worthy of thy name Peter, because
thou hast made that bold, good confession ; and on the truth
thou hast now confessed, as on a rock, will I build my church ;
and so long as it abides on that foundation, it wOl stand firm
and unassailable against all the powers of heU." So render-
» John xvi. 27, - Matt, xviii. 18 ; John xx. 23. ^ Eph. ii. 20.

CURRENT OPINION AND ETERNAL TRUTH. l7l

ing, we make Jesus say not only what He really thought, but
what was most worthy to be said. For divine truth is the
sure foundation. Believers, even Peters, may fail, and prove
anything but stable ; but truth is eternal, and faileth never.

We cannot pass from these memorable words of Christ,
without adverting, with a certain solemn awe, to the strange
fate which has befallen them in the history of the church.
Tliis text, in which the church's Lord declares that the powers
of darkness shall not prevail against her, has been used by
these powers as an instrument of assault, and with only too
much success. What a gigantic system of spiritual despotism
and blasphemous assumption has been built on these two sen-
tences concerning the rock and the keys ! How nearly, by
their aid, have men and devils turned the kingdom of God
into a kingdom of Satan ! One is tempted to wish that Jesus,
knowing beforehand what was to happen, had so framed His
words as to obviate the mischief. But the wish were vain.
No forms of expression, however carefully selected, could pre-
vent human ignorance from falling into misconception, or hinder
men who had a purpose to serve from finding in Scripture what
suited that purpose. Nor can any Christian, on reflection,
think it desiivable that the Author of our faith had adopted a
studied prudential style of speech, intended not so much to
give faithful expression to the actual thoughts of His mind and
feelings of His heart, as to avoid giving occasion of stumbling
to honest stupidity, or an excuse for perversion to dishonest
knavery. The spoken word in that case had been no longer
a true reflection of the Word incarnate. All the poetry and
passion and genuine human feeling, which form the charm of
Christ's sayings, would have been lost, and nothing would have
remained but prosaic platitudes, like those of the scribes and
of theological pedants. No ; let us have the precious words of
our Master in all their characteristic intensity and vehemence
of unqualified assertion ; and if prosaic or disingenuous men
will manufacture out of them incredible dogmas, let them
answer for it. Why should the cliildren be deprived of their
bread, and only the dogs be cared for ?

And now, changing the scene from Csesarea Philippi to
Christendom, and the time from the first to the nineteenth

172 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

century, what do we find ? The world still discussing the
question, Who is this Son of man ? and propounding the most
diverse theories concerning Him. Of these theories we cannot
now give the meagrest account ; but we simply remark, that
the view in favour with many is just that of the Jewish mul-
titude, viz. that the Son of man is only a man, but a very
good and very great man. This is now the opinion not of the
populace, but of the philosophers, who will not allow Jesus to
be more than man, but strenuously maintain that He is the
best of men. It is well they go so far, though their position
is by no means unassailable, inasmuch as, if Jesus be not
more than man, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that He
must be less than a good man. It is well that they are dis-
posed to bless, whose speculative views, rigorously carried out,
would require them to curse. Yet their view of the person
of Christ, however complimentary, is manifestly one with which
He Himself would not have been satisfied, judging from the
incident at Csesarea Philippi, which is no myth, but bears the
unmistakeable stamp of genuine history. Were our Lord here
on earth to-day, He would turn away from the philosophers,
in quest of men who believe as Peter believed, and with some-
what of Peter's emphasis confess His divinity, not only on the
authority of a venerable creed, but as taught by the Father in
heaven. In such Christians alone, at once orthodox and ori-
ginal in their faith, would His heart find rest. In such Chris-
tians, let us add, as distinct not only from the philosophers,
but from the traditionally orthodox, lies the strength of the
church against her spiritual foes — superstition, unbelief,
worldliness, Satanic malice. For it is not mere abstract
orthodoxy expressed in confessions that is the source of secu-
rity and stability. It is truth believed by living souls.
Orthodoxy will not save the church any more than ecclesi-
astical dignitaries — priests, bishops, cardinals, popes. The
temple which endures for ever is founded on Christ, the Eock
of ages, and built up of " lively stones."

CHAPTEE XIL

THE CROSS.

Section i. — First Announcement of Christ's Death.
Matt. xvi. 21-28 ; Mark viii. 31-38 ; Luke ix. 22-27.

NOT till an advanced period in His public ministry — not,
in fact, till it was drawing to a close — did Jesus speak
in plain, unmistakeable terms of His death. The solemn event
was foreknown by Him from the first ; and He betrayed His
consciousness of what was awaiting Him by a variety of oc-
casional allusions. These earlier utterances, however, were
all couched in mystic language. They were of the nature
of riddles, whose meaning became clear after the event, but
which before, none could or at least did read. Jesus spake
now of a temple, which, if destroyed. He should raise again in
three days ;^ at another time of a lifting up of the Son of
man, like unto that of the brazen serpent in the wilderness f
and on yet other occasions, of a sad separation of the bride-
groom from the children of the bride-chamber,^ of the giving
of His flesh for the life of the world,^ and of a sign like that
of the prophet Jonas, wliich should be given in His own per-
son to an evil and adulterous generation.^

At length, after the conversation in Csesarea Philippi, Jesus
changed His style of speaking on the subject of His sufferings ;
substituting for dark, hidden allusions, plain, literal, matter-
of-fact statements.^ This change was naturally adapted to the
altered circumstances in which He was placed. The signs of

1 John ii. 19. ^ joj^^ j^j^ i4_ 3 Matt. ix. 15.

* John vi. ^ Matt. xvi. 4.

^ " He spake that saying openly" (^ra^/jjir/a), Mark viii. 32.

174 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

the times were growing ominous ; storm-clouds were gathering
in the air ; all things were beginning to point towards Calvary.
His work in Galilee and the provinces was nearly done : it
remained for Him to bear witness to the truth in and around
the holy city ; and from the present mood of the ecclesiastical
authorities and the leaders of religious society, as manifested
by captious question and unreasonable demand/ and a constant
espionage on His movements, it was not difficult to foresee
that it would not require many more offences, or much longer
time, to ripen dislike and jealousy into murderous hatred.
Such plain speaking, therefore, concerning what was soon to
happen, was natural and seasonable. Jesus was now entering
the valley of the shadow of death ; and in so speaking. He was
but adapting His talk to the situation.

Plain-speaking regarding His death was now not only
natural on Christ's part, but at once necessary and safe in
reference to His disciples. It was necessary, in order that
they might be prepared for the approaching event, as far as
that was possible in the case of men who, to the last, persisted
in hoping that the issue would be different from what their
Master anticipated. It was safe ; for now the subject might
be spoken of plainly without serious risk to their faith. Be-
fore the disciples were established in the doctrine of Christ's
person, the doctrine of the cross might have scared them away
altogether. Premature preaching of a Christ to be crucified
might have made them unbelievers in the ficndamental truth
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. Therefore, in con-
sideration of their weakness, Jesus maintained a certain reserve
respecting His sufferings, till their faith in Him as the Christ
should have become sufficiently rooted to stand the strain of the
storm soon to be raised by a most unexpected, unwelcome, and
incomprehensible announcement. Only after hearing Peter's
confession was He satisfied that the strength necessary for en-
during the trial had been attained.

Wherefore, " from that time forth began Jesus to show unto
His disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer
many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and
be killed, and be raised again the third day."

^ Matt. XV. 1 sq^q., xvi. 1 sf[C[.

THE CROSS: FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF CHRIST'S DEATH. l75

Every clause in this solemn announcement demands our
reverent scrutiny.

Jesus showed unto His disciples :

1. " That He must go unto Jerusalem." Yes ! there the
tragedy must be enacted : that was the fitting scene for the
stupendous events that were about to take place. It was
dramatically proper that the Son of man should die in that
holy, unholy city, which had earned a most unenviable no-
toriety as the murderess of the prophets, the stoner of them
whom God sent unto her. " It cannot be " — it were incon-
gruous— " that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." ^ It was
due also to the dignity of Jesus, and to the design of His
death, that He should suffer there. Not in an obscure corner
or in an obscure way must He die, but in the most public
place, and in a formal, judicial manner. He must be lifted
up in view of the whole Jewish nation, so that all might see
Him whom they had pierced, and by whose stripes also they
might yet be healed. The " Lamb of God" must be slain in
the place where all the legal sacrifices were offered.

2. "And suffer many things." Too many to enumerate,
too painful to speak of in detail, and better passed over in
silence for the present. The bare fact that their beloved
Master was to be put to death, without any accompanying
indignities, would be sufficiently dreadful to the disciples ;
and Jesus mercifully drew a veil over much that was present
to His own thoughts. In a subsequent conversation on the
same sad theme, when His passion was near at hand, He
drew aside the veil a little, and showed them some of the
" many things." But even then He was very sparing in His
allusions, hinting only by a passing word that He should be
mocked, and scourged, and spit upon.^ He took no delight
in expatiating on such harrowing scenes. He was willing to
bear those indignities, but He cared not to speak of them more
than was absolutely necessary.

3. Jesus next told His disciples that He should suffer those
things " of the elders and chief priests and scribes." Not of
them alone, for Gentile rulers and the people of Israel were
to have a hand in evil-entreating the Son of man as well as

1 Luke xiii. 33. 2 j^^rk x. 34 ; Luke xviii. 32.

176 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Jewish ecclesiastics. But tlie parties named were to be the
prime movers and most guilty agents in the nefarious trans-
action. The men who ought to have taught the people to
recognise in Jesus the Lord's Anointed, would hound them
on to cry, " Crucify him, crucify him," and by importunities
and threats urge heathen authorities to perpetrate a crime
for which they had no heart. Grey-haired elders sitting in
council would solemnly decide that He was worthy of death ;
high priests would utter oracles, that one man must die
for the people, that the whole nation perish not ; scribes
learned in the law would use their legal knowledge to invent
plausible grounds for an accusation involving capital punish-
ment. Jesus had suffered many petty annoyances from such
persons already ; but the time was approaching when nothing
would satisfy them but getting the object of their dislike cast
forth out of the world. Alas for Israel, when her wise men,
and her holy men, and her learned men, knew of no better use
to make of the stone chosen of Grod, and precious, than thus
contemptuously and wantonly to fling it away !

4. " And be killed." Yea ; and for blessed ends pre-
ordained of God. But of these Jesus speaks not now. He
simply states, in general terms, the fact, in this first lesson on
the doctrine of the cross.^ Anything more at this stage had
been wasted words. To what purpose speak of the theology
of the cross, of God's great design in the death which was to
be brought about by man's guilty instrumentality, to disciples
unwilling to receive even the matter of fact ? The rude
shock of an unwelcome announcement must fii'st be over,
before anything can be profitably said on these higher themes.
Therefore not a syllable here of salvation by the death of the
Son of man ; of Christ crucified for man's guilt as well as hy
man's guilt. The hard, bare fact alone is stated ; theology
being reserved for another season, when the hearers should be
in a fitter frame of mind for receiving instruction.

5. Finally, Jesus told His disciples that He should "be
raised again the third day." To some so explicit a reference

^ The cross is not even named here ; hut it was in Christ's thoughts, as the
following address to the disci])k's plainly shows. The /ac<, without the mode, of
death was enough for the iirst lesson.

THE CROSS: FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF CHRIST'S DEATH. 177

to the resurrection at this early date has appeared improbable.^
To us, on the contrary, it appears eminently seasonable. When
was Jesus more likely to tell His disciples that He would rise
again shortly after His death, than just on the occasion when
He first told them plainly that He should die ? He knew
how harsh the one announcement would be to the feelings of
His faithful ones, and it was natural that He should add the
other, in the hope that when it was understood that His death
was to be succeeded, after a brief interval of three days, by
resurrection, the news would be much less hard to bear.
Accordingly, after uttering the dismal words " be killed," He,
with characteristic tenderness, hastened to say, " and be raised
again the third day ; " that, having torn, He might heal, and
having smitten, He might bind up.

The grave communications made by Jesus were far from
welcome to His disciples. Neither now nor at any subse-
quent time did they listen to the forebodings of their Lord
with resignation even, not to speak of cheerful acquiescence
or spiritual joy. They never heard Him speak of His death
without pain ; and their only comfort, in connection with such
announcements as the present, seems to have been the hope
that He had taken too gloomy a view of the situation, and
that His apprehensions would turn out groundless. They, for
their part, could see no grounds for such dark anticipations, and
their Messianic ideas did not dispose them to be on the out-
look for these. They had not the slightest conception that it
behoved the Christ to suffer. On the contrary, a crucified Christ
was a scandal and a contradiction to them, quite as much as
it continued to be to the majority of the Jewish people after
the Lord had ascended to glory. Hence, the more firmly they
believed that Jesus was the Christ, the more confounding it was
to be told that He must be put to death. " How," they asked
themselves, " can these things be ? How can the Son of God
be subject to such indignities ? How can our Master be the
Christ, as we firmly believe, come to set up the divine king-

^ The three synoptica] evangelists agree in adding this reference to the resur-
rection to the first announcement of Christ's death. Their agreement in the
whole of this announcement is very striking, yet only what was to be expected,
considering its contents.

178 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

dom, and to be crowned its King witli glory and honour, and
yet at the same time be doomed to undergo the ignominious
fate of a criminal execution ? " These questions the twelve
could not now, nor until after the resurrection, answer ; nor
is this wonderful, for if flesh and blood could not reveal the
doctrine of Christ's person, still less could it reveal the doc-
trine of His cross. Not without a very special illumination
from heaven could they understand the merest elements of
that doctrine, and see, e.g., that nothing was more worthy of
the Son of God than to humble Himself and become subject
unto death, even the death of the cross ; that the glory of God
consists not merely in being the highest, but in this, that
being high, He stoops in lowly love to bear the burden of His
own sinful creatures ; that nothing could more directly and
certainly conduce to the establishment of the divine kingdom
than the gracious self-humiliation of the King ; that only by
ascending the cross could Messiah ascend the throne of His
mediatorial glory ; that only so could He subdue human
hearts, and become Lord of men's affections as well as of their
destinies. Many in the church do not understand these
blessed truths, even at this late era : what wonder, then, if
they were hid for a season from the eyes of the first disciples !
Let us not reproach them for the veil that was on their
faces ; let us rather make sure that the same veil is not on
our own.

On this occasion, as at Csesarea Philippi, the twelve found
a most eloquent and energetic interpreter of their sentiments
in Simon Peter. The action and speech of that disciple at
this time were characteristic in the highest degree. He took
Jesus, we are told (laid hold of Him, we suppose, by His hand
or His garment), and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far
from Thee, Lord ; or more literally, God be merciful to Thee :
God forbid ! this shall not be unto Thee. What a strange
compound of good and evil is this man ! His language is
dictated by the most intense affection : he cannot bear the
thought of any harm befalling his Lord ; yet how irreverent
and disrespectful he is towards Him whom he has just ac-
knowledged to be the Christ, the Son of the living God !
How he overbears, and contradicts, and domineers, and, as it

THE CROSS: FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF CHRIST'S DEATH. 179

were, tries to bully his Master into putting away from His
thoughts those gloomy forebodings of coming evil ! Verily he
has need of chastisement to teach him his own place, and to
scourge out of his character the bad elements of forwardness,
and undue familiarity, and presumptuous self-will.

Happily for Peter, he had a Master who, in His faithful
love, spared not the rod when it was needful. Jesus judged
that it was needed now, and therefore He administered a rebuke
not less remarkable for severity than was the encomium at
Cffisarea Philippi for warm unqualified approbation, and curi-
ously contrasting with that encomium in the terms in which
it was expressed. He turned round on His offending disciple,
and sternly said : " Get thee behind me, Satan ; thou art an
offence unto me : for thou savoirrest not the things that be of
God, but those that be of men." The same disciple who on
the former occasion had spoken by inspiration of Heaven, is
here represented as speaking by inspiration of mere flesh and
blood — of mere natural affection for his Lord, and of the
animal instinct of self-preservation ; savouring not the things
of God, but those only that be of men. He whom Christ had
pronounced a man of rock, strong in faith, and fit to be a
foundation-stone in the spiritual edifice, is here called an
offence, a stumbling-stone lying in his Master's path. Peter,
the noble confessor of that fundamental truth, by the faith of
which the church would be able to defy the gates of hell,
appears here in league with the powers of darkness, the uncon-
scious mouthpiece of Satan the tempter. " Get thee behind
me, Satan !" What a downcome for him who but yesterday
got that promise of the power of the keys ! How suddenly has
the novice church dignitary, too probably lifted up with pride
or vanity, fallen into the condemnation of the devil !

This memorable rebuke seems mercilessly severe, and yet
on consideration we feel it was nothing more than what was
called for. Christ's language on this occasion needs no apo-
logy, such as might be drawn from supposed excitement of
feeling, or from a consciousness on the speaker's part that the
infirmity of His own sensient nature was whispering the same
suggestion as that which came from Peter's lips. Even the
hard word Satan, which is the sting of the speech, is in its

180 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

proper place. It describes exactly the character of the advice
given by Simon. That advice was substantially this : " Save
thyself at any rate ; sacrifice duty to self-interest, the cause of
God to personal convenience." An advice truly Satanic in
principle and tendency ! For the whole aim of Satanic policy
is to get self-interest recognised as the chief end of man.
Satan's temptations aim at nothing worse than this. Satan
is called the Prince of this world, because self-interest rules
the world; he is called the accuser of the brethren, because
he does not believe that even the sons of God have any higher
motive. He is a sceptic, and his scepticism consists in deter-
mined, scornful unbelief in the reality of any chief ejad other
than that of personal advantage. " Doth Job, or even Jesus,
serve God for nought ? Self-sacrifice, suffering for righteous-
ness' sake, fidelity to truth even unto death : — it is all romance
and youthful sentimentalism, or hypocrisy and hollow cant.
There is absolutely no such thing as a surrender of the lower
life for the higher ; all men are selfish at heart, and have their
price : some may hold out longer than others, but in the last
extremity every man will prefer his own things to the things
of God. All that a man hath will he give for his life, his
moral integrity and his piety not excepted." Such is Satan's
creed.

The suggestion made by Peter, as the unconscious tool of
the spirit of evil, is identical in principle with that made by
Satan himself to Jesus in the temptation in the wilderness.
The tempter said then in effect : " If thou be the Son of God,
use thy power for thine own behoof; thou art hungry, e.g.,
make bread for thyself out of the stones. If thou be the Son
of God, presume on thy privilege as the favourite of Heaven ;
cast thyself down from this elevation, securely counting on
protection from harm, even where other men would be allowed
to suffer the consequences of their foolhardiness. What
better use canst thou make of thy divine powers and privileges,
than to promote thine own advantage and glory ? " Peter's
feeling at the present time seems to have been much the same :
" If thou be the Son of God, why shouldst thou suffer an
ignominious violent death ? Thou hast power to save thyself
from such a fate ; surely thou wilt not hesitate to use it ! "

THE CKOSS : CROSS-BEAEING THE LAW OF DISCIPLESHIP. 181

The attached disciple, in fact, was an unconscious instrument
employed by Satan to subject Jesus to a second temptation,
analogous to the earlier one in the desert of Judea. It was
the god of this world that was at work in both cases ; who,
being accustomed to find men only too ready to prefer safety to
righteousness, could not believe that he should find nothing
of this spirit in the Son of God, and therefore came again and
again seeking an open point in His armour through which he
might shoot his fiery darts ; not renouncing hope till his in-
tended victim hung on the cross, apparently conquered by the
world, but in reality a conqueror both of the world and of its
lord.

The severe language uttered by Jesus on this occasion,
when regarded as addressed to a dearly beloved disciple,
shows in a striking manner His holy abhorrence of every
thing savouring of self-seeking. " Save thyself," counsels
Simon ; " Get thee behind me, Satan," replies Simon's Lord.
Truly Christ was not one who pleased Himself. Though He
were a Son, yet would He learn obedience by the things
which He had to suffer. And by this mind He proved Him-
self to be the Son, and won from His Father the approving
voice : " Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased,"
— Heaven's reply to the voice from hell counselling Him to
pursue a course of self-pleasing. Persevering in this mind,
Jesus was at length lifted up on the cross, and so became the
author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.
Blessed now and for evermore be His name, who so humbled
Himself, and became obedient unto death !

Section ii. — Cross-hearing the Law of Discipleship.
Matt. xvi. 24-28 ; Mark viii. 34-38 ; Luke ix. 23-27.

After one hard announcement comes another not less hard.
The Lord Jesus has told His disciples that He must one day
be put to death ; He now tells them, that as it fares with
Him, so it must fare with them also. The second announce-
ment was naturally occasioned by the way in which the first

182 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

had been received. Peter had said, and all had felt, " This
shall not be imto Thee." Jesus replies in effect, " Say you so ?
I tell you that not only shall I, your Master, be crucified, —
for such will be the manner of my death,^ — but ye too,
faithfully following me, shall most certainly have your crosses
to bear. ' If any man will come after me, let him deny liim-
self, and take up his cross, and follow me.' "

The second announcement was not, like the first, made to
the twelve only. This we might infer from the terms of the
announcement, which are general, even if we had not been
informed, as we are by Mark and Luke, that before making
it Jesus called the people unto Him, with His disciples, and
spake in the hearing of them all.^ The doctrine here taught,
therefore, is for all Christians in all ages : not for apostles
only, but for the humblest disciples ; not for priests or
preachers, but for the laity as well ; not for monks living
in cloisters, but for men living and working in the outside
world. The King and Head of the church here proclaims a
universal law binding on all His subjects, requiring all to
bear a cross in fellowship with Himself.

We are not told how the second announcement was received
by those who heard it, and particularly by the twelve. We
can believe, however, that to Peter and his brethren it
sounded less harsh than the first, and seemed, at least theo-
retically, more acceptable. Common experience might teach
them that crosses, however unpleasant to flesh and blood, were
nevertheless things that might be looked for in the lot of
mere men. But what had Christ the Son of God to do with
crosses ? Ought He not to be exempt from the sufferings
and indignities of ordinary mortals ? If not, of what avail
was His divine Sonship ? In short, the difficulty for the
twelve was probably not that the servant should be no better
than the Master, but that the Master should be no better than
the servant.

Our perplexity, on the other hand, is apt to be just the
reverse of this. Familiar with the doctrine that Jesus . died

' The cross, thougli not mentioned, was evidently in Christ's thoughts when
He spake of His death at this time. Vid. last chapter, note, p. 176.

* Mark viii. 34, ■rporxaXiffdfiiyos rov ox^'y J Luke ix. 23, 'iXiyt St ^pis vavra;.

THE CEOSS : CEOSS-BEAEING THE LAW OF DISCIPLESHIT. 183

on the cross in our room, we are apt to wonder what occasion
tliere can be for our bearing a cross. If He suffered for us
vicariously, what need, we are ready to inquire, for suffering
on our part likewise ? We need to be reminded that Christ's
sufferings, while in some respects peculiar, are in other respects
common to Him with all in whom His Spirit abides ; that
while, as redemptive. His death stands alone, as suffering for
righteousness' sake it is but the highest instance of a univer-
sal law, according to which all who live a true godly life
must suffer hardship in a false evil world.^ And it is very
observable that Jesus took a most effectual method of keeping
this truth prominently before the mind of His followers in all
ages, by proclaiming it with great emphasis on the first occa-
sion on which He plainly announced that He Himself was to , -^-
die. Thereby He in effect declared that only such as were
willing to be crucified with Him should be saved by His
death ; nay, that willingness to bear a cross was indispensable
to the right understanding of the doctrine of salvation through J
Him. It is as if above the door of the school in which the
mystery of redemption was to be taught. He had inscribed
the legend : Let no man who is unwilling to deny himself, and
take up his cross, enter hem

In this great law of discipleship, the cross signifies not
merely the external penalty of death, but all troubles that
come on those who earnestly endeavour to live as Jesus lived
in this world, and in conscqueiice of that endeavour. Many
and various are the afflictions of the righteous, differing in
kind and degree, according to times and circumstances, and
the callings and stations of individuals. For the righteous
One, who died not only by the unjust, but for them, the
appointed cup was filled with all possible ingredients of shame
and pain, mingled together in the highest degree of bitterness.
Not a few of His most honoured servants have come very
near their Master in the manner and measure of their afflic-
tions for His sake, and have indeed drunk of His cup, and
been baptized with His bloody baptism. But for the rank

1 Plato had a glimpse of this law. " The just," he writes, "will be scourged,
racked, bound, will have his eyes put out, and after suffering many ills will be
crucified" (ava(r;j^ivS;X£u^!-'<r£Ta;). — Dc Repuhlica, lib. ii.

184 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

and file of tlie Christian host the hardships to be endured are
ordinarily less severe, the cross to be borne less heavy. For
one the cross may be the calumnies of lying lips, " which speak
grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the right-
eous ; " for another, failure to attain the much- worshipped idol
success in life, so often reached by unholy means not available
for a man who has a conscience ; for a third, mere isolation
and soHtariness of spirit amid uncongenial, unsympathetic
neighbours, not minded to live soberly, righteously, and godly,
and not loving those who do so live.

The cross, therefore, is not the same for all. But that
there is a cross of some shape for all true disciples, is clearly
implied in the words : " If any one will come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross." The plain meaning of
these words is, that there is no following Jesus on any other
terms. A doctrine this, which, however clearly taught in
the gospel, spurious Christians are unwilling to believe and
resolute to deny. They take the edge off their Lord's statement,
by explaining that it applies only to certain critical times,
happily very different from their own ; or that if it has some
reference to all times, it is only applicable to such as are called
to play a prominent part in public affairs as leaders of opinion,
pioneers of progress, prophets denouncing the vices of the age,
and uttering unwelcome oracles, — a proverbially dangerous
occupation, as the Greek poet testified, who said : " Apollo
alone should prophesy, for he fears nobody." ^ To maintain,
they say, that all who would live devoutly in Christ Jesus
must suffer somehow, is to take too gloomy and morose a view
of the wickedness of the world, or too high and exacting a
view of the Christian life. The righteousness which in ordi-
nary times involves a cross, is in their view folly and fana-
ticism. It is speaking when one should be silent, meddling
in matters with which one has no concern ; in a word, it is
being righteous over-much.

Such thoughts as these, expressed or unexpressed, are sure
to prevail extensively when religious profession is common.
The fact that fidelity involves a cross, as also the fact that

Xpjjv ha-Tttti^iii Of SiStf/xEv ovliva. — EuRiP. Phcenissce, 958-9.

THE CROSS : CROSS-BEARING THE LAW OF DISCIPLESHIP. 185

Christ was crucified just because He was righteous, are well
understood by Christians when they are a suffering minority,
as in primitive ages. But, alas, these truths are sadly lost
sight of in peaceful, prosperous times ! Then you shall find
many holding most sound views of the cross Christ bore for
them, but sadly ignorant concerning the cross they themselves
have to bear in fellowship with Christ. Of this cross they
are determined to know nothing.

Some who have come to no 'such godless determination may
be anxious to know how and where they may find the cross
Jesus calls them to take up. To whom we might reply : You
need not to go to the world's end in search of your cross.
Only be willing to go after Christ ; give thy whole heart and
soul to the business of beinsr a true Christian, and thou shalt
find thy cross very near at hand, in thy daily life, in thy
business, in thy home, yea, in thine own heart. The man
who would walk with Christ will find many things done by
others which he may not do, and which yet he is strongly
tempted to do ; many things neglected by others which he feels
he ought to do, and yet is afraid to do. Crosses will become
visible on every side within the sphere of ordinary duties,
without entering into the region of petty scruples, ascetic
rigours, or imaginary sins.

Cross-bearing, even for the most faithful, is irksome to
flesh and blood ; it demands even from the most gracious
men a strong effort of will. Hence the exhortation to self-
denial in connection with the call to take up the cross.
Denying of self — a holy resolution that self shall not be our
chief end — that personal feelings, interests, and enjoyments
shall be made subordinate to the claims of truth, Christ, and
the gospel, — is a necessary preliminary to the uplifting of the
cross, as well as the necessary condition of perseverance in
cross-bearing from day to day,^ and to the end of life, for so
long will the business last. If we abide not in a self-denied
mind, we shall weary of our burden, and throw it down.
Happily, on the other hand, abiding in this mind, we find
the burden getting lighter ; our shoulders become so accus-
tomed to the load, that we hardly know we are carrying any.
'■ xaS' rifiipav, Luke ix. 23, reading in text. rec.

186 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVK

To the law of the cross Jesus annexed three reasons
designed to make the obeying of it easier, by showing disciples
that, in rendering obedience to the stern requirement, they
attend to their own true interest. Each reason is introduced
by a " Eor."

The first reason is this : " For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it ; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it." In this startling paradox the word " life " is
used in a double sense. In the first clause of each member
of the sentence it signifies natural life, with all the adjuncts
that make it pleasant and enjoyable ; in the second, it means
the spiritual life of a renewed soul. The deep, pregnant say-
ing of the Lord Jesus may therefore be thus expanded and
paraphrased : ("Whosoever ^vill save, i.e. make it his first busi-
ness to save 'or preserve, his natural life and worldly well-
being, shall lose the higher life, the life indeed ; and whosoever
is wiUing to lose his natural life for my sake, shall find the
true eternal life. According to this maxim, we must lose
something : it is not possible to live without sacrifice of some
kind ; the only question being what shall be sacrificed,- — the
lower or the higher life, animal happiness or spiritual blessed-
ness. If we choose the higher, we must be prepared to deny
ourselves and take up our cross, though the actual amount of
the loss we are called on to bear may be small ; for godliness
is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now
is, as well as of that which is to come.'^ If, on the other hand,
we choose the lower, and resolve to have it at all hazards, we
must inevitably lose the higher. The soul's life, and all the
imperishable goods of the soul — righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, patience, meekness ^ — are the price we pay for worldly
enjoyment.

This price is too great. That is what Jesus next told
His hearers, as the second persuasive to cross-bearing. "For
what," He went on to ask, " is a man profited if he shall gain
the whole world, and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man
give in exchange for his soul ? " The two questions set forth
the incomparable value of the soul on both sides of a com-
mercial transaction. The soul, or life, in the true sense of
1 1 Tim. iv. 8. 2 j Tim. vi. 11.

THECKOSS: CROSS-BEARING THE LAW OF DISCIPLESHIP. 187

the word/ is too dear a price to pay even for the whole world,
not to say for that small portion of it which falls to the lot
of any one individual. He who gains the world at such a
cost is a loser by the bargain. On the other hand, the whole
world is too small, yea, an utterly inadequate price, to pay
for the ransom of the soul once lost. What shall a man give
in exchange for the priceless thing he has foolishly bartered
away ? " Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow
myself before the high God ? shall I come before Him with
burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old ? Will the Lord be
pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of
rivers of oil ? shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? " ^ No ! 0
man ; not any of these things, nor anything else thou hast to
give ; not the fruit of thy merchandise, not ten thousands of
pounds sterling. \Thou canst not buy back thy soul, which
thou hast bartered for the world, with all that thou hast of
the world. The redemption of the soul is indeed precious ;
it cannot be delivered from the bondage of sin by corruptible
things, such as silver and gold : the attempt to purchase
pardon and peace and life that way can only make thy case
more hopeless, and add to thy condemnation)

The appeal contained in these solemn questions comes
home with irresistible force to all who are in their right mind.
Such feel that no outward good can be compared in value to
having a " saved soul," i.e. being a forgiven, renewed Christian
man. All, however, are not so minded. Multitudes account
their souls of very small value indeed. Judas sold his soul
for thirty pieces of silver ; and not a few who probably deem
themselves better than he would part with theirs for the most
paltry worldly advantage. ^The great ambition of the million
is to be happy as animals, not to be blessed as saved, sancti-
fied men. " Who will show us any good ? " is that which
the many say. " Give us health, wealth, houses, lands,
honours, and we care not for righteousness, either imputed or
personal, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost. These

1 The word rendered " soul " in ver. 26 is the'same which is rendered "life "
in ver. 25 {4'"X'^)- The two meanings are blended here.
^ Micah vi. 6.

188 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

may be good also in their way, and if one could have them
along with the other, without trouble or sacrifice, it were
perhaps well; but we cannot consent, for their sakes, to
deny ourselves any pleasure, or voluntarily endure any hard-
ship."

The third argument in favour of cross-bearing is drawn
from the judgment to come. "For the Son of man shall
come in the glory of His Father, with His angels ; and then
shall He reward every man according to his works." These
words suggest a contrast between the present and the future
state of the speaker, and imply a promise of a corresponding
contrast between the present and the future of His faithful
followers. Now Jesus is the Son of man, destined ere many
weeks pass to be crucified at Jerusalem. At the end of the
world He will appear invested with the manifest glory of a
Divine Being, attended with a mighty host of ministering
spirits ; His reward for enduring the cross, despising the
shame. Then will He reward every man according to the
tenor of his present life. To the cross-bearers He will grant
a crown of righteousness ; to the cross-spurn ers He will assign,
as their due, shame and everlasting contempt.

The hope set before disciples here is one which maketh
not ashamed. It will most surely be realized. As certainly
as the faithful have to suffer now, so certainly will there come
a time when they shall be rewarded with eternal glory. It
is a righteous thing in God to grant a recompense of rest and
joy in a world to come unto those who have endured tribula-
tion for His sake in this present evil world. Under His just
government we may securely argue from a cross to a crown ;
much more securely than philosophers have argued from the
moral confusion of this world to a state hereafter, in which
the confusion will be cleared up, and moral order established.
For, according to the doctrine of Christ, there is no confusion
even here. His followers do not suffer by chance, but by law.
The law for oil disciples is : Bear the cross here, and you shall
wear the crown hereafter. From experience we know that
one part of this law does not fail, for the cross does come to
aU the truly good ; and from the unfailing certainty with
which the law operates in that part which comes under our

THE CROSS : CEOSS-BEAEING THE LAW OF DISCIPLESHIP, 189

observation, we may predict the certainty of that which we
see not — the future recompense promised to the faithful.

The hope of an eternal reward is not only a reliable, but
a worthy motive to a self-sacrificing life. Philosophers affect-
ing transcendental views of hiunan virtue say men should do
what is right, and be wilKng even to die for the right, without
either hope of reward or fear of punishment. Such men, it
is to be suspected, preach a heroism they do not practise.
Men who do not philosophize, but act, have always an eternal
hope in their view. Christ, the greatest and purest of all
heroes by common consent, cherished such a hope ; not to
speak of heathen sages like Socrates, whose example with
some may have even more weight. Christians need not be
afraid of degenerating into moral vulgarity by imitating their
Lord in this respect. There is no vulgarity or impurity in
the virtue which is sustained by the hope of eternal life.
That hope is not selfishness, but simply self-consistency. It
is simply believing in the reality of the kingdom for which
you labour and suffer ; involving, of course, the reality of
each individual Christian's interest therein, your own not
excepted. And such faith is necessary to heroism. For who
would fight and suffer for a dream ? What patriot would
risk his life for his country's cause, who did not hope for the
restoration of her independence ? And who but a pedant
would say that the purity of his patriotism was sullied, because
his hope for the whole nation did not exclude all reference to
himself as an individual citizen ? Equally necessary is it that
a Christian should believe in the kingdom of glory, and
equally natural and proper that he should cherish the hope
of a personal share in its honours and felicities. Wliere such
faith and hope are not, little Christian heroism will be found.
For, as an ancient Church Father said, " There is no certain
work where there is an uncertain reward." ^ Men cannot be
heroes in doubt or despair. They cannot struggle after per-
fection and a divine kingdom, sceptical the while whether
these things be more than devout imaginations, unrealizable

^ Nullum opus certum est mercedis incertse. Tertulliani de Resurrectione
Carnis, cap. xxi. See also Clark's Ante-Nicene Library : TertuUian, vol. ii.
p. 251.

190 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

ideals. In sucli a mood tliey will take things easy, and make
secular happiness their chief concern.

One other inducement , to patient bearing of the cross re-
mains to be mentioned. ^ In taking up their cross disciples but
follow their Master, as His companions in tribulation. This
inspiring thought turns pain into pleasure, and shame into
glory, for the true disciple. 'Hence the observable contrast
between the Old Testament saints and those of Christian
ages in the endurance of sufferings for righteousness' sake.
Before Christ came, good men murmured under the cross ;
after He came, men of the same moral temperament rejoiced
when placed in a similar situation. Prophets complained in
circumstances amid which apostles exulted with triumphant
joy. The difference is marked, and it was due to this, that
the apostles lived after Jesus had been lifted up on the cross.
When the Master had suffered, they felt that it were un-
seemly in a disciple to complain.- Nay, they had no thought
of complaining. They gladly followed the Captain of salva-
tion, who had been perfected through suffering ; too happy to
suffer with Him and for Him, if only they might enjoy the
unspeakable felicity of rejoicing with Him in the kingdom of
heaven.

CHAPTEE XIII.

THE TKANSFIGURATION.
Matt. xvix. 1-13 ; Mark ix. 2-13 ; Luke ix. 28-36.

THE transfiguration is one of those passages in the
Saviour's earthly history which an expositor is tempted
to pass over in reverent silence. Eor such silence the same
apology might be pled which is so kindly made in the Gospel
narrative for Peter's foolish speech concerning the three
tabernacles : " He wist not what to say." Who does know
what to say any more than he ? Who is able fully to speak
of that wondrous night-scene among the mountains/ during
which heaven was for a few brief moments let down to earth,
and the mortal body of Jesus being transfigured shone with
celestial brightness, and the spirits of just men made per-
fect appeared and held converse with Him respecting His
approaching passion, and a voice came forth from the excel-
lent glory, pronouncing Him to be God's well-beloved Son ?
It is too high for us, this august spectacle, we cannot attain
unto it ; its grandeur oppresses and stupefies ; its mystery
surpasses our comprehension ; its glory is ineffable. Therefore,
avoiding all speculation, curious questioning, theological dis-
quisition, and pretentious word-picturing in connection with the
remarkable occurrence here recorded, we confine ourselves in
this chapter to the humble task of explaining briefly its signi-
ficance for Jesus Himself, and its lesson for His disciples.

The " transfiguration," to be understood, must be viewed in
connection with the announcement made by Jesus shortly
before it happened, concerning His death. This is evident
from the simple fact, that the three evangehsts who relate
the event so carefully note the time of its occurrence with
^ Of Hermon? The traditional scene of the transfiguration was Mount Tabor.

192 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

reference to that announcement, and the conversation which
accompanied it. All tell how, within six or eight days there-
after,^ Jesus took three of His disciples, Peter, James, and
John, and brought them into an high mountain apart, and
was transfigured before them. The Gospel historians are not
wont to be so careful in their indications of time, and their
minute accuracy here signifies in effect : " While the foregoing
communications and discourses concerning the cross were
fresh in the thoughts of all the parties, the wondrous events
we are now to relate took place." The relative date, in fact,
is a finger-post pointing back to the conversation on the pas-
sion, and saying : " If you desire to understand what follows,
remember what went before."

This inference from the note of time given by all the evan-
gelists is fully borne out by a statement made by Luke alone,
respecting the subject of the conversation on the holy mount
between Jesus and His celestial visitants. " And," we read,
" behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses
and Elias ; who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease,
or exodus, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem."'^ That
exit, so different from their own in its circumstances and con-
sequences, was the theme of their talk. They had appeared
to Jesus to converse with Him thereon ; and when they ceased
speaking concerning it, they took their departure for the
abodes of the blessed. How long the conference lasted we
know not, but the subject was sufficiently suggestive of inte-
resting topics of conversation. There was, e.g., the surprising
contrast between the death of Moses, immediate and painless,
while his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated, and
the painful and ignominious death to be endured by Jesus.
Then there was the not less remarkable contrast between the
manner of Elijah's departure from the earth — translated to
heaven without tasting death at all, making a triumphant exit
out of the world in a chariot of fire, and the way by which
Jesus should enter into glory — the via dolorosa of the cross.
Whence this privilege of exemption from death, or from its

^ fi'J hfiipx; '1%, Matthew and Mark ; uiru iifiipai oktu, Luke. The two ex-
pressions may easily mean the same period of time.
^ Luke ix. 31, 'iXiyov tjiv {joSo* civrou.

THE TKANSFIGURATIOK 193

bitterness, granted to the representatives of the law and the
prophets, and wherefore denied to Him who was the end both
of law and of prophecy ? On these points, and others of
kindred nature, the two celestial messengers, enlightened by
the clear light of heaven, may have held intelligent and sym-
pathetic converse with the Son of man, to the refreshment of
His weary, saddened, solitary soul.

The same evangehst who specifies the subject of conversa-
tion on the holy mount, further records that, previous to His
transfiguration, Jesus had been engaged in prayer. We may
therefore see, in the honour and glory conferred on Him there,
the Father's answer to His Son's supplications ; and from the
nature of the answer we may infer the subject of prayer. It
was the same as afterwards in the garden of Gethsemane.
The cup of death was present to the mind of Jesus now, as
then ; the cross was visible to His spiritual eye ; and He prayed
for nerve to drink, for courage to endure. The attendance
of the tliree confidential disciples, Peter, James, and John,
significantly hints at the similarity of the two occasions.
The Master took these disciples with Him into the mount, as
He afterwards took them into the garden, that He might not
be altogether destitute of company and kindly sympathy as
He walked through the valley of the shadow of death, and
felt the horror and the loneliness of the situation.

It is now clear how we must view the transfiguration scene
in relation to Jesus. It was an aid to faith and patience,
specially vouchsafed to the meek and lowly Son of man, in
answer to His prayers, to cheer Him on His sorrowful path
towards Jerusalem and Calvary. Three distinct aids to His
faith were supplied in the experiences of that wondrous night.
The first was a foretaste of the glory with which He should
be rewarded after His passion, for His voluntary humiliation
and obedience unto death. For the moment He was, as it
were, rapt up into heaven, where He had been before He came
into the world ; for His face shone like the sun, and His
raiment was white as the pure untrodden snow on the high
alpine summits of Hermon. " Be of good cheer," said that
sudden flood of celestial light : " the suffering will soon be
past, and Thou shalt enter into Thine eternal joy !"

N ■

194 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

A second source of comfort to Jesus in the experiences on
tlie mount, was the assurance that the mystery of the cross
was understood and appreciated by saints in heaven, if not by
the darkened minds of sinful men on earth. He greatly
needed such comfort ; for among the men then living, not
excepting His chosen disciples, there was not one to whom
He could speak on that theme with any hope of eliciting an
intelligent and sympathetic response. Only a few days ago,
He had ascertained by painful experience the utter incapacity
of the twelve, even of the most quick-witted and warm-hearted
among them, to comprehend the mystery of His passion, or
even to believe in it as a certain fact. Verily the Son of man
was most lonely as He passed through the dark valley ! the
very presence of stupid, unsympathetic companions serving
only to enhance the sense of solitariness. When He wanted
company that could understand His passion thoughts. He was
obliged to hold converse with spirits of just men made per-
fect ; for, as far as mortal men were concerned, He had to be
content to finish His great work without the comfort of being
understood until it was accomplished.

The talk of the great lawgiver and of the great prophet of
Israel on the subject of His death was doubtless a real solace
to the spirit of Jesus. We know how He comforted Himself
at other times with the thought of being understood in heaven,
if not on earth. When heartless Pharisees called in question
His conduct in receiving sinners, He sought at once His de-
fence and His consolation in the blessed fact that there was
joy in heaven at least, whatever there might be among them,
over one penitent sinner, more than over ninety and nine just
■persons that needed no repentance. When He thought how
" little ones," the weak and helpless, were despised and trampled
under foot in this proud inhuman world. He reflected with un-
speakable satisfaction that in heaven their angels did always
behold the face of His Father ; yea, that in heaven there were
angels who made the care of little ones their special business,
and were therefore fully able to appreciate the doctrine of
humility and kindness which He strove to inculcate on ambi-
tious and quarrelsome disciples. Surely, then, we may believe
that when He looked forward to His own decease — the crown-

THE TRANSFIGURATION. 195

ing evidence of His love for sinners — it was a comfort to His
heart to think : " Up yonder they know that I am to suffer,
and comprehend the reason why, and watch with eager interest
to see how I move on with unfaltering step, with my face sted-
fastly set to go to Jerusalem." And would it not be specially
comforting to have sensible evidence of this, in an actual visit
from two denizens of the upper world, deputed as it were and
commissioned to express the general mind of the whole com-
munity of glorified saints, who understood that their presence
in heaven was due to the merits of that sacrifice which He was
about to offer up in His own person on the hill of Calvary ?

A tliird, and the chief solace to the heart of Jesus, was the
approving voice of His heavenly Father ; " This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased." That voice, uttered then,
meant : " Go on Thy present way, seK-devoted to death, and
shrinking not from the cross. I am pleased with Thee, be-
cause Thou pleasest not Thyself Pleased with Thee at all
times, I am most emphatically delighted with Thee when, in
a signal manner, as lately in the announcement made to Thy
disciples. Thou dost show it to be Thy fixed purpose to save
others, and not to save Thyself"

This voice from the excellent glory was one of three uttered
by the divine Father in the hearing of His Son during His
life on earth. The first was uttered by the Jordan, after the
baptism of Jesus, and was the same as the present, save that
it was spoken to Him, not concerning Him, to others. The
last was uttered at Jerusalem shortly before the crucifixion,
and was of similar import with the two preceding, but dif-
ferent in form. The soul of Jesus being troubled with the
near prospect of death, He prayed : " Father, save me from
this hour ; but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father,
glorify Thy name." Then, we read, came there a voice from
heaven, saying : " I have both glorified it (by Thy life), and
will glorify it again" (more signally by Thy death). All three
voices served one end. Elicited at crises in Christ's history,
when He manifested in peculiar intensity His devotion to the
work for which He had come into the world, and His deter-
mination to finish it, however irksome the task might be to
flesh and blood, these voices expressed, for His encourage-

196 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

ment and strengthening, the complacency with which His
Father regarded His self-humiliation and obedience unto
death. At His baptism, He, so to speak, confessed the
sins of the whole world ; and by submitting to the rite, ex-
pressed His purj)ose to fulfil all righteousness as the Ee-
deemer from sin. Therefore the Father then, for the first time,
pronounced Him His beloved Son. Shortly before the trans-
figuration, He had energetically repelled the suggestion of an
affectionate disciple, that He should save Himself from His
anticipated doom, as a temptation of the devil; therefore the
Father renewed the declaration, changing the second person
into the third, for the sake of those disciples who were present,
and specially of Peter, who had listened to the voice of his
own heart rather than to his Master's words. Finally, a few
days before His death. He overcame a temptation of the same,
nature as that to which Peter had subjected Him, springing
this time out of the sinless infirmity of His own human
nature. Beginning His prayer with the expression of a wish
to be saved from the dark hour. He ended it with the peti-
tion, " Glorify Thy name." Therefore the Father once more
repeated the expression of His approval, declaring in effect
His satisfaction with the way in which His Son had glorified
His name hitherto, and His confidence that He would not fail
to crown His career of obedience by a God-glorifying death.

Such being the meaning of the vision on the mount for
Jesus, we have now briefly to ' consider what lesson it taught
the disciples who were present, and through them their
brethren and all Christians.

The main point in this connection is the injunction ap-
pended to the heavenly voice : " Hear Him." This command
refers specially to the doctrine of the cross preached by Jesus
to the twelve, and so ill received by them. It was meant to
be a solemn, deliberate endorsement of all that He had said
then concerning His own sufferings, and concerning the obli-
gation to bear their cross lying on all His followers. Peter,
James, and John were, as it were, invited to recall all that
had fallen from their Master's lips on the unwelcome topic,
and assured that it was wholly true and in accordance with
the divine mind. Nay, as these disciples had received the

THE TEANSFIGURATION. 197

doctrine witli , murmurs of disapprobation, the voice from
lieaven addressed to them was a stern word of rebuke, which
said : " Murmur not, but devoutly and obediently hear."

This rebuke was all the more needful, that the disciples
had just shown that they were still of the same mind as they
had been six days ago. Peter at least was as yet in no cross-
bearing humour. When, on wakening up to clear conscious-
ness from the drowsy fit which had fallen on him, that disciple
observed the two strangers in the act of departing, he ex-
claimed : " Master, it is good for us to be here, and let us
make three tabernacles ; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and
one for Elias." He was minded, we perceive, to enjoy the
felicities of heaven without any preliminary process of cross-
bearing. He thought to himself : " How much better to abide
up here with the saints, than down below amidst unbelieving
captious Pharisees and miserable human beings, enduring the
contradiction of sinners, and battling with the manifold ills
wherewith the earth is cursed ! Stay here, my Master, and
you may bid good-bye to all those dark forebodings of coming
sufferings, and will be beyond the reach of malevolent priests,
elders, and scribes. Stay here, on this sim-lit, heaven-kissed
hill ; go no more down into the depressing, sombre valley of
humiliation. Farewell, earth and the cross : welcome, heaven
and the crown !"

We do not forget, while thus paraphrasing Peter's foolish
speech, that when he uttered it he was dazed with sleep and
the splendours of the midnight scene. Yet, when due allow-
ance has been made for this, it remains true that the idle
suggestion was an index of the disciple's present mind. Peter
•was drunken, though not with wine ; but what men say, even
when drunken, is characteristic. There was a sober meaning
in his senseless speech about the tabernacle. He really
meant that the celestial visitants should remain, and not go
away, as they were in the act of doing when he spoke.^ This
appears from the conversation which took place between Jesus
and the three disciples while descending the mountain.^ Peter
and his two companions asked their Master : " Why then say
the scribes that Elias must first come ?" The question re-
1 Luke ix. 33, h tZ ^,a.xcop''Zi(rSa,. ^ Matt. xvii. 9-13 ; Mark ix. 9-13.

198 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

feired, we think, not to the injunction laid on the disciples by-
Jesus just before, " Tell the vision to no man until the Son
of man be risen again from the dead," but rather to the fugi-
tive, fleeting character of the whole scene on the mountain.
The three brethren were not only disappointed, but perplexed,
that the two celestials had been so like angels in the shortness
of their stay and the suddenness of their departure. They
had accepted the current notion about the advent of Elias
before, and in order to, th-e restoration of the kingdom ; and
they fondly hoped that this was he come at last in company
with Moses, heralding the approaching glory, as the advent
of swallows from tropical climes is a sign that summer is
nigh, and that winter with its storms and rigours is over and
gone. In truth, while their Master was preaching the cross,
they had been dreaming of crowns. We shall find them con-
tinuing so to dream till the very end.

" Hear ye Him :" — this voice was not meant for the three
disciples alone, or even for the twelve, but for all professed
followers of Christ as well as for them. It says to every
Christian : " Hear Jesus, and strive to understand Him while
He speaks of the mystery of His sufferings and the glory that
should follow — those themes which even angels desire to look
into. Hear Him when He proclaims cross-bearing as a duty
incumbent on aU disciples, and listen not to self-indulgent
suggestions of flesh and blood, or the temptations of Satan
counselling thee to make self-interest or self-preservation
thy chief end. Hear Him, yet again, and weary not of the
world, nor seek to lay down thy burden before thy time.
Dream not of tabernacles where thou mayest dwell secure,
like a hermit in the wild, having no share in all that is done
beneath the circuit of the sun. Do thy part manfully, and in
due season thou shalt have, not a tent, but a temple to dwell
in : an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

It is true, indeed, that we who are in this tabernacle of the
body, in this world of sorrow, cannot but groan now and then,
being burdened. This is our infirmity, and in itself it is not
sinful ; neither is it wrong to heave an occasional sigh, and
utter a passing wish that the time of cross-bearing were over.
Even the holy Jesus felt at times this weariness of life. An

THE TRANSFIGURATION. 199

expression of sometMng like impatience escaped His lips at
this very season. When He came down from the mount and
learned what was going on at its base, He exclaimed, with
reference at once to the unbeKef of the scribes who were pre-
sent, to the weak faith of the disciples, and to the miseries of
mankind suffering the consequences of the curse : " 0 faithless
and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you ? how
long shall I suffer you ?" Even the loving Redeemer of man
felt tempted to be weary in well-doing — weary of encountering
the contradiction of sinners, and of bearing with the spiritual
weakness of disciples. Such weariness therefore, as a momentary
feeling, is not necessarily sinful : it may rather be a part of
our cross. But it must not be indulged in or yielded to. Jesus
did not give Himself up to the feeling. Though He com-
plained of the generation amidst which He lived, He did not
cease from His labours of love for its benefit. Having re-
lieved His heart by this utterance of a reproachful exclamation.
He gave orders that the poor lunatic should be brought to
Him that he might be healed. Then, when He had wrought
this new miracle of mercy. He patiently explained to His own
disciples the cause of their impotence to cope successfully with
the maladies of men, and taught them how they might attain
the power of casting out all sorts of devils, even those whose
hold of their victims was most obstinate.-^ So He continued
labouring in helping the miserable and instructing the ignorant,
till the hour came when He could truly say, " It is finished."
1 Matt, xvii. 19-21.

CHAPTEE XIV.

DISCOURSE ON HUMILITY.

Section i. — As this little Child !

Matt, xviii. 1-14 ; Mark ix. 33-37, 42-.50 ; Luke ix. 46-48.

FEOM the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus and the twelve
returned through Galilee to Capernaum. On this
homeward journey the Master and His disciples were in very
different moods of mind. He sadly mused on His cross ; they
vainly dreamed of places of distinction in the approaching
kingdom. The diversity of spirit revealed itself in a cor-
responding diversity of conduct. Jesus for the second time
began to speak on the way of His coming sufferings, telling
ffis followers how the Son of man should be hetrayed into the
hands of men, and how they should kill Him, and how the
third day He should be raised again.^ The twelve, on the
other hand, began as they journeyed to dispute among them-
selves who should be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.^
Strange, humilating contrast exhibited again and again in the
evangelic history ; jealous, angry altercations respecting rank
and precedence, on the part of the disciples, following new
communications respecting His passion on the part of their
Lord, as comic follow tragic scenes in a dramatic representa-
tion.

This unseemly and unseasonable dispute shows clearly what
need there was for that injunction appended to the voice from
heaven, " Hear Him ; " and how far the disciples were as yet
from complying therewith. They heard Jesus only when He
spake things agreeable. They listened with pleasure when

1 Matt. xvii. 22, 23 ; Mark ix. 30-32 ; Luke ix. 44, 45.

2 Mark ix. 33.

DISCOUESE ON HUMILITY : AS THIS LITTLE CHILD ! 201

He assured them that ere long they should see the Son of
man come in His kingdom ; they were deaf to all He said
concerning the suffering which must precede the glory. They
forgot the cross, after a momentary fit of sorrow when their
Lord referred to it, and betook themselves to dreaming of the
crown ; as a child forgets the death of a parent, and returns
to its play. "How great," thought they, "shall we all be
when the kingdom comes ! " Then by an easy transition
they passed from idle dreams of the common glory, to idle
disputes as to who should have the largest share therein ; for
vanity and jealousy lie very near each other. " Shall we all
be equally distinguished in the kingdom, or shall one be
higher than another ? Does the favour shown to Peter,
James, and John, in selecting them to be eye-witnesses of the
prefigurement of the coming glory, imply a corresponding
precedence in the kingdom itself V'^ The three disciples
probably hoped it did ; the other disciples hoped not, and so
the dispute began. It was nothing that they should all be
great together ; the question of questions was, who should be
the greatest, — a question hard to settle when vanity and pre-
sumption contend on one side, and jealousy and envy on the
other.

Arrived at Capernaum, Jesus took an early opportunity of
adverting to the dispute in which His disciples had been
engaged, and made it the occasion of delivering a memorable
discourse on humility and kindred topics. In the first part
of that discourse He made use of a child present in the
chamber as the vehicle of instruction ; so, out of the mouth
of a babe and suckling, perfecting the praise of a lowly mind.
Sitting in the midst of ambitious disciples with the little one
in His arms for a text, He who was the greatest in the king-
dom proceeded to set forth truths mortifying to the spirit of
pride, but sweeter than honey to the taste of all renewed souls.

The first lesson taught was this : To be great in the king-
dom, yea, to gain admission into it at all, it is necessary to

1 The tliree disciples were forbidden to tell any man what they had seen on
the holy mount. The prohibition was probably not meant to refer to their
brethren. If it did, they must have found it very hard to keep silent about
such a wondrous scene.

202 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

become like a little child. " Except ye be converted, and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as
this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of
heaven." Such was Christ's peremptory answer to the ques-
tion disputed by the twelve. It was a serious answer for
them ; for it implied that, unless they got rid of the spirit
which gave rise to their dispute, they could find no place in
the kingdom, far less be great therein. It is a serious answer
for us all. For who among us is child-like ? Who among
us is truly humble ? Nowhere is the need of " conversion "
in human character, in order to citizenship in the divine
kingdom, more apparent than here. Pride is natural to man :
the spirit of unrenewed human nature lusteth to ambition,
jealousy, and envy. The objects of pride are manifold, and
vary for different men : for one, the pole up which pride
creeps is wealth ; for another, birth ; for a third, learning ; for
a fourth, moral character; for a fifth, religion: but in one
form or another the evil spirit reveals itseK in all who are
not born from above. Nor do even the regenerate aU at once
escape its malign influence. The rudiments of the child-
nature are in them from the first, but perfect child-likeness
is very slowly reached. To get rid of pride, ambition, and
vainglory, is indeed the great struggle of the new Life ; and
he who hath by God's grace succeeded in humbling himself
to be like a child, is one among a thousand — is, in fact, one
of the great ones of the kingdom.

The feature of child-nature which forms the special point
of comparison in this discourse on humility is its unpreten-
tiousness. Early childhood knows nothing of those distinc-
tions of rank v/hich are the offspring of human pride, and
the prizes coveted by human ambition. A king's child will
play without scruple with a beggar's, thereby unconsciously
asserting the insignificance of the things in which men differ,
compared with the things that are common to aU. What
children are unconsciously, that Jesus requires His disciples
to be voluntarily and deliberately. They are not to be pre-
tentious and ambitious, like the grown children of the world,
but meek and lowly of heart ; disregarding rank and distinc-

DISCOURSE ON HUMILITY: AS THIS LITTLE CHILD ! 203

tions, thinking not of their place in the kingdom, but giving
themselves up in simplicity of spirit to the service of the
King. " 'Not my will, but Thine ; " " l^ot my glory, but Thy
glory ; " " Not honour, but duty," are the appropriate mottoes
of Christians.

In proportion as men are great and good, they are humble
in the sense explained. In this sense, the greatest one in the
kingdom, the King Himself, was the humblest of men. Of
humility in the form of self-depreciation or self-humiliation
on account of sin He could know nothing, for there was no
defect or fault in His character. But of the humility which
consists in self-forgetfulness He was the perfect pattern. We
cannot say that He thought little of Himself, but we may say
that He thought not of Himself at all : He thought only of
the Father's glory and of man's good. Considerations of per-
sonal aggrandizement had no place among His motives. He
shrank with holy abhorrence from all who were influenced by
such considerations, no character appearing so utterly detest-
able in His eye as that of the Pharisee, whose religion was
a theatrical exhibition, always presupposing the presence of
spectators, and who loved the uppermost rooms at feasts and
the chief seats in the synagogues, and to be called of men
Eabbi, Eabbi. For Himself, He neither desired nor received
honour from men. He came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister: He, the greatest, humbled HimseK to be the
least — to be a child born in a stable and laid in a manger ; to
be a man of sorrow lightly esteemed by the world ; yea, to be
nailed to a cross. By such wondrous self-humiliation He
showed His divine greatness.

The higher we rise in the kingdom, the more we shall be
like Jesus in this humbling of Himself. Child-likeness such
as He exhibited is an invariable characteristic of spiritual
advancement, even as its absence is the mark of moral little-
ness. The little man, even when well-intentioned, is ever
consequential and scheming : ever thinking of himself, his
honour, dignity, reputation, even when professedly doing good.
He always studies to glorify God in a way that shall at the
same time glorify himself. Frequently above the love of gain,
he is never above the feeling of self-importance. The great

204 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

ones in the kingdom, on the other hand, throw themselves
with such unreservedness into the work to which they are
called, that they have neither time nor inclination to inquire
what place they shall obtain in tliis world or the next.
Leaving consequences to the great Governor and Lord, and
forgetful of self-interest, they give their whole soul to their
appointed task ; content to fill a little space or a large one,
as God shall appoint, and so He may be glorified.

Those who so live here shall obtain high place in the eternal
kingdom. For be it observed, Jesus did not summarily dis-
miss the question, who is greatest in the kingdom, by nega-
tiving the existence of distinctions therein. He said not on
this occasion, He said not on any other, " It is needless to ask
who is the greatest in the kingdom : there is no such thing
as a distinction of greater and less there." On the contrary,
it is implied here, and it is asserted elsewhere, that there is
such a thing. According to the doctrine of Christ, the supernal
commonwealth has no affinity with jealous radicalism, which
demands that all shall be equal. There are grades of distinc-
tion there as well as in the kingdoms of this world. The
difference between the divine kingdom and all others lies in
the principle on which promotion proceeds. Here the proud
and the ambitious gain the post of honour ; there, honours are
conferred on the humble and the self-forgetful. He that on
earth was willing to be the least in lowly love, will be the
great one in the kingdom of heaven.

The next lesson Jesus taught His disciples at this time was
the duty of receiving little ones ; that is, not merely children
in the literal sense, but all that a child represents — the weak,
the insignificant, the helpless. The child which He held in
His arms, having served as a type of the humble in spirit, next
became a type of the humble in station, influence, and import-
ance ; and having been presented to the disciples in the former
capacity as an object of imitation, was commended to them in
the latter as an object of kind treatment. They were to
receive the little ones graciously and lovingly, careful not to
offend them by harsh, heartless, contemptuous conduct. All
such kindness He, Jesus, would receive as done to Himself.

This transition of thought from Icing like a child to receiv-

DISCOURSE ON HUMILITY: AS THIS LITTLE CHILD! 205

ins; all that of whicli cliilclhood in its weakness is the emblem,
was perfectly natural ; for there is a close connection between
the selfish struggle to be great, and an offensive mode of acting
towards the little. Harshness and contemptuousness are vices
inseparable from an ambitious spirit. An ambitious man is
not, indeed, necessarily cruel in his disposition, and capable of
cherishing heartless designs in cold blood. At times, when
the demon that possesses him is quiescent, the idea of hurting
a child, or anything that a child represents, may appear to
him revolting ; and he might resent the imputation of any
such design, or even a hint at the possibility of his harbouring
it, as a wanton insult. " Is thy servant a dog ?" asked Hazael
indignantly at Elisha, when the prophet described to him his
own futui'e seK, setting the strongholds of Israel on fii^e, slaying
their young men with the sword, dashing their children to the
earth, and ripping up their women with child. At the moment
his horror of these crimes was quite sincere, and yet he was
guilty of them all. The prophet rightly divined his character,
and read his future career of splendid wickedness in the light
of it. He saw that he was ambitious, and all the rest followed
as a matter of course. The king of Syria, his master, about
whose recovery he affected solicitude, he would first put to
death ; and once on the throne, the same ambition that made
him a murderer would goad him on to schemes of conquest,
in the prosecution of which he would perpetrate aU the
l)arbarous cruelties in which oriental tyrants seemed to take
fiendish delight.

The crimes of ambition, and the lamentations with which
it has filled the earth, are a moral commonplace. Well might
Jesus exclaim, as the havoc already wrought and yet to be
wrought by the lust for place and power rose in vision before
His eye : " Woe to the world because of offences I " And yet
the woe is not all on the side of the wrong-sufferer. Jesus
gave His disciples to understand that there was a greater woe
impending over the wrong-doer. " But woe," He added, (still
more) " to that man by whom the offence cometh !" Nor did
He leave His hearers in the dark as to the nature of the
offender's doom. " Whoso," He declared, in language which
came forth from His lips like a flame of righteous indignation

206 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

at thought of the wrongs inflicted on the weak and the help-
less,— " Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which
believe in me, it were better for him that a mill-stone were
hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth
of the sea." " It were better for him " — or, it suits him, it
is what he deserves ; and it is implied, though not expressed,
that it is what he gets when divine vengeance at length over-
takes him. The mill-stone is no idle figure of speech, but an
appropriate emblem of the ultimate doom of the proud. He
who will mount to the highest place, regardless of the injuries
he may inflict on little ones, shall be cast down, not to earth
merely, but to the very lowest depths of the ocean, to the very
abyss of hell, with a heavy weight of curses suspended on his
neck to sink him down, and keep him down, so that he shall
rise no more.-^ " They sank as lead in the mighty waters !"

Such being the awful doom of selfish ambition, it were wise
in the high-minded to fear, and to anticipate God's judgment
by judging themselves. This Jesus counselled His disciples to
do, by repeating His weighty saying uttered once before in the
Sermon on the Mount, concerning the cutting ofl" offending
members of the body.^ At first view that saying appears
irrelevant here, because the subject of discourse is offences
against others, not offences against oneself But its relevancy
becomes evident when we consider that all off'ences against a
brother are offences against ourselves. That is the very point
Christ wishes to impress on His disciples. He would have
them understand that self-interest dictates scrupulous care in
avoiding offences to the little ones. " Eather than harm one of
these," says the great Teacher in effect, " by hand, foot, eye, or
tongue, have recourse to self-mutilation ; for he that sinneth
against even the least in the kingdom, sinneth also against his
own soul."

How blessed for the church and the world if this doctrine
were believed and acted on, and all regulated their conduct by
the apostolic maxim : " Let every one of us please his neigh-
bour for good to edification ! "

1 f/,v\!>; ovixc;, stoiic of a mill turned by an ass, larger than one belonging to a
liandmill, selected to make sure that the wicked shall sink to rise no more.
^ Matt, xviii. 8, 9 ; compare v. 29, 30.

DISCOURSE ON HUMILITY: AS THIS LITTLE CHILD ! 20 7

One thing more Jesus taught His disciples while He held
the child in His arms, viz. that those who injured or despised
little ones were entu'ely out of harmony with the mind of
Heaven. " Take heed," said He, " that ye despise not one of
these little ones ; " and then He proceeded to enforce the
warning by drawing aside the veil, and showing them a
momentary glimpse of that very celestial kingdom in which
they were all so desirous to have prominence. " Lo, there !
see those angels standing before the throne of God — these be
ministering spirits to the little ones ! And lo, here am I, the
Son of God, come all the way from heaven to save them !
And behold how the face of the Father in heaven smiles on
the angels and on me, because we take such loving interest
in them ! " How eloquent the argmnent ! how powerful the
appeal ! " The inhabitants of heaven," such is its drift, " are
loving and humble ; ye are selfish and proud. What hope
can ye cherish of admission into a kingdom, the spirit of
which is so utterly diverse from that by which ye are ani-
mated ? Nay, are ye not ashamed of yourselves when ye
witness this glaring contrast between the lowliness of the
celestials and the pride and pretensions of puny men ? Put
away, henceforth and for ever, vain, ambitious thoughts, and
let the meek and gentle spirit of heaven get possession of
your hearts."

Two things in the beautiful picture of the upper world
drawn here by Jesus are noteworthy. One is the intimation
that the little ones have each their guardian angel or mini-
stering spirit in glory. Of this piece of news it has been
quaintly remarked by Henry : " Christ saith it to us, and we
may take it upon His word who came from heaven to let us
know what is done there by the world of angels." The other
noticeable matter is the introduction by Jesus of a reference
to His work as the Saviour of the lost, into an argument
designed to enforce care for the little ones. The reference is
not an irrelevance ; it is of the nature of an argument a for-
tiori. If the Son of man cared for the lost, the loiv, the morally
degraded, how much more will He care for those who are
merely little ! It is a far greater effort of love to seek the
salvation of the wicked than to interest oneself in the weak :

208 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

and He who did the one will certainly not fail to do the other.
He who came to die for sinners, even the chief, will certainly
not despise the very least of those for whom He died ; nor
will He suffer any one to do so with impunity.

The saving love of Christ, as set forth in the parable of the
good shepherd going after the straying sheep,^ is in every
respect an appropriate topic in a discourse on humility ; for that
love is, in the first place, the suhlimest example of humility.
It shows that there was not only no pride of gxeatness in the
Son of God, but also no pride of holiness. He could not only
condescend to men of humble estate, but could even become
the brother of the vile : one with them in sympathy and lot,
that they might become one with Him in privilege and
character. Then that love believed in is the source of humility
in us. To it we owe our hope of admission into the kingdom,
whether as least or as greatest. All are lost ones, to begin
with ; and when we reflect what we are delivered from by
Christ's merit, it makes us humbly thankful for the rights of
citizenship in the supernal commonwealth, even though we
should occupy the meanest station there.

Finally, faith in Christ's redeeming love is the true source
of that charity which careth for the weak and despiseth not
the little. No one who rightly appreciates His love can
deliberately offend or heartlessly contemn any brother, how-
ever insignificant, for whom He died. He will count the
little ones dear for His sake ; he will feel that the least re-
turn he can make for personal salvation is to behave himself
towards them with meekness and gentleness. He will be
ready to deny himself harmless liberties, rather than hurt the
tender conscience of even the least one in the kingdom. " If
meat," said Paul, " make my brother to offend, I wiU eat no
flesh while the world standeth." ^ The noble sentiment was
inspired by the consciousness of deep personal obligation to
the mercy of God in Christ, and all who have believed in
Christ for salvation thoroughly sympathize with it.

1 Matt, xviii. 12, 13. 2 1 Cor. viii. 13.

DISCOUESE ON HUMILITY : CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 209

Section ii. — Church Discipline.

Matt, xviii. 15-20.

Having duly cautioned His hearers against offending the little
ones, Jesus proceeded (according to the account of His words
in the Gospel of Matthew) to tell them how to act when they,
were not the givers, but the receivers or the judges, of offences.
In this part of His discourse He had in view the future rather
than the present. Contemplating the time when the king-
dom-— that is, the church — should be in actual existence as an
organized community, with the twelve exercising in it authority
as apostles, He gives dhections for the exercise of discipline,
in order to the purity and well-being of the Christian bro-
therhood ; ^ confers on the twelve collectively what He had
already granted to Peter singly — the power to bind and loose,
that is, to inflict and remove church censures ; ^ and makes a
most encouraging promise of His own spiritual presence, and
of prevailing power with His heavenly Father in prayer, to all
assembled in His name, and agreeing together in the objects
of their desires.^ His aim throughout is to ensure beforehand
that the community to be called after His name shall be
indeed a holy, loving, united society.

The rules here laid down for the guidance of the apostles
in dealing with offenders, though simple and plain, have given
rise to much debate among rehgious controversialists interested
in the upholding of diverse theories of church government.*
Of these ecclesiastical disputes we shall say nothing here ; nor
do we deem it needful to offer any expository comments on
our Lord's words, save a sentence of explanation on the phrase
employed by Him to describe the state of excommunication :
" Let him" (that is, the impenitent brother about to be cast
out of the church) " be unto thee as an heathen man and a
publican." These words, luminous without doubt at the time
they were spoken, are not quite so clear to us now ; but yet

' Matt, xviii. 15-17. 2 Ver. 18. 3 Vers. 19, 20.

* Persons curious concerning these controversies will find abundant information
in Gillespie's Aaron's Bod Blossoming.

210 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

their meaning in the main is sufficiently plain. The idea is,
that the persistently impenitent offender is to become at length
to the person he has offended, and to the whole church, one
with whom is to be held no religious, and as little as possible
social fellowship. The religious aspect of excommunication
is pointed at by the expression " as an heathen man," and the
social side of it is expressed in the second clause of the
sentence, " and a publican." Heathens were excluded from
the temple, and had no part in Jewish religious rites. Publicans
were not excluded from the temple, so far as we know ; but
they were regarded as social pariahs by all Jews affecting
patriotism and religious strictness. This indiscriminate dislike
of the whole class was not justifiable, nor is any approval of
it implied here. Jesus refers to it simply as a familiar matter
of fact, which conveniently and clearly conveyed His meaning
to the effect : " Let the impenitent offender be to you what
heathens are to all Jews by law — persons with whom to hold
no religious fellowship ; and what publicans are to Pharisees
by inveterate prejudice — persons to be excluded from all but
merely unavoidable social intercourse."

Whatever obscurity may attach to the letter of the rules
for the management of discipline, there can be no doubt at all
as to the loving, holy spirit which pervades them.

The spirit of love appears in the conception of the church
which underlies these rules. The church is viewed as a
commonwealth, in which the concern of one is the concern of
all, and vice versa. Hence Jesus does not specify the class
of offences He intends, whether private and personal ones, or
such as are of the nature of scandals, that is, offences against
the church as a whole. On His idea of a church, such ex-
planations were unnecessary, because the distinction alluded
to in great part ceases to exist. An offence against the
conscience of the whole community is an offence against each
individual member, because he is jealous for the honour of the
body of believers ; and on the other hand, an offence which is
in the first place private and personal, becomes one in which
all are concerned, so soon as the offended party has failed to
bring his brother to confession and reconciliation. A chronic
alienation between two Christian brethren will be regarded,

DISCOUESE ON HUMILITY : CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 211

in a churcli after Christ's mind, as a scandal not to be tolerated,
because fraught with deadly harm to the spiritual life of all.

Very congenial also to the spirit of charity is the order of
proceeding indicated in the directions given by Jesus. First,
strictly private dealing on the part of the offended with liis
offending brother is prescribed ; then, after such dealing has
been fairly tried and has failed, but not till then, third parties
are to be brought in as witnesses and assistants in the work
of reconciliation ; and finally, and only as a last resource, the
subject of quarrel is to be made public, and brought before the
whole church. This method of procedure is obviously most
considerate as towards the offender. It makes confession as
easy to him as possible, by sparing him the shame of exposure.
It is also a method which cannot be worked out without the
purest and holiest motives on the part of him who seeks
redress. It leaves no room for the reckless talkativeness of
the scandalmonger, who loves to divulge evil news, and speaks
to everybody of a brother's faults rather than to the brother
himself. It puts a bridle on the passion of resentment, by
compelling the offended one to go through a patient course of
dealing with his brother before he arrive at the sad issue at
which anger jumps at once, viz. total estrangement. It gives
no encouragement to the officious and over-zealous, who make
themselves busy in ferreting out offences ; for the way of
such is not to begin with the offender, and then go to the
church, but to go direct to the church wdth severe charges,
based probably on hearsay information gained by dishonour-
able means.

Characteristic of the loving spirit of Jesus, the Head of the
church, is the horror with which He contemplates, and would
have His disciples contemplate, the possibility of any one, once
a brother, becoming to his brethren as a heathen or a pubUcan,
This appears in His insisting that no expedient shall be left
untried to avert the sad catastrophe. How unlike in this
respect is His mind to that of the world, which can with
perfect equanimity allow vast multitudes of feUow-men to be
what heathens were to Jews, and publicans to Pharisees —
persons excluded from all kindly communion ! Nay, may we
not say, how unlike the mind of Jesus in this matter to that

212 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE,

of many even in the church, who treat brethren in the same
outward fellowship with most perfect indifference, and have
become so habituated to the evil practice, that they regard it
without compunction as a quite natural and right state of
things !

Sucli heartless indifferentism imphes a very different ideal
of tlie churcli from that cherished by its Founder. Men who
do not regard ecclesiastical fellowship as imposing any obhga-
tion to love their Christian brethren, think, consciously or
unconsciously, of the church as if it were a hotel, where all
kinds of people meet for a short space, sit down together at
the same table, then part, neither knowing nor caring any-
thing about each other ; while, in truth, it is rather a family,
whose members are all brethren, bound to love each other
with pure heart fervently. Of course this hotel theory involves
as a necessary consequence the disuse of discipline. For,
strange as the idea may seem to many, the law of love is the
basis of church discipline. It is because I am bound to take
every member of the church to my arms as a brother, that I
am not only entitled, but bound, to be earnestly concerned
about his behaviour. If a brother in Christ, according to
ecclesiastical standing, may say to me, " You must love me
with all your heart," I am entitled to say in reply, " I acknow-
ledge the obligation in the abstract, but I demand of you in
turn that you shall be such that I can love you as a Christian,
however weak and imperfect ; and I feel it to be both my
right and my duty to do all I can to make you worthy of
such brotherly regard, by plain dealing with you anent your
offences. I am willing to love you, but I cannot, I dare not,
be on friendly terms with your sins; and if you refuse to
part with these, and virtually require me to be a partaker in
them by connivance, then our brotherhood is at an end, and I
am free from my obligations." To such language and such a
style of thought the patron of the hotel theory of church
fellowship is an utter stranger. Disclaiming the obligation
to love his brethren, he at the same tune renounces the right
to insist on Christian virtue as an indispensable attribute of
church membership, and declines to trouble himself about the
behaviour of any member, except in so far as it may affect

DISCOUESE ON HUMILITY : CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 213

himself personally. All may think and act as they please —
be infidels or believers, sons of God or sons of Belial : it is all
one to him.

Holy severity finds a place in these directions, as well as
tender, considerate love. Jesus solemnly sanctions the ex-
communication of an impenitent offender. " Let him," saith
He, with the tone of a judge pronouncing sentence of death,
" be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." Then, to
invest church censures righteously administered with all pos-
sible solemnity and authority. He proceeds to declare that
they carry with them eternal consequences ; adding in His
most emphatic manner the awful words, — awful both to the
sinner cast out, and to those who are responsible for his
ejection : " Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind
on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall
loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." The words may be
regarded in one sense as a caution to ecclesiastical rulers to
beware how they use a power of so tremendous a character ;
but they also plainly show that Christ desired His church on
earth, as nearly as possible, to resemble the church in heaven :
to be holy in her membership, and not an indiscriminate
congregation of righteous and unrighteous men, of believers
and infidels, of Christians and reprobates ; and for that end
committed the power of the keys to those who bear office in
His house, authorizing them to deliver over to Satan's thrall
the proud stubborn sinner who refuses to be corrected, and to
give satisfaction to the aggrieved consciences of his brethren.

Such rigour, pitiless in appearance, is really merciful to aU
parties. It is merciful to the faithfvd members of the church,
because it removes from their midst a mortifying limb, whose
presence imperils the life of the whole body. Scandalous
open sin cannot be tolerated in any society, without general
demoralization ensuing ; least of all in the church, which is a
society whose very raison d'etre is the culture of Christian
virtue. But the apparently pitiless rigour is mercy even
towards the unfaithful who are the subjects thereof. For to
keep scandalous offenders inside the communion of the church,
is to do your best to damn their souls, and to exclude them
ultimately from heaven. On the other hand, to deliver them

214 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

over to Satan may be, and it is to be hoped will be, but
giving them a foretaste of hell now, that they may be saved
from hell-fire for ever. It was in this hope that Paul in-
sisted on the excommunication of the incestuous person from
the Corinthian church, that by the castigation of his fleshly
sin " his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
It is this hope which comforts those on whom the disagreeable
task of enforcing church censures falls in the discharge of
their painfvil duty. They can cast forth evil-doers from the
communion of saints with less hesitation, when they know
that as publicans and sinners the excommunicated are nearer
the kingdom of God than they were as church members, and
when they consider that they are still permitted to seek the
good of the ungodly, as Christ sought the good of all the
outcasts of His day ; that it is still in their power to pray for
them, and to preach to them, as they stand in the outer court
of the Gentiles, though they may not put into their unholy
hands the symbols of the Saviour's body and blood.

Such considerations, indeed, would go far to reconcile those
who are sincerely concerned for the spiritual character of the
church, and for the safety of individual souls, to very consider-
able reductions of communion rolls. There cannot be a doubt
that, if church discipline were upheld with the efficiency and
vigour contemplated by Christ, such reductions would take place
on an extensive scale. It is indeed true that the purging pro-
cess might be carried to excess, and with very injurious effects.
Tares might be mistaken for wheat, and wheat for tares. The
church might be turned into a society of Pharisees, thanking
God that they were not as other men, or as the poor publicans
who stood without, hearing and praying, but not communicat-
ing ; whUe among those outside the communion rails might
be not only the unworthy, but many timid ones who dared
not come nigh, but, like the publican of the parable, could
only stand afar off, crying, " God be merciful to me, a sinner,"
yet all the while were justified rather than the others. A
system tending to bring about such results is one extreme to
be avoided. But there is another yet more pernicious extreme
still more sedulously to be shunned : a careless laxity, which
allows sheep and goats to be huddled together in one fold, the

DISCOURSE ON HUMILITY : CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 215

goats being thereby encouraged to deem tliemselves sheep, and
deprived of the greatest benefit they can enjoy — the privilege
of being spoken to plainly as " unconverted sinners."

Such unseemly mixtures of the godly and the godless are
too common phenomena in these days. And the reason is
not far to seek. It is not indifference to morality, for that is
not generally a characteristic of the church in our time. It
is the desire to multiply members. The various religious
bodies value members still more than morality or high-toned
Christian vktue, and they fear lest by discipline they may
lose one or two names from their communion roll. Alas, the
fear is well founded ! Fugitives from discipline are always
sure of an open door and a hearty welcome in some quarter.
This is one of the many curses entailed upon us by that
greatest of all scandals, religious division. One who has
become, or is in danger of becoming, as a heathen man and a
publican to one ecclesiastical body, has a good chance of be-
coming a saint or an angel in another. Eival churches play
at cross purposes, one loosing when another binds ; so doing
their utmost to make all spiritual sentences nuU and void
both in earth and heaven, and to rob religion of all dignity
and authority. Well may libertines pray that the divisions
of the church may continue, for while these last they fare
weU ! Far otherwise did it fare with the like of them in the
days when the church was catholic and one ; when sinners
re]3enting worked their way, in the slow course of years, from
the locus lugentium outside the sanctuary, through the locus
audientium and the locus siibstratorum, to the locus fidelium :
in that painful manner learning what an evil and a bitter
thing it is to depart from the living God.^

The promise made to consent in prayer^ comes in appro-
priately in a discourse delivered to disciples who had been
disputing who should be the greatest. In this connection the
promise means : " So long as ye are divided by dissensions
and jealousies, ye shall be impotent alike with men and with
God; in youj ecclesiastical procedure as church rulers, and

' See Bingham's Origines Ecdesiastlcce for an account of the ancient church
discipline.
2 Matt, xviii. 19, 20.

216 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

ill' your supplications at the throne of grace. But if ye be
united in mind and heart, ye shall have power with God, and
shall prevail : my Father will grant your requests, and I
myself wiU be in the midst of you."

It is not necessary to assume any very close connection
between this promise and the subject of which Jesus had
been speaking just before. In this familiar discourse, transi-
tion is made from one topic to another in an easy conversa-
tional manner, care being taken only that all that is said shall
be relevant to the general subject in hand. The meeting,
supposed to be convened in Christ's name, need not therefore
be one of church of&cers assembled for the transaction of
ecclesiastical business : it may be a meeting, in a church or
in a cottage, purely for the purposes of worship. The promise
avails for all persons, all subjects of prayer, aU places, and all
times ; for all truly Christian assemblies great and small.

The promise avails for the smallest number that can make
a meeting — even for two or three. This minimum number
is condescended on for the purpose of expressing in the
strongest possible manner the importance of brotherly con-
cord. Jesus gives us to understand that two agreed are better,
stronger, than twelve or a thousand divided by enmities and
ambitious passions. " Tlie Lord, when He would commend
unanimity and peace to His disciples, said, ' If two of you
shall agree on earth,' etc., to show that most is granted not
to the multitude, but to the concord of the supplicants." ^ It
is an obvious inference, that if by agreement even two be
strong, then a multitude really united in mind would be pro-
portionally stronger. For we must not fancy that God has
any partiality for a little meeting, or that there is any virtue
in a small number. Little strait sects are apt to fall into
this mistake, and to imagine that Christ had them specially
in His eye when He said two or three, and that the Idnd
of agreement by wliich they are distinguished — agreement in
whim and crotchet — is what He desiderated. Eidiculous
caricature of the Lord's meaning ! The agreement He re-
quires of His disciples is not entire unanimity in opinion, but
consent of mind and heart in the ends they aim at, and in

* Cyprianus, de Unitate Eccleske.

DISCOURSE ON HUMILITY : FOEGIVING INJURIES. 217

unselfish devotion to these ends. When He spake of two
or three, He did not contemplate, as the desirable state of
tilings, the body of His church split up into innumerable
fragments by religious opinionativeness, each fragment in pro-
portion to its minuteness imagining itself sure of His presence
and blessing. He did not wish His church to consist of a
collection of clubs having no intercommunion with each other,
any more than He desired it to be a monster hotel, receiving
and harbouring aU. comers, no questions being asked. He made
the promise now under consideration, not to stimulate secta-
rianism, but to encourage the cultivation of virtues which have
ever been too rare on earth — brotherly-kindness, meekness,
charity. The thing He values, in a word, is not paucity of
numbers, due to the ivant of charity, but union of hearts in
lowly love among the greatest number possible.

Section hi. — Forgiving Injuries,
Matt, xviii. 21-35.

A lesson on forgiveness fitly ended the solemn discourse
on humility delivered in the hearing of disputatious disciples.
The connection of thought between beginning and end is very
real, though it does not quite lie on the surface. A vin-
dictive temper, which is the thing here condemned, is one of
the vices fostered by an ambitious spirit. An ambitious man
is sure to be the receiver of many offences, real or imaginary.
He is quick to take offence, and slow to forgive or forget
wrong. Forgiving injuries is not in his way : he is more
in his element when he lays hold of his debtor by the throat,
and with ruf&an fierceness demands payment.

The concluding part of the discourse was occasioned by
a question put by Peter, the usual spokesman of the twelve,
who came to Jesus and said : " Lord, how oft shall my brother
sin against me, and I forgive liim ? till seven times ? " By
what precise association of ideas the question was suggested
to Peter's mind we know not; perhaps he did not know
himself, for the movements of the mind are often mysterious,

218 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

and in impulsive mercurial natures they are also apt to be
sudden. Thoughts shoot into consciousness like meteors into
the upper atmosphere ; and suddenly conceived, are as abruptly
littered, with physical gestures accompanying, indicating the
force with which they have taken possession of the soul.
Suffice it to say, that the disciple's query, however suggested,
was relevant to the subject in hand, and had latent spiritual
affinities with all that Jesus had said concerning humility
and the giving and receiving of offences. It showed on
Peter's part an intelligent attention to the words of his
Master, and a conscientious sohcitude to conform his conduct
to those he^ivenly precepts by which he felt for the moment
subdued and softened.

The question put by Peter further revealed a curious
mixture of child-likeness and childishness. To be so earnest
about the duty of forgiving, and even to think of practising
the duty so often as seven times towards the same offender,
betrayed the true child of the kingdom ; for none but the
graciously minded are exercised in that fashion. But to
imagine that pardon repeated just so many times would ex-
haust obligation and amount to something magnanimous and
divine, was very simple. Poor Peter, in his ingenuous attempt
at the magnanimous, was like a child standing on tip-toe to
make liimself as tall as his father, or climbing to the top of a
hillock to get near the skies.

The reply of Jesus to His honest but crude disciple was
admirably adapted to put him out of conceit with himself,
and to make him feel how puny and petty were the dimen-
sions of his charity. Echoing the thought of the prophetic
oracle, it tells those who would be like God that they must
multiply pardons : ^ " I say not unto thee. Until seven times ;
but. Until seventy times seven." Alas for the rarity of such
charity under the sun ! Christ's thoughts are not man's
thoughts, neither are His ways common among men. As the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are His thoughts and
ways higher than those current in this world. Por many,
far from forgiving times without number a brother confessing
his fault, do not forgive even so much as once, but act so that

1 Isa. Iv. 7.

DISCOUESE ON HUMILITY : FORGIVING INJUEIES. 219

we can recognise their portrait drawn to the life in the
parable of the unmerciful servant.

In this parable, whose minutest details are fraught with in-
struction, three things are specially noteworthy : the contrast
between the two debts ; the corresponding contrast between
the two creditors ; and the doom pronounced on those who,
being forgiven the large debt owed by them, refuse to forgive
the small debt owed to them.

The two debts are respectively ten thousand talents and a
hundred denarii, being to each other in the proportion of, say,
a million to one. The enormous disparity is intended to
represent the difference between the shortcomings of all men
towards God, and those with which any man can charge a
feUow-creature. The representation is confessed to be just
by aU who know human nature and their own hearts ; and
the consciousness of its truth helps them greatly to be gentle
and forbearing towards oflenders. Yet the parable seems to
be faulty in this, that it makes the unmerciful servant
answerable for such a debt as it seems impossible for any
man to run up. Who ever heard of a private debt amounting
in British money to millions sterling ? The difficulty is met
by the suggestion, that the debtor is a person of high rank,
like one of the princes whom Darius set over the kingdom of
Persia, or a provincial governor of the Eoman Empire. Such
an ofi&cial might very soon make himseK liable for the huge
sum here specified, simply by retaining for his own benefit the
revenues of his province, as they passed through his hands,
instead of remitting them to the royal treasury.

That it was some such unscrupulous minister of state,
guilty of the crime of embezzlement, whom Jesus had in His
eye, appears all but certain when we recollect what gave rise
to the discourse of which this parable forms the conclusion.
The disciples had disputed among themselves who should be
greatest in the kingdom, each one being ambitious to obtain
the place of distinction for himself. Here, accordingly, their
Master holds up to their view the conduct of a great one,
concerned not about the faithful discharge of his duty, but
about his own aggrandizement. " Behold," He says to them
in effect, " what men who wish to be great ones do ! They

220 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

rob their king of his revenue, and abuse the opportunities
afforded by their position to enrich themselves ; and while
scandalously negligent of their own obligations, they are •
characteristically exacting towards any little one who may
happen in the most innocent way, not by fraud, but by mis-
fortune, to have become their debtor."

Thus understood, the parable faithfully represents the guilt
and criminality of those at least who are animated by the
spuit of pride, and deliberately make self-advancement their
chief end : a class by no means small in nimiber. Such men
are great sinners, whoever may be little ones. They not
merely come short of the glory of God, the true chief end of
man, but they deliberately rob the Supreme of His due, calling
in question His sovereignty, denying their accountability to
Him for their" actions, and by the spirit which animates them,
saying every moment of their lives, " Who is Lord over us ? "
It is impossible to overestimate the magnitude of their guilt.

The contrast between the two creditors is not less striking
than that between the two debts. The king forgives the
enormous debt of his unprincipled satrap, on receiving a simple
promise to pay ; the forgiven satrap relentlessly exacts the
petty debt of some three pounds sterling from the poor hap-
less underling who owes it, stopping his ear to the identical
petition for delay which he had himself successfully presented
to his sovereign lord. Here also the colouring of the parable
appears too strong. The great creditor seems lenient to excess :
for surely such a crime as the satrap had been guilty of ought
not to go unpunished ; and surely it had been wise to attach
little weight to a promise of future payment made by a man
who, with unbounded extravagance, had already squandered
such a prodigious sum, so that he had nothing to pay ! Then
this great debtor, in his character as small creditor, seems
incredibly inhuman ; for even the meanest, most greedy, and
grasping churl, not to speak of so great a gentleman, might
well be ashamed -to show such eagerness about so trifling a
sum as to sei^e the poor wight who owed it by the throat
and drag him to prison, to lie there till he paid it.

The representation is doid)tless extreme, and yet in both
parts it is in accordance with truth. God does deal with His

DISCOUESE ON HUMILITY: FORGIVING INJURIES. 221

debtors as the king dealt with the satrap. He is slow to
anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil
He hath threatened. He giveth men space to repent, and by-
providential delays accepts promises of amendment, though He
knoweth full well that they will be broken, and that those
who made them will go on sinning as before. So He dealt
with Pharaoh, with Israel, with Mneveh ; so He deals with
all whom He calls to account by remorse of conscience, by a
visitation of sickness, or by the apprehension of death, when,
on their exclaiming, in a passing penitential mood, " Lord,
have patience with me, and I will pay Thee all," He grants
their petition, knowing that when the danger or the fit of
repentance is over, the promise of amendment will be utterly
forgotten. Truly was it written of old : " He hath not dealt
with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our
iniquities."

Nor is the part played by the unmerciful servant, however
infamous and inhuman, altogether unexampled ; although its
comparative rarity is implied in that part of the parabolic
story which represents the fellow-servants of the relentless one
as shocked and grieved at his conduct, and as reporting it to
the common master. It would not be impossible to find
originals of the dark picture even among professors of the
Christian religion, who believe in the forgiveness of sins
through the blood of Jesus, and hope to experience all the
benefits of divine mercy for His sake.

It is by such, indeed, that the crime of unmercifulness is,
in the parable, supposed to be committed. The exacting
creditor meets his debtor just as he himself comes out from
the presence of the king, after craving and receiving remission
of his own debt. This feature in the story at once adapts its
lesson specially to behevers in the gospel, and points out the
enormity of their guilt. All such, if not really forgiven, do at
least consciously live under a reign of grace, in which God is
assuming the attitude of one who desires all to be reconciled
unto Himself, and for that end proclaims a gratuitous pardon
to aU who wiU receive it. In men so situated, the spuit of
unmercifulness is peculiarly offensive. Shamefid in a pagan —
for the light of nature teacheth the duty of being merciful —

222 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

such inhuman rigour as is here portrayed, in a Christian, is
utterly abominable. Think of it ! he goes out from the pre-
sence of the King of grace ; rises up from the perusal of the
blessed gospel, which tells of One who received publicans and
sinners, even the chief ; walks forth from the house of prayer
where the precious evangel is proclaimed, yea, from the
communion table, which commemorates the love that moved
the Son of God to pay the debt of sinners ; and he meets a
fellow-mortal who has done him some petty wrong, and seizes
him by the throat, and truculently demands reparation on pain
of imprisonment or something worse, if it be not forthcoming.
May not the most gracious Lord righteously say to such an
one : " 0 thou wicked servant ! I forgave thee all that debt,
because thou desiredst me : shouldest thou not also have had
compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee ? "
What can the miscreant who showed no mercy expect, but to
receive judgment without mercy, and to be delivered over to
the tormentors, to be kept in durance and put to the rack,
without hope of release, till he shall have paid his debt to the
uttermost farthing ?

This very doom Jesus, in the closing sentences of His
discourse, solemnly assured His disciples awaited all who
cherished an unforgiving temper, even if they themseh'^es
should be the guilty parties. " So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not
every one his brother their trespasses." Stern words these,
which lay down a rule of universal application, not relaxable
in the case of favoured parties. Were partiality admissible
at all, such as the twelve would surely get the benefit of it ;
but as if to intimate that in this matter there is no respect
of persons, the law is enunciated with direct, emphatic refer-
ence to them. And harsh as the law might seem, Jesus is
careful to indicate His cordial approval of its being enforced
with Khadamanthine rigour. For that purpose He calls God,
the Judge, by the endearing name " My heavenly Father ; "
as if to say : " The great God and King does not seem to me
unduly stern in decreeing such penalties against the unfor-
giving. I, the merciful, tender-hearted Son of man, thoroughly
sympathize with such judicial severity. I should solemnly say

DISCOURSE ON HUMILITY : THE TEMPLE TAX. 223

Amen to that doom pronounced even against you, if you
behaved so as to deserve it. Think not that because ye are
my chosen companions, therefore violations of the law of love
by you will be winked at. On the contrary, just because ye
are great ones in the kingdom, so far as privilege goes, will
compliance with its fundamental laws be especially expected
of you, and non-compliance most severely punished. To
whom much is given, of him shall much be required. See,
then, that ye forgive every one his brother their trespasses, and
that ye do so really, not in pretence, cvc7i from your very hearts."
By such severe plainness of speech did Jesus educate His
disciples for being truly great ones in His kingdom : great not
in pride, pretension, and presumption, but in loyal obedience
to the behests of their King, and particularly to this law of
forgiveness, on which He insisted in His teaching so earnestly
and so frequently.^

Section iv. — TJie Temple Tax : an Illustration of the Sermon.
Matt. xvii. 24-27.

This story is a nut with a dry hard shell, but a very sweet
kernel. Superficial readers may see in it nothing more than
a curious anecdote of a singular fish with a piece of money in
its mouth turning up opportunely to pay a tax, related by
Matthew, alone of the evangelists, not because of its intrinsic
importance, but simply because, being an ex-taxgatherer, he
took kindly to the tale. Devout readers, though unwilling to
acknowledge it, may be secretly scandalized by the miracle
related, as not merely a departure from the rule which Jesus
observed of not using His divine power to help Himself, but
as something very like a piece of sport on His part, or an
expression of a humorous sense of incongruity, reminding
one of the grotesque figures in old catliedrals, in the carving
of which the builders delighted to show their skill, and find
for themselves amusement.

Breaking the shell of the story, we discover within, as its

1 See Matt. vi. 14.

224 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

kernel, a most pathetic exhibition of the humiliation and self-
humiliation of the Son of man, who appears exposed to the
indignity of being dunned for temple dues, and so oppressed
with poverty that He cannot pay the sum demanded, though
its amount is only fifteenpence ; yet neither pleading poverty
nor insisting on exemption on the score of privilege, but
quietly meeting the claims of the collectors in a manner
which, if sufficiently strange, as we admit,^ was at all events
singularly meek and peaceable.

The present incident supplies, in truth, an admirable illus-
tration of the doctrine taught by Jesus in the discourse on
humility. The greatest in the kingdom here exemplifies by
anticipation the lowliness He inculcated on His disciples, and
shows them in exercise a holy, loving solicitude to avoid
giving offence not only to the little ones within the kingdom,
but even to those without. He stands not on His dignity
as the Son of God, though the voice from heaven uttered on
the holy mount still rings in His ears, but consents to be
treated as a subject or a stranger ; desuing to live peaceably
with men whose ways He does not love, and who bear Him
no good-wUl, by complying with their wishes in all tilings
lawful.

We regard this curious scene at Capernaum (with the
Mount of Transfiguration in the distant background !) as a
historical frontispiece to the sermon we have been studying.
We are justified in taking this view of it, by the considera-
tion that, though the scene occurred before the sermon was
delivered, it happened after the dispute which supplied the
preacher with a text. The disciples fell to disputing on the
way home from the Mount of Transfiguration, while the visit
of the taxgatherers took place on their arrival in Capernaum.
Of course Jesus knew of the dispute at the time of the visit,
though He had not yet expressly adverted to it. Is it too
much to assume, that His knowledge of what had been going

^ Jesus did work miracles expressive of humour, not in levity, but in holy ear-
nest. Such were the cursing of the fig-tree ; the healing of blindness by putting
clay on the eyes, as a satire on the blind guides ; and the present one, expressing
a sense of the incongruity between the outward condition and the intrinsic
dignity of the Son of God.

DISCOUESE ON HUMILITY : THE TEMPLE TAX. 225

on by the way influenced His conduct in tlie affair of the
tribute money, and led Him to make it the occasion for teach-
ing by action the same lesson which He meant to take an
early opportunity of inculcating by words ?

This assumption, so far from being unwarranted, is, we
believe, quite necessary in order to make Christ's conduct on
this occasion intelligible. Tliose who leave out of account the
dispute by the way are not in the right point of view for
seeing the incident at Capernaum in its natural light, and
they fall inevitably into misunderstandings. They are forced,
e.g., to regard Jesus as arguing seriously against payment of
the temple tax, as something not legally obligatory, or as lying
out of the ordinary course of His humiliation as the Son of
man. Now it was neither one nor other of these things.
The law of Moses ordained that every man above twenty
years should pay the sum of half a shekel as an atonement
for his soul, and to meet the expenses connected with the
service of the tabernacle rendered to God for the common
benefit of all Israelites ; and Jesus, as a Jew, was, just as much
under obligation to comply with this particidar law as with
any other. Nor was there any peculiar indignity either in
kind or degree involved in obeying that law. Doubtless it
was a great indignity and humiliation to the Son of God to be
paying taxes for the maintenance of His own Father's house !
All that He said to Peter, pointing out the incongruity of such
a state of things, was sober truth. But the incongruity does not
meet us here alone ; it runs through the whole of our Lord's
earthly experience. His life, in all respects, departed from
the analogy of kings' sons. Though He were a Son, yet
learned He obedience ; though He were a Son, yet came He
not to be ministered unto, but to minister ; though He were
a Son, yet became He subject to the law, not merely the
moral- but the ceremonial, and was circumcised, and took part
in the temple worship, and frequented the sacred feasts, and
offered sacrifices, though these were all but shadows of good
things, whereof He Himself was the substance. Surely, in a
life containing so many indignities and incongruities — which
was, in fact, one grand indignity from beginning to end — it
was a small matter to be obliged to pay annually, for the

226 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

benefit of the temple, the paltry sum of fifteenpence ! He
who with marvellous patience went through all the rest, could
not possibly mean to stumble and scruple at so trifling a
matter. He who did nothing towards destroying the temple
and putting an end to legal worship before the time, could not
be a party to the mean policy of starving out its officials, or
grudging the funds necessary to keep the sacred edifice in
good repair. He might say openly what He thought of exist-
ing ecclesiastical abuses, but He would do no more.

The truth is, that the words spoken by Jesus to Simon were
not intended as an argument against paying the tax, but as an
explanation of what was meant by His paying it, and of the
motive which guided Him in paying it. They were a lesson for
►Simon, and through him for the twelve, on a subject wherein
they had great need of instruction ; not a legal defence against
the demands of the tax-gatherer. But for that dispute by the
way, Jesus would probably have taken the quietest means for
getting the tax paid, as a matter of course, without making
any remarks on the subject. That He had already acted thus
on previous occasions, Peter's prompt affirmative reply to the
question of the collectors seems to imply. The disciple said
" yes," as knowing what his Master had done in past years, and
assuming as a thing of course that His practice would be the
same now. But Jesus did not deem it, in present circum-
stances, expedient to let His disciples regard His action with
respect to the tax as a mere vulgar matter of course ; He
wanted them to understand and reflect on the moral meaning
and the motive of His action, for their own instruction and
guidance.

On these two points, we repeat, Jesus desired to arrest the
attention of Simon and the rest of the twelve. He wished them
to understand, in the first place, that for Him to pay the temple
dues was a humiliation and an incongruity, similar to that of
a king's son paying a tax for the support of the palace and
the royal household ; that it was not a thing of course that He
should pay, any more than it was a thing of course that He
should become man, and, so to speak, leave His royal state
behind and assume the rank of a peasant ; that it was an act
of voluntary humiliation, forming one item in the course of

DISCOTJESE ON HUMILITY : THE TEMPLE TAX. 227

humiliation to which He voluntarily submitted, beginning with
His birth, and ending with His death and burial. He desired
His disciples to think of these things in the hope that medi-
tation on them wo aid help to rebuke the pride, pretension,
and self-assertion wliich had given rise to that petty dispute
about places of distinction. He would say to them, in effect :
" Were I, like you, covetous of honours, and bent on asserting
my importance, I would stand on my dignity, and haughtily
reply to these collectors of tribute : Why trouble ye me about
temple dues ? Know ye not who I am ? I am the Christ, the
Son of the living God : the temple is my Father's house ; and
I, His Son, am free from all servile obligations. But, note ye
well, I do nothing of the kind. With the honours heaped
upon me on the Mount of Transfiguration fresh in my recol-
lection, with the consciousness of who I am, and whence I
came, and whither I go, abiding deep in my soul, I submit to
be treated as a mere common Jew, suffering my honours to
fall into abeyance, and making no demands for a recognition
which is not voluntarily conceded. The world knows me not ;
and while it knows me not, I am content that it should do
with me, as with John, whatsoever *it lists. Did the rulers
know who I am, they would be ashamed to ask of me temple
dues ; but since they do not, I accept and bear all the indig-
nities consequent on their ignorance."

All this Jesus said in effect to His disciples, by first advert-
ing to the grounds on which a refusal to pay the didrachmon
might plausibly be defended, and then after all paying it. The
manner of payment also was so contrived by Him as to rein-
force the lesson. He said not to Simon simply : " Go and
catch fish, that with the proceeds of their sale we may satisfy
our creditors." He gave him directions as the Lord of nature,
to whom all creatures in land or sea were subject, and all
their movements familiar, while yet so humbled as to need
the services of the meanest of them. By drawing on His
omniscience in giving these instructions to His disciple. He
did, in a manner, what He never did either before or after:
viz. wrought a miracle for His own behoof The exception,
however, had the same reason as the rule, and therefore proved
the rule. Jesus abstained from usincc His divine faculties

228 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

for His own benefit, tliat He miglit not impair the integrity of
His humiliation ; that His human life might be a real hond
fide life of hardship, unalleviatecl by the presence of the divine
element in His personality. But what was the effect of the
lightning-flash of divine knowledge emitted by Him in giving
those directions to Peter ? To impair the integrity of His
humiliation ? Nay, but only to make it glaringly conspicuous.
It said to Simon, and to us, if he and we had ears to hear :
"Behold who it is that pays this tax, and that is reduced to
such straits in order to pay it ! 'Tis He who knoweth all the
fowls of the mountain, and whatsoever passeth through the
paths of the sea ! "

The other point on which Jesus desired to fix the attention
of His disciples, was the reason which moved Him to adopt
the policy of submission to what was in itself an indignity.
That reason was to avoid giving offence : " Notwithstanding,
lest we should offend them." This was not, of course, the only
reason of His conduct in this case. There were other com-
prehensive reasons applicable to His whole experience of
humiliation, and to this small item therein in particular ; a
full account of which would just amount to an answer to the
great question put by Anselm : " Cur Deus Homo ; " Why did
God become man ? On that great question we do not enter
here, however, but confine ourselves to the remark, that while
the reason assigned by Jesus to Peter for his payment of the
temple dues was by no means the only one, or even the chief,
it was the reason to which, for the disciples' sake, He deemed
it expedient just then to give prominence. He was about to
discourse to them largely on the subject of giving and receiv-
ing offences ; and He wished them, and specially their foremost
man, first of all to observe how very careful He Himself was
not to offend : what a prominent place the desire to avoid
giving offence occupied among His motives.

Christ's declared reason for paying the tribute is strikingly
expressive of His lowliness and His love. Notice, as the mark
of His lowliness, that there is no word here of taking offence.
How easily and plausibly might He have taken up the posi-
tion of one who did well to be angry ! " I am the Christ,
the Son of God," He might have said, " and have substan-

DISCOUESE ON HUMILITY: THE TEMPLE TAX. 229

tiated my claims by a thousand miracles in word and deed,
yet they wilfully refuse to recognise me ; I am a poor home-
less wanderer, yet they, knowing this, demand the tribute, as
if more for the sake of annoying and insulting me than of
getting the money. And for what purpose do they collect
these dues ? For the support of a religious establishment
thorougldy effete, to repair an edifice doomed to destruction,
to maintain a priesthood scandalously deficient in the cardinal
virtues of integrity and truth, and whose very existence is a
curse to the land. I cannot in conscience pay a didrachmon,
no, not even so much as a farthing, for any such objects."

The lowly One did not assume tliis attitude, but gave what
was asked without complaint, grudging, or railing ; and His
conduct conveys lessons for Christians in all ages, and in our
own age in particular. It teaches the children of the king-
dom not to murmur because the world does not recognise
their status and dignity. The world knew not when He
came, even God's eternal Son ; what wonder if it recognise
not His younger brethren ! The kingdom of heaven itself is
not believed in, and its citizens should not be surprised at
any want of respect towards them individually. The mani-
festation of the sons of God is one of the things for which
Christians wait in hope. For the present they are not the
children, but the strangers : instead of exemption from bur-
dens, they should rather expect oppression ; and they should
be thankful when they are put on a level with their fellow-
creatures, and get the benefit of a law of toleration.

Another lesson taught by the conduct of Jesus concerns
those especially who consider themselves aggrieved by de-
mands for " church rates " and " annuity taxes." These
things have made great noise, and given rise to no little
scandal, in our day. Many offences have been both given
and taken in connection therewith, on the part of those who
have pertinaciously demanded the "tribute money" on the
one hand, and also on the part of those who as pertinaciously
have refused it on the other. Both offenders and offended
might find in Christ's discourse on humility much seasonable
counsel; but the lesson embodied in the present incident
concerns specially those who deem themselves the injured

230 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

party. What, then, is the message which it conveys for them ?
It is to this effect : " Ye prize freedom : — well, freedom is good.
Spiritual freedom is a priceless treasure ; and even freedom
from pecuniary burdens, i.e. from obligations to pay money
for objects with which ye do not sympathize, is not to be
despised, and may be sought in all lawful ways. Let all
the children be free, if possible. But beware of imagining
that it is necessary for conscience sake always to resist in-
dignities, and to fight for a freedom which mainly concerns
the purse. It is not a mark of greatness in the kingdom to
bluster much about rights, and to complain loudly of eccle-
siastical or other imposts. The higher one rises in spiritual
dignity, the more he can afford to endure in the way of
indignity, and the more it becomes him to avoid quarrelling
about trifles. The greatest in the kingdom paid the temple
tax for Himself, and for Peter, an apostle elect of the new
dispensation, which was destined ultimately to supersede the
temple and its worship. They had greater cause to dissent
from the state church than you have. But they did not strive,
nor cry, nor agitate, but quietly submitted to the temporary
humiliation of upholding an effete institution ; habitually spoke
the truth which would ere long make all things new, and left
the rest to time and the providence of God. So do ye."

As the humility of Jesus was shown by His not taking, so
His love was manifested by His solicitude to avoid giving
offence. He desired, if possible, to conciliate persons who
for the most part had treated Him all along as a heathen and
a publican, and who ere long, as He knew well, would treat
Him even as a felon. How like Himself was the Son of man
in so acting ! How thoroughly in keeping His procedure
here with His whole conduct while He was on the earth !
For what was His aim in coming to the world, what His
constant endeavour after He came, but to cancel offences, and
to put an end to enmities — to reconcile sinful men to God
and to each other ? For these ends He took flesh ; for these
ends He was crucified. His earthly life was all of a piece —
a life of lowly love.

" Lest ivc should offend," said Jesus, using the plural to
hint that He meant His conduct to be imitated by the

DISCOUKSE OX HUMILITY : THE INTERDICTED EXORCIST. 231

twelve and by all His followers. How happy for the clmrch
and the world were this done ! How many offences might
have been prevented, had the conciliatory spirit of the Lord
always animated those called by His name ! How many
offences might be removed, were this spirit abundantly
poured out on Christians of all denominations now ! Did
this motive, " Notwithstanding, lest we should offend," bulk
largely in all minds, what breaches might be healed, what
unions might come ! A national church morally, if not legally,
established in unity and peace, might be realized in Scotland
in the present generation. Surely a consummation devoutly
to be wished ! Let us wish for it ; let us pray for it ; let
us cherish a spirit tending to make it possible.

Section v. — The interdicted Exorcist : another Illustration
of the Sermon.

Mark ix. 38-41 ; Luke ix. 49, 50.

The discourses of our Lord were not continuous unbroken
addresses on formally announced themes, such as we are wont
to hear, but rather for the most part of the nature of Socratic
dialogues, in which He was the principal speaker. His dis-
ciples contributing their part in the form of a question asked,
an exclamation uttered, or a case of conscience propounded.
In the discourse or dialogue on humility, two of the disciples
acted as interlocutors, viz. Peter and John. Towards the
close, the former of these two disciples, as we saw, asked a
question concerning the forgiving of injuries ; and near the
commencement, the other disciple, John, related an anecdote
which was brought up to his recollection by the doctrine of
his Master, respecting receiving little ones in His name, and
on which the truth therein set forth seemed to have a bearing.
The facts thus brought under His notice led Jesus to make
reflections, which supply an interesting illustration of the
bearing of the doctrine He was inculcating on a particular
class of cases or questions. These reflections, with the inci-
dent to which they relate, now solicit attention.

232 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

The story told by John was to the effect that on one
occasion he and his brethren had found a man unknown to
them engaged in the work of casting out devils, and had
served him with an interdict, because, though he used the
name of Jesus in practising exorcism, he did not follow or
identify himself with them, the twelve. At what particular
time this happened is not stated ; but it may be conjectured
with much probability that the incident was a reminiscence
of the Galilean mission, during which the disciples were
separated from their Master, and were themselves occupied
in healing the sick, and casting out evil spirits, and in
preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

John, it will be observed, does not disclaim joint respon-
sibility for the high-handed proceeding he relates, but speaks
as if the twelve had acted unanimously in the matter. It
may sm^prise some to find liim, the apostle of love, consenting
to so uncharitable a deed ; but such surprise is founded on
superficial \iews of his character, as well as on ignorance of
the laws of spiritual growth. John is not now what he will
be, but differs from his future self, as much as an orange
in its second year differs from the same orange in its third
final year of growth. The fruit of the Spirit will ultimately
ripen in this disciple into something very sweet and beau-
tiful ; but meantime it is green, bitter, and fit only to set the
teeth on edge. Devoted in mind, tender and intense in his
attachment to Jesus, scrupulously conscientious in all his
actions, he is even now ; but he is also bigoted, intolerant,
ambitious. Already he has played the part of a high church-
man in suppressing the nonconforming exorcist ; ere long
we shall see him figuring, together with his brother, as a per-
secutor, proposing to call down fire from heaven to destroy
the enemies of his Lord ; and yet again we shall find him,
along with the same brother and their common mother,
engaged in an ambitious plot to secure those places of dis-
tinction in tlie kingdom about which all the twelve have
lately been wrangling.

In refusing to recognise the exorcist as a fellow-worker,
however humble as a brother, the disciples proceeded on very
narrow and precarious grounds. The test they applied was

DISCOUESE ON HUMILITY: THE INTERDICTED EXORCIST. 233

purely external. What sort of man the person interdicted
might be they did not inquire ; it was enough that he was not
of their company : as if all inside that charmed circle — Judas,
for example — were good ; and all outside, not excepting a
Nicodemus, utterly Christless ! Two good things, on their
own showing, could be said of him whom they silenced : he
was well occupied, and he seemed to have a most devout
regard for Jesus ; for he cast out devils, and he did it in
Jesus' name. These were not indeed decisive marks of dis-
cipleship, for it was possible that a man might practise exorcism
for gain, and use the name of Christ because it had been
j)roved to be a good name to conjure by ; but they ought to
have been regarded as at least presumptive evidence in favour
of one in whose conduct they appeared. Judging by the facts,
it was probable that the sUenced exorcist was an honest and
sincere man, whose heart had been impressed by the ministry
of Jesus and His disciples, and who desired to imitate their
zeal in doing good. It was even possible that he was more
than this — a man possessing higher spiritual endowment than
his censors, some provincial prophet as yet unknown to fame.
How preposterous, in view of such a possibility, that narrow
outward test, " Not with us !"

As an illustration of what this way of judging lands in,
one little fact in the history of the celebrated Sir Matthew
Hale, whose Contemplations are familiar to all readers of devout
literature, is instructive. Eichard Baxter relates that the good
people in the part of the country where the distinguished judge
resided, after his retirement from the judicial bench, did not
entertain a favourable opinion of his religious character ; their
notion being that he was certainly a very moral man, but not
converted. A serious conclusion to come to about a fellow-
creature ! and one is curious to know on what so solemn a
judgment was based. The author of the Saint's Best gives us
the needful information on this momentous point. The pious
foEcs about Acton, he tells us, ranked the ex-judge among the
unconverted, because he did not frequent their private weekly
prayer-meetings ! It was the old story of the twelve and
the exorcist, under a new Puritanic form. Baxter, it is need-
less to say, did not sympathize with the harsh, uncharitable

234 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

opinion of his less enlightened brethren. His thoughts
breathed the gentle, benignant, humble, charitable spirit of
Christian maturity. " I," he adds, after relating the fact above
stated, " I that have heard and read Ms serious expressions of
the concernments of eternity, and seen his love to all good
men, and the blamelessness of his life, thought better of his
piety than of mine own."^

In silencing the exorcist, the twelve were probably actuated
by a mixture of motives — partly by jealousy, and partly by
conscientious scruples. They disliked, we imagine, the idea
of any one using Christ's name but themselves, desiring a
monopoly of the power conferred by that name to cast out
evil spirits ; and they probably thought it unlikely, if not
impossible, that any one who kept aloof from them could be
sincerely devoted to their Master.

In so far as the disciples acted under the influence of
jealousy, their conduct towards the exorcist was morally of a
piece with their recent dispute who should be the greatest.
The same spirit of pride revealed itself on the two occasions,
under different phases. The silencing of the exorcist was a
display of arrogance analogous to that of High Churchmen,
who claim to be exclusively the church of Christ. In their
dispute among themselves, the disciples played on a humble
scale the game of ambitious, self-seeking ecclesiastics, contend-
ing for seats of honour and power. In the one case the twelve
said in effect to the man whom they found casting out devils :
We are the sole commissioned, authorized agents of the Lord
Jesus Christ ; in the other case they said to each other : We
are all members of the kingdom, and servants of the King;
but I deserve to have a higher place than thou, even to be a
prelate sitting on a throne.

One cannot help thinking here of the contrast between these
foolish weak disciples, with their professional jealousies and
their vain rivalries, and the same men as the apostles of after
days, when they were so ready to welcome assistance from
every quarter in the work of the gospel, feeling that the
harvest was great, and the labourers all too few, and so utterly
free from all ambitious love of pre-eminence. Men of High

^ Reliquiae Baxtcriance, part iii. p. 47.

DISCOURSE ON HUMILITY : THE INTERDICTED EXORCIST. 235

Churcli proclivities make a slight mistake when they prate of
apostolic succession. It is not from the apostles, but from the
disciples, they derive their descent. High-Churchism is not
an apostolic virtue ; it is the vice of tyros in Christ's school,
who are yet largely under the dominion of the carnal mind.

In so far as the intolerance of the twelve was due to honest
scrupulosity, it is deserving of more respectful consideration.
The plea of conscience, honestly advanced, must always be
listened to with serious attention, even when it is mistaken.
We say " honestly" with emphasis, because we cannot forget that
there is much scrupulosity that is not honest. Conscience is
often used as a stalking-horse by proud, quarrelsome, seK-
willed men, to promote their own private ends. Pride, says
one, speaking of doctrinal disputes, " is the greatest enemy of
moderation. This makes men stickle for their opinions, to
make them fundamental. Proud men, having deeply studied
some additional point in divinity, will strive to make the same
necessary to salvation, to enhance the value of their own
worth and pains ; and it must needs be fundamental in religion,
because it is fundamental to their reputation." ^ These shrewd
remarks hold good of other things besides doctrine. Opinion-
ative, pragmatic persons, would make everything in religion
fundamental on which they have decided views ; and if they
could get their own way, they would exclude from the church
all who held not with them in the very minutiae of belief and
practice. But there is such a .thing also as honest scrupu-
losity, and it is more common than many imagine. There is
a certain tendency to intolerant exaction, and to severity in
judging, in the unripe stage of every earnest life. For the
conscience of a young disciple is like a fire of green logs,
which smokes first, before it burns with a clear blaze. And
a Christian whose conscience is in this state must be treated
as we treat a dull fire : he must be borne with, that is, till his
conscience clear itself of bitter, cloudy smoke, and become a
pure, genial, warm flame of zeal tempered by charity.

That the scrupulosity of the twelve was of the honest kind,
we believe for this reason, that they were willing to be in-
structed. They told their Master what they had done, that they
1 Thomas Fuller, Holy State, B. iii. c. 20.

236 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

might learn from Him whether it was right or wrong. This is
not the way of men whose plea of conscience is a pretext.

The instruction honestly desired by the disciples, Jesus
promptly communicated in the form of a clear, definite judg-
ment on the case, with a reason annexed. " Forbid him not,"
he replied to John, " for he that is not against us is for us." ^

The reason assigned for this counsel of tolerance reminds
us of another maxim uttered by Jesus on the occasion when
the Pharisees brought against Him the blasphemous charge
of casting out devils by aid of Beelzebub.^ The two sayings
have a superficial aspect of contradiction : one seeming to
say, The great matter is not to be decidedly against ; the
other. The great matter is to be decidedly for. But they are
harmonized by a truth underlying both — that the cardinal
matter in spiritual character is the bias of the heart. Here
Jesus says : " If the heart of a man be with me, then, though
by ignorance, error, isolation from those who are avowedly my
friends, he may seem to be against me, he is really for me."
In the other case He meant to say : " If a man be not in
heart with me (the case of the Pharisees), then, though by
his orthodoxy and his zeal he may seem to be on God's side,
and therefore on mine, he is in reality against me."

To the words just commented on, Mark adds the following,
as spoken by Jesus at this time : " There is no man that
shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of
me." The voice of wisdom and charity united is audible
here. The emphasis is on the word ra'^v, lightly or readily.
This word, in the first place, involves the admission that the
case supposed might happen ; an admission demanded by
historical truth. For such cases did actually occur in after
days. Luke tells, e.g., of certain vagabond Jews (in every sense
well named), who took upon them to call over demoniacs the
name of the Lord Jesus, without any personal faith in Him, but
simply in the way of trade ; being vile traffickers in exorcism
for whom even the devils expressed their contempt, exclaiming,
" Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye ? " ^ Our
Lord knowing before that such cases would happen, and being
acquainted with the depths of human depravity, could not do
1 Mark ix. 39, 40 (Luke lias " you" for " us "). ^ jy^^tt. xii. 30. ^ Acts xix. 13.

DISCOURSE ON HUMILITY: THE INTERDICTED EXORCIST, 237

otherwise than admit the possibility of the exorcist referred
to by John being animated by unworthy motives. But
wliile making the admission, He took care to indicate that, in
His judgment, the case supposed was very improbable, and
that it was very unlikely that one who did a mii-acle in His
name would speak evil of Him. And He desired His dis-
ciples to be on their guard against readily and lightly believ-
ing that any man could be guilty of such a sin. Till strong
reasons for thinking otherwise appeared, He would have them
charitably regard the outward action as the index of sincere
faith and love (which they might the more easily do then,
when nothing was to be gained by the use or profession of
Christ's name, but the displeasure of those who had the cha-
racters and lives of men in their power).

Such were the wise, gracious words spoken by Jesus with
reference to the case brought up for judgment by John. Is
it possible to extract any lessons from these words of general
application to the church in all ages, or specially applicable
to our own age in particular ? It is a question on which one
must speak with diffidence ; for while all bow to the judgment
of Jesus on the conduct of His disciples, as recorded in the
Gospels, there is much difference among Christians as to the
inferences to be drawn therefrom, in reference to cases in
which their o^ati conduct is concerned. The following reflec-
tions may, however, safely be hazarded : —

1. Learn from the discreet, loving words of the great Teacher
to beware of hasty conclusions concerning men's spiritual
state, based on merely external indications. Say not with
the Church of Eome, " Out of our communion is no possibility
of salvation or of goodness ; " but rather admit that even in
that corrupt communion may be many building on the true
foundation, though, for the most part, with very combustible
materials ; nay, that Christ may have not a few friends outside
the pale of aU the churches. Ask not with Nathanael, " Can
any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " but remember that
the best things may come out of most unexpected quarters.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares. Bear in mind that, by indulging
in the cry, " Not with us," in reference to trifles and crotchets.

238 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

you may tempt God, while giving His Holy Spirit to those
whom you unchurch, to withdraw His influences from you,
for your pride, exclusiveness, and self-will ; and may turn
your creed into a prison, in which you shall be shut out from
the fellowship of saints, and doomed to experience the chagrin
of seeing through the window-bars of your cell God's people
walking at large, while you lie immured in a gaol.

2. In view of that verdict, " Forbid him not," one must
read, with a sad, sorrowful heart, many pages of church history,
in which the predominating spirit is that of the twelve rather
than that of their Master. One may confidently say, that had
Christ's mind dwelt more in those called by His name, many
things in that history would have been different. Separatism,
censoriousness, intolerance of nonconformity, persecution, would
not have been so rife ; Conventicle Acts and Eive-mile Acts
would not have disgraced the statute-book of the English
Parliament ; Bradford Gaol would not have had the honour of
receiving the illustrious dreamer of the Pilgrims Progress as a
prisoner ; Baxter, and Livingston of Ancrum, and thousands
more like-minded, by whose stirring words multitudes had been
quickened to a new spiritual life, would not have been driven
from their parishes and their native lands, and forbidden under
heav}^ penalties to preach that gospel they understood and loved
so well, but would have enjoyed the benefit of that law of tole-
ration which they purchased so dearly for us their cliildren.

3. The divided state of the church has ever been a cause
of grief to good men, and attempts have been made to remedy
the evil by schemes of union. All honest endeavours having
in view the healing of breaches, which since the days of the
Eeformation have multiplied so greatly as to be the oppro-
brium of Protestantism, deserve our warmest sympathies and
most earnest prayers. But we cannot be blind to the fact,
that through human infirmity such projects are apt to mis-
carry ; it being extremely difiicult to get a whole community,
embracing men of dijfferent temperaments and in different
stages of Cln-istian growtli, to take the same view of the terms
of fellowship. Wliat, then, is the duty of Christians mean-
while ? We may learn from our Lord's judgment in the case
of the exorcist. If those who are not of our company cannot

DISCOURSE ON HUMILITY: THE INTERDICTED EXORCIST. 239

be brought to enter into the same ecclesiastical organization,
let us still recognise them /?'om the heart as fellow-disciples
and fellow -labourers, and avail ourselves of all lawful or
open ways of showing that we care infinitely more for those
who truly love Christ, in whatever church they be, than
for those who are with us ecclesiastically, but in spirit and
life are not with Christ, but against Him. So shall we have
the comfort of feeling that, though separated from brethren
beloved, we are not schismatical, and be able to speak of the
divided state of the church as a thing that we desire not, but
merely endure because we cannot help it.

Many religious people are at fault here. There are Chris-
tians not a few, who do not believe in these two articles of
the Apostles' Creed, " the holy catholic church," and " the
communion of saints." They care little or nothing for those
who are outside the pale of their own communion : they prac-
tise brotherly-kindness most exemplarily, but they have no
charity. Their church is their club, in which they enjoy the
comfort of associating with a select number of persons, whose
opinions, whims, hobbies, and ecclesiastical politics entirely
agree with their own ; everything beyond in the wide wide
world being regarded with cold indifference, if not with pas-
sionate aversion or abhorrence. We may say, indeed, that this
tone of feeling is a prevailing characteristic of modern reli-
gious life. The religion of the club is the order of the day.

Now a club, ecclesiastical or other, is a very pleasant thing
by way of a luxury; but it ought to be remembered that,
besides the club, and including all the clubs, there is the great
Christian commonwealth. This fact will have to be more
recognised than it has been, if church life is not to become a
mere imbecility. To save us from this doom, one of two
things must take place. Either religious people must over-
come their doting fondness for the mere club fellowship of
denominationalism, involving absolute uniformity in opinion
and practice ; or a sort of Amphictyonic council must be set on
foot as a counterpoise to sectarianism, in which all the sects
shall find a common meeting-place for the discussion of great
catholic questions bearing on morals, missions, education, and
the defence of cardinal truths. Such a council (utopian it

240 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

will be deemed) would have many open questions in its con-
stitution. In the ancient Amphictyonic council men were
not known as Athenians or Spartans, but as Greeks ; and
in our modern Utopian one men would be known only as
Christians, not as Episcopahans, Presbyterians, Independents,
Churchmen, and Dissenters. It would be such a body, in fact,
as the " Evangelical Alliance " of recent origin, created by the
craving for some visible expression of the feeling of catholi-
city ; but not, like it, amateur, self-constituted, and patronized
(to a certain extent) by persons alienated from all existing
ecclesiastical organizations, and disposed to substitute it as a
new church in their place, but consisting of representatives
belonging to, and regularly elected and empowered by, the
different sections of the church.

One remark more we make on this club theory of church
fellowship. Worked out, it secures at least one object. It
breaks Christians up into small companies, and ensures that
they shall meet in twos and threes ! Unhappily, it does not
at the same time procure the blessing promised to the two or
three. The Spirit of Jesus dweUs not in coteries of self-
willed opinionative men, but in the great commonwealth of
saints, and especially in the hearts of those who love the
whole body more than any part, not excepting that to which
they themselves belong ; to whom the Lord and Head of the
church fulfils His promise, by enriching them with magnani-
mous heroic graces, and causing them to rise like cedars above
the general level of contemporary character, and endowing
them with a moral power which exercises an ever-widening
influence long after the strifes of their age, and the men who
delighted in them, have sunk into oblivion.

4. The present theme should lead all to ask themselves
two questions : Am I with Christ, or merely with this or that
religious body ? and. Am I growing in grace ; growing out of
pride into humility, out of exclusiveness into catholicity, out of
censoriousness into charity ? John grew thus, and so should
all. It is no sin to be austere for a season, for fruit must be
green ere it be ripe. But it is a sin to remain for ever
austere. Alas, how many do ! in whose case God looks for
grapes, and never finds anything but wild grapes.

CHAPTEE XV.

THE SONS OF THUNDEK, OR FIRE FROM HEAVEN.
Luke ix. 51-56.

THE delivery of the discourse on hnmility appears to have
been the closing act of our Lord's ministry in Galilee ;
for immediately after finishing their accounts of the discourse,
the two first evangelists proceed to speak of what we have
reason to regard as His final departure from His native pro-
vince for the south. " It came to pass," says Matthew, " that
when Jesus had finished these sayings, He departed from
Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judea." ^ Of this journey
neither Matthew nor Mark gives any details : they do not even
mention Christ's visit to Jerusalem at the feast of dedication
in winter referred to by John,^ from which we know that the
farewell to Galilee took place at least some four months before
the crucifixion. The journey, however, was not without its
interesting incidents, as we know from Luke, who has pre-
served several of them in his Gospel.

Of these incidents, that recorded in the passage above cited
is one. For the words with which the evangelist introduces
his narrative obviously allude to the same journey from Gali-
lee to the south, of which Matthew and Mark speak in the
passages already referred to. The journey through Samaria
adverted to here by Luke occurred "when the time was come
(or rather coming)^ that He (Jesus) should be received up," that
is, towards the close of His life. Then the peculiar expression,
" He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem," hints not
obscurely at a final transference of the scene of Christ's work
from the north to the south. It refers not merely to the
geographical direction in which He was going, but also and

1 Matt. xix. 1, 2 ; Mark x. 1. ^ JqJ^q ^^ 22, 23. ^ h rf <rv/iTXnpiivff^ai.

242 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

chiefly to the state of mind in which He journeyed. He went
towards Jerusalem, feeling that His duty lay in and near it
henceforth, as a victim self-consecrated to death, His coun-
tenance wearing a solemn, earnest, dignified aspect, expressive
of the great lofty purpose by which His soul was animated.

It was natural that Luke, the companion of Paul and evan-
gelist to the Gentiles, should carefully preserve this anecdote
from the last journey of Jesus to Judea through Samaria. It
served admirably the purpose he kept in view throughout in
compiling his Gospel — that, viz., of illustrating the catholicity
of the Christian dispensation ; and therefore he gathered it into
liis basket, that it might not be lost. He has brought it in at
a very suitable place, just after the anecdote of the exorcist ;
for, not to speak of the link of association supplied in the
name of John, the narrator in one case and an actor in the
other, this incident, like the one recorded immediately before,
exhibits a striking contrast between the harsh spirit of the
disciples, and the gentle, benignant spirit of their Master.
That contrast forms the moral interest of the story.

The main fact in the story was this. The inhabitants of a
certain Samaritan village at which Jesus and His travelling
companions arrived at the close of a day's journey having
declined, on being requested, to give them quarters for the
night, James and John came to their Master, and proposed
that the offending villagers should be destroyed by fire from
heaven.

It was a strange proposal to come from men who had been
for years disciples of Jesus, and especially from one who, like
John, had been in the Master's company at the time of that
meeting with the woman by the well, and heard the rapturous
words with which He spoke of the glorious new era that was
dawning.^ It shows how slow the best are to learn the
heavenly doctrine and practice of charity. How startling,
again, to think of this same John, a year or two after the date
of this savage suggestion, going down from Jerusalem and
preaching the gospel of Jesus the crucified in " many of the
villages of the Samaritans," ^ possibly in this very village
which he desired to see destroyed !

^ Joliu iv. ^ Acts viii.

THE SONS OF THUNDEK, OR FIRE FROM HEAVEN. 243

Sucli are the contrasts which growth in grace brings. In
the green, crude stage of the divine life, whose characteristics
are opinionativeness, cdnsoriousness, scrupulosity, intolerance,
blind passionate zeal, John would play the part of a mimic
Elijah ; in his spiritual maturity, after the summer sun of
Pentecost had wrought its effects in his soul, and sweetened
all its acid juices, he became an ardent apostle of salvation,
and exhibited in his character the soft, luscious fruits of " love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
and seK-control." Such contrasts in the same character at
different periods, however surprising, are perfectly natural.
Amid all changes, the elements of the moral being remain the
same. The juice of the ripe apple is the same that was in
the green fruit, plus sun-light and sun-heat. The zeal of the
son of thunder did not disappear from John's nature after he
became an apostle ; it only became tempered by the light of
wisdom, and softened by the heat of love. He did not even
cease to hate, and become an indiscriminately amiable indi-
vidual, whose charity made no distinction between good and
evil. To the last John was what he was at the first, an
intense hater as well as an intense lover. But in his later
years he knew better what to hate, — the objects of his abhor-
rence being hypocrisy, apostasy, and Laodicean insincerity ; ^
not, as of old, mere ignorant rudeness and clownish incivility.
He could distinguish then between wickedness and weakness,
malice and prejudice ; and while cherishing strong antipathy
towards the one, he felt only compassion towards the other.

To some it may seem a matter of wonder how a man capable
of entertaining so revolting a purpose as is here ascribed to
James and John, could ever be the disciple whom Jesus loved.
To understand this, it must be remembered that Jesus, un-
like most men, could love a disciple not merely for what he
was, but for what he should become. He could regard with
complacency even sour grapes in their season, for the sake of
the goodly fruit into which they should ripen. Then, further,
we must not forget that John, even when possessed by the
devil of resentment, was animated by a purer and holier spirit.

' Vide book of Revelation, commonly regarded as tlie latest of John's writ-
ings. Reuss, liowever {Theologie Chretieime), maintains it was his earliest.

244 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Along with the smoke of carnal passion, there was some divine
fire in his heart. He loved Jesus as intensely as he hated
the Samaritans ; it was his devoted attachment to his Master
that made him resent their incivility so keenly. In his tender
love for the Bridegroom of his soul, he was beautiful as a
mother overflowing with affection in the bosom of her family ;
though in his hatred he was terrible as the same mother can
be in her enmity against her family's foes. John's nature, in
fact, was feminine both in its virtues and in its faults, and, like
all feminine natures, could be both exquisitely sweet and
exquisitely bitter.

Passing now from personal remarks on John himself to the
truculent proposal emanating from him and his brother, we
must beware of regarding it in the light of a mere extravagant
ebullition of temj^er, consequent upon a refusal of hospitality.
No doubt the two brethren and all their fellow-disciples were
annoyed by the unexpected incivility, nor can one wonder if
it put them out of humour. Weary men are easily irritated,
and it was not pleasant to be obliged to trudge on to another
village after the fatigues of a day's journey. But we have too
good an opinion of the twelve, to fancy any of them capable
of revenging rudeness by murder.

The savage mood of James and John is not even thoroughly
explained by the recollection that the churlish villagers were
Samaritans, and that they were Jews, The chronic ill-will
between the two races had unquestionably its own influence
in producing ill-feeling on both sides. The nationality of the
travellers was one, if not the sole reason, why the villagers
refused them quarters. They were Galilean Jews going south-
wards to Jerusalem, and that was enough. Then the twelve,
as Jews, were just as ready to take offence as the Samaritan
villagers were to give it. The powder of national enmity was
stored up in their breasts ; and a spark, one rude word or
insolent gesture, was enough to cause an explosion. Though
they had been for years with Jesus, there was still much more
of the old Jewish man than of the new Christian man in them.
If they had been left to the freedom of their own will, they
would probably have avoided the Samaritan territory alto-
gether, and, like the rest of their countrymen, taken a round-

THE SONS OF THUNDER, OR FIRE FROM HEAVEN. 245

about way to Jerusalem, by crossing to the eastward of the
Jordan.

Between persons so affected towards each other offences are
sure to arise. When Guelph and Ghibeline, Orangemen and
Eibbonmen, Cavalier and Eoundhead, meet, it does not take
much to make a quarrel.

But there was something more at work in the minds of the
two disciples than party passion. There was conscience in
their quarrel, as well as temper and hereditary enmities. This
is evident both from the deliberate manner in which they
made their proposal to Jesus, and from the reason by which
they sought to justify it. They came to their Master, and
said, " Wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from
heaven, and consume them 1 " entertaining no doubt apparently
of obtaining His approval, and of procuring forthwith the
requisite fire from heaven for the execution of their dire intent.
Then they quoted the precedent of Elijah, who, refusing to have
any dealings with the idolatrous king of Samaria, called down
fire from heaven to consume his messengers, as a signal mark
of divine displeasure.-^

The conscious motive by which James and John were
actuated was evidently sincere, though ill-informed, jealousy
for the honour of their Lord. As the prophet of fire was in-
dignant at the conduct of King Ahaziah in sending messengers
to the god of Ekron, Baalzebub by name, to inquire whether
he should recover from the disease with which he was afflicted ;^
so the sons of thunder were indignant because inhabitants
of the same godless territory over which Ahaziah ruled had
presumed to insult their revered Master, by refusing a favour
which they ought to have been only too proud to have an
opportunity of granting.

The two brothers evidently thouglit they did well to be
angry ; and, comparing them with other zealots and perse-
cutors, for not so bad reasons. If they had been minded to
defend their conduct after it was condemned by Jesus, which

^ The words as kcc) 'Hkla; ivoinin are a doubtful reading. It is evident, how-
ever, that the two disciples must have had Elias in mind when they made their
proposal.

2 2 Kings i.

246 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

they do not seem to have been, they might have made a
defence by no means destitute of plausibility. For consider
who these Samaritans were. They belonged to a mongrel
race, sprung from heathen Assyrians, whose presence in the
land was a humiliation, and from base degenerate Israelites
unworthy of the name. Their forefathers had been the bitter
enemies of Judah in the days of ISTehemiah, spitefully obstruct-
ing the building of Zion's walls, instead of helping the exiles
in their hour of need, as neighbours ought to have done.
Then, if it was unfair to hold the present generation responsible
for the sins of past generations, what was the character of the
Samaritans then living ? Were they not blasphemous heretics,
who rejected aU the Old Testament Scriptures save the five
books of Moses ? Did they not worship at the site of the
rival temple on Gerizim,^ which their fathers had with impious
effrontery erected in contempt of the true temple of God in
the holy city ? And finally, had not these villagers expressed
their sympathy with all the iniquities of their people, and
repeated them all in one act by doing dishonour to Him who
was greater than even the true temple, and worthy not only
to receive common civihty, but even divine worship ?

What better reasons could persecutors give for all the
murders which they have perpetrated in the name of religion ?
By just such reasons, indeed, has persecution ever been de-
fended. Heresy, hostility to the cause and people of God,
Old Testament precedents, have been the favourite pleas by
which the professed followers of Jesus have justified them-
selves when acting the part of the " sons of thunder;" calling
down, as they thought, fire from heaven, but in reality calling
up fire from hell, to consume the hapless victims of their blind
and heartless zeal.

Euthless persecutors and furious zealots have always been
confident, like the two disciples, that they did God service.
It is of the very nature of zealotry to make the man of whom
it has taken possession believe that the Almighty not only
approves, but shares his fierce passions, and fancy himself
entrusted with a carte Uanche to launch the thunders of the

^ The temple was destroyed a hundred years before Christ by Hyixanus the
high priest. Joseph. AntUj. Jud. xiii. 9. 1.

THE SONS OF THUNDER, OR FIRE FROM HEAVEN. 247

Most High against all in whom his small, peering, inhuman eye
can discern aught not approved by his tyrannic conscience.
"What a world were this, if the fact were so indeed !

" Every pelting, petty officer
"Would use God's heaven for thunder ; nothing but thunder."

Thank God, the fact is not so. The Almighty does thunder
sometimes, but not in the way His petty officers would wish.

*' Merciful Heaven !
Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,
Splitt'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak
Than the soft m3Ttle."

Jesus too, aU gentle as He was, had His thunderbolts ; but
He reserved them for other objects than poor benighted, pre-
judiced Samaritans. His zeal was directed against great sins,
and powerful, privileged, presumptuous sinners ; not against
little sins, or poor, obscure, vulgar sinners. He burst into
indignation at the sight of His Father's house turned into a
den of thieves by those who ought to have known and did
know better ; He only felt compassion for those who, like the
woman by the well, knew not what they worshipped, and
groped after God in semi-heathen darkness. His spirit was
kindled within Him at the spectacle of ostentatious orthodoxy
and piety allied to the grossest worldliness ; He did not, like
the Pharisee, blaze up in sanctimonious wrath against irreli-
gious publicans, who might do no worship at all, or who, like
the heretical Samaritans, did not worship in the right place.
Would that zeal like that of Jesus, aiming its bolts at the
proud oak and sparing the humble shrub, were more common !
But such zeal is dangerous, and therefore it will always be
rare.

The Lord, in whose vindication the two disciples wished to
call down heaven's destroying fire, lost no time in making
known His utter want of sympathy with the monstrous pro-
posal. He turned and rebuked them, and said, " Ye know
not what manner of spu-it ye are of"^

The remark was true in more senses than one. The spirit

1 Luke ix. 55. Or, "Know ye ?" Critical students of the New Testament
are aware that the words are not found in some Mss. But in any case the state-
ment is true, and might have been made.

248 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

of James and John was, in the first place, not such as they
fancied. They tliought themselves actuated by zeal for the
glory of their Lord, and so they were in part. But the flame
of their zeal was not pure ; it was mixed up with, the bitter
smoke of carnal passions, anger, pride, self-will. Then, again,
their spirit was not such as became the apostles of the gospel,
the heralds of a new era of grace. They were chosen to
preach a message of mercy to every creature, even to the chief
of sinners ; to tell of a love that suffered not itself to be over-
come of evil, but sought to overcome evil with good ; to found
a kingdom composed of citizens from every nation, wherein
should be neither Jew nor Samaritan, but Christ all and in
all. What a work to be achieved by men filled with the fire-
breathing spirit of the " sons of thunder !" Obviously a
great change must be wrought within them, to fit them for the
high vocation wherewith they have been called,

Finally, the spirit of James and John was, of course, not
that of their Master. He " came not to destroy men's lives, but
to save them."^ To see the difference between the mind of the
disciples and that of Jesus, put this scene side by side with
that other which happened on Samaritan ground — the meeting
by the well. We know, what we have seen here : what see we
there ? The Son of man, as a Jew, speaking to and having
dealings with a Samaritan, so seeking to abolish inveterate and
deep-seated enmities between man and man ; as the friend of
sinners, seeking to restore a poor, erring, guilty creature to
God and holiness ; as the Christ announcing the close of an
old time, in which the worship even of the true God was
ritualistic, exclusive, and local, and the advent of a new reli-
gious era characterized by the attributes of spirituality, uni-
versality, and catholicity. And we see Jesus rejoicing, enthu-
siastic in His work ; deeming it His very meat and drink to
reveal to men one God and Father, one Saviour, one life, for
all without distinction ; to regenerate individual character,
society, and religion; to break down all barriers separating
man from God and from his fellow-men, and so to become
the great Eeconciler and Peacemaker. Thinking of this work

^ Tlie words quoted are regarded by critics as a gloss ; but, like those referred
to iu the previous note, they are true and appropriate.

THE SONS OF THUNDER, OR FIRE FROM HEAVEN. 249

as exliibited by sample in the conversion of the woman by
the well, He speaks to His surprised and unsympathetic dis-
ciples as one who perceives on the eastern horizon the first
faint streaks of light heralding the advent of a new glorious
day, and all around, in the field of the world, yellow crops of
grain ripe for the sickle. " It is coming on apace," He says
in effect, " the blessed, long-expected era, after a long night of
spiritual darkness ; the new world is about to begin : lift up
your eyes and look on the fields of Gentile lands, and see how
they be white already for the harvest !"

At the time of the meeting by the well, the disciples who
were with Jesus neither understood nor sympathized with His
high thoughts and hopes. The bright prospect on which His
eyes were riveted was not within their horizon. For them,
as for children, the world was still small, a narrow valley
bounded by hills on either side ; while their Master, up on the
mountain-top, saw many valleys beyond, in which He was
interested, and out of which He believed many souls would
find their way into the eternal kingdom.^ For the disciples,
God was yet the God of the Jews only ; salvation was for the
Jews, as well as of them : they knew of only one channel of
grace — Jewish ordinances ; only one way to heaven — that
which lay through Jerusalem.

At the later date, to which the present scene belongs, the
disciples, instead of progressing, seem to have retrograded.
Old bad feelings seem to be intensified, instead of being
replaced by new and better ones. They are now not merely
out of sympathy with, but in direct antagonism to, their Lord's
mind ; not merely apathetic or sceptical about the salvation
of Samaritans, but bent on their destruction. Aversion and
prejudice have grown into a paroxysm of enmity.

Yes, even so ; things must get to the worst before they
begin to mend. There will be no improvement till the Lamb
shall have been slain to take away sin, to abolish enmities,
and to make of twain one new man. It is the knowledge of
that which makes Jesus set His face so stedfastly towards
Jerusalem. He is eager to drink the cup of suffering, and to
be baptized with the baptism of blood, because He knows that
^ This thought is suggested by a passage in Richter's Fkgeljahre.

250 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

only thereby can He finish the work whereof He spoke in
such glowing language on the earlier occasion to His disciples.
The very wrath of His devoted followers against the Samari-
tan villagers makes Him quicken His pace on His crossward
way, saying to Himself sadly as He advances, " Let me hasten
on, for not till I am lifted up can these things end."

CHAPTER XVI.

IN PERiEA.

Section i. — Counsels of Perfection.

Matt. xix. 1-26 ; Mark x. 1-27 ; Luke xyiii. 15-27.

AFTER His final departure from Galilee, Jesus found for
Himself a new place of abode and scene of labour for the
brief remainder of His life, in the region lying to the eastward
of the Jordan, at the lower end of its course. " He departed
from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond
Jordan." ^ We may say that He ended His ministry where
it began, healing the sick, and teaching the high doctrines of
the kingdom in the place wliich witnessed His consecration
by baptism to His sacred work, and where He gained His first
disciples.^

This visit of Jesus to Pera^a towards the close of His career
is a fact most interesting and significant in itseK, apart alto-
gether from its accompanying incidents. It was evidently so
regarded by John, who not less carefully than the two first
evangelists records the fact of the visit, though, unlike them,
he gives no details concerning it. The terms in which he
alludes to this event are peculiar. Having briefly explained
how Jesus had provoked the ill-will of the Jews in Jerusalem
at the feast of dedication, he goes on to say : " Therefore they
sought again to take Him ; but He escaped out of their hands,
and went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where John
at first hapiized."^ The word " again," and the reference to the
Baptist, are indicative of reflection and recollection — windows
letting us see into John's heart. He is thinking with emotion
of his personal experiences connected with the first visit of

1 Matt. xix. 1. 2 See ^h. i, ^ Jolin x. 40,

252 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Jesus to those sacred regions, of his first meeting with his
beloved Master, and of the mystic name given to Him by the
Baptist, " the Lamb of God," then uncomprehended by the
disciples, now on the eve of being expounded by events ; and
to the evangelist writing his Gospel, clear as day in the bright
light of the cross.

It was hardly possible that the disciple whom Jesus loved
could do other than tliink of the first visit when speaking of
the second. Even the multitude, as he records, reverted men-
tally to the earlier occasion while following Jesus in the later.
They remembered what John, His forerunner, had said of One
among them whom they knew not, and who yet was far greater
than himself ; and they remarked that his statements, how-
ever improbable they might have appeared at the time, had
been verified by events, and he himself proved to be a true
prophet by Christ's miracles, if not by his own. " John," said
they to each other, " did no miracle ; but all things that John
said of this man were true." ^

If John the discix^le, and even the common people, thought
of the first visit of Jesus to Persea at the time of His second,
we may be sure that Jesus Himself did so also. He had His
own reasons, doubt it not, for going back to that hallowed
neighbourhood. His journey to the Jordan was a pilgrimage
to holy ground, on which He could not set His foot without
profound emotion. For there lay His Bethel, where He had
made a solemn baptismal vow, not, as Jacob, to give a tithe
of His substance, but to give Himself, body and soul, a sacri-
fice to His Father, in life and in death ; there the Spuit had
descended on Him like a dove ; there He had heard a celestial
voice of approval and encouragement, the reward of His entire
self-surrender to His Father's holy will. All the recollections
of the place were heart-stirring, recalling solemn obligations,
inspiring holy hopes, urging Him on to the grand consumma-
tion of His life-work ; charging Him by His baptism. His vows,
the descent of the Spirit, and the voice from heaven, to crown
His labours of love, by drinking of the cup of suffering and
death for man's redemption. To these voices of the past He
willingly opened His ear. He wished to hear them, that by

* John X. 41.

INPEE^A: COUNSELS OF PERFECTION. 253

tlieir hallowed tones His spirit might be braced and solem-
nized for the coming agony.

While retiring to Persea for these private reasons, that He
might muse on the past and the future, and link sacred
memories to solemn anticipations, Jesus did not by any means
live there a life of seclusion and solitary meditation. On the
contrary, during His sojourn in that neighbourhood, He was
unusually busy healing the sick, teaching the multitude
" as He was wont " (so Mark states, with a mental refer-
ence to the past ministry in Galilee), answering inquiries, re-
ceiving visits, granting favours. " Many resorted unto Him"
there, on various errands. Pharisees came, asking entangling
questions about marriage and divorce, hoping to catch Him
in a trap, and commit Him to the expression of an opinion
which would make Him unpopular with some party or school,
Hillel's or Shammai's,^ it did not matter which. A young
ruler came with more honourable intent, to inquire how he
might obtain eternal life. IMothers came with their little ones,
beseeching for them His blessing, thinking it worth getting,
and not fearing denial ; and messengers came with sorrowful
tidings from friends, who looked to Him as their comfort in
the time of trouble.

Though busily occupied among the thronging crowd, Jesus
contrived to have some leisure hours with His chosen disciples,
during which He taught them some new lessons on the doc-
trine of the divine kingdom. The subject of these lessons
was sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom, — a theme congenial
to the place, the time, the situation, and the mood of the
Teacher. The external occasion suggesting that topic was
supplied by the interviews Jesus had had with the Pharisees
and the young ruler. These interviews naturally led Him to
speak to His disciples on the subject of self-sacrifice under
two special forms, — abstinence from marriage, and renuncia-
tion of property, — though He did not confine His discourse
to these points, but went on to set forth the rewards of self-
sacrifice in any form, and the spirit in which all sacrifices
must be performed, in order to possess value in God's sight.

' The question of divorce was a subject of dispute between these two schools,
the loose and the strict schools of morals respectively.

254 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

The Pharisees, we read, " came unto Him, tempting Him,
and saying. Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every
cause ?" To this question Jesus replied, by laying down the
primitive principle, that divorce was justified only by conjugal
infidelity, and by explaining, that anything to the contrary
in the law of Moses was simply an accommodation to the
hardness of men's hearts. The disciples heard this reply, and
they made their own remarks on it. They said to Jesus : " If
the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to
marry." The view enunciated by their Master, which took
no account of incompatibility of temper, involuntary dislike,
uncongeniality of habits, differences in religion, quarrels among
relatives, as pleas for separation, seemed very stringent even,
to them ; and they thought that a man would do well to con-
sider what he was about before committing himself to a life-
long engagement with such possibilities before him, and to ask
himself whether it would not be better, on the whole, to steer
clear of such a sea of troubles, by abstaining from wedlock
altogether.

The iinpromptu remark of the disciples, viewed in con-
nection with its probable motives, was not a very wise one ;
yet it is to be observed that Jesus did not absolutely disap-
prove of it. He spoke as if He rather sympathized with the
feeling in favour of celibacy, — as if to abstain from marriage
were the better and wiser way, and only not to be required of
men because for the majority it was impracticable. " But He
said unto them. All men cannot receive this saying, save they
to whom it is given." Then going on to enumerate the cases
in which, from any cause, men remained unmarried. He spoke
with apparent approbation of some who voluntarily, and from
high and holy motives, denied themselves the comfort of
family relationships : " There be eunuchs which have made
themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." Such,
He finally gave His disciples to understand, were to be imi-
tated by all who felt called and able to do so. " He that
is able to receive (this high virtue), let him receive it," He
said, hinting that, while many men could not receive it, but
could more easily endure all possible drawbacks of married life,
even on the strictest views of conjugal obligation, than preserve

IN PEE^A: COUNSELS OF PEKFECTION. 255

perfect chastity in an unmarried state, it was well for him who
could make himself a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven, as he
would not only escape much trouble, but be free from careful-
ness, and be able to serve the kingdom without distraction.

The other form of self-sacrifice — the renunciation of pro-
perty— became the subject of remark between Jesus and His
disciples, in consequence of the interview with the young man
who came inquiring about eternal life. Jesus, reading the
heart of this anxious inquirer, and perceiving that he loved
this world's goods more than was consistent with spiritual
freedom and entire singleness of mind, had concluded His
directions to him by giving this counsel : " If thou wilt be
perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and
then thou shalt have treasure in heaven : and come, and
follow me." The young man having thereon turned away
sorrowful, because, though desiring eternal life, he was un-
willing to obtain it at such a price, Jesus proceeded to make
his case a subject of reflection for the instruction of the
twelve. In the observations He made He did not expressly
say that to part with property was necessary to salvation, but
He did speak in a manner which seemed to the disciples
almost to imply that. Looking round about, He remarked to
them first, " How hardly shaU they that have riches enter
into the kingdom of God !" The disciples being astonished at
this hard saying. He softened it somewhat by altering slightly
the form of expression. " Children," He said, " how hard is it
for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of
God I " hinting that the thing to be renounced in order to
salvation, was not money, but the inordinate love of it. But
then He added a third reflection, which, by its austerity,
more than cancelled the mildness of the second. " It is
easier," He declared, " for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
God." That assertion, literally interpreted, amounts to a
declaration that the salvation of a rich man is an impossi-
bility, and seems to teach by plain implication, that the only
way for a rich man to get into heaven is to cease to be rich,
and become poor by a voluntary renunciation of property.
Such seems to have been the impression made thereby on the

256 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

minds of the disciples ; for we read that tliey were astonislied
above naeasiu-e, and said among themselves, " Who then can
, he saved ? " ^

It is an inquiry of vital moment, what our Lord really
meant to teach on the subjects of marriage and money. The
question concerns not merely the life to come, but the whole
character of our present life. For if man's life on earth doth
not consist wholly in possessions and family relations, these
occupy a very prominent place therein. Family relations are
essential to the existence of society, and without wealth there
could be no civilisation. Did Jesus, then, frown or look
down on these things, as at least unfavourable to, if not in-
compatible with, the interests of the divine kingdom and the
aspirations of its citizens ?

This question up till the time of the Eeformation was for
the most part answered by the visible church in the affir-
mative. From a very early period, the idea began to be
entertained that Jesus meant to teach the intrinsic supe-
riority, in point of Christian virtue, of a life of celibacy and
voluntary poverty, over that of a married man possessing
property. Abstinence from marriage and renunciation of
earthly possessions came, in consequence, to be regarded as
essential requisites for high Christian attainments. They
were steps of the ladder by which Christians rose to higher
grades of grace than were attainable by men involved in
family cares and ties, and in the entanglements of worldly
substance. They were not, indeed, necessary to salvation, —
to obtain that is a simple admission into heaven, — but they
were necessary to obtain an abundant entrance. They were
trials of virtue appointed to be imdergone by candidates for
honours in the city of God. They were indispensable con-
ditions of the higher degrees of spiritual fruitfulness. A
married or rich Christian might produce thirty-fold, but only
those who denied themselves the enjoyments of wealth and
wedlock could bring forth sixty-fold or an hundred-fold.
While, therefore, these virtues of abstinence were not to be
demanded of all, they were to be commended as " counsels of
perfection " to such as, not content to be commonplace Chris-
1 Mark x. 23-27.

IN PER^A: COUNSELS OF PERFECTION. 257

tians, would rise to the heroic pitch of excellence, and, despis-
ing a simple admission into the divine kingdom, wished to
occupy first places there.

This style of thought is now so antiquated, that it is hard
to believe it ever prevailed. As a proof, however, that it is
no invention of ours, take two brief extracts from a distin-
guished bishop and martyr of the third century, Cyprian of
Carthage, which are samples of much of the same kind to be
found in the early Fathers of the church. The one quotation
proclaims the superior virtue of voluntary virginity in these
terms : " Strait and narrow is the way which leads to life,
hard and arduous is the path (limes, narrower still than the
narrow way) which tends to glory. Along this path of the
way go the martyrs, go virgins, go all the just. For the first
(degree of fruitfulness), the hundred-fold, is that of the martyrs ;
the second, the sixty-fold, is yours (ye virgins)." ^ The second
extract, while ascribing, like the first, superior merit to virgi-
nity, indicates the optional character of that high-class virtue,
Referring to the words of Christ, " There be eunuchs which
have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's
sake," Cyprian says : " This the Lord commands not, but
exhorts ; He imposes not the yoke of necessity, that the free
choice of the will might remain. But whereas He says (John
xiv. 2), that there are many mansions with His Father, He
here points out the lodging quarters of the better mansion
(melioris hahitaculi hospitia). Seek ye, 0 virgins, those better
mansions. Crucifying (castrantes) the desires of the flesh,
obtain for yourselves the reward of greater grace in the celes-
tial abodes." ^

Similar views were entertained in those early ages re-
specting the meaning of Christ's words to the young man.
The inevitable results of such interpretations in due course
were monastic institutions and the celibacy of the clergy.
The direct connection between an ascetic interpretation of
the counsel given by Jesus to the rich youth who inquired
after eternal life, and the rise of monasticism, is apparent in

^ De Discipline et Hahitu Virginum, suh fintm [Clark's Ante-Nicene Library,
Cyprian, vol. i. p. 333].
^ Ex eodem libro.

258 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

the history of Antony, the father of the monastic system.
It is related of him, that going into the church on one occa-
sion when the gospel concerning the rich young man was
read before the assembly, he, then also young, took the words
as addressed by Heaven to himself. Going out of the church,
he forthwith proceeded to distribute to the inhabitants of his
native village his large, fertile, and beautiful landed estates
which he inherited from his fathers, reserving only a small
portion of his property for the benefit of his sister. Not
long after he gave away that also, and placed his sister to be
educated with a society of pious virgins, and settling down
near his paternal mansion, began a life of rigid asceticism.^

The ascetic theory of Christian virtue, which so soon began
to prevail in the church, has been fully tested by time, and
proved to be a huge and mischievous mistake. The verdict
of history is conclusive, and to return to an exploded error, as
some seem disposed to do, is utter folly. At this time of day,
the views of those who would find the hcau ideal of Christian
life in a monk's cell appear hardly worthy of serious refuta-
tion. It may, however, be useful briefly to indicate the leading
errors of the monkish theory of morals ; all the more that, in
doing this, we shall at the same time be explaining the true
meaning of our Lord's words to His disciples.

This theory, then, is in the first place based on an erro-
neous assumption — viz., that abstinence from things lawful
is intrinsically a higher sort of vu-tue than temperance in
the use of them. This is not true. Abstinence is the virtue
of the weak, temperance is the virtue of the strong. Absti-
nence is certainly the safer way for those who are prone to
inordinate aftection, but it purchases safety at the expense
of moral culture ; for it removes us from those temptations
connected with family relationships and earthly possessions,
through which character, while it may be imperilled, is at the
same time developed and strengthened. Abstinence is also
inferior to temperance in healthiness of tone. It tends in-
evitably to morbidity, distortion, exaggeration. The ascetic
virtues were wont to be called by their admirers angelic.

' Vita S. Anton'd (Atlianasii). See also Neander, Church IIistO)-t/, Clark's
edition, vol. iii. p. 308.

IN PER^A: COUNSELS OF PERFECTION. 259

Tliey are certainly angelic in the negative sense, of being
unnatural and inhuman. Ascetic abstinence is the ghost or
disembodied spirit of morality, while temperance is its soul,
embodied in a genuine human life transacted amid earthly
relations, occupations, and enjoyments. Abstinence is even
inferior to temperance in respect to what seems its strong
point — self-sacrifice. There is something morally sublime,
doubtless, in the spectacle of a man of wealth, birth, high
office, and happy domestic condition, leaving rank, riches,
office, wife, children behind, and going away to the deserts of
Sinai and Egypt to spend his days as a monk or anchoret.-^
The stern resolution, the absolute mastery of the will over
the natural affections exhibited in such conduct, is very im-
posing. Yet how poor, after all, is such a character compared
with Abraham, the father of the faithful, and model of tem-
perance and singleness of mind ; who could use the world,
of which he had a large portion, without abusing it ; who
kept his wealth and state, and yet never became their slave,
and was ready at God's command to part with his friends and
his native land, and even with an only son ! So to live,
serving ourselves heir to all things, yet maintaining unim-
paired our spiritual freedom ; enjoying life, yet ready at
the call of duty to sacrifice life's dearest enjoyments : this is
true Christian virtue, the higher Christian life for those who
would be perfect. Let us have many Abrahams so living
among our men of wealth, and there is no fear of the church
going back to the middle ages. Only when the rich, as a
class, are luxurious, vain, selfish, and proud, is there a danger
of the tenet gaining credence among the serious, that there
is no possibihty of living a truly Christian life except by
parting with property altogether.

The ascetic theory is also founded on an error in the
interpretation of Christ's sayings. These do not assert or
imply any intrinsic superiority of celibacy and voluntary
poverty over the conditions to which they are opposed. They
only imply, that in certain circumstances the unmarried dis-
possessed state affords peculiar facilities for attending with-

^ We refer to Nilus of Constantinople. See Isaac Taylor's Logic in Theology,
p. 130,

260 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

out distraction to the interests of tlie divine kingdom. This
is certainly true. It is less easy sometimes to be single-
minded in the service of Christ as a married person than as
an unmarried, as a rich man than as a poor man. This is
especially true in times of hardship and danger, when men
must either not be on Christ's side at all, or be prepared to
sacrifice all for His sake. The less one has to sacrifice in
such a case, the easier it is for him to bear his cross and play
the hero ; and he may be pronounced happy at such a crisis
who has no family to forsake, and no worldly concerns to
distract him. Personal character may suffer from such isola-
tion : it may lose geniality, tenderness, and grace, and con-
tract something of inhuman sternness, but the particular tasks
required will be more likely to be thorouglily done. On tliis
account, it may be said with truth that " the forlorn hope in
battle, as well as in the cause of Christianity, must consist of
men who have no domestic relations to divide their devotion,
who will leave no wife nor children to mourn over their loss."^
Yet this statement cannot be taken without qualification.
For it is not impossible for married and wealthy Christians to
take their place in the forlorn hope : many have done so, and
those who do are the greatest heroes of all. The advantage
is not necessarily and invariably on the side of those who are
disengaged from all embarrassing relationships even in time of
war ; and in times of peace it is all on the other side. Monks,
like soldiers, are liable to frightful degeneracy and corruption
when there are no great tasks for them to do. Men who in
emergencies are capable, in consequence of their freedom from
all domestic and secular embarrassments, of rising to an al-
most superhuman pitch of self-denial, may at other seasons
sink to a depth of self-indidgence in sloth and sensuality
which is rarely seen in those who enjoy the protecting in-
fluence of family ties and business engagements.^

The theory under consideration is guilty, in the third place,
of an error in logic. On the assumption that abstinence is
necessarily and intrinsically a higher virtue than temperance,

' Robertson (Brighton). Sermons, Series iii. : On Marriage and Celibacy.
2 For a dark picture of the corruption prevalent among the monastics in early
ages, see Isaac Taylor's Ancient Christianity.

IN PERiEA: COUNSELS OF PERFECTION. 261

it is illogical to speak of it as optional. In that case, our
Lord should have given not counsels, but commands. For
no man is at liberty to choose whether he shall be a good
Christian or an indifferent one, or is excused from practising
certain virtues merely because they are difficult. It is abso-
lutely incumbent on all to press on towards perfection ; and if
celibacy and poverty be necessary to perfection, then all who
profess godliness should renounce wedlock and property. The
Church of Eome, consistently with her theory of morals, for-
bids her priests to marry. But why stop there ? Surely what
is good for priests is good for people as well.

The reason why the prohibition is not carried further, is of
course that the laws of nature and the requirements of society
render it impracticable. And this brings us to the last objec-
tion to the ascetic theory, viz. that, consistently carried out,
it lands in absurdity, by involving the destruction of society
and the human race. A theory which involves such con-
sequences cannot be true. For the kingdom of grace and the
kingdom of nature are not mutually destructive. One God is
the sovereign of both ; and all things belonging to the lower
kingdom — every relation of life, every faculty, passion, and
appetite of our nature, all material possessions — are capable
of being made subservient to the interests of the higher king-
dom, and of contributing to our growth in grace and holiness.

The grand practical difficulty is to give the kingdom of
God and His righteousness their due place of supremacy, and
to keep aU other things in strict subordination. The object
of those hard sayings uttered by Jesus in Persea was to fix
the attention of the disciples and of all on that difficulty.
He spoke so strongly, that men compassed by the cares of
family and the comforts of wealth might duly lay to heart
their danger ; and conscious of their own helplessness, might
seek grace from God to do that which, though difficult, is not
impossible : viz., while married, to be as if unmarried, caring
for the things of the Lord ; and while rich, to be humble in
mind, free in spirit, and devoted in heart to the service of
Christ.

One word now on the beautiful incident of the little chil-
dren brought to Jesus to get His blessing. Who can believe

262 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

that it was His intention to teacli a monkish theory of
morals after reading that story 1 How opportunely those
mothers came to Him, seeking a blessing for their little ones,
just after He had uttered words which might be interpreted,
and were actually interpreted in after ages, as a disparagement
of family relations ! Their visit gave Him an opportunity of
entering His protest by anticipation against such a miscon-
struction of His teaching. And the officious interference of
the twelve to keep away the mothers and their offspring from
their Master's person, only made that protest all the more
emphatic. The disciples seem to have taken from the words
Jesus had just spoken concerning abstaining from marriage
for the sake of the kingdom, the very impression out of which
monasticism sprang. "What does He care," thought they,
" for you mothers and your children ? His whole thoughts are
of the kingdom of heaven, where they neither marry nor are
given in marriage : go away, and don't trouble Him at this
time." The Lord did not thank His disciples for thus guarding
His person from intrusion like a band of policemen. " He was
much displeased, and said unto them. Suffer the little chil-
dren to come unto me, and forbid them not : for of such is
the kingdom of God." ^

Section ii. — Tlie Eewards of Self-sacrifice.

Matt. xix. 27-30 ; Mark x. 28-31 ; Ltjke xviii. 28-30.

The remarks of Jesus on the temptations of riches, which
seemed so discouraging to the other disciples, had a different
effect on the mind of Peter. They led him to think with
self-complacency of the contrast presented by the conduct of
himself and his brethren, to that of the youth who came in-
quiring after eternal life. " We," thought he to himself, " have
done what the young man could not do, — what, according to
the statement just made by the Master, rich men find very

1 Mark x. 14. For an admirable defence of the anti-ascetic interpretation of
Christ's words to the young rich man, see the tract of Clement of Alexandria,
Quis dives salvetur.

INPEK^A: THE REWAEDS OF SELF-SACRIFICE. 263

hard to do : we have left all to follow Jesus. Surely an act
so difficult and so rare must be very meritorious." With his
characteristic frankness, as he thought so he spoke. " Be-
hold," said he with a touch of brag in his tone and manner,
" we have forsaken all, and followed Thee : what shall we have
therefore ? "

To this question of Peter, Jesus returned a reply full at once
of encouragement and of warning for the twelve, and for all
who profess to be servants of God. First, with reference to
the subject-matter of Peter's inquiry. He set forth in glowing
language the great rewards in store for him and his brethren j
and not for them only, but for all who made sacrifices for the
kingdom. Then, with reference to the self-complacent or
calcid-ating spirit which, in part at least, had prompted the
inquiry, He added a moral reflection, with an illustrative
parable appended, conveying the idea that rewards in the
kingdom of God were not determined merely by the fact, or
even by the amount, of sacrifice. Many that were first in
these respects, might be last in real merit, for lack of another
element which formed an essential ingredient in the calcula-
tion, viz. right motive; while others who were last in these
respects might be first in recompense, in virtue of the spirit
by which they were animated. We shall consider these two
parts of the reply in succession. Our present theme is, the
rewards of self-sacrifice in the divine hiyigdoni.

The first thing which strikes one in reference to these re-
wards, is the utter disproportion between them and the sacri-
fices made. The twelve had forsaken fishing-boats and nets,
and they were to be rewarded with thrones ; and every one
that forsakes anytliing for the kingdom, no matter what it
may be, is promised an hundred-fold in return, in this present
life, of the very thing he has renounced, and in the world to
come life everlasting.

These promises strikingly illustrate the generosity of the
Master whom Christians serve. How easy it would have
been for Jesus to depreciate the sacrifices of His followers,
and even to turn their glorying into ridicule ! " You have
forsaken all ! What was your- all worth, pray ? If the rich
young man had parted with his possessions as I counselled.

264 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

he might have had something to boast of; but as for you
poor fishermen, any sacrifices you have made are hardly
deserving of mention." But such words could not have been
uttered by Christ's lips. It was never His way to despise
things small in outward bulk, or to disparage services rendered
to Himself, as if with a view to diminish His own obliga-
tions. He rather loved to make Himself a debtor to His
servants, by generously exaggerating the value of their good
deeds, and promising to them, as their fit recompense, rewards
immeasurably exceeding their claims. So He acted in the
present instance. Though the " aR " of the disciples was a
very little one. He still remembered that it was their all ; and
with impassioned earnestness, with a " verily " full of tender,
grateful feeling, He promised them thrones as if they had
been fairly earned !

These great and precious promises, if beheved, would make
sacrifices easy. Who would not part with a fishing-boat for
a throne ? and what merchant would stick at an investment
which would bring a return, not of five per cent., or even of
a hundred per cent., but of a hundred to one ?

The promises made by Jesus have one other excellent
effect when duly considered. They tend to humble. Their
very magnitude has a sobering effect on the mind. Not even
the vainest can pretend that theb good deeds deserve to be
rewarded with thrones, and their sacrifices to be recompensed
an hundred-fold. At this rate, all must be content to be
debtors to God's grace, and all talk of merit is out of the
question. That is one reason why the rewards of the king-
dom of heaven are so great. God bestows His gifts so as at
once to glorify the Giver and to humble the receiver.

Thus far of the rewards in general. Looking now more
narrowly at those specially made to the twelve, we remark
that on the surface they seem fitted to awaken or foster false
expectation. Wliatever they meant in reality, there can be
little doubt as to the meaning the disciples woidd put on
them at the time. The " regeneration " and the " thrones " of
which their Master spake would bring before their imagination
the picture of a kingdom of Israel restored, — regenerated in
the sense in which we now speak of a regenerated Italy : —

INPEE^A: THE KEWARDS OF SELF-SACRIFICE. 265

the yoke of foreign domination thrown off; alienated tribes
reconciled and reunited under the rule of Jesus, proclaimed
by popular enthusiasm their hero King ; and themselves, the
men who had first believed in His royal pretensions and
shared His early fortunes, rewarded for their fidelity by being
made provincial governors, each ruling over a separate tribe.

These romantic ideas were never to be realized ; and we
naturally ask why Jesus, knowing that, expressed HimseK in
language fitted to encourage such baseless fancies ? The
answer is, that He could not accomplish the end He designed,
which was to inspire His disciples with hope, without express-
ing His promise in terms which involved the risk of illusion.
Language so chosen as to obviate all possibility of miscon-
ception would have had no inspiring influence whatever.
The promise, to have any charm, must be like a rainbow,
bright in its hues, and solid and substantial in its appearance.
This remark applies not only to the particular promise now
under consideration, but more or less to all God's promises in
Scripture or in nature. In order to stimulate, they must to
a certain extent deceive us, by promising that which, as we
conceive it, and cannot at the time help conceiving it, will
never be realized.^ The rainbow is painted in such colours
as to draw us, children as we are, irresistibly on ; and then,
having served that end, it fades away. When this happens,
we are ready to exclaim, " 0 Lord, Thou hast deceived me ! "
but we ultimately find that we are not cheated out of our
blessing, though it comes in a different form from what we
expected. God's promises are never delusive, though they
may be illusive. Such was the experience of the twelve in
connection with the dazzling promise of thrones. They did
not get what they expected, but they got something analogous,
something which to their mature spiritual judgment appeared
far greater and more satisfying than that on which they had
first set their hearts.

What, then, was this Something ? A real glory, honour,
and power in the kingdom of God, conferred on the twelve as
the reward of their seK-sacrifice, partially in this life, per-

1 See a striking sermon on this point by Eev. F. W. Robertson, in third
series of his Sermons. Subject — The Illusiveness of Life.

266 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

fectly in tlie life to come. In so far as the promise referred
to this present life, it signified, we presume, the judicial legis-
lative influence of the companions of Jesus, as apostles and
founders of the Cliristian church. The twelve, as the first
preachers of the gospel trained by the Lord for that end,
occupied a position in the church that could be filled by
none that came after them. The keys of the kingdom of
heaven were put into their hands. They were the foundation
stones on which the walls of the church were built. They
sat, so to speak, on episcopal thrones, judging, guiding, ruling
the twelve tribes of the true Israel of God, the holy common-
wealth embracing all who professed faith in Christ. Such a
sovereign influence the twelve apostles exerted in their life-
time ; yea, they continue to exert it still. Their word not
only was, but still is, law; their example has ever been
regarded as binding on all ages. From their epistles, as the
inspired expositions of their Master's pregnant sayings, the
church has derived the system of doctrine embraced in her
creed. All that remains of their writings forms part of the
sacred canon, and all their recorded words are accounted by
believers " words of God." Surely here is power and autho-
rity nothing short of regal ! The reality of sovereignty is
here, though the trappings of royalty, which strike the vulgar
eye, are wanting. The apostles of Jesus were princes indeed,
though they wore no princely robes ; and they were destined
to exercise a more extensive sway than ever fell to the lot of
any monarch of Israel, not to speak of governors of single tribes.
The promise to the twelve had doubtless a reference to
their position in the church in heaven, as well as in the
church on eartL What they will be in the eternal kingdom
we know not, any more than we know what we ourselves shall
be, our notions of heaven altogether being very hazy. We
believe, however, on the ground of clear Scripture statements,
that men will not be on a dead level in heaven any more
than on earth. Eadicalism is not the law of the supernal
commonwealth, even as it is not the law in any well-ordered
society in this world. The kingdom of glory will be but the
Idngdom of grace perfected, the regeneration begun here
brought to its final and complete development. But the

INPEE/EA: THE EEWARDS OF SELF-SACRIFICE. 267

regeneration, in its imperfect state, is an attempt to organize
men into a society based on the possession of spiritual life,
all being included in the kingdom who are new creatures in
Christ Jesus, and the highest place being assigned to those
who have attained the highest stature as spiritual men. This
ideal has never been more than approximately realized. The
" visible " church, the product of the attempt to realize it, is,
and ever has been, a most disappointing embodiment, in out-
ward visible shape, of the ideal city of God. Ambition,
selfishness, worldly wisdom, courtly arts, have too often pro-
cured thrones for false apostles, who never forsook anything
for Christ. Therefore we still look forward and upward
with longing eyes for the true city of God, which shall as far
exceed our loftiest conceptions as the visible church comes
short of them. In that ideal commonwealth perfect moral
order will prevail. Every man shall be in his own true
place there ; no vile men shaU be in high places, no noble
souls shall be doomed to obstruction, obscurity, and neglect ;
but the noblest will be the highest and first, even though
now they be the lowest and last. " There shall be true glory,
where no one shall be praised by mistake or in flattery ; true
honour, which shall be denied to no one worthy, granted to
no one unworthy; nor shall any unworthy one ambitiously
seek it, where none but the worthy are permitted to be." ^

Among the noblest in the supernal commonwealth will be
the twelve men who cast in their lot with the Son of man,
and were His companions in His wanderings and tempta-
tions. There will probably be many in heaven greater than
they in intellect and otherwise ; but the greatest will most
readily concede to them the place of honour as the first to
believe in Jesus, the personal friends of the Man of sorrow,
and the chosen vessels who carried His name to the nations,
and in a sense opened the kingdom of heaven to aU who
believe.^

Such we conceive to be the import of the promise made to

^ Aiigustini de Civitate Dei, xxii. 30.

2 The superior rank of the twelve iu the eternal kingdom is recognised in the
book of Revelation, chap. xxi. 14 : " The walls of the city had twelve founda-
tions, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."

268 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

the apostles, as leaders of the white-robed band of martyrs and
confessors who suffer for Christ's sake. We proceed to notice
the general promise made to all the faithful indiscriminately.
" There is no man," so it runs in Mark, " that hath left house,
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive
an hundred-fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and
sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecu-
tions, and in the world to come eternal life."

This promise also, like the special one to the twelve, has a
twofold reference. Godliness is represented as profitable for
both worlds. In the world to come, the men who make sacri-
fices for Christ will receive eternal life ; in the present they
shall receive, along with persecutions, an hundred-fold of the
very things which have been sacrificed. As to the former of
these, eternal Kfe, it is to be understood as the minimum re-
ward in the great Hereafter. All the faithful will get that
at least. What a maximum is that minimum ! How blessed
to be assured on the word of Christ, that there is such a
thing as eternal life attainable on any terms ! We may well
play the man for truth and conscience, and fight the good
fight of faith, when, by so doing, it is possible for us to gain
such a prize. A hope so gx-eat and so divine may trials
well endure. To win the crown of an imperishable life
of bliss, we should not deem it an unreasonable demand on
the Lord's part that we be faithful even unto death. Life
sacrificed on these terms is but a river emptying itseK into
the ocean, or the morning star losing itseK in the perfect light
of day. Oh that we could lay hold firmly of the blessed hope
set before us here, and through its magic influence become
transformed into moral heroes ! We in these days have but a
faint belief in the life to come. Our eyes are dim, and we
cannot see the land that is afar off. Some of us have become
so philosophical, as to imagine we can do without the future
reward promised by Jesus, and play the hero on atheistical
principles. That remains to be seen. The annals of the mar-
tyrs teU us what men have been able to achieve who earnestly
believed in the life everlasting. Up to this date we have not
heard of any great heroisms enacted or sacrifices made by

IN PER^A : THE REWAEDS OF SELF-SACRIFICE. 269

unlclievers. The martyrology of scepticism has not yet been
written.

That part of Christ's promise which respects hereafter mnst
be taken on trust ; but the other part, which concerns the pre-
sent life, admits of being tested by observation. The question,
therefore, may competently be put : Is it true, as matter of
fact, that sacrifices are recompensed by an hundred-fold — that
is, a manifold^ — return in kind in this world ? To this ques-
tion we may reply, first, that the promise will be found to
hold good with the regularity of a law, if we do not confine
our view to the individual life, but include successive genera-
tions. When providence has had time to work out its results,
the meek do, at least by their heirs and representatives, inherit
the earth, and delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
The persecuted cause at length conquers the world's homage,
and receives from it such rewards as it can bestow. The
words of the prophet are then fulfilled : " The children which
thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other (by persecutors'
hands), shall say again in thine ears. The place is too strait
for me : give place to me that I may dwell." ^ And again :
" Lift up thine eyes round about, and see ; all they gather
themselves together, they come to thee : thy sons shall come
from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then
thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shaU throb
and sweU. ; because the abundance of the sea shaU be converted
unto thee, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.
Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt
suck the breast of kings. For brass I will bring gold, and for
iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones
iron."^ These prophetic promises, extravagant though they
seem, have been fulfilled again and again in the history of the
church : in the early ages, under Constantine, after the fires
of persecution kindled by pagan zeal for hoary superstitions
and idolatries had finally died out ; * in Protestant Britain,

' woXXa.'xXa.a'io^ia., Luke xviii. 30, 2 jsa. xlix. 20.

3 Isa. Ix. 4, 5, 16, 17.

* See sermon of Paulinus of Tyre at the consecration of his churcli, rebuilt,
like many others, after the last persecution — the churches having been destroyed
by the edict of Diocletian. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. x. 4.

270 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

once famous for men who were ready to lose all, and who
did actually lose much, for Chiist's sake, now mistress of the
seas, and heiress of the wealth of all the world ; in the new
world across the Atlantic, with its great, powerful, populous
nation rivalling England in wealth and strength, grown from
a small band of Puritan exiles who loved religious liberty
better than country, and sought refuge from despotism in the
savage wildernesses of an unexplored continent.

The beginnings of this temporal rewarding of suffering for
righteousness' sake may sometimes be observed even in the
lifetime of the sufferers. We have a modern instance of this
in the history of the Free Church of Scotland. "What a
wonderful progress towards the realization of Christ's promise
has been made in a short quarter of a century ! Those who
left their worldly aU at the call of duty, have got at least as
much, if not a hundred times as much, as they abandoned —
churches, manses, stipends, congregations of brothers and
sisters in the Lord, to their hearts' desire.^

StiU it must be confessed that, taken strictly and literally,
the promise of Clu-ist does not hold good in every instance.
Multitudes of God's servants have had what the world would
account a miserable lot. Does the promise then simply and
absolutely fail in their case ? No ; for, secondly, there are
more ways than one in which it can be fulfilled. Blessings, for
example, may be multiplied an hundred-fold, without their ex-
ternal bulk being altered, simply by the act of renouncing them.
Whatever is sacrificed for truth, whatever we are willing to
part with for Christ's sake, becomes from that moment im-
measurably increased in value. Fathers and mothers, and aU
earthly friends, become unspeakably dear to the heart when
we have learned to say : " Christ is first, and these must be
second." Isaac was worth an hundred sons to Abraham when
he received him back from the dead. Or, to draw an illus-
tration from another quarter, think of John Bunyan in gaol
brooding over his poor blind daughter, whom he left behind

1 The success of the Free Church has been such as to be used as a leading
argument in support of the policy pursued by Mr. Gladstone in disestablishing
the Irish Church, and it will probably be used as an argiiment for disestablish-
ing all state chui'ches.

IN PEE^A: THE EEWAEDS OF SELF-SACRIFICE. 271

at home. " Poor child, thought I," thus he describes his feel-
ings in that inimitable book, Chrace Abounding, "what sorrow
art thou like to have for thy portion in this world ! Thou
must be beaten, must beg, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and
a thousand calamities, though I cannot now endure the wind
should blow upon thee. But yet, thought I, I must venture
you all with God, though it goeth to the quick to leave you.
Oh ! I saw I was as a man who was pulling down his house
upon the heads of his wife and children; yet I thought on
those two milch kine that were to carry the ark of God into
another country, and to leave their calves behind them." If
the faculty of enjoyment be, as it is, the measure of real pos-
session, here was a case in wliich to forsake wife and child
was to multiply them an hundred-fold, and in the multiplied
value of the things renounced to find a rich solatium for sacri-
fice and persecutions. The soliloquy of the Bradford prisoner
is the very poetry of natural affection. What pathos is in
that allusion to the milch kine ! what a depth of tender feel-
ing it reveals ! The power to feel so is the reward of self-
sacrifice ; the power to love so is the reward of " hating " our
kindred for Christ's sake. You shall find no such love among
those who make natural affection an excuse for moral unfaith-
fulness ; thinking it a sufficient apology for disloyalty to the
interests of the divine kingdom to say, " I have a wife and
family to care for."

Without undue spiritualizing, then, we see that a valid
meaning can be assigned to the strong expression " an hundred-
fold." And from the remarks just made, we see further why
" persecutions " are tlnown into the account, as if they were
'not drawbacks, but a part of the gain. The truth is, the
hundred-fold is realized, not in spite of persecutions, but to
a great extent because of them. Persecutions are the salt
with which tilings sacrificed are salted, the condiment which
enhances their relish. Or, to put the matter arithmetically,
persecutions are the factor by which earthly blessings given
up to God are multiplied an hundred-fold, if not in quantity,
at least in virtue.

Such are the rewards provided for those who m^ake sacri-
fices for Christ's sake. Their sacrifices are but a seed sown

272 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

in tears, from which they afterwards reap a plentiful harvest
in joy. But what now of those who have made no sacrifices,
who have received no wounds in battle ? If this has pro-
ceeded not from lack of will, but from lack of opportunity,
they shall get a share of the rewards. David's law has its
place in the divine kingdom : " As his part is that goeth
down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the
stuff: they shall part alike." Only all must see to it, that
they remain not by the stuff from cowardice, or indolence and
self-indulgence. They who act thus, declining to put them-
selves to any trouble, to run any risk, or even so much as
to part with a sinful lust for the kingdom of God, cannot
expect to find a place therein at the last.

Section hi. — The First Last, and the Last First.
Matt. xix. 30, xx. 1-20 ; Mark x. 31.

Having declared the rewards of self-sacrifice, Jesus pro-
ceeded to show the risk of forfeiture or partial loss arising out
of the indulgence of unworthy feelings, whether as motives to
self-denying acts, or as self-complacent reflections on such
acts already performed. " But," He said in a warning manner,
as if with upraised finger, " many that are first shall be last,
and the last shall be first." Then, to explain the profound
remark. He uttered the parable preserved in Matthew's Gospel
only, which follows immediately after.

The explanation is in. some respects more difficult than the
thing to be explained, and has given rise to much diverse
interpretation. And yet the main drift of this parable seems
clear enough. It is not, as some have supposed, designed to
teach that all will share alike in the eternal kingdom, which
is not only irrelevant to the connection of thought, but untrue.
Neither is the parable intended to proclaim the great evan-
gelic truth, that salvation is of grace and not of merit, though
it may be very proper in preaching to take occasion to dis-
course on that fundamental doctrine. The great outstanding
thought set forth therein, as it seems to us, is this, that in

IN PEE^A: FIRST LAST AND LAST FIRST. 273

estimating the value of work, the divine Lord whom all serve
takes into account not merely quantity, but quality ; that is,
the spirit in which the work is done.

The correctness of this view is apparent, when we take a
comprehensive survey of the whole teaching of Jesus on the
important subject of work and wages in the divine kingdom,
from which it appears that the relation between the two
things is fixed by righteous law, caprice being entirely ex-
cluded ; so that if the first in work be last in wages in any
instances, it is for very good reasons.

There are, in aU, three parables in. the Gospels on the sub-
ject referred to, each setting forth a distinct idea, and, in case
our interpretation of the one at present to be specially con-
sidered is correct, all combined presenting an exhaustive view
of the topic to which they relate. They are the parables of
the Talents ^ and of the Pounds,' and the one before us, called
by way of distinction " the Labourers in the Vineyard."

In order to see how these parables are at once distinct and
mutually complementary, it is necessary to keep in view the
principles on which the value of work is to be determined.
Three things must be taken into account, in order to form
a just estimate of men's works ; viz. the quantity of work
done, the ability of the worker, and the motive. Leaving
out of view meantime the motive : when the abUity is equal,
quantity determines relative merit ; and when ability varies,
then it is not the absolute amount, but the relation of the
amount to the ability, that ought to determine value.

The parables of the Pounds and of the Talents are designed
to illustrate respectively these two propositions. In the
former parable, the ability is the same in all — each servant re-
ceiving one pound ; but the quantity of work done varies, one
servant with his pound gaining ten pounds, while another with
the same amount gains only five. Now, by the above rule,
the second should not be rewarded as the first, for he has not
done what he might. Accordingly, in the parable a distinc-
tion is made, both in the rewards given to the two servants,
and in the manner in which they are respectively addressed
by their employer. The first gets ten cities to govern, and

^ Matt. XXV. 14-30. 2 L^^e xix. 12-28.

274 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

these words of commendation in addition : " Well, thou good
servant ; because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have
thou authority over ten cities." The second, on the other hand,
gets only five cities, and, what is even more noticeable, no
praise. His master says to him drily, " Be thou also over
five cities." He had done somewhat, in comparison with
idlers even something considerable, and therefore his service
is acknowledged and proportionally rewarded. But he is not
pronounced a good and faithful servant ; and the eulogy is
withheld, simply because it was not deserved : for he had not
done what he could, but only half of what was possible,
taking the first servant's work as the measure of possibility.

In the parable of the Talents the conditions are different.
There the amount of work done varies, as in the parable of the
Pounds ; but the ability varies in the same proportion, so that
the ratio between the two is the same in the case of both
servants who put their talents to use. One receives five, and
gains five ; the other receives two, and gains two. According
to our rule, these two should be equal in merit ; and so
they are represented in the parable. The same reward is
assigned to each, and both are commended in the very same
terms ; the master's words in either case being : " 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."

Thus the case stands when we take into account only the
two elements of ability to work, and the amount of work
done ; or, to combine both into one, the element of zeal.
But there is more than zeal to be considered, at least in the
kino'dom of God. In this world men are often commended
for their diligence, irrespective of their motives ; and it is not
always necessary even to be zealous in order to gain vulgar
applause. If one do something that looks large and liberal,
men will praise him without inquiring whether for him it
was a great thing, a heroic act involving self-sacrifice, or only
a respectable act, not necessarily indicative of earnestness
or devotion. But in God's sight many bulky things are
very little, and many small things are very great. The
reason is, that He seeth the heart, and the hidden springs of

IN PER^A: FIEST LAST AND LAST FIRST. 275

action there, and judges the stream by the fountain. Quantity
is nothing to Him, unless there be zeal ; and even zeal is
nothing to Him, unless it be purged from all vainglory and
self-seeking, — a pure spring of good impulses ; cleared of all
smoke of carnal passion — a pure flame of heaven-born devo-
tion. A base motive vitiates all.

To emphasize this truth, and to insist on the necessity of
right motives and emotions in connection with work and
sacrifices, is the design of the parable spoken by Jesus in
Peraea. It teaches that a small quantity of work done in a
right spirit is of greater value than a large quantity done in
a wrong spirit, however zealously it may have been performed.
One hour's work done by men who make no bargain is of
greater value than twelve hours' work done by men who have
borne the heat and burden of the day, but who regard their
doings with self-complacency. Put in preceptive form, the
lesson of the parable is : Work not as hirelings basely calcu-
lating, or as Pharisees arrogantly exacting, the wages to which
you deem yourselves entitled ; work humbly, as deeming
yourselves unprofitable servants at best ; generously, as men
superior to selfish calculations of advantage ; trustfully, as
men who confide in the generosity of the great Employer,
regarding Him as one from whom you need not to protect
yourselves by making beforehand a firm and fast bargain.

In this interpretation, it is assumed that the spirit of the
first and of the last to enter the vineyard was respectively
such as has been indicated ; and the assumption is justified
by the manner in which the parties are described. In what
spirit the last worked, may be inferred from their making no
bargain ; and the temper of the first is manifest from their
own words at the end of the day : " These last," said they,
" have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal
to us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day."
This is the language of envy, jealousy, and seK-esteem, and it
is in keeping with the conduct of these labourers at the com-
mencement of the day's work ; for they entered the vineyard
as hirelings, having made a bargain, agreeing to work for a
stipulated amount of wages.

The first and last, then, represent two classes among the

276 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

professed servants of God. The first are the calculating and
seK-complacent ; the last are the humble, the seK-forgetful, the
generous, the trustful. The first are the Jacobs, plodding,
conscientious, able to say for themselves, " Thus I was : in
the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and
the sleep departed from mine eyes ;" yet ever studious of
their own interest, taking care even in their religion to make
a sure bargain for themselves, and trusting little to the free
grace and unfettered generosity of the great Lord. The last
are Abraham-like men, not in the lateness of their service,
but in the magnanimity of their faith, entering the vineyard
without bargaining, as Abraham left his father's house, know-
ing not whither he was to go, but knowing only that God had
said, " Go to a land that I shall show thee." The first are
the Simons, righteous, respectable, exemplary, but hard, pro-
saic, ungenial ; the last are the women with alabaster boxes,
who for long have been idle, aimless, vicious, wasteful of life,
but at last, with bitter tears of sorrow over an unprofitable
past, begin life in earnest, and endeavour to redeem lost
time by the passionate devotion with which they serve their
Lord and Saviour. The first, once more, are the elder
brothers who stay at home in their father's house, and never
transgress any of his commandments, and have no mercy on
those who do ; the last are the prodigals, who leave their
father's house and waste their substance on riotous living,
but at length come to their senses, and say, " I will arise, and
go to my father ;" and having met him, exclaim, " Father, I
have sinned, and am no more worthy to be called thy son :
make me as one of thy hired servants."

The two classes differing thus in character are treated in
the parable precisely as they ought to be. The last are made
first, and the first are made last. The last are paid first, to
signify the pleasure which the master has in rewarding them.
They are also paid at a much higher rate ; for, receiving the
same sum for one hom-'s work that the others receive for
twelve, they are paid at the rate of twelve pence per diem.
They are treated, in fact, as the prodigal was, for whom the
father made a feast ; wliile the " first " are treated as the
elder brother, whose service was acknowledged, but who had

INPER.EA: FIEST LAST AND LAST FIRST. 277

to complain that his father never had given him a Md to
make merry with his friends. Those who deem themselves
unworthy to be anything else than hired servants, and most
unproiitable in that capacity, are dealt with as sons ; and
those who deem themselves most meritorious are treated coldly
and distantly, as hired servants.

Eeverting now from the parable to the apothegm it was
designed to illustrate, we observe that the degradation of such
as are first in ability, zeal, and length of service, to the last
place as regards the reward, is represented as a thing likely
to happen often. " Many that are first shall be last." This
statement implies that self-esteem is a sin which easily besets
men situated as the twelve, i.e. men who have made sacrifices
for the kingdom, of God. Now, that this is a fact observa-
tion proves ; and it further teaches us that there are certain
circumstances in which the laborious and self-denying are
specially liable to fall into the vice of self-righteousness. It
will serve to illustrate the deep and, to most minds on first
view, obscure saying of Jesus, if we indicate here what these
circumstances are.

1. Those who make sacrifices for Christ's sake are in
danger of falling into a self-righteous mood of mind, when
the spirit of self-denial manifests itself in rare occasional acts,
rather than in the form of a habit. In this case Christians
rise at certain emergencies to an elevation of spirit far above
the usual level of their moral feelings ; and therefore, though,
at the time when the sacrifice was made, they may have be-
haved heroically, they are apt afterwards to revert self-com-
placently to their noble deeds, as an old soldier goes back on
his battles, and with Peter to ask, with a proud consciousness
of merit for having forsaken all, What shall we have there-
fore ?

2. There is great danger of degeneracy in the spirit of
those who make sacrifices for the kingdom of God, when any
particular species of service has come to be much in demand,
and therefore to be held in very high esteem. Take, as an
example, the endurance of physical tortures and of death in
times of persecution. It is well known with what a furor
of admiration martyrs and confessors were regarded in the

278 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

suffering cliurcli of the early centuries. Those who suffered
martyrdom were almost deified by popular enthusiasm : the
anniversaries of their death — of their birth-days/ as they
were called, into the eternal world — were observed with reli-
gious solemnity, when their doings and sufferings in this
world were rehearsed with ardent admiration in strains of
extravagant eulogy. Even the confessors, who had suffered
but not died for Christ, were looked up to as a superior order
of beings, separated by a wide guK from the common herd of
untried Christians. They were saints, they had a halo of
glory round their heads ; they had power with God, and
could, it was believed, bind or loose with even more authority
than the regular ecclesiastical authorities. Absolution was
eagerly sought for from them by the lapsed ; admission to
their communion was regarded as an open door by which
sinners might return into the fellowship of the church. They
had only to say to the erring, " Go in peace," and even
bishops must receive them. Bishops joined with the populace
in this idolatrous homage to the men who suffered for Christ's
sake. They petted and flattered the confessors, partly from
honest admiration, but partly also from policy, to induce
others to imitate their example, and to foster the virtue of
hardihood, so much needed in suffering times.

This state of feeling in the church was obviously fraught
with great danger to the souls of those who endured hardship
for the truth, as tempting them to fanaticism, vanity, spiritual
pride, and presumption. Nor were they all by any means
temptation-proof Many took all the praise they received as
their due, and deemed themselves persons of great consequence.
The soldiers, who had been flattered by their generals to make
them brave, began to act as if they were the masters, and
could write, for example, to one who had been a special
offender in the extravagance of his eulogies, such a letter as
this : " All the confessors to Cyprian the bishop : Know that
we have granted peace to all those of whom you have had an
account what they have done ; how they have behaved since
the commission of their crimes ; and we would that these
presents should be by you imparted to the rest of the bishops.
^ The festival of a martyr was called his natalitia.

IN PER^A: FIRST LAST AND LAST FIRST. 279

We wish you to maintain peace with the holy martyrs." ^
Thus was fulfilled in these confessors the saying, " Many that
are first shall be last." First in suffering for the truth, and
in reputation for sanctity, they became last in the judgment
of the great Searcher of hearts. They gave their bodies to
be scourged, maimed, burned, and it profited them little or
nothing.^

3. The first are in danger of becoming the last when self-
denial is reduced to a system, and practised ascetically, not for
Christ's sake, but for one's own sake. That in respect of the
amount of self-denial the austere ascetic is entitled to rank
first, nobody will deny. But his right to rank first in intrinsic
spiritual worth, and therefore in the divine kingdom, is more
open to dispute. Even in respect to the fundamental matter
of getting rid of self, he may be, not first, but last. The self-
denial of the ascetic is in a subtle way intense self-assertion.
True Christian self-sacrifice signifies hardship, loss undergone,
not for its own sake, but for Christ's sake, and for truth's sake,
at a time when truth cannot be maintained without sacrifice.
But the self-sacrifice of the ascetic is not of this kind. It is
all endured for his own sake, for his own spiritual benefit and
credit. He practises self-denial after the fashion of a miser,
who is a total abstainer from aU luxuries, and even grudges
himself the necessaries of life, because he has a passion for
hoarding. Like the miser, he deems himself rich; yet both
he and the miser are alike poor : the miser, because with all
his wealth he cannot part with his coin in exchange for en-
joyable commodities ; the ascetic, because his corns, " good
works" so called, painful acts of abstinence, are counterfeit,
and will not pass current in the kingdom of heaven. All his
labours to save his soul will turn out to be just so much rubbish
to be burned up ; and if he be saved at all, it will be as
by fire.

Eecalling now for a moment the three classes of cases in

^ Cave, Primitive Christianity, part iii. cap. v. For tlie original, vid. Cypriani
Opera [Clark's Ante-Nicene Library, Cyprian, vol. i. p. 54].

2 The virtue now in request is that of giving liberally to missions, and to
philanthropic enterprises of all sorts. The same degeneracy of motive may
take place in connection with giving as in connection with suffering in early
times ; and the first in our subscription lists may be last in the book of life.

280 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

whicL. the first are in danger of becoming last, we perceive
that the word " many" is not an exaggeration. For consider
how much of the work done by professing Christians belongs
to one or other of these categories : occasional spasmodic
efforts ; good works of liberality and philanthropy, which are
in fashion and in high esteem in the religions world ; and good
works done, not so much from interest in the work, as from
their reflex bearing on the doer's own religious interests.
Many are called to work in God's vineyard, and many are
actually at work. But few are chosen ; few are clioicc workers ;
few work for God in the spirit of the precepts taught by
Jesus.

But though there be few such workers, there are some.
Jesus does not, observe, say all who are first shall be last, and
all who are last shall be first : His word is many. There are
numerous exceptions to the rule in both its parts. Not all
who bear the heat and burden of the day are mercenary and
self-righteous. No ; the Lord has always had in His spiritual
vineyard a noble band of workers, who, if there were room
for boasting in any case, might have boasted on account of the
length, the arduousness, and the efficiency of their service, yet
cherished no self-complacent thoughts, nor indulged in any
calculations how much more they should receive than others.
Think of devoted missionaries to heathen lands ; of heroic
reformers like Luther, Calvin, Knox, and Latimer ; of the
eminent men of our own day, but recently taken from amongst
us. Can you fancy such men talking like the early labourers
in the vineyard ? Nay, verily ! all through life their thoughts
of themselves and their service were very humble indeed ; and
at the close of life's day, their day's work seemed to them a
very sorry matter, utterly undeserving of the great reward of
eternal life. Such first ones shall not be last.

If there be some first who shall not be last, there are doubt-
less also some last who shall not be first. If it were other-
wise ; if to be last in length of service, in zeal and devotion,
gave a man an advantage, it would be ruinous to the interests
of the kingdom of God. It would, in fact, be in effect putting
a premium on indolence, and encouraging men to stand aU the
day idle, or to serve the devil till the eleventh hour ; and

IN perj!:a: fiest last and last first. 281

then in old age to enter the vineyard, and give the Lord the
poor hour's work, when their limbs were stiff and their frames
feeble and tottering. No such demoralizing law obtains in the
divine kingdom. Other things being equal, the longer and
the more earnestly a man serves God, the sooner he begins,
and the harder he works, the better for himself hereafter. If
those who begin late in the day are graciously treated, it is in
spite, not in consequence, of their tardiness. That they have
been so long idle, is not a commendation, but a sin ; not a
subject of self-congratulation, but of deep humiliation. If it
be wrong for those who have served the Lord much to glory
in the greatness of their service, it is surely still more unbe-
coming, even ridiculous, for any one to pride himself in the
littleness of his. If the first has no cause for boasting and
self-righteousness, still less has the last

CHAPTER XVIL

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE AGAIN.
Matt. xx. 17-28 ; Mark x. 32-45 ; Luke xviii. 31-34.

THE incident recorded in these sections of Matthew's and
Mark's Gospels happened while Jesus and His disciples
were going up to Jerusalem for the last time, journeying via
Jericho, from Ephraim in the wilderness, whither they had
retired after the raising of Lazarus.^ The ambitious request
of the two sons of Zebedee for the chief places of honour in
the kingdom, was therefore made little more than a week
before their Lord was crucified. How little must they have
dreamed what was coming ! Yet it was not for want of
warning ; for, just before they presented their petition, Jesus
had for the third time explicitly announced His approaching
passion, indicating that His death would take place in connec-
tion with this present visit to Jerusalem, and adding other
particulars respecting His last sufferings not specified before,
fitted to arrest attention ; as that His death should be the issue
of a judicial process, and that He should be delivered by the
Jewish authorities to the Gentiles, to be mocked, and scourged,
and crucified.^

After recording the terms of Christ's third announcement,
Luke adds, with reference to the disciples : " They understood
none of these things : and this saying was hid from them,
neither knew they the things which were spoken."^ The truth
of this statement is sufficiently apparent from the scene which
ensued, not recorded by Luke, as is also the cause of the fact
stated. The disciples, we perceive, were thinking of other

' John xi. 54.

2 Matt. XX. 17-19. Mark (x. 34) adds spitting to the catalogue of indignities.

^ Luke xviii. 34.

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE AGAIN. 283

matters, while Jesus spake to them of His approaching suffer-
ings. They were dreaming of the thrones they had been pro-
mised in Persea ; and therefore were not able to enter into
the thoughts of their Master, so utterly diverse from their own.
Their minds were completely possessed by romantic expecta-
tions, their heads giddy with the sparkling wine of vain hope ;
and as they drew nigh the holy city, their firm conviction was,
" that the kingdom of God should immediately appear." ^

While all the disciples were looking forward to their
thrones, James and John were coveting the most distinguished
ones, and contriving a scheme for securing these to them-
selves, and so getting the dispute who should be the greatest
settled in their own favour. These were the two disciples
who made themselves so prominent in resenting the rudeness
of the Samaritan villagers. The greatest zealots among the
twelve were thus also the most ambitious ; a circumstance
which will not surprise the student of human nature. On
the former occasion they asked fire from heaven to consume
their adversaries ; on the present occasion they ask a favour
from Heaven to the disadvantage of their friends. The two
requests are not so very dissimilar.

In hatching and executing their little plot, the two brothers
enjoyed the assistance of their mother, whose presence is not
explained, but may have been due to her having become an
attendant on Jesus in her widowhood,^ or to an accidental
meeting with Him and His disciples at the junction of the
roads converging on Jerusalem, whither all were now going to
keep the feast. Salome was the principal actor in the scene,
and it must be admitted she acted her part well. Kneeling
before Jesus, as if doing homage to a king, she intimated her
humble wish to proffer a petition ; and being gently asked,
" What wilt thou ?" said, " Grant that these my two sons may
sit, the one on Thy right hand, and the other on the left, in
Thy kingdom."

This prayer had certainly another origin than the inspira-
tion of the Holy Ghost, and the scheme of which it was the

1 Luke xix. 11.

^ Salome was one of the women who followed Christ in Galilee, and served
Him. Mark xv. 41.

284 THE TRAINING OF THE TIYELVE.

outcome was not one which we should have expected com-
panions of Jesus to entertain. And yet the whole proceeding
is so true to human nature as it reveals itself in every age,
that we cannot but feel that we have here no myth, but a
genuine piece of history. We know how much of the world's
spirit is to be found at all times in religious circles of high
reputation for zeal, devotion, and sanctity ; and we have no
right to hold up our hands in amazement when we see it
appearing even in the immediate neighbourhood of Jesus.
The twelve were yet but crude Christians, and we must
allow them time to become sanctified as well as others. There-
fore we neither affect to be scandalized at their conduct, nor,
to save their reputation, do we conceal its true character. We
are not surprised at the behaviour of the two sons of Zebedee,
and yet we say plainly that their request was foolish and
offensive : indicative at once of bold presumption, gross stu-
pidity, and unmitigated selfishness.

It was an irreverent, presumptuous request, because it vir-
tually asked Jesus their Lord to become the tool of their
ambition and vanity. Fancying that He would yield to mere
solicitation, perhaps calculating that He would not have the
heart to refuse a request coming from a female suppliant, who
as a widow was an object of compassion, and as a contributor
to His support had claims to His gratitude, they begged a
favour which Jesus could not grant without being untrue to
His own character and His habitual teaching, as exemplified
in the discourse on humility in the house at Capernaum. In
so doing, they were guilty of a disrespectful, impudent for-
wardness most characteristic of the ambitious spirit, which is
utterly devoid of delicacy, and pushes on towards its end,
reckless what offence it may give, heedless how it wounds
the sensibilities of others.

The request of the two brothers was as ignorant as it was
presumptuous. The idea implied therein of the kingdom was
utterly wide of truth and reality. James and John not only
thought of the kingdom that was coming as a kingdom of this
world, but they thought meanly of it even under that view.
For it is an unusually corrupt and unwholesome condition of
matters even in a secular state, when places of highest dis-

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE AGAIN. 285

tinction can be obtained by solicitation and favour, and not
on the sole ground of fitness for the duties of the position,
Wlien family influence or courtly arts are the pathway to
power, every patriot has cause to mourn. How preposterous,
then, the idea that promotion can take place in the divine,
ideally-perfect kingdom, by means that are inadmissible in
any well-regulated secular kingdom ! To cherish such an idea
is in effect to degrade and dishonour the Divine King, by
likening Him to an unprincipled despot, who has more favour
for flatterers than for honest men ; and to caricature the divine
kingdom, by assimilating it to the most misgoverned states on
earth, such as those ruled over by a Bomba or a Nero.

The request of the brethren was likewise intensely selfish.
It was ungenerous as towards their fellow-disciples ; for it was
an attempt to overreach them, and, like all such attempts, pro-
duced mischief, disturbing the peace of the family circle, and
giving rise to a most unseemly embitterment of feeling among
its members. " When the ten heard it, they were moved
with indignation." No wonder; and if James and John did
not anticipate such a result, it showed that they were very
much taken up with their own selfish thoughts ; and if they
did anticipate it, and nevertheless shrank not from a course
of action which was sure to give offence, that only made
their selfishness the more heartless and inexcusable.

But the petition of the two disciples was selfish in a far
wider view, viz. with reference to the public interests of the
divine kingdom. It virtually meant this : " Grant us the
places of honour and power, come what may ; even though
universal discontent and disaffection, disorder, disaster, and
chaotic confusion ensue." These are the sure effects of pro-
motion by favour instead of by merit, both in church and in
state, as many a nation has found to its cost in the day of
trial ; and as all the world may now see in France, when in
three short months, a great army proudly deeming itself
invincible, commanded by generals who were courtiers rather
than soldiers, and who received promotion as the reward of
their subserviency to a corrupt imperialism, has been utterly
annihilated, and the poor French nation left distracted, with-
out a head, and prostrate under the heel of a victorious foe,

286 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

whose strength lies in this, that he has not granted places of
power and trust to favourites and self-seekers, but to modest,
capable, earnest men.

To be sure, James and John never dreamt of disaster re-
sulting from their petition being granted. No self-seekers
and place-hunters ever do anticipate evil results from their
promotion. But that does not make them less selfish. It
only shows that, besides being selfish, they are vain.

The reply of Jesus to this ambitious request, considering
its character, was singularly mild. Offensive though the pre-
sumption, forwardness, selfishness, and vanity of the two dis-
ciples must have been to His meek, holy, seK-forgetfuI spirit,
He uttered not a word of direct rebuke, but dealt with them
as a father might deal with a child that had made a senseless
request. Abstaining from animadversion on the grave faults
brought to light by their petition. He noticed only the least
culpable — their ignorance. " Ye know not," He said to them
quietly, " what ye ask ;" and even tliis remark He made in com-
passion rather than in the way of blame. He pitied men who
offered prayers whose fulfilment, as He knew, implied painful
experiences of which they had no . thought. It was in this
spirit that He asked the explanatory question : " 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 ? "

But there was more than compassion or correction in this
question : even instruction concerning the true way of obtain-
ing promotion in the kingdom of God. In interrogatory form
Jesus taught His disciples that advancement in His kingdom
went not by favour, nor was obtainable by clamorous solicita-
tion ; that the way to thrones was the via dolorosa of the
cross ; that the palm-bearers in the realms of glory should be
they who had passed through great tribulation, and the princes
of the kingdom they who had drunk most deeply of His cup
of sorrow ; and that for those who refused to drink thereof,
the selfish, the self-indulgent, the ambitious, the vain, there
would be no place at all in the kingdom, not to speak of places
of honour on His right or left hand.

The startling question put to them by Jesus did not take
James and John by surprise. Promptly and firmly they

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE AGAIN. 287

replied, " We are able." Had they then really taken into
account the cup and the baptism of suffering, and deliberately
made up their minds to pay the costly price for the coveted
prize ? Had the sacred fire of the martyr spirit already been
kindled in their hearts ? One would be happy to think so,
but we fear there is nothing to justify so favourable an opinion.
It is much more probable that, in their eagerness to obtain the
object of their ambition, the two brothers were ready to promise
anything, and that, in fact, they neither knew nor cared what
they were promising. Their confident declaration bears a sus-
piciously close resemblance to the bravado uttered by Peter a
few days later : " Though all men shall be offended because
of Thee, yet wiU. I never be offended."

Jesus, however, did not choose, in the case of the sons of
Zebedee, as in the case of their friend, to call in question the
heroism so ostentatiously professed, but adopted the course of
assuming that they were not only able, but willing, yea eager,
to participate in His sufferings. With the air of a king grant-
ing to favourites the privilege of drinking out of the royal
wine-cup, and of washing in the royal ewer. He replied : " Ye
shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with." It was a strange favour which the
King thus granted ! Had they only known the meaning of
the words, the two brethren might weU have fancied that their
Master was indulging in a stroke of irony at their expense.
Yet it was not so. Jesus was not mocking His disciples when
He spake thus, offering them a stone instead of bread : He
was speaking seriously, and promising what He meant to
bestow, and what, when the time of bestowal came — for it did
come — ^they themselves regarded as a real privilege ; for all the
apostles agreed with Peter that they who were reproached for
the name of Christ were to be accounted happy, and had the
spirit of glory and of God resting on them. Such, we believe,
was the mind of James when Herod killed him with the
persecutor's sword : such, we know, was the mind of John
when he was in the isle of Patmos " for the word of God, and
for the testimony of Jesus Christ."

Having promised a favour not coveted by the two disciples,
Jesus next explained that the favour they did covet was not

288 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

unconditionally at His disposal : " But to sit on my right
hand and on my left is not mine to give, save to those for
whom it is prepared of my Father." The English version
suggests the idea that the bestowal of rewards in the kingdom
is not in Christ's hands at all. That, however, is not what
Jesus meant to say ; but rather this, that though it is Christ's
prerogative to assign to citizens their places in His kingdom,
it is not in His power to dispose of places by partiality and
patronage, or otherwise than in accordance with fixed prin-
ciples of justice and the sovereign ordination of His Father.
The words paraphrased signify : " I can say to any one. Come,
drink of my cup, for there is no risk of mischief arising out of
favouritism in that direction. But there my favours must end.
I cannot say to any one, as I please, Come, sit beside me on a
throne ; for each man must get the place prepared for him,
and for which he is prepared."

Thus explained, this solemn saying of our Lord furnishes
no ground for an inference which, on first view, it seems not
only to suggest, but to necessitate ; viz. that one may taste of
the cup, yet lose the crown ; or, at least, that there is no
connection between the measure in which a disciple may have
had fellowship with Christ in His cross, and the place which
shall be assigned to him in the eternal kingdom. That Jesus
had no intention to teach such a doctrine, is evident from the
question He had asked just before He made the statement
now under consideration, which implies a natural sequence
between the cup and the throne, the suffering and the glory.
The sacrifice and the great reward so closely conjoined in the
promise made to the twelve in Peroea, are disjoined here,
merely for the purpose of signalizing the rigour with which
all corrupt influences are excluded from the kingdom of heaven.
It is beyond doubt, that those on whom is bestowed in high
measure the favour of being companions with Jesus in tribula-
tion, shall be rewarded with high promotion in the eternal
kingdom. Nor does this statement compromise the sovereignty
of the Father and Lord of all ; on the contrary, it contributes
towards its establishment. There is no better argument in
support of the doctrine of election, than the simple truth that
affliction is the education for heaven. For in what does the

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE AGAIN. 289

sovereign hand of God appear more signally, than in the
appointment of crosses ? If crosses would let us alone, we
would let them alone. We choose not the bitter cup and the
bloody baptism : we are chosen for them, and in them. God
impresses men into the warfare of the cross ; and if any come
to glory in this way, as many an impressed soldier has done,
it will be to glory to which, in the first place at least, they
did not aspire.

The asserted connection between suffering and glory serves
to defend as well as to establish the doctrine of election.
Looked at in relation to the world to come, that doctrine
seems to lay God ppen to the charge of partiality, and is cer-
tainly very mysterious. But look at election in its bearing
on the present life. In that view, it is a privilege for wliicli
the elect are not apt to be envied. For the elect are not the
happy and the prosperous, but the toilers and sufferers.^ In
fact, they are elected not for their own sake, but for the
world's sake, to be God's pioneers in the rough imwelcome
work of turning the wilderness into a fruitful field ; to be the
world's salt, leaven, and light, receiving for the most part
little thanks for the service they render, and getting often for
reward the lot of the destitute, the afflicted, and the tormented.
So that, after all, election is a favour to the non-elect : it is
God's method of benefiting men at large ; and whatever pecu-
liar benefit may be in store for the elect is well earned, and
should not be grudged. Does any one envy them their pro-
spect ? He may be a partaker of their future joy, if he be
willing to be companion to such forlorn beings, and to share
their tribulations now; and if he be unwilling, he has no
right to complain.

It is hardly needful to explain that, in uttering these words,
Jesus did not mean to deny the utility of prayer, and to say,
" You may ask for a place in the divine kingdom, and not
get it ; for all depends on what God has ordained." He only
wished the two disciples and all to understand, that to obtain

^ The lines of Euiipides may be appropriated here to the true sons of God :

Out' i-!f) xipxifftv eVTl Xoyoi;
(puTi* eiieii' ihrv^ias /Mri^nv
6iih\i Tixvec hara7i. — Ion, 510.

290 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

their requests they must know what they ask, and accept all
that is implied, in the present as well as in the future, in the
answering of their prayers. This condition is too often over-
looked. Many a bold ambitious prayer, even for spiritual
blessing, is offered up by petitioners who have no idea what
the answer would involve, and if they had, would wish their
prayer unanswered. Crude Christians ask, aj., to be made
holy. But do they know what doubts, temptations, and sore
trials of all kinds go to the making of great saints ? Others
long for a full assurance of God's love ; desire to be perfectly
persuaded of their election. Are they willing to be deprived
of the sunshine of prosperity, that in the dark night of sorrow
they may see heaven's stars ? Ah me ! how few among us
do know what we ask ! how much all need to be taught to
pray for right things with an intelligent mind and in a right
spirit !

Having said what was needful to James and John, Jesus
next addressed a word in season to their brethren, inculcating
humility ; most appropriately, for though the ten were the
offended party, not offenders, yet the same ambitious spirit
was in them, else they would not have felt and resented the
wrong done so keenly. Pride and selfishness may vex and
grieve the humble and the seK-forgetful, but they provoke re-
sentment only in the proud and the selfish ; and the best way
to be proof against the assaults of other men's evil passions,
is to get similar affections exorcised out of our own breasts.
" Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus ;" then
shall nothing be done by you at least in strife or vainglory.

" When the ten heard it," we read, " they were moved with
indignation against the two brethren." Doubtless it was a
very imedifying scene which ensued ; and it is very disap-
pointing to witness such scenes where one might have looked
to see in perfection the godly spectacle of brethren dwelling
together in unity. But the society of Jesus was a real thing,
not the imaginary creation of a romance- writer ; and in all real
human societies, in happy homes, in the most select brother-
hoods, scientific, literary, or artistic, in Christian churches,
there will arise tempests now and then. And let us be
thankful that the twelve, even by their folly, gave their Master

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE AGAIN. 291

an occasion for uttering the sublime words liere recorded, which
shine down upon us out of the serene sky of the gospel story-
like stars appearing through the tempestuous clouds of human
passion — manifestly the words of a Divine Being, though
spoken out of the depths of an amazing self-humiliation.

The manner of Jesus, in addressing His heated disciples,
was very tender and subdued. He collected them all around
Him, the two and the ten, the offenders and the offended, as
a father might gather together his children to receive admoni-
tion, and He spoke to them with the calmness and solemnity
of one about to meet death. Yes ! throughout this whole
scene death's solemnizing influence is manifestly on the
Saviour's spirit. For does He not speak of His approaching
sufferings in language reminding us of the night of His
betrayal, describing His passion by the poetic sacramental
name " my cup," and for the first time revealing the secret of
His life on earth — the grand object for which He is about
to die ?

In moral significance, the doctrine of Jesus at this time was
a repetition of His teaching in Capernaum, when He chose the
little child for His text. As He said then. Who would be great
must be child-like. He says here. Whosoever will be great
among you, let him be your minister. In the former discourse
His model and His text was an infant ; now it is a slave, another
representative of the mean and despicable. Now, as before, He
quotes His own example to enforce His precept ; stimulating
His disciples to seek distinction in a path of lowly love, by
representing the Son of man as come not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, even to the length of giving His life a
ransom for the many, as He then reminded them, that the
Son of man came like a shepherd, to seek and to save the
lost sheep.

The single new feature in the lesson which Jesus gave His
disciples at this season is, the contrast between His kingdom
and the kingdoms of earth, in respect to the mode of acquir-
ing dominion, to which He directed attention, by way of pre-
face, to the doctrine about to be communicated. " Ye know,
He said, " that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion
over them, and they that are great (provincial governors, often

292 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

more tyrannical than their superiors) exercise authority upon
them. But it shall not be so among you." There is a hint
here at another contrast besides the one mainly intended,
viz. that between the harsh despotic sway of worldly poten-
tates, and the gentle dominion of love alone admissible in the
divine kingdom. But the main object of the words quoted
is to point out the difference in the way of acquiring rather
than in the manner of using power. The idea is this : earthly
kingdoms are ruled by a class of persons who possess heredi-
tary rank — the aristocracy, nobles, or princes. The governing
class are those whose birthright it is to rule, and whose boast
it is never to have been in a servile position, but always to
have been served. In my kingdom, on the other hand, a man
becomes a great one, and a ruler, by being first the servant of
those over whom he is to bear rule. In other states, they
rule whose privilege it is to be ministered unto ; in the
divine commonwealth, they rule who account it a privilege
to minister.

In drawing this contrast, Jesus had, of course,' no intention
to teach politics ; no intention either to recognise or to call
in question the divine right of the princely caste to rule over
their fellow-creatures. He spoke of things as they were, and
as His hearers knew them to be in secular states, and espe-
cially in the Eoman Empire. If any political inference might
be drawn from His words, it would not be in favour of
absolutism and hereditary privilege, but rather in favour of
power being in the hands of those who have earned it by
faithful service, whether they belong to the governing class
by birth or not. For what is beneficial in the divine king-
dom cannot be prejudicial to secular commonwealths. The
true interests, one would say, of an earthly kingdom should
be promoted by its being governed as nearly as possible in
accordance with the laws of the kingdom which camiot be
moved. Thrones and crowns may, to prevent disputes, go by
hereditary succession, irrespective of personal merit ; but the
reality of power should ever be in the hands of the ablest,
the wisest, and the most devoted to the public good.

Having explained by contrast the great principle of the
spiritual commonwealth, that he who would rule therein must

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE AGAIN. 293

first serve, Jesus proceeded next to enforce the doctrine by
a reference to His own example, " Whosoever will be chief
among you," said He to the twelve, " let him be your servant ;"
and then He added the memorable words : " Even as the Son
of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and
to give His life a ransom for many."

These words were spoken by Jesus as one who claimed to
be a King, and aspired to be the first in a great and mighty
kingdom. At the end of the sentence we must mentally
supply the clause — which was not expressed, simply because it
was so obviously implied in the connection of thought — " so
seeking to win a kingdom." Our Lord sets Himself forth
here not merely as an example of himiility, but as one whose
case illustrates the truth, that the way to power in the spiri-
tual world is service ; and in stating that He came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, He expresses not the whole
truth, but only the present fact. The whole truth was, that
He came to minister in the first place, that He might be
ministered to in turn by a w^illing, devoted people, acknow-
ledging Him as their sovereign. The point on w^hich He
wishes to fix the attention of His disciples, is the peculiar
way He takes to get His crown ; and what He says in effect
is this : " I am a King, and I expect to have a kingdom :
James and John were not mistaken in that respect. But I
shall obtain my kingdom in another way than secular princes
get theirs. They get their thrones by succession, I get mine
by personal merit ; they secure their kingdom by right of
birth, I hope to secure mine by the right of service ; they
inherit their subjects, I buy mine, the purchase-money being
mine own life."

What the twelve thought of this novel plan of getting
dominion and a kingdom, or what ideas the concluding words
of their Master suggested to their minds when uttered, we
know not. It is certain, however, that they did not compre-
hend what they had 'heard. No wonder : for the thoughts of
Jesus were very deep. Who can understand them fully even
now ? Here we emphatically see through a glass, in enigmas.
Yet these things we may without presumption say :

The plan propounded was certainly a very original way

294 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

of getting a kingdom. Men have got kingdoms for them-
selves in various ways : some by inheritance, the most respect-
able way known to the world ; others by their sword ; others,
again, by paying down a sum of money, as when in its last
degenerate days the Eoman Empire was disposed of by auction
and sold to the highest bidder. But who, till the Son of man
came, ever thought of earning a crown by the service of lowly
love rendered to the very meanest of mankind ? Alexander
of Macedon won for himself the epithet of " the Great," and
made himself master of almost the whole earth, by sacrificing
millions of lives to his ambition. Jesus of Nazareth alone
entertained the singular and apparently Utopian idea of found-
ing a kingdom not less extensive than that of Alexander or
Csesar, by giving His own life as a sacrifice for the million.

Strange and unheard of as this idea was, it was, after all,
a most rational one. Supposing that the dominion aimed at
is not mere despotic control over men's destinies, but sove-
reign sway over their hearts, what better and more direct way
of attaining that end can be taken than to devote yourself to
their interest ? The sword will make a tyrant master of his
subjects' lives and properties, but it takes quite another key
than that of brute force to unlock the human heart : lowly
love alone can make the doors flly open, and win for itself the
place of sovereignty there. Now it was the sovereignty of
love, and not of mere power, that Jesus coveted for Himself.
As God, He already possessed dominion over men's destiny ;
but He was not content with that : therefore He came to
earth to be a servant to His own subjects, that He might be-
come their King by acclamation, and wear round His brow a
crown fashioned and placed on His head by their own devoted
hands, in grateful acknowledgment of the services He had
rendered them. This kind of sovereignty even a Divine Being
could attain to only by humbling Himself to take upon Him
the form of a servant.

The method adopted by Jesus to make Himself a King
of men has been successf^il. The proposal to gain sovereign
power by becoming a servant might seem Utopian to the
twelve when first announced, but now the idea has become
a wonderful accomplished fact. Jesus Christ is now the

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE AGAIN. 295

spiritual sovereign of a vast holy state, tlie direct historical
result of His earthly ministry of love. Because He came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, therefore He is
now highly exalted, and hath a name which is above every
name. At the name of Him who gave His life a ransom for
many, millions of redeemed men in earth and heaven bow
the knee in lowly reverence, as to their King. Innumerable
tongues in many languages confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father, and cordially join in the new
song, whereof this is the burthen : " Unto Him that loved us,
and washed us from our sins in His own blood, be glory and
dominion for ever and ever."

Once more, Jesus gained His kingdom in a way that
was most righteous. He fauiy and fully earned the right to
rule over His subjects. He gave His life a ransom for them ;
so that to whomsoever they might belong before, they were
certainly His most rightfully afterwards. JSTo party having
any claim over them, real or imaginary, could come forward
and say. These human beings for whom you have given your
life still belong to me. Not even Satan, who seduced man
into sin, and made him his captive, could plausibly deny the
right of Jesus to those for whom He died. As against him,
Jesus might have asserted His kingly rights without dying at
all ; for Satan's dominion over man was a mere usurpation,
and no length of time could, as by way of prescription, make
his title good. It was therefore a great mistake on the part
of early writers on the subject of redemption, to admit the
devil's title by representing the " ransom" as paid to him.^
If there had been no other ground for Christ's dying than to
liquidate the imaginary claims of Satan to rule over sinners,
we do not think He would have died at all. But among the
many collateral ends served by the death of the Eedeemer, we
may enumerate this as one, that Satan's mouth was shut. He
could not even pretend to have a claim any longer over men.
In his eagerness to assert his cursed dominion over the whole
human race, he tried by temptations and terrors to bring even
Jesus under his power. And he succeeded in getting Him

' So, e.g., Irenseus. On the views of the early Fathers on the atonement,
vid. Baur, Versohnungslehre, cap. i.

296 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

crucified ; but thereby he lost his hold not merely of Eim, but
of a multitude of sinners whom he had formerly held captive,^

Better founded than those of Satan are the claims of the
moral law and government of God. It is a righteous law,
which decrees that the soul that sinneth shall die ; and it is
not good that a law solemnly enacted should be allowed to
become a dead letter. It has been disputed among theologians
whether it was absolutely necessary that sin should be atoned
for before being forgiven. We venture not to pronounce on
this question, because it is too high for us. In place of dis-
cussing a priori questions as to what could or could not have
been, we prefer to look at what has been, and reverently in-
quire what good ends it serves, and how it tends to glorify the
Avisdom and justice and goodness of Him for whom are all
things, and by whom are all things. And this seems clear,
that whether or not men could have been saved without the
Captain of salvation enduring suffering, it is better in every
respect that they are saved in a way that does homage to the
righteous law by which the universe of intelligent beings is
governed.

In such a way has Jesus Christ saved men. He has paid
a price to redeem them from the curse of the law. He has
given His life a ransom for the lives of the many forfeited to
justice by sin. And the law is satisfied. It admits the life
of the One to be worth the lives of the whole race of criminals,
and acknowledges that a greater homage has been rendered to
its majesty by a Divine Being condescending to become obe-
dient to death, than .would accrue from the death of all man-
kind. The ransom efficient for the many is accepted as being
abundantly, superabundantly sufficient for the whole world.

God the Father also cordially acknowledges his Son's claims
to His kingdom. For the Eternal One delights in the spirit of
self-sacrifice ; and the spectacle of love making itself a slave
and a sufferer for the good of others, is evermore an object of
complacent contemplation to His mind. And the most splendid

' The ancient writers represented the cross as a mouse-trap (Christ's flesh
being the bait) in which Satan was caught. To refute and supersede by better
ones these crude notions, was the object of Anselm in his tract, Cur Deus
Homo.

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE AGAIN. 297

spectacle of that kind ever exhibited — that, viz., presented in
the life and death of Jesus — thrilled His heart so much, that
He could not refrain from expressing His pleasure by audible
voices from heaven. And when the work of love was achieved,
He welcomed His Son back to glory with a " Well done, good
and faithful servant," and conferred on Him as His reward
all power in heaven and earth, to be wielded by Him for the
behoof of the people whom He purchased with His own blood.
Finally, the ransomed ones admit the claims of Jesus to
reign over them. They acknowledge that He who was slain
on the cross is worthy to receive from them "power, and
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and
blessing." They are constrained to make this admission. The
love of Christ constraineth them to hail Him their King.
There is a moral power in the life of Jesus, and especially in
His cross, which captivates their hearts, and turns them from
sin. Some maintain that to gain this power was the sole
object of Christ's incarnation. We cannot agree with this
view ; but we have no doubt that, to gain such power over
human hearts as springs out of a life of devoted service, and
out of a sacrifice like that offered on Calvary, was one reason
why the Son of man came to earth ; and came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister. He wished to charm us
away from self-indulgence and self-worship, and to make
Himself the centre of our thoughts and of our whole being ;
to emancipate us from the bondage of sin by the power of
His love, in order that we might acknowledge ourselves to be
His, and not our own, and gratefully devote ourselves to His
service. In the case of many, if not in the case of all, who
have heard the story of His love unto death, the Eedeemer
hath gained His end. Those who belong to the number of
true believers, say unto Him, in the words of the Psalmist :
" 0 Lord, truly I am Thy servant ; I am Thy servant, and the
son of Thine handmaid : Thou hast loosed my bonds." In
their new song of praise to Jesus, the ransomed host ascribe
to Him glory and dominion, not merely because He hath
washed them from their sins, but also because He hath made
them kings and priests unto God ; that is, men at once spiri-
tually free, and consciously under obligation to glorify their

298 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

God and Saviour with their bodies and spirits, because they
liave been "bought with a price."

These reflections may suffice to give a slight liint of the
pregnant meaning of tlie words by which in so casual a way
Jesus indicated to the twelve the design of His approaching
death. They certainly do nothing more. This memorable
word of our Lord is a deep, deep well, which has never yet
been fully fathomed, and never will. Brought in so quietly
as an illustration to enforce a moral precept, it opens up
a region of thought which takes us far beyond the imme-
diate occasion of its being uttered. It contains in germ the
great doctrine of redemption as afterwards expounded by the
apostles. It raises questions in our minds which it does not
solve, and yet there is nothing in the ISTew Testament on the
subject of Christ's death which might not be comprehended
within the limits of its possible significance. Even all the
utterances of the Apostle Paul amount to nothing more than
an unfolding of the meaning of the one word " ransom."

With two remarks more on the autobiographical observation
of Jesus, we close this chapter : —

When He says of Himself, that He came not to be mini-
stered unto, but to minister. He alludes not merely to His
death, but to His whole life. The statement is an epitome
in a single sentence of His entire earthly history. While
He was in the world, He was among men as one who serveth.
His death was but the closing, crowning, most signal and
decisive act of service. His whole career was but one long
drama of self-sacrificing love, which found its culminating
point in the cross. The reference to His death in this sen-
tence has the force of a superlative. He came to minister,
even to the extent of giving His life a ransom.

The other remark is, that this memorable saying of Jesus,
wliile breathing the spirit of utter lowliness, at the same
time betrays the consciousness of superhuman dignity. Jesus
speaks here as one who knows that He might have come to
be ministered unto, that to be served and worshipped was
His natural right. The divinity of the speaker is as clearly
revealed in these words as it is proclaimed in the celebrated
passage in the Epistle to the Philippians, where Paul adverts

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE AGAIN. 299

in glowing language to the self-humiliation of Him who was
in the form of God, for the seK-same purpose which led the
Incarnate One to speak of it at this time to His disciples, viz.
to check ambitious, vainglorious passions, and promote unity
and peace in the church. Had Jesus not been more than man,
His language would not have been humble, but presumptuous.
Why should the son of a carpenter say of himself, " I came
not to be ministered unto ? " A servile position and occupa-
tion was a matter of course for such an one. The statement
before us is rational and humble, only as coming from one
who, being in the form of God, freely assumed the form of a
servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross, for om* salvation.

. CHAPTEE XVIIL

THE ANOINTING IN BETHANY.
Matt. xxvi. 6-13 ; Mark xiv. 3-9 ; Jo-hn xii. 1-8.

THE toucliiiig story of the anointing of Jesus by Mary at
Bethany forms part of the preface to the history of the
passion, as recorded in the synoptical Gospels. That preface,
as given most fully by Matthew, includes four particulars :
first, a statement made by Jesus to His disciples two days
before the passover concerning His betrayal ; second, a meet-
ing of the priests in Jerusalem to consult when and how Jesus
sliould be put to death ; third, the anointing by Mary ; fourth,
the secret correspondence between Judas and the priests. In
Mark's preface, the first of these four particulars is omitted ;
in Luke's, both the first and the third.

The four facts related by the first evangelist had this in
common, that they were all signs that the end so often foretold
was at length at hand. Jesus now says, not " the Son of man
shall be betrayed," but " the Son of man is betrayed to be cru-
cified." The ecclesiastical authorities of Israel are assembled
in solemn conclave, not to discuss the question what should be
done with the object of then- dislike — ^that is abeady deter-
mined— but how tlie deed of darkness may be done most
stealthily and most securely. The victim has been anointed
by a friendly hand for the approaching sacrifice. And, finally,
an instrument has been found to relieve the priests from their
perplexity, and to pave the way in a most unexpected manner
for the consummation of their wicked purpose.

The grouping of the incidents in the introduction to the
tragic history of the crucifixion is strildngly dramatic in its
effect. First comes the Sanhedrim in Jerusalem plotting
against the life of the Just One. Then comes Mary at

THE ANOINTING IN BETHANY. 301

Bethany, in her unutterable love breaking her alabaster box,
and pouring its contents on the head and feet of her beloved
Lord. Last comes Judas, offering to sell his Master for less
than Mary wasted on a useless act of affection ! Hatred and
baseness on either hand, and true love in the midst.^

This memorable transaction of Mary with her alabaster box
belongs to the history of the passion, in virtue of the inter-
pretation put upon it by Jesus, which gives to it the character
of a lyric prelude to the great tragedy enacted on Calvary.
It belongs to the history of the twelve disciples, because of
the unfavourable construction which they put on it. All the
disciples, it seems, disapproved of the action, the only differ-
ence between Judas and the rest being that he disapproved
on hypocritical grounds, while his fellow-disciples were honest
both in their judgment and in their motives. By their fault-
finding the twelve rendered to Mary a good service. They
secured for her a present defender in Jesus, and future
eulogists in themselves. Their censure drew from the Lord
the extraordinary statement, that wheresoever the gospel might
be preached in the whole world, what Mary had done woidd
be spoken of for a memorial of her. This prophecy the fault-
finding disciples, when they became apostles, helped to fulfil.
They felt bound by the virtual commandment of their Master,
as well as by the generous reaction of their own hearts, to
make amends to Mary for former wrong done, by telling the
tale of her true love to Jesus wherever they told the story
of His true love to men. From their lips the touching narra-
tive passed in due course into the Gospel records, to be read
with a thrill of delight by true Christians to the end of time.
Verily one might be content to be spoken against for a season,
for the sake of such chivalrous championship as that of Jesus,
and such magnanimous recantations as those of His apostles !

When we consider from whom Mary's defence proceeds, we

must be satisfied that it was not merely generous, but just.

. And yet surely it is a defence of a most surprising character !

Verily it seems as if, while the disciples went to one extreme

^ On the apparent discrepancy between the Synoptists and John as to time,
and on all other points belonging to harmony, see the commentaries, especially
Alford and Stier.

302 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

in blaming, their Lord went to the other extreme in praising ;
as if, in so lauding the woman of Bethany, He were but re-
peating her extravagance in another form. You feel tempted
to ask : Was her action, then, so pre-eminently meritorious as
to deserve to be associated with the gospel throughout all
time ? Then, as to the explanation of the action given by
Jesus, the further questions suggest themselves : Was there
really any reference in Mary's mind to His death and burial
while she was performing it ? Does not Jesus rather impute
to her Hi's own feeling, and invest her act with an ideal poetic
significance, which lay not in it, but in His own thoughts 1
And if so, can we endorse the judgment He pronounced ; or
must we, on the question as to the intrinsic merit of Mary's
act, give our vote on the side of the twelve against their Master?

We, for our part, cordially take Christ's side of the ques-
tion ; and in doing so, we can afford to make two admissions.
In the first place, we admit that Mary had no thought of
embalming, in the literal sense, the dead body of Jesus, and
possibly was not thinking of His death at all when she
anointed Him with the precious ointment. Her action was
simply a festive honour done to one whom she loved unspeak-
ably, and which she might have rendered at another time.^
We admit further, that it would certainly have been an extra-
vagance to speak of Mary's deed, however noble, as entitled
to be associated with the gospel everywhere and throughout
all time, unless it were fit to be spoken of not merely for her
sake, but more especially for the gospel's sake ; that is to say,
unless it were capable of being made use of to expound the
nature of the gospel. In other words, the breaking of the
alabaster box must be worthy to be employed as an emblem
of the deed of love performed by Jesus in dying on the cross.

Such, indeed, we believe it to be. Wherever the gospel
is truly preached, the story of the anointing is sure to be
prized as the best possible illustration of the spirit which
moved Jesus to lay down His life ; as also of the spirit of

^ It is natural to connect the anointing with the raising of Lazarus, and to
find in gratitude for the restoration of a brother to life, the motive to that deed
of love. It has been suggested that the ointment may originally have been
provided for the burial rites of Lazarus.

THE ANOINTING IN BETHANY. 303

Christianity as it manifests itself in the lives of sincere be-
lievers. The breaking of the alabaster box is a beautiful
symbol at once of Christ's love to us, and of the love we owe
to Him. As Mary broke her box of ointment and poured
forth its precious contents, so Christ broke His body and shed
His precious blood ; so Christians pour forth their hearts
before their Lord, counting not their very lives dear for His
sake. Christ's death was a breaking of an alabaster box for
us ; our life should be a breaking of an alabaster box for Him.

This relation of spiritual affinity between the deed of Mary
and His own deed in dying is the true key to all that is enig-
matical in the language of Jesus in speaking of the former.
It explains, for example, the remarkable manner in which He
referred to the gospel in connection therewith. " This gospel,"
He said, as if it had been already spoken of ; nay, as if the act
of anointing- were the gospel. And so it was, in a figure,.
The one act already done by Mary naturally suggested to the
mind of Jesus the other act about to be done by Himself.
" There," He thought within Himself, " in that broken vessel
and outpoured oil is my death foreshadowed ; in the hidden
motive from which that deed proceeded, is the eternal spirit
in which I offer myself a sacrifice revealed."

In the light of this same relation of spiritual affinity, we
clearly perceive the true meaning of the statement made by
Jesus concerning Mary's act : " In that she hath poured this
ointment on my body, she did it for my burial." It was a
mystic, poetic explanation of a most poetic deed, and as such
was not only beautiful, but true. For the anointing in Bethany
has helped to preserve, to embalm, so to speak, the true meaning
of the Saviour's death. It has supplied us with a symbolic
act, through which to understand that death ; it has shed
around the cross an imperishable aroma of self-forgetting
love ; it has decked the Saviour's grave with flowers that
never shall wither, and reared for Jesus, as well as for Mary,
a memorial-stone that shall endure throughout all generations.
Might it not be fitly said of such a deed, She did it for my
burial ? Was it not most unfitly said of a deed capable of
rendering so important a service to the gospel, that it was
wasteful and useless ?

304 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

These questions will be answered in the affirmative by all
who are convinced that the spiritual affinity asserted by us
really did exist. What we have now to do, therefore, is to
show, by going a little into detail, that our assertion is well-
founded.

There are three outstanding points of resemblance between
Mary's " good work" in anointing Jesus, and the good work
^vrought by Jesus Himself in dying on the cross.

There was first a resemblance in motive. Mary wrought
her good work out of pure love. She loved Jesus with her
whole heart, for what He was, for what He had done for the
family to which she belonged, and for the words of instruc-
tion she had heard from His lips when He came on a visit
to their house. There was such a love in her heart for her
friend and benefactor as imperatively demanded expression,
and yet could not find expression in words. She must do
something to relieve her pent-up emotions : she must get an
alabaster box and break it, and pour it on the person of Jesus,
else her heart will break.

Herein Mary's act resembles closely that of Jesus in dying
on the cross, and in coming to this world that He might die.
For just such a love as that of Mary, only far deeper and
stronger, moved Him to sacrifice HimseK for us. The simple
account of Christ's whole conduct in becoming man, and
undergoing what is recorded of Him, is this : He loved sinners.
After wearying themselves in studying the philosophy of re-
demption, learned theologians come back to this as the most
satisfactory explanation that can be given. Jesus so loved
sinners as to lay down His life for them ; nay, we might
almost say. He so loved them that He must needs come and die
for them. Like Nehemiah, the Jewish patriot in the court of
the Persian king, He could not stay in heaven's court while
His brethren far away on earth were in an evil case ; He
must ask and obtain leave to go down to their assistance.^
Or like Mary, He must procure an alabaster-box — a human
"body — fill it with the fine essence of a human soul, and

^ See Neh. i. and ii. Nehemiah, like Mary, may he spoken of wherever the
gospel is preached, to illustrate the heart of the Redeemer and intei-pret His
thoughts.

THE ANOINTING IN BETHANY. 305

pour out His soul unto death on the cross for our salvation.
The spirit of Jesus, yea the spirit of the Eternal God, is the
spirit of Mary and of ISTehemiah, and of all who are like-
minded with them. In reverence we ought rather to say, the
spirit of such is the spirit of Jesus and of God ; and yet it is
needful at times to put the matter in the inverse way. For
somehow we are slow to believe that love is a reality for
God. We almost shrink, as if it were an impiety, from
ascribing to the Divine Being attributes which we confess to
be the noblest and most heroic in human character. Hence
the practical value of the sanction here given by Jesus to the
association of the anointing in Bethany with the crucifixion
on Calvary. He, in effect, says to us thereby : Be not afraid
to regard my death as an act of the same kind as that of
Mary : an act of pure, devoted love. Let the aroma of her
ointment circulate about the neighbourhood of my cross, and
help you to discern the sweet savour of my sacrifice. Amid
all your speculations and theories on the grand theme of
redemption, take heed that ye fail not to see in my death,
my loving heart, and the loving heart of my Father, revealed.^

^ There is a tendency among a certain school of theologians to treat all that
is said of love in connection with the atonement as sentimental, or at most as
available only for popular purposes, and to represent the judicial aspect of the
atonement as alone of scientific validity. Thus a recent writer on the History
of Doctrines (Sliedd) says : "All true scientific development of the doctrine of
the atonement, it is very evident, must take its departure from the idea of
divine justice. This conception is the primary one in the biblical representa-
tion of this doctrine." This author is greatly in love with " soteriologies " of
scientific pretensions. He idolizes Anselm as the author of the "first meta-
physique of the Christian doctrine of atonement," and as the first to challenge
for the doctrine of vicarious satisfaction "both a rational necessity and a scien-
tific rationality." Anselm did certainly carry the passion for d prio7i reasoning
on the subject of redemption to its extreme limit. He aimed to demonstrate
not only a hypothetical necessity for an atonement in order to salvation, but an
absolute necessity. A certain number of sinners, he maintained, must be
saved, to fill up the numbers of the fallen angels, as "it is indubitable that
rational nature which is or is to be happy in the contemplation of God is fore-
known by God in a certain rational and perfect number which can neither be
more nor less" (Cur Deus Homo, i. c. 16). How happy is one to get away from
such science so called to the supper room in Bethany ! Let the august attribute
of justice get its due place in the theology of the atonement, but let not "love"
be relegated from theology to popular sermons. Christ's death satisfied both
divine justice and divine love, and the glory of the gospel is that the sa7ne event
satisfied both.

U »

306 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Mary's " good work" furtlier resembled Christ's in its self-
sacrificing character. It was not without an effort and a
sacrifice that that devoted woman performed her famous act of
homage. All the evangelists make particular mention of
the costliness of the ointment. Mark and John represent
the murmuring disciples as estimating its value at the round
sum of three hundred pence ; equal say to the wages of a
labouring man for a whole year at the then current rate of a
penny per day. This was a large sum in itself; but what is
more particularly to be noted, it was a very large sum for
Mary. This we learn from Christ's own words, as recorded
by the second evangelist. " She hath done what she could,"
He kindly remarked of her, in defending her conduct against
the harsh censures of His disciples. It was a remark of the
same kind as that which He made a day or two after in
Jerusalem concerning the poor widow whom He saw casting
two mites into the temple treasury ; and it implied that Mary
had expended aU her resources an that single tribute of re-
spect to Him whom her soul loved. AU her earnings, aR
her little hoard, had been given in exchange for that box,
whose precious contents she poured on the Saviour's person.
Hers was no ordinary love ; it was a noble, heroic, self-sacri-
ficing devotion, which made her do her utmost for its object.

Herein the woman of Bethany resembled the Son of man.
He, too, did what He could. Whatever it was possible for a
holy being to endure in the way of humiliation, temptation,
sorrow, suffering, yea, even in the way of becoming " sin"
and " a curse," He willingly underwent. All through His life
on earth He scrupulously abstained from doing aught that
might tend to make His cup of affliction come short of
absolute fulness. He denied HimseK all the advantages of
divine power and privilege ; he emptied HimseK ; He made
Himself poor ; He became in all possible respects like His
sinful brethren, that He might qualify Himself for being a
merciful and trustworthy High Priest to them in things per-
taining to God. Such sacrifices in life and death did His
life impose on Him.

Wliile imposing sacrifices, love, by way of compensation,
makes them easy. It is not only love's destiny, but it is

THE ANOINTING IN BETHANY. 307

love's deliglit, to endure hardships, to bear burdens for the
object loved. It is not satisfied till it has found an oppor-
tunity of embodying itself in a service involving cost, labour,
pain. The things from which selfishness shrinks, love ardently
longs for. These reflections, we believe, are applicable to Mary.
With her love to Jesus, it was more easy for her to do what
she did than to refrain from doing it. But love's readiness
and eagerness to sacrifice herself are most signally exempli-
fied in the case of Jesus Himself It was indeed His plea-
sure to suffer for our redemption. Far from shrinking from
the cross. He looked forward to it with earnest desii^e ; and
when the hour of His passion approached. He spoke of it as
the hour of His glorification. He had no thought of achiev-
ing our salvation at the smallest possible cost to Himself.
His feeling was rather akin to this : " The more I suffer the
better : the more thoroughly shall I realize my identity with
my brethren ; the more completely will the sympathetic,
burden-bearing, help-bringing- instincts and yearnings of my
love be satisfied." Yes ; Jesus had more to do than to
purchase sinners for as small a price as would be accepted
for their ransom. He had to do justice to His own heart ;
He had adequately to express its deep compassion ; and no act
of limited or calculated dimensions would avail to exhaust
the contents of that whose dimensions were immeasurable.
Measured suffering, especially when endured by so august a
personage, might satisfy divine justice, but it could not satisfy
divine love.

A third feature which fitted Mary's " good work " to be an
emblem of the Saviour's, was its magnificG7ice. This also ap-
peared in the expenditure connected with the act of anointing,
which was not only such as involved a sacrifice for a person
of her means, but very liberal with reference to the purpose
in hand. The quantity of oil employed in the service was,
according to John, not less than a pound weight. This was
much more than could be said to be necessary. There was an
appearance of waste and extravagance in the manner of the
anointing, even admitting the thing in itself to be right and
proper. Whether the disciples would have objected to the
ceremony, however performed, does not appear ; but it was

308 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

evidently the extravagant amount of ointment expended wliicli
was the prominent object of their displeasure. We conceive
them as saying, in effect : " Surely less might have done :
the greater part at least, if not the whole of this ointment,
might have been saved for other uses. This is simply sense-
less, prodigal expenditure."

What to the narrow-hearted disciples seemed prodigality
was but the princely magnificence of love, which, as even a
heathen philosopher could tell, considers not for how much or
how little this or that can be done, but how it can be done
most gracefully and handsomely.^ And what seemed to them
purposeless waste, served at least one good purpose. It sym-
bolized a similar characteristic of Christ's good work as the
Saviour of sinners. He did His work magnificently, and in
no mean, economical way. He accomplished the redemption
of " many " by means adequate to redeem all. " With Him
is plenteous redemption." He did not measure out His blood
in proportion to the number to be saved, nor limit His
sympathies as the sinner's friend to the elect. He shed bitter
tears for doomed souls ; He shed His blood without measure,
and without respect to numbers, and offered an atonement
which was sufficient for the sins of the world. ISTor was tliis
attribute of universal sufficiency attaching to His atoning
work one to which He was indifferent. On the contrary, it
appears to have been in His thoughts at the very moment He
uttered the words authorizing the association of Mary's deed
of love with the gospel. For He speaks of that gospel which
was to consist in the proclamation of His deed of love in
dying for sinners, as a gospel for the whole world ; evidently
desiring that, as the odour of Mary's ointment filled the room
in which the guests were assembled, so the aroma of His
sacrifice might be diffused as an atmosphere of saving health
among all the nations.

We may say, therefore, that in defending Mary against the
charge of waste, Jesus was at the same time defending Him-
self; replying by anticipation to such questions as these :
To what purpose weep over doomed Jerusalem ? why sorrow
for souls that are after all to perish ? why trouble Himself

' Aristotle, Eth. Nk. lib. iv. cap. 2. 9.

THE ANOINTING IN BETHANY. 309

about men not elected to salvation ? why command His gospel
to be preached to every creature, with an emphasis which
seems to say He wishes every one saved, when He knows
only a definite number will believe the report ? why not con-
fine His sympathies and His solicitudes to those who shall be
effectually benefited by them ? why not restrict His love to
the channel of the covenant ? why allow it to overflow the
embankments, like a river in full flood ?^

Such questions betray ignorance of the conditions under
which even the elect are saved. Christ could not save any
unless He were heartily willing to save all, for that willingness
is a part of the perfect righteousness which it behoved Him
to fulfil. The sum of duty is. Love God supremely, and thy
neighbour as thyself ; and " neighbour" means, for Christ as for
us, every one who needs help, and whom He can help. But not
to dwell on this, we remark that such questions show ignorance
of the nature of love. Magnificence, misnamed by churls
extravagance and waste, is an invariable attribute of all true
love. David recognised this truth, when he selected the pro-
fuse anointing of Aaron with the oil of consecration at his
installation into the office of high priest as a fit emblem of
brotherly love.^ There was " Avaste " in that anointing too, as
well as in the one Avhich took place at Bethany. For the oil
was not sprinkled on the head of Aaron, though that might
have been sufficient for the purpose of a mere ceremony. The
vessel was emptied on tlie high priest's person, so that its
contents flowed down from the head upon the beard, and even
to the skirts of the sacerdotal robes. In that very waste lay
the point of the resemblance for David. It was a feature that
was likely to strike his mind, for he too was a wasteful man
in his way. He had loved God in a manner which exposed
him to the charge of extravagance. He had danced before the
Lord, for example, when the ark was brought up from the

1 On the apparent waste in the economy of redemption, there are some good
remarks in the wi-itings of Andrew Fuller, and especially in TAree Conversations
on Particular Redemption, He says : "It accords with the general conduct of
God to impart His favours with a kind of profusion which, to the mind of man
that sees only one or two ends to be answered by them, may have the appearance
of waste."

2 Ps. cxxxiii.

310 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem, forgetful of liis dignity,
exceeding the bounds of decorum, and, as it might seem, with-
out excuse, as a much less hearty demonstration of his feelings
would have served the purpose of a religious solemnity.^

David, Mary, Jesus, all loving, devoted beings, prophets,
apostles, martyrs, confessors, belong to one company, and come
all under one condemnation. They must aU plead guilty to a
waste of affection, sorrow, labour, tears ; all Kve so as to earn
for themselves the blame of extravagance, which is their
highest praise. David dances, and Michal sneers ; prophets
break their hearts for their people's sins and miseries, and the
people make sport of their grief ; Marys break their alabaster
boxes, and frigid disciples object to the waste ; men of God
sacrifice their all for their religious convictions, and the world
calls them fools for their pains, and philosophers bid them
beware of being martyrs by mistake ; Jesus weeps over sin-
ners that will not come to Him to be saved, and thankless
men ask, Why shed tears over vessels of wrath fitted for
destruction ?

We have thus seen that Mary's good deed was a fit and
worthy emblem of the good deed of Jesus Christ in dying on
the cross. We are now to show that Mary herself is in some
important respects worthy to be spoken of as a model
Christian. Three features in her character entitle her to this
honourable name.

First among these is her enthusiastic attachment to the
person of Christ. The most prominent feature in Mary's
character was her power of loving, her capacity of self-devotion.
It was this virtue, as manifested in her action, that elicited
the admiration of Jesus. He was so delighted with the
chivalrous deed of love, that He, so to speak, canonized Mary
on the spot, as a king might confer knighthood on the battle-
field on a soldier who had performed some noble feat of arms.
. " Behold," He said in effect, " here is what I understand by
Christianity : an unselfish and uncalculating devotion to me
as the Saviour of sinners, and as the Sovereign of the kingdom
of truth and righteousness. Therefore, wherever the gospel
is preached, let this that this woman hath done be spoken of,

^ 2 Sam. vi.

THE ANOINTING IN BETHANY. 311

not merely as a memorial of her, but to intimate "what I expect
of all who believe in me."

In so commending Mary, Jesus gives us to understand in effect
that love is the chief of Christian virtues. He proclaims the
same doctrine afterwards taught by one who, though last, was
the first of all the apostles in his comprehension of the mind
of Christ — the Apostle Paul. That glowing panegjTic on
charity, so well known to aR readers of his epistles, in which
he makes eloquence, knowledge, faith, the gift of tongues, and
the gift of prophecy do obeisance to her, as the sovereign
virtue, is but the faithful interpretation in general terms of
the encomium pronounced on the woman of Bethany. The
story of the anointing and the thirteenth chapter of the First
Epistle to the Corinthians should be read together.

In making love the test and measure of excellence, Jesus
and Paul, and the rest of the apostles (for they all shared
the Master's mind at last), differ widely from the world reli-
gious and irreligious. Pharisees and Sadducees, scrupulous
religionists, and unscrupulous men of no religion, agree in
disliking ardent, enthusiastic, chivalrous devotion, even in
the most noble cause. They are wise and prudent, and their
philosophy might be embodied in such maxims as these : " Be
not too catholic in your sentiments, too warm in your sym-
pathies, too keen in your sense of duty ; never allow your
heart to get the better of your head, or your principles to in-
terfere with your interest." So widely diffused is the dislike
to earnestness, especially in good, that all nations have their
proverbs against enthusiasm. The Greeks had their /jirjSeu
ayav, the Latins their JVe quid nimis ; expressing scepticism
in proverb-maker and proverb-quoter as to the possibility of
wisdom being enthusiastic about anything. The world is
prosaic, not poetic, in temperament — prudential, not impul-
sive : it abhors eccentricity, in good or in evil ; it prefers a
dead level of mediocrity, moderation, and self-possession; its
model man is one who never forgets himself, either by sinking
below himself in folly or wickedness, or by rising above him-
self, and getting rid of meanness, pride, selfishness, cowardice,
and vanity in devotion to a noble cause.

The twelve were like the world in their temperament at

312 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

the time of the anointing : they seem to have regarded Mary
as a romantic, quixotic, crazy creature, and her action as
absurd and indefensible. They objected not, of course, to her
love of Jesus ; but they deemed the manner of its manifesta-
tion foolish, as the money spent on the ointment might have
been applied to a better purpose — say to the relief of the
destitute — and Jesus loved nothing the less, seeing that, ac-
cording to His own teaching, all philanthropic actions were
deeds of kindness to HimseK. And, on first thoughts, one is
haK inclined to say that they had reason on their side, and
were far wiser, while not less devoted to Jesus than Mary.
But look at their behaviour on the day of their Lord's cruci-
fixion, and learn the difference between them and her. Mary
loved so ardently as to be beyond calculations of consequences
or expenses ; they loved so coldly, that there was room for fear
in their hearts : therefore, while Mary spent her all on the
ointment, they all forsook their Master, and fled to save their
own lives. Whence we can see that, despite occasional extrava-
gances, apparent or real, that spirit is wisest as well as noblest
which makes us incapable of calculation, and proof against
temptations arising therefrom. One rash, blundering, but
heroic Luther, is worth a thousand men of the Erasmus type,
unspeakably wise, but cold, passionless, timid, and time-serv-
ing. Scholarship is great, but action is greater; and the
power to do noble actions comes from love.

How great is the devoted Mary, compared with the cold-
hearted disciples ! She does noble deeds, and they criticise
them ! Poor work for a human being, criticism, especially
the sort that abounds in fault-finding ! Love does not care
for such occupation ; it is too petty for her generous mind.
If there be room for praise, she will give that in unstinted
measure ; but rather than carp and blame, she prefers to be
silent. Then observe again how love in Mary becomes a sub-
stitute for prescience. She does not know that Jesus is about
to die, but she acts as if she did. Such as Mary can divine :
the instincts of love, the inspiration of the God of love, teach
them to do the right thing at the right time, which is the
very highest attainment of true msdom. On the other hand,
we see in the case of the disciples how coldness of heart con-

THE ANOINTING IN BETHANY. 313

sumes knowledge and makes men stupid. They kad received
far more information than Mary concerning the future. If
they did not know that Jesus was about to be put to death,
they ought to have known from the many hints and even
plain intimations which had been given them. But, alas, they
had forgot all these. And why ? For the same reason which
makes all men so forgetful of things pertaining to their neigh-
bours. The twelve were too much taken up with their own
affairs. Their heads were filled with vain dreams of worldly
ambition, and so their Master's words were forgotten almost
as soon as they were uttered, and it became needful that He
should tell them pathetically and reproachfully : " The poor ye
have always wdth you, but me ye have not always." Men so
minded never understand the times, so as to know what Israel
ought to do, or to approve the conduct of those who do know.

A second admirable feature in Mary's character was the
freedom of her spirit. She was not tied down to methods and
rules of well-doing. The disciples, judging from their language,
seem to have been great methodists, servile in their adherence
to certain stereotyped modes of action. " This ointment," said
they, " might have been sold for much, and given to the poor!'
They understand that charity to the poor is a very important
duty : they know that their Master often referred to it ; and
they make it everything. Charity is their hobby. When
Judas went out to betray his Lord, they fancied that he was
gone to distribute what remained of the supper among some
poor persons of liis acquaintance. Their very ideas of well-
doing appear to be method-ridden. Good works with them
do not seem to be co-extensive with noble deeds of aU sorts.
The phrase is technical, and limited in its application to a
confined circle of actions of an expressly and obviously re-
ligious and benevolent nature.

Not so with Mary. She knows of more ways of doing good
than one. She can invent ways of her own. She is original,
creative, not slavishly imitative. And she is as fearless as she
is original: She can not only imagine forms of well-doing out
of the beaten track, but she has the courage to realize her con-
ceptions. She is not afraid of the public. She does not ask
beforehand, What will the twelve tliink of this ? With a free

314 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

mind she forms her plan, and with prompt, free hand she
forthwith executes it.

For this freedom Mary was indebted to her large heart.
Love made her original in thought and conduct. People
without heart cannot be original as she was. They may
addict themselves to good works from one motive or another ;
but they go about them in a very slavish, mechanical way.
They have to be told by some individual in whom they con-
fide, or more commonly by custom or fashion, what to do ; and
hence they never do any good which is not in vogue. But
Mary needed no counsellor ; she took counsel of her own heart.
Love told her infallibly what was the duty of the hour ; that
her business for the present was not to give alms, but to
anoint the person of the great High Priest.

Love, we learn from Mary's case, as well as necessity, is the
mother of invention. A great heart has fully as much to do
with spiritual originality as a clever head. What is needed
to fill the church with original preachers, original givers,
original actors in all departments of Christian work, is not
more brains, or more training, or more opportunities, but above
all, more heart. When there is little love in the Christian
community, it resembles a river in dry weather, which not
only keeps within its banks, but does not even occupy the
whole of its channel, leaving large beds of gravel or sand
lying high and dry on both sides of the current. But when
the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of her members,
the church becomes like the same river in time of rain. The
stream begins to rise, all the gravel beds gradually disappear,
and at length the swollen flood not only fills its channel, but
overflows its banks, and spreads over the meadows. New
methods of well-doing are then attempted, and new measures
of well-doing reached ; new songs are indited and sung ; new
forms of expression for old truths are invented, not for the sake
of novelty, but in the creative might of a new spiritual life.

It was love that made Mary free from fear, as well as from
the bondage of mechanical custom. " Love," saith one who
knew love's power well, " casteth out fear." Love can make
even shrinking, sensitive women bold — bolder even than men.
It can teach us to disregard that thing called public opinion.

THE ANOINTING IN BETHANY. 315

before whicli all mankind cowers. It was love that made
Peter and John so bold when they stood before the Sanhedrim.
They had been with Jesus long enough to love Him more than
their own life, and therefore they quailed not before the face
of the mighty. It was love that made Jesus Himself so indif-
ferent to censure, and so disregardful of conventional restraints
in the prosecution of His work. His heart was so devoted to
His philanthropic mission, that He set at defiance the world's
disapprobation ; nay, probably did not so much as think of it,
except when it obtruded itself upon His notice. And what
love did for Mary, and for Jesus, and for the apostles in after-
days, it does for all. Wherever it exists in liberal measure,
it banishes timidity and shyness, and the imbecility which
accompanies them, and brings along with it power of character
and soundness of mind. And to crown the encomium, we may
add, that while it makes us bold, love does not make us impu-
dent. Some men are bold, because they are too selfish to care
for other people's feelings. Those who are bold through love
may dare to do things which will be found fault with ; but
they are always anxious, as far as possible, to please their
neighbours, and to avoid giving offence.

One remark more let us make under this head. The liberty
which springs from love can never be dangerous. In these
days, good men are greatly alarmed at the progi-ess of broad
school theology. Well, of the breadth that consists in sceptical
indifference to important Christian truth we cannot be too
jealous. But, on the other hand, of the breadth and freedom
due to consuming love for Christ, and all the grand interests
of His kingdom, we cannot have too much. The spirit of
charity may indeed treat as comparatively light matters, things
which men of austere mind deem of almost vital importance,
and may be disposed to do things which men more enamoured
of order and use and wont than of freedom may consider
licentious innovations. But the harm done will be imaginary
rather than real ; and even if it were otherwise, the impulsive
Marys are never so numerous in the church that they may
not safely be tolerated. There are always a sufficient number
of prosaic, order-loving disciples, to keep their quixotic brethren
in due check.

316 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Finally, the noMlity of Mary's spirit was not less remark-
able than its freedom. There was no taint of vulgar utili-
tarianism about her character. She thought habitually, not
of the immediately, obviously, and materially useful, but of
the honourable, the lovely, the morally beautiful. Hard prac-
tical men might have pronounced her a romantic, sentimental,
dreamy mystic ; but a more just, appreciative estimate would
represent her as a woman whose virtues were heroic and
chivalrous rather than commercial. Jesus signalized the salient
point in Mary's character by the epithet wliich He employed
to describe her action. He did not call it a useful work, but
a good, or better still, a noble work.

And yet, while Mary's deed was characteristically noble, it
was not the less useful. All good deeds are useful in some
way, and at some time or other. AD. noble and beautiful
things — thoughts, words, deeds — contribute ultimately to the
benefit of the world. Only the uses of such deeds as Mary's
— of the best and noblest deeds — are not always apparent or
appreciable. If we were to make immediate, obvious, and
vulgar uses the test of what is right, we should exclude
not only the anointing in Bethany, but all fine poems and
works of art, all sacrifices of material advantage to truth and
duty ; everything, in fact, that has not tended directly to
increase outward wealth and comfort, but has merely helped
to redeem the world from vulgarity, given us glimpses of the
far-off land of beauty and goodness, concerning which we now
and then but faintly dream, brought us into contact with the
divine and the eternal, made the earth classic ground, a field
where heroes have fought, and where their bones are buried,
and where the moss-grown stone stands to commemorate their
valour.

In this nobility of spirit Mary was pre-eminently the Chris-
tian. For the genius of Christianity is certainly not utilitarian.
Its counsel is : " Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things
are venerable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things
are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, think of these things."
All these things are emphatically useful ; but it is not of their
utility, but of themselves, we are asked to think, and that for
a very good reason. Precisely in order to be useful, we must

THE ANOINTING IX BETHANY. 317

aim at something higher than usefulness ; just as, in order to
be happy, we must aim at something higher than happiness.
We must make right revealed to us by an enlightened con-
science and a loving pure heart our rule of duty, and then we
may be sure that uses of all kinds will be served by our con-
duct, whether we foresee them or not ; whereas, if we make
calculations of utility our guide in action, we shall leave un-
done the things which are noblest and best, because as a rule
the uses of such things are least obvious, and longest in making
their appearance. Supremely useful to the world is the heroic
devotion of the martp- ; but it takes centuries to develope the
benefits of martyrdom ; and if all men had followed the maxims
of utilitarian philosophy, and made utility their motive to
action, there would never have been any martyrs at all. Utili-
tarianism tends to trimming and time-serving ; it is the death
of heroism and self-sacrifice ; it walks by sight, and not by
faith ; it looks only to the present, and forgets the future ; it
seats prudence on the throne of conscience ; it produces not
great characters, but at best petty busybodies. These things
being considered, it need not surprise us to find that the term
" usefulness," of such frequent recurrence in the religious
vocabulary of the present day, has no place in the New Tes-
tament.^

Two further observations may now fitly close these medita-
tions on the memorable transactions in Bethany.

1. From Christ's defence of Mary we may learn, that being
found fault with is not infallible evidence of being wrong. A
much blamed man is commonly considered to have done some-
thing amiss, as the only possible reason for his being censured.
But, in truth, he may only have done something unusual ; for
all unusual things are found fault with — the unusually good
as well as, nay more than, the unusually bad. Hence it comes
that Paul makes the apparently superfluous remark, that there
is no law against love and its kindred graces. In point of
fact, these virtues are treated as if illegal and criminal,
whenever they exceed the usual stinted niggard measure in
which such precious metals are found in the world. Was

^ The defects of utilitarian morality are well exposed in Sir James Macin-
tosli's Dissertation, under Jeremy Bentliam.

318 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

not He wlio perfectly embodied all the heavenly graces,
flung out of existence by the world as a person not to be
tolerated ?

Happily the world ultimately comes round to a juster
opinion, though often too late to be of service to those who
have suffered wrong. The barbarians of the Island of Malta,
who, when they saw the viper fastened on Paul's hand, thought
he must needs be a murderer, changed their minds when he
shook off the reptile unharmed, and exclaimed, " He is a god."
Hence we should learn this maxim of prudence, not to be
too hasty in criticising, if we want to have credit for insight
and consistency. But we should discipline ourselves to slow-
ness in judging from far higher considerations. We ought to
cherish a reverence for the character and for the personality
of all intelligent responsible beings, and to be under a con-
stant fear of making mistakes, and calKng good evil, and evil
good. In the words of an ancient philosopher, " We ought
always to be very careful when about to blame or praise a
man, lest we speak not rightly. For this purpose it is
necessary to learn to discriminate between good and bad
men. For God is displeased when one blames a person like
Himself, or praises one unlike Himself Do not imagine that
stones, and sticks, and birds, and serpents are holy, and that
men are not. For of all things, the holiest is a good man,
and the most detestable a bad."^

2. If we cannot be Christians like Mary, let us at all
events not be disciples like Judas. Some may think it
would not be desirable that all should be like the Avoman of
Bethany : plausibly alleging tliat, considering the infirmity of
human nature, it is necessary that the romantic, impulsive,
mystic school of Christians should be kept in check by an-
other school of more prosaic, conservative, and so to say,
plebeian character ; while perhaps admitting that a few
Christians like Mary in the church help to preserve religion
from degenerating into coarseness, vulgarity, and formalism.
Be this as it may, the church has certainly no need for
Judases. Judas and Mary ! tliese two represent the two
extremes of human character. The one exemplifies Plato's

' I'lato, Minos.

THE ANOINTING IN BETHANY. 319

'TTavTcov fjbiapcoraroVj tlie other his Trdvrcov lepcoraTov. Charac-
ters so diverse compel us to believe in a heaven and a hell.
Each one goeth to his and her own place : Mary to the " land
of the leal ;" Judas to the land of the false, who sell their
conscience and their God for gold.

CHAPTER XIX.

SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS.
John xii. 20-33.

THIS naiTative presents interesting paints of affinity with
that contained in the fourth chapter of John's Gospel :
the story of the woman by the weU. In both, Jesus comes
into contact with persons outside the pale of the Jewish
church ; in both, He takes occasion from such contact to
speak in glowing language of an hour that is coming, yea,
now is, which shall usher in a ^lorious new era for the kingdom
of God ; in both He expresses, in the most intense, emphatic
terms, His devotion to His Father's will. His faith in the
future spread of the gospel, and His lively hope of a personal
reward in glory ;^ in both, to note yet one other point of
resemblance. He employs, for the expression of His thought,
agricultural metaphors : in one case, the earlier, borrowing
his figure from the process of reaping ; in the other, the later,
from that of sowing.

But, besides resemblances, marked differences are observ-
able in these two passages from the life of the Lord Jesus.
Of these the most outstanding is this, that while on the
earlier occasion there was nothing but enthusiasm, joy, and
hope in the Saviour's breast, on the present occasion these,
feelings are blended with deep sadness. His soul is not only
elated with the prospect of coming glory, but troubled as with
the prospect of impending disaster. The reason is, that His
death is nigh : it is within three days of the time when He
must be lifted up on the cross ; and sentient nature shrinks
from the bitter cup of suffering.

1 Jolin iv. 34-36. Vcr. 34 expresses Clirist's devotion ; ver. 35 His faith,
making visible and present things not seen and future ; ver. 36 His hope of a
great reward in common with all sowers and reapers.

SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS, 321

But while we observe the presence of a new emotion here,
we also see that its presence produces no abatement in the
old emotions manifested by Jesus in connection with His
interview with the woman of Samaria. On the contrary, the
near prospect of death only furnishes the Saviour with the
means of giving enhanced intensity to the expression af His
devotion, and His faith and hope. Formerly He said that
the doing of His Father's will was more to Him than meat ;
now He says in effect that it is more to Him than life} At
the beginning He had seen by the eye of faith a vast extent
of fields, white already to the harvest, in the wide wilderness
of Gentile lands; now He not only continues to see these
fields in spite of His approaching passion, but He sees them
as the cffeet thereof, — a whole world of golden grain, growing
out of one corn of wheat cast into the ground, and rendered
fruitful of life by its own death.^ At the well of Sychar
He had spoken with lively hope of the wages in store for
Himself, and all fellow-labourers in the kingdom of God,
whether sowers or reapers ; here death is swallowed up in
victory, through the power of His hope. To suffer is to
enter into glory ; to be lifted up on the cross, is to be ex-
alted to heaven, and seated on the throne of a world-wide
dominion.^

The men who desired to see Jesus while He stood in one
of the courts of the temple, were, the evangelist informs us,
Greeks. Whence they came, whether from east or from west,
or from north or from south, we know not ; but they were
evidently bent on entering into the kingdom of God. They
had got so far on the way to the kingdom already. They had
embraced the faith of One living, true God, as taught by the
Jews, and were come at this time up to Jerusalem to worship
at the passover as Jewish proselytes ; but they had not, it
would seem, found rest to their souls : there was something
more to be known about God which was still hid from them.
This they hoped to learn from Jesus, with whose name and
fame they had somehow become acquainted. Accordingly,
an opportunity presenting itself to them of communicating
with one of those who belonged to His company, they re-
1 Jolm xii. 28. ^ Ver. 2A. 3 V.ers. 23, 32.

322 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

spectfully expressed to him their desire to meet his Master,
" Sir/' said they, " we would see Jesus." In themselves,
the words might be nothing more than the expression of a
curious wish to get a passing glimpse of one who was under-
stood to be a remarkable man. Such an interpretation of
the request, however, is excluded by the deep emotion it
awakened in the breast of Jesus. Idle curiosity would not
have stirred His soul in such a fashion. Then the notion
that these Greeks were merely curious strangers, is entirely
inconsistent with the connection in which the story is intro-
duced. John brings in the present narrative immediately
after quoting a reflection made by the Pharisees respecting
the popularity accruing to Jesus from the resurrection of
Lazarus. " Perceive ye," said they to each other, " how ye
prevail nothing ? Behold, the world is gone after him."
" Yes indeed," rejoins the evangelist in effect, " and that to
an extent of which ye do not dream. He whom ye hate is
beginning to be inquired after, even by Gentiles from afar, as
the following history will show."

We do right, then, to regard the Greek strangers as earnest
inquirers. They were true seekers after God. They were
genuine spiritual descendants of their illustrious countrymen
Socrates and Plato, whose utterances, written or unwritten,
were one long prayer for light and truth, one deep unconscious
sigh for a sight of Jesus. They wanted to see the Saviour,
not with the eye of the body merely, but above all, with the
eye of the spirit.

The bearing of these Gentiles quite harmonizes mth the
character we ascribe to them. They are modest, courteous,
reverential. They seek admission to the presence of Jesus,
as one might to the presence of a king. They are most
respectful even to His servants. Sir, Lord, is the title they
give even to a humble disciple like Pliilip. True seekers
after God and truth are ever the same — ingenuous, meek,
lowly.

It is natural to ask. Did these men, then, see Jesus after
all? We reply confidently. Yes, now or at another time : if not
with the eye of sense, then with the eye of faith. We rest
our belief of this not on the Gospel narrative, but on the

SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS. 323

sure word, that they who seek shall find. No one ever
sought God with his whole heart in vain. We think it
highly probable that the Greeks were present when Jesus
uttered the deep thoughts here recorded. It is not conclusive
against this view that the evangelist takes no notice of their
presence, because he is concerned not to inform us of the issue
of the request, but to record the fact of its being made. But
be this as it may, of one tiling we are sure, that the prayer of
these devout inquirers was granted by Jesus, either while He
was on earth or after He was lifted up into glory.

The part played by the two disciples named in the narra-
tive, in connection with this memorable incident, claims a
brief notice. Philip and Andrew had the honour to be the
medium of communication between the representatives of the
Gentile world, and Him who had come to fulfil the desire and
be the Saviour of aU nations. The devout Greeks addressed
themselves to the former of these two disciples, and he in
turn took liis brother-disciple into his counsels. How Philip
came to be selected as the bearer of their request by these
Gentile inquirers, we do not know. Keference has been made
to the fact that the name Philip is Greek, as implying the
probability that the disciple who bore it had Greek connec-
tions, and the possibility of a previous acquaintance between
him and the persons who accosted him on this occasion.
There may be something in these conjectures, but it is more
important to remark that the Greeks were happy in their
choice of an intercessor. Philip was himself an inquirer, and
had an inquirer's sympathy with all who might be in a
similar state of mind. The first time he is named in the
Gospel history he is introduced expressing his faith in Jesus,
as one who had carefully sought the truth, and who, having
at length found what he sought, strove to make others par-
takers of the blessing. " 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." The exactness and fulness of this confession speaks
to careful and conscientious search. And Philip has still
the inquirer's temper. A day or two subsequent to this
meeting with the Greeks, we find him making for himself

324 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

the most important request : " Lord, show us the Father, and
it sufficeth us."

But why, then, does this sympathetic disciple not convey
the request of the Greeks direct to Jesus ? Why take
Andrew with him, as if afraid to go alone on such an errand ?
Just because the petitioners are Greeks and Gentiles. It is
one thing to introduce a devout Jew like Nathanael to Jesus,
quite another to introduce Gentiles, however devout. Philip
is pleased that his Master should be inquired after in such a
quarter, but he is not sure about the propriety of acting on
his first impulse. He hesitates, and is in a flurry of excite-
ment in presence of what he feels to be a new thing, a sig-
nificant event, the beginning of a religious revolution.^ His
inclination is to play the part of an intercessor for the Greeks ;
but he distrusts his own judgment, and, before acting on it,
lays the case before his brother-disciple and fellow-townsman
Andrew, to see how it will strike him.

The result of the consultation was, that the two disciples
came and told their Master. They felt that they were per-
fectly safe in mentioning the matter to Him, and then leaving
Him to do as He pleased.

It is interesting to consider that these two brethren, PhiKp
and Andrew, being of the five who were introduced to Jesus
at the very beginning of His ministry, were in all probabi-
lity present at the memorable scene by the well of Sychar.
Comparing their spiritual state now with their state then, we
j)erceive they have made some progress. Then, they and the
rest of the disciples marvelled that their Master talked with
a Samaritan woman, and were only restrained by reverence
from expressing their surprise ; now, they are apparently
elated with joy to find their beloved Master attracting the
attention of foreigners, and see no insuperable objections to
an interview between them and Him. Still it is the day of
small things with these disciples. They are far, far yet from
the joy of being reapers in Gentile fields, far from the faith

' Lutliardt {DasJoh. Evan. i. 102) tMnks this hesitancy specially character-
istic of Philip, and contrasts with it the promptitude of Andrew, as exhibited
here, and also in John vi. 9. This is possible. Thoughtful, inquiring men
are often unready in practical matters.

SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS. 325

that could see in heathen nations fields^ white to the harvest,
far from comprehending what that " hour " was whereof Jesus
spoke in mystic but glowing language, the hour of a new
spiritual worship and of His own glorification. But to all
this they will attain ere long.

Passing on now to the reception given by Jesus to the
communication of the two disciples, we observe that His
soul was mightily stirred by the information which they
brought to Him. Manifestations of spiritual susceptibility,
by persons who were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
did always greatly move His feelings. The open-mindedness
of the people of Sychar, the faith of the centurion, the grati-
tude of the Samaritan leper, touched Him profoundly. Such
things came upon His spirit like breezes on an ^olian harp,
drawing forth from it sweetest tones of faith, hope, joy, charity ;
and alas ! also sometimes sad, plaintive tones of disappoint-
ment and sorrow, like the sighing of the autumn wind among
Scottish pines, when He thought of the unbelief and spiritual
deadness of the chosen people, for whom He had done so much.^

Never was the heart of the Son of man more deeply
affected than on the present occasion. No wonder ! "What
sight more moving than that of a human being seeking after
God, the fountain of light and of life ! Then the spontaneity
of these Greek inquirers is beautiful. It is something to be
thankful for in this unspiritual, unbelieving world, when one
and another, here and there, responds to God's- eaU, and
receives a divine word which has been spoken to him. But
here we have the rare spectacle of men coming uncalled :. not
sought after by Christ, and accepting Him offering Himself to
them as a Saviour and Lord, but seeking Him, and begging it
as a great favour to be admitted to His presence, that they
may offer Him their sincere homage, and hear Him speak
words of eternal life. They come, too, from a most unusual
quarter ; and, what is still more worthy to be noticed, at a
most critical time. Jesus is just about to be conclusively
rejected by His own people ; just on the point of being

^ John xii. 37-43. See next chapter of this work, the perusal of which may-
help the reader to understand the emotion awakened in Christ's breast by the
request of these Greek strangers.

326 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

crucified by them. Some have shut their eyes, and stopped
their ears, and hardened their hearts in the most determined
manner against Him and His teaching ; others, not insensible
to His merits, have meanly and heartlessly concealed their
convictions, fearing the consequences of an open profession.
The saying of the prophet Esaias has been fulfilled in His
bitter experience, " Wlio hath believed our report ? and to
whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed ? " Pharisa-
ism, Sadduceeism, ignorance, indifference, fickleness, cowardice,
have confronted Him on every side. How refreshing, amidst
abounding contradiction, stupidity, and dull insusceptibility,
this intimation brought to Him at the eleventh hour : " Here
are certain Greeks who are interested in you, and want to see
you !" The words fall on His ear like a strain of sweet music ;
the news is reviving to His burdened spirit, like the sight of
a spring to a weary traveller in a sandy desert ; and in the
fulness of His joy He exclaims : " The hour is come that the
Son of man should be glorified." Eejected by His own people,
He is consoled by the inspiring assurance that He shall be
believed on in the world, and accepted by the outlying nations
as all their salvation and all their desire.

The thoughts of Jesus at this time were as deep as His
emotions were intense. Specially remarkable is the first
thought to which He gave utterance in these words : " Verily,
verily, I say unto you. Except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit." He speaks here with the solemnity of one
conscious that he is announcing a truth new and strange to his
hearers. His object is to make it credible and comprehensible
to His disciples, that death and increase may go together. He
points out to them that the fact is so in the case of grain ; and
He would have them understand that the law of increase, not
only in s'pite but in mrtne of death, will hold true equally in
His own case. " A grain of wheat, by dying, becometh fruitful ;
so I must die in order to become, on a large scale, an object
of faith and source of life. During my lifetime I have had
little success. Few have believed, many have disbelieved ;
and they are about to crown their unbelief by putting me to
death. But my death, so far from being, as they fancy, my

SIE, WE WOULD SEE JESUS. 327

defeat and destruction, will be but the beginning of my glori-
fication. After I have been crucified, I shall . begin to be be-
lieved in extensively as the Lord and Saviour of men."

Having, by the analogy of the corn of wheat, set forth death
as the condition of fruitfidness, Jesus, in a word subsequently
spoken, proclaimed His approaching crucifixion as the secret of
His future jpowcr. " I," said He, " if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draio all men unto me." He used the expression
" lifted up" in a double sense, — partly, as the evangelist in-
forms us, in allusion to the manner of His death, partly with
reference to His ascension into heaven ; and He meant to say,
that after He had been taken up into glory, He wovdd, through
His cross, attract the eyes and hearts of men towards Himself,
And, strange as such a statement might appear before the
event, the fact corresponded to the Saviour's expectation. The
cross — symbol of shame ! — did become a source of glory ; the
sign of weakness became an instrument of moral power. Christ
crucified, though to unbelieving Jews a stumbling-block, and
to philosophic Greeks foolishness, became to many believers
the power of God and the wisdom of God. By His voluntary
humiliation and meek endurance of suffering, the Son of God
drew men to Him in sincerest faith, and devoted reverential
love.

The largeness of Christ's desires and expectations is very
noteworthy. He speaks of " much fruit," and of drawing " all
men" unto Him. Of course we are not to look here for an
exact definition of the extent of redemption. Jesus speaks as a
man giving utterance, in the fulness of his heart, to his high,
holy hope ; and we may learn from His ardent words, if not
the theological extent of atonement, at least the extensiveness of
the Atoner's good wishes. He would have all men believe in
Him and be saved. He complained with deep melancholy of
the fewness of believers among the Jews ; He turned with
unspeakable longing to the Gentiles, in hope of a better re-
ception from them. The greater the number of believers at
any time and in any place, the better He is pleased ; and He
certainly does not contemplate with indifference the vast amount
of unbelief which still prevails in all quarters of the world.
His heart is set on the complete expulsion of the prince of

328 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

this world from liis usurped dominion, that He Himself may
reign over all the kingdoms of the earth.

The narrative contains a word of application addressed by
Jesus to His disciples in connection with the law of increase
by death, saying in effect that it applied to them as well as to
HimseK.^ This appears at first surprising, insomuch that we
are tempted to think that the sayings alluded to are brought in
here by the evangelist out of their true historical connection.
But on reconsideration we come to think otherwise. We observe
that in all eases, wherever it is possible, Christ in His teaching
takes His disciples into partnership with Himself. He does
not insist on those aspects of truth which are peculiar to Him-
self, but rather on those which are common to Him with His
followers. If there be any point of contact at all, any sense
in which what He states of HimseK is true of those who be-
lieve in Him, He seizes^ on that, and makes it a prominent
topic of discourse. So He did on the occasion of the meeting
by the well ; so when He first plainly announced to His dis-
ciples that He was to be put to death. And so also He does
here. Here, too. He asserts a fellowship between HimseK and
His followers in respect to the necessity of death as a condition
of fruitfulness. And the fellowship asserted is not a far-fetched
conceit : it is a great practical reality. The principle laid
down is this, that in proportion as a man^ is a partaker of
Christ's suffering in His estate of liumiliation, shall he be a
partaker of the glory, honour, and power which belong to His
estate of exaltation. This principle holds true even in this
life. The bearing of the cross, the undergoing of death, is the
condition of fruit-bearing both in the sense of personal sancti-
fication, and in the sense of effective service in the kingdom
of God. In' the long-run the measure of a man's power is the
extent to^ which he is baptized into Christ's death. We must
fill up that which is behind of the afihctions of Christ in our
flesh for His body's sake, which is the church, if we would be
the honoured instruments of advancing that great work in the
world for which He was willing, like a corn of wheat, to fall
into the ground and die.

1 John xii. 25, 26.

CHAPTEE XX.

0 JEEUSALEM, JEEUSALEM !
Matt, xxi.-xxv. ; Mark xi.-xni. ; Luke xix. 29-48, xx. xxi.

THE few days intervening between the anointing and the
passover were spent by Jesus in daily visits to Jeru-
salem in company with His disciples, returning to Bethany
in the evening. During that time He spoke much in public
and in private, on themes congenial to His feelings and situa-
tion : the sin of the Jewish nation, and specially of its reli-
gious leaders ; the doom of Jerusalem, and the end of the
world. The record of His sayings during these last days fills
five chapters of Matthew's Gospel, — a proof of the deep im-
pressions which they made on the mind of the twelve.

Prominent among these utterances, which together form the
dying testimony of the "Prophet of Nazareth," stands the
great philippic delivered by Him against the scribes and
Pharisees of Jerusalem. This terrible discourse had been
preceded by various encounters between the speaker and His
inveterate foes, which were as the preliminary skirmishes that
form the prelude to a great engagement. In these petty fights
Jesus had been uniformly victorious, and had overwhelmed
His opponents with confusion. They had asked Him con-
cerning His authority for taking upon Him the oflice of a
reformer, in clearing the temple precincts of traders ; and He
had silenced them by asking in reply their opinion of John's
mission, and by speaking in their hearing the parables of the
Two Sons, the Vinedressers, and the Rejected StoTie ;^ wherein
their hypocrisy, unrighteousness, and ultimate damnation were
vividly depicted. They had tried to catch Him in a trap by
an ensnaring question concerning the tribiite paid to the
Eoman government ; and He had extricated HimseK with ease,

1 Matt. xxi. 23-46.

330 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

by simply asking for a penny, and pointing to the emperor's
head on it, demanding of His assailants " whose is this image
and superscription ;" and on receiving the reply, " Csesar's,"
giving His judgment in these terms : " Eender therefore unto
Coesar the things which are Csesar's, and unto God the things
that are God's." ^ Twice foiled, the Pharisees (with their friends
the Herodians) gave place to their usual foes, hut present alhes,
the Sadducees, who attempted to puzzle Jesus on the subject
of the resurrection, only to be ignominiously discomfited ; ^
whereupon the pharisaic brigade returned to the charge, and
through the mouth of a lawyer not yet wholly perverted in-
quired, " Which is the great commandment in the law ? " To
this question Jesus gave a direct and serious reply, summing
up the whole law in love to God and love to man, to the
entire contentment of His interrogator. Then, impatient
of further trifling, He blew a trumpet-peal, the signal of a
grand offensive attack, by propounding the question, " What
think ye of Christ, whose son is He ?" and taking occasion
from the reply to quote the opening verse of David's martial
psalm, asking them to reconcile it with their answer.^ In
appearance fighting the Pharisees with their own weapons,
and framing a mere theological puzzle. He was in reality
reminding them who He was, and intimating to them the
predicted doom of those who set themselves against the Lord's
anointed.

Thereupon David's Son and David's Lord proceeded to fulfil
the prophetic figure, and to make a footstool of the men who
sat in Moses' seat, by delivering that discourse in which, to
change the figure, the Pharisee is placed in a moral pillory,
a mockery and a byword to aU after ages ; and a sentence is
pronounced on the pharisaic character inexorably severe, yet
justified by fact, and approved by the conscience of all true
Christians.* This anti-pharisaic speech may be regarded as the
final, decisive, comprehensive, dying testimony of Jesus against
the most deadly and damning form of evil prevailing in His
age, or that can prevail in any age — religious hypocrisy ; and
as such it forms a necessary part of the PJghteous One's

1 Matt. xxii. 15-22. 2 Matt. xxii. 23-33.

3 Matt. xxii. 41-45. * Matt, xxiii.

0 JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM ! 331

witness-bearing in behalf of the truth, to which His disciples
are expected to say Amen with no faltering voice. For the
spirit of moral resentment is as essential in Christian ethics
as the spirit of mercy; nor can any one who regards the
anti-pharisaic polemic of the Gospel history as a scandal to be
ashamed of, or a blemish to be apologized for, or at least as a
thing which, however necessary at the time, propriety now
requires us to treat with neglect, — a practice too common in
the religious world, — be cleared of the suspicion of having
more sympathy at heart with the men by whom the Lord was
crucified than with the Lord Himself Blessed is he who is not
ashamed of Christ's sternest words ; who, far from stumbling
at those bold prophetic utterances, has rather found in them
an aid to faith at the crisis of his religious history, as
evincing an identity between the moral sentiments of the
Founder of the faith and his own, and helping him to see that
what he may have mistaken for, and what claimed to be,
Christianity, was not that at all, but only a modern repro-
duction of a religious system which the Lord Jesus Christ
could not endure, or be on civil terms with.

Without for a moment admitting that there is anything
in these invectives against hypocrisy to be apologized for, we
must nevertheless advert to the view taken of them by some
recent critics of the sceptical school. These speeches, then,
we are told, are the rash, unqualified utterances of a young
man, whose spirit was unmellowed by years and experience of
the world ; whose temperament was poetic, therefore irritable,
impatient, and unpractical ; and whose temper was that of a
Jew, morose, and prone to bitterness in controversy. At this
time, we are further to understand, provoked by persevering
opposition, He had lost self-possession, and had abandoned
HimseK to the violence of anger; His bad humour having
reached such a pitch as to make Him guilty of actions seem-
ingly absurd, such as that of cursing the fig-tree. He had, in
fact, become reckless of consequences, or even seemed to court
such as were disastrous; and, weary of conflict, sought by
violent language to precipitate a crisis, and provoke His enemies
to put Him to death.-^

^ See Eeuan, Vie de Jesus, pp. 319, 324-6.

332 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

These are blasphemies against the Son of man as unfounded
as they are injurious. The last days of Jesus were certainly
full of intense excitement, but to a candid mind no traces of
passion are discernible in His conduct. All His recorded
utterances during those days are in a high key suited to one
whose soul was animated by the most sublime feelings.
Every sentence is eloq-uent, every word tells ; but all through-
out is natural, and appropriate to the situation. Even when
the terrible attack on the religious leaders of Israel begins, we
listen awe-struck, but not shocked. We feel that the speaker
has a right to use such language, that what He says is true,
and that all is said with commanding authority and dignity,
such as became the Messianic King. When the speaker has
come to an end we breathe freely, sensible that a delicate
though necessary task has been performed with not less wisdom
than fidelity. Deep and undisguised abhorrence is expressed
in every sentence, such as it would be difficult for any ordinary
man, yea, even for an extraordinary one, to cherish without
some admixture of that wrath which worketh not the right-
eousness of God. But in the antipathies of a Divine Being
the weakness of passion finds no place : His abhorrence may
be deep, but it is also ever calm ; and we challenge unbe-
lievers to point out a single feature in tliis discourse incon-
sistent with the hypothesis that the speaker is divine. Nay,
leaving out of view Christ's divinity,, and criticising His words
with a freedom unfettered by reverence, we can see no traces
in them of a man carried headlong by a tempest of anger. We
find, after strictest search, no loose expressions, no passionate
exaggerations, but rather a style remarkable for artistic pre-
cision and accuracy. The pictures of the ostentatious, place-
hunting, title-loving rabbi ; of the hypocrite^ who makes long
prayers and devours widows' houses ; of the zealot, who puts
himseK to infinite trouble to make converts, only to make
his converts worse rather than better men ; of the Jesuitical
scribe, who teaches that the gold of the temple is a more
sacred, binding thing to swear by than the temple itseK ; of
the Pharisee, whose conscience is strict or lax as suits his
convenience ; of the whited sepulchres, fair without, full within
of dead men's bones ; of the men whose piety manifests itself

0 JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM ! 333

in miirdering living prophets and garnishing the sepulchres
of dead ones, — are moral daguerrotypes which will stand the
minutest inspection of criticism, drawn by no irritated, de-
feated man, feeling sorely and resenting keenly the malice of
his adversaries, but by one who has gained so complete a
victory, that He can make sport of His foes, and at all events
runs no risk of losing self-control.

The aim of the discourse, equally with its style, is a suffi-
cient defence against the charge of bitter personality. The
direct object of the speaker was not to expose the blind guides
of Israel, but to save from delusion the people whom they
were misguiding to their ruin. The audience consisted of the
disciples and the multitude who heard Him gladly. It is
most probable that many of the blind guides were present ;
and it would make no difference to Jesus whether they were
or not, for He had not two ways of speaking concerning men —
one before their faces, another behind their backs. It is told
of Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, and the determined
opponent of Philip of Macedon, that he completely broke
down in that king's presence on the occasion of his first
appearance before him as an ambassador from his native city.
But a greater than Demosthenes is here, whose sincerity and
courage are as marvellous as His wisdom and eloquence, and
who can say all He thinks of the religious heads .of the people
in their own hearing. Still, in the present instance, the parties
formally addressed were not the heads of the people, but the
people themselves ; and it is worthy of notice how carefully
discriminating the speaker was in the counsel which He gave
them. He told them that what He objected to was not so
much the teaching of their guides, as their lives : they might
follow all their precepts with comparative impunity, but it
would be fatal to follow their example. How many reformers
in similar circumstances would have joined doctrine and prac-
tice together in one indiscriminate denunciation ! Such
moderation is not the attribute of a man in a rage.

But the best clue of all to the spirit of the speaker is the
manner in which His discourse ends : " 0 Jerusalem, Jeru-
salem ! " Strange ending for one filled with angry passion !
0 Jesus, Jesus ! how Thou risest above the petty thoughts

334 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

and feelings of men ! Wlio shall fathom the depths of Thy
heart ? What mighty waves of righteousness, truth, pity, and
sorrow roll through Thy bosom !

Having uttered that piercing cry of grief, Jesus left the
temple, never, so far as we know, to return. His last words
to the people of Jerusalem were : " Behold, your house is left
unto you desolate. For I say unto you. Ye shall not see
me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh
in the name of the Lord." On the way from the city to
Bethany, by the Mount of Olives, the rejected Saviour again
alluded to its coming doom. The light-hearted disciples had
drawn His attention to the strength and beauty of the temple
buildings, then in full view. In too sad and solemn a mood
for admiring mere architecture. He replied in the spirit of a
prophet : " See ye not all these things ? Verily I say unto
you. There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that
shall not be thrown down." ^

Arrived at Mount Olivet, the company sat down to take a
leisurely view of the majestic pile of which they had been
speaking. How different the thoughts and feelings suggested by
the same object to the minds of the spectators ! The twelve
look with merely outward eye ; their Master looks with the
inward eye of prophecy. They see nothing before them but
the goodly stones ; He sees the profanation in the interior,
greedy traders within the sacred precincts, religion so vitiated
by ostentation, as to make a poor widow casting her two mites
into the treasury, in pious simplicity, a rare and pleasing
exception. The disciples think of the present only; Jesus
looks forward to an approaching doom fearful to contemplate,
and doubtless backward too, over the long and chequered
history through which the once venerable, now polluted, house
of God had passed. The disciples are elated with pride as
they gaze on this national structure, the glory of their country,
and are happy as thoughtless men are wont to be ; the heart
of Jesus is heavy with the sadness of wisdom and prescience,
and of love that would have saved, but can now do nothing
but weep, and proclaim the awful words of doom.

Yet, with aU their thoughtlessness, the twelve could not

1 Matt. xxiv. 1, 2.

0 JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM ! 335

quite forget tliose dark forebodings of tlieir Master. The
weird words haunted their minds, and made them curious to
know more. Therefore they came to Jesus, or some of them
— Mark mentions Peter, James, John, and Andrew'^ — and
asked two questions : when Jerusalem should be destroyed ;
and what should be the signs of His coming, and of the end
of the world. The two events referred to in the questions —
the end of Jerusalem, and the end of the world — were assumed
by the questioners to be contemporaneous. It was a natural
and by no means a singular mistake. Local and partial judg-
ments are wont to be thus mixed up with the universal one
in men's imaginations ; and hence almost every great calamity
which inspires awe, leads to anticipations of the last day.
Thus Luther, when liis mind was clouded by the dark shadow
of present tribulation, would remark : " The world cannot
stand long, perhaps a hundred years at the outside. At the
last will be great alterations and commotions, and already
there are great commotions among men. Never had the men
of law so much occupation as now. There are vehement dis-
sensions in our families, and discord in the church." ^ In
apostolic times. Christians expected the immediate coming
of Christ with such confidence and ardour, that some even
neglected their secular business, just as towards the close of
the tenth century people allowed churches to fall into disre-
pair because the end of the world was deemed close at hand.

In reality, the judgment of Jerusalem and that of the world
at large were to be separated by a long interval. Therefore
Jesus treated the two things as distinct in His prophetic dis-
course, and gave separate answers to the two questions which
the disciples had combined into one, that respecting the end
of the world being disposed of first.^

The answer He gave to this question was general and
negative. He did not fix a time, but said in effect : " The
end will not be till such and such things have taken place ; "
specifying six antecedents of the end in succession, the first
being the appearance of false Christs.^ Of these He assured
His disciples there woidd be many, deceiving many ; and most

1 Mark xiii. 3. ^ Luther's Table Talk, Bohn's edition, p. 325.

3 Matt. xxiv. 4-14. * Ver. 5.

336 THE TEAINING OF THE TWEL^TE.

truly, for several quack Messiahs did appear even before the
destruction of Jerusalem, availing themselves of, and imposing
on, the general desire for deliverance, even as quack doctors
do in reference to bodily ailments, and succeeding in deceiving
many, as unhappily in such times is only too easy. But among
the number of their dupes were found none of those who had
been previously instructed by the true Christ to regard the
appearance of pseudo-Christs merely as one of the signs of an
evil time. The deceivers of others were for them a preserva-
tive against delusion.

The second antecedent is, " wars and rumours of wars."
Nation must rise against nation ; there must be times of up-
heaving and dissolution ; declines and falls of empires, and
risings of new kingdoms on. the ruins of the old. This second
sign would be accompanied by a third, in the shape of com-
motions in the physical world, emblematic of those in the
political. Famines, earthquakes, pestilences, etc., would occur
in divers places.-^

Yet these things, however dreadful, would be but the begin-
ning of sorrows ; nor would the end come till those signs had
repeated themselves again and again. No one could tell from
the occurrence of such phenomena that the end would be
now ; he could only infer that it was not yetP

Next in order come persecutions, with all the moral and
social phenomena of persecuting times.^ 'Christians must
undergo a discipline of hatred among the nations because
of the name they bear, and as the reputed authors of all
the disasters which befall the -people among whom -they live.
Times must come when, if the Tiber inundate Eome, if the
Nile overflow not lus fields, if drought, earthquake, famine, or
plague visit the earth, the cry of the populace will forthwith
be, " The Christians to the lions ! "

Along with persecutions, as a fifth antecedent of the end,
would come a sifting of the church.^ Many would break
down or turn traitors ; there would spring up manifold ani-
mosities, schisms, and heresies, each named from its own
false prophet. The prevalence of these evils in the church

1 Matt. xxiv. 6, 7. ^ Ver. 8.

3 Ver. 9. * Ver. 10.

0 JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM ! 337

would give rise to much spiritual declensioiL "Because
iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." ^

The last thing that must happen ere the end come is
the evangelization of the world ; ^ which being achieved,
the end would at length arrive. From this sign we may
guess that the world will last a long while yet ; for, accord-
ing to the law of historical probability, it will be long ere the
gospel shall have been preached to all men for a witness.
Ardent Christians or enthusiastic students of prophecy who
think otherwise, must remember that sending a few mission-
aries to a heathen country does not satisfy the prescribed
condition. The gospel has not been preached to a nation for
a witness, that is, so as to form a basis of moral judgment,
till it has been preached to the whole people as in Christen-
dom. This has never yet been done for all the nations, and at
the present rate of progress it is not likely to be accomplished
for centuries to come.

Having rapidly sketched an outline of the events that must
precede the end of the world, Jesus addressed HimseK to the
more special question which related to the destruction of
Jerusalem. He could now speak on that subject with more
freedom, after He had guarded against the notion that the de-
struction of the holy city was a sign of His own immediate
final coming. " When, then," He began — the introductory
formula signifying, to answer notv your first question — " ye
shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the
prophet stand in the holy place, then let them which be in
Judea flee into the mountains ; " the abomination of desola-
tion being the Eoman army with its eagles — abominable to the
Jew, desolating to the land. When the eagles appeared, all
might flee for their life ; resistance would be vain, obstinacy
and bravery utterly unavailing. The calamity woidd be so
sudden that there would be no time to save anything. It
would be as when a house is on fire ; people would be glad
to escape with their life.^ It would be a fearful time of
tribulation, unparalleled before or after.* Woe to poor nursing
mothers in those horrible days, and to such as were with
child ! What barbarities and inhumanities awaited them !

I Matt. xxiv. 12. ^ ygr. 14. 3 ygrs. 17, 18. ^ Ver. 21.

338 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

The calamities that were coming would spare nobody, not
even Christians. They would find safety only in flight, and
they would have cause to be thankful that they escaped at all.
But their flight, though unavoidable, might be more or less
grievous according to circumstances ; and they should pray for
what might appear small mercies, even for such alleviations
as that they might not have to flee to the mountains in
winter, when it is cold and comfortless, or on the Sabbath, the
day of rest and peace/

After giving this brief but graphic sketch of the awful
days approaching, intolerable by mortal men were they not
shortened " for the elect's sake," Jesus repeated His warning
word against deception, as if in fear that His disciples, dis-
tracted by such calamities, might think " surely now is the
end." He told them that violence would be followed by
apostasy and falsehood, as great a trial in one way as the
destruction of Jerusalem in another. False teachers should
arise, who would be so plausible as almost to deceive the very
elect. The devil would appear as an angel of Hght ; in the
desert as a monk, in the shrine as an object of superstitious
worship. But whatever men might pretend, the Christ would
not be there ; nor would His appearance take place then, nor
at any fixed calculable time, but suddenly, unexpectedly, Kke
the lightning flash in the heavens. When moral corruption had
attained its full development, then woidd the judgment come.^

In the following part of the discourse, the end of the
world seems to be brought into immediate proximity to
the destruction of the holy city.^ If a long stretch of ages
was to intervene, the perspective of the prophetic picture
seems at fault. The far distant mountains of the eternal
world, visible beyond and above the near hills of time in the
foreground, want the dim blue haze, which helps the eye
to realize how far off they are. This defect in Matthew's
narrative, which we have been taking for our text, is supplied
by Luke, who interprets the OXl'xjnf; so as to include the sub-
sequent long-lasting dispersion of Israel among the nations.'*

The parable of the fig-tree, employed by Jesus to indicate
the sure connection between the signs foregoing and the grand
1 Matt. xxiv. 19, 20. ^ ygrs. 23-28. ^ jev. 29. « L^ke xxi. 24.

0 JERUSAXEM, JERUSALEM ! 339

event tliat was to follow, seems at first to exclude tlie idea of
a protracted duration, but on second thoughts we shall find it
does not. The point of the parable lies in the comparison of
the signs of the times to the first buds of the fig-tree. This
comparison implies that the last judgment is not the thing
which is at the doors. The last day is the harvest season, but
from the first buds of early summer to the harvest there is a
long interval. The parable further suggests the right way of
understanding the statement : " Tliis generation shall not pass
till all these things be fulfilled." Christ did not mean that
the generation then living was to witness the end, but that in
that generation aU the things which form the incipient stage
in the development would appear. It was the age of begin-
nings, of shoots and blossoms, not of fruit and ingathering. In
that generation fell the beginnings of Christianity and the
new world it was to create, and also the end of the Jewish
world, of which the symbol was a fig-tree covered with leaves,
but without any blossom or fruit, like that Jesus HimseK had
cursed, by way of an acted prophecy of Israel's coming doom.
The buds of most things in the church's history appeared in
that age : of gospel preaching, of antichristian tendencies, of
persecutions, heresies, schisms, and apostasies. All these,
however, had to grow to their legitimate issues before the end
came. How long the development would take, no man could
tell, not even the Son of man.^ It was a state secret of the
Almighty, into which no one should wish to pry.

This statement, that the time of the end is known alone to
God, excludes the idea that it can be calculated, or that data
are given in Scripture for that purpose. If such data be
given, then the secret is virtually disclosed. We therefore
regard the calculations of students of prophecy respecting
the times and seasons as random guesses unworthy of serious
attention. The death-day of the world needs to be hid for
the purposes of providence as much as the dying-day of
individuals. And we have no doubt that God has kept His
secret ; though some fancy they can cast the world's horoscope

^ Mark xiii. 32. Christ would have contradicted Himself if He [had com-
mitted Himself to auy statement of time, and yet made that profession of
ignorance.

340 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

from prophetic numbers, as astrologers were wont to deter-
mine the course of individual lives from the positions of the
stars.

Though the prophetic discourse of Jesus revealed nothing
as to times, it was not therefore valueless. It taught effec-
tively two lessons : one specially for the benefit of the twelve,
and the other for all Christians and aU. ages. The lesson for
the twelve was, that they might dismiss from their minds all
fond hopes of a restoration of the kingdom to Israel. Not
reconstruction, but dissolution and dispersion, was Israel's
melancholy doom.

The general lesson for all in this discourse is : " "Watch, for
ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." The call to
watchfulness is based on our ignorance of the time of the end,
and on the fact that, however long delayed the end may be,
it will come suddenly at last, as a thief in the night. The
importance of watching and waiting, Jesus illustrated by two
parables, the Absent Goodman, and the Wise and Foolish Virgins}
Both parables depict the diverse conduct of the professed
servants of God during the period of delay. The effect on
some, we are taught, is to make them negligent ; they being
eye- servants and fitful workers, who need oversight and the
stimulus of extraordinary events. Others, again, are steady,
equal, habitually faithful, working as well when the master
is absent as when they are under his eye. The treatment of
both on the master's return corresponds to their respective
behaviour, one class being rewarded, the other punished.
Such is the substance of the parable of the Absent Goodman.
Luke gives an important appendix, which depicts the conduct
of persons in authority in the house of the absent lord.^
While the common servants are for the most part negligent,
the upper servants play the tyrant over their fellows. This
is exactly what church dignitaries did in after ages ; and the
fact that Jesus contemplated such a state of things, which
required the lapse of centuries to bring it about, is another
proof that in this discourse His prophetic eye swept over a
vast tract of time. Another remark is suggested by the gi'eat
reward promised to such as should not abuse their authority :
1 Matt. xxiv. 45-51, xxv. 1-13. « Luke xii. 41-48.

0 JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM ! 341

" He will make Mm ruler over all that he hath." The great-
ness of the reward indicates an expectation that fidelity will
be rare among the stewards of the house. Indeed, the Head
of the church seems to have apprehended the prevalence of a
negligent spirit among all His servants, high and low ; for He
speaks of the lord of the household as so gratified with the
conduct of the faithful, that he girds himseK to serve them
while they sit at meat.'^ Has not the apprehension been too
well justified by events ?

The parable of the ten virgins, familiar to all, and full of
instruction, teaches us this peculiar lesson, that watching does
not imply sleepless anxiety and constant thought concerning
the future, but quiet, steady attention to present duty. Wliile
the bridegroom tarried, all the virgins, wise and foolish alike,
slumbered and slept, the wise differing from their sisters in
having all things in readiness against a sudden call. This is
a sober and reasonable representation of the duty of waiting
by one who understands what is possible ; for, in a certain
sense, sleep of the mind in reference to eternity is as necessary
as physical sleep is to the body. Constant thought about the
great realities of the future would only result in weakness,
distraction, and madness, or in disorder, idleness, and restless-
ness ; as in Thessalonica, where the conduct of many who
watched in the wrong sense made it needful that Paul should
give them the wholesome counsel to be quiet, and work, and
eat bread earned by the labour of their own hands.^

The great prophetic discourse worthily ended with a solemn
representation of the final judgment of the world, when all
mankind shall be assembled to be judged either by the his-
torical gospel preached to them for a witness, or by its great
ethical principle, the law of charity written on their hearts ; and
when those who have loved Christ and served Him in person,
or in His representatives — the poor, the destitute, the suffering
— shall be welcomed to the realms of the blessed, and those
who have acted contrariwise shall be sent away to keep com-
pany with the devil and his angels.

1 Luke xu. 37. ^ 2 Tliess. iii. 12.

CHAPTEE XXI.

THE MASTER SERVING.

Section i. — Tlie Washing.
John xiii. 1-11.

UP to this point, the fourth evangelist has said very little
indeed of the special relations of Jesus and the twelve.
Now, however, he abundantly makes up for any deficiency
on this score. The third part of his Gospel, which begins
here, is, with the exception of two chapters relating the his-
tory of the passion, entirely occupied with the tender, intimate
intercourse of the Lord Jesus with " His own," from the even-
ing before His death to the time when He departed out of
the world leaving them behind ! The thirteenth and four
following chapters relate scenes and discourses from the last
hours spent by the Saviour with His disciples previous to His
betrayal into the hands of His enemies. He has uttered His
final word to the outside world, and withdrawn Himself within
the bosom of His own family ; and we are privileged here to
see Him in their midst, and to hear His farewell words to
them in view of His decease. It becomes us to enter the
supper chamber with deep reverence, " Put off thy shoes
from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy
ground."

The first thing we see, on entering, is Jesus washing His
disciples' feet. Marvellous spectacle ! and the evangelist has
taken care, in narrating the incident, to enhance its impres-
siveness by the manner in which he introduces it. He has
put the beautiful picture in the best light for being seen to
advantage. The preface to the story is indeed a little puzzling
to expositors, the sentences being involved, and the sense some-
what obscure. Many thoughts and feelings crowd into the

THE MASTER SERVING : THE "WASHING. 343

apostle's mind as lie proceeds to relate the memorabilia of
that eventful night ; and, so to speak, they jostle one another
in the struggle for utterance. Yet it is not very difficult to
disentangle the meaning of these opening sentences. In the
first, John adverts to the peculiar tenderness with which Jesus
regarded His disciples on the eve of His crucifixion, and in
prospect of His departure from the earth to heaven. " Before
the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was
come that He should depart out of this world" — how at
such an hour did He feel towards those who had been His
companions throughout the years of His public ministry, and
whom He was soon to leave behind Him ? " He loved them
unto the end." Not selfishly engrossed with His own sorrows,
or with the prospect of His subsequent joys, He found room
in His heart for His followers still ; nay, His love burned out
towards them with extraordinary ardour, and His whole care
was by precept and example, by words of comfort, warning,
and instruction, to prepare them for future duty and trial, as
the narrative here commencing would abundantly demonstrate.

The second verse of the preface alludes parenthetically to a
fact which served as a foil to the constancy of Jesus : " The
devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot,
Simon's son, to betray Him." John would say : '* Jesus loved
His disciples to the end, though they did not all so love Him.
One of them at this very moment entertained the diabolic
purpose of betraying his Lord. Yet that Lord loved even
him, condescending to wash even his feet ; so endeavouring, if
possible, to overcome his evil with good."

The aim of the evangelist, in the last sentence of his pre-
face, is to show by contrast what a wondrous condescension it
was in the Saviour to wash the feet of any of the disciples.
Jesus knowing these things, — these things being true of Him :
that " the Father had given all things into His hands " —
sovereign power over all flesh ; " that He was come from
God " — a divine being by nature, and entitled to divine
honours ; " and that He was about to return to God," to enter
on the enjoyment of such honours, — did as is here recorded.
He, the august Being who had such intrinsic dignity, such a
consciousness, such prospects — even " He riseth from supper

344 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE,

and laid aside His garments, and took a towel and girded
Himself. After that He poureth water into a basin, and
began to wash tlie disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the
towel wherewith He was girded."

The time when all this took place was,, it would seem,
about the commencement of the evening meal. The words of
the evangelist rendered in the English version, " supper being
ended," may be translated supper being begun, or better,
supper-time having arrived ; ^ and from the sequel of the
narrative, it is evident that in this sense they must be
understood here. The supper was still going on when Jesus
introduced the subject of the traitor, which He did not only
after He had washed the feet of His disciples, but after He
had resumed His seat at the table, and given an explanation
of what He had just dbne.^

That explanation will fall to be more particularly considered
afterwards ; but meantime it bears on its face that the occasion
of the feet- washing was some misbehaviour on the part of the
disciples. Jesus- had to condescend, we judge, because His
disciples would not condescend. This impression is confirmed
by a statement in Luke's Gospel, that on the same evening
a strife arose among the twelve which of them should be
accounted the greatest. Whence that new strife arose we
know not, but it is possible that the old quarrel about place
was revived by the words uttered by Jesus as they were about
to sit down to meat : " With desire I have desired to eat this
passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will
not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom
of God." ^ The allusion to the kingdom was quite sufficient
to set their imaginations on fire and reawaken old dreams about
thrones, and from old dreams to old feuds and jealousies the
transition was natural and easy ; and so we can conceive how
even before the supper began, the talk of the brethren had
waxed noisy and warm. Or the point in dispute may have

1 Alford, in loco, gives as examples of a similar use of yivof/.tvo; -. Matt. xxvi.
6 ; John xxi. 4 ; Mark vi. 2. Hoffman {Schriftbeweis, iii. 207-8) renders the
phrase as in the Eug. ver., and reconciles this view with the narrative con-
cerning Judas by assuming that vers. 26, 27 relate a transaction distinct from
and subsequent to the supper.

^ John xiii. 21. ^ Luke xxii. 15, 16.

THE MASTER SERVING : THE WASHING. 345

been in what order they should sit at table, or who should be
the servant for the occasion, and wash the feet of the company.
Any one of these suppositions might account for the fact re-
corded by Luke ; for it does not require much to make children
quarrel.

The expedient employed by Jesus to divert the minds of
His disciples from unedifying themes of conversation, and to
exorcise ambitious passions from their breasts, was a most
effectual one. The very preliminaries of the feet-washing
scene must have gone far to change the current of feeling.
How the spectators must have stared and wondered, as the
Master of the feast rose from His seat, laid aside His upper
garment, girt HimseK with a towel, and poured out water into
a basin ; doing all with the utmost self-possession, composure,
and deliberation !

With which of the twelve Jesus made a beginning we are
not informed ; but we know, as we might have guessed without
being told, who was the first to speak his mind about the
singular transaction. When Peter's turn came, he had so far
recovered from the amazement, under whose influence the first
washed may have yielded passively to their Lord's will, as to
be capable of reflecting on the indecency of such an inversion
of the right relation between master and servants. Therefore,
when Jesus came to him, that outspoken disciple asked, in
astonishment, " Lord, washest Tlimc my feet ? " His spiiit rose
in rebellion against the proposal, as one injurious to the dignity
of his beloved Lord, and as an outrage upon his own sense of
reverence. This impulse of instinctive aversion was by no
means discreditable to Peter, and it was evidently not re-
garded with disapprobation by his Master. The reply of Jesus
to his objection is markedly respectful in tone : " What I do,"
He said, " thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know here-
after ; " virtually admitting that the proceeding in question
needed explanation, and that Peter's opposition was, in the
first place, perfectly natural. " I acknowledge," He meant to
say, "that my present action is an offence to the feelings of
reverence which you rightly cherish towards me. Neverthe-
less, suffer it. I do this for reasons which you do not com-
prehend now, but which you shall understand ere long."

346 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Had Peter been satisfied with this apologetic reply, his con-
duct would have been entirely free from blame. But he was
not content, but persisted in opposition after Jesus had dis-
tinctly intimated His will, and vehemently and stubbornly
exclaimed : " Thou shalt never wash my feet!" The tone here
changes utterly. Peter's first word was the expression of
sincere reverence ; his second is simply the language of un-
mitigated irreverence and downright disobedience. He rudely
contradicts his Master, and at the same time, we may add,
flatly contradicts himself. His whole behaviour on this occa-
sion presents an odd mixture of moral opposites : self-abase-
ment and self-will, humility and pride, respect and disrespect
for Jesus, to whom he speaks now as one whose shoe-latchet
he is not worthy to unloose, and anon as one to whom he
might dictate orders. What a strange man ! But, indeed,
how strange are we all !

Peter having so changed his tone, Jesus found it needful
to alter His tone too, from the apologetic mildness of the first
reply to that of magisterial sternness. " If I wash thee not,"
He said gravely, " thou hast no part with me;" meaning, " Thou
hast taken up a most serious position, Simon Peter ; the
question at issue being simply, Are you or are you not to be
admitted into my kingdom — to be a true disciple, and to have
a true disciple's reward ? "

On a surface view, it is difficult to see how this could be
the state of the question. One is tempted to think that Jesus
was indulging in exaggeration, for tlie purpose of intimidat-
ing a refractory disciple into compliance with His will. If
we reject this method of interpretation as incompatible with
the character of the speaker and the seriousness of the occa-
sion, we are thrown back on the inquiry. What does washing
in this statement mean ? Evidently it signifies more than meets
the ear, more than the mere literal washing of the feet ; and
is to be regarded as a symbol of the washing of the soul from
sin, or still more comprehensively, and in our opinion more
correctly, as representing all in Christ's tcacliing and ivorh
which would he compromised hj the consistent carrying 02it of the
principle on ivhich Peters opposition to the ivashing of his feet
hy Jesus was hased. On either supposition, the statement of

THE MASTEK SERVING : THE WASHING. 347

Jesus was true : in the former case obviously ; in tlie latter
not so obviously, but not less really, as we proceed to show.

Observe, then, what was involved in the attitude assumed
by Peter. He virtually took his stand on these two posi-
tions : that he would admit of nothing which seemed incon-
sistent with the personal dignity of his Lord, and that he
would adopt as his rule of conduct his own judgment in pre-
ference to Christ's will ; the one position being involved in the
question, Dost Thou wash my feet ? the other in the resolu-
tion. Thou shalt never wash my feet. In other words, the
ground taken up by this disciple compromised the whole sum
and substance of Christianity; the former principle sweeping
away -Christ's whole state and experience of humiliation, and
the latter not less certainly sapping the foundation of Christ's
lordshiiJ.

That this is no exaggeration on our part, a moment's reflec-
tion will show. Look, then, first at the objection to the feet-
washing on the score of reverence. If Jesus might not wash
the feet of His disciples because it was beneath His dignity,
then with equal reason objection might be taken to any act
involving self-humihation. One who said. Thou shalt not wash
my feet, because the doing of it is unworthy of Thee, might
as well say, Thou shalt not wash my soul, or do aught towards
that end, because it involves humiKating experiences. Why,
indeed, make a difiiculty about a trifling matter of detail ?
Go to the heart of the business at once, and ask, " Shall the
Eternal Son of God become flesh, and dwell among us ? shall
He who was in the form of God lay aside His robes of
state, and gird Himself with the towel of humanity, to perform
menial offices for His own creatures ? shall the ever-blessed
One become a curse by enduring crucifixion ? shall the Holy
One degrade Himself, by coming into close companionship
with the depraved sons of Adam ? shall the Eighteous One
pour His life-blood into a basin, that there may be a fountain
wherein the unrighteous may be cleansed from their guilt and
iniquity ? " In short, incarnation, atonement, and Christ's
whole earthly experience of temptation, hardship, indignity,
and sorrow must go, if Jesus may not wash a disciple's feet.

Not less clearly is Christ's lordship at an end if a disciple

348 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

may give Him orders, and say, " Thou slialt never wash my
feet." If Peter meant anything more by these words than a
display of temper and caprice, he meant this : that he would
not submit to the proposed operation, because his moral feel-
ings and his judgment told him it was wrong. He made his
own reason and conscience the supreme rule of conduct. Now,
in the first place, by this position the principle of obedience
was compromised, which requires that the will of the Lord,
once known, whether we understand its reason or perceive its
goodness or not, shall be supreme. Then there are other
things much more important than the washing of the feet, to
which objection might be taken on the score of reason or con-
science with equal plausibility. For example, Christ tells us
that those who would be His disciples, and obtain entrance
into His kingdom, must be willing to part with earthly goods,
and even with nearest and dearest friends. To many men
this seems unreasonable, and on Peter's principle they should
forthwith say, " I will never do any such thing." Or, again,
Christ tells us that we must be born again, and that we must
eat His flesh and drink His blood. To me these doctrines may
seem incomprehensible, and even absmxl ; and therefore, on
Peter's principle, I may turn my back on the great Teacher,
and say, " I will not have this speaker of dark, mystic sayings
for my master." Once more, Christ tells us that we must
give the kingdom of God the first place in our thoughts, and
dismiss from our hearts carking care for to-morrow. To me
this appears in my present mood simply impossible ; and
therefore, on Peter's principle, I may set aside this moral
requirement as Utopian, however beautiful, without even
seriously attempting to comply with it.

Now that we know whither Peter's refusal tendsj we can
see that Jesus spake the simple truth when He said : " If I
wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." Look at that re-
fusal as an objection to Christ humbling Himself. If Christ
may not humble Himself, then, in the first place. He can have
no part with us. The Holy Son of God is forbidden by a
regard to His dignity to become in anything like unto His
brethren, or even to acknowledge them as His brethren. The
grand fraternal law, by which the Sanctifier is identified with

THE MASTER SERVING : THE WASHING. 349

them that are to be sanctified, is disannulled, and all its con-
sequences made void. A great impassable gulf separates the
Divine Being from His creatures. He may stand on the far-
off shore, and wistfully contemplate their forlorn estate ; but
He cannot. He dare not — His majesty forbids it — come near
them, and reach forth a helping hand.

But if the Son of God may have no part with us, then, in
the second place, we can have no part with Him. We can-
not share His fellowship with the Father, if He come not
forth to declare Him. We can receive no acts of brotherly
kindness from Him. He cannot deliver us from the curse of
the law, or from the fear of death ; He cannot succour us when
we are tempted ; He cannot wash our feet ; nay, what is a
far more serious matter. He cannot wash our souls. If there
is to be no- fountain opened for sin in the human nature of
Emmanuel, sinners must remain impure. For a God afar off
is not able, even if He were willing, to purify the human soul.
A God whose majesty, like an iron fate, kept Him aloof from
sinners, could not even effectively forgive them. Still less
could He sanctify them. Love alone has sanctifying virtue,
and what room is there for love in a Being who cannot
humble Himself to be a servant ?

Look now at Peter's refusal as resistance to Christ's will.
In this view also it justified the saying, " Thou hast no part
with me." It excluded from salvation ; for if Jesus is not
to be Lord, He will not be Saviour.^ It excluded from fellow-
ship ; for Jesus will have no communion with self-will. His
own attitude towards His Father was, " Not my will, but
Thine ;" and He demands this attitude towards Himself in turn
from all His disciples. Not tliat He would have us be always
servants, blindly obeying a Lord whose will we do not under-
stand. His aim is to advance us ultimately to the status of
friends,^ doing His will intelligently and freely — not as com-
plying mechanically with an outward commandment, but as
being a law to ourselves. But we can attain that high posi-
tion only by beginning with a servant's obedience. We must

1 Peter tlie apostle understood this well. Four times in his second epistle
he conjoins Lord and Saviour in naming Chiist (i. 11, ii. 20, iii. 2, 18).
^ John XV, 15.

350 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE,

do, and suffer to be done to us, what we know not now, in
order that we may know hereafter the philosophy of our duty
to oiu' Lord, and of our Lord's dealings with us.

It was a serious thing, therefore, to say, " Thou shalt never
wash my feet." But Peter was not aware how serious it was.
He knew not what he said, or what he did. He had hastily
taken up a position whose ground and consequences he had
not considered. And his heart was right, though his temper
was wrong. Therefore the stern declaration of Jesus at once
brought him to reason, or rather to unreason in an opposite
direction. The idea of being cut off from his dear Master's
sympathy or favour, through his waywardness, drove him in
sheer fright to the opposite extreme of overdone compliance ;
and he said in effect, " If my interest in Thee depends on my
feet being washed, then, Lord, wash my whole body — hands,
head, feet, and all." How characteristic ! how like a child, in
whose heart is much foolishness, but also much affection, and
who can always be managed by the bands of love ! There is
as yet a sad want of balance in this discij)le's character : he
goes, swinging like a pendulum, from one extreme to another ;
and it will take some time ere he settle down into a har-
monious equipoise of all parts of his being — intellect, wiU,
heart, and conscience. But the root of the matter is in him :
he is sound at the core ; and after the due amount of mis-
takes, he will become a wise man by and by. He is clean,
and needs not more than to have his feet washed. Jesus
Himself admits it of him, and of all his brother-disciples —
save one, who is unclean all over.

Fellow-Christians, can as much be said of us ? Are we
clean-hearted and true-hearted, however ignorant, erratic, or
faulty ? Or are we of those who put lip-homage in the place
of obedience, pious sentiment in place of godly conduct ; of
those who, not in haste, but deliberately, act on the principle
of believing and doing nothing which they do not fully under-
stand and sympathize with ; of those who not merely commit
occasional offences against the wdl of the Lord, but systema-
tically exempt whole departments of their life from the reign
of His law ? If we belong to this latter category, then have
we no part with the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He who,

THE MASTER SERVING : THE EXPLANATION. 351

tliougli a Son, humbled Himself to be a servant, is the author
of eternal salvation only to thciii that obey Him.

Note, finally, as a lesson from this passage, in what the
perfection of obedience consists. It Kes in letting the Lord
change places with us, and, if it seem good to Him, humble
Himself to be our servant. Our true humility is not to object
to Christ's humiliation, but, on the contrary, to recognise its
necessity, in order to our deliverance from sin. They honour
not God who deny the incarnation and the redeeming death
of the eternal Son as unworthy of Him. Eather do they
doubly dishonour the Divine Being ; first by misconceiving
wherein His glory lies, and next by ignoring their own need
of redemption. The only genuine piety is that which owns
man's moral defilement, and leaves God to remove it in His
own way.

Section ii. — Tlu Exiilanation.

John xiii. 12-20.

Peter's resistance overcome, the washing proceeded without
further interruption. AVhen the process had come to an end,
Jesus, putting on again His upper garment, resumed His
seat, and briefly explained to His disciples the purport of
the action. " Know ye," He inquired, " what I have done
unto you?" Then, answering His own question, He went
on to say : " Ye call me Master and Lord : and ye say well ;
for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed
your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I
have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done
to you."

It was another lesson in humility which Jesus had been
giving " His own," — a lesson very similar to the earlier ones
recorded in the synoptical Gospels. John's Christ, we see
here, teaches the same doctrine as the Christ of the three first
evangelists. The twelve, as they are depicted in the fourth
Gospel, are just such as we have found them in Matthew,
Mark, and Luke — grievously needing to be taught meekness

352 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

and brotlierly-kindness ; and Jesus teaches tliem these virtues
in much the same way here as elsewhere — by precept and
example, by symbolic act, and added word of interpretation.
Once He held up a little child, to shame them out of ambi-
tious passions ; here He rebukes their pride, by becoming the
menial of the household. At another time He hushed their
angry strife by adverting to His own self-humiliation, in com-
ing from heaven to be a minister to men's needs in life and
in death ; here He accomplishes the same end, by expressing
the spirit and aim of His whole earthly ministry in a repre-
sentative, typical act of condescension.

This lesson, like all the rest, Jesus gave with the authority
of one who rdight lay down the law. In the very act of
playing the servant's part. He was asserting His sovereignty.
He reminds His disciples, when the service is over, of the
titles they were wont to give Him, and in a marked, emphatic
manner He accepts them as His due. He tells them distinctly
that He is indeed their Teacher, whose doctrine it is their
business to learn, and their Lord, whose will it is their duty
to obey. His humdity, therefore, is manifestly not an affecta-
tion of ignorance as to who and what He is. He knows full
well who He is, whence He has come, whither He is going ;
His humility is that of a king, yea, of a Divine Being. The
pattern of meekness is at the same time one who prescribes
Himself to His followers as a pattern, and demands that they
fix their attention on His behaviour, and strive to copy it.

In making this demand, Jesus is obviously very thoroughly
in earnest. He is not less earnest in requiring the disciples
to wash one another's feet, than He was in insisting that He
Himself should wash the feet of one and all. As He said to
Peter in express words, " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part
with me ;" so He says to them all in effect, though not in
words, " If ye wash not each other, if ye refuse to serve one
another in love, ye have again no part with me." This is an
hard saying ; for if it be difficult to believe in the humdiation
of Christ, it is still more dif&cult to humble ourselves. Hence,
notwithstanding the frequency and urgency with which the
Saviour declares that we must have the spirit manifested in
His humiliation for us dwelling in us, and giving bnth in

THE MASTER SERVING : THE EXPLANATION. 353

our life to conduct kindred to His own, even sincere disciples
are constantly, though it may be haK unconsciously, inventing
excuses for treating the example of their Lord as utterly
inimitable, and therefore in reality no example at all. Even
the apparently unanswerable argument employed by Jesus to
enforce imitation does not escape secret criticism. " Verily,
verily," saith He, " the sei^ant is not greater than his lord,
neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him." " It
may," say we, " be more incumbent on the servant to humble
liimself than on the master, but in some respects it is also
more difficult. The master can afford to condescend : his
action will not be misunderstood, but will be taken for what
it is. But the servant cannot afford to be humble : he must
assert himself, and assume airs, in order to make himself of
any consequence."

The great Master knew too well how slow men would ever
be to learn the lesson He had just been teaching His dis-
ciples. Therefore He appended to His explanation of the
feet- washing this reflection : " If ye know these things, happy
are ye if ye do them;" hinting at the rarity and difficulty
of such high morality as He had been inculcating, and de-
claring the blessedness of the few who attained unto it.
And surely the reflection is just ! Is not the morality here
enjoined indeed rare ? Are not the virtues called into play by
acts of condescension and charity most high and difficult ?
Who dreams of calling them easy ? How utterly contrary
they are to the native tendencies of the human heart ! how
alien from the spirit of society ! Is it the way of men to be
content with the humblest place, and to seek their felicity
in serving others ? Doth not the spirit that is in us lust
unto envy, strive ambitiously for positions of influence, and
deem it the greatest happiness to be served, and to be exempt
from the drudgery of servile tasks ? The world itself does not
dispute the difficulty of Christ-like virtue ; it rather exagge-
rates its difficulty, and pronounces it Utopian and impracti-
cable— merely a beautiful, unattainable ideal.

And as for the sincere disciple of Jesus, no proof is needed
to convince him of the arduousness of the task appointed him
by his Lord. He knows by bitter experience how far conduct

354 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

lags "beliind knowledge, and how hard it is to translate admira-
tion of unearthly goodness into imitation thereof. His mind is
familiarly conversant with the doctrine and life of the Saviour ;
he has read and re-read the Gospel story, fondly lingering over
its minutest details ; his heart has burned as he followed the
footsteps of the Blessed One walking about on this earth, ever
intent on doing good : sweeter to his ear than the finest lyric
poems are the stories of the woman by the well, the sinner
in the house of Simon, and of Zacchseus the publican ; those
touching incidents of the little child upheld as a pattern of
humility, and of the Master washing quarrelsome disciples'
feet, and the exquisite parables of the Prodigal, the Lost Sheep,
and the Good Samaritan. He has sat down at the foot of the
cross, and watched the Eedeemer hanging therean, and said to
himself with perfect sincerity :

** Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,

Which before the cross I spend ;
Life, and healtli, and peace possessing.

From the sinner's dying Friend.
Here I'll sit, for ever viewing

Mercy's streams in streams of blood ;
Precious drops, my soul bedewing,

Plead and claim my peace with God."

But when he has to close his New Testament, and rise from
the foot of the cross, and go away into the rude,, ungodly,
matter-of-fact world, and he there a Christ-like man, and do
the things wliich he knows so intimately, and counts himself
blessed in loiowing, alas, what a descent ! It is like a fall
from Eden into a state of mere sin and misery. And the
longer he lives, and the more he gets mixed up with life's
relations and engagements, the further he seems to himseK to
degenerate from the gospel pattern ; till at length he is almost
ashamed to tliinlv or speak of the beauties of holiness ex-
hibited therein, and is tempted to adopt a lower and more
worldly tone, out of a regard to sincerity, and in fear of
becoming a mere sentimental hypocrite like Judas, who kissed
his Master at the very moment he was betraying Him.

In proportion to the difficulty and the rarity of the virtue
prescribed, is the felicity of those who, by divine grace vouch-
safed in answer to earnest persevering prayer, are enabled to

THE MASTER SEKVIXG : THE EXPLANATION. 355

practise it. Theirs is a threefold blessedness, First, they
have the joy connected with the achievement of an arduous
task. Easy undertakings bring small pains, but they also
bring small pleasures : raptiu-ous delight is reserved for those
who attempt and accomplish that which passes for impossible.
And what raptures can be purer, holier, and more intense
than those of the man who has at length succeeded in making
the mind of the meek and lowly One his own ; who, after
long climbing, has reached the alpine summit of self-forgetful,
self-humbling love !

Another ingredient in the felicity of those who practise
the tilings here enjoined is, that they win for themselves the
approbation of their Lord. A master is pleased when a pupil
understands his lesson, but a lord is pleased only when his
servants do his bidding. Christ, being Lord as well as Master,
demands that we shall not only know, but do. And in pro-
portion to the peremptoriness of the demand is the satisfac-
tion with which the Lord of Christians regards all earnest
efforts to comply with His will, and to follow His example.
And to all who make such efforts it is a great happiness to
be assured of the approval of Him whom they serve. The
thought, " I am guided in my present action by the spuit of
Jesus, and He approves what I do," sustains the mind in
peace, even when one has not the happiness to win the
approbation of his fellow-men ; which is not an impertinent
remark here, for it will often happen to us to please men
least when we are pleasing the Lord most. You shall please
many men by a prudent selfishness much more readily than
by a generous uncalculating devotion to what is right. " Men
will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself;" and they
will wink at very considerable de\dations from the line of
pure Christian morality in the prosecution of self-interest,
provided you be successful. Even religious people will often
vex and grieve you by advices savouring much more of worldly
wisdom than of Christian simplicity and godly sincerity.
]\iany a true follower of Jesus has had occasion to repeat his
Master's complaint, " Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom
I trusted, who did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel
against me ;" and to re-echo the bitter reflections of David,

356 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

" It was not an enemy that reproached me ; then I would
have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did
magnify himself against me ; then I would have hid myself
from him : but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide and
mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and
walked into the house of God in company," Verily a sore
case ! Yet, if the Lord approve, we may make shift to do
without the sjonpathy and approbation of men. Their appro-
bation is at most but a comfort; His is matter of life and
death. For He is the Judge : He, not men, not priests,
not fellow-disciples, hath the keys of the kingdom. Blessed,
therefore, are they that do His commandments, that they may
have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the
gates into the city.

There is yet another element in the felicity of the man who
is not merely a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the perfect law
of Christ. He escapes the guilt of unimproved knowledge.
It is a religious commonplace, that to sin against light is more
heinous than to sin in ignorance. " To him that knoweth to
do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." And, of course,
the clearer the light the greater the responsibility. Now, in no
department of Christian truth is knowledge clearer than in
that which belongs to the department of ethics. There are some
doctrines which the church, as a whole, can hardly be said to
know, they are so mysterious, or so disputed. But the ethical
teaching of Jesus is simple and copious in aU its leading fea-
tures ; it is universally understood, and as universally admired.
Protestants and Papists, Trinitarians, Socinians, and Deists, are
all at one here. Happy then are they, of all sects and deno-
minations, who do the things which all know and agree in
admiring ; for a heavy woe lies on those who do them not.
The woe is not indeed expressed, but it is implied in Christ's
words. The common Lord of all believers virtually addresses
aU Christendom here, saying : " Ye behold the sunlight of a
perfect example ; ye have been made acquainted with a high
and lovely ideal of life, such as pagan moralists never dreamed
of. What are ye doing with your light ? Are ye merely
looking at it, and writing books about it, and boasting of it,
and talldng of it, meanwhile allowing men outside the pale of

THE MASTER SEEVING : THE EXPLAXATIOif. 357

tlie churcli to surpass you in humane and pliilantliropic virtue ?
If this is all the use you are making of your knowledge, it
will be more tolerable for pagans at the day of judgment
than for you."

Having made the reflection we have been considering, Jesus
followed it up with a word of apology for the tone of suspi-
cion Avith which it was uttered, and which was no doubt felt
by the disciples. " I speak not," He said, " of you all ; I know
whom I have chosen," etc. The remark may be thus para-
phrased : " In hinting at the possibility of a knowledge of
right, unaccompanied by corresponding action, I have not been
indulging in gratuitous insinuation. I do not indeed think
so badly of you all, as to imagine you capable of deliberate
and habitual neglect of known duty. But there is one among
you who is capable of such conduct. I have chosen you
twelve, and I know the character of every one of you ; and,
as I said a year ago, after asking a question which hurt your
feelings, that one of you had a devil,^ so now, after making
a suspicious reflection, I say there is one among you whose
character illustrates negatively its meaning : one who knows,
but will not do ; who puts sentiment in place of action, and
admiration in place of imitation ; one who, having eaten bread
with me as a familiar friend, will repay me for all my kind-
ness, not by loving obedience, but by lifting up his heel
against me."

When we conceive of the reflection, " If ye know these
things, happy are ye if ye do them," as addressed, not to the
twelve, but to the great Christian public, we feel that it needs
no apology. Alas, the divorce of light and life, of knowledge
and practice, is not so rare, that one may regard an allusion to
it as an injurious imputation. Knowing unaccompanied with
doing, orthodoxy severed from sanctity, evangelical faith and
sentiment disunited from evangelical, gospel-like conduct, is
the great scandal of the church. The thing is so common

1 John vi. 66-70. The words of Jesus on the present occasion become clearer
when viewed in the light of the earlier occurrence, comparing the two passages
together. We are satisfied that the words, " I speak not of you all," mean, " I
do not suspect you all of the sin of knowing and not doing," rather than, " You
shall not all partake of the happiness of those who both know and do."

358 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

that it is thoiTglit nothing of. Insincerity is looked on as a
matter of course. Who infers anything as to a man's good-
ness from the fact of his being a church member ? Who
attaches high importance to a church certificate ? Who does
not know that the document, far from guaranteeing the pos-
session of or aspiration after the high Christian virtue- taught
by Jesus in the supper chamber, is not even a reliable guaran-
tee of the most commonplace morality, and that your certifi-
cated Christian may be a cheat, a sot, a prodigal, or a wanton ?
Unhappy is the religious society in which it has become
the fashion to know and not to do. There has the salt indeed
lost its savour, and become good for nothing. For what can
be more worthless, than knowledge of the true and good
divorced from the practice thereof? Knowledge puffeth up,
charity buildeth up ; the product of the one is a balloon, that
of the other is a temple of God. A character in which cor-
rect thinking and fine sentiment are combined with practical
laxity — in which to promise is put instead of performance, and
to utter the becoming word about a matter is substituted for
doing the appropriate deed — is, to say the least, not one to be
desired. It may look well at a distance, but it will not stand
close inspection ; it may be fair, but it is false ; its superficial
verdure is that of the turf which covers a grave ; its beauty
that of a decaying tree, o'erspread with mosses of various
species and motley hues. " If any man among you seem to
be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his
own heart, tliis man's religion is vain. Pure rehgion and
undefiled before God and the Father is this : to visit the
fatlierless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself
unspotted from the world." " The kingdom of God is not in
word, but in power."

CHAPTEE XXII.

IN ]\IEMOEIAM.
Matt, xxvi, 26-29 ; Maek xiv. 22-25 ; Luke xxii. 17-20 (1 Cor. xi. 23-26).

THE Lord's Supper is a monument sacred to the memory
of Jesus Christ. " This do in remembrance of me."
In Bethany Jesus had spoken as if He desired that Mary
should be kept in remembrance in the preaching of His
gospel; in the supper chamber He expressed His desire to
be remembered Himself. He would have Mary's deed of love
commemorated by the rehearsal of her story ; He would have
His own deed of love commemorated by a symbolic action,
to be often repeated throughout the ages to the end of the
world.

The rite of the Supper, besides commemorating, is likewise
of use to interpret the Lord's death. It throws important light
on the meaning of that solemn event. The institution of this
symbolic feast was in fact the most important contribution
made by Jesus during His personal ministry to the doctrine of
atonement through the sacrifice of Himself. Therefrom, more
clearly than from any other act or word performed or spoken
by Him, the twelve might learn to conceive of their Master's
death as possessing a redemptive character. Thereby Jesus, as
it were, said to His disciples : My approaching passion is not
to be regarded as a mere calamity, or dark disaster, falling out
contrary to the divine purpose or my expectation ; not as a
fatal blow inflicted by ungodly men on me and you, and the
cause which is dear to us aU ; not even as an evil which may
be overruled for good ; but as an event fulfilling, not frustrat-
ing, the purpose of my mission, and fruitful of blessing to the
world. What men mean for evil, God means for good, to

360 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

bring to pass to save much people alive. The shedding of my
blood, in one aspect the crime of wicked Jews, is in another
aspect my own voluntary act. I pour forth my blood for a
gracious end, even for the remission of sins. My death will
initiate a new dispensation, and seal a new testament ; it will
fulfil the purpose, and therefore take the place, of the mani-
fold sacrifices of the Mosaic ritual, and in particular of the
paschal lamb, which is even now being eaten. I shall be the
Paschal Lamb of the Israel of God henceforth ; at once pro-
tecting them from death, and feeding their souls with my
crucified humanity, as the bread of eternal life.

These truths are very familiar to us, however new and
strange they may have been to the disciples ; and we are more
accustomed to explain the Supper by the death, than the death
by the Supper. It may be useful, however, here to reverse
the process, and, imagining ourselves in the position of the
twelve, as witnesses to the institution of a new religious
sjnnbol, to endeavour to rediscover therefrom the meaning of
the event with which it is associated, and whose significance
it is intended to shadow forth. Let us then take our stand
beside this ancient monument, and try to read the Eunic
inscription on its weather-worn surface.

1. First, then, we j^erceive at once that it is to the death
of Jesus this monument refers. It is not merely erected to
His memory in general, but it is erected specially in memory
of His decease. All things point forward to what was about
to take place on Calvary. The sacramental acts of breaking
the bread and pouring out the wine manifestly look that way.
The words also spoken by Jesus in instituting the Supper all
involve allusions to His death. Both the fact and the manner
of His death are hinted at, by the distinction He makes be-
tween His body and His blood : " This is my body," " this
is my blood." Body and blood are one in life, and become
separate things only by death ; and not by every kind of death,
but by one whose manner involves blood-shedding, as in the
case of sacrificial victims. The epithets applied to the body
and the blood point at death still more clearly. Jesus speaks
of His body as " given" — as if to be slain or " broken"^ iu

^ 1 Cor. xi. 24.

IN MEMORIAM. 361

sacrifice, and of His blood as " shed." Then, finally, by de-
scribing the blood about to be shed as the blood of a new
testament, the Saviour put it beyond all doubt what He was
alluding to. Where a testament is, there must also be the
death of the testator. And though an ordinary testator may
die an ordinary death, the Testator of the new testament must
die a sacrificial death ; for the epithet new implies a reference
to the old Jewish covenant, which was ratified by the sacrifice
of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings of oxen, whose blood
was sprinkled on the altar and on the people, and called by
Moses " the blood of the covenant."

2. The mere fact that the Lord's Supper commemorates
specially the Lord's death, implies that that death must have
been an event of a very important character. By instituting
a symbolic rite for such a purpose, Jesus, as it were, said to
His disciples and to us : " Fix your eyes on Calvary, and watch
what happens there. That is the great event in my earthly
history. Other men have monuments erected to them because
they have lived lives deemed memorable. I wish you to erect
a monument to me because I have died : not forgetful of my
life indeed, yet specially mindful of my death ; commemorat-
ing it for its own sake, not merely for the sake of the Kfe
whereof it is the termination. The memory of other men is
cherished by the celebration of their birth-day anniversaries ;
but in my case, better is the day of my death than the day
of my birth for the purpose of a commemorative celebration.
My birth into this world was marvellous and momentous ; but
still more marvellous and momentous is my exit out of it by
crucifixion. Of my birth no festive commemoration is needed ;
but of my death keep alive the memory by the Holy Supper
till I come again. Eemembering it well, you remember all
my earthly history ; for of all it is the secret, the consumma-
tion, and the crown."

But why, in a history throughout so remarkable, should the
death be thus singled out for commemoration ? Was it its
tragic character that won for it this distinction ? Did the
crucified One mean the Supper which goes by His name to be
a mere dramatic representation of His passion, for the purpose
of exciting our feelings, and eliciting a sympathetic tear, by

362 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

renewing tlie memory of His dying sorrows ? So to think of
the matter were to degrade our Christian feast to the level of
the pagan festival of Adonis,

* ' Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured
Tlie Syrian damsels to lament liis fate
In amorous ditties all a summer's day."

Or was it the foul wrong and shameful indignity done to the
Son of God by the wicked men who crucified Him, that Jesus
wished to have kept in perpetual remembrance ? Was the
Holy Supper instituted for the purpose of branding with eter-
nal infamy a world that knew no better use to make of the
Holy One than to nail Him to a tree, and felt more kindness
even for a robber than for Him ? Certainly the world well
deserved to be thus held up to reprobation ; but the Son of
man came not to condemn sinners, but to save them ; and it
was not in His loving nature to erect an enduring monument
to His own resentment or to the dishonour of His murderers.
The Mood of Jesus speahcth letter things than that of Abel.

Or was it because His death on the cross, in spite of its
indignity and shame, was glorious, as a testimony to His
in\dncible fidelity to the cause of truth and righteousness, that
Jesus instructed His followers to keep it ever in mind, by the
celebration of the new symbolic rite ? Is the festival of the
Supper to be regarded as a solemnity of the same kind as
those by which the early church commemorated the death of
the martyrs ? Is the Cocna Domini simply the natalitia of the
great Proto-martyr ? So Socinians would have us believe.
To the question why the Lord wished the memory of His
crucifixion to be specially celebrated in His church, the Ea-
covian Catechism replies : " Because of all Christ's actions,
it (the voluntary enduring of death) was the greatest and most
proper to Him. For although the resurrection and exaltation
of Christ were far greater, these were acts of God the Father
rather than of Christ." ^ In other words, the death above all
things deserves to be remembered, because it was the most
signal and sublime act of witness-bearing on Christ's part to
the ti-uth, the glorious coj)estone of a noble life of self-sacri-
ficing devotion to the high and perilous vocation of a prophet.
^ De Coend DominT, Qusestio iv.

IN MEMORIAM. 363

That Christ's death was all this is of course true, and that
it is worthy of remembrance as an act of mart}Tdom is equally
true ; but whether Jesus instituted the Holy Supper for the
purpose of commemorating His death exclusively, principally,
or at all, as a martyrdom, is a different question. On this
point we must learn the truth from Christ's own lips. Let us
return, then, to the history of the institution, to leam His
mind about the matter.

3. Happily the Lord Jesus explained with particular clear-
ness in what aspect He wished His death to be the subject of
commemorative celebration. In distributing to His disciples
the sacramental bread. He said, " This is my body, given, or
broken, for you ;"^ thereby intimating that His death was to
be commemorated because of a benefit it procured for the com-
municant. In handing to the disciples the sacramental cup,
He said, " Drink ye aU of it ; for this is my blood of the
new testament, shed (for you^ and) for many for the remission
of sins ; " ^ thereby indicating the nature of the benefit pro-
cured by His death, on account of which it was worthy to be
remembered.

In this creative word of the new dispensation, Jesus repre-
sents His death as a sin-offering, atoning for guilt, and pur-
chasing forgiveness of moral debt. His blood was to be shed
for the remission of sins. In view of this function, the blood
is called the blood of the new testament, in apparent allusion
to the prophecy of Jeremiah, which contains a promise of a
new covenant to be made by God with the house of Israel, —
a covenant whose leading blessing should be the forgiveness
of iniquity, and called new, because, unlike the old, it would
be a covenant of pure grace, of promises unclogged with legal
stipulations.* By mentioning His blood and the new covenant
together, Jesus teaches that, while annulling, He would at the
same time fulfil the old, in introducing the new. The new
covenant would be ratified by sacrifice, even as was the old one
at Sinai, and remission of sin would be granted after blood-

1 Luke and Paul. ^ Luke.

3 Matthew. On the genuineness of these words, see Neander, Life of Christ.
* Jer. xxxi. 31-34. Such a covenant is on man's side hardly a covenant at
all. See AVitsius, de CEc. Fid. lib. iii. cap. i. 8-12.

364 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVK

shedding. But in bidding His disciples drink the cup, the
Lord intimates that after His death there will be no more
need of sacrifices. The sin-offering of blood will be converted
into a thank-offering of wine, a cup of salvation, to be drunk
with grateful, joyful hearts by all who through faith in His
sacrifice have received the pardon of their sins. Finally, Jesus
intimates that the new covenant concerns the many, not the
few — not Israel alone, but all nations : it is a gospel which
He bequeaths to sinners of mankind.

Well may we drink of this cup with thankfulness and joy ;
for the " new covenant" (new, yet far older than the old), of
which it is the seal, is in all respects well ordered and sure.
Well ordered ; for surely it is altogether a good and God-
worthy constitution of tilings, which connects the blessing of
pardon with the sacrificial death of Him through whom it
comes to us. It is good in the interests of righteousness : for
it provides that sin shall not be pardoned till it has been
adequately atoned for by the sacrifice of the sinner's Friend ;
and it is just and right that without the shedding of the
Eighteous One's blood there should be no remission for the
unrighteous. Then this economy serves well the interest of
divine love, as it gives that love a worthy career, and free
scope to display its magnanimous nature in bearing the bur-
den of the sinful and the miserable. And yet once more, the
constitution of the new covenant is admirably adapted to the
great practical end aimed at by the scheme of redemption,
viz, the elevation of a fallen, degraded race out of a state of
corruption into a state of holiness. The gospel of forgive-
ness through Christ's death is the moral power of God to raise
such as believe it out of the world's selfishness, and enmities,
and baseness, into a celestial life of devotion, self-sacrifice,
patience, and humility. If by faith in Christ be understood
merely belief in the opus operatum of a vicarious death, the
power of such a faith to elevate is more than questionable.
But when faith is taken in its true scriptural sense, as imply-
ing not only belief in a certain transaction, the endurance of
death by one for others, but also, and more especially, hearty
appreciation of the spirit of tlie deed and the Doer, then its
purifying and ennobling power is beyond aU question. " The

IN MEMOEIAM. 365

love of Clirist constraineth me;" and "I am crucified -with
Christ," as tlie result of sucli faith.

How poor is the Socinian scheme of salvation in comparison
with this of the new covenant ! In that scheme pardon has
no real dependence on the blood of Jesus : He died as a martyr
for righteousness, not as a Eedeemer for the unrighteous. We
are forgiven on repenting by a simple word of God, Forgive-
ness cost the Forgiver no trouble or sacrifice ; only a word, or
stroke of the pen signing a document, " Thus saith the Lord,"
What a frigid transaction ! What cold relations it implies
between the Deity and His creatures ! How vastly preferable
a forgiveness which means a giving : for^ — and costs the For-
giver sorrow, sweat, pain, blood, wounds, death, — a forgiveness
coming from a God who says in effect : " I will not, to save
sinners, repeal the law which connects sin with death as its
penalty ; but I am quite willing for that end to become myself
the law's victim." Such a forgiveness is at once an act of
righteousness and an act of marvellous love ; whereas forgive-
ness without satisfaction, though at first sight it may appear
both rational and generous, manifests neither God's righteous-
ness nor His love. A Socinian God, who pardons without
atonement, is destitute alike of a passionate abhorrence of sin
and of a passionate love to sinners.

Jesus once said, "He loveth much who hath much forgiven
him." It is a deep truth, but there is another not less deep to
be put alongside of it : we must feel that our forgiveness has
cost the Forgiver much, in order to love Him much. It is
because they feel this, that true professors of the catholic
faith exhibit that passionate devotion to Christ which forms
such a contrast to the cold intellectual homage paid by the
Deist to his God. When the orthodox Christian thinks of the
tears, agonies, bloody sweat, shame, and pain endured by the
Eedeemer, of His marred vision, broken heart, pierced side,
lacerated hands and feet, his bosom burns with devoted love.
The story of the passion opens all the fountains of feeling ;
and by no other way than the via dolorosa could Jesus have
ascended the throne of His people's hearts.

The new covenant inaugurated by Christ's death is sure as
1 This idea is well put in BuslmeU's Vicarious Sacrifice,

366 THE TEAINIXG OF THE T\\^LVE.

well as orderly. It is reliably sealed by the blood of the
Testator. For, first, what better guarantee can we have of the
good- will of God ? " Greater love hath no man than tliis, that
a man lay down his life for his friends." " Hereby perceive we
the love of God, because He laid down His life for us," Look-
ing at the matter in the light of justice, again, this covenant
is equally sure. God is not unrighteous, to forget His Son's
labour of love. As He is true, Christ shall see of the travail
of His soul. It cannot be otherwise under the moral admini-
stration of Jehovah. Can the God of truth break His word ?
Can the Judge of all the earth permit one, and especially His
own Son, to give HimseK up, out of purest love, to sorrow,
and pain, and shame, for His brethren, without receiving the
hire which He desires, and which was promised Him — many
souls, many lives, many sinners saved ? Think of it : holi-
ness suffering for righteousness' sake, and yet not having the
consolation of doing something in the way of destroying un-
righteousness, and turning the disobedient to the obedience of
the just ; love, by the impulse of its nature, and by covenant
obligations, laid under a necessity of labouring for the lost,
and yet doomed by the untowardness, or apathy, or faithless-
ness of the Governor of the universe to go unrewarded; — Clove's
labour lost, nobody the better for it, things remaining as be-
fore : no sinner pardoned, delivered from the pit and restored
to holiness ; no chosen people brought out of darkness into
marvellous light ! Such a state of things cannot be in God's
dominions. The govermnent of God is carried on in the
interest of Holy Love. It gives love free scope to bear others'
burdens : it arranges that if she will do so, she shall feel the
full weight of the burden she takes upon her ; but it also
arranges, by an eternal covenant of truth and equity, that
when the burden has been borne, the Burden-bearer shall re-
ceive His reward in the form He likes best — in souls washed,
pardoned, sanctified, and led to everlasting glory by Himself
as His ransomed brethren or children.

The principle of vicarious merit involved in the doctrine
that we are pardoned simply because Christ died for our
sins, when looked at with unprejudiced eyes, commends itself
to reason as well as to the heart. It means practically a

IN MEMOEIAM. 367

premium held out to foster rigliteousness and love. This
offered premium carried Jesus tlKough His heavy task. It
was because, relying on His Father's promise, He saw the
certain joy of saving many before Him, that He endured the
cross. It is the same principle, in a restricted application of
it, which stimulates Christians to fill up that which is behind
of the sufferings of their Lord. They know that, if they be
faithful, they shall not live unto themselves, but shall benefit
Christ's mystic body the church, and also the world at large.
If the fact were otherwise, there would be very little either of
moral fidelity or of love in the world. If the moral govern-
ment of the universe made it impossible for one being to benefit
another by prayer or loving pains, impossible for ten good
men to be a shield to Sodom, for the elect to be a salt to the
earth, men would give up trying to do it ; generous concern
about public well-being would cease, and universal selfishness
become the order of the day. Or if this state of things should
not ensue, we should only have darkness in a worse form : the
inscrutable enioma of Eighteousness crucified without benefit to
any living creature, — a scandal and a reproach to the govern-
ment and character of God. If, therefore, we are to hold fast
our faith in the divine holiness, justice,, goodness, and truth,
we must believe that the blood of Jesus doth most certainly
procure for us the remission of sins ; and likewise, that the
blood of His saints, though neither available nor necessary to
obtain for sinners the blessing of pardon before the divine
tribunal — Christ's blood alone being capable of rendering us
that service, and having rendered it effectually and once for
all — is nevertheless precious in God's sight, and makes the '
people precious among whom it is shed, and is by God's
appointment, in manifold ways, a source of blessing unto a
world unworthy to number among its inhabitants men whom
it knows not how to use otherwise than as lambs for the
slaughter.

4. The sacrament of the Supper exhibits Christ not merely as
a Lamb to be slain for a sin-offering, but as a Paschal Lamb to
be eaten for spiritual nourishment. " Take, eat, this is my body."
By this injunction Jesus taught the twelve, and through them
all Christians, to regard His crucified humanity as the bread of

368 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

God for the life of their souls. We must eat the flesh and
drink the blood of the Son of man spiritually by faith, as we
eat the bread and drink the wine literally with the mouth.

In regarding Christ as the Bread of Life, we are not to
restrict ourselves to the one benefit mentioned by Him in
instituting the feast, the remission of sins, but to have in view
all His benefits tending to our spiritual nourishment and
growth in grace. Christ is the Bread of Life in all His
offices. As a Prophet, He supplies the bread of divine truth
to feed our minds ; as a Priest, He furnishes the bread of
righteousness to satisfy our troubled consciences ; as a King,
He presents Himself to us as an object of devotion, that shall
fill our hearts, and whom we may worship without fear of
idolatry.

As often as the Lord's Supper is celebrated, we are invited
to contemplate Christ as the food of our souls in this compre-
hensive sense. As often as we eat the bread and drink the
cup, we declare that Christ has been, and is now, our soul's
food in all these ways. And as often as we use the Supper
with sincerity, we are helped to appropriate Christ as our
spiritual food more and more abundantly. Even as a symbol
or picture — mysticism and magic apart — the Holy Supj^er
aids our faith. Through the eye it affects the heart, as do
poetry and music through the ear. The very mysticism and
superstition that have grown around the sacraments in the
course of ages, are a witness to their powerful influence over
the imagination. Men's thoughts and feelings were so deeply
stirred, they could not believe such power lay in mere symbols;
and by a confusion of ideas natural to an excited imagination,
they imputed to the sign all the virtues of the things signi-
fied. By this means faith was transferred from Christ the
Eedeemer, and the Spirit the Sanctifier, to the rite of baptism
and the service of the mass. This result shows the need of
knowledge and spiritual discernment to keep the imagination
in check, and prevent the eyes of the understanding from
being put out by the dazzling glare of fancy. Some, con-
sidering how thoroughly the eyes of the understanding
have been put out by theories of sacramental grace, have
been tempted to deny that sacraments are even means of

IN MEMORIAM. 369

grace, and to think that institutions which have been so fear-
fully abused ought to be allowed to fall into desuetude. Tliis
is a natural reaction, but it is an extreme opinion. The sober,
true view of the matter is, that sacraments are means of grace,
not from any magic virtue in them or in the priest admini-
stering them, but as helping faith by sense, and still more by
the blessing of Christ and the working of His Spirit, as the
reward of an intelligent, sincere, beheving use of them.

This, then, is what we have learned from the monumental
stone. The Lord's Supper commemorates the Lord's death;
points out that death as an event of transcendent importance ;
sets it forth, indeed, as the ground of our hope for the pardon
of sin ; and finally exhibits Christ the Lord, who died on the
cross, as all to us which our spirits need for health and salva-
tion— our mystic bread and wine. This rite, instituted by
Jesus on the night on which He was betrayed. He meant to
be repeated not merely by the apostles, but by His believing
people in all ages till He came again. So we learn from
Paul ; so we might have inferred, apart from any express in-
formation. An act so original, so impressive, so pregnant with
meaning, so helpful to faith, once performed, was virtually an
enactment. In performing it, Jesus said in effect : " Let this
become a great institution, a standing observance in the com-
munity to be called by my name."

And now, finally, in what spirit should an ordinance having
such a significance as we have seen be observed by the church ?
In a spirit, surely, of humility, thankfulness, and brotherly
love. Christians should come to the table as men confessing
their sinfulness, acknowledging their desert of condemnation,
devoutly thanking God for His covenant of grace, and His
mercy to them in Christ, loving Him who loved them, and
washed them from their sins in His own blood, and who daily
feedeth their souls with heavenly food, and giving Him all
glory and dominion ; and loving one another — loving all re-
deemed men and believers in Jesus as brethren, and taking
the Supper together as a family meal ; withal praying that an
ever-increasing number may experience the saving efficacy of
Christ's death, and swell the song of those who sing the praise
of the Lamb that was slain to take away the sin of the world.

2 A

370 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

After this fashion did the apostles and the apostolic church
celebrate the Supper at Pentecost, after Jesus had ascended
to glory. Continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and
breaking bread from house to house, they did eat their meat
with gladness and singleness of heart. Would that we now
could keep the feast as they kept it then ! But how much
must be done ere that be possible ! The moss of Time must
be cleared away from the monumental stone, that its inscrip-
tion may become once more distinctly legible ; the accumu-
lated debris of a millennium and a half of theological contro-
versies about sacraments must be carted out of sight and
mind ; ^ the truth as it is in Jesus must be separated from
the alloy of human error ; the homely rite of the Supper must
be divested of the state robes of elaborate ceremonial by which
it has been all but stifled, and allowed to return to congenial
primitive simplicity. These things, so devoutly to be wished,
will come at last : if not on earth, in that day when the Lord
Jesus will drink new wine with His people in the kingdom
of His Father.

' The history of these controversies is very humiliating, and their conse-
quences most disastrous. Through them the symbol of union has been turned
into a chief cause of division. The church has remembered her Lord, and
obeyed His commandment of love, as members of families sometimes remember
a deceased parent ; casting angry glances at each other across his grave, and
retiring to the house, whose head they have buried, to squabble about the mean-
ing of his will.

CHAPTEE XXIII.

JUDAS ISCARIOT.

Matt. xxvi. 20-23 ; Mark xiv. 17-21 ; Luke xxii. 21-23 ;
John xiii. 21-30.

BESIDES the feet-washing and the institution of the Sup-
per, yet another scene occurred on the night preceding
the Lord's death, helping to render it for ever memorable. On
that same night, during the course of the evening meal,^ Jesus
exposed and expelled the false disciple, who had undertaken
to deliver his Master into the hands of those who sought His
life. Already, while occupied with the washing, He had made
premonitory allusions to the fact that there was a traitor
among the twelve, hinting that they were not all clean, and
insinuating that there was one of them who hnew, and would
not do. Having finished and explained the service of lowly
love. He next proceeded to the unwelcome task of indicating
distinctly to which of the disciples He had been alluding.
With spirit troubled at thought of the painful duty, and
shuddering in presence of such satanic wickedness, He intro-
duced the subject by making the general announcement :
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray
me." Thereafter, in answer to inquiries, He indicated the
particular individual, by explaining that the traitor was he to
whom He should give a sop or morsel after He had dipped it.^
The fact then announced was new to the disciples, but it

■• Whether before or after the institution of the Supper has been much dis-
cussed, and is of no theological importance, though it has been thought to be
so in connection with the question of strict communion.

^ On the harmony of this subject, see Ebrard, Gospel History ; and also
Stier, Eeden Jesu, who reconciles the Synoptics with John, by supposing two
announcements of the traitor, with the Lord's Supper intervening, which he
brings in between vers. 22 and 23 of John's narrative.

372 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

was not new to their Master. Jesus had known all along
that there was a traitor in the camp. He had even hinted as
much a full year before. But, excepting on that one occasion,
He had not spoken of the matter hitherto, but had patiently
borne it as a secret burden on His own heart, Now, however,
the secret may be hid no longer. The hour is come when the
Son of man must be glorified. Judas, for his part, has made
up his mind to be the instrument of betraying his Lord to death ;
and such bad work, oni3e resolved on, should by all means be
done without delay. Then Jesus wants to be rid of the false
disciple's company. He desires to spend the few last hours
of His life in tender, confidential fellowship with His faithful
ones, free from the irritation and distraction caused by the
presence of an undeclared yet deadly enemy. Therefore He
does not wait till it pleases Judas to depart; He bids him go,
asserting His authority over him even after he has renounced
his allegiance and given himself up to the devil's service.
Eeaching the sop. He says to him in effect : " I know thee,
Judas ; thou art the man : thou hast resolved to betray me :
away, then, and do it." And then He says expressly : " That
thou doest, do quickly." It was an order to go, and go at once.
Judas took the hint. He " went immediately out," and so
'•finally quitted the society of which he had been an unworthy
member. One wonders how such a man ever got in : how he
^ver was admitted into such a holy fellowship : how he came
to be chosen one of the twelve. Did Jesus not know the real
character of this man when He chose him ? The words of
our Lord, spoken just before, not to say a right view of His
person, forbid us to think this. " I know," said He, while
expounding the feet-washing, " whom I have chosen," meaning
evidently to claim knowledge of them all, Judas included, at
the time He chose them. Did He then choose Judas, knowing
what he was, that He might have among the twelve one by
whom He might be betrayed, and the Scriptures in that par-
ticular be fulfilled ? So He seems to hint in the declaration
just alluded to ; for He goes On to say : " But, that the scripture
may be fulfilled. He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up
Ids heel against me."^ But it is not credible that Iscariot was

^ John xiii. ] 8.

JUDAS ISCARIOT. 373

chosen merely to be a traitor, as an actor might be chosen
by a theatre manager to play the part of lago. The end
pointed at in the scripture quoted might be ultimately served,
by his being chosen, but that end was not the motive of the
choice. We may regard these two points as certain : on the
one hand, that Judas did not become a. follower of Jesus.
with treacherous intentions ; and on the other, that Jesus did
not elect Judas, to be one of the twelve because He foreknew
that he would eventually become a traitor.

If the choice of the false disciple was not due either to
ignorance or to foreknowledge, how is it to be explained ? The
only explanation that can be given is that, apart from secret
insight, Judas was to all appearance an eligible man, and could
not be passed over on any grounds, coming under ordinary
observation. His qualities must have been such, that one not
possessing the eye of omniscience, looking on him, would have
been disposed to say of him, what Samuel said of Eliab :
" Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him."^ In that case, his
election by Jesus is perfectly intelligible. The Head of the
church simply did what the church has to do in analogous
instances. The church chooses men to fill sacred offices on a
conjunct view of ostensible qualifications, such as knowledge,
zeal, apparent piety, and correctness of outward conduct. In
so doing, she often makes unhappy appointments, and confers
dignity on persons of the Judas type, who dishonour the
positions they fill. The mischief resulting is great ; but Christ
has taught us, by His example in choosing Judas, as also by
the parable of the tares, that we must submit to the evil, and
leave the remedy in higher hands. Out of evil God often
brings good, as He did in the case of the traitor.

Supposing Judas to have been chosen to the apostleship on
the ground of apparent fitness, what manner of man would
that imply ? A vulgar, conscious hypocrite, seeking some
mean by-end, while professedly aiming at a higher ? Not
necessarily ; not probably. Rather such an one as Jesus
indirectly described Judas to be when He made that reflection :
If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. The
false disciple was a sentimental, plausible, self-deceived pietist,

1 1 Sam. xvi. 6.

374 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

who knew and approved tlie good, though not conscientiously-
practising it ; one who, in aesthetic feeling, in fancy, and in
intellect, had affinities for the noble and the holy, while in
will and in conduct he was the slave of base selfish passions ;
one who, in the last resource, would always put self upper-
most, yet could zealously devote himself to well-doing when
personal interests were not compromised. In thus describing
Judas, we draw not the picture of a solitary monster. Men
of such a type are by no means so rare as some may imagine.
History, sacred and profane, supplies numerous examples of
them, playing an important part in human affairs. Balaam,
who had the vision of a prophet and the soul of a miser,
was such a man. Eobespierre, the evil genius of the French
Eevolution, was another. The man who sent thousands to
the guillotine had in his younger days resigned his office as
a provincial judge, because it was against his conscience to
pronounce sentence of death on a culprit found guilty of a
capital offence.^ A third example, more remarkable than either,
may be found in the famous Greek Alcibiades, who, to un-
bounded ambition, unscrupulousness, and licentiousness, united
a warm attachment to the greatest and best of the Greeks.
The man who in after years betrayed the cause of his native
city, and went over to the side of her enemies, was in his
youth an enthusiastic admirer and disciple of Socrates. How
he felt towards the Athenian sage, may be gathered from words
put into his mouth by Plato in one of his dialogues : words
which involuntarily suggest a parallel between the speaker and
the unworthy follower of a greater than Socrates : " I experi-
ence towards this man alone (Socrates) what no one would
believe me capable of : a sense of shame. For I am conscious
of an inability to contradict him, and decline to do what he
bids me ; and when I go away, I feel myself overcome by the
desire of popular esteem. Therefore I flee from him, and
avoid him. But when I see him, I am ashamed of my admis-
sions, and oftentimes I would be glad if he ceased to exist
among the living ; and yet I know well, that were that to
happen, I should be still more grieved."^

' Carlyle, French Revolution, vol. i. pp. 170-1.
* Plato, tvit,-xiintt : Alcibiades loqxdtur.

JUDAS ISCARIOT. 375

The character of Judas being such as we have described,
the possibility at least of his turning a traitor becomes com-
prehensible. One who loves himseK more than any man,
however good, or any cause, however holy, is always capable
of bad faith more or less heinous. He is a traitor at heart
from the outset, and all that is wanted is a set of circumstances
calculated to bring into play the evil elements of his nature.
The question therefore arises, What were the circumstances
which converted Judas from a possible into an actual traitor ?

This is a question very hard indeed to answer. The crime
committed by Iscariot, through which he has earned for himself
" a frightful renown," remains, in spite of all the discussion
whereof it has been the subject, still mysterious and unac-
countable. Many attempts have been made to assign probable
motives for the nefarious deed, some tending to excuse the
doer, and others to aggravate his guilt ; all more or less con-
jectural, and none perfectly satisfactory. As for the Gospel
narratives, they do not explain, but merely record, the wicked-
ness of Judas. The synoptical evangelists do indeed mention
that the traitor made a bargain with the priests, and received
from them a sum of money for the service rendered ; and
John, in his narrative of the anointing at Bethany, takes
occasion to state that the fault-finding disciple was a thief,
appropriating to his own uses money out of the common purse,
of which he had charge.^ These facts, of course, show Iscariot
to have been a covetous man. None but a man of greedy,
covetous spirit could have taken money for such a service.
A vindictive man, whose vanity had been wounded, or who
fancied himself in some way wronged, might play the traitor
for love of revenge, but he would scorn to be paid for his work.
The petty pilfering from the bag was also a sure sign of a
mean, sordid soul. Perhaps the very fact of his being the
purse-bearer to the company of Jesus may be regarded as an
indication that his heart hankered after greed. He got the
bag to carry, we imagine, because the other disciples were all
supremely careless about money matters, while he had decided
proclivities towards finance, and showed a desire to have
charge of the superfluous funds. All the rest would be only

^ John xii. 6.

376 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

too glad to find a brother willing to take the trouble ; and
having imbibed the spirit of their Master's precept, Take no
thought for the morrow, they would not think of presenting
themselves as rival candidates for the office.

The evangelists do therefore most distinctly represent Judas
as a covetous man. But they do not represent his covetous-
ness as the sole, or even as the principal, motive of his crime.
That, indeed, it can hardly have been. For, in the first place,
would it not have been a better speculation to have continued
purse-bearer, with facilities for appropriating its contents, than
to sell his Master for a paltry sum not exceeding five pounds?^
Then what could induce a man whose chief and ruling passion
was to amass money to become a disciple of Jesus at all ?
Surely following Him who had no place where to lay His
head was not a likely way to money-making ! Then, finally,
how account for the repentance of the traitor, so great in its
vehemence, though most unholy in its nature, on the hypo-
thesis that his sole object was to gain a few pieces of silver ?
Avarice may make a man of splendid talents thoroughly mer-
cenary and unscrupulous, as is said to have been the case
with the famous Duke of Marlborough ; but it is rarely,
indeed, that a man given up to avaricious habits takes
seriously to heart the crimes committed under their influence.
It is the nature of avarice to destroy conscience, and to make
all things, however sacred, venal. Wlience, then, that mighty
volcanic upheaving in the breast of Judas ? Surely other
passions were at work in his soul when he sold his Lord, than
the cold and hardening love of gain !

Pressed by this difficulty, some have suggested that, in
betraying Jesus, Judas was actuated principally by feelings of
jealousy or sj^ite, arising out of internal dissensions or ima-
gined injuries. This suggestion is in itself not improbable.
Offences might very easily come from various sources. The
mere fact that Judas was not a Galilean,^ but a native of
another province, might give rise to misunderstanding.
Human sympathies and antipathies depend on very little
things. Kinsmanship, a common name, or a common birth-
place, have far more power than the grand bonds which
^ Renan, Vie de Jesus, p. 381. ' Vide cap. iv.

JUDAS ISCAEIOT. 377

connect us with all the race. In religion the same remark
holds good. The ties of a common Lord, a common hope, and
a common spiritual life, are feeble, as compared with those of
sect and sectional religious custom and opinion. Then who
knows what offences sprang from those disputes among the
disciples who should be the greatest in the kingdom ? What
if the man of Kerioth had been made to feel that, whoever
was to be the greatest, he at least had no chance, not being
a Galilean ? The mean, narrow habits of Judas as treasurer
would be a third cause of bad feeling in the apostolic com-
pany. Supposing his dishonesty to have escaped observation,
his tendency to put the interest of the bag above the objects
for which its contents were destined, and so to dole out sup-
plies either for the company or for the poor grudgingly, would
be sure to be noticed, and, being noticed, would certainly, in
such an outspoken society, not fail to be remarked on.^

These reflections show how ill-feeling might ' have arisen
between Judas and his fellow-disciples ; but wdiat we have to
account for is the hatred of the false disciple against his
Master. Had Jesus, then, done anything to offend the man by
whom He was betrayed ? Yes ! He had seen through him,
and that was offence enough ! For, of course, Judas knew that
he was seen through. Men cannot live together in close fel-
lowship long without coming to know with what feelings they
are regarded by each other. If I distrust a brother, he will
find it out, even should I attempt to conceal it. But the
guileless and faithful One would make no attempt at conceal-
ment. He would not, indeed, offensively obtrude His distrust
on the notice of Judas ; but neither would He studiously hide
it, to make matters go smoothly between them. He who so
faithfully corrected the faults of the other disciples, would do
His duty to this one also, and make him aware that He re-
garded his spirit and evil habits with disapprobation, in order

^ Kenan, Vie de Jesus, p. 382.

The poor were not forgotten by Jesus and His disciples (John xii. 5, xiii.
29). When supplies overflowed, they were not hoarded for to-morrow, but for
the destitute. That they had more than they needed was the result of the love
of grateful souls (Luke viii. 1-3), and the bag was kept, that nothing might be
wasted ; for the ethics of Jesus condemn waste as strongly as they discoun-
tenance carefulness. " Gather up the fragments," etc.

378 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

to bring him to repentance. And what the effect of such
dealing would be, it is not difficult to imagine. On a Peter,
correction had a most wholesome influence ; it brought him at
once to a right mind. In the case of a Judas the result would
be very different. The mere consciousness that Jesus did not
think well of him, and still more the shame of an open rebuke,
would breed sullen resentment and ever-deepening alienation
of heart ; till at length love was turned to hatred, and the
impenitent disciple began to cherish vindictive passions.

The manner in which the betrayal was gone about supports
the idea that the agent was actuated by malicious, revengeful
feelings. Not content with giving such information as would
enable the Jewish authorities to get their victim into their
hands, Judas conducted the band that was sent to apprehend
his Master, and even pointed Him out to them by an affec-
tionate salutation. To one in a vengeful mood that kiss might
be sweet ; but to a man in any other mood, even though he
were a traitor, how abhorrent and abominable ! The saluta-
tion was entirely gratuitous : it was not necessary for the
success of the plot ; for the military detachment was furnished
with torches, and Judas could have indicated Jesus to them,
while he himself kept in the background. But that way
would not satisfy a bosom friend turned to be a mortal
enemy.^

Along with malice and greed, the instinct of self-preserva-
tion may have had a place among the motives of Judas.
Perfidy might be recommended by the suggestions of selfish
prudence. The traitor was a shrewd man, and believed that
a catastrophe was near. He understood better than his single-
minded brethren the situation of affairs ; for the children of
this world are wiser in their generation than the children of
light. The other disciples, by their generous enthusiasms
and patriotic hopes, were blinded to the signs of the times ;
but the false disciple, just because he was less noble, was
more discerning. Disaster, then, being imminent, what was to

* Renan, Vie de Jesus, favours tlie idea that Judas was actuated by spite.
He remarks, on the number of denunciators connected with secret societies :
" Un leger depit," he says, " suffisait pour faire d'un sectaire un traitre " (p.
382).

JUDAS ISCARIOT, 379

be done ? What but turn king's evidence and make terms
for himself, so that Christ's loss might be his gain ? If this
baseness could be perpetrated under pretence of provocation,
why then, so much the better !

These observations help to bring the crime of Judas Iscariot
within the range of human experience. And on this account
it was worth our while to make them ; for it is not desirable
that we should think of the traitor as an absolutely unique
character, as the solitary perfect incarnation of satanic wicked-
ness.^ We should rather so think of his crime as that the
eftect of contemplating it on our minds shall be to make us,
like the disciples, ask. Is it I ? Is it I ? ^ " Wlio can under-
stand his errors ? Keep back Thy servant from presumptuous
sins." There have been many traitors, besides Judas, who,
from malice or for gain, have played false to noble men and
noble causes ; some of them perhaps even worse men than he.
It was his unenviable distinction to betray the most exalted
of all victims ; but many who have been substantially guilty
of his sin have not taken it so much to lieart, but have been
able to live happily after their deed of \Tllany was wrought.

Yet, while it is important for our warning not to conceive
of Judas as an isolated sinner, it is also most desirable that
we should regard his crime as an incomprehensible mystery of
iniquity. It is in this light that the fourth evangelist would
have us look at it. He could have told us much about the
mutual relations of Judas and Jesus tending to explain the
deed of the former. But he has not chosen to do so. The
only explanation he gives of the traitor's crime is, that Satan
had taken possession of him. This he mentions twice over
in one chapter, as if to express his own horror, and to awaken
similar horror in his readers.^ And to deepen the impression,
after relating the exit of Judas, he adds the suggestive reflec-
tion that it took place after nightfall : " He then, having

^ Such is the view of Daub in his Judas Iscariot, oder Das Bose m Ver-
hdltniss zum Guten.

2 The disciples first trembled, each one for himself ; then, after recovering
their composure, began to wonder who it could be ; and finally, Peter made a
sign to John, who was next Jesus, to inquire.

3 John xiii. 2, 27. Satan entered Judas first as the Satan of wicked pur-
pose ; then, after the sop (Christ's challenge to Judas), as the Satan of action.

380 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

received the sop, went immediately out : and it was night."
Fit time for such an errand !

Judas went out and betrayed his Lord to death, and then
he went and took his own life. "What a tragic accompani-
ment to the crucifixion was that suicide ! What an impressive
illustration of the evil of a double mind ! To be happy in
some fashion, Judas should either have been a better man or
a worse. Had he been better, he would have been saved
from his crime ; had he been worse, he would have escaped
torment before the time. As it was, he was bad enough to
do the deed of infamy, and good enough to be unable to
bear the burden of its guilt. Woe to such a man ! Better
for him, indeed, that he had never been born !

What a melancholy end was that of Judas to an auspicious
beginning ! Chosen to be a companion of the Son of man,
and an eye and ear witness of His work, once engaged in
preaching the gospel and casting out devils ; now possessed of
the devil himself, driven on by him to damnable deeds, and
finally employed by a righteous Providence to take vengeance
on his own crime. In view of this history, how shallow the
theory that resolves all moral differences between men into
the effect of circumstances ! Who was ever better circum-
stanced for becoming good than Judas ? Yet the very
influences which ought to have fostered goodness served only
to provoke into activity latent evil. Surely there are pre-
destined vessels of wrath as well as predestined vessels of
mercy !

If the conjecture be well founded, that disagreements
among the disciples had their own share in putting Judas
into bad huniour, what an impressive lesson is his crime on
the importance of a good understanding being maintained
among brethren ! Who can tell what public mischiefs, what
tragedies, v/hat treasons, may arise from private grudges ?
Two churchmen quarrel, and thenceforth they take different
roads in all things. Whom the one loves, the other feels
bound to hate. Whatever view of a public question the
one espouses, the other as a matter of course determinedly
opposes ; and the church is rent asunder, and the cause of
God is frustrated, and either or each of the alienated disciples

JUDAS ISCARIOT. 381

repeats the part of Judas, and betrays truth and the King of
truth, to gratify unholy, wicked resentments.

Yet one other reflection. What a bitter cross must the
constant presence of such a man as Judas have been to the
pure, loving heart of Jesus ! Yet how patiently it was borne
for years ! Herein He is an example and a comfort to His
true followers, and for this end among others had He this
cross to bear. The Eedeemer of men had a companion who
lifted up liis heel against Him, that in this as in all other
respects He might be like unto, and able to succour, His
brethren. Has any faithful servant of Christ to complain
that his love has been requited by hatred, his truth with bad
faith ; or that he is obliged to treat as a true Christian one
whom he more than suspects to be a hypocrite ? It is a hard
trial, but let him look unto Jesus and be patient !

CHAPTER XXIV.

the dying parent and his little ones (still reclining at

table).

Section i. — Words of Comfort and Counsel to the Sorrowing

Children.

John xiii. 31-35, xiv. 1-4, 15-21.

THE exit of Judas into the darkness of night, on his still
darker errand, was a summons to Jesus to prepare for
death. Yet He was thankful for the departure of the traitor.
It took a burden off His heart, and allowed Him to breathe
and to speak freely ; and if it brought Him, in the first place,
near to His last sufferings, it brought Him also near to the
ulterior joy of resurrection and exaltation to glory. There-
fore His first utterance, after the departure took place, was an
outburst of unfeigned gladness. When the false disciple was
gone out, and the sound of his retiring footsteps had died
away, Jesus said : " Now is the Son of man glorified : and
God is glorified in Him ; and God shall glorify Him in Him-
self, yea, He shall straightway glorify Him."^

But while, by a faith which substantiated things hoped for,
and made evident things not visible, Jesus was able to see
in present death coming glory. He remembered that He had
around Him disciples to whom, in their weakness. His decease
and departure would mean simply bereavement and desola-
tion. Therefore He at once turned His thoughts to them,
and proceeded to say to tliem such things as were suitable to
their inward state and their outward situation.

In His last words to His own, the Saviour employed two

^ John xiii. 31, 32. The words il o etc; ilolaffh h auTu are regarded as
spurious by Luthardt and other critics.

THE DYING PARENT: WORDS OF COMFORT. 383

different styles of speech. First, He spoke to them as a
dying parent addressing his children ; and then He assumed
a loftier tone, and spoke to them as a dying Lord addressing
His servants, friends, and representatives. The words of
comfort and counsel spoken by Jesus in the former capacity,
we find in the passages cited from the thirteenth and four-
teenth chapters of John's Gospel ; while the directions of the
departing Lord to His future apostles are recorded in the
two chapters which follow. We have to consider in this
chapter the dying Parent's last words to His sorrowing
children.

These, it will be observed, were not spoken in one con-
tinuous address. While the dying Parent spake, the children
kept asking Him child's questions. First one, then another,
then a third, and then a fourth, asked Him a question,
suggested by what He had been saying. To these questions
Jesus listened patiently, and returned answer as He could.
The answers He gave, and the things He meant to say,
without reference to possible interrogations, are mixed up
together in the narrative. It will be convenieyit for our
purpose to separate these from those ; and to consider first,
taken together, the words of comfort spoken by Jesus to His
disciples, and then their questionings of Him, with the replies
which these elicited.

Knowing to whom He speaks, Jesus begins at once with
the nursery dialect. He addresses His disciples not merely
as children, but as " little children," by the endearing name
expressing His tender affection towards them, and His com-
passion for their weakness. Then He alludes to His death
in a delicate roundabout way, adapted to childish capacity
and feelings. He tells them He is going a road they cannot
follow, and that they will miss Him as children miss their
father when he goes out and never returns. " Yet a little
while I am with you. Ye shall seek me : and as I said unto
the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come ; so now I say
to you."

After this brief, simple preface, Jesus went on to give His
little ones His first dying counsel. That was, that they
should love one another. Surely it was a counsel well worthy

384 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

to come first ! For what solace can be greater to orphaned
ones than mutual love ? Let the world be ever so dark
and cheerless, while brothers in afl&iction are true brothers to
each other in sympathy and reciprocal helpfulness, they have
an unfailing well-spring of joy in the desert of sorrow. If,
on the other hand, to all the other ills of life there be added
alienation, distrust, antagonism, the bereaved are desolate
indeed ; their night of sorrow hath not even a solitary star
to alleviate its gloom.

Anxious to secure due attention to a precept in itself
most seasonable, and even among the disciples needing
enforcement, Jesus conferred on it all the dignity and im-
portance of a new commandment, and made the love enjoined
therein the distinctive mark of Christian discipleship. " A
new commandment," said He, " I give unto you, that ye love
one another;" thus, on that memorable night, adding a third
novelty to those already introduced — the new sacrament and
the new covenant. The commandment and the covenant
were new in the same sense ; not as never having been heard
of before, but as now for the first time proclaimed with the
due emphasis, and assuming their rightful place of supremacy
above the details of Mosaic moral legislation and the shadowy
rites of the legal religious economy. Now love was to be the
outstanding royal law, and free grace was to antiquate Sinaitic
ordinances. And why now ? In both cases, because Jesus
was about to die. His death would be the seal of the New
Testament, and it would exemplify and ratify the new com-
mandment. Hence He goes on to say, after giving forth that
new law, " as I have loved you." The past tense is not to
be interpreted strictly here : the perfect must be taken as a
future perfect, so as to include the death which was the
crowning act of the Saviour's love. " Love one another,"
Jesus would say, " as I shall have loved you, and as ye shall
know that I have loved you when ye come to need the
consolation of so loving each other." So understanding His
words, we see clearly why He calls the law of love new.
His own love in giving His life for His people was a new
thing on earth ; and a love among His followers, one towards
another, kindred in spirit and ready to do the same thing if

THE DYING PAKENT : WORDS OF COMFORT. 385

needful, would be equally a novelty at wliich the world would
stare, asking in wonder whence it came, till at length it per-
ceived that the men who so loved had been with Jesus.

The second word of comfort spoken by Jesus to the little
ones He was about to leave was an exhortation to faith:
" Let not your heart be troubled ; believe in God, and believe
in me." ^ The exhortation embraces in its scope the whole
interests of the disciples, secular and spiritual, temporal and
eternal. Their dying Master recommends them first to exercise
faith in God, mainly with reference to temporal anxieties.
He says to them, in effect : " I' am going to leave you, my
children ; but be not afraid. You shall not be in the world
as poor orphans, defenceless and unprovided for ; God my
Father will take care of you ; trust in Divine Providence,
and let peace rule in your hearts." Having thus exhorted
them to exercise faith in God the Provider, Jesus next ex-
horts His little ones to believe in Himself, with special refer-
ence to those spiritual and eternal interests for the sake of
which they had left all and followed Him. "Believing in
God for food and raiment, believe in me too, and be assured
that all I said to you about the kingdom and its joys and
rewards is true. Soon ye will find it very hard to believe
this : it will seem to you as if the promises I made were
deceptive, and the kingdom a dream and a hallucination. But
do not allow such dark thoughts to take possession of your
minds : recollect what you know of me, and ask yourselves
whether it is likely that He whose companions you have been
during these years, would deceive you with romantic promises
that were never to be fulfilled."

The kingdom and its rewards ; these were the things which
Jesus had encouraged His followers to expect. Of these, accord-
ingly. He proceeded next to speak, in the style suited to the
character He had assumed, — that, viz., of a dying parent ad-
dressing his children. " In my Father's house," said He, " are

1 John xiv. 1. The verb -rierniiri in either clause may be either imperative
or indicative, and four different renderings are possible. The rendering in the
Eng. ver. and that given above come practically to the same thing. Even in the
indicative, Ye believe in God, an imperative is implied : Exercise and draw com-
fort from your faith in God.

2 B

386 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

many mansions." Here was a cheering prospect for them !
In the hour of despondency the little ones would think them-
selves orphans, without a home either in earth or in heaven.
But their Friend assures them that they should not merely
have a home, but a splendid one ; not merely a humble shed to
shelter them from the storm, but a glorious palace to reside
in, in a region where storms were unknown, — a house with a
great many rooms in it, supplying abundant accommodation
for them all, incomparably more capacious than the temple
which had been the earthly dwelling-place of God.

This child-like yet profound saying of the Lord Jesus is not
only cheering, but most stimulating to the imagination. The
" many mansions " suggest many thoughts. We think with
pleasure of the vast numbers which the many-mansioned
house is capable of containing. We may too, harmlessly,
though perhaps fancifully, with the saints of other ages, think
of the lodgings in the Father's house as not only many in
number, but also as many in kind, corresponding to the classes
or ranks of the residents.^ But to some the most comfortable
thought of all suggested by this pregnant poetic word is the
certainty of an eternal life. To men who have doubted con-
cerning the life beyond, the grand desideratum is not detailed
information respecting the site, and the size, and the archi-
tecture of the celestial city, but to know for certain that there
is such a city, that there is an house not made with hands
eternal in the heavens. This desideratum is supplied in this
word of Christ. For whatever the many mansions may mean
besides, they do at the least imply that there is a state of
happy existence to be reached by believers, as He in whom
they believe reached it, viz. through death. The life ever-
lasting, whatever its conditions, is undoubtedly taught here.
And it is taught with authority. Jesus speaks as one who
knows, not (like Socrates) as one who merely has an opinion
on the subject. At his farewell meeting with his friends

• For Cyprian's opinion, see p. 257 of this work. The same idea occurs in
Irenseus, Hceres. v. 36. No doubt there is a truth in this view. There will be
Christians of various ranks in heaven — princes and doorkeepers ; also of various
schools, High Church, Broad Church, and Low Church, able at last to believe
each other to be Christians.

"THE DYING PARENT: WORDS OF COMFORT, 387

before lie drank the hemlock cup, the Athenian sage dis-
cussed with them the question of the immortality of the soul.
On that question he strongly maintained the affirmative ; but
still only as one who looked on it as a fair subject for dis-
cussion, and knew that there was a good deal to be said on
both sides. But Jesus does more than maintain the affirma-
tive on the subject of the life to come. He speaks thereon
with oracular confidence, offering to us not the frail raft of a
probable opinion, whereon we may perilously sail down the
stream of life towards death ; but the strong ship of a divine
word, wherein one may sail securely, for which Socrates and
his companions sighed.^ And He so speaks with a full sense
of the responsibility He thereby takes upon Himself " If it
were not so," He remarked to His disciples, " I would have
told you;" which is as much as to say, that one should not
encourage such expectations as He had led them to entertain
unless he were sure of his ground. It was not enough to
have an opinion about the world to come : one who took the
responsibility of asking men to leave this present world for
its sake, should be quite certain that it was a reality, and not
a dream.

What condescension to the weakness of the disciples is
shown in this self-justifying reflection of their Lord ! What
an aid also it lends to our faith in the reality of future bliss !
Surely such an one as Jesus Christ would not have spoken in
this way, unless He had possessed authentic information about
the world beyond ! Look at Him simply as a man. Did He
not know the difference. between opinion and knowledge, pro-
bability and certainty ; and could He have assumed, in con-
nection with the former, the confident tone which is justifiable
only in connection with the latter, even when expressing His
own convictions, much more when dealing with the convic-
tions of other men ? The man Jesus could not have spoken
with such confidence at aU, and the fact that He does so speak

' Phcedo, cap. xxxv. : " One must do one of two things (in reference to the
question of a futiire state) : either learn how the case stands, or find out ; or if
these are impossible, taking the best and least easily refuted of human opinions,
and embarking on it as on a raft {(r^i^las), sail perilously through life ; unless
one could more securely and less perilously sail upon a stronger vessel or some
divine word {xiyov hltu Ttvos)."

388 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

shows that He is more than man. He speaks of the world
above so confidently because He has been there, and is about
to go thither again.

One thing more we have to notice in this second word of
consolation, viz. the light in which Jesus presents His own
death to His disciples, without expressly naming it. " I go,"
said He, "to prepare a place for you."^ Wliat a beautiful
aspect can be put by faith on the blackest providences ! To
men who did not understand the mystery of Christ's death,
there could not be a darker outlook than that of the eleven at
the present crisis. It was as if their hope of a divine king-
dom, and of redemption to Israel, had turned out a delusion,
and as if Jesus their Master was not a deceiver, only because
He was Himself deceived. Yet that death which seemed to
say. There is no hope for you, my children ; there is no home
for you, you are verily orphans, was to be the very means by
which their hope would be fulfilled, and a home secured.
Jesus, in dying and leaving the earth, was simply going to a
happy land, to prepare a place of abode for His children ;
intending, when all things were ready, to return, and take
them to their new home, where they should dwell with Him
for ever. " 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."

What He meant by " preparing" the place, and when He
was to come again for those He left behind, Jesus did not
explain. He only added, as if coaxing them to take a cheer-
ful view of the situation, " And whither I go, ye know, and
the way ye know;"^ meaning, "Think whither I go — to the
Father ; and think of my death as merely my way thither ;
and so let my absence from the world not make you sad, nor
my death seem something dreadful."

The third \6yo<; t^9 irapaK'X.rjaew'i begins at the fifteenth
verse of the same chapter, and extends to the twenty-first.

* The on before vrtfiiefiai in the reading preferred by Alford and others is
perplexing for expositors, bnt for our object it is not necessary to advert to it
at all.

* Liithardt and Alford read here, xa) ovov lyu vTra-yu — oTixn rhv oSov : and
wliither I go — ye know the way.

THE DYING PARENT: WORDS OF COMFORT. 389

The leading thought therein is the promise of another Com-
forter who should take the place of Him who was going away,
and make the bereaved feel as if He were still with them. In
the second word of comfort, Jesus had said that He was going
to provide a home for the little ones, and that then He would
return and take them to it. In this third final word He
virtually promises to be present with them by substitute,
even when He is absent. " I will pray the Father," He says,
" and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide
with you for ever " ^ (not for a season, as has been the case
with me). Then He tells them who this wonderful Com-
forter is : His name is " the Spirit of Truth" ^ Then, lastly,
He gives them to understand that this Spirit of Truth will be
a Comforter to them, by restoring, as it were, the consciousness
of His own presence, so that the coming of this other Com-
forter will just be, in a sense, His own spiritual return. " I
will not leave you comfortless," He assures them : " I will
not leave you orphans, I will come to you ;" ^ promising there-
by not a different thing, but the same thing which He had
promised just before, in different terms. How the other
Comforter would make Himself an alter ego of the departed
one. He does not here distinctly explain. At a subsequent
stage in His discourse. He did inform His disciples how the
wonder would be achieved. The Spirit would make the
absent Jesus present to them again, by bringing to their
remembrance all His words,* by testifying of Him,^ and by
guiding them into an intelligent apprehension of all Christian
truth.'' AU this, though not said here, is sufficiently hinted
at by the name given to the new Paraclete. He is called
the Spirit of Truth, not the Holy Spirit, as elsewhere, because
He was to comfort by enlightening the minds of the disciples
in the knowledge of Christ, so that they should see Him
clearly by the spiritual eye, when He was no longer visible
to the eye of the body.

This spiritual vision, when it came, was to be the true
effectual consolation for the absence of the Jesus whom the
eleven had known after the flesh. It would be as the dawn

1 John xiv. 16. 2 Ver. 17. ^ Ver. 18.

* Ver. 26. ' John xv. 26. ^ John xvi. 13, 14.

390 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

of day, which banishes the fears and discomforts of the night.
While the night lasts, aU comforts are but partial alleviations
of discomfort. A father's hand and voice have a reassuring
effect on the timid heart of his child, as they walk together
by night ; but while the darkness lasts, the little one is liable
to be scared by objects dimly seen, and distorted by fear-
stricken fancy into fantastic forms. " In the night-time men
(much more children) think every bush a thief;" and all can
sympathize with him who said, " It is my nature to be afraid
of darkness." Light is welcome even when it only reveals to
us the precise nature and extent of our miseries. If it do not
in that case drive sorrow away, it helps at least to make it
calm and sober.

Such cold comfort, however, was not what Jesus promised
His followers. The Spirit of Truth was not to come merely
to show them their desolation in all its nakedness, and to
reconcile them to it as inevitable, by teaching them to regard
their early hopes as romantic dreams, the kingdom of God as
a mere ideal, and the death of Jesus as the fate that awaits
every earnest attempt to realize that ideal. Miserable com-
fort this ! to be told that all earnest religion must end in
infidelity, and all enthusiasm in despair !

The thu-d word of consolation was introduced by an in-
junction laid by Jesus on His disciples. " If ye love me,"
said He to them, " keep my commandments." It is probable
that the speaker meant here to set the true way of showing
love over against an unprofitable, bootless one, which His
hearers were in danger of taking; that, namely, of grieving
over His loss. We may paraphrase the words so as to indi-
cate the connection of thought somewhat as follows : " If ye
love me, show not your love by idle sorrow, but by keeping
my commandments ; whereby ye shall render to me a real
service. Let the precepts which I have taught you from
time to time be your concern, and be not troubled about your-
selves. Leave your future in my hands ; I will look after it :
for I will pray the Father, and He will send you another
Comforter." ^

^ The words of Germanicus dying (at Antiocli a.d. 19 : supposed to be poisoned
by direction of Tiberius) to his friends occur to the mind here : ' ' Non hoc

THE DYING PARENT: WORDS OF COMFORT. 391

But this paraphrase, though true so far as it goes, does not
exhaust the meaning of this weighty word. Jesus prefaces
the promise of the Comforter by an injunction to keep His
commandments, because He wishes His disciples to understand
that the fulfilment of the promise and the keeping of the
commandments go together. This truth is hinted at by the
word " and " which forms the link of connection between pre-
cept and promise ; and it is reiterated under various modes
of expression in the passage we are now considering. The
necessity of moral fidelity in order to spiritual illumination is
plainly taught when the promised Comforter is described as
a Spirit " whom the v^oiid cannot receive, because it seeth
Him not, neither knoweth Him."^ It is still more plainly
taught in the last verse of this section : " He that hath my
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ;
and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father ; and I will
love him, and will manifest myseK to him."^ As in His first
great sermon (on the mount) Jesus had said, "Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they shall see God ; " so in His farewell
discourse to His own. He says in effect : Be pure in heart,
and tlu'ough the indwelling Spirit of Truth ye shall see me,
even when I am become invisible to the world.^

Life and light go together : such is the doctrine of the Lord
Jesus, as of all Scripture. Keeping in mind this great truth,
we comprehend the diverse issues of religious perplexities ;
in one resulting in the illuminism of infidehty ; in another,
in an enlightened, unwavering faith. The " illumination"
which consists in the extinction of the heavenly luminaries
of faith and hope, is the penalty of not faithfully keeping
Christ's commandments ; that which consists in the restora-
tion of the spiritual lights after a temporary obscuration by
the clouds of doubt, is the reward of holding fast moral
integrity when faith is eclipsed, and of fearing God while
walking in darkness. A man, e.g., who, having believed for

praecipuum amiconim munus est, prosequi defunctum ignavo qusestu : sed qu<ie
voluerit meminisse, quae mandaverit exsequi : flebunt Germanicum etiam
ignoti: vindicabitis vos, si me potius quam fortunam meam fovebatis. " — Taciti
Annal. ii. 71.

' John xiv. 17. ^ John xiv. 21. =* John xiv. 19.

392 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

a time tlie divinity of Christ and the life to come, ends by
believing that Jesus was only a deluded enthusiast, and that
the divine kingdom is but a beautiful dream, will not be found
to have made any great effort to realize his own ideal, cer-
tainly not to have been guilty of the folly of suffering for it.
To many, the creed which resolves all religion into imprac-
ticable ideals is very convenient. It saves a world of trouble
and pain ; it permits them to think fine thoughts, without re-
quiring them to do noble actions, and it substitutes romancing
about heroism in the place of being heroes.

Section ii. — Tlie CJdldren's Questions, and the Adieu.
John xiii. 36-38, xiv. 5-7, 8-14, 22-31.

The questions put successively by four of the little ones to
their dying Parent now invite our attention.

The first of these was asked by the disciple who was ever
the most forward to speak his mind — Simon Peter. His
question had reference to the intimation made by Jesus about
His going away. Peter had noted and been alarmed by that
intimation. It seemed to hint at danger ; it plainly spoke of
separation. Tormented with uncertainty, terrified by the vague
presentiment of hidden peril, grieved at the thought of being
parted from his beloved Master, he could not rest till he had
penetrated the mystery ; and at the very first pause in the dis-
course he abruptly inquired, " Lord, whither goest Thou ? "
thinking, though he did not say, " Wliere Thou goest, I will go."

It was to this unexpressed thought that Jesus directed His
reply. He did not say where He was going ; but, leaving that
to be inferred from His studied reserve, and from the tone in
which He spoke, He simply told Peter : " Whither I go, thou
canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards."
By this answer He showed He had not forgotten that it
was with children He had to deal. He does not look for
heroic behaviour on the part of Peter and his brother disciples
at the approaching crisis. He does indeed expect that they
shall play the hero by and by, and follow Him on the martyr's

THE DYING PARENT: THE CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS. 393

path, bearing their cross, in accordance with the law of dis-
cipleship proclaimed by Himself in connection with the first
announcement of His own death. But meantime He expects
them to behave simply as little children, running away in
terror when the moment of danger arrives.

While this was the idea Jesus had of Peter, it was not
the idea which Peter had of himself. He thought himself
no child, but a man every inch. Dimly apprehending what
following his Master meant, he deemed himself perfectly com-
petent to the task noiv, and felt almost aggrieved by the poor
opinion entertained of his courage. "Why," he therefore asked
in a tone of injured virtue, " Lord, why cannot I follow Thee
now ?" Is it because there is danger, imprisonment, death,
in the path ? If that be all, it is no good reason, for " I will
lay down my life for Thy sake." Ah, that " why," how like a
child ; that self-confidence, what an infallible mark of spiritual
weakness !

If the answer of Jesus to Peter's first question was indirect
and evasive, that which He gave to his second was too plain
to be mistaken. " Wilt thou," He said, taking up the dis-
ciple's words, " Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake ?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow till
thou hast denied me thrice." ^ Better for Peter had he been
content with the first reply ! Yet no : not better, only plea-
santer for the moment. It was good for Peter to be thus
bluntly told what his Lord thought of him, and to be shown
once for all his own picture drawn by an unerring hand. It
was just what was needed to lead him to self-knowledge, and
to bring on a salutary crisis in his spiritual history. Already
more than once he had been faithfully dealt with for faults
springing from his characteristic vices of forwardness and self-
confidence. But such correction in detail had produced no
deep impression, no decisive lasting effect on his mind. He
was still ignorant of himself, still as forward, self-confident,
and self-willed as ever, as the declaration he had just made

1 So substantially in the synoptical Gospels (Matt. xxvi. 33-35 ; Mark xiv. 30 ;
Luke xxii. 34). The harmony of this subject is difficult. Some suppose two
allusions to Peter's denial, once in the upper chamber, and a second time on the
way to Gethsemane. See Stier for this view.

394 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

most clearly showed. There was urgent need, therefore, for
a lesson that would never be forgotten ; for a word of correc-
tion that would print itself indelibly on the erring disciple's
memory, and bear fruit throughout his whole after life. And
here it is at last, and in good season. The Lord tells His
hrave disciple that he will forthwith play the coward ; He tells
His attached disciple, to whom separation from his Master
seems more dreadful than death, that he will, ere many hours
are past, deny all acquaintance or connection with Him whom
he so fondly loves. He tells him all this at a time when the
prophecy must be followed by its fulfilment almost as fast as
a flash of lightning is followed by its peal of thunder. The
prediction of Jesus, so minutely circumstantial, and the denial
of Peter, so exactly corresponding, both by themselves so re-
markable, and coming so close together, will surely help to
make each other impressive ; and it will be strange indeed if
the two combined do not, by the blessing of God, in answer
to the Master's intercessory prayer, make of the fallen disciple
quite another man. The result will doubtless prove the truth
of another prophetic word reported by Luke as having been
spoken by the Lord to His disciple on the same occasion.'
The chaff will be sej)arated from the wheat in Peter's cha-
racter ; he will undergo a great change of spirit ; and being
converted from seK-confidence and self-will to meekness and
modesty, he will be fit at length to strengthen others, to be a
shepherd to the weak, and, if needful, to bear his cross, and
so follow his Master through death to glory.

The second question proceeded from Thomas, the melan-
choly disciple, slow to believe, and prone to take sombre views
of things. The mind of this disciple fastened on the state-
ment wherewith Jesus concluded His second word of consola-
tion: "Whither I go, the way ye know." That statement
seemed to Thomas not only untrue, but unreasonable. For
himself, he was utterly imconscious of possessing the know-
ledge for which the speaker had given His hearers credit;
and, moreover, he did not see how it was possible for any of
them to possess it. Por Jesus had never yet distinctly told
them whither He was going ; and not knowing the terminus
' Luke xxii. 31.

THE DYING PARENT : THE CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS. 395

ad quem, how could any one know the road which led thereto ?
Therefore, in a dry, matter-of-fact, almost cynical tone, this
second interlocutor remarked : " Lord, we know not whither
Thou goest, and how can we know the way ? " ^

This utterance was thoroughly characteristic of the man, as
we know him from John's portraiture.^ While the practical-
minded Peter asks Jesus where He is going, determined if
possible to follow Him, Thomas does not think it worth his
while to make any such inquiry. Not that he is uncon-
cerned about the matter. He would like well to know
whither his Lord is bound ; and, if it were possible, he would
be as ready as his brother disciple to keep Him company.
Danger would not deter him. He had said once before, " Let
us go, that we may die with Him," and he could say the
same thing honestly again ; for though he is gloomy, he is not
selfish or cowardly. But just as on that earlier occasion,
when Jesus, disregarding the warnings of His disciples,
resolved to go from Persea to Judsea on a visit to the afflicted
family of Bethany, Thomas took the darkest view of the
situation, and looked on death as the certain fate awaiting
them all, so now he resigns himself to a hopeless, desponding
mood. The thought of the Master's departure makes him so
sad, that he has no heart to ask questions concerning the why
or the whitherward. He resigns himseK to ignorance on
these matters as an inevitable doom. Whither ? whither ? I
know not ; who can tell ? The future is dark. The Father's
house you spoke of, where in the universe can it be ? Is
there really such a place at all ?

Even the question put by Thomas, " How can we know the
way ? " is not so much a question, as an apology for not asking
questions. It is not a demand for information, but a gentle
complaint against Jesus for expecting His disciples to be
informed. It is not the expression of a desire for knowledge,
but an excuse for ignorance. The melancholy disciple is for
the present hopeless of knowing either end or way, and there-
fore he is incurious and listless. Far from seeking light, he
is rather in the humour to exaggerate the darkness. As
Jonah in his angry mood indulged in querulousness, so Thomas
» John xiv. 5. * John xi. 16, xx. 24-29.

396 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

in his sadness delights in gloom. He waits not eagerly for
the dawn of day ; he rather takes pleasure in the night, as
congenial to his present frame of mind. Good men of melan-
cholic temperament are, at the best, like men walking amid
the solemn gloom of a forest. Sadness is the prevailing
feeling in their souls, and they are content to have occasional
broken glimpses of heaven, like peeps of the sky through the
leafy roof of the wood. But Thomas is so heavy-hearted, that
he hardly cares even for a glimpse of the celestial world ; he
looks not up, but walks through the dark forest at a slow pace,
with his eyes fixed upon the ground.

The argumentative proclivities ^ of this disciple appear in his
words as well as his proneness to despondency. Another man
in despairing mood might have said : We know neither end
nor way ; we are utterly in the dark both as to whither you
are going, and as to the road by which you are to go thither.
But Thomas must needs reason ; liis mental habit leads him
to represent one piece of ignorance as the necessary conse-
quence of another : We know not the terminus ad quern, and
therefore it is impossible that we can know the way. This
man is afflicted with the malady of thought ; he gives reasons
for everything, and he will demand reasons for everything.
Here he demonstrates the impossibility of a certain kind of
knowledge ; at another crisis we shall find him insisting on
palpable demonstration that his Lord is indeed risen from
the dead.

How does Jesus reply to the lugubrious speech of Thomas ?
Most compassionately and sympathetically, now as at another
time. To the curious question of Peter He returned an
evasive answer; to the sad-hearted Thomas, on the other
hand. He vouchsafes information which had not been asked.
And the information given is full even to redundancy. The
disciple liad complained of ignorance concerning the end, and
especially concerning the way ; and it would have been a
sufficient reply to have said. The Father is the end, and I am
the way. But the Master, out of the fulness of His heart,
said more than this. With firm, emphatic tones He uttered
tliis oracular response, meant for the ear not of Thomas alone,
^ On tlie so-called Rationalisiu of Thomas, see cap. xxviii. sec. 3.

THE DYING PARENT: THE CHILDEEN'S QUESTIONS. 397

but of all the world : " I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me."

Comparing this momentous declaration with the preceding
word of consolation, we observe a change in the mode of pre-
senting the truth. The Father Himself takes the place of
the Father's house with its many mansions, as the end ; and
Jesus, instead of being the guide who shall one day lead His
children to the common home, becomes Himself the way.
The kind Master alters His language, in gracious accommoda-
tion to childish capacities. Of Christians at the best it may
be said, in the words of Paul, that now, in this present time-
life, they see the heavenly and the eternal as through a glass,
in enigmas.^ But the disciples at this crisis in their history
were not able to do even so much. Jesus had held up before
their eyes the brightly polished mirror of a beautiful parable
concerning a house of many mansions, and they had seen
nothing there ; no image, but only an opaque surface. The
future remained dark and hidden as before. What, then, was
to be done ? Just what Jesus did. Persons must be sub-
stituted for places. Disciples weak in faith must be addressed
in this fashion : Can ye not comprehend whither I am going ?
Think, then, to whom I go. If ye know nothing of the place
called heaven, know at least that ye have a Father there.
And as for the way to heaven, let that for you mean me.
Knowing me, ye need no further knowledge ; believing in
me, ye may look forward to the future, even to death itself,
without fear or concern.

Oh that doubting, melancholy Thomases would but listen
to Him who speaketh to them thus ! With a Father in
heaven, and with Jesus Christ ever in our eye and in our
heart, we might get through this world very comfortably, not-
withstanding the darkness which hems us in on every side.

On looking more narrowly into the response given by Jesus
to Thomas, we find it by no means easy to satisfy ourselves
as to how precisely it should be expounded. The very fulness
of this saying perplexes us ; it is dark with excess of light.
Interpreters differ as to how the Way, the Truth, and the Life
are to be distinguished, and how they are related to each other.
^ tv alnyfji.tt.ri, 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

398 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

One offers, as a paraphrase of the text : I am the beginning,
the middle, and the end of the ladder which leads to heaven ;
another : I am the example, the teacher, the giver of eternal
life ; while a third subordinates the two last attributes to the
first, and reads : I am the true way of life.^ Each view is
true in itself, yet one hesitates to accept either of them as
exhausting the meaning of the Saviour's words.

Whatever be the preferable method of interpreting these
words of our Lord, two things at least are clear from them.
Jesus sets HimseK forth here as all that man needs for eternal
salvation, and as the only Saviour. He is way, truth, life,
everything ; and He alone conducts to the Father. He says
to men in effect : " What is it you want ? Is it light ? I am
the light of the world, the revealer of the Father : for this end
I came, that I might declare Him. Or is it reconciliation you
want ? I by that very death which I am about to endure am
the Reconciler. My very end in dying is to bring you who
are far off nigh to God, as to a forgiving, gracious Father.
Or is it life, spiritual, never-ending life, you seek ? Believe
in me, and ye shall never die ; or though ye die, I will raise
you again to enter on an inheritance that is incorruptible,
undefiled, and that fadeth not away, eternal in the heavens.
Let all who seek these things look to Me. Look to me for
light, not to rabbis or philosophers ; not even to nature
and providence. These last do indeed reveal God, but they
do so dimly. The light of creation is but the starlight of
theology, and the light of providence is but its moonlight,
while I am the sunlight. My Father's name is written in
hieroglyphics in the works of creation ; in providence and
history it is written in plain letters, but so far apart that it
takes much study to put them together, and so spell out the
divine name : in me the divine name is written so that he
may read who runs, and the wisdom of God is become milk
for babes.^ Look to me also for reconciliation, not to legal

' Luther, Grotius, Augustine, quoted in Lange, Bihelwerk das Evang. Johan.

' Verbum caro factum est, ut infantiae nostrse lactesceret sapientia tua, per
quam creasti omnia. August. Conf. vii. 18. The idea that Christ became man
to be the Revealer of God is made very prominent in the tract of Athanasius,

THE DYING PARENT : THE CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS, 399

sacrifices. That way of approaching God is antiquated now.
I am the new, the living, the eternal way into the holy of
holies, through which all may draw near to the divine presence
with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. Look to me,
finally, for eternal blessedness. I am He who, having died,
shall rise again, and live for evermore, and shall hold in my
hands the keys of Hades and of death, and shall open the
kingdom of heaven to all believers."

The doctrine that in Christ is the fulness of grace and truth,
is very comforting to those who know Him ; but what of those
who know Him not, or who possess only such an implicit,
unconscious knowledge, as hardly merits the name ? Does
the statement we have been considering exclude such from the
possibility of salvation ? It does not. It declares that no
man cometh to the Father but by Christ, but it does not say
how much knowledge is required for salvation.^ It is possible
that some may be saved by Christ, and for His sake, who
know very little about Him indeed. This we may infer from
the case of the disciples themselves. What did they know
about .the way of salvation at this period ? Jesus addresses
them as persons yet in ignorance concerning Himself, saying :
" If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also."
Nevertheless, He has no hesitation in speaking to them as
persons who should be with Him in the Father's house. And
what shall we say of Job, and the Syrophcenician woman, and
the Ethiopian eunuch, and Cornelius, and we may add, after
Calvin, the Syrian courtier Naaman ? We cannot say more

■* The doctrine of the "Westminster Confession is ambiguous on this point.
Its words are : "Much less can men not professing the Christian religion be
saved in any other way whatsoever, be they ever so diligent to frame their lives
according to the light of nature, and the law of that religion they do profess."
This statement may mean either that the persons in question absolutely cannot
be saved,— their non-profession of the Christian religion excluding them from
being saved in the true way, and all other ways being unavailable ; or that they
cannot be saved by any other way : if saved, it must be in spite of other ways,
and through the one true way — Christ. The statement in the first chapter,
Of the Holy Scripture, seems to make the balance incline towards the former
view. In that chapter the insufficiency of the light of nature to give that
knowledge of God which is necessary for salvation is affirmed, and the affirma-
tion is made the basis of the doctrine of revelation. The strongest statement of
all is in the Larger Catechism, Q. 60, which seems to affirm positively that none
can be saved who have not heard the gospel.

400 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

than the great theologian of Geneva has himself said concern-
ing ■ such cases : " I confess/' he writes, " that in a certain
respect their faith was implicit, not only as to the person of
Christ, hut as to His virtue and grace, and the office assigned
Him by the Father. Meanwhile it is certain that they were
imbued with principles which gave some taste of Christ, how-
ever slight."^ It is doubtful whether even so much can be
said of Naaman ; though Calvin, without evidence, and merely
to meet the exigencies of a theory, argues that it would have
been too absurd, when Elisha had spoken to him of little
matters, to have been silent on the most important subject.
Or if we grant to Naaman the slight taste contended for, must
we not grant it also, with Justin Martyr^ and Zwingli, to
Socrates and Plato and others, on the principle that all true
knowledge of God, by whomsoever possessed and however
obtained, whether it be sunlight, moonlight, or starlight, is
virtually Christian ; in other words, that Christ, just because
He is the only light, is the light of every man who hath any
light in him ?

This principle, while it has its truth, may very easily be
perverted into an argument against a supernatural revelation.
Hence in its very first chapter. Of the Holy Scripture, the
Westminster Confession broadly asserts that the light of nature
and the works of creation and providence are not sufficient to
give that knowledge of God and of His will which is necessary
unto salvation. While strongly maintaining this truth, how-
ever, we must beware of being drawn into a tone of disparage-
ment in speaking of what may be learnt of God from these
lower sources. Wliile walking in the sunlight, we must not
despise the dimmer luminaries of the night, or forget their
existence, as in the day-time men forget the moon and the

1 Calv. Inst. iii. ii. 32.

^ 'H.oiffTu Ss Tu KO.) vfo ^uxpaTcu avi //.ipoui yvoKr^ivri {Xoyo; yap nv, xai iffTiv a Iw
-^avTi uv). Ajwl. ii. 10 ; so also Apol. i. 5. The anticipations of Christian
thought in Plato and in Euripides are familiar to scholars. The following
opinion on the salvation of the heathen from Eichard Baxter deserves notice :—
" I am not so much inclined (as he once was) to pass a peremptory sentence of
damnation upon all that never heard of Christ, having some more reasons than I
knew of before to think that God's dealing with such is much unknown to us."
Jieliquice Baxteriaiioe, lib. i. part i., comparing his earlier and later religious
views.

THE DYING PARENT: THE CHILDEEN'S QUESTIONS. 401

stars. By so doing, we should be virtually disparaging the
Scriptures themselves. For much that is in the Bible, espe-
cially in the Old Testament, is but a record of what inspired
men had learned from observation of God's works in creation,
and of His ways in providence. All cannot, indeed, see as
much there as they saw. On the contrary, a revelation was
needed not only to make known truths lying beyond the
teachings of natural religion, but even to direct men's dim eyes
to truths whicli, though visible in nature, were in fact for the
most part not seen. The Bible, in the quaint language of
Calvin, is a pair of spectacles, through which our weak eyes
see the glory of God in the world.^ Yet what is seen through
the spectacles by weak eyes is in many passages just what
might be seen by strong eyes without their aid, — " nothing
being placed there which is not visible in the creation." ^

These observations may help us to cherish hope for those
whose opportunities of knowing Him who is " the way, the
truth, and the life," are small. They do not, however, justify
those who, havinfT abundant facilities for knowing Christ, are
content with the minimum of knowledge. There is more hope
for the heathen than for such men. To their number no true
Christian can belong. A genuine disciple may know little to
begin with : this was the case even with the apostles them-
selves ; but he will not be satisfied to be in the dark. He will
desire to be enlightened in the knowledge of Christ, and will
pray, " Lord, show us the Father."

Such was the prayer of Philip, the third disciple who took
part in the dialogue at the supper-table. Philip's request,
like Thomas's question, was a virtual denial of a statement
previously made by Jesus. " If ye had known me," Jesus had
said to Thomas, " ye should have known my Father also ;"
and then He had added, " and from henceforth ye know Him,
and have seen Him." This last statement Philip felt himself

' Sicuti senes vel Kppi, et quicimque ocxilis caligant si vel pulclierrimum
volumen illis objicias quamvis agnoscant esse aliquid scriptum, vix tamen duas
voces contexere potenmt ; specillis autem interpositis adjuti distincte legere
incipient : ita Scriptura confusam alioqui Dei notitiam in mentibus nostris col-
ligens, discussa caligine liqiiido nobis verum Deum ostendit. — Inst. i. vi. 1.

2 Niliil tamen illic (Ps. cxlv., etc.) ponitur quod non liceat in creaturis contem-
plari. — Calv. Inst. i. x. 2.

2 C

402 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

unable to homologate. " Seen the Father 1 would it were so !
nothing would gratify us more : Lord, show us the Father,
and it sufficeth us."

In itself, the prayer of this disciple was most devout and
praiseworthy. There can be no loftier aspu'ation than that
which seeks the knowledge of God the Father, and no better
index of a spiritual mind than to account such knowledge the
summum honum. In these respects, the sentiments uttered by
Philip were fitted to gratify his Master. In other respects,
however, they were not so satisfactory. The ingenuous in-
quirer had evidently a very crude notion of what seeing the
Father amounted to. He fancied it possible, and he appears
to have wished, to see the Father as he then saw Jesus — as an
outward object of vision to the eye of the body. Then, sup-
posing that to be his wish, how foolish the reflection, " and
it sufficeth us !" What good could a mere external vision of
the Father do any one ? And finally, that same reflection
painfully showed how little the disciples had gained hitherto
from intercourse with Jesus. They had been with Him for
years, yet had not found rest and satisfaction in Him, but had
still a craving for something beyond Him ; while what they
craved they had, without knowing it, been getting from Him
all along.

Such ignorance and spiritual incapacity so late in the day
were very disappointing. And Jesus was disappointed, but,
with characteristic patience, not irritated. He took not offence
either at Philip's stupidity, or at the contradiction he had
given to His own statement (for He would rather be contra-
dicted than have disciples pretend to know when they do not),
but endeavoured to enlighten the little ones somewhat in the
knowledge of the Father. For this end He gave great promi-
nence to the truth, that the knowledge of the Father and of
Himself, the Son, were one ; that He that hath seen the Son,
hath seen the Father. The better to fix this great principle
in the minds of His hearers, He put it in the strongest possible
manner, by treating their ignorance of the Father as a virtual
ignorance of Himself " Have I," He asked, " been so long
time with you, and yet hast thou not known mc, Philip ? "
Then He went on to reason, as if to be ignorant of the Father

THE DYING PARENT: THE CHILDEEN'S QUESTIONS. 403

was to be so far ignorant of Himself, as in effect to deny His
divinity. " Believest tliou not," He again asked, " that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me ?" and then He followed
up the question with a reference to those things which went
to prove the asserted identity — His ivords and His ivories}
Nor did He stop even here, but proceeded next to speak of
still more convincing proofs of His identity wdth the Father,
to be supplied in the marvellous works which should after-
wards be done by the apostles themselves, in His name, and
thi'ough powers granted to them by HimseK in answer to their
prayers.^

The first question put by Jesus to Philip, " Hast thou not
known 7nc ? " was something more than a logical artifice to
make stupid disciples reflect on the contents of the knowledge
they already possessed. It hinted at a real fact. The dis-
ciples had really not yet seen Jesus, for as long as they had
been with Him. They knew Him, and they did not know
Him : they knew not tJiat they knew, nor what they knew.
They were like children, who can repeat the Catechism with-
out understanding its sense, or who possess a treasure without
being capable of estimating its value. They were like men
looking at an object through a telescope without adjusting the
focus, or like an ignorant peasant gazing up at the sky on a
winter night, and seeing the stars which compose a constella-
tion, such as the Bear or Orion, yet not recognising the con-
stellation itself The disciples were familiar with the words,
parables, discourses, etc., spoken, and with the miraculous
works done, by their Master ; but they knew these only as
isolated particulars : the separate rays of light emanating from
the fountain of divine wisdom, power, and love in Jesus, had
never been gathered into a focus, so as to form a distinct image
of Him who came in the flesh to reveal the invisible God.
They had seen many a star shine out in the spiritual heavens
while in Christ's company ; but the stars had not yet assumed
to their eye the aspect of a constellation. They had no clear,
full, consistent, spiritual conception of the mind, heart, and
character of the man Christ Jesus, in whom dwelt all the
fulness of Godhead bodily. Nor would they possess such a

1 John xiv. 10, 11. 2 John xiv. 12-14.

404 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

conception till the Spirit of truth, the promised Comforter,
came. The very thing He was to do for them was to show
them Christ ; not merely to recall to their memories the details
of His life, but to show them the one mind and spirit which
dwelt amid the details, as the soul dwells in the body, and made
them an organic whole, and which once perceived, would of
itself recall to recollection all the isolated particulars at present
lying latent in their consciousness. When the apostles had
got that conception, they would know Christ indeed : the same
Christ whom they had known before, yet different : a new
Christ, because a Christ comprehended — seen with the eye of
the spirit, as the former had been seen with the eye of the flesh.
And when they had thus seen Christ, they would feel that they
had also seen the Father. The knowledge of Christ would
satisfy them, because in Him they should see with unveiled
face the glory of the Lord.

The soul-satisfying vision of God being a future good, to be
attained after the advent of the Comforter, it could not have
been the intention of Jesus to assure the disciples that they
possessed it already, still less to force it on them by a process
of reasoning. When He said, " From henceforth ye know
Him (the Father), and have seen Him," He evidently meant :
" Ye now know how to see Him, viz. by reflecting on your
intercourse with me." And the sole object of the statements
made to Philip concerning the close relations between the
Father and the speaker, evidently was to impress upon the
disciples the great truth, that the solution of all religious
difficulties, the satisfaction of all longings, was to be found in
the knowledge of Himself " Know me," Jesus would say,
" trust me, pray to me, and all shall be well with you. Your
mind shall be filled with light, your heart shall be at rest ; you
shall have everything you want ; your joy shall be full."

A most important lesson this ; but also one which, like
Philip and the other disciples, all are slow to learn. How
few, even of those who confess Christ's divinity, do see in
Him the true Perfect Pevealer of God ! To many Jesus is
one Being, and God is another and quite a different Being ;
though the truth that Jesus is divine is all the while honestly
acknowledged. That great truth lies in the mind like an

THE DYING PAEENT : THE CHILDKEN'S QUESTIONS. 405

"imfructifying seed buried deep in the soil, and we may say
of it what has been said of the doctrine of the soul's immor-
tality : " One may believe it for twenty years, and only in the
twenty-first, in some great moment, discover with astonish-
ment the rich contents of this belief, the warmth of this
naphtha spring." ^ Impressions of God have been received
from one quarter, impressions of Christ from another; and
the two sets of impressions lie side by side in the mind,
incompatible, yet both receiving house-room. Hence, when a
Christian begins to carry out consistently the principle that,
Jesus being God, to know Jesus is to know God, he is apt to
experience a painful conflict between a new and an old class
of ideas about the Divine Being. Two Gods — a christianized
God, and a sort of pagan divinity — struggle for the place of
sovereignty; and when at last the conflict ends in the enthrone-
ment in the mind and heart of the God whom Jesus revealed,
the day-dawn of a new spiritual life has arrived.

One most prominent idea in the conception of God as re-
vealed by Jesus Christ, is that expressed by the name Father.
According to the doctrine of our Lord and Saviour, God is
not truly known till He is thought of and heartily believed
in as a Father ; neither can any God who is not regarded as
a Father satisfy the human heart. Hence His own mode of
speaking concerning God was in entire accordance with this
doctrine. He did not speak to men about the Deity, or the
Almighty. Those epithets which philosophers are so fond of
applying to the Divine Being, the Infinite, the Absolute, etc.,
never crossed His lips. No words ever uttered by Him could
suggest the idea of the gloomy arbitrary tyrant, before wdiom
the guilty conscience of superstitious heathenism cowers.
He spake evermore, in sermon, parable, model prayer, and
private conversation, of a Father. Such expressions as " the
Father," " my Father," " your Father," were constantly on His
tongue ; and all He taught concerning God harmonized per-
fectly with the feelings these expressions were fitted to call
forth.

Yet notwithstanding all His pains, and all the beauty of His
utterances concerning the Being whom no man hath seen,
' Jean Paul Kicliter, Siebenkds Urates Blumenstuck.

406 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Jesus, it is to be feared, lias only imperfectly succeeded in
establishing the worship of the Father. From ignorance or
from preference, men still extensively worship God under
other names and categories. Some deem the paternal appel-
lation too homely, and prefer a name expressive of more dis-
tant and ceremonious relations. The Deity, or the Almighty,
suffices them. Philosophers dislilvc the appellation Father,
because it makes the personality of God too prominent. They
prefer to think of the Uncreated as an Infinite, Eternal Abstrac-
tion— an object of speculation rather than of faith and love.
Legal-minded professors of religion take fright at the word
Father. They are not sure that they have a right to use it,
and they deem it safer to speak of God in general terms,
which take nothing for granted, as the Judge, the Taskmaster,
or the Lawgiver. The worldly, the learned, and the religious,
from different motives, thus agree in allowing to fall into
desuetude the name into which they have been baptized, and
only a small minority worship the Father in spirit and in
truth.

Superficial readers of the gospel may cherish the idea that
the name Father, applied to God by Jesus, is simply or mainly
a sentimental poetic expression, whose loss were no great
matter for regret. There could not be a greater mistake. The
name, in Christ's lips, always' represents a definite thought,
and teaches a great truth. Wlien He uses the term to express
the relation of the Invisible One to Himself, He gives us a
glimpse into the mystery of the Divine Being, telling us that
God is not abstract being, as Platonists and Arians conceived
Him ; not the absolute, incapable of relations ; not a passion-
less being, without affections ; but one who eternally loves,
and is loved, in whose infinite nature the family affections
find scope for ceaseless play — One in three : Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, three persons in one divine substance. Then,
asain, when He calls God Father, in reference to mankind in
general, as He does repeatedly. He proclaims to men sunk
in ignorance and sin this blessed truth : " God, my Father, is
your Father too ; cherishes a paternal feeling towards you,
though ye be so marred in moral vision that He might well
not know you, and so degenerate that He might weU be

THE DYING PAKENT : THE CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS. 407

ashamed to own you ; and I His Son am come, your elder
brother, to bring you back to your Father's house. Ye are
not worthy to be called His sons, for ye have ceased to bear
His image, and ye have not yielded Him filial obedience and
reverence; nevertheless He is willing to be a Father unto
you, and receive you graciously in His arms. Believe this,
and become in heart and conduct sons of God, that ye may
enjoy the full, the spiritual and eternal, benefit of God's pater-
nal love." ^ When, finally. He calls God Father, with special
reference to His own disciples. He assures them that they are
the objects of God's constant, tender, and effective care ; that all
His power, wisdom, and love are engaged for their protection,
preservation, gniidance, and final eternal salvation ; that their
Father in heaven will see that they lack no good, and will
make all things minister to their interest, and in the end
secure to them their inheritance in the everlastino- kinc^dom.

O O

" Fear not," is His comforting message to His little chosen
flock, " it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom."

Before parting with Philip, we must advert in a sentence to
the good qualities exhibited by him on this occasion. If he
be ignorant, and even stupid, he is also honest and anxious to

' The Fatlierliood of God, its natui'e and extent, like all other things, has
become a subject of controversy. Principal Candlish, in the Cunningham
Lectures, maintains that the term Father applies exclusively to the sonship of
believers ; while Dr. Crawford, Professor of Theology, University of Edinburgh,
in his reply, contends for a \iniversal Fatherhood, as well as a special one
founded in grace. The question is mainly verbal ; for both admit that God in
many ways performs a Father's part towards all men, and, on the other hand,
tliat the full benefit of God's paternal love cannot be enjoyed unless men have
the hearts of sons. A more important question is, How the sonship of believers
is to be defined. Dr. Candlish asserts that it is substantially identical with that
of Christ, — a position which (as it seems to us), consistently carried out, deifies
man, or reduces Christ to man's level. In point of fact, Athanasius contro-
verted this view, as maintained by the Arians. His Arian opponent adduced
John xvii. 20-23 to prove the identity of Christ's Sonship with that of be-
lievers, and contended that the only diff'erence was one of time. Athanasius,
on the contrary, contended that in that case the epithet /ytovoyivhs was inap-
j)licable to Christ ; and distinguished the two sonships, by saying that the one,
that of Christ, was xar' outrixv ; the other, that of believers, was s'l apirtis. The
latter he regarded as liable to be lost with the loss of a^sr;?. — Athanasius, de
Decretis Nic. Syn. capp. 6 and 22. Also Orationes contra Arianos, i. cap, 37,
and iii. capp. 17, 30,

408 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

learn. He desires knowledge, and lie frankly confesses his
want of it. One of whom these things can be said will not
always be ignorant. The candid, aspiring disciple will one day
be a wise, enlightened apostle. For such as Philip there is no
cause to be anxious. Open the windows of the mind, and
the light of truth will stream in. Those who remain in the
dark, are they who are too indolent to aspire after knowledge,
or too proud to learn, or both together. Such say in effect :
We are not ambitious ; we do not envy those who live in the
regions of the day ; we are very happy in the unbroken night
of the Arctic Circle, burrowing in our earth-holes ; and we
don't care though we never see the sun. Or they say : We are
not satisfied ; we would like to have more light about God
and the way of salvation, and our own spiritual condition ; but
we have a reputation for spiritual knowledge and advanced
piety, and we cannot afford to let our real state be known.
Shall I, a master in Israel, acknowledge that I have difficulties
about this and the other doctrine, that I want the spirit of
adoption, and do not bask in the sunlight of G-od's love ? Shall
I, a convert, who made years ago conspicuous professions of
my faith in Christ, and of my assurance of salvation, confess
that now all is changed within me. Calvary and the face of
God being hid in a mist, and my mind dark as midnight in
reference to my own spiritual state ? Why not ? Away with
pride, and take your seat beside Philip in the school of Jesus.
Assume not the air of apostles, aping the graces, and repeating
the phrases of aged sanctity and wisdom. Be disciples first,
and talk like the disciples, and ask questions like them ; and
in your abhorrence of insincerity, rather than speak in a style
in advance of your attainments, refuse, with Philip, to say that
you know what you don't know, even though the Lord Him-
self should tell you that you do know it. So acting, " what
thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter." The Spirit
of truth will come, and in His own way, not in the way human
teachers or you yourself might prefer, will lead you into all
truth.

We have now to notice the last of the children's questions,
which was put by Judas, " not Iscariot" (he is otherwise occu-

THE DYING PARENT: THE CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS. 409

pied), but the other disciple of that name, also called Lebbseus
and Thaddseus.^

In His third word of consolation, Jesus had spoken of a
reappearance (after His departure) specially and exclusively to
" His own." " The world," He had said, " seeth me no more ;
but ye see me," that is, shall see after a little while. Now
two questions might naturally be asked concerning this exclu-
sive manifestation : How was it possible ? and what was the
reason of it ? How could Jesus make Himself visible to His
disciples, and yet remain invisible to all others ? and granting
the possibility, cui lono, why not show Himself to the world
at large ? It is not easy to decide which of these two diffi-
culties Judas had in his mind ; for his question might be
interpreted either way. Literally translated, it was to this
effect : " Lord, what has happened, that Thou art about to
manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world ?" The dis-
ciple might mean, like Nicodemus, to ask, " How can these
things be ?" or he might mean, " We have been hoping for
the coming of Thy kingdom in power and glory, visible to the
eyes of all men : what has led Thee to change Thy plan ? "

In either case, the question of Judas was founded on a mis-
apprehension of the nature of the promised manifestation.
He imagined that Jesus was to reappear corporeally, after His
departure to the Father, therefore so as to be visible to the
outward eye, and not of this one or that one, but of all, unless
He took pains to hide Himself from some while revealing Him-
seK to others.^ Neither Judas nor any of his brethren was
capable as yet of conceiving a spiritual manifestation, not to
speak of finding therein a full compensation for the loss of the
corporeal presence. Had they grasped the thought of a spi-
ritual presence, they could have had no difiiculty in reconcil-
ing visibility to one with invisibility to another ; for they
would have understood that the vision could be enjoyed only
by those who possessed the inward sense of sight.

1 Vid. cliap. iv. of this work.

2 Luthardt {Das Jolian. Evang. ii. 313) contends that a corporeal manifesta-
tion (at the end of the world) is meant, and weakly argues, that if only a
spiritual presence were meant, Jesus woiild have said h clItm instead of "rap"
ahru in ver. 23. Xlxpa. suits the parabolic style of speech ; h would he an
interpretation of the figure.

410 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

How Wcas a question dictated by incapacity to understand
the subject to which it referred to be answered ? Just as you
would explain the working of the electric telegraph to a child.
If your child asked you, Father, how is it that you can send
a message by the telegraph to my uncle or aunt in America,
so far, far away ? you would not think of attempting to ex-
plain to him the mysteries of electricity. You would take
him to a telegraph office, and bid him look at the man actually
engaged in sending a message, and tell him, that as the man
moved the handle, a needle in America pointed at letters of
the alphabet, which, when put together, made up words which
said just what you wished to say.

In this way it was that Jesus answered the question of
Judas. He did not attempt to explain the difference between
a spiritual and a corporeal manifestation, but simply said in
effect : Do you so and so, and what I have promised will come
true. " If a man love me, he will keep my words ; and my
Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make
our abode with him." It is just the former statement repeated,
in a slightly altered, more pointed form. Nothing new is said,
because nothing new can be said intelligibly. The old promise
is simply so put as to arrest attention on the condition of its
fulfilment. " If ^ man love me, he will keep my words :"
attend to that, my children, and the rest will follow. The
divine Trinity — Father, Son, and Spirit — will verily dwell
with the faithful disciple, who with trembling solicitude strives
to observe my commandments. As for those who love me not,
and keep not my sayings, and believe not on me, it is simply
impossible for them to enjoy such august company. The pure
in heart alone sliall see God.

Jesus had now spoken all He meant to say to His disciples,
in the capacity of a dying parent addressing his sorrowing
children. It remained now only to wind up the discourse,
and bid the little ones adieu.

In drawing to a close, Jesus does not imagine that He has
removed all difficulties and dispelled aU gloom from the minds
of the disciples. On the contrary, He is conscious that all
He has said has made but a slight impression. Nevertheless

THE DYING PARENT : THE ADIEU. 411

He will say no more in tlie way of comfort. There is, in the
first XDlace, no time. Judas and his band, the prince of this
world, whose servants Judas and all his associates are, may
now be expected at any moment, and He must hold Himself
in readiness to go and meet the enemy.^ Then, secondly, to
add anything further would be useless. It is not possible to
make things any clearer to the disciples in their present state,
by any amount of speech. Therefore He does not attempt it,
but refers them for all other explanations to the promised
Comforter,^ and proceeds to utter the words of farewell : " Peace
I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," ^ — words touch-
ing at all times, unspeakably affecting in the circumstances of
the Speaker and hearers. We know not but they did more to
comfort the dispirited little ones than all that had been said
before. There is a pathos and a music in the very sound of
them, apart from their sense, which are wonderfully soothing.
We can imagine, indeed, that as they were spoken, the poor
disciples were overtaken with a fit of tenderness, and burst
into tears. That, however, would do them good. Sorrow is
healed by weeping : the sympathy which melts the heart at
the same time comforts it.

This touching sympathetic farewell is more than a good
wish : it is a promise — a promise made by One who laiows
that the blessing promised is within reach. It is like the
cheering word spoken by David to brothers in afiiiction : "Wait
on the Lord : be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine
heart : wait, I say, on the Lord." David spoke that word from
experience ; and even so does Jesus speak here. The peace He
offers His disciples is His own peace — " my peace :" not merely
peace of His procuring, but peace of His experiencing. He
has had peace in the world, in spite of sorrow and temptation :
perfect peace through faith. Therefore He can assure them
that such a thing is possible. They, too, can have peace of
mind and heart in the midst of untoward tribulation. The
world can neither understand nor impart such peace ; the only
peace it knows anything about being that connected with pros-
perity, which trouble can destroy as easily as a breath of wind
agitates the calm surface of the sea. But there is a peace

1 John xiv. 30, 31. ^ j^^^ xiv. 25, 26. * John xiv. 27.

412 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE,

wliicli is independent of outward circumstances, whose sove-
reign virtue and blessed function it is to keep the heart against
fear and care. Such peace Jesus had Himself enjoyed ; and
He gives His discij)les to understand, that through faith and
singleness of mind they may enjoy it also.

The farewell word is not only a promise made by One who
knows whereof He speaks, but the promise of One who can
bestow the blessing promised. Jesus does not merely say : Be
of good cheer ; ye may have peace, even as I have had peace,
in spite of tribulation. He says moreover, and more particu-
larly : Such peace as I have had I bequeath to you as a
dying legacy, I bestow on you as a parting gift. The inherit-
ance of peace is made over to the little ones by a last wiU
and testament, though, being minors, they do not presently
enter into actual possession. When they arrive at their ma-
jority, they shall inherit the promise, and delight themselves
in the abundance of peace.

The after-experience of the disciples proved that the pro-
mise made to them by their Lord had not been false and vain.
The apostles, as Jesus foretold, found in the world much tribu-
lation ; but in the midst of all tliey enjoyed perfect peace.
Trusting in the Lord, and doing good, they were without fear
and without care. In everything, by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, they made their requests known unto God ;
and the peace of God, which passeth understanding, did verily
keep their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Jesus had not yet said His last word to the little ones.
Seeing in their faces the signs of grief, in spite of all that
He had spoken to comfort them. He abruptly threw out an
additional remark, which gave to the whole subject of His
departure quite a new turn. He had been telling them, all
through His farewell address, that though He was going away,
He would come again to them, either personally or by deputy,
in the body at last, in the Spirit meanwhile. He now told
them, that apart from His return, His departure itself should
be an occasion of joy rather than of sorrow, because of what
it signified for Himself. " Ye have heard how I said unto
you, I go away, and come again unto you :" extract comfort
from that promise by all means. But " if ye loved me (as

- THE DYING PARENT : THE ADIEU. 413

you ought), ye would rejoice because I said, I go uuto the
Father," ^ forgetting yourselves, and thinking what a happy
change it would be for me. Then He added : " For my Father
is greater than I." The connection between tliis clause and
the foregoing part of the sentence is somewhat obscure, as is
also its theological import. Our idea, however, is, that when
Jesus spake these words, He was thinking of His death, and
meeting an objection thence arising to the idea of rejoicing in
His departure. " You are going to the Father," one might
have said — "yes ; but by what a way !" Jesus replies : The
way is rough, and abhorrent to flesh and blood ; but it is the
way my Father has appointed, and that is enough for me : for
my Father is greater than I. So interpreting the words, we
only make the speaker hint therein at a thought which we
find Him plainly expressing immediately after, in His con-
cluding sentence, where He represents His voluntary endurance
of death as a manifestation to the world of His love to the
Father, and as an act of obedience to His commandment.

And now, finally, by word and act, Jesus strives to impress
on the little children the solemn reality of their situation.
First, He bids them mark what He has told them of His
departure, that when the separation takes place, they may not
be taken by surprise. " Now I have told you before it come
to pass, that when it is come to pass ye might believe." ^ Then
He gives them to understand that the parting hour is at hand.
Hereafter He will not talk much with them : there will not
be opportunity ; for the prince of this world cometh. Then
He adds words to this effect : " Let him come ; I am ready
for him. He has indeed nothing in me ; no claim upon me ;
no power over me ; no fault which he can charge against me.
Nevertheless I yield myself up into his hands, that all men
may see that I love the Father, and am loyal to His will : that
I am ready to die for truth, for righteousness, for the un-
righteous." ^ Then, lastly, with firm, resolute voice, He gives
the word of command to all to rise up from the couches on
which they have been reclining, doubtless suiting His own
action to the word : " Arise, let us go hence." *

From the continuation of the discourse, as recorded by
' John xiv. 28. * Ver. 29. 3 y^ts. 30, 31. * Ver. 31.

414 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

John, as well as from the statement made by him at the com-
mencement of the eighteenth chapter of liis Gospel (When
Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth, etc.), we infer
that the company did not at this point leave the supper-cham-
ber. They merely assumed a new attitude, and exchanged
the recumbent for a standing posture, as if in readiness to
depart. This movement was, in the circumstances, thoroughly
natural. It fitly expressed the resolute temper of Jesus ; and
it corresponded to the altered tone in which He proceeded to
address His disciples. The action of rising formed, in fact,
the transition from the first part of His discom^se to the second.
Better than words could have done, it altered the mood of
mind, and prepared the disciples for listening to language not
soft, tender, and familiar, as heretofore, but stern, dignified,
impassioned. It struck the keynote, if we may so express it,
by which the speaker passed from the lyric to the heroic style.
It said, in effect : Let us have done with the nursery dialect,
which, continued longer, would but enervate : let me speak to
you now for a brief space as men who have got to play an
important part in the world. Arise ; shake off languor, and
listen, while I utter words fitted to fire you with enthusiasm,
to inspire you with courage, and to impress you with a sense
of the responsibilities and the honours connected with your
future position.

So understanding the rising from the table, we shall be
prepared to listen along with the disciples, and to enter on the
study of the remaining portion of Christ's farewell discourse,
without any feeling of abruptness.

CHAPTEE XXV.

DYING CHAKGE TO THE APOSTLES.

Section i. — The Vine and its Branches.
John xv. xvi.

THE subject of discourse in these cliapters is the future
work of the apostles ; its nature, honours, hardships,
and joys. Much that is said therein admits of application to
Christians in general, but the reference in the first place is
undoubtedly to the eleven then present ; and only by keep-
ing this in mind can we get a clear idea of the import of the
discourse as a whole.

The first part of this charge to the future apostles has for
its object to impress upon them that they have a great work
before them.^ The keynote of the passage may be found in
the words : " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,
and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and
that your fruit should remain." ^ Jesus would have His
chosen ones understand that He expects more of them than
that they shall not lose heart when He has left the earth.
They must be great actors in the world, and leave their mark
permanently on its history : they must, in fact, take His place,
and be in His stead, and carry on the work He had begun, in
His name and through His aid.

To put their duty clearly before the minds of His disciples,
Jesus made large use of a beautiful figure drawn from the
vine-tree, which He introduced at the very outset of His dis-
course. " I am the true vine :" that is the theme, which in
the sequel is worked out with considerable minuteness of
detail, — figure and interpretation being freely mixed up

^ John XV. 1-17. ^ John xv. 16.

416 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

together in the exposition. The question has often been
asked. What led Jesus to adopt this particular emblem as the
vehicle of His thoughts ? and many conjectural answers have
been hazarded. In absence of information in the narrative,
however, we nnist be content to remain in ignorance on this
point, without attempting to supply the missing link in the
association of ideas. This is no great hardship ; for, after all,
what does it matter how a metaphor is suggested (a thing
which even the person employing the metaphor often does not
know), provided it be in itself apt to the purpose to which it
is applied ? Of the aptness of the metaphor here employed
there can be no doubt in the mind of any one who attentively
considers the felicitous use which the speaker made of it.

Turning our attention, then, to the discourse of Jesus on His
own chosen text, we cannot but be struck with the manner in
which He hurries on at once to speak of fruit. We should
have expected that, in introducing the figure of the vine. He
would, in the first place, state fully in terms of the figure
how the case stood. After hearing the words, " I am the
true vine, and my Father is the husbandman," we expect to
hear, " and ye, my disciples, are the branches, through which
the vine brings forth fruit." That, however, is not said here ;
but the speaker passes on at once to tell His hearers how the
branches (of which no mention has been made) are dealt with
by the divine Husbandman ; how the fruitless branches, on
the one hand, are lopped off, while the fruitful ones are
pruned that they may become still more productive.^ This
shows what is uppermost in the mind of Jesus. His heart's
desire is, that His disciples may be spiritually fruitful.
" Fruit, fruit, my disciples," He exclaims in effect ; " ye are
useless unless ye bear fruit : my Father desires fruit, even as
I do ; and His whole dealing with you will be regulated by a
purpose to increase your fruitfulness."

While urgent in His demand for fruit, Jesus does not, we
observe, in any part of this discourse on the vine, indicate
wherein the expected fruit consists. When we consider to
whom He is speaking, however, we can have no doubt as to
what He principally intends. The fruit He looks for is the

^ John XV. 2.

DYING CHARGE: THE VINE AND ITS BEANCHES. 417

spread of the gospel and the ingathering of souls into the
kingdom of God by the disciples, in the discharge of their
apostolic vocation. Personal holiness is not overlooked ; but
it is required rather as a means towards fruitfulness, than as
itself the fruit. It is the pui'ging of the branch which leads
to increased fertility.

The next sentence (" Now ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you " ^) it seems best to regard as
a parenthesis, in which for a moment the figure of the vine is
lost sight of The mention of branches which, as unproductive,
are cut off, recalls to the Lord's thoughts the case of one who
had abeady been cut off — the false disciple Judas — and leads
Him naturally to assure the eleven that He hopes better
things of them. The process of excision had already been
applied among them in one instance : therefore they should
not be high-minded, but fear. But, on the other hand, as He
had said before in connection with the feet- washing, that they
were clean, with one exception ; so now He would say they
were all clean, without exception, through the word which He
had spoken to them. As branches they might need pruning,
but there would be no occasion for cutting off.

Having strongly declared the indispensableness of fruit-
bearing in order to continued connection with the vine, Jesus
proceeded next to set forth the conditions of fruitfulness, and
(what we should have expected at the very commencement of
the discourse) the relation subsisting between Himself and
His disciples. " I am the vine," He said (to take the latter
first), " ye are the branches." ^ . By this statement He explains
why He is so urgent that His disciples should be fruitful. The
reason is, that they are the media through which He Himself
brings forth fruit, serving the same purpose to Him that the
branches serve to the vine. His own personal work had
been to choose and train them, — to fill them, so to speak, with
the sap of divine truth ; and their work was now to turn that
sap into grapes. The Father in heaven, by sending Him into
the world, had planted Him in the earth, a new, mystic, spi-
ritual vine ; and He had produced them, the eleven, as His
branches. Now His personal ministry was at an end, and it
1 John XV. 3. 2 John xv. 5.

2 D

418 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

remained for the branches to carry on the work to its natural
consummation, and to bring forth a crop of fruit, in the shape
of a church of saved men believing in His name. If they
failed to do this, His labour would be all in vain.

Eeturning now to the conditions of fruitfulness, we find
Jesus expressing them in these terms : " Abide in me, and
I in you."^ These words point to a dependence of the dis-
ciples on their Lord under two forms, which by help of the
analogy of a tree and its branches it is easy to distinguish.
The branch abides in the vine structurally; and the vine
abides in the branch through its sap, vitally. Both of these
abidings are necessary to fruit-bearing. Unless the branch
be organically connected with the stem, the sap which goes to
make fruit cannot pass into it. On the other hand, although
the branch be organically connected with the stem, yet if the
sap of the stem do not ascend into it (a case which is possible
and common in the natural world), it must remain as fruitless
as if it were broken off and lying on the ground.

All this is clear ; but when we ask what do the two abid-
ings signify in reference to the mystic vine, the answer is not
quite so easy. The tendency here is to run the two into one,
and to make the distinction between them merely nominal.
The best way to come at the truth is to adhere as closely as
possible to the natural analogy. What, then, would one say
most nearly corresponded to the structural abiding of the
branch in the tree ? We think, abiding in the doctrine of
Christ, in the doctrine He taught ; and acknowledging Him
as the source whence it had been learned. In other words,
" Abide in me " means. Hold and profess the truth I have
spoken to you, and give yourselves out merely as my wit-
nesses. The other abiding, on the other hand, signifies the
indwelling of the Spirit of Jesus in the hearts of those who
believe. Jesus gives His disciples to understand that, while
abiding in His doctrine, tliey must also have His Spirit abid-
ing in them ; that they must not only hold fast the truth, but
be fiUed with the Spirit of truth.

As thus distinguished, the. two abidings are not only
different in conception, but separable in fact. On the one

^ Johu XV. 4.

DYING CHAEGE: THE VINE AND ITS BRANCHES. 419

hand, there may be Christian ortliodoxy in the letter, where
there is Kttle or no spiritual life ; and there may, on the other
hand, be a certain species of spiritual vitality, a great moral,
and in some respects most Christian-like earnestness, accom-
panied with serious departure from 'the faith. The one may
be likened unto a dead branch on a living tree, bleached,
barkless, moss-grown, and even in summer leafless, stretching
out like a withered arm from the trunk into which it is
inserted, and with which it still maintains an organic struc-
tural connection. The other is a branch cut off by pride or
self-will from the tree, full of the tree's sap, and clothed with
verdure at the moment of excision, and foolishly imagining,
because it does not wither at once, that it can live and grow
and blossom independently of the tree altogether. Have
such things never been since Christianity began ? Alas,
would it were so ! In the grand primeval forest of the church
too many dead orthodoxies have ever been visible ; and as for
branches setting up for themselves, their name is legion.

The two abidings, which we have seen to be not only
separable, but often separated, cannot be separated without
fatal effects. The result ever is in the end to illustrate the
truth of Christ's words, " Without, or severed from, me ye
can do nothing."^ Dead orthodoxy is notoriously impotent.
Feeble, timid, torpid, averse to anything arduous, heroic, stir-
ring in thought or conduct at best, it becomes at last insincere
and demoralizing : salt without savour, fit only to be thrown
out ; worthless vine-wood, good for nothing except for fuel,
and not worth much even for that purpose. Heresies,
not abiding in the doctrine of Christ, are equally helpless : at
first, indeed, they possess a spurious ephemeral vitality, and
make a little noise in the world ; but by and by their leaf
begins to wither, and they bring forth no abiding fruit. Look
at the conceited pretentious Deists of last century. They
thought they were going to supersede Christianity, and bring
in a new rational philosophic creed, infinitely superior to the
superstitious, supernatural, incredible one which had previously
been in vogue. What has become of them now ? Their
leaf has withered : their very writings have long ago become

^ John XV. 5.

420 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

like rotten branches fit for tlie fire, and are now read only by
antiquarians; while Paul, and Peter, and James, whose Epistles
they meant to banish from the civilised world, are still as
much in favour as ever, — their fruit remaining because they
abode in Christ's word, and had His Spirit abiding in them.

The conception of a dead branch, applied to individuals as
distinct from churches or the religious world viewed collec-
tively, is not without difficulty. A dead branch on a tree was
not always dead : it was produced by the vital force of the
tree, and had some of the tree's life in it. Does the analogy
between natural and spiritual branches hold at this point ?
Not in any sense, as we believe, that would compromise the
doctrine of perseverance in grace, nowhere taught more
clearly than in the words of our Lord. At the same time, it
cannot be denied that there is such a thing as abortive
religious experience. There are blossoms on the tree of life
which are blasted by spring frosts, green fruits which fall off
ere they ripen, branches which become sicldy and die. Jona-
than Edwards, a high Calvinist, but also a candid, shrewd
observer of facts, remarks : " I cannot say that the greater
part of supposed converts give reason by their conversation
to suppose that they are true converts. The proportion may
perhaps be more truly represented by the proportion of the
blossoms on a tree which abide, and come to mature fruit, to
the v/hole number of blossoms in spring."^ The permanency
of many spiritual blossoms is here denied, but the very denial
implies an admission that they were blossoms.

That some branches should become unfruitful, and even
die, while others flourish and bring forth fruit, is a gi'eat
mystery, whose explanation lies deeper than theologians of
the Arminian school are willing to admit. Yet, while this
is true, the responsibility of man for his own spiritual
character cannot be too earnestly insisted on. Though the
Father, as the husbandman, wields the pruning-knife, the
process of purging cannot be carried on without our consent
and co-operation. Eor that process means practically the
removal of moral hindrances to life and growth — the cares of

^ See memoir by Sereno E. Dwight, prefixed to Englisli edition of the Works of
Edwards, in two volumes : vol. i. p. cLxxii.

DYING CHARGE: THE VINE AND ITS BRANCHES. 421

life, the insidious influence of wealth, the lusts of the flesh,
and the passions of the soul : evils wjiich cannot be overcome
unless our will and all our moral powers be brought to bear
against them. Hence Jesus lays it upon His disciples as a
duty to abide in Him, and have Him abiding in them, and
resolves the whole matter at last, in plain terms, into keeping
His commandments.^ If they diligently and faithfully do
their part, the divine Husbandman, He assures them, will not
fail to give them liberally all things needful for the most
abundant fruitfulness. " Ye shall ask what ye will, and it
shall be done unto you." ^

The doom of branches coming short in either of the two
possible ways is very plainly declared by Jesus. The doom
of the branch which, while in Him structurally, beareth not
fruit, either because it is absolutely dead and dry, or because
it is afflicted with a vice which makes it barren, is to be taken
away- — judicially severed from the tree.^ The doom of the
branch which loill not abide in the vine is, not to be cut off —
for that it does itself — but to be thrown out of the vineyard,
there to lie till it be withered, and at length, at a convenient
season, to be gathered along with all its self-willed, erratic
brethren into a heap, and burned in a bonfire like the dry
rubbish of a garden.^

The doom of excision or ejection may be very serious in
its consequences to those on whom it is inflicted, but it is
very salutary for the vine. Hypocrisy and infidelity, quietly
tolerated, are fatal to the church's life. Men living lives
which make their profession of faith incredible, and men
openly professing unbelief in the great fundamentals of
Christianity, must be expelled from tlie communion of the
faithful, as remorselessly as the surgeon cuts off a mortifying
limb, and for the same reason, viz. to save the life of the
body. Wliat is lost in numbers by the excommunication of
unworthy persons, is gained in moral power and s]3iritual
fertility. The loss is simply a collection of branches dead or
barren, whose presence on the tree renders it utterly unpro-
ductive ; the gain is a goodly crop of fruit on the branches
left behind.

^ John XV. 10. 2 Ver. 7. » Ver. 2. * Ver. 6.

422 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

In the latter portion of the discourse on the vine/ Jesus
expresses His high expectations with respect to the fruitful-
ness of the apostolic branches, and suggests a variety of
considerations which, acting on the minds of the disciples
as motives, might lead to the fulfilment of His hopes.

As to the former, He gave the disciples to understand that
He expected of them not only fruit, hut much fruit,^ and
fruit not only abundant in quantity, but good in quality ;^
fruit that should remain, grapes whose juice should be worthy
of preservation, as wine in bottles ; a church that should
endure till the world's end.

On these two requirements we make four remarks : —

1. Taken together, they amount to a very high demand. It
is very hard indeed to produce fruit at once abundant and
enduring. The two requirements, to a certain extent, limit
each other. Aiming at high quality leads to undue thinning
of the clusters, while aiming at quantity may easily lead to
deterioration in the quality of the whole. The thing to be
studied is, to secure as large an amount of fruit as is con-
sistent with permanence ; and, on the other hand, to cultivate
excellence as far as is consistent with obtaining a fair crop
which will repay labour and expense. This is, so to speak,
the ideal theory of vine-culture ; but in practice we muSt be
content with something short of the perfect realization of our
theory. We cannot, for example, rigorously insist that all
the fruit shall be such as can endure. Many fruits of Chris-
tian labour are only transient means towards other fruits of a
permanent nature ; and if we satisfy the law of Christ so far
as to produce much fruit, some of which shall remain, we do
well. The permanent portion of a man's work must always
be small in proportion to the whole. At highest, it can only
bear such a proportion to the whole, as the grape-juice bears
to the grapes out of which it is pressed. A small cask of
wine represents a much larger bulk of grapes ; and in like
manner, the perennial result of a Christian life is very incon-
siderable in volume, compared with the mass of thoughts, words,
and deeds of which that life was made up. One little book,
for instance, may preserve to aU generations the soul and
' John XV. 8-17. ^ Ver. 8. ^ Ver. 16.

DYING CHARGE: THE VINE AND ITS BEANCHES. 423

essence of tlie thoughts of a most gifted mind, and of the
graces of a noble heart. Witness that wondrous book the
Pilgrim's Progress, which contains more wine in it than may
be found in the ponderous folios of some wordy authors, whose
works are but huge wine-casks with very little wine in them,
and sometimes hardly even the scent of it.

2. To satisfy these two requirements, two virtues are above
all needful, viz. diligence and patience : the one to ensure
quantity, the other to ensure superior quality. One must
know both how to labour and how to wait ; never idle, yet
never hurrying. Diligence alone will not sufiice. Bustling
activity does a great many things badly, but nothiag well.
On the other hand, patience unaccompanied by diligence de-
generates into indolence, which brings forth no fruit at all,
either good or bad. The two virtues must go together ; and
when they do, they never fail to produce, in greater or less
abundance, fruit that remaineth in a holy, exemplary life,
whose memory is cherished for generations, in books or in
philanthropic institutions, in the character of descendants,
scholars, or hearers.

3. Wlien the two requirements are taken as applying to all
believers in Christ, the term " much " must be understood
relatively. It is not required of all indiscriminately to pro-
duce an absolutely large quantity of fruit, but only of those
who, like the apostles, have been chosen and endowed to
occupy distinguished positions. Of liim to whom little is
given, shall little be required. For men of few talents it is
better not to attempt much, but rather to endeavour to do
well the little for which they have capacity. Aspiration is
good in the abstract ; but to aspire to exceed the appointed
dimensions of our career, is to supply a new illustration of the
old fable of the frog and the ox. The man who would be and
do more than he is fit for, is worse than useless. He brings
forth, not the sweet, wholesome fruits of the Spirit, but the
inflated fruits of vanity, which, like the apples of Sodom, are
fair and delicious to the eye and soft to the touch, but are yet
full of wind, and being pressed, explode like a puff ball.^

4. The demand for much fruit, while very exacting as
' Robinson, Biblical Researches, i. 523.

424 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

towards the apostles, to whom it in the first place refers, has
a very gracious aspect towards the world. The fruit which
Jesus expected from His chosen ones, was the conversion of
men to the faith of the gospel — the ingathering of souls into
the kingdom of God. A demand for much fruit in this sense
is an expression of goodwill to mankind^ a revelation of the
Saviour's loving compassion for a world lying in sin, and error,
and darkness. In making this demand, Jesus says in effect
to His apostles : Go into the world, bent on evangelizing all
the nations : he fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,
and subdue it. Ye cannot bring too many to the obedience
of faith : the greater the number of those who believe on me
through your word, the better I shall be pleased. We have
here, in short, but an echo of the impassioned utterances of
that earlier occasion, when Jesus welcomed death as the con-
dition of abundant fruitfulness, and the cross as a power by
whose irresistible attraction He should draw all unto Him.^

From the high requirements of the Lord, we pass on to the
arguments with which He sought to impress on the disciples
the duty of bringing forth much and abiding fruit. Of these
there are no less than six, grouped in pairs. The first pair we
find indicated in the words : " Herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit, and that ye may be my disciples." ^
In other words, Jesus would have His chosen ones remember
that the credit, both of the divine Husbandman, and of Him-
self, the Vine, largely depended on their behaviour. The world
would judge by results. If they, the apostles, abounded in
fruitfulness, it would be remarked that God had not sent Christ
into the world in vain ; and their success would be ascribed to
Him whose discij)les they had been. If they failed, men would
say : God planted a vine which has not thriven ; and the vine
produced branches which have borne no fruit ; or in plain
terms, Christ chose agents who have done nothing.

The force of these arguments for fruitfulness is more obvious
in the case of the apostles, the founders of the church, than
in reference to the present condition of the church, when the

^ John xii. 24, 33.

- Jolin XV. 8. Vide various reading, yUyiirh instead of yivwt<rh. The sense
is the same ultimately, whichever reading we prefer.

DYING CHAEGE: THE VINE AND ITS BEANCHES. 425

honour of Christ and of God the Father seems to depend in a
very small measure on the conduct of individuals. The whole
stress then lay on eleven men. Now it is distributed over
millions. Nevertheless there is great need, even yet, for
spiritually fruitful life in the church, to uphold the honour of
Christ's name ; for there is a tendency at the present time
to look on Christianity as used up. The old vine-stock is con-
sidered by many to be effete, and past fruit-bearing ; and a
new plant of renown is called for. This idea can be exploded
effectually only in one way, viz. by the rising up of a genera-
tion of Christians whose life shall demonstrate that the " true
vine" is not one of the things that wax old and vanish away,
but possesses eternal vitality, sufficient not only to produce
new branches and new clusters, but to shake itself clear of
dead branches, and of all the moss by which it may have
become overgrown in the course of ages.

A second pair of motives to fruitfulness w^e find hinted at
in the words : " These things have I spoken unto you, that
my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be
fulfilled."^ Jesus means to say, that the continuance of His
joy in the disciples, and the completion of their ow^n joy as
believers in Him, depended on their being fruitful. The
emphasis in the first clause lies on the word " remain." Jesus
has joy in His disciples even now, though spiritually crude,
even as the gardener hath joy in the clusters of grapes when
they are green, sour, and uneatable. But He rejoices in them
at present, not for what they are, but because of the promise
that is in them of ripe frviit. If that promise were not ful-
filled. He shoiJd feel as the gardener feels when the blossom
is nipped by frost, or the green fruit destroyed by mildew ; or
as a parent feels when a son belies in his manhood the bright
promise of his youth. He can bear delay, but He cannot bear
failure. He can wait patiently till the process of growth has
passed through all its stages, and can put up with all the un-
satisfactory qualities of immaturity, for the sake of what they
shall ripen into. But if they never ripen, if the children
never become men, if the pupils never become teachers, then
He will exclaim, in bitter disappointment : " Woes me ! my

1 Jolin XV. 11,

426 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

soul desired ripe fruit ; and is this what I iind after waiting
so long ? "

In the second clause the stress lies on the word " fulfilled."
It is not said or insinuated that a Christian can have no joy
till his character be matured and his work accomplished. The
language of Jesus is quite compatible with the assertion, that
even at the very commencement of the spiritual life there
may be a great, even passionate, outburst of joy. But, on t.he
other hand, that language plainly imphes that the joy of the
immature disciple is necessarily precarious, and that the joy
which is stable and full comes only with spiritual maturity.
This is a great practical truth, which it concerns aU disciples
to bear in mind. Joy in the highest sense is one of the ripe
fruits of the Holy Spirit ; it is the reward of perseverance and
fidelity. Eejoicing at the outset is good, so far as it goes ;
but all depends on the sequel. If we stop short and grow not,
woe to us ; for failure in all things, and specially in religion,
is misery. If we be comparatively unfruitful, we may not be
absolutely unhappy ; but we can never know the fulness of
joy : for it is only to the faithful servant that the words are
spoken, " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." The perfect
measure of bliss is for the soldier who hath won the victory,
for the reaper celebrating harvest-home, for the atlilete who
hath gained the prize of strength, skill, and swiftness.

The two last considerations by which Jesus sought to im-
press on His disciples the duty of being fruitful, were : the
honourable nature of their apostolic calling, and the debt of
gratitude they owed to Him who had called them, and who
was now about to die for them. The dignity of the apostle-
ship, in contrast to the menial position of the disciple. He
described in these terms : " Henceforth I caU 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."^ In other words : the
disciples had been apprentices, the apostles would be partners ;
the disciples had been as government clerks, the apostles would
be confidential ministers of the king ; the disciples had been
pupils in the school of Jesus, the apostles would be the trea-

^ John XV. 15.

DYING CHARGE: THE VINE AND ITS BRANCHES. 427

siirers of Christian truth, the reporters and expositors of their
Master's doctrine, the sole reliable sources of information con-
cerning the letter and the spirit of His teaching. What office
could possibly be more important than theirs, and how needful
that they should realize their responsibilities in connection
with it !

While endeavouring to walk worthy of so high a voca-
tion, it would become the apostles also to bear in mind their
obligations to Him who had called them to the apostolic
office. The due consideration of these would be an additional
stimulus to diligence and fidelity. Hence Jesus is careful to
impress on His disciples that they owe aU they are and will
be to Him. " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen
you," ^ He tells them. He wishes them to understand that
they had conferred no benefit on Him by becoming His dis-
ciples ; the benefit was all on their side. He had raised
them from obscurity to be the lights of the world, to be the
present companions and future friends and representatives of
the Christ. Having done so much for them. He was entitled
to ask that they would earnestly endeavour to realize the end
for which He had chosen them, and to fulfil the ministry to
which they were ordained.

One thing more is noteworthy in this discourse on the
true vine : the reiteration of the commandment to love one
another. At the commencement of the farewell address, Jesus
enjoined on the disciples brotherly love as a source of conso-
lation under bereavement ; here He re-enjoins it once and
again as a condition of fruitfulness.^ Though He does not say
it in so many words. He evidently means the disciples to
understand, that abiding in each other by love is just as
necessary to their success as their common abiding in Him by
faith. Division, party strife, jealousy, will be simply fatal to
their influence, and to the cause they represent. They must
be such fast friends, that they will even be willing to die for
each other.

There are some who think that the apostles did not pay
that respect to the will of their Lord on this point which He
demanded of them ere He left the world. The existence of

1 John XV. 16. 2 Vers. 12, 17.

428 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

dissension and ill feeling in the apostolic cabinet is confi-
dently asserted by negative criticism/ But the progress of
the apostolic church gives the lie to this assumption. When
a connnunity, wherein confessedly many weak and weakening
passions prevail, is kept together and even prospers notwith-
standing, there must be some men of a better spirit at the
head, who rise superior to the vices of the multitude, and rule
their weaker brethren because they have already learned to
rule themselves. If there were such men in the infant Chris-
tian community, who were they ? who but the men Mdio had
been with Jesus, and had learned in His school to subordi-
nate self to duty, and to put the good of the whole before the
interest of a party ?

Would that Christians in all subsequent ages had remem-
bered the commandment of love as well as the apostles ! The
history of the church abundantly explains the urgency with
which Jesus insisted on brotherly concord in connection with
a demand for fruitfulness. Divisions and alienations have
been one main cause of the church's barrenness. What an
arrest, for example, was put on the progress of the Eeforma-
tion by the misunderstandings which arose between the lead-
ing reformers — Luther, Calvin, and Zwingle ! And how
impotent and spiritually unfruitful is the church now from
a similar cause ! How scanty are the fruits of the Spirit
on the vine ; how abundant the works of the flesh — hatreds,
variances, emulations, unseemly heats of anger, strifes, sedi-
tions, heresies, not to speak of grosser sins into which care-
less professors frequently fall in an evil and adulterous time !
" Eeturn, we beseech Thee, 0 God of hosts : Look down from
heaven, and behold, and visit this vine."

^ The dissension is alleged to have existed not so nuich among the twelve, as
between them and Paul the apostle of the Gentiles. Eenan, however, does not
hesitate to ascribe to John jealousy of Peter, and to find traces thereof in his
Gospel. Vid. Vie de Jesus, Introduction, p. xxvii.

DYING CHARGE: TEIBULATIONS AND ENCOURAGEMENTS. 429

Section ii. — Apostolic Tribulations and Encouragements.
John xv. 18-27, xvi. 1-15.

From apostolic duties Jesus passed on to speak of apostoKc
tribulations. The transition was natural : for all great actors
in God's cause, whose fruit remains, are sure to be more or
less men of sorrow. To be hated and evil-entreated is one
of the penalties of moral greatness and spiritual power ; or,
if you please, one of the privileges Christ confers on His
" friends."

Hatred is very hard to bear, and the desire to escape it is
one main cause of unfaithfulness and unfruitfulness. Good
men shape their conduct so as to keep out of trouble, and
through excess of cowardly prudence degenerate into spiritual
nonentities. It was of the first importance that the apostles of
the Christian faith should not become impotent through this
cause. For this reason Jesus introduces the subject of tribu-
lation here. He would fortify His disciples for the endurance
of sufferings, by speaking of them beforehand. " These things,"
saith He, in the course of His address on the unpleasant
theme, as if apologizing for its introduction, " have I spoken
unto you, that ye should not be scandalized," ^ that is, be taken
by surprise when the time of trouble came.

To nerve the young soldiers of the cross, the Captain of
salvation has recourse to various expedients, among which the
first is to tell them, without disguise, what they have to
expect, that familiarity with the dark prospect may make it
less terrible. Of the world's hatred Jesus speaks as an
absolutely certain matter, not even deeming it necessary to
assert its certainty, but assuming that as a thing of course :
" If the world hate you" ^ — as of course it will. Further on
He describes, without euphemism or circumlocution, the kind
of treatment they shall receive at the world's hands : " They
shall put you out of the synagogues ; yea, the time cometh,
that whosoever kiUeth you will think that he doeth God ser-
vice." ^ Harsh, appalling words ; but since such things were
to be, it was well to know the worst.

1 John xvi. 1 ; see also ver. 4. ^ John xv. 18. ' John xvi. 2.

430 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Jesus further tells His disciples, that whatever they may
have to suffer, they can be no worse off than He has been
before them. " If the world hate you, ye know that it has
hated me before you." Poor comfort, one is disposed to say ;
yet it is not so .poor when you consider the relative position
of the parties. He who has already been hated is the Lord ;
they who are to be hated are but the servants. Of this Jesus
reminds His disciples, repeating and recalling to their remem-
brance a word He had already spoken the same evening.^
The consideration ought at least to repress murmuring ; and
duly laid to heart, it might even become a source of heroic
inspiration. The servant should be ashamed to complain of
a lot from which his Master is not, and does not wish to be,
exempted ; he should be proud to be a companion in tribula-
tions with One who is so much his superior, and regard his
experience of the cross not as a fate, but as a privilege.

A third expedient employed by Jesus to reconcile the
apostles to the world's hatred is to represent it as a necessary
accompaniment of their election.^ This thought, well weighed,
has great force. Love ordinarily rests on a community of
interest. Men love those who hold the same opinions, occupy
the same position, follow the same fashions, pursue the same
ends with themselves ; and they regard all who differ from
them in these respects with indifference, dislike, or positive
animosity, according to the degree in which they are made
sensible of the contrast. Hence arises a dilemma for the
chosen ones. Either they must forfeit the honour, privileges,
and hope of their election, and descend into the dark world
which is without God and without hope ; or they must be
content, while retaining their position as called out of dark-
ness, to accept the drawbacks which adhere to it, and to be
hated by those wlio love the darkness rather than the light,
because their life is evil. What true child of light will
hesitate in his choice ?

To show the disciples that they have no alternative but to

submit patiently to their appointed lot as the chosen ones,

Jesus enters yet more deeply into the philosophy of the

world's hatred. He explains that what in the first place will

^ John XV. 20; comp. xiii. 16, also xii. 26. * John xv. 19.

DYING CHAEGE: TRIBULATIONS AND EXCOUEAGEMENTS. 431

be hatred to tliem, will mean in the second place hatred to
Himself, and in the last place, and radically, ignorance of and
hostility to God His Father.^ In setting forth this truth,
He takes occasion to make some severe reflections on the
unbelieving world of Judsea, in which He had Himself la-
boured. He puts the worst construction on its unbelief, de-
clares it to be utterly witliout excuse, accuses those who
have been guilty of it of hating Him without a cause, that
is, of hating one whose whole character and conduct, words
and works, should have won their faith and love ; and in their
hatred of Him, He sees revealed a hatred of that very God
for whose glory they professed to be so zealous.^

How painful is the view here given of the world's enmity
to truth and its witnesses ! One would like to see, in the
bitterness with which the messengers of truth have been
received (not excepting the case of Jesus), the result of a
pardonable misunderstanding. And without doubt this is
the origin of not a few religious animosities. There have
been many sins committed against the Son of man, and those
like-minded, which were only in a very mitigated degree sins
against the Holy Ghost. Were it otherwise, alas for us all !
For who has not persecuted the Son of man or His interest,
cherishing ill-feeling and uttering bitter words against His
members, if not against Him personally, under the influence
of prejudice ; yea, it may be, going the length of inflicting
material injury on the apostles of unfamiliar, unwelcome
truths, in obedience to the blind impulses of panic fear, or
selfish passion ?

If there be few who have not in one way or another per-
secuted, there are perhaps also few of the persecuted who
have not taken too sombre views of the guilt of their per-
secutors. Men who suffer for their convictions are greatly
tempted to regard their opponents as in equal measure the
opponents of God. The wrongs they endure provoke them to
think and speak of the wrong-doers as the very children of
the devil. Then it gives importance to one's cause, and
dignity to one's sufferings, to conceive of the former as God's,
and of the latter as endured for God's sake. Finally, broadly

1 John XV. 21. 2 Vers. 22-25.

432 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

to state tlie question at stake as one between God's friends and
God's foes, satisfies both the intellect and the conscience ; the
former demanding a status questionis which is simply and easily
understood ; the latter, one which puts you obviously in the
right, and your adversaries obviously in the wrong.

All this shows that much candour, humility, and patience
of spirit is needed before one can safely say, " He that hateth
me hateth God." Nevertheless it remains true that a man's
real attitude towards God is revealed by the way in which he
treats God's present work and His living servants. On this
principle Jesus judged His enemies, though He cherished no
resentment, and was ever ready to make due allowance for
ignorance. In spite of His charity. He believed and said
that the hostility He had encountered sprang from an evil
■will, and a wicked, godless heart. He had in view mainly '
the leaders of the opposition who organized the mob of the
ignorant and the prejudiced into a hostile army. These men
He unhesitatingly denounced as haters of God, truth, and
righteousness ; and He pointed to their treatment of Hunself
as the conclusive evidence of the fact. His appearance and
ministry among them had stript off the mask, and shown them
in their real character as hypocrites, pretending to sanctity,
but inwardly full of baseness and impiety, who hated genuine
goodness, and could not rest till they had got it flung out of
the v/orld and nailed to a cross. With the history and the
sayings of Christ before our eyes, we must beware lest we
carry apologies for unbelief too far.

Jesus having spoken, as in a brief digression, of His bitter
experience in the past, very naturally goes on next to express
the hope which He cherishes of a brighter future. Hitherto
He has been despised and rejected of men, but He believes it
will not always be so. The world, Jewish and Gentile, will
ere long begin to change its mind, and the Crucified One will
become an object of faith and reverence. This hope He builds
on a strong and sure foundation, even the combined testi-
mony of the Spirit of truth and of His own apostles.
" But," saith He, His face brightening as He speaks, " when
the Comforter (of whom He had spoken to His little ones, and
to whom He now alludes as His own Comforter not less than

DYING CHARGE: TRIBULATIONS AND ENCOURAGEMENTS. 433

theirs) is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit which proceedeth from the Father, He shall
testify of me."^ What results the Spirit would bring about
by His testimony, He does not here state. To that point He
speaks shortly after, on discovering that His hearers have not
apprehended His meaning, or at least have failed to find in
His words any comfort for themselves. Meantime He hastens
to intimate that the disciples as well as the Spirit of truth
win have a share in the honourable work of redeeming from
disgrace their Master's name and character. They also should
bear witness, as they were well qualified to do, having been
with Him from the beginning of His ministry,^ and knowing
fully His doctrine and manner of life.

In this future witness-bearing of the Spirit and of the
apostles, Jesus sought comfort to His own heart under the
depressing weight of a gloomy retrospect, and the immediate
prospect of crucifixion. But not the less did He mean the
disciples also to seek from the same quarter strength to
encounter their tribulations. In truth, no considerations
could tend more effectually to reconcile generous minds to a
hard lot than those implied in what Jesus had just said, —
viz. that the apostles would suffer in a cause favour?jd by
Heaven, and tending to the honour of Him whom they loved
more than life. Who would not choose to be on the side for
which the Divine Spirit fights, even at the risk of receiving
wounds ? Who would not be happy to be reproached and
evil-entreated for a name which is worthy to be above every
name, especially if assured that the sufferings endured con-
tributed directly to the exaltation of that blessed name to its
rightful place of sovereignty ?

It was just these considerations which more than anything
else supported the apostles under their great and manifold
trials. They learned to say : *' For Christ's sake we are killed
all the day long ; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
But what does it matter ? The church is spreading, believers

^ John XV. 26.

2 Jolin XV. 27. Hoffman takes fiaprupiTn in ver. 27 as an imperative : And do
ye also bear witness of me : tell the world what I am. — Schri/tbeweis, 2te Halfte,
2te Abtheilung, p. 19.

2 £

434 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE,

are multiplying on every side, springing up an liundred-fold
from the seed of the martyrs' blood ; the name of our Lord is
being magnified. We will gladly suffer, therefore, bearing
witness to the truth."

Having premised these observations concerning the aids to
endurance, Jesus proceeded at length to state distinctly, in
words already quoted, what the apostles would have to endure.-^
On these words we make only one additional remark, viz. that
the disciples would learn from them not only the nature of
their future tribulations, but the quarter whence they were to
come. The world, against whose hatred their Master fore-
warns them in this part of His discourse, is not the irreligious,
sceptical, easy-going, gross -living world of paganism. It is
the world of antichrist] an Judaism ; of synagogue-frequenting
men, accustomed to distinguish themselves from "the world"
as the people of God, very zealous after a fashion for God's
glory, fanatically in earnest in their religious opinions and
practices, utterly intolerant of dissent, relentlessly excommu-
nicating all who deviated from established belief by a hair's-
breadth, and deeming their death no murder, but a religious
service, an acceptable sacrifice to the Almighty. To this
Jewish world is assigned the honour of representing the entire
kosmos of men alienated from God and truth ; and if hatred
to the good be the central characteristic of worldliness, the
honour was well earned, for it was among the Jews that the
power of hating attained its maximum degree of intensity.
No man could hate like a religious Jew of the apostolic age :
he was renowned for his diabolic capacity of hating. Even a
Eoman historian, Tacitus, commemorates the " hostile odium"
of the Jewish race against all mankind ; and the experience of
the Christian apostles fully justified the prominence given to
the Jew by Jesus in discoursing on the world's hatred. It
was to the unbelieving Jews they mainly owed their know-
ledge of what the world's hatred meant. The pagan world
despised them rather than hated them. The Greek laughed,
and the Eoman passed by in contemptuous indifference, or at
most opposed temperately, as one who would rather not. But
the persevering, implacable, malignant hostility of the Jewish

' John xvi. 2.

DYING CHAKGE: TKIBULATIONS AND ENCOUEAGEMENTS. 435

religionist ! — it was bloodthirsty, it was pitiless, it was worthy
of Satan himself. Truly might Jesus say to the Jews, with
reference thereto, " Ye are of your father the devil, and the
lusts of your father ye will do."

What a strange fruit was this wicked spirit of hatred, to
grow upon the goodly vine which God had planted in the
holy land ! Chosen to he the vehicle of blessing to the world,
Israel ends by becoming the enemy of the world, " contrary
to all men," so as to provoke even the humane to regard and
treat her as a nuisance, whose destruction from the face of the
earth would be a common cause of congratulation. Behold the
result of election abused ! Peculiar favours minister to pride,
instead of stirring up the favoured ones to devote themselves
to their high vocation as the benefactors of mankind ; and a
divine commonwealth is turned into a synagogue of Satan,
and^God's most deadly foes are those of His own house. Alas,
the same phenomenon has reappeared in the Christian church.
The world that is most opposed to Christ, Antichrist itself,
is to be found, not in heathendom, but in Christendom ; not
among the irreligious and the sceptical, but among those who
account themselves the peculiar people of God.

The announcement made by Jesus concerning their future
tribulations, produced, as was to be expected, a great sensation
among the disciples. The dark prospect revealed by the
momentary lifting of the veil utterly appalled them. Conster-
nation appeared in their faces, and sorrow filled their hearts.
To be forsaken by their Master was bad enough, but to be
left to such a fate was still worse, they thought. Jesus
noticed the impression He had produced, and did what He
could to remove it, and help the poor disciples to recover their
composure.

First, He makes a sort of apology for speaking of such
painful matters, to this effect : " I would gladly have been
silent concerning your coming troubles, and I have been
silent as long as possible ; but I could not think of leaving
you without letting you know what was before you, which
accordingly I have done now, as the hour of my departure is
at hand."^ The kind feeling which dictated the statement

' John xvi. 4.

436 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

thus paraphrased is manifest, but the statement itself appears
inconsistent with the records of the other Gospels, from which
we learn that the hardships connected with discipleship in
general, and with the apostleship in particular, were a frequent
subject of remark in the intercourse of Jesus with the twelve.
The difficulty has been variously dealt with by commentators.
Some admit the contradiction, and assume that such earlier
discourses concerning persecutions as are found, e.g., in the
tenth chapter of Matthew, are introduced by the evangelist
out of their chronological order. Others insist on the differ-
ence between the earlier utterances and the present in respect
to plainness: representing the former as vague and general,
like the early allusions made by Jesus to His own death ; the
latter as particular, definite, and unmistakeable, like the an-
nouncements which Jesus made respecting His passion towards
the end of His ministry. A third class of expositors make
the novelty of this discourse on the world's hatred lie in the
explanation given therein of its cause and origin -^ while a
fourth class insist that the grand distinction between this dis-
course and all that went before is to be found in the fact that
it is a farewell discourse, and therefore one which, owing to
the situation, made quite a novel impression.^

Where so much difference of opinion prevails, it would be
unbecoming to dogmatize. Our own opinion, however, is, that
the peculiarity of the present utterance concerning apostolic
tribulations lies in the manner or style rather than in the
matter. On former occasions, especially on the occasion of
the trial ndssion of the twelve, Jesus had said much the same
things : He had spoken of scourging m synagogues at least,
if not of excommunication from them, and had alluded to
death by violence as at least a possible fate for the apostles
of the kingdom. But He had said all things in a different
way. There He preached concerning persecution ; here He
makes an awfully real announcement. There is all the differ-
ence between that discourse and the present communication,
that there would be between a sermon on the text, " It is
appointed unto men once to die," and a special intimation to
an individual, " This year thou shalt die." The sermon may
1 Stier. a Luthardt.

DYING CHARGE: TRIBULATIONS AND ENCOUEAGEMENTS. 437

say far more about death than the intimation, but in how
different a manner, and with what a different effect !

The next expedient for curing grief to which Jesus has
recourse is friendly remonstrance. He gently taunts the dis-
ciples for their silence, which He regards as a token of hope-
less, despairing sorrow. " But now I go my way to Him that
sent me ; and none of you asketh me, Wliither goest Thou ? But
because I have said tliese things unto you, sorrow hath filled
your heart." ^ " Why," He means to say, " are you so utterly
cast down ? have you no questions to ask me about my de-
parture ? You were full of questions at the first. You were
curious to know whither I was going. I would be thankful
to have that question asked over again, or indeed to have any
question put to me, whether wise or foolish. The most childish
interrogations would be better than the gloom of speechless
despair."

As the question, " Whither goest Thou ? " had been suffi-
ciently answered already, it might have been superfluous to
ask it again. There were, however, other questions neither
superfluous nor impertinent, which the disciples might have
taken occasion to ask from the communication just made to
them concerning their future lot, and which they probably
would have asked had they not been so depressed in spirits.
" If," they might have said, " If it is to fare so ill with us after
you go, why do not you stay ? While you have been with us
you have sheltered us from the world's hatred, and you tell
us that when you, our leader and head, are gone, that hatred
will be directed against us, your followers. If so, how can we
possibly regard your departure as anything but a calamity ? "

These unspoken questions Jesus proceeds in the next place
to answer. He boldly asserts, that whatever they may think,
it is for their good that He should go away.^ The assertion,
true in other respects also, is made with special reference to
the work of the apostleship. In the early part of His fare-
well address, Jesus had explained to His disciples how His
departure would affect them as private persons or individual

^ Jolm xvi. 5, 6. Olshausen joins the first part of ver. 5 to the preceding,
and supposes a pause alter the words were uttered.
' John xvi. 7.

438 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

believers. He had assured them, that when " the Comforter"
came, He would make them feel as if their departed Master
were returned to them again ; yea, as if He were more really
present to them than ever He had been. Here His object is
to show tlie bearing of His departure on their work as apostles,
and to make them understand that His going away would be
good for them as public functionaries.

The proof of this assertion follows •} its substance is to this
effect : " When I leave you and go to my Father,^ two desi-
derata of essential importance for the success of your work
as apostles will be supplied. Then you will have receptive
hearers, and you yourselves will be competent to preach.
Neither of these desiderata exists for the present. The world
has rejected me and my words ; and you, though sincere, are
very ignorant, and understand not what I have taught you.
After my ascension there will be a great alteration in both
respects : the world will be more ready to hear the truth, and
you will be able to declare it intelligently. The change cannot
come till then ; for it will be brought about by the work of
the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, and He cannot come till
I go!"

In the section of His discourse of which we have given
the general meaning, Jesus sketches in rapid outline, first
the Spirit's converting work in the world,^ and then His
enlightening work in the minds of the apostles.^ The former
He describes in these terms : " When He is come. He will
convince (produce serious thought and conviction in) the world
about sin, righteousness, and judgment." Then He explains
in what special aspects the Spirit will bring these great moral
realities before men's minds ; and here He but expounds what
He has already said concerning the Spirit's testimony in His
own behalf^ He tells His disciples that the Comforter, wit-
nessing for Himself in the hearts and consciences of men, will
convince them of sin specially as unbelievers in Him ; of
righteousness in connection with His departure to the Father ;
and of judgment (to come), because the prince of this world is

1 John xvi. 7-15. * a^reX^^i, -rofuvlu.

3 John xvi. 8-11. * John xvi. 12-15.

5 John XV. 26.

DYING CHAEGE: TKIBULATIONS AND ENCOUKAGEMENTS. 439

judged already (that is, shall have been, when the Comforter
commences His work).

The second and third explanatory remarks are enigmatical,
and instead of throwing light on the subject in hand, seem
rather to involve it in darkness. They have given rise to so
much dispute and diversity of opinion, that to expatiate on
them were vain, and to dogmatize presumption. One great
point of dispute has been- : What righteousness does Jesus
allude to — His own, or that of sinners ? Does He mean to
say that the Spirit will convince the world after He has left
the earth that He was a righteous man ? or does He mean that
the Spirit will teach men to see in the Crucified One the Lord
their righteousness ? Our own opinion is, that He means
neither, and both. Eighteousness is to be taken in its unde-
fined generality ; and the idea is, that the Spirit will make use
of the exaltation of Christ to make men think earnestly on the
whole subject of righteousness : to show them the utterly
rotten character of their own righteousness, whose crowning
feat was to crucify Jesus, to bring home to their hearts the
solemn truth, that the Crucified One was the Just One, and
ultimately to put them on a track for finding in Jesus their true
righteousness, by raising in their minds the question. Why then
did the Just One suffer ?

The meaning of the third explanatory remark we take to
be to this effect : " When I am crucified, the god of this world
shall have been judged. Both the world and its god indeed,
but the latter only finally and irreversibly ; the world, though
presently following Satan, being convertible. When I am
ascended, the Spirit will use the then past judgment of Satan
to convince men of a judgment to come ; teaching them to see
therein a prophecy of a final separation between me and all
who obstinately persist in unbelief, and so, by the terrors of
perdition, bringing them to repentance and faith."

What Jesus says of the enlightening work of the Spirit on
the minds of the disciples, amounts to this : He will fit you
to be intelligent and trustworthy witnesses to me, and to be
guides of the church in doctrine and practice. For these high
purposes two things would be necessary : that they should
understand Christian truth, and that they should possess the

440 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

gift of prophecy, so as to be able to foretell in its general out-
lines the future, for the warning and encouragement of be-
lievers. Both these advantages Jesus promises them, as fruits
of the Spirit's enlightening influence. He assures them that,
when the Comforter is come, He will guide them into all the
truth He had Himself taught them, recalling things forgotten,
explaining things not understood, developing germs into a
system of doctrine which was entirely above their present
power of comprehension.^ He further informs them that this
same Spirit will show them things to come : such as the rise
of heresies and apostasies, the coming of Antichrist, the con-
flict between light and darkness, and their final issue, as
described in the book of EevelatioUv

Such were the changes to be brought about in the world
and in the disciples by the advent of the Comforter. Great
beneficent changes truly ; but why cannot they take place
"before Jesus leaves the world ? The answer to this question
is hinted at by Jesus, when He says of the Spirit : " He shall
not speak of Himself," ^ and " He shall receive of mine, and
shall show it unto you." ^ The personal ministry of Jesus
behoved to come to an end before the ministry of the Spirit
began, because the latter is merely an application of the for-
mer. The Spirit does not speak as from Himself ; He simply
takes of the things relating to Christ, and shows them to men :
to unbelievers, for their conviction and conversion ; to be-
lievers, for their enlightenment and sanctification. But till
Jesus had died, risen, ascended, the essentials about Him
would remain incomplete : the materials for a gospel would
not be ready to hand. There could be neither apostolic preach-
ing nor the demonstration of the Spirit with power accom-
panying it. It must be possible for the apostles and the
Spirit to bear witness of One who, though perfectly holy, had
been crucified, to show the world the heinousness of its sin.
They must have it in their power to declare that God hath
made that same Jesus whom they have crucified both Lord
and Christ, exalted to heavenly glory, before their hearers can
be pricked in the heart, and made to exclaim in terror, " Men
and brethren, what shall we do ? " Only after Jesus had
' Jolin xvi. 12. ^ John xvi. 13. ^ John xvi. 14.

DYING CHAEGE: TKIBULATIONS AND ENCOUEAGEMENTS. 441

ascended to glory, and become invisible to mortal eyes/ could
men be made to understand that He was not only personally
a righteous man, but the Lord their righteousness. Then the
question would force itself upon their minds : What could be
the meaning of the Lord of glory becoming man, and dying
on the cross ? and by the teaching of the Spirit they would
learn to reply, not as in the days of their ignorance, " He
suffers for His own offences," but, " Surely He hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows ; He was wounded for our
transgressions."

Finally, not till the apostles were in a position to say that
their Lord was gone to heaven, could they bring to bear with
full effect on the impenitent the doctrine of a judgment.
Then they could say, Christ is seated on the heavenly throne,
a Prince and a Saviour to all who believe, but also a Judse
to those who continue in rebellion and unbelief " Kiss the
Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His
wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him."

All this the disciples for the present did not understand.
Of the Spirit's work on the conscience of the world and in
their own minds, and of the relation in which the third per-
son of the Trinity ^ stood to the second, they had simply no
conception. Hence Jesus does not enlarge on these topics,
but restricts Himself to what is barely necessary to indicate the
truth. But the time came when the disciples did get to under-
stand these matters, and then they fully appreciated the eulo-
gium of their Lord on the dispensation of the Comforter. Then
they acknowledged that the assertion was indeed true, that it
was expedient for them that He should go away, and smiled
when they remembered that they had once thought otherwise ;
yea, they perceived that the word " expedient," far from being
too strong, was rather a weak expression, chosen in gracious
accommodation to their feeble spiritual capacity, instead of the

^ John xvi. 10, "And ye see me no more," = I am no longer seen on earth ;
suggesting the idea that earth was Christ's place of sojourn, heaven His home,
therefore inferentially asserting His divinity.

^ The personality of the Holy Ghost is assumed throughout this discourse.
See ver. 13, iKtiyei.

442 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

stronger one " indispensable." Then they felt, as we imagine
good men feel about death when they have got to heaven.
On this side the grave,

" Timorous mortals start and shrink
To cross the narrow sea ;
And linger, shivering, on the brink.
And fear to launch away."

But to those on the other side how insignificant a matter
must death seem, and how strange must it appear to their
purged vision, that it should ever have been needful to prove
to them that it was better to depart to heaven than to remain
in a world of sin and sorrow !

Section hi. — The Little While, and the End of the Discourse.
John xvi. 16-33.

The eulogium on the dispensation of the Comforter winds
up with a paradox. Jesus has been teUing His disciples
that His departure wlU be beneficial for them in various
respects, but particularly in this, that they shall attain there-
after to a clear, full comprehension of Christian truth. In
effect, what He has said is : It is good for you that I go, for
not till I become invisible physically shall I be visible to you
spiritually — I must be withdrawn from the eye of your flesh,
before I can be seen by the eye of your mind. Hence He
fitly ends His discourse on the Comforter by repeating a
riddle, which He had propounded in a less pointed form in
His first farewell address : " A little while, and ye shall not
see me : and again a little while, and ye shall see me ; because
I go to the Father."

This riddle, like all riddles, is very simple when we have
the key to it. As in that other paradoxical saying of Jesus,
concerning losing and saving life,^ the principal word — " see " —
is used in two senses ; ^ first in a physical, and then, in the
second clause, in a spiritual sense. Hence the possibility of
one event, the departure of Christ to the Father, becoming a
^ Matt. xvi. 25. ^ There are two words in the Greek — hupun, o-^/ifh.

DYING CHARGE : THE LITTLE WHILE. 443

cause at once of not seeing and of seeing. When Jesus
ascended to heaven, the disciples saw Him no more as they
saw Him then in the supper- chamber. But immediately
thereafter they began to see Him in another way. The
idea of His life did sweetly creep into the eye and prospect
of their soul. And the sight was satisfying : it justified the
glowing language in which their Master had spoken of it
before He left them. Though they saw Him no more in
the flesh, yet believing in Him, to quote the words of the
Apostle Peter, they rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full
of glory.

For the present, however, the disciples have no conception
of the vision and the joy which await them. Their Lord's
words have no meaning for them ; they are a riddle indeed,
yea, a contradiction'. Standing around the inspired speaker,
they whisper remarks to each other concerning the strange
enigmatical words He has just uttered, about a little while,
and about seeing and not seeing, and about going to the
Father. The riddle has evidently served one purpose at least ;
it has roused the disciples out of the stupor of grief, and
awakened for a little their curiosity. That, however, is the
amount of the service it has rendered ; it has created surprise,
but it has conveyed no sense : the hearers are constrained to
confess, " We cannot tell what He saith." ^

Yet, we observe, they ask no questions at Jesus. They
would -like to do so at this point, but they do not feel able to
take the liberty ; restrained, we imagine, by respect for the
lofty sustained tone in which their Master has been address-
ing them in the second part of His farewell discourse. Jesus,
however, reads a question in their countenances, and kindly
favours them with a word of explanation.^

That word does not, strictly speaking, explain the riddle.
Jesus does not tell His disciples what the little while means,
nor does He distinguish the two kinds of seeing : He leaves
the enigma to be solved, as it only can be, by experience.
All He attempts is to make it conceivable how the same
event which in immediate prospect causes sorrow, may, after
its occurrence, be a cause of joy. For this purpose He com-

1 Jolin xvi. 18. ' Jolin xvi. 19-21.

444 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

pares tlie crisis through which the disciples are about to pass,
not, as we have already done, to the solemn event by which a
Christian makes his exit out of this world into a better, but
to the event with which human life begins/

The comparison is apt to the purpose for wliich it is intro-
duced; but we cannot with certainty, not to say propriety,
pursue it into detail. Interpreters who aspire to understand
all mysteries and all knowledge, have raised many questions
thereanent, such as : Who is represented by the mother in the
parable — Christ or the disciples ? When does the sorrow begin,
and when and in what does it end ? The answers given to these
questions are very various. According to one, Jesus Himself
is the new man, and the sorrow He alludes to is His own death,
viewed as the painful birth-hour for the redemption of sinful
humanity. Another will have it that Jesus represents His
own disciples as with child of a spiritual Christ, who will be
born when the Comforter comes. Most make the time of
sorrow begin with Christ's passion, but there is much differ-
ence of opinion as to when it ends. One makes the joy date
from the resurrection, which, after a little while of painful
separation, restored Jesus to His sorrowing disciples ; another
extends the " little while " to Pentecost, when the church was
born into the world a new man in Christ ; a third makes the
little while a long while indeed, by making the words " I
wiU see you again " refer to Christ's second coming, and to
the blessed era when the new heavens and the new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness, for which the whole creation
groans, shall at length come into being.^

We do not think it necessary to pronounce on these disputed
points. As little do we think it necessary to give the analogy
a doctrinal turn, and find in it a reference to regeneration.
What Jesus has in view throughout this part of His discourse
is not the new birth either of the disciples or of the church,
but the spiritual illumination of the apostles ; their transition
from the chrysalis into the winged state, from an ignorant
implicit faith to a faith developed and intelligent ; their initia-

'I John xvi. 20-22.

^ See, for the various opinions on these points, Stier, Luthardt, Lange,
Olshausen, Alford, etc.

DYING charge: THE LITTLE "WHILE. 445

tion into the highest grade of the Christian mysteries, when
they should see clearly things presently unintelligible, and be
Epopts in the kingdom of heaven/ For them, as for Chris-
tians generally (for there is a sense in which the experience
of the apostles repeats itseK in the spiritual history of many
believers), this crisis is not less important than the initial one
by which men pass from death into life. It is a great thing
to be regenerated, but it is a not less great thing to be illumi-
nated. It is a great, ever-memorable time that, when Christ
first enters the heart, an object of faith and love ; but it is an
equally important crisis when Christ, after having departed per-
haps for a season, leaving the mind clouded with doubt and the
heart oppressed with sorrow, returns never to depart, driving
away wintry frosts and darkness, and bringing light, gladness,
summer warmth, and spiritual fruitfulness to the soul. Verily
one might be content that Christ, as he first knew Him, should
depart, for the sake of having his sorrow after a little while
turned into such joy !

Having shown, by a familiar and pathetic analogy, the
possibility of present sorrow being transmuted into great joy,
Jesus proceeds next to describe, by a few rapid strokes, the
characteristics of the state at which the apostles will ere long
arrive.^ rkst among these He mentions an enlarged compre-
hension of truth ; for it is to this He refers when He says,
" In that day ye shall ask me nothing." He means that they
will then ask Him no questions such as they had been asking
all along, and especially that night; child's questions, asked
with a child's curiosity, and also with a child's incapacity to
understand the answers. The questioning spirit of childhood
would be replaced by the understanding spirit of manhood.
The truths of the kingdom would no longer, as heretofore, be
inscrutable mysteries to them ; they should have an unction
from the Holy One, and should know all things.

Some think this too much to be said of any Christian, not
even excepting the apostles themselves, while in the earthly

1 One who had been introduced into the highest (third) grade of the Eleusinian
mysteries was called s-Tto-rrn;. See Plato, Convivium (Socrates reporting discourse
of Diotime on "Efcos).

2 John xvi. 23, 24.

446 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

state, and therefore argue that the day alluded to here is that
of Christ's second coming, or of His happy reunion with His
own in the kingdom of His Father.^ And, without doubt, it
is true that in that final day only shall Christians know as
they are known, and have absolutely no need to ask any
questions. Then,

' ' 'Midst power that knows no limit,
And wisdom free from bound,
The beatific vision

Shall glad the saints around,"

as it can never gladden them here below. Still the statement
before us has a relative truth in reference to this present life.
While, in comparison with the perfect state, the clearest vision
of any Christian is but a seeing in a glass darkly, the degree
of illumination attained by the apostles might be described,
without exaggeration, in contrast to their ignorance as dis-
ciples, as that of men who needed not any longer to ask
questions. In promising His disciples that they would ere
long attain this high degree, Jesus was but saying in effect,
that as apostles they would be teachers, not scholars — doctors
of divinity, with titles conferred by heaven itseK — capable of
answering questions of young disciples, similar to those which
they once asked themselves.

The second feature of the apostolic illumination mentioned
by Jesus is unlimited influence with God through prayer.
Of this He speaks with much emphasis : " Verily, verily, I
say unto you. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my
name. He will give it you." ^ That is to say : The apostles
were to have at command the whole power of God; the
power of miracles, to heal diseases ; of prophecy, to foretell
things to come bearing on the church's interest, and which it
was desirable that believers should know; of providence, to

* So Luthardt, ii. 348, who holds that the first clause of ver. 23 refers to the
final condition of the church, and the second to its imperfect state, on the
ground that the two cannot be contemporaneous. He says where there is pray-
ing there is asking, and vice versa. Yet it is also true that the less a man needs
to ask questions, that is, the more enlightened he is, the more he will pray.

^ John xvi. 23. The verb translated ask in this clause is not the same as that
rendered by the same English word in the first. In the first clause it is ipurn-
ffan J in the second, alrrirnri.

DYING CHARGE : THE LITTLE WHILE, 447

make all events subservient to their well-being, and that of
the cause in which they laboured.

Bating the miraculous elements, which most Protestants
agree in regarding as peculiar to the apostolic age, this magni-
ficent promise of Jesus is made to all who aspire to Christian
manhood, and is fulfilled to all who reach it. The secret of
the Lord is open to such. In a sense, they can divine. Pos-
sessiQg clear insight into, and firm faith in, the laws which
govern the moral world, they foresee and predict events which
to other men are unsuspected, or at most problematical. In
this way we are to account for the remarkable predictions of
Savonarola, Knox, Peden, and many others, eminent for spiri-
tual discernment and unwavering faith in the reality of a
divine providence in human affairs. Then, further, the friends
of God not only know in part His secrets, but have power by
prayer to influence the future. The effectual fervent prayer of
righteous men availeth much to bring down from heaven the
blessing of the Spirit, and to secure the favourable disposal
of all events to promote the interests of the divine kingdom.

In the next sentence, Jesus, if we mistake not, particularizes
a third feature in the state of spiritual maturity to which He
would have His disciples aspire. It is a heart enlarged to
desire, ask, and expect great things for themselves, the church,
and the world. " Hitherto," He says to them, " have ye asked
notliing in my name." Of course there was a reason for this,
distinct from the spiritual state of the twelve. The time had
not yet come for asking anything in Christ's name : they could
not fitly or naturally make " Christ's sake " their plea till
Christ's work was completed, and He was glorified. But
Jesus meant more than this by His remark. He meant to
say, what was in fact most true, that hitherto His disciples
had asked little in any name. Their desires had been petty,
their ideas of what to ask obscure and crude ; any wishes of
large dimensions they had cherished had been of a worldly
character, and therefore such as God could not grant. They
had been like children, to whom a penny appears greater than
a thousand pounds does to a wealthy man. But Jesus hints,
though He does not plainly say, that it will be otherwise with
the apostles after the advent of the Comforter. Then they

448 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

will be poor boys grown to rich merchants, whose ideas of
enjoyment have enlarged with their outward fortunes. Then
they will be able to pray such prayers as that of Paul in his
Eoman prison in behalf of the Ephesian church, and of the
church in all ages ; able to pray the Lord's Prayer, and
especially to say " Thy kingdom come," with a comprehen-
siveness of meaning, a fervency of desire, and an assurance of
faith, whereof at present they have simply no conception.
Hitherto they have been but as children, asking of their father
trifles, toys, pence ; then they shall make large demands on
the riches of God's grace, for themselves, the church, and the
world.

Along with this enlargement, Jesus promises, will come
fulness of joy. Wliat is asked, the Father will grant ; and
the answer to prayer will fill the cup of joy to the brim. Hope
may be deferred for a season, but in the end will come the
unspeakable joy of hope fulfilled. " Ask, and ye shall receive,
that your joy may be full."

So it turned out in the experience of the apostles. They
had fulness of joy in the Holy Ghost, in His work in their
own hearts and in the world. Does the law hold good still ?
"Why should it not ? But why, then, is the work of the Spirit
at a stand-still in individual Christians, and in the church
generally ? Why is the cause of Christianity not progressing,
but rather, one might almost say, retrograding ? We must
answer these questions by asking others : How many have
large hearts, cherishing comprehensive desires ? How many
with their whole soul desire for themselves above all things
sanctification and illumination ? How many earnestly, pas-
sionately desire the conversion of the heathen, the unity and
peace and purity of the church, the prevalence of righteous-
ness in society at large ? Verily we are straitened in our own
hearts, not in God !

The farewell discourse is now at an end. Jesus has said
to His disciples what time permits, and what they are able to
hear. He does not imagine that He has conveyed much in-
struction to their minds, or that He has done much for them
in the way of consolation. He has a very humble idea of the

DYING CHARGE : END OF THE DISCOURSE. 449

character and practical effect of the address He has just de-
livered. Casting a glance backwards at the whole, while per-
liaps specially alluding to what had been said just before, He
remarks : " These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs."
A few parables or figurative sayings about the house of many
mansions, and about the Divine Trinity coming to make their
abode with the faithful, and about the vine and its branches,
and about maternal sorrows and joys : such, in the speaker's
view, is the sum of His discourse.

Conscious of the inevitable deficiency not only of the pre-
sent discourse, but of His whole past teaching, Jesus takes occa-
sion for the third time to repeat the promise of future spiritual
illumination ; this time speaking of Himself as the illimii-
nator, and representing the doctrine of the Father as the great
subject of illumination. " The time cometh when / shall no
more speak unto you in proverbs, but / shall show you plainly
of the Father." The time referred to is still the era dating
from the ascension. Shortly thereafter the disciples would
begin to experience the fulfilment of Philip's prayer, to under-
stand what their Lord meant by His going to the Father, and
to realize its blessed consequences for themselves. Then
would their exalted Lord, through the Spirit of truth, speak
to them plainly of these and all other matters ; plainly in
comparison with His present mystic, hidden style of speech,
if not so plainly as to falsify the statements in other places of
Scripture concerning the partiality and dimness of all spiritual
knowledge in this eartlily state of being.

Of the good time coming Jesus has yet another thing to
say ; not a new thing, but an old thing said in a new,
wondrously kind, and pathetic way. It has reference to the
hearing of prayer, and is to this effect : " In the day of your
enlightenment you will, as I have already hinted, pray not less
than heretofore, but far more, and you will use my name as
your plea to be heard. Let me once more assure you that
you slicdl be heard. In support of this assurance, I might
remind you that I will be in heaven with the Father, ever
ready to speak a word in your behalf, saying : ' Father, hear
them for my sake, whose name they plead in their petitions.'
But I do not insist on this, not only because I believe you do

2 F

450 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

not need to be assured of my continued interest in your welfare,
but more especially because my intercession will not be neces-
sary. My Father will not need to be entreated to bear you, the?
men who have been with me in all my temptations/ who have
loved me with leal-hearted affection, who have believed in me
as the Christ, the Son of the living God, while the world at
large has regarded me as an impostor and a blasphemer. For
these services to His Son my Father loves you, is grateful to
you — in a sense, accounts Himself your debtor." ^

What heart, what humanity, what poetry, is in all this !
Yes, poetry, but also truth : truth unspeakably comforting not
only to the eleven faithful companions of Jesus, but to all
sincere believers in Him. For, all Popish notions of merit
apart, it is undoubtedly true that God loves all in this world
who love and serve His Son. The eyes of God run to and fro
throughout the whole earth, to show Himself gracious to those
who are perfect in heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ,
honestly believing that He came out from the bosom of the
Eternal, and returned thither again, ever careful for the
honour of His name, ever zealous in His cause, willingly en-
during hardsliip for His sake,- — in one word, true Christians.

Having alluded to the faith of His disciples— so merito-
rious, because so rare — Jesus takes occasion in closing His
discourse, and at the close of His life, solemnly to declare its
truth. " I came forth from the Father, and am come into the
world : again I leave the world, and go to the Father." ^ The
first part only of this statement the disciples beheved ; the
second they did not yet understand; but Jesus puts both
together, as the two lialves of one whole truth, either of which
necessarily implies the other. The declaration is a most
momentous one : it sums up the history of Christ ; it is the
substance of the Christian faith ; it asserts doctrines utterly
incompatible with a merely human view of Christ's person, and
makes His divinity the fundamental article of the creed.

These last words of Jesus burst on the disciples like a star
suddenly shining out from the clouds in a dark night. At
length one luminous utterance had pierced through the haze
of their Master's mysterious discourse, and they fancied that

i Luke xxii. 28. * John xvi. 26, 27. ^ John xvi. 28.

DYING CHAEGE: END OF THE DISCOURSE. 451

now at last they understood its import. Jesus had just told
them that He came forth from the Father into the world.
That, at least, they understood ; it was because they believed
it that they had become disciples. Delighted to have heard
something to which they could give a hearty response, they
make the most of it, and inform their Master that the intel-
ligible, plain speaking on His part, and the intelligent appre-
hending on theirs which He had projected into the future,
were already in existence. " Lo," said they, with emphasis on
the temporal particle, " noiu Thou speakest plainly, and speakest
no proverb. Now are we sure that Thou knowest all things,
and needest not that any man should ask Thee: in this we
believe that Thou earnest forth from God."

Alas, how impossible it is for children to speak otherwise
than as children ! The disciples, in the very act of professing
their knowledge, b^etray their utter ignorance. The statement
beginning with the second " now " indicates an almost ludi-
crous misapprehension of what Jesus had said about their asking
Him no questions in the day of their enlightenment. He meant
they would not then need to ask questions as learners ; they
took Him to mean that He Himself had no need to be asked
questions as to who He was and whence He came. His claim
to a heavenly descent being already admitted at least by them.
And as to the inference drawn from that statement, " By this
we believe," we can make nothing of it. After many attempts
to understand the logic of the disciples, we must confess our-
selves utterly baffled. The only way by which we can put a
tolerable sense on the words is to regard the phrase translated
" by this " as an adverb of time, and to read " at this present
moment : " Meanwhile, whateyer additional light may be in
store for us in the future, we even now believe that Thou camest
forth from God. This translation, howeyer, is not favoured,
or even suggested, by any of the critics.^

That the disciples did honestly believe what they professed
to believe, was true. Jesus had just before admitted as much.
But they did not understand what was involved in their belief.

' Winer, Neutest. Grammailk, states that lie knows no clear example of the use
of Iv TovTo, = by this, or because of. Of its use = intered he gives several examples
from classic authors, pp. 361-2 (Moulton's translation, p. 484).

452 _ THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

They did not comprehend that the coming of Jesus from the
Father implied a going thither again. They had not compre-
hended that at the beginning of the discourse ; they did not
comprehend it when the discourse was finished ; they would
not comprehend it till their Lord had taken His departure,
and the Spirit had come who should make all things plain.
In consequence of this ignorance, their faith would not carry
them through the evil hour that was now very near. The
death of their Master, the first step in the process of His
departure, would take them by surprise, and make them flee
panic-stricken like sheep attacked by wolves. So Jesus
plainly told them. " Do ye now believe ? " He said ; " behold,
the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered,
every man to his own, and shall leave me alone." ^

Stern fact sternly announced ; but however stern, Jesus is
not afraid to look it in the face. His heart is in perfect
peace, for He has two great consolations. He has a good
conscience : He can say, " I have overcome the world." He
has held fast His moral integrity against incessant temptation.
The prince of this world has found none of his spirit in Him,
and for that very reason is going to crucify Him. But by that
proceeding the devil will not nullify, but rather seal. His vic-
tory. Outward defeat by worldly power will be but the index
and measure of His spiritual conquest. The world itself
knows well, that putting Him to death is but the second best
way of overcoming Him. His enemies would have been
much better pleased if they had succeeded in intimidating or
bribing Him into compromise. The ungodly powers of the
world always prefer corruption to persecution as a means of
getting rid of truth and righteousness ; only after failing in
attempts to debauch conscience, and make men venal, do
they have recourse to violence.

Christ's other source of consolation in prospect of death is
the approval of His Father : " I am not alone, because the
Father is with me." The Father has been with Him aU

^ The commentators tell us that apn -riffTivin is not a question. If not, why
is there no adversative particle in next clause (^ip;^irai Vi) ? The clause is un-
doubtedly interrogative in effect. Cluist calls in question not the reality indeed,
but the sufficiency, of the faith of His disciples.

DYING CHAKGE: END OF THE DISCOUESE. 453

along. On three critical occasions — at the baptism, on the
hill of transfiguration, in the temple a few days ago — the
Father had encouraged Him with an approving voice. He
feels that the Father is with Him still. He expects that He
will be with Him when He is deserted by His chosen ones,
and all through the awful crisis at hand, even in that darkest,
bitterest moment, when the loss of His Father's sensible pre-
sence will extort from Him the cry : " My God, my God, why
hast Thou forsaken me ? " He expects that His Father will be
with Him then, not to save Him from the sense of desertion
(He does not wish to be saved from that, for He would know
by experience that sorest of all sorrows,, that in this as in all
other respects He might be like His brethren, and be able to
succour them when they are tempted to despair), but to sustain
Him under the sore affliction, and enable Him with filial faith
to cry " my God " even when complaining of being forsaken.

Free from all anxiety for HimseK, Jesus bids His disciples
also be of good cheer ; and for the same reason why He Him-
self is without fear, viz. because He has overcome the world.
He will have them understand that His victory is theirs too,
" Be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world, therefore so
have ye in effect," — such is His meaning.

Men of Socinianizing tendencies would interpret the words
differently. They would read : I have overcome the world,
therefore so may ye. Follow my example, and manfully fight
the battle of righteousness in spite of tribulations. The mean-
ing is good enough, so far as it goes. It does nerve one for
the battle of life, to know that the Lord of glory has been
through it before him. It is an inspiring thought that He
has even been a combatant at all ; for who would not follow
when the divine Captain of salvation leads through suffering
to glory ? Then, when we think that this august combatant
has been completely victorious in the fight, His example be-
comes still more cheering. His victory shows that the God of
this world is not omnipotent, that it is always in the power of
any one to overcome him simply by being willing to bear the
cross. Looking at Jesus enduring the contradiction of sinners
even unto death, and despising the shame of crucifixion. His
followers get more heart to fight the good fight of faith.

454 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

But while this is true, it is the smallest part of the truth.
The grand fact is, that Christ's victory is the victory of His
followers, and ensures that they too shall conquer. Jesus
fought His battle not as a private person, but as a public
character, as a representative man. And all are welcome to
claim the benefits of His victory — the pardon of sin, power
to resist the evil one, admission into the everlasting kingdom.
Because Christ hath overcome, we may say to all. Be of good
cheer. The victory of the Son of God in human nature is an
available source of consolation for all who partake of that
nature. It is the privilege of every man (as well as the duty)
to acknowledge Christ as His representative in this great
battle. " The Head of gy&cj man is Christ." All who sin-
cerely recognise the relationship will get the benefit of it.
Claim kindred with the High Priest, and you shall receive
from Him mercy and grace to help in your hour of need.
Lay it to heart that men are not isolated units, every one
fighting his own battle without help or encouragement. We
are members one of another, and above all, we have in Christ
an elder brother. "We have at least a human relationship to
Him, if not a regenerate one. Let us therefore look up to
Him as our Head in all things : as our King, and lay down
the weapons of our rebellion ; as our Priest, and receive from
Him the pardon of our sins ; as our Lord, to be ruled by His
will, defended by His might, and guided by His grace. If we
do this, the accuser of the brethren will have no chance of
prevailing against us. The words of St. John in the Apocalypse
will be fulfilled in our history : " They overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony ; and
they loved not their lives unto the death."

CHAPTEE XXVI.

THE INTEKCESSORY PKAYEE.
John xvii.

THE prayer uttered by Jesus at the close of His farewell
address to His disciples, of unparalleled sublimity,
whether we regard its contents or the circumstances amid
wliich it was offered up, it was for years our iixed purpose
to pass over in solemn, reverent silence, without note or
comment. We reluctantly depart from our intention now,
constrained by the considerations that the prayer was not
offered up mentally by Jesus, but in the hearing and for the
instruction of the eleven men present ; that it has been
recorded by one of them for the benefit of the church in all
ages ; and that what it hath pleased God to preserve for our
use, we must endeavour to understand, and may attempt to
interpret.

The prayer falls naturally into three divisions ; in the first
of which Jesus prays for Himself, in the second for His dis-
ciples, and in the third for the church w^hich was to be
brought into existence by their preaching.

The prayer of Jesus for Himself (vers. 1-5) contains
just one petition, with two reasons annexed. The petition is,
" Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son ; " in which the
manner of address, simple, familiar, confidential, is noteworthy.
"Father!" — such is the first word of the prayer, six times
repeated in its course, with or without epithet attached, and
the name which Jesus gives to Him to whom His prayer is
addressed. He speaks to God as if He were already in heaven,
as indeed He expressly says He is a little further on : " Now
I am no more in the world."

The significant phrase, " the hour is come," is not less
worthy of notice. How much it expresses ! — filial obedience,

456 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

filial intimacy, filial hope and joy. The hour ! It is the hour
for which He has patiently waited, which He has looked for-
ward to with eager expectation, yet has never sought to hurry
on ; the hour appointed by His Father, about which Father
and Son have always had an understanding, and of which
none but they have had any knowledge. That hour is come,
and its arrival is intimated as a plea in support of the
petition. " Thou knowest. Father, how patiently I have waited
for what I now ask, not wearying in well-doing, nor shrinking
from the hardships of my earthly lot. Now that my work is
finished, grant me the desire of my heart, and glorify me."

" Glorify me," that is, " take me to be with ThyseK." The
prayer of Jesus is, that His Father would be pleased now to
translate Him from this world of sin and sorrow into the
state of glory He left behind when He became man. Thus
He explains His own meaning when He repeats His request
in a more expanded form, as given in the fifth verse : " And
now, 0 Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the
glory I had with Thee before the world was," i.e. with the
glory He enjoyed in the bosom of the Father before His
incarnation as God's eternal Son.

It is observable that, in this prayer for Himself, Jesus
makes no allusion to His approaching sufferings. Very
shortly after, in Gethsemane, He prayed : " 0 my Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me ! " But here is no
mention of the cup of sorrow, but only of the crown of glory.
For the present, heaven is in full view, and its anticipated
glories make Him oblivious of everything else. Not till He is
gone out into the night do the sulphurous clouds begin to
gather, which overshadow the sky and shut out the celestial
world from sight.

Yet the coming passion, though not mentioned, is virtually
included in the prayer. Jesus knows that He must pass
through suffering to glory, and that He must behave Himself
worthily under the last trial, in order to reach the desired
goal. Therefore the uttered prayer includes this unuttered
one : " Carry me well through the approaching struggle ; let
me pass through the dark valley to the realms of light with-
out flinchins or fear."

THE INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 457

The first reason annexed to the prayer is, " That Thy Son
also may glorify Thee." Jesus seeks His own glorification
merely as a means to a higher end, the glorification of God
the Father. And in so connecting the two glorifyings as
means and end, He but repeats to the Father what He had
said to His disciples in His farewell address. He had told
them that it was good for them that He should go, as not till
His departure would any deep impression be made on the
world's conscience with respect to Himself and His doctrine.
He now tells His Father in effect : " It is good for Thy glory
that I leave the earth and go to heaven ; for henceforth I can
promote Thy glory in the world better there than by a pro-
longed sojourn here."

To enforce the reason, Jesus next declares that what He
desires is to glorify the Father, in His office as the Saviour of
sinners : " As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that
He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given
Him."^ Interpreted in the light of this sentence, the prayer
means : " Thou sentest me into the world to save sinners,
and hitherto I have been constantly occupied in seeking
the lost, and communicating eternal life to such as would
receive it. But the time has come when this work can be
best carried on by me lifted up. Therefore exalt me to Thy
throne, that from thence, as a Prince and a Saviour, I may
dispense the blessings of salvation."

It is important to notice how Jesus defines His commission
as the Saviour. He represents it at once as concerning all
flesh, and as specially concerning a select class, thus ascribing
to His work a general and a particular reference, in accordance
with the teaching of the whole New Testament, which sets
forth Christ at one time as the Saviour of all men, at another
as the Saviour of His people, of the elect, of His sheep, of
those who believe. This style of speaking concerning the
redeeming work of our Saviour it is our duty and our privi-
lege to imitate ; avoiding extremes, both that of denying or
ignoring the imiversal aspects of Christ's mission, and that
of maintaining that He is in the same sense the Saviour of
all, or that He will eventually save all. Both extremes are

^ John xvii. 2.

458 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

excluded by the carefully selected words of Jesus in His in-
tercessory prayer. On the one hand, He speaks of all flesh as
belonging to His jurisdiction as the Saviour, of humanity at
large as the mass into which the leaven is to be deposited, with
a view to leavening the whole lump. On the other hand, there
is an obvious restriction on the universality of the first clause
in the terms of the second. The advocates of universal
restoration have no support for their tenet here. They may
indeed ask : If Jesus has power over all flesh, is it credible
that He will not use it to the uttermost ? In reply, we shall
not seek to evade the question, by resolving the power claimed
into a mere mediatorial sovereignty over the whole solely for
the sake of a part, because we know that the elect part is
chosen not merely for its own sake, but also for the sake
of the whole, to be the salt of the earth, the light of the
world, and the leaven to leaven the corrupt mass.^ We simply
observe that the powder of the Saviour is not compulsory.
Men are not saved by force as machines, but by love and
grace as free beings ; and there are many whom brooding
love would gather under its wings, who prefer remaining out-
side to their own destruction.

The essence of eternal life is defined in the next sentence
of the prayer, and represented as consisting in the knowledge
of the only true God, and of Jesus Christ His messenger :
knowledge being taken comprehensively as including faith,
love, and worship, and the emphasis lying on the objects of
such knowledge. The Christian religion is here described in
opposition to paganism on the one hand, with its many gods,
and to Judaism on the other, which, believing in the one true
God, rejected the claims of Jesus to be the Christ. It is
further so described as to exclude by anticipation Arian and
Socinian views of the person of Christ. The names of God
and of Jesus are put on a level as objects of religious regard,
whereby an importance is assigned to the latter incompatible
with the dogma that Jesus is a mere man. Tor eternal life
cannot depend on knowing any man, however wise and good :
the utmost that can be said of the benefit derivable from such

' On this see Martensen, Die Christliche Dogmatik, § 215 (translated in Foreign
Theological Library).

THE INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 459

knowledge is, that it is helpful towards knowing God better,
which can be affirmed not only of Jesus, but of Moses, Paul,
John, and all the apostles.

It may seem strange that, in addressing His Father, Jesus
should deem it needful to explain wherein eternal life consists ;
and some, to get rid of the difficulty, have supposed that the
sentence is an explanatory reflection interwoven into the prayer
by the evangelist. Yet the words were perfectly appropriate
in the mouth of Jesus Himself. The first clause is a confes-
sion by the man Jesus of His own faith in God His Father
as the supreme object of knowledge ; and the whole sentence
is really an argument in support of the prayer. Glorify Thy
Son. The force of the declaration lies in what it implies
respecting the existing ignorance of men concerning the Father
and His Son. It is as if Jesus said : Father, Thou knowest
that eternal life consists in knowing Thee and me. Look
around, then, and see how few possess such knowledge. The
heathen world knoweth Thee not — it worships idols : the
Jewish world is equally ignorant of Thee in spirit and in truth ;
for, while boasting of knowing Thee, it rejects me. The
whole world is overspread with a dark veil of ignorance and
sujDcrstition. Take me out of it therefore, not because I am
weary of its sin and darkness, but that I may become to it a
sun. Hitherto my efforts to illuminate the darkness have met
with small success. Grant me a position from which I can
send forth hght over all the earth.

But why does the Saviour here alone, in the whole Gospel
history, call Himself Jesus Christ ? Some see in this com-
pound name, common in the apostolic age, another proof that
this verse is an interpolation. Again, however, without reason,
for the style in which Jesus designates Himself exactly suits
the object He has in view. He is pleading with the Father
to take Him to glory, that He may the more effectually pro-
pagate the true religion. What more appropriate in this con-
nection than to speak of Himself objectively under the name
by which He should be known among the professors of the
true religion ?

The second reason pled by Jesus in support of His prayer is
that His appointed service has been faithfully accomplished, and

460 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

now claims its guerdon : " I have glorified Thee on the earth :
I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. Now,
therefore, glorify Thou me." ^ The great Servant of God speaks
here not only with reference to the past, but by anticipation
with reference to His passion already endured in purpose ;
so that the " I have finished" of the prayer is equivalent in
meaning to the " It is finished " spoken from the cross. And
what He says concerning Himself is true : the declaration,
though one which no other human being could make without
abatement, is on His part no exaggerated, boastful piece of
self-laudation, but the sober, humble utterance of a conscience
void of offence towards G-od and towards men. Nor can we
say that the statement, though true, was ultroneous and un-
called for. It was necessary that Jesus should be able to
make that declaration ; and though the fact declared was well
known to God, it was desirable to proclaim in the hearing of
the twelve, and unto the whole church through their record,
the grounds on which His claim to be rewarded with glory
rested, for the strengthening of faith. For as our faith and
hope towards God are based on the fact that Jesus Christ was
able to make the declaration in question, so they are confirmed
by the actual making of it ; His protestation that He has
kept His covenant of work being to us as it were a seal of the
covenant of grace, serving the same end as the sacrament of
the Supper.

Having offered this brief petition for Himself, Jesus pro-
ceeded to pray for His disciples at much greater length ; aU
that follows having reference to them mainly, and from the
sixth to the twentieth verse referring to them exclusively.
The transition is made by a special declaration, applying the
general one of the preceding sentence to that part of Christ's
personal work which consisted in the training of these men : " I
have manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest
me out of the world." ^ After this introductory statement
follows a short description of the persons about to be prayed
for. Jesus gives His disciples a good character. First,
scrupulously careful not to exaggerate the importance of the
service He has rendered in training them for the apostolate,
^ Jolin xvii. i. ^ John xvii. 6.

THE INTERCESSORY PKAYEE. 461

He acknowledges that they were good when He got them :
" Thine they were, and Thou gavest them me : " they were
pious, devout men, God-taught, God-drawn, God-given. Then
He testifies, that since they had been with Him they had sus-
tained the character they had when they joined His company:
" They have kept Thy word." And finally. He bears witness
that the men whom His Father had given Him had been true
behevers in Himself, and had received all His words as the
very truth of God, and HimseK as One sent forth into the world
by God.^ Here, surely, is a generous eulogy on disciples, who,
while sincere and devoted to their Master, were, as we know,
exceedingly faulty in conduct and slow to learn.

Having thus generously praised His humble companions,
Jesus intimates His intention to pray for them : " I pray for
them." But the prayer comes not just yet ; for some prefatory
words must be premised, to give the prayer more emphasis
when it does come. Eirst, the persons prayed for are singled
out as for the moment the sole objects of a concentrated solici-
tude. "I pray for them: I pray not for the world." ^ The design
of Jesus in making this statement is not, of course, to intimate
the absolute exclusion of the world from His sympathies.
Not exclusion, but concentration in order to eventual inclusion,
is His purpose here. He would have His Father fix His
special regards on this small band of men, with whom the
fortunes of Christianity are bound up. He prays for them as
a mother dying might pray exclusively for her children ; not
that she is indifferent to the interest of all beyond, but that
her family, in her solemn situation, is for her the natural legiti-
mate object of an absorbing, all-engrossing solicitude. He prays
for them as the precious fruit of His life labour, the hope of
the future, the founders of the church, the Noah's ark of the
Christian faith, the missionaries of the truth to the whole
world : for them alone, hut for the world's sake ; it being the
best thing He can do for the world meantime to commend
them to the Father's care.

What Jesus means to ask for the men thus singled out, we
can now guess for ourselves. It is that His Father would
keep them, now that He is about to leave them. But before

^ John xvii. 7, 8. ^ John xvii. 9,

462 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

tlie request, come the reasons why it should be granted. The
first is expressed in these terms : " They are Thine : and all
mine are Thine, and Thine are mine ; and I am glorified in
them," ^ — and means in effect this : " It is Thy business, Thy
interest, to keep these men. They are Thine : Thou gavest
them me ; keep Thine own. Although, since they became
my disciples, they have been mine, that makes no difference :
they are still Thine ; for between me and Thee is no dis-
tinction of meum and tiiuni. Then I am glorified in them :
my cause, my name, my doctrine, are to be henceforth identi-
fied with them ; and if they miscarry, my interest will be ship-
wrecked. Therefore, as Thou valuest the honour of Thy Son
keep these men."

Another reason why the request about to be proffered should
be granted follows in the next verse : " And now I am no more
in the world." ^ The Master, about to depart from the earth,
commends to His Father's care those whom He is leaving
behind without a head.

And now at length comes the prayer for the eleven, ushered
in with due solemnity by a new emphatic address to the
Hearer of prayer : " Holy Father, keep in Thine own name
those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one, as
we are."^ The epithet "holy" suits the purport of the prayer,
which is, that the disciples may be kept pure in faith and
practice, separate from all existing error and sin, that they
may be eventually a salt to the corrupt world in which their
Lord is about to leave them.

The prayer embraces two particulars. The first is, that
the disciples may be kept in the name of the Father, which
Jesus has manifested to them ; that is, that they may con-
tinue to believe what He had taught them of God, and so
become His instruments for diffusing the knowledge of the
true God and the true religion throughout the earth. The
second is, that they may l)e one, that is, that they may be
kept in love to each other, as well as in the faith of the
Divine Name ; separate from the world, but not divided
among themselves.^ These two things, truth and love, Jesus
asks for His own, as of vital moment : truth as the badge of

John xvii. 10. ^ Ver. 11. 3 Ver. 11. * Ver. 11.

THE INTERCESSORY PRAYER. 463

distinction between His churcli and the world; love as the
bond which unites believers of the truth into a holy brother-
hood of witness-bearers to the truth. These two things the
church should ever keep in view as of co-ordinate importance :
not sacrificing love to truth, dividing those who should be
one, by insisting on too ininute and detailed a testimony ;
nor sacrificing truth to love, making the church a very broad
comprehensive society, but a society without a vocation, or
raison d'etre, having no truth to guard and teach, nor testi-
mony to bear.

Having commended His disciples to His Father's care,
Jesus next gives an account of His own stewardship as
their Master> and protests that He has faithfully kept them
in divine truth.^ He claims to have done His duty by them
all, not even excepting Judas ; in whose case He admits
failure, but at the same time clears Himself of blame. The
reference to tlie false disciple shows how conscientious He
is in rendering His account. He feels, as it were, put on His
defence with reference to the apostate ; and supposing Himself
to be asked the question. What have you to say about this
man ? He replies in effect : " I admit I have not been able to
keep him from falling, but I have done all I could. The son
of perdition is not lost through my fault." ^ We know how
well entitled Jesus was to make this protestation.

In the next part of the prayer ^ Jesus defines the sense in
which He a.sks that His disciples may be kept, and in doing
this virtually offers new reasons why the petition should be
heard. He commends them to His Father's care as the de-
positaries of truth, worth keeping on that account, and needing
to be kept, because of the world's dislike of the truth.* And
He explains that by keeping He means not translation out of
the world, but preservation in the world from its moral evil ;
their presence there as a salt being necessary, and their purity
not less needful, that the salt might not be without savour
and virtue. This explanation He meant not for the ear of
His Father alone, but also for the ears of His disciples. He
wished them to understand that two things were equally to

1 John xvii. 12. » Ver. 12.

3 Vers. 14-20. 4 Ver. 14,

464 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

be shunned — conformity to the world, and weariness of the
world. They must abide in the truth, and they must abide
in the world for the truth's sake ; mindful for their consolation,
that when they felt the world's hatred most, they were doing
most good, and that the weight of their cross was the measure
of their influence.

The keeping asked by Jesus for His own is but the con-
tinuance and perfecting of an existing moral condition. He
needs not to ask His Father now for the first time to separate
His disciples in spirit and character from the world. That
they are already ; that they were when first they joined His
society ; that they have continued to be. This, in justice to
them, their Master is careful to state twice over in this portion
of His prayer. " They," He testifies, " are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world ;"^ putting them on a level with
Himself with characteristic magnanimity, and not without
truth ; for the persons thus described, though in many re-
spects defective, were very unworldly, caring nothing for the
world's trinity — riches, honours, and pleasures — but only for
the words of eternal life.

Yet, notwithstanding their sincerity, the eleven still needed
not only keeping, but iicrfcdiiKj ; and therefore their Master
went on to pray for their sanctification in the truth, having
in view not only their perseverance, growth, and maturity in
grace as private Christians, but more especially their spiritual
equipment for the office of the apostleship. Hence He goes
on in the next breath to make mention of their apostolic
vocation, showing that that is principally in His eye : " As
Thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent
them into the world." "^ That they may be fitted for their
mission is His intense desire. Hence He proceeds to speak
of His own sanctification as a means towards their apostolic
sanctification as the end, as if His own ministry were merely
subordinate to theirs. " For their sakes I sanctify myself, that
they also might be sanctified through the truth." ^ Remark-
able words, whose meaning is obscure, and has been much
debated, but in which we may at least with confidence discover
a singular display of condescension and love. Jesus talks
1 John xvii. 14, 16. ^ ygr, is. '^ Ver. 19.

THE INTERCESSOKY PRAYER. 465

here like a parent who lives for the sake of his cliildren,
having a regard to their moral training in all His personal
habits, denying Himself pleasures for their benefit, and mak-
ing it His chief end and care to form their characters, perfect
their education, and fit them for the duties of the position
which they are destined to fill.

The remainder of the prayer (with exception of the two
closing sentences ^) respects the church at large — those who
should believe in Christ through the word of the apostles,
heard from their lips, or reported in their writings. What
Jesus desires for the body of believers is partly left to be in-
ferred ; for when He says, " I pray not for these alone" He
intimates that He desires for the parties next to be prayed
for the same things He has already asked for His disciples :
preservation in the truth, and from the evil in the world, and
sanctification by the truth. The one blessing He expressly
asks for the church is " Unity." His heart's desu'e for be-
lievers in Him, is " that they all may be one." His ideal of
the church's unity is very high, its divine exemplar being the
unity subsisting between the persons in the Godhead, and
specially between the Father and the Son, and its ground the
same divine unity : " one as we are one, and in us who are
one," bound together as closely and harmoniously by the
common name into wliich they are baptized, and by which
they are called.^

This unity, desirable for its own sake, Jesus specially de-
siderates because of the moral power which it will confer on
the church as an institute for propagating the Christian faith :
" That the world may believe that Thou hast sent me."^ Now
this end is one which cannot be promoted unless the unity
of believers be in some way made manifest. A unity which
is not apparent can have no effect on the world, but must
needs be as a candle under a bushel, which gives no light,
nay, ceases to be a light, and goes out. There can be no
doubt, therefore, that our Lord had a visible unity in view,
and the only question is how that is to be reached.

The first and most obvious way is by union in one church
organization, with appointed means for representing the whole

1 John xvii. 20-24. 2 ygr. 21, 3 Yqxs. 21, 23.

2 G

4G6 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

body, and expressing its united mind ; such, e.g., as the oecu-
menical councils of the early centuries. This, the most com-
plete manifestation of unity, was exhibited in the primitive
church.

In our day incorporating union on a great scale is not pos-
sible, and other methods of expressing the feeling of catho-
licity must be resorted to. One method that might be tried
is that of confederation, whereby independent church organiza-
tions might be united after the fashion of the United States
of America, or of the Greek republics, which found a centre of
unity in the legislative and judicial assembly called the Am-
phictyonic Council. But whatever may be thought of that,
one thing is certain, that the unity of believers in Christ must
be made more manifest as an undeniable fact somehow, if
the church is to realize her vocation as a holy nation called
out of darkness to show forth the virtues of Him whose name
she bears, and win for Him the world's homage and faith. It
is true, indeed, that the unity of the church does find expression
in its creed ; by which we mean not the sectional creed of
this or that denomination, but the creed within the creeds,
expressive of the catholic orthodoxy of Christendom, and em-
bracing the fundamentals, and only the fundamentals, of the
Christian faith. There is a church within all the churches to
which this creed is the thing of value, all else being, in the
esteem of its members, but the husk containing the precious
kernel. But the existence of that church is a fact known by
faith, not by sight : its influence is little felt by the world ;
and however thankful we may be for the presence in the midst
of ecclesiastical organizations of this holy commonwealth, we
cannot accept it as the realization of the ideal which the
Saviour had in His mind when He uttered the words, " That
they all may be one."

In the next two sentences^ Jesus fondly lingers over this
prayer, repeating, expanding, enforcing the petition in language
too deep for our fathoming line, but wliich plainly conveys the
truth, that without unity tlie church can neither glorify Christ,
commend Christianity as divine, nor have the glory of Christ
abiding on herself. And tliis is a truth which, on reflection,

1 John xvii. 22, 23.

THE INTERCESSORY PRATER. 467

approves itself to reason. Wrangling is not a divine thing,
and it needs no divine influence to bring it about. Anybody-
can quarrel ; and the world knowing that, has little respect for
a quarrelling church. But the world opens its eyes in wonder
at a community in which peace and concord prevail, saying :
Here is something out of the common course ; seliishness and
self-will rooted out of human nature : nothing but a divine
influence could thus subdue the centrifugal forces which
separate men from each other.

The endearing name Father, with which the next sentence
begins, marks the commencement of a new final paragraph in
the prayer of the great High Priest.^ Jesus at this point casts
a glance forward to the end of things, and prays for the final
consummation of God's purpose with regard to the church ;
that the church militant may become the church triumphant ;
that the body of saints, imperfectly sanctified on earth, may
become perfectly sanctified and glorified in heaven, with Him-
self where He will be, beholding His glory, and changed into
the same image by the Spirit of God.

Then comes the conclusion, in which Jesus returns from the
distant future to the present, and gathers in His thoughts from
the church at large to the company assembled in the supper-
chamber, Himself and His disciples.^ These two closing sen-
tences serve the same use in Christ's prayer that the phrase " for
Christ's sake " serves in ours. They contain two pleas — the
service of the parties prayed for, and the righteousness of the
Being prayed to : the last coming first, embodied in the title
" 0 righteous Father." The services, merits, and claims of
Jesus and His disciples are specifically mentioned as matters
to which the righteous Father will doubtless attach the due
weight. The world's ignorance of God is alluded to, to en-
hance the value of the acknowledgment which He has received
from His Son and His Son's companions. That ignorance
explains why Jesus deems it necessary to say, " I have known
Thee." Even His knowledge was not a thing of course in
such a world. It was an efibrt for the man Jesus to retain
God in His knowledge, quite as much as to keep Himself
unspotted from the world's corruptions. It was as hard for
1 John xvii. 24. * Vers. 25, 26.

468 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Him to know and confess God as Father in a world that in a
thousand ways practically denied that Fatherhood, as to live
a life of love amid manifold temptations to self-seeking. In
truth, the two problems were one. To be light in the midst
of darkness, love in the midst of selfishness, holiness in the
midst of depravity, are in effect the same thing.

While pleading His own merit, Jesus forgets not the claims
of His disciples. Of them He says in effect : They have known
Thee at second-hand through me, as I have known Thee at
first-hand by direct intuition.^ Not content with tliis state-
ment, He expatiates on the importance of these men as objects
of divine care ; representing that they are worth keeping, as
already possessing the knowledge of God's name, and destined
ere long to know it yet more perfectly, so that they shall be
able to make it known as an object of homage to others,
and God shall be able to love them even as He loved His
own Son, when He was in the world faithfully serving His
heavenly Father. "And I have declared unto them Thy
name, and will declare it ; that the love wherewith Thou hast
loved me may be in them, and I in them." ^ Wonderful
words to be uttered concerning mere earthen vessels !

1 John xvii. 25b. ^ Ver. 26.

CHAPTEE XXVII.

THE SHEEP SCATTERED.

Section i. — " All the Disciples forsook Him, and fled"
Matt. xxvi. 36-41, 55-6, 69-75, et parall. ; John xviii. 15-18.

FEOM the supper-chamber, in which we have lingered so
long, we pass into the outside world, to witness the
behaviour of the eleven in the great final crisis. The pas-
sages cited describe the part they played in the solemn scenes
connected with their Master's end. That part was a sadly
unheroic one. Faith, love, principle, all gave way before the
instincts of fear, shame, and self-preservation. The best of
the disciples — the three who, as most reliable, were selected by
Jesus to keep Him company in the garden of Gethsemane —
utterly failed to render the service expected of them. While
their Lord was passing tlirough His agony they fell asleep, as
they had done before on the Mount of Transfiguration. Even
the picked men thus proved themselves to be raw recruits,
unable to shake off drowsiness while they did duty as sentinels.
" What ! could ye not watch with me one hour ?" Then when
the enemy appeared, both these three and the other eight ran
away panic-stricken. " All the disciples forsook Him, and fled."
And, finally, that one of their number who thought himself
bolder than his brethren, not only forsook, but denied his be-
loved Master, declaring with an oath, " I know not the man."

The conduct of the disciples at this crisis in their history,
so weak and so unmanly, naturally gives rise to two ques-
tions : How should they have acted ? and why did they act as
they did — what were the causes of their failure ?

Now, to take up the former of these questions first, when
we try to form to ourselves a distinct idea of the course of

470 THE TEAINING OF THE TWELVE.

action demanded by fidelity, it is not at once quite apparent
wherein the disciples, Peter of course excepted, were at fault.
What could they do when their Lord was apprehended, hut
run away ? Offer resistance ? Jesus had positively forbidden
that just immediately before. On the appearance of the band
of armed men, " when they which were about Him saw what
would follow, they said unto Him, Lord, shall we smite with
the sword ?"^ Without waiting for a reply, one of them smote
the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. The
fighting disciple, John informs us, was Simon Peter. He had
brought a sword with him, one of two in the possession of the
company, from the supper-chamber to Gethsemane, thinking
it might be needed, and fully minded to use it if there was
occasion ; and, coward as he proved himself afterwards among
the serving-men and maids, he was no such arrant coward in
the garden. He used his weapon boldly if not skilfully, and
did some execution, though happily not of a deadly character.
Thereupon Jesus interposed to prevent further bloodshed,
uttering words variously reported, but in aU the different
versions clearly inculcating a policy of non-resistance. " Put
up again thy sword into his place," he said to Peter, adding
as His reason, " for all they that take the sword shall perish
with the sword ;" which was as much as to say, " In this kmd
of warfare we must necessarily have the worst of it." Then
He went on to hint at higher reasons for non-resistance than
mere considerations of prudence or expediency. " Thinkest
thou," he asked the warlike disciple, " that I cannot now pray
to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than
twelve legions of angels ? But how then shall the Scriptures
be fulfilled, that thus it must be ?"^ He could meet human
force by superior, divine, celestial force if He chose, but He
did not choose ; for to overpower His enemies would be to
defeat His own purpose in coming to the world, which was to
conquer, not by physical force, but by truth and love and god-
like patience : by drinking the cup which His Father had put
into His hands, bitter though it was to flesh and blood.^

Quite in harmony with these utterances in Gethsemane are
the statements made by Jesus on the same subject ere He left

^ Luke xxii. 49. ^ Matt. xxvi. 52-54. ^ John xviii. 11.

THE SHEEP SCATTERED : ALL FORSOOK HIM, AND FLED. 471

the supper-room, as recorded by Luke.^ In tlie letter, indeed,
these statements seem to point at a policy the very opposite of
non-resistance. Jesus seems to say that the great business
and duty of the hour, for all who are on His side, is to furnish
themselves with swords : so urgent is the need, that he who
wants a weapon must sell his garment to buy one. But the
very emphasis with which He speaks shows that His words
are not to be taken in the literal prosaic sense. It is very
easy to see what He means. His object is by graphic lan-
guage to convey to His disciples an idea of the gravity of
the situation. "Now," He would say, "now is the day, yea,
the hour of battle : if my kingdom be one of this world, as ye
have imagined, now is the time for fighting, not for dreaming :
now matters have come to extremities, and ye have need of
all your resources ; equip yourselves with shoes and purse and
knapsack, and above all, with swords and warlike courage."

The disciples did not understand their Lord's meaning. They
put a stupid, prosaic interpretation upon this part, as upon so
many other parts, of His farewell discourse. So, with ridi-
culous seriousness, they said : " Lord, behold, here are two
swords." The foolish remark provoked a reply which should
surely have opened their eyes, and kept Peter from carrying
the matter so far as to take one of the swords with him. " It
is enough," said Jesus, probably with a melancholy smile on
His face, as He thought of the stupid simplicity of those dear
childish and childlike men : " It is enough." Two swords :
well, they are enough only for one who does not mean to fight
at all. What were two swords for twelve men, and against a
hundred weapons of offence ? The very idea of fighting in
the circumstances was preposterous : it had only to be broadly
stated to appear an absurdity.

The disciples, then, were not called on to fight for their
Master, that He might not be delivered to the Jews. What
else, then, should they have done ? Was it their duty to
suffer with Him, and, carrying out the professions of Peter, to
go with Him to prison and to death ? This was not required
of them either. When Jesus surrendered Himself into the
hands of His captors, He proffered the request that, while

1 Luke xxii. 35-38.

472 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

taking Him into custody, they should let His followers go
their way.^ This He did not merely out of compassion for
them, but as the Captain of salvation making the best terms
for Himself and for the interests of His kingdom ; for it was
not less necessary to these that the disciples should live than
that He Himself should die. He gave Himself up to death,
that there might be a gospel to preach ; He deshed the safety
of His disciples, that there might be men to preach it. Mani-
festly, therefore, it was not the duty of the disciples to expose
themselves to danger : their duty lay rather, one would say,
in the direction of taking care of their life for future use-
fulness.

Where, then, if not in failing to fight for or suffer with
their Lord, did the fault of the eleven lie ? It lay in their
lack of faith. " Believe in God, and believe in me," Jesus had
said to them at the commencement of His farewell address,
and at the critical hour they did neither. They did not be-
lieve that all would yet end well both with them and their
Master, and especially that God would provide for their safety
without any sacrifice of principle, or even of dignity, on their
part. They put confidence only in the swiftness of their feet.
Had they possessed faith in God and in Jesus, they would
have witnessed their Lord's apprehension without dismay,
assured both of His return and of their own safety ; and, as
feeling might incline, would either have followed the officers
of justice to see what happened, or, averse to exciting and
painful scenes, would have retired quietly to their dwellings
until the tragedy was finished. But wanting faith, they neither
calmly followed nor calmly retired ; but faithlessly and igno-
miniously forsook their Lord, and Jlecl. The sin lay not so
much in the outward act, but in the inward state of mind of
which it was the index. Tliey fled in unbelief and despair,
as men whose hope was blasted, from a man whose cause was
lost, and whom God had abandoned to his enemies.

Having ascertained wherein the disciples were at fault, we
have now to inquire into the causes of their misconduct ; and
here, at the outset, we recall to mind that Jesus anticipated
the breakdown of His followers. He did not count on their

' John xviii. 8.

THE SHEEP SCATTERED : ALL FORSOOK HIM, AND FLED. 473

fidelity, but expected desertion as a matter of course. When
Peter offered to follow Him wheresoever He might go, He told
him that ere cock-crowing next morning he would deny Him
thrice. At the close of the farewell address. He told all the
disciples that they would leave Him alone. On the way to
the Mount of Olives He repeated the statement in these
terms : " All ye shall be offended because of me this night ;
for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep
of the flock shall be scattered abroad."^ And on all these
occasions the tone in which He spoke was rather prophetic
than reproachful. He expected His disciples to be panic-
stricken, just as one should expect sheep to flee on the appear-
ance of a wolf, or women to faint in presence of a scene of
carnage.

From this leniency we should infer that, in the view of
Jesus, the sin of the disciples was one of infirmity ; and that
this was the view which He took thereof, we hioio from the
words He addressed to the three drowsy brethren in Gethse-
mane. " Watch and pray," He said to them, " that ye enter
not into temptation : the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh
is weak." ^ The kind judgment thus expressed, though pro-
nounced with special reference to the shortcoming of Peter,
James, and John in the garden, manifestly applies to the
whole conduct of all the discij^les (not even excepting Peter's
denial) throughout the terrible crisis. Jesus regarded the
eleven as men whose attachment to Himself was above sus-
picion, but who were liable to fall, through the weakness of
their flesh, on being exposed to sudden temptation.

But what are we to understand by the weakness of the
flesh ? Mere instinctive love of life, dread of danger, fear of
man ? No ; for these instincts continued with the apostles
through life, without leading, except in one instance, to a
repetition of their present misconduct. Not only the flesh of
the disciples, but even the willing spirit, was weak. Their
spiritual character at this season was deficient in certain
elements which give steadiness to the good impulses of the
heart, and mastery over the infirmities of sentient nature.
The missing elements of strength were : foretliov.ght, clear
1 Matt. xxvi. 31. " Ver. 41.

474 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

perceptions of truth, sdf-hnowlcdgc, and the discipline of ex-
perience.

For want of forethought, it came to pass that the appre-
hension of their Lord took the eleven by surprise. This
may seem hardly credible, after the frequent intimations
Christ had given them of His approaching death ; after the
institution of the Supper, the farewell address, the refer-
ence to the traitor, the prophetic announcement concerning
their own frailty, and the discourse about the sword, which
was like a trumpet-peal calling to battle. Yet there can be
no doubt that such was the fact. The eleven went out to
Gethsemane without any definite idea of what was coming.
These raw recruits actually did not know that they were on
the march to the battle-field. The sleep of the three dis-
ciples in the garden is sufficient proof of this. Had the three
sentinels been thoroughly impressed with the belief that the
enemy was at hand, weary and sad though they were, they
would not have fallen asleep. Fear would have kept them
awake. " Know this, that if the goodman of the house had
known in what watch the thief woiild come, he would have
watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up."

The breakdown of the disciples at the final crisis was due
in part also to the want of clear perceptions of truth. They did
not understand the doctrine concerning Christ. They believed
their Master to be the Christ, the Son of the living God ; but
their faith was twined around a false theory of Messiah's mis-
sion and career. In that theory the cross had no place. So
long as the cross was only spoken about, their theory remained
firmly rooted in their minds, and the words of their Master
were speedily forgotten. But when the cross at length
actually came, when the things which Jesus had foretold
began to be fulfilled, then their theory went down like a tree
suddenly smitten by a whirlwind, carrying the woodbine
plant of their faith along with it. From the moment that
Jesus was apprehended, all that remained of faith in their
minds was simply a regret that they had been mistaken : " We
trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed
Israel." How could any one act heroically in such circum-
stances ?

THE SHEEP SCATTERED: ALL FOESOOK HIM, AND FLED. 4*75

A third radical defect in the character of the disciples was
self-ignorance. One who knows his weakness may become
strong even at the weak point ; but he who knows not his
weak points cannot be strong at any point. Now the fol-
lowers of Jesus did not know their weakness. They credited
themselves with an amount of fidehty and valour which ex-
isted only in their imagination ; all adopting as their own the
sentiment of Peter : " Though I should die with Thee, yet
wiU I not deny Thee." ^ Alas, they did not know how much
fear of man was in them, how much abject cowardice in pre-
sence of danger. Of course, when danger actually appeared,
the usual consequence of self-conscious valour followed. All
these stout-hearted disciples forsook their Master, and fled.

The last, and not the least, cause of weakness in the dis-
ciples was their inexperience of such scenes as they were now
to pass through. Experience of war is one great cause of the
coolness and courage of veteran soldiers in the midst of danger.
Practical acquaintance with the perils of military life makes
them caUous and fearless. But Christ's disciples were not
yet veterans. They were now but entering into their first
engagement. Hitherto they had exi^erienced only such trials
as befall even the rawest recruits. They had been called on
to leave home, friends, fishing-boats, and their earthly all, to
follow Jesus. But these initial hardships do not make a
soldier. No ; nor even the discij)line of the drill-sergeant, or
the donning of a uniform. For behold the green soft youth
with his bright uniform brought face to face with the stern
reality of battle. His knees smite each other, his heart
sickens, perchance he faints outright, and is carried to the
rear, unable to take any part in the fight. Poor lad, pity
him, do not scorn him ; he may turn out a brave soldier yet.
Even Frederick the Great ran away from his first battle. The
bravest of soldiers probably do not feel very heroic the first
time they are under fire.

These observations help us to understand how it came to
pass that the little flock was scattered when Jesus their shep-
herd was smitten. The explanation amounts in substance to
a proof that the disciples were sheep, not yet fit to be shep-

1 Matt. xxvi. 35.

476 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

herds of men. That being so, we do not wonder at the
leniency of Jesus, to which reference . has abeady been made.
No one expects sheep to do anything else than flee when the
wolf Cometh. Only in shepherds is craven fear severely re-
prehensible. Bearing this in mind, we shall more readily for-
give Peter for denying his Lord in an unguarded moment, than
for his cowardice at Antioch some years after, when he gave
the cold shoulder to his Gentile brethren, through fear of the
Jewish sectaries from Jerusalem. Peter was a shepherd then,
and it was his duty to lead the sheep, or even to carry them
against their inclination into the wide green pastures of Chris-
tian liberty, instead of tamely following those who, by their
scrupulosity, showed themselves to be but lambs in Christ's
flock. His actual behaviour was very culpable and very mis-
chievous. For though in reality not leading, but led, he, as
an apostle, enjoyed the reputation and influence of a chief
shepherd, and therefore had no option but either to lead or to.
mislead ; and he did mislead to such an extent, that even Bar-
nabas was carried away by his dissimulation. It is a serious
thing for the church, when those who are shepherds in office
and influence are sheep in opinion and heart ; leaders in name,
led in fact.

Section ii. — Sifted as JVheat

Luke xxii. 31, 32.

This fragment of the conversation at the supper-table is
important, as showing us the view taken by Jesus of the crisis
through which His disciples were about to pass. In form an
address to Peter, it is really a word in season to all, and con-
cerning all. This is evident from the use of the plural pro-
noun in addressing tlie disciple directly spoken to. " Satan,"
says Jesus, " hath desired to have (not thee, but) you : " thee,
Simon, and also all thy brethren along with thee. The same
thing appears from the injunction laid on Peter, to turn his
fall to account for the benefit of his brethren. The brethren,
of course, are not the other disciples then present alone, but

THE SHEEP SCATTERED : SIFTED AS WHEAT. 477

all who sliould believe as well. The apostles, however, are not
to be excluded from the brotherhood who were to be benefited
by Peter's experience ; on the contrary, they are probably the
parties princij)ally and in the first place intended.

Looking, then, at this utterance as expressive of the judg-
ment of Jesus on the character of the ensuing crisis in the
history of the future apostles, we find in it three noticeable
particulars.

1. First, Jesus regards the crisis as a sifting tune for the
disciples. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, sceptical of
their fidelity and integrity, as of Job's and of all good men's,
was to sift them as wheat, hopefiiL that they would turn
out mere chaff, and become apostates like Judas, or at least
that they would make a miserable and scandalous break-
down. In this respect, this final crisis was like the one
at Capernaum a year before. That also was a sifting time
for Christ's discipleship. Chaff and wheat were then, too,
separated ; the chaff proving to be out of all proportion to
the wheat, for " many went back, and walked no more with
Him."

But alongside of this general resemblance between the two
crises — the minor and the major we may call them — an
important difference is to be observed. In the minor crisis,
the chosen few were the pure wheat, the fickle multitude
being the chaff ; in the major, they are both wheat and chaff
in one, and the sifting is not between man and man, but be-
tween the good and the bad, the precious and. the vile, in
the same man. The hearts of the eleven faithful ones are to
be searched, and all their latent weakness discovered ; the old
man is to be divided asunder from the new ; the vain, self-
confident, self-wiUed, impetuous Simon son of Jonas, from the
devoted, chivalrous, heroic, rock-like Peter.

This distinction between the two crises implies that the
later was of a more searching character than the earKer ; and
that it was so indeed, is obvious on a moment's reflection.
Consider only how different the situation of the disciples in
the two cases ! In the minor crisis, the multitude go, but
Jesus remains ; in the major, Jesus Himself is taken from
them, and they are left as sheep without a shepherd. A

478 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

mighty difference truly ; sufficiently explaining the difference
in the conduct of the same men on the two occasions. It
was no doubt very disappointing and disheartening to see the
mass of people who had lately followed their Master with
enthusiasm, dispersing like an idle mob after seeing a show.
But while the Master remained, they would not break their
hearts about the defection of spurious disciples. They loved
Jesus for His own sake, not for His popularity or for any
other by-end. He was their teacher, and could give them
the bread of eternal truth, which, and not the bread that
perisheth, was what they were in quest of ; He was their Head,
their Father, tlieir Elder Brother, their spiritual Husband, and
they would cling to Him through all fortunes, with filial,
brotherly, wifely fidehty. He being more to them than the
whole world outside. If their prospects looked dark even
with Him, where could they go to be any better ? They had
no choice but to remain where they were.

Eemain accordingly they did, faithfully, manfully ; kept
stedfast by sincerity, a clear perception of the alternatives, and
ardent love to their Lord. But now, alas, when it is not the
multitude, but Jesus Himself, that leaves them, not forsaking
them indeed, but torn from them by the strong hand of worldly
power, what are they to do ? Now they may well ask Peter's
question, " To whom shall we go ? " despairing of an answer.
He whose presence was their solace at a trying, discouraging
season, who at the worst, even when His doctrine was myste-
rious and His conduct incomprehensible, was more to them
than all else in the world at its best ; even He is reft from
their side, and now they are utterly forlorn, without a master, a
champion, a guide, a friend, a father. Worse still, in losing Him
they lose not merely their best friend, but their faith. They
could believe Jesus to be the Christ, although the multitude
apostatized ; for they could regard such apostasy as the effect of
ignorance, shallowness, insincerity. But how can they believe
in the Messiahship of one who is led away to prison in place
of a throne ; and instead of being crowned a king, is on his
way to be executed as a felon ? Bereft of Jesus in this fashion,
they are bereft of theii' Christ as weU. The unbelieving world
asks them, " Where is thy God?" and they can make no reply.

THE SHEEP SCATTEEED : SIFTED AS WHEAT. 479

" Christ and we against the world ;" " Christ in the world's
power, and we left alone :" such, in brief, was the difference
between the two sifting seasons. The results of the sifting
process were correspondingly diverse. In the one case, it
separated between the sincere and the insincere ; in the other,
it discovered weakness even in the sincere. The men who
on the earlier occasion stood resolutely to their colours, on
the later fled panic-stricken, consulting for their safety with-
out dignity, and, in one case at least, with shameful disregard
of truth. Behold how weak even good men are without faith !
With faith, however crude or ill-informed, you may overcome
the whole world ; without the faith that places God consciously
at your side, you have no chance. Satan will get possession
of you and sift you, and cause you to equivocate with Abra-
ham, feign madness with David, dissemble and swear falsely
or profanely with Peter. No one can tell how far you may
fall if you lose faith in God. The just live justly, nobly, only
by their faith.

2. Jesus regards the crisis through which His disciples are
to pass as one which, though perilous, shall not prove deadly
to their faith. His hope is, that though they fall, they shall
not fall away ; though the sun of faith be ecKpsed, it shall not
be extinguished. He has this hope even in regard to Peter,
having taken care to avert so disastrous a catastrophe. " I
have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not."

The result was what Jesus anticipated. The disciples
showed themselves weak in the final crisis, but not wicked.
Satan tripped them up, but he did not enter into and possess
them. In this respect they differed toto ccelo from Judas, who
not only lost his faith, but cast away his love, and abandoning
his Lord, went over to the enemy, and became a tool for the
accomplishment of their wicked designs. The eleven, at their
worst, continued faithful to their Master in heart. They
neither committed, nor were capable of committing, acts of
perfidy, but even in fleeing identified themselves with the
losing side.

But Peter ; what of him ? was not he an exception to this
statement ? WeU, he certainly did more than fail in faith ;
and we have no wish to extenuate the gravity of his offence.

480 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

but would rather see in it a solemn illustration of tlie close
proximity into which the best men may be brought with the
worst. At the same time, it is only just to remark, that there
is a wide difference between denying Christ among the ser-
vants of the high priest, and betraying Him into the hands
of the high priest himself for a sum of money. The latter
act is the crune of a traitor knave ; the former might be com-
mitted by one who would be true to his master on all occa-
sions in which his interests seemed seriously involved. In
denying Jesus, Peter thought that he was saving himself by
dissimulation, without doing any material injury to his Lord.
His act resembled that of Abraham, when he circulated the
lying story about his wife being his sister, to protect himself
from the violence of licentious strangers. That was certainly
a very mean, selfish act, most unworthy of the father of the
faithful. Peter's act was not less mean and selfish, but
also not more. Both were acts of weakness rather than of
wickedness, for which few, even among good men, can afford
to throw stones at the patriarch and the disciple. Even
those who play the hero on great occasions, will at other
times act very unworthily. Many men conceal and belie
their convictions at the dinner -table, who would boldly
proclaim their sentiments from the pulpit or the platform.
Standing in the place where Christ's servants are expected to
speak the truth, they draw their swords bravely in defence of
their Lord ; but mixing in society on equal terms, they too
often say in effect, " I know not the man." Peter's offence,
therefore, if grave, is certainly not uncommon. It is com-
mitted virtually, if not formally, by multitudes who are utterly
incapable of public deliberate treason against truth and God.
The erring disciple was much more singular in his repent-
ance than in his sin. Of all who in mere acts of weakness
virtually deny Christ, how few, like him, go out and weep
bitterly !

That Peter did not fall as Judas fell, utterly and irrevo-
cably, Avas due in part to a radical difference between the two
men. Peter was at heart a child of God ; Judas, in the core
of his being, had been all along a child of Satan. Therefore
we may say, that Peter could not have sinned as Judas sinned.

THE SHEEP SCATTERED : SIFTED AS WHEAT. 481

nor could Judas have repented as Peter repented. Yet, while
we say this, we must not forget that Peter was kept from
falling away by special grace granted to him in answer to his
Master's prayers. The precise terms in which Jesus prayed
for Peter we do not know ; for the prayer in behalf of the one
disciple has not, like that for the whole eleven, been recorded.
But the drift of these special intercessions is plain, from the
account given of them by Jesus to Peter. The Master had
prayed that His disciple's faith might not fail. He had not
prayed that he might be exempt from Satan's sifting process,
or even kept from falling ; for He knew that a fall was neces-
sary, to show the self-confident disciple his own weakness.
He had prayed that Peter's fall might not be ruinous ; that
his grievous sin. might be followed by godly sorrow, not by
hardening of heart, or, as in the case of the traitor, by the
sorrow of the world, which worketh death : the remorse of a
guilty conscience, which, like the furies, drives the sinner head-
long to damnation. And in Peter's repentance, immediately
after his denials, we see the fulfilment of his Master's prayer,
special grace being given to melt his heart, and overwhelm
him with generous grief, and cause him to weep out his soul in
tears. Not by his piety or goodness of heart was the salutary
result produced, but by God's Spirit and God's providence con-
spiring to that end. But for the cock^crowing, and the warning
words it recalled to mind, and the glance of Jesus' eye, and the
tender mercy of the Father in heaven, who can tell what sullen
devilish humours might have taken possession of the guilty
disciple's heart ? Eemember how long even the godly David
gave place to the devil, and harboured in his bosom the demons
of pride, falsehood, and impenitence, after his grievous fall ;
and see how far it was from being a matter of course that
Peter, immediately after denying Christ, should come under
the blessed influence of a broken and contrite spirit, or even
that the spiritual crisis through which he passed had a happy
issue at all. By grace he was saved, as are we all.

3. Jesus regards the crisis about to be gone through by His
disciples as one which shall not only end happily, but result
in spiritual benefit to themselves, and qualify them for being
helpful to others. This appears from the injunction He lays

2 H

482 THE TRAINING OF THE TWEL\TE,

on Peter : " When tliou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."
Jesus expects the frail disciple to become strong in grace, and
so able and willing to help the weak. He cherishes this
expectation with respect to aU, but specially in regard to Peter,
assuming that the weakest might and ought eventually to be-
come the strongest ; the last first, the greatest sinner the
greatest saint ; the most foolish the wisest, most benignant,
and sympathetic of men.

How encouraging this genial, kindly view of moral short-
coming to such as have erred ! The Saviour says to them in
effect : There is no cause for despair : sin can not only be for-
given, but it can even be turned to good account both for your-
selves and for others. Falls, rightly improved, may become
stepping-stones to Christian virtue, and a training for the office
of a comforter and guide. How healing such a view to the
troubled conscience ! Men who have erred, and who take a
serious thought of their sin, are apt to consume their hearts
and waste their time in bitter reflections on their past mis-
conduct. Christ gives them more profitable work to do.
" When thou art converted," He says to them, " strengthen
thy brethren :" cease from idle regrets over the irrevocable past,
and devote thyself heart and soul to labours of love ; and let
it help thee to forgive thyself, that from thy very faults and
follies thou mayest learn the meekness, patience, compassion,
and wisdom necessary for carrying on such labours with
success.

But while very encouraging to those who have sinned,
Christ's words to Simon contain no encouragement to sin. It
is a favourite doctrine with some, that we may do evil that
good may come ; that we must be prodigals in order to be good
Christians ; that a mud hath must precede the washing of
regeneration and the baptism of the soul in the Eedeemer's
blood. This is a false, pernicious doctrine, of which the holy
One could not be the patron. Do evil that good may come,
say you ? And what if the good come not ? It does not
come, as we have seen, as a matter of course ; nor is it the
lilcelier to come, that you make the hope of its coming the
pretext for sinning. If the good ever come, it will come
through the strait gate of repentance. You can become wise,

THE SHEEP SCATTERED: SIFTED AS WHEAT. 483

gracious, meek, sympathetic, a burden-bearer to the weak,
only by going out first and weeping bitterly. But what chance
is there of such a penitential melting of heart appearing in
one who adopts and acts on the principle, that a curriculum
of sin is necessary to the attainment of insight, self-know-
ledge, compassion, and all the humane virtues ? The probable
issue of such a training is a hardened heart, a seared con-
science, a perverted moral judgment, the extirpation of all
earnest convictions respecting the difference between right and
wrong ; the opinion that evil leads to good insensibly trans-
forming itself into the idea that evil is good, and fitting its
advocate for committing sin without shame or compunction.

' And dare we to this fancy give,
That had the wild oat not been sown,
The soil left barren scarce had grown
The grain by which a man may live ?

Oh, if we held the doctrine sound.
For life outliving heats of youth ;
Yet who would preach it as a truth
To those that eddy round and round ?

Hold thou the good : define it well :
For fear divine Philosophy
Should push beyond her mark, and be
Procuress to the lords of hell. ' ^

In Peter's case, good did come out of evil. The sifting
time formed a turning-point in his spiritual history : the
sifting process had for its result a second conversion, more
thorough than the first — a turning from sin, not merely in
general, but in detail : from besetting sins, in better informed
if not more fervent repentance, and with a purpose of new
obedience less self-reliant, but just on that account more
reliable. A child hitherto — a child of God indeed, yet only
a child — Peter became a man strong in grace, and fit to bear
the burden of the weak. Yet it is worthy of notice, as show-
ing how little sympathy the Author of our faith had with the
doctrine that evil may be done for the sake of good, that
Jesus, while aware how Peter's fall would end, did not on
that account regard it as desirable. He said not, " / have
1 Tennyson, In Memoriam, liii.

484 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

desired to sift thee," but assigns the task of sifting the dis-
ciple to the evil spirit who in the beginning tempted our first,
parent to sin by the specious argument, " Ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil ;" reserving to Himself the part of an
intercessor, who prays that the evil permitted may be over-
ruled for good. " Satan hath desired to have you:" " I have
prayed for thee." What words could more strongly convey
the idea of guilt and peril than these, which intimate that
Simon is about to do a deed which is an object of desire to
the evil one, and which makes it necessary that he should be
specially prayed for by the Saviour of souls ? Men must go
elsewhere in quest of support for ajDologetic or Pantheistic
views of sin.

But it may be thought that the reference to Satan tends
in another way to weaken moral earnestness, by encouraging
men to throw the blame of their falls on him. Theoretically
plausible, this objection is practically contrary to fact ; for
the patrons of lax notions of sin are also the unbelievers in
the personality of the devil. " The further the age has re-
moved from the idea of a devil, the laxer it has become in
the imputation and punishment of sin. The older time, which
did not deny the temptations and assaults of the devil, was
yet so little inclined on that account to excuse men, that it
regarded the neglect of resistance against the evil spirit, or the
yielding to him, as the extreme degree of guilt, and exercised
against it a judicial severity from which we shrink with horror.
The opposite extreme to tliis strictness is the laxity of recent
criminal jurisprudence, in wliich judges and physicians are too
much inclined to excuse the guilty from physical or psychical
grounds, while the moral judgment of public opinion is slack
and indulgent. It is undeniable, that to every sin not only
a bad wiU, but also the spell of some temptation, contributes ;
and when temptation is not ascribed to the devil, the sinner
does not on that account impute blame to his bad will, but to
temptations springing from some other quarter, which he does
not derive from sin, but from nature, although nature tempts
only when under the influence of sin. The world and the flesh
are indeed powers of temptation, not through their natural
substance, but through the influence of the bad with which

THE SHEEP SCATTERED: PETER AND JOHN. 485

they are infected. But when, as at present, the seduction to
evil is referred to sensuality, temperament, physical lusts and
passions, circumstances or fixed ideas, monomanias, etc., guilt
is taken off the sinner's shoulders, and laid upon sometliing
ethically indifferent or simply natural." ^

The view presented by Jesus of His disciple's fall cannot
therefore be charged with weakening the sense of responsi-
bility : on the contrary, it is a view tending at once to inspire
hatred of sin and hope for the sinner. It exliibits sin about
to be committed as an object of fear and abhorrence ; and,
already committed, as not only forgiveable, being repented of,
but as capable of being made serviceable to spiritual progress.
It says to us, on the one hand : Trifle not with temptation, for
Satan is near, seeking thy soul's ruin — " fear, and sin not ; "
and, on the other hand : " If any man sin, we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Cluist the Eighteous" — despair not:
forsake thy sins, and thou shalt find mercy.

Section hi. — Peter and John.

John xviii. 15-18, xix. 25-27.

Though all the disciples, without exception, forsook Jesus at
the moment of His apprehension, two of them soon recovered
their courage sufficiently to return from flight, and follow after
their Master as He was being led away to judgment. One of
these was Simon Peter, ever original both in good and in evil,
who, we are told, followed Jesus " afar off, unto the high priest's
palace, to see the end."^ The other, according to the general,
and we think correct, opinion of interpreters, was John. He
is indeed not named, but merely described as another, or
rather the other, disciple ; but as John himseK is our infor-
mant, the fact is almost certain evidence that he is the person
alluded to. " The other disciple," who " was known unto the
high priest, and went in with Jesus into the palace of the
high priest,"^ is the weU-known unnamed one who so often

^ Sartorius, Die Lehre von der heiligen Liebe, pp. 79, 80.
' Matt. xxvi. 58. ^ John xviii. 15.

486 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

meets us in the foiirtli Gospel. Had the man whose conduct
was so outstanding been any other than the evangelist, he
would certainly not have remained nameless in a narrative so
minutely exact, that even the name of the servant whose ear
Peter cut off is not deemed too insignificant to be recorded.'^

These two disciples, though very different in character, seem
to have had a friendship for each other. On various occasions
besides the present, we find their names associated in a manner
suggestive of a special attachment. At the supper-table, when
the announcement concerning the traitor had been made, Peter
gave the disciple whom Jesus loved a sign that he should ask
who it should be of whom He spake. Three times in the
interval between the resurrection and the ascension the two
brethren were linked together as companions. They ran
together to the sepulchre on the resurrection morning. They
talked together confidentially concerning the stranger who
appeared at early dawn on the shores of the Sea of Galilee,
when they were out on their last fishing expedition; the
disciple whom Jesus loved, on recognising the Eisen One,
saying unto Peter, " It is the Lord." They walked together
shortly after on the shore, following Jesus — Peter by command-
ment, John by the voluntary impulse of his own loving heart.
An intimacy cemented by such sacred associations was likely
to be permanent, and we find the two disciples still companions
after they had entered on the duties of the apostleship. They
went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer ; and
having got into trouble through the healing of the lame man
at the temple gate, they appeared together before the eccle-
siastical tribunal, to be tried by the very same men, Annas
and Caiaphas, who had sat in judgment upon their Lord, com-
panions now at the bar, as they had been before in the palace,
of the high priest.

Such a friendship between the two disciples as these facts
point at is by no means surprising. As belonging to the narrow
circle of three whom Jesus honoured with His confidence on
special occasions, they had opportunities for becoming intimate,
and were placed in circumstances tending to unite them in the
closest bonds of spiritual brotherhood. And, notwithstanding

' John xviii. 10.

THE SHEEP SCATTERED: PETER AND JOHN. 487

their characteristic differences, they were fitted to be special
friends. They were both men of marked originality and force of
character, and they would find in each other more sources of
interest than in the more conmaonplace members of the apos-
tolic band. Their very peculiarities, too, far from keeping them
apart, would rather draw them together. They were so consti-
tuted, that each would find in the other the complement of
himself Peter was masculine, John was feminine, in tempera-
ment ; Peter was the man of action, John the man of thought
and feeling; Peter's part was to be a leader and a champion,
John's was to cling, and trust, and be loved ; Peter was the
hero, and John the admirer of heroism.

In their respective behaviour at this crisis, the two friends
were at once like and unlike each other. They were like in
this, that they both manifested a generous solicitude about the
fate of their Master. While the rest retired altogether from
the scene, they followed to see the end. The common action
proceeded in both probably from the same motives. What
these motives were we are not told, but it is not difficult to
guess. A certain influence may be assigned, in the first place,
to natural activity of spirit. It was not in the nature either
of Peter or of John to be Kstless and passive while such grave
events were going on. They could not sit at home doing
nothing, while their Lord was being tried, sentenced, and treated
as a malefactor. If they cannot prevent, they will at least
witness, His last sufferings. The same irrepressible energy of
mind which, three days after, made these two disciples run
to see the empty grave, now impels them to turn their steps
towards the judgment-hall to witness the transactions there.

Besides activity of mind, we perceive in the conduct of the
two disciples a certain spirit of daring at work. We learn
from the Acts of the Apostles, that when Peter and John
appeared before the council in Jerusalem, the rulers were
struck with their boldness. Their boldness then was only
what was to be expected from men who had behaved as they
did at this crisis. By that time, it is true, they had, in common
with all their brethen, experienced a great spiritual change ;
but yet we cannot fail to recognise the identity of the cha-
racters. The apostles had but grown to such spiritual man-

488 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

hood as they gave promise of in the days of their discipleship.
For it was a brave thing in them to follow, even at a distance,
the band which had taken Jesus a prisoner. The rudiments
at least of the martyr character were in men who could do
that. Mere cowards would not have acted so. They would
have eagerly availed themselves of the virtual sanction given
by Jesus to flight, comforting their hearts with the thought
that, in consulting for their safety, they were but doing the
duty enjoined on them.

But the conduct of the two brethren sprang, we believe,
mainly from their ardent love to Jesus. When the first
paroxysm of fear was past, solicitude for personal safety gave
place to generous concern about the fate of one whom they
really loved more than life. The love of Christ constrained
them to think not of themselves, but of Him whose hour of
sorrow was come. First they slacken their pace, then they
halt, then they look round ; and as they see the armed band
nearing the city, they are cut to the heart, and they say
witliin themselveSj " We cannot leave our dear Master in His
time of peril ; we must see the issue of this painful business."
And so with anguished spirit they set out towards Jerusalem,
Peter firsts and John after him.

The two brethren, companions thus far, diverged widely on
arriving at the scene of trial and suffering. John clung to
his beloved Lord to the last. He was present, it would
appear, at the various examinations to which Jesus was sub-
jected, and heard with his own ears the judicial process of
which he has given so interesting an account in his Gospel.
When the iniquitous sentence was executed, he was a spec-
tator. He took his stand by the foot of the cross, where he
could see all, and not only be seen, but even be spoken to, by
his dying Master. There he saw, among other things, the
strange phenomenon of blood and water flowing from the spear-
wound in the Saviour's side, which he so carefully records in
his narrative. There he heard Christ's dying words, and
among them those addressed to Mary of Nazareth and him-
self: to her, "Woman, behold thy son;" to him, "Behold
thy mother."

John was thus persistently faithful throughout. And Peter,

THE SHEEP SCATTEEED : PETER AND JOHN. 489

what of him ? Alas ! what need to tell the familiar story of
his deplorable weakness in the hall or inner court of the high
priest's palace ; how, having obtained an entrance through the
street door by the intercession of his brother disciple, he first
denied to the porteress his connection with Jesus ; then re-
peated his denial to other parties, with the addition of a solemn
oath ; then, irritated by the repetition of the charge, and per-
haps by the consciousness of guilt, a thnd time declared, not
with a solemn oath, but with the degrading accompaniment
of profane swearing, " I know not the man ; " then, finally,
hearing the cock crow, and catching Jesus' eye, and remem-
bering the words, " Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me
thrice," went out to the street and wept bitterly !

What became of poor Peter after this melancholy exhibi-
tion, we are not informed. In all probability he retired to
his lodging humbled, dispirited, crushed, there to remain over-
whelmed with grief and shame till he was roused from stupor
by the stirring tidings of the resurrection morn.

This difference in conduct between the two disciples cor-
responded to a difference in their characters. Each acted
according to his nature. It is true, indeed, that the circum-
stances were not the same for both parties, being favourable
for one, unfavourable for the other. John had the advantage
of a friend at court, being somehow known to the high priest.
This circumstance gained him admission into the chamber of
judgment, and gave him security against all personal risk.
Peter, on the other hand, not only had no friends at court, but
might not unnaturally fear the presence there of personal
foes. He had made himself obnoxious by his rash act in the
garden, and might be apprehensive of getting into trouble in
consequence. That such fears would not have been alto-
gether groundless, we learn from the fact stated by John, that
one of the persons who charged Peter with being a disciple of
Jesus, was a kinsman of the man whose ear Peter had cut off,
and that he brought his charge against the disciple in this
form : " Did I not see thee in the garden with him ? " It is
therefore every way likely that the consciousness of having
committed an offence, which might be resented, made Peter
anxious to escape identification as one of Christ's disciples.

490 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

His unseasonable courage iu the garden helped to make him
a coward in the palace-yard.

Making all due allowance for the effect of circumstances,
however, we think that the difference in the behaviour of the
two disciples was mainly due to a difference in the men them-
selves. Though he had been guilty of no imprudence in the
garden, Peter, we fear, would have denied Jesus in the hall ;
and, on the other hand, supposing John had been placed in
Peter's position, we do not believe that he would have com-
mitted Peter's sin. Peter's disposition laid him open to
temptation, while John's, on the other hand, was a protection
against temptation. Peter was frank and familiar, John
was dignified and reserved : Peter's tendency was to be on
hail-fellow-well-met terms with everybody ; John could keep
his own place, and make other people keep theirs. It is easy
to see what an important effect this distinction would have
on the conduct of parties placed in Peter's position. Sup-
pose John in Peter's place, and let us see how he might have
acted. Certain persons about the court, possessing neither
authority nor influence, interrogate him abovit his connection
with Jesus. He is neither afraid nor ashamed to acknow-
ledge his Lord ; but, nevertheless, he turns away and gives
the interrogators no answer. They have no right to question
him. The spirit which prompts their questions is one with
which he has no sympathy, and he feels that it will serve
no good purpose to confess his discipleship to such people.
Therefore, like his Master when confronted with the false
witnesses, he holds his peace, and withdraws from company
with which he has nothing in common, and for which he
has no respect.

To protect himself from inconvenient interrogation by such
dignified reserve is beyond Peter's capacity. He cannot keep
people who are not fit company for him at their distance ; he
is too frank, too familiar, too sensitive to public opinion, with-
out respect to its quality. If a servant-maid ask him a ques-
tion about his relation to the Prisoner at the bar, he cannot
brush past her as if he heard her not. He must give her an
answer ; and as he feels instinctively that the animus of the
question is against his Master, his answer must needs be a

THE SHEEP SCATTERED: PETER AND JOHK 491

lie. Then, unwarned by this encounter of the danger arising
from too close contact with the hangers on about the palace,
the foolish disciple must involve himself more inextricably
into the net, by mingling jauntily with the servants and
officers gathered around the fire which has been kindled on
the pavement of the open court. Of course he has no
chance of escape here ; he is like a poor fly caught in a
spider's web. If these men, with the insolent tone of court
menials, charge him with being a follower of the man whom
their masters have now got into their power, he can do
nothing else than blunder out a mean, base denial. Poor
Peter, he is manifestly not equal to the situation. It would
have been wiser in hun to have stayed at home, restraining
his curiosity to see the end. But he, like most men, was to
learn wisdom only by bitter experience.

The contrast we have drawn between the characters of the
two disciples suggests the thought. What different things
growth in grace may signify for different Christians ! Neither
John nor Peter was mature as yet, but immaturity showed
itself in them in opposite ways. Peter's weakness lay in the
direction of indiscriminate cordiality. His tendency was to
be friends with everybody. Jolm, on the other hand, was in
no danger of being on familiar terms with all and sundry.
It was rather too easy for him to make a difference between
friends and foes. He could take a side, and keep it ; he could
even hate with fanatical intensity, as well as love with beau-
tiful womanly devotion. Witness liis proposal to call down
fire from heaven to consume the Samaritan villao;ers ! That
was a proposal which Peter could not have made ; it was not
in his nature to be so truculent against any human being.
So far, his good nature was a thing to be commended, if in
other respects it laid him open to temptation. The faults
of the two brethren being so opposite, growth in grace
would naturally assume two opposite forms in their re-
spective experiences. In Peter, it would take the form of
concentration; in John, of expansion. Peter would become
less charitable ; John would become more charitable. Peter
would advance from indiscriminate goodwill to a moral decided-
ness which should distinguish between friends and foes, the

492 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

church and the world ; John's progress, on the other hand,
would consist in ceasing to be a bigot, and in becoming im-
bued with the genial, humane, sympathetic spirit of his Lord.
Peter, in his mature state, would care much less for the
opinions and feelings of men than he did at the present time ;
John, again, would care much more.

"We add a word on the question. Was it right or was it
wrong in these two disciples to follow their Lord to the place
of judgment ? In our view, it was neither right nor wrong in
itself. It was right for one who was able to do it without
spiritual harm ; wrong for one who had reason to believe
that, by doing it, he was exposing himself to harm. The
latter was Peter's case, as the former seems to have been
John's. Peter had been plainly warned of his weakness ; and
had he laid the warning to heart, he would have avoided the
scene of temptation. By disregarding the warning, he wil-
fully rushed into the tempter's arms, and of course he caught
a fall. His fall reads a lesson to all who, without seeking
counsel of God, or disregarding counsel given, enter on under-
takings beyond their strength.

CHAPTEE XXVIII.

THE SHEPHERD RESTORED.

Section i. — Too good News to he true.

Matt, xxviii. 17 ; Maiik xvi. 11-15 ; Luke xxiv. 11, 13-22, 36-42 ;
John xx. 20, 24-29.

THE black day of the crucifixion is past ; the succeeding
day, the Jewisli Sabbath, when the Weary One slept
in His rock-hewn tomb, is also past ; the first day of a new
week and of a new era has dawned, and the Lord is risen
from the dead. The Shepherd has returned to gather His
scattered sheep. Surely a happy day for hapless disciples !
What rapturous joy must have thrilled their hearts at the
thought of a reunion with their beloved Lord ! mth what
ardent hope must they have looked forward to that resurrection
morn !

So one might think, but the real state of the case was not
so. Such ardent expectations had no place in the minds of
the disciples. The actual state of their mind at the resurrec-
tion of Christ rather resembled that of the Jewish exiles in
Babylon, when they heard that they were to be restored to
their native land. The first effect of the good news was, that
they were as men that dreamed. The news seemed too good
to be true. The captives who had sat by the rivers of Baby-
lon, and wept when they remembered Zion, had ceased to hope
for a return to their own country, and indeed to be capable of
hoping for anything. " Grief was calm, and hope was dead "
within them. Then, when the exiles had recovered from the
stupor of surprise, the next effect of the good tidings was a fit

494 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

of over-joy. They burst into hysteric laughter and irrepres-
sible song.^

Very similar was the experience of the disciples in con-
nection with the rising of Jesus from the dead. Their grief
was not indeed calm, but their hope was dead. The resurrec-
tion of their Master was utterly unexpected by them, and
they received the tidings with surprise and incredulity. This
appears from the statements of all the four evangelists.
Matthew states, that on the occasion of Christ's meeting with
His followers in Galilee after He was risen, some doubted,
while others worshipped.^ Mark relates that, when the disciples
heard from Mary Magdalene that Jesus was alive, and had
been seen of her, "they believed not;"^ and that when the
two disciples who journeyed toward Emmaus told their
brethren of their meeting with Jesus on the way, "neither
believed they them."* He further relates how, on a sub-
sequent occasion, when Jesus Himself met with the whole
eleven at once. He " upbraided them with their unbeKef and
hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had
seen Him after He was risen." ^

In full accordance with these statements of the two first
evangelists are those of Luke, whose representation of the
mental attitude of the disciples towards the resurrection of
Jesus is very graphic and animated. According to him, the
reports of the women seemed to them " as idle tales, and they
believed them not."^ The two brethren vaguely alluded to by
Mark as walking into the country when Jesus appeared to
them, are represented by Luke as sad in countenance, though
aware of the rumours concerning the resurrection ; yea, as so
depressed in spirits, that they did not recognise Jesus when
He joined their company and entered into conversation with
them.'' The resurrection was not a fact for them : all they

' Ps. cxxxvii. The experience of the exiles and of the apostles recalls the
lines of the Greek poet Euripides :

ToXXa S' atXTrrui; xpxivouvi hoi

KCCi TO, ItOK-^iilT OUK IriXiffSr)

TUV S' UOOXyiTUV TTCDOV iUjli SiOS, '

2 Matt, xxviii. 17. ^ Mark xvi. 11. * Mark xvi. 13.

5 Mark xvi. 14. ' ' Luke xxiv. 11. ^ Luke xxiv. 16.

THE SHEPHEED KESTORED : TOO GOOD NEWS TO BE TRUE. 495

knew was that their Master was dead, and that they had
vainly trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed
Israel. The same evangelist also informs us, that on the first
occasion when Jesus presented Himself in the midst of His
disciples, they did recognise the resemblance of the apparition
to their deceased Lord, but thought it was only His ghost,
and accordingly were terrified and affrighted, insomuch that,
in order to cliarm away their fear, Jesus showed them His
hands and feet, and besought them to handle His body, and
so satisfy themselves that He was no ghost, but a substantial
human being, with flesh and bones like another man.^ '

Instead of general statements, John gives an example of the
incredulity of the disciples concerning the resurrection as
exhibited in its extreme form by Thomas. This disciple he
represents as so incredulous, that he refused to believe until
he should have put his finger into the prints of the nails, and
thrust his hand into the wound made by the spear in the
Saviour's side. That the other disciples shared the incredulity
of Thomas, though in a less degree, is implied in the statement
made by John in a previous part of his narrative, that when
Jesus met His disciples on the evening of the day on which
He rose, " He showed unto them His hands and His side."^

The women who had believed in Christ had no more
expectation of His resurrection than the eleven. They set
forth towards the sepulchre, on the morning of the first day of
the week, with the intention of embalming the dead body of
Him whom they loved. They sought the living among the
dead. When the Magdalene, who was at the tomb before the
rest, found the grave empty, her idea was that some one had
carried away the dead body of her Lord.^

When the incredulity of the disciples did at length give
place to faith, they passed, like the Hebrew exiles, from
extreme depression to extravagant joy. When the doubt of
Thomas was removed, he exclaimed in rapture, " My Lord and
my God!"^ Luke relates, that when they recognised their
risen Lord, the disciples " believed not for joy," ^ as if toying
with doubt as a stimulus to joy. The two disciples with

' Luke xxiv. 36, 37. ^ Jolin xx. 20. ^ jo]^ ^x. 2.

* John XX. 28. ^ Luke xxiv. 41.

496 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

whom Jesus conversed on the way to Emmaus, said to each
other when He left them, " Did not our heart burn within
us while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened
to us the Scriptures ?"^

In yet another most important respect did the eleven
resemble the ancient Hebrew exiles at the time of their
recall. Wliile their faith and hope were palsied during the
interval between the death and the resurrection of Jesus,
their love remained in unabated "vitality. The expatriated
Jew did not forget Jerusalem in the land of strangers.
Absence only made his heart grow fonder. As he sat by the
rivers of Babylon, listless, motionless, in abstracted dreamy
mood, gazing with glassy eyes on the sluggish waters, the
big round tears stole quietly down his cheeks because he had
been thinking of Zion. The exile of poetic soul did not forget
what was due to Jerusalem's honour. He was incapable of
singing the Lord's songs in the hearing of a heathen audience,
who cared nothing for their meaning, but only for the style
of execution. He disdained to prostitute his talents for the
entertainment of the voluptuous oppressors of Israel, even
if thereby he could procure his restoration to the beloved
country of his birth, as the Athenian captives in Sicily are said
to have done by reciting the strains of their favourite poet
Euripides in the hearing of their Sicilian masters.^

The disciples were not less true to the memory of their
Lord. They were like a widow indeed, who remains faitliful
to her deceased husband, and dotes on his virtues, though his
reputation be at zero in the general esteem of the world.
Call Him a deceiver who might, they could not believe that
Jesus had been a deceiver. Mistaken He as weU as they
might have been, but an impostor — ncvei' ! Therefore, though
He is dead and their hope gone, they stiU act as men who
cherish the fondest attachment to the Master whom they have
lost. They keep together like a bereaved family, with blinds
down, so to speak, shutting and barring their doors for fear
of the Jews, identifying themselves with the Crucified, and as

1 Luke xxiv. 32.

* The story is told by Plutarcli in his Uapa.\XnXa. {Nikias), and quoted and
commented on by GiUies, History of Greece, cap. xx.

THE SHEPHERD EESTOKED : TOO GOOD NEWS TO BE TRUE. 497

His friends dreading the ill-will of tlie unbelieving world.
Admirable examjDle to all Christians how to behave themselves
in a day of trouble, rebvike, and blasphemy, when the cause of
Christ seems lost, and the powers of darkness for the moment
have all things their own way. Though faith be eclipsed and
hope extinguished, let the heart ever be loyal to its true Lord !

The state of mind in which the disciples were at the resur-
rection of Jesus Christ from the dead is of great moment in
an apologetic point of view. Their despair after their Lord's
crucifixion gives great weight to the testimony borne by them
to the fad of His resurrection. Men in such a mood were
not likely to believe in the latter event except because it could
not reasonably be disbelieved. They would not be lightly
satisfied of its truth, as men are apt to be in the case of events
both desired and expected ; but would sceptically exact super-
abundant evidence, as men do in the case of events desirable
but not expected. They would be slow to believe on the testi-
mony of others, and might even hesitate to believe their own
eyes. They would not be able, as M. Eenan supposes, to get up
a belief in the resurrection of Jesus from the simple fact that
His grave was found empty on the third day after His death by
the women who went to embalm His body. That circumstance,
on being reported, might make a Peter and a John run to the
sepulchre to see how matters stood ; but after they had found
the report of the women confirmed, it would still remain a ques-
tion how the fact was to be explained ; and Mary Magdalene's
theory, that some one had carried off the corpse, would not
appear at all improbable.

These inferences of ours, from what we know concerning the
mental condition of the disciples, are fully borne out by the
Gospel accounts of the reception they gave to the risen Jesus
at His first appearances to them. One and all of them regarded
these appearances sceptically, and took pains to satisfy them-
selves, or made it necessary that Jesus should take pains to
satisfy them, that the visible object was no ghostly apparition,
but a living man, and that man none other than He who had
died on the cross. The disciples doubted now the substantiality,
now the identity, of the person who appeared to them. They
were therefore not content with seeing Jesus, but at His

2 I

498 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

own request liandled Him. One of tlieir number not only
handled the body to ascertain that it possessed the incom-
pressibility of matter, but insisted on examining with sceptical
curiosity those parts which had been injured by the nails and
the spear. All perceived the resemblance between the object
in view and Jesus, but they could not be persuaded of the
identity, so utterly unprepared were they for seeing the dead
One alive again ; and their theory at first was just that of
Strauss, that what they saw was a ghost or mere vision. And
the very fact that they entertained that theory makes it im-
possible for us to entertain it. We cannot, in the face of that
fact, accept the Straussian dogma, that " the faith in Jesus as the
Messiah, which by His violent death had received an apparently
fatal shock, was subjectively restored by the instrumentality of
the mind, the power of imagination, and nervous excitement."
The power of imagination and nervous excitement we know
can do much. It has often happened to men in an abnormal,
excited state, to see projected into outward space the creations
of a heated brain. But persons in a crazy state like that — sub-
ject to hallucination — are not usually cool and rational enough
to doubt tlie reality of what they see ; nor is it necessary in their
case to take pains to overcome such doubts. What they need
rather, is to be made aware that what they think they see is
not a reality : the very reverse of what Christ had to do for the
disciples, and did, by solemn assertion that He was no spirit,
by inviting them to handle Him, and so satisfy themselves of
His material substantiality, and by partaking of food in their
presence.

When we keep steadily before our eyes the mental condition
of the eleven at the time of Christ's resurrection, we see the
transparent falsehood and absurdity of the theft theory invented
by the Jewish priests. The disciples, according to this theory,
came by night, while the guards were asleep, and stole the
dead body of Jesus, that they might be able to circulate the
belief that He was risen again. Matthew tells that even
before the resurrection the murderers of our Lord were afraid
this might be done ; and then, to prevent any fraud of this kind,
they applied to Pilate to have a guard put upon the grave, who
accordingly contemptuously granted them permission to take

THE SHEPHERD RESTOEED : TOO GOOD NEWS TO BE TRUE. 499

what steps they pleased to prevent all resurrectionary proceed-
ings on the part either of the dead or of the living ; scornfully
replying : " Ye have a watch ; go your way ; make it as sure
as ye can." This accordingly they did, sealing the stone and
setting a watch. Alas, their precautions prevented neither the
resurrection nor belief in it, but only supplied an illustration
of the folly of those who attempt to manage providence, and
to control the course of the world's history. They gave them-
selves much to do, and it all came to nothing, Not that we
are disposed to deny the astuteness of these ecclesiastical politi-
cians. Their scheme for preventing the resurrection was very
prudent, and their mode of explaining it away afterhand very
plausible. The story they invented was really a very respect-
able fabrication, and was certain to satisfy all who wanted
a decent theory to justify a foregone conclusion, as in fact
it seems to have done ; for, according to Matthew, it was
commonly reported in after years.^ It was not improbable
that soldiers should fall asleep by night on the watch,
especially when guarding a dead body, which was not likely
to give them any trouble ; and in the eyes of the unbelieving
world, the followers of the ISTazarene were capable of using any
means for promoting their ends.

But granting all this, and even granting that the Sanhedrists
had been right in their opinion of the character of the disciples,
their theft theory is ridiculous. The disciples, even if capable
of such a theft, so far as scruples of conscience were concerned,
were not in a state of mind to think of it, or to attempt it.
They had not spirit left for such a daring action. Sorrow lay
like a weight of lead on their hearts, and made them almost
as inanimate as the corpse they are supposed to have stolen.
Then the motive for the theft is one which could not have
influenced them then. Steal the body to propagate a belief in
the resurrection ! What interest had they in propagating a
belief which they did not entertain themselves ? " As yet
they knew not the Scriptures, that He must rise again from the
dead ; " ^ nor did they remember aught that their Master had
said on this subject before His decease. To some this latter
statement has appeared hard to believe ; and to get over the

^ Matt, xxviii. 15. ' John xx. 9.

500 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

difficulty, it has been suggested tliat the predictions of our
Lord respecting His resurrection may not have been so definite
as they appear in the Gospels, but may have assumed this
definite form after the event, when their meaning was clearly
understood.^ We see no occasion for such a supposition.
There can be no doubt that Jesus spoke plainly enough about
His death at least ; and yet His death, when it happened, took
the disciples as much by surprise as did the resurrection. One
explanation suffices in both cases. The disciples were not
clever, quick-witted, sentimental men, such as Eenan makes
them. They were stupid, slow-minded persons ; very honest,
but very unapt to take in new ideas. They were like horses
with blinders on, and could see only in one direction, — that,
namely, of their prejudices. It required the surgery of events
to insert a new truth into their minds. Nothing would change
the current of their thoughts but a damwork of undeniable fact.
They could be convinced that Christ must die only by His
dying, that He would rise only by His rising, that His king-
dom was not to be of this world, only by the outpouring of the
Spirit at Pentecost and the vocation of the Gentiles. Let us
be thankful for the honest stupidity of these men. It gives
great value to their testimony. We know that nothing but
facts could make such men believe that which now-a-days
they get credit for inventing.

The apologetic use which we have made of the doubts of
the disciples concerning the resurrection of Christ is not only
legitimate, but manifestly that which was intended by their
being recorded. The evangelists have carefully chronicled
these doubts, that we might have no doubt. These things
were written, that we might believe that Jesus really did rise
from the dead ; for the apostles attached supreme importance
to that fact, which they had doubted in the days of their
disciplehood. It was the foundation of their doctrinal edifice,
an essential part of their gospel. The Apostle Paul correctly
summed up the gospel preached by the men who had been
with Jesus, as well as by himself, in these three items : " that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures ; and
that He was buried ; and that He rose again the third day,
' See Neander, Life of Jesus,

THE SHEPHERD EESTORED : TOO GOOD NEWS TO BE TRUE. 501

according to the Scriptures." All the eleven thoroughly agreed
with Paul's sentiment, that if Christ were not risen, their
preaching was vain, and the faith of Christians was also vain.
There was no gospel at all, unless He who died for men's sins
rose again for their justification. With this conviction in
their minds, they constantly bore witness to the resurrection
of Jesus wherever they went. So important a part of their
work did this witness-bearing seem to them, that when Peter
proposed the election of one to fill the place of Judas, he
singled it out as the characteristic function of the apostolic
office. " Of these men," he said, " which have companied with
us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among
us, . . . must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His
resurrection."

With this supreme value attached to the fact of Christ's
rising again in apostolic preaching, it is our duty most heartily
to sympathize. Modern unbelievers, like some in the Corin-
thian church, would persuade us that it does not matter
whether Jesus rose or not, all that is valuable in Christianity
being quite independent of mere historical truth. With these
practically agree many believers addicted to an airy spiri-
tualism, who treat mere supernatural facts with contemptuous
neglect, deeming the high doctrines of the faith as alone
worthy of their regard. To persons of this temper, such
studies as those which have occupied us in this chapter seem
a mere waste of time ; and if they spoke as they feel, they
would say, " Let these trifles alone, and give us the pure and
simple gospel." Intelligent, sober, and earnest Christians
differ toto ccelo from both these classes of people. In their
view, Christianity is in the first place a religion of superna-
tural facts. These facts occupy the principal place in their
creed. They know that if these facts are honestly believed,
all the great doctrines of the faith must sooner or later be
accepted ; and, on the other hand, they clearly understand that
a religion which despises, not to say disbelieves, these facts,
is but a cloud-land which must soon be dissipated, or a house
built on sand which the storm will sweep away. Therefore,
while acknowledging the importance of all revealed truth,
they lay very special stress on revealed facts. Believing with

502 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

the heart the precious truth that Christ died for our sins, they
are careful with the apostles to include in their gospel these
items of fact, that He was buried, and that He rose again the
third day.

Section ii. — The Eyes of the Understanding opened.
Mark xvi. 14 ; Luke xxiv. 25-32, 44-46 ; John xx. 20-23.

Jesus showed Himself alive after His passion to His dis-
ciples in a body, for the first time, on the evening of His
resurrection day. It was the fourth time He had made Him-
self visible since He rose from the dead. He had appeared
in the morning first of all to Mary of Magdala. She had
earned the honour thus conferred on her by her pre-eminent
devotion. Of kindred spirit with Mary of Bethany, she had
been foremost among the women who came to Joseph's tomb
to embalm the dead body of the Saviour. Finding the grave
empty, she wept bitter tears, because they had taken away her
Lord, and she knew not where they had laid Him. Those
tears, sure sign of deep true love, had not been unobserved
of the Eisen One. The sorrows of this faithful soul touched
His tender heart, and brought Him to her side to comfort her.
Turning round in distress from the sepulclu-e, she saw Him
standing by, but knew Him not. " Jesus saith to her, Woman,
why weepest thou ? whom seekest thou ? She, supposing Him
to be the gardener, replies. Sir, if thou hast borne Him
hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take
Him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary." Startled with the
familiar voice, she looks more attentively, and forthwith
returns the benignant salutation with an expressive word of
recognition, " Eabboni." Thus " to holy tears, in lonely
hours, Christ risen appears."

The second appearance was vouchsafed to Peter. Concern-
ing this private meeting between Jesus and His erring dis-
ciple we have no details : it is simply mentioned by Paul in
his Epistle to the Corinthians, and by Luke in his Gospel ;
but we can have no doubt at all as to its object. The Eisen

THE SHEPHERD RESTOEED : EYES OF UNDERSTANDING OPENED. 503

Master remembered Peter's sin ; He knew how troubled he
was in mind on account of it ; He desired without delay to
let him know he was forgiven ; and out of delicate considera-
tion for the offender's feelings, He contrived to meet him for
the first time after his fall, alone.

In the course of the day Jesus appeared, for the third time,
to the two brethren who journeyed to Emmaus. Luke has
given greater prominence to this third appearance than to
any other in his narrative, probably because it was one of the
most interesting of the anecdotes concerning the resurrection
which he found in the collections out of which he compiled
his Gospel. And, in truth, anything more interesting than
this beautiful story cannot well be imagined. How vividly
is the whole situation of the disciples brought before us by
the picture of the two friends walking along the way, and
talking together of the things which had happened, the suffer-
ings of Jesus three days ago, and the rumours just come to
their ears concerning His resurrection ; and as they talked,
vibrating between despair and hope, now brooding disconso-
lately on the crucifixion of Him whom till then they had re-
garded as the Eedeemer of Israel, anon wondering if it were
possible that He could have risen again ! Then how unspeak-
ably pathetic the behaviour of Jesus throughout this scene !
By an artifice of love He assumes the incognito, and, joining
the company of the two sorrowful men, asks them in a care-
less way what is the subject about which they are talking so
sadly and seriously ; and on receiving for reply a question
expressive of surprise that even a stranger in Jerusalem
should not know the things which have come to pass, again
asks dryly and indifferently, " What things ?" Having thereby
drawn out of them their story. He proceeds in turn to show
them that an intelligent reader of the Old Testament ought
not to be surprised at such things happening to one whom
they believed to be Christ, taking occasion to expound unto
them " in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself,"
without saying that it is of Himself He speaks. On the
arrival of the travellers at the village whither the two bre-
thren were bound, the unknown One assumes the air of a
man who is going farther on, as it would not become a

504 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE,

stranger to thrust himself into company uninvited ; hut re-
ceiving a pressing invitation. He acce]3ts it, and at last the
two brethren discover to their joy whom they have been
entertaining unawares.

This appearing of Jesus to the two brethren by the way
was a sort of prelude to that which He made on the evening
of the same day in Jerusalem to the eleven, or rather the ten.
As soon as they had discovered whom they had had for a
guest, Cleopas and his companion set out from Emmaus to
the Holy City, eager to tell the friends there the stirring
news. And, behold, while they are in the very act of telling
what things were done in the way, and how Jesus became
known to them in the breaking of bread, Jesus Himself ap-
peared in the midst of them, uttering the kindly salutation,
" Peace be unto you ! " He is come to do for the future
apostles what He has already done for the two friends : to
show Himself alive to them after His passion, and to open
their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures,
and see that, according to what had been written before of
the Christ, it behoved Him to suffer, and to rise from the
dead the third day.

While the general design of the two appearances is the
same, we observe a difference in the order of procedure fol-
lowed by Jesus. In the one case He opened the eyes of the
understanding first, and the eyes of the body second ; in the
other He reversed this order. In His coUoquy with the two
brethren. He first showed them that the crucifixion and the
rumoured resurrection were in perfect accordance with Old
Testament Scriptures, and then at the close made Himself
visible to their bodily eyes as Jesus risen. In other words. He
first taught them the true scriptural theory of Messiah's earthly
experience, and then He satisfied them as to the matter of
fact. In the meeting at night with the ten, on the other
hand, He disposed of the matter of fact first, and then took
up the theory afterwards. He convinced His disciples, by
showing them His hands and His feet, and by eating food,
that He really was risen ; and then He proceeded to show
that the fact was only what they ought to have expected as
the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy.

THE SHEPHERD EESTOREI) : EYES OF UNDERSTANDING OPENED. 505

In thus varying the order of revelation, Jesus was but
adapting His procedure to the different circumstances of the
persons with whom He had to deal. The two friends who
journeyed to Emmaus did not notice any resemblance between
the stranger who joined their company and their beloved
Lord, of whom they had been tliinking and speaking. " Their
eyes were holden, that they should not know Him." The
main cause of this, we believe, was sheer heaviness of heart.
Sorrow made them unobserving. They were so engrossed with
their own sad thoughts, that they had no eyes for outward
things. They did not take the trouble to look who it was
that had come up with them ; it would have made no dif-
ference though the stranger had been their own father. It is
obvious how men in such a mood must be dealt with. They can
get outward vision only by getting the inward eye first opened.
The diseased mind must be healed, that they may be able to
look at what is before them, and see it as it is. On this prin-
ciple Jesus proceeded with the two brethren. He accommo-
dated Himself to their humour, and led them on from despair
to hope, and then the outward senses recovered their percep-
tive power, and told who the stranger was. "You have
heard," He said in effect, " a rumour that He who was crucified
three days ago is risen. You regard this rumour as an in-
credible story. But why should you ? You believe Jesus to
be the Christ. If He was the Christ, His rising again was to
be expected as much as the passion, for both alike are foretold
in the Scriptures which ye believe to be the word of God."
These thoughts having taken hold of their minds, the hearts
of the two brethren begin to burn with the kindling power of
a new truth ; the day-dawn of hope breaks on their spirit ; they
waken up as from an oppressive dream ; they look outward,
and, lo, the man who has been discoursing to them is Jesus
Himself !

With the ten the case was different. Wlien Jesus appeared
in the midst of them, they were struck at once with the re-
semblance to their deceased Master. They had been listening
to the story of Cleopas and his companion, and were in a
more observing mood. But they could not believe that what
they saw really was Jesus. They were terrified and affrighted,

506 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

and supposed that they had seen a spirit — the ghost or spectre
of the Crucified. The first thing to be done in this case, there-
fore, manifestly was to allay the fear awakened, and to con-
vince the terrified disciples that the being who had suddenly
appeared was no ghost, but a man : the very man He seemed
to be : even Jesus Himself. Not till that has been done can
any discourse be profitably held concerning the teaching of
the Old Testament on the subject of Messiah's earthly history.
To that task accordingly Jesus forthwith addressed Himself,
and only when it was successfully accomplished did He pro-
ceed to expound the true Messianic theory.

Something analogous to the difference we have pointed
out in the experience of the two and the ten disciples in
connection with belief in the resurrection, may be found in
the ways by which different Christians now are brought to
faith. The evidences of Christianity are divisible into two
great categories : the external and the internal ; the one drawn
from outward historical facts, the other from the adaptation
of the gospel to man's nature and needs. Both sorts of evi-
dence are necessary to a perfect faith, just as both sorts of
vision, the outward and the inward, were necessary to make
the disciples thorough believers in the fact of the resurrection.
But some begin with the one, some with the other. Some are
convinced first that the gospel story is true, and then perhaps
long after waken up to a sense of the importance and pre-
ciousness of the things which it relates. Others, again, are
like Cleopas and his companion ; so engrossed with their
own thoughts, as to be incapable of appreciating or seeing
facts, requiring first to have the eyes of their understanding
enlightened to see the beauty and the worthiness of the truth
as it is in Jesus. They may at one time have had a kind of
traditional faith in the facts as sufficiently well attested. But
they have lost that faith, it may be not without regret. They
are sceptics, and yet they are sad because they are so, and
feel that it was better with them when, like others, they
believed. Yet, though tliey attempt it, they cannot restore
their faith by a study of mere external evidences. They
read books dealing in such evidences, but they are not much
impressed by them. Their eyes are holden, and they know

THE SHEPHERD EESTOEED : EYES OF UNDERSTANDING OPENED. 507

not Christ coming to them in that outward way. But He
reveals Himself to them in another manner. By hidden dis-
course with their spirits, He conveys into their minds a
powerful sense of the moral grandeur of the Christian faith,
making them feel that, true or not, it is at least worthy to
he true. Then their hearts begin to burn; they hope that
what is so beautiful may turn out to be all objectively true ;
the question of the external evidences assumes a new interest
to their minds ; they inquire, they read, they look ; and, lo,
they see Jesus revived, a true historical person for them : risen
out of the grave of doubt to live for evermore the sun of their
souls, more j)i'ecious for the temporary loss ; coming

' ' Apparelled in more precious habit,
More moving, delicate, and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of their soul,"

than ever He did before they doubted.

Prom these remarks on the order of the two revelations
made by Jesus to His disciples, — of Himself to the eye of their
body, and of the scriptural doctrine of the Messiah to the
eye of their mind, — we pass to consider the question. What
did the latter revelation amount to ? What was the precise
effect of those expositions of Scripture with which the risen
Christ favoured His hearers ? Did the disciples derive there-
from such an amount of light as to supersede the necessity of
any further illumination ? Had Jesus Himself done the work
of the Spirit of truth, whose advent He had promised before He
suffered, and led them into all truth ? Certainly not. The
opening of the understanding which took place at this time,
did not by any means amount to a fidl spiritual enlighten-
ment in Christian doctrine. The disciples did not yet compre-
hend the moral grounds of Christ's sufferings and resurrection.
Why He underwent these experiences they knew not : the
words " ought " and " behoved " meant for them as yet nothing
more than that, according to Old Testament prophecies rightly
understood, the things which had happened might and should
have been anticipated. They were in the same state of mind
as that in which we can conceive the Jewish Christians to
whom the Epistle to the Hebrews was addressed to have
been, after perusing the contents of that profound writing.

508 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

These Christians were ill grounded in gospel truth : they saw
not the glory of the gospel dispensation, nor its harmony with
that which went before, and under which they had been them-
selves educated. In particular, the divine dignity of the
Author of the Christian faith seemed to them incompatible
with His earthly humiliation. Accordingly, the writer of
the epistle sets himself to prove that the divinity, the tem-
porary humiliation, and the subsequent glorification of the
Christ are all taught in the Old Testament Scriptures, quot-
ing these liberally for that purpose in the early chapters of
his epistle. He does, in fact, by his written expositions for
his readers, what Jesus did by His oral expositions for His
hearers. And what shall we say was the immediate effect of
the writer's argument on the minds of those who attentively
perused it ? This, we imagine, that the crude believer on
laying down the book would be constrained to admit : " Well,
he is right : these things are all written in the Scriptures of
the Messiah; and therefore no one of them, not even the
humiliation and suffering at which I stumble, can be a reason
for rejecting Jesus as the Christ." A very important result,
yet a very elementary one. From the bare concession that
the real life of Jesus corresponded to the ideal life of the
Messiah as portrayed in the Old Testament, to the admiring,
enthusiastic, and thoroughly intelligent appreciation of gospel
truth exhibited by the ^vriter himself in every page of his
epistle, what a vast distance !

Not less was the distance between the state of mind of the
disciples after Jesus had expounded to them the things in the
law, and the prophets, and the psalms concerning Himself,
and the state of enlightenment to which they attained as
apostles after the advent of the Comforter. Now they knew
the alphabet merely of the doctrine of Christ ; then they had
arrived at perfection, and were thoroughly initiated into the
mystery of the gospel. Now a single ray of light was let into
their dark minds ; then the daylight of truth poured its full
flood into their souls. Or we may express the difference in
terms suggested by the narrative given by John of the events
connected with this first appearance of the risen Jesus to His
disciples. John relates that, at a certain stage in the proceed-

THE SHEPHERD RESTOEED : EYES OF UNDERSTANDING OPENED. 509

ings, Jesus breathed on the disciples, and said unto them,
" Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost." We are not to understand
that they then and there received the Spirit in the promised
fulness. The breath was rather but a sign and earnest of what
was to come. It was but an emblematic renewal of the pro-
mise, and a first instalment of its fulfilment. It was but the
little cloud like a man's hand, tliat portended a plenteous rain,
or the first gentle puff of wind which precedes the mighty
gale. Now they have the little breath of the Spirit's influence,
but not till Pentecost shall they feel the rushing wmd. So
great is the difference between now and then : between the
spiritual enlightenment of the disciples on the first Christian
Sabbath evening, and that of the apostles in after days.

It was but the day of small things with these disciples yet.
The small things, however, were not to be despised. Nor
were they. What value the ten set on the light they had
received we are not indeed told, but we may safely assume
that their feelings were much of kin to those of the two
brethren who journeyed towards Emmaus. Conversing to-
gether on the discourse of Jesus after His departure, they
said one unto another, " Did not our heart burn within us
while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened
to us the Scriptures ? " The light they had got might be
small, but it was neio light, and it had all the heart-kindling,
thought-stirring power of new truth. That conversation on
the road formed a crisis in their spiritual history. It was
the dawn of the gospel day ; it was the little spark which
kindles a great fire ; it deposited in their minds a thought
which was to form the germ or centre of a new system of
belief; it took away the veil which had been upon their
faces in the reading of the Old Testament, and was thus the
first step in a process which was to issue in their behold-
ing with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, and
in their being changed into the same image, from glory to
glory, by the Spirit of the Lord. Happy the man who has
got even so far as these two disciples at this time !

Some disconsolate soul may say. Would that happiness
were mine ! For the comfort of such a forlorn brother, let us
note the circumstances in which this new light arose for the

510 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

disciples. Their hearts were set a-burning when they had
become very dry and withered : hopeless, sick, and life-weary,
through sorrow and disappointment. It is always so : the
fuel must be dry that the spark may take hold. It was
when the people of Israel complained, " Our bones are dried
and our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts," that the
word went forth : " Behold, 0 my people, I will open your
graves, and. caiise you to come up out of your graves, and
bring you into the land of Israel." So with these disciples of
Jesus. It was when every particle of the sap of hope had
been bleached out of them, and their faith had been reduced
to this, " We trusted that it had been He which should have
redeemed Israel," that their hearts were set burning by the
kindling power of a new truth. So it has been in many an
instance since then. The fire of hope has been kindled in the
heart, never to be extinguished, just at the moment when men
were settling down into despair ; faith has been revived when
a man seemed to himself to be an infidel ; the light of truth
has arisen to minds which had ceased to look for the dawn ;
the comfort of salvation has returned to souls which had
begun to think that God's mercy was clean gone for ever.

There is nothing strange in this. The truth is, the heart
needs to be dried by trial before it can be made to burn.
Till sorrow comes, human hearts won't catch the divine fire ;
there is too much of this world's life-sap in them. That was
what made the disciples so slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets had spoken. Their worldly ambition prevented
them from learning the spirituahty of Christ's kingdom, and
pride made them blind to the glory of the cross. Hence
Jesus justly upbraided them for their unbelief and their
mindless stupidity. Had their hearts been pure, they might
have known beforehand what was to happen. As it was, they
comprehended notliing till their Lord's death had blighted
their hope and blasted their ambition, and bitter sorrow had
prepared them for receiving spiritual instruction.

THE SHEPHERD EESTORED : THE DOUBT OF THOMAS. 511

Section hi. — The Doubt of TJwmas.

John xx. 24-29.

" Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with
them when Jesus came " on that first Christian Sabbath even-
ing, and showed Himself to His disciples. One hopes he had
a good reason for his absence ; but it is at least possible that
he had not. In his melancholy humour, he may simply have
been indulging himself in the luxury of solitary sadness, just
as some whose Christ is dead do now spend their Sabbaths at
home or in rural solitudes, shunning the offensive cheerfulness
or the drowsy dulness of social worship. Be that as it may,
in any case he missed a good sermon ; the only one, so far
as we know, in the whole course of our Lord's ministry, in
which He addressed Himself formally to the task of expound-
ing the Messianic doctrine of the Old Testament. Had he
but known that such a discourse was to be delivered that
night ! But one never knows when the good things will come,
and the only way to make sui'e of getting them is to be
always at our post.

The same melancholy humour which probably caused
Thomas to be an absentee on the occasion of Christ's first
meeting with His disciples after He rose from the dead, made
him also sceptical above all the rest concerning the tidings
of the resurrection. When the other disciples told him on
his return that they had just seen the Lord, he replied with
vehemence : " Except I shall see in His hands the print of
the nails, and put my fingers into the print of the nails, and
thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe." He was
not to be satisfied with the testimony of his brethren ; he must
have palpable evidence for himself Not that he doubted their
veracity ; but he could not get rid of the suspicion, that what
they said they had seen was but a mere ghostly appearance
by which their eyes had been deceived.

The scepticism of Thomas was, we think, mainly a matter
of temperament, and had little in common with the doubt of
men of rationalistic proclivities, who are inveterately incredu-

512 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

lous respecting the supernatural, and stumble at everything
savouring of the miraculous. It has been customary to call
Thomas the Eationalist among the twelve, and it has even been
supposed that he had belonged to the sect of the Sadducees
before he joined the society of Jesus. On mature considera-
tion, we are constrained to say that we see very little foun-
dation for such a view of this disciple's character, while we
certainly do not grudge modern doubters any comfort they
may derive from it. We are quite well aware that among
the sincere, and even the spiritually-minded, there are men
whose minds are so constituted that they find it very difficult
to believe in the supernatural and the miraculous : so difficult,
that it is a question whether, if they had been in Thomas' place,
the freest handling and the minutest inspection of the wounds
in the risen Saviour's body would have availed to draw forth
from them an expression of unhesitating faith in the reality
of His resurrection. Nor do we see any reason a priori for
asserting that no disciple of Jesus could have been a person of
such a cast of mind. All we say is, there is no evidence that
Thomas, as a matter of fact, was a man of this stamp. No-
where in the Gospel history do we discover any unreadiness
on his part to believe in the supernatural or the miraculous
as such. We do not find, e.g., that he was sceptical about the
raising of Lazarus : we are only told that, when Jesus pro-
posed to visit the afflicted family in Bethany, he regarded the
journey as fraught with danger to his beloved Master and to
them all, and said, " Let us also go, that we may die with
Him." Then, as now, he showed himself not so much the
Eationalist as the man of gloomy temperament, prone to look
upon the dark side of things ; living in the pensive moon-
light rather than in the cheerful sunlight. His doubt did not
spring out of his system of thought, but out of the state of his
feelings.

Another thing we must say here concerning the doubt of
this disciple. It did not proceed from umoillhigncss to be-
lieve. It was the doubt of a sad man, whose sadness was
due to this, that the event whereof he doubted was one of
which he would most gladly be assured. Nothing could give
Thomas greater delight than to be certified that his Master was

THE SHEPHEKD RESTORED : THE DOUBT OF THOMAS. 513

indeed risen. This is evident from the joy he manifested
when he was at length satisfied. "My Lord and my God !"
that is not the exclamation of one who is forced reluctantly
to admit a fact he would rather deny. It is common for men,
who never had any doubts themselves, to trace all doubt to
bad motives, and denounce it indiscriminately as a crime.
Now, unquestionably, too many doubt from bad motives, be-
cause they do not wish and cannot afford to believe. Many
deny the resurrection of the dead, because it would be to them
a resurrection to shame and everlasting contempt. But this
is by no means true of all. Some doubt who desire to believe ;
nay, their doubt is due to their excessive anxiety to believe.
They are so eager to know the very truth, and feel so keenly
the immense importance of the interests at stake, that they
cannot take things for granted, and for a time their hand so
trembles, that they cannot seize firm hold of the great objects
of faith, — a living God ; an incarnate, crucified, risen Saviour ;
a glorious eternal future. Theirs is the doubt peculiar to
earnest, thoughtful, pure -hearted men, wide as the poles
asunder from the doubt of the frivolous, the worldly, the
vicious : a holy, noble doubt, not a base and unholy ; if not
to be praised as positively meritorious, still less to be harshly
condemned and excluded from the pale of Christian sympathy,
— a doubt which at worst is but an infirmity, and which ever
ends in strong, unwavering faith.

That Jesus regarded the doubt of the heavy-hearted disciple
as of this sort, we infer from His way of dealing with it.
Thomas having been absent on the occasion of His first appear-
ing to the disciples, the risen Lord makes a second appearance
for the absent one's special benefit, and offers him the proof
desiderated. The introductory salutation being over, He turns
Himself at once to the doubter, and addresses him in terms
fitted to remind him of his own statement to his brethren,
saying : " Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and
reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side : and be not
faithless, but believing." There may be somewhat of reproach
here, but there is far more of most considerate sympathy.
Jesus speaks as to a sincere disciple, whose faith is weak, not
as to one who hath an evil heart of unbelief When demands

2 K

514 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

for evidence were made by men who merely wanted an excuse
for unbelief, He met tbem in a very different manner. "A
wicked and adulterous generation," He was wont to say in such
a case, " seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given
unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonas."

Having ascertained the character of Thomas' doubt, let us
now look at his faith.

The melancholy disciple's doubts were soon removed. But
how ? Did Thomas avail himself of the offered facilities for
ascertaining the reality of his Lord's resurrection ? Did he
actually put his fingers and hand into the nail and spear
wounds ? Opinions differ on this point, but we think the
probability is on the side of those who maintain the negative.
Several things incline us to this view. First, the narrative seems
to leave no room for the process of investigation. Thomas
answers the proposal of Jesus by what appears to be an im-
mediate profession of faith. Then the form in which that
profession is made is not such as we should expect the result
of a deliberate inquhy to assume. " My Lord and my God" is
the warm, passionate language of a man who has undergone
some sudden change of feeling, rather than of one who has
just concluded a scientific experiment. Further, we observe
there is no allusion to such a process in the remark made by
Jesus concerning the faith of Thomas. The disciple is repre-
sented as believing because he has seen the wounds shown,
not because he has handled them. Finally, the idea of the
process proposed being actually gone through is inconsistent
with the character of the man to whom the proposal was
made. Thomas was not one of your calm, cold-blooded men,
who conduct inquiries into truth with the passionless impar-
tiality of a judge, and who would have examined the wounds
in the risen Saviour's body with all the coolness with which
anatomists dissect dead carcases. He was a man of pas-
sionate, poetic temperament, vehement alike in his belief and
in his unbelief, and moved to faith or doubt by the feelings of
his heart rather than by the reasonings of his intellect.

The truth, we imagine, about Thomas was something like
this. When, eight days before, he made that threat to his
brother disciples, he did not deliberately mean all he said.

THE SHEPHERD RESTORED : THE DOUBT OF THOMAS. 515

It was the whimsical utterance of a melancholy man, who was
in the humour to be as disconsolate and miserable as possible.
" Jesus risen ! the thing is impossible, and there's an end of it.
I won't believe except I do so and so. I don't know if I shall
believe when all's done." But eight days have gone by, and
lo, there is Jesus in the midst of them, visible to the disciple
who was absent on the former occasion as well as to the
rest. Will Thomas still insist on applying his rigorous test ?
No, no ! His doubts vanish at the very sight of Jesus, like
morning mists at sunrise. Even hcfore the Eisen One has laid
bare His wounds, and uttered those half-reproachful yet kind,
sympathetic words, which evince intimate knowledge of aU
that has been passing through His doubting disciple's mind,
Thomas is virtually a believer ; and after he has seen the
ugly wounds and heard the generous words, he is ashamed of
his rash, reckless speech to his brethren, and overcome with joy
and with tears, exclt^ims, " My Lord and my God !"

It was a noble confession of faith ; the most advanced, in
fact, ever made by any of the twelve during the time they
were with Jesus. The last is first; the greatest doubter
attains to the fullest and firmest belief So has it often
happened in the history of the church. Baxter records it as
his experience, that nothing is so firmly believed as that which
hath once been doubted. Many Thomases have said, or could
say, the same thing of themselves. The doubters have even-
tually become the soundest and even the warmest believers.
Doubt in itself is a cold thing, and, as in the case of Thomas,
it often utters harsh and heartless sayings. ^No wonder; for
when the mind is in doubt the soul is in darkness, and during
the chilly night the heart becomes frozen. But when the
daylight of faith comes the frost melts, and hearts which once
seemed hard and stony show themselves capable of generous
enthusiasm and ardent devotion.

Socinians, whose system is utterly overthrown by Thomas'
confession naturally interpreted, tell us that the words " My
Lord and my God" do not refer to Jesus at all, but to the
Deity in heaven. They are merely an expression of astonish-
ment on the part of the disciple, on finding that what he had
doubted was really come to pass. He lifts up his eyes and

516 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

his hands to heaven, as it were, and exclaims : My Lord and
my God ! it is a fact : The cnicified Jesus is restored to life
again. This interpretation is utterly desperate. It disregards
the statement of the text, that Thomas, in uttering these words,
was answering and speaking to Jesus, and it makes a man
bursting with emotion speak frigidly ; for while the one ex-
pression " My God " might have been an appropriate utterance
of astonishment, the two phrases, "My Lord and my God,"
are for that purpose weak and unnatural.

We have here, therefore, no mere expression of surprise, but
a profession of faith most appropriate to the man and the cir-
cumstances ; as pregnant with meaning as it is pithy and
forcible. Thomas declares at once his acceptance of a mira-
culous fact, and his belief in a momentous doctrine. In the
first part of his address to Jesus he recognises that He who
was dead is alive : My Lord, my beloved Master ! it is even
He ; the very same person with whom we enjoyed such blessed
fellowship before He was crucified. In the second part of
his address he acknowledges Christ's divinity, if not for the
first time, at least with an intelligence and an emphasis alto-
gether new. From the fact he rises to the doctrine : My Lord
risen, yea, and therefore my God ; for He is divine over whom
death liath no power. And the doctrine in turn helps to give
to the fact of the resurrection additional certainty ; for if
Christ be God, death could have no power over Him, and His
resurrection was a matter of course. Thomas having reached
the sublime affirmation, " My God," has made the transition
from the low platform of faith on which he stood when he
demanded sensible evidence, to the higher, on which it is felt
that such evidence is superfluous.

We have now to notice, in the last place, the remark made
by the Lord concerning the faith just professed by His dis-
ciple. " Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast
seen me, thou hast believed : blessed are they that have not
seen, and yet have believed."

This reflection on the blessedness of those who believe
without seeing, though expressed in the past tense, really
concerned the future. The case supposed by Jesus was to be
the case of all believers after the apostolic age. Since then

THE SHEPHERD RESTORED : THE DOUBT OF THOMAS. 517

no one has seen, and no one can believe because he has seen,
as the apostles saw. They saw, that we might be able to do
without seeing, believing on their testimony.

But what does Jesus mean by pronouncing a beatitude on
those who see not, yet believe ?

He does not mean to commend those who believe without
any inquiry. It is one thing to believe without seeing,
another thing to believe without consideration. To believe
without seeing is to be capable of being satisfied with some-
thino; less than absolute demonstration, or to have such an
inward illumination as renders us to a certain extent inde-
pendent of external evidence. Such a faculty of faith is
most needful ; for if faith were possible only to those who
see, belief in Christianity could not extend beyond the apos-
tolic age. But to believe without consideration is a different
matter altogether. It is simply not to care whether the thing
beheved be true or false. There is no merit in doing that.
Such faith has its origin in what is base in men, in their
ignorance, sloth, and spiritual indifference ; and it can bring
no blessing to its possessors. Be the truths credited ever so
high, holy, blessed, what good can a faith do which receives
them as matters of course without inquiry, or without even
so much as knowincj what the truths believed mean ?

The Lord Jesus, then, does not here bestow a benediction
on credulity.

As little does He mean to say that all the felicity falls to
the lot of those who have never, like Thomas, doubted. The
fact is not so. Those who believe with facility do certainly
enjoy a blessedness all their own. They escape the torment
of uncertainty, and the current of their spiritual life flows on
very smoothly. But the men who have doubted, and now at
length believe, have also their peculiar joys, with wliich no
stranger can intermeddle. Theirs is the joy experienced when
that which was dead is alive again, and that which was lost
is found. Theirs is the rapture of Thomas when he exclaimed,
with reference to a Saviour thought to be gone for ever, " My
Lord and my God." Theirs is the bliss of the man who,
having dived into a deep, deep sea, brings up a pearl of very
great price. Theirs is the comfort of having their very bygone

518 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

doubts made available for the furtherance of their faith, every
doubt becoming a stone in the hidden foundation on which
the superstructure of their creed is built, the perturbations of
faith being converted into confirmations, just as the pertur-
bations in the planetary motions, at first supposed to throw
doubt on Newton's theory of gravitation, were converted by
more searching inquiry into the strongest proof of its truth.

What, then, does the Lord Jesus mean by these words ?
Simply this. He would have those who must believe without
seeing, understand that they have no cause to envy those who
had an opportunity of seeing, and who believed only after
they saw. We, who live so far from the events, are very apt
to imagine that we are placed at a great disadvantage as
compared with the disciples of Jesus. So in some respects
we are, and especially in this, that faith is more difficult for
us than for them. But then we must not forget that, in
proportion as faith is difficult, it is meritorious, and precious
to the heart. It is a higher attainment to be able to believe
without seeing, than to believe because we have seen ; and if
it cost an effort, the trial of faith but enhances its value.
We must remember, further, that we never reach the full
blessedness of faith till what we believe shines in the light of
its own self-evidence. Think you the disciples were happy
men because they had seen their risen Lord and believed ?
They were far happier when they had attained to such clear
insight into the whole mystery of redemption, that proof of
this or that particular fact or doctrine was felt to be quite
unnecessary.

To that felicity Jesus wished His doubting disciple to
aspire ; and by contrasting his case with that of those who
believe without seeing. He gives us to know that it is attain-
able for us also. We, too, may attain the blessedness of a
faith raised above aU doubt by its own clear insight into
divine truth. If we are faithful, we may rise to this from
very humble things. We may begin, in our weakness, with
being Thomases, clinging eagerly to every spar of external
evidence to save ourselves from drowning, and end with a
faith amounting almost to sight, rejoicing in Jesus as our Lord
and God, with a joy unspeakable and full of glory.

CHAPTEE XXIX.

THE UNDER-SHEPHEEDS ADMONISHED.

Section i. — Pastoral Duty.
John xxi. 15-17.

I GO a-fishing," said Simon to his companions, some time
after they and he had returned from Jerusalem to the
neighbourhood of the Galilean lake. " We also go with
thee," replied Thomas and Nathanael, and James and John,
and two others unnamed, making with Peter seven, probably
all of the eleven who were fishermen by trade. One and
all went on that fishing expedition con. amove. It was an
expedition, we presume, in the first place, in quest of food,
but it was something more. It was a return to dear old
ways, amid familiar scenes, which called up pleasing remi-
niscences of bygone times. It was a recreation and a solace,
most welcome and most needful to men who had passed
through very painful and exciting experiences ; a holiday for
men fatigued by sorrow, and surprise, and watching. Every
student with overtasked brain, every artisan with over-
strained sinews, may conceive the ahandon with which those
seven disciples threw themselves into their boats, and sailed
out into the depths of the Sea of Tiberias to ply their old
craft.

Out on the waters that nicjht, what were these men's
thoughts ? From the significant allusion made by Jesus to
Peter's youth in the colloquy of next morning, we guess they
were something like the following : — " After all, were it not
better to be simple fishermen than to be apostles of the Chris-
tian religion ? What have we got by following Jesus ? Cer-
tainly not what we expected. And have we any reason to

520 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

expect better things in the future ? Our Master has told us
that our future lot will be very much like His own — a life of
sorrow, ending probably in martyrdom. But here, in our
native province of Galilee, pursuing our old calling, we might
think, believe, act as we pleased, shielded by obscurity from
all danger. Then how delightfully free and independent this
rustic life by the shores of the lake ! In former days, ere we
left our nets and followed Jesus, we girded ourselves with our
fishermen's coats, and walked whither we would. Wlien we
shall have become apostles, all that will be at an end. We
shall be burdened with a heavy load of responsibility ; obliged
continually to think of others, and not to please ourselves ;
liable to have our personal liberty taken away, yea, even our
very life."

In putting such words into the mouths of the disciples, we
do not violate probability ; for such feelings as the words
express are both natural and common in view of grave respon-
sibilities and perils about to be incurred. Perhaps no one
ever put his hand to the plough of an arduous enterprise,
without indulging for at least a brief space in such a looking
back. It is an infirmity which easily besets human nature.

Yet, natural as it comes to men to look back, it is not wise.
Eegretful thoughts of the past are for the most part delusive :
they were so certainly in the case of the disciples. If the
simple life they left behind them was so very happy, why did
they leave it ? Wliy so prompt to forsake their nets and their
boats, and to follow after Jesus ? Ah, fishing in the blue
waters of the Sea of Galilee did not satisfy the whole man.
Life is more than meat, and the kingdom of God is man's
chief end. Besides, the fisherman's life has its drawbacks,
and is by no means so romantic as it seems at the distance of
years. You may sometimes go out with your nets, and toil all
night, and catch nothing.

This was what actually happened on the present occasion.
" That night they caught nothing." ^ The circumstance pro-
bably helped to break the spell of romance, and to waken the
seven disciples out of a fond dream. Be that as it may, there
was One who knew all their thoughts, and who would see to

^ Jolin xxi. 3.

THE UNDER-SHEPHERDS ADMONISHED : PASTORAL DUTY. 521

it that they did not indulge long in the luxury of reactionary
feeling. "When the morning was now come, Jesus stood on
the shore." ^ He is come to show Himself for the third time^
to His disciples, not, as before, to convince them that He is
risen, but to induce them to dedicate their whole minds and
hearts to their future vocation as fishers of men, and as under-
shepherds of the flock, preparatory to His own departure from
the world. His whole conduct on this occasion is directed
to that object. First, He gives them directions for catching a
great haul of fish, to remind them of their former call to be
His apostles, and to be an encouraging sign or symbol of their
success in their apostolic work. Then He invites them to
dine on fish which He had procured,^ roasted on a fire of His
own kindling on the shore, to cure them of earthly care, and
to assure them that, if they seek to serve the kingdom with
undivided heart, all their wants will be attended to. Finally,
when the morning meal is over. He enters into conversation,
in the hearing of all, with the disciple who had been the
leader in the night adventure on the lake, and addresses him
in a style fitted to call forth all his latent enthusiasm, and
intended to have a similar effect on the minds of all present.
On the surface, the words spoken by Jesus to Peter seem
to concern that disciple alone ; and the object aimed at appears
to be to restore him to a position as an apostle, which he
might not unnaturally think he had forfeited by his conduct
in the high priest's palace. This, accordingly, is the view com-
monly taken of this impressive scene on the shore of the lake.
And whether we agree with that view or not, we must admit
that, for some reason or other, the Lord Jesus wished to recall
to Peter's remembrance his recent shortcomings. Traces of
allusion to past incidents in the disciple's history during the
late crisis are unmistakeable. Even the time selected for the
conversation is significant. It was when they had dined that
Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him ; it was after they had
supped Jesus gave His disciples His new commandment of
love, and that Peter made his vehement protestation of devo-

' John xxi. 4. ^ The sixth appearance since He was risen.

' When the disciples landed, they saw the fire and fish already laid on it, and
bread set near by.

522 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

tion to liis Master's cause and person. The name by which
the risen Lord addressed His disciple — not Peter, but Simon
son of Jonas — was fitted to remind him of his weakness, and
of 1 that other occasion on which, calling him by the same
name, Jesus warned him that Satan was about to sift him as
wheat. The thrice-repeated question, " Lovest thou me ? "
could not fail painfully to remind Peter of his threefold denial,
and so to renew his grief The form in which the question
was first put — " Lovest thou me more than these ? " — contains
a manifest allusion to Peter's declaration, " Though all shall
be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended."
The injunction, "Peed my sheep," points back to the prophetic
announcement made by Jesus on the way to the Mount of
Olives, " All ye shall be offended because of me this night ;
for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of
the flock shall be scattered abroad," and means : Suffer not
the sheep to be scattered, as ye were for a season scattered
yourselves. The injunction, " Peed my lambs," associated with
the first question, " Lovest thou me more than these ? " makes
us think of the charge, " When thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren ; " the idea suggested in both cases being the
same, viz. that the man who has fallen most deeply, and
learned most thoroughly his own weakness, is, or ought to be,
best qualified for strengthening the weak — for feeding the
lambs.

Notwithstanding all these allusions to Peter's fall, we are
unable to acquiesce in the view, that the scene here recorded
signified the formal restoration of the erring disciple to his
position as an apostle. We do not deny that, after what had
taken place, that disciple needed restoration for his own comfort
and peace of mind. But our difficulty is this : Had he not
been restored already ? What was the meaning of that private
meeting between him and Jesus, and what its necessary result ?
Who can doubt, that after that meeting the disciple's mind
was at ease, and that thereafter he was at peace, both with
himself and with his Master ? Or if evidence is wanted of
the fact, look at Peter's behaviour on recognising Jesus from
the boat, as He stood on the shore in the grey morning, casting
himself as he was into the sea, in his haste to get near his

THE UNDEK-SHEPHERDS ADMONISHED : PASTOEAL DUTY. 523

beloved Lord. Was that the behaviour of a man afflicted with
a guilty conscience ? But it may be replied, there was still
need for a formal public restoration, the scandal caused by
Peter's sin being public. This we doubt ; but even granting
it, what then ? Why did the restoration not take place sooner,
at the first or second meeting in Jerusalem ? Then, does the
scene by the shores of the lake really look like a formal trans-
action ? Can we regard that casual, easy, familiar meeting and
colloquy after breakfast with two-thirds of the disciples as an
ecclesiastical diet, for the solemn purpose of restoring a fallen
brother to church fellowship and standing ? The idea is too
frigid and pedantic to be seriously entertained. Then one more
objection to this theory remains to be stated, viz. that it fails
to give unity to the various parts of the scene. It may ex-
plain the questioning to which Jesus subjected Peter ; but it
does not explain the prophetic reference to his future history
with which He followed it up. Between " I allow you, not-
withstanding past misdemeanours, to be an apostle," and " I
forewarn you, that in that capacity you shall not have the
freedom of action in which you rejoiced in former days," there
is no connection traceable. Peter's fall did not suggest such
a turn of thought ; for it sprang not from the love of freedom,
but from the fear of man.

Not the restoration of Peter to a forfeited position, but his
recall to a more solemn sense of his high vocation, do we find
in this scene. Not " I allow you," but " I urge you," seems
to us to be the burthen of Christ's words to this disciple, and
through him to all his brethren. By all considerations he
would move them to address themselves heart and soul to their
apostolic work, and let boats, and nets, and everything else
alone for ever. " By the memory of thine own weakness,"
He would say to Simon for that end ; " by my forgiving love,
and thy gratitude for it ; by the need of brother disciples,
which thine own past frailty may teach thee to understand
and compassionate ; by the ardent attachment which I know
you cherish towards myself : by these and all kindred con-
siderations, I charge thee, on the eve of my departure, be a
hero, play the man, be strong for others, not for thyself, ' feed
the flock of God, taking the oversight thereof, not by con-

524 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

straint, but willingly.' Shrink not from responsibility, covet
not ease, bend thy neck to the yoke, and let love make it
light. Sweet is liberty to thy human heart ; but patient,
burden-bearing love, though less pleasant, is far more noble."

Such being the message which Jesus meant for all present,
Peter was most appropriately selected as the medium for con-
veying it. He was an excellent text on which to preach a
sermon on self-consecration. His character and conduct sup-
plied all the poetry, and argument, and illustration necessary
to give pathos and point to the theme. How dear to his
impetuous, passionate spirit, unrestrained freedom ! And what
heart is not touched by the thought of such a man schooling
his high, mettlesome soul into patience and submission ? The
young, frolicsome, bounding fisherman, girding on his coat,
and going hither and thither at his own sweet will ; the aged
saintly apostle, meek as a lamb, stretching forth his arms to
be bound for the martyr's doom : what a moving contrast !
Had that passionate man, in some senses the strongest cha-
racter among the twelve, been in other senses the weakest,
then who could better illustrate men's need of shepherding ?
Had he learnt his own weakness, and through his knowledge
thereof grown strong ? Then how better state the general
duty of the strong to help the weak, than by assigning to this
particular disciple the special . duty of taking care of the
weakest ? To say to Peter, " Feed my lambs," was to say to
all the apostles, " Feed my sheep."

In requiring Peter to show his love, by performing the part
of shepherd to the little flock of believers, Jesus adapted His
demand to the spiritual capacity of the disciple. Love to the
Saviour does not necessarily take the form of feeding the sheep ;
in immature and inexperienced disciples, it rather takes the
form of being sheep. It is only after the weak have become
strong, and established in grace, that they ought to become
shepherds, charging themselves with the care of others. In
laying on Peter and his brethren pastoral duties, therefore,
Jesus virtually announces that they have now passed, or are
about to pass, out of the category of the weak into the cate-
gory of the strong. " Hitherto," He virtually says to them,
" ye have been as sheep, needing to be guided, watched over.

THE UNDER-SHEPHERDS ADMONISHED : PASTORAL DUTY. 525

and defended by the wisdom and courage of another. Now,
however, the time is arrived when ye must become shepherds,
able and willing to do for the weak what I have done for you.
Hitherto ye have left me to care for you ; henceforth you
must accustom yourselves to be looked to as guardians, even
as I have been by you. Hitherto ye have been as children
under me, your parent ; henceforth ye must yourselves be
parents, taking charge of the children. Hitherto ye have been
as raw recruits, liable to panic, and fleeing from danger ; hence-
forth ye must be captains superior to fear, and by your calm
determination inspire the soldiers of the cross with heroic
daring." In short, Jesus here in effect announces to Peter
and to the rest, that they are now to make the transition from
boyhood to manhood, from pupillage to self-government, from
a position of dependence and exemption from care to one of
influence, authority, and responsibility, as leaders and com-
manders in the Christian community, doing the work for which
they have been so long under training. Such a transition
and transformation did accordingly take place shortly after in
the history of the disciples. They assumed the position of
Christ's deputies or substitutes after His ascension, Peter being
the leading or representative man, though not the Pope, in the
infant church ; and their character was altered to fit them for
their high functions. The timid disciples became bold apostles.
Peter, who weakly denied the Lord in the judgment-hall,
heroically confessed Him before the Sanhedrim. The ignorant
and stupid disciples, who had been continually misunder-
standing their Master's words, became filled with the Spirit
of wisdom and understanding, so that men listened to their
words as they had been wont to listen to the words of Jesus
Himself.

We have said that love to Christ does not impose on all
His disciples the duty of a shepherd ; showing itself rather
in by far the larger number in simply hearing the shepherd's
voice and following him, and generally in a willingness to be
guided by those who are wiser than themselves. We must
add, that all who are animated by the spirit of love to the
Eedeemer will be either shepherds or sheep, actively useful
in caring for the souls of others, or thankfully using the pro-

526 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

vision made for the care of tlieir own souls. Too many, however,
come under neither designation. Some are sheep indeed, but
sheep going astray : others are neither sheep nor shepherds,
being self-reliant, yet indisposed to be helpful ; too self-willed
to be led, yet disinclined to make their strength and experi-
ence available for their brethren, utilizing all their talents for
the exclusive service of their own private interests. Such'
men are to be found in Church and State, sedulously holding
back from office and responsibility, and severely criticising
those who have come under the yoke ; animadverting on their
timidity and bondage, as unbroken colts, if they could speak,
might animadvert on the tameness of horses in harness ; the
bits and bridles that form a part of church harness, in the
shape of formulas and confessions, coming in for a double
share of censure.^

Now, it is all very well to be wild colts, rejoicing in un-
restrained liberty, for a season in youth ; but it will not do to
be spurning the yoke all one's lifetime. " Ye, then, that are
strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to
please yourselves." It is, no doubt, most agreeable to be free
from care, and to walk about unfettered in opinion and action,
and, shaking off those who would hang on our skirts, to live
the life of gods, careless of mankind. But it is not the chief
end of any man, least of all of a wise and strong man, to be
free from care or trouble. He who has a Christian heart must
feel that he is strong and wise for the sake of others who want
strength and wisdom ; and he will undertake the shepherd's
office, though shrinking with fear and trembling from its ■
responsibilities, and though conscious also that in so doing
he is consenting to have his liberty and independence greatly
circumscribed. The yoke of love which binds us to our
fellows is sometimes not easy, and the burden of caring for
them not light ; but, on the whole, it is better and nobler to

^ It is a fair question whether our venerable Confession is not too minute and
stringent, a sort of double bridle, even for ministers ; and whether subscription
should be required at all for lay elders, who do not teach, want the professional
knowledge niicessary to intelligent subscription to all details, and are as amen-
able to discipline for belief as for conduct without subscription. No man signs
an obligation to keep the ten commandments, in order to be subject to dis-
cipline for immorality.

THE UNDER-SHEPHERDS ADMONISHED : PASTORAL DUTY. 527

be a drudge and a slave at the bidding of love, than to be
a free man through the emancipating power of selfishness.
Better Peter a prisoner and martyr for the gospel, than Simon
inculcating on his Lord the selfish policy, " Save Thyself," or
lying in luxurious ease on the hill of Transfiguration, exclaim-
ing, " Lord, it is good to be here." Better Peter, bound by
others, and led whither he would not, as a good shepherd to
be sacrificed for the sheep, than Simon girding on his own
garment, and walking along with the careless jaunty air of a
modern iiococurantist. A life on the ocean wave, a life in
the woods, a life in the mountains or in the clouds, may be
fine to dream and sing of; but the only life out of which
genuine heroism and poetry comes, is that which is spent on
this solid prosaic earth in the lowly work of doing good.

Note now, finally, the evidence supplied in Peter's answers
to his Lord's questions, that he is indeed fitted for the respon-
sible work to which he is summoned. It is not merely that
he can appeal to Jesus Himself, as one who knows all things,
and say, "Thou knowest that I love Thee;" for, as we have
already hinted, every sincere disciple can do that. Two
specific marks of spiritual maturity are discernible here, not
to be found in those who are weak in grace, not previously
found in Peter himself. There is, first, marked modesty : very
remarkable in so forward a man. Peter does not now make
any comparisons between himself and his brethren as he had
done previously. In spite of appearances, he still protests that
he does love Jesus ; but he takes care not to say, " I love Thee
more than those." He not only does not say this, but he
manifestly does not think it : the bragging spirit has left
him; he is a humble, subdued, wise man, spiritually equipped
for the pastorate, just because he has ceased to think himself
supremely competent for it.

The second mark of maturity discernible in Peter's replies
is godly sorrow for past shortcoming : " Peter was grieved
because He (Jesus) said unto him the third time, Lovest thou
me ? " He was grieved, because by the tlireefold interrogation
he was reminded that the threefold denial of which he had
been guilty afforded ground for calling his love in question.
Observe particularly the feeling produced by this dehcate

528 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

reference to his former sins. It was grief, not irritation, anger,
or shame. There is no pride, passion, vanity in this man's soul,
but only, holy meek contrition ; no sudden colouring is observ-
able in his countenance, but only the gracious softened expres-
sion of a penitent, chastised spirit. The man who can so take
allusions to his sins is not only iit to tend the sheep, but even
to nurse the lambs. He will restore those who have fallen
in a spirit of meekness. He will be tender towards offenders,
not with the spurious charity which cannot afford to condemn
sin strongly, but with the charity of one who has himself
received mercy for sins sincerely repented of. By his benignant
sympathy, sinners will be converted unto God in unfeigned
sorrow for their offences, and in humble hope of pardon ; and
by his watchful care many sheep will be kept from ever stray-
ing from the fold.

Section ii. — Pastor Pastorum.
John xxi. 19-22.

To be a dutiful under-shepherd is, in another view, to be
a faithful sheep, following the Chief Shepherd whithersoever
He goes. Pastors are not lords over God's heritage, but
mere servants of Christ, the great Head of the church, bound
to regard His will as their law, and His life as their model.
In the scene by the lake, Jesus took pains to make His disciples
understand this. He did not allow them to suppose that, in
committing to their pastoral charge His flock. He was abdi-
cating His position as Shepherd and Bishop of souls. Having
said to Peter, " Feed my lambs," " Feed my sheep," He said
to him, as His final word, " Follow me."

It is implied in the narrative, that while Jesus said this, He
arose and walked away from the spot where the disciples had
just taken their morning meal. "Whither He went we are not
told, but it may have been towards that " mountain in Galilee,"
the pre-appointed rendezvous where the risen Saviour met
" above five hundred brethren at once." The sheep have doubt-
less been wending thither to meet their Divine Shepherd, as in a

THE UNDER-SHEPHEKDS ADMONISHED : PASTOR PASTOEUM. 529

secluded upland fold ; and it is more tlian possible that the
object of the journey in which Peter is invited to join his
Master, is to introduce him to the flock which had just been
committed to his care.

Be this as it may, Peter obeyed the summons, and rose at
once to follow Jesus. His first impression probably was that
he was to be the solitary attendant of his Lord, and a natural
wish to ascertain the state of the case led Mm to look behind
to see what his companions were doing. On turning round,
he observed the disciple whom Jesus loved, and whom he too
loved, following close in his footsteps ; and the question forth-
with rose to his lips : " Lord, and what of this man ?" The
question was elliptical, but it meant : John is coming after us :
Is the same lot in store for him that you have prophesied for
me ? Shall he, too, be bound and led whither he would not ;
or shall he, as the disciple most dearly beloved, be exempted
from the hardships I am fated to endure ?

That another and a happier fortune was reserved for John,
seemed, we believe, probable to Peter. He could not but re-
call to mind that memorable scene in which John's mother
made her ambitious request for her two sons ; and in spite of
what Jesus had said to them about tasting of His cup, and
being baptized with His baptism, he, Peter, might well imagine
that John's desire would be fulfilled, and that he would live to
see the kingdom come, and to share its glories ; especially as
one and all of the disciples, down to the very last day of their
Lord's sojourn on earth, still expected the kingdom to be re-
stored to Israel very soon.

If such was Peter's thought, it is not surprising that he
should ask, if not with envy, at least with a sadder sense of
his own loss : " Lord, what of this man ?" Adversity is hard
to bear at best, but hardest of all when personal ill-fortune
stands in glaring contrast with the prosperity of a brother who
started on his career at the same time, and with no better
prospects than the man whom he has far outstripped in the
race.

To such considerations, however, Jesus paid little respect in
His reply to Peter's question. "If I will," He said, "that he tarry
till I come, what is that to thee 1 PoUow thou me." " How

2 L

530 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

stern and unfeeling !" one is tempted to exclaim. Miglit not
Jesus at least have reminded Simon, for his comfort, of the
words He once uttered to James and John : " Ye shall drink
of my cup ? " Would it not have helped Peter more cheerfully
to foUow his Master in the arduous path of the cross, to have
told him that, in whatever manner John might die, he too
would have to suffer for the gospel ; that his life, whether
long or short, would be full of tribulation ; that participation
in the glory of the kingdom did not depend on longevity ;
that, in fact, the first to die would be the first to enter into
glory ? But no ; it might not be. To administer such com-
fort would have been to indulge the disciple's weakness. One
who is to play a soldier's part must be trained with military
rigour. Effeminacy, sighing after happiness, brooding over the
felicity we have missed, are out of place in an apostle's
character; and Jesus, to whom such dispositions are most ab-
horrent, will take good care not to give them any countenance.
He will have all His followers, and specially the heads of His
people, to be heroes, " Ironsides," prompt to do bidding, fear-
less of danger, patient of fatigue, without a trace of selfish
softness. He will give no quarter even to natural weaknesses,
disregards present pain, cares not how we smart under rebuke,
provided only He gain His end — the production of character
temptation-proof.

Having this end in view, Jesus took no trouble to correct
Peter's misapprehensions about his brother disciple. Misap-
prehensions, we say, for such they indeed were. John did not
tarry till the Lord came, in the sense in which Peter under-
stood the words. He lived, indeed, till the close of the first
Christian century ; therefore long after the Lord's coming to
execute judgment on Jerusalem. But except for the longevity
he enjoyed, the last of the apostles was in no respect to be
envied. The church was militant aU his days : he took part
in many of its battles, and received therein many scars. Com-
panion with Peter in the church's first conflict with the world,
he was a prisoner in Patmos for the word of God, and for the
testimony of Jesus Christ, after Peter had fallen asleep. One
might perhaps say that, owing to temperament, the life of
John was less stirring than that of his brother apostle. He

THE UNDER-SHEPHERDS ADMONISHED : PASTOR PASTORUM. 531

was a man of less impetuosity, though not of less intensity ;
and there was, perhaps, not so much in his character pro-
vocative of the world's opposition. Both by his virtues and
by liis infirmities, Peter was predestined to be the champion of
the faith : the Luther of the apostolic age, giving and receiv-
ing the hardest blows, and bearing the brunt of the battle.
John, again, was the Melancthon among the apostles, without,
however, Melancthon's tendency to yield ; and as such, enjoyed
probably a quieter, and on the whole more peaceful life. But
this difference between the two men was, after all, quite sub-
ordinate ; and, all things considered, we may say that John
drank not less deeply of Christ's cup than did Peter. There
was nothing glorious or enviable in his lot on earth, except
the vision in Patmos of the glory yet to be revealed.

Yet, while all this was clear to His prescient eye, Jesus did
not condescend to give any explanations concerning the ap-
pointed lot of the beloved disciple, but allowed Peter to think
what he pleased about the future of his friend. " If I will,"
He said, " that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ?"
not meaning to give any information, as contemporary believers
imagined, but rather refusing to give any, in the bluntest and
most peremptory manner. " Suppose," such is the import of
the words, " Suppose it were my pleasure that John should
remain on the earth till I return to it, what is that to thee ?
Suppose I were to grant him to sit on my right hand in my
Messianic kingdom, what, I ask again, is that to thee ? Sup-
pose John were not to taste of death, but, surviving till my
second advent, were, like another Elijah, to be wafted directly
into heaven, or to be endowed in his body with the power of
an endless life, still what is that to thee ? Follow thou me."

" Follow thou me." The emphatic repetition of this injunc-
tion is very significant. It shows, for one thing, that when
Jesus said to Peter, " Feed my sheep," He had no intention of
maldng him a pastor of pastors, a shepherd or bishop over his
fellow-disciples. The Eomanists will have it that the lambs
are the lay members of the church, and that the sheep are
the under-shepherds — the whole body of the clergy, the Pope
excepted. How strange, if this be true, that Peter should be
checked for looking after one of the flock, and asking so simple

532 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

a question as that : " Lord, and what shall this man do ?"
Jesus replies to him as if he were a busybody, meddling with
matters with which he had no concern. And, indeed, busy-
bodyism was one of Peter's faults. He was fond of looking
after and managing other people ; he tried once and again to
manage the Lord Himself. Curious enough, it is from this
apostle that the church gets the needful warning against the
too common vice just named. " Let none of you," he writes
in his first epistle, " suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as
an evil-doer, or as a husybody in other men's matters ;" literally,
as a bishop intruding into another's diocese. Evidently the
frequent rebukes administered to Peter by his Master had
made a lasting impression on him.

Heavy as was the load of responsibility laid upon this dis-
ciple at this time, it did not amount to anything so formid-
able as that involved in being a visible Christ, so to speak, to
the whole church. Neither Peter nor any other man is able
to bear that burden, and happily no one is required to do so.
The responsibility of even the highest in the church is restricted
within comparatively narrow limits. The main business even
of the chief under-shepherds is not to make others follow
Christ, but to follow Him themselves. It is well that our
Lord made this plain by the words addressed to the represen-
tative man among the apostles ; for Christians of active, ener-
getic, and earnest natures are very apt to have very exaggerated
ideas of their responsibilities, and to take on themselves the
care of the whole world, and impose on themselves the duty
of remedying every evil that is done under the sun. They
would be defenders-general of the faith wherever assailed,
redressers-general of all wrongs, curates -general of all souls.
There is something noble as well as quixotic in this temper ;
and it were not the best sign of a man's moral earnestness if
he had not at some time of his life known somewhat of this
fussy, over-zealous spirit. Still it should be understood that
the Head of the church imposes on no man such unlimited
responsibility, and that, when self-imposed, it does not conduce
to a man's real usefulness. No one man can do all other
men's work, and no one man is responsible for all other men's
errors and failures ; and each man contributes most effectually

THE UNDEE-SHEPHERDS ADMONISHED: PASTOR PASTORUM. 533

and surely to the good of the whole, by conducting his own
life on godly principles. The world is full of evils — scepticism,
superstition, ignorance, immorality, on every side — a sight
saddening in the extreme. What, then, am I to do ? This
one thing above all : Follow thou Christ. Be thou a believer,
let who will be infidels. Let thy religion be reasonable, let
who will pin their faith to a fallible human authority, and
place their religion in fantastic ritualisms and gross idolatries.
Be thou holy, an example of sobriety, justice, and godliness,
though all the world should become a sweltering chaos of
impurity, fraud, and impiety. Say with Joshua of old, " If it
seem good unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day
whom ye will serve ; but as for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord."

The repeated injunction, " Follow thou me," whilst restrict-
ing individual responsibility, prescribes undivided attention to
personal duty. Christ demands of His disciples that they
follow Him with integrity of heart, without distraction, with-
out murmuring, envy, or calculations of consequences. Peter
was, it is to be feared, not yet quite up to the mark in this
respect. There was yet lingering in his heart a \aLlgar hanker-
ing after happiness as the chief end of man. Exemption from
the cross still appeared to him supremely desirable, and he
probably fancied that special favour on Christ's part towards
a particular disciple would show itself in granting such exemp-
tion. He did not yet understand that Christ oftenest shows
special favour to His followers by making them in a remark-
able degree partakers of His bitter cup and His bloody bap-
tism. The grand enthusiasm of Paul, which made him desire
to know Jesus in the fellowship of His sufferings, had not
yet taken possession of Simon's breast. When an arduous
and perilous piece of service was to be done, those who were
selected to be the forlorn hope seemed to him objects of pity
rather than of envy. Far from volunteering for such a ser-
vice, he would rather congratulate himself on having escaped
it; and the highest conceivable virtue, in case one were so
unlucky as not to escape, would, in his opinion, be submission
to the inevitable.

Peter was deficient also as yet in the military virtue of un-

534 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

questioning obedience to orders, whicli is the secret of an army's
strength. A general saith to one, Go, and he goeth ; to another,
Come, and he cometh : he ajDpoints to one corps its station here,
and to another its station there ; and no one ventures to ask
why, or to make envious comparisons. There is an absolute
surrender of the individual will to the will of the commander ;
and so far as thoughts of preference are concerned, each man
is a machine, having a will, a head, a hand, a heart, only for
the effective performance of his own appointed task. Peter
had not yet attained to this pitch of self-abnegation. He
could not do simply what he was bidden, but must needs look
round to see what another was doing. Nor let us think this
a small offence in him. It was a breach of discipline which
could not be overlooked by the Commander of the faithful.
Implicit obedience is as necessary in the church as it is in the
army. The old soldier Loyola understood this, and hence he
introduced a system of military discipline into the constitution
of the so-called " Society of Jesus." And the history of that
society shows the wisdom of the founder ; for whatever we
may think of the quality of the work done, we cannot deny
the energy of the Jesuitic fraternity, or the devotion of its
members. Such devotion as the Jesuit renders to the will of
his spiritual superior, Christ demands of all His people ; and
to none but He can it be rendered without impiety. He would
have every believer give himself up to His will in cheerful,
exact, habitual obedience, deeming all His orders wise, all His
arrangements good, acknowledging His right to dispose of us
as He pleases, content to serve Him in a little place or in a
large one, by doing or by suffering, for a long period or a
short, in life or by death, so He be glorified.

This is our duty, and it is also our blessedness. So
minded, we shall be delivered from all care of consequences,
from ambitious views of our responsibilities, from imaginary
grievances, from envy, fretfulness, and the restlessness of self-
will. We shall no longer be distracted or tormented with
incessant looking round to see what is become of this or that
fellow-disciple, but be able to go on with our own work in
composure and peace. We shall not trouble ourselves either
about our own future or about any other body's, but shall

THE UNDER-SHEPHERDS ADMONISHED : PASTOR PASTORUM. 535

healthily and happily live in the present. We shall get rid
for ever of fear, and care, and scheming, and disappointment,
and chagrin, and like larks at heaven's gate sing :

" Father, I know that all my life

Is portioned out by Thee,
And the changes that will surely come

I do not fear to see ;
But I ask Thee for a present mind,

Intent on serving Thee.

I would not have the restless will

That hurries to and fro.
Seeking for some great thing to do,

Or secret thing to know ;
I would be treated as a child,

And guided where I go."

Thus, brother, " go thou thy way till the end be ;" and " thou
shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."

CHAPTEE XXX.

POWEE FROM ON HIGH.
Matt, xxviii. 18-20 ; Mark xvi. 15 ; Luke xxiv. 47-53 ; Acts i. 1-8.

FKOM Galilee, the disciples, of their own accord or by
direction, found their way back to Jerusalem, where
their risen Lord showed Himself to them once more, and for
the last time, to give them their iinal instructions, and to bid
them farewell.

Of this last meeting no distinct notice is taken in the
Gospels. Each of the synoptical evangelists, however, has
preserved some of the last words spoken by Jesus to His dis-
ciples ere He ascended to heaven. Among these we reckon the
closing verses of Matthew's Gospel, where we read : " All power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore,
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching
them to observe all things wliatsoever I have commanded
you : and, lo, I am witli you alway, even unto the end of the
world." ^ Of this last word Mark gives, in the close of his
Gospel, an abbreviated version, in these terms : " Go ye into
all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."^ In
Luke's narrative, the words spoken by Jesus, on the occasion
of His final appearance to the eleven, are so interwoven with
those which He spoke to them on the evening of His resur-
rection day, that, but for the supplementary and more circum-
stantial account given by the same author in the book of the'
Acts, we should never have thought of making a distinction,
far less have known where to place the boundary line. On

1 Matt, xxviii. 18-20.

2 Mark xvi. 15. We enter not here into tlie authenticity of the dosing verses
of Mark's Gospel.

POWER FROM ON HIGH. 537

comparing the two accounts, however, we can see that words
spoken at two different times are construed together into one
continuous discourse ; and we have no great difficulty in deter-
mining what belongs to the first appearance and what to the
last. According to the hook of Acts, Jesus, in His last con-
versation with His disciples, spoke to them of their apostolic
duties as witnesses unto Himself and preachers of His gospel ;
of the promise of the Spirit, whose descent was to fit them for
their work ; and of what they should do till the promise should
be fulfilled. Now these are just the topics adverted to in the
verses cited from the last chapter of Luke's Gospel. There is
first the apostolic commission to preach repentance and remis-
sion of sins in the name of Jesus among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem ; and a virtual injunction laid on the disciples to
be faithful witnesses to all things they had seen and heard in
their Lord's company, and especially to His resurrection from
the dead. Then there is the renewal of this promise, here
called the " promise of my Father." Then, finally, there is
the direction to wait for the promised blessing in the holy
city : " But tarry ye at Jerusalem until ye be endued with
power from on high."

All these sayings bear internal evidence of being last words,
from their fitness to the situation. It was natural and need-
ful that Jesus should thus speak to His chosen agents at the
hour of His final departure, giving them instructions for their
guidance in their future apostolic labours, and in the short
interval that was to elapse before those labours began. Even
the business-like brevity and matter-of-fact tone of these last
words betray the occasion on which they were uttered. On
first thoughts, we should perhaps have expected a more
pathetic style of address in connection with a farewell meet-
ing'; but, on reflection, we perceive that everything savouring
of sentimentality would have been beneath the dignity of the
situation. In the farewell address, before the passion, pathos
was in place ; but in the farewell words, before the ascension,
it would have been misplaced. In the former case, Jesus was
a parent speaking His last words of counsel and comfort to
His sorrowing children; in the latter. He was "as a man
taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority

538 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded
the porter to watch ;" and His manner of speech was adapted
to the character He sustained.

And yet the tone adopted by Jesus in His last interview
with the eleven was not purely magisterial. The Friend was
not altogether lost in the Master. He had kind words as well
as commands for His servants. What could be kinder and
more encouraging than that word : " And, lo, I am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world ? " And is there not
an accent of friendship in that utterance, in which Jesus, now
about to ascend to glory, seems by anticipation to resume
the robe of divine majesty, which He laid aside when He
became man : " All power is given unto me in heaven and
in earth ?" Why does He say that now ? Not for the pur-
pose of self-exaltation ; not to put a distance between Himself
and His quondam companions, and, as it were, degrade them
from the position of friends to that of mere servants. No ;
but to cheer them on their way through the world as the
messengers of the kingdom ; to make them feel that the task
assigned them was not, as it might well seem, an impossible
one. " I have all power," saith He in effect, " in heaven,
and jurisdiction over all the earth : go ye therefore^ into all
the world, making disciples of all the nations, nothing doubt-
ing that all spiritual influences and all providential agencies
will be made subservient to the great errand on which I send
you."

Jesus had kind actions as well as kind words for His friends
at parting. There was indeed no farewell kiss, or shaking of
hands, or other symbolic act in use among men who bid each
other adieu. But the manner of the ascension was most
gracious and benignant towards those whom the ascending
One left behind. Jesus moved upwards as if lifted from the
earth by some celestial attraction, with His face looking down-
wards upon His beloved companions, and with His hand
stretched out in an attitude of benediction. Hence the eleven
grieved not for their Lord's disappearance. They marvelled
indeed, and gazed eagerly and wonderingly towards the skies,

^ oi'v is a disputed reading, but the idea it expresses is implied in the con-
nection.

POWER FROM ON HIGH. 539

as if trying to penetrate the cloud whicli received their
Master's person ; but the parting left no sadness behind. They
bowed their heads in worship towards the ascended Christ,
and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, as if they had
gained, not lost a friend, and as if the ascension were not a
sunset, but a sunrise — as indeed it was, not for them alone, but
for the whole world.

Of that miraculous event, by which our High Priest passed
within the veil into the celestial sanctuary, we may not speak.
Like the transfiguration, it is a topic on which we know not
what to say ; an event not to be explained, but to be devoutly
and joyfully believed, in company with the kindred truth de-
clared by the two men in white apparel to the disciples, who
said : " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven ?
This same Jesus, which was taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into
heaven." ^ Wherefore we pass from the ascension, to make
some observations on the great commission given by the Lord
to His apostles for the last time, just before He was taken up
into glory.

That commission was worthy of Him from whom it ema-
nated, whether we regard Him as Son of God or as Son of
man. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the
whole creation." Surely this is the language of a Divine
Being. Wliat mere man ever entertained a plan of benefi-
cence embracing the whole human race within its scope ? and
who but one possessing all power in heaven and on earth
could dare to hope for success in so gigantic an undertaking ?
Then how full of grace and love the matter of the commission !
The errand on which Jesus sends His apostles is to preach
repentance and remission of sins in His name, and to make a
peaceful conquest of the world to God by the word of recon-
ciliation through His death. Such philanthropy approves
itself to be at once divine and most intensely human. And
mark, as specially characteristic of the gracious One, the direc-
tion, " beginning at Jerusalem." The words indicate a plan
of operations adapted at once to the circumstances of the world,
and to the capacities and idiosyncrasies of the agents ; but

^ Actsi. 11.

540 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

they do more. They open a window into the heart of Jesus,
and show Him to be the same who prayed on the cross :
" Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do."
Why begin at Jerusalem ? Because " Jerusalem sinners" most
need to repent and to be forgiven ; and because Jesus would
show forth in them at the outset the full extent of His long-
suffering, for a pattern to them who should afterwards beKeve,
in Samaria, Antioch, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

It was in every way a commission worthy of Jesus, as the
Son of God and Saviour of sinners, to give. But what a com-
mission for poor Galilean fishermen to receive ! what a burden
of responsibility to lay upon the shoulders of any poor mortal !
Wlio is sufficient for these things ? Jesus knew the insuffi-
ciency of His instruments. Therefore, having invested them
with official authority. He proceeded to speak of an invest-
ment with another kind of power, without which the official
must needs be utterly ineffectual. " And, behold," He said, " I
send the promise of my Father upon you ; but tarry ye at
Jerusalem till ye be clothed with power from on high."

" Power from on high." The expression has a mystical
sound, and its sense seems difficult to define ; yet the general
meaning is surely plain enough. The thing signified is not
altogether or chiefly a power to work miracles, but just what
Jesus had spoken of at such length in His farewell address
before His death. " Power from on high" means : All that the
apostles were to gain from the mission of the Comforter, —
enlightenment of mind, enlargement of heart, sanctification of
their faculties, and transformation of their characters, so as to
make them whetted swords and polished shafts for subduing
the world unto the truth : these, or the effect of these com-
bined, constituted the power for which Jesus directed the
eleven to wait. The power, therefore, was a spiritual power,
not a magical ; an inspiration, not a possession ; a power which
was not to act as a blind fanatical force, but to manifest itself
as a spirit of love and of a sound mind. After the power
descended, the apostles were to be not less rational, but more ;
not mad, but sober-minded ; not excited rhapsodists, but calm,
clear, dignified expositors of divine truth, such as they appear
in Luke's history of their ministry. In a word, they were to

POWER FROM ON HIGH. 541

be less like their past selves, and more like their Master : no
longer ignorant, cliildish, weak, carnal, but initiated into the
mysteries of the kingdom, and habitually under the guidance
of the Spirit of grace and holiness.

Such being the power promised, it was evidently indis-
pensable to success. Vain were official titles — apostles, evan-
gelists, pastors, teachers, rulers : vain clerical robes, without
this garment of divine power to clothe the souls of the eleven.
Vain then, and equally vain now. The world is to be evan-
gelized, not by men invested with ecclesiastical dignities and
with parti-coloured garments, but with men who have expe-
rienced the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and who are visibly
endued with the divine power of wisdom, and love, and zeal.

As the promised power was indispensable, so it was in its
nature a thing simply to be waited for. The disciples were
directed to tarry till it came. They were neither to attempt
to do without it, nor were they to try to get it up. And they
were wise enough to follow their instructions. They fully
understood that the power was needful, and that it could not
be got up, but must come down. AU are not equally wise.
Many virtually assume that the power Christ spake of can
be dispensed with, and that in fact it is not a reality, but a
chimera. Others, more devout, believe in the power, but not
in man's impotence to invest himself with it. They try to get
the power up, by working themselves and others into a frenzy
of excitement. Failure sooner or later convinces both parties
of their mistake, showing the one, that to produce spiritual
results, something more than eloquence, intellect, money, and
organization are required ; and showing the other, that true
spiritual power cannot be produced, like electric sparks, by the
friction of excitement, but must come sovereignly and gra-
ciously down from on high.

CHAPTEE XXXI.

WAITING.
Acts i. 12-14.

AFTEE that tlie Lord was parted from them, and carried
up into heaven, the eleven returned to Jerusalem, and
did as they had been commanded. They assembled together
in an upper room in the city, and, in company witli the be-
lieving women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and His kins-
men and other brethren, amounting in all to one hundred and
twenty, waited for Power and for Light, as men who wait for
the dawn, or as men who have come to see a panorama wait
for the lifting of the curtain that hides from view scenes which
their eyes have not seen, nor their ears heard of, nor hath it
entered into their hearts to conceive. These verses from the
first chapter of the "Acts" show us the disciples and the rest
in the act of so waiting.

How solemn is the situation of these men at this crisis in
their history ! They are about to undergo a spiritual trans-
formation ; to pass, so to speak, from the chrysalis to the
winged state. They are on the eve of the great illumination
promised by Jesus before His death. The Spirit of truth is
about to come and lead them into all Christian truth. The
day-star is about to arise in their hearts, after the dreary
pitchy night of mental perplexity and despairing sorrow through
which they have recently passed. They are about to be en-
dowed with power of utterance and of character proportional
to their enlarged comprehension of the words and work of
Christ, so that men hearing them shall be amazed, and say
one to another : " Behold, are not all these which speak Gali-
leans ? And now hear we every man in our own tongue
wherein we were born the wonderful works of God." With a
dim presentiment of what is coming, with hearts which throb

WAITING. 543

and swell under the excitement of expectation, and heaving
with wondering thoughts of the great things about to be re-
vealed, they sit there in that upper room for ten long days,
and wait for the promise of the Father, Verily it is an im-
pressive, a sublime scene.

But how do they wait ? Do they sit still and silent, Quaker
fashion, all that time expecting the descent of the Power ?
ISTo ; the meeting in the upper room was not a Quaker meet-
ing. They prayed, they even transacted business ; for in
those days Peter stood up and proposed the election of a new
apostle in the room of Judas, gone to his own place. Nor
was their meeting a dull one, as those may imagine who have
never passed through any great spiritual crisis, and to whom
waiting on God is a synonym for listless indolence. The
hundred and twenty believers did not, you may be sure, suffer
from ennui. Prayers and supplications alone filled up many
blessed hours. For to men in the situation of the disciples,
prayer is not the dull " devotional" form with which we, in
these degenerate days, are too familiar. It is rather a wrest-
ling with God, during which hours pass unobserved, and the
day breaks before one is aware. " These all continued with
one accord in prayer and supplication." They prayed without
fainting, without wearying, with one heart and mind.

Besides praying, the waiting disciples doubtless spent part
of their time in reading the Scriptures. This is not stated ;
but it may be assumed as a matter of course, and it may also
be inferred from the manner in which Peter handled Old Tes-
tament texts in his address to the people on the day of Pente-
cost. That Pentecostal sermon of his bears marks of previous
preparation. It was in one sense an extempore effusion, under
the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, but in another it was the
fruit of careful study. Peter and his brethren had, without
doubt, reperused all those passages which Jeeus had expounded
on the evening of the day on which He rose from the dead,
and among them that psalm of David, whose words the apostle
quoted in his first gospel sermon, in support of the doctrine
of Christ's resurrection. We may find evidence of the minute,
careful attention bestowed on that and other Messianic portions
of Scripture, in the exactness with which the quotation is

544 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

given. The four verses of the psalm stand word for word in
Peter's discourse as they do in the original text, — a fact all the
more remarkable, that New Testament speakers and writers do
not, as a rule, slavishly adhere to the ipsissima verba in their
Old Testament citations, but quote texts somewhat freely.

The spiritual exercises of those ten days would be further
diversified by religious conversation. The reading of Scripture
would naturally give rise to comments and queries. The
brethren who had been privileged to hear Jesus expound the
things which were written in the law, and in the prophets,
and in the psalms concerning Himself, on the night of His
resurrection-day, would not fail to give their fellow-believers
the benefit of instructions through which their own under-
standings had been opened. Peter, who was so prompt to
propose the election of a new witness to the resurrection of
Jesus, would be not less prompt to tell the company in the
upper room what the risen Jesus had said about these Old
Testament texts. He would freely speak to them of the mean-
ing Jesus taught him to find in the sixteenth Psalm, just as
he took the liberty of doing afterwards in addressing the mul-
titude in the streets of Jerusalem. When that psalm had
been read, he would say : " Men and brethren, thus and thus
did the] Lord Jesus interpret these words ;" just as, when
the 109th Psalm had been read, he stood up and said : "Men
and brethren, this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled,
which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before con-
cerning Judas : for it is written, Let his habitation be desolate,
and let no man dwell therein ; and his bishopric let another
take. Wherefore" — let us choose another to fill his place.

Thus did the bi'ethren occupy themselves during these ten
days. They prayed, they read the Scriptures, they conferred
together on what they read and on what they expected to see.
So they continued waiting with one accord in one place till
the day of Pentecost was fully come, when suddenly there
came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, filling
all the house where they were sitting ; and there appeared unto
them cloven tongues like as of fire, and they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave them utterance. Then the promise was ful-

;

WAITING. 545

filled : the power had come down from on high, in a manner
illustrating the words of the prophet : " Since the beginning
of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear,
neither hath the eye seen, 0 God, beside Thee, what He hath
prepared for him that waiteth for Him."

The events of Pentecost were the answer to the prayers
offered up during those ten days, which we may call the in-
cubation period of the Christian church. And that the lesson
of encouragement to be learned from this fact may not be lost,
be it remarked that the prayers of those assembled in the
upper room were not essentially different from the prayers of
saints at any other period in the church's history. They had
reference to much the same objects. The eleven and the
others prayed for the promised power, for additional light on
the meaning of Scripture, for the coming of the divine king-
dom on earth. And while they prayed for these things, we
believe, with peculiar fervour, they did not pray for them with
extraordinary intelligence. Of them, perhaps more emphati-
cally than of most, it might be said, that they knew not what
to pray for as they ought. They had very indistinct ideas,
we believe, of the " power," of its nature, and of the effects
it was to produce. That they had crude, and even erroneous
ideas of the " kingdom," we know ; for it is recorded, that on
the very day of His ascension they asked Jesus the question,
" Wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ?" In
this brief question three gross misconceptions are contained.
It is assumed that Christ was to reign personally on the earth,
a great king, like David. The disciples had no idea whatever
of an ascension into heaven. Then the kingdom they expect
is merely a national Jewish one. " Wilt Thou," they ask,
" restore the kingdom to Israel ?" Finally, the kingdom looked
for by them is political, not spiritual : it is not a new crea-
tion, but a kingdom of earth restored from a present prostrate
condition to former power and splendour.

The notions of the eleven concerning the kingdom con-
tinued to be much the same to the day of Pentecost as they
had been on the day of the ascension. It is true that Jesus
had, in His reply to their question, made a statement which, if
rightly understood, was fitted to correct their misconceptions.

2 M

546 THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Formally a declinature to give information on the subject
about which the disciples were curious, that reply afforded a
sufficiently clear and full explanation of the real state of the
case. When He spoke of the power which they should
receive, Jesus not obscurely hinted that the work of inaugu-
rating the kingdom was to be done by the apostles as His
commissioners, not by Himself in person. And the same
thing is implied in the words, " Ye shall be witnesses unto
me," for witnesses would be needed only for one who was
himself unseen. By connecting the " power " with the
descent of the Holy Ghost, Jesus in effect corrected the third
mistake of the eleven concerning the kingdom, — the notion, viz.,
that it was to be of a political nature. Power arising out of
a baptism of the Spirit is moral, not political, in its character ;
and a kingdom founded through such power is not a kingdom
of this world, but one whose subjects and citizens consist of
men believing the truth : " of the truth," as Jesus HimseK
put it in speaking of His kingdom before Pilate. And, in the
last place, the words, " Witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judsea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost
parts of the earth," were certainly fitted to banish from the
minds of the eleven the dream of a merely national Jewish
kingdom. If it was but the kingdom of Israel that was to be
restored, to what purpose bear witness to Jesus to the world's
end ? Such witness-bearing speaks to a kingdom of a uni-
versal nature, embracing people of every tongue and kindred
under heaven.

From the reply of their Lord, the disciples might thus
have gathered the true idea of the kingdom, as one founded on
faith in Christ ; presided over by a king, no longer present
bodily, but omnipresent spiritually ; not limited to one
country, but embracing all who were of the truth in all parts
of the world. This great idea, however, they did not take out
of the words on which we have been commenting. They
were to learn the nature of the kingdom, not from the teach-
ing of Jesus, but from the events of providence. The pano-
rama of the kingdom of God was to be hid from their eyes
till the curtain was lifted in three distinct historical move-
ments,— the ascension, the desceyit of the Spirit at Pentecost on

WAITING. 547

the multitude who had come to keep the feast, and the con-
version of the Samaritans and the Gentiles. The first of these
movements had already taken place when the disciples assem-
bled themselves together in the upper room to wait for the
promise of the Father. Jesus had ascended, so that they now
knew that the seat of empire, the capital of the kingdom, was
to be in heaven, not in Jerusalem, This was a valuable piece
of knowledge, but it was not all that was needed. Only a
small part of the panorama was yet visible to the spectators,
and they were still in the dark as to the nature and extent of
the coming kingdom. They expected to see a panorama of a
new Palestine, not of a new heaven and a new earth wherein
should dwell righteousness ; and they doubtless continued to
cherish this expectation till the curtain was uplifted, and facts
showed what they had unwittingly been praying for, when they
at length learned that the Hearer of prayer not only does for
His people what they ask, but far above what they even think.

And now, in takin^ leave of these men with whom we
have long held goodly fellowship, let us make two further
observations concerning this waiting scene, in which they
occupy the prominent place.

First look at that scene in relation to the subsequent events
recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, not to say the whole
history of the church, and learn what significance may lie in
things apparently very insignificant. "We had occasion to make
this remark in connection with the first meeting of Jesus with
five of those who afterwards became members of the chosen
band of twelve, and we think it seasonable to repeat it here
now. To the contemporary Jewish world, that meeting in the
upper room, if they knew of its existence, would appear a very
contemptible matter ; yet it was the only thing of perennial
interest in Judsea at the time. The hope of Israel, yea, of the
world, lay in that small congregation. For, small as it was,
God was with those who formed it. Infidels who believe not
in supernatural influence smile at such words ; but even they
must acknowledge that some source of power was centred in
that little community, for they multiplied with a rapidity
surpassing that of the Israelites in Egypt. Those who reject
divine influence, impose on themselves the burden of a very

548 THE TKAINING OF THE TWELVE.

laborious explanation of the fact. For those who believe in
that influence, it is enough to say, the Kttle flock grew great,
not by might, nor by power of this world, but by God's
Spirit. It was their Father's good pleasure to give them the
kingdom.

Look again at that scene in the upper room, in relation to
the past history of the disciples, and learn how utterly incom-
petent for the task assigned them they are, without some such
"£ light and power from on high as Jesus encouraged them to
hope for. These men have been some three years in Christ's
company,' passing through a theological curriculum in the best
of all colleges. From Christ's own lips they have heard the,
words of divine wisdom concerning all things pertaining to the
kingdom of God. Yet here are they still, after their Lord's
ascension, almost as ignorant of the nature of the kingdom
as they were the day they became disciples. And they are
as devoid of spiritual power as of spiritual light. They are
still well-meaning, but rustic, undignified, morally ineffectual
Galileans, needing some influence to descend upon them and
transform them into apostles indeed.

Look forward a few days, and behold all is changed 1 The
eleven have got other hearts, other minds, other tongues,
and have become enlightened, eloquent, powerful men. The
change is obvious to all, but whence did it come ? Some
may reply, from natural causes. Philosophers may tell us
that men of honest purpose must grow wise and strong some-
time, and that persons who have been ciphers while over-
shadowed by a great character, do often suddenly develope into
distinguished men, when called to act on their own respon-
sibility as leaders in a great movement. To our mind, the
experience of the apostles is a demonstration that the Light
and the Power from on high, whereof Jesus spoke so often,
were realities, not fancies. If what we have written should
create or confirm this conviction in other minds, oui" labour
shall not have been in vain.

THE END.

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Full text of "The training of the twelve : or, Passages out of the Gospels exhibiting the twelve disciples of Jesus under discipline for the apostleship"

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